likewise in artificiall things as a table a booke or so euery leafe is not a booke nor euery part of the table a table These parts are called Heterogenea or Of diuers kindes multigenae Agricola calles them The Symilar partes Anaxagoras held to bee in all things infinite either different as of wood bloud ayre fire bone and such or congruent as of water infinite parcells all of one nature and so of fire c for though bodies bee generate by this separation yet cannot these parts bee so distinguished but infinite will still remaine that euermore is best meanes for one thing to bee progenerate of another and nourished so that this communication continueth euerlastingly of nature place and nutriment But of the Heterogeneall parts hee did not put infinite in nature for hee did not hold that there were infinite men in the fire nor infinite bones in a man t Diogenes There were many of this name one of Synope called the Cynike one of Sicyon an Historiographer one a stoike fellow Embassador to Rome which Carneades borne at Seleucia but called the Babilonian or Tharsian one that writ of poeticall questions and Diogenes Laertius from whom wee haue this our Philosophy elder then them all one also called Apolloniata mentioned here by Augustine Our commentator like a good plaisterer daubed the Cynike and this into one as hee made one Thomas of Thomas Valois and Thomas Aquinas in his Commentaries vpon Boethius u Ayre Cic. de nat de What is that ayre that Diogenes Apolloniata calles God He affirmed also inumerable worlds in infinite spaces and that the ayre thickning it selfe into a globous body produceth a world x Archelaus Some say of Myletus some of Athens He first brought Physiologie from Ionia to Athens and therefore was called Physicus also because his scholler Socrates brought in the Morality y He also Plutarch saith he put the infinite ayre for the worlds generall principle and that the r◅ity and density thereof made fire and water z Consonance Eternity say the manuscripts a Socrates This is hee that none can sufficiently commend the wisest Pagan that euer was An Athenian begot by Sophroniscus a stone-cutter and Phanareta a mid-wife A man temperare chaste iust modest pacient scorning wealth pleasure and glory for he neuer wrote any thing he was the first that when others said he knew all affirmed himselfe hee knew nothing Of the Socratical◅ discipline CHAP. 3. SOcrates therefore was a the first that reduced Philosophy to the refor◅tion of manres for al before him aymed at naturall speculation rather then practise morality I cannot surely tel whether the tediousnesse b of these obscurities moued Socrates to apply his minde vnto some more set and certaine inuention for an assistance vnto beatitude which was the scope of all the other Phylosophers intents and labours or as some doe fauorably surmise hee c was vnwilling that mens mindes being suppressed with corrupt and earthly affects should ofter to crowd vnto the height of these Physicall causes whose totall and whose originall relyed soly as he held vpon the will of God omnipotent only and true wherefore he held that d no mind but a purified one could comprehend them and therfore first vrged a reformed course of life which effected the mind vnladen of terrestriall distractions might towre vp to eternity with the owne intelectuall purity sticke firme in contemplation of the nature of that incorporeal vnchanged and incomprehensible light which e conteyneth the causes of all creation Yet sure it is that in his morall disputations f he did with most elegant and acute vrbanity taxe and detect the ignorance of these ouer-weening fellowes that build Castles on their owne knowledge eyther in this confessing his owne ignorance or dissembling his vnderstanding g wher-vpon enuy taking hold he was wrackt by a h callumnious accusation and so put to death i Yet did Athens that condemned him afterward publikely lament for him and the wrath of the commonty fell so sore vpō his two accusers that one of them was troden to death by the multitude and another forced to auoid the like by a voluntary banishment This Socrates so famous in his life and death left many of his schollers behind him whose l study and emulation was about moralyty euer and that summum bonum that greatest good which no man wanting can attain beatitude m VVhich being not euident in Socrates his controuersiall questions each man followed his own opiniō and made that the finall good n The finall good is that which attained maketh man happy But Socrates his schollers were so diuided strange hauing all onemaister that some o Aristippus made pleasure this finall good others p Antisthenes vertue So q each of the rest had his choice too long to particularize L. VIVES WAs the a first Cicero Acad. Quest. I thinke and so do all that Socrates first called Phylosophy out of the mists of naturall speculations wherein all the Phylosophers before had beene busied and apllyed it to the institution of life and manners making it y◠meane to inquire out vertue and vice good and euill holding things celestiall too abstruse for natural powers to investigate far seperate from things natural which if they could be known were not vsefull in the reformation of life b Tediousnesse Xenophon Comment rer Socratic 1. writeth that Socrates was wont to wonder that these dayly and nightly inuestigators could neuer finde that their labour was stil rewarded with vncertainties and this he explaneth at large c Was vnwilling Lactantius his wordes in his first booke are these I deny not but that Socrates hath more witte then the rest that thought they could comprehend all natures courses wherein I thinke them not onely vnwise but impious also to dare to aduance their curious eyes to view the altitude of the diuine prouidence And after Much guiltter are they that lay their impious disputation vpon quest of the worlds secrets prophaning the celestial temple therby then either they that enter the Temples of Ceres Bona Dea Vesta d No minde Socrates disputeth this at large in Plato's P◅adon at his death Shewing that none can bee a true Phylosopher that is not abstracted in spirit from all the affects of the body which then is affected when in this life the soule is looseed from all perturbations and so truly contemplated the true good that is the true God And therefore Phylosophy is defined a meditation of death that is there is a seperation or diuorce betweene soule and body the soule auoyding the bodies impurities and so becomming pure of it selfe For it is sin for any impure thought to be present at the speculation of that most pure essence and therefore hee thought men attoned unto God haue far more knowledge then the impure that know him not In Plato's Cratylus hee saith good men are onely wise and that none can be skilfull in matters celestiall without Gods assistance In Epinomede There may
because preuarication is added c the lawe beeing also contemned 〈◊〉 the lust of sinne Why doe wee recite this Because as the lawe is not 〈◊〉 â—…en it exciteth concupiscence in the bad so earth is not good when it inâ—…th the glory of the good neither the law when it is forsaken by sinners and 〈◊〉 them Preuaricators nor death when it is vnder-taken for truth and maâ—… them Martyrs Consequently the law forbidding sinne is good and death 〈◊〉 the reward of sinne euill But as the wicked vse all things good and euill badly so the iust vse all things euil and good well Therefore the wicked vse the 〈◊〉 that is good badly and the vse death that is bad well L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a of It is naturall vnto exorbitant minds the more a thing is forbidden them 〈◊〉 to affect it as women whose mindes are most vnstayed desire that onely that 〈◊〉 â—…hibited So that whereas men knew not what it was to goe to the stewes nor 〈◊〉 vpon it in comes the lawe and saith thou shalt not goe and so taught them all 〈◊〉 to goe setting their depraued natures vpon pursuite of those vnlawfull actes I 〈◊〉 saith Paul what concupiscence was vntill the law told me Thou shalt not couet 〈◊〉 that Solâ—… set downe no lawe against parricide which being vnknowne hee was 〈◊〉 to declare then punish Pro Ros. Amerin b That sinne The old bookes read 〈◊〉 â—…ner Augustine ad Simplic an lib 1. quotes it thus that the sinner might bee out 〈◊〉 a sinner c. but his quotations are both false For thus it should be read indeed 〈◊〉 â—…er might bee out of measure sinfull c. Sinner being referred to sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ith the Greeke vnlesse you will make sinfull a nowne and no participle as Salust â—…tens and Terence Fugitans c The law All the terrors of the law being contemâ—… such as haue turned their custome of sinne into their nature The generall euill of that death that seuereth soule and body CHAP. 6. WHerefore as for the death that diuides soule and body when they suffer it whome we say are a dying it is good vnto none For it hath a sharpe a â—…rall sence by which nature is wrung this way and that in the composition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 liuing creature vntill it bee dead and vntill all the sence be gone wherein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and body was combined Which great trouble one stroake of the boâ—… or one rapture of the soule often-times preuenteth and out runneth sence in â—…tnesse But what-so-euer it is in death that takes away b our sence with so â—…ous a sence being faithfully indured it augmenteth the merite of paciâ—…â—…ut taketh not away the name of paine It is sure the death of the first man â—…pagate though if it be endured for faith and iustice it bee the glory of â—…nerate Thus death being the reward of sinne some-time quitteth sinne 〈◊〉 â—…ll rewarde L. VIVES VNnaturall a sence Sence for passion b Our sence with so grieuous a sence The first actiue the second passiue the great passion taketh away our power of ience Of the death of such as are not regenerate do suffer for Christ. CHAP. 7. FOr whosoeuer hee is that beeing not yet regenerate dyeth for confessing of Christ it freeth him of his sinne as wel as if he had receaued the sacrament of Baptisme For he that said Vnlesse a man bee borne againe of water and of the holy spirit he shall not enter into the kingdome of God excepteth these else-where in as generall a saying whosoeuer confesseth me before men him will I confesse before my father which is in heauen And againe He that looseth his soule for me shall finde it Hereupon it is that Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of the Saints For what is more deere then that death wherein all a mans badnes is abolished and his good augmented Those thad die daptized because they could liue no longer are not of that merite that those that die willingly where as they might haue liued longer because these had rather die in confessing of Christ then deny him and so come to baptisme a Which if they had done this sacrament wold haue for giuen it because they denied him for feare of death For in it euen their b villany was forgiuen that murdered Christ. c But how cold they loue Christ so dearely as to contemne life for him but by abounding in the grace of that spirit that inspireth where it pleaseth Pretious therefore is the death of those Saints who tooke such gratious hold of the death of Christ that they stuck not to engage their owne soules in the quest of him and whose death shewed that they made vse of that which before was the punishment of sinne to the producing of a greater haruest of glory But death ought not to seeme good because it is Gods helpe and not the owne power that hath made it of such good vse that beeing once propounded as a penalty laid vpon sinne it is now elected as a deliuerance from sinne and an expiation of sinne to the crowning of iustice with glorious victory L. VIVES WHich a if Intimating that no guilt is so great but Baptisme will purge it b Theâ—… villanie It is like he meanes of some that had holpen to crucifie Christ and were afterwards conuerted c But how It could not bee but out of great aboundance of grace that they should loue Christ as well as those that were baptized already in him That the Saints in suffering the first death for the truth are quit from the second CHAP. 8. FOr if wee marke well in dying well and laudably for the truth is a worse death â—…oyded and therefore wee take part of it least the whole should fall vpon 〈◊〉 and a second that should neuer haue end Wee vndertake the seperation of the body from the soule least wee should come to haue the soule seuered from God and then from the body and so mans first death beeing past the second that endlesse one should fall presently vpon him Wherefore the dâ—…th as I say that wee suffer a when wee die and causeth vs dye is good vnto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but it is well tolerated for attaining of good But when men once are in death and called dead then we may say that it is good to the good and bad to the bad For the good soules being seuered from their bodies are in rest the euill in torment vntill the bodies of the first rise to life eternall and the later vnto the eternall or second death L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a when The dead and the dying are said both to be in death death being both in 〈◊〉 departure and after in the first as a passion in the second as a priuation Both are of 〈◊〉 the authors Virg. 〈◊〉 â—…amus quanquam media iam morte tenetur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lies now in midst of death that is a dying and the 〈◊〉 Morte Neoptolemi regnorum reddita
cessit pars Heleno 〈◊〉 Pyrhus death got Helenus that part that now he holds that is after his death Whether a man at the houre of his death may be said to be amongst the dead or the dying CHAP. 9. 〈◊〉 now for the time of the soules separation from the body bee it good or 〈◊〉 whether wee say it is in death or after it if it bee after death it is not 〈◊〉 â—…en being past and gone but rather the present life of the soule good or 〈◊〉 the death was euill to them whilest it was death that is whilest they 〈◊〉 â—…ffered it because it was a grieuous passion though the good vse this 〈◊〉 How then can death being past be either good or bad Againe if we 〈◊〉 â—…ell we shall find that that grieuous passion in man is not death For a as 〈◊〉 we feele we liue as long as we liue we are before death not in it for 〈◊〉 â—…ath comes it taketh away all sence yea euen that which is greeued by 〈◊〉 â—…pproach And therefore how we may call those that are not dead but in 〈◊〉 â—…ges of deadly affliction dying is hard to explaine though they may bee 〈◊〉 ordinarily so for when death is come they are no more in dying but in 〈◊〉 or death Therefore is none dying but the liuing because when one is in 〈◊〉 â—…atest extreamity or b passage as we say ' if his soule be not gone hee is 〈◊〉 aliue then Thus is hee both liuing and dying going to death and from life 〈◊〉 liuing as long as the soule is in the body and not yet in death because the 〈◊〉 is vndeparted And when it is departed then he is not in death but rather 〈◊〉 death who then can say who is in death no man dying is if no man can be 〈◊〉 â—…ng and dying at once for as long as the soule is in the body we cannot 〈◊〉 â—…at he liues c But if it be said that he is dying who is drawing towards 〈◊〉 and yet that the dying and the liuing cannot be both in one at once then know not I who is liuing L. VIVES 〈◊〉 long But death is a temporally effected separation of soule and body and as soone 〈◊〉 members begin to grow cold hee beginnes to dye the departure of the soule is 〈◊〉 â—…ance of death the one is no sooner gone but the other is there b Passage Mart. 〈◊〉 â—…d agas Aâ—…le agas animam Ago to do agere animam to die because the ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soule was but a breath and so beeing breathed out death followed c But if If hee bee said to dye that drawes towards death then all our life is death for 〈◊〉 soone as euer wee are borne the body begins to seeke how to thrust out the soule and 〈◊〉 life and by little doe expell it Which made some Philosophers say that we dyed in ouâ—… 〈◊〉 and that that was the end of death which we call the end of life either because then we began to liue or because death was then ended and had done his worst Whether this mortall life be rather to be called death then life CHAP. 10. FOr as soone as euer man enters this mortall body hee beginnes a perpetuall iourney vnto death For that this changeable life enioynes him to if I may call the course vnto death a life For there is none but is nearer death at the yeares end then hee was at the beginning to morrow then to day to day then yesterday by by then iust now now then a little before a each part of time that we passe cuts off so much from our life and the remainder still decreaseth so that our whole life is nothing but a course vnto death wherin one can neither stay nor slacke his pace but all runne in one manner and with one speed For the short liuer ranne his course no faster then the long both had a like passage of time but the first had not so farre to runne as the later both making speede alike It is one thing to liue longer and another to runne faster Hee that liues longer runneth farther but not a moment faster And if each one begin to bee in death as soone as his life beginnes to shorten because when it is ended hee is not then in death but after it then is euery man in death as soone as euer he is conceiued For what else doe all his dayes houres and minutes declare but that they beeing done the death wherein hee liued is come to an end and that his time is now no more in death hee being dead but after death Therefore if man cannot be in life and death both at once hee is neuer in life as long as he is in that dying rather then liuing body Or is he in both in life that is still diminished and in death because hee dies whose life diminisheth for if hee be not in life what is it that is diminished vntill it bee ended and if hee bee not in death what is it that diminisheth the life for life being taken from the body vntill it be ended could not be said now to be after death but that death endâ—…d it and that it was death whilest it diminished And if man be not in death but after it when his life is ended where is he but in death whilest it is a diminishing L. VIVES EAch a part All our life flowes off by vnspied courses and dieth euery moment of this hasting times Quintilian Time still cuts part of vs off a common prouerbe Poets and Philosophers all say this and Seneca especially from whom Augusâ—…ine hath much of that hee relateth heere Whether one may be liuing and dead both together CHAP. 11. BVt if it be absurd to say a man is in death before he came at it for what is it that his course runs vnto if he be there already chiefly because it is 〈◊〉 too strange to say one is both liuing and dying sith wee cannot say one is both sleeping and waking wee must finde when a man is dying Dying before death come hee is not then is hee liuing dying when death is come is hee not for then is hee dead This is after death and that is before it b When is hee in death then for then is hee dying to proportionate three things liuing dying and dead vnto three times before death in death and after Therefore when hee is in death that is neither liuing or before death nor dead or after death is hard to bee defined For whilest the soule is in the body especially with sence man liues assured as yet beeing soule and bodie and therefore is before death and not in it But when the soule and sence is gone then is hee dead and after death These two then take away his meanes of being in death or dying for if hee liue hee is before death and if he cease to liue hee is after death Therefore hee is neuer
middlemost place of the world and keepes there in the owne nature immoueable The Philosophers maruelled that the earth fell not seeing it hung in the ayre but that which they thought a fall should then bee no fall but an ascending for which way soeuer earth should goe it should goe towards the heauen and as it is no maruell that our Hemisphere ascendeth not no more is it of any else for the motion should be all one aboue and beneath beeing all alike in a globe But is a thing to bee admired and adored that the earth should hang so in the ayre beeing so huge a masse as Ouidâ—…ith â—…ith Terra pila similis nullo fulcimine nixa Aëre suspenso tam graue pendet onus Earths massy globe in figure of a ball Hangs in the ayre vpheld by nought at all â—… With the eye Plato in his Timaeus speaking of mans fabrick saith that the eyes were endowâ—…â—…th part of that light that shines burnes not meaning the suns for the Gods commanded 〈◊〉 â—…re fire brother to that of heauen to flow from forth the apple of the eye and thereâ—… when that and the daies light do meete the coniunction of those two so well acquainted 〈◊〉 produceth sight And least that the sight should seeme effected by any other thing 〈◊〉 â—…re in the same worke hee defineth collours to bee nothing but fulgores e corporibus maâ—…s fulgors flowing out of the bodies wherein they are The question whether one seeth 〈◊〉 â—…ission or reception that is whether the eye send any beame to the obiect or receiue aâ—…â—…om it is not heere to bee argued Plato holds the first Aristotle confuteth him in his 〈◊〉 De sensoriis and yet seemes to approue him in his Problemes The Stoickes held the first 〈◊〉 whom Augustine De Trinitate and many of the Peripatetiques follow Aphrodiseus held 〈◊〉 the eye sends forth spirits Pliny saith it receiueth them Haly the Arabian maketh the 〈◊〉 to goe from the eye and returne suddainely all in a moment the later Peripatetiquesâ—…ing â—…ing Occam and Durandus admit no Species on either side But of this in another place 〈◊〉 both would haue the eye send some-thing forth and receiue some-thing in Against those that hold that man should not haue beene immortall if he had not sinned CHAP. 19. 〈◊〉 now let vs proceed with the bodies of the first men who if they had not â—…ed had neuer tasted of that death which we say is good only to the good 〈◊〉 â—…s all men know a seperation of soule and body wherein the body of the 〈◊〉 that had euident life hath euident end For although we may not doubt 〈◊〉 â—…he soules of the faithfull that are dead are in rest yet a it were so much 〈◊〉 for them to liue with their bodies in good state that they that hold it most 〈◊〉 to want a bodie may see themselues conuinced herein directly For 〈◊〉 man dare compare those wise men that haue either left their bodies or are to 〈◊〉 them vnto the immortall gods to whom the great GOD promised perpeâ—… of blisse and inherence in their bodies And Plato thought it the greatest â—…ing man could haue to bee taken out of the body after a course vertuously 〈◊〉 and placed in the bosomes of those gods that are neuer to leaue their 〈◊〉 Scilicet immemores supra vt conuexa reuisant Rursus incipiant in corpora velle reuerti The thought of Heauen is quite out of their braine Now gan they wish to liue on earth againe Which Virgil is commended for speaking after Plato So that hee holds that 〈◊〉 â—…oules of men can neither bee alwaies in their bodies but must of force bee â—…d from them nor can they bee alwaies without their bodies but must bee 〈◊〉 successiuely now to liue and now to die putting b this difference that 〈◊〉 men when they die are caried vp to the stars and euery one staies a while in 〈◊〉 fit for him thence to returne againe to misery in time and to follow the 〈◊〉 of being imbodied againe so to liue againe in earthly calamity but your 〈◊〉 are bestowed after their deaths in other bodies of men or beasts accorâ—…g to their merits In this hard and wretched case placeth hee the wisest soules who haue no other bodies giuen them to bee happy in but such as they can neither bee eternally within nor eternally abandon Of this Platonisme Porphyry as I said else-where was ashamed because of the christian times excluding the soules not onely from the bodies of beasts and from that reuolution but affirming them if they liued wisely to bee set free from their bodies so as they should neuer more bee incorporate but liue in eternall blisse with the Father Wherefore least he should seeme in this point to be exceeded by the Christans that promised the Saints eternall life the same doth hee giue to the purified soules and yet to contradict Christ hee denies the resurrection of their bodies in incorruptibility and placeth the soule in blisse without any body at all Yet did hee neuer teach that these soules should bee subiect vnto the incorporated gods in matter of religion Why so because he did not thinke them better then the Gods though they had no bodies Wherfore if they dare not as I think they dare not preferre humaine soules before their most blessed though corporeall gods why doe they thinke it absurd for christianity to teach that our first parents had they not sinned had beene immortall this beeing the reward of their true obedience and that the Saints at the resurrection shall haue the same bodies that they laboured in here but so that they shal be light and incorruptible as their blisse shal be perfect and vnchangeable L. VIVES YEs a were it If the following opinion of Plato concerning them were true b This difference Plato saith that some creatures follow God well are like him and are reuolued with the sphere of heauen vntill they come belowe and then they fall Some get vp againe some are ouer-whelmed these are the foolish and those the wise the meane haue a middle place So the wise soule is eleuated to heauen and sits there vntill the reuolution bring it downe againe from seeing of truth others voluntarily breake their wings and fall ere the time bee expired The Philosophers soules at the end of 3000. yeares returne to the starre whence they came the rest must stay 10000. yeares ere they ascend That the bodies of the Saints now resting in hope shal become better then our first Fathers was CHAP. 20. THe death that seuereth the soules of the Saints from their bodies is not troublesome vnto them because their bodies doe rest in hope and the efore they seemed sencelesse of all reproach here vpon earth For they do not as Plato will haue men to do desire to forget their bodies but rather remembâ—…ing what the truth that deceiueth none said vnto them a that they should not loose an
vndoubted faith in our scriptures all which made choyce rather to endure the tirany of their enemies then bee their owne butchers But now we will prooue out of their owne records that Regulus was Cato's better in this glory For Cato neuer ouer-came Caesar vnto whom he scorned to be subiect and chose to murder himselfe rather then bee seruant vnto him But Regulus ouer-came the Africans and in his generallship returned with diuers noble victories vnto the Romanes neuer with any notable losse of his Citizens but alwaies of his foes and yet being afterwards conquered by them hee resolued rather to endure slauery vnder them then by death to free himselfe from them And therein hee both preserued his paciencie vnder the Carthaginians and his constancy vnto the Romanes neither depriuing the enemy of his conquered body nor his countrymen of his vnconquered minde Neither was it the loue of this life that kept him from death This hee gaue good proofe of when without dread hee returned back vnto his foes to whō he had giuen worse cause of offence in the Senate-house with his tongue then euer he had done before in the battaile with his force therefore this so great a conqueror and contemner of this life who had rather that his foes should take it from him by any torments then that hee should giue death to himselfe howsoeuer must needes hold that it was a foule guilt for man to bee his owne murderer Rome amongst all her worthies and eternized spirits cannot shew one better then hee was for hee for all his great victories continued b most poore nor could mishap amate him for with a fixt resolue and an vndanted courage returned he vnto his deadliest enemies Now if those magnanimous and heroicall defenders of their earthly habitacles and those true and sound seruants of their indeede false gods who had power to cut downe their conquered foes by lawe of armes seeing themselues afterwardes to bee conquered of their foes neuerthelesse would not be their owne butchers but although they feared not death at al yet would rather endure to bee slaues to their foes superiority then to bee their owne executioners How much more then should the Christians that adore the true God and ayme wholie at the eternall dwellings restraine themselues from this foule wickednesse whensoeuer it pleaseth God to expose them for a time to taste of temporall extremities either for their triall or for correction sake seeing that hee neuer forsaketh them in their humiliation for whom hee being most high humbled himselfe so low e especially beeing that they are persons whom no lawes of armes or military power can allowe to destroy the conquered enemies L. VIVES IN a his flesh For hee was afflicted with a sore kinde of vlcere b Most poore Liuy in his eighteene booke and Valerius in his examples of pouerty write this When Attilius knew that his generallship was prolonged another yeare more hee wrote to the Senate to haue them send one to supply his place His chiefe reason why hee would resigne his charge was because his seauen acres of ground beeing all the land hee had was spoyled by the hired souldiers which if it continued so his wife and children could not haue whereon to liue So the Senate giuing the charge of this vnto the Aediles looked better euer after vnto Attilius his patrimony c Especialy being that they He makes fighting as far from Christian piety as religious humanity is from barbarous inhumanity That sinne is not to be auoided by sinne CHAP. 24. VVHat a pernicious error then is heere crept into the world that a man should kill himselfe because either his enemy had iniured him or means to iniure him whereas hee may not kill his enemy whether hee haue offended him or bee about to offend him This is rather to bee feared indeede that the bodie beeing subiect vnto the enemies lust with touch of some enticing delight do not allure the will to consent to this impurity And therefore say they it is not because of anothers guilt but for feare of ones owne that such men ought to kill themselues before sinne be committed vpon them Nay the minde that is more truly subiect vnto God and his wisdome then vnto carnall concupiscence will neuer be brought to yeeld vnto the lust of the owne flesh be it neuer so prouoked by the lust of anothers But if it be a damnable fact and a detestable wickednesse to kill ones selfe at all as the truth in plaine tearmes saith it is what man will bee so fond as to say let vs sinne now least we sinne hereafter let vs commit murder now least wee fall into adultery hereafter If wickednesse be so predominant in such an one as hee or shee will not chuse rather to suffer in innocence than to escape by guilt is it not better to aduenture on the vncertainety of the future adultery then the certainety of the present murder is it not better to commit such a sinne as repentance may purge then such an one as leaues no place at all for repentance This I speake for such as for auoyding of guilt not in others but in themselues and fearing to consent to the lust in themselues which anothers lust inciteth doe imagine that they ought rather to endure the violence of death But farre bee it from a Christian soule that trusteth in his God that hopeth in him and resteth on him farre bee it I say from such to yeeld vnto the delights of the flesh in any consent vnto vncleanesse But if that a concupiscentiall disobedience which dwelleth as yet in our b dying flesh doe stirre it selfe by the owne licence against the law of our will how can it bee but faltlesse in the body of him or her that neuer consenteth when it stirres without guilt in the body that sleepeth L. VIVES COncupiscentiall a Disobedience The lust of the bodie is mooued of it selfe euen against all resistance and contradiction of the will and then the will being ouercome by the flesh from hence ariseth shame as we will shew more at large hereafter b Dying flesh Our members being subiect vnto death doe die euery day and yet seeme to haue in them a life distinct from the life of the soule if then the lustfull motions that betide vs in sleepe bee faltlesse because the will doth not consent but nature effects them without it how much more faltlesse shall those bee wherein the will is so so farre from resting onely that it resists and striues against them Of some vnlawfull acts done by the Saints and by what occasion they were done CHAP. 25. BVt there were a some holy women say they in these times of persecution who flying from the spoylers of their chastities threw themselues head-long into a swift riuer which drowned them and so they died and yet their martirdomes are continually honored with religious memorialls in the Catholike Church Well of these I dare not iudge rashly in any thing
far different manner then that composition of the bodies k The body Vâ—…gil Georg. 4. Aeneid 6. reciteth Pythagoras his opinion singing of God that is the worlds soule whence each one drawes a life at his originall and returnes it at his death But because it may be doubted how all soules haue one originall sence one vnderstandeth better then another and vseth reason more perfectly this difference he held did proceed from the body and not from the soules For these are his wordes Principâ—… Calum at Terras Camposque liquentes â—…temque Globune terrae Titaniaque astra Spâ—…s intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agiâ—…at moleâ—… magno se corpore miscet c. Heauen Earth and Sea each in his proper bound The Moones bright globe and all the spangled round A spirit within doth feed doth mooue and passe Through euery parcell of this spatious masse All â—…hich is explayned at full by Seruius the Gramarian Porphyry confesseth with Pythagoras 〈◊〉 the soule suffereth with the body whose affects good or bad redound in part vnto the 〈◊〉 yet denieth hee that they alter the soules nature De sacrificijs lib. 4. How the platonists conceiued of the naturall part of Phylosophy CHAP. 6. WHerefore ' these Phylosophers whom fame we see hath worthily preferred 〈◊〉 before the rest did wel perceiue that God was a no bodily thing therfore paâ—…â—…rther then al bodies in this inuestigatioÌ„ they saw that no b mutable thing 〈◊〉 and therfore went further then al mutable spirits and soules to seek for 〈◊〉 â—…gain they saw that c al formes of mutable things whereby they are what 〈◊〉 of what nature soeuer they be haue originall from none but him that is 〈◊〉 vnchangeable Consequently neither the body of this vniuerse the fiâ—…â—…alities motions and Elements nor the bodies in them all from heauen to 〈◊〉 â—…her vegetatiue as trees or sensitiue also as beasts or reasonable also as 〈◊〉 those that need no nutriment but subsist by them-selues as the Angels 〈◊〉 being but from him who hath only simple being For in him d to be and 〈◊〉 â—…ffer not as if he might haue being without life neither to liue and to 〈◊〉 â—…d as if he could haue life without intellect nor to vnderstand and to bee 〈◊〉 â—…s if he could haue the one and not the other But his life vnderstanâ—… beatitude are all but his being From this invariable and simple essence 〈◊〉 they gathered him to bee the vncreated Creator of all existence For they 〈◊〉 â—…ed that all thinges are eyther body or life that the e life excelleth the 〈◊〉 â—…hat sensibility is but a species of the body but vnderstanding of the life 〈◊〉 â—…fore they preferred intellect before sence Sensible things are those 〈◊〉 to be seen or touched Intelligible can only be vnderstood by the minde 〈◊〉 is no bodily sweetnesse be it in the body as beauty or in motion as 〈◊〉 â—…ll song but the minde doth iudge therof which it could not doe if this 〈◊〉 â—…ere not in it more excellent then eyther in that quantity of body or 〈◊〉 â—…se of voyces and keeping of tones and times Yet if it were not mutable 〈◊〉 â—…ld not iudge better then another of these sensible species nor one be wittiâ—…â—…inger or more exercised then another but he that began after should 〈◊〉 much as he that learned before and he that profited after should bee vnâ—… from his ignorance before but that which admitteth maiority or minoriâ—… angeable doubtlesse And therfore these learned men did well obserue 〈◊〉 first forme of things could not haue existence in a subiect mutable And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beholding degrees of diuersity in the formes of soules and bodies and 〈◊〉 the seperation of al forme from theÌ„ directly destroied theÌ„ this infered aneâ—…ty of some vnchangeable and consequently an all-excelling forme this they 〈◊〉 the beginning of all thinges vncreated all creating exceeding right This 〈◊〉 they knew of God he did manifest vnto them by teaching them the graduâ—…â—…emplation of his parts invisible by his workes visible as also his eternity â—…inity who created all things both visible and temporary Thus much of 〈◊〉 Physiology or naturall Phylosophy L. VIVES GOD a was no body This Alcinous in Plato's doctrine argueth thus If God were a 〈◊〉 hee should haue substance and forme for so haue all bodies being like the Idea's wherein they haâ—…e a secret resemblance But to say God hath substance and forme is absurd for he should â—…thor be the beginning nor vncompounded Therefore hee hath no body Besides euery body is of some substance What then shall GOD bee of fire or ayre earth or water Nor of these are beginnings but rather haue a later being then the substance whereof they consist â—…ut these are blasphemies the truth is GOD is incorporeall If he were a body hee were generated and therefoâ—…e corruptible But farre are those thinges from GOD. Thus farre Alcinous b No mutable Plato in Timaeus calls God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c one the same and alwaies like him-selfe as Tully translates it Alcinous saith hee must needes bee an intelligible substance Of which kind the soule is better theâ—… what is not the soule but the power that is perpetually actual excelleth that which is potentiall such therefore is God c All formes In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Tully others interprete it d To bee and to liue Alcinous saith that God is supreme eternall ineffable selfe-perfect needing nothing eternally absolute Deity cause of all bâ—…ing truth harmony good and all these in one and one For I count them not as dis-ioyned but coessentiall And a little â—…ter he saith that God is incomprehensible onely apparant to the thought but conteyned vnder no kinde what-soeuer not definable nor specificall nor subiect to any accident to say hee is euill were wickednesse and to say hee is good is insufficient for then hee should participate of goodnesse but hee hath neyther difference nor accident This opinion did Dionisius the Diuine follow denying wisedome life or vnderstanding to be in god For these are the names of particular perfections which are not in God This seemes to bee grounded on Plato's wordes in Phadon that all good is such by participation of good but there hee excepteth true good that is doubtlesse God the Idea and essence of all beautifull goodnesse e Life excelleth He cals the soule life as Aristotle doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perfection or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing eternally actuall both may bee said of the soule But Plato speaking of soules meaneth it seemes onely the rationall The excellency of the Platonists aboue the rest in logicke CHAP. 7. NOw as concerning the other part of their a doctrine called logicke farre bee it from vs to ioyne them in comparison with those fellowes that fetched the iudgement of truth from the bodily sences and held all things to bee swayed by their false and
these deuills thus 〈◊〉 Men ioying a in reason perfect in speach mortall in body immortall in 〈◊〉 â—…onate and vnconstant in minde brutish and fraile in body of discrepant conâ—…â—…d conformed errors of impudent boldnesse of bold hope of indurate labour 〈◊〉 â—…taine fortune perticularly mortâ—…ll generally eternall propagating one anoâ—… of life slowe of wisdome sudden of death and discontented in life these dwell 〈◊〉 In these generals common to many he added one that he knew was false 〈◊〉 b slowe of wisdome which had he omitted hee had neglected to perfect â—…ription For in his description of the gods heâ—… saith that that beatitude 〈◊〉 men doe seeke by wisdome excelleth in them so had hee thought of any 〈◊〉 deuills their definition should haue mentioned it either by shewing them â—…ticipate some of the gods beatitude or of mans wisdome But hee hath no â—…ion betweene them and wretches though hee bee fauourable in discoueâ—…â—…eir maleuolent natures not so much for feare of them as their seruants 〈◊〉 â—…ould read his positions To the wise hee leaues his opinion open inough 〈◊〉 â—…hat theirs should bee both in his seperation of the gods from all temâ—… of affect and therein from the spirits in all but eternitie and in his â—…tion that their mindes were like mens not the gods nay and that not 〈◊〉 wisedome which men may pertake with the gods but in being proue to passions which rule both in the wicked and the witlesse but is ouer ruled by the wise man yet so as hee had c rather want it then conquer it for if hee seeke to make the diuells to communicate with the gods in eternity of mind onely not of body then should hee not exclude man whose soule hee held eternall as well as the rest and therefore hee saith that man is a creature mortall in body and immortall in soule L. VIVES IOying a in reason Or contending by reason Cluentes of Cluo to striue b Slow Happy â—…s hee that getts to true knowledge in his age Plato c Rather want A wise man hath rathâ—… haue no passions of mind but seeing that cannot be he taketh the next course to keepe theâ—… vnder and haue them still in his power Whether the ayry spirits can procure a man the gods friendships CHAP. 9. WHerfore if men by reason of their mortal bodies haue not that participation of eternity with the gods that these spirits by reason of their immortall bodiâ—… haâ—…e what mediators can their be between the gods men that in their best part their soule are worse then men and better in the worst part of a creature the body for all creatures consisting of body and soule haue the a soule for the better part bee it neuer so weake and vicious and the body neuer so firme and perfect because it is of a more excelling nature nor can the corruption oâ—… vice deiect it to the basenesse of the body but like base gold that is dearer thâ—… the best siluer so farre doth it exceed the bodies worth Thus then those ioly mediators or posts from heauen to earth haue eternity of body with the gods and corruption of soule with the mortalls as though that religion that must make god and man to meete were rather corporall then spirituall But what guilt or sentence hath hung vp those iugling intercedents by the heeles and the head downeward that their lower partes their bodies participate with the higher powers and their higher their soules with the lower holding correspondence with the Gods in their seruile part and with mortalls in their principall for the body as Salust saith is the soules slaue at least should bee in the true vse and hee proceeds the one wee haue common with beasts the other with gods speaking of man whose body is as mortall as a beasts Now those whome the Philosophers haue put betweene the gods and vs may say thus also Wee hâ—… body and soule in community with gods and men but then as I said they are bound with their heeles vpward hauing their slauish body common with the gods and their predominant soule common with wretched men their worst part aloft and their best vnderfoote wherefore if any one thinke them eternall with the gods because they neuer die the death with creatures let vs not vnderstand their boâ—… to bee the eternall pallace wherein they are blessed but b the eternall priâ—… wherein they are damned and so he thinketh as he should L. VIVES THâ—… 〈◊〉 a fâ—… For things inherent neuer change their essentiall perfection and I do wondâ—… that 〈◊〉 the Peripatetique schoole of Paris would make any specificall difference of souleâ—… b Dâ—… Not in the future tence for they are damned euersince their fall Ploâ—…ines opinion that men are lesse wretched in their mortality then the diâ—…lls are in their eternity CHAP. 10. IT is said that Plâ—… that liued but a lately vnderstood Plato the best of any Hee seaking of mens soules saith thus b The father out of his mercy bound them 〈◊〉 fâ—…r a season So that in that mens bonds their bodies are mortal he impuâ—… it â—…o God the fathers mercy thereby freeing vs from the eternall tediousâ—… of this life Now the deuills wickednesse is held vnworthy of this fauour 〈◊〉 passiue soules haue eternall prisons not temporall as mens are for they 〈◊〉 happier then men had they mortall bodies with vs and blessed soules with the Gods And mens equalls were they if they had but mortall bodies to their â—…hed soules and then could worke them-selues rest after death by faith and 〈◊〉 But as they are they are not only more vnhappy then man in the wretchednesse of soules but far more in eternity of bondage in their bodies c hee would 〈◊〉 haue men to vnderstand that they could euer come to bee gods by any grace or wisdome seeing that he calleth them eternall diuells L. VIVES Bâ—… a Lately In Probus his time not 200. yeares ere Honâ—…rius his raigne In Plotine 〈◊〉 saith him thought Plato's academy reuiued Indeed hee was the plainest and puâ—… â—…ists that euer was Plato and Plotinus Princes of the Philosophers Macrob. Porphiry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wrot his life and prefixed it vnto Plotines workes b The father Plato said this of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gods in Timaeo but Plotine saith it was the mercy of yâ— father to free maÌ„ from this liues 〈◊〉 his words are these Ioue the father pitying our soules laâ—…s prefixed an expiration 〈◊〉 â—…ds wherein wee labour and granted certaine times for vs to remaine without bodies there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worlds soule râ—…leth eternally out of all this trouble De dub animae c For hee Apuleius 〈◊〉 â—…th that which followeth 〈◊〉 the Platonists that held mens soules to become Daemones after death CHAP. 11. 〈◊〉 saith a also that mens soules are Daemones and become b Lares if their 〈◊〉 be good if euill c Lemures goblins if different d Manes But â—…tious this opinion is to all goodnesse who sees not for be men neuer so â—…ous
that both the world and the gods made by that great GOD in the world had a beginning but shall haue no end but by the will of the creator endure for euer But they haue a b meaning for this they say this beginning concerned not time but substitution for c euen as the foote say they if it had stood eternally in the dust the foote-step should haue beene eternall also yet no man but can say some foote made this step nor should the one be before the other though one were made by the other So the world and the God there-in haue beene euer coeternall with the creators eternitie though by him created Well then put case the soule bee and hath beene eternall hath the soules misery beene so also Truly if there be some-thing in the soule that had a temporall beginning why might not the soule it selfe haue a beginning also And then the beatitude being firmer by triall of euill and to endure for euer questionlesse had a beginning though it shall neuer haue end So then the position that nothing can be endlesse that had a temporall beginning is quite ouer-throwne For the blessednesse of the soule hath a beginning but it shall neuer haue end Let our weaknesse therefore yeeld vnto the diuine authoritie and vs trust those holy immortalls in matter of religion who desire no worship to them-selues as knowing all is peculiar to their and our God nor command vs to sacrifice but vnto him to whom as I said often and must so still they and wee both are a sacrifice to be offered by that priest that tooke our manhood and in that this priesthood vpon him and sacrificed himselfe euen to the death for vs. L. VIVES ANd a necessary Plato subiects the soule both in the body and without the body vnto the power of the fates that after the reuolution of life death must come and after the purification of the soule life againe making our time in the body vncertaine but freeing vs from the body a 1000. years This reuolution they held necessary because God creating but a seâ—…nuÌ„ber of soules in the beginning the world should otherwise want men to inhabite it it being so 〈◊〉 and we so mortall This Virgill more expresly calls a wheele which being once turned about restores the life that it abridged and another turning taking it away againe both brâ—… things to one course This from death to death that from life to life but that worketh by death and this by life b A meaning It is well knowne that Plato held that God created the world But the question is whether it began temporally some yeares ago or had no temâ—…ll beginning Plutarch Atticus and Seuerus held that Plato's world had a beginning â—…porall but was neuer to haue end But Crantor Plotine Porphyry Iamblichus Proculus and 〈◊〉 all Platonists thought that it neuer beganne nor neuer should haue end So doth 〈◊〉 adioyning this and Pythagoras his opinion in one for Plato Pythagorized in all naâ—… questions This Cicero Iustine Martir and Boetius doe subscribe vnto also Plato â—…th Apuleius de deo Socrat. held all these gods to bee true incorporeall liuing and eternall 〈◊〉 neither beginning nor end Yet Apuleius in his Dogma Platonis affirmes that Plaâ—… taught vncertainely concerning the worlds beginning saying one while it had an origiâ—… and another while it had none c Euen as Our Philosophers disputing of an 〈◊〉 that is coequall in time and beeing with the cause compare them to the Sunne and the 〈◊〉 light Of the vniuersall way of the soules freedome which Porphyry sought amisse and therefore found not that onely Christ hath declared it CHAP. 32. THis is the religion that containes the vniuersall way of the soules freedome â—…or no where els is it found but herein This is the a Kings high way that leads to the eternall dangerlesse Kingdome to no temporall or transitory one And â—…reas Porphyry saith in the end of his first booke De regressu animae that there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sect yet either truely Philosophicall b Indian or Chaldaean that teachetâ—… this vniuersall way and that hee hath not had so much as any historicall reaâ—… of it yet hee confesseth that such an one there is but what it is hee knoweth 〈◊〉 So insufficient was all that hee had learnt to direct him to the soules true â—…me and all that himselfe held or others thought him hold for he obserâ—… want of an authority fit for him to follow But whereas hee saith that 〈◊〉 of the true Philosophy euer had notice of the vniuersall way of the soules 〈◊〉 he shewes plaine that either his owne Phylosophy was not true or els 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wanted the knowledge of this way and then still how could it be true for 〈◊〉 vniuersall way of freeing the soules is there but that which freeth all soules 〈◊〉 coÌ„nsequently without which none is freed But whereas he addeth Indian or Chaldaean he giues a cleare testimony that neither of their doctrines contaiâ—… this way of the soules freedome yet could not he coâ—…ceale but is stil a telling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Chaldaeans had hee the diuine oracles What vniuersall way 〈◊〉 doth hee meane that is neither receiued in Philosophy nor into those Paâ—… disciplines that had such a stroke with him in matters of diuinity because 〈◊〉 with them did the curious fond superstition inuocation of all Angells 〈◊〉 which he neuer had so much as read of What is that vniuersall way not peculiar to euery perticuler nation but common to c all the world and giuen to it by the power of God Yet this witty Philosopher knew that some such way thers was For hee beleeues not that Gods prouidence would leaue man-kinde without a meane of the soules freedome He saith not there is no such but that so great and good an helpe is not yet knowne to vs nor vnto him no meruell for Prophyry was yet all d for the world when that vniuersall way of the soules freedome christianity was suffered to be opposed by the deuills and their seruants earthly powers to make vp the holy number of Martires e that is witnesses of the truth who might shew that all corporall tortures were to be endured for aduancement of the truth of piety This Porphyry saw and thinking persecution would soone extinguish this way therefore held not this the vniuersall not conceiuing that that which he stucke at and feared to endure in his choice belonged to his greater commendation and confirmation This therefore is that vniuersal way of the soules freedome that is granted vnto all nations out of Gods mercy the knowledge whereof commeth and is to come vnto all men wee may not nor any hereafter say why f commeth it so soone or why so late for his wisdome that doth send it is vnsearcheable vnto man Which he well perceiued when he sayd it was not yet receiued or knowne vnto him he denied not the truth thereof because he as yet had it
knowes hee must leaue and 〈◊〉 â—…st his truth and wisdome and that when by the perfection of his blisse 〈◊〉 to the full knowledge of him f one can neuer loue his friend faithâ—… know that hee shall become his enemy But God forbid that this â—…g of theirs that our misery should neuer bee ended but onely interrupâ—… and then by false happinesse should bee true For what is falser then 〈◊〉 wherein wee shal be either wholy ignorant in such light or otherwise â—…ly afraide of the losse of it beeing on the toppe of felicity If wee 〈◊〉 â—…hat wee shall become wretched our misery here is wiser then hapâ—…â—…ere But if wee shall know it g then the wretched soule had better â—…serable state and goe from thence to eternity then in a blessed to fall â—…ce to misery And so h our hope of happinesse is vnhappie and of â—…ppie and consequently we suffring miseries here and expecting them 〈◊〉 rather wretched then blessed in truth But piety crieth out and truth â—…h this to be false The felicitie promised vs is true eternall and wholy â—…pted by any reuolution to worse 〈◊〉 follow Christ our right way leaue this circular maze of the impious â—…phyry the Platonist refused his Maisters opinion in this circumrotation 〈◊〉 beeing mooued heereto either by the vanity of the thing or by feare 〈◊〉 Christians arguments and had rather affirme as I said in the tenth 〈◊〉 that the soule was sent into the world to know euill that beeing purâ—… it it might returne to the Father and neuer more suffer any such 〈◊〉 how much more then ought wee to detest this impiety this enemy â—…ith and christianity These circles now beeing broken there is noâ—…th vs to thinke that man had no beginning because I know not 〈◊〉 â—…olutions haue kept althings in such a continuall course of vppe and 〈◊〉 â—…at nothing can bee new in the world For if the soule bee freed 〈◊〉 â—…o more returne to miserie it beeing neuer freed before there is an 〈◊〉 a great one new begunne namely the soules possession of eternall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this fall out in an immortall nature without any circumvolution why â—…s possible in mortall things If they say that blisse is no new thing to 〈◊〉 because it returneth but vnto that which it enioyed alwaies before 〈◊〉 freedome new then for it was neuer freed before beeing neuer miseâ—…d the misery is new vnto it that was neuer miserable before Now â—…nesse happen not in the order that Gods prouidence allotted but by 〈◊〉 â—…here are our reuolutions that admit nothing new but keepe all in â—…e But if this nouelty bee within the compasse of Gods prouidence â—…ule 〈◊〉 giuen from heauen or fallen from thence there may bee new 〈◊〉 that were not before and yet in the order of nature And if the soule 〈◊〉 procure it selfe new misery which the diuine prouidence foreâ—… included in the order of things freeing it from thence also by this 〈◊〉 power how dare flesh and bloud then bee so rash as to denie that â—…y may produce things new vnto the world though not to himselfe â—…ugh hee foresaw yet were neuer made before If they say it is no â—…t the freed soules returne no more to miserie because there are some â—…d daily freed from thence why then they confesse that there is still â—…es created to bee new freed from new miseries For if they say they 〈◊〉 new foules but haue beene from eternity which are daily put into new bodies and liuing wisely are freed neuer to returne then they make the soâ—…ies of eternity infinite for imagine a number of soules neuer so large they could not suffice for all the men of these infinite ages past if each soule as soone as it was quit flewe vppe and returned no more Nor can they shew new there may bee an infinite k sort of soules in the world and yet debarre GOD from knowing of things infinite Wherefore seeing their reuolutions of blisse and misery are casheered what remaines but to averre that GOD can when his good pleasure is create what new thing hee will and yet because of his eternall fore-knowledge neuer change his will And whether the number of those freed and not returning soules may bee increased looke they to that who will keepe infinitenesse out of the world wee shut vppe our disputation on both sides If it may bee increased why denie they that that may bee made now that had no beeing before if that number of freed soules that was before bee not onely increased now but shal be for euer But if there bee but a certaine number of soules to bee freed and neuer to returne and that number bee not increased whosoeuer it shal bee it is not the same yet that it must bee nor can it increase to the consumation but from a beginning which beeing not before man that man was made to beginne before whom was no other L. VIVES VVHat a Godly The Platonists haue a great stirre amongst themselues whether the soule shall returne to her starre whence she was taken or follow the reuolutions from body to body Plato in his Phadrus and his Resp. maketh it eternally happy Thence doe Pâ—…rphyry and 〈◊〉 deny the returne of it after purgation Proclus and Plotine take Plato's eternity but for a great space of time and submit the purest soule to the period of reuolution b Beeing Cic. De repub lib. 6. saith after Plato that our life beeing inuolued in such killing misery is rather to bee called a death c Wee loue it This is a chiefe one in this bodies inconueniences it blindes our reason so farre that it allures vs all to loue it and maketh vs hate and abhorre all that oppose it whereas were our reason and iudgement sound and not ouer-borne by the bodie they would desire to leaue this liuing death and â—…ghing say with the Apostle Wretched man that I am who shall deliuer mee from the bodie of this death d For if Wee shall all drinke of 〈◊〉 they say e Why doe Feare of euill is a great torture and one had better die secure then liue in feare f One can Scipio in Tullies Laelius denies that there can bee a saying so preiudiciall to aâ—…itie as to say that I loue him now but I shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor will hee beleeue that Bâ—…s euer said such a word as it was said beeing one of the â—…en sages But some ambitious vnhonest fellow that desiired to haue all in his owne power might say so For how can hee bee friend to him whom hee thinkes hee can bee foe to This rule who soeuer gaue it tends to the abolishment of friendshippe but in deed wee 〈◊〉 more neede obserue this in our friendshippes not to beginne to loue him whome wee could euer hate Thus Cicero g Then the wretched For happinesse is farre better after 〈◊〉 then misery after happinesse For the feeling of misery is lessened by hope of happinesse and happinesse is asmuch lessened
should be saued and who should be damned CHAP. 27. BVt now because we must end this booke let this bee our position that in the first man the fore-said two societies or cities had originall yet not euidentlie but vnto Gods prescience for from him were the rest of men to come some to be made fellow cittizens with the Angels in ioy and some with the Deuils in torment by the secret but iust iudgment of God For seeing that it is written All the wayes of the Lord bee mercy and truth his grace can neither bee vniust nor his iustice cruell Finis lib. 12. THE CONTENTS OF THE thirteenth booke of the City of God 1. Of the first Mans fall and the procurement of mortality 2. Of the death that may befall the immortal soule and of the bodies death 3. Whether death propagated vnto all men from the first bee punishment of sinne to the Saints 4. Why the first death is not with-held from the regenerate from sinne by grace 5. As the wicked vse the good law euill so the good vse death which is euill well 6. The generall euill of that death that seuereth soule and body 7. Of the death that such as are not regenerate doe suffer for Christ. 8. That the Saints in suffering the first death for the truth are quit from the second 9. Whether a man at the houre of his death may be said to be among the dead or the dying 10. Whether this mortall life be rather to bee called death then life 11. Whether one may bee liuing and dead both together 12. Of the death that God threatned to punish the first man withall if he transgressed 13. What punishment was first laid on mans preuarication 14. In what state God made Man and into what state he fell by his voluntary choyce 15. That Adam forsooke God ere God forsooke him and that the soules first death was the departure from God 16. Of the Philosophers that held corporall death not to bee penall whereas Plato brings in the Creator promising the lesser Gods that they should neuer leaue their bodies 17. Against the opinion that earthly bodies cannot be corruptible nor eternall 18. Of the terrene bodies which the Philosophers hold cannot bee in heauen but must fall to earth by their naturall weight 19 Against those that hold that Man should not haue beene immortall if hee had not sinned 20. That the bodies of the Saints now resting in hope shall become better then our first fathers was 21. Of the Paradice when our first parents were placed and that it may be taken spiritually also with-out any wrong to the truth of the historie as touching the reall place 22. That the Saints bodies after resurrection shall bee spirituall and yet not changed into spirits 23. Of bodies animate and spirituall these dying in Adam and those beeing quickned in Christ. 24. How Gods breathing a life into Adam and Christs breathing vpon his Apostles when hee said Receiue the holy spirit are to bee vnderstood FINIS THE THIRTEENTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Of the first Mans fall and the procurement of mortalitie CHAP. 1. HAuing gotten through the intricate questions of the worlds originall and man-kindes our methode now calleth vs to discourse of the first mans fall nay the first fall of both in that kind and consequently of the originall and propagation of our mortality for God made not man as he did Angels that though they sinned yet could not dye but so as hauing a performed their course in obedience death could not preuent them from partaking for euer of blessed and Angelicall immortality but hauing left this course death should take them into iust damnation as we said in the last booke L. VIVES HAuing a performed Euery man should haue liued a set time vpon earth and then being confirmed in nature by tasting of the tree of life haue beene immortally translated into heauen Here are many questions made first by Augustine and then by Lombard dist 2. What mans estate should haue beene had he not sinned but these are modest and timerous inquirers professing they cannot finde what they seeke But our later coments vpon Lumbard flie directly to affirmatiue positions vpon very coniectures or grounds of nature I heare them reason but I see them grauelled and in darknesse where yet they will not feele before them ere they goe but rush on despight of all break-neck play What man hath now wee all know to our cost what he should haue had it is a question whether Adam knew and what shall we then seeke why should we vse coniectures in a things so transcendent that it seemes miraculous to the heauens as if this must follow natures lawes which would haue amazed nature had it had existence then What light Augustine giues I will take and as my power and duty is explaine the rest I will not meddle with Of the death that may befall the immortall soule and of the bodyes death CHAP. 2. BVt I see I must open this kinde of death a little plainer For mans soule though it be immortall dyeth a kinde of death a It is called immortall because it can neuer leaue to bee liuing and sensitiue and the body is mortall because it may be destitute of life and left quite dead in it selfe But the death of the soule is when God leaueth it the death of the body is when the soule leaueth it so that the death of both is when the soule being left of God leaueth the body And this death is seconded by that which the Scripture calles the b second death This our Sauiour signified when hee said feare him which is able to destroy both body and soule in hell which comming not to passe before the body is ioyned to the soule neuer to be seperated it is strange that the body can be sayd to die by that death which seuereth not the soule from it but torments them both together For that â—…all paine of which wee will speake here-after is fitly called the soules deaâ—… because it liueth not with God but how is it the bodies which liueth with the soule for otherwise it could not feele the corporall paines that expect it after the resurrection is it because all life how-so-euer is good and all paine euill that the body is said to dye wherein the soule is cause of sorrow rather then life Therefore the soule liueth by God when it liueth well for it cannot liue without God working good in it and the body liueth by the soule when the soule liueth in the body whether it liue by God or no. For the wicked haue liâ—…â—…liâ—…â—…body but none of soule their soules being dead that is forsaken of God lâ—…g power as long as their immortall proper life failes not to afforde them 〈◊〉 but in the last damnation though man bee not insensitiue yet this sence of 〈◊〉 â—…ing neither pleasing nor peacefull but sore and
painfull is iustly termed 〈◊〉 death then life and therefore is it called the second death because it folâ—…th the first breach of nature either betweene God and the soule or this and the â—…dy of the first death therefore wee may say that it is good to the good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the bad But the second is bad in all badnesse vnto all good to none L. VIVES IT a is called Bruges copy differs not much all is one in substance b Second death 〈◊〉 2. 11. and 21 8. Whether death propagated vnto all men from the first be punishment of sinne to the Saints CHAP. 3. â—…ere's a question not to be omitted whether the first death bee good to 〈◊〉 â—…ood If it be so how can it be the punishment of sinne for had not our 〈◊〉 sinned they had neuer tasted it how then can it bee good to the vpâ—… cannot happen but vnto offenders and if it happen but vnto offenders 〈◊〉 not be good for it should not be at all vnto the vpright for why should 〈◊〉 punishment that haue no guilt Wee must confesse then that had not 〈◊〉 parents sinned they had not dyed but sinning the punishment of death â—…cted vpon them and all their posteritie for they should not produce 〈◊〉 â—…ng but what them-selues were and the greatnesse of their crime depraued 〈◊〉 â—…ture so that that which was penall in the first mans offending was made 〈◊〉 in the birth of all the rest for they came not of man as man came of the 〈◊〉 The dust was mans materiall but man is mans parent That which is earth is 〈◊〉 flesh though flesh be made of earth but that which man the father is man the 〈◊〉 is also For all man-kinde was in the first man to bee deriued from him by the 〈◊〉 when this couple receiued their sentence of condemnation And that 〈◊〉 man was made not in his creation but in his fall and condemnation that 〈◊〉 â—…got in respect I meane of sinne and death For his sinne a was not cause of 〈◊〉 weaknesse in infancie or whitenesse of body as we see in infants those God would haue as the originall of the yonglings whose parents he had cast downe to 〈◊〉 mortality as it is written Man was in honor and vnderstood not but became 〈◊〉 the beasts that perish vnlesse that infants bee weaker in motion and appetite 〈◊〉 all other creatures to shew mans mounting excellence aboue them all comâ—…le to a shaft that flieth the stronger when it is drawne farthest back in the 〈◊〉 Therefore mans presumption and iust sentence adiudged him not to those â—…lities of nature but his nature was depraued vnto the admission of conâ—…entiall in-obedience in his members against his will thereby was bound to death by necessity and to produce his progeny vnder the same conditions that his crime deserued From which band of sin if infants by the mediators grace be freed they shall onely bee to suffer the first death of body but from the eternall penall second death their freedome from sinne shall quit them absolutely L. VIVES HIs sinne a was not Here is another question in what state men should haue beene borne had they not sinned Augustine propounds it in his booke De baptis paruul some thinke they should haue beene borne little and presently become perfect men Others borne little but in perfect strength onely not groweth and that they should presently haue followed the mother as we see chickens and lambes The former giue them immediate vse of sence and reason the later not so but to come by degrees as ours do Augustine leaues the doubt as hee findes it seeming to suppose no other kinde of birth but what we now haue Why the first death is not withheld from the regenerat from sinne by grace CHAP. 4. IF any thinke they should not suffer this being the punishment of guilt and there guilt cleared by grace he may be resolued in our booke called De baptismo paruulorum There we say that the seperation of soule and body remaineth to succeed though after sinne because if the sacrament of regeneration should be immediately seconded by immortality of body our faith were disanulled being an expectation of a thing vnseene But by the strength and vigor of faith was this feare of death to be formerly conquered as the Martires did whose conflicts had had no victory nor no glory nay had bin no conflicts if they had beene deified and freed from corporall death immediatly vpon their regeneration for if it were so who would not run vnto Christ to haue his child baptised least hee should die should his faith be approued by this visible reward no it should be no faith because he receiued his reward immediatly But now the wounderfull grace of our Sauiour hath turned the punishment of sinne vnto the greater good of righteousnesse Then it was said to man thou shalt die if thou sinne now it is said to the Martir die to auoid sin Then if you breake my lawes you shall dy now if you refuse to die you breake my lawes That which we feared then if we offended we must now choose not to offend Thus by Gods ineffable mercy the punishment of sin is become the instrument of vertue and the paine due to the sinners guilt is the iust mans merit Then did sinne purchase death and now death purchaseth righteousnes I meane in the Martires whome their persecutors bad either renounce their faith or their life and those iust men chose rather to suffer that for beleeuing which the first sinners suffred for not beleeuing for vnlesse they had sinned they had not dyed and Martires had sinned if they had not died They dyed for sinne these sinne not because they die The others crime made death good which before was euill but God hath giuen such grace to faith that death which is lifes contrary is here made the ladder whereby to ascend to life As the wicked vse the good law euill so the good vse death which is euill well CHAP. 5. FOr the Apostle desiring to shew the hurt of sin being vnpreuented by grace doubted not to say that the law which forbids sinne is the strength of sinne The sting 〈◊〉 saith he is sinne and the strength of sinne is the lawe Most true for a forbidding of vnlawfull desires increase them in him where righteousnesse is not of power to suppresse all such affects to sinne And righteousnesse can neuer be lâ—…d without gods grace procure this loue But yet to shew that the law is not euill though hee calls it the strength of sinne hee saith in another place in the 〈◊〉 question The law is holy and the commandement holy and iust and good Was that then which is good saith he made death to me GOD forbid buâ—… sinne that it might appeare sinne wrought death in me by that which is good b that siâ—…e might be out of measure sinfull by the commandement Out of measure 〈◊〉
dying nor in death For this is sought as present in the change of the times and is found the one passing into the other without the least interposed space Doe we not see then that by this reason the death of the bodie is nothing If it bee how is it any thing beeing in nothin and whereing nothing can be for if we liue it is not any thing yet because wee are before it not in it if we liue not it is nothing still for now wee are after it and not in it But now if death bee nothing before nor after what sence is there in saying before or after death I would to God wee had liued well in Paradise that death might haue bin nothing indeede But now there is not onely such a thing but it is so greeuous with vs as neither tongue can tell nor reason avoide Let vs therefore speake according to c custome for so wee should and call the time ere death come before death as it is written d Iudge none blessed before his death Let vs call the 〈◊〉 when it is already come after death this or that was after his death and let us speake of the present time as wee can hee dying gaue such a legacy hee dying left thus much or thus much though no man could do this but the liuing and rather before his death then at or in his death And let vs speake as the holy scripture speaketh of the dead saying they were not after death but in death For in death there is no remembrance of thee for vntill they rise againe they are iustly said to bee in death as one is in sleepe vntill hee awake Though such as are in sleepe wee say are sleeping then may wee not say that such as are dead are dying For they that are once seperate wholy froÌ„ them bodies are past dying the bodily death whereof we speake any more But this that I say one cannot declare how the dying man may be sayd to liue or how the dead man can be sayd to bee in death for how can he bee after death if hee bee in death since wee cannot call him dying as we may doe hee that is in sleepe sleeping or hee that is in languor â—…guishing or hee that is in sorrow sorrowing or in life liuing But the dead vntill they arise are said to bee in death yet wee cannot say they are dying And therefore I thinke it was not for no cause perhaps God decreed it that mortor the latine word for to die could not by any meanes bee brought by e grammartians vnto the forme of other verbes f Ortor to arise hath ortus in the preterperfect tense and so haue other verbes that are declined by the participle of the pretertense But Morior must haue mortuus for the preterperfect tence doubling the letter V. for Mortuus endes like fatuus arduus conspicuus and such like that are no preterperfect tenses but nownes declined without tenses 〈◊〉 times and this as if it were a nowne decsinable that cannot be declined is put for the participle of the present tense So that it is conuenient that as it cannot effect the signification by act no more should the name be to bee g declined by arte Yet by the grace of Our Redeemer we may decline that is avoide the second death For this is the sore one and the worst of euills beeing no separation but rather a combination of body and soule vnto eternall torture Therein sâ—…all none bee a fore death nor after death but eternally in death neuer liuing neuer dead but euer dying For man can neuer be in worse death then when the death he is in is endlesse L. VIVES TOo a strange Insolens for insolitum vn-accustomed Salusts worde that antiquary and Gellius his ape b When is he Oh Saint Augustine by your fauor your witts edge is too blunt here you not our rare schoole diuines the first is the first is not the last is the last is not death is not in this instant for now it is done conceiue you not Why thus It was but now and now it is not not yet then thus but you must into the schooles and learne of the boies for those bables are fitter for them then for men But you and I will haue a great deale of good talke of this in some other place c Custome The mistresse of speach whom all artes ought to obserue d Iudge none Like Solons saying No man can bee called blessed and he be dead because hee knowes not what may befall him e Grammarians You are too idle in this chapter Saint Augustine First in commanding vs to apply our speech to the common sence and secondly in naming gramarians in a matters of diuinity how much more in drawing any argument pertayning to this question from them If any smatterer of our diuines had done it hee should haue beene hissed out of our schooles but you follow the old discipline and keepe the artes combined mixing each others ornament and no way disioyning them f Orior That comparison holdes in grammar it is a great question and much tossed Aristarchus a great grammarian defended it and Crates building vpon Chrisippus his Perianomalia did oppose it Varro's fragments herevpon lay downe both their reasons and Quintilian disputes of it Caius Caesar wrote also to Cicero concerning Analogie Doubtlesse it must be allowed in many things but not in all otherwise that art cannot stand nor hardly worldly discourse g Declined Alluding to the ambiguity of the worde declinari it cannot bee declined that is avoided nor declined that is varied by cases Of the death that God threatned to promise the first man withall if he transgressed CHAP. 12. IF therefore it bee asked what death GOD threatned man with all vpon his trangression and breach of obedience whether it were bodily or spirituall or that second death we answere it was all the first consisteth of two and the second entirely of all for as the whole earth consists of many lands and the whole Church of many Churches so doth the vniuersall death consist of all the first consisting of two the bodies and the soules beeing the death wherein the soule beeing foresaken of GOD forsaketh the bodie and endureth paines for the time but the second beeing that wherein the soule being forsaken of GOD endureth paines for euer Therefore when GOD sayd to the first man that hee placed in Paradise as concerning the forbidden fruite Whensoeuer thou eatest thereof thou shaâ—… die the death he comprehends therein not onely the first part of the first death wheresoeuer the soule looseth God nor the later onely wherein the soule leaneth the body and is punished after that seperation but also that last part or the second which is the last of deaths eternall and following after all all this is comprehended in that commination What punishment was first layd on mans preuarication CHAP. 13. FOr after mankinde had broken the precept hee was
Paradise Eden from the beginning This out of Hierome b No such No man denieth that Paradise may be spiritually vnderstood excepting Ambrose in his booke De Paradiso But all the Fathers professe that Paradise was a reall pleasant place full of trees as Damascene saith and like to the Poets imaginary Elizium Away with their foolery saith Hierome vpon Daniel that seeke for figures in truthes and would ouerthrow the reall existence of trees and riuers in Paradise by drawing all into an Allegory This did Origen making a spirituall meaning of the whole hiâ—…ory and placing the true Paradice in the third heauen whither the Apostle Paul was rapt c Foure riuers Nile of Egipt Euphrates and Tigris of Syria and Ganges of India There heads are vnknowne and they run vnder the Ocean into our sea and therefore the Egiptian priests called Niâ—… the Ocean Herodot d Read in the. Cant 4 12. My sister my spouse is as a garden inclosed as a spring shut vp and a fountaine sealed vp their plants are as an orchard of pomegranates with sweete fruites c. That the Saints bodies after resurrection shal be spirituall and yet not changed into spirits CHAP. 22. THe bodies of the Saints in the resurrection shall need none of the tree of life to preserue them in life health or strength nor any meate to keepe away hunger and thirst They shall haue such an euery way absolute immortality that they shall neuer need to eare power they shall haue to doe it if they will but no â—…ssity For so the Angels did appearing visibly and sensibly not of necessity 〈◊〉 of power and will to affoord their ministerie vnto man in more congruence 〈◊〉 we may not thinke that when a they lodged in mens houses they did but eare b seemingly though they seemed to eate with the same appetite that the 〈◊〉 did who knew them not to be Angels And therefore the Angell saith in Tobiâ—…n saw mee eate but you saw it but in vision that is you thought I had eaten as 〈◊〉 did to refresh my body But if the other side may bee probably held of the Angels yet verily wee doubt it not to bee true c of Christ that hee in his spirituall flesh after his resurrection yet was it his true flesh eate and dranke with his disciples The neede onely not the power is taken from those glorified bodies which are spirituall not because they cease to bee bodyes but because they subsist by the quickning of the spirit L. VIVES THey a lodged In the houses of Abraham Lot and Tobias b Eate seemingly They did not eate as we doe passing the meate from the mouth to the stomack through the throate 〈◊〉 so decoct it and dispâ—…rse the iuice through the veines for nutâ—…iment nor yet did they deâ—… mens eyes by seeming to mooue that which they had for their chaps and yet moouing 〈◊〉 not or seeming to chaw bread or flesh and yet leauing it whole They did eate really 〈◊〉 â—…ere not nourished by eating c Of Christ Luke the 23. The earth saith Bede vpon 〈◊〉 â—…ce drinketh vp water one way and the sunne another the earth for neede the sunne 〈◊〉 power And so our Sauiour did eate but not as we eate that glorious body of his tooke â—…te but turned it not into nutriment as ours doe Of bodies animate and spirituall these dying in Adam and those beeing quickned in Christ. CHAP. 23. 〈◊〉 â—…s the bodyes that haue a liuing soule though as yet vnquickned by the â—…it are called animate yet are our soules but bodyes so are the other calâ—…tuall yet God forbid we should beleeue them to bee spirit or other then â—…tiall fleshly bodies yet vncorruptible and without weight by the quickâ—… of the spirit For man shall not then be earthly but celestiall not that he shall 〈◊〉 his earthly body but because he shall be so endowed from heauen that he 〈◊〉 â—…habite it with losse of his nature onely by attaining a celestiall quality 〈◊〉 â—…st man was made earth of earth into a a liuing creature but not into b â—…ing spirit as â—…ee should haue beene had hee perseuered in obedience â—…lesse therefore his body needing meate and drinke against hunger and 〈◊〉 and being not kept in youth from death by indissoluble immortality but 〈◊〉 by the Tree of life was not spirituall but onely animaâ—…e yet should it not 〈◊〉 â—…ied but that it incurred Gods heauy sentence by offending And though he 〈◊〉 take of other meates out of Paradice yet had he bin c â—…bidden to touch 〈◊〉 of life he should haue bin liable to time corruption in that life onely 〈◊〉 had he continued in spirituall obedience though it were but meerely aniâ—… might haue beene eternall in Paradise Wherefore though by these words 〈◊〉 d When soeuer you eate thereof you shall dye the death wee vnderstand by 〈◊〉 the seperation of soule and body yet ought it not seeme absurd in that 〈◊〉 dyed not the very day that they tooke this deadly meate for that very 〈◊〉 their nature was depraued and by their iust exclusion from the Tree 〈◊〉 the necessitie of death entred vppon them wherein wee all are brought forth And therefore the Apostle saith not The body shall dye for sinne but The body is dead because of sinne and the spirit is life for iustice sake And then he addeth But if the spirit of him that raised vp Iesus from the dead dâ—… in you he that raised vp Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodyes by his spirit dwelling in you Therefore then as the Apostle saith shall be in quickning of the spirit which is now in the life of soule and yet dead because it must necessarily dye But in the first man it was in life of soule and not in quickning of spirit yet could it not be called dead because had not he broken the precept hee had not beene bound to death But whereas God signified the death of the soule in leauing of him saying Adam where art thou and in saying Earth thou art and to earth thou shalt goe signified the death of the body in leauing of the soule therefore wee must thinke he spoake not of the second death reseruing that secret because of his new testament where it is plainly discouered that the first which is common to all might bee shewen to proceed from that sinne which one mans acte made common to all but that the second death is not common to all because of those holy onely whom hee hath fore-knowne and predestinated as the Apostle saith to bee made like the image of his sonne that he might be the first borne of many brethren whom the grace of God by this mediator had saued from the second death Therefore the first mans body was but animate as the Apostle witnesseth who desiring our animate bodies now from those spirituall ones that they shall become in the resurrection It is sowne in corruption saith he but
easily are they lost how quite doth deafenesse or blindnesse take away hearing and sight and then for the reason how soone is it subuerted by a phreneticall passion a Lethargy or so Oh it is able to wring teares from our eies to see the actions of phrenetique persons so wholy different nay so directly contrary vnto reasons direction what need I speake of the Dâ—…moniakes whose vnderstanding the diuel wholy dulleth and vseth all their powers of soule and body at his owne pleasure and what wise man can fully secure himselfe from these incursions Againe how weake is our apprehension of truth in this life when as we reade in the true booke of wisedome the corruptible body is heauy vnto the soule and the earthly mansion keepeth downe the minde that is full of cares And that same b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that violent motion vnto action c which they recken for one of natures first positiues in good men is it not that that effecteth those strange and horrible acts of madnesse when the reason sence are both besotted and obnubilate Besides vertue which is not from nature but commeth after wards from industry when it hath gotten the highest stand in humanity what other workehath it but a continuall fight against the in-bred vices that are inherent in our owne bosomes not in others chiefely that d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that temperance which suppresseth the lusts of the flesh and curbeth them from carying the mind away into mischiefe for that same is a vice when as the Apostle saith the flesh lusteth against the spirit and that contrary is a vertue when the spirit lusteth after the flesh for they saith hee are contrary so that you cannot do what you would And what would wee what is our desire in this perfection of God but that the flesh should not lust against the spirit and that there were no vice in vs against which the spirit should lust which since we cannot attaine in this life would wee neuer so faine let vs by God grace endeuour this that we do not subiect our spirit vnto the concupiscence of our flesh and so seale vnto the bond of sinne with a free consent So that farre bee it from vs euer to thinke that wee haue attayned the true happinesse whilst wee liue here Who is so wise but hath now and then divers fights against his owne lustes what is the office of prudence is it not to discerne betweene things to be chosen things to be refused to the end that no error be incurred in either This testifieth that there is euil in vs and that we are in euil It teacheth vs that it is euill to assent vnto sinne and good to avoyd it But yet neither can prudence nor temperance rid our liues of that euill which they fore-warne vs of and arme vs against And what e of Iustice that giueth euery one his due and the iust order of nature is that the soule bee vnder God the flesh vnder the soule and both together vnder God Is it not plaine that this is rather continually laboured then truely attained in this life for the lesse that the soule both meditate of God the lesse it serueth him and the more that the flesh lusteth against the soule the lesse command hath the soule ouer it wherefore as long as wee are obiected vnto this languour and corruption how dare we say we are safe or if not safe much more blessed by the perfection of attayned blesse Now there is also Fortitude another authenticall testimony of humaine miseries endured with Patience I wonder with what face the Stoikes deny these to bee euills of which f they confesse that if a wise man cannot or ought not to endure them hee may lawfully nay he must needs kill him-selfe and auoyd this life To this hight is their proud stupidity growne building all there beatitude vpon this life that if their wise man g were blind deafe lame and made the very hospitall of all agonies and anguish which shouldly so sore on him that they should force him be his owne death yet this life that is enuironed with all those plagues are not they ashamed to call blessed Osweete and blessed life which it is requisite that death do conclude for if it be blessed why then keepe it still but if those euills make it avoydable what is become of the blisse or what are these but euills that haue such power to subuert the good of fortitude making iâ—… not onely guilty of deiection but of dotage in affirming that one and the same life is blessed and yet must be auoyded who is so blind that seeth not that if it be the one it cannot possibly be the other O but say they the auoydance is caused by the effect of the ouerpressing infirmity why may they not aswell bid adue to obstinacy and confesse that it is wretched was it patience that made Cato kill him selfe no he would not haue done it but that he tooke Caesars victory so vnpatiently where was his fortitude now gone it yeelded and was so troden downe that it fled both light and life as blessed as it was Was not his life then blessed why then it was wretched Why then are not they true euills that can make ones life so wretched and so to be auoyded And therefore the Peripatetiques and old Academikes whose sect Varro stands wholy for did better in calling these accidents plainely euill But they haue one foule errour to hold his life that endureth these euills blessed if hee rid him-selfe from them by his owne voluntary destruction The paines and torments of the body are euill say they and the greater the worse which to avoyde you must willingly betake your selfe to death and leaue this life what life this that is so encombred with euills What is it then blessed amongst so many euills that must bee avoyded or call you it blessed because you may abandon these euills when you list by death what if some power diuine should hold you from dying and keepe you continually in those euills then you would say this were a wretched life indeed well the soone leauing of it maketh not against the misery of it because if it were eternall your selfe would iudge it miserable It is not quit of misery therefore because it is short nor much lesse is it happynesse in that the misery is short It must needes be a forcible euill that hath power to make a man nay and a wise man to be his owne executioner it being truely said by them-selues that it is as it were natures first and most forcible precept that a man should haue a deare respect of him-selfe and therefore avoyde the hand of death by very naturall instinct and so bee-friend him-selfe that hee should still desire to bee a liuing creature and enioy the coniunction of his soule and body Mighty are the euills that subdue this natural instinct which is in al men to desire to aviod death and subduing
vnto the consummation So then as there are two regenerations one in faith by Baptisme and another in the flesh by incorruption so are there two resurrections the first That is now of the soule preuenting the second death The later Future of the bodie sending some into the second death and other some into the life that despiseth and excludeth all death whatsoeuer Of the two resurrections what may bee thought of the thousand years mentioned in Saint Iohns Reuelation CHAP. 7. SAint Iohn the Euangelist in his Reuelation speaketh of these two resurrections in such darke manner as some of our diuines exceeding their owne ignorance in the first doe wrest it vnto diuers ridiculous interpretations His words are these And I sawe an Angell come downe from Heauen hauing the keye of the bottomlesse pitte and a great chaine in his hand And hee tooke that Dragon that old Serpent which is the deuill and Sathan and bound him a thousand yeares â—…d hee cast him into the bottomlesse pitte and shut him vppe and sealed the dores vpon him that hee should deceiue the people no more till the thousand yeares were fulfilled For after hee must bee loosed for a little season And I saw seates and they set vpon them and iudgement was giuen vnto them and I saw the soules of them which were slaine for the testimonie of IESVS and for the worde of GOD and worshipped not the beast nor his Image neither had taken his marke vpon their fore-heads or on their handes and they liued and reigned with CHRIST a thousand yeares But the rest of the dead men shall not liue againe vntill the thousand yeares be finished this 〈◊〉 the first resurrection Blessed and Holy is hee that hath his part in the first resurrection for on such the second death hath no power but they shall be the Priests of GOD and of CHRIST and reigne with him a thousand yeares The chiefest reason that mooued many to thinke that this place implied a corporall resurrection was drawne from a the thousand yeares as if the Saints should haue a continuall Sabboth enduring so long to wit a thousand yeares vacation after the sixe thousand of trouble beginning at mans creation and expulsion out of Paradise into the sorrowes of mortalitie that â—…ce it is written One daie is with the LORD as a thousand yeares and a thousâ—…d yeares as one daie therefore sixe thousand yeares beeing finished as the sixe daies the seauenth should follow for the time of Sabbath and last a thousand yeares also all the Saints rising corporallie from the dead to â—…elebrate it This opinion were tolerable if it proposed onely spirituall deights vnâ—…o the Saints during this space wee were once of the same opinion our selues but seeing the auouchers heereof affirme that the Saints after this resurrection shall doe nothing but reuell in fleshly banquettes where b the cheere shall exceed both modesty and measure this is grosse and fitte for none but carnall men to beleeue But they that are really and truely spirituall doe call those Opinionists c Chiliasts the worde is greeke and many bee interpreted Millenaryes or Thousand-yere-ists To confute them heere is no place let vs rather take the texts true sence along with vs. Our LORD IESVS CHRIST saith No man can enter into 〈◊〉 strong mans house and take away his goods vnlesse hee first binde the strong man and then spoyle his house meaning by this strong man the deuill because hee alone was able to hold man-kinde in captiuity and meaning by the goods hee would take away his future faithfull whome the deuill held as his owne in diuers sinnes and impieties That this Stong-man therefore might bee bound the Apostle sawe the Angell comming downe from heauen hauing the keye of the bottomlesse pitte and a great chaine in his hand And hee tooke sayth hee the Dragon that olde serpent which is the deuill and Sathan and bound him a thousand yeares that is restrayned him from seducing or with-holding them that were to bee set free The thousand yeares I thinke may bee taken two waies either for that this shall fall out in the last thousand that is d on the sixth daie of the workes continuance and then the Sabboth of the Saints should follow which shall haue no night and bring them blessednesse which hath no end So that thus the Apostle may call the last part of the current thousand which make the sixth daie a thousand yeares vsing the part for the whole or else a thousand yeares is put for eternity noting the plenitude of time by a number most perfect For a thousand is the solid quadrate of tenne tenne times tenne is one hundered and this is a quadrate but it is but a plaine one But to produce the solide multiply ten by a hundered and there ariseth one thousand Now if an hundered bee some-times vsed for perfection as wee see it is in CHRISTS wordes concerning him that should leaue all and follow him saying Hee shall receiue an hundered-fold more which the Apostle seemeth to expound saying As hauing nothing and yet possessings althings for hee had sayd before vnto a faithfull man the whole worlde is his ritches why then may not one thousand bee put for consummation the rather in that it is the most solide square that can bee drawne from tenne And therefore wee interprete that place of the Psalme Hee hath alway remembered his couenant and promise that hee made to a thousand generations by taking a thousand for all in generall On. And â—…ee cast him into the bottomlesse pitte hee cast the deuills into that pitte that is the multitude of the wicked whose malice vnto GODS Church is bottomlesse and their hearts a depth of enuie against it hee cast him into this pitte not that hee was not there before but because the deuill beeing shut from amongst the Godly holds faster possession of the wicked for hee is a most sure hold of the deuills that is not onelie cast out from GODS seruants but pursues them also with a causelesse hate forward And shut him vppe and sealed the dore vpon him that hee should deceiue the people no more till the thousand yeares were expired he sealed that is his will was to keepe it vnknowne who belonged to the diuell and who did not For this is vnknowne vnto this world for we know not whether he that standeth shall fall or he that lieth along shall rise againe But how-so-euer this bond restraineth him from tempting the nations that are Gods selected as he did before For God chose them before the foundations of the world meaning to take them out of the power of darkenesse and set them in the kingdome of his sonnes glory as the Apostle saith For who knoweth not the deuils dayly seducing and drawing of others vnto eternall torment though they bee none of the predestinate Nor is it wonder iâ—… the diuell subuert some of those who are euen regenerate in Christ and walke in his wayes For
all this whole time from the vnion vnto him to the end of the time implyed in the thousand yeares The rest saith Saint Iohn shall not liue for now is the houre when the dead shall heare the voyce of the sonne of God and they that he are it shall liue the rest shall not liue but the addition vntill the thousand yeares be finished implieth that they shall want life all the time that they should haue it in attayning it by passing through faith from death to life And therefore on the day of the generall resurrection they shall rise also not vnto life but vnto iudgement that is vnto condemnation which is truly called the second death for hee that liueth not before the thousand yeares be expired that is he that heareth not the Sauiours voyce and passeth not from death to life during the time of the first resurrection assuredly shall be throwne both body and soule into the second death at the day of the second resurrection For Saint Iohn proceedeth plainly This saith hee is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is hee that hath part in the first resurrection and part of it is his who doth not onely arise from death in sinne but continueth firme in his resurrection On such saith he the second death hath no power But it hath power ouer the rest of whome hee sayd before The rest shall not liue vntill the thousand yeares bee finished because that in all that whole time meant by the thousand yeares although that each of them had a bodily life at one time or other yet they spent it and ended it with-out arising out of the death of iniquitie wherein the deuill held them which resurrection should haue beene their onely meane to haue purchased them a part in the first resurrection ouer which the second death hath no power An answer to the obiection of some affirming that resurrection is proper to the body onely and not to the soule CHAP. 10. SOme obiect this that resurrection pertaineth onely to the body and therefore the first resurrection is a bodily one for that which falleth say they that may rise againe but the body falleth by death for so is the word Cadauer a carcasse deriued of Cado to fall Ergo rising againe belongeth soly to the body and not vnto the soule Well but what will you answer the Apostle that in as plaine terms as may be he calleth the soules bettring a resurrection they were not reuiued in the outward man but in the inward vnto whom he said If yee then be risen with Christ seeke the things which are aboue which he explaineth else-where saying Like as Christ was raised vp from the dead by the glory of the father so wee also should walke in newnesse of life Hence also is that place Awake thou that sleepest and stand vp from the dead and Christ shall giue thee light Now whereas they say none can rise but those that fall ergo the body onely can arise why can they not heare that shrill sound of the spirit Depart not from him least you fall and againe Hâ—… standeth or falleth to his owne maister and further Let him that thinketh hee sâ—…eth take heed least hee fall I thinke these places meane not of bodily falls but 〈◊〉 the soules If then resurrection concerne them that fall and that the soule â—…y also fall it must needs follow that the soule may rise againe Now Saint 〈◊〉 hauing said On such the second death shall haue no power proceedeth thus But 〈◊〉 shall bee the Priests of God and of Christ and shall reigne with him a thousand â—…es Now this is not meant onely of those whome the Church peculiarly calleth Bishops and Priests but as wee are all called Christians because of our mysticall Chrisme our vnction so are wee all Priests in being the members of â—…e Priest Where-vpon Saint Peter calleth vs A royall Priest-hood an holy nation And marke how briefly Saint Iohn insinuateth the deity a of Christ in these words of God and of Christ that is of the Father and of the Sonne yet as hee was made the sonne of man because of his seruants shape so in the same respect was he made a Priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech whereof wee haue spoken diuerse times in this worke L. VIVES DEity a of Christ For it were a damnable and blasphemous iniury to God to suffer any one to haue Priests but him alone the very Gentiles would by no meanes allowe it 〈◊〉 Philippic 2. Of Gog and Magog whom the Deuill at the worlds end shall stirre vp against the Church of God CHAP. 11. ANd when the thousand yeares saith hee are expired Sathan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall goe out to deceiue the people which are in the foure quarters of the earth euen God and Magog to gather them together into Battell whose number is as the sand of the sea So then the ayme of his decept shal be this warre for he vsed diuers waies to seduce before and all tended to euill He shall leaue the dennes of his hate and burst out into open persecution This shal be the last persecution hard before the last iudgement and the Church shall suffer it all the earth ouer the whole citty of the Diuell shall afflict the Citty of God at these times in all places This Gog and this Magog are not to bee taken for a any particular Barbarous nations nor for the Getes and Messagetes because of their litterall affinity nor for any other Countryes beyond the Romaines iurisdiction hee meaneth all the earth when hee saith The people which are in the foure quarters of the Earth and then addeth that they are Gog and Magog b Gog is an house and Magog of an house as if hee had sayd the house and hee that commeth of the house So that they are the nations wherein the Deuill was bound before and now that he is loosed cometh from thence they being as the house and hee as comming out of the house But wee referre both these names vnto the nations and neither vnto him they are both the house because the old enemy is hid and housed in them and they are of the house when out of secret hate they burst into open violence Now where as hee sayth They went vp into the plaine of the Earth and compassed the tents of the Saints about and the beloued City wee must not thinke they came to any one set place as if the Saints tents were in any one certaine nation or the beloued Citty either no this Citty is nothing but Gods Church dispersed throughout the whole earth and being resident in all places and amongst all nations as them words the plaine of the Earth do insinuate there shall the tents of the Saints stand there shall the beloued Ctty stand There shall the fury of the presecuting enemy guirt them in with multitudes of all nations vnited in one rage of
and this he relateth by way of recapitulation as it was reuealed vnto him I saw saith he a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face flew away both the earth and heauen and their place was no more found He saith not and heauen and earth flew away from his face as importing their present flight for that befell not vntill after the iudgement but from whose face flew away both heauen and earth namely afterwards when the iudgment shall be finished then this heauen and this earth shall cease and a new world shall begin But the old one shall not be vtterly consumed it shall onely passe through an vniuersall change and therefore the Apostle saith The fashion of this world goeth away and I would haue you with-out care The fashion goeth away not the nature Well let vs follow Saint Iohn who after the sight of this throne c. proceedeth thus And I sawe the dead both great and small stand before God and the bookes were opened and another booke was opened which is the booke a of life and the dead were iudged of those things which were written in the bookes according to their workes Behold the opening of bookes and of one booke This what it was hee sheweth which is the booke of life The other are the holy ones of the Old and New-Testament that therein might be shewed what God had commanded but in the booke b of life were the commissions and omissions of euery man on â—…th particularly recorded If we should imagine this to be an earthly booke 〈◊〉 as ours are who is he that could imagine how huge a volume it were or how long the contents of it all would be a reading Shall there be as many Angells as men and each one recite his deeds that were commited to his guard then shall there not bee one booke for all but each one shall haue one I but the Scripture here mentions but one in this kind It is therefore some diuine power â—…ed into the consciences of each peculiar calling all their workes wonderfully strangely vnto memory and so making each mans knowledge accuse or excuse his owne conscience these are all and singular iudged in themselues This power diuine is called a booke and fitly for therein is read all the facts that the doer hath committed by the working of this hee remembreth all But the Apostle to explaine the iudgement of the dead more fully and to shâ—…w how it compriseth greate and small he makes at it were a returne to what he had omitted or rather deferred saying And the sea gaue vp her dead which were within 〈◊〉 and death and Hell deliuered vp the dead which were in them This was before that they were iudged yet was the iudgment mentioned before so that as I said he returnes to his intermission hauing said thus much The sea gaue vp her dead c. As afore he now proceedeth in the true order saying And they were iudged euery 〈◊〉 according to his workes This hee repeateth againe here to shew the order 〈◊〉 was to manage the iudgment whereof hee had spoken before in these words And the dead were iudged of those things which were written in the bookes acâ—…g to their workes L. VIVES OF a life So readeth Hierome and so readeth the vulgar wee finde not any that readeth it Of the life of euery one as it is in some copies of Augustine The Greeke is iust as wee â—…d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of life without addition Of the dead whom the Sea and death and hell shall giue vp to Iudgement CHAP. 15. BVt what dead are they that the Sea shall giue vp for all that die in the sea are not kept from hell neither are their bodyes kept in the sea Shall we say that the sea keepeth the death that were good and hell those that were euill horrible â—…dity Who is so sottish as to beleeue this no the sea here is fitly vnderstood to imply the whole world Christ therefore intending to shew that those whome he found on earth at the time appointed should be iudged with those that were to rise againe calleth them dead men and yet good men vnto whom it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are dead and your life is hidden with Christ in God But them he calleth euill of whome hee sayd Let the dead bury their dead Besides they may bee called dead in that their bodies are deaths obiects wherefore the Apostle saith The 〈◊〉 is dead because of sinne but the spirit is life for righteousnesse sake shew that in a mortall man there is both a dead body and a liuing spirit yet said hee not the body is mortall but dead although according to his manner of speach hee had called bodies mortall but alittle before Thus then the sea gaue vppe her dead the world waue vppe all mankinde that as yet had not approached the graue And death and hell quoth hee gaue vp the dead which were in them The sea gaue vp his for as they were then so were they found but death and hell had theirs first called to the life which they had left then gaue them vp Perhaps it were not sufficient to say death onely or hell onely but hee saith both death and hell death for such as might onely die and not enter hell and hell for such as did both for if it bee not absurd to beleeue that the ancient fathers beleeuing in Christ to come were all at rest a in a place farre from all torments and yet within hell vntill Christs passion and descension thether set them at liberty then surely the faithfull that are already redeemed by that passion neuer know what hell meaneth from their death vntill they arise and receiue their rewards And they iudged euery one according to their deedes a briefe declaration of the iudgement And death and hell saith he were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death Death and Hell are but the diuell and his angells the onely authors of death and hells torments This hee did but recite before when he said And the Diuell that deceiued them was cast into a lake of fire and brimstone But his mistical addition Where the beast and the false Prophet shall be tormented c. That he sheweth plainly here Whosoeuer was not found written in the booke of life was cast into the lake of fire Now as for the booke of life it is not meant to put God in remembrance of any thing least hee should forget but it sheweth who are predestinate vnto saluation for God is not ignorant of their number neither readeth hee this booke to finde it his prescience is rather the booke it selfe wherein all are written that is fore-knowen L. VIVES IN a a place They call this place Abrahams bosome wherein were no paines felt as Christ sheweth plainely of Lazarus Luc. 16. and that this place was farre from the dungeon of the wicked but where it is or what is
Solon vvho he was ibidem Septuagints vvho they vvere fol. 732. Sanctum sanctorum fol. 736. Society subiect to crosses fol. 761. Seruant not read in Scripture before Noah cursed his sonne fol. 773. Sinne mother of seruitude ibid. Saints where they shal be at the burning of the world fol. 8â—…3 Sodomites blindnesse of what kind it was fol. 300. T THomas Moore his praises fol. 62. Tarquin Collatine exild from Rome fol. 79. Tarquin the proude his death fol. 83. Tribunes first elected fol. 84. Tiberius Gracchus a law-giuer fol. 90. Tyrannus vvhat and vvhence fol. 91. Tarpeia who she was fol. 122. Tables of proscription fol. 148. Torquatus putting his sonne to death fol. 222. Theodosius who he was fol. 231. Theodosius his humility fol. 234. Thales Miletus vvho he was fol. 299. Trismegistus who hee was fol. 335. Thurimachus vvho he vvas fol. 659. Triton the Lake fol. 668. Triple penalty iâ—…osed on the Athenian vvomen fol. 670. Triptolemus who he vvas fol. 679. Taurus vvho he was fol. 680. Tautanes vvho he vvas fol. 697. Thales vvho he vvas fol. 710. Theman vvhere it is fol. 720. Time of Christs death fol. 749. Tully his sorrow for his daughters death fol. 706. Theeues haue a kinde of peace fol. 767. Temples vvhy erected to Martyrs fol. 898. V VVâ—…an vvho he was fol. 168. â—…tary pouerty fol. 223. Vâ—… vvho he was fol. 234. Valentinian the elder fol. 745. Valens law fol. 746. Viues complaint for decâ—…ed charitie fol. 873. W VVArs of Affrica fol. 84. Wine how found out fol. 675. whores â—…ed shee 〈◊〉 fol. 701. Worme of the vvicked hovv to be vnderstood fol. 822. Will of God how it is changed fol. 887. X XEnocrates who he was fol. 318. Xerxes who he was fol. 659. Xanthus who he vvas fol. 676. Z ZEphanie the Prophet fol. 722. Zeale how to be taken fol. 807. Zoroastres who he was fol. 855. ERRATA Folio 24. l 22. r example for example f 25. l 33. r forgo for forge f 32. l 26. r thirst after glory for this of glory f. 〈◊〉 l 2â—… r seeing for beeing f 40. l 31. r her for his f 43. l 18. r it for if f 53 l 17. r hands for heads f 62. l 25. r. 〈◊〉 â—…or vvorships f 69. l 27. r this for is f 88. line 24. read prouiso for prouision f 108. line I. read per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l 26 r the for their f 109. l 18 r leuing for liuing 118. l 6. fift for first f 128. l 23. r field â—…or filed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be f 230. l 9. cryings for cringes l 15. r call for all f 259. l ult r and Diana for Diana and. f 240. l 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ers 〈◊〉 oâ—… f 321. l 41 r forbid for forbad f 334 l 16. r wife for wife f 339 l. 29. r not for not f 〈…〉 l 35. 〈◊〉 then was he also for then we also f 396. l 22. r then for the. f â—…30 l 28. r nulâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f 〈◊〉 l 〈◊〉 r worlds for words f 464. l 3. r them for then f 503 l 8. r which for with f 558. l 3. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l 1â—… read swim for some f 608. line 34 r desired for edisred f 632. l 32. read euent for euen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reparing for repaying f 760 line 7. r man for many f 767 line 9. r cruelty for cruelly f 798 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many f 〈◊〉 l 〈◊〉 r dead for death f 810 l 4. r gaue for waue f 811 l 4 r we for were f 815. l 36. 〈…〉 l 34. r of the for the of f 852 l 5 r then for them f 898 l 33. r saying for sauing f 906 l 6â—… 〈◊〉 to for to vs. 〈◊〉 in Brâ—… The Gothes 〈◊〉 driuen out of their country by the Hunns Valens the Emperor burnt aliue The house of the Balthi The death of the traitor Ruffinus The death of Radagaisus The deserued death of traiterous Stilâ—… and his sonne Retract 1. Chap. 8. Retract 2. Chap. 5. Habac. 2. Rom. 8. Psal. 93. Psalm 61. Iames 4. 1. Pet. 5. Aenead 6. Lib. 7. c. 42 The Romans the proudest nation Lib. 7. A Eneid 6. At the last sack of Hierusalem the Romanes themselues filled the Temple with dead bodies A Eneid 2. The Image of the Palladâ—… Epist. 2. Aene. 1. Aene. 2. Aene. 2. What Penu is Who were the Dij magni Piety Phaenix Increase by remission The Claudian family Syracusa Fabius Psal. 89. 32. 33. A description of the sack of a citie Rom. 5. 45. Rom. 2. 5. Thesaurâ—… what it is Humaine goods what they are What Tribula is Ezech. 33. 1. Tim. 6. 6. 7. 8. Iob 1. 21. 1. Tim. 6. 9 16. vers 17 18. 19. Math. 6 19 20. 21. Paulinus bishop of Nola. Mammon The benefit of famine Mat 10. 28. Psal 79. 2. Luc. 16. 22. 1. Cor. 15. 52. Sepulchers Tâ—… 2. Math. 26. Iob. 19. 42 Gen. 47. c. Dan. 1. Ionas 2. Arion A Cittie Attilius Regulus The will sanctifies the body Math. 27. Three sorts of good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virgil once pleaded Al this is left out of the Paris edition The manner of iudgement in matter of a Romains life and death Hels nine circles It is a Literatsâ—… in the text of al editions that I find Antistrophe The Romaine greedy of praise Will conquer c. 〈◊〉 Math. 2â—… 1. Cor 12. 36. Psal. 78. 47. That plants are aniâ—…ate or liuing creatures Abraham Gen. 22. Iudge 11. 30. 31. This is lefte out in the edition of Paris Agamemnon The people hovv stiled Reason aboue examples Math. 10. 23. Cap. 19. The Caâ—… The inâ—…grity of the Câ—…es Cato his sonne Maâ—… Torquatâ—… Attilius his pouerty Particular vocation 1. Cor. 2. 11. Pelagia Sempronia Eccl. 3. 27 The old manner of baptizing al this is left out of the Paris edition Rom. 11. 33. Rom. 12. 1â—… Psal. 2. 1â—… Paranomasia Psal. 42. 3. Psal. 96. 4. 5 Scipio Nasica The originall of the Carthaginian wars Labor better vnâ—…o Rome then quiet The 〈◊〉 Wâ—…res 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nasica abolished the sitting at Playes The Romaine I heater when first erected Cauea what it is in the Theater The Priest better then his Gods The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plague of 〈◊〉 folâ—…ing the plague of 〈◊〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 〈…〉 The benefit of affliction Of sanctu aries or Asyla 〈…〉 2. Tim. 3. How hatefull the name of Christians was once at Rome The gods neuer taught their vvorships good manners Bâ—…hia Mother of the Gods The 〈◊〉 offered to the Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aâ—… The Priests called Galli The ablution of the mother of the gods The Megalesian plaies Fercula vvhat they vvere Diâ—… hoâ—…r 〈◊〉 to beâ—…factors Pro. 6. 26 Satyra 3. The Fugalia Fugia a goddesse Vitula * The Fugalia weare feasts in Rome instituted for the expulsing of Taâ—…quin and the Kings a Fugando saith Censorinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rough Siluer Roughnes defined Philosophies precepts The Philosophers more worthy of diuine honour then the Gods Sir Thomas Moore Danne
vnlesse it be shored vppe by the worship of many gods whom the blinded Pagans haue beene accustomed to worship and adore auerring but their truth is meere false-hood that neglect and contempt of their vnworthy adoration hath beene the fountaine from whence these bitter waters of aduerse occurrences haue streamed abundantly and ouerflowed them But the other fiue following are not meale-mouthed but speake boldly against them which confesse that the spring of worldly euills is not exhausted nor shal euer be dried vp but the current flowing some-time more some-times lesse some-times swiftly some times slowly changing their state according to the circumstance of places times and persons yet fondly are they opinionated for verity hath not made them a warrant that the deuout adoration of many gods in which sacrifices are offered vnto their imaginary Deity is profitable for the life which wee hope for after death Therefore in these ten bookes the absurdity of these two vaine opinions both deadly foes vnto Christian religion is discouered and confuted But least some man may vpbraid mee that I am too forward to disproue the assertions of others and slow enough to proue mine owne the other part of this worke which is confined within the bounds of twelue bookes is directed to that purpose Although in the first ten where it is needfull wee are not behinde hand to confirme the truth of our owne opinions and also to infringe the authority of contrary oppositions in the twelue bookes ensewing Therefore the first foure of the twelue following containe the originall of two Citties of which one belongeth to GOD the other to this World The second foure containe their progresse The third foure which are the last conteine their due bounds Now though all the two and twenty bookes are compiled together of both Citties yet they haue taken their title from the better part and haue the name of the Citty of God printed on their fore-head In the tenth booke it ought not to bee set downe for a miracle that the fire falling from heauen ranne betweene the deuided sacrifices when ABRAHAM sacrificed because this was shewed vnto him in a vision In the seauenteenth booke where it is sayd of SAMVEL He was not of the sonnes of ARON it should rather haue beene sayd He was not the sonne of the Priest For it was a more lawfull custome that the sonnes of the Priests should succeed in the roome of the deceassed Priests For the Father of SAMVEL is found in the sonnes of ARON but hee was not a Priest yet not so in his sonnes as if ARON had begot him but in such sort as all of that people are said to bee the sonnes of ISRAEL This worke beginneth thus That most glorious society and celestiall Cittie of GOD c. THE CONTENTS OF THE first booke of the City of God 1. Of the aduersaries of the name of Christ spared by the Barbarians in the sacking of Rome onely for Christs sake 2. There neuer was warre wherein the Conquerors would spare them whome they conquered for the gods they worshipped 3. Of the Romaines fondnesse in thinking that those gods could helpe them which could not helpe Troy in her distresse 4. Of the Sanctuary of Iuno in Troy which freed not any that fled into it from the Greeks at the Citties sack whereas the Churches of the Apostles saued all commers from the Barbarians at the sack of Rome Caesars opinion touching the enemies custome in the sack of Citties 5. That the Romaines themselues neuer spared the Temples of those Citties which they conquered 6. That the cruell effects following the losses of warre did but follow the custome of war wherein they were moderated it was through the power of the name of Iesus Christ. 7. Of the commodities and discommodities commonly communicated both to good and ill 8. Of the causes of such corrections as fall both vpon the good and bad together 9. That the Saints in their losse of things temporall loose not any thing at all 10. Of the end of this transitory life whether it be long or short 11. Of buriall of the dead that it is not preiudiciall to the state of a Christian soule to be forbidden it 12. The reasons why wee should bury the bodies of the Saints 13. Of the captiuity of the Saints and that 〈◊〉 they neuer wanted spirituall comfort 14. Of Marcus Regulus who was a famous example to animate all men to the enduring of voluntary â—…tiuity for their religion which notwithstanding was vnprofitable vnto him by reason of his Paganisme 15. Whether the taxes that the holy Uirgins suffered against their wills in their captiuities could pollute the vertues of their minde 16. Of such as chose a voluntary death to avoide the feare of paine and dishonor 17. Of the violent lust of the souldiers executed vpon the bodies of the captiues against their consents 18. Of Lucrecia that stab'd her selfe because Tarquins sonne had rauished her 19. That their is no authority which allowes christians to bee their owne deaths in what cause so euer 20. Of some sort of killing men which notwithstanding are no murthers 21. That voluntary death can neuer bee any signe of magnanimity or greatnesse of spirit 22. Of Cato who killed himselfe being not able to endure Caesars victory 23. That the Christians excell Regulus in that vertue wherein he excelled most 24. That sinne is not to bee avoided by sinne 25. Of some vnlawfull acts done by the Saints and by what occasion they were done 26. Whether wee ought to flie sinne with voluntary death 27. How it was a Iudgement of GOD that the enemy was permitted to excercise his lust vpon the Christians bodies 28. What the seruants of Christ may answer the Infidells when they vpbraide them with Christs not deliuering them in their afliction from the fury of the enemies fury 29. That such as complaine of the Christian times desire nothing but to liue in filthy pleasures 30. By what degrees of corruption the Romans ambition grew to such a height 31. Of the first inducing of stage-plaies 32. Of some vices in the Romaines which their Citties ruine did neuer reforme 33. Of the clemency of GOD in moderating this calamity of Rome 34. Of such of GODS elect as liue secretly as yet amongst the Infidells and of such as are false Christians 35. What subiects are to be handled in the following discourse FINIS THE FIRST BOOKE OF SAINT AVGVSTINE Bishop of Hippo his Cittie of God vnto MARCELLINVS Of the aduersaries of the name of Christ spared by the Barbarians in the sacking of Rome onely for Christs sake CHAP. 1. THAT most glorious society and celestiall Citty of Gods faithfull which is partly seated in the course of these declining times wherein he that liueth a by faith is a Pilgrim amongst the wicked and partly in that solid estate of eternitie which as yet the other part doth paciently expect vntill b righteousnesse be turned into iudgment being then by the
Liâ—… lib. 25. Marcellus entring vpon the walles and looking ouer all the citty standing at that time 〈◊〉 and goodly is said to haue shed teares partly for ioy of this so great a conquest and partly for pitty of the Cities ancient glory The ouer-throwe of the Athenian nauie the wracke of two great armies with their Captaines so many warres and rich Kings and all that before him to be in a moment on fire came all into his minde at once This is also in Ualerius Maximus de humanitate e Nay he had a care Liuie as before Marcellus by a generall consent of the Captaines forbad the soldiers to violate any free body leauing them all the 〈◊〉 â—…or spoile which edict contained the assurance of the sayd free women from death and all other violence as well aâ—… that of their chastities f Fabius the conqueror of Tarentum In the second Carthaginian warre Tarentum a famous citie in Calabria fell from the Romanes vnto Hanâ—…bal but 〈◊〉 Salinator the Captaine of the Romane garrison retired into the tower This Citie Fabâ—… Maximus recouered and gaue his soldiors the spoile of it This is that Fabius that in the said second Punicke warre by his sole wisdome put life into all the Romanes dying hopes and by his cunning protraction blunted the furie of Hannibal And of him Enius said truly Vnus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem One mans wise set delay restor'd vs all I neither can nor list now to stand vpon all the errors of the first Commentator of this booke it were too tedious and too troublesome But because in this place he goeth astray with many others who indeed in other mens iudgements are learned in such matters but in their owne iudgements most learned nor to say trueth are they vnlearned I could not choose but giue the reader this admonition that this Fabius is not hee that was called Maximus but his Grandfather was called so because hee being Censor with P. Decius diuided the whole commonty of Rome into foure Tribes which he named Vrbanae though I deny not that this Fabius of whom Augustine speaketh deserued this name but the world as then did not giue it him g Secretary Hereof read Liuie in his 27. Booke That the cruell effects following the losses of warre did but follow the custome of warre and wherein they were moderated it was through the power of the name of Iesus Christ. CHAP. 6. THerefore all the spoile murther burning violence and affliction that in this fresh call amitie fell vpon Rome were nothing but the ordinary effects following the a custome of warre But that which was so vnaccustomed that the sauage nature of the Barbarians should put on a new shape and appeare so mercifull that it would make choise of great and spacious Churches to fill with such as it meant to shew pitty on from which none should bee haled to slaughter or slauerie in which none should bee hurt to which many by their courteous foes should be conducted and out of which none should bee lead into bondage This is due to the name of Christ this is due to the Christian profession he that seeth not this is blinde hee that seeth it and praiseth it not is thanklesse hee that hinders him that praiseth it is madde God forbid that any man of sence should attribute this vnto the Barbarians brutishnesse It was God that struck a terror into their truculent and bloudy spirits it was he that bridled them it was he that so wonderously restrained them that had so long before fore-told this by his Prophet b I will visit their offences with the rod and their sinne with scourges yet will I not vtterly take my mercy from them L. VIVES CVstome a of warre Quintilian recordes the accidents that follow the sacking of Cities in his eight booke thus The flames were spread through the temples a terrible cracking of falling houses was heard and one confused sound of a thousand seuerall clamours Some fled they knew not whether some stuck fast in their last embraces of their friends the children and the women howled and the old men vnluckily spared vntill that fatall day then followed the tearing away of all the goods out of house and temple and the talke of those that had carried away one burden and ranne for another and the poore prisoners were driuen in chaines before their takers and the mother endeuouring to carry her silly infant with her and where the most gaine was there went the victors together by th' eares Now these things came thus to passe because the soldiers as they are a most proud and insolent kinde of men without all meane and modestie haue no power to temper their auarice lust or furie in their victory and againe because taking the towne by force if they should not do thus for terror to the enemie they might iustly feare to suffer the like of the enemy b I will visit It is spoken of the sonnes of Dauid Psal. 89. If they be not good c. Of the commodities and discomodities commonly communicated both to good and ill CHAP. 7. YEa but will a some say Why doth God suffer his mercy to be extended vnto the gracelesse and thankelesse Oh! why should we iudge but because it is his worke that maketh the sunne to shine daily both on good and bad the raine to fal both on the iust and vniust For what though some by meditating vpon this take occasion to reforme their enormities with repentance other some as the Apostle saith despising the ritches of Gods goodnes and long suffering in their hardnesse of heart and impenitency b do lay vp vnto them-selues wrath against the day of wrath and the reuelation of Gods iust iudgement who will c reward each man according to his workes Neuerthelesse Gods patience still inuiteth the wicked vnto repentance as this scourge doth instruct the good vnto patience The mercy of God imbraceth the good with loue as his seuerity doth correct the bad with paines For it seemed good to the almighty prouidence to prepare such goods in the world to come as the iust onely should inioy and not the vniust and such euils as the wicked only should feele and not the godly But as for these temporall goods of this world hee hath left them to the common vse both of good and badde that the goods of this world should not be too much desired because euen the wicked doe also partake them and that the euils of this world should not bee too cowardly auoyded where-with the good are sometimes affected But there is great difference in the d vse both of that estate in this world which is called prosperous and that which is e called aduerse For neither do these temporall goodes extoll a good man nor doe the euill deiect him But the euill man must needs bee subiect to the punishment of this earthly vnhappinâ—…sse because hee is first corrupted by this earthly happinesse
pouerty could not deserue to bee beleeued of the enemie yet should hee not bee put to this paine without an heauenly reward for his paines L. VIVES INward a man The minde being often so vsed in Pauls Epistles b Coueteousnesse of mony The vulgar translation hath Cupiditas but Augustine hath auaritia a better word for the Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 loue of money c Many sorrowes Thus farre Paul d Poore without He meaneth the Apostle Paul e Naked The words of Iob comforting himselfe in the losse of his goodes and children f elsewhere namely in the same chapter Verse 17. g Rich in good workes In these thinges they shall bee rich indeed h Kept more safely Laying vp the treasure of eternity for them-selues in heauen in that they haue giuen freely vnto the poore and needie Which is declared by that which followeth in the same chapter of Mathew beeing Christes owne workes i And therefore one Paulinus The Gothes hauing sackt Rome and ouer-running all Latium the 〈◊〉 Campania Calabria Salentinum Apulia or Aprutium spoyling and wasting al as they went like a generall deluge their fury extended as far as Consentia a Citty in Calabria called now Cosenza and forty yeares after that Genserike with the Moores and Vandals brake out again tooke Rome filling all Campania with ruine raized the citty of Nola. Of which Cittie at that time Paulinus was Bishop as Paulus Diaconus writeth a most holy and as Saint Gregory saith an eloquent man exceedingly read in humaine learning and not altogether void of the spirit of prophecie who hauing spent all hee had in redeeming Christian captiues and seeing a widow bewayling her captiue sonne and powring forth her pious lamentations mixt with teares his pietie so vrged him that hee could not rest vntill hee had crossed ouer into Affricke with the widow where her sonne was prisoner And there by exchange of him-selfe for hir sonne redeemed him and gaue him free vnto his mother Now his sanctity growing admirable in the eies of the Barbarians hee had the freedome of all his cittizens giuen him and so was sent backe to his country Thereof read at large in Gregories third booke of Dialogues But I thinke Augustine speakes not of this later invasion for then was Paulinus departed this life but of the first irruption of the Gothes k Whereby them-selues were good Namely their vertue which no man can depriue them off and that onely is the good which makes the possessors good For if riches bee good as Tully saith in his Paradoxes why do they not make them good that inioy them l Mammon Mammon after Hierome is a Syriake word signifying that vnto them that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth vnto the Greekes namely Ritches Augustine elswere saith that Mammon in the Punike language is gaine and that the Affrican and Hebrew tongues do accord in the signification of many wordes Serm. de verb. Dom. quaest Euang. Of the end of this transitory life whether it be long or short CHAP. 10. THe extremity of famine they say destroyed many Christians in these inuasions Well euen of this also the faithfull by induring it patiently haue made good vse For such as the famine made an end off it deliueuered from the euils of this life as well as any other bodily disease could doe such as it ended not it taught them a sparing diet and ablenesse to faste Yea but many Christians were destroyed by the foulest variety that might bee falling by so many sortes of death why this is not to bee disliked off since it is common to all that euer haue beene borne This I know that no man is dead that should not at lengâ—…h haue died For the liues ending makes the long life and the short all one neither is their one better and another worse nor one longer then another shorter which is not in this end made equall And what skils it what kind of death do dispatch our life when he that dieth cannot bee forced to die againe And seeing that euery mortall man in the daily casualties of this life is threatned continually with inumerable sortes of death as long as he is vncertaine which of them he shall taste tell me whether it were better to a suffer but one in dying once for euer or still to liue in continual feare then al those extreames of death I know how vnworthy a choice it were to choose rather to liue vnder the awe of so many deathes then by once dying to bee freed from all their feare for euer But it is one thing when the weake sensitiue flesh doth feare it and another when the purified reason of the soule ouer-comes it A bad death neuer followes a good life for there is nothing that maketh death bad but that estate which followeth death Therfore let not their care that needes must dye bee imployed vppon the manner of their death but vppon the estate that they are eternally to inherit after death Wherefore seeing that all Christians know that the death of the religious b begger amongst the dogs licking his sores was better theÌ„ the death of the wicked rich man in all his c silks and purples what power hath the horrour of any kind of death to affright their soules that haue ledde a vertuous life L. VIVES SVffer but one So said Caesar that hee had rather suffer one death at once then feare it continually b Religious begger the story is at large in Saint Luke the 16. Chapter beginning at the 19. verse of Lazarus and the rich glutton c. c Silks Byssus is a kinde of most delicate line as Plinie saith in his naturall history lib. 19. Of buryall of the dead that it is not preiudiciall to the state of a Christian soule to be forbidden it CHAP 11. OH but in this great slaughter the dead could not bee buryed Tush our holy faith regards not that holding fast the promise It is not so fraile as to think that the rauenous beasts can depriue the body of any part to be wanting in the resurrection where not a hayre of the head shall be missing Nor would the scripture haue said Feare not them that kill the bodie but are not able to kill the soule if that which the foe could doe vnto our dead bodies in this world should any way preiudice our perfection in the world to come Vnlesse any man will be so absurd as to contend that they that can kil the body are not to be feared before death least they should kill it but after death least hauing killed it they should not permit it buriall Is it false then which Christ saith Those that kill the body after they can do no more and that they haue power to do so much hurt vnto the dead carkasse God forbid that should be false which is spoken by the truth it selfe Therefore it is said they do something in killing because then they afflict the bodyly sence for a while but afterwards
is kept if the mindes holinesse bee polluted though the bodie it selfe bee vntouched Wherefore if there bee no reason that a woman that hath alreadie suffred an others villanie against her owne will should destroy her selfe by voluntary death how much lesse ought this course to bee followed before there bee any cause and why should murder bee committed when the guilt which is feared beeing feared from another is as yet in doubt of euent Dare they against whom wee defend the sanctity not onely of the Christian womens mindes but euen of their bodies in this last captiuitie contradict this cleere reason wherein we affirme that whilest the chast resolution is vnchanged by any euill consent the guilt is wholy the rauishers and no part of it imputable vnto the rauished L. VIVES ACcompanied a With fortitude For the vertues are all combined togither as the Philosophers teach But there are some more peculiarly cohaerent then other some b No man of this fortitude Herevpon Plutarch as I remember affirmes out of Menander that it is not the part of a valiant and complete man to say I will not suffer this but I will not doe this c Those goods The vertues for the Platonistis and the Peripatetike Philosophers diuide al goods into three sorts mentall bodily and fortunes or externall d Which if a man This is the Platonistis and Peripatetikes opinion as well as the Stoikes who held that bodily and externall goods might haue reference vnto beatitude but none at all vnto a good and sanctified life e Another kinde If it bee but a bodily good it is not of such worth as we should loose the whole body for it for the body is of more worth then it if it be but such f The body bee violated So did Brutus and Collatinus comfort sorrowfull Lucretia of whom the next Chapter treateth by turning the guilt of the falte from her that was offended vpon the author of the fact neither the minde sinneth sayth Liuy nor the body and where consent wanted guilt wanteth also And the Nurse in Seneca's Hippolitus saith the minde inferreth loosenesse t is not chance g Is not lost The bodies chastitie flowes from that of the minde h A midwife Hee seemes to relate a thing done because hee sayth A certaine maidens c. i So much as the body How simply was that spoken either of Brutus or Liuy both being wise and iudicious men speaking of the bloud of Lucretia being then newly slaine I sweare by this bloud most chaste before this Kings villany as though after his villany it were not as chaste still if her minde were not touched with lust as they hold it was not Of Lucretia that stabb'd her selfe because Tarquins sonne had rauished her CHAP. 18. THey extoll a Lucretia that Noble and ancient Matron of Rome with al the laudes of chastity This woman hauing her body forcibly abused by Sextus Tarquinius son to Tarquin the proud shee reuealed this villany of the dissolute youth vnto her husband Collatinus and to Brutus her kinsman both Noble and valorous men binding them by oth to b reuenge this wicked outrage And then loathing the foulnesse of the fact that had beene committed vpon her she slew her selfe What shall we say she was an adulteresse or was shee chast who will stand long in desciding this question c One declaming singularly well and truely hereof saith thus O wonder there were two and yet but one committed the adultery worthyly and rarely spoken Intimating in this commixtion the spotted lust of the one and the chast will of the other and gathering his position not from their bodily coniunction but from the diuersity of their mindes There were two sayth hee yet but one committed the adultry But what was that then which shee punished so cruelly hauing not committed any falt d He was but chased out of his country but shee was slaine if it were no vnchastenesse in her to suffer the rape vnwillingly it was no iustice in her being chaste to make away her selfe willingly I appeale to you you lawes Iudges of Rome After any offence be committed you wil not haue e the offender put to death without his sentence of condemnation Suppose then this case brought before you and that your iudgement was that the slaine woman was not onely vncondemned but chaste vnguilty and innocent would you not punish the doer of this deed with full seuerity This deed did Lucretia that so famous Lucretia this Lucretia being innocent chaste and forcibly wronged euen by f Lucretia's selfe was murdered Now giue your sentence But if you cannot because the offender is absent why thâ—…n doe you so extoll the murder of so chaste and guiltlesse a woman you cannot defend her before the infernall iudges at any hand if they be such as your Poets in their verses decipher them for according to their iudgement she is g to be placed amongst those Qui sibi lethum Insontes pepereÌ„re manu lacemque perosi Proiecêre animas That guiltlesse spoiled themselues through black despight And threw their soules to hell through hate of light Whence if she now would gladly returne Fatâ—… obstant tristique palus innabilis vnda Alligat Fate and deepe â—…ennes forbids their passage thence And Stix c. But how if shee be not amongst them as not dying guiltlesse but as beeing priuy to her owne sinne what if it were so h which none could know but her selfe that though Tarquinius son offred her force yet she her self gaue a lustfull consent 〈◊〉 did so greeue at that that she held it worthy to be punished with death Though she ought not to haue done so howsoeuer if she thought her repentance could be any way accepted of a sort of false gods If it be so that it be false that there were two but one did the sin but rather that both were guilty of it the one by a violent enforcement the other by a secret consent then shee died not innocent And therefore i her learned defenders may well say that shee is not in hell amongst those that destroyed them-selues beeing guiltlesse But this case is in such a strait that if the murder be extenuated the adultery is confirmed and if this bee cleared the other is agrauated Nor k is there any way out of this argument If she be an adulteresse why is shee commended If shee bee chaste why did shee kill her selfe But in this example of this noble woman this is sufficient for vs to confute those that beeing them-selues farre from all thought of sanctitie insult ouer the Christian women that were forced in this last captiuity that in Lucrecia's praise it is said that There were two and but one committed adultery For they then held Lucrecia for one that could not staine her selfe with any lasciuâ—…ous consent Well then in killing her selfe for suffering vncleanesse being hir selfe vnpolluted she shewed no loue vnto chastitie but onely discouered the infirmity of her
many errors and terrors Of the seauenth chance d For if there were any reason A fit kinde of argument by repugnance which taking away the adiunct takes the subiect away also Tully mentions it in his Topikes How it was a iudgement of God that the enemie was permitted to excercise his lust vpon the Christian bodies CHAP. 27. IF you aske me now why these outrages were thus permitted I answere the prouidence of the creator gouernor of the world is high and his iudgements are vnsearchable a and his waies past finding out But aske your owne hearts sincerely whether you haue boasted in this good of continency and chastity or no whether you haue not affected humane commendations for it and so thereby haue enuied it in others I doe not accuse you of that whereof I am ignorant nor doe I know what answere your hearts will returne you vnto this question But if they answere affirmatiuely and say you haue done so then wonder not at all b that you haue now lost that whereby you did but seeke and c reioyce to please the eyes of mortall men and that you lost not that which could not bee shewed vnto men If you consented not vnto the others luxury your soules had the helpe of Gods grace to keepe them from losse and likewise felt the disgrace of humane glory to deterre them from the loue of it But your faint hearts are comforted on both sides on this side being approoued and on that side chastised iustified on this and reformed on the other But their hearts that giue them answere that they neuer gloried in the guift of virginity viduall chastity or continence in marriage but d sorting themselues with the meanest did e with a reuerend feare reioyce in this guift of God nor euer repined at the like excellence of sanctity and purity in others but neglecting the ayre of humane fame which alwaies is wont to accrew according to the rarity of the vertue that deserues it did wish rather to haue their number multiplied then by reason of their fewnesse to become more eminent Let not those that are such if the Barbarians Iust haue seized vpon some of them f alledge that this is meerely permitted nor let them thinke that God neglecteth these things because he some-times permitteth that which no man euer committeth vnpunished for some as weights of sinne and euill desires are let downe by a prâ—…sent and secret iudgement and some are reserued to that publique and vniuersall last iudgement And perhaps those who knew themselues vnguâ—…e and that neuer had their hearts puffed vppe with the good of this chastity and yet had their bodies thus abused by the enemie had notwithstanding some infirmity lurking within them which g if they had escaped this humiliation by the warres fury might haue increased vnto a fastidious pride Wherefore h as some were taken away by death least wickednesse should alter their vnderstandings so these here were forced to forgoe i some-thing least excesse of prosperitie should haue depraued their vertuous modestie And therefore from neither sort either of those that were proud in that their bodies were pure from all vncleane touch of others or that might haue growne proud if they had escaped the rape done by their foes from neither of these is their chastitie taken away but vnto them both is humilitie perwaded The vaine-glory which is k immanent in the one and imminent ouer the other was excluded in them both Though this is not to bee ouer-passed with silence that some that endured these violences might perhaps thinke that continencie is but a bodily good remaining as long as the body remaines vntouched but that it is not soly placed in the strength of the grace-assisted will which sanctifies both body and soule nor that it is a good that cannot be lost against ones will which error this affliction brought them to vnderstand for it they consider with what conscience they honor God and do with an vnmooued faith beleeue this of him that hee will not nay cannot any way forsake such as thus and thus do serue him and inuocate his name and do not doubt of the great acceptation which he vouchsafeth vnto chastitie Then must they neede perceiue that it followes necessarily that he would neuer suffer this to fall vpon his Saints if that by this meanes they should be despoiled of that sanctimonie which hee so much affecteth in them and infuseth into them L. VIVES ANd a his wayes the vulgar Rom. 12. 35. reades inuestigabiles for the direct contrarie minimè inuestigabiles Inuestigabilis is that which is found inuestigando with searching out But the wayes of the Lord cannot be found out by humaine vnderstanding The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imperuestigabiles vnsearchable b That you lost that that you lost your fame and faire report and yet lost not your chastitie c Reioyced to please that is louingly desired d But sorting themselues with the meanest Rom. 12. 16. Bee not high minded but make your selues equall with them of the lower sort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the originall verbally translated humilibus abducti e With reuerend feare Psalm 2. 11. Serue the Lord with feare or reioyce with trembling f Alledge we interprete not causari as the Philosophers doe in the Schooles in causa esse to be the cause but causam proferre to alledge as cause as Uirgill doth saying Causando nostros in longum ducis amores With allegations thou prolongs our loues g If they had escaped this humiliation Augustine here vseth humilitas for humiliatio I thinke which is a deiecting of a man by some calamitie Vnlesse that some will reade it thus Which if they had escaped the humility of this warres furie might haue blowne them vp into fastidious pride h As some were taken away The wordes are in the fourth of the booke of Wisdome the eleuenth verse and are spoken of Henoch but they are not here to bee vnderstood as spoken of him for hee was taken vp in his life vnto the Lord but of others who after their death were taken vp to God for the same cause that Henoch was before his death i Some thing what that something was modest shame prohibiteth to speake k Immanent in the one not as the Grammarians take it namely for vncontinuing or transitorie but immanens quasi intùs manens inherent ingrafted or staying within Augustine vseth it for to expresse the figure of Agnomination or Paranamasia which is in the two words immanent imminent which figure he vseth in many other places What the seruants of Christ may answer the Inâ—…dels when they vpbrayde them with Christs not deliuering them in their afflictions from the furie of their enemies furie CHAP. 28. VVHerefore all the seruants of the great and true God haue a comfort that 's firme and fixed not placed vpon fraile foundations of momentary and transitorie things and so they passe this temporall life in such manner as they
breuity or the verity mee seemeth he m spoake out as an oracle for neither the men vnlesse the city had had such manners nor the manners vnlesse the city had had such men could either haue founded or preserued a common-wealth of that magnitude of iustice and Empire And therefore before these our daies the predecessors conditions did still make the successors excell and the worthy men still kept vp the ordinances of honorable antiquity But now our age receiuing the common-wealth as an excellent picture but almost worne out with age hath not onely no care to renew it with such collours as it presented at first but neuer regarded it so much as to preserue but the bare draught n and lineament of it For what remainder is there now of those olde manners which this Poet saith supported Rome doe wee not see them so cleerely worne out of vse and now so farre from beeing followed that they are quite forgotten what neede I speake of them men The manners perished o for want of men the cause whereof in iustice wee should not onely bee bound to giue an account of but euen to answere it as a capitall offence It is not any mis-fortune it is not any chance but it is our own viciousnesse that hath taken away the whole essence of our common-wealth from vs and left vs onely the bare name This was Cicero's owne confession p long after Africanus his death whom he induceth as a disputant in this worke of his of the Common-wealth but yet q some-what before the comming of Christ. Which mischieues had they not beene r divulged vntill the encrease of Christian Religion which of all those wretches would not haue beene ready to callumniate Christ for them But why did their gods looke to this no better nor helpe to saue the state of this weale-publike whose losse and ruine Cicero bewaileth with such pittifull phrase long afore Christ came in the flesh Nay let the commenders thereof obserue but in what case it was euen then when it consisted of the ancient men and their manners whether then it nourished true Iustice or no and whether at that time it were honest indeed or but glossed ouer in shew which Cicero not conceiuing what hee sayd confesseth in his relation thereof But by Gods grace wee will consider that more fully else-where for in the due place I will doe what I can to make a plaine demonstration out of Cicero's owne definitions of the common-wealth and the people spoken by Scipio and iustified by many reasons either of Scipio's owne or such as Tully giues him in this discourse that the estate of Rome was neuer any true common-wealth because it neuer was guided by true iustice Indeed according to some other probable definitions and after a sort it was a kind of common-wealth but far better gouerned by the antiquity of the Romaines then by their posterity But there is not any true iustice in any common-wealth whatsoeuer but in that wherof Christ is the founder and the ruler if you please to call that a common-weale which we cannot deny is the weale of the commontie s But if this name being els-where so common seeme too discrepant for our subiect and phrase truely then there is true iustice but in that Citie wherof that holy scripture saith Glorious things are spoken of thee thou Cittie of God L. VIVES IT was a presaged I doe reade praesentiebat hee foresawe for praesciebater it was presaged b at that time when one of the Gracchi When as Tiberius Gracchus had promullgated the lawe Agraria to the great griefe and amazement of the Patriotts and would haue his tribuneshippe continued still thereby to haue beene more secure against their iniuries and had effected that no one man should possesse aboue fiue hundred acres of grounde Scipio Nasica beeing followed by the Senate killd him Scipio Africane beeing at the sametime in warres at Numance His body was throwne into Tyber This Affricanus is hee whome Tully bringeth in disputing in his garden with Laelius and Furius of the common-wealth alittle before his death Hee was murthered as it is thought by the meanes of Cayus Gracchus Tiberius his brother and Sempronia sister to the Gracchi and wife to Scipio c Then Pylus When as betweene the second and last African warre the Athenians sent Ambassadors to Rome Carneades the Academicke Critolaus the Peripatetike and Diogenes the Stoik the most excellent Philosophers of that age Carneades either to exercise his faculty or to shew his wit made an elegant and excellent oration for iustice in the presence of Cato the elder Galba and diuers other great men and the next day after hee made another for iniustice vnto the same audience wherein hee confuted all the arguments for iustice which hee brought the day before and alleadged more strong ones for iniustice this he did to shew his sect which teacheth neuer to affirme any thing but onely to confute what others affirme Out of the later of these orations hath L. Furius Pylus his proofes who was held for a cunning latinist and went about his subiect of iniustice with farre more dexterity of learning then the rest to stirre vp Laelius his inuention in commendations of his contrarie As Glauco did in Plato's 2. booke de Republ. praysing iniustice to make Socrates shew his cunning in praise of iustice d That a common-wealth could not It is an old saying without iustice Iupiter himselfe cannot play the King Plut. de doc Princ. And seeing that the weale-publicke for the generall good of it selfe and liberty is often compelled to vse extremity against the Citizens priuate and also often-times in augmenting the owne powre breaketh the lawes of equity in encroaching vpon others both which notwithstanding fell still very well out the Romaines altered the old saying and made it A weale-publike cannot bee gouerned without iniustice This Carneades touched as Lactantius affirmeth and told the Romaines themselues who possessed all the world that if they would bee iust that is restore euery man his owne they must euer returne to their cotages and lead their liues in all pouerty and necessity e Then Laelius This controuersie doth Cicero speake of in his Laelius also f The benefite of a definition Plato Aristotle and all the old Philosophers both held and taught that the course of all disputation ought to bee deriued first â—…om the definition For you cannot make a plaine discourse of any thing vnlesse you first lay downe what it is Rodolphus Agricola in his first booke de Dialectae inuentione saith That this manner of defining is very vse-full both for the vnderstanding of the matter which beeing opened in the definition it is maruellous to see how it doth as it were point out the limmite of knowledge to which all our notions must bende and also for the authority of the disputer for no man can bee held to vnderstand a thing more perfectly then hee that can
Tunc data libertas odijs resolutà que legum Frenis ira ruit The medicine wrought too sore making the cure Too cruell for the patient to indure The guilty fell but none yet such remaining Hate riseth at full height and wrath disdaining Lawes reines brake out For in that war of Sylla and Marius besides those that fell in the field the whole cittie streetes Market-places Theaters and Temples were filled with dead bodies that it was a question whether the conquerors slaughtered so many to attaine the conquest or because they had already attained it In Marius his first victory at his returne from exile besides infinite other slaughters Octauius his head the Consuls was polled vp in the pleading-place Caesar and d Fimbra were slaine in their houses the two e Crassi father and son killed in one anothers sight f Bebius and Numitorius trailed about vpon hookes till death g Catulus poisoned him-selfe to escape his enemies and h Menula the Iouial Flamine cutte his owne veines and so bled him-selfe out of their danger Marius hauing giuen order for the killing of all them whome he didde not i re-salute or profer his hand vnto L. VIVES TO vse a Tullies words For the following words are Tullyes in his 3. Inuectiue against Cateline Where men were slaine by Cinna and Marius saith he wee haue already rehearsed in our third Oration for Sylla namely the two bretheren C. and L. Iulij Caesars Attillius Soranus P. Lentulus L. Crassus M. Anthony the Orator Gn. Octauius L. Cornelius Merula the Diall Flamine Consuls L. Catulus Q. Arcarius M. Bebius Numitorius Sext. Licinius b â—…ylla and reuenged Tullyes wordes also ibid. c In these wordes Lib. 2. Sylla quoque immensis acceâ—…sit cladibus vltor Ille quod exiguum restabat sanguinis vrbi Hausit damque minis iam putrida membra recidit Excessit medicina modum Then Sylla came to auenge the worthi's slaine And that small Romaine bloud that did remaine He drew but clean sing still the parts impure The medicine wrought to sure d Fimbria There was one C. Fimbria whome Velleius calles Flauius he was a Marian and the razer of Ilium There was an other C. Fimbria sur-named Licinius who liued with the Gracchi and entring inro the ciuil wars was slaine in his own house as Caesar was of this Fimbria speaks Tully de clar orator And he it was I thinke that would not giue his iudgemet in the contention about a good man Cic. offic lib 3. Valer. lib. 7. e Crassi The son fel by the hands of the soldiors of Fimbria Cinna's Lieutenant the father stabbed him-selfe f Bebius He was torne in peeces by the executioners like a beast without any vse of yron vppon him Lucan lib. 2. Vix te sparsum per viscera Bebi Innumeras inter carpentis membra coronae Discerpsisse manus Nor thee poore Bebius torne And scattered through a thousand bloudy hands Renting them in a ring g Catulus L. Luctatius Catulus was ioynt Consull with Marius in his 4. Consulship in the Cimbrian warre and tryumphed with him ouer them The whole Senate intreating Marâ—… for him he answered he must die which Catulus hearing of stifeled him-selfe with coales whether swallowing them as Portia did or inclosing the smoake close in his chamber hauing newly limed it so he died it is not certaine for this later is a present way to death vnlesse remedies be forth-with gotten Some think he died of poison as Augustine saith here h Merula He cut his veines in Ioues shrine i Re-salute That was the signe that Marius gaue for life and death How Sylla reuenged Marius his murthers CHAP. 28. NOw as for Sylla's victory the reuenger of al this cruelty it was not got withâ—… much store of cittizens bloud and yet the wars only hauing ended and nâ—… the grudges this victory brake out into a far more cruell wast in the midst of al the peace For after the butcheries that the elder Marius had made beeing yet bâ—… fresh and bleeding there followed worse by the handes of the yonger Marius Carbo both of the old faction of Marius These two perceiuing Sylla to come vppon them being desperate both of safety and victory filled all with slaughters both of them-selues and others For besides the massacre they made else-where in the citty they besieged the Senate in the very Court and from thence as from a prison dragged them out by the heades to execution b Mutius Seaeuola the Priest was slain iust as he had hold of the altar of Vesta the most reuerend relique of all the cittie c almost quenching that fire with his bloud which the Virgins care kept alwaies burning Then entered victorious Sylla into the citty d and in the common streete wars cruelty now done and peaces beginning put seauen thousand vnarmed men to the sword not in fight but by an expresse commaund And after that he put euen whom he list to death throughout the whole citty in so much that the slaughters grew so inumerable e that one was gladde to put Sylla in mind that he must either let some liue or else he should haue none to bee Lord ouer And then indeed this rauenous murtherer began to be restrained by degrees and a f table was set vp with great applause with proscribed but 2000. of the Patriots and Gentlemen appointing them all to bee presently killed The number made all men sad but the manner cheered them againe nor were they so sad that so many should perish as they reioyced that the rest should escape Neuerthelesse this cruell carelesnesse of theirs groned at the exquisite torments that some of the condemned persons suffered in their deaths For g one of them was torn in peeces by meÌ„s hands without touch of iron wher the executioÌ„ers shewed far more cruelly in rending this liuing man thus then they vse ordinarily vpon a dead beast h Another hauing first his eies pluckt out and then all the parts of his body cut away ioint by ioint was forced to liue or rather to die thus long in such intollerable torment Many also of the noblest citties and townes were put vnto the sacke and as one guilty man is vsed to be led out to death so was one whole Citty as then laid out and appointed for execution These were the fruits of their peace after their warres wherin they hasted not to gette the conquest but were swift to abuse it being got Thus this peace bandied in bloud with that war and quite exceeded it for then war killed but the armed but this peace neuer spared the naked In the war he that was striken if hee could might strike againe but in this peace he that escaped the war must not liue but tooke his death with patience perforce L. VIVES THe yonger a Marius Son to the elder ioined Consul with Carbo ere he were 25. yeares old by forced meanes He commanded his man Damasippus to kill all the Patriots in the citty who
this reason will we finde an easie way to perswade all such as haue not hardned their hearts to be of our opinion L. VIVES HOnour a for You see saith Tully Marcellus hath renewed the Temple of Honour the which Qu. Maximus built long before in the Ligurian warre De nat de lib. 2. There was one temple in Rome both to Vertue and Honour which C. Marius built but it was in diuers pertitions for one roome might not serue them both as the Colledge of Priests answered Marcellus in his eight Consulshippe The old Romaines sacrificed bare-headed vnto Honour but couered to all besides Plut. Prob. Of the worshippe of one God onely whose name although they knew not yet they tooke him for the giuer of felicity CHAP. 25. FOr if mans weakenesse obserued thus much that felicitie could not come but from some god and that this was perceiued by those that worshipped so many gods who therefore would call him that they thought could giue it by the name of the thing it selfe knowing no other name hee had this prooueth sufficientlie that Iupiter could not giue felicity whome they worshipped alreadie but onely hee whome they worshipped vnder the name of Felicity So then is it confirmed that they thought Felicity could not bee giuen but by a God that they knew not well seeke but him out then and giue him his due worshippe and it sufficeth Casheere this returne of innumerable and as vnnecessary gods nay deuills let not that god suffice the worshippe whose guift is not sufficient hold not I say that God for a sufficient giuer of felicity whose felicity is wholy insufficient But in whom is it sufficient in the true and onely GOD the giuer of all felicitie serue him It is not hee that they call Ioue For if it were hee they would neuer stand seeking this guift of another who goeth vnder the name of Felicity besides they would not doe Ioues honour that wrong as for to count him as Ioue is counted an adulterer a with other mens wiues and an vnchaste louer and rauisher of b faire boies L. VIVES AN adulterer a which Ioues foule adultery are the Poets common songs as which Alcmena Leda c. b Faire boies As of Ganymede of whome here-after Of the stage-plaies which the gods exacted of their seruants CHAP. 26. BVt these were fictions a of Homer quoth Tully transferring humaine affects vnto the gods I had rather they had transferred diuine affects vnto vs. This graue man indeed was much displeased with the vnseasonable fictions of those times I but why then did the wisest and most learned men of all the Romaines present stage-plaies writing them and acting them to the honour of their gods and as partes and pointes of their religion Here Tully exclaimeth not against poetike fictions but against the old ordinances And would not the ordainers exclaime too and say why what doe wee our gods intreated vs nay forced vs vpon paine of destruction to exhibite them such things as honours punishing the neglect thereof with seuerity and shewing themselues pleased in the amendement of that neglect That which I will now relate is reckoned as one of their most vertuous and memorable deedes b Titus Latinus a rustike house-keeper was warned in a dreame to bidde the Romaine Senate restore the stage-plaies because vpon their first day of presentation an offender caried out and whipped to death before all the people had sore displeased the gods that doe not loue such sadde spectacles but are all for mirth and iollity Well hee neglected to tell the Senate this but was warned againe the next night Neglecting it againe suddenly his sonne died And the third night he was warned againe vpon paine of a greater mischiefe He not daring as yet to reueale it fel into a sore and horrible disease And then hauing imparted it to his friends they counselled him to open it to the senate so he was caried to them in his coach and hauing told his dreame grew wel◅◅an instant and went home on his feet The senate being amazed with his miracle renewed the plaies with treble charges who seeth not now that seeth at al how villenously these deuills abuse those men that are their slaues in forcing these things from them as honors which an vpright iudgement would easily discerne to be obscaenities c From this slauery can nothing deliuer man but the grace of God through Iesus Christ our Lord In those plaies the gods crimes that the Poets faigne are presented yet by the gods expresse charge were they by the Senat renewed And there did the stage-plaiers act produce and present Ioue for the veriest whore-maister in the world had this beene false hee should haue beene offended at it but taking deligh as he did to haue villaines invented vpon him who would serue him that would not serue the deuill Is this the founder enlarger and establisher of the Roman Empire and is he not more base and abiect then any Romaine that beheld him thus presented can hee giue happinesse that loued this vnhappy worship and would bee more vnhappily angry if it were not afforded him L. VIVES FIctions a of Homer saith Tully I approue not Homer for saying that Ioue did take vp Ganymed for his forme and person this was not a iust cause to anger Laomedon But Homer fained transferring humane affects vnto the gods I had rather he had trāsfered theirs to vs which of theirs to florish to be wise witty and memoratiue A most graue Sentence taxing their impious superstition that proportion gods attributes vnto our frailty supposing him as testy crabed cruell enuious proud contentious arrogant inconstant finally as wicked as our selues were it not better to eleuate our selues vnto the height of his diuine vertue Cic. Tusc. quest b Titus Latinus This history is mentioned by Cicero De diuinat out of Fabius Gellius Caelius It is also in Liuy lib. 2. Val. Max. lib. 4. Aul. Gell. Macrob. Lactantius It fell out in the yeare of the citty CCLII Consulls M. Minutius and A Sempronius Some call the man Larinus Lactantus calls him Tiberius Arinus c from this slauery Alluding vnto that exclamation of Paul Rom. 7. Wretched man that I am who shall deliuer me from the body of this death the grace of GOD through Iesus Christ. Of the three Kinds of Gods whereof Scaeuola disputed CHAP. 27. IT is leaft in memory that Scaeuola a their learned high Priest disputed of three kinds of gods that were taught by authors one by the Poets one by the Phylosophers one by the Princes of the City b The first sort hee saith were but fooleries much of their doctrine being fictious the second disagreeing from a politicke state hauing much superfluity and diuers inconueniences for the superfluity it is no great mater for it is a saying amongst men superfluity hurteth not but what are the inconueniences to deny openly that Hercules Aesculapius Castor and Pollux are gods for the Philosophers teach
to you that knowe such things and ought to inioyne your selues to beleeue it can iâ—… seeme incredible to you that GOD should assume mans nature and bodye you giue so much to the intellectuall part of the soule beeing bâ—… humaine that you make it consubstantiall with the Fathers intellect which you confesse is his Sonne How then is it incredible for that Sonâ—… to assume one intellectuall soule to saue a many of the rest by Now nature teacheth vs the cohaerence of the body and the soule to the making of a fâ—… man Which if it were not ordinary were more incredible then the other For wee may the more easily beleeue that a spirit may cohere with a spirit beeing both incorporcall though the one humaine and the other diuine then a corporall body with an incorporeall spirit But are you offended at the strange child-birth of a Virgin This ought not to procure offence but rather pious admiration that he was so wonderfully borne Or dislike you that hee changed his body after death and resurrection into a better and so carried it vp into heauen being made incorruptible and immortall This perphappes you will not beleeue because Porphyry saith so often in his worke De regressu aniae whence I haue cited much that the soule must leaue the body intirely ere it can bee ioyned with God But that opinion of his ought to be retracted seeing that both hee and you doe hold such incredible things of the worlds soule animating the huge masse of the bodily vniuerse For Plato b teacheth you to call the world a creature a blessed one and you would haue it an eternall one Well then how shall it be eternally happy and yet neuer put off the body if your former rule be true Besides the Sunne Moone and Starres you all say are creatures which all men both see and say also But your skill you thinke goeth farther calleth them blessed creatures and eternally with their bodies Why doe you then forget or dissemble this when you are inuited to Christianity which you otherwise teach and professe so openly why will you not leaue your contradictory opinions subuerting them-selues for christianitie but because Christ came humbly and you are all pride Of what qualitie the Saints bodyes shall be after resurrection may well bee a question amongst our greatest christian doctors but wee all hold they shall be eternall c and such as Christ shewed in his resurrection But how-so-euer seeing they are taught to bee incorruptible immortall and no impediment to the soules contemplation of God and you your selues say that they are celestiall bodies immortally blessed with their soules why should you thinke that wee cannot bee happy without leauing of our bodies to pretend a reason for auoyding christianitie but onely as I said because Christ was humble and you are proud Are you ashamed to bee corrected in your faults a true character of a proud man You that were Plato's d learned schollers shame to become Christs who by his spirit taught a fisher wisdome to say In the beginning 〈◊〉 the worde and the word was with God and GOD was the word The same was in the beginning with God all things were made by it and without it was made nothing e that was made In it was life and the life was the light of men And the light shineth in the darkenesse and the darknesse comprehended it not f Which beginning of Saint Iohns Gospell a certaine Platonist as olde holy g Simplictanus afterwards Bishop of Millaine tolde mee sayd was fitte to bee written in letters of golde and set vp to bee read in the highest places of all Churches But those proud fellowes scorne to haue GGD their Maister because the word became 〈◊〉 and dwelt in vs. Such a thing of nothing it is for the wretched to be sicke and weake but they must axalt them-selues in their sickest weaknesse and shame to take the onely medicine that must cure them nor doe they this to rise but to 〈◊〉 a more wretched fall L. VIVES TRue a â—…latonist Plato in Phaed. Epinon hereof already booke the 8. b Teacheth in his Timaeus c And such Sound incorruptible immortall pertaking with the soule in happinesse Phillip 3. We looke for the sauiour euen the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that 〈◊〉 may be fashioned like vnto his glorious body c. ver 21. d Learned What an insolent thing is it to boast of wisdome As if Plato were ashamed of his Maister Socrates that said hee knew nothing and did not glory in all his life that he was scholler to that stone cutters sonne and that all his wisdome whatsoeuer was his Maisters And as if Socrates him-selfe in Plato and Xenophon chiefe founders of that discipline did not referre much of his knowledge to Aspasia and Diotima his two women instructers e That was made The point is so in the greeke as we haue lest it as if the world should become nothing but for the care of the creator as the Philosophers held The Coleyn copy also pointeth it so but wee must let this alone as now f Which beginning Augustine Confess lib. 8. saith that hee had read the beginning of Saint Iohns Gospell In the beginning was the word In Plato but not in the same words Amelius the Platonist saith And this was that word by which all things were made that were made yet being eternall as Heraclitus saith and disposed in their order and dignity with god as the other Barbarian held that word was God and with God and by it was all things made and it was the life and being of all things that were made thus farre Amelius calling Saint Iohn a barbarian But we teach it out of Plato that by the word of God were althings made and out of Plotine that the Sonne of God is the creator Numerius will not haue the first God to be the creator but the second g Simplicianus Bishop of Millaine a friend of Augustines betweene whome many letters were written He being but as yet a Priest exhorted Augustine to vse his wit in the study of holy writ Gennad Catolog viror illustr What opinions of Plato Prophiry confuted and corrected CHAP. 30. IF it be vnfit to correct ought after Plato why doth Porphiry correct such and so many of his doctrines a Sure it is that Plato held a transmigration of mens soules into beasts yet though b Plato the learned held thus Porphiry his scholler iustly refuted him holding that mens soules returned no more to the bodies they once left but into other humane bodies Hee was ashamed to beleeue the other least the mother liuing in a mule should cary her sonne but neuer shamed to beleeue the later though the mother liuing in some other maid might beecome her sonnes wife But how farre better were it to beleeue the sanctified and true Angels the holy inspired prophets him that taught the comming of Christ and the blessed Apostles that spread the gospell
first forsaken of Gods grace and confounded with his ownenakednesse and so with the figge leaues the first perhaps that came to hand they couered their nakednesse aâ—…d shame their members were before as they were then but they were not a shameful before whereas now they felt a new motion of their disobedient flesh as the reciprocal b punishment of their disobedience for the soule being now delighted with peruerse liberty and scorning to serue GOD could not haue the body at the former command hauing willingly forsaken GOD the superior iâ—… could not haue the inferior so seruiceable as it desired nor had the flesh subiect as it might haue had alwaies had it selfe remained Gods subiect For then the flesh beganne to couet and contend against the spirit and c with this contention are wee all borne d drawing death from our originall and bearing natures corruption and contention or victory in our members L. VIVES NOt a shamefull Not filthy nor procuring shame they had not beene offenside had wee 〈◊〉 sinned but had had the same vse that or feete our hands now but hauing offended there was an obscaene pleasure put in them which maketh them to bee ashamed of and couered b Reciprocall Which disobedience reflected vpon them as they obeied not GOD to 〈◊〉 nature subiected them so should they finde a rebell one of the members against the rule of reason d With this Some bookes ads some-thing here but it is needlesse d Drawing 〈◊〉 That is vpon the first sinne arose this contention betweene the minde and their affects which is perpetually in vs wherein the minde is some-times victor and some-times 〈◊〉 some read without victory implying that the affections cannot be so suppressed but then they will still rebell against reason and disturbe it This is the more subtile sence and seemeth best to mee In what state GOD made Man and into what state hee feil by his voluntary choice CHAP. 14. FOr GOD the Creator of nature and not of vice made man vpright who being willingly depraued and iustly condemned be got all his progeny vnder the 〈◊〉 deprauation and condemnation for in him were we all when as he beeing â—…ced by the woman corrupted a vs all by her that before sinne was made of himselfe VVee had not our perticular formes yet but there was he seede of 〈◊〉 naturall propagation which beeing corrupted by sinne must needs produce man of that same nature the slaue to death the obiect of iust condeÌ„nation and therefore this came from the bad vsing of b free will thence aroâ—… all this teame of calamity drawing al men on into misery excepting Gods Saints froÌ„ their corrupted originall euen to the beginning of the second death which hath no end L. VIVES COrrupted a vs all A diuersity of reading Augustines meaning is that we being all potentially in hm and hee beeing corrupted by sinne therefore wee arising all from him as our first fountaine draw the corruption a long with vs also b Free will For our first parents abused the freedome of it hauing power aswell to keepe Gods hests eternally as to breake them That Adam forsooke GOD ere GOD for sooke him and that the soules first death was the departure from GOD. CHAP. 15. VVHerefore in that it was sayd You shall die the death because it was not sayd the deaths if we vnderstand that death wherein the soule leaueth the life that is GOD for it was not forsaken ere it forsooke him but contrary the owne will being their first leader to euill but the Creators will being the first leader to good both in the creation of it before it had being and the restoring of it when it had falne wherefore if we doe vnderstand that God meant but of this death where hee saith whensoeuer thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death as if hee had sayd whensoeuer you forsake mee in disobedience I will forsake you in iustice yet verily doe all the other deaths follow the denunciation of this death For in that the soule felt a disobedient motion of the flesh and therevpon couered the bodies secret partes in this was the first death felt that is the departure of the soule from God Which was signified in that that when the man in mad feare had gone and hid himselfe God said to him Adam where art thou not ignorantly seeking him but watchfully warning him to looke well where hee was seeing God was not with him But when the soule forsaketh the body decaied with age then is the other death felt whereof God said in imposing mans future punishment earth thou wast and to earth thou shalt returne That by these two the first death which is of whole man might be accoÌ„plished which the second should second if Gods grace procure not mans freedome from it for the body which is earth returnes not to earth but by the owne death that is the departure of the soule from it Wherefore all christians b holding the Catholike faith beleeue that the bodily death lieth vpon mankind by no lawe of nature as if GOD had made man for to die but as a c due punishment for sin because God in scourging this sinne sayd vnto man of whom we all are descended Earth thou wast and 〈◊〉 earth thou shalt returne L. VIVES EArth a thou wast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Septuagints by the later article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implying the element of earth the graue of althings dying b Holding the Augustine often auerreth directly that man had not died had he not sinned nor had had a body subiect to death or disease the tree of life should haue made him immortall And S. Thomas Aquiâ—…as the best schoole diuine holds so also But Scotus either for faction or will denies it al making mâ—… in his first state subiect to diseases yet that he should be taken vp to heauen ere he died but if he were left on earth he should die at length for that the tree of life could not eternize hâ—… but onely prolong his life c A due deserued by his guilt Of the Philosophers that held corporall death not to be penall whereas Plato brings in the Creator promising the lesser gods that they should neuer leaue their bodies CHAP. 16. BVt the Philosophers against whose callumnies we defeÌ„d this City of God 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 church thinke they giue vs a witty scoffe for saying that the soules seperation from the body is to be held as part of the punishment when as they affirme 〈◊〉 â—…n a is the soule perfectly blessed when it leaueth the body and goeth vp pâ—… and naked vnto God If I should finde no battery against this opinion out of their owne bookes I should haue a great adoe to prooue not the body but the corruptibility of the body to be the soules burden wherevpon is that which we 〈◊〉 in our last booke A corruptible body is heauy vnto the soule In adding corâ—…le he sheweth that this being
inflicted as sinnes punishment vpon the 〈◊〉 not the body it selâ—…e is heauy to the soule and if hee had not added it yet 〈◊〉 haue vnderstood it so But Plato affirming plainely that the gods that the â—…or made haue incorruptible bodies bringing in their maker promising 〈◊〉 as a great benefit to remaine therein eternally and neuer to bee seperated 〈◊〉 them why then do those neuer b dissemble their owne knowledge to 〈◊〉 â—…ristianity trouble and contradict themselues in seeking to oppose against â—…to's words c Tully translateth thus bringing in the great GOD speaking 〈◊〉 the gods hee had made d You that are of the gods originall whom I haue â—…d attend e these your bodies by my will are indissoluble although euery 〈◊〉 â—…ay bee dissolued But f it is euill to desire to dissolue a thing g compounded by 〈◊〉 but seeing that you are created you are neither immortall nor indissoluble yet 〈◊〉 neuer be dissolued nor die these shall not preuaile against my will which is a 〈◊〉 assurance of your eternity then all your formes and compositions are Behold 〈◊〉 â—…ith that their gods by their creation and combination of body and soule 〈◊〉 â—…all and yet immortall by the decree and will of him that made them If 〈◊〉 it be paine to the soule to be bound in any body why should God seeme 〈◊〉 â—…way their feare of death by promising them eternall immortality not 〈◊〉 of their nature which is compounded not simple but because of his 〈◊〉 which can eternize creatures and preserue compounds immortally froÌ„â—…on whether Plato hold this true of the stars is another question For h 〈◊〉 not consequently grant him that those globous illuminate bodies 〈◊〉 â—…ht day vpon earth haue each one a peculiar soule whereby it liues 〈◊〉 â—…ed and intellectuall as he affirmeth directly of the world also But this as 〈◊〉 no question for this place This I held fit to recite against those that 〈◊〉 the name of Platonists are proudly ashamed of the name of christians 〈◊〉 â—…e communication of this name with the vulgar should debase the 〈◊〉 because small number of the i Palliate These seeking holes in the coate â—…stianity barke at the eternity of the body as if the desire of the soules 〈◊〉 the continuance of it in the fraile body were contraries whereas their 〈◊〉 Plato holds it as a gift giuen by the great GOD to the lesser that they 〈◊〉 not die that is be seuered from the bodies he gaue them L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a is Philolaus the Pythagorean held that man hauing left his body became an 〈◊〉 God and Plato sayth our body depresseth our thoughts and calls it away from 〈◊〉 â—…emplations that therefore we must leaue it that in this life also as well as we can 〈◊〉 â—…her life where we shal be free we may see the truth loue the good Herevpon 〈◊〉 â—…th a man cannot bee happy without he leaue the body and be ioyned vnto God d 〈◊〉 An imitation of Terence tâ—… si sapis quod scis nescias a Tully translateth Tullies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a peece of Plato's Timaeus the whole worke is very falty in Tully He that will read Plato himselfe the words begin thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plato had it out of Timaeus of Locris his booke after whom he named his dialogue for thus saith Timaeus God desyring to dâ—…e an excellent worke created or begot this God who shall neuer die vnlesse it please that God that made him to dissolue him But it is euill to desire the dissolution of so rare a worke d You that are of Deorum satu orti e These your Tully hath this sentence a depraued sence by reason of the want of a negatiue f It is euill Or an euill mans part g Compounded Or combined h We may not Augustine durst neuer decide this question Origen it seemes followed Plato and got a many of the learned vnto his side i Palliate The Romanes Toga or gowne was the Greekes Pallium and they that would seeme absolute Grecians went in these Pallia or clokes and such were obserued much for their Graecisme in life and learning For as wee teach all our arts in latine now so did they in greeke then They were but few and therefore more admired Against the opinion that earthly bodies cannot be corruptible nor eternall CHAP 17. THey stand in this also that earthly bodies cannot bee eternall and yet hold the whole earth which they hold but as a part of their great God though not of their highest the world to be eternall Seeng then their greatest GOD made another God greater then all the rest beneath him that is the world and seeing they hold this is a creature hauing an intellectuall soule included in it by which it liues hauing the parts consisting of 4 elements whose connexion that great GOD least this other should euer perish made indissoluble and eternall why should the earth then being but a meane member of a greater creature bee eternall and yet the bodies of earthly creatures God willing the one as well as the other may not bee eternall I but say they earth a must bee returned vnto earth whence the bodies of earthly creatures are shapen therefore say they these must of force be dissolued and die to be restored to the eternall earth from wheÌ„ce they were taken Wel if one should affirme the same of the fire say that al the bodies taken thence should be restored vnto it againe as the heauenly bodies thereof consisting were not that promise of immortality that Plato sayd God made vnto those gods vtterly broken by this position Or can it not be so because it pleaseth not God whose will as Plato sayth is beyond all other assurance why may not God then haue so resolued of the terrene bodies that being brought forth they should perish no more once composed they should bee dissolued no more nor that which is once taken from the elements should euer bee restored and that the soules being once placed the bodies should neuer for sake them but inioy eternall happinesse in this combination why doth not Plato confesse that God can do this why cannot he preserue earthly things from corruption Is his power as the Platonists or rather as the christians auouch A likely matter the Philosophers know Gods counsells but not the Prophers nay rather it was thus their spirit of truth reuealed what God permitted vnto the Prophets but the weakenesse of coniecture in these questions wholy deluded the Philosophers But they should not haue bin so far besotted in obstinate ignorance as to contradict themselues in publike assertions saying first that the soule cannot be blessed without it abaÌ„don al body whatsoeuer by by after b that the gods haue blessed soules yet are continually tied vnto celestiall fiery bodies as for Iupiters the worlds soule that is eternally inhereÌ„t in the 4 elements composing this vniuerse For Plato holds
it to bee diffused froÌ„ the midst of earth geometrically called the c center vnto the extreamest parts of heaueÌ„ through al the parts of the world by d misticall numbers making the world a blessed creature whose soule enioyeth ful happines of wisdom yet leaueth not the body wose bodie liueteh eternally by it and as though it consist of so many different 〈◊〉 yet can neither dull it nor hinder it Seeing then that they giue their conâ—…res this scope why will they not beleeue that God hath power to eternize 〈◊〉 bodies wherein the soules without being parted from them by death or 〈◊〉 â—…rdened by them at all in life may liue most in blessed eternity as they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gods doe in firy bodies and their Iupiter in all the foure elements If 〈◊〉 â—…es cannot be blessed without the bodies bee quite forsaken why then let 〈◊〉 â—…ods get them out of the starres let Iupiter pack out of the elements if they 〈◊〉 goe then are they wretched But they will allow neither of these they 〈◊〉 â—…uerre that the Gods may leaue their bodies least they should seeme to â—…ip mortalls neither dare they barre them of blisse least they should conâ—…â—…em wretches Wherefore all bodies are not impediments to beatitude but 〈◊〉 the corruptible transitory and mortall ones not such as God made man 〈◊〉 but such as his sinne procured him afterwards L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a must This is scripture that the body is earth and must become earth Homer 〈◊〉 it the Grecians for he calls Hectors carcasse earth Phocylides an ancient writer 〈◊〉 thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Our body is of earth and dying must Returne to earth for Man is made of dust 〈◊〉 â—…er hath also the like recited by Tully Tusc. qu. 1. wherein the words that Augustine 〈◊〉 â—…xtant Mors est finitas omnibus quae generi humano angorem Nec quicquam afferunt reddenda est terra terra Of all the paines wherein Mans soule soiournes Death is the end all earth to earth returnes 〈◊〉 â—…t the gods Some bookes read terrene gods falsly Augustine hath nothing to doe 〈◊〉 â—…e gods in this place c Center A center is that point in the midst of a sphaericall 〈◊〉 â—…m whence all lines drawne to the circumference are equall It is an indiuisible point 〈◊〉 â—…d parts neither should it bee all in the midst nor the lines drawne from it to the cirâ—… equall as not beeing all drawne from one part Plato placeth the worldes 〈◊〉 the center and so distends it circularly throughout the whole vniuerse and then 〈◊〉 â—…ng his position makes the diuine power aboue diffuse it selfe downe-ward euen 〈◊〉 â—…ter d Musicall numbers Hereof see Macrobius Chalcidins and Marsilius Ficinus 〈◊〉 â—…at of Plato's Timaeus which he either translated or reformed from the hand of anâ—…â—…ese numbers for their obscurity are growne into a prouerbe Of the terrene bodies which the Philosophers hold cannot be in heauen but must fall to earth by their naturall weight CHAP. 18. 〈◊〉 but say they an earthly body is either kept on earth or caried to 〈◊〉 â—…th by the naturall weight and therefore cannot bee in heauen The first 〈◊〉 â—…de were in a wooddie and fruitfull land which was called Paradise But 〈◊〉 we must resolue this doubt seeing that both Christs body is already asâ—…d and that the Saints at the resurrection shall doe so also let vs ponder these earthly weights a little If mans arte of a mettall that being put into the water sinketh can yet frame a vessell that shall swim how much more credible is it for Gods secret power whose omnipotent will as Plato saith can both keepe things produced from perishing and parts combined from dissoluing whereas the combination of corporall and vncorporeall is a stranger and harder operation then that of corporalls with corporalls to take a all weight from earthly things whereby they are carried downe-wards and to qualifie the bodies of the blessed soules so as though they bee terrene yet they may bee incorruptible and apt to ascend descend or vse what motion they will with all celerity Or b if the Angells can transport bodily weights whether they please must we thinke they doe it with toile and feeling of the burden Why then may we not beleeue that the perfect spirits of the blessed can carry their bodies whither they please and place them where they please for whereas in our bodily carriage of earthly things we feele that the c more bigge it is the heauier it is and the heauier the more toile-some to beare it is not so with the soule the soule carrieth the bodily members better when they are big and strong then when they are small and meagre and whereas a big sound man is heauier to others shoulders then a leane sicke man yet will he mooue his healthfull heauinesse with farre more agility then the other can doe his crasie lightnesse or then he can himselfe if famine or sicknesse haue shaken off his flesh This power hath good temperature more then great weight in our mortal earthly corruptible bodies And who can describe the infinite difference betweene our present health and our future immortality Let not the Philosophers therefore oppose vs with any corporall weight or earthly ponderosity I will not aske them why an earthly body may not bee in heauen as well as d the whole earth may hang alone without any supportation for perhaps they will retire their disputation to the center of the world vnto which all heauy things doe tend But this I say that if the lesser Gods whose worke Plato maketh Man all other liuing things with him could take away the quality of burning from the fire and leaue it the light e which the eye transfuseth shall wee then doubt that that GOD vnto whose will hee ascribes their immortality the eternall coherence and indissolubility of those strange and diuers combinations of corporealls and incorporealls can giue man a nature that shall make him liue incorruptible and immortal keeping the forme of him and auoyding the weight But of the faith of the resurrection and the quality of the immortall bodies more exactly God willing in the end of the worke L. VIVES ALL a weight These are Gods admirable workes and it is the merit of our faith that we owe vnto God to beleeue them I wonder the schoolemen will inquire of these things define them by the rules of nature b If the Angells To omit the schooles and naturall reasons herein is the power of an Angell seene that in one night God smote 80000 men of the Assyrians campe by the hand of an Angel 4. Kings 19. Now let Man go brag of his weaknesse c The world big Here is no need of predicamentall distinctions hee vseth big for the maâ—… weight not for the quantity d The whole earth It hangs not in nothing for it hangs in the ayre yet would ayre giue it way but that it hath gotten the
shall rise againe incorruptible it is sowne in reproche but it is raised in glory it is sowâ—…n in weakenesse but raised in powre it is sowne an animated body but shall arise a spirituall body And then to prooue this hee proceedes for if there be a naturall or animated bodie there is also a spirituall body And to shew what a naturall body is hee saith The first man Adam was made a liuing soule Thus then shewed he what a naturall body is though the scripture doe noâ—… say of the first man Adam when God brâ—…athed in his face the breath of life that man became a liuing body but man became a liuing soule The first man was made a liuing soule saith the Apostle meaning a naturall body But how the spirituall body is to be taken hee sheâ—…eth also adding but the last man a quickning spirit meaning Christ assuredly who rose from death to dye no more Then hee proceedeth saying That was not first made which is spirituall but that which is naturall and that which is spirituall after-wards Here hee sheweth most plainly that he did meane by the liuing soule the naturall body and the spirituall by the quickning spirit For the naturall body that Adam had was first though it had not dyed but for that he sinned and such haue wee now one nature drawing corruption and necessity of death from him and from his sinne such also did Christ take vpon him for vs not needfully but in his power but the spirituall body is afterwards and such had Christ our head in his resurrection such also shall wee his members haue in ours Then doth the Apostle describe the difference of these two thus The first man is of the earth earthly the second is of heauen heauenly as the earthly one was so are all the earthly and as the heauenly one is such shall all the heauenly ones bee As wee haue borne the Image of the earthly so shall wee beare the image of the heauenly This the Apostle inferres vpon the sacrament of regeneration as hee saith else-where All yee that are baptized into Christ haue put on Christ which shall then be really performed when that which is naturall in our birth shall become spirituall in our resurrection that I may vse his owne wordes for wee are saued by hope Wee put on the image of the earthly man by the propagation of sinne and corruption adherent vnto our first birth but wee put on that of Heauenly man by grace pardon and promise of life eternall which regeneration assureth vs by the mercy onely of the mediator betweene God and man the man Christ Iesus whome the Angell calles the Heauenly man because hee came from Heauen to take vpon him the shape of earthly mortality and to shape it into heauenly immortality Hee calleth the rest heauenly also because they are made members of Christ by grace they and Christ being one as the members and the head is own body This he auerreth plainly in the chapter aforesaid by a man came dâ—…h and by a man came the resurrection from the dead for as in Adam all die euen so in Christ shall all bee made aliue and that into a quickning spirit that is a spirituall body not that all that die in Adam shall become members of Christ for many more of them shall fall into the eternall second death but it is said all and all because as none dy naturall but in Adam so none shall reuiue spirituall but in Christ wee may not then thinke that our bodies at the rusurrection shall be such as Adams was at the creation nor that this place As the earthly one was so are all the earthly is meant of that which was effected by the transgression for we may not thinke that Adam had a spiritual body ere he fell and in his fall was made a naturall one he that conceiueth it so giues but little regard to that great teacher that saith If ther be a natural body then is there also a spiritual as it is also written the first man Adam was made a liuing soule was this done after sinne being the first estate of man from whence the blessed Apostle tooke this testimony of the 〈◊〉 to shew what a naturall body was L. VIVES A Liuing a Or with a liuing soule but the first is more vsual in holy writ b A quickning â—…ssed and ioyned with God bâ—… which coniunction it imparteth integrity and immorâ—…â—…to the body c Forbidden Out of much diuersity of reading I hold this the best for 〈◊〉 â—…oule that liueth and the quickning spirit that giueth life d When soeuer Symmachus 〈◊〉 Hierome expounds this place better thou shalt be mortall But indâ—…ed we die as soone 〈◊〉 borne as Manilius saith Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet Being borne we die our ends hangs at our birth How Gods breathing life into Adam and Christs breathing vpon his Apostles when be said receiue the holy spirit are to be vnderstood CHAP. 24. Sâ—…e therefore do vnaduisedly thinke that God when he breathed in his face the â—…th of life and man became a liuing soule did a not then giue him a soule but by the holy spirit onely quickned a soule that was in him before They ground 〈◊〉 Christs breathing vpon his Apostles after his resurrection and saying 〈◊〉 the Holy spirit thinking that this â—…was such another breathing so that 〈◊〉 â—…angelist might haue sayd they became liuing soules which if hee had 〈◊〉 it would haue caused vs to imagine all reasonable soules dead that are 〈◊〉 â—…kned by Gods spirit though their bodies seeme to bee a liue But it 〈◊〉 so when man was made as the Scripture sheweth plaine in these words 〈◊〉 â—…d GOD formed man being dust of the Earth which some thinking to 〈◊〉 translate c And GOD framed man of the Lome of the Earth because it was said before amist went vp from the earth and watred all the earth that lome should seeme to be produced by this mixture of earth and water for immediatly followeth And God framed man being dust of the earth as the Greeke translations d whence our latine is do read it but whether the Greeâ—…e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be formed or framed it maketh no matter e framed is the more proper word but they that vsed formed thought they avoyded ambiguity because that fingo in the latine is vsed f commonly for to feygne by lying or illuding This man therefore being framed of dust or lome for lome is moystned dust that this dust of the earth to speake with the scripture more expressly when it receiued a soule was made an animate body the Apostle affirmeth saying the man was made a liuing soule that is this dust being formed was made a liuing soule I say they but hee had a soule now already other-wise hee could not haue beene man being neither soule only nor body only but consisting of both T' is true the soule is not whole man
is the New Testament but the opening of the Old one Now Abraham is sayd to laugh but this was the extreamity of his ioy not any signe of his deriding this promise vpon distrust and his thoughts beeing these Shall he that is an hundred yeares old c. Are not doubts of the euents but admirations caused by so strange an euent Now if some stop at that where God saith he will giue him all the Land of Canaan for an eternall possession how this may be fulfilled seeing that no mans progeny can inherite the earth euerlastingly he must know that eternall is here taken as the Greekes take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is deriued of c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is seculum an age but the latine translation durst not say seculare here least it should haue beene taken in an other sence for seculare and transitorium are both alike vsed for things that last but for a little space but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which is either endlesse at all or endeth not vntill the worlds end and in this later sence is eternall vsed here L. VIVES I Wil be a his God Or to be his GOD. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grecisme hardly expressed in your latine b The very The gentiles had also their eight day wherevpon the distinguished the childs name from the fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Seculum aetas annâ—…m eternitas in latine Tully and other great authors translate it all those waies from the greeke Of the man-child that if it were not circumcised the eight day iâ—… perished for breaking of Gods couenant CHAP. 27. SOme also may sticke vpon the vnderstanding of these words The man child in whose flesh the fore-skinne is not circumcised that person shal be cut off from his people because he had broaken my couenant Here is no fault of the childes who is hereexposed to destruction he brake no couenant of Gods but his parents that looked not to his circumcision vnlesse you say that the yongest child hath broken Gods command and couenant as well as the rest in the first man in whom all man-kinde sinned For there are a many Testaments or Couenants of God besides the old and new those two so great ones that euery one may read and know The first couenant was this vnto Adam Whensoeuer thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death wherevpon it is written in Ecclesiasticus All flesh waxeth 〈◊〉 as a garment and it is a couenant from the beginning that all sinners shall die the death for whereas the law was afterwards giuen and that brought the more light to mans iudgement in sinne as the Apostle saith Where no law is there is no transgression how is that true that the Psalmist said I accounted all the sinners of the earth transgressors b but that euery man is guilty in his owne conscience of some-what that hee hath done against some law and therefore seeing that little children as the true faith teacheth be guilty of originall sinne though not of actuall wherevpon wee confesse that they must necessarily haue the grace of the remission of their sinnes then verily in this they are breakers of Gods coueâ—… made with Adam in paradise so that both the Psalmists saying and the Apostles is true and consequently seeing that circumcision was a type of regeneration iustly shall the childs originall sinne breaking the first couenant that 〈◊〉 was made betweene God and man cut him off from his people vnlesse that regeneration engraffe him into the body of the true religion This then we must conceiue that GOD spake Hee that is not regenerate shall perish from â—…gst his people because he hath broke my couenant in offending me in Adam For if he had sayd he hath broke this my couenant it could haue beene meant of nothing but the circumcision onely but seeing hee saith not what couenant the child breaketh we must needes vnderstand him to meane of a couenant liable vnto the transgression of the child But if any one will tie it vnto circumcision and say that that is the couenant which the vncircumcised child hath broken let him beware of absurdity in saying that hee breaketh their couenant which is not broken by him but in him onely But howsoeuer we shall finde the childs condemnation to come onely from his originall sinne and not from any negligence of his owne iucurring this breach of the couenant L. VIVES THere a are many Hierome hath noted that wheresoeuer the Greekes read testament 〈◊〉 Hebrewes read couenant Berith is the Hebrew word b But that There is no man so barbarous but nature hath giuen him some formes of goodnesse in his heart whereby to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honest life if he follow them and if he refuse them to turne wicked Of the changing of Abram and Sara's names who being the one too barren and both to old to haue children yet by Gods bounty were both made fruitfull CHAP. 28. THus this great and euident promise beeing made vnto Abraham in these words A father of many nations haue I made thee and I will make thee exceeding fruitfull and nations yea euen Kings shall proceed of thee which promise wee see most euidently fulfilled in Christ from that time the man and wife are called no more Abram and Sarai but as wee called them before and all the world calleth them Abraham and Sarah But why was Abrahams name changed the reason followeth immediately vpon the change for a father of many nations haue I made thee This is signified by Abraham now Abram his former a name is interpreted an high father But b for the change of Sara's name there is no reason giuen but as they say that haue interpreted those Hebrew names Sarai is my Princesse and Sarah strength wherevpon it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrewes By faith Sarah receiued strength to conceiue seed c. Now they were both old as the scripture saith but c shee was barren also and past the age d wherein the menstruall bloud floweth in women which wanting she could neuer haue conceiued although she had not beene barren And if a woman be well in years and yet haue that menstruall humour remayning she may conceiue with a yongman but neuer by an old as the old man may beget children but it must bee vpon a young woman as Abraham after Sarahs death did vpon Keturah because shee was of a youthfull age as yet This therefore is that which the Apostle so highly admireth and herevpon he saith that Abrahams body was dead because hee was not able to beget a child vpon any woman that was not wholy past her age of child-bearing but onely of those that were in the prime and flowre thereof For his bodie was not simply dead but respectiuely otherwise it should haue beene a carcasse fit for a graue not an ancient father vpon earth Besides the guift of begetting children that GOD gaue him lasted after Sarahs death and he
of Iacobs stock how can their sonnes sonnes or their sonnes be accompted amongst the seauentie fiue that went in this company vnto Egipt for there is Machir reckoned Manasses his sonne and Galaad Machirs sonne and there is Vtalaam Ephraims sonne reckoned Bareth Vtalaams sonne Now these could not be there Iacob finding at his comming that Iosephs children the fathers and grand-fathers of those foure last named were but children of nine yeares old at that time But this departure of Iacob thether with seauentie fiue soules conteineth not one day nor a yeare but all the time that Ioseph liued afterwards by whose meanes they were placed there of whome the Scripture saith Ioseph dwelt in Egipt and his brethren with him a hundred yeares and Ioseph saw Ephraims children euen vnto the third generation that was vntill hee was borne who was Ephraims grand-child vnto him was he great grand-father The scripture then proceedeth Machirs sonnes the sonne of Manasses were brought vp on Iosephs knees This was Galaad Manasses his grand-child but the scripture speaketh in the plurall as it doth of Iacobs one daughter calling her daughters as the a Latines vse to call a mans onely child if hee haue no more liberi children Now Iosephs felicitie being so great as to see the fourth from him in discent wee may not imagine that they were all borne when hee was but thirty nine yeares old at which time his father came into Egipt this is that that deceiued the ignorant because it is written These are the names of the children of Israel which came into Egipt with Iacob their father For this is said because the seauentie fiue are reckoned with him not that they all entred Egipt with him But in this transmigration and setling in Egipt is included all the time of Iosephs life who was the meanes of his placing here L. VIVES THe a Latines Sempronius Asellio called Sempronius Gracchus his onely sonne liberi and it was an vsuall phrase of old Gell. Herenn Digest lib. 50. Iacobs blessing vnto his sonne Iudah CHAP. 41. SO then if wee seeke the fleshly descent of Christ from Abraham first for the good of the Citty of God that is still a pilgrim vpon earth Isaac is the next and from Isaac Iacob or Israel Esau or Edom being reiected from Israel Iudah all the rest being debarred for of his tribe came Christ. And therefore Israel at his death blessing his sonnes in Egipt gaue Iudah this propheticall blessing Iudah a thy bretheren shall praise thee thine hand shall bee on the neck of thine enemies thy fathers sonnes shall adore thee As a Lyons whelpe Iudah shalt thou come vp b from the spoile my sonne Hee shall lye downe and sleepe as a Lyon or a Lyons whelpe who shall rouse him The scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor a law-giuer from betweene his feete vntill Shiloe come and the people bee gathered vnto him Hee shall binde his Asse fole vnto the Vine and his Asses colt c with a rope of hayre he shall wash his stole in wine and his garment in the bloud of the grape his eyes shall be redde with wine and his teeth white with milke These I haue explained against Faustus the Manichee as farre I thinke as the Prophecie requireth Where Christs death is presaged in the worde sleepe as not of necessitie but of his power to dye as the Lion had to lye downe and sleepe which power him-selfe auoweth in the Gospell I haue power to lay downe my life and power to take it againe no man taketh it from mee but I lay it downe of my selfe c. So the Lion raged so fulfilled what was spoken for that same Who shall rouse him belongeth to the resurrection for none could raise him againe but he himselfe that said of his body Destroy this temple and in three dayes I will raise it vp againe Now his manner of death vpon the high crosse is intimated in this shalt thou come vp and these words Hee shall lye downe and â—…pe are euen these Hee bowed downe his head and giue vp the ghost Or it may meane the graue wherein hee slept and from whence none could raise him vp as the Prophets and he him-selfe had raised others but him-selfe raised him-selfe as from a sleepe Now his stole which hee washeth in wine that is cleanseth from sinne in his bloud intimating the sacrament of baptisme as that addition And his garment in the bloud of the grape expresseth what is it but the Church and eyes being redde with wine are his spirituall sonnes that are drunke with her cup as the Psalmist saith My cup runneth ouer and his teeth whiter then the milke are his nourishing wordes where-with hee feedeth his little weaklings as with 〈◊〉 This is he in whome the promises to Iudah were laide vp which vntill they 〈◊〉 there neuer wanted kings of Israell of the stock of Iudah And vnto him â—…ll the people bee gathered this is plainer to the sight to conceiue then the â—…gue to vtter L. VIVES IVda a thy brethren Iudah is praise or confession b From the spoile From captiuity saith the Hebrew all this is meant of Christs leading the people captiue his high and sacred ascention and the taking of captiuitie captiue Hierome c With a rope of hayre With a rope onely say some and his asses colte vnto the best vine saith Hierome from the Hebrew And for this Asses colte saith he may be read the Citty of God whereof we now speake the seuentie read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the vine branch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the twist of the Vine as Theophrastus saith and thence haue the two kindes of luy their names Diosor Plin. so might cilicium come into the Latine text that Augustine vsed if the Greeke were translated Helicium otherwise I cannot tell how Of Iacobs changing of his hands from the heads of Iosephs sonnes when he blessed them CHAP. 42. BVt as Esau and Iacob Isaacs two sonnes prefigured the two peoples of Iewes and Christians although that in the flesh the Idumaeans and not the Iewes came of Esau nor the Christians of Iacob but rather the Iewes for thus must the words The elder shall serue the yonger be vnderstood euen so was it in Iosephs two sonnes the elder prefiguring the Iewes and the yonger the Christians Which two Iacob in blessing laide his right hand vpon the yonger who was on his left side and his left vpon the elder who was on his right side This displeased their father who told his father of it to get him to reforme the supposed mistaking and shewed him which was the elder But Iacob would not change his hands but said I know sonne I know very well hee shall bee a great people also but his yonger brother shall be greater then hee and his seede shall fill the nations Here is two promises now a people to the one and a fulnesse of
Isis after his death and because the child died as soone as it was borne therefore they picture it with the finger on the mouth because it neuer spake I like not this interpretation it is too harsh and idle The statue signified that some-what was to bee kept secret as the goddesse Angerona in the like shape did at Rome Macro◅ Ouid. Metam 9. Sanctaque Bubastis variisque coloribus Apis. Quique premit vocem digitoque silentia suadet Saint Isis and that party colour'd Oxe And he whose lips his hand in silence lockes To this it may be Persius alluded saying digito compesce labellū lay your finger on your mouth d The Oxe Apis the Oxe No man I thinke Greeke or Latine euer wrote of the Egyptian affaires but he had vp this Oxe but especially Herodo Diodo Stra. Plutar. Euseb. Suidas Varro Mela Pliny Solinus and Marcellinus Hee was all black but for a square spotte of white in his fore-head saith Herodotus on his right side saith Pliny his hornes bowed like a Crescent for he was sacred vnto the Moone Marcellinus Hee had the shape of an Eagle vpon his back and a lumpe vpon his tongue like a black-beetle and his taile was all growne with forked haires When hee was dead they sought another with great sorrow neuer ceasing vntill they had found a new Apis like him in all respects Him did Egipt adore as the chiefe god and as Macrobius saith with astonished veneration nor might hee liue longer then a set time if hee did the priests drowned him e Nourished At Memphis saith Strabo was a temple dedicated vnto Apis and thereby a goodly parke or enclosure before which was an Hall and this enclosure was the dams of Apis whereinto hee was now and then letten in to sport him-selfe and for strangers to see him His place where hee laie was called the mysticall bed and when he went abroade a multitude of vshers were euer about him all adored this Oxe-god the boyes followed him in a shole and hee himselfe now and then bellowed forth his prophecies No man that was a stranger might come into this temple at Memphis but onely at burials f They did not worship Some did draw this worship of the Oxe from the institution of Isis and Osyris for the vse that they found of this beast in tillage Some againe say Osyris himselfe was an Oxe Isis a Cow either because of Io◅ or vpon some other ground Some say besides as Diodorus telleth vs that Osyris his soule went into an Oxe and remaineth continually in the Oxe Apis and at the drowning of this goeth into the next Some affirme that Isis hauing found Osyris his members dispersed by Typhon put them into a wodden Oxe couered with an Oxes hide so that the people seeing this beleeued that Osyris was become an Oxe and so began to adore that as if it had beene him-selfe This was therefore the lining Osyris but the body that lyeth coffined in the temple is called Serapis and worshipped as the dead Osyris h Iacobs Eewes Gen. 30. Of this I discoursed else-where The LXX doe translate this place confusedly Hierome vpon Genesis explaineth it The Kings of Argos and Assyria at the time of Iacobs death CHAP. 6. APis the King of Argos not of Egipt dyed in Egipt a Argus his sonne succeeded him in his kingdome and from him came the name of the Argiues For neither the Citty nor the countrey bare any such name before his time He reigning in Argos and b Eratus in Sicyonia Baleus ruling as yet in Assyria Iacob dyed in Egypt being one hundred forty seauen yeares in age hauing blessed his sonnes and Nephewes at his death and prophecied apparantly of CHRIST saying in the blessing of Iudah The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor the law-giuer from betweene his feete vntill c that come which is promised him And d hee shall bee the nations expectation Now in e Argus his time Greece began to know husbandry and tillage fetching seedes from others For Argus after his death was counted a God and honoured with temples and sacrifices Which honor a priuate man one Homogyrus who was slaine by thunder had before him because hee was the first that euer yoaked Oxen to the plough L VIVES ARgus a his sonne by Niobe Phoroneus daughter some call him Apis. It might bee Apis that begot him of Niobe and was reckoned for a King of Argos because he ruled for his sonne vntill hee came to age and then departed into Egypt leauing his sonne to his owne Eusebius saith hee left the kingdome to his brother Aegialus hauing reigned seauentie yeares There was another Argus Arestors sonne who kept Io Iunoes Cowe in Egipt and another also surnamed Amphion whilom Prince of Pylis Orchomene in Arcadia b Eratus Peratus saith Pausanias and sonne to Neptune and Chalcinia Leucippus his daughter Eusebius calleth him Heratus hee reigned forty seauen yeares c Untill that which is promised So read the Septuagints but Herome readeth Untill hee come that is to bee sent The Hebrew Shiloh d Hee shall bee Some copies leaue out shall bee and so doth the text of the LXX e In Argus his time For Ceres came thether in Phenneus his reigne a little after Peratus and shee they say was the first that euer taught the Athenians husbandry In what Kings time Ioseph dyed in Egypt CHAP. 7. IN Mamitus a his time the twelfth Assyrian King and b Phennaeus his the eleuenth King of Sicyonia Argus being aliue in Argos as yet Ioseph dyed in Egypt being a hundred ten yeares old after the death of him Gods people remaining in Egypt increased wonderfully for a hundred forty fiue yeares together vntill all that knew Ioseph were dead And then because their great augmentation was so enuied and their freedome suspected a great and heauy bondage was laide vpon them in the which neuerthelesse they grew vp still for all that they were so persecuted and kept vnder and at this time the same Princes ruled in Assyria and Greece whom we named before L. VIVES MAmitus a his So doth Eusebius call him but saith that hee was but the eleuenth King of that Monarchie Hee reigned thirty yeares b Plemneus So doth Pausanias write this Kings name hee ruled as Eusebius saith forty eight yeares What Kings liued when Moyses was borne and what Goddes the Pagans had as then CHAP. 8. IN a Saphrus his time the fourteenth Assyrian King b Orthopolus being then the twelfth of Sicyon and c Criasus the fift of Argos d Moyses was borne in Egypt who led the people of God out of their slauery wherein God had excercised their paciences during his pleasure In the afore-said Kings times e Prometheus as some hold liued who was sayd to make men of earth because he f taught them wisdome so excellently well g yet are there no wise men recorded to liue in his time h His brother Atlas indeed is said to haue beene a great
ceasing and destruction ensuing which was performed by the Romanes as I erst related But the house of the New Testament is of another lustre the workemanship being more glorious and the stones being more precious But it was figured in the repaire of the old Temple because the whole New Testament was figured in the old one Gods prophecy therefore that saith In that place will I giue peace is to be meant of the place signified not of the place significant that is as the restoring that house prefigured the church which Christ was to build so GOD said in this place that is in the place that this prefigureth will I giue peace for all things signifying seeme to support the persons of the things signified as Saint Peter said the Rock was Christ for it signifyed Christ. So then farre is the glory of the house of the New Testament aboue the glory of the Old as shall appeare in the finall dedication Then shall the desire of all nations appeare as it is in the hebrew for his first comming was not desired of all the nations for some knew not whom to desire nor in whom to beleeue And then also shall they that are Gods elect out of all nations come as the LXX read it for none shall come truely at that day but the elect of whoÌ„ the Apostle saith As he hath elected vs in him before the beginning of the world for the Architect himself that sayd Many are called but few are chosen he spoke not of those that were called to the feast and then cast out but meant to shew that hee had built an house of his elect which times worst spight could neuer ruine But being altogither in the church as yet to bee hereafter sifited the corne from the chaffe the glory of this house cannot be so great now as it shal be then where man shal be alwaies there where he is once The Churches increase vncertaine because of the commixtion of elect and reprobate in this world CHAP. 49. THerefore in these mischieuous daies wherein the church worketh for his fu ture glory in present humility in feares in sorrowes in labours and in temptations ioying onely in hope when shee ioyeth as she should many rebrobaâ—…e liue amongst the elect both come into the Gospells Net and both swim at randon in the sea of mortality vntill the fishers draw them to shore and then the 〈◊〉 owne from the good in whom as in his Temple God is all in all We acknowledge therefore his words in the psalme I would declare and speake of them 〈◊〉 are more then I am able to expresse to be truly fulfilled This multiplication 〈◊〉 at that instant when first Iohn his Messenger and then himselfe in person 〈◊〉 to say Amend your liues for the Kingdome of God is at hand He chose him disâ—… and named the Apostles poore ignoble vnlearned men that what great 〈◊〉 soeuer was done hee might bee seene to doe it in them He had one who abused his goodnesse yet vsed hee this wicked man to a good end to the fulfilling of his passion and presenting his church an example of patience in tribulation And hauing sowne sufficiently the seed of saluation he suffered was buried and 〈◊〉 againe shewing by his suffering what wee ought to endure for the truth and 〈◊〉 resurrection what we ought for to hope of eternity a besides the ineffaâ—…ament of his bloud shed for the remission of sinnes Hee was forty daies 〈◊〉 with his disciples afterwardes and in their sight ascended to heauen â—…es after sending downe his promised spirit vpon them which in the comming gaue that manifest and necessary signe of the knowledge in languages of 〈◊〉 to signifie that it was but one Catholike church that in all those natiâ—…â—…uld vse all those tongues L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a the ineffable For Christs suffrance and his life hath not onely leaft vs the vertue 〈◊〉 Sacraments but of his example also whereby to direct ourselues in all good courses 〈◊〉 Gospell preached and gloriously confirmed by the bloud of the preachers CHAP. 50. 〈◊〉 then as it is written The law shall goe forth of Zion and the word of 〈◊〉 Lord from Ierusalem and as Christ had fore-told when as his disciplies â—…onished at his resurrection he opened their vnderstandings in the scripâ—… told them that it was written thus It behoued Christ to suffer and to rise 〈◊〉 the third day and that repentance and remission of sinnes should bee preached in 〈◊〉 â—…mongst all nations beginning at Ierusalem and where they asked him of 〈◊〉 comming and he answered It is not for you to know the times and seasons 〈◊〉 father hath put in his owne power but you shall receiue power of the Holie 〈◊〉 hee shall come vpon you and you shal be witnesses of mee in Ierusalem and in 〈◊〉 in Samaria and vnto the vtmost part of the earth First the church spred 〈◊〉 â—…om Ierusalem and then through Iudaea and Samaria and those lights 〈◊〉 world bare the Gospell vnto other nations for Christ had armed them 〈◊〉 Feare not them that kill the body but are not able to kill the soule they had 〈◊〉 of loue that kept out the cold of feare finally by their persons who 〈◊〉 him aliue and dead and aliue againe and by the horrible persecutiâ—… by their successors after their death and by the euer conquered to 〈◊〉 â—…conquerable tortures of the Martires the Gospell was diffused 〈◊〉 all the habitable world GOD going with it in Miracles in vertues and 〈◊〉 of the Holy Ghost in so much that the nations beleeuing in him who 〈◊〉 for their Redemption in christian loue did hold the bloud of those Martires in reuerence which before they had shed in barbarousnesse and the Kings whose edicts afflicted the church came humbly to be warriours vnder that banner which they cruelly before had sought vtterly to abolish beginning now to persecute the false gods for whom before they had persecuted the seruants of 〈◊〉 true GOD. That the Church is confirmed euen by the schismes of Heresies CHAP. 51. NOw the deuill seeing his Temples empty al running vnto this Redeemer set heretiques on foote to subert Christ in a christiaÌ„ vizar as if there were yâ— allowance for them in the heauenly Ierusalem which their was for contrariety of Philosophers in the deuills BabiloÌ„ Such therfore as in the church of God do distast any thing and a being checked aduised to beware do obstinately oppose themselues against good instructions and rather defend their abhominations then discard them those become Heretikes and going forth of Gods House are to be held as our most eager enemies yet they doe the members of the Catholike Church this good that their fall maketh them take better hold vpon God who vseth euill to a good end and worketh all for the good of those that loue him So then the churches enemies whatsoeuer if they haue the power to impose corporall afflictioÌ„ they exercise her patience
peace of a family an orderly rule and subiection amongst the parts thereof peace of a citty an orderly command and obedience amongst the citizens peace of Gods Citty a most orderly coherence in God and fruition of GOD peace of althings is a well disposed order For order is a good disposition of discrepant parts each in the fittest place and therfore the miserable as they are miserable are out of order wanting that peace-able and vnperturbed state which order exacteth But because their owne merites haue incurred this misery therefore euen herein they are imposed in a certaine set order howsoeuer Being not con-ioyned with the blessed but seuered from them by the law of order and beeing exposed to miseries yet are adapted vnto the places wherein they are resident and so are digested into some kinde of methodicall forme and consequently into some peacefull order But this is their misery that although that some little security wherein they liue exempt them from present sorrowes yet are they not in that state which secludeth sorrow for euer and affordeth eternall security And their misery is farre greater if they want the peace of nature and when they are offended the part that grieueth is the first disturber of their peace for that which is neither offended nor dissolued preserues the peace of nature still So then as one may possibly liue without griefe but cannot possibly grieue vnlesse hee liue so may there bee peace without any warre or contention but contention cannot bee without some peace not as it is contention but because the contenders doe suffer and performe diuers things herein according to natures prescript which things could not consist had they not some peacefull order amongst them So that there may bee a nature you see wherein no euill may haue inherence but to finde a nature vtterly voide of goodnesse is vtterly impossible For the very nature of the deuills consider it as nature is most excellent but their owne voluntary peruersnesse depraued it The deuill abode not in the truth yet scaped hee not the sentence of the truth for hee transgressed the peacefull lawe of order yet could not avoide the powerfull hand of the orderer The good which GOD had bestowed on his nature cleared him not from GODS heauy iudgement which allotted him to punishment Yet doth not GOD heerein punish the good which himselfe created but the euill which the deuill committed nor did hee take away his whole nature from him but left him part whereby to bewaile the losse of the rest which lamentation testifyeth both what hee had and what hee hath for had hee not some good left hee could not lament for what hee had lost For his guilt is the greater that hauing lost all his vprightnesse should reioyce at the losse thereof And hee that is sicke if it benefit him nothing yet greeueth at the losse of his health For vprightnesse and health beeing both goods it behooueth the loosers of them to mourne and not to reioyce vnlesse this losse bee repaired with better recompence as vprightnesse of minde is better then health of bodie but farre more reason hath the sinner to lament in his suffering then to reioyce in his transgression Therefore euen as to reioyce at the losse of goodnesse in sining argueth a depraued will so likewise lament for the same losse in suffering prooueth a good nature For he that bewaileth the losse of his naturall peace hath his light from the remainders of that peace which are left in him keeping his nature and him in concord And in the last iudgement it is but reason that the wicked should deplore the losse of their naturall goods and feele GODS hand iustly heauy in depriuing them of them whome they scornefully respected not in the bestowing them vpon them Wherefore the high GOD natures wisest creator and most iust disposer the parent of the worlds fairest wonder mankinde bestowed diuers goods vpon him which serue for this life onely as the worldly and temporall peace kept by honest cohaerence and society together with all the adiacents of this peace as the visible light the spirable ayre the potable water and all the other necessaries of meate drinke and cloathing but with this condition that hee that shall vse them in their due manner and reference vnto b humaine peace shall bee rewarded with guiftes of farre greater moment namely with the peace of immortality and with vnshaded glorie and full fruition of GOD and his brother in the same GOD c but he that vseth them amisse shall neither pertake of the former nor the later L. VIVES THe a bodies peace Saint Augustine in this chapter prooueth althings to consist by peace â—…nd concord so that consequently discord must needes bee the fuell to all ruine and confusion Wherefore I wonder at the peruerse nature of men that loue dissentions and quarrells as their owne very soules hating peace as it were a most pernitious euill Surely they had but there due if their bosomes within and their states without were wholy fraught with this their so deerely affected darling warre b Humane peace But men doe turne all these goods now a daies into contentious vses as if they were ordeined for no other end neuer thinking that there is a place of eternall discord prepared for them to dwell in hereafter where they may enioy their damned desires for euer The whole goodnesse of peace and of that especially which CHRIST left vs as his full inheritance is gone all but for the name and an imaginary shade thereof all the rest wee haue lost nay wee haue made a willing extrusion of it and expelled it wittingly and of set purpose imagining our whole felicity to consist in the tumults of warres and slaughters And oh so wee braue it that wee haue slaine thus many men burnt thus many townes sacked thus many citties Founding our principall glories vpon the destruction of our fellowes But I may beginne a plaint of this heere but I shall neuer end it c But hee A diuersity of reading in the copies rather worth nothing then noting Of the law of Heauen and Earth which swaieth humane society by counsell and vnto which counsell humane society obeyeth CHAP. 14. ALL temporall things are referred vnto the benefit of the peace which is resident in the Terrestriall Cittie by the members thereof and vnto the vse of the eternall peace by the Cittizens of the Heauenly society Wherefore if wee wanted reason wee should desire but an orderly state of body and a good temperature of affects nothing but fleshly ease and fulnesse of pleasure For the peace of the body augmenteth the quiet of the soule and if it bee a wanting it procureth a disturbance euen in brute beasts because the affects haue not their true temperature Now both these combined adde vnto the peace of soule and bodie both that is vnto the healthfull order of life For as all creatures shew how they desire their bodies peace in avoyding the causes of
aboundance at length hee concludeth thus they haue sayd Blessed are the people that bee so yea but blessed are the people whose God is the Lord. b Charity In the Apostle it is honesty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The peace of Gods seruants the fulnesse whereof it is impossible in this life to comprehend CHAP. 27. BVt as for our proper peace we haue it double with God heere below by faith and here-after aboue a by sight But all the peace we haue here bee it publike or peculiar is rather a solace to our misery then any assurance of our felicity And for our righteousnesse although it be truly such because the end is the true good where-vnto it is referred yet as long as we liue here it consisteth b rather of sinnes remission then of vertues perfection witnesse that prayer which all Gods pilgrims vse and euery member of his holy Citty crying dayly vnto him Forgiue vs our trespasses as wee forgiue them that trespasse against vs. c Nor doth this prayer benefite them whose faith wanting workes is dead but them whose faith worketh by loue for because our reason though it be subiect vnto God yet as long as it is in the corruptible body which burdeneth the soule cannot haue the affects vnder perfect obedience therefore the iustest man stands in neede of this prayer For though that reason haue the conquest it is not without combat And still one touch of infirmity or other creepeth vpon the best conquerour euen when he hopes that he holds all viciousnesse vnder making him fall either by some vaine word or some inordinate thought if it bring him not vnto actuall errour And therefore as long as we ouer-rule sinne our peace is imperfect because both the affects not as yet conquered are subdued by a dangerous conflict and they that are vnder already doe deny vs all securitie and keepe vs dooing in a continuall and carefull command So then in all these temptations whereof God said in a word d Is not the life of man a temptation vpon earth who dare say hee liueth so as hee need not say to God Forgiue vs our trespasses none but a proud soule Nor is he mighty but madly vain-glorious that in his owne righteousnesse will resist him who giueth grace to the humble where-vpon it is written God resisteth the proud and giueth grace to the humble Mans iustice therefore is this to haue God his Lord and him-selfe his subiect his soule maister ouer his body and his reason ouer sinne eyther by subduing it or resisting it and to intreate God both for his grace for merite and his pardon for sinne and lastly to be gratefull for all his bestowed graces But in that final peace vnto which all mans peace and righteousnesse on earth hath reference immortality and incorruption doe so refine nature from viciousnesse that there wee shall haue no need of reason to rule ouer sinne for there shall bee no sinne at all there but GOD shall rule man and the soule the body obedience shall there bee as pleasant and easie as the state of them that liue shal be glorious and happy And this shall all haue vnto all eternity and shal be sure to haue it so and therefore the blessednesse of this peace or the peace of this blessednesse shall be the fulnesse and perfection of all goodnesse L. VIVES BY a sight Being then face to face with GOD. b Rather of sinnes For the greatest part of our goodnesse is not our well doing but Gods remission of our sinnes c Nor doth this For as a medecine otherwise holesome cannot benefit a dead body so this parcell of praier can doe him as little good that saith it if in the meane while hee bee not friends with his brother d Is not mans Our vulgar translation is Is there not an appointed time for man vpon earth but Saint Aug. followes the LXX as he vseth To liue sayth Seneca is to wage continuall warre So that those that are tossed vppe and downe in difficulties and aduenture vpon the roughest dangers are valourous men and captaines of the campe whereas those that sit at rest whilest others take paines are tender turtles and buy their quiet with disgrace The end of the wicked CHAP. 28. BVt on the other side they that are not of this society are desteined to eternall misery called the second death because there euen the soule being depriued of GOD seemeth not to liue much lesse the body bound in euerlasting torments And therefore this second death shal be so much the more cruell in that it shall neuer haue end But seeing warre is the contrary of peace as misery is vnto blisse and death to life it is a question what kinde of warre shall reigne as then amongst the wicked to answere and oppose the peace of the Godly But marke only the hurt of war it is plainly apparant to be nothing but the aduerse dispose and contentious conflict of things betweene themselues What then can be worse then that where the will is such a foe to the passion the passion to the will that they are for euer in-suppressible and ir-reconcileable and where nature and paine shall hold an eternall conflict and yet the one neuer maister the other In our conflicts here on earth either the paine is victor and so death expelleth sence of it or nature conquers and expells the paine But there paine shall afflict eternally and nature shall suffer eternally both enduring to the continuance of the inflicted punishment But seeing that the good and the badde are in that great iudgement to passe vnto those ends the one to bee sought for and the other to bee fled from by Gods permission and assistance I will in the next booke following haue a little discourse of that last day and that terrible iâ—…gement Finis lib. 19. THE CONTENTS OF THE twentith booke of the City of God 1. Gods iâ—…dgments continually effected his last iudgement the proper subiect of this booke following 2. The change of humaine estates ordered by Gods vnsearcheable iudgements 3. Salomons disputation in Eclesiastes concerning those goods which both the iust and vniust doe share in 4. The Authors resolution in this dicourse of the iudgement to produce the testimonies of the New Testament first and then of the Old 5. Places of Scripture proouing that there shal be a day of iudgment at the worlds end 6. What the first resurrection is and what the second 7. Of the two Resurrections what may bee thought of the thousand yeares mentioned in Saint Iohns reuelation 8. Of the binding and loosing of the deuill 9. What is meant by Christs raigning a thousand yeare with the Saints and the difference betweene that and his eternall reigne 10. An answere to the obiection of some affirming that resurrection is proper to the body only and not to the Soule 11. Of Gog and Magog whom the deuill at the worlds end shall stirre vp against the church of God 12. Whether
it vnto one of the least of these my bretheren yee haue done it vnto mee Then shall hee say vnto them on the left hand Depart from mee yee cursed into euerlasting fire which is prepared for the deuill and his Angells for I was an hungered and yee gaâ—…e mee no meate I thirsted and yee gaue mee no drinke c. Then shall they also answere him saying LORD when sawe wee thee hungery or a thirst or a stranger or naked or in prison or sicke and did not minister vnto thee Then shall hee answere them and saie Verelie I saie vnto you in asmuch as yee did it not vnto one of the least of these yee did it not vnto mee And these shâ—…ll goe into euerlasting fire and the righteous into life eternall Now Iohn the Euangelist sheweth plainely that CHRIST fore-told this iudgement to bee at the resurrection For hauing sayd The Father iudgeth no man but hath committed all iudgement vnto the Sonne Because all men should honour the Sonne as they honour the Father hee that honoureth not the Sonne the sâ—…e honoureth not the Father that sent him Hee addeth forth-with Verelie verelie I say vnto you hee that heareth my Worde and beleeâ—…eth in him that sent mee hath euerlasting life and shall not come into c iudgement but shall passe from death to life Behold heere hee 〈◊〉 directly that the faithfull shall not bee iudged How then shall they by his iudgement bee seuered from the faithlesse vnlesse iudgement bee vsed heere for condemnation For that is the iudgement into which they that heare his word and beleeue in him that sent him shall neuer enter L. VIVES TYrus a and Sydon Two Citties on the Coast of Phoenicia called now Suri and Saiâ—… Postell Niger b Hee sayd not The accusers of the guilty persons are sayd to condemne him aswell as the Iudges c Iudgement but shall passe Our translation readeth it condemnation but hath passed Hierome readeth it transiet What the first resurrection is and what the second CHAP. 6. THen hee proceedeth in these words Verely verelie I say vnto you the houre shall come and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of GOD and they that heare it shall liue For as the father hath life in himselfe so likewise hath â—…ee giuen vnto the Sonne to haue life in himselfe Hee doth not speake as yet of the second resurrection of that of the bodies which is to come but of the first resurrection which is now For to distinguish these two hee sayth the houre shall come and now is Now this is the soules resurrection not the bodies for the soules haue their deaths in sinne as the bodies haue in nature and therein were they dead of whome Our Sauiour sayd let the dead bury the dead to witte let the dead in soule bury the dead in bodie So then these wordes The houre shall come and now is when the dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of GOD and they that heare it shall liue They that heare it that is they that obey it beleeue it and remaine in it Hee maketh no distinction heere betweene good and euill none at all For it is good for all to heare his voice and thereby to passe out of the death of sinne and impiety vnto life and eternity Of this death in sinne the Apostle speaketh in these wordes If one bee dead for all then were all dead and hee died for all that they which liue should not hence-forth liue vnto themselues but vnto him which died for them and rose againe Thus then all were dead in sinne none excepted either in originall sinne or in actuall either by being ignorant of good or by knowing good and not performing it and for all these dead soules one liuing Son came and died liuing that is one without all sinne that such as get life by hauing their sinnes remitted should no more liue vnto themselues but vnto him that suffered for all our sinnes and rose againe for all our iustifications that wee which beleeue vpon the iustifier of the wicked beeing iustified out of wickednesse and raysed as it were from death to life nay bee assured to belong vnto the first resurrection that now is For none but such as are heires of eternall blisse haue any part in this first resurrection but the second is common both â—…o the blessed and the wretched The first is mercies resurrection the second iudgements And therefore the Psalme saith I will sing mercie and iudgement vnto thee O LORD With this iudgement the Euangelist proceedeth thus Anâ—… hath giuen him power also to execute Iudgement in that hee is the Sonne of Man Loe heere now in that flesh wherein hee was iudged shall hee come to bee the whole worldes iudge For these wordes In that hee is the Sonne of Man haue a direct ayme at this And then hee addeth this Maruell not at this for the houre shall come in the which all that are in the graues shall heare his voice and they shall come forth which haue done good vnto the resurrection of life but they that haue done euill vnto the resurrection of iudgement This is that iudgement which hee put before for condemnation when hee sayd Hee that heareth my Worde c. shall not come into iudgement but shall passe from death to life that is hee belongs to the first resurrection and that belongeth to life so that hee shall not come into condemnation which hee vnderstandeth by the worde Iudgement in this last place vnto the resurrection of Iudgement Oh Rise then in the first resurrection all you that will not perish in the the second For the houre will come and now is when the dead shall heare the voice of the Sonne of GOD and they that heare it shall liue that is they shall not come into condemnation which is called the second death vnto which they shall all bee cast head-long after the second resurrection that arise not in the first For the houre will come hee saith not that houre is now because it shal be in the worldes end in the which all that are in the graues shall heare His voice and shall come forth but hee saith not heare as hee sayd before and they that heare it shall liue for they shall not liue all in blisse which is onely to bee called life because it is the true life Yet must they haue some life otherwise they could neither heare nor arise in their quickned flesh And why they shall not all liue hee giueth this subsequent reason They that haue done good shal come forth vnto the resurrection of life and these only are they that shall liue they that haue done euill vnto the resurrection of condemnation and these GOD wot shall not liue for they shall die the second death In liuing badlie they haue done badly and in refusing to rise in the first resurrection they haue liued badly or at least in not continuing their resurrection
ment hereby S. Augustine confesseth that he cannot define Sup. Genes lib. 8. These are secrets all vnneedfull to be knowne and all wee vnworthy to know them Of the new Heauen and the new Earth CHAP. 16. THe iudgement of the wicked being past as he fore-told the iudgement of the goodâ—…ust follow for hee hath already explained what Christ said in briefe They shall go into euerlasting paine now he must expresse the sequell And the righteous into life eternall And I saw saith he a new heauen and a new earth The first heauen and earth were gone and so was thesea for such was the order described before by him when he saw the great white throne one sitting vpon it froÌ„ whose face they fled So then they that were not in the booke of life being iudged and cast into eternall fire what or where it is I hold is vnknowne to a all but those vnto whome it please the spirit to reueale it then shall this world loose the figure by worldly fire as it was erst destroyed by earthly water Then as I said shall all the worlds corruptible qualities be burnt away all those that held correspondence with our corruption shall be agreeable with immortality that the world being so substantially renewed may bee fittly adapted vnto the men whose substances are renewed also But for that which followeth There 〈◊〉 no more sea whether it imply that the sea should bee dried vp by that vniuersall conflagration or bee transformed into a better essence I cannot easily determyne Heauen and Earth were read shal be renewed but as concerning the sea I haue not read any such matter that I can remember vnlesse that other place in this booke of that which hee calleth as it were a sea of glasse like vnto christall import any such alteration But in that place hee speaketh not of the worlds end neither doth hee say directly a sea but as a sea Notwithstanding it is the Prophets guise to speake of truths in misticall manner and to mixe truths and types together and so he might say there was no more sea in the same sence that hee sayd the sea shall giue vp hir dead intending that there should be no more turbulent times in the world which he insinuateth vnder the word Sea L. VIVES VNknowne a to all To all nay Saint Augustine it seemes you were neuer at the schoole-mens lectures There is no freshman there at least no graduate but can tell that it is the elementany fire which is betweene the sphere of the moone and the ayre that shall come downe and purge the earth of drosse together with the ayre and water If you like not this another will tell you that the beames of the Sonne kindle a fire in the midst of the ayre as in a burning glasse and so worke wonders But I doe not blame you fire was not of that vse in your time that it is now of when eâ—…y Philosopher to omit the diuines can carry his mouth his hands and his feete full of fire 〈◊〉 in the midst of Decembers cold and Iulies heate Of Philosophers they become diuines and yet keepe their old fiery formes of doctrine still so that they haue farre better iudgement 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hot case then you or your predecessors euer had Of the glorification of the Church after death for euer CHAP. 17. AND I Iohn saith hee sawe that Holie Cittie new Ierusalem come downe from GOD out of Heauen prepared as a bride trimmed for her husband And I heard a great voice out of Heauen saying behold the Tabernacle of GOD is with men and hee will dwell with them and they shal be his people and hee himselfe shal be their GOD with them And GOD shall wipeawaie all teares from their eyes and there shal be no more death neither teares neither crying neither shall there bee any more paine for the first things are passed And hee that sate vpon the Throne sayd behold I make althings new c. This cittie is sayd to come from Heauen because the grace of GOD that founded it is heauenly as GOD saith in Esay I am the LORD that made thee This grace of his came downe from heauen euen from the beginning and since the cittizens of GOD haue had their increase by the same grace giuen 〈◊〉 the spirit from heauen in the fount of regeneration But at the last Iudgement of GOD by his Sonne Christ this onely shall appeare in a state so glorious that all the ancient shape shal be cast aside for the bodies of each member shall cast aside their olde corruption and put on a new forme of immortality For it were too grosse impudence to thinke that this was 〈◊〉 of the thousand yeares afore-sayd wherein the Church is sayd to reigne with Christ because he saith directly GOD shall wipe awaie all teares from their eies and there shal be no more death neither sorrowes neither crying neither shall there bee any more paine Who is so obstinately absurd or so absurdly obstinate as to averre that any one Saint much lesse the whole society of them shall passe this transitory life without teares or sorrowes or euer hath passed it cleare of them seeing that the more holy his desires are and the more zealous his holinesse the more teares shall bedew his Orisons Is it not the Heauenly Ierusalem that sayth My teares haue beene my meate daie and night And againe I cause my bedde euerie night to swimme and water my couch with teares and besides My sorrow is renewed Are not they his Sonnes that bewayle that which they will not forsake But bee cloathed in it that their mortality may bee re-inuested with eternity and hauing the first fruites of the spirit doe sigh in themselues wayting for the adoption that is the redemption of their bodies Was not Saint Paul one of the Heauenlie Cittie nay and that the rather in that hee tooke so great care for the earthly Israelites And when a shall death haue to doe in that Cittie but when they may say Oh death where is thy sting Oh hell where is thy b victorie The sting of death is sinne This could not bee sayd there where death had no sting but as for this world Saint Iohn himselfe saith If wee say wee haue no sinne wee deceiue our selues and there is no truth in vs. And in this his Reuelation there are many things written for the excercising of the readers vnderstanding and there are but few things whose vnderstanding may bee an induction vnto the rest for hee repeteth the same thing so many waies that it seemes wholy pertinent vnto another purpose and indeed it may often bee found as spoken in another kinde But here where hee sayth GOD shall wipe awaie all teares from their eyes c this is directly meant of the world to come and the immortalitie of the Saints for there shal be no sorrow no teares nor cause of sorrowe or teares if any one
Sueton. g In that age Beeing two and thirty yeares old Saint Pauls doctrine of the resurrection of the dead CHAP. 20. BVt the Apostle saith nothing of the resurrection of the dead in this place mary in another place hee saith thus I would not haue you ignorant bretheren concerning those which sleepe that yee sorrow not euen as those which haue no hope for if wee beleeue that IESVS is dead and is risen againe euen so them which sleepe in IESVS will GOD bring with him For this wee say vnto you by the word of the LORD that wee which liue and are remayning at the comming of the LORD shall not preuent those that sleepe For the LORD himselfe shall descend from heauen with asâ—…te with the voice of the Arch-angell and with the trumpet of GOD and the dead in CHRIST shall arise first then shall we which liue and remaine be caught vp with them also in the cloudes to meete the LORD in the ayre and so shall wee euer bee with the LORD Here the Apostle maketh a plaine demonstration of the future resurrection when CHRIST shall come to sit in iudgement ouer both quick and dead But it is an ordinary question whether those whom CHRIST shall finde aliue at his comming whom the Apostle admitteth himselfe and those with him to be shall euer die at all or goe immediately in a moment vp with the rest to meete CHRIST and so be forth with immortallized It is not impossible for them both to die and liue againe in their very ascention through the ayre For these words And so shall wee euen bee with the LORD are not to bee taken as if wee were to continue in the ayre with him for hee shall not stay in the ayre but goe and come through it We meete him comming but not staying but so shall we euer bee with him that is in immortall bodies where euer our stay bee And in this sence the Apostle seemes to vrge the vnderstanding of this question to bee this that those whom Christ shall finde aliue shall neuer-the-lesse both dye and reuiue where he saith In Christ shall all bee made aliue and vpon this by and by after That which thou sowest is not quickned except it dye How then shall those whom Christ shall finde aliue bee quickned in him by immortality vnlesse they doe first dye if these words of the Apostle bee true If wee say that the sowing is meant onely of those bodyes that are returned to the earth according to the iudgement laide vpon our transgressing fore-fathers Thou art dust and to dust shalt thou returne then wee must confesse that neither that place of Saint Paul nor this of Genesis concernes their bodies whome Christ at his comming shall finde in the body for those are not sowne because they neither goe to the earth nor returne from it how-so-euer they haue a little stay in the ayre or other-wise taste not of any death at all But now the Apostle hath another place of the resurrection a Wee shall all rise againe saith hee or as it is in some copies wee shall all sleepe So then death going alway before resurrection and sleepe in this place implying nothing but death how shall all rise againe or sleepe if so many as Christ shall finde liuing vpon earth shall neither sleepe nor rise againe Now therefore if wee doe but auouch that the Saints whome Christ shall finde in the flesh and who shall meete him in the ayre doe in this rapture leaue their bodies for a while and then take them on againe the doubt is cleared both in the Apostles first words That which thou sowest is not quickned except it dye as also in his later Wee shall all rise againe or wee shall all sleepe for they shall not bee quickned vnto immortalitie vnlesse they first taste of death and consequentlie haue a share in the resurrection by meanes of this their little sleepe And why is it incredible that those bodies should bee sowen and reuiued immortally in the ayre when as wee beleeue the Apostle where hee saith plainely that the resurrection shall bee in the twinckling of an eye and that the dust of the most aged bodye shall in one moment concurre to retaine those members that thence-forth shall neuer perish Nor let vs thinke that that place of Genesis Thou art dust c. concerneth not the Saints for all that their dead bodyes returne not to the earth but are both dead and reuiued whilest they are in the ayre To dust shalt thou returne that is thou shalt by losse of life become that which thou wast ere thou hadst life It was earth in whose face the LORD breathed the breath of life when man became a liuing soule So that it might bee sayd Thou art liuing dust which thou wast not and thou shalt bee â—…lesse dust as thou wast Such are all dead bodyes euen before putrefaction and such shall they bee if they dye where-so-euer they dye beeing voyde of life which not-with-standing they shall immediatly returne vnto So then shall they returne vnto earth in becomming earth of liuing men as that returnes to ashes which is made of ashes that vnto putrifaction which is putrified that into a potte which of earth is made a potte and a thousand other such like instances But how this shall bee wee doe but coniecture now 〈◊〉 shall know till wee see it That b there shall bee a resurrection of the flesh at the comming of Christ to iudge the quicke and the dead all that are christians must confidently beleeue nor is our faith in this point any way friuolous although wee know not how this shal be effected But as I said before so meane I still to proceed in laying downe such places of the Old Testament now as concerne this last iudgement as farre as neede shal be which it shall not bee altogether so necessary to stand much vpon if the reader do but ayde his vnderstanding with that which is passed before L. VIVES WE shall a all rise againe The greeke copies reade this place diuersly Hier. ep ad Numerium for some read it We shall not all sleepe but wee shall all bee changed Eras Annot. Non. Testam et in Apolog. Hence I thinke arose the question whether all should die or those that liued at the iudgement daie bee made immortall without death Petrus Lumbardus Sent. 3. dist 40 shewing the difference herevpon betweene Ambrose and Hierome dares not determine because Augustine leaneth to Ambrose and most of all the greeke fathers to Hierome reading it wee shall not all sleepe And for Ambrose Erasmus sheweth how he stagreth in this assertion Meane while wee doe follow him whom wee explane b There shal be a resurrection This we must stick to it is a part of our faith How it must bee let vs leaue to GOD and yoake our selues in that sweet obedience vnto Christ. It sufficeth for a christian to beleeue this was or that shal be let
not the for bidden meates rehearsing the gratiousnesse of the New Testament from CHRISTS first comming euen vnto this Iudgement we haue now in hand For first he tells how GOD saith that hee commeth to gather the nations and how they shall come to see his glorie For all haue sinned saith the Apostle and are depriued of the glorie of GOD. Hee sayth also that hee will leaue signes amongst them to induce them to beleeue in him and that hee will send his elect into many nations and farre Islands that neuer heard of his name to preach his glory to the Gentiles and to bring their bretheren that is the bretheren of the elect Israell of whome hee spake into his presence to bring them for an offering vnto GOD in chariots and vpon horses that is by the ministerie of men or angells vnto holie Ierusalem that is now spread through-out the earth in her faithfull Cittizens For these when GOD assisteth them beleeue and when they beleeue they come vnto him Now GOD in a simily compares them to the children of Israel that offered vnto him his sacrifices with psalmes in the Temple as the church doth now in all places and hee promiseth to take of them for priests and for leuites which now wee see hee doth For hee hath not obserued fleshly kindred in his choise now as hee did in the time of Aurons priest-hood but according to the New Testament where CHRIST is priest after the order of Melchisedech hee selecteth each of his priests according to the merit which GODS grace hath stored his soule with as wee now behold and these b Priests are not to bee reckned of for their places for those the vnworthie doe often hold but for their sanctities which are not common both to good and bad Now the prophet hauing thus opened Gods mercies to the church addeth the seueral ends that shall befall both the good and bad in the last iudgement in these w◅ds As the new heauens and the new earth which I shall make shall remaine before mee saith the LORD euen so shall your seede and your name And from month to moneth and from Sabbath to Sabbath shall all flesh come to worshippe before mee saith the LORD And they shall goe forth and looke vpon the members of the men that haue transgressed against mee for their women shall not die neither shall their fire bee quenshed and they shal be an abhorring vnto all flesh Thus endeth the Prophet his booke with the end of the world Some in this place for members read c carkasse hereby intimating the bodies euident punishment though indeed a carkasse is properly nothing but dead flesh but those bodies shal be lyuing otherwise how should they bee sensible of paine vnlesse wee say they are dead bodies that is their soules are fallen into the second death and so wee may fitly call them carkasses And thus is the Prophets former words also to bee taken The land of the wicked shall fall Cadauer a carkasse all knowes commeth of Cado to fall Now the translators by saying the carkasses of the men doe not exclude women from this damnation but they speake as by the better sexe beeing that woman was taken out of man But note especially that where the Prophet speaking of the blessed sayth all flesh shall come to worshippe Hee meaneth not all men for the greater number shal be in torments but some shall come out of all nations to adore him in the Heauenly Ierusalem But as I was a saying since here is mention of the good by flesh and of the bad by carkasses Verelie after the resurrection of the flesh our faith whereof these words doe confirme that which shall confine both the good and bad vnto their last limits shal be the iudgement to come L. VIVES AGainst a the vnfaithfull Hierome out of the hebrew and the seauenty readeth it Against his enemies b Priests are not to be It is not priest-hood nor orders that maketh a man any whit respected of GOD for these dignities both the Godly and vngodly doe share in but it is purity of conscience good life and honest cariage which haue resemblance of that immense that incorruptible nature of GOD those winne vs fauour with him c Carkasses So doth Hierome reade it But marke Saint Augustines vprightnesse rather to giue a fauorable exposition of a translation to which hee stood not affected then any way to cauill at it How the Saints shall goe forth to see the paines of the wicked CHAP. 22. BVt how shall the good goe forth to see the bad plagued Shall they leaue their blessed habitations and goe corporally to hell to see them face to face God forbid no they shall goe in knowledge For this implieth that the damned shal be without and for this cause the Lord calleth their place vtter darkenesse opposite vnto that ingresse allowed the good seruāt in these words Enter into thy Maisters ioye and least the wicked should be thought to goe in to bee seene rather then the good should goe out by knowledge to see them being to know that which is without for the tormented shall neuer know what is done in the Lords Ioye but they that are in that Ioye shall know what is done in the vtter darkenesse Therefore saith the Prophet they shall goe forth in that they shall know what is without for if the Prophets through that small part of diuine inspiration could know these things before they came to passe how then shall not these immortalls know them being passed seeing that in them the Lord is al in all Thus shall the Saints bee blessed both in seed and name In seed as Saint Iohn saith And his seed remaineth in him In name as Isaias saith So shall your name continue from moneth to moneth and from Sabbath to Sabbath shall they haue rest vpon rest passing thus from old and temporall types to new and euerlasting truthes But the paines of the wicked that eternall worme and that neuer dying fire is diuersly expounded either in reference to the bodie onelie or to the soule onely or the fire to belong to the bodie reallie and the worme to the soule figuratiuely and this last is the likeliest of the three But heere is no place to discusse peculiars Wee must end this volume as wee promised with the iudgement the seperation of good from badde and the rewards and punishments accordingly distributed Daniels prophecy of Antichrist of the iudgement and of the Kingdome of the Saints CHAP. 23. OF this Iudgement Daniel prophecieth saying that Antichrist shall fore-run it and so hee proceedeth to the eternall Kingdome of the Saints for hauing in a vision beheld the foure beasts types of the foure Monarchies and the fourth ouer-throwne by a King which all confesse to bee Antichrist and then seeing the eternall Empire of the Sonne of man CHRIST to follow Daniell saith hee Was troubled in spirit in the middest of my body and the visions of mine head made mee
aduised them to remember the law of Moyses because he fore saw that would here-after miss-interprete much thereof hee addeth Behold I will send you a Heliah the Prophet before the comming of the great and fearefull day of the Lord and hee shall turne the heart of the fathers to the children and of the children to the fathers least I come and smite the earth with cursing That this great and mighty Prophet Elias shall conuert b the Iewes vnto Christ before the iudgment by expounding them the lawe is most commonly beleeued and taught of vs Christians and is held as a point of infallible truth For we may well hope for the comming of him before the iudgment of Christ whome we do truly beleeue to liue in the body at this present houre with-out hauing euer tasted of death Hee was taken vp by a fiery chariot body and soule from this mortall world as the scriptures plainly auouch Therefore when he commeth to giue the law a spirituall exposition which the Iewes doe now vnderstand wholy in a carnall sence Then shall hee turne the hearts of the fathers vnto the children or the heart of the father vnto the child for the LXX doe often vse the singular number for the plurall that is the Iewes shall then vnderstand the law as their holy forefathers had done before them Moyses the Prophets and the rest For the vnderstanding of the fathers being brought to the vnderstanding of the children is the turning of the fathers heart vnto the children and the childrens consent vnto the vnderstanding of the fathers is the turning of their heart vnto the fathers And whereas the LXX say c And the heart of a man vnto his kinsman fathers and children are the nearest of kindred and consequently are meant of in this place There may be a farther and more choice interpretation of this place namely that Helias should turne the heart of the father vnto the childe not by making the father to loue the child but by teaching that the father loueth him that the Iewes who had hated him before may hence-forth loue him also For they hold that God hateth him now because they hold him to be neither God nor the Sonne of God but then shall his heart in their iudgements be turned vnto him when they are so farre turned them-selues as to vnderstand how he loueth him The sequell And the heart of man vnto his kinsman meaneth the heart of man vnto the man Christ for hee being one God in the forme of God taking the forme of a seruant and becomming man vouchsafed to become our kinsman This then shall Heliah performe Least I come and smite the earth with cursing The earth that is those carnall thoughted Iewes that now are and that now murmure at the Deity saying that he delighted in the wicked and that it is in vaine to serue him L. VIVES HEliah a the Of him read the King 1. 2. The Iewes out of this place of Malachi beleeue that hee shall come againe before the Messiah as the Apostles doe shew in their question concerning his comming Matt. 17. to which our Sauiour in answering that he is come already doth not reproue the Scribes opinion but sheweth another cōming of Heliah before himelfe which the Scribes did not vnderstand Origen for first he had said that Helias must first come and restore all things But it being generally held that Helias should come before Christ and it being vnknowne before which comming of Christ our Sauiour to cleare the doubt that might arise of his deity in that the people did not see that Helias was come said Helias is come already meaning Iohn of whome hee him-selfe had sayd If yee will receiue it this is Helias As if he had said bee not moued in that you thinke you saw not Helias before me whome you doubt whether I be the Messias or no. No man can be deceiued in the beleeuing that Iohn who came before me was that Helias who was to come not that his soule was in Iohn or that Helias himselfe in person were come but in that Iohn came in the spirit and power of Helias to turne the hearts of the fathers vnto the children to make the vnbeleeuers righteous and to prepare me a perfect people as the Angel promised of him Luc. 1. 17 This great mistery the Lord being willing to poynt at and yet not laying it fully open hee eleuates the hearts of the audience with his vsuall phrase vpon such occasions Hee that hath eares to heare let him heare And truely Iohns life came very neare Helias his Both liued in the wildernesse both wore girdles of skins both reproued vicious Princes and were persecuted by them both preached the comming of Christ fittly therefore might Iohn bee called another Helias to forerunne Christs first comming as Helias him-selfe shall do the second c. b Conuert the Iewes Therefore said Christ Helias must first come c. to correct saith Chrisostome their infidelity and to turne the hearts of the fathers vnto the children that is vnto the Apostles And then hee maketh a question If Helias his comming shall do so much good why did not our Sauiour send him before his first comming Answ. because as then they held our Sauiour himselfe to be Helias and yet would not beleeue him wheras when at the worlds end Helias shall come after all their tedious expectation and shew them who was the true Messias then will they all beleeue him c And the heart of man Hierome and our English vulgar read it other-wise That it is not euident in the Old-Testament in such places as say God shall iudge that it shal be in the person of Christ but onely by some of the testimonies where the Lord God speakes CHAP. 30. TO gather the whole number of such places of Scripture as prophecy this iudgement were too tedious Sufficeth we haue proued it out of both the Testaments But the places of the Old-Testament are not so euident for the comming of Christ a in person as them of the New be for whereas we read in the Old that the Lord God shall come it is no consequent that it is meant of Christ for the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are all both Lord and God which we may not omit to obserue Wee must therefore first of all make a demonstration of those places in the prophets as do expressely name the Lord God and yet herein are euidently meant of Iesus Christ as also of those wherein this euidence is not so plaine and yet may bee conueniently vnderstood of him neuerthelesse There is one place in Isaias that hath it as plaine as may be Here me O Iacob and Israel saith the said Prophet my called I am I am the first and I am the last surely my hand hath laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand hath spanned the Heauens when I call them they stand together All you assemble your selues and heare which amongst
Iudgement shal be but the meanes whereby the soules shal be purified 14. The temporall paines of this life afflicting al man-kinde 15. That the scope of Gods redeeming vs is wholy pertinent to the world to come 16. The lawes of Grace that all the â—…regenerate are blessed in 17. Of some christians that held that hells paines should not be eternal 18. Of those that hold that the Intercession of the Saints shal saue all men from damnation 19. Of such as hold that heretiques shal be saued in that they haue pertaken of the body of Christ. 20. Of such as allow this deliuerance onely to wicked and reuolted Catholikes 21. Of such as affirme that al that abide in the Catholike faith shal be saued for that faith 22. Of such as affirme that the sinnes committed amongst the workes of mercy shal not be called into Iudgement 23. Against those that exclude both men deuils from paines eternal 24. Against those that would proue al damnation frustrate by the praiers of the Saints 25. Whether that such as beeing baptized by heretiques become wicked in life or amongst Catholiques and then fal away into heresies schismes or contynuing amongst Catholiques be of vicious conuersation can haue any hope of escaping damnation by the priuiledge of the Sacraments 26. What it is to haue Christ for the foundation where they are that shal be saued as it were by fire 27. Against those that thinke those sinnes shall not be laid to their charge wherewith they mixed some workes of mercy FINIS THE ONE AND TVVENTITH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Why the punishment of the damned is here disputed of before the happinesse of the Saints CHAP. 1. SEEing that by the assistance of Our LORD and SAVIOVR IESVS CHRIST the Iudge of the quick and the dead we haue brought both the Citties the one whereof is GODS and the other the deuills vnto their intended consummation wee are now to proceed by the helpe of GOD in this booke with the declaration of the punishment due vnto the deuill and all his confederacy And this I choose to doe before I handle the glories of the blessed because both these the wicked are to vndergo their sentences in body and soule and it may seeme more incredible for an earthly body to endure vndissolued in eternall paines then without all paine in euerlasting happinesse So that when I haue shewne the possibility of the first it may bee a great motiue vnto the confirmation of the later Nor doth this Methode want a president from the Scriptures themselues which some-times relate the beatitude of the Saints fore-most as here They that haue done good vnto the resurrection of life but they that haue done euill vnto the resurrection of condemnation and some times afterward as here The Sonne of man shall send forth his Angells and they shall gather out of his Kingdome al things that offend and them which doe iniquitie and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shal be wayling and gnashing of teeth Then shall the iust shine like the Sunne in the Kingdome of the Father and againe And these shall goe into euerlasting paine and the righteous into life eternall Besides hee that will looke into the Prophets shall finde this ordeâ—… often obserued it were too much for me to recite all my reason why I obserue it heere I haue set downe already Whether an earthly bodie may possibly be incorruptible by fire CHAP. 2. WHat then shall I say vnto the vn-beleeuers to prooue that a body carnall and liuing may endure vndissolued both against death and the force of eternall fire They will not allowe vs to ascribe this vnto the power of God but vrge vs to prooue it to them by some example If wee shall answere them that there are some creatures that are indeed corruptible because mortall yet doe liue vntouched in the middest of the fire and likewise that there are a kinde a of Wormes that liue without being hurt in the feruent springs of the hot bathes whose heare some-times is such as none can endure and yet those wormes doe so loue 〈◊〉 liue in it that they cannot liue without it this either they will not beleeue vnlesse they see it or if they doe see it or heare it affirmed by sufficient authority then they cauill at it as an insufficient proofe for the proposed question for that these creatures are not eternall howsoeuer and liuing thus in this heate nature hath made it the meane of their growth and nutriment not of their torment As though it were not more incredible that fire should nourish any thing rather then not consume it It is strange for any thing to be tormented by the fire and yet to liue but it is stranger to liue in the fire and not to bee tormented If then this later be credible why is not the first so also L. VIVES A Kinde a of wormes There are some springs that are hot in their eruptions by reason of their passages by vaines of sulphurous matter vnder ground Empedocles holds that the fire which is included in diuers places of the earth giueth them this heate Senec. Quaest. nat lib. 3. Their waters are good for many diseases Many of those naturall bathes there are in Italy and likewise in Germany whereof those of Aquisgrane are the best Of these bathes read Pliny lib. 1. 32. In these waters doe the wormes liue that he speaketh of Whether a fleshly body may possibly endure eternall paine CHAP. 3. YEa but say they a there is no body that can suffer eternally but it must perish aâ—… length How can we tell that Who can tell whether the b deuills doe suffer in their bodies when as the confesse they are extreamely tormented If they answere that there is no earthly soule and visible body or to speake all in one no flesh that can suffer alwaies and neuer die what is this but to ground an assertion vpon meere sence and apparance for these men know no flesh but mortall and what they haue not knowne and seene that they hold impossible And what an argument it this to make paine the proofe of death when it is rather the testimony of life for though our question bee whether any thing liuing may endure eternall paine and yet liue still yet are wee sure it cannot feele any paine at all vnlesse it liue paine beeing inseperably adherent vnto life if it be in any thing at all Needs then must that liue that is pained yet is there no necessity that this or that paine should kill it for all paine doth not kill all the bodies that perish Some paine indeed must by reason that the soule and the body are so conioyned that they cannot part without great torment which the soule giueth place vnto and the mortall frame of man beeing so weake that it cannot withstand this c violence thereupon are they seuered But afterwards
they shall be so reioyned againe that neither time nor torment shall bee able to procure their seperation Wherefore though our flesh as now bee such that it cannot suffer all paine without dying yet then shall it become of another nature as death also then shal be of another nature For the death then shal be eternall and the soule that suffereth it shall neither bee able to liue hauing lost her God and onely life nor yet to avoide torment hauing lost all meanes of death The first death forceth her from the body against her will and the second holds her in the body against her will Yet both are one in this that they enforce the soule to suffer in the body against her will Our opponent will allow this that no flesh as now can suffer the greatest paine and yet not perish but they obserue not that there is a thing aboue the body called a soule that rules and guides it and this may suffer all torment and yet remaine for euer Behold now here is a thing sensible of sorrow and yet eternall this power then that is now in the soules of all shal be as then in the bodies of the damned And if wee weigh it well the paines of the bodie are rather referred to the soule The soule it is and not the body that feeles the hurt inflicted vpon any part of the bodie So that as wee call them liuing and sensitiue bodies though all the life and sense is from the soule so likewise doe wee say they are greeued bodies though the griefe bee onely in the soule So then when the bodie is hurt the soule grieueth with the bodie When the minde is offended by some inward vexation then the soule greeueth alone though it bee in the bodie and further it may greeue when it is without the bodie as the soule of the ritch glutton did in hell when hee sayd I am tormented in this flame But the bodie wanting a soule grieueth not nor hauing a soule doth it grieue without the soule If therefore it were meete to draw an argument of death from the feeling of paine as if wee should say hee may feele paine ergo he may die this should rather inferre that the soule may die because it is that which is the feeler of the paine But seeing that this is absurd false how then can it follow that those bodies which shal be in paine shall therefore bee subiect vnto death Some d Platonists hold that those parts of the soule wherein feare ioye and griefe were resident were mortall and perished wherevpon Virgill sayd Hinc metuunt cupiuntque dolent gaudent hence that is by reason of those mortall parts of the soule did feare hope ioye and griefe possesse them But touching this wee prooued in our foureteenth booke that after that their soules were purged to the vttermost yet remained there a desire in them to returne vnto their bodies and where desire is there griefe may bee For hope beeing frustate and missing the ayme turneth into griefe and anguish Wherefore if the soule which doth principally or onely suffer paine bee notwithstanding e after a sort immortall then doth it not follow that a body should perish because it is in paine Lastly if the bodie may breed the soules greefe and yet cannot kill it this is a plaine consequent that paine doth not necessarily inferre death Why then is it not as credible that the fire should grieue those bodies and yet not kill them as that the body should procure the soules ◅nguish and yet not the death Paine therefore is no sufficient argument to proue that death must needs follow it L. VIVES THere is a no body A common proposition of Aristotle Plato Epicurus Zeno Cicero Seneca all the ancient Philosophers b Whether the deuills The Platonists dispute among thēselues whether the bodies of the Damones haue feeling Some say thus the feeling lieth onely in the Nerues and sinewes The Daemones haue now sinewes ergo Others as the old Atheists say that the feeling is not in the sinewes but in the spirit that engirteth them which if it leaue the sinew it becommeth stupid and dead therefore may the bodies of these Daemones both feele and be felt and consequently bee hurt and cut in peeces by a more solid body and yet notwithstanding they doe presently reioyne and so feele the lesse paine though they feele some the more concrete and condensate that their bodies are the more subiect are they to suffer paine and therefore they doe some of them feare swords and threatnings of casting them downe headlong Mich. Psell. and Marc. Ch◅rrones Hence it is perphaps that Virgil maketh Sibylla bid Aeneas draw his sword when they went downe to hell Aeneid 6. c Uiolence Paine saith Tully Tusc. quaest 2. is a violent motion in the body offending the sences which if it exceede oppresseth the vitalls and bringeth death whether it arise of the super-abundance of some quality of the bodie of heate moysture the spirits the excrements or of the defect of any of them or ab externo which three are generally the causes of paine d Some Platonists Aristotle affirmes as much De anima lib. e After a sort For it was not from before the beginning and yet shal be euerlasting it shall neuer be made nothing though it shall suffer the second death and endure eternally dying Natures testimonies that bodies may remaine vndiminished in the fire CHAP. 4. IF therefore the a Salamander liue in the fire as the most exact naturalists record and if there bee certaine famous hills in b Sicily that haue beene on fire continually from beyond the memory of man and yet remaine whole vnconsumed then are these sufficient proofes to shew that all doth not consume that burneth as the soule prooueth that all that feeleth paine doth not perish Why then should we stand vpon any more examples to prooue the perpetuity of mans soule and body without death or dissolution in euerlasting fire and torment That GOD that endowed nature with so many seuerall and c admirable qualities shall as then giue the flesh a quality whereby it shall endure paine and burning for euer Who was it but hee that hath made the flesh of a d dead Peacock to remaine alwaies sweete and without all putrefaction I thought this vnpossible at first and by chance being at meate in Carthage a boyled Peacock was serued in and I to try the conclusion tooke of some of the Lyre of the breast and caused it to be layd vp After a certaine space sufficient for the putrefaction of any ordinary flesh I called for it and smelling to it found no ill taste in it at all Layd it vp againe and thirty daies after I lookt againe it was the same I left it The like I did an whole yeare after and found no change onely it was somewhat more drie and solide Who gaue such cold vnto the chaffe that it will keepe snow vnmelted in it and withall
many things which were they not to bee seene and confirmed by sufficient testimony would seeme as impossible as the rest whereas now wee know them partly all and partly some of vs. As for other things that are but reported without â—…estimony and concerne not religion nor are not taught in scripture they may bee false and a man may lawfully refuse to beleeue them I doe not beleeue all that I haue set downe so firmely that I doe make no doubt of some of them but for that which I haue tried as the burning of lyme in water and cooling in oyle the loade-stones drawing of Iron and not moouing a straw the incorruptibility of the Peacoks flesh whereas Platoes flesh did putrifie the keeping of snow and the ripening of apples in chaffe the bright fire makeing the stones of his owne colâ—…our and wood of the iust contrarie these I haue seene and beleeue without any doubt at all Such also are these that cleare oyle should make blacke spottes and white siluer drawne a black line that coales should turne black from white wood brittle of hard ones and incorruptible of corruptible peeces togither with many other which tediousnesse forbiddeth me heere to insert For the others excepting that fountaine that quensheth and kindleth againe the dusty apples of Sodome I could not get any sufficient proofes to confirme them Nor mett I any that had beheld that fountaine of Epyrus but I found diuerse that had seene the like neere vnto Grenoble in France And for the Apples of Sodome there are both graue authors and eye-witnesses enow aliue that can affirme it so that I make no doubt thereof The rest I leaue indifferent to affirme or deny yet I did set them downe because they are recorded in our adâ—…ersaries owne histories to shew them how many things they beleeue in their owne bookes with-out all reason that will not giue credence to vs when wee say that God Almighty will doe any thing that exceedeth their capacity to conceiue What better or stronger reason can be giuen for any thing then to say God Almighty will doe this which hee hath promised in those bookes wherein he promiseth as strange things as this which he hath performed He will do it because he hath said hee will euen hee that hath made the incredulous Heathens beleeue things which they held meere impossibilities L. VIVES WHy then a cannot God Seeing the scope of this place is diuine and surpasseth the bounds of nature as concerning the resurrection iudgment saluation and damnation I wonder that Aquinas Scotus Occam Henricus de Gandauo Durandus and Petrus de Palude dare define of them according to Aristotles positions drawing them-selues into such labyrinths of naturall questions that you would rather say they were Athenian Sophisters then Christian diuines b Sufficient Mans conceipt being so slender and shallow in these causes of things in so much that Virgil said well Faelix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas c Grenoble It was built by Gratian and called Gratianopolis Valens being Emperour of the East It standeth in Daulphine and reteineth part of the old name That the alteration of the knowne nature of any creature vnto a nature vnknowne is not opposite vnto the lawes of nature CHAP. 8. IF they reply that they will not beleeue that mans body can endure perpetuall burning because they know it is of no such nature so that it cannot bee said of it that nature hath giuen it such a quality we may answer them out of the scriptures that mans body before his fall was of such a nature that it could not suffer death and yet in his fall was altered vnto that mortall misery wherein now all man-kinde liueth to dye at length and therefore at the resurrection it may vndergoe such another alteration vnknowne to vs as yet But they beleeue not the Scriptures that relate mans estate in Paradise if they did we should not neede to stand long with them vpon this theame of the paines of the damned whereas now wee must make demonstration out of their owne authors how it is possible that there may bee a full alteration of nature in any one obiect from the kinde of being that it had before and yet the lawes of nature be kept vnviolated Thus wee read in Varro's booke De Gente Pop. Rom. Castor saith hee relateth that in that bright starre of Venus a which Plautus calles Hesperugo and Homer the glorious b Hesperus befell a most monstrous change both of colour magnitude figure and motion the like neuer was before nor since and this saith Adrastus Cyzicenus and Dion Neapolites two famous Astronomers befell in the reigne of Ogyges A monstrous change saith Varro and why but that it seemed contrary to nature such we say all portents to be but wee are deceiued for how can that be against nature which is effected by the will of God the Lord and maker of all nature A portent therefore is not against nature but against the most common order of nature But who is hee that can relate all the portents recorded by the Gentiles Let vs seeke our purpose in this one What more decretall law hath God laide vpon nature in any part of the creation then hee hath in the motions of the heauens what more legall and fixed order doth any part of nature keepe and yet you see that when it was the pleasure of Natures highest soueraigne the brighest starre in all the firmament changed the coulour magnitude and figure and which is most admirable the very course and motion This made a foule disturbance in the rules of the Astrologians if there were any then when they obseruing their fixed descriptions of the eternall course of the starres durst affirme that there neuer was nor neuer would bee any such change as this of Venus was Indeed wee read in the Scripture that the Sunne stood still at the prayer of Iosuah vntill the battle was done and went back to shew Hezechias that the Lord had added fifteene yeares vnto his life As for the miracles done by the vertues of the Saints these Infidels know them well and therefore auerre them to be done by Magicke where-vpon Virgil saith as I related before of the witch that she could Sistere aquam fluuiis vertere syder a retrò Stop floods bring back the starres c. For the riuer Iordan parted when Iosuah lead the people ouer it and when Heliah passed it as likewise when his follower Heliseus deuided it with Heliah his cloake and the sunne as wee said before went back in the time of Hezechiah But Varro doth not say that any one desired this change of Venus Let not the faithlesse therefore hood winck them-selues in the knowledge of nature as though Gods power could not alter the nature of any thing from what it was before vnto mans knowledge although that the knowne nature of any thing bee fully as admirable but that men admire nothing but rarieties For
reformed the defects supplied and the excesses fitly proportioned And for collour how glorious will it bee The iust shall shine as the Sunne in the Kingdome of their Father And this lustre was rather hidden from the Apostles eyes at CHRISTS resurrection then wanting in his bodie For mans weake eyes could not haue endured it and CHRIST was rather to make them to know him then to shew them his glory as hee manifested by letting them touch his woundes by eating and drinking with them which hee did not for any neede of meate or sustenance but because hee had power to doe it And when a things is present thus and not seene with other things that are present and seene as this glory was vnseene beeing with his person which was seene this in greeke is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines translate it in Genesis caecitas blindnesse The Sodomites were smitten with it when they sought Lots dore and could not finde it But if it had beene direct blindnesse they would rather haue sought for guides to lead them home then for this dore which they could not finde L. VIVES BEauty a is So sayth Tully Tuse quest 3. who maketh beauty of two sorts one wherein dignity excelleth another wherein comelinesse Aristotle giueth euery part of mans life a seuerall beauty 〈◊〉 1. That euery mans body how euer dispersed here shall bee restored him perfect at the Resurrection CHAP. 20. OVr loue vnto the Martyrs is of that nature that wee desire to behold the scarres of their wounds borne for the name of Christ euen in their glorification and perhaps so wee shall For they will not deforme but grace them as then and giue out a lustre of their vertue not bodily albeit in the body But if any of them lost any member for his Sauiour surely hee shall not want that in the resurrection for vnto such was it sayd not an haire of your heads shall perish But if CHRISTS pleasure bee to make their scarres apparant in the world to come then shall those members also that were cut off haue visible markes in the place whence they were cut and where they are reioyned for although all their miserable hurts shall not bee their visible yet their shal be some which neuerthelesse shal be no more called hurts but honours And farre bee it from vs to thinke a GODS power insufficient to recollect and vnite euery atome of the bodie were it burnt or torne by beasts or fallen to dust or dissolued into moysture or exhaled into ayre GOD forbid that any corner of nature though it may bee vnknowne to vs should lie hid from the eye and power of the almighty b Tully their great author going about to define GOD as well as hee could affirmed him to bee Mens soluta libera secreta ab omni concretione mortali omnia sentiens mouens ispaque motu predita sempiterno A free and vnbounded intellect separate from all mortall composition moouing and knowing althings and moouing eternally in himselfe This hee found in the great Philosophers Now then to come vp to them what can lie hid from him that knoweth all what can avoide his power that mooueth all And now may wee answere the doubt that seemeth most difficult that is whose flesh shall that mans bee at the resurrection which another man eateth â—…c Ancient stories and late experience haue lamentably enformed vs that this hath often come to passe that one man hath eaten another in which case none will say that all the flesh went quite through the body and none was turned into nutriment the meager places becomming by this onely meate more full and fleshy doe prooue the contarry Now then my premises shall serue to resolue this Ambiguity The flesh of the famished man that hunger consumed is exhaled into ayre and thence as wee sayd before the Creator can fetch it againe This flesh therefore of the man that was eaten shall returne to the first owner of whome the famished man doth but as it were borrow it and so must repay it againe And that of his owne which famine dried vppe into ayre shal be recollected and restored into some conuenient place of his body which were it so consumed that no part thereof remained in nature yet GOD could fetch it againe at an instant and when hee would himselfe But seeing that the verie heires of our head are secured vs it were absurd to imagine that famine shold haue the power to depriue vs of so much of our flesh These things beeing duely considered this is the summe of all that in the Resurrection euery man shall arise with the same bodie that hee had or should haue had in his fullest growth in all comelinesse and without deformity of any the least member To preserue with comelinesse if some what bee taken from any vnshapely part and decently disposed of amongst the rest that it bee not lost and withall that the congruence bee obserued wee may without absurdity beleeue that there may be some addition vnto the stature of the bodie the inconuenience that was visible in one part beeing inuisibly distributed and so annihilated amongst the rest If any one avow precisely that euery man shall arise in the proper stature of his growth which hee had when hee died wee doe not oppose it so that hee grant vnto an vtter abolishing of all deformity dulnesse and corruptibility of the sayd forme and stature as things that beeâ—…it not that Kingdome wherein the sonnes of promise shal be â—…uall to the Angells of GOD if not in their bodies nor ages yet in absolutâ—… perfection and beatitude L. VIVES TO thinke a Gods power The Gouernor of a family if hee bee wise and diligent knowes at an instant where to fetch any thinke in his house be his roomes neuer so large and many and shall we thinke that GOD cannot doe the like in the world vnto whose wisdome it is but a very casket b Tully Tusc. quaest lib. 1. c Ancient stories Many Cities in straite sieges haue beene driuen to this There is also a people called Anthropophagi or Caniballs that liue vpon mans flesh What new and spirituall bodies shal be giuen vnto the Saints CHAP. 21. EVery part therefore of the bodies peryshing either in death or after it in the graue or wheresoeuer shal be restored renewed and of a naturall and corruptible bodie it shall become immortall spirituall and incorruptible Bee it all made into pouder and dust by chance or cruelty or dissolued into ayre or water so that no part remaine vndispersed yet shall it not yet can it not bee kept hidden from the omnipotency of the Creator who will not haue one haire of the head to perish Thus shall the spirituall flesh become subiect to the spirit yet shall it bee flesh still as the carnall spirit before was subiect to the flesh and yet a spirit still A proofe of which wee haue in the deformity of our penall estate For they
man and to kill one another to make meate of yea euen the mother to massacre and deuowre her owne child Nay is not our very d sleepe which wee tearme rest some-times so fraught with disquiet that it disturbes the soule and all her powers at once by obiecting such horred terrours to the phantasie and with such an expression that shee cannot discerne them from true terrours This is ordinary in some diseases besides that the deceiptfull fiends some-times will so delude the eye of a sound man with such apparitions that although they make no fâ—…rther impression into him yet they perswade the sence that they are truely so as they seeme and the deuills desire is euer to deceiue From all these miserable engagements representing a kinde of direct hell wee are not freed but by the grace of IESVS CHRIST For this is his name IESVS IS A SAVIOVR and he it is that will saue vs from a worse life or rather a perpetuall death after this life for although wee haue many and great comforts by the Saints in this life yet the benefits hereof are not giuen at euery ones request least wee should apply our faith vnto those transitory respects whereas it rather concerneth the purchase of a life which shal be absolutely free from all inconuenience And the more faithfull that one is in this life the greater confirmation hath hee from grace to endure those miseries without faynting where-vnto the Paynin authors referre their true Philosophy which their Gods e as Tully saith reuealed vnto some few of them f There was neuer saith hee nor could there bee a greater guift giuen vnto man then this Thus our aduersaries are faine to confesse that true Philosophy is a diuine gift which beeing as they confesse the onely helpe against our humane miseries and comming from aboue hence then it appeareth that all mankinde was condemned to suffer miseries But as they confesse that this helpe was the greatest guift that GOD euer gaue so doe wee avow and beleeue that it was giuen by no other God but he to whom euen the worshippers of many gods giue the preheminence L. VIVES MIght a hee bee left There was neuer wild beast more vnruely then man would bee if education and discipline did not represse him hee would make all his reason serue to compasse his apperites and become as brutish and fond as the very brutest beast of all b One comming Of such accidents as this read Pliny lib. 7. cap. 4. and Valer. Max. lib. 9. c Diseases As the poxe call them French Neapolitane Spanish or what you will they are indeed Indian and came from thence hether Childeren are borne with them in the Spanish Indies or the pestilent sweate that killeth so quickly the ancient writers neuer mention these Such another strange disease a Nobleman lay sicke of at Bruges when I was there the Emperor Charles beeing as then in the towne Iohn Martin Poblatio told mee that hee had neuer read of the like and yet I will auouch his theory in phisicke so exact that either the ancient phisitions neuer wrote of it or if they did their bookes are lost and perished d Sleepe So Dido complayneth to her sister of her frightfull dreames Uirg Aeneid e As Tully saith But where I cannot finde vnlesse it bee in his 5. de finibus f There was neuer The words of Plato in his Timaeus translated by Tully towards the end of the dialogue Tullyâ—…ath â—…ath it also in his fifth de Legib. Of accidents seuered from the common estate of man and peculiar onely to the iust and righteous CHAP. 23. BEsides those calamities that lie generally vpon all the righteous haue a peculiar labour to resist vice and be continually in combat with dangerous temptations The flesh is some-times furious some-times remisse but alwaies rebellious against the spirit and the spirit hath the same sorts of conflict against the flesh so that wee cannot doe as wee would or expell all concupiscence but wee striue by the helpe of GOD to suppresse it by not consenting and to curbe it as well as we can by a continuall vigilance least we should bee deceiued by likelyhoods or suttleties or involued in errors least wee should take good for euill and euill for good least feare should hold vs from what wee should doe and desire entice to vs do what we should not least the sunne should set vpon our anger least enmity should make vs returne mischiefe for mischiefe least ingratitude should make vs forget our benefactors least euill reports should molest our good conscience least our rash suspect of others should deceiue vs or others false suspect of vs deiect vs least sinne should bring our bodies to obey it least our members should bee giuen vppe as weapons to sinne least our eye should follow our appetite least desire of reuenge should drawe vs to inconuenience least our sight or our thought should stay too long vpon a sinfull delight least we should giue willing eare to euill and vndecent talke least our lust should become our law and least that wee our selues in this dangerous conflict should either hope to winne the victory by our owne strength or hauing gotten it should giue the glory to our selues and not to his grace of whom Saint Paul saith Thankes bee vnto GOD who hath giuen vs victory through our Lord Iesus Christ and else-where In all these things we are more then conqueror through him that loued vs. But yet wee are to know this that stand wee neuer so strong against sinne or subdue it neuer so much yet as long as wee are mortall wee haue cause euery day to say Forgiue vs our trespasses But when wee ascend into that Kingdome where immortality dwelleth wee shall neither haue warres wherein to fight nor trespasses to pray for nor had not had any heere below if our natures had kept the guifts of their first creation And therefore these conflicts wherein wee are endangered and whence we desire by a finall victory freedome are part of those miseries where-with the life of man is continually molested Of the goods that GOD hath bestowed vpon this miserable life of ours CHAP. 24. NOw let vs see what goods the Great Creator hath bestowed in his mercy vpon this life of ours made miserable by his iustice The first was that blessing before our Parents fall Increase and multiply fill the earth c. And this hee reuoked not for all that they sinned but left the guift of fruitfulnesse to their condemned off-spring nor could their crime abolish that power of the seede-producing seed inherent and as it were wouen vppe in the bodies of man and woman vnto which neuerthelesse death was annexed so that in one and the same current as it were of man-kinde ranne both the euill merited by the parent and the good bestowed by the creator In which originall euill lieth sinne and punishment and in which originall good lieth propagation and conformation or information But of those euills
CHAP. 15. O But they thinke they giue the Christians a foule blow when they aggrauate the disgrace of their captiuitie by vrging the rapes which were wrought not onely vpon maried and mariageable persons but euen vpon some Votaresses also Here are wee not to speake of faith or godlinesse or of the vertue of chastitie but our discourse must runne a narrow course a betwixt shame and reason b Nor care wee so much to giue an answer vnto strangers in this as to minister comfort vnto our fellow Christians Bee this therefore granted as our first position that that power by which man liueth well resting enthroned and established in the minde commands euery member of the body and the body is sanctified by the sanctification of the will which sactimonie of the will if it remaine firme and inuiolate what way soeuer the body bee disposed of or abused if the partie enduring this abuse cannot auoide it d without an expresse offence this sufferance layeth no crime vpon the soule But because euery body is subiect to suffer the effects both of the furie and the lusts of him that subdueth it that which it suffereth in this latter kinde though it bee not a destroyer of ones chastitie yet is it a procurer of ones shame Because otherwise it might bee thought that that was suffered with the consent of the minde which it may bee could not bee suffered without some delight of the flesh And therefore as for those who to auoide this did voluntarily destroy themselues what humaine heart can choose but pittie them yet as touching such as would not doe so fearing by auoyding others villanie to incurre their owne damnation hee that imputes this as a fault vnto them is not vnguiltie of the faulte of folly L. VIVES BEtweene a shame and reason for shame saith that the very violation of the body is to bee called euill but Reason denyes it b Nor care we This we will speake as a comforting vnto our Christian women that endured these violences c In the minde The Platonists place the soule and hir powers in the head as in a Tower sitting there as the commander of our actions and the ouer-seer of our labours as Claudian saith d Without sinne for if wee can auoyde it without sinne we ought to endeuour this auoydance with all our powers Of such as chose a voluntary death to auoyde the feare of paine and dishonour CHAP. 16. FOR if it bee not lawfull for a priuate man to kill any man how euer guiltie vnlesse the lawe haue granted a speciall allowance for it then surely whosoeuer killes himselfe is guiltie of homicide And so much the more guiltie doth that killing of himselfe make himselfe by how much the more guiltlesse hee was in that cause for which hee killd himselfe For if Iudas a his fact be worthily detested and yet the Truth b saith that by hanging of himselfe hee did rather augment then expiate the guilt of his wicked treacherie because his despaire of Gods mercy in his c damnable repentance left no place in his soule for sauing repentance how much more ought he to forbeare from being cause of his owne death that hath no guilt in him worthy of such a punishment as death for Iudas in hanging himselfe hanged but a wicked man and dyed guiltie not onely of Christs death but of his owne also adding the wickednesse of being his owne death to that other wickednesse of his for which he dyed L. VIVES IUdas a his fact which no man but hath heard out of the Gospell b Truth saith Peter in the first of the Actes affirmes that hee did wickedly and vngodlyly both in betraying of his Lord and in hanging of himselfe c Damnable repentance For he repented indeed but so as hee despaired of being euer able to repent sufficiently for so great a villanie Of the violent lust of the Souldiers executed vpon the bodies of the captiues against their consents CHAP. 17. BVt why should he that hath done no man euill do himselfe euill and by destroying himselfe destroy an innocent man for feare to suffer iniurie by the guilte of another and procure a sinne vnto himselfe by auoiding the sinne of another O but his feare is to be defiled by anothers lust tush anothers lust cannot pollute thee if it doe it is not anothers but thine owne But chastitie being a vertue of the minde and a accompanied with fortitude by which it learnes rather to endure all euills then consent to any and b no man of this fortitude and chastitie being able to dispose of his body as he list but onely of the consent and dissent of his minde what man of witte will thinke hee looseth his chastity though his captiued body be forcedly prostitute vnto anothers beastialitie If chastitie were lost thus easilie it were no vertue of the minde nor one of c those goods whereby a man liues in goodnesse but were to be reckoned amongst the goods of the body with strength beautie health and such like d which if a man do decrease in yet it doth not follow that he decreaseth in his vprightnesse of life but if chastitie be of e another kinde why should we endanger our bodies to no end which feare to loose it for if it be f a good belonging to the mind it is not lost though the body be violated Moreouer it is the vertue of holy continencie that when it withstands the pollution of carnall concupiscence thereby it sanctifies euen the body also and therefore when the intention stands firme and giues no way to vicious affects the chastitie of the body g is not lost because the will remaines still in the holy vse and in the power too as farre as it can For the body is not holy in that it is whole or vntouched in euery member for it may be hurt and wounded by many other casualties And the Physitian oftentimes for the preseruation of the health doth that vnto the body which the eye abhorres to beholde h A Midwife trying a certaine maides integretie of the Virginall part whether for malice or by chance it is vncertaine spoiled it Now I thinke none so foolish as to thinke that this virgin lost any part of her bodily sanctitie though that part endured this breach of integritie And therefore the intent of the minde standing firme which firmnesse it is that sanctifies the body the violence of anothers lust cannot depriue so much as the i body of this sanctity because the perseuerance of the minde in continency euer preserueth it But shall we say that any woman whose corrupt minde hath broken her promise vnto God and yeelded her self willingly to the lust of her deceiuer though but in purpose is as yet holy in her bodie when she hath lost that holinesse of minde which sanctified her body God forbid And heere let vs learne that the sanctity of bodie is no more lost if the sanctity of minde remaine though the bodie bee rauished then it
their hurt and their soules in following their appetites when neede requireth so in flying of death they make it as apparant how much they set by their peace of soule and body But man hauing a reasonable soule subiecteth all his communities with beasts vnto the peace of that to worke so both in his contemplation and action that there may bee a true consonance betweene them both and this wee call the peace of the reasonable soule To this end hee is to avoide molestation by griefe disturbance by desire and dissolution by death and to ayme at profiâ—…e knowledge where vnto his actions may bee conformable But least 〈◊〉 owne infirmity through the much desire to know should draw him into any pestilent inconuenience of error hee must haue a diuine instruction to whose directions and assistance hee is to assent with firme and free obedience And because that during this life Hee is absent from the LORD hee walketh by faith and not by sight and therefore hee referreth all his peace of bodie of soule and of both vnto that peace which mortall man hath with immortall GOD to liue in an orderlie obedience vnder his eternall lawe by faith Now GOD our good Maister teaching vs in the two chiefest precepts the loue of him and the loue of our neighbour to loue three things GOD our neighbour and our selues and seeing he that loueth GOD offendeth not in louing himselfe it followeth that hee ought to counsell his neighbour to loue GOD and to prouide for him in the loue of GOD sure hee is commanded to loue him as his owne selfe So must hee doe for his wife children family and all men besides and wish likewise that his neighbour would doe as much for him in his need thus shall hee bee settled in peace and orderly concord with all the world The order whereof is first a to doe no man hurt and secondly to helpe all that hee can So that his owne haue the first place in his care and those his place and order in humane society affordeth him more conueniency to benefit Wherevpon Saint Paul saith Hee that prouideth not for his owne and namely for them that bee of his houshold denieth the faith and is worse then an Infidell For this is the foundation of domesticall peace which is an orderly rule and subiection in the partes of the familie wherein the prouisors are the Commaunders as the husband ouer his wife parents ouer their children and maisters ouer their seruants and they that are prouided for obey as the wiues doe their husbands children their parents and seruants their maisters But in the family of the faithfull man the heauenly pilgrim there the Commaunders are indeed the seruants of those they seeme to commaund ruling not in ambition but beeing bound by carefull duety not in proud soueraignty but in nourishing pitty L. VIVES FIrst a to doe no Man can more easily doe hurt or forbeare hurt then doe good All men may iniure others or abstaine from it But to doe good is all and some Wherefore holy writ bids vs first abstaine from iniury all we can and then to benefit our christian bretheren when wee can Natures freedome and bondage caused by sinne in which man is a slaue to his owne affects though he be not bondman to any one besides CHAP. 15. THus hath natures order prescribed and man by GOD was thus created Let them rule saith hee ouer the fishes of the sea and the fowles of the ayre end ouer euery thing that creepeth vpon the earth Hee made him reasonable and LORD onely ouer the vnreasonable not ouer man but ouer beastes Wherevpon the first holy men were rather shep-heards then Kings GOD shewing herein what both the order of the creation desired and what the merit of sinne exacted For iustly was the burden of seruitude layd vpon the backe of transgression And therefore in all the scriptures wee neuer reade the word Seruant vntill such time as that iust man Noah a layd it as a curse vpon his offending sonne So that it was guilt and not nature that gaue originall vnto that name b The latine word Seruus had the first deriuation from hence those that were taken in the warres beeing in the hands of the conquerours to massacre or to preserue if they saued them then were they called Serui of Seruo to saue Nor was this effected beyond the desert of sinne For in the iustest warre the sinne vpon one side causeth it and if the victory fall to the wicked as some times it may c it is GODS decree to humble the conquered either reforming their sinnes heerein or punishing them Witnesse that holy man of GOD Daniel who beeing in captiuity confessed vnto his Creator that his sinnes and the sinnes of the people were the reall causes of that captiuity Sinne therefore is the mother of seruitude and first cause of mans subiection to man which notwithstanding commeth not to passe but by the direction of the highest in whome is no iniustice and who alone knoweth best how to proportionate his punnishment vnto mans offences and hee himselfe saith Whosoeuer committeth sinne is the seruant of sinne and therefore many religious Christians are seruants vnto wicked maisters d yet not vnto free-men for that which a man is addicted vnto the same is hee slaue vnto And it is a happier seruitude to serue man then lust for lust to ommit all the other affects practiseth extreame tirany vpon the hearts of those that serue it bee it lust after soueraignty or fleshly lust But in the peacefull orders of states wherein one man is vnder an other as humility doth benefit the seruant so doth pride endamage the superior But take a man as GOD created him at first and so hee is neither slaue to man nor to sinne But penall seruitude had the institution from that law which commaundeth the conseruation and forbiddeth the disturbance of natures order for if that law had not first beene transgressed penall seruitude had neuer beene enioyned Therefore the Apostle warneth seruants to obey their Maisters and to serue them with cheerefulnesse and good will to the end that if they cannot bee made free by their Maisters they make their seruitude a free-dome to themselues by seruing them not in deceiptfull feare but in faithfull loue vntill iniquity be ouerpassed and all mans power and principality disanulled and GOD onely be all in all L. VIVES NOah a layd it Gen. 9. b The latine So saith Florentinus the Ciuilian Institut lib. 4. And they are called Mancipia quoth hee of manu capti to take with the hand or by force This you may reade in Iustinians Pandects lib. 1. The Lacaedemonians obserued it first Plin. lib. 7. c It is Gods decree Whose prouidence often produceth warres against the wills of either party d Yet not vnto free Their Maisters being slaues to their owne passions which are worse maisters then men can be Of the iust law of soueraignty CHAP. 16.