hundred yeres and more before he came to the Crown looking vpon that place where it is said I will that Cyrus whom I haue made King ouer many and great Nations shall send my People into their owne Countrey there to rebuild my Temple he I say as ouerjoyed with this Propheticall prediction witnessed by his Edict That he would send them freely into Iudaea there to erect a Temple vnto the Great God by whose mighty prouidence he was appointed to be a King so many Ages before he was borne The like is recorded of Alexander Macedo who being at Ierusalem there instructed by the Prophecie of Daniel That it should come to passe that a King of Greece should vtterly subvert the Persians and after enioy their soueraigntie and estate building from thence a certaine confidence of his future victorie hee presented Iaddus and the rest of the Priests from whom hee receiued that light of the Prophecie with many and rich gifts and moreouer gaue them not only free libertie to vse their owne Lawes and Religion but released them from a seuen yeares tribute Panormitan lib. 1. de Dictis Factis Alphons reporteth That Alphonsus King of Arragon and Sicilie neuer suffered any man to exceed him in bounty and gratitude And Herodotus lib. 1. telleth vs That though Cyrus knew himselfe to be the son of Cambyses King of Persia and Mandanes daughter to Astiages King of the Medes yet his Nurse Spaco which the Greekes call Cino from whence grew the Fable That he was nursed by a Bitch who was wife to the Herdsman of King Mithridates he held in such great honour that no day passed him in which he had not the name of Cino in his mouth Hence commeth it according to Hect. Boeth lib. 2. That the nurse-children of the most noble Scots affect those of whose milke they haue sucked and title them by the name of Foster-brothers Plutarch speaketh of Pyrrhus King of the Epyrots That he was humane and gentle vnto his familiar friends and euer ready to requite any courtesie done vnto him And Caspinus reporteth of Henry the second Emperour That onely because he was instructed in learning and Arts in a towne of Saxony called Hildescheim he for that cause made it an Episcopall See and endowed it with many faire and rich Reuenues It is reported by Plutarch of Philip King of Macedon the Father of Alexander the Great That when his great friend Eparchus Embricus was dead he mourned and lamented exceedingly but when one came to comfort him and said There was no occasion of this his so great sorrow in regard hee died well and in a full and mature age he made answer Indeed hee died so to himselfe but to me most immaturely in regard death did anticipate him before I had requited his many courtesies to the full Per Cucupham avem saith Pierius Valerius which I vnderstand to be the Storke the AEgyptians hierogliphycally signifie paternall and filiall gratitude for as Philippus Phiropollines testates Aboue all other birds they repay vnto their parents being old those benefits which they reciued from them being yong For in the same place where they were first hatched being growne to ripenesse they prepare a new nest for their Dams where they cherish them in their age bring them meat plucke away the incommodious and vnprofitable feathers and if they be vnable to flye support them vpon their more able wings Wee reade his thirtieth Emblem ad Gratiam referendam thus Aërio insignis pietate Ciconia nido Implumis pullos pectore grata fovet c. Th' indulgent Storke who builds her nest on hye Observ'd for her alternat pietie Doth cherish her vnfeather'd Yong and feed them And looks from them the like when she should need them That 's when she growes decrepit old and weake Nor doth her pious Issue cov'nant breake For vnto her bee'ng hungry food she brings And being weake supports her on her wings Saint Bernard super Cantic saith Disce in ferendo gratias non esse tardus non segnis c. Learne in thy thankfulnesse not to be slack nor slow but for euery singular courtesie to be particularly gratefull And in his first Sermon vpon the same he vseth these words As often as Temptation is ouercome or Sinne subdued or imminent Perill escaped or the Snare of the Aduersary auoided or any old and inueterat disease of the Minde healed or any long-wished and oft-deferred Vertue obtained by the great grace and gift of God so often ought laud and praise with thankesgiuing be rendred vnto him For in euerie particular benefit bestowed vpon vs God ought to be particularly blessed otherwise that man shall be reputed Ingratefull who when hee shall be called to an account before God cannot say Cantabiles mihi erant iustificationes tuae Let vs now heare what the Poets say concerning Gratitude We reade Ovid 4. de Ponte thus Pro quibus vt meritis referentur gratia jurat Se fore mancipium tempus in omne tuum c. For which that due thanks may be giv'n he sweares Himselfe thy slaue to infinites of yeares First shall the mountaines of their trees be bare And on the Seas saile neither Ship nor Crare And flouds vnto their fountaines backward fly Than of thy loue shall faile my memory As also Virgill AEnead lib. 2. Dij si quaest Coelo pietas quae talia curet Persolvant grates dignas proemia reddant Debita The gods themselues if in the heav'ns there be Which shall of these take charge that pietie Returne thee merited thanks and such a meed As is behoofefull for thy gratefull deed Sophocles in Oedipo saith Gratiam adfert gratia beneficium semper beneficium parit Thanks begets thanks and one benefit plucks on another Saith Seneca En est gratum opus si vltro offeras Behold that is a gratefull worke which commeth freely and of thine owne accord And in another place Beneficium dare qui nescit injustè petit He that knoweth not how to doe a courtesie with no justice can expect any Againe Beneficium accipere est libertatem vendere To receiue a benefit is to sell thy libertie These with many others are Maximes of the Tragicke Poet Seneca Statius lib. 7. Thebaidum saith Nec laâ—dare satis dignasque reperdené grates Sufficiunt referant superi Praise thee enough or enough thanke thee I Cannot but where I want the gods supply Ovid 1. de Tristibus thus writeth vnto a friend of his whom he had found constant vnto him in all his troubles and aduerse fortunes Haec mihi semper erint imis infixa medullas Perpetuusque animae debitor hujus ero These courtesies haue pierc'd my marrow and My life and soule at all times shall command First shall this Sp'rit into the aire expire And these my bones be burnt in fun'rall fire Than that the least obliuion shall once staine This memorie which lasting shall remaine I conclude this Theme of Gratitude with
three Presents bring Myrrhe to a Man and Gold vnto a King Incense to'a God To proue himselfe Diuine In Cana he turn'd Water into Wine Fiue Loaues two Fishes haue fiue thousand fed When surplusage remain'd of meat and bread To the borne-Blinde he shew'd the Suns bright rayes Who on th' vnknowne light did with wonder gaze He caus'd the light on Lazarus to shine After he foure dayes in the graue had ly'ne With his right hand he fainting Peter stay'd But with his word his faith more constant made She that the bloudy Issue had endur'd For many Winters by her Faith was cur'd The palsied man who had been bedrid long Took vp his bed and walkt thence whole and strong He cast out Diuels by his Word sincere He made the Dumbe to speake and Deafe to heare He it was of whom some thinke Virgil prophecied Eclog 4. in these words Vltima Cumaei venit iam Carminis atas The last day 's come of the Cumaean Ryme A great One's now borne from the first of Time The Virgin is return'd with Saturnes Crowne And now a new Birth is from Heav'n let downe He was miraculous in his death Of whom elegant S. Bernard thus speakes How sweetly Lord Iesus didst thou conuerse with men how aboundantly didst thou bestow many blessings vpon man how valiantly didst thou suffer many bitter hard and intollerable things for man hard words hard strokes more hard afflictions O hard hardned and obdure Sonnes of Adam whom so great sufferings so great benignitie so immense an ardour of loue cannot mollifie Againe God loued vs sweetly wisely valiantly sweetly in assuming our Flesh wisely in auoyding sin valiantly in suffering death but aboue all in that Cup which he vouchsafed to taste which was the great worke of our Redemption for that more than all challenges our loue it gently insinuateth our deuotion more iustly exacts it more strictly binds it more vehemently commands it And in another place In the Passion of our Sauiour it behoueth vs three things more especially to consider the Worke the Manner the Cause In the Worke his Patience in the Manner his Humilitie in the Cause his Charitie Patience singular Humilitie admirable and Charitie vnspeakeable And now me-thinks I heare the Redeemer and Sauiour of the World thus speake from the Crosse. Huc me sidereo discendere fecit Olympo His me crudeli vulnere fixit Amor c. Loue drew me hither from the starry Round And here hath pierc'd me with a cruell wound I mourne yet none hath of my griefe remorse Whom Deaths dire Lawes in vaine intend to force Loue brought me to insufferable scorne And platted on my head a crowne of Thorne It was meere loue thy wounded Soule to cure Made me these wounds vpon my flesh t' endure It was my Loue which triumphs ouer all That quencht my thirst with Vineger and Call The loue which I to Mankinde could not hide With a sharpe Speare launcht bloud out of my side Or'e me Loue onely me of Kings the King Doth now insult who hither did me bring For others gaine to suffer this great losse To haue my hands and feet nayl'd to the Crosse. Now what do I for all this loue implore Loue me againe and I desire no more Thinke saith Thomas de Kempis of the dignitie of the Person and greatly lament because God in the Flesh was so contumeliously handled Ecce Altissimus supra omnes infra omnes deprimitur Nobilissmus dehonestatur Speciocissimus sputo inquinatur c. Behold how the most-High aboue all is depressed below all The most Noble is vilified The most Faire spit vpon The most Wise derided The most Mighty bound The most Innocent scourged The most Holy crowned with Thornes The most Gentle buffetted The most Rich impouerished The most Bountifull despoyled The most Worthy blasphemed The most Good despised The most Louing hated The most Knowing reputed foolish The most True not beleeued The most Innocent condemned The most skilfull Physitian wounded The Sonne of God crucified The Immortall subiect to death and slaine The Lord of heauen and earth dying for the redemption of wretched and ingratefull seruants Sic de Cruce suo Christus loquitur Vide Homo qua pro te patior Vide Claâ—es quibus confâ—diâ—r Vide poenas quibus afficior Cum sit tantuâ— dolor exterior Interior planctus est gravior Dum ingratum te sic experior See what I for thee endure Nail'd to the Crosse by hands impure Behold the paines I suffer here Since outward griefe doth such appeare How great then is my griefe within Whilest thou ingrate abid'st in sin Briefely The whole Passion of Christ according to the sentence of Dionysius was for imitation compassion admiration contemplation inflammation and thanksgiuing According to that of Thomas à Kempis It is of diuine Loue the Incendiarie of Patience the Doctrine in tribulation the Comfort It is the solace of dissolution the substance of holy compunction the exercise of internall deuotion the exclusion of desperation the certaine hope of remission the support of sharpe reprehension the expulsion of peruerse cogitation the repression of carnall temptation the consolation of corporall imperfections the contempt of temporall aboundance the abdication of our proper affections the restraint of superfluous necessitie the exercise of honest conuersation the inflammation to amendment of life the induction to coelestial consolation the approbation of brotherly compassion the reparation of diuine contemplation the argumentation of future blessednesse the mitigation of paines present the purgation from the fire future and the great satisfaction for all our sinnes and offences whatsoeuer Briefely the Passion of Christ is of a godly and religious Soule the Mirrhor of our life the Director of the way to heauen the Load-starre of all tempests the shadow and protector and of all Soules in the houre of death the comfort and supporter The Passion of Christ saith Rabanus de laude Crucis sustaines heauen gouerneth the world pierceth hell in the first the Angels are confirmed in the second the people redeemed in the third the Enemie subdued Saint Augustine in his Sermon De Natali Domini saith That the Maker of man was made Man that he which gouerned the Stars should sucke the breast that the Bread should be hungry the Fountaine thirsty the Light should be darkned the Way should be weary the Truth should suffer by false witnesse the Iudge of the liuing and dead should by a mortall man be iudged that Iustice by injust men should be condemned that Discipline it selfe should be scourged the prime Branch crowned with thornes he that made the Tree be hanged on the Tree Strength weakned Health wounded and Life made subiect vnto death Saint Bernard in his first sermon De Nativit Christi vseth these words Vt in Paradiso terrestri quatuor fuere fontes c. As in the earthly Paradise there were foure Riuers which watered the whole earth so in Christ who is our Paradise wee may finde
them Fairies In solitarie roomes These vprores keepe And beat at dores to wake men from their sleepeâ— Seeming to force locks be they ne're so strong And keeping Christmasse gambols all night long Pots glasses trenchers dishes pannes and kettles They will make dance about the shelues and settles As if about the Kitchen tost and cast Yet in the moruing nothing found misplac't Others such houses to their vse haue fitted In which base murthers haue been once committed Some haue their fearefull habitations taken In desolat houses ruin'd and forsaken Examples faile not to make these more plaine The house wherein Caligula was slaine To enter which none euer durst aspire After his death till 't was consum'd by fire The like in Athens of which Pliny writes In his Epistles As Facetius cites In Halberstad saith he there is a Dwelling Of great remarke the neighbour roofes excelling For architecture in which made aboad A mighty rich man and a belly-god After whose death his soule gon Heav'n knowes whither Not one night fail'd for many moneths together But all the roomes with lighted tapers shone As if the darknesse had beene chac't and gone And Day there onely for his pleasure stay'd In the great chamber where before were made His riotous feasts the casements standing wide Clearely through that transparance is espy'de This Glutton whom they by his habit knew At the boords end feasting a frolicke crew Of lusty stomacks that about him sate Serv'd in with many a costly delicate Course after Course and ev'ry Charger full Neat Seruitors attended not one dull But ready to shift trenchersâ— and fill wine In guilded bowles for all with plate doth shine And amongst them you could not spy a guest But seem'd some one he in his life did feast At this high rate they seem'd to spend the night But all were vanisht still before day light Of Bishop Datius a learn'd Clerke thus saith He for the true profession of his Faith Sent into exile in his difficult way Opprest with penurie was forc'd to stay In Corinth nor there lodging could he haue In any Inne or place conuenient saue A corner house suppos'd to be inchanted And at that time with sundry Diuels haunted There taking vp his lodging and alone He soundly slept till betwixt twelue and one When suddenly he knew not by what cranny The dores bee'ng fast shut to him came a many Of Diuels thronging deckt in sundry shapes Like Badgers Foxes Hedge-hogs Hares and Apes Others more terrible like Lions rore Some grunt like hogs the like ne're heard before Like Bulls these bellow those like Asses bray Some barke like ban-dogs some like horses ney Some howle like Wolues others like Furies yell Scarse that blacke Santus could be match'd in hell At which vp starts the noble Priest and saith O you accursed Fiends Vassals of wrath That first had in the East your habitation Till you by pride did forfeit your saluation With the blest Angels you had then your seat But by aspiring to be god-like great Behold your rashnesse punisht in your features Being transhap'd into base abject creatures This hauing spoke the Spirits disappeard The house of them for euer after clear'd One thing though out of course it may appeare Yet I thought fit to be inserted here The rather too the Reader I prepare Because it may seeme wonderfull and rare Receiue 't as you thinke good or if you please To beleeue Plutarch then his words are these One call'd Enapius a yong man well bred By the Physitions was giv'n out for dead And left to his last sheet After some howers He seem'd to recollect his vitall powers To liue againe and speake The reason why Demanded of his strange recouerie His answer was That he was dead 't was true And brought before th' infernall Bar. They view Him o're and o're then call to them who'haue charge The spirit from the body to inlarge Whom Pluto with the other Stygian Pow'rs Thus threat Base Vassals can we thinke you ours Or worthy our imployment to mistake In such a serious errand Do we make You Officers and Lictors to arrest Such as are call'd to their eternall rest And when we send for one whose dismall fate Proclaimes him dead you bring vs one whose date Is not yet summ'd but of a vertue stronger As limited by vs to liue much longer We sent that with Nicander you should meet A Currier that dwells in such a street And how haue you mistooke This Soule dismisse And fetch his hither to our darke Abisse With that saith he I waken'd His friends sent Vnto the Curriers house incontinent And found him at the very instant dead When he his former life recouered And though meere fabulous this seeme to be Yet is it no impossibilitie Fiends should delude the Ethnicks and on them Confer this as a cunning stratagem To make them thinke that he dispos'd mans breath And had the sole pow'r ouer life and death At nothing more these auerse Spirits aime Than what is Gods vnto themselues to claime Others there are as if destin'd by lot To haue no pow'r but ouer goods ill got For instance One long with the world at strife Who had profest a strict religious life And taken holy Orders at his booke Spending his spare houres to a crafty Cooke Was neere ally'de and at his best vacation Findes out a time to giue him visitation And greets him with a blessing The fat Host Is glad to see his Vncle Sod and Rost He sets before him there is nothing fit To bid him welcome wanting downe they sit The good old man after some small repast More apt to talke than eat demands at last Of his Lay Nephew since he toiles and striues In this vaine world to prosper how he thriues The Cooke first fetcheth a deepe sigh then sayes O Vncle I haue sought my state to raise By ev'ry indirect and law lesse meane Yet still my couetous aimes are frustrat cleane I buy stale meat and at the cheapest rate Then if my Guests complaine I cog and prate Out-facing it for good Sometimes I buy Beeues haue been told me of the murrain dye What course haue I not tooke to compasse riches Ventur'd on some haue been found dead in ditches Bak'd dogs for Venison put them in good paste And then with salt and pepper helpt their taste Meat rosted twice and twice boyl'd I oft sell Make pies of fly-blowne joints and vent them well I froth my cannes in ev'ry jug I cheat And nicke my Ghests in what they drinke or eat And yet with these and more sleights all I can Doth not declare me for a thriuing man I pinch myne owne guts and from others gleane And yet though I shew fat my stocke is leane The good old man though at his tale offended No interruption vs'd till he had ended First hauing shooke his head then crost his brest Cousin said he this lewd life I detest Let me aduise
Euen that doth him and only him obey If he please from the dull or fertile Earth Or Floures or Weeds spring Fruitfulnesse or Dearth If he please into Rocks hee 'l water poure Which like the thirsty Earth they shall deuoure Or from the dry stones he can water spout The wildernesse of Seas the world throughout Submits to him At his Imperious will The rough and blustring Winds are calme and still The Flouds obey him Dragons he can slaue And make th' Hyrcanian Tygres cease to raue He is in the most soueraigne place instated He sees and knowes all things he hath created Nor wonder if he know our births and ends Who measures Arctos how far it extends And what the Winters Boreas limits are What to this Deity may we compare Who doth dispose as well the Spade as Crowne Teaching the counsels both of Sword and Gowne For with inuisible Ministers he traces The world and spies therein all hidden places Of Alexander Aristotle thus writes It is not numb'red 'mongst his chiefe delights That he o're many Kings hath domination But That he holds the gods in adoration Who iustly on their proud contemners lower But vnto such as praise them they giue power The Times of old AEneas did admire Because he brought his gods through sword and fire When Troy was sackt and burnt for that one pietie They held him after death worthy a Dietie Pompilius for his reuerence to them done An honor from his people likewise wone He raign'd in peace and as some writers say Had conference with the Nymph Egeria For him who knew the gods how to intreat And truly serue no honor was too great But the gods Hater impious and prophane Mezentius was in battell rudely slaine And Capaneus after that he had Assaulted Thebes wall which the gods forbad Euen in the midst of all his glory fell And by a bolt from Heauen was strooke to Hell The great Epirus Arcades King we find For spoiling Neptunes Temple was strook blind And the Duke Brennus after many an act Of strange remarke as proud Rome hauing sackt And conquering Delphos yet because he dar'd To rob that Church Apollo would haue spar'd The god strooke him with madnesse who straight drew His warlike sword with which himselfe he slew The Temple of Tolossa in their pride Great Scipio's souldiers spoil'd and after dy'de All miserably And Alexander's when They Ceres Church would haue surpriz'd euen then Fell lightning from the skies which soon destroy'd All in that sacrilegious Act imployd Religion from the first of Time hath bin Howeuer blended with idolatrous sin Temples Synagogues Altars and Oblations Lustrations Sacrifices Expiations Howe're their zeale with many errors mixt None but vpon some god his mind hath fixt The Lybians Cretans and Idaeans they Had Ioue in adoration None bare sway Amongst the Argiues in Miceane but she That shares with Ioue imperiall soueraignty Iuno The Thebans honor'd Hercules They of Boetia the three Charites Th' AEgyptians Isis figured like a Cow The Thebans and the Arabes all bow To Bacchus Bimater the god of Wine Iönia Rhodes and Delphos held diuine Apollo solely Cyprus and Paphos boast Their Venus as amongst them honor'd most Th' Athenians and AEtolians celebrate Minerua Vnto Vulcan dedicate The Imbrians and the Lemnians all their vowes Fertile Sicilia no goddesse knowes Saue Proserpine Th' Elaeans Pluto make Their Soueraigne And the Boëtians take The Muses for their Guardiens All that dwell Neere to the Hellespont thinke none t' excell Saue Priapus In Rhodes Saturn hath praise Osyris aboue all th' AEgyptians raise The Latians and the warlike Thraciaus run To Mars his Shrine the Scythians to the Sun All the inhabitants of Delphos Isle Pray That Latona on their coasts will smile 'Mongst the Lacones Neptune sacred is And through all Asia powerfull Nemesis The Attici haue in high estimation Fortune Th' Eleusians haue in adoration Ceres The Phrygians Cybel Cupid Those That dwell at Colchos Th' Arcades haue chose Aristaeus Diana those of Ephesus The Epidaurians AEsculapius c. So many gods and goddesses did comber The Nations of the earth as that their number In iust account if Hesiod speake true Vnto no lesse than thirty thousand grew As touching Auguries and their abuse In the precedent Times in frequent vse To proue that study to be meerly vain Homer hath made great Hector thus complain The winged Birds thou bid'st me to obey But how they take their course or to which way I nor regard nor care whether their flight Be made vpon the left hand or the right Most requisit it is that I be swaide By the great thundring Ioues high will and wade No farther He hath empire ouer all And whom he list supporteth or makes thrall That 's the best Bird to me and flies most true Bids For my Countrey fight my Foes subdue E're further I proceed 't were not amisse If I resolue you what an Idol is And where they had beginning I haue read Of one Syrophanes in AEgypt bred Who as he nobly could himselfe deriue So was he rich and by all means did striue Like an indulgent Father with great care To make his sonne of all his Fortunes heire And when he had accumulated more Than all his Neighbours in his height of store And fulnesse of aboundance as his pride Was to leaue one t' inherit his Son dy'de And with him all his comfort because then He gone he thought himselfe the poor'st of men In this great sorrow which as oft we see Doth seeke for solace from necessitie He caus'd his statue to be carv'd in stone S'exactly made vnto the life that none But would haue took it for the childe agreeing So neere to him it was when he had being But the sad Father thinking to restraine That flux of teares which hourely pour'd amaine Downe his moist cheeks the course he tooke to cease it Presented him fresh matter to increase it Ignorant That to helpe the woe begon There is no cure like to Obliuion So far it was his moist eyes to keepe dry As that of teares it gaue him new supply And this we may from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 borrow The word to vs implying Cause of sorrow Whilest there this new made Image had abode The Seruants made of it their houshold god Some would bring fresh floures and before it strow Others left they in duty might seem slow Crowne it with wreathes and garlands others burne Incense to soothe their Lord who still did mourne And such as had offended him would fly Vnto that place as to a Sanctuary And after pardon seuerall gifts present As if that had been the sole Instrument Of their deliuery By which 't may appeare 'T was not Loues effect but th' effect of Feare To which Petronius seemes t'allude when he Obliquely taxing all Idolatry saith That throughout the
world in euery Nation Feare first made gods with Diuine adoration Saith Martial If thy Barber then should dare When thou before him sit'st with thy throat bare And he his Rasor in his hand to say Giue me this thing or that Wilt thou say nay Or grant it him Take 't into thy beleefe He 's at that time a Ruffin and a Theefe And not thy Barber Neither can 't appeare Bounty that 's granted through imperious Feare Of the word Superstition the first ground Was To preserue to th' future whole and sound The memorie of Fathers Sons and Friends Before deceast and to these seeming ends Were Images deuis'd Which some would bring As their first author from th' Assyrian King Ninus whose father Belus being dead That after death he might be honored Set vp his statue which as most agree Was in his new built city Niniuee Whither all malefactors make repaire And such offenders whose liues forfeit are By the Lawes doom but kneeling to that Shrine Were sanctuar'd as by a thing diuine Hence came it that as gods they now abhor'd The Sun and Moone which they before ador'd With Stars and Planets they are now at strife And since by it they had recouered life Late forfeit hold it as a sov'raigne Deitie And therefore as it were in gratefull pietie They offred sacrifice burnt Incense gaue Oblations as to that had power to saue This which in Theeues and Murd'rers first began In time so generall grew that not a man But was of that beleefe and so withdrew That diuine worship which was solely due To the Creator and to him alone And gaue 't to Idols made of wood and stone And yet the Poet Sophocles euen then When the true God was scarsly knowne to men In honour of the supreme Deitie Much taunted the vain Greeks Idolatrie One God there is saith he and only one Who made the Earth his Footstoole Heav'n his Throne The swelling Seas and the impetuous Winds The first he calmeth and the last he binds In prison at his pleasure and yet wee Subiects vnto this fraile mortalitie Of diffident hearts determin and deuise To the Soules dammage many fantasies The Images of gods we may behold Carv'd both in stone and wood some left in gold Others in Iv'ry wrought and we vnwise By offring to them solemne Sacrifice Thinke we do God good seruice But the Deity Sole and supreme holds it as meere impiety Saint Austin neuer could himselfe persuade That such who mongst the antient Gentiles made Their Idoll gods beleev'd in them for he Saith confidently Though in Rome there be Ceres and Bacchus with a many more Whom they in low obeisance fall before They do it not as vnto absolute things That haue in them the innate seeds and springs Of being and subsistence but much rather As to the seruants of th' Almighty Father Yet these did worship something 't doth appeare As a Supreme whom they did loue or feare This Age breeds men so bruitsh naturall As to beleeue there is no God at all Such is the Atheist with whom can be had No competition one obtuse or mad Who cannot scape Heav'ns most implacable rod. The Psalmists Foole who saith There is no God Would such but spend a little vacant time To looke from what 's below to things sublime From terrene to coelestiall and confer The Vniuersall with what 's singuler They shall find nothing so immense and hye Beyond their stubborn dull capacity But figures vnto them his magnitude Again nothing so slight as to exclude It name amongst his creatures nought so small But proues to them his power majesticall Tell me ô thou of Mankind most accurst Whether to be or not to be was first Whether to vnderstand or not to know To reason or not reason well bee 't so I make that proposition all agree That our Not being was before To be For we that are now were not in Times past Our parents too ev'n when our moulds were cast Had their progenitors their fathers theirs So to the first By which it plaine appeares And by this demonstration 't is most cleare That all of vs were not before we were For in the Plants we see their set and ruin In Creatures first their growth then death pursuing In Men as well as Beasts since Adam's sinning The end is certaine signe of the beginning As granted then we boldly may proclaime it There was a Time if we a Time may name it When there was neither Time nor World nor Creature Before this Fabrick had such goodly feature But seeing these before our eyes haue being It is a consequence with Truth agreeing Of which we only can make this construction From some Diuine power all things had production And since of Nothing nothing can befall And betwixt that which is bee 't ne're so small And what is not there is an infinite space Needs must some Infinite supply the place It followes then The prime Cause and Effector Must be some potent Maker and Protector A preualent great and eternall God Who before all beginning had aboad Come to the Elements A war we see Twixt Heate and Cold Drought and Humiditie Now where 's Antipathy must be Annoy One laboring still the other to destroy And yet in one composure where these meet There 's Sympathie Attone and cons'nance sweet The Water doth not fight against the Fire Nor doth the Aire against the Earth conspire All these though opposites in vs haue peace Vniting in one growth and daily increase To make inueterate Opposites agree Needs must there be a God of Vnitie What is an Instrument exactly strung Vnlesse being plaid vpon it yeelds no tongue Or pleasant sound that may delight the eares So likewise of the musicke of the Spheres Which some haue said chym'd first by accident O false opinion'd Foole What 's the intent Of thy peruersenesse or thine ignorance Shall I designe what Fortune is or Chance Nothing they are saue a meere perturbation Of common Nature an exorbitation And bringing out of square these to controule Therefore must needs be an intelligent Soule For know you not you Empty of all notion That nothing in it selfe hath power of motion And that which by anothers force doth moue The cause of that effect must be aboue Th' originall of Mouing must be Rest Which in our common Dialls is exprest The Sun-beame pâ—ints the houre the shadow still From our shifts to another ev'n vntill Thou tel'st vnto the last yet 't is confest That all this while th' Artificer may rest The Earth in sundry colours deckt we know With all the Herbage and the Fruits below The Seas and Flouds Fish in aboundance store Fowles numberlesse within the Aire do soare And all these in their seuerall natures clad So fairely that her selfe can nothing add From whence haue these their motion Shall we say From th' Elements How comes it then that
astray as ev'ly minded For they in their owne wickednesse are blinded For nothing they Gods mysteries regard Nor of a good man hope for the reward Neither discerne That honour doth belong Vnto the faultlesse Soules that thinke no wrong For God created Man pure and vnblam'd Yea after his owne Image was he fram'd But by the Diuels enuy Death came in Who holds with him shall proue the Scourge of sin But in great boldnesse shall the Righteous stand Against the face of such as did command Them to the torture and by might and sway The fruits of all their labors tooke away When they shall see him in his strength appeare They shall be vexed with an horrid feare When they with an amased countenance Behold their wonderfull deliuerance And change their mindes and sigh with griefe and say Behold these men we labour'd to betray On whom with all contempt we did incroch And held them a meere by-word of reproch We thought their liues to madnesse did extend And there codld be no honour in their end How come they now amongst Gods Children told And in the list of Saints to be inrol'd Therefore from Truth 's way we haue deuious bin Nor trod the path the Righteous haue walkt in From the true Light we haue our selues confin'd Nor hath the Sun of Knowledge on vs shin'd The way of Wickednesse which leadeth on To ruine and destruction we haue gon By treading dangerous paths our selues w' haue tyr'd But the Lords way we neuer yet desir'd What profit hath our Pride or Riches brought Or what our Pompe since these are come to nought All these vaine things like shadowes are past by Or like a Post that seems with speed to fly Or as a Bird the earth and heav'n betweene Who makes her way and yet the path not seene The beating of her wings yeelds a soft sound But of her course there 's no apparance found As when an Arrow at a marke is shot Finds out a way but we perceiue it not For suddenly the parted aire vnites And the fore-passage is debat'd our â—ights So we no sooner borne and take our breath But instantly we hasten on to death In our liues course we in no vertue ioy'd And therefore now are in our sinnes destroy'd Th'Vngodlie's hopes to what may we compare But like the dust that 's scattered in the aire Or as the thin some gathered on the waue Which when the tempest comes no place can haue Or as the smoke dispersed by the wind Which blowne abroad no rest at all can find Or else As his remembrance steales away Who maketh speed and tarieth but a day But of the Iust for euer is th' aboad For their reward is with the Lord their God They are the charge and care of the most High Who tenders them as th' Apple of his eye And therefore they shall challenge as their owne From the Lords hand a Kingdome and a Crowne With his right hand hee 'l couer them from harme And mightily defend them with his arme He shall his Ielousie for Armor take And put in armes his Creatures for their sake His and their Foes to be reueng'd vpon He for a glorious breast-plate shall put on His Righteousnesse and for an Helmet beare True Iudgement to astonish them with feare For an invinc'd shield Holinesse he hath And for a sword he sharpens his fierce Wrath. Nay the whole World hee 'l muster to surprise His Enemies and fight against th' Vnwise The thunderbolts by th' hand of the most High Darted shall from the flashing lightnings fly Yea fly ev'n to the marke as from the Bow Bent in the clouds and in His anger go That hurleth stones the thicke Haile shall be cast Against them shall the Flouds and Ocean vast Be wondrous wroth and mightily or'eflow Besides the fierce Winds shall vpon them blow Yea and stand vp against them with their God And like a storme shall scatter them abroad Thus Wickednesse th' earth to a Desart brings And Sinne shall ouerthrow the Thrones of Kings You heare their doome It were not much amisse If we search further what this Atheisme is Obserue That sundry sorts of men there be Who spurne against the sacred Deitie As first Those whom Idolaters we call Pagans and Infidels in generall These though they be religious in their kinde Are in the manner of their worship blinde And by the Diuel's instigation won To worship Creatures as the Moon and Sun Others there be who the true God-head know Content to worship him in outward show Yet thinke his Mercy will so far dispence That of his Iustice they haue no true sence His Pitty they acknowledge not his Feare Because they hold him milde but not austere Some like brute beasts will not of sence discusse With such Saint Paul did fight at Ephesus Others are in their insolence so extreme That they deride Gods name scoffe and blaspheme As Holophernes who to Achior said Albeit thou such a vaine boast hast made That Israels God his people can defend Against my Lord who doth in power transcend Where th' Earth no greater pow'r knowes neere or far Than him whom I serue Nabuchadnezzar Diuers will seeme religious to comply With time and place but aske their reason Why They so conforme themselues They know no cause More than To saue their purse and keepe the Lawes There be to Noble houses make resort And sometimes Elbow Great men at the Court Who though they seeme to beare things faire and well Yet would turne Moses into Machiuel And but for their aduantage and promotion Would neuer make least tender of deuotion For their Diuinitie is that which we Call Policie their Zeale Hipocrisie Their God the Diuell whose Imagination Conceits That of the world was no Creation These haue into Gods Works no true inspection Dreame of no Iudgement Hell or Resurrection Reckon vp Genealogies who were Long before Adam and without all feare As those doom'd to the bottomlesse Abisme Hold There was no Noës Arke no Cataclisme Besides How busie hath the Diuell bin Ev'n from the first t' encrease this stupid Sin Not ceasing in his malice to proceed How to supplant the Tenents of our Creed Beginning with the first two hundred yeares After our Sauiours Passion he appeares In a full seeming strength and would maintaine By sundry obstinate Sectists but in vaine There was not one Almighty to begin The great stupendious Worke but that therein Many had hand Such were the Maniches Marcionists Gnostyes and the like to these The second Article he aim'd at then And to that purpose pickt out sundry Men Proud Hereticks and of his owne affinitie Who did oppose the blessed Sonne 's Diuinitie But knowing his great malice to his mind Did not preuaile he then began to find A cauill 'gainst the Third and pickt out those Who stiffely did the Holy-Ghost oppose Him from the
draught desire And each one striues his elbow to lift higher Still as they more desir'd the more he drew And dranke so long vntill the ground lookt blew Nay after that they bad him still supply them He now through feare not daring to deny them Fill'd vp their woodden dish ev'n to the brim Vntill at length their braines began to swim Supposing the ground shooke and much ado They had to stand each man appearing two Being thus ' toxt they'gan to apprehend That they were poyson'd and now neere their end Therefore before their deaths they all agreed To be reueng'd on him that did the deed And with this wicked resolution tooke Their staues in hand and at the good man strooke One with his sheep-hooke aiming at his head And thinking with one blow to strike him dead Not guiding well his weapon in that state Mist him and hit his fellow on the pate A second threats him with a deadly wound But his arme swaruing only beats the ground A third saith Fie can you not guide your blowes And stepping forward tumbleth on his nose Let me come saith a fourth with my pell mell And with that word fell ouer him that fell A fift saith Nay 't is I must cracke his crowne But turning round he strooke the next man downe And then a fixt with fury yawn'd and gap'd But by indenturing still the good man scap'd O but alas his fate was come and now All guirt him round and though nor where nor how Their blowes were aim'd or fell they could deuise Themselues being batter'd both in face and eyes Icarius whose life they had in chace Poore man was only found dead in the place And then their fury somewhat did appease The wine still working sleepe began to seise Vpon their eye lids which they tooke for death Now giuing summons to their parting breath Bee'ng friends and neighbours ready to forsake The world a solemne leaue they needs must take Amongst themselues and well as they could stand They aime to take each other by the hand But by the weaknesse of their knees and feet Although their hands misse yet their foreheads meet And so they make a staggering shift to ' embrace And bid farewell to one anothers face In drunken teares their parting they deplore From that day forward neuer to see more Their soules departing now they know not whether So their legs failing fall asleepe together Mera the Dog in th' interim when he found His Master to lie dead vpon the ground Lookes in his face doth mourning by him sit Who in the skirmish had both bark'd and bit Then runnes to finde his Mistresse When he meets her In stead of whining he with howling greets her And that too so vntunable and shrill She doubts it the presage of some great ill His taile he wags not as he wonted erst Her tender heart his looke deiected pierst At meeting he whose custome still had bin To fawne and leape and with a smiling grin To entertaine her now with a sad frowne Doth vsher her the way his head cast downe And oft lookes backe in such a pitteous guise She may perceiue teares dropping from his eyes Which passion in her rather did prouoke Because he lookt as if he would haue spoke For all the waies he could he stâ—iv'd to tell How by those bloudy Swaines her Father fell And thus the Damsell followed her sad Guide Vnto the place where all the grasse was dyâ—de With her deare fathers bloud he pale and wan She falls vpon him striuing if she can To revoke life But finding at the last It was as vaine as call backe day that 's past She silent sate and so the Dog did too From her obseruing what he ought to do 'T is worthy note their griefe at this disaster She for a Father Mera for a Master If she cry'd out and shreek'd he howl'd and so As if he would out do her in her wo. Then vp she rose and he starts vp to see What she intends Who then vpon the tree Beneath which the Coarse lay casts vp her eye Weary of life and now resolv'd to die Then from her knees her garters she vnty'de And of them both she makes a knot to slide The noose she puts about her necke prepares For speedy death The Dog vpon her stares Wondring what shee 's aboutâ— he sees her clime And as he fear'd the worst now thinks it time To preuent further mischiefe from his throat First sends an howle then catches by her coat Thinking to plucke her backe but she more quicke Ascends the piece still in his teeth doth sticke Torne from the rest And she hath leisure now By tying fast her garters to a bow Her selfe to strangle There she dangling hung At which the Curre a new blacke Saâ—tus sung Did first on th' one then on the other staâ—e Him dead on earth her dying in the aire Dispairing then of both he runnes among The drunken Swaines the cause of all this wrong Who still lay sleeping One he bites by th' eare Another takes by th' nose and a third teare By th' leg and arme where-euer his teeth light Bloud followes after what is next in sight He fastens and withall such noise did make That now the Wine left working all awake Who rows'd and stretching of themselues began To recollect what past They spy'd the Man Lie dead whom they had murder'd and the Maid New hang'd vpon the tree At which afraid As toucht in conscience from the place they fled But still the Dog remain'd to guard the Dead Obserue Heav'ns justice in reuenge of guilt And care of bloud innocuous to be spilt Bacchus whom Liber Pater else we call So at their deaths griev'd and incenst withall As that th' Athenian Damsels and choice Maids With such a desperat frensie he inuades No night coud passe but of those best ally'd Some one or other by their owne hands dy'd Therefore vnto the Oracle they send To know by what meanes they the gods offend In such high nature And withall entreat How they may stop a punishment so great Answer 's return'd That plague was sent because They both against Diuine and Humane lawes Had suffered two such to be rest of bâ—â—â—â—h And they neglected to reuenge their death Resolued of this doubt they study now Neglect and all contempt to disavow Their bodies they enquire giue them humation Build them a monument an inundation Of teares is spent the gods wrath to appease By search the Murd'rers are found out they seise Vpon their persons iudge them to be lead To the same place there hang'd till they be dead This done they vndertake to plant the Vine And of their Tombe late rear'd they make a Shrine Where yeare by yeare the first fruits of the Must They offer vp to their now rotten dust But their two Spirits which can neuer dye The gods commanded to be fixt on high Icarius of Arcturus beares the name
Mankinde Pouder the Gun and Bombard his great'st fame Is That to future Times he left no Name Nay haue there not new Worlds been found of late 'Gainst their opinions who did intimate There could be no Antipodes All concur After much factious arguing and huge stur By antient Sophists and Philosophers broacht That such who either on more Worlds incroacht Or would th'Eternitie of this maintaine Are meere erronious fabulous and vaine Yet note how cunningly some dare dispute Presuming on a knowledge absolute Of the Intelligences in their kinde The perfectest and best dispos'd we finde Is their Coelestial Orbs and Circles still To keepe in motion causing them fulfill Their naturall office To which purpos'd end Their perfectnesse and goodnesse they extend For 't is the nature and the propertie Of truly Good and Perfect still to be Indulgent to th' Inferior and their State To them in some sort to communicate And from this Spring or Fountaine mannag'd so All finall Causes and Efficients flow Now if the World with all contain'd therein Eternally before Time hath not bin Then these Intelligences for a space Beyond all computation though in place Had idle been by which 't is vnderstood In that they neither perfect are nor good Proceeding further God and Nature striue In all the works they fashion or deriue To make things for the best Now who but knowes 'T was better for the World in their dispose And the more noble worke To haue been euer And so vnto Eternitie perseuer Than once not to haue been as many say And so in time to perish and decay Besides what was made new might haue been don In space precedent before Time begun And so from all Eternitie and God Who hath from Euerlasting his aboad Whose Potencie and Wisedome we adore Vnchanged is nor can be lesse or more And therefore since To be is better held Than Not to be which cannot be refell'd So better 't is with reason best agreeing The World to haue eâ—er bin than not to ' had being And so by consequence alwaies remaine Much better than to be dissolv'd againe To conclude which this graue Philosopher By most approued Testates doth infer Common consent because none can deny But Heav'n to be the Seat of the Most High Then if He be eternall needs must be The Mansion which receiues him old as He. This onely I haue drawne from Infinites Now heare of him what learn'd Procopius writes He that all Natures secrets seem'd to know And of vnsounded Learning made great show Standing vpon the Nigroponticke shore And there obseruing then with diuers more Of his owne Sect how seuen times in one day It eb'd and flow'd to their great wonder they Demanding from him to be satisfy'de Of this Afflux and Reflux Ebbe and Tyde The naturall reason he after long pause Not able to resolue them of the cause Vtter'd these words Nay then since that I see I cannot take the Sea the Sea take me And from the promontorie where he stood Without more stay he leapt into the Floud Now how could he vncapable to pry Into a Naturall cause himselfe comply To search into that darke and hidden Treasure Which is vnbounded vast and without measure Retyre to Reason on which they erect The weake frame of their falling Architect What consonance with Reason can there be But in so long a perpetuitie So many Miriads of yeares but needs They must haue knowne what later time new breeds Within few thousands They that wade so far Into these curiosities but mar What they would seeme to make What vndeuis'd Is left to vs or what vnenterpris'd Vnlesse their braines they yet would stretch more hye And practise how with Daedalus to flye To walke inuisible or by their breath To make fraile man vncapable of Death Great is the confidence I well might say Presumption that these Bodies Dust and Clay Ambitiously assume who dare aspire After things Supernaturall to `enquire Striuing if possible themselues to inuest Euen in the secrets of th' Almighties brest What madnesse is it for an heauy load Of putred Flesh that onely hath aboad Here in the lower world deny'd by Nature Or to adde to or take off from his stature Being debar'd all possible means to fly Or mount himselfe betwixt the Earth or Sky Either like bold aspiring Phaeton To aime at the bright Chariot of the Sun Or with his waxen wings as Icarus did Attempt what God and Nature haue forbid What is this lesse than when the Gyants stroue To mutiny and menace war 'gainst Iove This notwithstanding plainely doth demonstrate A great Nobilitie in Mans conceit Whose Apprehension howsoeuer rude Yet is still aiming at such Altitude Yet note how these who others would haue school'd In seeming most wise most themselues haue fool'd Euen Diuine Plato blusht not to attest Yet he for iudgement honour'd ' boue the rest That he in Athens and the selfe same place In which he then taught with much loue and grace Had read the selfe same Lectures yeares ago Full fifteen thousand adding some few mo And the like terme of yeares expir'd agen In the same Schoole he should appeare as then To the same Scollers reading the same things Obserue but what this ouer-weening brings Meere folly if not madnesse To the Wise 'Mongst many others let what 's spoke suffice But why should I end here and not discusse The ground how Plato came besotted thus There is a yeare that in Times large progresse Is ANNVS MAGNVS call'd Others no lesse Trauell'd that way it ANNVS VERYENS call And some ANNVS MVNDANVS These are all The knowne names giuen it and in this 't is sayd The Stars and Planets howsoeuer sway'd Be they or fixt or wandring in this yeare Returne to their first state and then appeare In their owne Orbs vnwearied and instated As fresh and new as when at first created Macrobius thus describes it Then saith he This Great and Vertent Yeare is when we see All Stars and Planets brought to their first station After their much and long peregrination By which they would infer That all such men As are now liuing were existent then In those past Ages and hereafter too Shall in that state subsist which they now doo Beare the same names and syrnames haue the same Fathers and Mothers from which we first came With the same countrey fortunes and appeare As long before and now so in that yeare When it shall come in Times long revolution And though of vs there be a dissolution It is but for a space Vicissitude Shall still from time to time see vs renew'd Like these Coelestial Bodies How absurd The Tenet is it scarcely doth affoord A Schoole-boyes answer For if this were true These Bookes which we write now before were new And by all such as now peruse them read And in the future hauing long been dead When this yeare
others were of a contrary opinion as shall be made plaine vnto you in the sequell Lucan lib 7. de Bell. Civil vseth these words Communis mundi superest rogus ossibus astra Mixturus Id est There is a common fire yet to come which with our bones shall mix the Stars As likewise Seneca in Hercule Octas Mundo conueniet dies Australis Polus corruet c. Vpon the World a Day shall call When as the Australl Pole must fall And whatsoe're by Lybia lyes What Spartan Garamas espyes The shrinking Northerne Pole shall flat And vtterly subuert Nay what Is at that season found to be Plac't beneath either Axle-tree What the North winde hath blowne vpon Shall all be in that ruine gone The Sun shall then cast off the day The Heav'n it selfe shall quite decay And haue a sure and certaine end The gods shall not themselues defend But either Death or Chaos shall To former Nothing turne them all No face shall be of Earth or Skye And Death must be the last shall dye Ovid agreeth with Seneca in this for you reade him thus in his Metamorphosis Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur adfore tempus c. Amongst the Fates there 's registred a Time When Sea and Earth and all the Heav'ns sublime Shall burne at once and all this goodly Frame Must be consum'd and cease to haue a name Lucretius you may likewise heare to the same purpose Principio Maria Terras Coelumque tuere First looke ô Memmius on the Sea the Land And Heav'n whose triple nature vnderstand Three bodies three formes so vnlike yet such As cannot for their shape be admir'd too much Yet this great Mole and Machine of the world Shall in one day be into ruine hurl'd Seneca in his Tragedie of Octavia thus speakes Nunc adest Mundo Dies c. Now to the World a Day drawes neare And that the last that shall appeare Which by Heav'ns ruine shall make immolation Of this most wicked Generation That a new Stocke may thence arise Of better Natures much more wise With a condition like sincere As in the Worlds first Age they were Hither may that speech of Tindarus in Plautus morally and not altogether vnproperly be applied Hic ille est Dies cum nulla vitae salus Sperabilis est mecum Neque exilium exitio est c. This is the Day in which no hope Or health of life can be by me expected Exile can be to me no end All helpe all comfort I haue now reiected Vnto my crafty fraudulencies Which were vnlimited and kept no bound For all my cunning sycophancies No shelter no euasion can be found Neither for my perfidiousnesse Can intercession any way preuaile For my apparant wickednesse There is no purchase of reprieue or baile For all my craft fraud and deceit There is no way by which I can euade It now too late is fauour to entreat All that I kept conceal'd is open laid My juglings are made manifest Bootlesse it is my punishment to fly And since I haue so far transgrest Doubtlesse that I an euill death shall dye All these may serue to expresse the Worlds dissolution Now concerning the Creation heare Claudian in Laudem Stellicon speaking of the great power and strength of Clemencie Principio magni custos Clementia mundi c. She that Clemencie is styl'd Was first who on the great World smyl'd She is the Zone that Iove embrac't And still she dwells about his wast The middle Firmament she swayes And both the heate and cold allayes And she is to be vnderstood The eldest of the Heav'nly Brood For Clemencie did first vnty As pittying the deformity Of the rude Chaos all that Heape And caus'd the Light from thence to leape Dispersing Darknesse Shee 's the prime That with cleere lookes made Age and Time Hauing heard the Poets let vs now heare what the Philosophers say Aristotle vseth these words Non plures Mundi sunt c. There are no more Worlds nor more can be if this consist of the vniuersall Matter as of necessitie it must And again Lib. Phys. 4. All things that are vnder heauen in time grow old corruptible and vile As concerning the multiplicitie of Worlds diuers Philosophers held with Many and of these some to be greater some lesse of which certaine of them to be enlightned with Sunne Moone and the rest of the Planets others to haue no illumination from any Star or Coelestial body and others againe to haue the benefit and vse of far more of these heauenly Lights than we in this inferior world enioy Moreouer that some of these worlds daily encrease and grow greater others of the contrary are obnoxious to contraction and diminution of which sundry of them are quite destitute of Plants Creatures and Inhabitants c. But which appeares most childish and ridiculous to all that are apprehensiue of any humane reason they maintaine That these worlds by mutuall wearing and ruine according to our plaine English Phrase fall foule one vpon another and are interchangeably shattered and broken life so many glasses or earthen vessells Metrodorus was of such madnesse that hee blushed not to attest That it was as preposterous to all true Iudgements to thinke that in so infinite a Vacuum there should be but one world as in a large and spatious field there to be but one spike or blade of grasse But these delirements and imaginarie Chimaera's haue been opposed by the better experienced Sophists as Pythagoras Samius Thales Milesius Anaxagoras Anaximander Melissus Heraclitus Zeno Citicus c. as is more amply expressed by Aristotle the Prince of Philosophers Aboue the rest Plato with his Scholler Aristotle conclude vpon one World namely this in which we now liue and reside To make this plaine let ys go no farther than the definition of the World according to Aristotle The World saith hee is that in which all things are contained and without which there is nothing that is or can be found So by consequence if there were any thing without the world then the world could not containe all things and therefore no world But to omit as many arguments and those too vnanswerable as would swell this single leaued Pagin into a many-sheeted Volume in these few words this question may be fully determined There is but one world and that perfect as there is but one most perfect Creator the absolute Prince and Gouernor thereof without which world there is neither Place Vacuitie nor Time Place there is not because there can be no Place without a Body if there be no Body then no Motion if no Motion all Time is excluded Nam Tempus est mensura motus i. For Time is the measure of all motion Let vs leaue then these wrangling and selfe-opinioned Sophists to their errors and for our own satisfaction as an vnfailing refuge sanctuarie our selues in that which the Holy-Ghost speaketh by the
They haue found out a thousand wayes to die Then came the Brasen Age worse than the two former yet not altogether so wicked as the last of which Ovid Met. lib. 1. makes mention Tertia post illas successit ahaenea proles Saevior ingenijs c. The third succeeds the Brasen Issue stil'd More cruell in their natures and more vild More apt to horrid Armes than those forepast And yet not all so wicked as the last The Iron Age is the last of which the soâ—e Poâ—t in the selfe same booke makes this description de Duro est vltimâ— Ferro c. The fourth of Iron into whose veines are crept All those grand mischiefes that beforeâ— time slept Truth Modestie and Faith together fled As banisht from the earth into whose sted Came Craft Deceit Fraud Iniurre and Force And that than which there 's nothing can be worse Base Auarice for not the Earth could breed Out of her plenteous crop enough to feed Insatiate Mankinde but that they must dare To rip her reuerend bowels vp nor spare To teare her brest and in the Stigian shade What she had long hid boldly to inuade And dig vp wealth the root of all things bad By this means wounding Iron at first was had Made to destroy they then discouer'd Gold More hurtfull far though of a purer mold Then War strengthned by both doth armed stand Shaking a weapon in each bloudy hand All liue on spoile the guest is not secure In his Hosts house nor is the Father fure Protected by the Son ev'n Brothers â—arre True loue and friendship is amongst them rare The husband doth insidiate the wife And she againe seekes to supplant his life The rough brow'd Step-dame her yong Step-son hugs Temp'ring for him meane time mortiferous drugs The Sonne after his Fathers yeares enquires And long before the Day his death desires Goodnesse lies vanquisht Piety betray'd Vertue is trod on and the heav'nly Maid Astraea now a better place hath found And left the Earth in bloud and slaughter drown'd So much for the Ages of the World It will be no great deuiation to speake a word or two concerning the Age of Man Servius Tullius King of the Romans called those Pueri i. Laddes or Youths who were vnder seuenteene yeares and from thence to forty six Iuniâ—res as those that were fit to be exercised in warre and from the six and fortieth yeare they were called Seniores and then exempted from Armes Varro diuided Mans Age into Infancie Adolescencie the strength of Youth and Old-Age and them retracted into their parts the first Viridis i. Greene the second Adulta i. Growne the third Praecepti i. Stooping It was also diuided into fiue Sections and euerie one contained fifteene yeares the first were called Pueri ex Puritate Children by reason of their puritie and innocence of life the second to thirty Adolescentes from their growth and encrease the third Section gaue them the title of Iuviues ab adiumenta because they were able then to assist in the wars vntill the forty fifth yeare At threescore yeares they were stiled Seniores i. Elder men And in the fift and last Section all their life time after they were called Senes Hippocrates as Censorinus Lib. de Die Natal affirmeth maketh seuen degrees of the Age of man the first endeth in the seuenth yere the second in the fourteenth the third in the one and twentieth the fourth in the fiue and thirtieth the fift in the two and fortieth the sixth in sixty and the seuenth to the end of his life c. Galen in his booke De Deâ—â—nit Medic. will allow but foure Iuvenum Vigentium Mediorum Senum And these are not vnaptly compared with the seasons of the yeare as Ovid with great elegancie doth thus set it downe Quod non in species secedere quatuor Annum Aspicis AEtatis per agentem imit amina nostrae The Yeare thou seest into foure seasons castâ— Suting our Age which is to come or past Infancie and Childehood is represented in the Spring Youth in Sommer the middle or intermediate betwixt Strength and Weaknesse to Autumne and Old-Age to cold and feeble Winter Concerning which we thus reade the before-named Author Nam tener lacteus Puerique similimus aevâ— c. The new Spring comes to which we may compare Children that feed on milke and tender are The yong and springing grasse the season tells For weake and without strength it growes and swells Sweetning the Farmers hopes all things are greene The fields looke pleasant floures are each where seene And decke the Meads in a discoloured suit The branches only bud but beare no fruit Spring into Sommer passeth now the yeare More strong and potent doth like Youth appeare No Season of more vigor and abilitie More ardent or abounding with fertilitie Youths feruor being somewhat now allay'de Ripe Autumne in his course begins to'inuade And mildely doth 'twixt Youth and Age beare sway His head part blacke but somewhat mixt with gray Then comes old Winter with a palsied pace His haire or white or none his head to grace You may also trace him thus Met. lib. 2. Verque novum stabat cinctum florente corona c. Now Spring stood there a fresh wreath girt his braine And Sommer naked in a crowne of graine Autumne from treading grapes in torne attyre And rugged Winter new come from the fire I will conclude this with Pliny lib. 10. cap. 23. As no man saith he knoweth when the Storkes come till they be come and no man can tell when they remoue and depart till they be vtterly gone because they come and goe priuately in the dead of night when no man can take notice or be aware of either so no man can perceiue his age to come till it be vpon him nor his youth going till it be quite gone And as hee that hath sung much is not to be approued but he that hath sung skilfully so he is not to be commended that hath liued long but he onely that liued well I conclude the premisses with Plato's Yeare The yeare is called Annus which Festus would deriue from the Greeke word Enos But others would haue it a meere Latine word as Atteius Capito so Macrobius lib. 1. Saturn witnesseth of him who thinkes it so called of the circle or compasse of Time of An which is Circum and Nonus which signifieth the Nones Which word may for the vnderstanding of some need a little explanation They are called Nones of Novenus as Denus quasi decimus of the number nine Rutilius writeth That thereupon the Romanes called their Faires Nondinae because that for eight dayes together the Husbandmen were employed in ploughing tilling sowing or reaping but euery ninth day was a day of intermission either for conuerse in the City or hearing of their Lawes read and expounded They are called the Nones of euery month because from
of issue the Saturnine to dissuade from all things that be euill Such was that Socraticum Daemonium or Genius of Socrates which still continued and encouraged him in the studie an practise of Vertue whose condition was to dissuade him from many things but to persuade him to nothing Of this Daemonium strange things are reported in Historie as that it was euer at his elbow to diuert him from doing euill and to aduise him to shun and auoid danger to remember him of things past to explaine vnto him things present and reueale vnto him things future Socrates himselfe confessed that hee saw it sometimes but seldome yet heard it often He dissuaded Charmiades the sonne of Glaucus from going to the Groues of Nemaea and to excuse himselfe from that journey who despising his counsell perished in the aduenture Vpon a time sitting at the table of Timarchus where a great banquet was serued in Timarchus offered twice to rise from the boord but was held by Socrates Yet watching his opportunitie while the other was in serious discourse hee stole away priuately and met with Nyceus whom he slew For which fact being condemned and led to death he confessed vnto his brother Clitimachus That if he had been swayed by the double aduertisement of Socrates hee had not vndergone so sad a disaster The same Socrates in a great defeate which the Athenians had flying from the victorious Enemie with Lachetes the Praetor and comming to a place where three wayes met he chose one path to himselfe contrarie to the aduice and counsell of all the rest And being demanded the reason wherefore he did so he made answer That his Genius so persuaded him Which they deriding tooke a contrarie course and left him abandoned to himselfe Now when the Horsemen of the Enemie made hot pursuit after them they tooke that path which Lachetes and all his people had taken who were all put to the sword and onely those few which followed Socrates escaped He presaged the great strage and messacre which after hapned in Sicilia As also of the deaths of Neon and Thrasillus in their Expedition against those of Ionia and Ephesus Saint Augustine in his booke De Cognitione verae vitae is persuaded That Spirits by Gods permission can raise stormes and tempests and command raine haile snow thunder and lightning at their pleasures As also That by the instigation of Spirits wild Beasts become either rebellious or seruiceable to mans vse In another place hee ascribeth the operation of all things seasonable or vnseasonable vnto them but not as Authors and Makers but Ministers and Seruants to the Diuine Will and command According with that in Ecclesiasticus Cap. 39. vers 28. There be Spirits that are created for vengeance which in their rigour lay on sure strokes in the time of destruction they shew forth their power and accomplish the wrath of him that made them Fire Haile Famine and Death all these are created for vengeance the teeth of the wilde Beasts and the Scorpions and the Serpents and the Sword execute vengeance for the destruction of the Wicked They shall be glad to do his commandements and when need is they shall be ready vpon earth and when their houre is come they shall not ouerpasse the commandements c. To this strict rule of Gods commandement both the good and bad Spirits are limited and beyond that they haue power or abilitie to do nothing Otherwise those that are malignant euill would in their rabies and fury destroy all Gods creatures in a moment Moreouer as the same Author affirmeth the Diuell hath power to tempt and entice man to sinne and wickednesse but he cannot compell him These be his words Serm. de Temp. Potest Diabolus ad malum invitare non potest trahere Delectationem infert non potestatem c. Rabbi Avot Nathan a learned Iew affirmeth That Spirits haue three things common with men namely Procreation Food and Death Porphirius as Proclus witnesseth of him held all Spirits to be mortall and that he amongst them who was the longest liued did not exceed the number of a thousand yeares Plutarch in his booke De Oraculorum defectu reciteth a story That about the Islands called Echinades newes was brought to one Thamus being then a ship boord that god Pan was dead and this happened iust at the birth of our Sauiour Christ. But because I haue made vse of this Historie heretofore in a booke commonly entituled The History of Women to insert the same here likewise might be tasted as Cibus bis coctus But to answer that learned Rabbi and Porphyrius like him opinionated Not possible it is That Spirits created by God immortall and incorporeall should be any way obnoxious to extinction or death More credible it is that these were meere phantasies and illusions of the Diuell by such prestigious sorceries persuading vs that Spirits are mortall to make man distrust the immorralitie of the Soule and so possesse him with an heresie grosse impious and damnable Here likewise a most necessarie consideration may be inserted to giue answer to the Sadduces and others who obstinately affirme That Moses in his Booke of the Creation made no mention at all of Spirits or Angels When as Saint Augustine contrarie to them in beleefe saith That vnder the words of Heauen aud Light though not by their proper and peculiar names they were specified and intended And that Moses writing to a People whose obstinacie and stupidity was such that they were not capable of their incorporeall Essence he was the more chary to giue them plaine and manifest expression Moreouer it may be supposed That if the discreet Law-giuer had told them of their Diuine nature it might haue opened a wide gap to their idolatry to which he knew they were too prone of themselues For if they were so easily induced to worship a golden Calfe and a brasen Serpent both of them molten and made with hands how could so excellent and diuine a Nature haue escaped their adoration Yet doe the words of Moses allow of Spirits though couertly where it is said Genes 3.1 Now the Serpent was more subtill than any Beast of the field which the Lord God had made c. By whom was meant the Diuell as appears Wisd. 2.24 As Satan can change himselfe into an Angell of light so did he vse the wisedome of the Serpent to abuse Man c. I had occasion to speake in my discourse of Dreames of the one brother Sleepe something shall not be amisse to be discoursed of the other Death and to amplifie that in the Prose which in the Verse was onely mentioned Cicero calleth Death the yonger brother of Sleepe which being a thing that cannot be auoided it ought therefore the lesse to be feated One demanding of a noble Sea Captaine Why hauing meanes sufficient to liue on land hee would endanger his person to the perills and frequent casualties of the Ocean
now the bus'nesse weepst thou wicked man As fearing to be tortur'd enter than Stay Stay beneath his arme-pits lies obscur'd What in the barge will neuer be endur'd Menippus what Smooth oily Flattery such As in his life time did auaile him much 'T is fit then thou Menippus shouldst lay by Freenesse of speech and too much liberty Thy boldnesse mirth and laughterâ— for is't fit To mocke vs thus thou in that place shouldst sit All that he is possest of let him still About him keepe for they are light and will Rather than hinder helpe our navigation As burdenlesse and fit for transportation And thou ô Rhetorician cast away Thy contradicting Phrases there 's no stay Similitudes Anti-positions too Periods and Barbarismes This thou must do All thy light-seeming words must be throwne by For in the Hold most heauy they will ly I throw them off The fastned cords vnbinde Plucke vp the Ladder 'bout the Cap-stone winde The Cable and weigh Anchor hoise vp Saile And thou ô Steeres-man pre'thee do not faile To looke well to the Helme and that with care Let 's now be merry hauing all our faâ—e But wherefore weepe these sad Ghosts but most thou That of thy huge beard wast dispoyl'd but now Because I held the Soule immortall Fye Beleeue him not ô Hermes 't is a lie 'T is somewhat else he grieues at What Canst tell Because after full Feasts he cannot smell Nor walking late whilest others were at rest Close muffled in his Cloake be made the guest To dissolute Strumpets sneake into his Schoole Betimes and with his suppos'd wisedome foole Yong Schollers cheating them of coine and time Thou that pretendest to be free from crime Is not to thee Death tedious Can it be I hastning to 't when nothing summon'd me But stay What clamor 's that a shore so hye We scarce can heare our selues speake Mercurie 'T is loud indeed but comes from sundry places There is a Crew that arm'd with loud disgraces Brand the dead Lampichus Another strife Growes from the women that reproch his wife And yonder his yong children but late borne Are ston'd by children and in pieces torne Some with loud accents Diaphantus praise The Orator for his elaborate Phrase And funerall Oration well exprest In Sycian for this Crato late deceast The Matrons with Damasia's mother there Howle and lament his losse But not a teare Is shed for thee Menippus thou 'rt more blest Novlulations shall disturbe thy rest Not so for thou within few houres shalt heare Dogs lamentably barking at my Beere The Crowes and Rauens croaking at my graue In hope some good share of my flesh to haue Menippus thou art valiant and now land Passe on fore-right incline to neither hand That path will leade you to the Iudgement Hall Whilest we transport the rest that yonder call Saile prosp'rously ô Mercury wee 'l on As best befits vnto the Iudgement Throne What shall of vs become now here they say Are sundry torments that endure foray Stones AEgles Wheeles in number that surmount Now each must of his life yeeld iust account Bias to one who by reason of the great sorrow he tooke for the losse of his children called vpon Death as desiring to depart out of the world said vnto him Why fond man dost thou call vpon that which though vncalled for will come vpon thee Musonius being demanded Who died best made answer Those that make account of euery present day at their last Theramines was no sooner departed out of an house but it presently fell to the earth When his Friends came about him to gratulate his vnexpected safety he said vnto them beyond their expectation Know you ô men vnto what greater dangers or a more vnfortunate death the gods haue reserued me Intimating That the escape from one disaster was no securitie from falling into another Which happened accordingly for not long after he fell into the hands of the thirtie Tyrants and was compelled to end his life by poyson Seneca Epist. 78. vseth these words Is any man so ignorant but knowes that at one time or other he must die yet when the time commeth many weepe and lament Why dost thou mourne ô Wretch why feare and tremble since all men are tied to that strict necessitie and thou art but to go whither all things before thee are gone To this law thou art borne the same thing happened to thy father thy mother and to all thy predecessors to all before thee and shall to all that must succeed thee c. Spartanus being inâ—idiated by Iphicrates the Generall of the Athenians and surprised by an ambush and demaunded of his Souldiers What in that exigent was to be done made answer What else but that whilest you fly basely I die fighting honorably Such was the spirit of Cato Vticensis who persuaded others to the safety of their liues whilest he prepared himselfe to a voluntarie death Rubrius Flavius condemned vnto death by Nero and being brought to the blocke when the Executioner spake vnto him that he would boldly stretch forth his neck Yes quoth he and I wish thou with as much resolution and as little feare mayst strike off my head I will conclude with this Similitude As all those Starres which rise from the East though they be of great celeritie and vertue yet tend to their setting and according to their diuers Circles some sooner some later hide themselues from our aspect So all the Generation of Mankinde from the East that is by their Natiuitie enter into the world and though here for a season they shine and according to their qualities and degrees giue lesse or greater lustre yet of necessity they must all arriue some early some late at the fall or set of Death according vnto the continuance of that Course which God in his wisedome hath appointed them and by degrees withdraw and hide themselues from the eyes of the World Now hauing sufficiently discoursed of Death I will point you to a contented life out of one of Martials Epigrams not without great elegancie thus deliuered vnto vs Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem c. Blithe Martiall wilt thou vndertake Things which the life more blessed make Th' are these A Fortune competent Not got by labour but descent No thanklesse Field a Fare conuenient No strife at all a Gowne expedient For warmth not trouble a minde quiet Strength purchas'd by a mod'rate diet A healthfull body Prudence grounded On Simplenesse Friendship compounded On Paritie then so to call That no one man may pay for all A Table without Art or Cost A Night so spent it be not lost In Drunkennesse yet that thou dare And boldly call it Free from Care A Bed not sad but chast in sport Sleepe that shall make the night seeme short To wish to be that which thou art And nothing more in whole or
part And then thy last day shall appeare It thou mayst neither wish nor feare I cannot passe Poetry without some Character though neuer so briefe Now what Poets are or at least ought to be Horrace lib. de stat Poet. thus contractedly deliuereth vnto vs Ille bonis faveat concilietur Amice c. The Good he fauors as to them a Friend The Angry swayes loues those that feare t' offend He onely praiseth and desires to tast Those Viands on a thrifty table plac't Iustice he loues and feares the higher Powers Nor cares who lookes on his retyred houres Counsell he honors and dares pray aloud Fortune may court the Wretch and curbe the Proud Of the great respect and honor conferred vpon them in antient times and how those Dignities vnmeritedly are since taken from them and they in succeeding Ages vilified Ovid lib. 3. de Arte Amand. not without great cause thus ingeniously complaineth Quid petitur sacris nisi tantum fama Poëtis c. What more do sacred Poets seeke than Fame Of all our Labours 't is the soueraigne aime Poets of Dukes and Kings were once the care And great rewards propos'd for what was rare A Holy-state and Venerable Stile Was then conferr'd on him who did compile Any braue Worke a name he did inherit And mighty wealth was throwne vpon his merit In the Calabrian mountaines Ennius had His pleasant Gardens Then was Scipio glad To haue but such a Neighbour and to chuse Selected houres to spend vpon his Muse. But now the Bayes are without honour worne For what 's a Poet but a name of scorne Yet let 's not sleepe our Fame since Homer dead Should this day be were not his Iliads read Antonius Mancinellus speaking in the praise of Poets writeth to this purpose By Nature they are strengthened by the power of the Minde inflamed and by Diuine Rapture inspired Rightly therefore did old Ennius call them Holy as those commended vnto vs by the gift and bounty of the gods The Coliphonians claime Homer to be their Citisen the Chij challenge him the Salamines would vsurpe him the Smyrnaeans ingrosse him and three more of the most potent Cities of Greece erected Monuments after his death to eternise him So deare was Ennius to Africanus that he afforded him a Graue amongst the antient and ennobled Family of the Scipio's Theophanes Mylitides receiued a whole City as a Gift which was then held too small a reward for one Poëm Alexander the Great held the richest Casket taken among the spoiles of Darius scarce worthy to preserue the Works of Homer in The same Alexander surprising Thebes preserued a great part of the City onely for Pindarus the Poets sake Those Murtherers who priuatly slew Archilichus Apollo himselfe reuealed and caused his death to be reuenged Sophocles the Prince of the Cothurnate Tragedie being dead at such time when Lysander beguirt the walls of Lacedemon the King was warned in a dream by Liber Pater to afford his Delight for so the god called him an honored sepulchre Poetry is a Study which instructeth Youth delighteth Old-age graceth Prosperitie solaceth Aduersitie pleaseth at home delighteth abroad shortneth the night comforteth the day trauelleth with vs dwelleth with vs c. The greatest Orators made vse of Poëms both for the strengthning of their Causes and ornament of their eloquence as we may reade in Cicero Asinius Hörtensius and others who frequently quoted the ingenious Phrases and graue sentences of Ennius Pacuvius Lucillius Terentius Caecilius c. Euripides the sonne of Muesarchides and Clito his father was no better than a Victualler and his mother got the other part of their liuing by selling of sallads an Herbe-wife as wee call them yet he proued to be the greatest Fauorit that King Archelaus had And Sophocles the Tragicke Poet was graced and honoured by all the Learned of his time and bore the prime office of Magistracie in the city where he liued The Poet Aratus in Grammar the scholler of Menecrates and in Philosophy of Timon and Menedemus flourished in the 124 Olympiad in the time that Antigonus the sonne of Poliarcetes reigned in Macedonia with whom euen to his last expiration he liued in great estimation and honour Aulus Licinius Archias a Poet borne in Antiochia was indeered to the best and greatest Orators in Rome and more particularly graced by the Family of the Luculli He was honored of many Greeke Heroës and had rich Presents sent from their prime Cities but he was especially endeered to Cicero Aristonius a Comicke Poet liued vnder Philadelphus and was Master of the kings Library after Apollonius Arrianus was a Poet in whom the Emperor Tiberius Caesar was much delighted for so Tranquillus reporteth Cyrus Panopolita was greatly honoured by the Empresse Eudoxia Cherilus Samius liued about the 63 Olympiad and was no more than Seruant vnto Herodotus the Historiographer who writing the Expedition of the Greekes against Xerxes was for euery verse in his Poëme rewarded with a piece of gold to the value of 16 shillings foure pence sterling Gorgius borne amongst the Leontini in Sicily was endeared to Critias and Alcibiades in their height of Fortune and to Pericles and Thucidides in the extremitie of his age Caius Manilius was the first that wrot any Astrologicall Poëm in Latine which he dedicated to Augustus Caesar and by him was greatly respected and rewarded Lenaeus a freed-man of Pompeys but after his friend and companion in all his expeditions surviving his Lord because Salust the historiographer had spoken bitterly against him after his death hee inueighed against him in a most sharpe Satyre calling him Lastaurus Lurchon Nebulâ— popinarius and Monstrous both in life and historie and moreouer a manifest Theefe from Cato and diuers other antient Writers Menander a Comicke Poet of Athens who writ fourescore in number had great honours done vnto him by the Kings of AEgypt and Macedon Homerus Iunior liued about the time of Hesiod the son of Andromachus and borne in Byzantium he writ 57 Tragedies and as Zezes in his Commentaries vpon Lycophron affirmes for one of them called Pleiades and dedicated to King Ptolomaeus he was greatly fauoured and royally rewarded Oppianus was of Silicia and borne in a City called Anazarbum The Roman Emperour Severus being inuested before the City and after paâ—le being congratulated both by the Optimates and Plebe he was onely neglected and not thought worthy a salutation by this Oppianus Hee therefore commanded him to be banished into an Island called Melita scituate neere vnto the Adriaticke sea In which place he wrot a noble Poëm Piscibusâ— which after the death of the emperour Severus he dedicated to his sonne Antoninusâ— for which Worke hee was recalled from exile and to recompence his injurie for euery verse in his Poëm he guerdoned him with a piece of gold But soone after returning with his father into his
By Gods blest Spirit an Epiniceon sing Ascribing Glory to th' Almighty King Miraculous thy Workes are worthy praise Lord God Almighty iust and true thy waies Thou God of Saints O Lord who shall not feare And glorifie thy Name who thy Workes heare Thou onely holy art henceforth adore Thee All Nations shall worship and fall before Thee Because thy Iudgements are made manifest This Song of Vict'rie is againe exprest Thus Now is Saluation now is Strength Gods Kingdome and the Power of Christ. At length The Sland'rer of our Brethren is refus'd Who day and night them before God accus'd By the Lambes bloud they ouercame him and Before Gods Testimonie he could not stand Because the Victors who the Conquest got Vnto the death their liues respected not Therefore reioyce you Heav'ns and those that dwell In these blest Mansions But shall I now tell The Weapons Engines and Artillerie Vsed in this great Angelomachy No Lances Swords nor Bombards they had then Or other Weapons now in vse with men None of the least materiall substance made Spirits by such giue no offence or aid Onely spirituall Armes to them were lent And these were call'd Affection and Consent Now both of these in Lucifer the Diuell And his Complyes immoderate were and euill Those that in Michael the Arch-Ange'll raign'd And his good Spirits meekely were maintain'd Squar'd and directed by th' Almighties will The Rule by which they fight and conquer still Lucifer charg'd with insolence and spleene When nothing but Humilitie was seene And Reuerence towards God in Michaels brest By which the mighty Dragon he supprest Therefore this dreadfull battell fought we finde By the two motions of the Will and Minde Which as in men so haue in Angels sway Mans motion in his body liues but they Haue need of no such Organ This to be Both Averroes and Aristotle agree It followes next that we enquire how long This Lucifer had residence among The blessed Angels for as some explore His time of Glory was six dayes no more The time of the Creation in which they I meane the Spirits seeing God display His glorious Works with stupor and amaâ—e Began at once to contemplate and gase Vpon the Heav'ns Earth Sea Stars Moone and Sunne Beasts Birds and Man with the whole Fabricke done In this their wonder at th'inscrutabilitie Of such great things new fram'd with such facilitie To them iust in the end of the Creation He did reueale his blest Sonnes Incarnation But with a strict commandement That they Should with all Creatures God and Man obey Hence grew the great dissention that befell 'Twixt Lucifer and the Prince Michael The time 'twixt his Creation and his Fall Ezechiel thus makes authenticall In midst of fierie stones thou walked hast Straight in thy wayes ev'n from the time thou wast First made as in that place I before noted To the same purpose Esay too is quoted How fell'st thou Lucifer from Heaven hye That in the morning rose so cherefully As should he say How happens it that thou O Lucifer who didst appeare but now In that short time of thy blest state to rise Each morning brighter than the morning skies Illumin'd by the Sunne so soone to slide Downe from Gods fauour lastingly t' abide In Hells insatiate torments Though he lost The presence of his Maker in which most He gloried once his naturall Pow'rs he keepes Though to bad vse still in th' infernall Deepes For his Diuine Gifts he doth not commend Vnto the seruice of his God the end To which they first were giuen but the ruin Of all Mankinde Vs night and day pursuing To make vs both in his Rebellion share And Tortures which for such prepared are Of this malignant Spirits force and might Iob in his fourtieth Chapter giues vs light And full description liuely expressing both In person of the Monster Behemoth The Fall of Adam by fraile Eve entic't Was his owne death ours and the death of Christ. In whose back-sliding may be apprehended Offendors three three ' Offences three Offended The three Offendors that Mankinde still grieue Were Sathan Adam and our Grandam Eve The three Offences that Sin first aduance Were Malice Weakenesse and blinde Ignorance The three Offended to whom this was done The Holy Spirit the Father and the Sonne Eve sinn'd of Ignorance and so is said Against the God of Wisedome to haue made Her forfeit that 's the Son Adam he fell Through Weakenesse and 'gainst him that doth excell In pow'r the Father sinn'd With his offence And that of hers Diuine Grace may dispence Malicious Hate to sinne did Sathan moue Against the Holy-Ghost the God of Loue And his shall not be pardon'd Note with me How God dealt in the censuring of these three He questions Adams Weakenesse and doth call Eve to account for th' Ignorance in her fall Because for them he mercy had in store Vpon their true repentance and before He gaue their doome told them he had decreed A blessed Sauiour from the Womans seed But Sathan he ne're question'd 't was because Maliciously he had transgrest his Lawes Which sinne against the Spirit he so abhor'd His Diuine Will no mercy for him stor'd Moreouer In the sacred Text 't is read The Womans Seed shall breake the Serpents head It is observ'd The Diuell had decreed To tempt our Sauiour the predicted Seed In the same sort though not the same successe As he did Eve our first Progenitresse All sinnes saith Iohn we may in three diuide Lust of the Flesh Lust of the Eye and Pride She sees the Tree and thought it good for meat The Fleshes lust persuaded her to eat She sees it faire and pleasant to the eye Then the Eyes lust inciteth her to try She apprehends that it will make her wise So through the Pride of heart she eats and dies And when he Christ into the Desart lead Bee'ng hungry Turne said he these Stones to Bread There 's Fleshly lusts temptation Thence he growes To the Eyes lust and from the Mountaine showes The World with all the pompe contain'd therein Say'ng All this great purchase thou shalt win But to fall downe and worship me And when He saw these faile to tempt him once agen Vsing the Pride of heart when from on hye He bad him leape downe and make proofe to flye And as the Woman yeelding to temptation Made thereby forfeit of all mans saluation And so the Diue'll who did the Serpent vse Was said by that the Womans head to bruse So Christ the Womans Seed making resist To these seducemeâ—ts of that Pannurgist Because by neither Pride nor Lust mis-led Was truly said to breake the Serpents head Angels bee'ng now made Diuels let vs finde What place of Torment is to them assign'd First of the Poets Hell The dreadfull Throne Where all Soules shall be sentenc'd stands saith one In a sad place with obscure darkenesse hid
themselues contend To which of them preeedence shall be given The strife sad Minos vndertakes to end So the great odds betwixt them is made even The Speakers be Alexander Minos Hanibal and Scipio The Dialogue Alex. THou Lybian I before thee am in fame And therefore iustly a precedence claime Hanib To which I 'le neuer yeeld Alex. Minos the Wise And most iust Iudge this Quarrell comprimise Minos What are you speake Alex. This Hanibal I son To mightie Philip King of Macedon Call'd Alexander Minos Glorious by my life Both of you are now tell me what 's your strife Alex. 'T is for prioritie for he auerres Himselfe the better Captaine but he erres For I as all report not him alone In prowesse haue exceeded but Times gone And scarce remembred cannot speake that name Able to equall my vnlimited fame Minos Speake interchangeably your best and worst And freely too but thou ô Lybian first Hanib Yet one thing I am proud of To haue got The Greeke tongue here and my Antagonist not In that before me Next I am of minde The worthier place should be to him assign'd Who bee'ng at first but low and meanly stated Hath ev'n from thence great glories propagated Making himselfe most potent in state hye And capable of Principalitie I with an hand-full Spaine did first inuade A bare sub-Consull to assist and aid My Brothers in those Puny dayes yet fir'd T' attaine the height to which I since aspir'd Ere long I tooke the Celtiberians and Subdu'd the Gaules with this all-conquering hand Huge mountaines and vnpassable before I cut and those I led my Armies o're The Floud Eridanus swift aboue measure I did command and crost it at my pleasure Vpon which many Cities I ore'threw And did in time all Italy subdue Through which I made my Sommers Progresse still And visited Romes suburbs at my will Nay more in one pitcht battell I fought there So many warlike Romans slaughter'd were And these too of the valiantest and most stout Their very rings in bushels were mete out Made of their bodies bridges to passe flouds And lakes on land grew from their reaking blouds All these did I yet neuer had the pride To be call'd Ammons sonne or deify'de I feign'd my selfe no god nor had th' impietie To make my mother strumpet though to'a Dietie I still profest my selfe a man and fought 'Gainst Princes of ripe iudgement such as thought Themselues no more than mortall Souldiers too Both bold and valiant I had not to doo With Medes and cold Armenians a base Crew Such as still fled before he could pursue And if a man but set a face and dare Poore wretches they his easie conquest are This Alexander was a Prince borne hye And his dead fathers kingdome did supply Fortune his large demaines encreasing still With force impetuous almost 'gainst his will Who when the Wretch Darius was o'rethrowne At Issa and Arbela as his owne He'appropriated all was not content To keepe within his fathers competent And moderat bounds but must be needs ador'd The Medes lost loosenesse he againe restor'd Nay more profest it in his lauish boules Of his best subiects rending out the Soules From their torne bodies paying Natures debt He after such as slew them did abet I was my Countries Father and when aid They claim'd of me I instantly obey'd Encountring an huge Nauy all prepar'd To inuade Carthage hauing all this dat'd Most willingly the word they had but sed And I my selfe soone gaue both lost and dead This did I a Barbarian and thought rude Vnexpert of your Greekish plenitude I neuer read his Homer nor was sutor The Sophist Aristotle should become Tutor To Hannibal such helps I counted vaine What came from me was mine owne brest and braine And these are they by which I still prefer My selfe before the Greeke King Alexander But if you thinke this yong man ought take place Before me cause a Diadem doth grace His temples This I'am sure It might shew well In Macedonia but not here in Hell Nor therefore now should be before me chus'd Who haue my selfe and mine owne fortunes vs'd Minos He neither hath like one ingenerous sayd Nor hath a Lybian barbarisme betrayd His smoother stile his eloquence flies hye Now Macedonian what canst thou reply Alex. Silence ô Minos would become me best Rather than I at this time should contest 'Gainst one so impudent and rash my griefe Is That this Hanibal so great a Theefe Against so great a Conqueror should hold This difference But grow he ne're so bold O thou most just of Iudges note me well And thou shalt know how much I antecell Who being but a yong man tooke on mee The mannage of a mighty soueraigntie As my first justice ' reaving those of breath Who had been actors in my fathers death Hauing subuerted Thebes I then became To whole Greece such a terror and my name 'Mongst them so famous that the Princes all Chose me with vnite voice their Generall Nor did I hold it fit to be confin'd Within one kingdomes bounds my'vnlimited mind Aspir'd vnto more amplitude the rather Because in all things to exceed my father A World was my ambition not content Till I had made my knowne name eminent In ev'ry part Asia by force I entred And by the riuer Granicus aduent'red A mighty battell vanquisht and pursu'd In that one fight whole Lydia I subdu'd Iönia and Phrygia then I tooke And passing thence by Iove I could not looke On any durst oppose me conquering euer Where e're my Army mov'd ev'n to the riuer Of Issa where the King Darius then Attended me with infinites of men What there I did thou Minos canst tell best How many in one day I lent to rest Charon well knowes his Barge that time vnable And Styx scarce for such numbers nauigable Forc'd was he then strange Ferry boats to hire And all too little This out of the fire Of mine owne spirit I did my dauntlesse breath Still daring wounds and boldly out during death I passe great acts by me in person done What I at Tyrus and Arebela woon India till then vnknowne I did inuade And of my Empire the vast Ocean made Th' vnbounded limits The Elephants most rude I tam'd King Porus hauing first subdu'd The Scythians souldiers not to be despis'd A Mars-starr'd people no way ill advis'd Hauing past Tanais I did soone subdue And with my troupes of horsemen ouerthrew And as my rage vnto my foes extends So still my loue and bounty grac'd my friends That me a Man those gaue what was diuine And call'd a god none justly can repine For by the greatnesse of my deeds amaz'd In others neuer knowne their wonders rais'd Me to that glory yet no helpe it can For I a god and King dy'de like a man This Hannibal was left a Wretch confin'd To Lybia and Bithynia of a mind Barb'rous and meerely inhumane puft with pride Who as he basely liv'd he poorely
It is said of Antigonus the first King of Macedonie That being asked Why in his youth being no better than a Tyrant in his age he gouerned with such clemencie gentlenesse his answer was That in his youth he stroue to get a kingdome and in his age hee desired to keepe it The Poet Hermodotus in one of his Poems had called the King the sonne of Iupiter Which when the King heard he said Surely he that attends me in my chamber when I am forced to do the necessities of Nature was neuer of that Fellowes counsell When the Souldiers and men at Armes that followed Scipio in Africa were fled and Cato being vanquished by Caesar at Vtica had slaine himselfe Caesar said I enuy thy death vnto thee ô Cato since thou hast enuied vnto me the sauing of thy life In a great battell when one of his Standard-bearers was turning his backe to haue fledâ— Caesar tooke him by the shoulders and turning him about said See Fellow yonder be they whom we fight against When many dangerous conspiracies were abroch and diuers of his friends wished him to be chary of his safety hee answered Much better it is to die at once than to liue in feare alwayes The Inhabitants of Tarracon as a glad presage of prosperous successe brought tydings to Augustus That in his Altar a young Palme tree was suddenly sprung vp To whom hee made answer By this it appeareth how oft you burne Incense in our honour When hee had heard that Alexander hauing at two and thirtie yeares of age ouercome the greater part of the knowne world and had made a doubt what he should finde himself to do the remainder of his life I maruell said Augustus that Alexander iudged it not a greater act to gouern well what he had gotten than to purchase so large a dominion It was hee who said I found Rome made of Brickes but I will leaue it of Marble Which saying putteth me in mind considering the vncertaintie and instability of things of an excellent Epigram composed by Ianus Vitalis de Roma antiqua Of antient Rome Quid Romam in media quaeris novus Advena Roma Et Romae in Roma nil reperis medio Aspice murorum molas praerupt aque saxa Obrutaque horrenti vasta Theatra situ Haec sunt Roma c. New Stranger to the City come Who midst of Rome enquir'st for Rome And midst of Rome canst nothing spye That lookes like Rome cast backe thine eye Behold of walls the ruin'd mole The broken stones not one left whole Vast Theatres and Structures high That leuell with the ground now lye These now are Rome and of that Towne Th' Imperious Reliques still do frowne And ev'n in their demolisht seat The Heav'ns aboue them seem to threat As she the World did once subdue Ev'n so her selfe she ouerthrew Her hand in her owne bloud she'embru'd Lest she should leaue ought vnsubdu'd Vanquisht in Rome Invict Rome now Intombed lies as forc'd to bow The same Rome of the World the head Is Vanquisher and Vanquished The riuer Albula's the same And still preserues the Roman name Which with a swift and speedy motion Is hourely hurry'd to the Ocean Learne hence what Fortune can what 's strong And seemeth fixt endures not long But more assurance may be layd On what is mouing and vnstayd Phocion a noble Counsellor of Athens of high wisedom singular prudence noble policie incorrupt manners and incomparable innocencie and integritie of life of such admirable constancy of minde that he was neuer known to laugh weepe or change countenance He knowing the ignorance and dissolute manners of the people vpon a time hauing made a very excellent Oration much commended and highly applauded by the multitude hee turned to his friends and said What is it that I haue spoke amisse or otherwise than well for which the people thus extoll mee To Demosthenes the Orator who said vnto him The Athenians will put thee to death one day Phociâ—n when they shall grow to bee mad he replied Me indeed when they are mad but thee most certainly when they come to be in their right wits againe Alexander sending vnto him an hundred talents hee demanded of the messengers that brought it For what cause the King was so bountifull to him aboue others They answered Because hee iudged him of all the Athenians to be a iust and honest man When refusing the gold he said Then let him suffer me not onely to be so reputed but to proue me to be such an one indeed c. Pompey being yong and hauing done many worthy and remarkable seruices for Sylla who was now growne in yeares demanded a Triumph which Sylla opposed But after Pompey in a great confluence of people had said aloud Sylla Art thou ignorant that more people adore the Sun at his rising than his going downe Sylla with a loud voice cried out Let him triumph To one Caius Pompilius an ignorant Lawyer in Rome who being brought to giue euidence in a Cause and saying That hee knew nothing nor could speake any thing in the matter Cicero replied You thinke perchance Pompilius that you are asked a question about some point in the Law Pompey and Caesar being at great debate and variance he said He knew not whose part to refuse or whose side to follow After the great battell fought in Pharsalia when Pompey was fled one Nonius a great Captain thinking to incourage the Souldiers bad them to be of good comfort for there were yet seuen Eagles left To him Cicero replied Thy chearing ô Nonius might proue very aduantageous vnto vs if we were now to fight against Iayes Of one Cuminius Revelus who was chosen Consull and within two houres displaced by reason hee was tainted of Perjury he said That he had one chance hapned him aboue all other in that place for the Records were searched in which Consuls time he was Consull To one Iulius Curtius belying his age because hee would be still esteemed young Cicero said Then it appeareth That at the same season when you and I were yong schollers first and exercised Orations together you were not borne And to one Fabia Dolabella affirming shee was but thirty yeares old hee replied Indeed Lady I haue heard as much as you speake twenty yeares ago Demosthenes being one of the tenne whom the Athenians sent Embassadors to Philip King of Macedon at their returne when Eschines and Philocrates whom Philip had entertained with extaordinary courtesie aboue the rest had spoken royally and amply in his commendations praising him especially for three things That he was of an extraordinarie beautifull aspect That hee had a fluent and eloquent tongue and That he was a liberall and free Drinker Demosthenes interrupted them and auouched publiquely That not one of all those was seemely in a King For the first he said belonged to Women the second appertained to Sophists and Rhetoricians and the third to
thither and entertained into his wonted lodging Philemium his Beloued came into the chamber spake with him supt with him and after much amorous discourse she receiued of him as a gift a Ring of iron and a Cup guilt and she in interchange gaue him a Ring of gold and an hand-kerchiefe which done they went to bed together The Nurse being very diligent to see that her new ghest wanted nothing came vp with a candle and saw them both in bed together She ouer-joyed runneth in hast to bring the Parents newes that their daughter was aliue They amased rise from their bed and finde them both fast-sleeping when in great rapture of ioy they called and pulled them to awake At which shee rising vpon her pillow with a seuere looke cast vpon them thus said O you most cruell and obdurat Parents and are you so enuious of your daughters pleasure that you will not suffer her for the space of one three dayes to enioy her deere Machates but this curiositie shall be little for your ease for you shall againe renew your former sorrowes which hauing spoke she changed countenance sunke downe into the bed and died at which sight the father and mother were both intranced The rumor of this came into the city the Magistrats caused the graue to be opened but found not the body there only the iron Ring and the Cup giuen her by Machates For the same Coarse was then in the chamber and bed which by the counsell of one Hillus a Soothsayer was cast into the fields and the yong man finding himself to be deluded by a Specter to auoid the ignominie hee with his owne hands slew himselfe Possible it is that the inferiour Diuels at the command of the superiour should possesse the bodies of the Dead for a time and moue in them as by examples may appeare Eunapius reports That an AEgyptian Necromancer presented the person of Apollineus before the people But Iamblicus a greater Magition standing by told them It was not he but the body of a Fencer who had before been slaine When whispering a stronger charme to himselfe the Spirit forsooke the body which falling down dead appeared to them all to be the stinking carkasse of the Fencer before spoken of and well knowne to them all The like is reported of one Donica who after she was dead the Diuell had walked in her body for the space of two yeares so that none suspected but that she was still aliue for she did both speak and eat though very sparingly onely shee had a deepe palenesse in her countenance which was the only signe of death At length a Magition comming by where she was then in the companie of many other Virgins as soone as hee beheld her hee said Faire Maids why keep you company with this dead Virgin whom you suppose to be aliue When taking away the Magicke charme which was tied vnder her arme the body fell downe liuelesse and without motion Cornelius Agrippa liuing in Louvaine had a yong man who tabled with him One day hauing occasion to be abroad hee left the keyes of his study with his wife but gaue her great charge to keepe them safe and trust them to no man The Youth ouer-curious of noueltie neuer ceased to importune the woman till shee had lent him the key to take view of his Librarie Which entring he hapned vpon a booke of Conjuration hee reads when straight hee heares a great bouncing at the doore which hee not minding readeth on the knocking groweth greater the noise louder But hee making no answer the Diuell breakes open the doore and enters and askes what he commands him to haue done or why he was called The Youth amased and through feare not able to answer the Diuell seiseth vpon him and wrythes his neck asunder Agrippa returneth findeth the yong man dead and the Diuels insulting ouer him Hee retyres to his Art and calls the Diuels to account for what they had done they tell all that had passed Then he commanded the homicide to enter into the body and walke with him into the market place where the Students were frequent and after two or three turnes to forsake the bodie Hee did so the body falls downe dead before the Schollers all iudge it to be of some sudden Apoplexy but the markes about his necke and jawes make it somewhat suspitious And what the Archi-Mage concealed in Louvaine being banished thence hee afterward feared not to publish in Lotharinge Don Sebastian de Cobarruvias Orozco in his treasurie of the Castilian Tongue speaking how highly the Spaniards prise their beards and that there is no greater disgrace can be done vnto him than to be plucked by it and baffled reporteth That a noble Gentleman of that Nation being dead a Iew who much hated him in his life stole priuatly into the roome where his body was newly layd out and thinking to do that in death which hee neuer durst doe liuing stooped downe to plucke him by the beard at which the body started vp and drawing his sword that then lay by him halfe way out put the Iew into such a fright that he ran out of the Roome as if a thousand Diuels had been behind him This done the body lay downe as before vnto rest and the Iew after that turned Christian. Let these suffice out of infinites Hauing discoursed in the former Tractat of the Astrologomagi it shall not be impertinent to speake something concerning Astrologie which is defined to be Scientia Astris a knowledge in the Starres of which as Pliny witnesseth in the 57 booke of his Naturall Historie Atlanta King of the Mauritanians was the first Inuentor Of this Art the sacred Scriptures in diuers places make mention As in Deutron 4.19 And lest thou shouldst lift vp thine eyes to heauen and when thou seest the Sun and the Moone and the Stars with all the Host of Heauen shouldst be driuen to worship them and serue them which the Lord thy God hath distributed to all people vnder the whole heauen Againe Esay 47.13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels let now the Astrologers the Star-gasers and Prognosticators stand vp and saue thee from those things that shall come vpon thee c. Now wherefore God created those blessed Lights of heauen is manifest Gen. 1.14 And God said Let there be Lights in the Firmament of the heauen to separate the day from the night and let them be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and yeares Againe Cap. 8. vers 22. Hereafter seed time and haruest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease so long as the earth endure Esay 44.24 Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer and hee that formed thee from the wombe I am the Lord that made all things that spread out the heauens aboue and stretcheth out the earth by my selfe I destroy the tokens of Sooth-sayers and make them that
well and carefully conferred strengthen and establish a Kingdome but seruice vnrewarded and gifts vnworthily bestowed weaken and dishonour it Old kindnesses saith Pindarus the excellent Greek Poet are apoplexed and cast asleepe as void of all sence and all men as stupified are turned ingratefull For according to the Cynicke Diogenes Nothing so soone waxeth old and out of date as a courtesie receiued Quintilian is of opinion That all such as receiue gifts courtesies or good turnes from others should not onely frequently remember them but liberally requite them thereby imitating our Mother Earth which still returneth more fruit than it receiueth seed Socrates affirmed all such as were vnthankfull to haue in them neither nobilitie nor justice According to that saying of Stobaeus Gratitude consisteth in Truth and Iustice Truth in acknowledging what was receiued and Iustice in repaying it The Lawes of Persia Macedonia Athens c. punished Ingratitude with death And Plato can teach vs That all humane things quickely grow old and hasten to their period onely that sin excepted and he giueth this reason Because that the greater increase there is of men the more Ingratitude abounds The Ingratefull is held to be of worse condition than the Serpent who reserueth venom and poyson to hurt others but keepeth none to harme himselfe I conclude with Seneca the Philosopher If we be naturally inclined to obserue and to offer all our seruice to such from whom we but expect a benefit how much more then are we obliged to such from whom wee haue already receiued it I come now vnto the Poets Seneca in Aiace Flagell we reade thus Qui autem obliviscitur beneficijs affectus Nunquam vtique esset hic generosus vir Amongst the Generous he can claime no place That good turnes done out of his thoughts doth rase Plautus in Persa speaketh thus Nam improbus est homo Qui beneficium scit sumere reddere nescit Nil amas si ingratum amas Bad is that man and worthy blame That can good turnes from others claime But nought returneth backe He than Nought loues that loues a thank lesse Man Cornarius writeth thus Pertusum vas est ingratus Homnucio semper Omne quod infundis perfluis in nihilum In vaine th' Ingratefull man with gifts thou fill'st In broken Tuns what thou pour'st in thou spill'st And much to the same purpose almost the same sence the Poet Luscinius expresseth himself in this Distich following speaking of the vnthankfull man Rimarum plenus perdit tua dona scoelestus Si sapis integro vina reconde cado A leaking Vessell and consumes what 's thine But thou for a sound Tunne reserue thy Wine Ausonius in one of his Epigrams saith Ingrato homine terra pejus nil creat There 's nothing worse that the earth can Breed than an Ingratefull man And Iuvenal Satyr 11. Ingratus ante omnia pone sodales Aboue all others see thou hate Thy fellowes such as proue ingrate One Michael Traulus slew his master the Emperor Leo who had raised him to many eminent honours and dignities Phraates slew his father Orodes King of the Parthians Romanus junior reiected his naturall mother at which shee conceiued such hearts griefe that she soone after expired Alphonsus Primus King of Lusitania cast his mother into Prison The like Henry the Emperor fift of that name to his father Henry Darius tooke counsell to kill his father Artaxerxes by whom he was before made King And Lucius Ostius in the time of the Ciuill wars when his father Armalius was proscribed and the Triumvirat prosecuted his life he his son betrayed him to the Lictors brought them to the place where he then lay concealed for no other cause but that hee might enioy his possessions Marcus Cicero at the command of M. Anthonius one of the Triumvirat was slain by Pompilius Lemates whose life he had before defended and acquitted from the strict penalty of the Law Alexander the Great forgetfull of his Nurse Hellonice from whom he had receiued his first milk caused her brother Clitus afterward to be slaine Anthonius Caracalla being aduanced to the Roman Empire amongst many others whom he caused innocently to be butchered he spared not Cilones his tutor by whom he was first instructed notwithstanding he had been a Counsellor to his father and a man notable for his wisdome and temperance No lesse was the ingratitude of the Senat of Rome vnto Scipio Africanus who notwithstanding that he had subdued Carthage the onely City that durst affront or contest with Rome through the whole world yet being accused by Petilius they arraigned him in open Court and proscribed him because that all the treasure which he had woon in Asia he had not brought into the Treasurie of Rome But of all the rest that to me is most remarkable recorded by Zonarus Cedrenus of the emperor Basil. Macedo who being hunting as he much delighted in that exercise a great stag incountring him fastned one of the brouches of his hornes into the Emperors girdle and lifting him from his horse bare him a distance off to the great indangering of his life Which a Gentleman in the traine espying drew out his sword and cut the Emperors girdle by which meanes he was preserued and had no hurt at all But note his reward The Gentleman for this act was questioned and adiudged to haue his head strooke off because he dared to expose his sword so neere the Emperours person and suffered according to his sentence Infinite are the histories to this purpose which for breuities fake I omit shutting vp this argument with that out of Petrus Crinitus Lib. 2. Poemat de Fugiendis ingratis Ingratus est vitandus vt dirum scoelus Nil cogitari pestilentius potest Nec esse portentiosius quicquam puto c. Ingratitude I wish thee shunne As the worst deed that can be done Nothing more pestilentiall can Enter into the thoughts of man Th' Ingratefull man 's prodigious who If his bad acts he cannot show Yet studies ill himselfe he spares But against others all things dares He hateth all but those men most Who iustly may their good deeds boast The reason may be vnderstood As bee'ng sequestred from the Good Hee 's bold and wicked drawne with ease To what is bad which best doth please What of it selfe is good he still Doth labor how to turne to ill As hee 's couetous so hee 's prowd And with no honest gift endow'd There 's only one good thing he can Well pleasing both to God and Man And which though he be sure to pay Yet whilest he can he will delay And 't is against his will too then That 's when he leaues the world and men No Monster from the earth created That is of God or Man more hated But amongst all the ingratefull people of the world the stiffe-necked nation of the Iewes appeareth vnto me to be most remarkable concerning whom you may reade Esdras lib. 1. c. 5.23
therefore the hundredth day following Caesar should die and be made a god which could not happen to any man whilest he was yet liuing Cardanus speaking of fiery Spectars amongst many others relateth this story A friend of mine saith hee of approued faith and honesty trauelling one night late from Mediola to Gallerata when the Sky was full of clouds and the weather inclining to raine being within some foure miles of his journies end he saw a light and heard rhe voice as he thought of certain Cow-herds vpon his left hand and presently a hedge onely being interposed he saw a fiery Chariot couered with flames and out of it he might heare a voice crying aloud Cave cave Beware beware Being much terrified with this strange prodegie he put spurres to his horse and whether he galloped or rid softly the Chariot was stil before him He then betooke him to his orisons and supplications vnto God at length after the space of a full houre hee came to a Temple dedicate to the memorie of Saint Lawrence standing iust without the gate and there the Chariot of fire herdsmen and all sunke into the earth and was seene no more Cardanus hauing disputed something of the nature of this fire addeth That the Gallaterans suffered the same yeare not only a great plague but diuers other afflictions and disasters To these Spirits of the fire is ascribed that diuination by Pyromancie which some call Puroscopan In which superstition old pitch was cast into the fire with the invocation of certain of these Spirits Sometimes a Tead or Torch dawbed ouer with pitch was lighted and marked with certaine characters If the flame of the Tead gathered it selfe into one it was prosperous if diuided disastrous if it arose tripartite it presaged some glorious euent if it were diuersly dispersed it diuined to a sicke man death to a sound man sicknesse if it made a sparkling noise it was infortunat if it was suddenly extinct it threatned great misfortune So likewise in their sacrificing fires if the flame went streight vpward like a Pyramis it was a signe of a good omen if it diuided and dispersed of a bad There were diuers coniectures also from the colour the brightnesse the dulnesse the ascent the sparkling c. and this kinde of Magicke was frequent amongst the Liâ—uanians c. From the fiery I proceed to the Spirits of the Aire We reade in the sacred Scriptures That Sathan caused fire to fall from heauen to deuour and consume Iobs seruants and his cattell As likewise hee raised a vehement Whirle-winde and tempest which oppressed his sonnes and daughters with the house where they were then feasting with a sudden ruin Remigius telleth a story which is likewise affirmed by Delrius That a countrey-man of the prouince of Triuere setting some Plants in his garden with a yong maid his daughter the father commended her for going so neatly and quickly about her businesse The Girle telleth him that she can do stranger things than these and more stupendious The father demands What Withdraw your selfe but a little saith she and name but in what place of the garden a showre of raine shall fall and water the earth and in what not The countrey-man curious of noueltie withdrew himselfe and bad her vse her skill Shee presently made an hole in the ground into which she poured her owne water and stirring it about with a sticke murmuring certaine magicke words to her selfe presently a showre fel watering only that part of the gronnd which he had named vnto her and in the other fell not one drop of raine Gasper Spitellus writeth That some Indians haue much familiaritie with these Spirits For when they want rain one of their Magicke Priests with a shrill voice makes an acclamation That all the people shall assemble to such a mountain hauing first obserued a Fast which is to abstaine from the eating of salt pepper or any thing that is boiled That done he lowdly calls vpon the Stars and with deuout Orisons entreats of them that they would afford them seasonable showres Then they turne their eyes towards the lower grounds vpon their fields and houses taking in their hands a bowle full of charmed liquour which they receiue from the hands of a young man of their most noble families which they haue no sooner drunke but they lie intranced without sence or motion After being come to themselues they commix honey water and Maiz together and with them sprinkle the aire The next day they chuse out one of the most eminent men of their Nation both for nobilitie and age and lay him in a bed with a soft fire vnder it and when he beginnes to sweat they wipe off the moisture and put in a bason which they mingle with the bloud of a Goose and sprinkling it again into the aire as if they meant it should touch the clouds they then solicit the Starres againe That by the vertue of the old mans sweat the bloud of the goose and the water before mixed they may haue seasonable and temperat showres Which if they haue according to their desires they giue great thanks to the Starres and Planets and the Priest from the people is rewarded with rich gifts and presents Hieronimus Mengius writeth That a certaine Magition in a field adjacent to the tower or citadell of Bonnonia shewed two famous Generals Iohannes Bentivolus and Robertus Sanseverinus a spectacle in the aire in which was heard such a noise of drummes clangor of trumpets clamor of men neighing of horses and clashing of arms that the Spectators were afraid lest the heauen and the earth would haue met at the instant but in all the inuironing grounds saue onely in that place the aire was vntroubled Diodorus Siculus reporteth also That in the Syrtes of Lybia the Spirits of the aire are oftentimes visible in the shape of diuers birds and beasts some mouing some without motion some running some flying others in other strange postures But which is most miraculous sometimes they will come behinde men as they are trauelling leape vp and sit vpon their shoulders who may feele them to be much colder than eitheâ— snow or ice Olaus Magnus in his Historie remembreth That these airy Spirits haue such a predominance in the Circium sea they continually do so exasperat shake and trouble it that scarfe any ship can saile that way without wracke and foundring In the Isle called Island vnder the dominion of the King of Denmarke there is a port called Vestrabor not far from which men are vsually taken and wrapt vp in whirl-winds by the power of these Spirits are hurried many furlongs off Likewise in the Westerne parts of Norway these spirits with their noxious and blasting touch cause that neither grasse nor trees burgeon or beare fruit Likewise vpon the Bothnian continent the roofes are vsually blowne off from
an arme broken or some other as great a mischiefe Wherein may be obserued That these Spirits of what condition soeuer aboue all things aime at Diuine worship which is onely due vnto the Creator Not that they are ignorant that it belongs solely to him but that in their inexpressible malice knowing themselues to be Rebels and quite excluded from Grace they would likewise draw Man to accompany them in eternall perdition Therefore all the Saints of God since Christ established his Church here amongst the Gentiles haue endeauoured to draw the Nations from Idolatry It is read of Saint Iames That when many Diuels were sent vnto him by one Hermogenes to assault him hee returned them bound and disarmed That Saint Bartholmew destroied the Idol of Asteroth who was worshipped in India and shewed moreouer that their great Alexikakon was a meere figment and imposture So the Apostles Simon and Iude strooke dumbe those Spirits that spake in the Oracle to Varada chiefe Generall ouer Xerxes his Armie and after restoring to them their liberty of speech they caused that their deceit and vanitie did easily appeare For Vâ—rada demanding of them What the euent of the war would proue they answered him That it would be long and dangerous and not onely vnprofitable but full of dammage and great losse to both parties On the contrary the Apostles deriding the vanitie of the Idoll informed him That the Indian Embassadors were vpon the way humbly to desire peace of him vpon any conditions whatsoeuer Which finding â—o be true Varada commanded those lying and deceitfull Images to be immediatly cast into the fire and burned and had then slaine an hundred and twenty of those idolatrous Priests had not the Apostles earnestly interceded for them I could here cite many examples to the like purpose but let these suffice for the present The Alastores are called by Origen Contra Celsum Azazel by Zoroaster Carnifices or Butchers and Alastares No mischiefe is hid or concealed from them and these are neuer seene but they portend some strange disaster As in the time of the Emperour Iustinian such Spirits were seene openly in humane shape to intrude into the society of men after which a most fearefull pestilence followed and whosoeuer was touched by any of them most assuredly died By which contagious Pest the great city Constantinople was almost vnpeopled and as Paulus Diacon witnesseth the people saw an Angell in the dead of the night go along with them compassing the city and walking from street to street and from dore to dore and so many knocks as the Spectar by the Angels command gaue at the doore of any house so many persons of that family were vndoubtedly found dead in the next morning Cardanus reporteth That there is an antient family in Parma named Torrelli to whom an old Seat or Castle belongs which for the space of an hâ—ndred yeres together was haunred with one of these Alastores who so oft as any of the houshold were to depart the world would shew it selfe in a chimny of the great hall A noble and illustrious Lady of the same Family reported That a yong virgin lying dangerously sicke in the same house the Spectar according to custome appeared and when euery one expected hourely the death of the Virgin shee presently beyond all hope recouered and a seruant who was at that time sound and in health fell sicke vpon the sudden and died Some few dayes before the death of Henry the seuenth Emperor he being feasted in a castle at Mediolanum belonging to one Viscont Mathaeus at mid-day there appeared before them a man armed of a mighty gyantly size to the great amasement of them all and three days after in the same place and at the same houre two armed champions on horse-backe who performed a braue combat for the space of an entire houre and then suddenly disappeared to the wonder and terror of all the Spectators To Cassius Parmensis lying in his bed appeared a man of an vnusuall stature with staring haire and a rough and disordered beard terrible in aspect at the presence of which being strangely troubled he started out of his bed and asked him who he was Who answered I am thy Malus Genius and so vanished Cassius knockes calls to his seruants that attended without asks them if they saw any to go in or come out of his chamber They protest Not any He museth to himselfe and lyeth downe againe The Daemon appeares the second time but with a countenance much more horrible Againe hee knockes and commands his seruants to bring lights They enter nothing appeares The rest of the night hee spends in doubtfull and sollicitous cogitations The dawning of the day scarse appeared when Lictors were sent from Caesar to apprehend him and take away his life Of the Lamiae or Larvae I ghesse that to be one which appeared to Dion of Syracuâ—a who looking out at his chamber window in the night by reason of a noise he heard spied an old hag habited and lookt as the Poets describe the Eumenides or Furies with a great broom sweeping the Court. At which being wonder-strook he called vp some of his houshold and told them of the Vision desiring them to accompanie him in his chamber the remainder of the night which they did and neither saw nor heard any thing afterward But ere the morning one of Dions sonnes cast himself out of a window into the same court who was so sore bruised that he died of the fall and hee himselfe within few dayes after was slaine by Callippus Drusus being Consull and making war in Germany a seeming woman of extraordinary aspect met him one day vpon his march and saluted him with these words O insatiate Drusus whither art thou now going and when dost thou thinke thou shalt returne since thou art now at the period both of thy life and glory Which fell out accordingly for within few dayes after Brutus expired of an incurable disease Iacobus Donatus a Patrician of Venice as Cardanus reporteth from whose mouth he receiued this discourse sleeping one night with his wife in an vpper bed where two Nurses lay with a yong childe his sole heire in the lower which was not a full yeare old he perceiued the chamber doore by degrees first to be vnlocked then vnbolted and after vnhatcht one thrust in his head and was plainly seene of them all himselfe his wife and the Nurses but not knowne to any of them Donatus with the rest being terrified at this sight arose from his bed and snatching vp a sword and a round buckler caused the Nurses to light either of them a taper and searcht narrowly all the roomes and lodgings neere which he found to be barred and shut and he could not discouer where any such intruder should haue entrance At which not a little wonder-strooke they all retyred to their rests letting the lights still burne in the chamber The
opinion of mans wit No certaine principle at all th' haue lent Grounded on firme and sollid argument Which Principles no sooner are deny'de But all their doctrine 's ruin'd in it's pride Therefore these Academicks did inact A Maxim held amongst themselues exact Let none dispute or into termes arise With any that the Principles denies Obserue but the Philosophers inuentions And amongst them the Fencer-like contentions Concerning the Creator of vs allâ— The Angels and the Worlds originall Some impiously and foolishly deny That there 's to gouerne vs â— Deity Others that say there is a God there are But he of humane actions takes no care And some remaine in doubt and will not know At least confesse there is a God or no. Who in his best conceptions doth not storme At their Idaea's Atoms Matter Forme Full Empty Infinite first Essence Beeing With thousands more and all these disagreeing Touching the Soule hath been more strange opinions Than now beneath the great Turke are dominions One That man hath no Soule at all will proue And that the Body of it selfe doth moue Some grant a Soule but curiously desire To haue th' essence thereof deriv'd from Fire Of Water some others of Aire compound it And some as brain-sicke as the rest would bound it In Earthly humor other Sectists dare Affirme the substance to be Fire and Aire One Heat or an hot constitution he Saith in 's great wisedome it of force must be Of the foure Elements the pure complexion Others will haue it Light or Lights reflexion One calls it restlesse Motion he a Number Mouing it selfe c. Thus one another cumber Warring with contradictions infinite As vainly too of the Soules seat they write To the braines ventricle some one confines it Come to anothers censure he assignes it Vnto the Epicranion 'Mongst the rest Epicurus makes her mansion in the brest In the Hearts arteries some say it dwells Another in the Heart and nowhere els Empedocles would haue it vnderstood The sole place she resides in is the Bloud In the whole Body others seeke to place it And with no seeming arguments out-face it Like diffrence hath amongst them been to know Whether the Soule immortall be or no. Democritus and Epicurus they Beleev'd the Soule was mortall Others say And it seemes better warranted incline To make the world beleeue it is Diuine The Stoicks held opinion with the breath All bad Soules are extinguisht ev'n in death But that the better are exalted hye To place sublime and neuer more to dye Some so ambiguous in their censures were Nothing saue doubt in all their Works appeare Then to conclude Studies that haue foundation Like these vpon mans meere imagination Than the Chamaelions are more variable Lighter than winde than the sea more vnstable Than th' Elements th' are at more deadly hate And than the Labyrinth more intricate Than th' Moon more changing Darknesse more obscure Than Women more inconstant and vnsure He then that in his best thoughts doth desire After the Truth ingeniously t' inquire And to the perfect path to be conducted May it please that man to be thus instructed Seeke not from Man but God that can dispose Who all things not from him that nothing knowes Of Truth the Scriptures plenally report Of which our weake and dull conceit comes short Note what our Sauior saith to end all strife I am the Way I am the Truth and Life Againe he saith Into the world I came To declare truth and testifie the same No wonder then if ev'n the Wisest dote Who from the Scriptures were so far remote And that the more they labour'd Truth to finde The more they were made stupid dull and blinde By muddy streames it is an easie thing To know a troubled and vnhealthfull Spring By bright and Chrystall rivelets we are sure By consequence the fountaines head is pure And in this water so refin'd and cleare Our blessed Sauior makes himselfe appeare When he thus saith as Iohn doth plainly tell To the Samaritan at Iacobs Well Who so shall of the Water drinke that I Will giue him shall no more thirst till he dye The water that I giue in him shall be A Well of water euerlastingly Springing to life eternall Now if any Of the great Doctors differ as th' are many Retire we to the Scriptures the true test To know of their opinions which sounds best Nor let their works further authoris'd bee Than punctually they with the Text agree Neither let any of his knowledge proud Dare further search than is by them allow'd From the wise men heav'ns secrets are conceal'd And vnto Infants and to Babes reveal'd Therefore let Arrogance no man delude Whilest humbly with Saint Austin I conclude Whoso shall reade this Worke where he shall finde Truth certaine let him ioyne with me in minde Where he shall doubt with me I next desire That he with me will labour to enquire If he haue err'd in iudgement and finde here To be resolv'd from hence his error cleare If he my error finde with some respect Of my good meaning let him mine correct Explicit Metrum Tractatus Noni Eatenus rationandum est donec veritas invenitur Cum inventa est Veritas ibi figendum est Iuditium in victoria Veritatis soli Veritatis inimici pereans S. Chrisost. Theologicall Philosophicall Poeticall Historicall Apothegmaticall Hierogâ—pâ—icall and Emblematicall Obseruations touching the further illustration of the former Tractat. THese Spirits of the earth or vnder the earth hauing charge of the Mines and Treasures below meethinkes should deterre men from the base sin of Auarice Aurelius calleth it the root of euill or a fountaine of euils whence as from an inundant streame flow injurie injustice Briberie Treason Murder depopulation strage ruine of Commonweales ouerthrowes of Armies Subuersion of estates wracke of Societies staine of conscience breach of amitie confusion of minde with a thousand other strange enormities The propertie of a couetous man saith Archimides is to liue all his life time like a Beggar that he may be said at his death to die rich who as he is good to no man so is hee the worst friend to himselfe and as hee passeth great trouble and trauell in gathering riches so hee purchaseth withall great danger in keeping them much law in defending but most torment in departing from them and in making his Will hee for the most part findeth more trouble to please all than hee tooke pleasure to possesse all In the purchasing of which as one ingeniously said he gets carefulnesse to himselfe enuy from his neighbour a prey for theeues perill for his person damnation to his soule curses for his children and Law for his heires Nay euen in his life time he wanteth as well what he hath as what hee hath not Moreouer all euil-gotten gaine bringeth with it contempt curses and infamy The Gluttons minde
in his old age erecting a city O King said he what businesse is this which thou vndertakest now that thou art in the twelfe houre of thy day meaning he was then in the last part of his age To whom Deiotarus knowing the extreme couetousnesse of Crassus smilingly answered But thou ô Emperour when as it appeareth thou art not in the morning of thy time for hee was then threescore yeares old why dost thou make such haste to warre against the Parthians in hope to bring thence a rich and profitable bootie Plato to one who studied nothing but Gaine said O impious man take not such care to augment thy substance but rather how to lessen thy desire of getting Democritus was wont to say That amongst rich men there were more Procurators than Lords for the Couetous man doth not possesse but is possessed by his Riches of which he may deseruedly be called not the seruant only but the slaue A plaine Fellow came to the Emperour Vespasian who was much taxed of Auarice and desired to giue him that freedome which belonged vnto a Roman but because hee came empty handed being denied he boldly said vnto him aloud The Fox ô Caesar changeth his haiâ—es but not his nature In that reprouing the rapacitie of his gripple disposition who denied that gratis which hee would willingly haue bestowed vpon him for money AElianus in his booke De Varia Historia reporteth of the Poet Simonides That when one came to entreat him to write an Enconomium and in the stead of a reward offred him nothing but thanks he made answer vnto him That he had two coffers at home the one of Thankes the other of Coine the last when he needed he still found furnished the other when hee wanted was alwayes empty He in his old age being taxed of Couetousnesse made answer I had rather dying leaue my substance and riches to those that liue than in my life time being in want beg it of others and be denied But aboue all others the Emperour Caligula is most branded with this vice who after inimitable profusenesse for his riots and brutish intemperance exceeded all bounds of humanitie when he had wasted an infinit treasure vpon Concubines and Catamites gaue himselfe wholly to auaritious rapine insomuch that hee caused many of the richest men in Rome to make their Wills appointing him their Executor and Heire Who if they hapned to liue longer than he thought fit and that money began to faile he caused them either to be poysoned or put to some other priuat death alledging for his excuse That it were vnnaturall for men to liue long after they haue disposed of their goods by their last Will and Testament So Commodus the Emperour would for money pardon the life of any man who had committed murther though with the greatest inhumanitie and bargain with them before they enterprised the act All criminall and capitall crimes were to be bought out and judgement and Sentences in Court bought and sould as in the open market The Hierogliphycke of Auarice Pierius Valerius maketh The left hand grasped and clutcht thereby intimating tenacitie and holding fast because that hand is the more slow and dull and lesse capable of agilitie and dexteritie than the other and therefore the more apt for retention You may reade an Emblem in Alciatus to this purpose Septitius populos inter ditissimus omnes Arva senex nullus quo magis ampla tenet c. Than old Septitius for large grounds and fields Well stockt no one more rich the countrey yeelds Yet at a furnisht table will not eat But starues his belly to make roots his meat This man whom Plenty makes so poore and bare Wretched in wealth to what may I compare To what more proper than an Asse since hee Answers to him in all conformitie Laden with choicest Cates that the earth breeds Whilest he himselfe on grasse and thistles feeds And againe to the like purpose Emblem 89. Heu miser in medijs sitiens stat Tantalus vndis In midst of water Tantalus is dry Starv'd whilest ripe apples from his reaching fly The name but chang'd 't is thou ô couetous Sot Who hast thy goods so as thou hast them not Ioach. Camerarius lib. Fabul 1. in taxing some who for money will not be ashamed to take other mens griefs and calamities vpon them recites this fable A rich man hauing two daughters the one dying he hired diuers of his neighbours and friends of the same sex to mourn and lament after her herse and such the Latines call Praeficae Whose miserable cries and ejulations the suruiuing sister hearing shee spake vnto her mother and said O what an infelicitie it is that strangers and such as are no way allyed vnto vs can so loudly mourne and lament when wee whom so neerely it concernes scarce breathe a sigh or let fall one teare To whom the mother replied Wonder not my daughter that these should so weepe and howle since it is not for any loue they beare vnto her but for the money which they haue receiued to do this funerall office To giue the histories past the more credit as also those which follow concerning Witches Magitions Circulators juglers c. if we shall but cast our eyes backe vpon our selues and seeke no further than the late times and in them but examine our owne Nation we shall vndoubtedly finde accidents as prodigious horrid and euery way wonderfull as in the other Concerning which whosoeuer shall desire to be more fully satisfied I refer them to a Discourse published in English Anno 1593. containing sundry remarkable pieces of Witchcraft practised by Iohn Samuel the father Alice Samuel the wife and mother and Agnes Samuel the daughter commonly called The Witches of Warboys in the County of Huntingdon vpon the fiue danghters of Mr. Robert Throgmorton Esquire of the same towne and County with diuers others in the same house to the number of twelue as also the lady Cromwel by them bewitched to death The names of the Spirits they dealt with Plucke Catch and White The manner of their effacinations strange theit Confessions vpon their examinations wondrous their conuiction legall their execution iust and memorable Much more to the like purpose I might in this place alledge that not long since happened which by reason of the parties executed the Iurie who found them guilty and the reuerend Iudges who gaue them sentence of condemnation I hold not so fit to be here inserted And therefore conclude with that Pannurgist Sathan the great red Dragon or roaring Lion to whom not vnproperly may be giuen these following characters Fontem nosco boni bonus ipse creatus Factus at inde malus fons vocor ipse mali Of Goodnesse I the Fountaine am Bee'ng good at first created But since made Euill I the Well Of Ill am nominated Sic velut in muros mures in pectora daemon Iuvenit occultas aut facit ipse vias
so sooner done but instantly there appeared to grow out of his forehead an huge paire of Harts hornes of that height and greatnesse that it was not possible to draw his head in againe and thus he kept him for a good space to the peoples great sport and laughter But at length being released and gtowing angry and impatient of such an injurie and as it seemes dealing with a greater and more powerfull Diuel he bethought him of a more deepe and dangerous reuenge He drawes with a cole the picture of a man vpon the wall and commanded the former Magition who had before insulted ouer him to enter and hide himselfe within that Effigies But he seeing before his eyes the terrour of imminent death began to quake and tremble and beseech him on his knees to spare his life But the other inexorable injoyned him to enter there as he had commanded which hee with great vnwillingnesse being inforced to doe the wall was seene to open and giue way to his entrance and shut againe but neuer returned his body backe dead or aliue More gentle and of lesse malice were those Iudifications and deceptions of Zedechias the Iew who liued in the time of Ludovicus Pius He tossed a man into the aire and dismembred him peece-meale limbe from limbe and after gathering them together re-jointed him and made him whole and sound as at the first He seemed also to deuour and eat vp at once a cart full of hay the Carter and horses that drew it with their teeme-traces and all But in the end for poysoning Charles the Bald King of France he was drawne to pieces by foure wilde horses A certaine Lady descended from the Earles of Andegonia a prouince of France from which Family Henry the second King of England deriueth his descent was a great Inchantresse and as Polidorus testifies comming one day into the Church where the holy Sacrament was to be administred the Diuell her master snatched her vp aliue and carried her through a window her body nor any part thereof being euer seene after Iamblicus who had for his Magicke skill great estimation amongst the people at length as Eunapius hath left related despairing by reason of his former wicked courses dranke poison and so died Empedocles of Agrigentum who as Suidas saith for those black Gothicke Arts had great name and fame when as the Etesij or Easterne windes blew vehement and high insomuch that the fruits were in great danger of blasting caused certain Asses to be stript out of their skinnes and with diuers vnknowne charms and murmurations vttered commanded them to cease their tempestuous gusts To which they seemed to obey insomuch that he was called Ventorum Coactor i. The Tamer of the Windes Of himselfe hethus boastingly sung Pharmaca queis pellas morbos tristemque senectam Percipies quae cuncta tibi communico soli Compescesque truces ventorum rite procellas Ex orto insanis c. ¶ Thus Englished Med'cines from me diseases how to cure And make sad Age in strength long to endure Thou shalt receiue with things of higher rate Which solely I 'le to thee communicate The stormy Windes thou shalt command to cease Lest their mad gusts destroy the Earths encrease I 'le teach thee how the riuers to reclaime And force their streams to turne from whence they came Calmes from the midst of tempests thou shalt bring Cause timely showres in Haruest or in Spring And at thy pleasure make the Welkin cleare Or if thou call'st on dead Ghosts they shall heare But what was the end of this great Boaster notwithstanding his practise and proficience his profound learning and iudgement his great respect that he had from the Philosophers of his time and the reuerend opinion conceiued of the multitude yet this great Artist ended his dayes most wrerchedly in the sulphure flames of AEtna In a certaine part of Germany we reade of a Circulator or jugler who amongst many other his illusions standing in the midst of a throng of people he would aduance himselfe into the aire and in his flight a woman hold him fast by the heele and behind her a yong childe hold by one of her heeles and thus they would sport in the aire many houres together But notwithstanding all his agilitie and cunning being brought within the lapse of the Law for certain sorceries and witchcrafts he was burnt at a stake being then forsooke of the Diuell when he had most need of his aid Nicetas reporteth of a Sorcerer called Michael Sidecita This Fellow sporting with others vpon the battlements of the great Imperiall Palace in Constantinople in that part that prospects vpon the water he spied a Lighter or Boat which was laden with pots pipkins portingers dishes and all kinde of earthen vessels some plaine some curiously painted with diuers colours and to shew some sport with those Courtiers that were in his company by whispering some Magicke charme to himselfe hee caused the owner of the boat suddenly to arise from his seat and with his oare neuer cease beating the brittle Vessels vntill hee had almost pownded them to pouder Which done hee was perceiued to recollect himselfe and after to wring his hands and pluck himselfe by the beard and to expresse signes of extraordinarie sorrow And after being demanded What madnesse was in him to make such spoyle of his wares as where before they were all vendible now to make them worth nothing Hee sadly answered That as hee was busie at his oare hee espied an huge ougly Serpent crawling toward him and ready to deuour him who neuer ceased to threaten his life till hee had broken all his merchandise to pieces and then suddenly vanished This the Conjurer did to make his friends sport but he was suddenly after drowned in earnest Gulielmus Nubrigensis writeth of an English Magition called Eumus who was likewise an Heretique and was wont to shew the like prestigious trickes to the people He could so effascinat the eyes of the spectators that he seemed to feast great Princes lords and Barons at his table furnished with store of seruitors and waiters extemporarie dishes with delicates being brought in and all the rarieties that could be imagined with waiting-gentlewomen of extraordinarie beauty and feature attending the Court Cupboords being richly furnished with siluer and guilt plate Hee would likewise shew them pleasant and delightfull gardens decked with all sweet and fragrant floures with greene Orchards planted with trees that bare all manner of ripe fruits euen in the depth of Winter Yet he that could do all these things could nor preserue his owne life for being condemned by the Councell of Rhemes he suffered by fire notwithstanding his many and loud inuocations on the Diuell for helpe to deliuer him from that torture Scafius a notorious Sorcerer in the jurisdiction of Berne would brag in all places where he came That to escape the persecution of his enemies he could at any time
trans-shape himself into the likenesse of a Mouse But when the Diuine Iustice thought fit to giue a period to his insolencies being watched by some of his enemies they espied him in the Sunne sitting in a window that belonged to a stoue or hot house sporting himselfe in that shape when comming behind him when he least suspected they thrust their swords through the window and so slew him In like manner that great Magition of Newburg who sould a bottle of hay in stead of an horse being twice apprehended and hauing twice by the Diuels help escaped out of prison the third time hee was forsaken of his great Patron and deliuered vp vnto death I will conclude with the great Archi-Mage of these our later times Cornelius Agrippa who when he had spent the greatest part of his houres and age in the search and acquisition of this blacke and mystical Science yet doubted not to write after this maner The Magitions by the instigation of the Diuell onely in hope of gaine and a little vain-glory haue set their mindes against God not performing any thing that is either good or profitable vnto men but leading them to destruction and errour In whom whosoeuer shall place any confidence they plucke Gods heauy judgments vpon themselues True it is that I being a yong man writ of the Magical Art three bookes in one volume sufficiently large which I entituled Of Hidden Philosophie in which wheresoeuer I haue erred through the vaine curiositie of youth now in my better and more ripe vnderstanding I recant in this Palinode I confesse I haue spent much time in these vanities in which I haue onely profited thus much that I am able to dehort other men from entring into the like danger For whosoeuer by the illusion of the Diuell or by the operation of euill Spirits shall presume to diuine or prophesie by Magicke vanities Exorcismes Incantations Amatories inchanted Ditches and other demoniacall actions exercising blasphemous charmes spels witchcrafts and sorceries or any thing belonging to superstition and Idolatrie all these are fore-doomed to be tormented in eternall fire with Iamnes Mambre and Simon Magus These things this wretched man writ who saw the best and followed the worst For he continued in that execrable studie to his end and hauing receiued a promise from the Diuell that so oft as age came vpon him so oft his youth should be renewed and so liue euer he commanded his owne head to be cut off in hope instantly to reuiue againe But miserable that he was he was cheated in his confidence by that great Deceiuer in whom hee most trusted by which he made both soule and body a sudden though long expected prey to the Diuell There can scarce a sin be imagined more hatefull to God than Magicke by which the Couenant made with him being violated the Sorcerer entreth a new with the Diuell in which open war is proclaimed against God and a treaty of Peace first debated and after concluded with Sathan God himselfe saith by the mouth of his seruant Moses If any turne after such as worke with euill Spirits and after Soothsayers to go a whoring after them I will set my face against that person and will cut him off from amongst his people And againe If a man or woman haue a Spirit of Diuination or Soothsaying in them they shall die the death they shall stone them to death their bloud shall be vpon them Reade Deutronomie cap. 18. vers 10. Let none be found amongst you that maketh his sonne or his daughter to goe through the fire or that vseth witchcraft or a regarder of times or a marker of the flying of Fowles or a Sorcerer or a Charmer or that counselleth with Spirits or a Sooth-sayer or that asketh counsell of the Dead for all that do such things are abhomination vnto the Lord and because of these abhominations the Lord thy God doth cast them out before thee Thus we see as well by the Scriptures themselues as by the Ciuill Lawes of Kingdomes all such as shall separate themselues from God and enter into conuerse and fellowship with Sathan are cursed in the act and ought to be extermined from all Christian Churches and Commonweales The Emblem A Moth or Silk-worme creeping from an old stocke or trunke of a tree and turned vnto a Butter-fly The Motto Ecce nova omnia Behold all things are made new Complying with that which wee reade in Saint Pauls second Epistle to the Corinthians cap. 5. vers 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ let him be a new Creature old things are passed away behold all things become new And Ephes. 4.22 That you cast off concerning the conuersation in times past that Old Man which is corrupt through the deceiuable lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your minde and put on the New Man which after God is created vnto righteousnesse and true holinesse The Emblem is thus exprest Truncus iners eruca fuit nunc alba voluctis Ambrosium Coeli corpore gaudet iter Antea vermis erat mutatio quanta videtis Corporis antiqui portio nulla manet Vestis opes habitus convivia foedera mores Lingua sodalitium gaudia luctus amor Omnia sunt mutanda viris quibus entheus ardor Terrhenae decet hos faecis habere nihil ¶ Thus Paraphrased A meere trunke was the Silke-worme now it flies A white Bird sporting in th' Ambrosiall Skies Before a Worme What a great change is here Of the first shape no semblance doth appeare Garments Wealth Banquets Contracts Mannors Ioy Loue Language Fellowship Change must destroy Such men whom Diuine ardor doth inspire Must of this terrhene drosse quench all desire After which change followeth eternity And of the Saints and Elect it may be said Parva patiuntur vt magna potiantur Smal are the things they suffer in this world compared with the great things they shall receiue in the world to come We reade Dan. cap. 12. vers 2. thus And many of them that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake to euerlasting life and some to shame and perpetual contempt and they that be wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the Firmament and they that turne many vnto righteousnesse shall shine as the Starres for euer and euer Moreouer Iob 19. For I am sure that my Redeemer liueth and he shall stand the last on the earth And though after my skinne wormes shall destroy this body yet shall I see God in my flesh whom I my selfe shall see with mine eyes and none other for mee c. AEternus non erit sopor Death shall be no euerlasting sleep Iohn 5.28 Maruell not at this for the houre shall come in which all that are in the graues shall heare his voice and they shall come forth that haue done good vnto the resurrection of life but they that haue done euill vnto the resurrection of condemnation Saint Augustine in one of his books saith Resurgent Sanctorum
ibid. The Golden World 275. The concordance betwixt the Dominations and Iupiter ibid. Of the Vertues with Mars 276. The maleuolent aspect of Mars 277. Of the Potestates with the Sunne 278. Of Starres that receiue names from the Sun ibid. The Trinitie in Vnitie figured in the Sunne 279. Concord betwixt the Principats and Venus ibid. The Arch Angels and Mercury 280 Betwixt the Angels and the Moone 281. The Premisses illustrated 282. Three Religions most profest 283. What the Iewes say for themselues 284. Wherein the Mahumetan opposeth the Christian ibid. Mahomets imposterous Miracles Saints and Reliques 285. The Creation of things according to Mahomet and of his Paradise 286. The first Sow according to Mahomet and why Sowes flesh is not eaten in Paradise 287. The first Mouse the first Caâ— and the joyes of Heauen according to Mahomeâ— 288. His palpable and absurd ignorance with his opinion of Angels 289. Aridiculous tale in Mahomets Alcaron 290. Of the Priscillians and Manichees exploded Heretiques 291. Wherein blessednesse consisteth according to the Manichees 292. Of Truth 293. The Philosophers and Fathers of Truth 294. The Poets of Truth 295. An exceâ—lent discourse of Cardinall Pascalis of Truth 296. Truth constant and subiect to no change 297. Religion grounded vpon Truth 298. Religion defined against those that make it a cloake for hipocrisie 299. Three opinions concerning Christ 300. Iosephus Pontius Pilat c witnesses of Christ 301. An Epistle of Pliny to Trajan the Emperor concerning Christians 302. Diuers Ethnieke Princes who fauored the Christians 303. Caesar Maximinus his oration concerning Christians And of Cublay Emperour of Tartaria 304. What a Miracle is 306. Wonders in Nature 307. Of Christs Miracles 308. Origen Greg. Chrisost. c. of the Virgin Mary 309. Christ miraculous in his birth life doctrine and death 310 c. Twelue grieuous sufferings of Christ 315. Of the great Eclipse at his death 316. The life and death of Mahomet 319 c. Beza his Epigram of Religion 322. Pope Greg. of Christs death 323. An Emblem 324. A Meditation 327. THE CONTENTS OF THE SIXTH TRACTAT A Discourse of the Heart of man 331. The inconstancie of Mans Heart 332. How many wayes the Heart of man is insidiated ibid. How it may be reconciled to the Creator 333. Sundry opinions concerning the creation of Angels 334. Angels created with the Light 335. Lucifers glory in his Creation 336. He is figured in Tyrus 337. The creation of Man the Soule the Body and what Man is 338. The Incarnation of Christ reuealed to the Angels 339. Lucifers Rebellion the cause thereof The Battell betwixt Michael and the Diuell 340. The Fall of Angels and the weapons vsed in the Battell 341. How long Lucifer remained in Glory 342. The power he hath since his Fall ibid. The Fall of Adam his offence and punishment 343. Of Hell according to the Poets Tibullus 344. Virgil Seneca Valer. Flacchus Lucretius c. 345. Of Hell according to the Scriptures and Fathers 346. The torments of Hell 347. The seuerall denominations of Hell ibid. Lucians Dialogue called Nycio Manteia i. an Answer from the Dead 348. The cause of Menippus trauell to Hell 350. The Ciuill Lawes compared with the doctrines of the Poets ibid. The vanitie of Philosophers and their wranglings discouered 351. Lucians meeting with the Magition Mithrobarzanes 352. His superstâ—tionsâ— and Incantations discouered and derided 353. A description of his passage to Hell 355. Of Minos the Iudge with his proceeding against the Prisoners 355. Diuers great men arraigned and sentenced 357. A description of the torments 358. Of the Heroes and demy-gods 359. The equalitie that is in Hell 360. A comparison of the life of man ibid. Great men on earth how vilified in Hell 361. The estate of Socrates Diogenes and the like in hell 362. A Decree made in Hell against rich men ibid. Tyresius his counsell What life is safest to leade on earth 363. Menippus his passage from hell 364. Further discourse of the Heart of man 365. Manlius of the ambition of Mans heart 366. The instabilitie and corruption thereof 367. Further of the Creation of the Angels when and where 368. The Angelicall nature how vnderstood 369. Diuers questions and difficulties concerning Angels reconciled 370. The order that God vsed in the Creation 371. Angels immutable and that no Soule but hath an Angell to attend it 372. What best pleaseth the Angels They gouerne Nations Angell a name of office not of nature 373. Nazianzen of the Angels 374. Of the forming and fashioning of Man ibid. The three dignities of the Soule and the end why Man was created 375. Three great gifts bestowed on Man in the Creation ibid. Three opposit euils 376 A iust measure of mans body ibid. Three sorts of liuing Spirits created by God 377 Of the Soule of man 378. The Philosophers concerning the Soule 379. Iohannes de Canis a Florentine Physition 380. The Poets of the Soule 381. Of Man in generall 382. Against such as deny the Resurrection 383. Difference betwixt the liues of Beasts Men and Angels ibid. Of the birth of Man 384 The Ethnicks of Man ibid. Homer with other Poets of Man 385. Adages and Emblems of Man 386. Hierogliphycks of Man 387. Ethnicks of Hell 388. The Rabbins of the locall place of Hell 389. The figure of Moloch 390 Lucians Dialogue intituled Nyciomanteia with Sir Thom. Mores Argument thereupon 390 c. The acts of Alexander Hannibal and Scipio 392 c A discourse of hell fire 397. Reasons prouing the perpetuity of the torments 398. An Emblem 399. A Meditation 401. THE CONTENTS OF THE VII TRACTAT VVIsedome contemplateth the wonderfull works of God 407. The Sun 408. The Moone Stars Rainbow Snow Lightning Haile Mountains Winds Thunder Raine Frost Ice c 409 c. The quality and condition of malignant Spirits 410. Diuels retaine their first naturall faculties 411. The degrees among Diuels of which Lucifer is prime 412. Lucifers figure and description 413. Prioritie obserued among the Diuels with necessarie obseruations 415. The Diuels striue to imitate God 410. An excellent historie expressing the instabilitie of Fortune ibid. The originall of Idolatry illustrated from the former historie 435. Nine Classes of Diuels with their seueral Orders 436. The sundry names of Diuels and what they signifie 437. Of the number of Angels that fell more Angels than men more men than Angels 438. Of the motion of Angels ibid. The distance betwixt the eighth heauen and the earth 439. All intelligent Substances are incorporeall 440 Sathan and the euill Daemons bounded in their malice ibid. The admirable knowledge f Spirits 441. How and wherein their knowledge is limited 442. Their equinocating answers in the Oracles ibid. Good Angels cannot erre 443. Of Contracts made betwixt man and Sathan ibid. The manner of the diuels temptations set down the better to aâ—oid them 444. Pasetis a great Magition ibid. Seueral Magicke books fathered vpon good and godly men ibid. Seuerall mettals ascribed