not This I say is the way that will free all beleeuers wherein Abraham trusting receiued that diuine promise In thy seede shall all the nations bee blessed Abrahamâ—… as a Chaldaean but for to receiue this promise that the seede which was disposed by the Angells in the mediators power to giue this vniuersall way of the soules freedome vnto all nations he was commanded to leaue his owne land and kinred and his fathers house And then was hee first freed from the Chaldaean superstitions and serued the true God to whose promise he firmely trusted This is the way recorded in the Prophet God bee mercifull vnto vs and blesse vs and shew vs the light of his countenance and bee mercifull vnto vs. That thy way may be knowne vpon earth thy sauing health among all nations And long aftâ—…r Abrahams seede beeing incarnate Christ sayth of himselfe I am the way the truth and the life This is the vniuersall way mentioned so long before by the Prophets It shal be in the last daies that the g mountaine of the house of the Lord shal be prepared in the toppe of the mountaines and shal be exalted aboue the hills and all nations shall flie vnto it And many people shall goe and say come let vs goe vppe to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob and hee will teach vs his way and wee will walke therein For the lawe shall goe forth of Syon and the word of the LORD from Ierusalem This way therefore is not peculiar to some one nation but common to all Nor did the law and word of God stay in Ierusalem or Syon but come from thence to ouerspread all the world Therevpon the mediator being risen from death sayd vnto his amazed and amated disciples Al things must be fulfilled which are written of mee in the law the Prophets and the Psalmes Then opened hee their vnderstanding that they might vnderstand the scriptures saying thus it behooued CHRIST to suffer and to rise againe from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sinnes should be preached in his name amongst all nations beginning at Ierusalem This then is the vniuersall way of the soules freedome which the Saints and Prophets beeing at first but a fewe as God gaue grace and those all Hebrewes for that estate was in a h manner consecrated did both adumbrate in their temple sacrifice and Priest-hood and fore-told also in their prophecy often mistically and some-times plainely And the Mediator himselfe and his Apostles reuealing the grace of the new testament made plaine all those significations that successe of precedent times had retained as it pleased God the miracls which I spoke of before euermore giuing confirmation to them For they had not onely angelicall visions and saw the ministers of heauen but euen these simple men relying wholy vpon Gods word cast out deuills cured diseases i commanded wild-beasts waters birds trees elements and starres raised the dead I except the miracles peculiar to our Sauiour chiefly in his birth and resurrection shewing in the first the mistery of k maternall virginity and in the other the example of our renouation This way cleanseth euery soule and prepareth a mortall man in euery part of his for immortality For least that which Prophyry calls the intellect should haue one purgation the spirital another and the body another therefore did our true and powerfull Sauiour take all vpon him Besides this way which hath neuer failed man-kinde either l in prophecies or in their m performances no man hath euer had freedome or euer hath or euer shall haue And wheras Porphyry saith he neuer had any historicall notice of this way what history can be more famous then this that lookes from such a towring authority downe vpon all the world or more faithfull since it so relateth things past as it prophecyeth things to come a great part whereof wee see already performed which giueth vs assured hope of the fulfilling of the rest Porphyry nor euer a Platonist in the world can contemne the predictions of this way albee they concerne but temporall affaires as they doe all other prophecies and diuinations of what sort soeuer for them they say they neither are spoken by worthy men nor to any worthy purpose true for they are either drawne from inferiour causes as 〈◊〉 can presage much n concerning health vpon such or such signes or cls the vncleane spirits fore-tell the artes that they haue already disposed of o confirming the mindes of the guilty and wicked with deedes fitting their words or words fitting their deedes to get themselues a domination in mans infirmity But the holy men of this vniuersall way of ours neuer respect the prophecying of those things holding them iustly trifles yet doe they both know them and often fore-tell them to confirme the faith in things beyond sence and hard to present vnto plainnesse But they were other and greater matters which they as God inspired them did prophecy namely the incarnation of Christ and all things thereto belonging and fulfilled in his name repentance and conuersion of the will vnto God remission of sinnes the grace of iustice faith and increase of beleeuers throughout all the world destinction of Idolatry temptation for triall mundifying of the proficients freedom from euill the day of iudgement resurrection damnation of the wicked and glorification of the City of GOD in 〈◊〉 eternall Kingdome These are the prophecies of them of this way many are fullfilled and the rest assuredly are to come That this streight way leading to the knowledge and coherence of GOD lieth plaine in the holy scriptures vpon whose truth it is grounded they that beleeue not and therefore know not may oppose this but can neuer ouerthrow it And therefore in these ten bookes I 〈◊〉 spoken by the good assistance of GOD sufficient in sound iudgements though some expected more against the impious contradictors that preferre 〈◊〉 gods before the founder of the holy citty whereof wee are to dispute The 〈◊〉 fiue of the ten opposed them that adored their gods for temporall respects 〈◊〉 fiue later against those that adored them for the life to come It remaines now according as wee promised in the first booke to proceede in our discourse of the two citties that are confused together in this world and distinct in the other of whose originall progresse and consummation I now enter to dispute eâ—…â—…oking the assistance of the almighty L. VIVES KInges a high or road the Kinges the Prâ—…tors and the Soldiors way the lawes held holy b Indian The Gymnosophists and the Brachmans much recorded for admirable deeds and doctrine c All the world Therfore is our fayth called Catholike because it was not taught to any peculiar nation as the Iewes was but to all mankind excluding none all may be saued by it and none can without it nor hath euery nation herein as they haue in Paganisme a seuerall religion But
the vnbridled out-rage of dissolute souldiers at the sacking of Cities For when HALARICVS was ready to enter into the Citty he caused two Edicts to bee proclamed to his souldiers The one was that euery man should abstaine from slaughter and laying violent handes vpon any person because such cruell deedes did highly displease him The other was that whosoeuer had taken Sanctuarie in the temples of the chiefe Apostles should haue no harme done vnto them nor those holie temples bee prophaned by any and that the offendor should suffer death The City of Rome was taken by the Gothes after it was founded Anno. M. C. L. XIIII Cal. April PLAVIVS and VARRO being Consulls But after what manner is was taken the Historiographers make small relation PAPT STA EGNATIVS saith that he had the manner of the taking of it out of the workes of PROCOPIVS a Greeke author and that hee did not a little maruell why the Interpreter did wittingly and willingly ouer-skippe that place or if it were so that hee lighted vpon an vnperfect booke that hee tooke no better heed to marke what was wanting I my selfe haue not seene PROCOPIVS the Greeke author therefore the truth of the cause shall relie vpon the credit of EGNATIVS a man verie industrious and learned as farre as I canne iudge by his workes These are his words ensuing HALARICVS had now besieged Rome the space of two yeares when HONORIVS remayning carelesse at Rauenna was neither able nor durst come to succor and releeue the Citty For hee regarded nothing lesse then the wel-fare and safety of the City after the death of STILICO hauing no care to place another Generall in his roome which might haue managed the warres against the Gothes These things were motiues to stirre vp the Gothes to besiege the Cittie perceiuing that either the Romane souldiers daylie decaied or that they went about their affaires without any corage But when they found that they could not winne it by force hauing besieged it a long time in vaine then their barbarous enemies turne their thoughts to attempt what they may doe by policy And now they beginne to make a false shew of their departing home into their owne country wherefore they call three hundered young men out of their whole army excelling in actiuity of body and corage of minde which they giue as a present to the Noble-men of Rome hauing instructed them before hand that by their lowly carriage and obsequious seruice they should bend themselues to win the fauor and good liking of their maisters that on a certaine day concluded betwen them about noone-time when the Romane princes were either a sleepe or idly disposed they should come speedily to the gate which is named Asinaria Porta there suddenly rushing vpon the keepers murder them speedely and then set open the gate for their country-men to enter beeing ready at hand In the meane while the Gothes prolonged their returne dissembling cunningly that some-time they wanted this thing and some-time that At last these three hundered young men wakeâ—…il to take the tide of oportunity dispatched their taske coragiously which they had vndertaken at the appointed day set the gate wide open to their countri-men and friends Now the Goths hauing gotten entrance rifle ransack spoile and wast the whole City procuring far greater dishonor shame vnto the Roman Nation then they did losse by the taking of it There are some which thinke the gate was set open by the meanes of PROBA a most famous wealthy woman pittying the lamentable and distressed case of the common people who died euery where like brute beasts pined with famine and afflicted with grieuous diseases There are two things worthy of serious marking first that HALARICVS made an Edict that no violence or harme should be offered vnto them which fled into the Temples of the Saints especially of Saint PETER and PAVL which thing was carefully kept Next when it was told HONORIVS being at Rauenna that Rome was lost hee thought it had beene meant of a certaine French-man a quarrellous and fighting fellow whose name was ROME maruelling that hee was so soone gone with whom hee had so little before beene most pleasant And thus much writeth EGNATâ—…VS Now the most blasphemous and wicked people faâ—…sly imputed the cause of all their miseries and enormities vnto the Christian Religion denying that euer it would haue come to passe that Rome should haue beene taken if they had kept still the Religions deuoutly obserued by their Ancestors and commended by tradition vnâ—…o their Posterity As though the French-men before time had not taken wasted and ransacked that Citty for the very same cause namely for the breach of their oth yea at that time when the prophane ceremonies of their Heathenish Religion as they say were in their chiefest prime and pride And as though few Christian Emperors had managed their affaires well or as though the decay of the Empire and ruine of it did not begin vnder the Emperors of the Gentiles And as if HONORIVS had not lost Rome by the same negligence and sloathfulnesse that GALIENVS lost Aegipt Aâ—…a 〈◊〉 passing the matter ouer with a pleasant test when newes came vnto him of thâ—… lâ—…se of them Wherefore against these slanderous persons who would haue beene enemies and aduersaries of the Christian Religion though no calamity had happened to them AVGVSTINE wrote two and twenty bookes defending the Citty of God that is to say the Christian Religion against the rage and fury of their frantick and impious calumniations FINIS The argument out of the second booke of the Retractations of Saint Augustine TRiumphant Rome ruinated and deiected from her throne of Maiesty into a gulphe of calamity by the violent irruption of the barbarous Gothes managing their bloudy wars vnder the standard of ALARICVS the worshippers of false and many gods whom wee brand in the fore-head with the common name of heathenâ—… Pagans began to breath out more damnable and virulent blasphemies against the true GOD then their bestiall mouthes had euer breathed out befâ—… labouring with might and maine to lay a heape of slanders vpon the neck of Christian relâ—…on as the wicked Mother of all this mischiefe and murderer of their worldly happinesse Wherefore the fire and zeale of Gods House burning within my bowells I resolued to compile these bookes of the Citty of God to batter down the strongest hold of their bitter blasphemies and dispel the thick clowds of their grosse errors Some yeares passed ouer my head before I could compile and finish the whole frame of this worke by reason of many intercedent affaires whose impatient hast of quick expedition would admit no delay But at last this great and laborious worke of the Citty of God was ended in two and twenty bookes of which the first fiue rebate the edge of their erronious opinions which build the prosperity of humane affaires vpon such a tottering foundation that they thinke it cannot stand long
many errors and terrors Of the seauenth chance d For if there were any reason A fit kinde of argument by repugnance which taking away the adiunct takes the subiect away also Tully mentions it in his Topikes How it was a iudgement of God that the enemie was permitted to excercise his lust vpon the Christian bodies CHAP. 27. IF you aske me now why these outrages were thus permitted I answere the prouidence of the creator gouernor of the world is high and his iudgements are vnsearchable a and his waies past finding out But aske your owne hearts sincerely whether you haue boasted in this good of continency and chastity or no whether you haue not affected humane commendations for it and so thereby haue enuied it in others I doe not accuse you of that whereof I am ignorant nor doe I know what answere your hearts will returne you vnto this question But if they answere affirmatiuely and say you haue done so then wonder not at all b that you haue now lost that whereby you did but seeke and c reioyce to please the eyes of mortall men and that you lost not that which could not bee shewed vnto men If you consented not vnto the others luxury your soules had the helpe of Gods grace to keepe them from losse and likewise felt the disgrace of humane glory to deterre them from the loue of it But your faint hearts are comforted on both sides on this side being approoued and on that side chastised iustified on this and reformed on the other But their hearts that giue them answere that they neuer gloried in the guift of virginity viduall chastity or continence in marriage but d sorting themselues with the meanest did e with a reuerend feare reioyce in this guift of God nor euer repined at the like excellence of sanctity and purity in others but neglecting the ayre of humane fame which alwaies is wont to accrew according to the rarity of the vertue that deserues it did wish rather to haue their number multiplied then by reason of their fewnesse to become more eminent Let not those that are such if the Barbarians Iust haue seized vpon some of them f alledge that this is meerely permitted nor let them thinke that God neglecteth these things because he some-times permitteth that which no man euer committeth vnpunished for some as weights of sinne and euill desires are let downe by a prâ—…sent and secret iudgement and some are reserued to that publique and vniuersall last iudgement And perhaps those who knew themselues vnguâ—…e and that neuer had their hearts puffed vppe with the good of this chastity and yet had their bodies thus abused by the enemie had notwithstanding some infirmity lurking within them which g if they had escaped this humiliation by the warres fury might haue increased vnto a fastidious pride Wherefore h as some were taken away by death least wickednesse should alter their vnderstandings so these here were forced to forgoe i some-thing least excesse of prosperitie should haue depraued their vertuous modestie And therefore from neither sort either of those that were proud in that their bodies were pure from all vncleane touch of others or that might haue growne proud if they had escaped the rape done by their foes from neither of these is their chastitie taken away but vnto them both is humilitie perwaded The vaine-glory which is k immanent in the one and imminent ouer the other was excluded in them both Though this is not to bee ouer-passed with silence that some that endured these violences might perhaps thinke that continencie is but a bodily good remaining as long as the body remaines vntouched but that it is not soly placed in the strength of the grace-assisted will which sanctifies both body and soule nor that it is a good that cannot be lost against ones will which error this affliction brought them to vnderstand for it they consider with what conscience they honor God and do with an vnmooued faith beleeue this of him that hee will not nay cannot any way forsake such as thus and thus do serue him and inuocate his name and do not doubt of the great acceptation which he vouchsafeth vnto chastitie Then must they neede perceiue that it followes necessarily that he would neuer suffer this to fall vpon his Saints if that by this meanes they should be despoiled of that sanctimonie which hee so much affecteth in them and infuseth into them L. VIVES ANd a his wayes the vulgar Rom. 12. 35. reades inuestigabiles for the direct contrarie minimè inuestigabiles Inuestigabilis is that which is found inuestigando with searching out But the wayes of the Lord cannot be found out by humaine vnderstanding The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imperuestigabiles vnsearchable b That you lost that that you lost your fame and faire report and yet lost not your chastitie c Reioyced to please that is louingly desired d But sorting themselues with the meanest Rom. 12. 16. Bee not high minded but make your selues equall with them of the lower sort 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the originall verbally translated humilibus abducti e With reuerend feare Psalm 2. 11. Serue the Lord with feare or reioyce with trembling f Alledge we interprete not causari as the Philosophers doe in the Schooles in causa esse to be the cause but causam proferre to alledge as cause as Uirgill doth saying Causando nostros in longum ducis amores With allegations thou prolongs our loues g If they had escaped this humiliation Augustine here vseth humilitas for humiliatio I thinke which is a deiecting of a man by some calamitie Vnlesse that some will reade it thus Which if they had escaped the humility of this warres furie might haue blowne them vp into fastidious pride h As some were taken away The wordes are in the fourth of the booke of Wisdome the eleuenth verse and are spoken of Henoch but they are not here to bee vnderstood as spoken of him for hee was taken vp in his life vnto the Lord but of others who after their death were taken vp to God for the same cause that Henoch was before his death i Some thing what that something was modest shame prohibiteth to speake k Immanent in the one not as the Grammarians take it namely for vncontinuing or transitorie but immanens quasi intùs manens inherent ingrafted or staying within Augustine vseth it for to expresse the figure of Agnomination or Paranamasia which is in the two words immanent imminent which figure he vseth in many other places What the seruants of Christ may answer the Inâ—…dels when they vpbrayde them with Christs not deliuering them in their afflictions from the furie of their enemies furie CHAP. 28. VVHerefore all the seruants of the great and true God haue a comfort that 's firme and fixed not placed vpon fraile foundations of momentary and transitorie things and so they passe this temporall life in such manner as they
befieging Ardea when the people beganne this depriuation and when he came to the Citty Brutus that came into the campe another waie with-drew all his army from him o Tusculum It is more commonly beleeued that hee died at Cumae with King Aristodemus liuing neere at the age of 90. yeares I doe not denie his stay some yeares at Tusculum with Octauius Mamilius his sonne in law vntill at that memorable filed at Lake Regillus now called Lago di S. Prassede Mamilius was slaine by T. Herminius Legate of Rome Which perhaps is cause of Saint Augustines forgetfulnesse in a matter of so small a moment caring not whether it bee reported thus or thus p His owne daughters consent Nay furtherance it is sayd and continuall vrging her husband to the fact q There owne pride A pithy and elegant saying r twenty miles Eighteene saith Ruffus won by Ancus from Rome to Ostia by the sea Eutropius hath but sixteene s Getulians Getulia is a part of Affrike neere the inhabitable Zone as Mela saith Salust writeth thus of them The rude and barbarous Getulians dwelt at first in Africa the flesh of wild beastes grasse was their meate as beasts haue also their apparell Law had they none nor gouernment nor place of aboade This and more hath Salust of the Getulians Mela saith they are a great and populous country Of the first Romaine Consulls how the one expelled the other out of his country and hee himselfe after many bloudy murders fell by a wound giuen him by his wounded foe CHAP. 16. VNto these times adde the other wherein as Salust saith things were modestly and iustly caried vntill the feare of Tarquin and the Hetrurian warre were both ended For whilest the Hetrurians assisted Tarquins endeauours of re-instalment Rome quaked vnder so burthenous a warre And therefore saith Salust were things caried modestly and iustly feare beeing the cause here of by restraint not iustice by perswasion In which short space O how cruell a course had the yeare of the two first Consulls The time beeing yet vnexpired Brutus debased Collatine and banished him the Citty And soone after perished he himselfe hauing a enterchanged a many wounds with his foe b hauing first slaine his owne sonnes and his wiues brothers because he found them actors in a plot to recall Tarquin Which deed Virgill hauing laudably recited presently doth in gentle manner deplore it for hauing sayd Natosque Pater mala bella mouentes Ad panam pulcra pro libertate vocabit His sonnes conuict of turbulent transgression He kills to quit his country from oppression Presently in lamenting manner he addeth Infaelix vtcunque ferent ea fact a minores Haplesse how ere succeeding times shall ringe Howsoeuer his posterity shall ring of the praise of such an act yet haplesse is he that giues deathes summons to his owne sonnes But to giue some solace to his sorrowes he addeth after all Viâ—…t amor patriae laudumque immensa cupido Conquer'd by countries loue and lawds high thirst Now in Brutus his killing of his owne sonnes and c in beeing killed by Tarquins sonne whome hee had hurt and Tarquin himselfe suruiuing him is not d Collatines wrong well reuenged who beeing so good a cittizen was banished onely because his name was but Tarqâ—…n as well as Tarquin the tyrant e It was the name you say that was the cause of this well hee should haue beene made to change his name then and not to abandon his country Againe f this word would haue beene but little missed in his name if hee had beene called L. Collatine onely This therefore was no sufficient cause why hee beeing one of the first Consulls should bee forced to abiure both his honours and his Citie But is this vniustice being so detestable and so vse-lesse to the state fit to bee the foundation of Brutus his glory Did he these things being Conquâ—…r'a by our countries loues and laudes high thirst Tarquin beeing expelled Lucraetia's-husband was ioyned Consull with Iunius Brutus how iustly did the people respect the conditions of the man aâ—…d not the name But how vniustly did Brutus hauing powre to depriue him onely of the cause of the offence his name in depriuing him both of his country and place of honour Thus these euills thus these thwart effects fell out euen then when things were said to be carried so modestly and so iustly And g Lucraetius that had Brâ—…tus his place died ere this yeare ended So that P. Valerius that succeeded Collatine and M. Horatius that had Lucraetius his place ended that Hellish and murderous yeare which saw it selfe passe by fiue Consulls This was the yeare wherein Rome deuised her platforme of new gouernment their feares now beginning to surcease not because they had no warres but because those they had were but light ones But the time beeing expired wherein things were modestly and iustly carried then followed those which Salust doth thus breeflie deliniate Then bâ—…ganne the Patriots to oppresse the pâ—…ople with seruile conditions to iudge of life and death as Imperiously as the Kings had done before to thrust men from their possessions to put by all others and to sâ—…are all themselues with which outrages and chiefly with their extorted taxes the people beeing to much vexed beeing bound both to maintaine an armie and also to par contributions besidâ—…s they rusht vppe to armes and entrenched themselues vpon Mount Sacer and Auentine and there they made them Tribunes and diuers lawes but these discords and tumultuous contentions ended not till the second African warre L. VIVES HAuing a entâ—…rchanged With Arnus King Tarquinius sonneâ—… beeing slaine the matrons mourned a whole yeare for him and his Collâ—…ague Valerius made an oration in his praise the first of that kinde in Rome b Hauing first slaine The Viteâ—… Brutus his wiues brethren conspired with certaine secret messengers of Tarquin to bring him secretly in againe and made Titus and Tiberius Brutus the Consull sons priuy and pertakers in this affaire Brutus discouering the plot put them all to death c In beeing killed The manuscripts haue this diuersly wee haue it the best d Collatines wrong I noted before That those that depriued their fellowes in Consull-ship liued not a yeare after e For it is sayd Hee was sonne to M. Iunius and Tarquins sister f This name would Some hereof transpose the word if but erroneously g Lucraetius This first yeare had fiue Consulls first Brutus and Collatine then P. Valerius Poplicola in Collatines place Then Sp Lucraetius after the death of Brutus in warre had Brutus his place and hee dying ere the end of the yeare M. Horatius Puluillu succeeded him Of the Vexations of the Romaine estate after the first beginning of the the Consulls rule And of the little good that their gods all this while did them CHAP. 17. BVt why should I spend so much time in writing of these things or make others spend it in reading them How miserable the state
dying nor in death For this is sought as present in the change of the times and is found the one passing into the other without the least interposed space Doe we not see then that by this reason the death of the bodie is nothing If it bee how is it any thing beeing in nothin and whereing nothing can be for if we liue it is not any thing yet because wee are before it not in it if we liue not it is nothing still for now wee are after it and not in it But now if death bee nothing before nor after what sence is there in saying before or after death I would to God wee had liued well in Paradise that death might haue bin nothing indeede But now there is not onely such a thing but it is so greeuous with vs as neither tongue can tell nor reason avoide Let vs therefore speake according to c custome for so wee should and call the time ere death come before death as it is written d Iudge none blessed before his death Let vs call the 〈◊〉 when it is already come after death this or that was after his death and let us speake of the present time as wee can hee dying gaue such a legacy hee dying left thus much or thus much though no man could do this but the liuing and rather before his death then at or in his death And let vs speake as the holy scripture speaketh of the dead saying they were not after death but in death For in death there is no remembrance of thee for vntill they rise againe they are iustly said to bee in death as one is in sleepe vntill hee awake Though such as are in sleepe wee say are sleeping then may wee not say that such as are dead are dying For they that are once seperate wholy froÌ„ them bodies are past dying the bodily death whereof we speake any more But this that I say one cannot declare how the dying man may be sayd to liue or how the dead man can be sayd to bee in death for how can he bee after death if hee bee in death since wee cannot call him dying as we may doe hee that is in sleepe sleeping or hee that is in languor â—…guishing or hee that is in sorrow sorrowing or in life liuing But the dead vntill they arise are said to bee in death yet wee cannot say they are dying And therefore I thinke it was not for no cause perhaps God decreed it that mortor the latine word for to die could not by any meanes bee brought by e grammartians vnto the forme of other verbes f Ortor to arise hath ortus in the preterperfect tense and so haue other verbes that are declined by the participle of the pretertense But Morior must haue mortuus for the preterperfect tence doubling the letter V. for Mortuus endes like fatuus arduus conspicuus and such like that are no preterperfect tenses but nownes declined without tenses 〈◊〉 times and this as if it were a nowne decsinable that cannot be declined is put for the participle of the present tense So that it is conuenient that as it cannot effect the signification by act no more should the name be to bee g declined by arte Yet by the grace of Our Redeemer we may decline that is avoide the second death For this is the sore one and the worst of euills beeing no separation but rather a combination of body and soule vnto eternall torture Therein sâ—…all none bee a fore death nor after death but eternally in death neuer liuing neuer dead but euer dying For man can neuer be in worse death then when the death he is in is endlesse L. VIVES TOo a strange Insolens for insolitum vn-accustomed Salusts worde that antiquary and Gellius his ape b When is he Oh Saint Augustine by your fauor your witts edge is too blunt here you not our rare schoole diuines the first is the first is not the last is the last is not death is not in this instant for now it is done conceiue you not Why thus It was but now and now it is not not yet then thus but you must into the schooles and learne of the boies for those bables are fitter for them then for men But you and I will haue a great deale of good talke of this in some other place c Custome The mistresse of speach whom all artes ought to obserue d Iudge none Like Solons saying No man can bee called blessed and he be dead because hee knowes not what may befall him e Grammarians You are too idle in this chapter Saint Augustine First in commanding vs to apply our speech to the common sence and secondly in naming gramarians in a matters of diuinity how much more in drawing any argument pertayning to this question from them If any smatterer of our diuines had done it hee should haue beene hissed out of our schooles but you follow the old discipline and keepe the artes combined mixing each others ornament and no way disioyning them f Orior That comparison holdes in grammar it is a great question and much tossed Aristarchus a great grammarian defended it and Crates building vpon Chrisippus his Perianomalia did oppose it Varro's fragments herevpon lay downe both their reasons and Quintilian disputes of it Caius Caesar wrote also to Cicero concerning Analogie Doubtlesse it must be allowed in many things but not in all otherwise that art cannot stand nor hardly worldly discourse g Declined Alluding to the ambiguity of the worde declinari it cannot bee declined that is avoided nor declined that is varied by cases Of the death that God threatned to promise the first man withall if he transgressed CHAP. 12. IF therefore it bee asked what death GOD threatned man with all vpon his trangression and breach of obedience whether it were bodily or spirituall or that second death we answere it was all the first consisteth of two and the second entirely of all for as the whole earth consists of many lands and the whole Church of many Churches so doth the vniuersall death consist of all the first consisting of two the bodies and the soules beeing the death wherein the soule beeing foresaken of GOD forsaketh the bodie and endureth paines for the time but the second beeing that wherein the soule being forsaken of GOD endureth paines for euer Therefore when GOD sayd to the first man that hee placed in Paradise as concerning the forbidden fruite Whensoeuer thou eatest thereof thou shaâ—… die the death he comprehends therein not onely the first part of the first death wheresoeuer the soule looseth God nor the later onely wherein the soule leaneth the body and is punished after that seperation but also that last part or the second which is the last of deaths eternall and following after all all this is comprehended in that commination What punishment was first layd on mans preuarication CHAP. 13. FOr after mankinde had broken the precept hee was
it to bee diffused froÌ„ the midst of earth geometrically called the c center vnto the extreamest parts of heaueÌ„ through al the parts of the world by d misticall numbers making the world a blessed creature whose soule enioyeth ful happines of wisdom yet leaueth not the body wose bodie liueteh eternally by it and as though it consist of so many different 〈◊〉 yet can neither dull it nor hinder it Seeing then that they giue their conâ—…res this scope why will they not beleeue that God hath power to eternize 〈◊〉 bodies wherein the soules without being parted from them by death or 〈◊〉 â—…rdened by them at all in life may liue most in blessed eternity as they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gods doe in firy bodies and their Iupiter in all the foure elements If 〈◊〉 â—…es cannot be blessed without the bodies bee quite forsaken why then let 〈◊〉 â—…ods get them out of the starres let Iupiter pack out of the elements if they 〈◊〉 goe then are they wretched But they will allow neither of these they 〈◊〉 â—…uerre that the Gods may leaue their bodies least they should seeme to â—…ip mortalls neither dare they barre them of blisse least they should conâ—…â—…em wretches Wherefore all bodies are not impediments to beatitude but 〈◊〉 the corruptible transitory and mortall ones not such as God made man 〈◊〉 but such as his sinne procured him afterwards L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a must This is scripture that the body is earth and must become earth Homer 〈◊〉 it the Grecians for he calls Hectors carcasse earth Phocylides an ancient writer 〈◊〉 thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Our body is of earth and dying must Returne to earth for Man is made of dust 〈◊〉 â—…er hath also the like recited by Tully Tusc. qu. 1. wherein the words that Augustine 〈◊〉 â—…xtant Mors est finitas omnibus quae generi humano angorem Nec quicquam afferunt reddenda est terra terra Of all the paines wherein Mans soule soiournes Death is the end all earth to earth returnes 〈◊〉 â—…t the gods Some bookes read terrene gods falsly Augustine hath nothing to doe 〈◊〉 â—…e gods in this place c Center A center is that point in the midst of a sphaericall 〈◊〉 â—…m whence all lines drawne to the circumference are equall It is an indiuisible point 〈◊〉 â—…d parts neither should it bee all in the midst nor the lines drawne from it to the cirâ—… equall as not beeing all drawne from one part Plato placeth the worldes 〈◊〉 the center and so distends it circularly throughout the whole vniuerse and then 〈◊〉 â—…ng his position makes the diuine power aboue diffuse it selfe downe-ward euen 〈◊〉 â—…ter d Musicall numbers Hereof see Macrobius Chalcidins and Marsilius Ficinus 〈◊〉 â—…at of Plato's Timaeus which he either translated or reformed from the hand of anâ—…â—…ese numbers for their obscurity are growne into a prouerbe Of the terrene bodies which the Philosophers hold cannot be in heauen but must fall to earth by their naturall weight CHAP. 18. 〈◊〉 but say they an earthly body is either kept on earth or caried to 〈◊〉 â—…th by the naturall weight and therefore cannot bee in heauen The first 〈◊〉 â—…de were in a wooddie and fruitfull land which was called Paradise But 〈◊〉 we must resolue this doubt seeing that both Christs body is already asâ—…d and that the Saints at the resurrection shall doe so also let vs ponder these earthly weights a little If mans arte of a mettall that being put into the water sinketh can yet frame a vessell that shall swim how much more credible is it for Gods secret power whose omnipotent will as Plato saith can both keepe things produced from perishing and parts combined from dissoluing whereas the combination of corporall and vncorporeall is a stranger and harder operation then that of corporalls with corporalls to take a all weight from earthly things whereby they are carried downe-wards and to qualifie the bodies of the blessed soules so as though they bee terrene yet they may bee incorruptible and apt to ascend descend or vse what motion they will with all celerity Or b if the Angells can transport bodily weights whether they please must we thinke they doe it with toile and feeling of the burden Why then may we not beleeue that the perfect spirits of the blessed can carry their bodies whither they please and place them where they please for whereas in our bodily carriage of earthly things we feele that the c more bigge it is the heauier it is and the heauier the more toile-some to beare it is not so with the soule the soule carrieth the bodily members better when they are big and strong then when they are small and meagre and whereas a big sound man is heauier to others shoulders then a leane sicke man yet will he mooue his healthfull heauinesse with farre more agility then the other can doe his crasie lightnesse or then he can himselfe if famine or sicknesse haue shaken off his flesh This power hath good temperature more then great weight in our mortal earthly corruptible bodies And who can describe the infinite difference betweene our present health and our future immortality Let not the Philosophers therefore oppose vs with any corporall weight or earthly ponderosity I will not aske them why an earthly body may not bee in heauen as well as d the whole earth may hang alone without any supportation for perhaps they will retire their disputation to the center of the world vnto which all heauy things doe tend But this I say that if the lesser Gods whose worke Plato maketh Man all other liuing things with him could take away the quality of burning from the fire and leaue it the light e which the eye transfuseth shall wee then doubt that that GOD vnto whose will hee ascribes their immortality the eternall coherence and indissolubility of those strange and diuers combinations of corporealls and incorporealls can giue man a nature that shall make him liue incorruptible and immortal keeping the forme of him and auoyding the weight But of the faith of the resurrection and the quality of the immortall bodies more exactly God willing in the end of the worke L. VIVES ALL a weight These are Gods admirable workes and it is the merit of our faith that we owe vnto God to beleeue them I wonder the schoolemen will inquire of these things define them by the rules of nature b If the Angells To omit the schooles and naturall reasons herein is the power of an Angell seene that in one night God smote 80000 men of the Assyrians campe by the hand of an Angel 4. Kings 19. Now let Man go brag of his weaknesse c The world big Here is no need of predicamentall distinctions hee vseth big for the maâ—… weight not for the quantity d The whole earth It hangs not in nothing for it hangs in the ayre yet would ayre giue it way but that it hath gotten the
Paradise Eden from the beginning This out of Hierome b No such No man denieth that Paradise may be spiritually vnderstood excepting Ambrose in his booke De Paradiso But all the Fathers professe that Paradise was a reall pleasant place full of trees as Damascene saith and like to the Poets imaginary Elizium Away with their foolery saith Hierome vpon Daniel that seeke for figures in truthes and would ouerthrow the reall existence of trees and riuers in Paradise by drawing all into an Allegory This did Origen making a spirituall meaning of the whole hiâ—…ory and placing the true Paradice in the third heauen whither the Apostle Paul was rapt c Foure riuers Nile of Egipt Euphrates and Tigris of Syria and Ganges of India There heads are vnknowne and they run vnder the Ocean into our sea and therefore the Egiptian priests called Niâ—… the Ocean Herodot d Read in the. Cant 4 12. My sister my spouse is as a garden inclosed as a spring shut vp and a fountaine sealed vp their plants are as an orchard of pomegranates with sweete fruites c. That the Saints bodies after resurrection shal be spirituall and yet not changed into spirits CHAP. 22. THe bodies of the Saints in the resurrection shall need none of the tree of life to preserue them in life health or strength nor any meate to keepe away hunger and thirst They shall haue such an euery way absolute immortality that they shall neuer need to eare power they shall haue to doe it if they will but no â—…ssity For so the Angels did appearing visibly and sensibly not of necessity 〈◊〉 of power and will to affoord their ministerie vnto man in more congruence 〈◊〉 we may not thinke that when a they lodged in mens houses they did but eare b seemingly though they seemed to eate with the same appetite that the 〈◊〉 did who knew them not to be Angels And therefore the Angell saith in Tobiâ—…n saw mee eate but you saw it but in vision that is you thought I had eaten as 〈◊〉 did to refresh my body But if the other side may bee probably held of the Angels yet verily wee doubt it not to bee true c of Christ that hee in his spirituall flesh after his resurrection yet was it his true flesh eate and dranke with his disciples The neede onely not the power is taken from those glorified bodies which are spirituall not because they cease to bee bodyes but because they subsist by the quickning of the spirit L. VIVES THey a lodged In the houses of Abraham Lot and Tobias b Eate seemingly They did not eate as we doe passing the meate from the mouth to the stomack through the throate 〈◊〉 so decoct it and dispâ—…rse the iuice through the veines for nutâ—…iment nor yet did they deâ—… mens eyes by seeming to mooue that which they had for their chaps and yet moouing 〈◊〉 not or seeming to chaw bread or flesh and yet leauing it whole They did eate really 〈◊〉 â—…ere not nourished by eating c Of Christ Luke the 23. The earth saith Bede vpon 〈◊〉 â—…ce drinketh vp water one way and the sunne another the earth for neede the sunne 〈◊〉 power And so our Sauiour did eate but not as we eate that glorious body of his tooke â—…te but turned it not into nutriment as ours doe Of bodies animate and spirituall these dying in Adam and those beeing quickned in Christ. CHAP. 23. 〈◊〉 â—…s the bodyes that haue a liuing soule though as yet vnquickned by the â—…it are called animate yet are our soules but bodyes so are the other calâ—…tuall yet God forbid we should beleeue them to bee spirit or other then â—…tiall fleshly bodies yet vncorruptible and without weight by the quickâ—… of the spirit For man shall not then be earthly but celestiall not that he shall 〈◊〉 his earthly body but because he shall be so endowed from heauen that he 〈◊〉 â—…habite it with losse of his nature onely by attaining a celestiall quality 〈◊〉 â—…st man was made earth of earth into a a liuing creature but not into b â—…ing spirit as â—…ee should haue beene had hee perseuered in obedience â—…lesse therefore his body needing meate and drinke against hunger and 〈◊〉 and being not kept in youth from death by indissoluble immortality but 〈◊〉 by the Tree of life was not spirituall but onely animaâ—…e yet should it not 〈◊〉 â—…ied but that it incurred Gods heauy sentence by offending And though he 〈◊〉 take of other meates out of Paradice yet had he bin c â—…bidden to touch 〈◊〉 of life he should haue bin liable to time corruption in that life onely 〈◊〉 had he continued in spirituall obedience though it were but meerely aniâ—… might haue beene eternall in Paradise Wherefore though by these words 〈◊〉 d When soeuer you eate thereof you shall dye the death wee vnderstand by 〈◊〉 the seperation of soule and body yet ought it not seeme absurd in that 〈◊〉 dyed not the very day that they tooke this deadly meate for that very 〈◊〉 their nature was depraued and by their iust exclusion from the Tree 〈◊〉 the necessitie of death entred vppon them wherein wee all are brought forth And therefore the Apostle saith not The body shall dye for sinne but The body is dead because of sinne and the spirit is life for iustice sake And then he addeth But if the spirit of him that raised vp Iesus from the dead dâ—… in you he that raised vp Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortall bodyes by his spirit dwelling in you Therefore then as the Apostle saith shall be in quickning of the spirit which is now in the life of soule and yet dead because it must necessarily dye But in the first man it was in life of soule and not in quickning of spirit yet could it not be called dead because had not he broken the precept hee had not beene bound to death But whereas God signified the death of the soule in leauing of him saying Adam where art thou and in saying Earth thou art and to earth thou shalt goe signified the death of the body in leauing of the soule therefore wee must thinke he spoake not of the second death reseruing that secret because of his new testament where it is plainly discouered that the first which is common to all might bee shewen to proceed from that sinne which one mans acte made common to all but that the second death is not common to all because of those holy onely whom hee hath fore-knowne and predestinated as the Apostle saith to bee made like the image of his sonne that he might be the first borne of many brethren whom the grace of God by this mediator had saued from the second death Therefore the first mans body was but animate as the Apostle witnesseth who desiring our animate bodies now from those spirituall ones that they shall become in the resurrection It is sowne in corruption saith he but
by the words increase and multiply the number of 〈◊〉 â—…nat were fulfilled then should a better haue beene giuen vs namely 〈◊〉 the Angells haue wherein there is an eternall security from sinne 〈◊〉 and so should the Saints haue liued then after no tast of labour sorâ—… death as they shall do now in the resurrection after they haue endured 〈◊〉 L. VIVES 〈◊〉 The desire is a sinne aswell as the act not onely by the Scriptures but by the â—…ct discipline of humanity also Cic. Philippic 2. Though there be no law against it for 〈◊〉 â—…th not if this man desire thus much land let him be fined as Cato the elder pleaded 〈◊〉 â—…odians The fall of the first man wherein nature was made good and cannot be repaired but by the maker CHAP. 11. BVt God foreknowing althings could not but know that man would fall therefore wee must ground our City vpon his prescience and ordinance not vpon that which we know not and God hath vnreuealed For mans sinne could not disturbe Gods decree nor force him to change his resolue God fore-knew and preuented both that is how bad man whome hee had made should become and what good hee meant to deriue from him for all his badnesse For though God bee said to change his resâ—… as the scriptures a tropically say that hee repented c. Yet this is in respect of mans hope or natures order not according to his own prescience So then God made man vpright and consequently well-willed otherwise he could not haue beene vpright So that this good will was Gods worke man being there-with created But the euill will which was in man before his euill worke was rather a fayling from the worke of God to the owne workes then any worke at all And therefore were the workes euill because they were according to them-selues and not to God this euill will being as a tree bearing such bad fruite or man himselfe in respect of his euill will Now this euill will though it do not follow but oppose nature being a falt yet is it of the same nature that vice is which cannot but bee in some nature but it must bee in that nature which God made of nothing not in that which he begot of himselfe as his word is whereby althings were made for although God made man of dust yet hee made dust of nothing and hee made the soule of nothing which he ioyned with the body making full man But euills are so farre vnder that which is good that though they be permitted to bee for to shew what good vse Gods prouident iustice can make of them yet may that which is good consist without them as that true and glorious God him selfe and all the visible resplendent heauens do aboue this darkned misty aire of ours but euills cannot consist but in that which is good for all the natures wherein they abide being considered as meere natures are good And euill is drawne from nature not by abscission of any nature contrary to this or any part of this but by purifiying of that onely which was thus depraued Then b therefore is the will truely free when it serueth neither vice nor sin Such God gaue vs such we lost and cannot recouer but by him that gaue it as the truth saith If the sonne free you you shal be truly freed it is all one as if hee should say If the sonne saue you you shal be truely saued c for hee is the freer that is the Sauiour Wherefore d in Paradise both locall and spirituall man made God his rule to liue by for it was not a Paradise locall for the bodies good and not spirituall for the spirits nor was it a spirituall 〈◊〉 the spirits good and no locall one for the bodies Noe it was both for both But after that e that proud and therefore enuious Angell falling through that pride from God vnto him-selfe and choosing in a tiranicall vain glory raâ—…r to rule then to be ruled fell from the spirituall paradise of whose fall and 〈◊〉 fellowes that therevpon of good Angells became his I disputed in my ninth booke 〈◊〉 God gaue grace and meanes hee desiring to creepe into mans minde by his ill-perswading suttlely and enuying mans constancy in his owne fall chose the serpent one of the creatures that as then liued hurtlesse with the man 〈◊〉 â—…oman in the earthly paradise a beast slippery and moueable wreatchd â—…ots and fit f for his worke this hee chose to speake through abusing it 〈◊〉 subiect vnto the greater excellency of his angelicall nature and making it 〈◊〉 â—…rument of his spirituall wickdnesse through it he began to speake deceitâ—… vnto the woman beginning at the meaner part of man-kind to inuade the 〈◊〉 by degrees thinking the man was not so credulous nor so soone deluded 〈◊〉 would be seing another so serued before him for as Aaron consented not by â—…sion but yeelded by compulsion vnto the Hebrewes idolatry to make 〈◊〉 an Idol nor Salomon as it is credible yeelded worship to idols of his owne â—…ous beleefe but was brought vnto that sacriledge by his wiues perswaâ—… So is it to bee thought that the first man did not yeeld to his wife in this â—…ession of Gods precept as if hee thought shee said two but onely being â—…elled to it by this sociall loue to her being but one with one and both of 〈◊〉 â—…ture and kind for it is not in vaine that the Apostle saith Adam was not 〈◊〉 â—…iued but the woman was deceiued but it sheweth that the woman did 〈◊〉 the serpents words true but Adam onely would not breake company 〈◊〉 â—…is fellow were it in sinne and so sinned wittingly wherefore the Apostle 〈◊〉 not He sinned not but He was not seduced for hee sheweth that hee sinned 〈◊〉 by one man sinne entred into the world and a little after more plainely after â—…er of the transgression of Adam And those he meanes are seduced that 〈◊〉 the first to be no sinn which he knew to bee a sinne otherwise why should 〈◊〉 Adam was not seduced But he that is not acquainted with the diuine seâ—… might therein be deceiued to conceiue that his sinne was but veniall And 〈◊〉 in that the woman was seduced he was not but this was it that i deceiâ—… that hee was to bee iudged for all that he had this excuse The woman 〈◊〉 gauest me to be with me she gaue me of the tree and I did eate what need we 〈◊〉 then though they were not both seduced they were both taken in sin 〈◊〉 the diuells captiues L. VIVES â—…ally a Say Figuratiuely A trope saith Quintilian is the translation of one word 〈◊〉 the fit signification of another from the owne that God repented is a Metaphor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 figure that who so knowes not and yet would learne for the vnderstanding of scripâ—… not go vnto Tully or Quintilian but vnto our great declamers who knowing not y◠〈◊〉 betweene Gramar
Abraham was borne in a part of Chaldaea which belonged a vnto the Empire of the Assyrians And now had superstition got great head in Chaldaea as it had all ouer else so there was but onely the house of Thara Abrahams father that serued God truly and by all likelyhood kept the Hebrew tongue pure though that as Iosuah telleth the Hebrewes as they were Gods euident people in Egipt so in Mesopotamia they fell to Idolatry all Hebers other sonnes becomming other nations or beeing commixt with others Therefore euen as in the deluge of waters Noahs house remained alone to repaire man-kinde so in this deluge of sinne and superstition Thares house onely remained as the place wherein GODS Cittie was planted and kept And euen as before the deluge the generations of all from Adam the number of yeares and the reason of the deluge being all reckoned vp before God began to speake of building the Arke the Scripture saith of Noah These are the generations of Noah euen so here hauing reckoned all from Sem the sonne of Noah downe vnto Abraham hee putteth this to the conclusion as a point of much moment These are the generations of Thara Thara begot Abraham Nachor and Aram And Aram dyed before b his father Thara in the land wherein hee was borne being a part of Chaldaea And Abraham and Nachor tooke them wiues the name of Abrahams wife was Sarah and the name of Nachors wife was Melca the daughter of Aram who was father both to Melca and Iesea whome some hold also to be Sara Abrams wife L. VIVES WHich a belonged For Mela Pliny Strabo and others place Chaldaea in Assyria And 〈◊〉 onely a part of that Assyria which the ancient writers called by the name of Syâ—… 〈◊〉 countrie but of that Assyria also which Strabo calles the Babilonian Assyria 〈◊〉 maketh a difference betweene Syria and Assyria Cyropaed 1. b Before In his faâ—… 〈◊〉 So all interpretours take it Augustine might perhaps vnderstand it before his 〈◊〉 to Charra which is part of Chaldaea Charrah was a citty in Mesopotamia where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 killed Crassus the Romaine generall â—…hy there is no mention of Nachor Tharas sonne in his departure from Chaldaea to Mesopotamia CHAP. 13. 〈◊〉 the Scripture proceedeth and declareth how Thara and his family left â—…ldaea and came a into Mesopotamia and dwelt in Charra But of his 〈◊〉 â—…chor there is no mention as if he had not gone with him Thus saith the 〈◊〉 Thus Thara tooke Abraham his sonne and Lot his grand-child Abraâ—… 〈◊〉 and Sara his daughter in law his sonne Abrahams wife and hee led them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 countrey of Chaldaea into the land of Canaan and hee came to Charra and 〈◊〉 there Here is no word of Nachor nor his wife Melcha But afterward 〈◊〉 Abraham sent his seruant to seeke a wife for his sonne Isaac wee finde it 〈◊〉 thus So the seruant tooke ten of his maisters Camels and of his Maisters 〈◊〉 â—…th him and departed and went into Mesopotamia into the citty of Nachor â—…ce and others beside doe prooue that Nachor went out of Chaldaea alâ—…â—…led him-selfe in Mesopotamia where Abraham and his father had dwelt 〈◊〉 not the Scriptures then remember him when Thara went thence to 〈◊〉 where when it maketh mention both of Abraham and Lot that was 〈◊〉 â—…and-childe and Sara his daughter in lawe in this transmigration what 〈◊〉 thinke but that hee had forsaken his father and brothers religion and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chaldees superstition and afterward either repenting for his fact 〈◊〉 â—…secuted by the countrie suspecting him to bee hollow-harted deparâ—… him-selfe also for Holophernes Israels enemy in the booke of Iudith 〈◊〉 what nation they were and whether hee ought to fight against them 〈◊〉 answered by Achior captaine of the Ammonites Let my Lord heare the 〈◊〉 mouth of his seruant and I will show thee the truth concerning this people 〈◊〉 these mountaines and there shall no lye come out of thy seruants mouth 〈◊〉 come out of the stock of the Chaldaeans and they dwelt before in 〈◊〉 â—…ia because they would not follow the Gods of their fathers that 〈◊〉 â—…us in the land of Chaldaea but they left the way of their ancestors 〈◊〉 the God of heauen whom they knew so that they cast them out from 〈◊〉 their gods and they fled into Mesopotamia and dwelt there many 〈◊〉 their God commanded them to depart from the place where they 〈◊〉 to goe into the land of Chanaan where they dwelt and so forth as 〈◊〉 Ammonite relateth Hence it is plaine that Thara his family were perâ—… the Chaldaeans for their religion because they worshipped the true 〈◊〉 God L. VIVES Mesopotamia Mesopotamia quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 betweene two seas for it lay all beâ—… 〈◊〉 and Euphrates Of the age of Thara who liued in Charra vntill his dying day CHAP. 14. THara dyed in Mesopotamia where it is said hee liued two hundred and fiue yeares and after his death the promises that God made to Abraham began to be manifested Of Thara it is thus recorded The dayes of Thara were two hundred and fiue yeares and hee dyed in Charra Hee liued not there all this time you must thinke but because he ended his time which amounted vnto two hundred and fiue yeares in that place it is said so Otherwise wee could not tell how many yeares he liued because we haue not the time recorded when he came to Charra and it were fondnesse to imagine that in that Catalogue where all their ages are recorded his onely should bee left out for whereas the Scripture names some and yet names not their yeares it is to bee vnderstood that they belong not to that generation that is so lineally drawne downe from man to man For the stem that is deriued from Adam vnto Noah and from him vnto Abraham names no man without recording the number of his yeares also Of the time vvherein Abraham receiued the promise from God and departed from Charra CHAP. 15. BVt whereas wee read that after Thara's death the Lord said vnto Abraham Gette thee out of thy countrey and from thy kindred and from thy fathers house c. Wee must not thinke that this followed immediately in the times though it follow immediately in the scriptures for so wee shall fall into an b inextricable doubt for after these words vnto Abraham the Scripture followeth thus So Abraham departed as the Lord spake vnto him and Lot vvent vvith him and Abraham vvas seauentie fiue yeares old vvhen hee vvent out of Charra How can this be true now if Abraham went not out of Charra vntill after the death of his father for Thara begot him as wee said before at the seauentith yeare of his age vnto which adde seauentie fiue yeares the age of Abraham at this his departure from Charra and it maketh a hundred forty fiue yeares So old therefore was Thara when Abraham departed from Charra that citty of Mesopotamia for
Abraham was then but seauentie two yeares of age and his father begetting him when he was seauentie yeares old must needs bee a hundred fortie fiue yeares old and no more at his departure Therefore hee went not after his fathers death who liued two hundred and fiue yeares but before at the seauenty two yeares of his owne age and consequently the hundred forty fiue of his fathers And thus the Scripture in an vsuall course returneth to the time which the former relation had gone beyond as it did before saying That the sonnes of Noahs sonnes were diuided into nations and languages c. and yet afterwards adioyneth Then the vvhole earth vvas of one language c. as though this had really followed How then had euery man his nation and his tongue but that the Scriptures returne back againe vnto the times ouer-passed Euen so here whereas it is said the daies of Thara were two hundred fiue yeares and he died in Charra then the scriptures returning to that which ouer-passed to finish the discourse of Thara first then the Lord said vnto AbrahaÌ„ get thee out of thy country c. after which is added So Abraham departed as the Lord spake vnto him and Lot went with him and Abraham was seauenty yeares old when he went from Charra This therefore was when his 〈◊〉 was a hundred forty and fiue yeares of age for then was Abraham seauenty fiue This doubt is also otherwise dissolued by counting Abrahams seauenty 〈◊〉 when he went to Charra from the time when he was freed from the fire of 〈◊〉 Chaldaaens and not from his birth as if he had rather beene borne then 〈◊〉 Saint Stephen in the Actes discoursing hereof saith thus The God of glory apâ—… to our father Abraham in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charra and said 〈◊〉 him get thee out of thy country from thy kindred and come into the land which 〈◊〉 giue thee According to these words of Stephen it was not after Tharas death 〈◊〉 â—…od spake to Abraham for Thara died in Charra but it was before he dwelt 〈◊〉 â—…rra yet was in Mesopotamia But he was gone out of Chaldaea first And â—…eas Stephen saith Then came hee out of the land of the Chaldaeans and dwelt in 〈◊〉 this is relation of a thing done after those words of God for hee went 〈◊〉 Chaldaea after God had spoken to him for hee saith God spake to him in Mesopotamia but that word Then compriseth all the time from Abrahams departure vntill the Lord spake to him And that which followeth After that his father 〈◊〉 dead God placed him in this land wherein he now dwelleth The meaning of the place is And God brought him from thence wher his father dyed afterwards and placed 〈◊〉 â—…ere So then we iust vnderstand that God spake vnto Abraham being in Mesoâ—…tamia yet not as yet dwelling in Charra but that he came in to Charra with â—…er holding Gods commandement fast and in the seauenty fiue yeare of 〈◊〉 departed thence which was in his fathers a hundred forty fiue yere Now 〈◊〉 that he was placed in Chanaan not he came out of Charra after his 〈◊〉 death for when hee was dead he began to buy land there and became 〈◊〉 possessions But whereas God spake thus to him after hee came from 〈◊〉 and was in Mesopotamia Get thee out of thy country from thy kindred 〈◊〉 thy fathers house this concerned not his bodily remouall for that hee 〈◊〉 before but the seperation of his soule from them for his mind was 〈◊〉 â—…arted from them if he euer had any hope to returne or desired it this â—…d desire by Gods command was to bee cut of It is not incredible 〈◊〉 â—…erwards when as Nachor followed his father Abraham then fulfilled the â—…nd of God and tooke Sara his wife and Lot his brothers sonne and so 〈◊〉 out of Charra L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a inextricable doubt So Hierome calles it and dissolueth it some-what â—…sly from Augustine although hee vse three coniectures dissolâ—…â—…us â—…us Hierome dissolueth it out of an Hebrew history for that which we read the 〈◊〉 of Chaldaea the Hebrew hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ur Shadim that is the fire of the Caldaeâ—…â—…pon the Hebrewes haue the story Abraham was taken by the Chaldaeans and 〈◊〉 he would not worshippe their Idols namely their fire he was put into it from whence 〈◊〉 â—…ed him by miracle and the like story they haue of Thara also his father that hee 〈◊〉 he would not adore their images was so serued and so escaped also as whereas it is 〈◊〉 Aram dyed before his father in the land where hee was borne in the country of 〈◊〉 they say it is in his fathers presence in the fire of the Chaldaeans wherein beâ—…â—…ould not worship it he was burned to death And likewise in other places of yâ— text 〈◊〉 â—…hen he comes to this point saith the Hebrew tradition is true that saith that Thara 〈◊〉 came out of the fire of the Chaldaees that Abraham being hedged round about in 〈◊〉 with the fire which he would not worshippe was by Gods power deliuered from thence are the number of his yeares accounted because then hee first confessed the Lord God and contemned the Chaldee Idols Thus farre Hierome without whose relation this place of Augustine is not to bee vnderstood Iosephus writeth that Thara hating Chaldaea departed thence for the greefe of his sonne Arams death and came to dwell in Charra and that Arams tombe was to bee seene in Vr of the Chaldees The order and quality of Gods promises made vnto Abraham CHAP. 16. NOw must we examine the promises made vnto Abraham for in them began the oracles presaging our Lord Iesus Christ the true God to appeare who was to come of that godly people that the prophesies promised The first of them is this The Lord said vnto Abraham get thee out of thy countrey and from thy kinred and from thy fathers house vnto the land that I will shew thee And I will make of thee a great nation and will blesse thee make thy name great and thou shalt be blessed I will also blesse them that blesse thee and curse them that curse thee and in them shall all the families of the earth bee blessed Here wee must obserue a double promise made vnto Abraham the first that his seede should possesse the land of Canaan in these words Goe vnto the land that I will shew thee and I will make thee a great nation the second of farre more worth and moment concerning his spirituall seede whereby hee is not onely the father of Israel but of all the nations that follow his faith and that is in these words And in thee shall all the families of the earth bee blessed This promise was made in Abrahams seauentie fiue yeare as Eusebius a thinketh as if that Abraham did presently there vpon depart out of Charra because the Scripture may not be controuled that giueth
〈◊〉 In signe of Dommes-day the whole earth shall sweate Euer to reigne a King in heau'nly seate Shall come to iudge all flesh The faithfull and Vnfaithfull too before this God shall stand Seeing him high with Saints in Times last end Corporeall shall hee sit and thence extend His doome on soules The earth shall quite lie wast Ruin'd ore-growne with thornes and men shall cast Idolls away and treasure Searching fire Shall burne the ground and thence it shall inquire Through seas and skie and breake Hells blackest gates So shall free light salute the blessed states Of Saints the guilty lasting flames shall burne No act so hid but then to light shall turne Nor brest so close but GOD shall open wide Each where shall cries be heard and noyse beside Of gnashing teeth The Sunne shall from the skie Flie forth and starres no more mooue orderly Great Heauen shall be dissolu'd the Moone depriu'd Of all her light places at height arriu'd Deprest and valleys raised to their seate There shall be nought to mortalls high or great Hills shall lye leuell with the plaines the sea Endure no burthen and the earth as they Shall perish cleft with lightning euery spring And riuer burne The fatall Trumpe shall ring Vnto the world from heauen a dismall blast Including plagues to come for ill deedes past Old Chaos through the cleft masse shall bee seene Vnto this Barre shall all earths Kings conueene Riuers of fire and Brimstone flowing from heau'n e Iudicii signo Act. 1. 11. This Iesus who is taken vp to heauen shall so come as you haue seene him goe vp into heauen f Scilicet This verse is not in the Greeke nor is it added here for there must be twenty seauen g Sicanimae The Greeke is then shall all flesh come into free heauen and the fire shall take away the holy and the wicked for euer but because the sence is harsh I had rather read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so make it agree with the Latine interpretation h Exuret The bookes of consciences shall bee opened as it is in the Reuelation Of those here-after i Sanctorum Isay. 40. 4. Euery valley shall bee exalted and euery mountaine and hill shall bee layde lowe the crooked shall bee streight and the rough places plaine k Occultos High and 〈◊〉 shall then bee all one and neither offensiue pompe height and glorye shall no more domineere in particular but as the Apostle saith Then shall all principalities and powers bee annihilated that GOD may bee all in all For there is no greater plague then to bee vnder him that is blowne bigge with the false conceite of greatnesse hee groweth rich and consequently proud hee thinkes hee may domineere his father â—…as I marry was hee his pedigree is alway in his mouth and very likely a theefe a Butcher or a Swin-heard in the front of this his noble descent Another Tarre-lubber bragges that hee is a souldiour an ayde vnto the state in affaires military therefore will hee reare and teare downe goe whole Citties before him if any leaue their owne seates and come into his way or to take the wall of him not else l No word For the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beginning a word is alwayes aspirate now if we bring it into Latine aspirate wee must put H. before it and this deceiues the ignorant m Quadrate and solid A plaine quadrate is a number multiplyed once by it selfe as three times three then multiply the product by the first and you haue a solid as three times three is nine Heere is your quadrate plaine three times nine is twenty seauen that is the quadrate solide n Lactantius Lactantius following his Maister Arnobius hath written seauen most excellent and acute volumes against the Pagans nor haue wee any Christian that is a better Ciceronian then hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To th'faithlesse vniust hands then shall hee come Whose impure hands shall giue him blowes and some Shall from their foule mouthes poysoned spittle send Hee to their whips his holy back shall bend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus beate hee shall stand mute that none may ken Who was or whence the worde to speake to men And hee shall beare a thornie crowne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They gaue him for drinke Vineger and Gall for meate This table of in-hospitalitie they set This is likewise in another verse of Sybills the Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thy God thy good thou brainlesse sencelesse didst not know Who past and plaid in mortall words and works below A crowne of thornes and fearfull gall thou didst bestow In the next Chapter following the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Temples veile shall rend in twaine and at mid-day Prodigious darkned night for three full houres shall stay In the same Chapter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Death shall shut vp his date with sleeping for three daies Then rising from the dead he turnes to the Sunne rayes The resurrections first-fruites to th'elect displayes o Of the resurrection Making away for the chosen by his resurrection so the Greeke implyeth Christ as the Apostle saith being the first borne of many brethren and the first fruites of those that sleepe The seauen Sages in Romulus his time Israel lead into captiuity Romulus dyeth and is deified CHAP. 24. IN Romulus his time liued Thales one of those who after the Theologicall Poets in which Orpheus was chiefe were called the Wise-men or Sages And a now did the Chaldaeans subdue the ten Tribes of Israell fallen before from Iuda and lead them all into Chaldaea captiue leauing onely the tribes of Iuda and Beniamin free who had their Kings seate at Hierusalem Romulus dying and beeing not to bee found was here-vpon deified which vse was now almost giuen ouer so that b in the Caesars times they did it rather vpon flattery then error and Tully commends Romulus highly in that hee could deserue those in so wise and learned an age though Philosophy were not yet in her height of subtile and acute positions and disputations But although in the later dayes they made no new Gods of men yet kept they their old ones still and gaue not ouer to worship them increasing superstition by their swarmes of Images whereof antiquity had none and the deuills working so powerfully with them that they got them to make publike presentations of the gods shames such as if they had bin vn-dreamed of before they would haue shamed to inuent as then After Romulus reigned Numa who stuffed all the Citty with false religion yet could hee not shape a God-head for him-selfe out of all this Chaos of his consecrations It seemes hee stowed
Sueton. g In that age Beeing two and thirty yeares old Saint Pauls doctrine of the resurrection of the dead CHAP. 20. BVt the Apostle saith nothing of the resurrection of the dead in this place mary in another place hee saith thus I would not haue you ignorant bretheren concerning those which sleepe that yee sorrow not euen as those which haue no hope for if wee beleeue that IESVS is dead and is risen againe euen so them which sleepe in IESVS will GOD bring with him For this wee say vnto you by the word of the LORD that wee which liue and are remayning at the comming of the LORD shall not preuent those that sleepe For the LORD himselfe shall descend from heauen with asâ—…te with the voice of the Arch-angell and with the trumpet of GOD and the dead in CHRIST shall arise first then shall we which liue and remaine be caught vp with them also in the cloudes to meete the LORD in the ayre and so shall wee euer bee with the LORD Here the Apostle maketh a plaine demonstration of the future resurrection when CHRIST shall come to sit in iudgement ouer both quick and dead But it is an ordinary question whether those whom CHRIST shall finde aliue at his comming whom the Apostle admitteth himselfe and those with him to be shall euer die at all or goe immediately in a moment vp with the rest to meete CHRIST and so be forth with immortallized It is not impossible for them both to die and liue againe in their very ascention through the ayre For these words And so shall wee euen bee with the LORD are not to bee taken as if wee were to continue in the ayre with him for hee shall not stay in the ayre but goe and come through it We meete him comming but not staying but so shall we euer bee with him that is in immortall bodies where euer our stay bee And in this sence the Apostle seemes to vrge the vnderstanding of this question to bee this that those whom Christ shall finde aliue shall neuer-the-lesse both dye and reuiue where he saith In Christ shall all bee made aliue and vpon this by and by after That which thou sowest is not quickned except it dye How then shall those whom Christ shall finde aliue bee quickned in him by immortality vnlesse they doe first dye if these words of the Apostle bee true If wee say that the sowing is meant onely of those bodyes that are returned to the earth according to the iudgement laide vpon our transgressing fore-fathers Thou art dust and to dust shalt thou returne then wee must confesse that neither that place of Saint Paul nor this of Genesis concernes their bodies whome Christ at his comming shall finde in the body for those are not sowne because they neither goe to the earth nor returne from it how-so-euer they haue a little stay in the ayre or other-wise taste not of any death at all But now the Apostle hath another place of the resurrection a Wee shall all rise againe saith hee or as it is in some copies wee shall all sleepe So then death going alway before resurrection and sleepe in this place implying nothing but death how shall all rise againe or sleepe if so many as Christ shall finde liuing vpon earth shall neither sleepe nor rise againe Now therefore if wee doe but auouch that the Saints whome Christ shall finde in the flesh and who shall meete him in the ayre doe in this rapture leaue their bodies for a while and then take them on againe the doubt is cleared both in the Apostles first words That which thou sowest is not quickned except it dye as also in his later Wee shall all rise againe or wee shall all sleepe for they shall not bee quickned vnto immortalitie vnlesse they first taste of death and consequentlie haue a share in the resurrection by meanes of this their little sleepe And why is it incredible that those bodies should bee sowen and reuiued immortally in the ayre when as wee beleeue the Apostle where hee saith plainely that the resurrection shall bee in the twinckling of an eye and that the dust of the most aged bodye shall in one moment concurre to retaine those members that thence-forth shall neuer perish Nor let vs thinke that that place of Genesis Thou art dust c. concerneth not the Saints for all that their dead bodyes returne not to the earth but are both dead and reuiued whilest they are in the ayre To dust shalt thou returne that is thou shalt by losse of life become that which thou wast ere thou hadst life It was earth in whose face the LORD breathed the breath of life when man became a liuing soule So that it might bee sayd Thou art liuing dust which thou wast not and thou shalt bee â—…lesse dust as thou wast Such are all dead bodyes euen before putrefaction and such shall they bee if they dye where-so-euer they dye beeing voyde of life which not-with-standing they shall immediatly returne vnto So then shall they returne vnto earth in becomming earth of liuing men as that returnes to ashes which is made of ashes that vnto putrifaction which is putrified that into a potte which of earth is made a potte and a thousand other such like instances But how this shall bee wee doe but coniecture now 〈◊〉 shall know till wee see it That b there shall bee a resurrection of the flesh at the comming of Christ to iudge the quicke and the dead all that are christians must confidently beleeue nor is our faith in this point any way friuolous although wee know not how this shal be effected But as I said before so meane I still to proceed in laying downe such places of the Old Testament now as concerne this last iudgement as farre as neede shal be which it shall not bee altogether so necessary to stand much vpon if the reader do but ayde his vnderstanding with that which is passed before L. VIVES WE shall a all rise againe The greeke copies reade this place diuersly Hier. ep ad Numerium for some read it We shall not all sleepe but wee shall all bee changed Eras Annot. Non. Testam et in Apolog. Hence I thinke arose the question whether all should die or those that liued at the iudgement daie bee made immortall without death Petrus Lumbardus Sent. 3. dist 40 shewing the difference herevpon betweene Ambrose and Hierome dares not determine because Augustine leaneth to Ambrose and most of all the greeke fathers to Hierome reading it wee shall not all sleepe And for Ambrose Erasmus sheweth how he stagreth in this assertion Meane while wee doe follow him whom wee explane b There shal be a resurrection This we must stick to it is a part of our faith How it must bee let vs leaue to GOD and yoake our selues in that sweet obedience vnto Christ. It sufficeth for a christian to beleeue this was or that shal be let
the meanes alone to him who concealeth the plainest workes of nature from our apprehensions Esaias his doctrine concerning the iudgement and the resurrection CHAP. 21. THe dead saith the prophet Esaias shall arise againe and they shall arise againe that were in the graues and all they shal be glad that are in the earth for the Dew that is from thee is health to them and the Land or earth of the wicked shall fall All this belongs to the resurrection And whereas he saith the land of the wicked shall fall that is to bee vnderstood by their bodies which shal be ruined by damnation But now if wee looke well into the resurrection of the Saints these wordes The dead shall arise againe belong to the first resurrection and these they shall arise againe that were in the graues vnto the second And as for those holie ones whom CHRIST shall meete in their flesh this is fittely pertinent vnto them All they shal be glad that are in the earth for the dewe that is from thee is health vnto them By health in this place is meant immortality for that is the best health and needes no daiely refection to preserue it The same prophet also speaketh of the iudgement both to the comfort of the Godly and the terror of the wicked Thus saith the Lord Behold I will incline vnto them as a floud of peace and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing streame Then shal yee suck yee shal be borne vpon her shoulders and be ioyfull vpon her knees As one whom his mother comforteth so will I comfort you and yee shal be comforted in Ierusalem And when yee see this your hearts shall reioyce and your bones shal flourish as an herbe and the hand of the Lord shal be knowne vnto his seruants and his indignation against his enemies For be hold the Lord will come with fire and his chariots like a whirle-winde that hee may recompence his anger with wrath and his indignation with a flame of fire for the LORD will iudge with fyre and with his sword all flesh and the slaine of the LORD shal be many Thus you heare as touching his promises to the good hee inclineth to them like a floud of peace that is in all peacefull abundance and such shall our soules bee watred withall at the worldes end but of this in the last booke before This hee extendeth vnto them to whom hee promiseth such blisse that wee may conceiue that this floud of beatitude doth sufficently bedewe all the whole region of Heauen where we are to dwell But because he bestoweth the peace of incorruption vpon corruptible bodies therefore hee saith he will incline as if hee came downe-wards from aboue to make man-kinde equall with the Angells By Ierusalem wee vnderstand not her that serueth with her children but our free mother as the Apostle saith which is eternall and aboue where after the shockes of all our sorrowes bee passed wee shall bee conforted and rest like infants in her glorious armes and on her knees Then shall our rude ignorance bee inuested in that vn-accustomed blessednesse then-shall wee see this and our heart shall reioyce what shall wee see it is not set downe But what is it but GOD that so the Gospell might bee fulfilled Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. And all that blisse which wee now beleeue but like fraile-men in farre lesse measure then it is wee shall then behold and see Here wee hope there wee shall enioye But least wee should imagine that those causes of ioye concerned onelie the spirit hee addeth And your bones shall flourish as an herbe Here is a plaine touch at the resurrection relating as it were what hee had omitted These things shall not bee done euen then when wee doe see them but when they are already come to passe then shall wee see them For hee had spoken before of the new heauen and earth in his relations of the promises that were in the end to bee performed to the Saints saying I will create new Heauens and a new Earth and the former shall not hee remembered nor come into minde but bee you glad and reioyce therein for behold I will create Ierusalem as a reioycing and her people as a ioye and I will reioyce in Ierusalem and ioye in my people and the voice of weeping shal be heard no more in her nor the voice of crying c. This now some applie to the proofe of Chiliasme because that the Prophets manner is to mingle tropes with truthes to excercise the Reader in a fitte inquest of their spirituall meanings but carnall sloath contents it selfe with the litterall sence onely and neuer seekes further Thus farre of the Prophets wordes before that hee wrote what wee haue in hand now for-ward againe And your bones shall flourish like 〈◊〉 herbe that hee meaneth onelie the resurrection of the Saintes in this his addition prooues And the hand of the LORD shal bee knowne amongst his seruantes What is this but his hand distinguishing his seruants from such as scorne him of those it followeth And his indignation against his enemies or as another interprets it a against the vnfaithfull This is no threatning but the effect of all his threatnings For behold saith hee the LORD will come with fire and his chariots like a whirle-winde that hee may recompence his anger with wrath and his indignation with a flame of fire For the LORD will iudge with fire and with his sword all flesh and the slaine of the LORD shal bee many whither they perish by fire or sword or whirle-winde all denounce but the paine of the Iudgement for hee saith that GOD shall come as a whirle-winde that is vnto such as his comming shal be penall vnto Againe his chariots beeing spoke in the plurall imploy his ministring Angells But whereas hee saith that all flesh shal bee iudged by this fyre and sword wee doe except the Saints and imply it onelie to those which minde earthlie things and such minding is deadlie and such as those of whome GOD saith My spirit shall not alwaie striue with man because hee is but flesh But these words The slaine or wounded of the LORD shal bee many this implieth the second death The fire the sword and the stroke may all bee vnderstood in a good sence for GOD hath sayd hee would send fyre into the world And the Holie Ghost descended in the shape of fiery tongues Againe I came not saith CHRIST to send peace but the sworde And the scripture calls GODS Word a two edged sworde because of the two Testaments Besides the church in the Canticles saith that shee is wounded with loue euen as shotte with the force of loue So that this is plaine and so is this that wee read that the LORD shall come as a Reuenger c. So then the Prophet proceedes with the destruction of the wicked vnder the types of such as in the olde law forbare
hath related their opinion concealing their names haue said something which although it be false because the soules returning into the bodies which they haue before managed will neuer after forsake them not-withstanding it serueth to stoppe the mouth of those babblers and to ouerthrow the strong hold of many arguments of that impossibility For they doe not thinke it an impossible thing which haue thought these things that dead bodies resolued into aire dust ashes humors bodies of deuouring beastes or of men them selues should returne againe to that they haue beene Wherefore let Plato and Porphyry or such rather as doe affect them and are now liuing if they accord with vs that holy soules shall returne to their bodies as Plato saith but not to returne to any eiuls as Porphyrie saith that that sequele may follow which our Christian faith doth declare to wit that they shall receiue such bodies as they shall liue happily in them eternally without any euill Let them I say assume and take this also from Varro that they returne to the same bodies in which they had beene before time and then there shall bee a sweete harmony betweene them concerning the resurrection of the flesh eternally L. VIVES FOr a certaine Three things moued not only Greece but the whole world to applaud Plato to wit integritie of life sanctity of precepts and eloquence The b dead Euseb lib. 11. thinketh that Plato learned the alteration of the world the resurrection and the iudgement of the damned out of the bookes of Moyses 〈◊〉 Plato relateth that all earthly thinges shall perish a cercaine space of time being expired and that the frame of the worlde shall bee moued and shaken with wonderfull and strange â—…otions not without a great destruction and ouerthrow of all liuing creatures and then that a little time after it shall rest and bee at quiet by the assistance of the highest God who shall receiue the gouernment of it that it may not fall and perish endowing it with an euerlasting flourishing estate and with immortalitie c For he declareth Herus Pamphilius who dyed in battell Plato in fine in lib. de rep writeth that he was restored to life the tenth day after his death Cicero saith macrob lib. 1. may be grieued that this fable was scoffed at although of the vnlearned knowing it well ynough him-selfe neuerthelesse auoyding the scandall of a foolish reprehension hee had rather tell it that he was raized than that he reuiued d Labeo Plin lib. 7. setteth downe some examples of them which being carried forth to their graue reuiued againe and Plutarch in 〈◊〉 de anima relateth that one Enarchus returned to life againe after hee died who said that his soule did depart indeed out of his bodie but by the commandement of Pluto it was restored to his bodie againe those hellish spirits being grieuously punished by their Prince who commaunded to bring one Nicandas a tanner and a wrastler forgetting their errant and foulie mistaking the man went to Enarchus in stead of Nicandas who dyed within a little while after e Genethliaci They are mathematicall pettie sooth-sayers or fortune-tellers which by the day of Natiuitie presage what shall happen in the whole course of mans life Gellius hath the Chaldaeans and the Genethliaci both in one place lib. 14. Against them saith he who name them-selues Caldaeans or Genethliaci and professe to prognosticate future thinges by the motion and posture of the stars f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Regeneration or a second birth Lactant. also lib. 7. rehearseth these wordes of Chrysippus the stoicke out of his booke de prouidentia by which he confirmeth a returne after death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And wee saith hee certaine reuolutions of time being complet and finished after our death shall be restored to the same figure and shape which we haue now Of the quality of the vision with which the Saintes shall see GOD in the world to come CHAP. 29. NOw lette vs see what the Saintes shall doe in their immortall and spirituall bodies their flesh liuing now no more carnally but spiritually so far forth as the Lord shal vouchsafe to enable vs. And truly what maner of action or a rather rest and quietnesse it shall be if I say the truth I know not For I haue neuer seene it by the sences of the bodie But if I shall say I haue seene it by the mind that is by the vnderstanding alasse how great or what is our vnderstanding in comparison of that exceeding excellencie For there is the peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding as the Apostle saith what vnderstanding but ours or peraduenture of all the holy Angels For it doth not passe the vnderstanding of God If therefore the Saintes shall liue in the peace of GOD without doubt they shall liue in that peace Which passeth all vnderstanding Now there is no doubt but that it passeth our vnderstanding But if it also passe the vnderstanding of Angels for hee seemeth not to except them when hee saith All vnderstanding then according to this saying wee ought to vnderstand that we are not able nor any Angels to know that peace where-with GOD him-selfe is pacified in such sort as GOD knoweth it But wee beeing made partakers of his peace according to the measure of our capacity shall obtaine a most excellent peace in vs and amongst vs and with him according to the quantity of our excellency In this manner the holy Angels according to their measure do know the same but men now doe know it in a farre lower degree although they excell in acuity of vnderstanding Wee must consider what a great man did say Wee know in part and we prophecie in part vntill that come which is perfect And wee see now in a glasse in a darke speaking but then wee shall see him face to face So doe the holy Angels now see which are called also our Angels because we beeing deliuered from the power of darkenesse and translated to the kingdome of God hauing receiued the pledge of the Spirite haue already begunne to pertaine to them with whome wee shall enioy that most holy and pleasant Cittie of God of which wee haue already written so many books So therefore the Angels are ours which are the Angels of God euen as the Christe of God is our Christe They are the Angels of GOD because they haue not forsaken God they are ours because they haue begunne to account vs their Cittizens For the Lord Iesus hath sayd Take heed you doe not despise one of these little ones For I say vnto you that their Angels doe alwayes beholde the face of my father which is in heauen As therefore they doe see so also we shall see but as yet wee doe not see so Wherefore the Apostle saith that which I haue spoken a little before We see now in a glasse in a dark speaking but then wee shal see him face to face
fol. 709. Hose his prophecy fol. 714. Herod the King fol 737. Heretickes profit the Church fol. 742. I IAnus who hee was fol. 116. Iulianus who he was fol. 191. Iouianus who he was fol. 191. Iouinians death fol. 231. Iohn the Anchorite fol. 233. Israell what it signifieth fol. 614. Iudah his blessing explained fol. 615. Infants vvhy so called fol. 618. Iustice to bee performed in his life onelie fol. 626. Inquisition made by the Lord hovv it is taken fol. 631. India vvhat is is fol. 656. Inachus who hee was fol. 659. Io who shee was fol. 660. Isis vvho she vvas ibid. Ixion who hee was fol. 680. Iphigenia vvho she vvas fol. 696. Ionas the prophet fol. 713. Ioell the prophet fol. 714. Israel vvho are so called fol. 714. Ioel his prophecy fol. 716. Idumaea vvhere it is fol. 718. Iob vvhence hee descended fol. 739. Iulian the Apostata fol. 745. Iudgement day vvhen it shal bee fol. 793. Iohn Bapt. life like vnto the life of Elias fol. 831. Incredible things fol. 879. Innocentius his miraculous câ—…re fol. 883. L LAbeos who they were fol. 70 Lawes of the twelue Tables fol. 78 Lycurgus his lawes ibid. Law what it is fol. 80 L. Furius Pylus a cunning latinist fol. 90 Lycurgus who he was fol. 379 Lawfull hate fol. 503 Lyberi how it is vsed by the latines fol. 615 Lupercalls what they are fol. 674 Liber why so called fol. 675 Labirinth what it was fol. 680 Linus who he was fol. 688 Laurentum why so called fol. 690 Latinus who he was fol. 692 Labdon who hee was fol. 698 M Manlius Torquatus fol. 37 Marius who he vvas fol. 93 Marius his happinesse fol. 94 Marius his crueltie fol. 95 Metellus his felicity fol 96 Marius his flight ibid. Marica a goddesse ibid. Mithridates vvho hee vvas fol. 98 Megalesian playes fol. 58 Mettellus who he was fol. 135 Man hovv he sinneth fol. 212 Mercurie who he vvas fol. 272 Moone drunke vp by an Asse fol. 384 Man formed fol. 492 Maspha what it signifieth fol. 633 Moyses his birth fol. 665 Minerua vvho she vvas fol. 668 Marathus vvho he vvas fol. 673 Minos vvho he vvas fol. 677 Minotaure vvhat it vvas fol. 679. Medusa vvho she vvas fol. 683 Musaeus vvho he vvas fol. 988. Mycenae vvhy so called fol. 690. Mnestheus vvho hee vvas fol. 697. Melanthus vvho hee vvas fol. 699. Micheas the prophet fol. 713. Micheas his prophecy fol. 776. Man desireth foure things by nature fol. 751. Man vvhat he is fol. 755. Miracles related by Augustine fol. 883. N NAsica prohibiteth sitting at plaies fol. 47. Neptunes prophesie fol. 108. Numitor and his children fol. 112. Nigidius Figulus who he was fol. 201. Nero Caesar who he was fol. 225. Niniuy the Citty fol. 576. Number of seauen signifieth the churches perfection fol. 625. Nabuchadonosors warres fol. 709. Naum vvhen hee liued fol. 718. Niniuy a figure of the church fol. 734. Natures primitiue gifts fol. 755. O OPtimates who they vvere fol. 91. Olympus vvhat Mount it is fol. 569. Osyris who hee was fol. 662. Ogyges vvho he was fol. 668. Oedipus who hee was fol. 686. Orpheus who he was fol. 688. Ozias the prophet fol. 713. Origens opinion of the restauration of the diuells to their former state fol. 657. P PAlladium image fol. 4. Phaenix who he was fol. 9. 〈◊〉 bishop of Nola. fol. 17. People how they are stiled fol. 35. Priests called Galli fol. 57. Pericles who he was fol. 67. Plato accompted a Demigod fol. 73. Priapus a god fol. 75. Pomona a goddesse fol. 77. Patriots and the people deuided fol. 83. Porsenna his warres fol. 84. Portian and Sempronian lawes ibid. Posthumus who he was fol. 98. Prodigious sounds of battells fol. 100. Plato expells some poets fol. 74. Pyrrhus who hee was fol. 133. Pâ—…s warre fol. 145. Piety what it is fol. 183. Pompey his death fol. 231. Plato his ridle fol. 286. Pluto why so called fol. 289. Plato who hee was fol. 303. Porphyry who hee was fol. 319. Plotine who he vvas ibid. Proteus vvho he vvas fol. 374. Pygmees vvhat they bee fol. 582. Prophecy spoken to Heli fulfilled in Christ. fol. 628. Psalmes vvho made them fol. 640. Psaltery vvhat it is fol. 641. Philo vvho hee vvas fol. 649. Pelasgus vvho hee vvas fol. 659. Phoroneus vvhy called a iudge fol. 660. Prometheus vvho hee vvas fol. 665. Pandora vvho she vvas fol. 666. Phorbus who he vvas fol. 667. 〈◊〉 and Helle who they vvere fol. 〈◊〉 â—… 〈◊〉 the vvinged-horse fol. 684. Perseus who hee was fol. 687. Portumnus vvhat he is fol. 689. Picus vvho he vvas fol. 690. Pitacus vvho hee vvas fol. 710. Periander vvho hee vvas fol. 711. Ptolomy vvho hee vvas fol. 731. Philadelpus why so called fol. 732. Pompey his warres in Affrica fol. 736. Proselite what hee is fol. 740. Peter accused of sorcery fol. 746. Purgatory not to bee found before the day of iudgement fol. 857. Pauls vvords of the measure of fulnesse expounded fol. 897. Propagation not abolished though diminished by sinne fol. 907. R ROmaines iudgement in a case of life and death fol. 31. Romaines greedy of praise fol. 32. Romane orders fol. 73. Romane priests called Flamines fol. 76. Romulus a god fol. 77. Rome taken by the Galles fol. 93. Romaine Theater first erected fol. fol. 47. Romes salutations fol. 86. Rome punishing offenders fol. 84. Romaine gouernment three-fold fol. 91. Remus his death fol. 113. Romulus his death fol. 127. Regulus his fidelity 223. Radagasius King of the Gothes fol. 229. Roinocorura vvhat it is fol. 600. Repentance of God what it is fol. 632. Rabbi Salomons opinion of the authors of the psalmes fol. 641. Rhadamanthus vvho he was fol. 700. Roboams folly ibid. Rome second Babilon fol. 702. Rome imperious Babilon fol. 763. S Syracusa a Citty fol 11. Sacking of a Citty fol. 12. Scipio Nasica who he was fol. 45. Sanctuaries what they were fol. 49. Scipio's who they vvere fol. 66. Scipio's which vvere bretheren fol. 68. Seditions betweene great men and people fol. 79. Sabine virgins forced fol. 80. Sardanapalus last King of the Assyrians fol. 86. Sardanapalus his Epitaph ibid. Sylla who he was fol. 93. Sylla and Marius his vvar ibid. Sylla his cruelty fol. 98. Sempronian law fol. 109. Saguntum vvhat it vvas fol. 138. Salues vvarre fol. 145. Sertorius his death fol. 149. Scaeuola his fortitude fol. 179. Siluer when first coyned fol. 181. Socrates who he was fol. 300. Schooles of Athens fol. 319. Scripture speaketh of God according to our vveake vnderstanding fol. 565. Sauls reiections a figure of Christs kingdom fol. 632. Salomon a figure of Christ. fol. 634. Syon vvhat it signifieth fol. 643. Sotadicall verses vvhat they are fol. 642. Sycionians first King fol. 657. Semiramis who she was ibid. Sarpedon who he was fol. 677. Sphynx her riddle fol. 686. Stercutius who he vvas fol. 691. Swinging games fol. 698. Sangus vvho he was ibid. Sybils vvho they vvere fol. 703. Sages or vvise men of Greece fol. 710.
The inuention of Plaies Tragedy Comedy Eupolis Alcibiades Three kindes of Comedies Old Meane Nevv 〈◊〉 Satyres The Satyres The first nevv â—…omedy at Rome Palliaâ—… Togata Praetextata Trabcata Tabernaria The Mimikes Floralia Cato Tullyes bookes de republica The Sciâ—… Old comedies Aristophanes â—…is Nebuâ—…ae Cleon. Aristophanâ—…s his â—…quites Cleophon Hiperbolus The Censor Pericles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plautus Scipios the brethren Caecilius Cato the elder The Portian law Capite dimiaui what Occentare what it is Aschines Aristodemus Al vnclean spirits are vvicked diuills The Labâ—…s Sad sacrifices curia vvhat Terence The infamy of Stage players Decimus Laberius The Attellan comedies The Censors vievv of the city The orders of the Romaines The parts of a Syllogisme Paris copy defectiue Plato held a Demigod Actor Author Plaier What Poets Plato expells Humanity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suadere Persuadere Medioxumi Heroes Nesciâ—… Towardlynesse Priapus Phallus seu Ihyphallus Cynocephaelus Anubis Febris a goddesse The Flamines The Iouiall Pomona Goddesse The Flamines Apex or crest Romulus is a God Quirinus The Athens law followed by Rome The lawes of the 12. 〈◊〉 Lycurgus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tarquine Collatine depriued of office and put out of Rome Camillus exiled by his countries monstrous ingratitude Seditions betwixt the great men and the people Lawe Good Right and reason aquum bonum Budaeus his praises 〈…〉 Thalassus The confederation against Romulus Mount Caelius Consus a god The first Consulls Camillus Asse Aes graue all one The common corruption before Christs comming Christ the founder of a new citie The death of Tarquin the proud The diuisions of the people froÌ„ the Patriots The 〈◊〉 of Africa Plinius corrected Porsenna his 〈◊〉 Hovv offenders were punished at Rome The Portian Sempronian lavves Act. 22. The Agrarian lavves The first departure of the people The Tribunes The second departure Saluste phrase Syâ—…scere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the City of God his will is all the lavv Exactors or taxe-takers The verses of the leter Y. No word of this in the edition of Paris A description of the publike corruption The salutations at Rome Sardanapalus Sardanapalus his epitaph The harmony of the common wealth A common wealth An estate gouerned without â—…tice is no common weale Psal. 87. 3. Tiberius Gracchus The death of Aâ—…ilian Scipio The three learned Athenian Ambassadors L. Furius Pylus A commoÌ„-wealth not gouerned without iniustice The vse of a definition Rod. Agricola The three formes of Rule Optimates Tyrannus what and whence Friendship faction Ennius Diffamarê how vsed Not a word of this in our Paris print Euill manners chase â—…vay the gods The Gracchi Marius Cinna Carbo The originall of the ciuill warre betweene Sylla and Marius Sylla The calling out of the gods The Galles take Rome The Capitolls Geese Egipts beast gods The gods honors at Rome The happy successe of wicked Marius Marius his cruelty Metellus his felicity Paris copy â—…eanes 〈◊〉 this Cateline Marius his fligt Marica The forme of a crownâ—… of gold in the liuer of a Calfe Sylla his crueltie Pâ—…sthumius Mithridaces The deuils together by the cares amongst themselues The Gods examples furthered the vvarres Prodigious sounds of battles heard Brethren killing one another 2. Cor. 11. The deuils incite men to mischief by wicked instigations The Goddesse Flora. The office of the Aedile * He meaneth they haue bin a great enlargement of the true Church of God vpon earth by suffring so constantly The happines that the deuills can bestow on men Fabucius Vertues seedes Day how vsed Per Ioue unlapidem Apollo and Neptune worke the building of Troy Iliad 2. Aeneid 5. Neptunes Prophecy Apollo fauoreth the Troians The law Sempronian of iudgements The Plautian The Cornelian The Aurelian Romulus his â—…atner Aeneas his mother Caesars family Gen. 6. The benefit of being held diuine Numitor his children The punishment of the offending vestall No lawe against adultery before Augustus The lawe Iuliana Parricide Numa's â—…aw Remus his death Sylla's side stronger then Marius his The deuills carâ—… to deceiue C. Fimbria The Palladium Peace bestovved on the vnvvorthy Numa's peace of 43. or 39. yeares Ianus The first Kings practises The first Kings Fiue ages of men Paris copy leaues out this intirely Aristonicus Craâ—…us death The gods in a sweate Antiochuâ—… Cumae Aesculapius But best of all by Liuie hâ—… leaue to say with the text Pessinus for Pessinus was a towne in in Phrygia where Cybel had a temple before she had any at Rome Metamorph. Sellers of smoake Aemathia Andromache Tarpeia Stator Rome had no iust cause of war against Alba. Psal. 10. 3. As they did in Rome to fight for â—…heir lines Alba. The two Cyri. Magnus Rex The Theater Amphitheater The sunnes naturall Eclipse at Romulus his death Luc. 13. Romulu his deaâ—… Eclipses Tullus Hostilius Tarquinius Priscus The Capitol Getulia For it is said Brutus was â—…arquins kiâ—…man Bed-spreading 〈◊〉 vsed at Rome A Brood-man Capitae censi Pyrrhus Heâ—…aclear victory Archiatri Tibers inundation Fire in the Citty The secular plaies An Age. The Tauâ—…ian games Mettellus The masâ—…cre of Câ—… The Ring The volons Iâ—…s Saguntus Scipio African The Gallogrecians The lawe Uoconian Tripudium Solistimum Diuerse Mithridates Prodigies in the catle The confederats â—…rre Septimuleius Anagninus Discord a goddesse Concords Temple The cause of Troyes destruction The slaues warre The pirate war Nobles slaine by Cynna Marius C. Fimbria Licinius Bebius Catulus Marius his Sonne Scaeuola Tables of proscription The Bebii Marius Graâ—…idianus his death Sulmo Sertorius Cateline Lepidus Catulus Cn. Pompey Iul. Caesar. C. Octauius The Triumviri Christ borne Luc. 2. Ciceroes death Caesars death M. Antony Brutus Locusts in Africa Pestilence Sabaea Prodigies Pâ—…ying serâ—… lbis whv worshiped in Egipt Paris copie doth leaue out this betweene these markes Aetna Catina Christian Religion False gods varro Varro's antiquities Lady Pecunia Ill manners Mat. 5. Apuleius 〈◊〉 Platonist Phaeton Aetnas burning This note is left ouâ—… in Paris copy The comparison of poore quiet and rich trouble 〈◊〉 Pâ—… 2. 19 Stoicisme like to Christianitie Bellum warre of whence A pirates words to Alexander The leaders of the fugitiues Iust forme of kingdom Florus The first Kings Ninus The fâ—…rst warre The Greeke lyâ—…s The Assyrian Monarchie When Augustine wrote this worke Astiages The Persian Monarchy Cloacina Venus Cloacina Volupia Angeronia Libentina Vaticanus Cunina Tutanus Tutilina Proserpina Hostire Flora. Chloris Lacturcia Matuca Runcina Carna Iupiter why so called Iuno and Terra the eaâ—…th al one Vaâ—… de ling laâ—… Saâ—…es Soâ—…ne 〈◊〉 Saturne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Terra Tellus Ceres Vesta Two 〈◊〉 The Ciprian virgines custom Mars Vulcan Iupiter Apollo The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Tripos The Pythia Mercury Ianus Ianiculus Diespiter Lucina Opigena Ilythia Carmentes Port Sceleraâ—…a Rumina Educa and Potina Venilia Cumaena The Muses Consuâ—… Sâ—…a The pretexta Laâ—…s 〈◊〉 â—…hat 〈◊〉 Aeneid 6. Victoria a Goddesse Math. 11. 29. Stimula Hora. â—…urcia Faelicity