doe better for the solution of this question to beginne at that time chiefly because then the Holy Spirit descended vpon that society wherein the second law the New Testament was to bee professed according as Christ had promised For the first law the Old Testament was giuen in Sina by Moyses but the later which Christ was to giue was prophecied in these words The law shall goe forth of Zion and the word of the LORD from Ierusalem Therefore hee said himselfe that it was fit that repentance should bee preached in his name throughout all nations yet beginning at Ierusalem There then beganne the beleefe in CHRIST crucified and risen againe There did this faith heate the heartes of diuers thousands already who sold their goods to giue to the poore and came cheerefully to CHRIST and to voluntary pouerty withstanding the assalts of the bloud-thirsty Iewes with a pacience stronger then an armed power If this now were not done by Magike why might not the rest in all the world bee as cleare But if Peters magike had made those men honour Christ who both crucified him and derided him beeing crucified then I aske them when their three hundered three scorce and fiue yeares must haue an end CHRST died in the a two Gemini's consulshippe the eight of the Calends of Aprill and rose againe the third daie as the Apostles saw with their eyes and felt with their hands fortie daies after ascended hee into Heauen and tenne daies after that is fiftie after the resurrection came the Holy Ghost and then three thousand men beleeued in the Apostles preaching of him So that then his name beganne to spread as wee beleeue and it was truely prooued by the operation of the Holy Ghost but as the Infidels feigne by Peters magike And soone after fiue thousand more beleeued through the preaching of Paul and Peters miraculous curing of one that had beene borne lame and lay begging at the porch of the Temple Peter with one word In the name of our LORD IESVS CHRIST set him sound vpon his feete Thus the church gotte vppe by degrees Now reckon the yeares by the Consulls from the descension of the Holie Spirit that was in the Ides of Maie vnto the consulshippe of b Honorius and Eutychian and you shall finde full three hundered three score and fiue yeares expired Now in the next yeare in the consulship of c Theodorus Manlius when christianity should haue beene vtterly gone according to that Oracle of deuills or fiction of fooles what is done in other places wee neede not inquire but for that famous cittie of Carthage wee know that Iouius and Gaudentius two of Honorius his Earles came thether on the tenth of the Calends of Aprill and brake downe all the Idols and pulled downe their Temples It is now thirty yeares agoe since almost and what increase christianity hath had since is apparant inough and partly by a many whom the expectation of the fulfilling of that Oracle kept from beeing reconciled to the truth who since are come into the bosome of the church discouering the ridiculousnesse of that former expectation But wee that are christians re â—…re indeed and name doe not beleeue in Peter but in f him that Peter beleeued in Wee are edifyed by Peters sermons of Christ but not bewitched by his charmes nor deceiued by his magike but furthered by his religion CHRIT that taught Peter the doctrine of eternitie teacheth vs also But now it is time to set an end to this booke wherein as farre as neede was wee haue runne along with the courses of the Two Citties in their confused progresse the one of which the Babilon of the earth hath made her false gods of mortall men seruing them and sacrificing to them as shee thought good but the other the heauenly Ierusalem shee hath stucke to the onely and true GOD and is his true and pure sacrifice her selfe But both of these doe feele one touch of good and euill fortune but not with one faith nor one hope nor one law and at length at the last iudgement they shall bee seuered for euer and either shall receiue the endlesse reward of their workes Oâ—… these two endes wee are now to discourse L. VIVES IN the a two First sure it is Christ suffered vnder Tyberius the Emperor Luke the Euangelist maketh his baptisme to fall in the fifteenth yeare of Tyberius his reigne So then his passion must be in the eighteenth or ninteenth for three yeares hee preached saluation Hier. So â—…ith Eusebius alledging heathen testimonies of that memorable eclips of the Sunne as namely our of Phlegon a writer of the Olympiads who saith that in the fourth yeare of the two hundered and two Olympiade the eighteenth of Tyberius his reigne the greatest eclips befell that euer was It was midnight-darke at noone-day the starres were all visible and an earth-quake shooke downe many houses in Nice a city of Bythinia But the two Gemini Ruâ—… and Fusius were Consulls in the fifteenth yeare of Tyberius as is easily prooued out of Tacitus lib. 5. and out of Lactantius lib. 4. cap. 10. where hee saith that in that yeare did Christ suffer and him doth Augustine follow here But Sergius Galba afterwards Emperor and L. Sylla were Consulls in the eighteenth yeare b Honorius and In the consulship of these two 〈◊〉 draue the Gothes and Vandals into Italy Honorius the Emperor beeing Consull the fourth time Prosper saith this was not vntill the next yeare Stilicon and Aurelian beeing 〈◊〉 c Theodorus Claudian made an exellent Panegyrike for his consulship wherein hee sheweth that hee had beene Consul before Prosper maketh him Consull before Honorius his fourth Consulship but I thinke this is an error in the time as well as in the copie For it must bee read Beeing the second time Consul Eutropius the Eunuch was made Consull with him but soone after hee was put to death Wherevpon it may bee that Eutropius his name was blotted out of the registers and Theodorus Manlius hauing no fellow was taken for two Theodorus and Manlius as Cassiodorus taketh him but mistakes himselfe Yet about that time they began to haue but one Consull d Now 30. yeares Vnto the third yeare of Theodosius Iunior wherein Augustine wrote this e In him that Peter For who is Paul and who is Apollo the ministers by whom you beleeue Finis lib. 18. THE CONTENTS OF THE nineteenth booke of the City of God That Varro obserued 288. sectes of the Philophers in their question of the perfection of goodnesse 2. Varro his reduction of the finall good out of al these differences vnto three heads three definitions one onely of which is the true one 3. Varro his choise amongst the three forenamed sects following therin the opinion of Antiochus author of the old Academicall sect 4. The Christians opinion of the cheefest good and euill which the Philosophers held to bee within themselues 5. Of liuing sociably with our neighbours how
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
the gods but for the mother of any senatour of any honest man nay euen for the mothers of the players them selues to giue care too Naturall shame hath bound vs with some respect vnto our parents which vice it selfe cannot abolish But that beastlynesse of obâ—… speaches and actions which the Players acted in publike before the mother of all the gods and in sight and hearing of an huge multitude of both sexes they would be ashamed to act at home in priuate before their mothers g were it but for repitition sake And as for that company that were their specâ—… though they might easily bee drawn thether by curiosity yet beholding câ—…ity so fouly iniured me thinkes they should haue bene driuen from thence by the meete shame that immodesty can offend honesty withall What can â—…dges be it those were sacrifices or what can bee pollution if this were a purification and these were called h Iuncates as if they made a feast where all the vâ—…eane dâ—… of hell might fill their bellies For who knowes not what 〈◊〉 of spirit 〈◊〉 are that take pleasure in these obscurities vnlesse hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there bee any such vncleane spirits that thus illude men vnder the names of gods or else vnlesse hee be such an one as wisheth the pleasure and feares the displeasure of those damned powers more then hee doth the loue and wrath of the true and euerliuing God L. VIVES SAcriligious a mockories Inuerting this the holy plaies a phrase vsed much by the Pagans b The Enthusiastikes persons rapt This place requireth some speech of the mother of the gods Diodorus Siculus Biblioth lib. 4. tels the story of this Mother of the gods diuers waies For first hee writeth thus Caelus had by his wife Titaea fiue forty children two of which were women called Regina and Ops Regina being the elder and miser of the two brought vp all her other bretheren to doe her mother a pleasure and therefore she was called the mother of the gods and was marryed to hir brother Hiperion to whome shee 〈◊〉 Sol and Luna who being both murdered by their vncles wicked practises she fel mad ranging vp and downe the Kingdome with a noise of drummes and cimbals and that this grew to a custome after she was dead Then he addes another fable that one Menoes an ancient King of Phryâ—… had by his wife Dindimene a daughter whome he caused to be cast forth vpon mount Cyâ—… 〈◊〉 that the infant being nourished vp by wilde beasts grew to be of admirable beauty and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a â—…pheardesse was by her brought vp as her own childe and named Cibele of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was found that shee innented many arts of her owne head and taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on pipes danncing drummes and cimbals also farying of horses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wherein shee was so fortunate that they named her The great mother Gâ—…ing vp vnto yeares she fell in loue with a youth of that country called Atis being with childâ—… by 〈◊〉 was sâ—… for backe by her father Menoes for a Uirgin but the guilt beeing knowne 〈◊〉 and the Nurses were put to death and Cibele being extreamely in loue with Atis fell madde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 her fathers house along with a Timbrell and a cimball she came to Nisa to Dioniâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where sâ—… few yeares after she dyed And soone after a great famine togeâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Pâ—…gia the inhabitants were commanded by Oracle to giue diuine worship to Atis and Cibele and hence arose the first canonization of the Mother of the gods Thus farre Diodorus who no doubt hath declared the true originall of it as it was But some do guesse that she was the mother of Iupiter Iuno Neptune and Pluto and therefore was called Rhea and in latine Ops and Cibele and Vesta as all one Nor make I any question but that this history is confounded as is vsuall in euery fable of the gods that she was a virgin and therefore named Vesta and that therefore Atys was faigned to bee a goodly young man whom she louing and commanding that she should neuer meddle with any other woman he neglecting her command fell in loue with a Nimph called Sangritis which Cybele depriued him of those partes whereby hee was man and for that reason euer since will haue her Priests defectiue in that fashion And because that she was most ordinarily worshipped of the Phrygians vpon Mount Ida there vpon she got the name of the Idean mother and of Berecynthia as also of the Phrigian goddesse Hie Priests were called Galli of the riuer Gallus in Phrigia the water whereof beeing drunke maketh men madde And these Galli themselues doe wherle their heads about in their madnesse slashing their faces and bodies with kniues and tearing themselues with their teeth when they are either madde in shew or madde indeed Their goddesse which was nothing but a great stone vpon Mount Ida the Romanes transported into Italy the day before the Ides of Aprill which day they dedicated vnto her honours and the plaies called Megalesia as on that day were acted Liuy lib. 29. speaking of the Mother of the gods hath these words They brought the goddesse into the Temple of Victorie which is on the Mount Palatine the daie before the Ides of Aprill So that was made her feast daie And all the people brought giftes vnto the goddesse vnto the Mount Palatine and the Temples were spred for banquets and the Plaies were named Megalesia this is also in his sixteenth booke About the same time a Temple was dedicated vnto the great Idean mother which P. Cornelius receiued being brought out of Asia by sea P. Cornelius Scipio afterward surnamed Africane and P. Licinius beeing consulls M. Liuius and C. Claudius beeing censors gaue order for the building of the Temple And thirteene yeares after it was dedicated or consecrated by M. Iunius Brutus M. Cornelius and T. Sempronius beeing Consulls and the Plaies that were made for the dedication thereof beeing the first plaies that euer came on stage Antias Valerius affirmeth were named Megalesia Thus farre Liuy To whom Varro agreeth also liber 3. de lingua Latina Enthusiastiques or persons rapt Were men distraught taken with madnesse as Bertcynthia's Galli were Saint Augustine vpon Genesis calls them men taken with spirits possessed c Pipers Or the singers Symphoniacos it commeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Harmony or consort In the feastes of Cybele was much of this numerall musicke with Pipes and Tymbrells Hereof Ouid singeth thus in his fastorum lib 4. Protinus inflexo Berecynthia tybia cornu Flabit Idaeae festa parentis erunt Ibunt Semimares inania tympana tundent Aeraâ—… tinnitus are repulsa dabunt Then Berecynthias crooked pipes shall blovv Th' Idaan mothers feast approcheth now Whose gelded Priests along the streetes doe passe With Timbrells and the tinckling sounds of brasse And a little after Tibia dat Phrygios vt
Osyris Horus and diuers others of the gods raigned before him Our scriptures say that Nembroth was the first King and raigned at Babilon b Vntill peruerse Hesiod in his Opera Dies saigneth fiue ages of mortality which place he beginneth thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. The gods did first of all Make men in golden moldes celestiall Their habitations were In Saturnes raigne The vvorld afforded such This Uirgil Ouid and others did immitate The first age the Golden one they say was vnder Saturne without warres or will to warres humanity was lockt in vnity neither were men contentious nor clamorous These were called Saturnian daies The next age Siluer vnder Ioue then warre began to buffle so did her daughter care hate and deceit The third Brazen warre hurles all vpon heapes and quasseth liues and bloud The fourth of the Halfe-Gods Heroes who thought they loued iustice yet their bosomes harboured an eager thirst of warres The first Iron wherein mischiefe goeth beyond bound and limit and all miseries breaking their prisons assault mans fortunes open deceit open hate open warres slaughters vastations burnings rapes and rapines all open violent and common e vnlesse vnlesse the gods be so impudent that they will sell that vnto men as a benefit from them which hath the original from another mans wil and so require thankes of them as though it were there guift when it is rather the gift of another One interpreter vnderstanding not the figure rappeth out what came first on his tongues end and vpon that as vpon a marble foundation Lord what a goodly building he raiseth concerning selling and the powers of deuills mans affects and many good morrowes euen such like as this in foundation is much of our Philosophers and Schoole-diuines trattle for all the world what wounderfull maters do they wring out of such or such places of Aristotle or the scriptures as indeed they neuer could truly vnderstand O happy builders that vpon no foundation but onely a meere smoke can rayse such goodly buildings as are held absolutely sky-towring so elegant and so durable Of the statue of Apollo at Cumae that shed teares as men thought for the Grecians miseries though he could not helpe them CHAP. 11. NOtwithstanding that there are many of these warres and conquests that fall out quite against those gods likings the Romaine history it selfe to omit those fables that do not tel one truth for a thousand lies shall giue cleare profe for therein we read that the statue of Apollo a Cumane in the time of the Romans warres againe the Achaians and b King Aristonicus did persist foure daies together in contiunall weeping which prodigy amazing the South-sayers they held it fit to cast the statue into the sea but the auncients of Cumae disswaded it and shewed them that it had done so likewise in the warres both against c Antiochus and d Persâ—…us testifying also that both these wars succeeding fortunarly vnto Rome the senat sent ther guifts and oblations vnto the statue of Apollo And then the South-sayers hauing learned wit answered that the weeping of Apollo was lucky to the Romaines because that e Cuma was a Greeke collony and that the statues teares did but portend mishap vnto the country from whence it came namely vnto Greece And soone after they heard how Aristonicus was taken prisoner and this was the cause of Apollos woes shewen in his teares And as touching this point not vnfitly though fabulously are the diuells trickes plainely discouered in the fictions of the Poets Diana was sory for Camilla in Virgill And Hercules wept for the death of Pallas And it may be that vpon this ground Numa in his great peace giuen him hee neither knew nor sought to know by whome bethinking him-selfe in his idlenesse vnto what gods he should commit the preseruation of the Romaines fortunes neuer dreaming that it is onely the great and almighty God that hath regard of these inferior things and remembring himselfe that the gods that Aeneas brought from Troy could neither preserue the estate of the Troians nor that of the Lauinians erected by Aeneas into any good continuance he thought fit to seeke out some others to ioyne with the former were gone with Romulus to Rome and that were afterwards to go at the distruction of Alba either to keepe them from running away or to helpe them when they saw them too weake L. VIVES APollo a Cumane King Attalus at his death made the people of Rome heyres to his Kingdome of which Aristonicus his brothers bastard sonne got possession before them hence grew there warres in which Licinius Consull and Priest was sent as Generall whom Aristonicus ouer-came M. Perpenna the next yeares Consull hearing of Crassus his fortune came with speed into Asia and hauing ouer-throwne Aristonicus and forced him into Stratonica through famine he forced him to yeeld and so sent him to Rome In this warre Nicomedes Mithridates Ariarathes and Pylemanes Kings of Bythinia Pontus Cappadocia and Paphlagonia fauoured the Romaines Achaia onely assisted Aristonicus b King Aristonicus This weeping of Apollo happened in the Consulshippe of Appius Claudius and M. Perpenna as Iulius Obsequens Fragm lib. de prodigiis in these wordes affirmeth App. Claudius and M. Perpenna being Consulls P. Crassus was slaine in battaile against Aristonicus Apollo's statue wept foure daies The prophets presaged the destruction of Greece from whence it came The Romaines offered it sacrifice and brought giftes vnto the temple Thus farre Obsequens The weeping of a statue portended mis-fortune to those that it fauoured as vpon the weeping of Iuno Sospita at Lauinium Consulls L. Aemilius Paulus Cn. Bebius Pamphilus followed a great pestilence So saith Lucane of the prodigies in the ciuill warres Indigâ—…tes flâ—…uisse dâ—…os vâ—…bisque laborem Testatos sudore Lares The Patron gods did weepe the cities paines The sweaâ—…ng Lars recorded c Antiochus King of Syria conquered by L. Cornelius Scipio brother to Africanus Liuie at large Decad. 4. d Perseus Some write Xerxes but it is better Perseus sonne to Philip King of Macedon whom L Aemilius Paulus conquered in a few houres in the second Macedonian warre Plutarch in Aemilius his life and others e Cumae The Chalcidians and the Cumaeans Strabo lib. 5 being people of Greece sailed into Italy with a great nauy and landing in Campania there built a citty The Cumaeans captaine was Hippocles the Chalcidians Megasthenes these agreed amongst themselues that the one people should inhabite the towne and the others should name it and so they did It was called Cumae and the inhabitants were Chalcidians Of this Cumae Virgil hath this verse Aenead 6. Chalcidicaque leuis tandem superastitit arâ—… And light at last on the Chalcidian towre This City saith Strabo is the most ancient Citty both of all Italy and Sicily How fruitlesse their multitude of gods was vnto the Romaines who induced them beyond the institution of Numa CHAP. 12. NOr could Rome
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
vshered in by such a mischieuous presage If this had befallen in our times wee should bee sure to haue had these faithlesse miscreants a great deale madder then the others dogs were L. VIVES ALtercations a and For before they did but wrangle reuile and raile their fights were only in words no weapons b Latium being associate when as the Senate had set vp M. Liuius drusus tribune against the power of the Gentlemen who had as then the iudging of all causes through Gracchus his law Drusus to strengthen the senates part the more drew all the seuerall nations of Italy to take part with him vpon hope of the possessing the citty which hope the Italians catching hold vpon and being frustrate of it by Drusus his sudden death first the Picenians tooke armes and after them the Vestines Marsians Latines Pelignians Marucians Lucanes and Samnits Sext. Iul. Caesar L. Marcius Philippus being consulls in the yeare of the citty DCLXII They fought often with diuers fortunes At last by seuerall generalls the people of Italy were all subdued The history is written by Liuy Florus Plutarch Orosius Velleius Appian b asociats the Latins begun the stirre resoluing to kill the consulls Caesar and Philip vpon the Latine feast daies c all the creatures Orosi lib. 5. The heards about this time fell into such a madnesse that the hostility following was here-vpon coniectured and many with teares fore-told the ensuing calamities d a prodigious signe Here the text is diuersly written in copies but all to one purpose Of the ciuill discord that arose from the seditions of the Gracchi CHAP. 24. THe sedition a of the Gracchi about the law Agrarian gaue the first vent vnto all the ciuill warres for the lands that the nobility wrongfully possessed they would needes haue shared amongst the people but it was a daungerous thing for them to vndertake the righting of a wrong of such continuance and in the end it proued indeed their destruction what a slaughter was there when Tiberius Gracchus was slaine and when his brother followed him within a while after the noble and the base were butchered together in tumults and vproars of the people not in formal iustice nor by order of law but al in huggermugger After the latter Gracchus his slaughter followed that of L. Opimius consull who taking armes in the Citty agaist this Gracchus and killing him and all his fellowes had made a huge slaughter of Cittizens by this meanes hauing caused three thousand to bee executed that he had condemned by law By which one may guesse what a massacre there was of all in that tumultuous conflict sith that 3. thousand were marked out by the law as orderly condemned and iustly slaine Hee that b killed Gracchus had the waight of his head in gould for that was his bargaine before And in this fray was c M. Fuluius slaine and all his children L. VIVES THe a Gracchi we haue spoken of them before Tiberius was the elder and Caius the younger Tiberius was slaine nine yeare before Caius read of them in Plutarch Appian Ualerius Cicero Orosius Saluste Pliny and others b killed Gracchus C. Gracchus seeing his band expelled by the Consull and the Senate hee fled into the wood of Furnia Opimius proclaiming the weight of his head in gold for a rewarde for him that brought it So Septimuleius Anagninus a familiar friend of Gracchus his came into the wood quietly and hauing talked a while friendly with him on a sudden stabbeth him to the heart cuts off his head and to make it weigh heauier takes out the braines and filles the place with lead Opimius was Consull with Q. Fabius Maximus nephew to Paulus and kinsman to Gracchus c M. Fuluius one that had beene Consull with Marcus Tlautius but fiue yeares before Of the temple of Concord built by the Senate in the place where these seditions and slaughters were effected CHAP. 25. A Fine decree surely was it of the Senate to giue charge for the building of Concords a temple iust b in the place where those out-rages were acted that the monument of Gracchus his punishment might bee still in the eye of the c pleaders and stand fresh in their memory But what was this but a direct scoffing of their gods They built a goddesse a temple who had she beene amongst them would neuer haue suffered such grose breaches of her lawes as these were vnlesse Concord being guilty of this crime by leauing the hearts of the citizens deserued therefore to be imprisoned in this temple Otherwise to keepe formality with their deedes they should haue built Discord a Temple in that place Is there any reason that Concord should be a goddesse and not Discord or that according to Labeo his diuision shee should not bee a good goddesse and Discord an euill one Hee spoake vpon grounds because he sawe that Feuer had a Temple built her as well as Health By the same reason should Discord haue had one as well as Concord Wherefore the Romaines were not wise to liue in the displeasure of so shrewd a goddesse they haue forgotten that d shee was the destruction of Troy by setting the three goddesses together by the eares for the golden Apple because shee was not bidden to their feast Where-vpon the goddesses fell a scolding Venus shee gotte the Apple Paris Hellen and Troye vtter destruction Wherefore if it were through her anger because shee had no Temple there with the rest that shee sette the Romaines at such variance how much more angrye would shee bee to see her chiefest enemie haue a Temple built in that place where shee had showne such absolute power Now their greatest Schollers doe stomacke vs for deriding these vanities and yet worshipping those promiscuall gods they cannot for their liues cleare them-selues of this question of Concord and Discord whether they let them alone vnworshipped and preferre Febris and Bellona before them to whome their most ancient Temples were dedicated or that they doe worship them both as well as the rest How-so-euer they are in the bryers seeing that Concord gotte her gone and left Discord to play hauock amongst them by her selfe L. VIVES COncords a Temple There were many Temples of Concord in Rome the most ancient built by Camillus for the acquittance of the Galles from Rome I know not whether it was that which Flauius dedicated in Vulcans court which the Nobles did so enuie him for P. Sulpitius and P. Sempronius being Consulls I thinke it is not that Another was vowed by L. Manlius Praetor for the ending of the Souldiers sedition in France It was letten forth to bee built by the Duum-viri Gn. Puppius Caeso and Quintius Flaminius were for this end made Duum-virs It was dedicated in the towre by M. and Gn. Attilii Liu. lib. 22. and 23. A third was in the Romaine court neere to the Greeke monuments built by Opimius Consull hauing dissolued Gracchi his faction and there also is the Opimian
Tunc data libertas odijs resolutà que legum Frenis ira ruit The medicine wrought too sore making the cure Too cruell for the patient to indure The guilty fell but none yet such remaining Hate riseth at full height and wrath disdaining Lawes reines brake out For in that war of Sylla and Marius besides those that fell in the field the whole cittie streetes Market-places Theaters and Temples were filled with dead bodies that it was a question whether the conquerors slaughtered so many to attaine the conquest or because they had already attained it In Marius his first victory at his returne from exile besides infinite other slaughters Octauius his head the Consuls was polled vp in the pleading-place Caesar and d Fimbra were slaine in their houses the two e Crassi father and son killed in one anothers sight f Bebius and Numitorius trailed about vpon hookes till death g Catulus poisoned him-selfe to escape his enemies and h Menula the Iouial Flamine cutte his owne veines and so bled him-selfe out of their danger Marius hauing giuen order for the killing of all them whome he didde not i re-salute or profer his hand vnto L. VIVES TO vse a Tullies words For the following words are Tullyes in his 3. Inuectiue against Cateline Where men were slaine by Cinna and Marius saith he wee haue already rehearsed in our third Oration for Sylla namely the two bretheren C. and L. Iulij Caesars Attillius Soranus P. Lentulus L. Crassus M. Anthony the Orator Gn. Octauius L. Cornelius Merula the Diall Flamine Consuls L. Catulus Q. Arcarius M. Bebius Numitorius Sext. Licinius b â—…ylla and reuenged Tullyes wordes also ibid. c In these wordes Lib. 2. Sylla quoque immensis acceâ—…sit cladibus vltor Ille quod exiguum restabat sanguinis vrbi Hausit damque minis iam putrida membra recidit Excessit medicina modum Then Sylla came to auenge the worthi's slaine And that small Romaine bloud that did remaine He drew but clean sing still the parts impure The medicine wrought to sure d Fimbria There was one C. Fimbria whome Velleius calles Flauius he was a Marian and the razer of Ilium There was an other C. Fimbria sur-named Licinius who liued with the Gracchi and entring inro the ciuil wars was slaine in his own house as Caesar was of this Fimbria speaks Tully de clar orator And he it was I thinke that would not giue his iudgemet in the contention about a good man Cic. offic lib 3. Valer. lib. 7. e Crassi The son fel by the hands of the soldiors of Fimbria Cinna's Lieutenant the father stabbed him-selfe f Bebius He was torne in peeces by the executioners like a beast without any vse of yron vppon him Lucan lib. 2. Vix te sparsum per viscera Bebi Innumeras inter carpentis membra coronae Discerpsisse manus Nor thee poore Bebius torne And scattered through a thousand bloudy hands Renting them in a ring g Catulus L. Luctatius Catulus was ioynt Consull with Marius in his 4. Consulship in the Cimbrian warre and tryumphed with him ouer them The whole Senate intreating Marâ—… for him he answered he must die which Catulus hearing of stifeled him-selfe with coales whether swallowing them as Portia did or inclosing the smoake close in his chamber hauing newly limed it so he died it is not certaine for this later is a present way to death vnlesse remedies be forth-with gotten Some think he died of poison as Augustine saith here h Merula He cut his veines in Ioues shrine i Re-salute That was the signe that Marius gaue for life and death How Sylla reuenged Marius his murthers CHAP. 28. NOw as for Sylla's victory the reuenger of al this cruelty it was not got withâ—… much store of cittizens bloud and yet the wars only hauing ended and nâ—… the grudges this victory brake out into a far more cruell wast in the midst of al the peace For after the butcheries that the elder Marius had made beeing yet bâ—… fresh and bleeding there followed worse by the handes of the yonger Marius Carbo both of the old faction of Marius These two perceiuing Sylla to come vppon them being desperate both of safety and victory filled all with slaughters both of them-selues and others For besides the massacre they made else-where in the citty they besieged the Senate in the very Court and from thence as from a prison dragged them out by the heades to execution b Mutius Seaeuola the Priest was slain iust as he had hold of the altar of Vesta the most reuerend relique of all the cittie c almost quenching that fire with his bloud which the Virgins care kept alwaies burning Then entered victorious Sylla into the citty d and in the common streete wars cruelty now done and peaces beginning put seauen thousand vnarmed men to the sword not in fight but by an expresse commaund And after that he put euen whom he list to death throughout the whole citty in so much that the slaughters grew so inumerable e that one was gladde to put Sylla in mind that he must either let some liue or else he should haue none to bee Lord ouer And then indeed this rauenous murtherer began to be restrained by degrees and a f table was set vp with great applause with proscribed but 2000. of the Patriots and Gentlemen appointing them all to bee presently killed The number made all men sad but the manner cheered them againe nor were they so sad that so many should perish as they reioyced that the rest should escape Neuerthelesse this cruell carelesnesse of theirs groned at the exquisite torments that some of the condemned persons suffered in their deaths For g one of them was torn in peeces by meÌ„s hands without touch of iron wher the executioÌ„ers shewed far more cruelly in rending this liuing man thus then they vse ordinarily vpon a dead beast h Another hauing first his eies pluckt out and then all the parts of his body cut away ioint by ioint was forced to liue or rather to die thus long in such intollerable torment Many also of the noblest citties and townes were put vnto the sacke and as one guilty man is vsed to be led out to death so was one whole Citty as then laid out and appointed for execution These were the fruits of their peace after their warres wherin they hasted not to gette the conquest but were swift to abuse it being got Thus this peace bandied in bloud with that war and quite exceeded it for then war killed but the armed but this peace neuer spared the naked In the war he that was striken if hee could might strike againe but in this peace he that escaped the war must not liue but tooke his death with patience perforce L. VIVES THe yonger a Marius Son to the elder ioined Consul with Carbo ere he were 25. yeares old by forced meanes He commanded his man Damasippus to kill all the Patriots in the citty who
it is shedde k If Marcus Puluillus in his dedication of the Temple to Ioue Iuno and Min◅ false newes beeing brought c by those that enuied his honour of his sonnes death that so hee might leaue all the dedication to his fellowe and goe perturbed away did neuerthelesse so contemne the newes that d hee bad them cast him forth vnburned his desire of glory vtterlie conquering his griefe of beeing childlesse why should that man say hee hath done much for the preaching of the gospell which freeth and gathereth Gods citizens out of so many errours to whome beeing carefull of his Fathers funerall the LORD sayd Follow mee and let the dead bury their dead If M. Regulus not to deale falsely with his most cruell enemies returned backe to them from Rome it selfe because as hee answered the Romaines that would haue staid him hee could not liue in the dignitie of an honest cittizen in Rome since hee had beene a slaue in Africke and that the Carthaginians put him to an horrible death for speaking against them in Romes Senate What torments are not bee scorned for the faith of the country vnto whose eternall happinesse faith it selfe conducteth vs Or what reward had GOD for all his benefits if for the faith which euery one owes to him hee should suffer as much torment as Regulus suffered for the faith which he ought to his bloudiest foes Or how dare any Christian boast of voluntary pouerty the f meanes to make his trauell vnto his country where GOD the true riches dwelleth more light and easie when he shall heare or read of g L. Valerius who dying consull was so poore that his buriall was paid for out of the common purse or of Q. h Cincinatus who hauing but 4. acres of land and tilling it himselfe with his owne hands was fetched from the plough to bee Dictator an office i more honorable then the Consulls and hauing k conquered his foes and gotten great honor returned to his old state of pouerty Or why should any man thinke it a great matter not to bee seduced from the fellowship of celestial powers by this worlds vanities when as hee reades how l Fabricius could not bee drawne from the Romaines by all Pyrrhus the King of Epirus his promises though extended euen to the 4. part of his Kingdome but would liue there still in his accustomed pouerty for whereas they had a ritch and powrefull weale-publike and yet were so poore themselues that m one that had been twise Cons◅ was put out of that Senate of n poore men by the Censors decree because hee was found to bee worth ten pound in siluer if those men that inritched the treasury by their triumphs were so poore themselues then much more ought the christians whose ritches are for a better intent all in common as the Apostles acts record to be distributed to euery man according to his neede neither any of them said that any thing he possessed was his owne but all was in common much more I say ought they to know that this is no iust thing to boast vpon seeing that they doe but that for gayning the society of the Angells which the other did or neere did for their preseruing of the glory of the Romaines These now and other such like in their bookes how should they haue beene so knowne and so famous had not Romes Empire had this great and magnificent exaltation and dilatation Wherefore that Empire so spacious and so contin◅ant renowned by the vertues of those illustrious men was giuen both to stand as a rewarde for their merrites and to produce examples for our vses That if wee obserue not the lawes of those vertues for attaining the celestiall Kingdome which they did for preseruing one but terrestriall wee might bee ashamed but if wee doe then that wee bee not exalted for as the Apostle saith The afflictions of this present time are not worthy of the glory which shal be shewed vnto vs. But their liues seemed worthy of that present temporall glory And therfore the Iewes that executed Christ the New testament reuealing what the old cōceiled that God was not be worshipped for the earthly benefites which he bestowes vpon bad as well as good but for life eternall and the perpetuall blessing of that supernall citty were iustly giuen to be the slaues and instruments of their glory that those that sought earthly glory by any vertue soeuer might ouercome and subdue those that refused and murdered the giuer of true glory and eternall felicity L. VIVES NO other a place Some texts want the second negatiue but erroneously I◅ must bee read as wee haue placed it a M. Puluillus Liu. lib. 2. Ualer lib. 5. Plut. in Poplicol Dionys and others This temple to Ioue Iuno and Minerua Tarquin Priscus vowed Tarquin the proud built and the dedication falling to the Consulls Puluillus had it and was informed as Augustine saith that his sonne c. c by those that by M. Ualerius brother to P. Valerius Consul who greeued that that magnifi◅nt temple should not be dedicated by one of his family and so brought that news of Puluillus his sonnes death that the greefe of his family might make him giue ouer the dedication d Hee bad them cast him Plutarch Liuy sayth hee bad them bury him then e Let the dead Liuing to the world but dead i◅ deed since dead to God let them bury such as they thinke are dead f the meanes In ones life as in ones trauell the lesse Burthen he hath about or vpon him the lighter he goeth on his iourny g L. Ualerius Liu Plutarch and Ualerius write that this Ualerius Poplicola was so poore that they were faine to bury him at the charge of the citty So doth Eutropius and others It is said each one gaue somewhat to his buriall Plut farthings a peece saith Apuleius Apolog. de Magia Augustine doth but touch at the story respecting neither his surname not the yeare of his death for he was called Publius not Lucius and died a yeare after his 4. consulship Uerginius and Cassius being Conss the sixt yeare after the expulsion of the Kings Liu. D◅ h Q. Cincinatus Liu. lib. 3. Ualer lib. 4. i More honorable The dictatorshippe was a regall office from it was no apeale to it were consulls and all obedient it continued by the law but sixe monethes and was in vse onely in dangerous times the election was made alwaies in Italy and in the night Hee was called the maister of the People and had the Maister of the horsemen ioyned with him This office had originall in the CCLII yeare of the Citty after Caesars death by the law of Antony the consul and for enuy of Caesar perpetuall dictatoriship was abolished for euer k conquered The Aequi and triumped ouer thē l Fabritius One not rich but a scorner of ritches Being sent Embassador to Pyrrhus King of Epirus abut the rans◅ming of the prisoners he
we leaue single as wanting m meanes of the bargaine chiefly some beeing widowes as Populonia Fulgura and Rumina nor wonder if these want sutors But this rable of base gods forged by inueterate superstition wee will adore saith hee rather for lawes sake then for religions or any other respect So that neither law nor custome gaue induction to those things either as gratefull to the gods or vse-full vnto men But this man whom the Philosophers as n free yet beeing a great o Senator of Rome worshipped that hee disauowed professed that hee condemned and adored that hee accused because his philosophy had taught him this great matter not to bee superstitious in the world but for law and customes sake to imitate those things in the Temple but not acte them in the Theater so much the more damnably because that which he counterfeited he did it so that the p people thought hee had not counterfeited But the plaier rather delighted them with sport then wronged them with deceite L. VIVES APostles a times It may bee the proofes are the Epistles that are dispersed vnder the name of him to Paul and Paul vnto him but I thinke there was no such matter But sure it is that he liued in Nero's time and was Consull then and that Peter and Paul suffred martirdome about the same time For they and hee left this life both within two yeares it may be both in one yeare when Silius Nerua and Atticus Vestinus were Consulls b Booke against superstitions These and other workes of his are lost one of matrimony quoted by Hierome against Iouinian of timely death Lactant of earth-quakes mentioned by himselfe These and other losses of old authors Andrew Straneo my countriman in his notes vpon Seneca deploreth a tast of which he sent me in his Epistle that vnited vs in friendship He is one highly learned and honest as highly furthering good studies with all his power himselfe and fauoring all good enterprises in others c Strato Son to Archelaus of Lanpsacus who was called the Phisicall because it was his most delightfull studie hee was Theophrastus his scholler his executor his successor in his schoole and maister to Ptolomy Philadelphus There were eight Strato's Laërt in Uit. d That not the The grammarians cannot endure Nâ—… and quidem to come together but wee reade it so in sixe hundred places of Tully Pliny Lâ—… and others vnlesse they answere vnto all these places that the copiers did falsify them I doe not thinke but an interposition doth better this I say e Recorded As Dyonisius Phalaris Mezentius Tarquin the Proud Sylla Câ—…a Marius Tiberius Claâ—… and Caligula f Some haue The Persian Kings had their Eunuches in whome they put especiall trust So had Nero g Osyris Hee beeing cut in peeces by his brother Typhon and that Isis and Orus Apollo had reuenged his death vpon Typhon they went to seeke the body of Osyris with great lamentation and to Isis her great ioy found it though it were disparkled in diuers places and herevpon a yearely feast was instituted on the seeking of Osyris with teares and finding him with ioy Lucane saith herevpon Nunquam satis quaâ—…us Osyris the ne're wel-sought Osyris h Be his aduocates Uadaeri is to bring one to the iudge at a day appointed Vadimonium the promise to bee there So the phrase is vsed in Tully to come into the Court and the contrary of it is non obire not to appeare Pliny in the preface of his history and many other authors vse it the sence here is they made the gods their aduocates like men when they went to try their causes i Arch-plaier Archimimus coâ—… of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to imitate because they imitated their gestures whom they would make ridiculous as also their conditions and then they were called Ethopaei and Ethologi whereof comes Ethopeia Quintil. Pantomimi were vniuersall imitators Archimimi the chiefe of all the Mimikes as Fano was in Vespasians time Who this was that Seneca mentions I know not k Terrible She was iealous and maligned all her step-sons and Ioues harlots so that shee would not forbeare that same Daedalian statue which Ioue beeing angry threatned to marry in 〈◊〉 For being reconciled to him she made it be burnt Plut. Hence was Numa's old law No 〈◊〉 touch Iuno's altar Sacrifice a female lambe to Iuno with disheueled hayre l Bellona Some â—…ke her his mother and Nerione or as Varro saith Neriene his wife which is as Gelâ—… a Sabine word signifieth vertue and valour and thence came the Nero's surname â—…es had it from the Greekes who call the sinewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thence comes our Nerâ—… and the Latine Neruus Plaut Trucul Mars returning from a iourney salutes his wife Neâ—… 〈◊〉 Noct. Att. lib. 10. m Meanes of the bargaine That is one to bee coupled with henâ—…â—…es the Latine phrase Quaerere condicionem filiae to seeke a match for his daughter 〈◊〉 lib. 4. Cic. Philipp It was vsed also of the Lawiers in diuorses Conditione tua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I le not vse thy company n As free We must seeme Philosophy saith Seneca to be free vsing free as with a respect not simply o Seneca Hee was banished by Claudius but 〈◊〉 being executed and Agrippina made Empresse she got his reuocation and senatorship â—…torship of the Emperor that hee might bring vp her sonne Nero. So afterward Trâ—…â—…ximus and he were Consulls Ulp. Pandect 36. Hee was won derfull ritch Tranquill Tatius The gardens of ritch Seneca p People His example did the harme which Eleâ—…â—…ed â—…ed to auoide Macchab. 2. 6. with far more holinesse and Philosophicall truth Seneca his opinion of the Iewes CHAP. 11. THis man amongst his other inuectiues against the superstitions of politique 〈◊〉 Theology condemnes also the Iewes sacrifices chiefly their saboaths sayâ—… 〈◊〉 by their seauenth day interposed they spend the seauenth part of their 〈◊〉 idlenesse and hurt themselues by not taking diuers things in their time â—…et dares he not medle with the Christians though then the Iewes deadly 〈◊〉 vpon either hand least he should praise them against his countries old cusâ—… or dispraise them perhaps against a his owne conscience Speaking of the 〈◊〉 he saith The custome of that wicked nation getting head through all the world the vanquished gaue lawes to the vanquishers This hee admired not â—…ing the worke of the god-head But his opinion of their sacraments hee subscribeth They know the cause of their ceremonies saith hee but most of the people doe they know not what But of the Iewish sacrifices how farre gods institutions first directed them and then how by the men of God that had the mistery of eternity reuealed to them they were by the same authority abolished wee haue both els-where spoken chiefly against the b Manichees and in this worke in conuenient place meane to say some-what more L. VIVES AGainst a his owne Nero hauing fired Rome many were blamed for the
before the other the other spent their wittes in seeking out of the causes of things the meanes of learning and order of life these knowing GOD found thâ—… their was both the cause of the whole creation the light of all true learning and the fount of all felicity So that what Platonists or others soeuer held thâ—…s of GOD they held as we doe But wee choose rather to deale with the a Plâ—…tonists then others because their workes are most famous for both the Greekes whose language is very greatly ' esteemed of the nations doâ—… preserue and extoll them and the Latines mooued by their excelleâ—… and glory learning them more willingly themselues and by recordiâ—… them in their tongues also left them the more illustrious and plaine to vs and to all posterity L. VIVES VVIth the a Platonists From Plato and Aristotles time vnto Aphrodiseus that liued vnder Seuerus and his sonne Aristotle was rather named amongst the learned then either read or vnderstood Aprodiseus first aduentured to explaine him and did set many on to search farther into the author by that light hee gaue yet did Plato keepe aboue him still vntill the erection of publike schooles in France and Italy that is as long as the Greeke and Latine tongues were in account but when learning grew Mercenary and Mimicall all their aime was gaine and contention and verbosity and sond subtility with vile fained wordes of arte and friuolous quillets then was Aristotles logike and physikes held fit for their purpose and many better bookes of his throwne aside But as for Plato because they vnderstood him not nay and Aristotle much lesse yet because hee teacheth no trickes oh neuer name him I speake not this to imply Aristotles learning more insufficient then Plato's but it is a shame that Plato a holy Philosopher should bee thrust by and Aristotles best part also and the rest so read that he must speake their pleasures beeing such fooleries as not Aristotle no not any mad man of his time would haue held or divulged Whence Plato might haue that knowledge that brought him so neare the Christian doctrine CHAP. 11. NOw some of our Christians admire at these assertions of Plato comming soneere to our beleefe of God So that some thinke that at his going to Egipt hâ—…e heard the Prophet a Hieremye or got to read some of the prophets bookes in his trauell these opinions I haue b else-where related But by all true chronicles supputation Plato was borne an 100. yeares after Ieremy prophecied Plato liued 81. yeares and from his death to the time that Ptolomy King of Egipt demanded the Hebrew prophecies and had them translated by the 70. Iewes that vnderstood the greeke also is reckned almost 60. yeares So that Plato in his trauell could neither see Hieremy beeing dead nor read the scriptures beeing not as yet translated into the greeke which he vnderstood c vnlesse as he was of an infatigable studie he had had them read by an interpretor yet so as hee might not translate them or coppy them which Ptolomy as a friend might intreate or as a King command but onely carry away what he could in his memory Some reason there is for this because Genesis beginneth thus In the beginning GOD treated heauen and earth and the earth was without forme and voide and darkenesse â—…as vpon the deepe the Spirit of GOD mooued vpon the wateâ—…s And Plato in his d Tiâ—…s saith that GOD first e ioyned the earth and the fire Now it is certaine that f hee meaneth heauen by fire so that here is a correspondence with the other In the beginning GOD created heauen and earth Againe hee saith that the two g meanes conioyning these extremities are water and ayre this some may thinke he had from the other The spirit of GOD mooued vpon the waters not minding in what sence the scripture vseth the word Spirit and because h ayre is a spirit therefore it may bee hee gathered that hee collected 4. elements from this place And whereas hee saith a Philosopher is a louer of God thâ—…re is nothing better squareth with the holy scriptures but that especially which maketh mee almost confesse that Plato wanted not these bookes that whereas the Angel that brought Gods word to Moyses being asked what his name was that bad him goe free the Israelites out of Egipt answered his name was i I am that I am And thus shalt thou say to the children of Israell I am hath sent me to you as if that in comparison of that which truely is being immutable the things that are immutable are not Plato stuck hard vpon this and commended it highly And I maâ—…e a doubt whether the like be to be found in any one that euer wrote before Plate except in that booke when it was first written so I am that I am and thou shalt tell them that I am sent me to you But wheresoeuer he had it out of others bookes before him or as the Apostle saith Because that which is knowne of God is manifest vnto them for God hath shewed it them For the inuisible things of him that iâ—… his eternall power and god-head are seene by the creation of the world being considered in his workes This maketh mee chose to deale with the Platonists in our intended question of naturall Theology namely whether the seruice of one GOD or many suffice for the felicity of the life to come For as touching the seruice of one or many for the helpes of this temporall life I thinke I haue said already sufficient L. VIVES PRophet a Hieremy Hee went with the two Tribes Beniamin and Iuda into Egipt and was there stoned at Tanis there the inhabitants honour him for the present helpe his tombe giues theÌ„ against the stinging of serpents b Else-where De Doctr. xpian 2. Eusebâ—… saith Hieremy began to prophecy the 36. Olympiade and Plato was borne the 88. of the Septuagines hereafter c Unlesse as he was Iustin Martyr in Paracl ad gent Euseb. de prâ—…p Theodor. de Graec. affect all affiâ—…me that Plato had much doctrine from the Hebrew bookes Herevpon Numenius the Philosopher said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is Plato but Moyfes made Athenian And Aristobulus the Iewe writting to Philometoâ—… saith as Eusebius citeth it Plato did follow our law in many things for his diuers allegations haue prooued him an obseruer of it in particular things and that in many For the Pentateâ—…ch was translated before Alexanders time yea before the Persian Monarchy whence hee and Pythagoras had both very much d Timaeus So because Timaeus the Locrian is induced as disputing of the worâ—…d hâ—… had Plato heard in Italy and he wrote of the world in the dorike tongue out of which booke Plato hath much of his doctrine e Ioyned the earth The words are traâ—…slated by Tully thus Corporeum aspectabilem itemque tractabilem esse necessarium est nihil porrò igni vacuum
this life then is hee 〈◊〉 by it in the life to come and punished for his folly if the Lar conquer hee is puriâ—…â—…d carryed vpppe to blisse by the sayd Lar. Plato also is of the same opinion saying 〈◊〉 go to iudgement De rep Vltimo c Lemures The peaceable dead soules are Lares 〈◊〉 â—…ull Laruae or Lemures and those they trouble or possesse Laruati Al the ayre saith Capâ—… Nâ—…ptiar lib. 2 from the Moone is in Pluto's power otherwise called Summanus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 summus the Prince of diuels and the Moone that is next the ayre is therfore 〈◊〉 Proserpina vnder whome the Manes of all conception are subiect who delight after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those bodies and if they liued honestly in their first life they become Lares of houses â—…tties if not they are made Laruae and walking Ghostes so that heere are the good and â—…ll Manes which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heere also are their Goâ—… Mana and Maturna and the Gods called Aquili fura also Furina and mother 〈◊〉 and other Agents of the goddes doe liue heere Thus much Capella There sayth 〈◊〉 are the Lemures Ghosts that affright and hurt men presaging their death called 〈◊〉 quasi Remures of Remus for expiation of whose murther Romulus offered and inâ—… the Lemuralia to bee kept the third day of May at such time as February was vn-ad 〈◊〉 the yeare Ther-vpon it is sinne to marry in May. In horat Epist. lib. 2. This hee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ouid. Fastor 5. d Manes As if they were good Fest. For they vsed Mana 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also mother Matuta and Poma Matura ripe apples These were adored for 〈◊〉 â—…ath and called the Manes as it were good whereas they were rather Immaâ—…â—…nstrous â—…nstrous euill Of the three contraries whereby the Platonists distinguish the diuells natures from the mens CHAP. 12. 〈◊〉 now to those creatures whome he placeth properly betweene the goddes 〈◊〉 men being reasonable passiue aereall and immortall Hauing placed the 〈◊〉 the highest and the men the lowest here saith he are two of your creaâ—…â—…he gods and men much differing in height of place immortallity and 〈◊〉 the habitations being immeasurably distant and the life there eterâ—… and perfection heere fraile and a faltring their wittes aduanced to 〈◊〉 ours deiected vnto misery Heere now are three contraries betweene 〈◊〉 two vttermost parts the highest the lowest for the three praises of the 〈◊〉 hee compareth with the contraries of mans Theirs are height of 〈◊〉 eternity of life perfection of nature All these are thus opposed by him 〈◊〉 â—…manity the first height of place vnmeasurably distant from vs the second 〈◊〉 of life poized with our fraile and faltring state the third perfection of 〈◊〉 and witte counterpoized by our witte and nature that are deiected 〈◊〉 misery Thus the goddes three height eternity beatitude are conâ—… in our three Basenesse mortality and misery now the diuel beeing 〈◊〉 mid-way betweene them and vs their place is knowne for that must needs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 midde-distance betweene the highest and the lowest But the other two 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 better looked into whether the diuels are eyther quite excluded from 〈◊〉 or participate as much of them as their middle posture require excluded 〈◊〉 them they cannot bee for b wee cannot say that they are neyther happy nor wretched as wee may say that the mid-place is neither the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lowest beasts and vnreasonable creatures neither are so But such as haue 〈◊〉 must be the one Nor can we say they are neither mortall nor eternall for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aline are the t'one But he hath said they are eternall It remaineth then that they haue one part from the highest and another from the lowest so being the â—…eane them-selues For if they take both from eyther their mediocrity is ouerthroâ—…n and they rely wholy vppon the lower part or the higher Seeing therefore they cannot want these two qualities aboue-said their mediation ariseth from their pertaking one with either Now eternity from the lowest they cannot haue for there it is not so from the highest they must haue that So then is there nothing to participate for their mediety sake betweene them and mortalls but misery L VIVES And a faltring Subcisiua with Apuleius or Succidua with some Copyes of Augustine the later is more proper and significant b We cannot Contradictories in opposites admit no meane as one must perforce either run or not run Other opposites do as blacke and white contraries and other coullors the meanes betweene them Some admit it not in particulars As liuing and dead in creatures Seeing and blinde at natures fitte times Arist. Categor How the diuells if they be neyther blessed with the gods nor wretched with men may be in the meane betwixt both without participation of eyther CHAP. 13. SO then according to the Platonists the goddes are in eternall blessednesse or blessed eternity and men are in mortall misery or miserable mortality And the spirits of the ayre betweene both in miserable eternity or eternall misery For in his fiue attributes giuen them in their definition is none that sheweth as he promised their mediety this community with vs including their reason their beeing creatures and their beeing passiue and holding community with the goddes onely in eternity Hauing their ayry nature common with neither How are they meanes then hauing but one from the higher and three from the lower Who sees not how they are thrust from the meane to the lower side But thus they may be found to be in the midst they haue one thing proper to them selues onely their ayry bodies as the gods haue their celestiall and man his 〈◊〉 and two things they haue common to both their being creatures and their gift of reason For hee speaking of the goddes and men sayd Heere 〈◊〉 you two creatures Nor do they affirme but that the goddes haue reason Two then remaines their passiuenesse and their eternity one common with the lower and the other with the higher so beeing proportioned in the meane place that they decline to neither side Thus then are they eternally miserable or miserably eternall For incalling them passiue hee would haue called them miserable but for offending them that serued them Besides because the world is not ruled by rash chance but by a Gods prouidence these spirits should neuer haue 〈◊〉 eternally miserable but that they are extremely malicious wherfore if the 〈◊〉 be blessed theÌ„ is it not they that ar in this mediety between Gods men where is their place then admitting their ministery between gods and men If they be good and eternall then are they blessed If blessed then â—…ot in the midst but nearer to the gods and further from men frustrate then is all their labour that seeke to proue the mediety of those spirits being good immortall and blessed betweene the gods immortall and blessed and men mortall and wâ—…ched For hauing beatitude and immortality both attributes of
the gods and â—…her proper vnto man they must need hold nearer correspondence with gods tâ—… men For if it were otherwise their two attributes should communicate with one vpon either side not with two vpon one side as a man is in the midst beâ—…ne a beast and an Angel a beast beeing vnreasonable and mortall an Angell â—…sonable and immortall a man mortall and reasonable holding the first with a 〈◊〉 the second with an Angell and so stands meane vnder Angels aboue 〈◊〉 Euen so in seeking a mediety betweene immortality blessed and moâ—…lity wretched wee must eyther finde mortality blessed or immortality â—…ched L. VIVES Bâ—… a Gods prouidence So Plato affirmeth often that the great father both created and â—…ed all the world Now hee should doe vniustice in afflicting an innocent with eterâ—…â—…ery for temporall affliction vppon a good man is to a good end that his reward may â—…ee the greater and hee more happy by suffering so much for eternall happynesse Whether mortall men may attaine true happpnesse CHAP. 14. 〈◊〉 great question whether a man may be both mortall and happy some a â—…ering their estate with humility affirmed that in this life man could not â—…y others extolled them-selues and auouched that a wise man was happy 〈◊〉 it bee so why are not they made the meanes betweene the immortally â—…nd the mortally wretched Hold their beatitude of the first and their morâ—… the later Truly if they be blessed they enuy no man For b what is more â—…ed then enuy And therefore they shall do their best in giuing wretched 〈◊〉 good councell to beatitude that they may become immortall after death 〈◊〉 ioyned in fellowship with the eternall blessed Angels L. VIVES Sâ—… a considering Solon of Athens held none could be happy til death Plato excepted a 〈◊〉 But Solon grounded vpon the vncertaine fate of man For who could say Pryam was 〈◊〉 before the warre being to suffer the misery of a tenne yeares siege Or Craesus in all â—…h being to be brought by Cyrus to bee burnt at a stake Now Plato respected the â—…ty of attayning that diuine knowledge in this life which makes vs blessed b VVhat 〈◊〉 is all the good that enuy hath that it afflicteth those extreamely that vse it most as 〈◊〉 â—…eeke author saith Of the Mediator of god and man the man Christ Iesus CHAP. 15. 〈◊〉 if that bee true which is farre more probable that all men of necessity 〈◊〉 bee a miserable whilest they are mortall then must a meane be found 〈◊〉 is God as well as man who by the mediation of his blessed mortality may 〈◊〉 vs out of this mortall misery vnto that immortall happynesse And 〈◊〉 meane must bee borne mortall but not continue so He became mortall not by any weakening of his Deity but by taking on him this our fraile flesh he remained not mortall because hee raized him-selfe vp from death for the fruit of his mediation is to free those whom he is mediator for from the eternall death of the flesh So then it was necessary for the mediator betweene God and vs to haue a temporall mortality and an eternall beatitude to haue correspondence with mortals by the first and to transferre them by eternity to the second Wherefore the good Angels cannot haue this place beeing immortall and blessed The euill may as hauing their immortality and our misery And to these is the good mediator opposed beeing mortall for a while and blessed for euer against their immortall misery And so these proud immortals and hurtfull wretches least by the boast of their immortality they should draw men to misery hath hee by his humble death and bountifull beaitude expelled from swaying of all such hearts as he hath pleased to cleanse and illuminate by faith in him what mean the shal a wretched mortall far seperate from the blessed immortals choose to attain their societies The diuels immortality is miserable But Christs mortality hath nothing vndelectable There we had need beware of eternall wretchednesse heere we need not feare the death which cannot be eternal and we cannot but loue the happines which is eternal for the me an that is immortally wretched aimes al at keeping vs froÌ„ immortal beatitude by persisting in the contrary misery but the mean that is mortal blessed intends after our mortality to make vs immortal as he shewewed in his resurrection and of wretches to make vs blessed with he neuer wanted So that ther is an euill meane that seperateth friends and a good that reconciles them of the first sort b is many because the blessednes that the other multitude attaineth comes al froÌ„ participating of one God wherof the miserable multitude of euil Angels being c depriued with rather are opposite to hinder then interposed to further doth al that in it lieth to withdraw vs from that only one way that leadeth to this blessed good namely the word of God not made but the maker of al yet is he no mediator as he is the word for so is hee most blessed and immortal farre from vs miserable men But as he is man therein making it plaine that to the attainment of this blessed and blessing good we must vse no other mediators wherby to work God him-selfe blessed and blessing al hauing graced our humanity with participation of his deity for when hee freeth vs from misery and mortality he doth not make vs happy by participation of blessed Angels but of yâ— trinity in whose participation the Angels themselues ar blessed and therfore d when he was below the Angels in forme of a seruant then we also aboue them in forme of a god being the same way of life below and life it selfe aboue L. VIVES BE a miserable Homer cals men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is miserable and so do the Latines b Is many Vertue is simple and singular nor is there many waies to it Vice is confused and infinite paths there are vnto it Arist. Ethic. So the diuels haue many wayes to draw a man from God but the Angels but one to draw him vnto him by Christ the Mediator c Depriued As darkenesse is the priuation of light so is misery of beatitude But not contrarywise d When he was Plin. 2. Who being in the forme GOD thought it no robbâ—… to be equall with GOD but made him-selfe of no reputation and took on him the forme of a seruant These are Pauls wordes proouing that though CHRIST were most like to his father yet neuer professed him-selfe his equall here vppon earth unto vs that respected but his manhood Though hee might lawfully haue done it But the LORD of 〈◊〉 puâ—…te on him the forme of a seruant and the high GOD debased him-selfe into one degree with vs that by his likenes to ours he might bring vs to the knowledge of his power essence and so estate vs in eternity before his father and that his humanity might so inuite vs that his
that both the world and the gods made by that great GOD in the world had a beginning but shall haue no end but by the will of the creator endure for euer But they haue a b meaning for this they say this beginning concerned not time but substitution for c euen as the foote say they if it had stood eternally in the dust the foote-step should haue beene eternall also yet no man but can say some foote made this step nor should the one be before the other though one were made by the other So the world and the God there-in haue beene euer coeternall with the creators eternitie though by him created Well then put case the soule bee and hath beene eternall hath the soules misery beene so also Truly if there be some-thing in the soule that had a temporall beginning why might not the soule it selfe haue a beginning also And then the beatitude being firmer by triall of euill and to endure for euer questionlesse had a beginning though it shall neuer haue end So then the position that nothing can be endlesse that had a temporall beginning is quite ouer-throwne For the blessednesse of the soule hath a beginning but it shall neuer haue end Let our weaknesse therefore yeeld vnto the diuine authoritie and vs trust those holy immortalls in matter of religion who desire no worship to them-selues as knowing all is peculiar to their and our God nor command vs to sacrifice but vnto him to whom as I said often and must so still they and wee both are a sacrifice to be offered by that priest that tooke our manhood and in that this priesthood vpon him and sacrificed himselfe euen to the death for vs. L. VIVES ANd a necessary Plato subiects the soule both in the body and without the body vnto the power of the fates that after the reuolution of life death must come and after the purification of the soule life againe making our time in the body vncertaine but freeing vs from the body a 1000. years This reuolution they held necessary because God creating but a seâ—…nuÌ„ber of soules in the beginning the world should otherwise want men to inhabite it it being so 〈◊〉 and we so mortall This Virgill more expresly calls a wheele which being once turned about restores the life that it abridged and another turning taking it away againe both brâ—… things to one course This from death to death that from life to life but that worketh by death and this by life b A meaning It is well knowne that Plato held that God created the world But the question is whether it began temporally some yeares ago or had no temâ—…ll beginning Plutarch Atticus and Seuerus held that Plato's world had a beginning â—…porall but was neuer to haue end But Crantor Plotine Porphyry Iamblichus Proculus and 〈◊〉 all Platonists thought that it neuer beganne nor neuer should haue end So doth 〈◊〉 adioyning this and Pythagoras his opinion in one for Plato Pythagorized in all naâ—… questions This Cicero Iustine Martir and Boetius doe subscribe vnto also Plato â—…th Apuleius de deo Socrat. held all these gods to bee true incorporeall liuing and eternall 〈◊〉 neither beginning nor end Yet Apuleius in his Dogma Platonis affirmes that Plaâ—… taught vncertainely concerning the worlds beginning saying one while it had an origiâ—… and another while it had none c Euen as Our Philosophers disputing of an 〈◊〉 that is coequall in time and beeing with the cause compare them to the Sunne and the 〈◊〉 light Of the vniuersall way of the soules freedome which Porphyry sought amisse and therefore found not that onely Christ hath declared it CHAP. 32. THis is the religion that containes the vniuersall way of the soules freedome â—…or no where els is it found but herein This is the a Kings high way that leads to the eternall dangerlesse Kingdome to no temporall or transitory one And â—…reas Porphyry saith in the end of his first booke De regressu animae that there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one sect yet either truely Philosophicall b Indian or Chaldaean that teachetâ—… this vniuersall way and that hee hath not had so much as any historicall reaâ—… of it yet hee confesseth that such an one there is but what it is hee knoweth 〈◊〉 So insufficient was all that hee had learnt to direct him to the soules true â—…me and all that himselfe held or others thought him hold for he obserâ—… want of an authority fit for him to follow But whereas hee saith that 〈◊〉 of the true Philosophy euer had notice of the vniuersall way of the soules 〈◊〉 he shewes plaine that either his owne Phylosophy was not true or els 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wanted the knowledge of this way and then still how could it be true for 〈◊〉 vniuersall way of freeing the soules is there but that which freeth all soules 〈◊〉 coÌ„nsequently without which none is freed But whereas he addeth Indian or Chaldaean he giues a cleare testimony that neither of their doctrines contaiâ—… this way of the soules freedome yet could not he coâ—…ceale but is stil a telling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Chaldaeans had hee the diuine oracles What vniuersall way 〈◊〉 doth hee meane that is neither receiued in Philosophy nor into those Paâ—… disciplines that had such a stroke with him in matters of diuinity because 〈◊〉 with them did the curious fond superstition inuocation of all Angells 〈◊〉 which he neuer had so much as read of What is that vniuersall way not peculiar to euery perticuler nation but common to c all the world and giuen to it by the power of God Yet this witty Philosopher knew that some such way thers was For hee beleeues not that Gods prouidence would leaue man-kinde without a meane of the soules freedome He saith not there is no such but that so great and good an helpe is not yet knowne to vs nor vnto him no meruell for Prophyry was yet all d for the world when that vniuersall way of the soules freedome christianity was suffered to be opposed by the deuills and their seruants earthly powers to make vp the holy number of Martires e that is witnesses of the truth who might shew that all corporall tortures were to be endured for aduancement of the truth of piety This Porphyry saw and thinking persecution would soone extinguish this way therefore held not this the vniuersall not conceiuing that that which he stucke at and feared to endure in his choice belonged to his greater commendation and confirmation This therefore is that vniuersal way of the soules freedome that is granted vnto all nations out of Gods mercy the knowledge whereof commeth and is to come vnto all men wee may not nor any hereafter say why f commeth it so soone or why so late for his wisdome that doth send it is vnsearcheable vnto man Which he well perceiued when he sayd it was not yet receiued or knowne vnto him he denied not the truth thereof because he as yet had it
natures whome amongst other things it prophecied should beleeue it L. VIVES OR a Essentiall As hauing essence b As soone Hee plainely confesseth that the Angells were all created in grace De corrept et grat Before they fell they had grace Hierome also vpon Osâ—…a affirmes that the Deuills were created with great fulnesse of the holy spirit But Augustine De genes ad lit seemes of another mind saying the angelicall nature was first created vnformall The Diuines here vpon are diuided some following Lombard Sent. 2. dist 4. Ales and Bâ—…nture deny that the Angells were created in grace Saint Thomas holds the contrary I dare not nor haue not where withal to decide a matter so mightily disputed and of such moment Augustine in most plaine words and many places houlds that they were created in grace as that of Exechiel seemes also to import Thou sealest vp the sunne and art full of wisdome and perfect in beauty c Made it Shewing that God gaue them more grace when they shewed their obedience of this I see no question made in such measure as hee assured them of eternity of blisse d Receiued lesse If all the Angells had grace giuen them it then should haue bin distributed with respect of persons to some more and to some of the same order lesse But it was giuen gradually to the orders not to each particular Angell where-vpon some of the same order fell and some stood though both had grace giuen them alike e Secret Hee doubts not of the glory but of the glories place before the iudgement for they may be blesed any where God in whose fruition they are blessed being euery where Of the falsenesse of that History that saith the world hath continued many thousand yeares CHAP. 10. LEt the coniectures therefore of those men that fable of mans and the worlds originall they knowe not what passe for vs for some thinke that men 〈◊〉 beene alwaies as of the world as Apuleis writeth of men Seuerally mortall but generally eternall b And when we say to them why if the world hath alwaies beene how can your histories speake true in relation of who inuented this or that who brought vp artes and learning and who first inhabited this or that region they answered vs the world hath at certaine times beene so wasted by fires and deluges that the men were brought to a very few whose progenie multiplied againe and so seemed this as mans first originall whereas indeed it was but a reparation of those whome the fires and flouds had destroyed but that man cannot haue production but from man They speake now what they thinke but not what they know being deceiued by a sort of most false writings that say the world hath continued a many thousand yeares where as the holy scriptures giueth vs not accompt of c full sixe thousand yeares since man was made To shew the falsenesse of these writings briefly and that their authority is not worth a rush herein d that Epistle of Great Alexander to his mother conteining a narration of things by an Aegiptian Priest vnto him made out of their religious mysteries conteineth also the Monarchies that the Greeke histories recorde also In this Epistle e the Assyrian monarchie lasteth fiue thousand yeares and aboue But in the Greeke historie from Belus the first King it continueth but one thousand three hundred yeares And with Belus doth the Egiptian storie begin also The Persian Monarchie saith that Epistle vntill Alexanders conquest to whom this Priest spake thus lasted aboue eight thousand yeares whereas the Macedonians vntill Alexanders death lasted but foure hundred foure score and fiue yeares and the Persians vntill his victory two hundred thirty three yeares by the Greekâ—… story So farre are these computations short of the Egiptians being not equall with them though they were trebled For f the Egiptians are said once to haue had their g yeares but foure moneths long so that one full yeare of the Greekes or ours is iust three of their old ones But all this will not make the Greeke and Egiptian computations meete and therefore wee must rather trust the Greeke as not exceeding our holy scriptures accompt But if this Epistle of Alexander being so famous differ so farre from the most probable accompt how much lesse faith then ought we to giue to those their fabulous antiquities fraught with leasings against our diuine bookes that fore-told that the whole world should beleeue them and the whole world hath done so and which prooue that they wrote truth in things past by the true occurrences of things to come by them presaged L. VIVES SEuerally a mortall Apuleius Florid. l. 2. cunctim generally or vniuersally of cunctus all b And when Macrobius handleth this argument at large De somn scip and thinkes he puts it off with that that Augustine here reciteth Plato seemes the author of this shift in his Timaus where Critias relating the conference of the Egiptian Priest and Solon saith that wee know not what men haue done of many yeares before because they change their countrie or are expelled it by flouds fires or so and the rest hereby destroyed Which answer is easily confuted fore-seeing that all the world can neither bee burned nor drowned Arist. Meteor the remainders of one ancient sort of men might be preserued by another and so deriued downe to vs which Aristotle seeing as one witty and mindfull of what he saith affirmeth that we haue the reliques of the most ancient Philosophy left vs. Metaphys 12. Why then is there no memory of things three thousand yeares before thy memory c Full six thousand Eusebius whose account Augustine followeth reckoneth from the creation vnto the sack of Rome by the Gothes 5611. yeares following the Septuagints For Bede out of the Hebrew reserueth vnto the time of Honorius and Theodosius the yonger when the Gothes tooke Rome but 4377. of this different computation here-after d That Epistle Of this before booke eight e The Assyriâ—… Hereof in the 18. booke more fitly Much liberty do the old chroniclers vse in their accompt of time Plin. lib. 11 out of Eudoxus saith that Zoroaster liued 6000. yeares before Plato's death So faith Aristotle Herimippus saith he was 5000. yeares before the Troian warre Tully writes that the Chaldees had accounts of 470000. yeares in their chronicles De diuinat 1. 〈◊〉 saith also that they reckned from their first astronomer vntill great Alexander 43000. yeares f The Egiptians Extreame liers in their yeares Plato writes that the Citty Sais in Egipt had chronicles of the countries deedes for 8000. yeares space And Athens was built 1000. yeares before Sais Laertius writes that Vulcan was the sonne of Nilus and reckneth 48863. yeares betweene him and Great Alexander in which time there fell 373. ecclipses of the Sunne and 832. of the Moone Mela lieth alittle lower saying that the Egiptians reckon 330. Kings before Amasis and aboue 13000. yeares But the lie wanted
cessit pars Heleno 〈◊〉 Pyrhus death got Helenus that part that now he holds that is after his death Whether a man at the houre of his death may be said to be amongst the dead or the dying CHAP. 9. 〈◊〉 now for the time of the soules separation from the body bee it good or 〈◊〉 whether wee say it is in death or after it if it bee after death it is not 〈◊〉 â—…en being past and gone but rather the present life of the soule good or 〈◊〉 the death was euill to them whilest it was death that is whilest they 〈◊〉 â—…ffered it because it was a grieuous passion though the good vse this 〈◊〉 How then can death being past be either good or bad Againe if we 〈◊〉 â—…ell we shall find that that grieuous passion in man is not death For a as 〈◊〉 we feele we liue as long as we liue we are before death not in it for 〈◊〉 â—…ath comes it taketh away all sence yea euen that which is greeued by 〈◊〉 â—…pproach And therefore how we may call those that are not dead but in 〈◊〉 â—…ges of deadly affliction dying is hard to explaine though they may bee 〈◊〉 ordinarily so for when death is come they are no more in dying but in 〈◊〉 or death Therefore is none dying but the liuing because when one is in 〈◊〉 â—…atest extreamity or b passage as we say ' if his soule be not gone hee is 〈◊〉 aliue then Thus is hee both liuing and dying going to death and from life 〈◊〉 liuing as long as the soule is in the body and not yet in death because the 〈◊〉 is vndeparted And when it is departed then he is not in death but rather 〈◊〉 death who then can say who is in death no man dying is if no man can be 〈◊〉 â—…ng and dying at once for as long as the soule is in the body we cannot 〈◊〉 â—…at he liues c But if it be said that he is dying who is drawing towards 〈◊〉 and yet that the dying and the liuing cannot be both in one at once then know not I who is liuing L. VIVES 〈◊〉 long But death is a temporally effected separation of soule and body and as soone 〈◊〉 members begin to grow cold hee beginnes to dye the departure of the soule is 〈◊〉 â—…ance of death the one is no sooner gone but the other is there b Passage Mart. 〈◊〉 â—…d agas Aâ—…le agas animam Ago to do agere animam to die because the ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soule was but a breath and so beeing breathed out death followed c But if If hee bee said to dye that drawes towards death then all our life is death for 〈◊〉 soone as euer wee are borne the body begins to seeke how to thrust out the soule and 〈◊〉 life and by little doe expell it Which made some Philosophers say that we dyed in ouâ—… 〈◊〉 and that that was the end of death which we call the end of life either because then we began to liue or because death was then ended and had done his worst Whether this mortall life be rather to be called death then life CHAP. 10. FOr as soone as euer man enters this mortall body hee beginnes a perpetuall iourney vnto death For that this changeable life enioynes him to if I may call the course vnto death a life For there is none but is nearer death at the yeares end then hee was at the beginning to morrow then to day to day then yesterday by by then iust now now then a little before a each part of time that we passe cuts off so much from our life and the remainder still decreaseth so that our whole life is nothing but a course vnto death wherin one can neither stay nor slacke his pace but all runne in one manner and with one speed For the short liuer ranne his course no faster then the long both had a like passage of time but the first had not so farre to runne as the later both making speede alike It is one thing to liue longer and another to runne faster Hee that liues longer runneth farther but not a moment faster And if each one begin to bee in death as soone as his life beginnes to shorten because when it is ended hee is not then in death but after it then is euery man in death as soone as euer he is conceiued For what else doe all his dayes houres and minutes declare but that they beeing done the death wherein hee liued is come to an end and that his time is now no more in death hee being dead but after death Therefore if man cannot be in life and death both at once hee is neuer in life as long as he is in that dying rather then liuing body Or is he in both in life that is still diminished and in death because hee dies whose life diminisheth for if hee be not in life what is it that is diminished vntill it bee ended and if hee bee not in death what is it that diminisheth the life for life being taken from the body vntill it be ended could not be said now to be after death but that death endâ—…d it and that it was death whilest it diminished And if man be not in death but after it when his life is ended where is he but in death whilest it is a diminishing L. VIVES EAch a part All our life flowes off by vnspied courses and dieth euery moment of this hasting times Quintilian Time still cuts part of vs off a common prouerbe Poets and Philosophers all say this and Seneca especially from whom Augusâ—…ine hath much of that hee relateth heere Whether one may be liuing and dead both together CHAP. 11. BVt if it be absurd to say a man is in death before he came at it for what is it that his course runs vnto if he be there already chiefly because it is 〈◊〉 too strange to say one is both liuing and dying sith wee cannot say one is both sleeping and waking wee must finde when a man is dying Dying before death come hee is not then is hee liuing dying when death is come is hee not for then is hee dead This is after death and that is before it b When is hee in death then for then is hee dying to proportionate three things liuing dying and dead vnto three times before death in death and after Therefore when hee is in death that is neither liuing or before death nor dead or after death is hard to bee defined For whilest the soule is in the body especially with sence man liues assured as yet beeing soule and bodie and therefore is before death and not in it But when the soule and sence is gone then is hee dead and after death These two then take away his meanes of being in death or dying for if hee liue hee is before death and if he cease to liue hee is after death Therefore hee is neuer
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
so shee was indeed both these and withall of such beauty that she was amiable euen at those years L. VIVES A Shower a of fire Of this combustion many prophane authors make mention Strabo saith that cities were consumed by that fire as the inhabitāts thereabout report the poole that remaineth where Sodome stood the chiefe city is sixty furlongs about Many of thē also mention the lake Asphalts where the bitumen groweth b Apiller Iosephus saith he did see it Of Isaac borne at the time prefixed and named so because of his parents laughter CHAP. 31. AFter this Abraham according to Gods promise had a son by Sarah and called him Isaac that is Laughter for his father laughed for ioy and admiration when he was first promised and his mother when the three men confirmed this promise againe laughed also betweene ioye and doubt the Angell shewing her that her laughter was not faithfull though it were ioyfull Hence had the child his name for this laughter belonged not to the recording of reproach but to the celebration of gladnesse as Sarah shewed when Isaac was borne and called by this name for she said God hath made me to laugh and all that heare me will reioyce with me and soone after the bond-woman and her son is cast out of the house in signification of the old Testament as Sarah was of the new as the Apostle saith and of that glorious City of God the Heauenly Ierusalem Abrahams faith and obedience proo◅ in his intent to offer his sonne Sarahs death CHAP. 32. TO omit many accidents for brenities sake Abraham for a triall was commanded to goe and sacrifice his dearest sonne Isaac that his true obedience might shew it selfe to all the world in that shape which GOD knew already that it bate This now was an inculpable temptation and some such there bee and was to bee taken thankfully as one of Gods trialls of man And generally mans minde can neuer know it selfe well but putting forth it selfe vpon trialls and experimentall hazards and by their euents it learneth the owne state wherein if it acknowledge Gods enabling it it is godly and confirmed in solidity of grace against all the bladder-like humors of vaine-glory Abraham would neuer beleeue that God could take delight in sacrifices of mans flesh though Gods thundring commands are to bee obeyed not questioned vpon yet is Abraham commended for hauing a firme faith and beleefe that his sonne Isaac should rise againe after hee were sacrificed For when he would not obey his wife in casting out the bond-woman and hir sonne God said vnto him In Isaac shall thy seede bee called and addeth Of the bond-womans sonne will I make a great nation also because hee is thy seede How then is Isaac onely called Abrahams seede when God calleth Ismael so likewise The Apostle expoundeth it in these words that is they which are the children of the flesh are not the children of God but the children of the promise are accounted for the seede And thus are the sonnes of promise called to be Abrahams seede in Isaac that is gathered into the Church by Christ his free grace and mercy This promise the father holding fast seeing that it must bee fulfilled in him whom God commanded to kill doubted not but that that God could restore him after sacrificing who had giuen him at first beyond all hope So the Scripture taketh his beleefe to haue beene and deliuereth it By faith a Abraham offered vp Isaac when hee was tryed and hee that had receiued the promises offered his onely sonne to whom it was said in Isaac shall thy seede bee called for hee considered that God was able to raise him from the dead and then followeth for when hee receiued him also in a sort in what sort but as hee receiued his sonne of whom it is said Who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him to dye for vs all And so did Isaac carry the wood of sacrifice to the place euen as Christ carried the crosse Lastly seeing Isaac was not to be slaine indeed and his father commanded to hold his hand who was that Ram that was offered as a full and typicall sacrifice Namely that which Abraham first of all espied entangled b in the bushes by the hornes What was this but a type of Iesus Christ crowned with thornes ere hee was crucified But marke the Angels words Abraham saith the Scriptures lift vp his hand and tooke the knife to kill his sonne But the Angell of the Lord called vnto him from heauen saying Abraham and he answered Here Lord then he said Lay not thy hand vpon thy sonne nor doe any thing vnto him for now I know thou fearest God seeing that for my sake thou hast not spared thine onely sonne Now I know that is now I haue made knowne for God knew it ere now And then Abraham hauing offered the Ram for his sonne Isaac called the place c the Lord hath seene as it is said vnto this day in the mount hath the Lord appeared the Angels of the Lord called vnto Abraham againe out of heauen saying By my selfe haue I sworne saith the Lord because thou hast done this thing lust not spared thine onely sonne for me surely I will blesse thee multiply thy seed as the starres of heauen or the sands of the sea and thy seed shal possesse the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed because thou hast a obayed my voyce This is that promise sworne vnto by God concerning the calling of the Gentiles after the offering of the Ram the type of Christ. God had often promised before but neuer sworne And what is Gods oth but a confirmation of his promise and a reprehension of the faithlesse after this died Sara being ahundred twenty seauen yeares old in the hundred thirty seauen yeare of her husbands age for hee was ten yeares elder then she as he shewed when Isaac was first promised saying shall I that am a hundred yeares old haue a child and shall Sarah that is foure score and tenne yeares old beare and then did Abraham buy a peece of ground and buried his wife in it and then as Stephen sayth was hee seated in that land for then began hee to be a possessor namely after the death of his father who was dead some two yeares before L. VIVES BY a faith A diuersity of reading in the text of Scripture therefore haue wee followed the vulgar b in the bushes This is after the seauenty and Theodotion whose translation Hierome approues before that of Aquila and Symachus c The Lord hath seene The Hebrew saith Hierome is shall see And it was a prouerbe vsed by the Hebrewes in all their extremities wishing Gods helpe to say In the mount the Lord shall see that is as hee pitied Abraham so will hee pitty vs. And in signe of that Ramme that God sent him they vse vnto this day to blow
an horne thus much Hierome In Spaine this Prouerbe remaineth still but not as Augustine taketh it The Lord wil be altogither seene but in a manner that is his helpe shall bee seene d Obeyed Ob-audisti and so the old writersvsed to say in steed of obedisti Of Rebecca Nachors neece whome Isaac maried CHAP 33. THen Isaac being forty yeares old maried Rebecca neece to his vncle Nachor three yeares after his mothers death his father being a hundred and forty yeares old And when Abraham sent his seruant into Mesopotamia to fetch her and said vnto him Put thine hand vnder my thigh and I will sweare thee by the Lord God of heauen and the Lord of earth that thou shalt not take my sonne Isaac a wife of the daughters of Canaan what is meant by this but the Lord God of Heauen and the Lord of Earth that was to proceed of those loynes are these meane prophesies and presages of that which wee see now fulfilled in Christ. Of Abraham marrying Kethurah after Sarahs death and the meaning therefore CHAP. 34. BVt what is ment by Abrahams marrying Kethurah after Sarahs death God defend vs from suspect of incontinency in him being so old and so holy and faithfull desired he more sonnes God hauing promised to make the seed of Isaac 〈◊〉 the stars of Heauen and the sandes of the Earth But if Agar and Hismaell did signifie the mortalls to the Old-testament as the Apostle teacheth why may not Kethurah and her sonnes signifie the mortalls belonging to the New-testament They both were called Abrahams wiues his concubines But Sarah was neuer called his concubine but his wife only for it is thus written of Sarahs giuing Agar vnto Abrahā Then Sarah Abrahams wife tooke Agar the Egiptian her maid after Abraham had dwelled tenne yeares in the land of Canaan and gaue her to her husband Abraham for his wife And of Kethurah wee read thus of his taking her after Sarahs death Now Abraham had taken him another wife called Kethurah Here now you heare them both called his wiues but the Scripture calleth them both his concubines also saying afterwards Abraham gaeue all his goods vnto Isaac but vnto the sonnes of his concubines he gaue guiftes and sent them away from Isaac his sonne while he yet liued Eastward into the East country Thus the concubines sonnes haue some guifts but none of them attayne the promised kingdome neither the carnall Iewes nor the heretiques for none are heyres but Isaac nor are the sonnes of the flesh the Sonnes of God but those of the promise of whome it is said In Isaac shal be called thy seede for I cannot see how Kethurah whome hee married after Sarahs death should bee called his concubine but in this respect But hee that will not vnderstand these things thus let him not slander Abraham for what if this were appointed by God to shew a those future heretiques that deny second mariage in this great father of so many nations that it is no sinne to many after the first wife be dead now Abraham died being a hundred seauenty fiue yeares old and Isaac whome hee begat when hee was a hundred was seauenty fiue yeares of age at his death L. VIVES THose a future The Cataphrygians that held second mariage to bee fornication Aug ad quod vult Hierome against Iouinian doth not onely abhorre second mariage but euen disliketh of the first for he was a single man and bare marriage no good will The appointment of God concerning the two twins in Rebeccas womb CHAP. 33. NOw let vs see the proceedings of the Citty of God after Abrahams death So then from Isaacs birth to the sixtith yere of his age wherin he had children there is this one thing to be noted that when as he had prayed for her frutefulnes who was barren and that God had heard him and opened her wombe and shee conceiued the two twins a played in her wombe where-with she being trou bled asked the Lords pleasure and was answered thus Two nations are in thy wombe and two manner of people shal be diuided out of thy bowells and the one shall bee mightier then the other and the elder shall serue the younger Wherin Peter the Apostle vnderstandeth the great mistery of grace in that ere they were borne and either done euill or good the one was elected and the other reiected and doubtlesse as concerning originall sin both were alike and guilty and as concerning actuall both a like and cleare But myne intent in this worke curbeth mee from further discourse of this point wee haue handled it in other volumes But that saying The elder shall serue the yonger all men interpret of the Iewes seruing the Christians and though it seeme fulfilled in b Idumaea which came of the elder Esau or Edom for hee had two names because it was afterward subdued by the Israelites that came of the yonger yet not-with-standing that prophecy must needs haue a greater intent then so and what is that but to be fulfilled in the Iewes and the Christians L. VIVES THe two twinnes a played So say the seauentie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or kicked Hierome saith mooued mouebantur Aquila saith were crushed confringebantur And Symmachus compareth their motion to an emptie ship at sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b Idumaea Stephanus deriueth their nation from Idumaas Semiramis her sonne as Iudaea from Iudas another of her sonnes but he is deceiued Of a promise and blessing receiued by Isaac in the manner that Abraham had receiued his CHAP. 36. NOw Isaac receiued such an instruction from God as his father had done diuerse times before It is recorded thus There was a famine in the land besides the first famine that was in Abrahams time and Isaac went to Abymelech king of the Philistines in Gerara And the Lord appeared vnto him and said Goe not downe into Aegypt but abide in the land which I shall shew thee dwell in this land and I will bee with thee and blesse thee for to thee and to thy seed will I giue this land and I will establish mine oath which I sware to Abraham thy father and will multiply thy seede as the starres of heauen and giue all this land vnto thy seede and in thy seede shall all the nations of the earth bee blessed because thy father Abraham obeyed my voyce and kept my ordinances my commandements my statutes and my lawes Now this Patriarch had no wife nor concubine more then his first but rested content with the two sonnes that God sent him at one birth And hee also feared his wiues beautie amongst those strangers and did as his father had done before him with-her calling her sister onely and not wife She was indeed his kinswoman both by father and mother but when the strangers knew that she was his wife they let her quietly alone with him Wee not preferre him before his father tho in that hee had but one
small that hee that discerneth them as they flie must haue a sharpe eye but when they alight vpon the body they will soone make them-selues knowne to his feeling though his sight discerne them not Super Exod. By this creature Origen vnderstands logick which enters the mind with such stings of vndiscerned subtlety that the party deceiued neuer perceiueth till he be fetched ouer But the Latines nor the Greekes euer vsed either Cynipes or Snipes nor is it in the seauentie eyther but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnat-like creatures saith Suidas and such as eate holes in wood Psal. 104. The Hebrew and Chaldee Paraphrase read lice for this word as Iosephus doth also d Horse-flyes Or Dogge-flies the vulgar readeth flyes onely e Grashoppers The fields plague much endamaging that part of Africa that bordereth vpon Egipt Pliny saith they are held notes of Gods wrath where they exceed thus f Groned vnder Perfracti perfractus is throughly tamed praefractus obstinate g Passe-ouer Phase is a passing ouer because the Angel of death passed ouer the Israelites houses smote them not hence arose the paschall feast Hieron in Mich. lib. 2. not of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suffer as if it had beene from the passion In Matth. h Whose name In Hebrew Iosuah and Iesus seemes all one both are saluation and Iesus the sonne of Iosedech in Esdras is called Iosuah i Whose sonne Mat. 1. an 〈◊〉 all the course of the Gospell Christ is especially called the sonne of two Abraham or Dauid for to them was hee chiefly promised k à non fando And therefore great fellowes that cannot speake are some-times called infants and such also as stammer 〈◊〉 their language and such like-wise as being expresse dolts and sottes in matter of learning will challenge the names of great Artists Philosophers and Diuines Finis lib. 16. THE CONTENTS OF THE seauenteenth booke of the City of God 1. Of the times of the Prophets 2. At what time Gods promise concerning 〈◊〉 Land of Canaan was fulfilled and Israell â—…ed it to dwell in and possesse 3. The Prophets three meanings of earthly â—…lem of heauenly Ierusalem and of both 4. The change of the kingdome of Israel Anâ—…â—…uels mother a prophetesse and a type 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Church what she prophecied 5. The Prophets words vnto Heli the priest â—…g the taking away of Aarons priestâ—… 6. The promise of the priest-hood of the 〈◊〉 and their kingdome to stand eternally â—…ed in that sort that other promises of 〈◊〉 â—…nded nature are 〈◊〉 kingdome of Israell rent prefiguring â—…all diuision betweene the spirituall â—…ll Israel 〈◊〉 â—…ises made to Dauid concerning his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fulfilled in Salomon but in Christ. 〈◊〉 â—…phecy of Christ in the 88. psalme 〈◊〉 â—…s of Nathan in the booke of Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diuers actions done in the earthly Ieâ—… 〈◊〉 the kingdome differing from Gods 〈◊〉 to shew that the truth of his word conâ—…â—…he glory of an other kingdome and anâ—…â—…g 11. The substance of the people of God who 〈◊〉 Christ in the flesh who only had power to 〈◊〉 â—…e soule of man from hell 12. â—…her verse of the former psalme and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom it belongeth 13. Whether the truth of the promised peace may be ascribed vnto Salomons time 14. Of Dauids endeauors in composing of the psalmes 15. Whether all things concerning Christ his church in the psalmes be to bee rehearsed in this worke 16. Of the forty fiue psalme the tropes and truths therein concerning Christ and the church 17. Of the references of the hundreth and tenth psalme vnto Christs priest-hood and the two and twentith vnto his passion 18. Christs death and resurrection prophecied in psalme 3. et 40. 15. et 67. 19. The obstinate infidelity of the Iewes declared in the 69. psalme 20. Dauids kingdome his merrit his sonne Salomon his prophecies of Christ in Salomons bookes and in bookes that are annexed vnto them 21. Of the Kings of Israel and Iudah after Salomon 22. How Hieroboam infected his subiects with Idolatry yet did God neuer failed them in Prophets nor in keeping many from that infection 23. The state of Israel and Iudah vnto both their captiuities which befell at different times diuersly altered Iudah vnited to Israell and lastly both vnto Rome 24. Of the last Prophets of the Iewes about the time that Christ was borne FINIS THE SEVENTEENTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Of the times of the Prophets CHAP. 1. THus haue we attained the vnderstanding of Gods promises made vnto Abraham and due vnto Israel his seed in the flesh and to all the Nations of earth as his seed in the spirit how they were fulfilled the progresse of the Cittie of God in those times did manifest Now because our last booke ended at the reigne of Dauid let vs in this booke proceed with the same reigne as farre as is requisite All the time therefore betweene Samuels first prophecy and the returning of Israel from seauenty yeares captiuity in Babilon to repaire the Temple as Hieremy had prophecied all this is called the time of the Prophets For although that the Patriarch Noah in whose time the vniuersall deluge befel and diuers others liuing before there were Kings in Israel for some holy and heauenly predictions of theirs may not vndeseruedly be called a Prophets especially seeing wee see Abraham and Moses chiefly called by those names and more expressly then the rest yet the daies wherein Samuel beganne to prophecy were called peculiarly the Prophets times Samuel anoynted Saul first and afterwards he beeing reiected hee anoynted Dauid for King by Gods expresse command and from Dauids loines was all the bloud royall to descend during that Kingdomes continuance But if I should rehearse all that the Prophets each in his time successiuely presaged of Christ during all this time that the Cittie of God continued in those times and members of his I should neuer make an end First because the scriptures though they seeme but a bare relation of the successiue deeds of each King in his time yet being considered with the assistance of Gods spirit will prooue either more or as fully prophecies of things to come as histories of things past And how laborious it were to stand vpon each peculiar hereof and how huge a worke it would amount vnto who knoweth not that hath any insight herein Secondly because the prophecies concerning Christ and his Kingdome the Cittie of God are so many in multitude that the disputations arising hereof would not be contained in a farre bigger volume then is necessary for mine intent So that as I will restraine my penne as neare as I can from all superfluous relations in this worke so will I not ommit any thing that shall be really pertinent vnto our purpose L. VIVES CAlled a Prophets The Hebrewes called them Seers because they saw the Lord in his predictions or prefigurations of any thing with
Empresse of Asia vntill her yong sonne Ninus came at age so shee vndertoke the gouerâ—… and kept it fourty two yeares This now some say but the Athenians and Dion after 〈◊〉 affirme that shee begged the sway of the power imperiall of her husband for fiue daies 〈◊〉 which hee granting she caused him to be killed or as others say to bee perpetually â—…oned l They say he slew She was held wounderous lustfull after men and that she still murâ—… him whome she medled with that shee tempted her sonne who therefore slew her 〈◊〉 for feare to fare as the others had or else in abhomination of so beastly an act The 〈◊〉 say shee died not but went quicke vp to heauen 〈◊〉 â—…lt Babilon Babilon is both a country in Assyria and a Citie therein built by Semiâ—… as Diodorus Strabo Iustine and all the ancient Greekes and Latines held But Ioseâ—… Ensebius Marcellinus and others both Christians and Iewes say that it was built by 〈◊〉 â—…genie of Noah and onely repaired and fortified by Semiramis who walled it about 〈◊〉 such walles as are the worlds wonders This Ouid signifieth saying Coctilibus muris cinxisse Semiramis vrbem Semiramis guirt it with walles of Brick And this verse Hierome citeth to confirme this In Ose. Some hold that Belus her father in law built it Some that hee laide the foundations onely So holdes Diodorus out of the Egiptian monuments Alexander saith that the first Belus whome the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reigned in Babilon and that Belus the second and Chanaan were his two sonnes But hee followeth Eupolemus in allotting the building of Babilon to those that remained after the deluge Eus. de pr. Euang. lib. 8. Chaldaea was all ouer with water saith Abydenus in Eusebium de praep Euang. li. 10. And Belus dreined it drye and built Babilon the walles whereof being ruined by flouds Nabocodronosor repaired and those remained vnto the time of the Macedonian Monarchie and then hee reckoneth the state of this King impertinent vnto this place Augustine maketh Nemrod the builder of Babilon as you read before Heare what Plinie saith lib. 6. Babilon the chiefe Citty of Chaldaea and long famous in the world and a great part of the country of Assyria was called Babilonia after it the walles were two hundred foote high and fifty foote brode euery foote being three fingers larger then ours Euphrates ranne through the midst of it c. There was another Babilon in Egipt built by those whome Sesostris brought from Babilon in Assyria into Egipt to worke vpon those madde workes of his the Piramides n This sonne His mother brought him vp tenderly amongst her Ladyes and so hee liued a quiet Prince and came seldome abroade wherevpon the other Kings his successors got vp an vse to talke with few in person but by an interpretour and to rule all by deputies Diodor. Iustin. o Ninus Some call him Zameis sonne to Ninus as Iosephus and Eusebius and some Ninius p Telexion In the translated Eusebius it is Selchis whome hee saith reigned twenty yeares In some of Augustines olde copies it is Telxion and in some Thalasion but it must be Telexion for so it is in Pausanias What Kings reigned in Assyria and Sicyonia in the hundreth yeare of Abrahams age when Isaac was borne according to the promise or at the birth of Iacob and Esau. CHAP. 3. IN his time also did Sara being old barren and past hope of children bring forth Isaac vnto Abraham according to the promise of God And then reigned a Aralius the fift King of Assyria And Isaac being three score yeares of age had b Esau and Iacob both at one birth of Rebecca Abraham his father being yet liuing and of the age of one hundred and sixtie yeares who liued fifteene yeares longer and then dyed c Xerxes the older called also Balaeus reigning the seauenth King of Assyria d and Thuriachus called by some Thurimachus the seauenth of Sicyon Now the kingdome of the Argiues began with the time of these sonnes of Isaac and Inachus was the first King there But this wee may not forget out of Varro that the Sycionians vsed to offer sacrifices at the tombe of the seauenth King Thurimachus But e Armamitres being the eight King of Assyria and Leucippus of Sycionia and f Inachus the first King of Argos God promised the land of Chanaan vnto Isaac for his seede as hee had done vnto Abraham before and the vniuersall blessing of the nations therein also and this promise was thirdly made vnto Iacob afterwards called Israel Abrahams grand-child in the time of Belocus the ninth Assyrian monarch and Phoroneus Inachus his sonne the second King of the Argiues Leucippus reigning as yet in Sycione In this Phoroneus his time Greece grew famous for diuerse good lawes and ordinances but yet his brother Phegous after his death built a temple ouer his tombe and made him to be worshipped as a God caused oxen to be sacrificed vnto him holding him worthy of this honour I thinke because in that part of the kingdome which he held for their father diuided the whole betweene them hee set vp oratories to worship the gods in and taught the true course and obseruation of moneths and yeares which the rude people admiring in him thought that at his death hee was become a God or else would haue it to bee thought so For so they say f that Io was the daughter of Inachus shee that afterwards was called g Isis and honored for a great goddesse in Egipt though some write that h shee came out of Ethiopia to bee Queene of Egipt and because shee was mighty and gratious in her reigne and taught her subiects many good Artes they gaue her this honour after her death and that with such diligent respect that it was death to say shee had euer beene mortall L. VIVES ARalius a In the old copies Argius in Eusebius Analius sonne to Arrius the last King before him hee reigned fortie yeares The sonne in Assyria euer more succeeded the father Uelleius b Esau and Iacob Of Iacob Theodotus a gentile hath written an elegant poem and of the Hebrew actes And Artapanus and one Philo not the Iew but another Alexander Polyhistor also who followeth the Scriptures all those wrote of Iacob c Xerxes the elder Aralius his sonne hee reigned forty yeares There were two more Xerxes but those were Persian Kings the first Darius Hidaspis his sonne and the second successor to Artaxerxes Long-hand reigning but a few moneths The first of those sent the huge armies into Greece Xerxes in the Persian tongue is a warriour and Artaxerxes a great warriour Herodot in Erato The booke that beareth Berosus his name saith that the eight King of Babilon was called Xerxes surnamed Balaus and reigned thirty yeares that they called him Xerxes Victor for that hee wone twise as many nations to his Empire as Aralius ruled for hee was a stoute and fortunate souldiour and enlarged his kingdome
Isis after his death and because the child died as soone as it was borne therefore they picture it with the finger on the mouth because it neuer spake I like not this interpretation it is too harsh and idle The statue signified that some-what was to bee kept secret as the goddesse Angerona in the like shape did at Rome Macro◅ Ouid. Metam 9. Sanctaque Bubastis variisque coloribus Apis. Quique premit vocem digitoque silentia suadet Saint Isis and that party colour'd Oxe And he whose lips his hand in silence lockes To this it may be Persius alluded saying digito compesce labellū lay your finger on your mouth d The Oxe Apis the Oxe No man I thinke Greeke or Latine euer wrote of the Egyptian affaires but he had vp this Oxe but especially Herodo Diodo Stra. Plutar. Euseb. Suidas Varro Mela Pliny Solinus and Marcellinus Hee was all black but for a square spotte of white in his fore-head saith Herodotus on his right side saith Pliny his hornes bowed like a Crescent for he was sacred vnto the Moone Marcellinus Hee had the shape of an Eagle vpon his back and a lumpe vpon his tongue like a black-beetle and his taile was all growne with forked haires When hee was dead they sought another with great sorrow neuer ceasing vntill they had found a new Apis like him in all respects Him did Egipt adore as the chiefe god and as Macrobius saith with astonished veneration nor might hee liue longer then a set time if hee did the priests drowned him e Nourished At Memphis saith Strabo was a temple dedicated vnto Apis and thereby a goodly parke or enclosure before which was an Hall and this enclosure was the dams of Apis whereinto hee was now and then letten in to sport him-selfe and for strangers to see him His place where hee laie was called the mysticall bed and when he went abroade a multitude of vshers were euer about him all adored this Oxe-god the boyes followed him in a shole and hee himselfe now and then bellowed forth his prophecies No man that was a stranger might come into this temple at Memphis but onely at burials f They did not worship Some did draw this worship of the Oxe from the institution of Isis and Osyris for the vse that they found of this beast in tillage Some againe say Osyris himselfe was an Oxe Isis a Cow either because of Io◅ or vpon some other ground Some say besides as Diodorus telleth vs that Osyris his soule went into an Oxe and remaineth continually in the Oxe Apis and at the drowning of this goeth into the next Some affirme that Isis hauing found Osyris his members dispersed by Typhon put them into a wodden Oxe couered with an Oxes hide so that the people seeing this beleeued that Osyris was become an Oxe and so began to adore that as if it had beene him-selfe This was therefore the lining Osyris but the body that lyeth coffined in the temple is called Serapis and worshipped as the dead Osyris h Iacobs Eewes Gen. 30. Of this I discoursed else-where The LXX doe translate this place confusedly Hierome vpon Genesis explaineth it The Kings of Argos and Assyria at the time of Iacobs death CHAP. 6. APis the King of Argos not of Egipt dyed in Egipt a Argus his sonne succeeded him in his kingdome and from him came the name of the Argiues For neither the Citty nor the countrey bare any such name before his time He reigning in Argos and b Eratus in Sicyonia Baleus ruling as yet in Assyria Iacob dyed in Egypt being one hundred forty seauen yeares in age hauing blessed his sonnes and Nephewes at his death and prophecied apparantly of CHRIST saying in the blessing of Iudah The Scepter shall not depart from Iudah nor the law-giuer from betweene his feete vntill c that come which is promised him And d hee shall bee the nations expectation Now in e Argus his time Greece began to know husbandry and tillage fetching seedes from others For Argus after his death was counted a God and honoured with temples and sacrifices Which honor a priuate man one Homogyrus who was slaine by thunder had before him because hee was the first that euer yoaked Oxen to the plough L VIVES ARgus a his sonne by Niobe Phoroneus daughter some call him Apis. It might bee Apis that begot him of Niobe and was reckoned for a King of Argos because he ruled for his sonne vntill hee came to age and then departed into Egypt leauing his sonne to his owne Eusebius saith hee left the kingdome to his brother Aegialus hauing reigned seauentie yeares There was another Argus Arestors sonne who kept Io Iunoes Cowe in Egipt and another also surnamed Amphion whilom Prince of Pylis Orchomene in Arcadia b Eratus Peratus saith Pausanias and sonne to Neptune and Chalcinia Leucippus his daughter Eusebius calleth him Heratus hee reigned forty seauen yeares c Untill that which is promised So read the Septuagints but Herome readeth Untill hee come that is to bee sent The Hebrew Shiloh d Hee shall bee Some copies leaue out shall bee and so doth the text of the LXX e In Argus his time For Ceres came thether in Phenneus his reigne a little after Peratus and shee they say was the first that euer taught the Athenians husbandry In what Kings time Ioseph dyed in Egypt CHAP. 7. IN Mamitus a his time the twelfth Assyrian King and b Phennaeus his the eleuenth King of Sicyonia Argus being aliue in Argos as yet Ioseph dyed in Egypt being a hundred ten yeares old after the death of him Gods people remaining in Egypt increased wonderfully for a hundred forty fiue yeares together vntill all that knew Ioseph were dead And then because their great augmentation was so enuied and their freedome suspected a great and heauy bondage was laide vpon them in the which neuerthelesse they grew vp still for all that they were so persecuted and kept vnder and at this time the same Princes ruled in Assyria and Greece whom we named before L. VIVES MAmitus a his So doth Eusebius call him but saith that hee was but the eleuenth King of that Monarchie Hee reigned thirty yeares b Plemneus So doth Pausanias write this Kings name hee ruled as Eusebius saith forty eight yeares What Kings liued when Moyses was borne and what Goddes the Pagans had as then CHAP. 8. IN a Saphrus his time the fourteenth Assyrian King b Orthopolus being then the twelfth of Sicyon and c Criasus the fift of Argos d Moyses was borne in Egypt who led the people of God out of their slauery wherein God had excercised their paciences during his pleasure In the afore-said Kings times e Prometheus as some hold liued who was sayd to make men of earth because he f taught them wisdome so excellently well g yet are there no wise men recorded to liue in his time h His brother Atlas indeed is said to haue beene a great
Egipt in the pronince of Delta where Amasis was borne built by the same Mâ—… who is called Neuth in Egypt and Athene in Attica The Athenians haue a moneth 〈◊〉 at the first new Moone in December which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in memory of thâ—… contention of Neptune and Pallas c Then it was Both there and else-where and Plato requited it in his Repub. d Athenians Wherevpon they were neuer called but Atticae as Neâ—…des saith the men indeed were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but not the women the reason was saith he because their wiues in their salutations should not shame the Virgins for the woman taketh her husbands name and they being called Athenians if the Virgins should bee called Atheniâ—… they should be held to be married But Pherecrates Philemon Diphilus Pindarus and diâ—… other old poets call the women of Athens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word Phrynichus the Bithiniâ—… sophister holdeth to bee no good Athenian Greeke and therefore wondereth that Pherecâ—…s a man wholy Atticizing would vse it in that sence f By a feminine A diuersity of reading but of no moment Varros relation of the originall of the word Areopage and of Deucalions deluge CHAP. 10. BVt Varro will beleeue no fables that make against their gods least hee should disparage their maiesty and therefore he will not deriue that a Areopagon the place b where Saint Paul disputed with the Athenians and whence the Iudges of the citty had their names from that that c Mars in greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beeing accused of homicide was tried by twelue gods in that court and quit by sixe voices so absolued for the number beeing equall on both sides the absolution is to ouer-poyse the condemnation But this though it be the common opinion he reiects endeauoreth to lay down another cause of this name that the Athenians should not offer to deriue Areopagus from d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Pagus for this were to iâ—…e the gods by imputing broiles and contentions vnto them and therefore he affirmeth this and the goddesses contention about the golden apple both aâ—…se though the stages present them to the gods as true and the gods take 〈◊〉 in them bee they true or false This Varro will not beleeue for feare of â—…ing the gods in it and yet hee tells a tale concerning the name of Aâ—… of the contention betweene Neptune and Minerua as friuolous as this and maketh that the likeliest originall of the citties name as if they two contending by prodigies Apollo durst not bee iudge betweene them but as Paris was called to decide the strife betweene the three goddesses so he was made an vmpier in this wrangling of these two where Minerua conquered by her fautors and was conquered in her fautours and getting the name of Athens to her selfe could not leaue the name of Athenians vnto them In these times as Varro saith e Cranaus Cecrops his successor reigned at Athens or Cecrops himselfe as our Eusâ—…s and Hierome doe affirme and then befell that great inundation called the â—…d of Deucalion because it was most extreame in his Kingdome But f it â—…ot nere Egipt nor the confines thereof L. VIVES Aâ—…gon In some Areon Pagon in others Arion Pagon in greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stephanus â—…ibus saith it was a promontory by Athens where all matters of life death were 〈◊〉 there were two counsels at Athens as Libanius the Sophister writeth one continuâ—…â—…ing of capitall matters alwaies in the Areopage the other changing euery yeare and â—…ng to the state called the counsell of the 500. of the first our Budaeus hath writ largeâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both languages Annot. in Pandect b Where Saint Paul Act. 17. c Mars called The common opinion is so and Iuuenall therevpon calleth the Areopage Mars his Court. Pausanias saith it had that name because Mars was first iudged there for killing Alirrhothion Neptunes sonne because hee had rauished Alcippa Mars his daughter by Aglaura the daughter of Cecrops And afterwards Orestes was iudged there for killing of his mother and being quit he built a Temple vnto Minerua Arâ—…a or Martiall d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Pagus I doe not thinke Areopagus is deriued hence as if it were some village without the towne or streete in the Citty but Pagus is some-times taken for a high place or stone or promontory as Stephanus calleth it For Suidas saith it was called Ariopagus because the Court was in a place aloft vpon an high rock and Arius because of the flaughter which it decided being all vnder Mars Thus Suidas who toucheth also at the iudgement of Mars for killing of Alirrhothion out of Hellanicus lib. 1. As we did out of Pausanias and this we may not ommit there were siluer stones in that Court wherein the plaintifs and the defendants both stood the plaintifs was called the stone of Impudence and the defendants of Iniury And hard by was a Temple of the furies e Cranaus Or Amphyction as I sayd but Eusebius saith Cecrops himselfe But this computation I like not nor that which hee referreth to the same viz. That Cecrops who sailed into Euboea whom the Greekes call the sonne of Erichtheus ruled Athens long after the first Cecrops and of him were the Athenians called Cranai as Aristophanes called them Strabo writeth that they were called Cranai also but to the deluge and Deucalion Hee was the sonne of Prometheus and Oceana as Dionysius saith and hee married Pirrha the daughter of his vncle Epimetheus and Pandora and chasing the Pelasgiues out of Thessaly got that Kingdome leading the borderers of Parnassus the Leleges and the Curetes along in his warres with him And in his daies as Aristotle saith sell an huge deale of raine in Thessaly which drowned it and almost all Greece Deucalion and Pyrrha sauing themselues vpon Parnassus went to the Oracle of Themis and learning there what to doe restored man-kinde as they fable by casting stones ouer their shoulders back-ward the stones that the man threw prouing men and Pyrrhas throwes bringing forth women Indeed they brought the stony and brutish people from the mountaines into the plaines after the deluge and that gaue life to the fable In Deucalions time saith Lucian in his Misanthropus was such a ship-wrack in one instant that all the vessells were sunke excepting one poore skiffe or cock-boate that was driuen to Lycorea Lycorea is a village by Delphos named after King Licoreus Now Parnassus as Stephanus writeth was first called Larnassus of Deucalious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or couered boate which he made him by the counsell of his father Prometheus and which was driuen vnto this mountaine Strabo saith that Deucalion dwelt in Cynos a Citty in Locris neare vnto Sunnius Opuntius where Pirrhas sepulchre is yet to bee seene Deucalion being buried at Athens Pausanias saith there was a Temple at Athens of Deucalions building and that hee had dwelt there Yet
Stephan n Danae Of her elsewhere She was Acrisius his daughter who shut her and his sonne Preseus in a chest and cast them into the sea they droue to Apulia where Danae was married vnto Pilumnus and bare him Daâ—…nus of whome Apulia was called Daunia o Admetus The Hell-gods complayning to Ioue that Asculapius diminished their kingdome in reuiuing dead men hee killed him with a thunder-bolt at which his father Apollo being mad shot all the Cyclops Ioues thunder-makers to death which Ioue greatly 〈◊〉 would haue thrust Apollo out of Heauen but at Latonas intreaty hee onely bound hiâ—… yeare prentiâ—… vnto a mortall So hee came into Thessaly and there was heardsman vnto King Admetus and therefore was he called Nonius or Pastorall Orph. Flacc. in Argonaut Dâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Higiâ—…s saith he killed noâ—… all the Cyclops but onely Steropes Admetus sayled with the Arâ—…tes Apollo loued him wel and kept his heards because he lay with his daughter Lactâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…ee that Apollo that gaue the Arcadians their lawes who called him Nomius 〈◊〉 â—…weth the contrarie p Father Liber As Diodorus Strabo Pliny Philostratus 〈◊〉 â—…oets almost doe recorde Diodor. and Philost giue this reason of that fable of his 〈◊〉 â—…e in Ioues thigh His armie was sore infected with maladies in India and he lead 〈◊〉 to an higher and more wholesome ayre where hee recouered them all and this 〈◊〉 â—…dians called Femur a thigh and so grew the fable q Was conquered Some 〈◊〉 in these times to witte when Pandion remooued the seate of the Argiue 〈◊〉 â—…o Myâ—…s recorde the deedes of Liber Pater the Indians Actaeon and 〈◊〉 and that Persus ouer-came Liber and slew him as Dinarcâ—…s the Poet 〈◊〉 that will not beleeue him let him view the tombe of Liber at Delphos neere 〈◊〉 statue of Apollo Hee is painted in an â—…ffiminate shape for hee lead women to 〈◊〉 as well as men as Philocerus saith liber 2. Thus farre Contraâ—…th â—…th that the Tytans pulled him in peeces and began to roaste and boyle his 〈◊〉 but Pallas gotte them away and Apollo by Ioues command buryed them on 〈◊〉 â—…as and Sonne to Ioue and Danaë of him had Persia the name for hee warred 〈◊〉 admirable good fortune Oros. so holde the Greekes as Xenophon Atticus for 〈◊〉 was daughter to Caephus Phaenix his sonne and Cassiopeia Shee 〈◊〉 bound â—…ke by the command of Apollo's Oracle for a Sea-monster to deuoure and her paâ—…â—…ding and weeping ouer her Perseus comming from the Gorgons warres hearing â—…gs stood bargained with them that hee should marry the Virgin and so slew 〈◊〉 by presenting the Gorgons head vnto it All of them were afterwards placed in 〈◊〉 â—…eus hath nineteene starres at the backe of Vrsa Minor and the circle Arctike 〈◊〉 in the brest no part of his constellation euer setteth but his shoulders Cassioâ—… in a chaire and hath thirteene starres and the milken circle diuides her in the 〈◊〉 â—…he heauens motions turnes her heeles vpwards saith Higinus because shee 〈◊〉 was fairer then the Nereides Andromeda was deified by Minerua for preferâ—…â—…and before her countrey and friend shee is next Cassiopeia and hath twentie 〈◊〉 constellation her head is vnder Pegasus his belly and the Tropike of Cancer 〈◊〉 her brest and her left arme Perseus hath seauenteene starres his right hand 〈◊〉 â—…e circle Arctike and his foote stands vpon Arcturus his head Of these read Iulius 〈◊〉 Aratus Solensis Ioppa in Syria saith Mela. lib. 1. was built before the deluge 〈◊〉 inhabitants say Cepheus reigned where they doe keepe diuerse old altars of his 〈◊〉 â—…her Pâ—…ineus with great reuerence as also the huge bones of the sea monster 〈◊〉 slew Hierom. Marcus Scaurus saith Pliny lib. 9. in his Edileship amongst 〈◊〉 sights shewed the bones of the monster that should haue deuoured Androâ—…â—…ing â—…ing fortie foote more in length then the longest Elephants ribbe of India and 〈◊〉 thicker in the back bone This hee brought from Ioppe a towne in Iudaea 〈◊〉 writers say that Ioppe is in Iudaea and therefore I wonder that Lawrence Ualla 〈◊〉 of this opinion for hee taxeth Ierome of Ignorance for placing of it in India 〈◊〉 had Pliny and Mela on his side of better credite in Geographie then Ouid. 〈◊〉 â—…ose verses are not much to the purpose for the first of the swartie browne 〈◊〉 of Aethiopia or Egypt and in the later Ualla himselfe mistaketh the stoâ—… came out of Mauritania to Iudaea and Aegypt along the coast of Africa 〈◊〉 hee Andromeda and from thence hee went to Euphrates and to that counâ—… Greekes call Persia after him from thence into India and then home to Argos 〈◊〉 s Nor affraide Fearing not to blast heauen with such impious and fabuâ—… Of the Theologicall Poets CHAP. 14. 〈◊〉 â—…hat time liued Poets who were called Theologians versifying of 〈◊〉 men-made gods or of the worlds elements the true GODS â—…kes or the principalities and powers whome GODS will and not their merite had so aduanced of these as of Gods did they make their 〈◊〉 If their fables contained any thing that concerned the true God it was â—…o layd in hugger mugger with the rest that hee was neither to bee discerâ—… from their false gods therby nor could they take that direction to giue him the whole his onely due but must needs worshippe the creatures as Gods with God the creator and yet could not abstaine from disgracing the same their gods with obsâ—…â—…bles Such was Orpheus a Museus and Lynus But those were onely the gods seruants not made gods them-selues Though Orpheus I know not by what meanes hath gotten the b ruling of the infernall sacrifices or rather sacriledges in the citty of the Deuill The c wife of 〈◊〉 also â—…no cast her selfe headlong into the sea with her child Melâ—…rtes and yet were reputed gods as others of those times were also as d Castor and Pollux Ino was called by the Greekes Lâ—…ucothea and by the latines Matâ—… and held a goddesse by both parts L. VIVES ORpheus a Musaeus and Liâ—…s They liued all together a little before the warres of Troy Orpheus was a Thracian and sonne to Oâ—…ager or as some say to Apollo and Calliope but that was afiction deriued from his delicate vaine Artapanus sayth he learnt Moyses law of a maister in Egypt Diod sayth hee brought the bacchanalia from Egipt into Greece and taught the Thebanes them because they vsed him curteously Beasts and stones did follow his musicke by report and his â—…armony perswaded the very destenies to returne hiâ—… his Euridice Thus the Poets fable The Bacchae slew him wherefore no man knoweth some say because hee had seene the sacrifices of Liber others because in his praises of the gods being in hell hee left Liber out Others because hee iudged that Calliope should lye with Adonis one halfe yeare and Uenus another and rudged not all for Uenus therefore the women fell vpon him and killed him Hee was torne in
good of his countrie disguised himselfe went into the Laconian campe and falling to brable with the souldiours was slaine So they lost the fielde and all their Kingdome besides excepting onely Megara m An Oracle Eyther that the Laconians should conquer if they killed not Codrus Trog or that the Athenians should conquer if Codrus were killed Tusc. quaest lib. 3. Seruius deliuereth it as wee did but now n Him the Athenians If these bee gods saith Tully Denat Deor. 〈◊〉 then is Erichtheus one whose priest and temple we see at Athens if hee be a god why then is not Codrus and all those that fought and died for their countries glory Gods also which if it be not probable then the ground whence it is drawne is false These words of Tully seeme to auerre that Codrus was held no god at Athens rather then otherwise o Creusa Daughter to Priam and Hecuba wife to Aeneas mother to Ascanius But Aeneas in Italy had Syluius by 〈◊〉 and hee was named Posthumus because his father was dead ere hee were borne Some think that Lauinia after Aeneas his death swaied the state till Syluius came to yeares and then â—…igned to him Some say Ascanius had it though hee had no claime to it from Lauinia by whom it came but because that she had as yet no sonne and withall was of too weake a sex to manage that dangerous war against Mezentius hisson Lausus leaders of the Hetrurians therefore she retired into the country and built her an house in the woods where she brought vppe her sonne calling him therevpon Syluius Now Ascanius hauing ended the warre fetched them out of the woods and vsed them very kindly but dying hee left his Kingdome to his son Iâ—…lius betweene whom and his vncle Syluius there arose a contention about the Kingdome which the people decided giuing Syluius the Kingdome because he was of more yeares discretion and withall the true heire by Lauinia and making Iulus chiefe ruler of the religion a power next to the soueraignes Of this Caesar speaketh both in Lucane and in Suetonius And this power remained to the Iulian family vntill Dionys. his time I remember I wrote before that because of Neptunes prophecy in Homer some thought that Aeneas returned into Phrygia hauing seated his fellowes in Italy and that hee reigned ouer the Troians thâ—…re at their â—…ome perhaps stealing from that battaile with Mezentius and so shipping away thether But â—…f that Homer meane the Phrygian Troy then he likewise speaketh of Ascanius whom many hold did reigne there againe Dionysius saith that Hellenus brought Hectors children back to lâ—… and Ascanius came with them and chased out Antenors sonnes whom Agamemnon had â—…de viceroies there at his departure There is also a Phrygian Citty called Antandron where Ascanius they say reigned buying his liberty of the Pelasgiues for that towne wherevpon it had the name So that it is a question whether Aeneas left him in Phrygia or that his father being dead in Italy and his step-mother ruling all he returned home againe Hesychius names Ascania a citty in Phrygia of his building Steph. It may bee this was some other son of Aeneas â—…s then that who was in Italie For I beeeue Aeneas had more sonnes of that name â—…en one It was rather a sur-name amongst them then otherwise for that Ascanius that is 〈◊〉 to rule in Italy properly hight Euryleon p Melanthus Codrus his father How hee got this Kingdome is told by many but specially by Suidas in his Apaturia This feast saith hee was held at Athens in great sollemnity three daies together and Sitalcus his sonne the â—…ing of Thrace was made free of the Citty The first day they call Dorpeia the supping day for that daie their feast was at supper the second Anarrhysis the riot then was the excessiue â—…crifices offered vnto Iupiter Sodalis and Minerua the third Cureotis for their boâ—…es and wenâ—…s plaied all in companies that daie The feasts originall was thus The Athenians hauing â—…es with the Baeotians about the Celenians that bordered them both Xanthus the Boeâ—…an challenged Thimetus the King of Athens hee refusing Melanthus the Messenian 〈◊〉 to Periclymenus the sonne of Neleus beeing but a stranger there accepted the combat 〈◊〉 was made King Beeing in fight Melanthus thought hee saw one stand behind Xanthus 〈◊〉 a black goates skin wherevpon he cried out on Xanthus that he brought helpe with him to 〈◊〉 field Xanthus looking back Melanthus thrust him through Herevpon was the feast 〈◊〉 the deceiuer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ordained and a Temple built to Dyonisius Melanaiges that 〈◊〉 black-skind Some say that the name of these feasts came of their fathers gathering toâ—…er to inscribe their sonnes into the rolls of their men and giue them their toga virilis their 〈◊〉 of mans estate Thus farre Suidas Of the succession of the Kingdome in Israell after the Iudges CHAP. 20. SOone after in those Kings times the Iudges ceased and Saul was anoynted first King of Israel in Samuel the prophets time and now began the Latine kings to be called Syluij of Syluius Aeneas his sonne all after him had their proper names seuerall and this sur-name in generall as the Emperors that a succeeded Caesar were called Caesars long after But Saul and his progeny being reiected b and he dead Dauid was crowned c forty yeares after Saul beganne his reigne d Then had the Athenians no more kings after Codrus but beganne an Aristocracy e Dauid reigned forty yeares and Salomon his sonne succeeded him hee that built that goodly Temple of God at Ierusalem In his time the Latines built Alba their kings were thence-forth called Alban kings though ruling in Latium f Roboam succeeded Salomon in his time Israel was diuided into two kingdomes and either had a king by it selfe L. VIVES THat a succeeded Caesar Not Iulius but Augustus and so haue some copies for it was from him that Augustus and Caesar became Imperiall surnames He was first called C. Octa uius but Caesar left him heire of his goods and name b Hee dead Samuel had anointed him long before but he began not to reigne vntill Sauls death at which time God sent him into Hebron 2. Sam. 2. c Forty yeares So long ruled Saul according to the scriptures and Iosephus But Eupolemus that wrote the Hebrew gests saith but 22. d Then had the They set a rule of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 princes magistrates or what you will The Latines call them Archons vsing the Greeke Cic. 1. de fato Spartian in Adriano Vell. Paterc c. They had nine magistrates at Athens saith Pollux lib. 8. first the Archon elected euery yeare new Then the president then the generall for war then the chiefe Iustice and fiue other Counsellors or Lawiers with him These last heard and decided matters in the Court The Archon he was to looke to the ordering of Bacchus his sacrifices and
vnto the consummation So then as there are two regenerations one in faith by Baptisme and another in the flesh by incorruption so are there two resurrections the first That is now of the soule preuenting the second death The later Future of the bodie sending some into the second death and other some into the life that despiseth and excludeth all death whatsoeuer Of the two resurrections what may bee thought of the thousand years mentioned in Saint Iohns Reuelation CHAP. 7. SAint Iohn the Euangelist in his Reuelation speaketh of these two resurrections in such darke manner as some of our diuines exceeding their owne ignorance in the first doe wrest it vnto diuers ridiculous interpretations His words are these And I sawe an Angell come downe from Heauen hauing the keye of the bottomlesse pitte and a great chaine in his hand And hee tooke that Dragon that old Serpent which is the deuill and Sathan and bound him a thousand yeares â—…d hee cast him into the bottomlesse pitte and shut him vppe and sealed the dores vpon him that hee should deceiue the people no more till the thousand yeares were fulfilled For after hee must bee loosed for a little season And I saw seates and they set vpon them and iudgement was giuen vnto them and I saw the soules of them which were slaine for the testimonie of IESVS and for the worde of GOD and worshipped not the beast nor his Image neither had taken his marke vpon their fore-heads or on their handes and they liued and reigned with CHRIST a thousand yeares But the rest of the dead men shall not liue againe vntill the thousand yeares be finished this 〈◊〉 the first resurrection Blessed and Holy is hee that hath his part in the first resurrection for on such the second death hath no power but they shall be the Priests of GOD and of CHRIST and reigne with him a thousand yeares The chiefest reason that mooued many to thinke that this place implied a corporall resurrection was drawne from a the thousand yeares as if the Saints should haue a continuall Sabboth enduring so long to wit a thousand yeares vacation after the sixe thousand of trouble beginning at mans creation and expulsion out of Paradise into the sorrowes of mortalitie that â—…ce it is written One daie is with the LORD as a thousand yeares and a thousâ—…d yeares as one daie therefore sixe thousand yeares beeing finished as the sixe daies the seauenth should follow for the time of Sabbath and last a thousand yeares also all the Saints rising corporallie from the dead to â—…elebrate it This opinion were tolerable if it proposed onely spirituall deights vnâ—…o the Saints during this space wee were once of the same opinion our selues but seeing the auouchers heereof affirme that the Saints after this resurrection shall doe nothing but reuell in fleshly banquettes where b the cheere shall exceed both modesty and measure this is grosse and fitte for none but carnall men to beleeue But they that are really and truely spirituall doe call those Opinionists c Chiliasts the worde is greeke and many bee interpreted Millenaryes or Thousand-yere-ists To confute them heere is no place let vs rather take the texts true sence along with vs. Our LORD IESVS CHRIST saith No man can enter into 〈◊〉 strong mans house and take away his goods vnlesse hee first binde the strong man and then spoyle his house meaning by this strong man the deuill because hee alone was able to hold man-kinde in captiuity and meaning by the goods hee would take away his future faithfull whome the deuill held as his owne in diuers sinnes and impieties That this Stong-man therefore might bee bound the Apostle sawe the Angell comming downe from heauen hauing the keye of the bottomlesse pitte and a great chaine in his hand And hee tooke sayth hee the Dragon that olde serpent which is the deuill and Sathan and bound him a thousand yeares that is restrayned him from seducing or with-holding them that were to bee set free The thousand yeares I thinke may bee taken two waies either for that this shall fall out in the last thousand that is d on the sixth daie of the workes continuance and then the Sabboth of the Saints should follow which shall haue no night and bring them blessednesse which hath no end So that thus the Apostle may call the last part of the current thousand which make the sixth daie a thousand yeares vsing the part for the whole or else a thousand yeares is put for eternity noting the plenitude of time by a number most perfect For a thousand is the solid quadrate of tenne tenne times tenne is one hundered and this is a quadrate but it is but a plaine one But to produce the solide multiply ten by a hundered and there ariseth one thousand Now if an hundered bee some-times vsed for perfection as wee see it is in CHRISTS wordes concerning him that should leaue all and follow him saying Hee shall receiue an hundered-fold more which the Apostle seemeth to expound saying As hauing nothing and yet possessings althings for hee had sayd before vnto a faithfull man the whole worlde is his ritches why then may not one thousand bee put for consummation the rather in that it is the most solide square that can bee drawne from tenne And therefore wee interprete that place of the Psalme Hee hath alway remembered his couenant and promise that hee made to a thousand generations by taking a thousand for all in generall On. And â—…ee cast him into the bottomlesse pitte hee cast the deuills into that pitte that is the multitude of the wicked whose malice vnto GODS Church is bottomlesse and their hearts a depth of enuie against it hee cast him into this pitte not that hee was not there before but because the deuill beeing shut from amongst the Godly holds faster possession of the wicked for hee is a most sure hold of the deuills that is not onelie cast out from GODS seruants but pursues them also with a causelesse hate forward And shut him vppe and sealed the dore vpon him that hee should deceiue the people no more till the thousand yeares were expired he sealed that is his will was to keepe it vnknowne who belonged to the diuell and who did not For this is vnknowne vnto this world for we know not whether he that standeth shall fall or he that lieth along shall rise againe But how-so-euer this bond restraineth him from tempting the nations that are Gods selected as he did before For God chose them before the foundations of the world meaning to take them out of the power of darkenesse and set them in the kingdome of his sonnes glory as the Apostle saith For who knoweth not the deuils dayly seducing and drawing of others vnto eternall torment though they bee none of the predestinate Nor is it wonder iâ—… the diuell subuert some of those who are euen regenerate in Christ and walke in his wayes For
all this whole time from the vnion vnto him to the end of the time implyed in the thousand yeares The rest saith Saint Iohn shall not liue for now is the houre when the dead shall heare the voyce of the sonne of God and they that he are it shall liue the rest shall not liue but the addition vntill the thousand yeares be finished implieth that they shall want life all the time that they should haue it in attayning it by passing through faith from death to life And therefore on the day of the generall resurrection they shall rise also not vnto life but vnto iudgement that is vnto condemnation which is truly called the second death for hee that liueth not before the thousand yeares be expired that is he that heareth not the Sauiours voyce and passeth not from death to life during the time of the first resurrection assuredly shall be throwne both body and soule into the second death at the day of the second resurrection For Saint Iohn proceedeth plainly This saith hee is the first resurrection Blessed and holy is hee that hath part in the first resurrection and part of it is his who doth not onely arise from death in sinne but continueth firme in his resurrection On such saith he the second death hath no power But it hath power ouer the rest of whome hee sayd before The rest shall not liue vntill the thousand yeares bee finished because that in all that whole time meant by the thousand yeares although that each of them had a bodily life at one time or other yet they spent it and ended it with-out arising out of the death of iniquitie wherein the deuill held them which resurrection should haue beene their onely meane to haue purchased them a part in the first resurrection ouer which the second death hath no power An answer to the obiection of some affirming that resurrection is proper to the body onely and not to the soule CHAP. 10. SOme obiect this that resurrection pertaineth onely to the body and therefore the first resurrection is a bodily one for that which falleth say they that may rise againe but the body falleth by death for so is the word Cadauer a carcasse deriued of Cado to fall Ergo rising againe belongeth soly to the body and not vnto the soule Well but what will you answer the Apostle that in as plaine terms as may be he calleth the soules bettring a resurrection they were not reuiued in the outward man but in the inward vnto whom he said If yee then be risen with Christ seeke the things which are aboue which he explaineth else-where saying Like as Christ was raised vp from the dead by the glory of the father so wee also should walke in newnesse of life Hence also is that place Awake thou that sleepest and stand vp from the dead and Christ shall giue thee light Now whereas they say none can rise but those that fall ergo the body onely can arise why can they not heare that shrill sound of the spirit Depart not from him least you fall and againe Hâ—… standeth or falleth to his owne maister and further Let him that thinketh hee sâ—…eth take heed least hee fall I thinke these places meane not of bodily falls but 〈◊〉 the soules If then resurrection concerne them that fall and that the soule â—…y also fall it must needs follow that the soule may rise againe Now Saint 〈◊〉 hauing said On such the second death shall haue no power proceedeth thus But 〈◊〉 shall bee the Priests of God and of Christ and shall reigne with him a thousand â—…es Now this is not meant onely of those whome the Church peculiarly calleth Bishops and Priests but as wee are all called Christians because of our mysticall Chrisme our vnction so are wee all Priests in being the members of â—…e Priest Where-vpon Saint Peter calleth vs A royall Priest-hood an holy nation And marke how briefly Saint Iohn insinuateth the deity a of Christ in these words of God and of Christ that is of the Father and of the Sonne yet as hee was made the sonne of man because of his seruants shape so in the same respect was he made a Priest for euer according to the order of Melchisedech whereof wee haue spoken diuerse times in this worke L. VIVES DEity a of Christ For it were a damnable and blasphemous iniury to God to suffer any one to haue Priests but him alone the very Gentiles would by no meanes allowe it 〈◊〉 Philippic 2. Of Gog and Magog whom the Deuill at the worlds end shall stirre vp against the Church of God CHAP. 11. ANd when the thousand yeares saith hee are expired Sathan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall goe out to deceiue the people which are in the foure quarters of the earth euen God and Magog to gather them together into Battell whose number is as the sand of the sea So then the ayme of his decept shal be this warre for he vsed diuers waies to seduce before and all tended to euill He shall leaue the dennes of his hate and burst out into open persecution This shal be the last persecution hard before the last iudgement and the Church shall suffer it all the earth ouer the whole citty of the Diuell shall afflict the Citty of God at these times in all places This Gog and this Magog are not to bee taken for a any particular Barbarous nations nor for the Getes and Messagetes because of their litterall affinity nor for any other Countryes beyond the Romaines iurisdiction hee meaneth all the earth when hee saith The people which are in the foure quarters of the Earth and then addeth that they are Gog and Magog b Gog is an house and Magog of an house as if hee had sayd the house and hee that commeth of the house So that they are the nations wherein the Deuill was bound before and now that he is loosed cometh from thence they being as the house and hee as comming out of the house But wee referre both these names vnto the nations and neither vnto him they are both the house because the old enemy is hid and housed in them and they are of the house when out of secret hate they burst into open violence Now where as hee sayth They went vp into the plaine of the Earth and compassed the tents of the Saints about and the beloued City wee must not thinke they came to any one set place as if the Saints tents were in any one certaine nation or the beloued Citty either no this Citty is nothing but Gods Church dispersed throughout the whole earth and being resident in all places and amongst all nations as them words the plaine of the Earth do insinuate there shall the tents of the Saints stand there shall the beloued Ctty stand There shall the fury of the presecuting enemy guirt them in with multitudes of all nations vnited in one rage of
delights that hee loued yet shall hee bee 〈◊〉 in that hee held his foundation maugre all tribulation but as it were by 〈◊〉 for that which hee possessed in alluring loue hee shall forge with 〈◊〉 sorrowe This thinke I is the fire that shall enritch the one and â—…ge the other trying both yet condemning neither If wee say thâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of heere is that whereof CHRIST spake to those on his left 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from mee yee cursed into euerlasting fire and that all such 〈◊〉 builded 〈◊〉 strawe and stubble vpon their foundation are part of the sayd cursed who notwithstanding after a time of torment are to bee dedeliuered by the merit of their foundation then can wee not thinke that those on the right hand to whome hee shall say Come you blessed c. Are any other sauing those that built gold siluer and precious stones vppon the said foundation But this fire of which the Apostle speaketh shall bee as a tryall both to the good and the bad both shall passe through it for the word sayth Euery mans worke shal bee made manifest for the day of the Lord shall declare it because it shal bee reuealed by the fyre and the fire shall try euery mans worke of what sort it is If the fire trye both and he that hath an abiding worke be rewarded and hee whose worke shal burne shall bee indamaged then cannot this be that euerlasting fire For into that shall none enter but the cursed on the left hand in the last iudgement whereas the blessed shall passe through this wherein some of them shal be so tryed that their building shall abide vnconsumed and other-some shall haue their worke burned and yet shal bee saued them-selues in that their loue vnto Christ exceeded al their carnall imperfections And if they bee saued then shall they stand on Christes right hand and shall bee part of those to whome it shall bee said Come you blessed of my father inherite the kingdome c. and not on the left hand amongst the cursed to whome it shall bee sayd Depart from me c. For none of these shall be saued by fire but all of them shall be bound for euer in that place where the worme neuer dyeth there shall they burne world without end But as for the time betweene the bodily death and the last iudgement if any one say that the spirits of the dead are all that while tryed in such fire as neuer moueth those that haue not built wood straw or stubble afflicting onely such as haue wrought such workes eyther here or there or both or that mans worldly affects beeing veniall shall â—…e the purging fire of tribulation onely in this world and not in the other if any hold thus I contradict him not perhaps he may hold the truth To this tribuâ—… also may belong the death of body drawne from our first parents sinne and inflicted vppon each man sooner or later according to his building So may also the Churches persecutions wherein the Martyrs were crowned and all the rest afflicted For these calamities like fire tryed both sorts of the buildings consuming both workes and worke men where they found not Christe for the foundation and consuming the workes onely and sauing the worke-men by this losse where they did finde him and stubble c. built vppon him but where they found workes remayning to eternall life there they consumed nothing at all Now in the last dayes in the time of Antichriste shall be such a persecution as neuer was before And many buildings both of gold and stubble being all founded vppon Christe shall then bee tryed by this fire which will returne ioy to some and losse to others and yet destroy none of them by reason of their firme foundation But whosoeuer hee bee that loueth I do not say his wife with carnall affection but euen such shewes of pyety as are vtter alliens from this sensuality with such a blinde desire that hee preferreth them before Christ this man hath not Christ for his foundation and therefore shall neither bee saued by 〈◊〉 noâ—… otherwise because hee cannot bee conioyned with Christ who faith playnely of such men Hee that loueth father or mother more then me is vnworthy of me And he that loueth sonne or daughter more then me is not worthy of mee But hee that loueth them carnaliy yet preferreth Christ for his foundation and had rather loose them all then Christ if hee were driuen to the losse of one such a man shall bee saued but as it were by fire that is his griefe in the loosing of them must needes bee as great as his delight was in enioying them But hee that loues father mother c. according to Christ to bring them vnto his Kingdome or bee delighted in thâ—… because they are the members of Christ this loue shall neuer burne away liâ—…â—…ood straw stubble but shall stand as a building of gold siluer and preâ—… 〈◊〉 for how can a man loue that more then Christ which he loueth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sake onely L. VIVES 〈◊〉 day of a the Lord Where-vnto all secrets are referred to be reuealed and therefore they are worthy of reprehension that dare presume to censure acts that are doubtfull 〈◊〉 â—…rable onely by coniectures seeme they neuer so bad 〈◊〉 thâ—…se that thinke those sinnes shall not be laid to their 〈◊〉 where-with they mixed some workes of mercy CHAP. 27. NOw a word with those that hold none damned but such as neglect to doe workes of mercy worthy of their sinnes because S. Iames saith There shall be 〈◊〉 mercylesse to him that sheweth no mercy he therfore that doth shew merâ—… say they be his life neuer so burdened with sin and corruption shal not withstanding haue a mercyful iudgement which wil either acquit him from al paines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deliâ—… 〈◊〉 after a time of sufferance And this made Christ distinguish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…om 〈◊〉 â—…obate only by their performance and not performance of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one wherof is rewarded with euerlasting ioy and the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as for their daily sins that they may bâ—… pardoned through 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 the Lords praier say they doth sufficiently proue for as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 christian â—…aith not this praier so likewise is ther no daily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when we say And forgiue vs our trespasses as we forgiue them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we perform this later clause accordingly for Christ saie they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forgiue men their trespasses your heauenly father will forgiue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but he said generally hee will forgiue you yours Bee they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so 〈◊〉 neuer so ordinary neuer so continual yet works of mercy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them al away wel they do wel in giuing their aduice to perform works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worthy of their â—…ns for if they should haue said that any works of mercâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the greatest and most customary sins they should bee 〈◊〉
world beleeueth besides him But this they obiect implyeth that they beleeue not that there were any miracles done at al No why then is Christs ascension in the flesh so generally auowed why doth the world in such learned and circumspect times beleeue such incredible things without seeing them confirmed by miracles were they credible and therefore beleeued why then do not they them-selues beleeue them Our conclusion is briefe either this incredible thing which was not seene was confirmed by other incrediles which were seen or else this beeing so credible that it need no miracle to proue it condemneth their own grosse incredulity that will not beleeue it This I say to silence fooles for we cannot deny but that the miraculous Ascension of Christ in the flesh was ratified vnto vs by the power of many other miracles The Scriptures doe both relate them and the end where-vnto they tended They were written to work faith in men the faith they wrought hath made them far more famous They are read to induce the people to beleeue yet should not be read but that they are beleeued and for miracles there are some wrought as yet partly by the Sacraments partly by the memories and praiers of the Saints but they are not so famous nor so glorious as the other for the Scriptures which were to bee divulged in all places hath giuen lustre to the first in the knowledges of all nations whereas the later are knowne but vnto the citties where they are done or some parts about them And generally there are few that know them there and many that do not if the Citty be great when they relate them to others they are not beleeued so fully so absolutely as the other although they be declared by one christian to another The miracle that was done at Millayne when I was there might well become famous both because the Citty was of great largenesse and likewise for the great concourse of people that came to the Shrine of Protasius a and of Geruase where the blinde man obteined his sight The bodies of these two Martyrs lay long vnknown vntil b Ambrose the Bishop had notice of them by a relation in a dreame But that at Carthage whence Innocentius one that had bin an aduocate of the neighbor state receiued his health was vnknown vnto the most wheras notwithstanding I was present and saw it with mine eies for he was the man that gaue intertainment vnto mee my brother Alipius not being Clergy-men as yet but onley lay christians and wee dwelt as then in his house he lay sicke of a many fistulaes bred in his fundament those secret parts of the body the Chyurgions had lanced him and put him to extreme and bitter paines whereas notwithstanding they had left one part vntouched which they must perforce make incision into â—…re they could possibly cure him but they cured al the rest only that being omitted troubled them exceedingly and made all their applications tend to no purpose Innocentius marking their protractions and fearing another incision which a Physitian that dwelt in his house had told him they would be driuen to make whome they would not suffer to see how they cut him wher-vpon Innocentius had angerly barred him his house could scarcely be brought to receiue him again at last he burst forth saying wil you cut me again wil it come to his sayings whom you wil not haue to see your tricks But they mocked at the ignorance of the Physitian and bad Innocentius be of good cheare there was no such matter Wel the time passed on but no helpe of the malady could bee seen the Chyurgions did still promise fayre that they would cure him by salue not by incision Now they had got an old man and a cunning Chyurgion called c Ammonius to ioin with them he viewing the sore affirmed as much as they which assurance of his did satisfie Innocentius that he him-selfe did now begin to gibe and ieast at his other Physitian that said hee must bee cutte againe Well to be briefe when they had spent some weekes more they all left him shewing to their shame that hee could not possible bee cured but by incision This and the excessiue feare thereof strucke him immediately beyond his sences but recollecting of him-selfe he bad them begon and neuer more come at him being enforced now by necessity to send for a cunning Surgeon of Alexandria one that was held a rare Artist to performe that which his anger wuold not let the others do The man comming to him and like a worke-man obseruing the worke of the others by the scarrs they had left like a honest man aduised him to let them finish the cure who had tane that great paines with it as hee had with wonder obserued for true it was that incision was the onely meanes to cure him but that it was farre from him to depriue those of the honor of their industry whose paines in the cure hee saw had beene so exceeding great So the former Surgeons were sent for to performe it and this Alexandrian must stand by and see them open the part which was other-wise held to be vncurable The businesse was put off vntill the next day But the Surgeons being all departed the house was so filled with sorrow for the griefe of their maister that it shewed more like a preparation for a funerall then any thing else and was very hardly suppressed Now he was dayly visited by diuers holy men and namely by Saturninus of blessed memory the Bishoppe of vzali and Gelosus Priest and Deacon of the Church of Carthage as also by Bishop Aurelius who onely is yet liuing of all these three a man of worthy respect and one with whome I now and then had conferred about the wonderful workes of God I haue often taken occasion to speake of this and sound that he remembred it exceeding wel These men visiting him towards the euening hee prayed them all to come againe the next day to be spectators of his death rather then his paines for his former suffrings had so terrified him that he made no question but that hee should immediately perish vnder the Surgions hands They on the other side bad him bee comforted trust in God and beare his will with patience Then went we to prayers and kneeling of vs downe hee threw him-selfe forcibly on his face as if one had thrust him on and so began to pray with such passion of mind such flouds of teares such grones and sobbes euen almost to the stopping of his breath that it is vtterly inexplicable Whether the rest praied or marked him I know not for my selfe could not pray a iot onely I said in my heart Lord whose praiers wilt thou heare if thou heare not his for me thought his prayer could not but procure his sute well we rose and being blessed by the Bishop we departed the roome he in the meane time intreating them to
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
is the New Testament but the opening of the Old one Now Abraham is sayd to laugh but this was the extreamity of his ioy not any signe of his deriding this promise vpon distrust and his thoughts beeing these Shall he that is an hundred yeares old c. Are not doubts of the euents but admirations caused by so strange an euent Now if some stop at that where God saith he will giue him all the Land of Canaan for an eternall possession how this may be fulfilled seeing that no mans progeny can inherite the earth euerlastingly he must know that eternall is here taken as the Greekes take 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is deriued of c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is seculum an age but the latine translation durst not say seculare here least it should haue beene taken in an other sence for seculare and transitorium are both alike vsed for things that last but for a little space but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that which is either endlesse at all or endeth not vntill the worlds end and in this later sence is eternall vsed here L. VIVES I Wil be a his God Or to be his GOD. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a grecisme hardly expressed in your latine b The very The gentiles had also their eight day wherevpon the distinguished the childs name from the fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is Seculum aetas annâ—…m eternitas in latine Tully and other great authors translate it all those waies from the greeke Of the man-child that if it were not circumcised the eight day iâ—… perished for breaking of Gods couenant CHAP. 27. SOme also may sticke vpon the vnderstanding of these words The man child in whose flesh the fore-skinne is not circumcised that person shal be cut off from his people because he had broaken my couenant Here is no fault of the childes who is hereexposed to destruction he brake no couenant of Gods but his parents that looked not to his circumcision vnlesse you say that the yongest child hath broken Gods command and couenant as well as the rest in the first man in whom all man-kinde sinned For there are a many Testaments or Couenants of God besides the old and new those two so great ones that euery one may read and know The first couenant was this vnto Adam Whensoeuer thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death wherevpon it is written in Ecclesiasticus All flesh waxeth 〈◊〉 as a garment and it is a couenant from the beginning that all sinners shall die the death for whereas the law was afterwards giuen and that brought the more light to mans iudgement in sinne as the Apostle saith Where no law is there is no transgression how is that true that the Psalmist said I accounted all the sinners of the earth transgressors b but that euery man is guilty in his owne conscience of some-what that hee hath done against some law and therefore seeing that little children as the true faith teacheth be guilty of originall sinne though not of actuall wherevpon wee confesse that they must necessarily haue the grace of the remission of their sinnes then verily in this they are breakers of Gods coueâ—… made with Adam in paradise so that both the Psalmists saying and the Apostles is true and consequently seeing that circumcision was a type of regeneration iustly shall the childs originall sinne breaking the first couenant that 〈◊〉 was made betweene God and man cut him off from his people vnlesse that regeneration engraffe him into the body of the true religion This then we must conceiue that GOD spake Hee that is not regenerate shall perish from â—…gst his people because he hath broke my couenant in offending me in Adam For if he had sayd he hath broke this my couenant it could haue beene meant of nothing but the circumcision onely but seeing hee saith not what couenant the child breaketh we must needes vnderstand him to meane of a couenant liable vnto the transgression of the child But if any one will tie it vnto circumcision and say that that is the couenant which the vncircumcised child hath broken let him beware of absurdity in saying that hee breaketh their couenant which is not broken by him but in him onely But howsoeuer we shall finde the childs condemnation to come onely from his originall sinne and not from any negligence of his owne iucurring this breach of the couenant L. VIVES THere a are many Hierome hath noted that wheresoeuer the Greekes read testament 〈◊〉 Hebrewes read couenant Berith is the Hebrew word b But that There is no man so barbarous but nature hath giuen him some formes of goodnesse in his heart whereby to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 honest life if he follow them and if he refuse them to turne wicked Of the changing of Abram and Sara's names who being the one too barren and both to old to haue children yet by Gods bounty were both made fruitfull CHAP. 28. THus this great and euident promise beeing made vnto Abraham in these words A father of many nations haue I made thee and I will make thee exceeding fruitfull and nations yea euen Kings shall proceed of thee which promise wee see most euidently fulfilled in Christ from that time the man and wife are called no more Abram and Sarai but as wee called them before and all the world calleth them Abraham and Sarah But why was Abrahams name changed the reason followeth immediately vpon the change for a father of many nations haue I made thee This is signified by Abraham now Abram his former a name is interpreted an high father But b for the change of Sara's name there is no reason giuen but as they say that haue interpreted those Hebrew names Sarai is my Princesse and Sarah strength wherevpon it is written in the Epistle to the Hebrewes By faith Sarah receiued strength to conceiue seed c. Now they were both old as the scripture saith but c shee was barren also and past the age d wherein the menstruall bloud floweth in women which wanting she could neuer haue conceiued although she had not beene barren And if a woman be well in years and yet haue that menstruall humour remayning she may conceiue with a yongman but neuer by an old as the old man may beget children but it must bee vpon a young woman as Abraham after Sarahs death did vpon Keturah because shee was of a youthfull age as yet This therefore is that which the Apostle so highly admireth and herevpon he saith that Abrahams body was dead because hee was not able to beget a child vpon any woman that was not wholy past her age of child-bearing but onely of those that were in the prime and flowre thereof For his bodie was not simply dead but respectiuely otherwise it should haue beene a carcasse fit for a graue not an ancient father vpon earth Besides the guift of begetting children that GOD gaue him lasted after Sarahs death and he
begot diuers vpon Keturah and this cleareth the doubt that his body was not simply dead I meane vnto generation But I like the other answere better because a man in those daies was not in his weakest age at an hundred yeares although the men of our times bee so and cannot beget a child of any woman they might for they liued far longer and had abler bodies then we haue L. VIVES HIs former a name Some Hebrewes say that God put a letter of his name 〈◊〉 into Abrahams name to wit the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierome b For the change Hierome out of moâ—… of the Hebrewes interpreteth Sarai my Princesse or Ladie and Sarah a Princesse oâ—… 〈◊〉 for she was first Abrahams Lady and then the Lady of the nations and Uirtus or strengtâ—… often taken by diuines for dominion or principality Hiero. in Genes Augustine vseth the word in another sence c She was barren The phisitians hold womens barrennesse to proceede of the defects of the matrix as if it be too hard or brawny or too loose and spungeous or too fat or fleshly Plutarch De phisoph decret lib. 5. I ommit the simples that beeing taken inwardly procure barrennesse as the berries of blacke Iuy Cetarach or hearts tongue as Plâ—…y saith c. The Stoickes say that it is often effected by the contrariety of qualities in the agent patient at copulation which being coupled with others of more concordance do easily become fruitfull which we may not vnfitly imagine in Abraham and Sarah because afterwards hee begot children vpon Keturah vnlesse you winde vp all these matters with a more diuine interpretation For Paul calleth Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a dead body exhaust and fruitlesse d Wherein the menstruall Of the menstrues Pliny saith thus Some women neuer haue them and those are barren For they are the substance wherein the spermes congeale and ripen and thereof if they flow frow women that are with child the child borne wil be either weake and sickly or els it will not liue long as Nigidius saith Thus much out of Pliny lib. 7. Aristotle saith that all that want these menstruall fluxes are not barren for they may retaine as much in their places of conception as they doe that haue these purgatiue courses so often Histor 〈◊〉 lib. 7. Of the three men or angells wherein GOD appeared to Abraham in the plaine of Mambra CHAP. 29. GOD appeared vnto Abraham in the plaine of Mambra in three men who doubtlesse were angells though some thinke that one of them was Christ and that he was visible before his incarnation It is indeed in the power of the vnchangeable vncorporall and inuisible deity to appeare vnto man visible whensoeuer it pleaseth without any alteration of it selfe not in the owne but in some creature subiect vnto it as what is it that it ruleth not ouer But if they ground that one of these three was Christ vpon this that Abraham when hee saw three men saluted the Lord peculiarly bowing to the ground at the dore of his Tabernacle and saying LORD if I haue found fauour in thy sight c. Why doe they not obserue that when two came to destroy Sodome Abraham spake yet but vnto one of them that remained calling him Lord and intreating him not to destroy the righteous with the wicked and those two were intertained by Lot who notwithstanding called either of them by the name of Lord For speaking to them both My Lords saith hee I pray you turne in vnto your seruants house c. and yet afterwards we reade and the angells tooke him and his wife and his two daughters by the hands the Lord beeing mercifull vnto him and they brought him forth and set him without the citty and when they had so done the angells said Escape for thy selfe looke not behind thee neither tarry in all the plaines but escape to the mountaines least thou bee destroied and he sayd not so I pray thee my Lord c. and afterward the Lord being in these two angells answered him as in one saying Behold I haue a receiued thy request c. and therefore it is far more likely that Abraham knew the Lord to bee in them all three and Lot in the two vnto whom they continually spoke in the singular number euen then when they thought them to bee men then otherwise For they intertained them at first only to giue them meate and lodging in charity as vnto poore men but yet there was some excellent marke in them whereby their hoasts might bee assured that the Lord was in them as he vsed to be in the Prophets and therefore they sometimes called them Lords in the plurall number as speaking to themselues and sometimes Lord in the singular as speaking to God in them But the scriptures themselues testifie that they were angells not onely in this place of Genesis but in the Epistle to the Hebrewes where the Apostle commending hospitality b therby Ioâ—…e saith he haue receiued angels into their houses vnwares these three men therefore confirmed the promise of Isaac the second time and said vnto Abraham He shal be a great and mighty nation and in him shall the nations of the world be blessed Here is a plaine prophecy both of the bodily nation of the Israelites and the spirituall nations of the righteous L VIVES I Haue a receiued So readeth the vulgar but not the seauenty b Thereby some I woâ—… how Placuerunt came into the latine vulgar edition I think the translators made it Latueâ—… rather from the greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Augustine hath translated it the best of all putting vnawares for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greekes doe often vse to speake so Lots deliuerance Sodomes destruction Abimelechs lust Sarahs chastity CHAP. 30. AFter this promise was Lot deliuered out of Sodome and the whole territory of that wicked citty consumed by a shower a of fire from heauen and all those parts where masculine bestiality was as allowable by custome as any other act is by other lawes Besides this punishment of theirs was a type of the day of iudgement and what doth the angells forbidding them to looke backe signifie but that the regenerate must neuer returne to his old courses if hee meane to escape the terror of the last iudgment Lots wife where she looked back there was she fixed and beeing turned into b a piller of salt serueth to season the hearts of the faithful to take heed by such example After this Abraham did with his wife Sarah at Geraris in King Abimelechs court as hee had done before in Egipt and her chastity was in like maner preserued she returned to her husband Where Abraham when the King chideth him for concealing that shee was his wife opened his feare and withal told him saying she is my sister indeed for she is my fathers daughter but not my mothers and she is my wife and
eternall after the last iudgment vnto them that endure them temporally after death For some shal be pardoned in the world to come that are not pardoned in this and acquitted there and not here from entring into paines eternall as I said before L. VIVES Willingly a or by Willingly that is of set purpose or through a wrong perswasion that 〈◊〉 doth him good when he hurteth him as the torturers and murtherers of the martyrs beleeued These were all guilty nor waâ—… their ignorance excuseable which in what cases it may be held pardonable Augustine disputeth in Quaest. vet Nou. Testam The 〈◊〉 all paines of this life afflicting all man-kinde CHAP. 14. BVT fewe theâ—… 〈◊〉 that endure none of these paines vntill after death Some indeed I haue known heard of that neuer had houres sickenes vntil their dying day and liued very long though notwithstanding mans whole life bee a paine in that it is a temptation and a warre-fare vpon earth as Holy Iob saith for ignorance is a great punishment and therefore you see that little children are forced to a auoyde it by stripes and sorrowes that also which they learne being such a paine to them that some-times they had rather endure the punishments that enforce them learne it then to learne that which would avoyde them a Who would not tremble and rather choose to die then to be an infant againe if he were put to such a choyce We begin it with teares and therein presage our future miseries Onely b Zoroastres smiled they say when hee was borne but his prodigyous mirth boded him no good for hee was by report the first inuentor of Magike which notwithstanding stood him not in a pins stead in his misfortunes for Ninus King of Assiriaouer came him in battel and tooke his Kingdome of Bactria from him So that it is such an impossibility that those words of the Scripture Great trauell is created for all men and an heauy yoke vpon the sonnes of Adam from the day that they go out of their mothers wombe vntill the day that they returne vnto the mother of all things should not be fulfilled that the very infants being Baptised and therein quitte from all their guilt which then is onely originall are notwithstanding much and often afflicted yea euen sometimes by the incursion of Deuills which notwithstanding cannot hurt them if they die at that tendernesse of age L. VIVES WHo a would Some would thinke them-selues much beholding to God if they might begin their daies againe but wise Cato in Tully was of another minde b Zoroastres smiled He was king of Bactria the founder of Magique Hee liued before the Troian warre 5000. yeares saith Hermodotus Platonicus Agnaces taught him Hee wrot 100000. verses Idem Eudoxus maketh him liue 5000. yeares before Plato his death and so doth Aristotle Zanthus Lydius is as short as these are ouer in their account giuing but 600 betweene Zoroastres and Xerxes passage into Greece Pliny doubts whether there were many of this name But this liued in Ninus his time hee smiled at his birth and his braine beate so that it would lift vp the hand a presage of his future knowledge Plin. He liued twenty yeares in a desert vpon cheese which hee had so mixed that it neuer grew mouldy nor decayed That the scope of Gods redeeming vs is wholly pertinent to the world to come CHAP. 15. BVt yet notwithstanding in this heauy yoke that lieth vpon Adams children from ther birth to their buriall we haue this one meanes left vs to liue sober and to weigh that our first parents sin hath made this life but a paine to vs and that all the promises of the New-Testament belonge onely to the Heritage layd vp for vs in the world to come pledges wee haue here but the performance due thereto we shall not haue till then Let vs now therefore walke in hope and profiting day by day let vs mortifie the deeds of the flesh by the spirit for God knoweth all that are his and as many as are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God but by grace not by nature for Gods onely sonne by nature was made the sonne of man for vs that we being the sons of men by nature might become the sonnes of God in him by grace for hee remayning changelesse tooke our nature vpon him and keeping still his owne diuinity that wee being changed might leaue our frailety and apnesse to sinne through the participation of his righteousnesse and immortallity and keepe that which hee had made good in vs by the perfection of that good which is in him for as wee all fell into this misery by one mans sinne so shall wee ascend vnto that glory by one deified mans righteousnesse Nor may any imagine that hee hath had this passe vntill 〈◊〉 bee there where there is no temptation but all full of that peace which wee seeke by these conflicts of the spirit against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit This warre had neuer beene had man kept his will in that right way wherein it was first placed But refusing that now hee fighteth in himselfe and yet this inconuenience is not so bad as the former for happier farre is hee that striueth against sinne then hee that alloweth it soueraygnty ouer him Better is warre with hope of eternall peace then thraldome without any thought of freedome We wish the want of this warre though and God inspireth vs to ayme at that orderly peace wherein the inferiour obeyeth the superior in althings but if there were hope of it in this life as God forbid wee should imagine by yeelding to sinne a yet ought we rather to stand out against it in all our miseries then to giue ouer our freedomes to sinne by yeelding to it L. VIVES YEt a ought we So said the Philosophers euen those that held the soules to be mortall that vertue was more worth then all the glories of a vicious estate and a greater reward to it selfe nay that the vertuous are more happy euen in this life then the vicious and thereâ—… Christ animates his seruants with promises of rewards both in the world to come and in this that is present The lawes of grace that all the regenerate are blessed in CHAP. 16. BVt Gods mercy is so great in the vessells whome hee hath prepared for glory that euen the first age of man which is his infancy where the flesh ruleth without controll and the second his child-hood where his reason is so weake that it giueth way to all â—…nticements and the mind is altogether incapable of religious precepts if notwithstanding they bee washed in the fountaine of regeneration and he dye at this or that age he is translated from the powers of darknes to the glories of Christ and freed from all paynes eternall and purificatory His regeneration onely is sufficient cleare that after death which his carnall generation had contracted with death But when he cometh to
yeares of discretion and is capable of good counsel then must he begin a fierce conflict with vices least it allure 〈◊〉 to damnation Indeede the fresh-water soldiour is the more easily put to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 practise will make him valourous and to persue victory with all his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he must euermore assay by a weapoÌ„ called the a loue of true righâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…is is kept in the faith of Christ for if the command be present and the 〈◊〉 absent the very forbidding of the crime enflameth the peruerse flesh to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…er into it sometimes producing open enormities and sometimes b sectes ones farre-worse then the other in that pride and ruinous selfe conceit perswadeâ—… 〈◊〉 that they are vertues Then therfore sin is quelled when it is beaten downe by they loue of God which none but he and that he doth only by Iesus Christ the mediator of God and man who made him-selfe mortall that we might bee made eternall few are so happy to passe their youth without taynt of some damnable sinne or other either in deed opinion or so but let them aboue all seeke to suppresse by the fullnesse of spirit all such euill motions as shall be incited by the loosenesse of the flesh Many hauing betaken them-selues to the law becomming preuaricators thereof through sinne are afterwards faine to fly vnto the law of grace assistant which making them both truer penitents and stouter opponents subiecteth their spirits to God and so they get the conquest of the flesh Hee therefore that will escape hell fire must be both Baptized and iustified in Christ and this is his only way to passe from the Deuill vnto him And let him assuredly beleeue that there is no purgatory paines but before that great and terrible iudgement Indeede it is true that the fire of Hell shal be c more forcible against some then against others according to the diuersity of their deserts whether it be adapted in nature to the quality of their merits or remaine one fire vnto all and yet bee not felt alike of all L. VIVES THe a loue of This made Plato aduise men to vse their children onely to vertuous delights and to induce a hate of bad things into their mindes which were it obserued out loue would then be as much vnto vertue as now it is vnto carnall pleasures for custome is another nature and a good man liketh vertue better then the voluptuary doth sensuality b Secret ones far worse Plato hauing feasted certaine Gentlemen spread the Roome with mats and dressed his banqueting beds handsomely In comes Diogenes the Cynicke and falls presently a trampling of the hangings with his durty feete Plato comming in why how now Diogenes quoth he Nothing said the other but that I tread downe Platoes Pride Thou dost indeed saith Plato but with a pride farre greater for indeed this was a greater vaine-glory and arrogance in Diogenes that was poore then in Plato that was rich and had but prepared these things for his friends So shall you haue a many proud beggers thinke them-selues holyer then honest rich men onely for their name sake as if God respected the goods and not there mindes They will not be ritch because they thinke their pouerty maketh them more admired Diogenes had wont to doe horrible things to make the people obserue him and one day in the midst of winter hee fell a washing himselfe in a cold spring whither by and by there gathred a great multitude who seeing him pittied him and praied him to for-beare O no saith Plato aloud if you will pitty him get yee all gone for he saw it was not vertue but vaine-glory that made him do thus c More forcible According to the words of Christ 〈◊〉 â—…be easier for Tyre and Sydon c. Of some Christians that held that Hells paines should not be eternall CHAP. 17. NOw must I haue a gentle disputation with certaine tender hearts of our own religion who thinke that God who hath iuâ—… doomed the damned vnto 〈◊〉 fire wil after a certaine space which his goodnesse shal thinke fit for the merit of each mans guilt deliuer them from that torment And of this opinion was a Origen in farre more pittiful manner for he held that the diuells themselues after a set time 〈◊〉 should bee loosed from their torments and become bright 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…hey were before But this and other of his opinions chiefly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…-volution of misery and blisse which hee held that all 〈◊〉 should runne in gaue the church cause to pronounce him Anathema 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had lost this seeming pitty by assigning a true misery after a while and 〈◊〉 blisse vnto the Saints in heauen where they if they were true could neuer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to â—…aine But farre other-wise iâ—… their tendernesse of heart which â—…old that this freedome out of hell shall onely be extended vnto the soules of the 〈◊〉 after a certaine time appointed for euery one so that all at length shall 〈◊〉 to bee Saints in heauen But if this opinion bee good and true because it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the farther it extendeth the better it is so that it may as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freedome of the deuills also after a longer continuance of time Wâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it with man kinde onely and excludeth them â—…ay but it dares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they dare not extend their pitty vnto the deuill But if any one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 goâ—… beyond them and yet sinneth in erring more deformedly and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ly against the expresse word of GOD though hee thinke to shew the more pitty herein L. VIVES ORigen a in Periarch lib. Of this already b Include the freedome So did Origen 〈◊〉 likewise made good Angels become deuills in processe of time according to his imaâ—… circum-â—… Of those that hold that the intercession of the Saints shallsaue all men from damnation CHAP. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with some that seeme to reuerence the Scriptures and yet are no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who would make God farre more mercifull then the other For as 〈◊〉 the wicked they confesse that they deserue to bee plagued but mercy shall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hand when it comes to iudgement for God shall giue them all 〈◊〉 the prayers and intercession of the Saints who if they prayed for them 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 ouer them as enemies will doe it much more now when they 〈◊〉 prostrate aâ—… their feete like slaues For it is incredible say they that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercy when they are most holy and perfect who prayed 〈◊〉 theyr foes when they were not with-out sinne them-selues Surely then they 〈◊〉 pray for them being now become their suppliants when as they haue no 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 left in them And will not God heare them when their prayers haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then bring they forth the testimony of the Psalme which the 〈◊〉 that held the sauing of all the damned after a time doe alledge also but 〈◊〉 that it maketh more for them the words are these Hath God forâ—…