before the time that is the iudgement wherein they and all men their sectaries are to bee cast into eternall torments as that l truth saith that neither deceiueth nor is deceiued not as hee saith that following the puffes of Philosophy flies here and there mixing truth and falshood greeuing at the ouerthrow of that religion which afterwards hee affirmes is all error L. VIVES HErmes a Of him by and by b His words We haue seene of his bookes greeke and latine This is out of his Asclepius translated by Apuleius c So doth humanity So humanity adapting it selfe to the nature and originall saith Hermes his booke d Trust So hath Hermes it Bruges copy hath Mistrust not your selfe e Beyond Apuleius and the Coleâ—…ne copy haue it both in this maner onely Mirth the Coleynists haue more then he f For Hermes I would haue cited some of his places but his bookes are common and so it is needelesse 〈◊〉 It being easier A diuersity of reading but of no moment nor alteration of sence h Of that which Reioycing that Christ is come whom the law and Prophets had promised So Iohn bad his disciples aske art thou he that should come or shall wee looke for an other i Peter This confession is the Churches corner stone neuer decaying to beleeue and affirme THAT IESVS IS CHRIST THE SONNE OF THE LIVING GOD. This is no Philosophicall reuelation no inuention no quirke no worldly wisdome but reuealed by GOD the father of all to such as hee doth loue and vouchsafe it k Because Hee sheweth why the deuills thought that Christ vndid them before the time l Truth Mat. 25. 41. Depart from meâ—… yee cursed into euerlasting fire which is prepared for the deuill and his angells How Hermes openly confessed his progenitors error and yet bewayled the destruction of it CHAP. 24. FOr after much discourse hee comes againe to speake of the gods men made but of these sufficient saith hee let vs returne againe to man to reason by which diuine guift man hath the name of reasonable For we haue yet spoken no wonderfull thing of man the a wonder of all wonders is that man could fiâ—…e out the diuine nature and giue it effect Wherefore our fathers erring exceedinly in incredulity b concerning the deities and neuer penetrating into the depth of diuine religioÌ„ they inueÌ„ted an art to make gods whervnto they ioyned a vertue out of some part of the worlds nature like to the other and conioyning these two because they could make no soules they framed certaine Images whereinto they called either Angells or deuills and so by these mysteries gaue these Idols power to hurt or helpe them I know not whether the deuills being admited would say asmuch as this man saith Our fathers exceedingly erring saith he in incredulity concerning the deities not penetrating into the depth of diuine religion inuented an arte to make gods Was hee content to say they but erred in this inuention no he addeth Exceedingly thus this exceeding error and incredulity of those that looked not into matters diuine gaue life to this inuention of making gods And yet though it were so though this was but an inuention of error incredulity and irreligiousnes yet this wise man lamenteth that future times should abolish it Marke now whether Gods power compell him to confesse his progenitors error the diuills to bee made the future wrack of the said error If it were their exceeding error incredulity negligence in matters diuine that giue first life to this god-making inuention what wonder if this arte bee detestable and all that it did against the truth cast out from the truth this truth correcting that errour this faith that incredulity this conuersion that neglect If he conceale the cause and yet confesse that rite to be their inuention we if we haue any wit cannot but gather that had they bin in the right way they would neuer haue fallen to that folly had they either thought worthily or meditated seriously of religion yet should wee a ffirme that their great incredulous contemptuous error in the cause of diuinity was the cause of this inuention wee should neuerthelesse stand in need to prepare our selues to endure the impudence of the truths obstinate opponeÌ„ts But since he that admires yâ— power of this art aboue all other things in man and greeues that the time should come wherein al those illusions should claspe with ruine through the power of legall authority since he confesseth the causes that gaue this art first original namely the exceeding error incredulity negligeÌ„ce of his ancestor in matters diuine what should wee doe but thinke GOD hath ouerthrowne these institutions by their iust contrary causes that which errors multitude ordained hath truths tract abolished faith hath subuerted the worke of incredulity and conuersion vnto Gods truth hath suppressed the effects of true Gods neglect not in Egipt only where onely the diabolicall spirit bewaileth but in all the world which heareth a new song sung vnto the Lord as the holy scripture saith Sing vnto the Lord a new song Sing vnto the Lord all the earth for the c title of this Psalme is when the house was built after the captiuity the City of God the Lords house is built that is the holy Church all the earth ouer after captiuity wherein the deuills held those men slaues who after by their faith in God became principall stones in the building for mans making of these gods did not acquit him from beeing slaue to these works of his but by his willing worship he was drawn into their society a society of suttle diuills not of stupid Idols for what are Idols but as the Scripture saith haue eyes and see not all the other properties that may be said of a dead sencelesse Image how well soeuer carued But the vncleane spirits therein by that truly black art bouÌ„d their soules that adored theÌ„ in their society most horrid captiuity therefore saith the Apostle We know that an Idol is nothing in the world But the Gentiles offer to deuilis not vnto God I wil not haue them to haue society with the deuils So then after this captiuity that bound men slaue to the deuils Gods house began to be built through the earth thence had the Psalme the beginning Sing vnto the Lord a new song sing vnto the Lord all the earth Sing vnto the Lord and praise his name d declare his saluation e from day to day Declare his glorie amongst all nations and his wonders amongst all people For the Lord is great and much to be praised hee is to be feared aboue all gods For all the gods of the people are Idols but the Lord made the heauens Hee then that bewailed the abolishment of these Idols in the time to come and of the slauery wherein the deuills held men captiue did it out of an euill spirits inspiration and from that did desire the continuance of that captiuity
St. AVGVSTINE OF THE CITIE OF GOD WITH THE LEARNED COMMENTS OF IO. LOD. VIVES Englished by I. H. DISSIPABIT AVGVSTINVS Printed by GEORGE ELD 1610. TO THE HONORABLEST PATRON OF MVSES AND GOOD MINDES LORD WILLIAM Earle of Penbroke Knight of the Honourable Order c. RIght gracious and gracefull Lord your late imaginary but now actuall Trauailer then to most-conceited Uiraginia now to almost-concealed Uirginia then a light but not lewde now a sage and allowed translator then of a scarce knowne nouice now a famous Father then of a deuised Country scarse on earth now of a desired Citie sure in heauen then of Utopia now of Eutopia not as by testament but as a testimonie of gratitude obseruance and hearts-honour to your Honor bequeathed at hence-parting thereby scarse perfecting this his translation at the imprinting to your Lordships protecting He that against detraction beyond expectation then found your sweete patronage in a matter of small moment without distrust or disturbance in this worke of more worth more weight as he approoued his more abilitie so would not but expect your Honours more acceptance Though these be Church-men and this a Church-matter he vnapt or vnworthy to holde trafique with either yet heere Saint Augustine and his Commenter Uiues most fauour of the secular and the one accordingly to Marcellinus the other to our King Henry directed their dedications and as translators are onely tyed to haue and giue true vnderstanding so are they freer then the authors to sute them-selues a Patrone Which as to Scipio the staffe and stay the type and top of that Cornelian stemme in quam vt plura genera in vnam arborem videtur insita multorum illuminata sapientia your poore Pacuuius Terence or Ennius or what you list so he be yours thought most conuenient to consecrate VVherefore his legacie laide at your Honours feete is rather here deliuered to your Honours humbly thrise-kissed hands by his poore delegate Your Lordships true-deuoted Th. Th. HENRY King of England to IOANNES LODOVICVS VIVES greeting WORTHY Sir and our very welbeloued friend as soone as Saint AVGVSTINE de ciuitate Dei enlightned with your comments came to our hands being right welcome to vs it caused vs to doubt whom wee should most congratulate either you by whose so learned labour so ehoise a worke is finished or Saint AVGVSTINE who long time imperfect and obscure is now at last brought from darknesse to light and restored to his ancient integrity or all posterity whom these your Commentaries shall infinitely profit But whereas it pleased you to dedicate these Commentaries to our name wee cannot but retaine a gratefull minde and returne you great thankes in that especially your minde therein seemeth to manifest no vulgar loue and obseruance towards vs. Wherefore we would haue you perswaded that our fauor and good will shall neuer faile in your affaires whatsoeuer occasion shall bee offered that may tend to your auaile So fare you happily well From our Court at Greenwich the XXIIII day of Ianuary M. D. XXIII IOANNES LODOVICVS VIVES to the renowned Prince HENRY the Eight King of England Lord of Ireland c. Salutations IT is so ordered by nature of mens dispositions most famous King as we admire them truely and heartely whom wee perceiue excell in that knowledge which pleaseth vs most and is approued amongst all diuers are giuen to diuers studies and exercises nature doth so ordaine as by this variety the world should consist both beautifull and wonderfull and yet as hee speakes Euery mans owne is fairest to himselfe Your Maiestie long since hath beene esteemed yea and admired for your opulency and large extended Empire not conquered by armes homicide but lineally conuaied from your parents as also for your strengh of minde and body and for your warlike prowes But now since you haue also giuen good proofe and essaies how able are you in strength of wit and studies of wisdome you are growne much greater and more admirable among all learned men not but that they highly esteemed you before especially for that you ioyne mildnes with maiesty goodnes with gouernment therby to appeare a louelier and liuelier image of the Prince of Nature who as hee is greatest so is he best yea best before he proued greatest But men giuen to learning do not so much bewonder your wealth or your power as with exceeding loue they imbrace adore that you are good gracious not deeming it to be admired that you are King since euen wicked men haue oft beene Kings yea and remarkeable for fayre endowments of the body But when your defence of the Sacraments came forth thē which nothing can be more elegāt more pure more religious and in one word more christian the reputation of your minds goodnes was much more confirmed if more it might be for it was now infixed in the minds of al most firme assured by many examples as if fastned with nailes and admiration thereof arose in all men yea euen in those who thinke nothing more honorable more maiesticall then the power of a King those that place riches aboue al things that ascribe exceeding much to the gifts of the body to beauty brawny strength and agility and that are students in the arts of war as if war were the omnipotent cōmander of al things wher-hence it comes to passe that all Princes by all meanes mediations they may do ambitiously striue to hold frindship with you al affecting to be ioined to you or by confederacy or which is more wished by alliance Nor want you the studies of priuate men which by the splender of your vertues you haue raised alluring some with your beneficence or eather magnificeuce others with your humanity and sweetnesse of demeanor al with wisdom iustice two vertues indeed for a King You being such I do insooth confesse my impudency that oft times I did affect to be known vnto you for this is my opinion that it is no meane praise to be but knowne of you And whereas at all other times fit occasion was wanting it now voluntary presented it self my Commentaries vpon S. AVGVSTINES bookes de ciuitate dei being in a readines which whē I bethought me to whō I might dedicate in such sort as both I might win some fauor worth the esteeming for my labor and he to whō they shold be presēted might not think so much learning as leasing so much study as stubble not a book but a burthē or bundel were profered vnto him as also I might send them to a Censor as graue as gratious who only allowing thē they might seeme approued and commended by the applause of all men you onely came to mind for many reasons and respects First for that such is your vertue and learning as euen to you I should haue presented them if you had bin a priuate man next did I see this was the next way to attaine my desire which erst I had conceaued
know and Hierome vppon the same saith These thinges fell vpon Iob that he might shew outwardly vnto men the loue that he held inwardly vnto God l UUee know Rom. 8. 28. Aduerse and prosperous fortune ar both assistants in the good mans saluation and there is nothing befalleth them but he can conuert it vnto the augmentation of his vertues That the Saints in their losse of things temporall loose not any thing at all CHAP. 9. THey lost all that they had what their faith their zeale their goods of the a inward man which inritcheth the soule before God These are a Christians ritches whereof the Apostle being possessed said Godlinesse is a great gaine if man bee content with what he hath for we brought nothing into this world nor can we cary any thing out therefore when we haue foode and rayment let vs content our-selues there-with for they that wil be rich fall into temptation and snares and into many foolish and hurtfull desires which drowne men in perdition and destruction for b coueteousnesse of mony is the roote of all euill which while some lusting after haue erred from the faith and cast them-selues in many c sorrowes Such therefore as lost their goods in that destruction if they held them as the afore-said Apostle d poore without but rich within taught them that is if they vsed the world so as if they vsed it not at all then might they truly say with him that was so sore assalted and yet neuer ouerthrown e Nak◅d came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I returne thether againe The Lord hath giuen it the Lord hath taken it away as it hath pleased the Lord so commeth it to passe blessed be the name of the Lord. He held his Lords will as a good seruant for great possessions and by attending that enritched his spirit nor greeued he at all at the losse of that in his life time which death perforce would make him leaue shortly after But those farre weaker soules though they preferre not these worldly things before Christ yet stick vnto them with a certaine exorbitant affection they must needs feele such paine in the loosing of them as their offence deserued in louing of them and endure the sorrowes in the same measure that they cast themselues into sorrowes As I said before out of the Apostle For it was meete for them to taste a little of the discipline of experience seeing thy had so long neglected instruction by words for the Apostle hauing said They that will be rich fall into temptations c. Herein doth hee reprehend the desire after ritches onely not the vse of them teaching likewise f else-where Charge them that are ritch in this world that they be not high minded and that they trust not in their vncertaine wealth but in the liuing God who giueth vs plentifully all things to enioy That they doe good and bee g ritch in good workes ready to distribute and communicate laying vp in store for themselues a good foundation against the time to come that they may obtaine the true life They that did thus with their ritches by easing small burthens ◅eaped great gaines taking more ioy in that part which by their free distributiō vnto others they had h kept more safely then they felt sorrow for that which by their care to preserue to themselues they lost so easily For it was likely that that perish heare on earth which they had no minde to remooue into a more secure custodie For they that followe their Lords Counsell when hee saith vnto them Lay not vp treasures for your selues vpon the earth where the moth and rust corrupt or where theeues dig through and steale but lay vp treasures for your selves in Heauen where neither rust nor moth corrupt nor theeues digge through and steale for where your treasure is there will your heart be also these I say in the time of tribulation were sure to find how well they were aduised in following that Maister of al truth and that diligent and dreadles keeper of all good treasure For seeing there were many that reioiced because they had hidden their treasure in a place which the foe by chance ouer-passed found not how much more certaine and secure might their comfort bee that by their Gods instruction had retired thither with their substance whether they were sure the foe could not come And therefore one i Paulinus being Bishop of Nola and hauing refused infinite ritches for voluntarie pouertie and yet was he ritch in holynesse when the Barbarians sacked Nola and held him prisoner thus prayed hee in his heart as hee told vs afterward Lord let mee not bee troubled for gold nor siluer for where all my treasures are thou knowest Euen there had hee laid vppe all his where hee hadde aduised him to lay it who fore-told these miseries to fall vppon the world And so others in that they obeyed GODS instructions for the choyce and preseruation of the true treasure indeed hadde euen their worldly treasures preserued from the fury of the Barbarians But others paid for their disobedience and because their precedent wisdome could not do it their sub-sequent experience taught them how to dispose of such temporall trash Some Christians by their enemies were putte vnto torture to make them discouer where their goods lay but that good whereby k them-selues were good they could neither loose nor discouer But if they had rather haue indured torture then discouer their l Mammon of iniquitie then were they far from good But those that suffered so much for gold were to be instructed what should bee indured for Christ that they might rather learne to loue him that enricheth his Martyrs with eternall felicity then gold and siluer for which it is miserable to indure any torment whether it bee concealed by lying or discouered by telling the truth For no man that euer confessed Christ could lose him amongst all the torments whereas no man could euer saue his gold but by denying it VVherefore euen those very torments are more profitable in that they teach a man to loue an incoruptible good then those goods in that they procure their owners torture through the blind loue they beare vnto them But some that had no such goods and yet were thought to haue them were tortured also VVhy perhaps they had a desire to them though they had them not and were poore against their wils not of their owne election And then though their possessions did not iustly deserue those afflictions yet their affections did But if their mindes flew a loftyer pitch beholding both the possession and the affection of ritches with an eye of scorne I make a doubt whether any such were euer tormented in this kinde or beeing so innocent incurred any such imputation But if they did truly they in these their tortures confessing their sanctified pouertie confessed CHRIST him-selfe And therefore though the extorted confession of such holy
beastes from beeing part of him But what needes all this Lette vs go but vnto this reasonable creature man can there be a more damnable absurdity then to beleeue that part of Gods essence is beaten when an offending childis beaten To make the subsistence of almighty God be so lasciuious vniust wicked and damnable as diuers men are What man can indure to heare it but hee that is absolutely madde lastly how can God bee iustly angry with those that doe not worshippe him when as they are partes of his owne selfe that are guilty So then they are forced to say that euery particular godde hath his life and subsistence by him-selfe and that they are not peeces of one another but each one that is particularly knowne must haue his peculiar worshippe that is knowne I say because they cannot all bee knowne Ouer all whome Iupiter beeing King thence it comes as I imagine that they beleeue him to bee the sole erecter and protector of Romes Monarchy For if it were not hee that didde it whome should they thinke able to performe so great a worke each one hauing his peculiar taske already so distinctty assigned that one must by no meanes meddle with that which was vnder the charge of another So then the conclusion is it must needs bee onely the King of goddes that erected and preserued this Kingdome of men That the augmentations of Kingdomes are vnfitly ascribed to Ioue Victory whome they call a goddesse being sufficient of her selfe to giue a full dispatch to all such businesses CHAP. 14. NOw heree is a question why may not Soueraignty it selfe bee a God What should hinder it more then a hinders Victory Or what need men trouble Iâ—…e if Victory be but fauourable ynough and will stay with such as she meaneth to make conquerors If she be but propitious let Ioue mind his own businesse the nations shall come vnder b Yea but it may bee they are good men and loth to wrong their neighbours that wrong not them or to prouoke them to warre withoâ—…t a iuster cause then meere desire to inlarge their Kingdome Nay bee they of that minde I commend them with all mine heart L. VIVES THen a Victory Cato the elder built hir a little Temple by the Market place She had also a greater Temple by that little one which P Posth Megellus beeing Aedile built with the mulot-money hee hadde gathered and dedicated it in his Consulship with M. Attill Regulns in the Samnites warre Sylla ordained playes for her in the ciuill warres Ascon Pâ—…d Cicer. in Verr. Actio 1. She was daughter to Styx and Pallas Hesiod and had Zeale Power and Force to her bretheren which alwaies sitte by Ioue nor raigneth he nor any King without them b It may be There are some copyes that differ from vs heere but they are corrupted Whether an honest man ought to intertaine any desire to inlarge his Empire CHAP. 15. VVWherefore lette them obserue whether it befitte a good and vpright man to reioyce in the inlarging of his dominions For it was the badnesse of those against whome iust warres were whilome vnder-taken that hath aduanced earthly soueraignties to that port they now hold which would haue beene little still if no enemy had giuen cause nor prouocation to war by offring his neighbour wrong If men had alwaies beene thus conditioned the Kingdomes of the earth would haue continued little in quantity and peacefull in neighbourly agreement And then a many Kingdomes would haue beene in the world as a many families are now in a citty So that the waging warre and the augmentation of dominions by conquest may seeme to the badde as a great felicity but the good must needs hold it a meere necessity But because it would bee worse if the badde should gette all the Soueraignty and so ouer-rule the good therefore in that respect the honest men may esteem their owne soueraingty a felicity But doubtlesse hee is farre more happy that hath a good neighbour by him in quiet then hee that must bee forced to subdue an euil neighbour by contention It is an euill wish to wish for one that thou hatest or fearest or for one to trouble thee that thou mightst haue one to conquer VVherfore if the Romaines attained to so great an Empire by honest vpright iust wars why should they not reuerence their enemies iniquity take itfor their goddesses good For we see that Iniquity hath giuen good assistance to the increase of this Empire by setting on others vppon vniust prouocation to iust warre that so the Romaines might haue iust cause to subdue them and so consequently to inlarge their owne dominions And why should not Iniquity be a goddesse at least among forreyne Nations as well as Feare and Palenesse and Feuer was at Rome So that by these two Deities Iniquity and Victory the first beginning the warres and the latter ending them with the conquest Romes Empire was inlarged infinitely whilest Ioue kept holyday in the Capitoll For what hath Iupiter to doe heere whâ—…e those which they may say are but meerely his benefits are worshipped iâ—…ed and accoumpted for direct deities and partes of his essence Indeed 〈◊〉 should haue hadde a faire good hand in this businesse if that hee were called â—…eraignty as well as shee is called Victory But if that a Soueraignty bee but a meere guift of Ioues then why may not Victory bee so too Both would bee 〈◊〉 to bee so if the Romaines didde not worshippe a dead stone in the Capitoll bâ—… the true King of Kinges and Lord of all domination both in earth and Heauen L. VIVES Iâ—… a Kingdome So saith Homer in diuers places The reason why the Romaines in their appointments of seuerall Goddes for euery thing and euery action would needes place the Temple of Rest or Quiet with-out the Gates CHAP. 16. BVt I wonder much that the Romaines appointing particular goddes ouer euery thing and almost euery motion Agenoria that stirred men to action Stimula a that forced them forward b Murcia that neuer went out of her pace And as c Pomponius saith made men slouthfull and disabled them from action Strenua that made men resolute Vnto all which goddes and goddesses they offered publike sacrifices and kept sollemne feasts Beeing to dispose d of Quiet the goddesse of Rest her they onely vouchsafed a Temple without Port Collina but allowed hir no publike honors at all in the citty VVhether was this a signe of their vnquiet and turbulent spirits or that those who hadde such a rable of diuell-gods No worship and reuerence should neuer come to inioy that Rest where-vnto the true Phsition inuiteth vs Saying Learne of me that I am meeke Math. 11. 29. and lowly in heart and you shall find rest vnto your soules L. VIVES STimula a This may bee Horta that in her life-time was called Hersilia Romulus his wife called Horta of exhorting men to action Labeo Her Temple was neuer shutte to signifie
himselfe being slaine by his foes hands there was no meanes for one man to escape but by yeelding to the foe so much of the Empire as now to this day they possesse making a bargaine not altogether so bad as Hadrians was but taking a e middle course betweene two extremes So that Terminus his standing out with Ioue was but an vnlucky signe and foolish augury seeing that Hadrians will Iulians rashnesse and f Iouians necessitie all made him giue roome to them The Romaines that were of discreation obserued this well but they could not ouer-turne the inueterate idolatry wherein the Deuills had bound the citty so fast and they themselues though holding these things vaine thought not-with-standing Nature should haue that diuine worship allowed her which indeed is the true gods onely peculiar vnder whom she is at command These serued the creature rather then the Creator as the Apostle saith who is blessed for euer-more This Gods helpe was needed to send some godly men to suffer death for the true religion and thereby to take away these erronious illusions from the world L. VIVES MArs a his nation The Romaines both for their valors and their originall from Mars his sonne So many of the writers call diuerse Romaines Martiall mâ—…nded b Hadriaâ—…s Fourteenth Emperour of Rome adopted by Traian whom he succeeded But enuying his fathers glory amongst others he gaue the Persians back Armenia Mesopotamia and Assyria which Trâ—…an had wone from them by conquest setting Euphrates as bounder to the Empire and calling home the armie Eutrop. lib. 8. The reason I thinke was because it was an olde saying that that generall that led an army beyond Euphrates and the cittie Ctesiphon should neuer haue good fortune which hapned to Crassus and Traian himselfe neuer came into Italy from the Parthian conquest c The said Eutrop. Assyria by the Antoniâ—… 〈◊〉 bretheren Mesopotamia by Galienus vnder the conduct of Odenatus Armenia for Diocletiaâ—… vnder Galerius d Iulian He began his raigne in the Cities MCXVI. yeare Consuls Mamertinus and Neâ—…tta A great foe to Christianitie being ouer-throwne by the Parthians at Ctesiphon by his death hee left the whole armie and state in a desperate case e Middle So that the bounds were not remooued by force but by condition of peace f Iouianus A Pannonian being made Emperor by the soldiours in this extremitie of Iulians procuring he was faine to conclude a disgracefull peace with the Parthians but necessitie hath no law Hee gaue them the towne Nisibides and part of the vpper Mesopotamia and so came the Empires bounds to be remooued The confessions of such as doe worship those Pagan gods from their owne mouthes CHAP. 30. CIâ—…ro a beeing Augur derideth the Auguries and b blames men for letting their actions relie vpon the voyce of a Crowe or a Dawe O but this c Academick saith that all things are vncertaine hee is not worthy to bee trusted in any of these mysteries d Q. Lucil. Balbus in Tullies second booke De â—…t â—…eor disputeth hereof and hauing prooued these superstitions to be Physicall in nature yet condemneth the institution of Images and their fables in these words Perceiue you not then that from the vsefull obseruation of these things in nature the tract was found to bring in those imaginarie and forged gods hence came all the false opinions errors and old wiues tales for now are wee acquainted with the shapes ages apparell kindes mariages kindreds and all are squared out by â—…aine fancies nay they haue turbulence of effects also Wee haue heard of their desâ—…res sorrowes and passions Nor wanted they warres if all tales bee true They fought in c parties not onely in Homer but all on a side also against the f Tiâ—…ans and Giants and hence ariseth a sottish beleefe of their vanitie and exâ—…ame g inconstancie Behold now what they them-selues say that worship these forgeries hee affirmeth that these things belonged to superstition but he teacheth of religion as the Stoikes doe For quoth hee not onely the Philosophers but all our ancestors made a difference betweene religion and superstition For h such as prayed whole dayes together and offered for their childrens liues 〈◊〉 were called Superstitious Who perceiueâ—…h not now that hee standing i in awe of this citties custome did not-with-standing commend the religion of his auncestors and would faine haue seuered it from superstition but that he cannot tell how for if the auncients called those Superstitious that prayed and sacrificed whole daies together were not they worthy of that name also whome he reprehendeth for inuenting so many distinct ages images and sexes c. for the whole number of the gods if the institutors of those be culpable it implieth guilt also vnto these ancients that inuented and adored such idle fooleries and vnto him also for all his eloquent euasions that must be tied by necessiity to this absurd worship and dare not speake in a publike oration what hee deliuereth here in a priuat disputation Thankes therefore be giuen to our Lord Iesus Christ from all vs Christians not to k Heauen and Earth as he would haue it but vnto him that made Heauen and Earth who hath ouerturned and abolished those superstitions which Balbus durst scarcely mutter at by his heauenly humility his Apostles preaching and his martirs faith that died for the truth and liued in the truth hauing by these meanes rooted all errors not only out of the hearts of the religious but euen out of the Temples of the superstitious L. VIVES CIcero being a Augur And of their College elected by Q. Hortensius the Orator b Blameth De diuinat lib. 2. c Academike That sect would affirme nothing but confute the assertions of others which Cicero vseth in many of his dialogues professing himselfe a defender of that sect dâ—… na de li. 2. d Balbus An excellent Stoike e On sides On the one side Iâ—… Pallas Neptune against them Apollo Uenus and Mars in the Troyan wars f Titans Sonne to Earth and Titan Saturnes brother they claimed the Kingdome of Iupiter by the agreement of their fathers first they did but wrangle but afterwards to armes It was a great warre yet the Titans were subdued Buu then followed a greater the rest of the Titans reneuing thâ—… forces and chasing Ioue and all his friends into Aegipt The first was called the Titans war thiâ—… the Giants g Inconstancy Thus farre Tully h Such as Lactantius disliketh this deriuation of Superstitious and Religious deriuing religious of religo to bind because they are bound to God superstitious of superstes aliue because they were of the false religion which was professed in the liues of their auncestors lib. 4. of Religions and read Gellus lib. 4. But Tully doth not confine the name to those praying fellowes but saith it was of large vse afterwards in other respects i in awe In the bookes De nat deor and De diuinat it is plaine that Tully
king domes to good and to bad not rashly nor casually but as the time is appointed which is well knowne to him though hidden for vs vnto which appointment not-with-standing hee doth not serue but as a Lord swayeth it neuer giuing true felicitie but to the good For this both a subiects and Kings may eyther haue or wante and yet bee as they are seruants and gouernours The fulnesse indeed of it shall bee in that life where b no man shall serue And therefore here on earth hee giueth kingdomes to the bad as well as to the good least his seruants that are but yet proselites should affect them as great maâ—…ters And this is the mysterie of his olde Testament wherein the new was included that c there all the gifts and promises were of this world and of the world to come also to those that vnderstood them though the eternall good that was meant by those temporall ones were not as yet manifested nor in whâ—… gifts of God the true felicitie was resident L. VIVES SUbiects a and Stoicisme A slaue wise is a free man a King foolish a 〈◊〉 b No man shall serue Some bookes wante the whole sentence which followeâ—… And therefore c. c There all The rewards promised to the kâ—…pers of the law in the old Testament were all temporall how be it they were misticall types of the Celestiall Of the Iewes kingdome which one God alone kept vnmoued as long as they kept the truth of religion CHAP. 34. TO shew therefore that all those temporall goods which those men gape after that can dreame of no better are in Gods hands alone and in none of their Idolls therefore multiplied he his people in Aegipt from a a very few and then deliuered them from thence by miraculous wounders Their women neuer called vpon Lucina when their children multiplied vpon them incredibly and when he preserued them from the b Aegiptians that persecuted them and would haue killed all their children They suckt without Ruminas helpe slept without Cunina eate and dranke without Educa and Potica and were brought vp without any of these puppy-gods helpes married without the Nuptiall gods begot children without Priapus crossed through the diuided sea without calling vpon Neptune and left al their foes drowned behind them They dedicated no Goddesse Mannia when heauen had rained Manna for them nor worshipped the Nymphes when the rocke was cleft and the waters flowed out they vsed no Mars nor Bellona in their warres and conquered not without Victory but without making Victory a goddesse They had corne oxen hony apples without Segetia Bobona Mella or Pomona And to conclude all things that the Romaines begged of so many false gods they receiued of one true God in far happier measure had they not persisted 〈◊〉 their impious curiosity in running after strange gods as if they had beene enchaunted and lastly in killing of Christ in the same kingdome had they liued happily still if not in a larger And that they are now dispersed ouer the whole earth is gods especiall prouidence that what Alters Groues Woods and Temples of the false gods he reproueth and what sacrifices he forbiddeth might all be discerned by their bookes as their fall it selfe was foretold them by their pâ—…phets And this least the Pagans reading them with ours might thinke wee had fâ—…igned them But now to our next booke to make an end of this tedious one L. VIVES FRom a very few The Sonnes of Israell that went into Aegipt were 70. Gen. 49. b Aegiptians Here is a diuersity of reading but all one sence and so is there often else-where which I forbeare to particularize or to note all such occurences Finis lib. 4. THE CONTENTS OF THE fifth booke of the City of God 1. That neither the Romaine Empire nor any other Kingdome had any establishment from the powre of Fortune nor from the starres chapter 1. 2. Of the mutuall Sympathie and dssimillitude of the health of body and many other accidents in twinnes of one birth 3. Of Nigidius the astrologians argument in this question of the twinnes drawne from the potters wheele 4. Of Esau and Iacob two twinnes and of the diuersity of their conditions and quallities 5. How the Mathematicians may bee conuicted of professing direct vanity 6. Of twinnes of different sexes 7. Of the election of daies of marriage of planting and of sowing 8. Of their opinion that giue not the name of Fate the position of the starres but vnto the dependance of causes vpon the will of God 9. Of Gods fore-knowledge and mans freedome of election against the opinon of Cicero 10. Whether Necessity haue any dominion ouer the will of man 11. Of Gods vniuersall prouidence ruling all and comprising all 12. How the ancient Romaines obtained this encrease of their Kingdome at the true Gods hand beeing that they neuer worshipped him 13. Of ambition which beeing a vice is notwithstanding herein held a vertue that it doth restraine vices of worse natures 14. That we are to auoide this desire of humaine honour the glory of the righteous beeing wholy in God 15. Of the tempor all rewardes that God bestowed vpon the Romaines vertues and good conditions 16. Of the reward of the eternall Cittizens of heauen to whome the examples of the Romaines vertues were of good vse 17. The fruites of the Romaines warres both to themselues and to those with whom they warred 18. How farre the Christians should bee from boasting of their deedes for their eternall country the Romaines hauing done so much for their temporall city and for humaine glory 19. The difference betweene the desire of glory and the desire of rule 20. That vertue is as much disgraced in seruing humaine glory as in obeying the pleasures of the body 21. That the true God in whose hand and prouidence all the state of the world consisteth did order and dispose of the Monarchy of the Romaines 22. That the Originalls and conclusions of warres are all at Gods dispose 23. Of the battaile wherein Radagaisus an idolatrous King of the Gothes was slaine with all his army 24. The state and truth of a christian Emperors felicity 25. Of the prosperous estate that God bestowed vpon Constantine a christian Emperor 26. Of the faith and deuotion of Theodosius Emperor 27. Augustines invectiue against such as wrote against the bookes already published FINIS THE FIFTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus That neither the Romaine Empire nor any other Kingdome had any establishment from the power of fortune or from the starres CHAP. 1. WHereas it is apparant to all mens discretion that felicity is the hope of al humane desires and that she is no goddesse but merely the gift of a god and consequently that there is no god worthy of worshippe but he in whose power it lieth to bestow this felicity vpon men so that if shee were a goddesse herselfe the worship of al the
nor must we at all beleeue what Apuleius would haue vs and others with him that the Daemones are so placed betweene the gods and men that they beare vp mens prayers and bring downe the gods helpes but that they are spirits most thirstie of mischiefe wholy vniust proud enuious treacherous a inhabiting the ayre in deed as thrust out of the glorious heauen for their vnpardonable guilt and condemned eternally to that prison Nor are they aboue man in merite because ayre is aboue earth for men doe easily excell them not in quality of body but in the faith and fauour of the true God Indeed they rule ouer many that are not worthy of the perticipation of gods truth such are their subiects wonne to them by false myracles and by illusions perswading them that they are gods But others that looked more narrowly into them and their qualities would not beleeue this that they were gods onely they gott this place in their opinion to be held the gods messengers and bringers of mens good fortunes Yet those that held them not gods would not giue them the honor of gods because they saw them euill and held all gods to be good yet durst they not denie them all diuine honors for feare of offending the people whose inueterate superstition preserued them in so many temples altars and sacrifices L. VIVES INhabiting a the ayre The olde writers placed all their fable of hell in the ayre and there was 〈◊〉 Proserpina the Manâ—…s and the Furies Capella Chalcâ—… saith the ayre was iustly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 darke Peter also and Iude affirme that the deuills 〈◊〉 bound in darknesse in the ayre some in the lowest parts of the earth Empedocles in Plâ—… 〈◊〉 faith that Heauen reiected them earth expels them the sea cannot abide them thus are they â—…ed by being tossed from place to place Hermes Trismegistus his opinion of Idolatrie and how he might come to know that the Egiptian superstitions were to be abrogated CHAP. 23. FOr Hermes a the Aegiptian called Trismegistus wrote contrary to these Aâ—… indeed holds them no gods but middle agents betweene gods and men that being so necessary he conioynes their adoration with the diuine worship But Trismegistus saith that the high God made some gods and men other some These words as I write them may bee vnderstood of Images because they are the workes of men But he calleth visible and palpable bodies the bodyes of the gods wherein are spirits inuited in thereto that haue power to hurt or pleasure such as giue them diuine honors So then to combine such a spirit inuisible by arts vnto a visible image of some certaine substance which it must vse as the soule doth the body this is to make a god saith hee and this wonderfull power of making gods is in the hands of man His b words are these And whereas 〈◊〉 discourse saith he concernes the affinitie betweene gods and men marke Asclepius this power of man Our God the Lord and Father is the creator of the celestiall gods so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the terrestriall which are in the temples And a little after So doth humanity remember the originall and euer striueth to imitate the deity making gods like the oâ—…ne Image as God the father hath done like his Do you meane statues replied Asclepius statues quoth he doe you not see them animate full of spirits and sence d trust your eyes doing such wonders see you not statues that presage future euents farre perhaps e beyond all propheticall inspiration to fore-tell that cure diseases and câ—…se them giuing men mirth or sadnesse as they deserue Know you not Asclepius thâ—…t Egâ—…pt 〈◊〉 heauens Image or rather the place whereinto all the celestiall graces desâ—…end the very temple of the whole world And since wisdome should fore-know all I 〈◊〉 not haue you ignorant herein The time shall come that all the zeale of Egipt shall be â—…gated and all the religious obseruations held idle and vaine Then goeth hee forward prophecying by all likelyhood of christianity whose true sanctitie is the â—…tter subuersion of all fictions and superstitions that the Sauiours true grace might free vs from those humaine gods those handy-workes of man and place vs to gods seruice mans maker But Hermes presageth these things as the deuills confederate suppressing the euidence of the Christian name and yet fore-telling with a sorrowfull intimation that from it should proceed the wracke of all their Idolatrous superstitions for Hermes was one of those who as the Apostle saith Kâ—…ing GOD glorified him not as GOD nor were thankfull but became vaine in their imaginations and their foolish heart was full of darkenesse when they professed them-selues wise they became fooles For they turned the glory of the incorruptible God into the symilitude of the Image of a corruptible man and byrdes and foore-footed beasts and Serpents f For this Hermes saith much of God according to truth But how blindnesse of heart drawes him to affirme this I know not that these gods should bee alwayes subiect whome man hath made and yet to bewaile their abrogations to come As if man could bee more miserable any way then in liuing slaue to his owne handy-worke g it being easier for him to put off all humanitie in adoring these peeces hee hath made then for them to put on deity by being made by him For it comes ofteneâ—… to passe that a man being set in honor be not vnderstood to bee like to the beasts then that his handy-worke should bee preferred before the worke that God made like his owne Image to wit mans selfe Worthily then doth hee fall from his grace that made him that maketh that his Lord which he hath made himselfe Those vaine deceitfull pernicious sacriledges Hermes foreseeing should perish deploreth but as impudently as hee had knowne it foolishly For the spirit of GOD had not spoken to him as it did to the Prophets that spoke this with gladnesse If a man make gods behold they are no gods and in another place At that day saith the LORD I will take the names of their Idols from the earth and there shal be no remembrance thereof And to the purpose of Egipt heare Isaias The Idols of Egipt shal be mooued at his presence and the heart of Egipt shall melt in the midst of her and so forward Such were they also that reioyced for the fulfilling h of that which they knew should come to passe as Simeon Anna and Elizabeth the first knowing Christ at his birth the second at his conception and i Peter that by Gods inspiration sayd Thou art that Christ the Sonne of the liuing GOD. But Hermes had his knowledge from those deuills that trembling in the flesh sayd to Christ Why art thou come to vndoe vs before the time Either k because that came suddenly vpon them which they expected not vntill afterwards or that they called it their vndoing to bee knowne and so despised and this was
for the other the Romaines had those gods and this worship and the Grecians others the French others from theirs Spaine Scythia India Persia all seuerall Bâ—… all that professe CHRIST haue one GOD and one sacrifice d All for the world Liuing vnder Diocletian a sore persecutor of Christianity e Witnesses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a witnesse f â—…hy câ—…eth Why came it not ere now or so g Mountaine Some bookes leaue out of 〈◊〉 â—…se the 70. read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the mount of the Lord and house of our God h Iâ—…â—…er It was the beginning or seminary of Gods Church i Commanded Some adde the deuills to depart but it is needlesse k Maternall The mistery is that nothing that oâ—… Sauiour touched is stained or corrupted l In prophecies In Moyses lawe m Performances In our law by Apostles and other holy Preachers n Concerning health Or to befal the health better o Confirming or the rule of which they challenge to themselues in fitting wicked aâ—…fections with correspondent effects For they can vse their powers of nature farre mâ—…re knowingly then we in procuring health or sicknesse Finis lib 10. THE CONTENTS OF THE eleuenth booke of the City of God 〈◊〉 Of that part of the worke wherein the deâ—…ion of the beginnings and ends of the â—…es the Heauenly and Earthly are deâ—… 〈◊〉 Of the knowledge of God which none can 〈◊〉 but through the Mediator betweene â—…d Man the Man Christ Iesus 〈◊〉 Of the authority of the canonicall scripâ—…â—…de by the spirit of God 〈◊〉 â—…at the state of the world is neither eâ—… nor ordained by any new thought of 〈◊〉 â—…f he meant that after which he meant â—…re 〈◊〉 â—…at we ought not to seeke to comprehend â—…te spaces of time or place ere the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the World and Time had both one â—…g nor was the one before the other 〈◊〉 Of the first sixe daies that had morning â—…g ere the Sunne was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we must thinke of Gods resting the 〈◊〉 â—…fter his six daies worke 〈◊〉 â—…is to bee thought of the qualities of 〈◊〉 â—…ording to scripture 〈◊〉 â—…e vncompounded vnchangeable 〈◊〉 Father the Sonne and the Holy 〈◊〉 God in substance and quality euer 〈◊〉 same 〈◊〉 â—…ether the Spirits that fell did euer 〈◊〉 the Angells in their blisse at their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 happinesse of the iust that â—…as yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 reward of the diuine promise comâ—… the first men of Paradise before sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whether the Angells were created in 〈◊〉 of happinesse that neither those that 〈◊〉 â—…hey should fall nor those that perseueâ—…â—…ew they should perseuer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is meant of the deuill Hee aâ—… in the truth because there is no 〈◊〉 him 〈◊〉 Thâ—… meaning of this place The diuell 〈◊〉 from the beginning 〈◊〉 Of the different degrees of creatures 〈◊〉 â—…ble vse and reasons order do differ 17. That the vice of malice is not naturall but against nature following the will not the Creator in sinne 18. Of the beauty of this vniuerse augmented by Gods ordinance out of contraries 19. The meaning of that God seperated the light from the darkenesse 20. Of that place of scripture spoken after the seperation of the light and darkenesse And God saw the light that it was good 21. Of Gods eternall vnchanging will and knowledge wherin he pleased to create al things in forme as they were created 22. Concerning those that disliked some of the good Creators creatures and thought some things naturally euill 23. Of the error that Origen incurreth 24. Of the diuine Trinity notifying it selfe in some part in all the workes thereof 25. Of the tripartite diuision of all philosophicall discipline 26. Of the Image of the Trinity which is in some sort in euery mans nature euen before his glorification 27. Of Essence knowledge of Essence and loue of both 28. Whether we draw nearer to the Image of the holy Trinity in louing of that loue by which we loue to be and to know our being 29. Of the Angells knowledge of the Trinity in the Deity and consequently of the causes of things in the Archetype ere they come to be effected in workes 30. The perfection of the number of sixe the first is compleate in all the parts 31. Of the seauenth day the day of rest and compleate perfection 32. Of their opinion that held Angells to be created before the world 33. Of the two different societies of Angells not vnfitly tearmed light and darkenesse 34. Of the opinion that some held that the Angells were ment by the seuered waters and of others that held waters vncreated FINIS THE ELEVENTH BOOKE OF THE CITTIE OF GOD. Written by Saint Augustine Bishop of Hippo vnto Marcellinus Of that part of the worke wherein the demonstration of the beginings and ends of the two Citties the heauenly and the earthly are declared CHAP. 1. WE giue the name of the Citty of GOD vnto that society wherof that scripture beareth wittnesse which hath gotten the most excellent authority preheminence of all other workes whatsoeuer by the disposing of the diuine prouidence not the affectation of mens iudgements For there it is sayd Glorious things are spoken of thee thou Citty of God and in an other place Great As the LORD and greatly to bee praised in the Citty of our God euen vpon his holy mountaine increasing the ioy of all the earth And by and by in the same Psalme As wee haue heard so haue wee seene in the Citty of the Lord of Hoastes in the Citty of our God God â—…th established it for euer and in another The riuers streames shall make glad the Citie of God the most high hath sanctified his tabernacle God is in the middest of it vnâ—…ed These testimonies and thousands more teach vs that there is a Citty of God whereof his inspired loue maketh vs desire to bee members The earthly cittizens prefer their Gods before this heauenly Citties holy founder knowing not that he is the God of gods not of those false wicked and proud ones which wanting his light so vniuersall and vnchangeable and beeing thereby cast into an extreame needy power each one followeth his owne state as it were and begs peculiar honors of his seruants but of the Godly and holy ones who select their owne submission to him rather then the worlds to them and loue rather to worship him their God then to be worshipped for gods themselues The foes of this holy Citty our former ten bookes by the helpe of our Lord King I hope haue fully â—…ffronted And now knowing what is next expected of mee as my promise viz. to dispute as my poore talent stretcheth of the originall progresse and consummation of the two Citties that in this worldly confusedly together 〈◊〉 the assistance of the same God and King of ours I set pen to paper intending 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shew the beginning of these two arising from the difference betweene 〈◊〉 â—…gelical powers Of the
althings in number weight measure that if he should say too much of number hee should seeme both to neglect his owne grauity and measure and the wise-mans c Let this The Iewes in the religious keeping of their Sabboth shew that 7. was a number of much mistery Hierome in Esay Gellius lib. 3. and his emulator Macrobius in Somn. Scip. lib. 1. record the power of it in Heauen the Sea and in Men. The Pythagorists as Chalcidius writeth included all perfection nature sufficiency herein And wee Christians hold it sacred in many of our religious misteries d That 3. is An euen number sayth Euclid is that which is diuisible by two the odde is the contrary Three is not diuisible into two nor any for one is no number Foure is diuided into two and by vnites and this foure was the first number that gotte to halfes as Macrobius sayth who therefore commendeth 7. by the same reason that Aug. vseth here e For all Aug. in Epist. ad Galat. f By this number Serm. de verb dom in monte This appellation ariseth from the giftes shewne in Esay Chap. 32. Of their opinion that held Angels to be created before the world CHAP. 32. BVt if some oppose and say that that place Let there be light and there was light was not meant of the Angels creation but of some a other corporall light and teach that the Angels wer made not only before the firmament diuiding the waters and called heauen but euen before these words were spoken In the beginning God made heauen and earth Taking not this place as if nothing had bene made before but because God made all by his Wisedome and Worde whome the Scripture also calleth a a beginning as answered also to the Iewes when they inquired what he was I will not contend because I delight so in the intimation of the Trinity in the first chapter of Genesis For hauing said In the beginning God made heauen and earth that is the Father created it in the Son as the Psalme saith O Lord how manyfold are thy workes In thy wisedome madest thou them all presently after he mentioneth the Holy Spirit For hauing shewed the fashion of earth and what a huge masse of the future creation God called heauen and earth The earth was without forme void and darknesse was vpon the deepe to perfect his mention of the Trinity he added c And the spirit of the Lord moued vpon the waters Let each one take it as he liketh it is so profound that learning may produce diuers opinions herein all faithfull and true ones so that none doubt that the Angels are placed in the high heauens not as coeternals with God but as sure of eternall felicity To whose society Christ did not onely teach that his little ones belonged saying They shall be equal vvith the Angels of God but shewes further the very contemplation of the Angels saying Se that you despise not one of these little ones for I say vnto you that in heauen their Angels alway behold the face of my Father vvhich is in Heauen L. VIVES SOme a other corporeall Adhering to some body b Beginning I reproue not the diuines in calling Christ a beginning For he is the meane of the worlds creation and cheefe of all that the Father begotte But I hold it no fit collection from his answere to the Iewes It were better to say so because it was true then because Iohn wrote so who thought not so The heretikes make vs such arguments to scorne vs with at all occasion offered But what that wisely and freely religious Father Hierome held of the first verse of Genesis I will now relate Many as Iason in Papisc Tertull. contra Praxeam and Hillar in Psalm Hold that the Hebrew text hath In the Sonne God made Heauen and earth which is directly false For the 70. Symachus and Theodotion translate it In the beginning The Hebrew is Beresith which Aquila translates in Capitulo not Ba-ben in the Son So then the sence rather then the translation giueth it vnto Christ who is called the Creator of Heauen and earth as well in the front of Genesis the head of all bookes as in S. Iohns Ghospell So the Psalmist saith in his person In the head of the booke it is written of me viz. of Genesis and of Iohn Al things were made by it without it was made nothing c. But we must know that this book is called Beresith the Hebrewes vsing to put their books names in their beginnings Thus much word for word out of Hierome c And the spirit That which wee translate Ferebatur moued sayth Hierome the Hebrewes read Marahefet forwhich we may fitly interprete incubabat brooded or cherished as the hen doth heregges with heate Therfore was it not the spirit of the world as some thinke but the holy spirite that is called the quickner of all things from the beginning If the Quickner then the maker if the Maker then the God If thou send forth thy word saith he they are created Of the two different societies of Angels not vnfitly tearmed light and darkenesse CHAP. 33. THat some Angels offended and therfore were thrust into prisons in the worlds lowest parts vntill the day of their last iudiciall damnation S. Peter testifieth playnely saying That God spared not the Angels that had sinned but cast them downe into hell and deliuered them into a chaynes of darkenesse to be kept vnto damnation Now whether Gods prescience seperated these from the other who doubteth that he called the other light worthily who denyeth Are not we heare on earth by faith and hope of equality with them already ere wee haue it called light by the Apostle Ye were once darkenesse saith he but are now light in the Lord. And well doe these perceiue the other Apostaticall powers are called darkenesse who consider them rightly or beleeue them to bee worse then the worst vnbeleeuer Wherefore though that light which GOD sayd should bee and it was bee one thing and the darkenesse from which GOD seperated the light bee another yet the obscurity of this opinion of these two societies the one inioying GOD the other swelling in b pride the one to whome it sayd Praise GOD all â—…ee his Angels the other whose Prince said All these will I giue thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship mee the one inflamed with GOD'S loue the other blowne bigge with selfe-loue whereas it is sayd God resisteth the proud and giueth grace to the lowly the one in the highest heauens the other in the obscurest ayre the one piously quiet the other madly turbulent the one punishing or releeuing according to Gods c iustice and mercy the other raging with the ouer vnreasonable desire to hurt and subdue the one allowed GODS Minister to all good the other restrayned by GOD from doing d the desired hurt the one scorning the other for doing good against their wills
time that the sight of them might forme the Images of such collours in the conception and so it did Gen. 30. c Proceed The same Pliny lib 7. saith that the mind hath are collection of similitudes in it wherein a chance of sight hearing or remembrance is of much effect the images taken into the conceit at the time of conception are held to be powerfull in framing the thing conceiued and so is the cogitation of either party how swift soeuer it be wherevpon is more difference in man then in any other creature but the swiftnes of thought and variety of conceites formeth vs so diuersly the thoughts of other creatures being immoueable and like themselues in all kinds Thus much Pliny The Philosophers stand wholly vpon immagination in conception At Hertzogenbosh in Brabant on a certaine day of the yeare whereon they say there chiefe Church was dedicated they haue publike playes vnto the honor of the Saints as they haue in other places also of that country some act Saints and some deuils one of these diuels spying a pretty wench grew hot in al hast danceth home casting his wife vpon a bed told her he would beget a yong diuâ—…l vpon her so lay with her the woman conceiued the child was no sooner borne but it began to dance was rust of the shape that we paynt our deuills in This Margueret of Austria Maximilians Daughter Charles the 〈◊〉 told Iohn Lamuza King Ferdinands graue ambassador and now Charles his 〈◊〉 in Aragon a man as able to discharge the place of a Prince as of a Lieuâ—…enant d What â—…ctions Child-bearing women do often long for many euill things as coales and ashes I 〈◊〉 one long for a bit of a young mans neeke and had lost her birth but that shee bitte of his â—…ke vntill he was almost dead shee tooke such hold The Phisicians write much hereof â—…d the Philosophers somewhat Arist de animall They all ascribe it to the vicious humors in the stomake which if they happen in men procure the like distemper e Because So read the old bookes f Alexandria Asia Sogdia Troas Cilicia India and Egipt haue al cities called Alexandria built by Alexander the great this that Augustine meanes of is that of Egipt the most famous of all sytuate vpon the Mediterrane sea neare Bicchieri the mouth of Nile called now Scanderia or Scandaroun g Efficient Fabricatiuam pertayning to composition and diuiâ—… of matter in things created by it selfe for these are not the workes of creation Angells 〈◊〉 beasts and liuelesse things can effect them The Platonists opinion that held the Angells Gods creatures and man the Angells CHAP. 26. ANd Plato would haue the lesser Gods made by the highest to create all other things by taking their immortall part from him and framing the mortall themselues herein making them not the creators of our selues but our bodies onely And therefore Porphiry in holding that the body must be avoyded ere the soule be purged and thinking with Plato and his sect that the soules of bad liuers were for punishment thrust into bodies into beasts also saith Plato but into mans onely saith Porphiry affirmeth directly that these gods whom they wil haue vs to worship as our parents creators are but the forgers of our prisons and not our formers but only our iaylors locking vs in those dolorous grates and wretched setters wherfore the Platonists must either giue vs no punishmeÌ„t in our bodies or else make not those gods our creators whose worke they exhort vs by all meanes to avoid to escape though both these positions be most false for the soules are neither put into bodies to be thereby punished noâ—… hath any thing in heauen or earth any creator but the maker of heauen and earth For if there be no cause of our life but our punishment how a is it that Plato saith the world could neuer haue beene made most beautifull but that it was filled with all kind of creatures But if our creation albe it mortall be the worke oâ—… God how iâ—… iâ—… punishment then to enter into Gods benefites that is our bodies b and if God as Plato saith often had all the creatures of the world in his prescience why then did not hee make them all would he not make some and yet in his vnbounded knowledge knew how to make all wherefore our true religion rightly affirmes him the maker both of the world and all creatures therein bodies and soules of which in earth man the chiefe Piece was made alone after his Image for the reason shewed before if not for a greater yet was he not left alone for there is nothing in the world so sociable by nature and so iarring by vice as man is nor can mans â—…re speake better either to the keeping of discord whilst it is out or expelling it when it is entred then in recording our first Father whom God created single from him to propagate all the rest to giue vs a true admonition to preserue an vnion ouer greatest multitudes And in that the woman was made of his ribbe was a plaine intimation of the concord that should bee betweene man and wife These were the strange workes of God for they were the first Hee that beleeues them not must vtterly deny all wonders for if they had followed the vsuall course of nature they had beene no wonders But what is there in all this whole worke of the diuine prouidence that is not of vse though wee know it not The holy Psalme saith Come and behold the workes of the Lord what wonders hee hath wrought vpon the earth Wherefore why the Woman was made of Mans ribbe and what this first seeming wonder prefigured if God vouchsafe I will shew in another place L. VIVES HOw a is it that Plato His words are these GOD speaketh to the lesser Gods Marks what I say vnto you we haue three kindes remaining all mortall which if wee omit the creation will not bee perfect for wee shall not comprehend all kindes of creatures in it which wee must needs doe to haue it fully absolute b And if GOD There also hee saith that God hath the Ideas of all creatures mortall and immortall in him-selfe which he looked vpon the immortall ones when hee made the things that should neuer perish the mortall in the rest I aske not here whether that God be those Ideae or whether they bee some-thing else the Platonists know not them-selues c The concord that should Because the woman was not made of any externall parts but of mans selfe as his daughter that there might bee a fatherly loue of his wife in him and a filiall duty towards him in the wife shee was taken out of his side as his fellow not out of his head as his Lady nor out of his feete as his seruant That the fulnesse of man-kinde was created in the first man in whom God fore-saw both who
but the better part onely nor the body whole man but the worse part only and both conioyned make man yet when we speake of them disioyned they loose not that name for who may not follow custome and say such a man is dead such a man is now in ioy or in paine and speake but of the soule onely or such a man is in his graue and meane but the body onely will they say the scripture vseth no such phrase yes it both calles the body and soule conioyned by the name of man and also diuiding them calles the soule the inward man and the body the outward as if they were two men and not both composiâ—…gone And marke in what respect man is called Gods image and man of earth returning to earth the first is in respect of the reasonable soule which God breathed or inspired into man that is into mans body and the laâ—…er is in respect of the body which God made of the dust and gaue it a soule whereby it became a liuing body that is man became a liuing soule and therefore whereas Christ breathing vpon his Apostles said receue the holy spirit this was to shew that the spirit was his aswell as the Fathers for the spirit is the Fathers and the Sonnes making vp the Trinity of Father Sonne and Holy Spirit being no creature but a creator That breath which was carnally breathed was not the substantiall nature of the Holy Spirit but rather a signification as I said of the Sonnes communication of the spirit with his Father it being not particular to either but common to both The scriptures in Greeke calleth it alwaies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Lord called it here when by signifiing it with his breath hee gaue it to his disciples and I neuer read it otherwise called in any place of Gods booke But here whereas it is sayd that God formed man being dust of the earth and breathed in his face the spirit or breath of life the Greeke is g not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word is read oftener for the creature then the creator and therefore some latinists for difference sake do not interpret this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirit but breath for so it is in Esay where God saith h I haue made all breath meaning doubtlesse euery soule Therefore that which the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee do sometimes call breath some-time spirit some-time inspiration and aspiration and some-times i soule but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neuer but spirit either of man as the Apostle saith what man knoweth the things of a man but the spirit of a man which is in him or of a beast as wee read in the preacher Who knoweth whether the spirit of man ascendeth vpwardes and the spirit of the beast downewards to the earth or that bodily spirit which wee call wind as the Psalme saith fire hayle snow Ice and the spirit of tempests or of no creature but the creator himselfe whereof our Sauiour said in the Gospell Receiue the holy 〈◊〉 signifying it in his bodily breath and there also where hee saith Goe and bâ—…ise all nations in the name of the father the sonne and the holy spirit plainly and excellently intimating the full Trinity vnto vs and there also where wee read God is a spirit and in many other places of scripture In all those places of Scriptâ—… the Greeke wee see hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine flatus and not spiâ—…us And therefore if in that place Hee breathed into his face the breath of life tâ—… Greeke had not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it hath but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet were it no consequent that wee should take it for the holy spirit the third person in Trinity because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is vâ—… for a creature as well as the creator and as ordinarily O but â—…ay they hee â—…ld not haue added vitae of life but that hee meant that spirit aâ—…d whereas 〈◊〉 sâ—…id Man became a soule hee would not haue added liuing but that he meant the soules life which is giuen from aboue by the spirit of God for the soule haâ—…g a proper life by it selfe why should hee adde liuing but to intimate the 〈◊〉 giuen by the holy spirit But what is this but folly to respect coniecture and 〈◊〉 to neglect scripture for what need we goe further then a chapter and beâ—…old let the earth bring forth the liuing soule speaking of the creation of all eâ—…ly creatures and besides for fiue or sixe Chapters onely after why might 〈◊〉 â—…ot obserue this Euery thing in whose nosthrills the spirit of life did breath â—…soeuer they were in the drye land dyed relating the destruction of euery liuing 〈◊〉 vpon earth by the deluge If then wee finde a liuing soule and a spirit of life in beasts as the Scripture saith plainly vsing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this very 〈◊〉 place why may wee not as well say why added hee liuing there seeing 〈◊〉 soule cannot bee vnlesse it liue and why added hee Of life here hauing â—…d spirit But wee vnderstand the Scriptures ordinary vsage of the liuing 〈◊〉 and the spirit of life for animated bodyes naturall and sensitiue and yet 〈◊〉 this vsuall phrase of Scripture when it commeth to bee vsed concerning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of man Whereas it implieth that man receiued a reasonable soule of 〈◊〉 â—…ated by his breath k not as the other were produced out of water and 〈◊〉 and yet so that it was made in that body to liue therein and make it an aniâ—… body and a liuing soule as the other creatures were whereof the Scripture sayd Let the earth bring forth a liuing soule and that in whose nostrills was the â—…rit of life which the Greek text calleth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning not the holy spirit but their life But wee say they doe conceiue Gods breath to come from the mouth of God now if that bee a soule l wee must holde it equall 〈◊〉 â—…substantiall with that wisdome or Worde of GOD which saith I am come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the mouth of the most high Well it saith not that it was breathed from 〈◊〉 â—…outh but came out of it And as wee men not out of our owne nature but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ayre about vs can make a contraction into our selues and giue it out 〈◊〉 in a breath so Almighty GOD not onely out of his owne nature or of 〈◊〉 â—…feriour creature but euen of nothing can make a breath which hee may 〈◊〉 most fitly said to breath or inspire into man it being as hee is incorporeall 〈◊〉 â—…ot as hee is immutable because it is created as he is not 〈◊〉 to let those men see that will talke of Scriptures and yet marke not what 〈◊〉 doe intend that some-thing may bee sayd to come
victories For any part of it that warreth against another desires to bee the worlds conqueror whereas indeed it is vices slaue And if it conquer it extolls it selfe and so becomes the owne destruction but if wee consider the condition of worldly affaires and greeue at mans opennesse to aduersity rather then delight in the euents of prosperitie thus is the victory deadly for it cannot keepe a soueraigntie for euer where it got a victory for once Nor can wee call the obiects of this citties desires good it being in the owne humaine nature farre surmounting them It desires an earthly peace for most base respects and seeketh it by warre where if it subdue all resistance it attaineth peace which notwithstanding the aduerse part that fought so vnfortunately for those respects do want This peace they seeke by laborious warre and obteine they thinke by a glorious victory And when they conquer that had the right cause who will not gratulate their victory and be glad of their peace Doubtlesse those are good and Gods good guifts But if the things appertaining to that celestiall and supernall cittie where the victory shall be euerlasting be neglected for those goods and those goods desired as the onely goods or loued as if they were better then the other misery must needs follow and increase that which is inherent before Of that murderer of his brother that was the first founder of the earthly citie whose act the builder of Rome paralleld in murdering his brother also CHAP. 5. THerefore this earthly Citties foundation was laide by a murderer of his owne brother whom he slew through enuie being a pilgrim vpon earth of the heauenly cittie Wherevpon it is no wonder if the founder of that Cittie which was to become the worlds chiefe and the Queene of the nation followed this his first example or a archetype in the same fashion One of their Poets records the fact in these words b Fraterno primi madâ—…erunt sanguine muri The first walles steamed with a brothers bloud Such was Romes foundation and such was Romulus his murder of his brother 〈◊〉 as their histories relate onely this difference there is these bretheren were both cittizens of the earthly cittie and propagators of the glory of Rome for whose institution they contended But they both could not haue that glory that if they had beene but one they might haue had For he that glories in dominion must needs see his glory diminished when hee hath a fellow to share with him Therefore the one to haue all killed his fellow and by villanie grew vnto bad greatnesse whereas innocencie would haue installed him in honest meannesse But those two brethren Caine and Abel stood not both alike affected to earthly matters nor did this procure enuie in them that if they both should reigne hee that could kill the other should arise to a greater pitch of glory for Abel sought no dominion in that citty which his brother built but that diuell enuy did all the â—…chiefe which the bad beare vnto the good onely because they are good for the possession of goodnesse is not lessned by being shared nay it is increased 〈◊〉 it hath many possessing it in one linke and league of charity Nor shall hee 〈◊〉 haue it that will not haue it common and he that loues a fellow in it shall hâ—… it the more aboundant The strife therfore of Romulus Remus sheweth the â—…on of the earthly city in it selfe and that of Caine Abel shew the opposition 〈◊〉 â—…he city of men the city of God The wicked opose the good But the good 〈◊〉 â—…e perfect cannot contend amongst them-selues but whilst they are vnperâ—…â—…ey may contend one against another in that manner that each contends aâ—… him-selfe for in euery man the flesh is against the spirit the spirit against 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then the spirituall desire in one may fight against the carnall in anoâ—… or contrary wise the carnall against the spirituall as the euill do against the gâ—… or the two carnal desires of two good men that are inperfect may contend 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bad do against the bad vntil their diseases be cured themselues brought to â—…lasting health of victory L. VIVES Aâ—…type a It is the first pattent or copy of any worke the booke written by the authors â—…e hand is called the Archetype Iuuenall Et iubet archetypos iterum seruare Cleanthas And bids him keepe Cleanthes archetypes b 〈◊〉 Lucan lib. 8. The historie is knowne c His brother built Did Caine build a citty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meanes hee the earthly citty which vice and seperation from God built the latter I 〈◊〉 d The wicked This is that I say vice neither agrees with vertue nor it selfe for amity 〈◊〉 â—…ongst the good the bad can neither bee friends with the good nor with themselues Of the langours of Gods Cittizens endure in earth as the punishments of sinne during their pilgrimage and of the grace of God curing them CHAP. 6. BVt the langour or disobedience spoken of in the last booke is the first puâ—…ment of disobedience and therefore it is no nature but a corruption for 〈◊〉 it is said vnto those earthly prilgrimes and God proficients Beare a yee 〈◊〉 â—…hers burdens and so yee shall fulfill the Law of Christ and againe admonish the 〈◊〉 â—…fort the feble be patient towards all ouer-come euill with goodnesse see that 〈◊〉 hurt for hurt and againe If a man be fallen by occasion into any sinne you that 〈◊〉 â—…all restore such an one with the spirit of meekenesse considering thy selfe least 〈◊〉 be tempted and besides let not the sunne go downe vpon your wrath and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gospell If thy brother trespasse against thee take him and tell him his falt beâ—… 〈◊〉 and him alone 〈◊〉 â—…cerning the scandalous offenders the Apostle saith Them that sin rebuke 〈◊〉 the rest may feare and in this respect many things are taught concerning â—…g And a great charge is laid vpon vs to keep that peace there where that 〈◊〉 of the c seruants being commanded to pay the ten thousand talents hee ought because hee forcibly exacted his fellowes debt of an hundred pence Vnto which simily the Lord Iesus addeth this cloze So shall mine heauenly father doe vnto you except you forgiue each one his brothers trespasses from your hearts Thus are Gods cittizens vpon earth cured of their diseases whilest they are longing for the celestiall habitation But the Holy spirit worketh within to make the salue worke that is outwardly applied otherwise though God should speake to mankinde out of any creature either sensibly or in dreames and not dispose of our hearts with his inward grace the preaching of the truth would not further mans conuersion a whitte But this doth God in his secret and iust prouidence diuiding the vessells of wrath and mercy And it is his admirable and secret worke that sinne e being in vs rather the punishment of sinne as the Apostle
wherein they are as skilfull as a sort of Cumane Asses Of the parity of yeares measured by the same spaces of old and of late CHAP. 14. NOw let vs see how plaine wee can shew that ten of their yeares is not one of ours but one of their yeares as long as one of ours both finished by the course of the sunne and all their ancestors long liues laide out by that recâ—…ng It is written that the floud happened the three score yeare of Noahs 〈◊〉 But why doe the Scriptures say In the sixe hundreth yeare of Noahs life in the sâ—…d moneth and the twentie seauenth day of the moneth if the yeare were but thirtie sixe dayes for so little a yeare must eyther haue no moneths or it 〈◊〉 haue but three dayes in a moneth to make twelue moneths in a yeare How then can it be said the sixe hundreth yeare the second moneth the twenty seauenth day of the moneth vnlesse their yeares and moneths were as ours is How can it bee other-wise sayd that the deluge happened the twenty seauen of the â—…th Againe at the end of the deluge it is written In the seauenth moneth and the twenty seauenth of the month the Arke rested vpon the Mountaine Ar ar â—…t 〈◊〉 and the waters decreased vntill the eleauenth month in the eleauenth month the first day were the toppes of the mountaines seene So then if they had such monthes their yeares were like ours for a three daied month cannot haue 27. daies or if they diininish all proportionably and make the thirteenth part of three daies stand for one day why then that great deluge that continued increasing forty daies and forty nights lasted not full 4. of our daies Who can endure this absurdity Cast by this error then that seekes to procure the scriptures credit in one thing by falsifying it in many The day without al question was as great then as it is now begun and ended in the compasse of foure and twenty houres the month as it is now concluded in one performance of the Moones course and the yeare as it is now consumate in twelue lunary reuolutions East-ward a fiue daies and a quarter more being added for the proportionating of it to the course of the Sunne sixe hundred of such yeares had Noah liued two such monthes and seauâ—…n and twenty such daies when the floud beganne wherein the raine fell forty daies continually not daies of two houres and a peece but of foure and twenty houres with the night and therefore those fathers liued some of them nine hundred such yeares as Abraham liued but one hundred and eighty of and his sonne Isaac neare a hundred and fifty and such as Moyses passed ouer to the number of a hundred and twenty and such as our ordinary men now a daies do liue seauenty or eighty of or some few more of which it is said their ouerplus is but labour and sorrow For the discrepance of account betweene vs and the Hebrewes concernes not the lenght of the Patriarches liues and where there is a difference betweene them both that truth cannot reconcile wee must trust to the tongue whence wee haue our translation Which euery man hauing power to doe yet b it is not for naught no man dares not aduenture to correct that which the Seuenty haue made different in their translation from the Hebreâ—… for this diuersity is no error let no man thinke so I doe not but if there bee no falt of the transcriber it is to bee thought that the Holy Spirit meant to alter some-things concerning the truth of the sence and that by them not according to the custome of interpreters but the liberty of Prophets and therefore the Apostles are found not onely to follow the Hebrewes but them also in cityng of holy Testimonies But hereof if GOD will hereafter now to our purpose We may not therefore doubt that the first child of Adam liuing so long might haue issue enough to people a citty an earthly one I meane not that of Gods which is the principall ground wherevpon this whole worke intreateth L. VIVES FIue a daies and The Moones month may bee taken two waies either for the moones departure and returne to one and the same point which is done in seauen and twenty daies or for her following of the sunne vntill shee ioyne with him in the Zodiake which is done in nine and twenty daies twelue houres and foure and forty minutes for shee neuer findeth the sunne where she left him for hee is gone on of his iourney and therefore she hath two daies and an halfe to ouertake him the Iewes allow hir thirty daies and call this 〈◊〉 full month b It is Not without a cause Whether the men of old abstained from women vntill that the scriptures say they â—…egot children CHAP. 15. BVt will some say is it credible that a man should liue eighty or ninty nâ—…more then a 100. yeares without a woman and without purpose of continency and then fall a begetting children as the Hebrewes record of them or if they lifted could they not get children before this question hath two answeres for either they liued longer a immature then we do according to the length of time exceeding ours or else which is more likely their first borne are not reckened but onely such as are requisite for the drawing of a pedegree downe from Adam vnto Noah from whom we see a deriuation to Abraham and so vntill a certaine period as farre as those pedegrees were held fit to prefigure the course of Gods glorious Pilgrim-citty vntill it ascend to eternity It cannot bee denied that Caine was the first that euer was borne of man and woman For Adam would not haue sayd I haue l gotten a man by the Lord at his birth but that hee was the first man borne before the other two Him Abell was next whom the first or elder killed and herein was prefigured what persecutions God glorious City should endure at the hands of the wicked members of the terrestriall society those sons of earth I may call them But how old Adam was at the begetting of these two it is not euident from thence is a passage made to the generations of Caine and to his whom God gaue Adam in murdred Abels seede called Seth of whom it is written God hath appointed me another seed for Abell whom Caine slew Seeing therfore that these two generations Caines and Seths do perfectly insinuate the two citties the one celestiall and laboring vpon earth the other earthly and following our terrestriall affects there is not one of all Caines progeny from Adam to the eighth generation whose age is set downe when hee begot his next sonne yet is his whole generation rehersed for the Spirit of God would not record the times of the wicked before the deluge but of the righteous onely as onelie â—…orthy But when Seth was borne his fathers yeares were not forgotten though he had begotten others
generation is drawne out along to the deluge from the naming of his sonne Enoch who was named before all his other posterity and yet when Seths sonne Enos is borne the author doth not proceede downward to the floud but goeth back to Adam in this manner This is the booke of the generation of Adam In the day that God created Adam in the likenesse of God made he him male and female created he them and blessed them and called their name Adam that day that they were created This I hold is interposed to goe back to Adam from him to reckon the times which the author would not doe in his description of the Earthly Citie as also God remembred that without respecting the accompt But why returnes hee to this recapiâ—…ulation after hee hath named the a righteous sonne of Seth who hoped to call vpon the name of the Lord but that hee will lay downe the two Cittiâ—…s in this manner one by an homicide vntill hee come to an homicide for Lamech confesseth vnto his two wiues that hee had beene an homicide and the other by him that hoped to call vpon the name of the Lord. For the principall businesse that Gods Cittie hath in 〈◊〉 pilgrimaâ—… vpon earth is that which was commended in that one man who was appointed a seede for him that was slaine For in him onely was the vnity of the supernall Cittie not really complete mystically comprized â—…herefore the sonne of Caine the sonne of possession what shall hee haue but the name of the Earthly Cittie on earth which was built in his name Hereof sings the Psalmist b They haue called their lands by their names wherevpon that followeth which hee saith else-where Lord thou shalt desperse their image to nothing in thy Cittie But let the sonne of the resurrection Seths sonne hope to call vpon the Lorâ—…s name for hee is a type of that society that saith I shall bee â—…ke a fruitfull Oliue in the house of God for I trusted in his mercy And let him not seeke vaine-glorie vpon earth for Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust and regardeth not vanity and false fondnesse Thus the two Citties are described to be seated the one in worldly possession 〈◊〉 other in heauenly hope both comming out at the common gate of mortality which was opened in Adam out of whose condemned progenie as out of a putrified lumpe God elected some vessels of mercy and some of wrath giuing due paines vnto the one and vndue grace vnto the other that the cittizens of God vpon earth may take this lesson from those vessels of wrath neuer to d relie on their owne election but hope to call vpon the name of the Lord because the naturall will which God made but yet heere the changelesse made it not changlesse may both decline from him that is good and from all good to do euill and that by freedom of will and from euill also to doe good but that not with-out Gods assistance L. VIVES THat a righteous Enos Seths sonne interpreted man b They haue This is the truest reading and nearest to the Hebrew though both the seauenty and Hierom read it otherwise c Giuing To shew Gods iust punishment of the wicked and his free sauing of the chosen d Relye on their As Pelagius would haue men to doe Of the fall of the sonnes of God by louing strange women whereby all but eight perished CHAP 22. THis freedome of will increasing and pertaking with iniquity produced a confused comixtion of both Citties and this mischiefe arose from woman also but not as the first did For the women now did not seduce men to sinne but the daughters that had beene of the Earthly Cittie from the beginning and of euill conditions were beloued of the cittizens of God for their bodily beauty which is indeed a gift of God but giuen to the euill also least the good should imagine it of any such great worth Thus was the greatest good onely perteyning to the good left and a declination made vnto the least good that is common to the bad also and thus the sonnes of God were taken with the loue of the daughters of men and for their sakes fell into society of the earthly leauing the piety that the holy society practised And thus was carnall beauty a gift of good indeed but yet a temporall base and transitory one sinne-fully elected and loued before God that eternall internall and sempiternall good iust as the couetous man forsaketh iustice and loueth golde the golde â—…eeing not in fault but the man euen so is it in all other creatures They are all good and may bee loued well or badly well when our loue is moderate badly when it is inordinate as b one wrote in praise of the Creator Haec â—…ua sunt bona sunt quia tu bonus ista creasti Nil nostrum est in eis nisi quod peccamus amantes Ordine neglecto pro te quod conditur abs te Those are thy goods for thou chiefe good didst make them Not ours yet seeke we them in steed of thee Peruerse affect in forcing vs mistake them But we loue the Creator truly that is if he be beloued for him-selfe and nothing that is not of his essence beloued for of him we caÌ„not loue any thing amisse For that very loue where-by we loue that is to be loued is it selfe to be moderately loud in our selues as beeing a vertue directing vs in honest courses And tâ—…ore I thinke that the best and briefest definition of vertue be this It is c aâ—…â—…der of loue for which Christs spouse the Citty of God saith in the holy canâ—… Hee hath ordered his loue in mee This order of loue did the sonnes of God 〈◊〉 neglecting him and running after the daughters of men in which two â—…s both the Citties are fully distinguished for they were the sonnes of men by â—…ure but grace had giuen them a new stile For in the same Scripture 〈◊〉 it is sayd that The sonnes of God loued the daughters of men they are also called the Angels of GOD. Where-vpon some thought them to bee Angels and â—…ot men that did thus L. VIVES Wâ—…ch a is indeed Homer Iliad 3. b One wrote Some read as I wrote once in praise of a tâ—…per I know not which to approoue c An order That nothing bee loued but 〈◊〉 which ought to be loued as it ought and as much as it ought So doth Plato graduate the â—…easonable and mentall loue d Hee hath ordered This saith Origen is that which our Sâ—…r saith Thou shalt loue thy Lord with all thine heart with all thy soule with all thy minde 〈◊〉 â—…th all thy strength And thou shalt loue thy neighbor as thy selfe but not with all thinâ—… 〈◊〉 and loue thine enemies he saith not as thy selfe nor withall thine heart but holds it â—…nt to loue them at all In Cantic Whether it be credible that the Angels being of an incorpore
all nature should lust after the women of earth and marrying them beget Gyants of them CHAP. 23. â—…is question wee touched at in our third booke but left it vndiscussed wheâ—…er the Angels being spirits could haue carnall knowledge of women for 〈◊〉 â—…itten He maketh his Angels spirits that a is those that are spirits hee 〈◊〉 his Angels by sending them on messages as hee please for the Greeke 〈◊〉 â—…rd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Latines call c Angelus is interpreted a messenger 〈◊〉 â—…ether he meant of their bodyes when he addeth And his ministers a flaâ—… or that he intimate that Gods ministers should burne with fiery zeale â—…ritie it is doubtfull yet doe the scriptures plainly auerre that the Anâ—… appeared both in visible and palpable figures b And seeing it is so 〈◊〉 a report and so many auerre it eyther from their owne triall or from 〈◊〉 that are of indubitable honestie and credite that the Syluanes and 〈◊〉 commonly called e Incubâ—… haue often iniured women desiring and acâ—…â—…rnally with them and that certaine deuills whome the Frenchmen call 〈◊〉 doe continually practise this vncleannesse and tempt others to it which â—…ed by such persons and with such confidence that it were impudence 〈◊〉 it I dare not venter to determine any thing heere whether the 〈◊〉 beeing imbodyed in ayre for this ayre beeing violently mooued is 〈◊〉 â—…lt can suffer this lust or mooue it so as the women with whome 〈◊〉 â—…ixe many feele it f yet do I firmely beleeue that Gods Angels could 〈◊〉 â—…ll so at that time nor that the Apostle Peter did meane of them when he sayd If God spared not the Angels that had sinned but cast them downe into hell and deliuered them into chaines of darkenesse to be kept vnto damnation but rather of those that turned apostata's with the diuell their prince at first in him I meane that deceiued man-kinde in the serpent That men were also called the Angels of God the scripture testifieth also saying of Iohn Behold I send mine Angel before â—…hy face which shall prepare the way before thee And Malachie the prophet by a peculiar grace giuen him was called an Angell But some sticke at this that in this commixtion of them that were called Gods Angels with the women of earth there were Gyants begotten and borne as though that we haue no such extraordinary huge statured creatures euen in these our times Was there not a woman of late at Rome with her father and mother a little before it was sacked by the Gothes that was of a giantlike height in respect of all other It was wonderfull to see the concourse of those that came to see her and shee was the more admired in that her parents exceeded not our tallest ordinary stature Therefore there might bee giants borne before that the sonnes of God called also his Angells had any carnall confederacy with the daughters of men such I meane as liued in the fleshly course that is ere the sonnes of Seth medled with the daughters of Caine for the Scripture in Genesis saith thus So when men were multiplied vpon earth and there were daughters borne vnto them the sonnes of God saw the daughters of men that they were faire and they tooke them wiues of all that they liked Therefore the Lord said my spirit shall not alway striue with man because he is but flesh and his daies shal be 120. yeares There were Gyants in the earth in those daies yea and after that the sonnes of God came vnto the daughters of men and they had borne them children these were Gyants and in old time were men of renowne These words of holy writ shew plainely that there were Gyants vpon earth when the sonnes of God tooke the fayre daughters of men to bee their wiues g for the scripture vseth to call that which is faire good But there were Gyants borne after this for it saith There were Gyants vpon earth in those daies and after that the sonnes of God came vnto the daughters of men so that there were Gyants both then and before and whereas it saith They begot vnto themselues this sheweth that they had begotten children vnto God before and not vnto themselues that is not for lust but for their duty of propagation nor to make themselues vp any flaunting family but to increase the Cittizens of God whome they like Gods angels instructed to ground their hope on him as the sonne of the resurrection Seths sonne did who hoped to call vpon the name of the Lord in which hope he and all his sons might be sons and heires of life euerlasting But we may not take them to bee such Angels as were no men men they were without doubt and so saith the Scripture which hauing first sayd the Angels of God sâ—… the daughters of men that they were good and they tooke them wiues of all whome they liked addeth presently And the Lord said my spirit shall not alway striue with mâ—… because hee is but flesh For his spirit made them his Angels and sonnes but they declined downewards and therefore hee calleth them men by nature not by grace and flesh being the forsaken forsakers of the spirit The 70. call them the Angels and sonnes of God some bookes call them onely the sonnes of God leauing out Angels But h Aquila whome the Iewes prefer before all calls them neither but the sonnes of Gods both is true for they were both the sonnes of God and by his patronage the bretheren of their fathers and they were the sonnes of the Gods as borne of the Gods and their equalls according to that of the Psalme I haue said yee are Gods and yee are al sonnes of the most high for weâ—… do worthily beleeue that the 70. had the spirit of prophecy and that what soeuer they altered is set downe according to the truth of diuinity not after the pleasure of translators yet the Hebrew they say is doubtfull and may be interpreted 〈◊〉 the sonnes of God or of Gods Therefore let vs omit the scriptures that are 〈◊〉 i Apocripha because the old fathers of whome wee had the scriptures 〈◊〉 not the authors of those workes wherein though there bee some truths yâ—… their multitude of falshhoods maketh them of no canonicall authority Sâ—… Scriptures questionlesse were written by Enoch the seauenth from 〈◊〉 As the canonicall k Epistle of Iude recordeth but it is not for â—…ng that they were left out of the Hebrew Canon which the Priests kept in 〈◊〉 â—…mple The reason was their antiquity procured a suspicion that they 〈◊〉 not truly diuine and an vncertainety whether Henoch were the author or 〈◊〉 â—…ing that such as should haue giuen them their credit vnto posterity neuer 〈◊〉 them And therefore those bookes that go in his name and containe those 〈◊〉 of the giants that ther fathers were no men are by good iudgements held 〈◊〉 â—…ne of his but counterfeite as the heretiques haue done many
and twenty yeares wee must not take it as though that it were a forewarning that a none after that should 〈◊〉 aboue that time for many after the deluge liued fiue hundred yeares But it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnderstood that God spake this about the end of Noahs fiue hundred 〈◊〉 that is when he was foure hundred and foure score yeares old which the 〈◊〉 ordinarily calleth fiue hundred taking the greatest part for the whole 〈◊〉 the sixe hundred yeare of Noah and the second month the floud beâ—…â—…o the hundred and twenty yeares were passed at the end of which manâ—… 〈◊〉 bee vnuersally destroyed by the deluge Nor is it fruteâ—…esse to beâ—…â—…e deluge came thus when there were none left on earth that were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of such a death not that a good man dying such a death should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worse for it after it is past But of all those of Seths progeny whome â—…he 〈◊〉 nameth there was not one that died by the deluge This floud the 〈◊〉 saith grew vpon this The Lord saw that the wickednesse of man was great 〈◊〉 and all the imaginations of his heart were onely and continually euill and 〈◊〉 â—…ued in his heart how he had made man in the earth and sayd I will aestroy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the earth the man whome I haue made from man to beast and from the 〈◊〉 things to the fowles of the ayre for I am angry that I haue made them L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a none This Lactantius held lib. 2. His words are these The earth being dried the 〈◊〉 â—…ing the iniquity of the former world least their length of life should bee the mid wife 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee shortned the daies of man by degrees vntill they came to a hundred and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there â—…e fiâ—… his bound not to be ouerpassed But Hierome goeth with Augusâ—… 〈◊〉 shall yet haue a hundred and twenty yeares to repent in not thaâ—… thâ—… life oâ—… no 〈◊〉 shall not exceed a hundred and twenty yeares as many erroneously vnderstand 〈◊〉 that Abraham after the deluge liued a hundred three-score and fifteene yeares 〈◊〉 hundred nay some aboue three hundred yeares Iosephus differs some-what 〈◊〉 but not much for hee sayth that after the floud mens dayes grew fewer vnâ—… 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 him the bound of mans life was set vp at a hundred and twenty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 decree and according to the number also that Moyses liued b Reuolued 〈◊〉 but the seauenty haue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 recogitauit he reuolued in his thought Of Gods vnpassionate and vnaltering anger CHAP. 25. 〈◊〉 anger a is no disturbance of mind in him but his iudgement asâ—… sinne the deserued punishment and his reuoluing of thought is an 〈◊〉 ordering of changeable things for God repenteth not of any thing 〈◊〉 man doth but his knowledge of a thing ere it be done and his thought 〈◊〉 it is done are both alike firme and fixed But the Scripture without 〈◊〉 cannot instil into our vnderstandings the meaning of Gods workes 〈◊〉 the proud nor stire vp the idle nor exercise the inquirers nor deâ—… vnderstanders This it cannot do without declining to our low capaâ—… 〈◊〉 whereas it relateth the future destruction of beasts and birds It 〈◊〉 the greatnesse of the dissolution but doth not thereaten it vnto the 〈◊〉 creatures as if they had sinned L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a â—…ger Lactantius wrote a booke of Gods Anger we with Hierome refer the 〈◊〉 vnto him if he desire to know further That Noah his Arke signifieth Christ and his Church in all things CHAP. 26. NOw whereas Noah being as the truth saith a iust man in his time and perfect yet not as the Cittizens of God shall bee perfect in that immortality wherein they shall equalize the Angells but perfect as a mortall pilgrime of God may bee vpon earth was commanded by God to build an Arke wherein he his family and the creatures which God commanded to come into the Arke vnto him might bee saued from the waters this verily is a figure of Gods Citty here vpon earth that is his Church which is saued by wood that is by that where-vpon Christ the mediator betweene God and man was crucified For the dimensions of the length deapth and bredth of the Arke do signifie mans body in which the Sauiour was prophecyed to come and did so for a the length of mans body from head to foote is sixe times his bredth from side to side and tenne times his thickenesse measuring prependicularly from backe to belly lay a man a long and measure him and you shall finde his length from head to foote to containe his bredth from side to side sixe times and his height from the earth whereon he lyeth tenne times where-vpon the Arke was made three hundred cubites long fifty broad and thirty deepe And the dore in the side was the wound that the soldiers speare made in our Sauiour for by this do all men go in vnto him for thence came the sacraments of the beleeuers and the Arke being made all of square wood signifieth the vnmoued constancy of the Saints for cast a cube or squared body which way you wil it wil euer stand firme So all the rest that concerned the building of this Arke b were tipes of Ecclesiasticall matters But here it is too long to stand vpon them wee haue done it already against Faustus the Manichee who denied that the ould testament had any propheticall thing concerning Christ. It may bee one may take this one way and another another way so that all bee referred to the Holy Citty where-vpon wee discourse which as I say often â—…boured here in this terrestriall pilgrimage other-wise hee shall goe farre from his meaning that wrot it As for example if any one will not expound this place make it with the c lowest second and third roomes as I do in that worke against Faustus namely that because the Church is gathered out of al nations it had two roomes for the two sorts of men circumcised and vncircumcised whome the Apostle other-wise calleth d Iewes and Greekes and it had three roomes because all the world had propagation from Noah his three sonnes after the floud if any one like not this exposition let him follow his owne pleasure so hee controll not the true rule of faith in it for the Arke had roomes below and roomes aboue and therefore was called double roomed and it had roomes aboue those vpper roomes and so was called triple-roomed being three stories high In these may bee ment the three things that the Apostles prayseth so Faith Hope and Charity or and that farre more fittly the three euangelicall increases thirty fold sixty fold and an hundred fould chaâ—… marriage dwelling in the first chast widowhood in the second and chast virginity in the highest of all thus or otherwise may this bee vnderstood euer respecting the reference it hath to this Holy Citty And so I might say of the other things here to be expounded which
their postâ—…re 〈◊〉 a quadrangle there were on the walls one thousand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…undred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Robooth Hieromes translation hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Râ—…ad onely Hee built Nâ—…iue and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnlesse the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The hebrew hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f Niâ—… 〈◊〉 following the Phaenician Theology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sonâ—… oâ—… 〈◊〉 and calleth him Iupiter Belus Now there was another 〈◊〉 sonne to Epaphus kinge of Egypt whome Ioue begot vnto this Belus Isis was mother 〈◊〉 Eusebius make him the sonne of Telegonus who maried Isis after Apis was dead 〈◊〉 reigning as then in Athens But Belus that was father to Ninus was a quiet King of 〈◊〉 anâ—… contented with a little Empire yet had hee this warlike sonne whereby he was â—…d as a God and called the Babilonian Iupiter This was their Belus say the Egyptians 〈◊〉 Egiptus whome they call the sonne of Neptune and Lybia and granchild to Epaphus 〈◊〉 â—…her Hee placed colonies in Babilon and seating him-selfe vpon the bankes of Euâ—…â—…stituted his Priests there after the Egyptian order That Belus whom they worshipped â—…outly in Assiria and who had a temple at Babilon in Plinies time was as he saith 〈◊〉 â—…tor of Astronomy and the Assirians dedicated a iewell vnto him and called it Belus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g Unto Sem also The seauenty lay it downe most playnely h Hebrewes Paul 〈◊〉 of Borgos a great Hebraician sayth they were called Hebrewes quasi trauellers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word intends trauellers they were indeed both in Egypt and in the land of Canaan i 〈◊〉 â—…ese were As Ilands are diuided from the continent by the sea so were they amongst â—…es by riuers mountaines woods sands deserts and marishes Of the confusion of tongues and the building of Babilon CHAP. 8. WHereas therefore the Scriptures reckneth those nations each according to his proper tongue yet it returneth backe to the time when they had 〈◊〉 â—…one tongue and then sheweth the cause of the diuersity Then the whole 〈◊〉 â—…th it was of one language and one speach And as they went from the East 〈◊〉 a plaine in the land of Semar and there they aboade and they sayd one to 〈◊〉 â—…me let vs make bricke and burne it in the fire so they had bricke for stone 〈◊〉 â—…ch for lime They sayd also come let vs build vs a citty and b a tower whose 〈◊〉 reach to the heauen that we c may get vs a name least we bee scattred vpon 〈◊〉 earth And the Lord came downe to see the citty and tower which the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men builded And the Lord sayd behold the people is all one and haue all 〈◊〉 â—…ge and this they begun to do neither can they now be stopped from 〈◊〉 â—…er they haue imagined to effect come on let vs downe and confound 〈◊〉 â—…guage there that each one of them vnderstand not his fellowes speach So 〈◊〉 Lord scattered them from thence ouer the whole earth and they d left 〈◊〉 â—…ild the citty and the tower Therefore the name of it was called confuâ—…â—…cause â—…cause there the Lord confounded the language of the whole earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence did the Lord scatter them vpon all the earth This Citty 〈◊〉 â—…ch was called confusion is that Babilon whose wounderfull building 〈◊〉 â—…d euen in prophane histories for Babilon is interpreted confusion 〈◊〉 we gather that Nembrod the Giant was as we said before the builder 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scripture saying the beginning of his kingdome was Babilon that is this 〈◊〉 metropolitane city of the realme the kings chamber and the chiefe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rest though it were neuer brought to that strange perfection that the 〈◊〉 and the proud would haue it to be for it was built to heigh which 〈◊〉 â—…as vp to heauen whether this were the fault of some one Tower which 〈◊〉 â—…ght more vpon then all the rest or of them all vnder one as wee will 〈◊〉 soldiour or enemy when we meane of many thousands and as the 〈◊〉 of Frogges and Locusts that plagued Egypt were called onely in the 〈◊〉 number the Frogge and Locust But what intended mans vaine presumption herein admit they could haue exceeded all the mountaines with their buildings height could they euer haue gotten aboue the element of ayre and what hurt can elleuation either of body or spirit do vnto God Humility is the true tract vnto heauen lifting vppe the spirit vnto GOD but not against GOD as that gyant was said to be an hunter against the Lord which some not vnderstanding were deceiued by the ambiguity of the greeke and translated before the Lord f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beeing both before and against for the Psalme vseth it so and kneele before the Lord our maker And it is also in Iob He hath stretched out his hand against God Thus then g is that hunter against the Lord to bee vnderstood But what is the worde Hunter but an entrapper persecutor and murderer of earthly creatures So rose this hunter and his people and raised this tower against GOD which was a type of the impiety of pride and an euill intent though neuer effected deserueth to bee punished But how was it punished Because that h all soueraignty lieth in commaund and all commaund in the tongue thus pride was plagued that the commaunder of men should not be vnderstood because he would not vnderstand the Lord his commander Thus was this conspiracy dissolued each one departing from him whom hee vnderstood not nor could he adapt himselfe to any but those that hee vnderstood and thus these languages diuided them into Nations and dispersed them ouer the whole earth as God who wrought those strange effects had resolued L. VIVES ANd a pitch Bitumen whereof there was great store in those places b A tower The like to this do the prophane writers talke of the Gyants wars against the Gods laying mountaine vpon mountaine to get foote-hold against heauen the nearer it Ter sunt conati inponere Pelion Ossae Ter pater extructos disiecit fulmine montes Pelion on Ossa three times they had throwne And thrice Ioues thunder struck the bul-warke downe Saith Uirgil The story is common it might be wrested out of this of the confusion as diuers other things are drawne from holy writ into heathenisme c We may get Let this bee a monument of vs all d Left off And the builders of the cittie ceased say the seauenty e Wonderfull In Pliny Solinus Mela Strabo Herodotus all the geographers and many of the Poets of this else-where f 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So it is in latin also g Is that hunter Iosephus writeth that Nimrod first taught mankinde to iniure GOD and to grow proud against him for being wondrous valiant he perswaded them that they might thanke themselues and not God for any good that befell them And so ordeined he himselfe a souerainty and to prouide that God should not subuert it
India the Easterne sea Taproban and the Iles thereabouts all found out by the power of Alexanders nauy and those you shall find Antipodes to vs if you marke the posture of the Globe diligently for they haue the same eleuation of their South pole and bee in the same distance from the occidentall point that some of the countries in our climat haue of our North poynt b Their feete As Tully saith in Scipios dreame c Coniecture For the temperature of the Southerne Zone is iust like to ours d Each part The world is round and Heauen is euery where a like aboue it Of the generation of Sem in which the Citty of God lyeth downe vnto Abraham CHAP. 10. SEMS generation it is then that wee must follow to find the Citty of God after the deulge as Seth deriued it along before Therefore the Scripture hauing shewen the Earthly Citty to bee in Babilon that is in confusion returnes to the Patriarch Sem and carieth his generation downe vntill Abraham counting euery mans yeares when he had his sonne and how long hee liued where by the way I thinke of my promise of explayning why one of Hebers sonns was called Phalech because in his dayes the earth was diuided how was it diuided by the confusion of tongues So then the sonnes of Sem that concerne not this purpose being letten passe the Scripture reciteth those that conuey his seed downe vnto Abraham as it did with those that conueyed Seths seede before the deluge downe vnto Noah It beginneth therefore thus These are the generations of Sem Sem was an hundred yeares old and begat a Arphaxad two yeares after the floud And Sem liued after hee begat Arphaxad fiue hundred yeares and begat sonnes and daughters and dyed And thus of the rest shewing when euery one begot his sonne that belonged to this generation that descendeth to Abraham and how long euery one liued after hee had begotten his sonne and begot more sonnes and daughters to shew vs 〈◊〉 a great multitude might come of one least wee should make any childish 〈◊〉 at the few that it nameth Sems seede beeing sufficient to replenish so 〈◊〉 kingdomes chiefly for the Assyrian Monarchie where Ninus the subduer 〈◊〉 the East raigned in maiesty and left a mighty Empire to bee possessed 〈◊〉 yeares after by his posterity But let vs not stand vpon trifles longer then 〈◊〉 must wee will not reckon the number of euery mans yeares till he dyed â—…ely vntill hee begat the sonne who is enranked in this genealogicall rolle 〈◊〉 gathering these from the deluge to Abraham we will briefly touch at other â—…ents as occasion shall necessarily import In the second yeare therefore 〈◊〉 the deluge Sem being two hundred yeares old begat Arphaxat Arphaxat 〈◊〉 a hundred thirty fiue yeares old begat Canaan hee beeing a hundred and 〈◊〉 yeares old begat Sala and so old was Sala when hee begot Heber Heber 〈◊〉 hundred thirty and foure yeares old when he begat Phalec Phalec a hundâ—… and thirty and begat Ragau hee one hundred thirty and two and begat Seâ—…ruch one hundred and thirty and begot Nachor Nachor seauenty and nine 〈◊〉 got Thara b Thara seauenty and begot Abram whom God afterward 〈◊〉 Abraham So then from the deluge to Abraham are one thousand seauenty 〈◊〉 yeares according to the vulgar translation that is the Septuagints But 〈◊〉 Hebrew the yeares are farre fewer whereof wee can heare little or no 〈◊〉 shewen 〈◊〉 therefore in this quest of the Citty of God wee cannot say in this time 〈◊〉 those men were not all of one language those seauenty and two naâ—… meane wherein wee seeke it that all man-kinde was fallen from GODS 〈◊〉 â—…uice but that it remained onely in Sems generation descending to 〈◊〉 by Arphaxad But the earthly Citty was visible enough in that preâ—…ion of building the tower vp to heauen the true type of deuillish exalâ—… therein was it apparant and euer after that But whether this other 〈◊〉 â—…ot before or lay hid or rather both remained in Noahs sonnes the godly 〈◊〉 two blessed ones and the wicked in that one accursed from whom that 〈◊〉 giant-hunter against the Lord descended it is hard to discerne for it may 〈◊〉 that most likely that before the building of Babilon GOD might haue 〈◊〉 of some of Chams children and the deulil of some of Sems and Iaphets 〈◊〉 may not beleeue that the earth wanted of eyther sort For that saying 〈◊〉 all gone out of the way they are all corrupt there is not one that doth good no 〈◊〉 euen in both the Psalmes that haue this saying this followeth Doe not 〈◊〉 worke iniquity know that they eate vp my people as it vvere bread so that 〈◊〉 his people then And therefore that same No not one is meant restricâ—… 〈◊〉 the sonnes of men and not the sonnes of GOD for hee sayd before 〈◊〉 looked downe from heauen vpon the sonnes of men to see if there were any 〈◊〉 â—…ld vnderstand and seeke GOD and then the addition that followeth 〈◊〉 that it was those that liued after the lawe of the flesh and not of the 〈◊〉 â—…ome hee speaketh of L. VIVES ARphaxad a From him saith Hierome the Chaldaeans descended b Thara The 70. call him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebrew Terah Tha the Hebrew tongue so called afterward of Heber was the first language vpon the earth and remained in his family when that great confusion was CHAP. 11. VVHerefore euen as sinne wanted not sonnes when they had all but one language for so it was before the deluge and yet all deserued to perish therein but Noah and his family so when mans presumption was punished with his languages confusion whence the Citty Babilon their proud worke had the name Hebers a house failed not but kept the old language still Where-vpon as I said Heber was reckoned the first of all the sonnes of Sem who begot each of them an whole nation yet was hee the fift from Seth in descent So then because this language remained in his house that was confounded in all the rest being credibly held the onely language vpon earth before this hence it had the name of the Hebrew tongue for then it was to bee nominally distinct from the other tongues as other tongues had their proper names But when it was the tongue of all it had no name but the tongue or language of man-kinde wherein all men spake Some may say if that the earth was diuided by the languages in Phalechs time Hebers sonne it should rather haue beene called his name then Hebers O but wee must vnderstand that b Heber did therefore giue his sonne Phalec such a name that is diuision because hee was borne vnto him iust at the time when the earth was diuided so meanes the Scripture when it saith in his dayes the earth was deuided For if Heber were not liuing when the confusion befell the tongue that was to remaine in his family should not haue
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
wife with-out all doubt his fathers obedience was of the greater merite so that for his sake God saith that hee will doe Isaac that good that he did him In thy seede shall all the nations of the world bee blessed saith he because thy father Abraham obeyed my voyce c. Againe saith he the God of thy father Abraham feare not for I am with thee and haue blessed thee and will multiply thy seede for Abraham thy Fathers sake To shew all those carnally minded men that thinke it was lust that made Abraham doe as it is recorded that hee did it with no lust at all but a chaste intent teaching vs besides that wee ought not compare mens worths by singularitie but to take them with all their qualities together For a man may excell another in this or that vertue who excelleth him as farre in another as good And al-be-it it be true that continence is better then marriage yet the faithfull married man is better then the continent Infidell for such 〈◊〉 one a is not onely not to be praised for his continencie since he beleeueth not but rather highly to bee dispraised for not beleeuing seeing hee is continent But to grant them both good a married man of great faith and obedience in Iesus Christ is better then a continent man with lesse but if they be equall who maketh any question that the continent man is the more exellent L. VIVES SUch an a One is not Herein is apparant how fruitlesse externall workes are without the dew of grace do ripen them in the heart the Bruges copy readeth not this place so well in my iudgement Of Esau and Iacob and the misteries included in them both CHAP. 27. SO Isaacs two sonnes Esau and Iacob were brought vp together now the yonger got the birth-right of the elder by a bargaine made for a lentiles and potage which Iacob had prepared Esau longed for exceedingly so sold him his birth-right for some of them and confirmed the bargaine with an oth Here now may we learne that it is b not the kind of meate but the gluttonous affect that hurts To proceed Isaac growes old and his sight fayled him he would willingly blesse his elder sonne and not knowing he blessed the yonger who had counterfeited his brothers roughnesse of body by putting goats skins vpon his necke and hands and so let his father feele him Now least some should thinke that this were c â—…lent deceipt in Iacob the Scripture saith before Esau was a cunning hunter 〈◊〉 â—…ed in the fieles but Iacob was a simple playne man and kept at home d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…lesse one without counterfeyting what was the deceipt then of this plaâ—… dealing man in getting of this blessing what can the guile of a guiltlesse true hearted soule be in this case but a deepe mistery of the truth what was the blessing Behold saith he the smell of my sonne is as the smell of a field which the Lord 〈◊〉 blessed God giue thee therefore of the dew of heauen and the fatnesse of earth â—…d plenty of wheate and wine let the nations bee thy seruants and Princes bow downe vnto thee bee Lord ouer thy bretheren and let thy mothers children honor thee cursed be he that curseth thee and blessed be he that blesseth thee Thus this blessing of Iacob is the preaching of Christ vnto all the nations This is the whole scope in Isaac is the law and the prophets and by the mouths of the Iewes is Christ blessed vnknowen to them because hee knoweth not them The odour of his name fills the world like a field the dew of heauen is his diuine doctrine the fertile â—…th is the faithfull Church the plenty of wheat and wine is the multitude â—…ed in Christ by the sacraments of his body and blood Him do nations serue and Princes adore Heâ—… is Lord ouer his brother for his people rule oâ—…r the Iewes The sonnes of his father that is Abrahams sonnes in the faith doe honour him For hee is Abrahams sonne in the flesh cursed bee hee that curseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blessed be he that blesseth him Christ I meane our Sauiour blessed That is â—…ly â—…ught by the Prophets of the woundring Iewes and is still blessed by oâ—… of them that as yet erroneously expect his comming And now comes 〈◊〉 â—…er for the blessing promised then is Isaac afraid and knowes hee had blessed the one for the other Hee wonders and asketh who he was yet complaineth hee not of the deceit but hauing the mysterie thereof opened in his heart hee forbeares fretning and confirmeth the blessing Who was hee then saith he that hunted and tooke venison for me and I haue eaten of it all before thou camest and I haue blessed him and hee shall bee blessed Who would not haue here expected a curse rather but that his minde was altered by a diuine inspiration O true done deedes but yet all propheticall on earth but all by heauen by men but all for God! whole volumes would not hold all the mysteries that they conceiue but wee must restraine our selues The processe of the worke calleth vs on vnto other matters L. VIVES FOr a lentiles There is lenticula a vessell of oyle and lenticula of lens a little fitchie kinde of pease the other comes of lentitas because the oyle cannot runne but gently lente out of the mouth it is so straite But the scriptures say that they were onely read poâ—…ge that Esau solde his birth-right for and therefore hee was called Edom redde b Not the 〈◊〉 of This is a true precept of the Euangelicall lawe Heere I might inscribe much not allow the commons any licentiousnesse but to teach the rulers diuerse things which I must let alone for once c Fraudulent deceipt For deceipt may be either good or bad Of Iacobs iourney into Mesopotamia for a wife his vision in the night as hee went his returne with foure women whereas he went but for one CHAP. 38. IAcobs parents sent him into Mesopotamia there to get a wife His father dismissed him with these words Thou shalt take thee no wife of the daughters of Canaan Arise get thee to Mesopotamia to the house of Bathuel thy mothers father 〈◊〉 thence take thee a wife of the daughters of Laban thy mothers brother My GOD blesse thee and increase thee and multiply thee that thou maist bee a multitude of people and giue the blessing of Abraham to thee and to thy seede after thee that 〈◊〉 maiest inherite the land wherein thou art a stranger which God gaue Abraham Heere wee see Iacob the one halfe of Isaacs seede seuered from Esau the other halfe For when it was said in Isaac shall thy seed bee called that is the seed pertaining to Gods holy Cittie then was Abrahams other seede the bond-womans sonne seuered from this other as Kethurahs was also to bee done with afterwards But now there was this doubt risen about Isaacs two sonnes whether
the blessing belong but vnto one or vnto both if vnto one onely vnto which of them This was resolued when Isaac said That thou maist bee a multitude of people and God giue the blessing of Abraham vnto thee namely to Iacob Forward 〈◊〉 going into Mesopotamia had a vision in a dreame recorded thus And Iacob â—…parted from Beersheba and came to Charra and he came to a certaine place and 〈◊〉 there all the night because the sunne was downe and he tooke of the stones of the 〈◊〉 and laide vnder his head and slept And he dreamed and behold a ladder and the 〈◊〉 â—…f it reached vp to heauen and loe the Angels of God went vp and downe by it and 〈◊〉 Lord stood aboue it and said I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and of 〈◊〉 feare not the land on which thou sleepest will I giue thee and thy seede and thy seeâ—… shall be as the dust of the earth and thou shalt spread b ouer the sea the East 〈◊〉 North and the South And lo I am with thee and will keepe thee wheresoeuer thou goest and will bring thee againe into this land for I will not forsake thee vntill that I haue performed that I promised vnto thee And Iacob arose from his sleepe and said Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not a ware and he was afraid and said O how tâ—…rible is this place surely this is none other but the house of God and the gate of heauen And he arose vp and tooke the stone that he had layd vnder his head and set it vp like a c Title and powred oyle vpon the tope of it and called the name of that place d the house of God This now was propheticall he did not Idolatrize in powring oyle on the stone nor made it a God nor adored it nor sacrificed vnto it but because the e name of Christ was to come of Chrisma that is vnction of that was this a very significant mistery Now for the ladder our Sauiour himselfe mentioneth it in the gospell for hauing sayd of Nathanael behold a true Isralite wherein there is no guile because Israel that is Iacob saw this â—…ight he addeth Verrily verely I say vnto you hereafter you shall see heauen open and the Angells of God ascending and descending vpon the sonne of man But forward Iacob went into Mesopotamia to seeke a wife where he happened to haue foure women giuen him of whome he begat twelue sonnes and one daughter without affecting any of them lustfully as the scripture sheweth for he came but for one and being deceiued by f one for another he would not turn her away whom he had vnwittingly knowne least he should seeme to make her a mocking stocke and so because the law at that time did not prohibite plurality of wiues for increase sake hee tooke the other also whome he had promised to marry before who being barren gaue him her maid to beget her children vpon as her sister had done who was not baren and yet did so to haue the more children But Iacob neuer desired but one nor vsed any but to the augmentation of his posterity and that by law of mariage nor would he haue done this but that his wiues vrged it vpon him who had lawfull power of his body because he was their husband L. VIVES BErsheba a and. The seauenty read it the well of the swearing the Hebrew interpreted it the well of fulnesse and Aquila and Symmachus do both follow the last Hierome But the well of fulnesse that Isaacs seruants digged is not the same with the well of swearing that Abraâ—… digged and named the well of the othe or couenant which he made with Abymilech giâ—…ng him seauen lambes for Sheba is either an oth or seauen yet both these wells were in one citty b Ouer the sea This is no signification of power ouer the sea by nauy or so but it sigâ—…eth the West as I said before or Syrian sea next vnto ours to shew the foure parts of the world c A title The seauenty read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a piller and that is better then a title d The 〈◊〉 of God The next village was called Bethel being before called Luz now the house of God before a nutte It was in the portion of Beniamine betweene Bethau and Gai. e The 〈◊〉 of Christ. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke is vnctus in Latine anoynted in English and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 f One for an other Lea the eldest daughter for Rachel the yonger Gen. 29. Iacob enstiled Israell The reason of this change CHAP. 39. OF these foure women Iacob begot twelue sonnes and one daughter And then came the entrance into Egypt by his sonne Ioseph whome his brethren â—…ed and sold thether who was preferred there vnto great dignity Iacob was also called Israel as I said before which name his progenie bore after him Thâ—… name the Angell that wrastled with him as hee returned from Mesopotamia gaue him being an euident type of Christ. For whereas Iacob preuailed against him by a his owne consent to forme this mysterie is signified the passion of Christ wherein the Iewes seemed to preuaile against him And yet Iacob gotte a blessing from him whom he had ouer-come and the changing of his name was that blessing for b Israel is as much as seeing God which shall come to passe in the end of the world Now the Angell touched him preuailing vpon the breadth of his thigh and so he became lame So the blessed and the lame was all but one Iacob blessed in his faithfull progenie and lame in the vnfaithfull For the bredth of his thigh is the multitude of his issue of which the greatest part as the Prophet saith haue halted in their wayes L. VIVES BY his a owne consent For otherwise the Angel could not onely haue conquered him but euen haue killed him b Israel is as much Hierome liketh not this interpretation nor to call him the Prince of God nor the direct of God but rather the most iust man of God Iosephus taketh it to be vnderstood of his preuailing against the Angel De Antiquit. Iudaic. Iacobs departure into Egipt with seauentie fiue soules how to be taken seeing some of them were borne afterwards CHAP. 40. IT is said there went with Iacob into Egipt seauentie fiue soules counting himselfe and his sonnes his daughter and his neece But if you marke well you shall finde that hee had not so numerous a progenie at his entrance into Egipt For in this number are Iosephs grand-children reckoned who could not then bee with him For Iacob was then a hundred and forty yeares old and Ioseph thirty nine who marrying as it is recorded but at thirty yeares old how could his sonnes in nine yeares haue any sonnes to increase this number by Seeing then that Ephraim and Manasses Iosephs sonnes had no children being but nine yeares of age at this remooue
effected without being fore-told that intimated not some-thing belonging vnto the Cittie of God and to bee referred vnto the holy pilgrims thereof vpon earth But if this be so we shall tie the Prophets words vnto two meanings onely and exclude the third and not onely 〈◊〉 Prophets but euen all the Old Testament For therein must be nothing peâ—… to the earthly Ierusalem if all that be spoken or fulfilled of that haue a farâ—… reference to the heauenly Ierusalem so that the Prophets must needes 〈◊〉 but in two sorts either in respect of the heauenly Ierusalem or els of both 〈◊〉 I thinke it a great error in some to hold no relation of things done in the â—…res more then meere historicall so doe I hoâ—…d it a c great boldnesse in 〈◊〉 that binde all the relations of Scripture vnto allegoricall reference and therefore I auouch the meanings in the Scriptures to be triple and not two-fold onely This I hold yet blame I not those that can piâ—…ke a good spirituall sense 〈◊〉 of any thing they reade so they doe not contradict the truth of the history But what faithfull man will not say that those are vaine sayings that can belong 〈◊〉 to diuinity nor humanity and who will not avow that these of which 〈◊〉 speake are to haue a spiritual interpretation also or leaue them vnto those 〈◊〉 interprete them in that manner L. VIVES 〈◊〉 Prophet a Nathan After Dauid had sent Vriah to be slaine in the front of the battell 〈◊〉 married his widow Bersabe b In so much Herevpon they say that so much is left out â—…g the acts of the Iewish Kings because they seemed not to concerne the Citty of 〈◊〉 that whatsoeuer the Old Testament conteineth or the New either hath all a sure 〈◊〉 vnto Christ and his Church at which they are both leuelled c Great boldnesse As 〈◊〉 â—…d with great rarity of spirit yet keepeth he the truth of the history vnuiolate for oâ—…â—…l these relations were vanities and each one would sâ—…rue an allegory out of the 〈◊〉 to liue and beleeue as he list and so our faith and discipline should bee vtterly conâ—…â—…herein I wonder at their mad folly that will fetch all our forme of life and religion 〈◊〉 â—…ories entangling them in ceremonious vanity and proclayming all that contraâ—… heretiques 〈◊〉 â—…ange of the Kingdome and priest-hood of Israell Anna Samuels mother a prophetesse and a type of the Church what she prophecied CHAP. 4. 〈◊〉 â—…ogresse therefore of the City of God in the Kings time when Saul was reâ—…ued and Dauid chosen in his place to possesse the Kingdome of Ierusaâ—…â—…im and his posterity successiuely signifieth and prefigureth that which 〈◊〉 not omit namely the future change concerning the two Testaments 〈◊〉 â—…d the New where the Old Kingdome and priest-hood was changed by 〈◊〉 and eternall King and Priest Christ Iesus for Heli being reiected Saâ—… made both the priest and the Iudge of God and Saul being reiected Daâ—… â—…hosen for the King and these two being thus seated signified the change 〈◊〉 of And Samuels mother Anna being first barren and afterwards by 〈◊〉 â—…odnes made fruitfull seemeth to prophecy nothing but this in her song 〈◊〉 â—…ing when hauing brought vp her son she dedicated him vnto God as she 〈◊〉 saying My heart reioyceth in the LORD my horne is exalted in the 〈◊〉 â—…y mouth is enlarged on mine enemies because I reioyced in thy saluation 〈◊〉 holy as the Lord there is no God like our God nor any holie besides thee 〈◊〉 â—…ore presumptiously let no arrogancie come out of your mouth for the Lord is 〈◊〉 â—…f knowledge and by him are enterprises established the bowe of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ee broken and guirded the weake with strength they that were full are hired forth for hunger and the hungry haue passed the land for the barren hath 〈◊〉 seâ—…en and a shee that had many children is enfeobled the Lord killeth and 〈◊〉 bringeth downe to the graue and raiseth vp the Lord impouerisheth and enritchâ—… humbleth and exalteth he raiseth the poore out of the dust and lifteth the begger from the dunghil to set them amongst Princes make them inherite the seat of glory he giueth vowes vnto those that vow vnto him and blesseth the yeares of the iust for in his owne might shall no man bee stronge the Lord the holy Lord shall weaken his aduersaries let not the wise boast of his wisdome nor the ritch in his ritches nor the mighty in his might but let their glory bee to know the Lord and to execute his iudgement and iustice vpon the earth the Lord from heauen hath thundered he shall iudge the ends of the world and shall giue the power vnto our Kings and shall exalt the horne of his annointed Are these the words of a woman giuing thankes for her sonne are mens mindes so benighted that they cannot discerne a greater spirit herein then meerely humane and if any one bee mooued at the euents that now began to fall out in this earthly processe doth he not discerne and acknowledge the very true religion and Citty of God whose King and founder is Iesus Christ in the words of his Anna who is fitly interpreted His grace and that it was the spirit of grace from which the proud decline and fall and therewith the humble adhere and are aduanced as this hymne saith which spake those propheticall words If any one will say that the woman did not prophecy but onely commended and extolled Gods goodnesse for giuing her praiers a sonne why then what is the meaning of this The bow of the mighty hath hee broken and guirded the weake with strength they that were full are hired forth for hunger and the hungry haue passed 〈◊〉 the land for the barren hath borne seauen and shee that had many children is 〈◊〉 Had shee being barren borne seauen she had borne but one when she sayd thus b nor had shee seauen afterward or sixe either for Samuel to make vp seauen but only three sonnes and two daughters Againe there being no King in Israel at that time to what end did she conclude thus Hee shall giue the power vnto our Kings and exalt the horne of his anoynted did shee not prophecy in this Let the church of God therfore that fruitful Mother that gracious City of that great King bee bold to say that which this propheticall mother spoke in her person so long before My heart reioyceth in the Lord c and my horne is exalted in the Lord. True ioy and as true exaltation both beeing in the Lord and not in her selfe my mouth is enlarged ouer mine enemies because Gods word is not pent vppe in straites d nor in preachers that are taught what to speake I haue reioyced saith she in thy saluation That was in Christ Iesus whom old Simeon in the Gospell had in his armes and knew his greatnesse in his infancy saying Lord nâ—…w lâ—…ttest thou thy seruant depart in
peace for mine eyes haue seene thy saluation Let the church then say I haue reioyced in thy saluation there is none holy as the Lord is no God like to our GOD for hee is holy and maketh holy iust himselfe and iustifyiâ—… others none is holy besides thee for none is holy but from thee Finally it followeâ—… speake no more presumptuously let not arragance come out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him are all enterprises establisâ—…d 〈◊〉 none knoweth what he knoweth for he that thinketh himselfe to be some thing seduceth himselfe and is nothing at all This now is against the presumptuous Babilonian enemies vnto Gods Cittie glorying in themselues and not in God as also against the carnall Israelites who as the Apostle saith beeing ignorant of the righteâ—…sse of God that is that which he being onely righteous and iustifying giueth man and going about to establish their owne righteousnesse 〈◊〉 as if they had gotten such themselues and had none of his bestowing 〈◊〉 not themselues vnto the righteousnesse of God but thinking proudly to please 〈◊〉 â—…stice of their owne and none of his who is the God of knowledge and the 〈◊〉 of consciences and the discerner of all mans thoughts which beeing 〈◊〉 â—…eriue not from him So they fell into reprobation And by him saith the 〈◊〉 arè all enterprises established and what are they but the suppression of 〈◊〉 and the aduancement of the humble These are Gods intents as it folâ—… the bow of the mighty hath he broken and guirded the weake with strength 〈◊〉 that is their proud opinions that then could sanctifie themselues withâ—…â—…spirations and they are guirded with strength that say in their hearts 〈◊〉 on mee O Lord for I am weake They that were full are f hired out for 〈◊〉 that is they are made lesser then they were for in their very bread that 〈◊〉 â—…ne words which Israel as then had alone from all the world that saâ—…â—…thing but the tast of earth But the hungry nations that had not the 〈◊〉 â—…ing to those holy words by the New Testament they passed ouer the 〈◊〉 found because they relished an heauenly tast in those holy doctrines 〈◊〉 a sauour of earth And this followeth as the reason for the barren hath 〈◊〉 â—…rth seauen and she that had many children is enfeebled Here is the whole 〈◊〉 opened to such as knowe the number of the Iewes what it is to wit â—…ber of the churches perfection and therefore Iohn the Apostle writeth 〈◊〉 seauen churches implying in that the fulnesse of one onely and so it 〈◊〉 â—…uely spoken in Salomon Wisdome hath built her an house and hewen out 〈◊〉 pillers For the Citty of God was barren in all the nations vntill shee 〈◊〉 that fruite whereby now we see her a fruitfull mother and the earthly 〈◊〉 that had so many sonnes wee now behold to bee weake and enfeebled 〈◊〉 the free-womans sonnes were her vertues but now seeing shee hath 〈◊〉 â—…nely without the spirit shee hath lost her vertue and is become 〈◊〉 â—…e Lord killeth and the Lord quickneth hee killeth her that had so many 〈◊〉 quickneth her wombe was dead before and hath made her bring 〈◊〉 although properly his quickning be to be implied vpon those whom 〈◊〉 â—…d for she doth as it were repeate it saying hee bringeth downe to the 〈◊〉 raiseth vp for they vnâ—…o whom the Apostle saith If yee bee dead with 〈◊〉 the things that are aboue where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God 〈◊〉 â—…to saluation by the LORD vnto which purpose he addeth Set your 〈◊〉 vpon things aboue and not on things that are on the earth For you 〈◊〉 â—…oth hee behold here how healthfull the Lord killeth and then followâ—… â—…our life is hid with Christ in God Behold here how God quickneth I 〈◊〉 bring them to the graue and backe againe Yes without doubt all 〈◊〉 faithfull see that fulfilled in our head with whom our life is hidde in 〈◊〉 â—…e that spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all hee killed 〈◊〉 manner and in raysing him from death hee quickned him againe 〈◊〉 we heare him say in the psalme thou shalt not leaue my soule in the 〈◊〉 â—…ore he brought him vnto the graue and backe againe By his pouerty 〈◊〉 â—…ched for the Lord maketh poore and enritcheth that is nothing else 〈◊〉 humbleth and exalteth humbling the proud and exalting the 〈◊〉 â—…or that same place God resisteth the proud and giueth grace vnto the 〈◊〉 the text wherevpon all this prophetesses words haue dependance 〈◊〉 â—…hich followeth He raiseth the poore out of the dust and lifteth the begâ—… dunghill is the fittliest vnderstood of him who became poore for vs whereas he was ritch by his pouerty as I said to enritch vs. For he raised him from the earth so soone that his flesh saw no corruption nor is this sequence And lifteth the begger from the dunghill meant of any but him g for the begger and the poore is all one the dunghill whence hee was lifted is the persecuting route of Iewes amongst whom the Apostle had beene one but afterwards as he saith that which was aduantage vnto mee I held losse for Christs sake nay not oneâ—… losse but I iudge them all dunge that I might winne Christ. Thus then was this poore man raised aboue all the ritch men of the earth and this begger was lifted vp from the dunghill to sit with the Princes of the people to whom hee saith You shall sit on twelue thrones c. and to make them inherite the seat of glory for those mighty ones had said Behold we haue left all and followed thee this vowe had those mighties vowed But whence had they this vow but from him that giueth vowes vnto those that vow otherwise they should bee of those mighties whose bow he hath broken That giueth vowes saith she vnto them that vow For none can vow any set thing vnto God but hee must haue it from God it followeth and blesseth the yeares of the iust that is that they shal be with him eternally vnto whom it is written thy yeares shall neuer faile for that they are fixed but here they either passe or perish for they are gone ere they come bringing still their end with them But of these two hee giueth vowes to those that vow and blesseth the yeares of the iust the one wee performe and the other wee receiue but this alwaies by Gods giuing wee receiue nor can wee doe the other without Gods helpe because in his owne might shall no man be stronge The Lord shall weaken his aduersaries namely such as resist and enuy his seruants in fulfilling their vowes h The greeke may also signifie his owne aduersaries for hee that is our aduersary when we are Gods children is his aduersarie also and is ouercome by vs but not by our strength for in his owne might shall no man bee stronge The LORD the holy
LORD shall weaken his aduersaries and make them be conquered by those whom Hee the most Holy hath made holy also i and therefore let not the wise glory in his wisdome the mighty in his might nor the ritch in his ritches but let their glory be to know God and to execute his iudgements and iustice vpon earth Hee is a good proficient in the knowledge of God that knoweth that God must giue him the meanes to know God For what hast thou saith the Apostle which thou hast not receiued that is what hast thou of thine owne to boast of Now hee that doth right executeth iudgement and iustice and hee that liueth in Gods obedience and the end of the command namely in a pure loue a good conscience and an vnfained faith But this loue as the Apostle Iohn saith is of God Then to do iudgement and iustice is of God but what is on the earth might it not haue beene left out and it haue only bin said to do iudgement and iustice the precept would bee more common both to men of land and sea but least any should thinke that after this life there were a time elsewhere to doe iustice and iudgement in and so to auoide the great iudgement for not doing them in the flesh therefore in the earth is added to confine those acts within this life for each man beareth his earth about with him in this world and when hee dieth bequeaths it to the great earth that must returne him it at the resurrection In this earth therefore in this fleshly body must we doe iustice and iudgement to doe our selues good hereafter by when euery one shall receiue according to his works done in the body good or bad in the body that is in the time that the body liued for if a man blaspheme in heart though he do no â—…urt with any bodily meÌ„ber yet shal not he be vnguilty because though he did it not in his body yet hee did it in the time wherein hee was in the body And so many we vnderstand that of the Psalme The Lord our King hath wrought 〈◊〉 in the midest of the earth before the beginning of the world that is the Lord Iesus our God before the beginning for he made the beginning hath wrought saluation in the midst of the earth namely then when the word became flesh and 〈◊〉 corporally amongst vs. But on Annah hauing shewen how each man ought to glory viz. not in himselfe but in God for the reward that followeth the great iudgement proceedeth thus l The Lord went vp vnto heauen and hath thundred he shall iudge the ends of the worlds and shall giue the power vnto our Kings and exalt the horne of his annoynted This is the plaine faith of a Christian. Hee 〈◊〉 into heauen and thence hee shall come to iudge the quicke and dead for who is â—…ded saith the Apostle but he who first descended into the inferiour parts of the earth Hee thundred in the clouds which hee filled with his holy spirit in his â—…ntion from which clouds he threatned Hierusalem that vngratefull vine to 〈◊〉 no rayne vpon it Now it is said Hee shall iudge the ends of the world that is the ends of men for he shall iudge no reall part of earth but onely all the men thereof nor iudgeth hee them that are changed into good or bad in the meane 〈◊〉 but m as euery man endeth so shall he beiudged wherevpon the scripture 〈◊〉 He that commeth vnto the end shall be safe hee therefore that doth iâ—…ce in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the earth shall not be condemned when the ends of the earth are 〈◊〉 And shall giue power vnto our Kings that is in not condemning them by â—…gement hee giueth them power because they rule ouer the flesh like Kings 〈◊〉 â—…quer the world in him who shed his blood for them And shall exalt the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his anoynted How shall Christ the annoynted exalt the horne of his anâ—… It is of Christ that those sayings The Lord went vp to heauen c. are all 〈◊〉 so is this same last of exalting the horne of his annoynted Christ thereâ—… exalt the horne of his annoynted that is of euery faithfull seruant of his as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first my horne is exalted in the Lord for all that haue receiued the vncâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 grace may wel be called his annoynted al which with their head make 〈◊〉 annoynted This Anna prophisied holy Samuels mother in whome the 〈◊〉 of ancient priesthood was prefigured and now fulfilled when as the woâ—… 〈◊〉 many sonnes was enfeebled that the barren which brougt forth seuen 〈◊〉 â—…eceiue the new priesthood in Christ. L. VIVES SHâ—… that a had Multa in filiis b Nor had she The first booke of Samuel agreeth with 〈◊〉 but Iosephus vnlesse the booke be falty saith she had sixe three sons and three 〈◊〉 after Samuel but the Hebrewes recken Samuels two sonnes for Annahs also being 〈◊〉 â—…dchildren and Phamuahs seauen children died seuerally as Annahs and her sonne 〈◊〉 â—…ere borne c And my horne Some read mine heart but falsely the greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 preachers there are Or nor in such as are bound by calling to bee his preachers the 〈◊〉 â—…py readeth but in his called prechers e No man knoweth Both in his foreknowledge 〈◊〉 â—…owlege of the secrets of mans heart f Are hired out The seauenty read it are 〈◊〉 g For the begger It seemes to be a word of more indigence then poore the latine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ops or helpelesse hauing no reference in many places to want of mony but of 〈◊〉 Gâ—…rg 1. Terent. Adelpe Act. 2. scena 1. Pauper saith Uarro is quasi paulus lar c. 〈◊〉 â—…gens h The Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is both his and his owne the Greekes do not distinâ—… two as we doe i Let not the. This is not the vulgar translation of the Kings but 〈◊〉 cha 9. the 70. put it in them both but with some alteration It is an vtter subuersion 〈◊〉 God respects not wit power or wealth those are the fuell of mans vaine glory but let 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…th as Paule saith glory in the Lord and by a modest and equall thought of himselfe continually For so shall he neuer be pride-swollen for the knowledge of God that charity seasoneth neuer puffeth vp if we consider his mercies and his iudgements his loue and his wrath togither with his maiesty k And to doe iudgement The seauenty read this one way in the booke of Samuel and another way in Hieremy attributing in the first vnto the man that glorieth and in the later vnto God l The Lord went vp This is not in the vulgar vntill you come vnto this and he shall iudge Augustine followed the LXX and so did all that age almost in all the churches m As euery man As I finde thee so will I iudge thee The Prophets words vnto Heli the priest signifying the taking
away of Aarons priest-hood CHAP. 5. BVt this was more plainely spoken vnto Heli the priest by a man of God a whose name we read not but his ministery proued him a Prophet Thus it is written There came a man of GOD vnto Heli and said vnto him Thus saith the Lord did not I plainely appeare vnto the house of thy father when they were in Egiptin Pharaos house and I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to bee my priest to offer at mine Altar to burne incense and to weare b an Ephod and I gaue thy fathers house al the burnt offrings of the house of Israel for to eate Why then haue you looked in scorne vpon my sacrifices and offrings and c honored thy children aboue me to d blesse the first of all the offrings of Israell in my sight wherefore thus saith the LORD GOD of Israell I said thy house and thy fathers house shall walke before mee for euer nay not so now for them that honour me saith the Lord will I honour and them that despise me will I despise Behold the daies come that I will cast out thy seed and thy fathers seed that there shall not bee an e old man in thine house I will destroy euery one of thine from mine Altar that thine eyes may faile and thine heart faint and all the remainder of thy house shall fall by the sword and this shal be a signe vnto thee that shall befall thy two sonnes Ophi and Phinees in one day shall they both die And I wil take my selfe vppe a faithfull Priest that shall doe according to mine heart I will build him a sure house and hee shall walke before mine Annointed for euer And the f remaines of thy house shall come and bow downe to him for an halfe-penny of siluer saying Put mee I pray the in some office about the priest-hood that I may eate a morsell of bread We cannot say that this prophecy plainely denouncing the change of their old priest-hood was fulfilled in Samuel g for though Samuel were of that tribe that serued the Altar yee was he not of the sons of Aaron to whose progeny God tied the priest-hood and therefore in this was that change shadowed that Christ was to perfome and belonged to the Old Testament properly but figuratiuely vnto the New beeing now fulfilled both in the euent of the prophecy and the historie that recordeth these words of the Prophet vnto Heli. For afterwardes there were Priests of Aarons race as Abiathar and Zador in 〈◊〉 reigne and many more for the time came wherein the change was to bee effected by Christ. But who seeth not now if hee obserue it with the eye of faith that all is fulfilled the Iewes haue no Tabernacle no Temple no Altar nor any Priest of Aarons pedegree as GOD commanded them to haue Lust as this Propâ—… said Thou and thy fathers house shall walke before mee for euer Nay not so now for them that honour mee will I honour c. By his fathers house hee meaneth not Eli his last fathers but Aarons from whom they all descended as these words Did I not appeare to thy fathers house in Egipt c. Doe plainely prooue Who was his Father in the Egiptian bondage and was chosen priest after their freedome but Aaron of his stocke then it was here said there should bee no more priests as wee see now come to passe Let faith bee but vigilant and it shall discerne and apprehend truth euen whether it will or no. Behold saith he the daies doe come that I will cast out thy seed c. T' is true the daies are come Aarons seede hath now no Priest and his whole off-spring behold the sacrifice of the christians goriously offered all the world through with fayling eyes and fainting hearts but that which followeth All the remainder of thine house 〈◊〉 fell by the sword c. belongs properly to the house of Heli. And the death of his sonnes was a signe of the change of the Priest-hood of Aarons house and signified the death of the Priest-hood rather then the men But the next place to the priest that Samuel Heli his successor prefigured I meane Christ the Priest of the New Testament I will take mee vp a faith-full Priest that shall do all according to mine heart I will build him a sure house c. This house is the heauenly Ierusalem and he shall walke before mine annoynted for euer that is hee shall conuerse with them as hee said before of the house of Aaron I sayd thou and thine house shall walke before mee for euer Behold mine annointed that is 〈◊〉 annointed flesh not mine annointed Priest for that is Christ himselfe the Sauiour So that his house and flocke it is that shall walke before him it may bee meant also of the passage of the faithfull from death vnto life at the end of their mortality and the last iudgement But whereas it is said He shall doe all according to mine heart wee may not thinke that GOD hath any heart beeâ—… 〈◊〉 hearts maker but it is figuratiuely spoaken of him as the scripture doth 〈◊〉 â—…er members the hand of the LORD the finger of GOD c. And least 〈◊〉 should thinke that in this respect man beareth the Image of GOD the â—…re giueth him wings which man doth want Hide mee vnder the shadow of 〈◊〉 â—…gs to teach men indeed thaâ—…â—…hose things are spoken with no true but a â—…ll reference vnto that ineffable essence On now and the remaines of 〈◊〉 â—…use shall come and bow downe vnto him c. This is not meant of the 〈◊〉 of Heli but of Aarons of which some were remayning vntill the comming 〈◊〉 â—…RIST yea and are vnto this day For that aboue the remaynder of thy 〈◊〉 shall fall by the sword was meant by Heli his linage How then can both 〈◊〉 places bee true that some should come to bow downe and yet the sword 〈◊〉 deuoure all vnlesse they bee meant of two the first of Aarons linage and 〈◊〉 â—…cond of Helies If then they bee of those predestinate remainders whereof 〈◊〉 â—…ophet saith The remnant shal be saued and the Apostle at this present time is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remnant through the election of grace which may well bee vnder-stood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 remnant that the man of GOD speakes off heere then doubtlesse they 〈◊〉 in Christ as many of their nations Iewes did in the Apostles time and 〈◊〉 though very few do now fulfilling that of the Prophet which followeth 〈◊〉 downe to him for an halfe penny of siluer to whom but vnto the great 〈◊〉 who is God eternall For in the time of Aarons Priest-hood the people 〈◊〉 â—…ot to the temple to adore or bow downe to the priest But what is that 〈◊〉 halfe pennie of siluer Onely the breuity of the Word of â—…aith as the Aâ—… saith The Lord will make a short accompt in the earth that siluer is put for â—…ord the Psalmist proueth saying
God So did Christ found her in his Patriarchs 〈◊〉 â—…hets before he tooke flesh in her from the Virgin Mary Seing therefore 〈◊〉 Prophet so long agoc said that of this Citty which now we behold come 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In steed of fathers thou shal haue children to make them Princes ouer all the 〈◊〉 so hath shee when whole nations and their rulers come freely to conâ—… 〈◊〉 proffesse Christ his truth for euer and euer then without all doubt there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ope herein how euer vnderstood but hath direct reference vnto these 〈◊〉 stations L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a generation So read the 70. whom Augustine euer followeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this reduplication is very emphaticall in the Hebrew b To those that hee neuer Christ while hee was on the earth neuer came nor preached in any nation but Israell Nor matterâ—… 〈◊〉 thaâ—… some few Gentiles came vnto him wee speake here of whole nations c Men shall call it The seauenty read it thus indeed but erroneously as Hierome noteth In Psalm 89. for they had written it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what is Sion which reading some conceyuing not reiected and added 〈◊〉 reading it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an other Siâ—…n and that the rather because it followeth hee was made man therein But the vulgar followeth the Hebrew and reads it with an interrogation Of the references of the 110. Psalme vnto Christs Priest-hood and the 22. vnto his passion CHAP. 17. FOr in that psalme that as this calleth Christ a King enstileth him a priest beginning The Lord said vnto my Lord sit thou at my right hand vntill I make thine enemies thy foote-stoole we beleeue that Christ sitteth at Gods right hand but we see it not nor that his enemies are all vnder his feete which a must appeare in the end and is now beleeued as it shall hereafter bee beheld but then the rest the Lord shall send the rod of thy power out of Sion be thou ruler amidst thine enemies This is so plaine that nought but impudence it selfe can contradict it The enemies themselues confesse that the law of Christ came out of Sion that which we call the Ghospell and auouch to be the rod of his power And that he ruleth in the midst of his enemies themselues his slaues with grudging and fruitlesse gnashing of teeth doe really acknowledge Furthermore the Lord sware and will not repent which proues the sequence eternally established thou art a Priest for euer after the order of Melchisedech The reason is Aarons priest-hood and sacrifice is abolished and now in all the world vnder Christ the priest wee offer that which Melchisedech brought forth when hee blessed Abraham who doubteth now of whom this is spoken and vnto this manifestation are the other Tropes of the psalme referred as wee haue declared them peculiarly in our Sermons and in that psalme also wherein CHRIST prophecieth of his passion by Dauids mouth saying they perced my hands and my feete they counted all my bones and stood gazing vpon me These words are a plaine description of his posture on the crosse his nayling of his hands and feete his whole body stretched at length and made a rufull gazing stock to the beholders Nay more they parted my garments among them they cast lots vpon my vesture How this was fulfilled let the Ghospell tell you And so in this there are diuers obscurities which not withstanding are all congruent with the maine and scope of the psalme manifested in the passion chiefly seeing that those things which the psalme presaged so long before are but now effected as it fore-told and euen now are opened vnto the eyes of the whole world For it saith a little after All the ends of the world shall remember themselues and turne vnto the Lord all the kindreds of the earth shall worship before him for the kingdome is the Lords and he ruleth among the nations L. VIVES VVHich a â—…st apeare In the end but now is onely beleeued Saint Paul writeth much of it vnto the Corynthians and Hebrewes Christs death and resurrection prophecied in psalme 3. 40. 15. 67. CHAP. 18. NEither were the psalmes silent of his resurrectioÌ„ for what is that of the third psalme I laid me downe and slept and rose againe for the Lord susteined me wil any one say that the prophet would record it for such a great thing to sleepe and to rise but that he meaneth by sleepe death and by rising againe the resurrection things that were fit to bee prophecied of Christ this in the 41. psalme is most plaine for Dauid in the person of the mediator discoursing as hee vseth of things to come as if they were already past because they are already past in Gods predestination a and praescience saith thus Mine enemies speake euill of me saying when shall he die and his name perish and if he come to see he speaketh lies and his heart he apeth vp iniquity within him and hee goeth forth and telleth it mine eneâ—… whisper together against me and imagine how to hurt me They haue spoken an vniust thing vpon me shall not he that sleepeth arise againe this is euen as much as if he had said shall not he that is dead reuiue againe the precedence doth shew how they conspired his death and how he that came in to see him went for to bewray him to them And why is not this that traitor Iudas his disciple Now because hee 〈◊〉 they would effect their wicked purpose to kill him hee to shew the fondnesse of their malice in murdering him that should rise againe saith these words â—…ll not he that sleepeth arise againe as if hee said you fooles your wickednesse procureth but my sleepe But least they should do such a villany vnpunished hee meant to repay them at full saying My friend and familiar whom I trusted and who eate of my â—…ead euen he hath b kicked at me But thou Lord haue mercy vpon me raise me vp 〈◊〉 shall requite them Who is hee now that beholdeth the Iewes beaten out of 〈◊〉 â—…nd and made vagabonds all the world ouer since the passion of Christ 〈◊〉 â—…ceiueth not the scope of this prophecy for he rose againe after they had 〈◊〉 and repayed them with temporall plagues besides those that hee reâ—… for the rest vntill the great iudgement for Christ himselfe shewing his 〈◊〉 to the Apostles by reaching him a peece of bread remembred this verse 〈◊〉 â—…alm shewed it fulfilled in himself he that did eate of my bread eueÌ„ he hath 〈◊〉 â—…e the words in whom I trusted agree not with the head but with the â—…ts properly for our Sauiour knew him well before hand when he sayd c 〈◊〉 is a diuell but Christ vsed to transferre the proprieties of his members 〈◊〉 â—…mselfe as being their head body and head being all one Christ. And therâ—… 〈◊〉 of the Ghospell I was hungry and you gaue me to eate hee expoundeth afâ—… thus
the small of some of whom I now spake He prophecied vnder Iosia King of Iuda Ancus Martius being King of Rome hard before Israels captiuity vnto the fifth month of which hee prophecied as his owne booke prooueth Zephany b a small prophet was also in his time and prophecied in Iosias time also as himselfe saith but how long he saith not Hieremies time lasted all Ancus Martius his and part of Tarquinius Priscus his reigne the fift Romaine King For in the beginning of his reigne the Iewes were captiued This prophecie of Christ wee read in Hieremy The breath of our mouth the annoynted our Lord was taken in our sinnes Heere hee 〈◊〉 brieflie both Christ his deity and his sufferance for vs. Againe This is 〈◊〉 Gâ—…d nor is there any besides him he hath found all the wayes of wisdome taught 〈◊〉 to his seruant Iacob and to Israel his beloued Afterwards was hee seene vpon earth and hee conuersed with men This some say is not Hieremyes but d Baruchs his transcribers But the most hold it Hieremies Hee saith further Behold the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 come saith the Lord that I will raise vnto Dauid a iust branch which shall 〈◊〉 as King and be wise and shall exetute iustice and iudgement vpon the earth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dayes shall Iudah be saued and Israell shall dwell safely and this is the name that they shall call him The Lord our righteousnesse Of the calling of the Gentiles which we see now fullfilled he saith thus O Lord my God and refuge in the day of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thee shall the Gentiles come from the ends oâ—… the world and shall say Our fatherâ—… haue adored false Images wherein there was no profit And because the Iewes would noâ—… acknowledge Christ but should kill him the Prophet saith e The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all things he is a man and who shall know him His was the testimoâ—… 〈◊〉 of the New Testament and Christ the mediatour which I recited in my 〈◊〉 Booke for hee saith Behold the dayes come that I will make a new couenant 〈◊〉 the house of Israel c. Now Zephany that was of this time also hath this of 〈◊〉 Wayte vpon me saith the Lord in the day of my resurrection wherein my â—…dgement shall gather the nations and againe The Lord will bee terrible vnto 〈◊〉 hee will consume all the gods of the earth euery man shall adore him from his 〈◊〉 â—…en all the Iles of the Heathen and a little after Then will I turne to the peoâ—… pure language that they may all call vpon the Lord and serue him with one conâ—… and from beyond the riuers of Ethiopia shall they bring mee offerings In that day 〈◊〉 thâ—… not bee ashamed for all thy workes wherein thou hast offended mee for then 〈◊〉 â—…use thee of the wicked that haue wronged thee and thou shalt no more bee proud of mine holie mountaine and I will leaue a meeke and lowly people in the mindes of thee and the remnant of Israell shall reuerence the name of the Lord. This is the remnant that is prophecied of else-where and that the Apostle mentioneth saying there is a remnant at this present time through the election of grace For a remnant of that nation beleeued in Christ. L. VIVES HIeremy a Of him already b Zephany Hee was a prophet and father to prophets and had prophets to his grand-father and great grand-father say the Hebrewes Chusi was his father who was sonne to Godolias the sonne of Amariaâ—… the son of Ezechias all prophets for al the prophets progeny named in their titles were prophets say the Hebrew doctors c The annointed There are many anointed many Lords but that breath of our mouth this annoynted is none but CHRIST our SAVIOVR the SON of GOD by whom we breath we moue and haue our being who if he leaue vs leaueth vs lesse life then if we lackt our soules d Baruchâ—… Hee was Hieremies seruant as Hieremies prophecy sheweth and wrote a little prophecy allowed by the Church because it much concerned Christ and those later times e Thâ—… heart This is the Septuagints interpretation Hierome hath it otherwise from the hebrew Daniels and Ezechiels prophecies concerning Christ and his Church CHAP. 34. NOw in the captiuity it selfe a Daniel and b Ezechiel two of the greater prophets prophecied first Daniel fore-told the very number of yeares vntill the comming of Christ and his passion It is too tedious to perticularize and others haue done it before vs. But of his power and glorie this he sayd I beheld a vision by night and behold the sonne of man came in the cloudes of heauen and approached vnto the ancient of daies and they brought him before him and hee gaue him dominion and honor and a Kingdome that all people nations and languages should serue him his dominion is an euerlasting dominion and shall neuer bee tane away his Kingdome shall neuer be destroied Ezechiel also prefiguring Christ by Dauid as the prophets vse because Christ tooke his flesh and the forme of a seruant from Dauids seed in the person of GOD the Father doth thus prophecy of him I will set vppe a sheapheard ouer my sheepe and hee shall feed them euen my seruant Dauid hee shall feed them and be their sheapheard I the Lord wil be their God and my seruant Dauid shal be Prince amongst them I the LORD haue spoaken it And againe One King shal be King to them all they shal be no more two peoples nor bee deuided from thence-forth into two Kingdomes nor shall they bee any more polluted in their Idols nor with their abhominations nor with all their transgressions but I will saue them out of all their dwelling places wherein they haue sinned and will cleanse them they shal be my people and I wil be their GOD and Dauid my seruant shal be King ouer them and they all shall haue one sheapheard L. VIVES DAniel a Hee was one of the captiâ—…ed sonnes of Iudah and so Daniel was named Balthazar by the Kings Eunuch that had charge of the children His wisdome made him highly esteemed of Balthazar the last King of Babilon and after that of Darius the Monarch of Media as Daniel himselfe and Iosephus lib. 10. doe testifie Methodius Apollinaris and Eusebius Pamphilus defended this prophet against the callumnies of Porphiry b Ezechiel A priest and one of the captiuity with Daniell as his writings doe record Of the three prophecies of Aggee Zachary and Malachy CHAP. 35. THre of the small prophets a Aggee b Zachary and c Malachy all prophecying in the end of this captiuity remaine still Aggee prophecyeth of Christ and his church thus diuersly and plainely Yet a little while and I will shake the heauens and the earth and the sea and the dry land and I will mooue all nations and the desire of all nations shall come saith the Lord of hostes This prophecie is partly come to effect and partly to bee effected
them as deceitfull deuills both in their good words and in their bad But seeing this God this goddesse cannot agree about Christ truly men haue no reason to beleeue or obey them in forbidding christianity Truly either Porphyry or Hecate in these commendations of Christ affirming that he destinied the christians to error yet goeth about to shew the causes of this error which before I relate I will aske him this one question If Christ did predestinate all christians vnto error whether did hee this wittingly or against his will If hee did it wittingly how then can hee bee iust if it were against his will how can hee then bee happy But now to the causes of this errour There are some spirits of the earth saith hee which are vnder the rule of the euill Daemones These the Hebrewes wise men whereof IESVS was one as the diuine Oracle declared before doth testifie forbad the religious persons to meddle with-all aduising them to attend the celestiall powers and especially God the Father with all the reuerence they possibly could And this saith hee the Gods also doe command vs as wee haue already shewen how they admonish vs to reuerence GOD in all places But the ignorant and wicked hauing no diuine guift nor any knowledge of that great and immortall Ioue nor following the precepts of the gods or good men haue cast all the deities at their heeles choosing not onely to respect but euen to reuerence those depraued Daemones And where-as they professe the seruice of GOD they doe nothing belonging to his seruice For GOD is the father of all things and stands not in neede of anything and it is well for vs to exhibite him his worship in chastitie iustice and the other vertues making our whole life a continuall prayer vnto him by our search and imitation of him c For our search of him quoth hee purifieth vs and our imitation of him deifieth the effects in our selues Thus well hath hee taught God the Father vnto vs and vs how to offer our seruice vnto him The Hebrew Prophets are full of such holy precepts concerning both the commendation and reformation of the Saints liues But as concerning Christianity there hee erreth and slandereth as farre as his deuills pleasure is whome hee holdeth deities as though it were so hard a matter out of the obscenities practised and published in their Temples and the true worship and doctrine presented be fore GOD in our Churches to discerne where manners were reformed and where they were ruined Who but the deuill him-selfe could inspire him with so shamelesse a falsification as to say that the Christians doe rather honour then detest the Deuills whose adoration was forbidden by the Hebrewes No that God whome the Hebrewes adored will not allow any sacrifice vnto his holiest Angels whome wee that are pilgrims on earth doe not-with-standing loue and reuerence as most sanctified members of the Citty of heauen but forbiddeth it directly in this thundring threate Hee that sacrificeth vnto Gods shall be rooted 〈◊〉 and least it should be thought hee meant onely of the earthly spirits whome this fellow calles the lesser powers d and whome the scripture also calleth gods not of the Hebrews but the Heathens as is euident in that one place Psal. 96. verse 5. For all the Gods of the Heathen are Diuels least any should imagine that the fore-said prohibition extended no further then these deuills or that it concerned not the offring to the celestiall spirits he addeth but vnto the Lord alone but vnto one God onely Some may take the words nisi domino soli to bee vnto the Lord the sunne and so vnderstand the place to bee meant of Apollo but the oriâ—…â—…nd the e Greeke translations doe subuert all such misprision So then the Hebrew God so highly commended by this Philosopher gaue the Hebrewes a â—…awe in their owne language not obscure or vncertaine but already dispersed through-out all the world wherein this clause was literally conteined Hee that sacrificeth vnto Gods shall bee rooted out but vnto the Lord alone What neede wee make any further search into the law and the Prophets concerning this nay what need wee search at all they are so plaine and so manifold that what neede I stand aggrauating my disputation with any multitudes of those places that exclude all powers of heauen and earth from perticipating of the honors due vnto God alone Behold this one place spoaken in briefe but in powerfull manner by the mouth of that GOD whome the wisest Ethnicks doe so highly extoll let vs marke it feare it and obserue it least our eradication ensue Hee that sacrificeth vnto more gods then that true and onely LORD shall bee rooted out yet God him-selfe is farre from needing any of our seruices but f all that wee doe herein is for the good of our owne soules Here-vpon the Hebrewes say in their holy Psalmes I haue sayd vnto the Lord thou art my GOD my well-dooing â—…th not vnto thee No wee our selues are the best and most excellent sacrifice that hee can haue offered him It is his Citty whose mystery wee celebrate 〈◊〉 â—…ch oblations as the faithfull doe full well vnderstand as I sayd once already For the ceasing of all the typicall offrings that were exhibited by the Iewes aâ—…d the ordeyning of one sacrifice to bee offered through the whole world from East to West as now wee see it is was prophecied long before from GOD by the mouthes of holy Hebrewes whome wee haue cited as much as needed in conuenient places of this our worke Therefore to conclude where there is not this iustice that GOD ruleth all alone ouer the society that obeyeth him by grace and yeeldeth to his proâ—…tion of sacrifice vnto all but him-selfe and where in euery member belongâ—… to this heauenly society the soule is lord ouer the body and all the bad afâ—… thereof in the obedience of GOD and an orderly forme so that all the 〈◊〉 as well as one liue according to faith g which worketh by loue in â—…ch a man loueth GOD as hee should and his neighbour as him-selfe 〈◊〉 this iustice is not is no societie of men combined in one vniformity of 〈◊〉 and profite consequently no true state popular if that definition holde â—…ch and finally no common-wealth for where the people haue no certaine 〈◊〉 the generall hath no exact forme L. VIVES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is of Oraculous Phisosophy in which worke hee recites Apollos Orracles and others part whereof wee haue cited before b Photinus Hee was condemned by the counsell of Syrmium being confuted by Sabinus Bishoppe of Ancyra Cassiod Hist tripart He followed the positions of Samosatenus so that many accompted of both these heresies all as one c For our search Search is here a mentall inquisition whereby the mind is illustrate and purged from darke ignorance and after it hath found God studieth how to grow purâ—… and diuine like him d And whome the scripture
thinke this place obscure let him looke for no plainenesse in the Scriptures L. VIVES THy a victory Some read contention but the originall is Victory and so doe Hierom and Ambrose reade it often Saint Paul hath the place out of Osee. chap. â—…3 ver 14. and vseth it 1. Cor. 16. ver 55. b When shall death The Cittie of GOD shall see death vntill the words that were sayd of Christ after his resurrection Oh hell where is thy victory may bee said of all our bodies that is at the resurrection when they shal be like his glorified bodie Saint Peters doctrine of the resurrection of the dead CHAP. 18. NOw let vs heare what Saint Peter sayth of this Iudgement There shall come saith hee in the last daies mockers which will walke after their lusts and say Where is the promise of his comming For since the fathers died all things continue alike from the beginning of the creation For this they willingly know not that the heauens were of old and the earth that was of the water and by the water by the word of GOD wherefore the world that then was perished ouer-flowed with the water But the heauens and earth that now are are kept by the same word in store and reserued vnto fire against the day of iudgement and of the destruction of vngodly men Dearcly beloued bee not ignorant of this that one daie with the LORD is as a thousand years and a thousand yeares as one daie The LORD is not flack concerning his promise as some men count slackenesse but is pacient toward vs and would haue no man to perish but would haue all men to come to repentance But the daie of the LORD will come as a thiefe in the night in the which the heauens shall passe awaie with a noyse and the elements shall melt with 〈◊〉 and the earth with the workes that are therein shal be burnt vppe Seeing therefore all these must bee dissolued what manner of persons ought you to bee in holy conuersation and Godlinesse longing for and hasting vnto the comming of the daie of GOD by the which the heauens beeing on fire shal be dissolued and the elements shall melt vvith heate But vve-looke for a nevv heauen and a nevv earth according to his promise vvherein dvvelleth righteousnesse Thus sarre Now here is no mention of the resurrection of the dead but enough concerning the destruction of the world where his mention of the worlds destruction already past giueth vs sufficient warning to beleeue the dissolution to come For the world that was then perished saith hee at that time not onely the earth but that part of the ayre also which the watter a possessed or got aboue and so consequently almost all those ayry regions which hee calleth the heauen or rather in the plurall the heauens but not the spheres wherein the Sunne and the Starres haue their places they were not touched the rest was altered by humidity and so the earth perished and lost the first forme by the deluge But the heauens and earth saith hee that now are are kept by the same word in store and reserued vnto fire against the daie of iudgement and of the destruction of vngodly men Therefore the same heauen and earth that remained after the deluge are they that are reserued vnto the fire afore-said vnto the daie of iudgement and perdition of the wicked For because of this great change hee sticketh not to say there shal be a destruction of men also whereas indeed their essences shall neuer bee anniâ—…e although they liue in torment Yea but may some say if this old heauen and earth shall at the worlds end bee burned before the new ones be made where shal the Saints be in the time of this conflagration since they haue bodies and therefore must be in some bodily place We may answere in the vpper parts whither the fire as then shall no more ascend then the water did in the deluge For at this daie the Saints bodies shal be mooueable whither their wills doe please nor need they feare the fire beeing now both immortall and incorruptible b for the three children though their bodies were corruptible were notwithstanding preserued from loosing an haire by the fire and might not the Saints bodies be preserued by the same power L. VIVES THe a water possessed For the two vpper regions of the ayre doe come iust so low that they are bounded with a circle drawne round about the earthlie highest mountaines tops Now the water in the deluge beeing fifteene cubites higher then the highest mountaine it both drowned that part of the ayre wherein wee liue as also that part of the middle region wherein the birds do vsually flie both which in Holy writ and in Poetry also are called Heauens b The three Sidrach Misach and Abdenago at Babilon who were cast into a â—…nace for scorning of Nabuchadnezzars golden statue Dan. 3. Saint Pauls words to the Thessalonians Of the manifestations of Antichrist whose times shall immediately fore-runne the day of the Lord. CHAP. 19. I See I must ouer-passe many worthy sayings of the Saints concerning this day least my worke should grow to too great a volume but yet Saint Pauls I may by no meanes omit Thus sayth he Now I beseech you bretheren by the comming of our LORD IESVS CHRIST and by our assembling vnto him that you bee not suddenly mooued from your minde nor troubled neither by spirit nor by word nor by letter as if it were from vs as though the day of CHRIST were at hand Let no man deceiue you by any meanes for that day shall not come except there come a a fugitiue first and that that man of sinne bee disclosed euen the sonne of perdition which is an aduersary and exalteth himselfe against all is called god or that is worshipped so that he sitteth as God in the Temple of God shewing himselfe that he is God Remember yee not that when I was yet with you I told you these things And now yee know what withholdeth that he might be reuealed in his due time For the mistery of iniquity doth already worke onely he which now withholdeth shall let till he be taken out of the way and the wicked man shal be reuealed whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall abolish with the brightnesse of his comming euen him whose comming is by the working of Sathan with all power and signes and lying wonders and in all deceiuablenesse of vnrighteousnesse amongst them that perish because they receiued not the loue of the truth that they might be saued And therefore God shall send them strong delusion that they should beleeue lyes that all they might bee damned which beleeue not in the truth but had pleasure in vnrighteousnesse This is doubtlesse meant of Antichrist and the day of iudgement For this day hee saith shall not come vntill that Antichrist be come before it he that is called here a fugitiue
not the lesser and lower doe so too If Ioue doe not like this whose oracle as Porphyry saith hath condemned the Christians credulity why doth hee not condemne the Hebrewes also for leauing this doctrine especially recorded in their holyest writings But if this Iewish wisdome which he doth so commend affirme that the heauens shall perish how vaine a thing is it to detest the Christian faith for auouching that the world shall perish which if it perish not then cannot the heauens perish Now our owne scriptures with which the Iewes haue nothing to doe our Ghospels and Apostolike writings do all affirme this The fashion of this world goeth away The world passeth away Heauen and earth shall passe away But I thinke that passeth away doth not imply so much as perisheth But in Saint Peters Epistle where hee saith how the world perished being ouer-flowed with water is plainly set downe both what he meant by the world how farre it perished and what was reserued for fire and the perdition of the wicked And by and by after The day of the Lord will come as a thiefe in the night in the which the Heauens shall passe away with a noyse the elements shall melt vvith heate and the earth vvith the rockes that are therein shall bee burnt vp and so concludeth that seeing all these perish what manner persons ought yee to be Now we may vnderstand that those heauens shall perish which he said were reserued for fire and those elements shall melt which are here below in this mole of discordant natures wherein also he saith those heauens are reserued not meaning the vpper spheres that are the seats of the stars for whereas it is written that the starres shall fall from heauen it is a good proofe that the heauens shall remaine vntouched if these words bee not figuratiue but that the starres shall fall indeed or some such wonderous apparitions fill this lower ayre as Virgil speaketh of Stella a facem ducens multa cum luce cucurrit A tailed Starre flew on with glistring light And so hid it selfe in the woods of Ida. But this place of the Psalme seemes to exempt none of all the heauens from perishing The heauens are the workes of thine hands they shall perish thus as hee made all so all shall bee destroyed The Pagans scorne I am sure to call Saint Peter to defend that Hebrew doctrine which their gods doe so approoue by alledging the figuratiue speaking hereof pars pro toto all shall perrish meaning onely all the lower parts as the Apostle saith there that the world perished in the deluge when it was onely the earth and some part of the ayre This shift they will not make least they should eyther yeeld to Saint Peter or allow this position that the fire at the last iudgement may doe as much as wee say the deluge did before their assertion that all man-kinde can neuer perish will allow them neither of these euasions Then they must needes say that when their gods commended the Hebrews wisdom they had not read this Psalme but there is another Psalme as plaine as this Our God shall come and shall not keepe silence a fire shall deuoure before him and a mightie tempest shall bee mooued round about him Hee shall call the heauen aboue and the earth to iudge his people Gather my Saints together vnto mee those that make a couenant with mee with sacrifice This is spoken of Christ whome wee beleeue shall come from heauen to iudge both the quick and the dead Hee shall come openly to iudge all most iustly who when hee came in secret was iudged himselfe most vniustly Hee shall come and shall not bee silent his voyce now shall confound the iudge before whome hee was silent when hee was lead like a sheepe to the slaughter and as a lambe before the shearer is dumbe as the Prophet saith of him and as it was fulfilled in the Ghospell Of this fire and tempest wee spake before in our discourse of Isaias prophecie touching this point But his calling the heauens aboue that is the Saints this is that which Saint Paul saith Then shall wee bee caught vp also in the clouds to meete the Lord in the â—…yre For if it meant not this how could the Heauens bee called aboue as though they could bee any where but aboue The words following And the earth if you adde not Aboue heere also may bee taken for those that are to bee iudged and the heauens for those that shall iudge with Christ. And then the calling of the heauens aboue implyeth the placing of the Saints in seates of iudgments not their raptures into the ayre Wee may further vnderstand it to bee his calling of the Angels from their high places to discend with him to iudgement and by the earth those that are to bee iudged But if wee doe vnderstand Aboue at both clauses it intimateth the Saints raptures directly putting the heauens for their soules and the earth for their bodyes to iudge or discerne his people that is to seperate the sheepe from the goates the good from the bad Then speaketh he to his Angels Gather my Saints together vnto mee this is done by the Angels ministery And whome gather they Those that make a couenant with mee with sacrifice and this is the duty of all iust men to doe For either they must offer their workes of mercy which is aboue sacrifice as the Lord saith I will haue mercy and not sacrifice or else their workes of mercy is the sacrifice it selfe that appeaseth Gods wrath as I prooued in the ninth booke of this present volume In such workes doe the iust make couenants with God in that they performe them for the promises made them in the New Testament So then Christ hauing gotten his righteous on his right hand will giue them this well-come Come yee blessed of my Father inherite yee the kingdome prepared for you from the foundations of the world for I was an hungred and you gaue me to eate and so forth of the good workes and their eternall rewards which shall be returned for them in the last iudgment L. VIVES SStella a facem ducens Virg. Aeneid 2. Anchises beeing vnwilling to leaue Troy and Aeneas being desperate and resoluing to dye Iupiter sent them a token for their flight namely this tailed starre all of which nature saith Aristotle are produced by vapours enflamed in the ayres mid region If their formes be only lineall they call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is lampes or torches Such an one saith Plynie glided amongst the people at noone day when Germanicus Caesar presented his Sword-players prize others of them are called Bolidae and such an one was seene at Mutina The first sort of these flye burning onely at one end the latter burneth all ouer Thus Pliny lib. 2. Malachies Prophecy of the iudgement and of such as are to be purged by fire CHAP. 25. THe Prophet a Malachiel or Malachi
aduised them to remember the law of Moyses because he fore saw that would here-after miss-interprete much thereof hee addeth Behold I will send you a Heliah the Prophet before the comming of the great and fearefull day of the Lord and hee shall turne the heart of the fathers to the children and of the children to the fathers least I come and smite the earth with cursing That this great and mighty Prophet Elias shall conuert b the Iewes vnto Christ before the iudgment by expounding them the lawe is most commonly beleeued and taught of vs Christians and is held as a point of infallible truth For we may well hope for the comming of him before the iudgment of Christ whome we do truly beleeue to liue in the body at this present houre with-out hauing euer tasted of death Hee was taken vp by a fiery chariot body and soule from this mortall world as the scriptures plainly auouch Therefore when he commeth to giue the law a spirituall exposition which the Iewes doe now vnderstand wholy in a carnall sence Then shall hee turne the hearts of the fathers vnto the children or the heart of the father vnto the child for the LXX doe often vse the singular number for the plurall that is the Iewes shall then vnderstand the law as their holy forefathers had done before them Moyses the Prophets and the rest For the vnderstanding of the fathers being brought to the vnderstanding of the children is the turning of the fathers heart vnto the children and the childrens consent vnto the vnderstanding of the fathers is the turning of their heart vnto the fathers And whereas the LXX say c And the heart of a man vnto his kinsman fathers and children are the nearest of kindred and consequently are meant of in this place There may be a farther and more choice interpretation of this place namely that Helias should turne the heart of the father vnto the childe not by making the father to loue the child but by teaching that the father loueth him that the Iewes who had hated him before may hence-forth loue him also For they hold that God hateth him now because they hold him to be neither God nor the Sonne of God but then shall his heart in their iudgements be turned vnto him when they are so farre turned them-selues as to vnderstand how he loueth him The sequell And the heart of man vnto his kinsman meaneth the heart of man vnto the man Christ for hee being one God in the forme of God taking the forme of a seruant and becomming man vouchsafed to become our kinsman This then shall Heliah performe Least I come and smite the earth with cursing The earth that is those carnall thoughted Iewes that now are and that now murmure at the Deity saying that he delighted in the wicked and that it is in vaine to serue him L. VIVES HEliah a the Of him read the King 1. 2. The Iewes out of this place of Malachi beleeue that hee shall come againe before the Messiah as the Apostles doe shew in their question concerning his comming Matt. 17. to which our Sauiour in answering that he is come already doth not reproue the Scribes opinion but sheweth another cōming of Heliah before himelfe which the Scribes did not vnderstand Origen for first he had said that Helias must first come and restore all things But it being generally held that Helias should come before Christ and it being vnknowne before which comming of Christ our Sauiour to cleare the doubt that might arise of his deity in that the people did not see that Helias was come said Helias is come already meaning Iohn of whome hee him-selfe had sayd If yee will receiue it this is Helias As if he had said bee not moued in that you thinke you saw not Helias before me whome you doubt whether I be the Messias or no. No man can be deceiued in the beleeuing that Iohn who came before me was that Helias who was to come not that his soule was in Iohn or that Helias himselfe in person were come but in that Iohn came in the spirit and power of Helias to turne the hearts of the fathers vnto the children to make the vnbeleeuers righteous and to prepare me a perfect people as the Angel promised of him Luc. 1. 17 This great mistery the Lord being willing to poynt at and yet not laying it fully open hee eleuates the hearts of the audience with his vsuall phrase vpon such occasions Hee that hath eares to heare let him heare And truely Iohns life came very neare Helias his Both liued in the wildernesse both wore girdles of skins both reproued vicious Princes and were persecuted by them both preached the comming of Christ fittly therefore might Iohn bee called another Helias to forerunne Christs first comming as Helias him-selfe shall do the second c. b Conuert the Iewes Therefore said Christ Helias must first come c. to correct saith Chrisostome their infidelity and to turne the hearts of the fathers vnto the children that is vnto the Apostles And then hee maketh a question If Helias his comming shall do so much good why did not our Sauiour send him before his first comming Answ. because as then they held our Sauiour himselfe to be Helias and yet would not beleeue him wheras when at the worlds end Helias shall come after all their tedious expectation and shew them who was the true Messias then will they all beleeue him c And the heart of man Hierome and our English vulgar read it other-wise That it is not euident in the Old-Testament in such places as say God shall iudge that it shal be in the person of Christ but onely by some of the testimonies where the Lord God speakes CHAP. 30. TO gather the whole number of such places of Scripture as prophecy this iudgement were too tedious Sufficeth we haue proued it out of both the Testaments But the places of the Old-Testament are not so euident for the comming of Christ a in person as them of the New be for whereas we read in the Old that the Lord God shall come it is no consequent that it is meant of Christ for the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost are all both Lord and God which we may not omit to obserue Wee must therefore first of all make a demonstration of those places in the prophets as do expressely name the Lord God and yet herein are euidently meant of Iesus Christ as also of those wherein this euidence is not so plaine and yet may bee conueniently vnderstood of him neuerthelesse There is one place in Isaias that hath it as plaine as may be Here me O Iacob and Israel saith the said Prophet my called I am I am the first and I am the last surely my hand hath laid the foundation of the earth and my right hand hath spanned the Heauens when I call them they stand together All you assemble your selues and heare which amongst
Surgeons b Anotamists they call them haue often cut vp dead men and liue men sometimes to learne the posture of mans inward parts and which way to make incisions and to effect their cures yet those members whereof I speake and whereof the c harmony and proportion of mans whole body doth consist no man could euer finde or durst euer vndertake to enquire which if they could bee knowne we should finde more reason and pleasing contemplation in the forming of the interior parts then wee can obserue or collect from those that lye open to the eye There are some parts of the body that concerne decorum onely and are of no vse such are the pappes on the brests of men and the beard which is no strengthning but an ornament to the face as the naked chins of women which being weaker were other-wise to haue this strengthning also do plainly declare Now if there be no exterior part of man that is vse-full which is not also comely and if there bee also parts in man that are comely and not vse-full then GOD in the framing of mans body had a greater respect of dignity then of necessity For necessity shall cease the time shall come when wee shall doe nothing but enioy our lustlesse beauties for which we must especially glorifie him to whom the Psalme saith Thou hast put on praise and comlinesse And then for the beauty and vse of other creatures which God hath set before the eyes of man though as yet miserable and amongst miseries what man is able to recount them the vniuersall gracefulnesse of the heauens the earth and the sea the brightnesse of the light in the Sunne Moone and Starres the shades of the woods the colours and smells of flowres the numbers of birds and their varied hewes and songs the many formes of beasts and fishes whereof the least are the rarest for the fabrike of the Bee or Pismier is more admired then the Whales and the strange alterations in the colour of the sea as beeing in seuerall garments now one greene then another now blew and then purple How pleasing a sight sometimes it is to see it rough and how more pleasing when it is calme And O what a hand is that that giueth so many meates to asswage hunger so many tastes to those meates with-out helpe of Cooke and so many medecinall powers to those tastes How delightfull is the dayes reciprocation with the night the temperatenesse of the ayre and the workes of nature in the barkes of trees and skinnes of beasts O who can draw the perticulars How tedious should I be in euery peculiar of these few that I haue heere as it were heaped together if I should stand vpon them one by one Yet are all these but solaces of mans miseries no way pertinent to his glories What are they then that his blisse shall giue him if that his misery haue such blessings as these What will GOD giue them whome hee hath predestinated vnto life hauing giuen such great things euen to them whome hee hath predestinated vnto death What will hee giue them in his kingdome for whome hee sent his onely sonne to suffer all iniuries euen to death vpon earth Wherevpon Saint Paul sayth vnto them Hee who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all vnto death how shall hee not with Him giue vs all things also When this promise is fulfilled O what shall wee bee then How glorious shall the soule of man bee with-out all staine and sinne that can either subdue or oppose it or against which it need to contend perfect in all vertue and enthroned in all perfection of peace How great how delightfull how true shall our knowledge of all things be there with-out all error with-out all labour where wee shall drinke at the spring head of GODS sapience with-out all difficulty and in all felicity How perfect shall our bodies bee beeing wholy subiect vnto their spirits and there-by sufficiently quickned and nourished with-out any other sustenance for they shall now bee no more naturall but spirituall they shall haue the substance of â—…sh quite exempt from all fleshly corruption L. VIVES PArtly a necessary Such as husbandry the Arte of Spinning weauing and such as man cannot liue without b Anatomists that is cutters vp of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a section incision or cutting c Harmony The congruence connexion and concurrence of any thing may be called so it commeth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to adapt or compose a thing proportionably Of the obstinacie of some few in denying the resurrection which the whole world beleeueth as it was fore-told CHAP. 25. BVT as touching the goods of the minde which the blessed shall enioy after this life the Philosophers and wee are both of one minde Our difference is concerning the resurrection which they deny with all the power they haue but the increase of the beleeuers hath left vs but a few opposers CHRIST that disprooued the obstinate euen in his proper body gathering all vnto his faith learned and vnlearned wise and simple The world beleeued GODS promise in this who promised also that it should beleeue this It was a not Peters magick that wrought it but it was that GOD of whome as I haue said often and as Porphyry confesseth from their owne Oracles all their Gods doe stand in awe and dread Porphyry calles him GOD the Father and King of GODS But GOD forbid that wee should beleeue his promises as they doe that will not beleeue what hee had promised that the world should beleeue For why should wee not rather beleeue as the world doth and as it was prophecied it should and leaue them to their owne idle talke that will not beleeue this that the world was promised to beleeue for if they say wee must take it in another sence because they will not doe that GOD whome they haue commended so much iniury as to say his Scriptures are idle things Yet surely they iniure him as much or more in saying they must bee vnderstood other-wise then the world vnderstandeth them which is as GOD both promised and performed Why cannot GOD raise the flesh vnto eternall life Is it a worke vnworthy of God Touching his omnipotencie whereby hee worketh so many wonders I haue sayd enough already If they would shew mee a thing which hee cannot doe I will tell them hee cannot lye Let vs therefore beleeue onely what hee can doe and not beleeue what hee cannot If they doe not then beleeue that hee can lye let them beleeue that hee will doe what hee promiseth And let them beleeue as the world beleeues which hee promised should beleeue and whose beleefe hee both produced and praised And how prooue they the worke of the resurrection any way vnworthy of GOD There shall be no corruption there-in and that is all the euill that can be-fall the body Of the elementary orders wee haue spoken already as also of the possibility of the swift motion
at the consumation of all The Angells and the starres are witnesse of heauens moouing at Christs birth The miracle of a Virgins child-birth mooued the earth the preaching of Christ in the Iles and the continent mooued both sea and drie land The nations we see are mooued to the faith Now the comming of the desire of all nations that we doe expect at this day of iudgement for first hee must be loued of the beleeuers and then be desired of the expecters Now to Zachary Reioyce greatly O daughter of Syon saith hee of Christ and his church shoute for ioy O daughter of Ierusalem behold thy King commeth to thee hee is iust and thy Sauiour poore and riding vpon an asse and vpon d a colt the fole of an asse his dominion is from sea to sea from the riâ—…er to the lands end Of Christs riding in this manner the Gospell speaketh where this prophecy as much as needeth is recited In another place speaking prophetically of the remission of sinnes by Christ he saith thus to him Thou in the bloud of thy testament hast loosed thy prisoners out of the lake wherein is no water This lake may bee diuersly interpreted without iniuring our faith But I thinke hee meaneth that barren bondlesse depth of humaine myseries wherein there is no streame of righteousnesse but all is full of the mudde of iniquitie for of this is that of the psalme meant Hee hath brought mee out of the lake of misery and 〈◊〉 of the myâ—…y clay Now Malachi prophecying of the church which wee see so happily propagate by our Sauiour Christ hath these plaine word to the Iewes in the person of God I haue no pleasure in you neither will I accept an offring at your hand for frâ—… the rising of the Sunne vnto the setting my name is great amongst the Gentiles 〈◊〉 in euery place shal be e incence offered vnto mee and a pure offering vnto my 〈◊〉 for my name is great among the heathen saith the LORD This wee see offered in euery place by Christs priest-hood after the order of Melchisedech but the sacrifice of the Iewes wherein God tooke no pleasure but refused that they cannot deny is ceased Why do they expect an other Christ and yet see that this prophecy is fulfilled already which could not bee but by the true Christ for he 〈◊〉 by by after in the persoÌ„ of God My couenant was with him of life and peace I 〈◊〉 him feare and he feared me and was afraid before my name The law of truth was 〈◊〉 his mouth he walked with me in peace and equity and turned many away from iniâ—… for the priests lips should preserue knowledge and they should seeke the law at his 〈◊〉 for he is the messenger of the Lord of hostes No wonder if Christ be called 〈◊〉 as he is a seruant because of the seruants forme he tooke when he came to men so is hee a messenger because of the glad tydings which hee brought vnto men For Euangelium in greeke is in our tongue glad tydings and he saith againe of him Behold I will send my messenger and hee shall prepare the way before mee the Lord whom you seeke shall come suddenly into his Temple and the messenger of the couenant whom you desire behold he shall come saith the Lord of hostes but who maâ—… abide the daie of his comming who shall endure when he appeareth This place is a direct prophecy of both the commings of Christ of the first He shall come suddenly into his temple his flesh as hee sayd himselfe Destroy this temple and in three daies I will raise it againe Of the second Behold hee shall come saith the LORD of hostes but who may abide the day of his comming c. But those words the Lord whom you seeke and the messenger of the couenant whom you desire imply that the Iewes in that manner that they conceiue the scriptures desire and seeke the comming of CHRIST But many of them acknowledged him not being come for whose comming they so longed their euill desertes hauing blinded their hearts The couenant named both heere and there where hee sayd My couenant was with him is to bee vnderstood of the New Testament whose promises are eternall not of the Old full of temporall promises such as weake men esteeming too highly doe serue GOD wholy for and stumble when they see the sinne-full to enioy them Wherefore the Prophet to put a cleare difference betweene the blisse of the New Testament peculiar to the good and the abundance of the Old Testament shared with the badde also adioyneth this Your words haue beene stout against me saith the Lord and yet you said wherein haue we spoken against thee you haue sayd it is in vaine to serue GOD and what profit haue we in keeping his commandements and in walking humbly before the LORD GOD of hostes and now wee haue blessed others they that worke wickednesse are set vppe and they that oppose God they are deliuered Thus spake they that scared the Lord each to his neighbour the Lord hearkned and heard it and wrote a booke of remembrance in his sight for such as feare the Lord and reuerence his name That booke insinuateth the New Testament Heare the sequele They shal be to mee saith the Lord of hostes in that day wherein I doe this for a slocke and I will spare them as a man spareth his owne sonne that serueth him Then shall you returne and discerne betweene the righteous and the wicked and betweene him that serueth GOD and him that serueth him not For behold the day commeth that shall burne as an oven and all the proud and the wicked shal be as stubble and the day that commeth shall burne them vppe saith the LORD of Hostes and shall leaue them neither roote nor branch But vnto you that feare my name shall the sonne of righteousnesse arise and health shal be vnder his wings and you shall goe forth and growe vppe as fatte Calues You shall tread downe the wicked they shal be as dust vnder the soles of your feete in the day that I shall doe this saith the LORD of Hostes. This is that day that is called the day of iudgement whereof if it please God wee meane to say some-what in place conuenient L. VIVES AGgee a Zachary Esdras nameth them chap. 6. 1. where he calleth Zachary the sonne 〈◊〉 Addo whom Zachary himselfe saith was his grand-father and Barachiah his father Thâ—… saith Hierome was doubtlesse that Addo that was sent to Hieroboam the sonne of Nabaâ—… in whose time the Altar cleft and his hand withered and was restored by this Addes prayers Kings 1. 1â—… Chro. 2. 12. But hee is not called Addo in either of these 〈◊〉 the Kings omit his name the Chronicles call him Semeius But a prophet of that time must bee great great grand-father at least to a sonne of the captiuity This Zachary was not the sonne of 〈◊〉 whome Ioash the King