I please drop from the Heav'ns a Chaine To which lay all your hands and you in vaine Shall striue to pull me thence and yet with ease And ioyne to you the vast Earth and the Seas With all their pondrous weight one minutes space Shall draw you vp to my sublimer place c. In which Power ascribed vnto Iupiter as acknowledging one superior Deitie what doth hee lesse than sleight and vilifie the weakenesse and deficiencie of all such Idols on whom Diuine honors are superstitiously conferred I began the former Tractate with the Hierarchie of Angells their three Classes or Ternions their order and concatination in which I haue proceeded with that plainenesse that I hope they need no further demonstration As also of the opinion of the Sadduces and others who will allow no Spirits or Angells at all their weake and vnmomentary Tenents being with much facility remoued I now proceed to this vnresistable conclusion That the obiect and end of Gods diuine Will in the creation of all things was no other than his Grace and Goodnesse in which he continued from all eternitie and so he might haue done without the helpe seruice or ministerie of any Angell or Creature whatsoeuer which neither to the ornament conseruation or augmentation of his Diuine Nature can adde or detract And that his Almightinesse was pleased to vndergo this great Worke of the Creation it was his free-Will and no Necessitie that obliged him vnto it And he that in his Diuine Wisdom and Goodnesse had Will to make things hath the same Power to dispose them by which he created them and as much do we owe vnto him for the Dangers from which he deliuereth vs as for the Health Wealth and Dignities with which hee blesseth vs. For as Saint Hierome saith The treasures of Vices in vs are the aboundance of Goodnesse in God c. Angels were the first Creatures God made created pure as the Light ordained with the Light to serue God who is the Lord of Light They haue charge to conduct vs wisedome to instruct vs and grace to preserue vs They are the Saints Tutors Heauens Heraulds and the Bodies and Soules Guardians Furthermore as Origen saith Euery ones Angell that hath guided him in this life shall at the last day produce and bring his Charge forth whom he hath gouerned They at all times and in all places behold the majestie of the Heauenly Father And according to Saint Augustine they were created Immortall Beautifull Innocent Good Free and Subtile resembling a far off the Essence of God himselfe Saint Basil saith The Angels suffer no mutation or change for amongst them there is neither Childe Youth nor Old man but in the same state they were created in the beginning they stil persist and so vnchangeably shall to all eternitie And Saint Augustine in his Booke De vera Religione vseth these words Let not the worship of men that be dead be any Religion vnto vs who if they liued piously and died good men desire no such honor to be conferred vpon them but they desire that Hee onely should be adored by vs by whose illumination they reioyce that wee shall become partakers of their blessednesse Therefore they are to be honored for imitation but not worshipped for Religion And after speaking of the Augels he addeth this We honour them in our Charitie but not in any Seruilitie neither do wee build any Temples vnto them For they would not be so honoured of vs knowing that we our selues if we be good men are the Temples of the euer liuing God For our instruction therefore it was written That the Angell forbad man to bow to him but to giue all worship and reuerence to that Great God to whom he with him was a fellow seruant God vseth their ministerie and seruice not only to the celebrating of his owne glory as Psal. 103. vers 20 21. Praise the Lord ye his Angels that excell in strength that do his commandement in obeying the voice of his Word Praise the Lord all yee his Hosts yee his Seruants that do his pleasure But also when he employeth them to deliuer any message vnto man as Numb 22. vers 32. And the Angel of the Lord said vnto him Why hast thou stricken thinâ— Asse now thrice c. As also Genes 19. 13. For wee will destroy this place because the Cry of them is great before the Lord and the Lord hath sent vs to destroy it He employeth them likewise in the gouernment of the world For by him were all things creâ—ted which are in heauen or which are in earth things visible and invisible whether they be Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Powers all things were created by him and for him c. He vseth them in the deliuerance and protection of the Faithfull Acts 5.19 But the Angell of the Lord by night opened the prison doores and brought him forth c. By their care and employment some are instructed in the Law of the Lord and to haue the Gospell propagated Acts 16.9 Where a Vision appeared to Paul in the night There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying Come into Macedonia and helpe vs c. They comfort the Saints in afflictions as well in things that belong to this bodily as spirituall life they strengthen them when they faint sometimes cherish and at other times chastice them Reg. 2.1.3 Then the Angell of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbyte Arise and goe vp to meet the Messengers of the King of Samaria and say vnto them Is it not because there is no God in Israel that you go to enquire of Baalzebub the god of Eckron c. Acts 27.23 24. Paul saith For there stood by me this night the Angell of God whose I am and whom I serue saying Feare not Paul for thou must be brought before Caesar and Loe God hath giuen vnto thee freely all that saile with thee They are Gods Avengers of the reprobat and such as oppose his Church people Esay 37.36 Then the Angell of the Lord went out and smote in the Campe of Assur an hundred fourestore and fiue thousand So when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead Corps Of their seuerall apparitions and sundry employments much more might be said but these few may serue to illustrate the rest Yet notwithstanding that great is their power and excellence and that God vseth their ministerie in preseruing and protecting vs and bestowing many benefits and blessings vpon vs yet as wel by their owne saying as the sentence of the Apostles it is manifest no Diuine Worship is to be conferred vpon them but vpon God onely Before I come by seuerall histories to enlarge that argument handled in the premisses namely That euen by Dreames it may be concluded that there be Spirits I will speake something of Dreams in general Aristotle defines them thus Somnium est phantasmain somno factum i. A
inest Thou art the Rocke draw'st all things all do'st guide Yet in deepe setled rest do'st still abide Vntoucht with care thou car'st for all that be Mov'st Heauen and Earth yet motion 's not in thee According with this is the saying of Seneca the Philosopher Necessitate non aliud effugium est quam velle quod ipsa cogit i. There is no other auoiding of necessity than to be willing to that which it compells thee to It is Catsius word vpon the foresaid Emblem Ad trahens abstrahor Vpon which I reade him thus Fata reluctantes rapiunt ducuntque sequentes Cedere qui non vult sponte coactus abit Fates the Rebellious force th' Obedient shield Who striue against them are compel'd to yeeld Seneca the Tragicke Poet in Oedip. we reade thus Fatis agimur cedite Fatis Non sollicitae possunt curae Mutare rati foedera Fusi Quicquid patimur mortale genus Quicquid facimus venit ex alto Yeeld to the Fates for they vs leade Not all our cares can change the thread Decreed vpon what euer wee Subiect to fraile mortalitie Suffer or act if rest or moue Euen all of it comes from aboue A Meditation vpon the former Tractate I ' Haue wandred like a Sheepe that 's lost To finde Thee out in euery Coast Without I haue long seeking him Whilest Thou the while abid'st Within Through euery broad Street and streit Lane Of this Worlds City but in vaine I haue enquir'd The reason why I sought thee ill for how could I Finde Thee Abroad when Thou meane space Hadst made Within thy dwelling place I sent my Messengers about To try if they could finde Thee out But all was to no purpose still Because indeed they sought Thee ill For how could they discouer Thee That saw not when thou entredst me Myne Eyes could tell me If He were Not Colour'd sure He came not there If not by Sound my Eares could say He doubtlesse did not passe my way My Nose could nothing of Him tell Because my God he did not Smell None such I Relisht said my Taste And therefore me He neuer past My Feeling told me That none such There entred for he none did Touch. Resolv'd by them how should I be Since none of all these are in Thee In Thee my God Thou hast no Hew That Mans fraile Opticke sence can view No Sound the Eare heares Odour none The Smell attracts all Taste is gone At thy Appearance where doth faile A Body how can Touch preuaile What euen the brute Beasts comprehend To thinke Thee such I should offend Yet when I seeke my God I'enquire For Light than Sunne and Moone much higher More cleare and splendrous ' boue all Light Which th' Eye receiues not 't is so bright I seeke a Voice beyond degree Of all melodious Harmony The Eare conceiues it not A Smell Which doth all other sents excell No Floure so sweet no Myrrh no Nard Or Aloes with it compar'd Of which the Braine not sensible is I seeke a Sweetnesse such a blesse As hath all other Sweets surpast And neuer Pallat yet could Taste I seeke That to containe and hold No Touch can Feele no Embrace Infold So far this Light the Raies extends As that no place◠It comprehends So deepe this Sound that though it speake It cannot by a Sence so weake Be entertain'd A Redolent Grace The Aire blowes not from place to place A pleasant Taste of that delight It doth confound all Appetite A strict Embrace not felt yet leaues That vertue where it takes it cleanes This Light this Sound this Sauouring Grace This Tastefull Sweet this Strict Embrace No Place containes no Eye can see My God Is and there 's none but Hee ¶ Fecisti nos Domine ad Te inquietum igitur est Cor nostrum done◠requiescat in Te. S. Augustine The Throne Ex muner Iokan o◠Math Christmas Artist THE ARGVMENT of the third Tractate OF th' Vniuerse the Regions three And how their part◠disposed be How gouerned and in what order In which no one exceeds his border That Moses Arke in all respects Vpon the Worlds rare Frame reflects Both how and when by Power Diuine The Sunne and Moone began to shine The Day of our blest Sauiours Passion Compar'd with that of the Creation How euery Star shines in his Sphere What place they in the Zodiacke beare And of the twelue Signes a Narration Their Influence Aspect and Station To proue no former Worlds haue bin And This must perish we liue in The vainnesse lastly doth appeare Of Plato's Great and Vertent Yeare ¶ The second Argument ALl Glory to the Holy-One Euen Him that sits vpon the Throne The Thrones WEe from the Workman to the Worke proceed The powerfull Doer to the glorious Deed. This Vniuerse Created first then guided Into three ample Regions is diuided The first is call'd Super-coelestiall The next Coelestiall or Ethereall Both constant in their kindes The third doth vary In which we liue as meerely Elementary The First of Angels is the blessed dwelling The later two many degrees excelling The Next of Starres and Planets keeps the features The Last of Man Beast and all Mortall Creatures The first doth with incredible Lustre shine The second vnto it as lesse Diuine Participating both lest Time should faile Darknesse and Light weighes out in equall Scale The third enioyes both these as who but knowes it But how So as the second doth dispose it The First doth Immortalitie containe A stable worke and euer to remaine There 's in the Second too a stable face But yet Mutation both in worke and place There 's in the Third all Change but no Stabilitie 'Twixt life and death A constant Mutabilitie Like the pure nature of his Diuine minde He made the First Then Bodies in their kinde Void of corruption He the Next created The Third full of all Frailties fabricated Foure Elements He placed in the Lower Foure in the Vpper in the Highest foure Terrestriall these Earth Water Aire and Fire Celestiall and Etheriall that aspire To place more eminent in this order runne Luna Mercury Venus and the Sunne Super-Coelestiall and of highest state The Angell the Arch-Angell Principate And Seraphim the last The Earth commixt Of all things to corruption apt he fixt In the Worlds lowest part but not to moue The selfe same Power ordain'd in Heauen aboue Continuall motion but to such we call Natures which are Super-Coelestiall He gaue Intelligent Force abiding still And not to suffer change So by his Will This our inferior Water is in great Discord with Fire and suffocates his heat Water Coelestiall feeds it without cease To which the supreme Region giues encrease Terrestriall Aire lends Breath Coelestiall Ioy And Solace free from trouble or annoy Super-coelestiall euery Good thing lends So by the Might that through this Worke extends This lower Fire consumes and all things burnes
acquire And therefore we must in this sincere Truth Our selues examine How we spend our Youth Manhood and Age and then by searching finde How fraile weare how'vnstedfast and how blinde And next when we our miseries haue skan'd Sifting all actions that we take in hand How vaine they are Necessitie will leaue That Consequent behinde That we must cleaue Onely to that great Pow'r nor from it shrinke Without which we nor moue nor speake nor thinke And because we haue falne from Him by Sin To intimate There is no way to win Our peace and reconcilement or dispence With our transgression but true Penitence I thus proceed Great hath the Decertation Bin 'mongst the Learned men 'bout the Creation Of blessed Angels Some of them haue said They many Worlds before this World were made To'attend th' Almighty Others haue againe So curious a scrutinie held vaine And almost irreligious aiming still To penetrate into his secret Will Without his Warrant and conclude That they Had with the Light subsistence the first day Were with it made of Nothing had no Being At all till then The Fathers disagreeing About this point some haue opinion held But by the later Writers since refel'd As Hierome Ambrose Gregory Nazianzen Cassianus Damascenus Origen Hilary Basil These with others were Resolv'd That because nothing doth appeare From Moses in his Booke of things created Concerning them That they were fabricated Long time before Againe Because Saint Paul Writing to Titus saith God first of all Before the World th' Hope of Eternall life Promis'd to vs c. Hence they maintaine this strife Interpreting the Text Er'e the Creation Which words include If Before God did fashion All things that Being haue in earth or heauen There must be some to whom this power is giuen And those the Angels But on this Assertion Learned Saint Austin layes a great aspersion Affirming them with th' Heav'ns Emperiall made And that before they no existence had Saint Paul interpreting Th' Almighty gaue This Promise and blest Hope Mankinde to saue From all Eternitie to elevate Mans Fall in that pure Lambe Immaculate His Sonne and our deare Sauiour And thus Opinion'd were graue Athanasius Gregory Theodoret Epiphanius With diuers others Which no sooner mov'd Was in the Lateran Councell but approv'd Of all the Bishops as of both the best Which in the sacred Scripture is exprest For thus 't is writ God ended the seventh day The Worke He made for so doth Moses say And in the day whch He his Sabbath nam'd Rested from All the Worke which he had fram'd Which vniuersall word perforce doth carry Spirituall things as well as Elementary Such as before the World thinke them created In many doubts themselues haue intricated I would besides haue them resolue me How Vnlesse his Worke imperfect they allow It can with reason stand that if they were In Time before Time was and with sincere Faith and Obedience had so long aboad They onely then revolted from their God Should this be granted it must needs inferre Strong argument a second way to erre Namely That no Coelestiall Hierarchy Subiects of that eternall Monarchy Who haue remain'd as by the World appeares In blest estate so many thousand yeares But notwithstanding the great grace th' are in May slide like Lucifer and fall by Sin Which the Church holds erronious Be it then Granted That God did make the Angels when Th' Imperiall Heav'ns were fashion'd at first pure And without sin for euer to endure Had they not falne through Proud Imagination By which they then incur'd his Indignation For nothing Euill can from Him proceed So much the Text implyes where we may reade God said when he his rare Worke vnderstood All things that I haue made be greatly good And lest the Church might that way be deluded 'T is in the Lateran Councell thus concluded All Spirits were created pure at first But by their selfe-will after made accurst To make things cleare Although we must confesse That Moses doth not in plaine termes expresse When how and in what order Angels were At first created yet it will appeare How that their Essences and Natures bright Were signified by names of Heav'n and Light And though they seeme forgotten in that Text Obserue how other Scriptures are connext To giue them Name and Being In that Oad In which the three blest Children prais'd their God In the hot flames to giue to vnderstand That Angels were the Worke of his great Hand O all ye Workes of God the Lord say they Blesse praise and magnifie his Name for aye Praise him ye Heav'ns ye Angels praise the Lord. Let vs to Daniels adde the Psalmists word Praise Him all ye his Angels Some haue said That Angels were the last worke that God made But most absurdly He in Iob thus sayes When the Stars of the Morning gaue me praise Then all the Angels of my Sonnes the choice Extold my Name with an exalted voice Now when the Great and most Diuinely Wise Did the rare Fabricke of the World deuise And by the vertue of his Word create The Heav'n and Earth in their so goodly state He made the Angels in the first of Time Of Substances most noble and sublime Amongst which Lucifer was chiefe and hee As he might challenge a prioritie In his Creation so aboue the rest A supereminence as first and best For he was chiefe of all the Principalities And had in him the three stupendious qualities Of the most holy Trinitie which include First Greatnesse Wisedome next then Pulchritude The Greatnesse of the Sonne and holy Spirit The Father is which they from him inherit Now of the Father and the Holy-Ghost The Wisedome is the Sonne so stiled most The Father and Sonnes Pulchritude is he That 's the third Person in the Trinitie And though of Angels the great pow'r be such As hath in Scripture been extolled much For their nobilitie and excellence As first of Michael whose pre-eminence Daniel relates as naming him for one Of the prime Angels that attend the Throne As Raphael who told Tobit Of the seuen That still before th' Almighty stand in Heav'n Himselfe was one Or as the Seraphim Who as the holy Prophet speakes of him With a cole toucht his lips from th' Altar tooke Or as of Gabriel whom the holy Booke Mentions who to the earth made proclamation Of our most blessed-Sauiors Incarnation Yet aboue these was Lucifer instated Honor'd exalted and much celebrated And therefore many of the Learned striue His greatnesse from Ezechiel to deriue For thus he saith and what he doth infer 'Gainst Tyrus they conuert to Lucifer Thou sealst the Sum vp art in Wisedome cleare Thy beauty perfect doth to all appeare Thou hast in Eden Gods faire Garden been Each pretious stone about thy garment's seene The Ruby Topaz and the Diamond The Chrysolite and Onyx there were found The Iasper and the Saphyr dearely sold The
Thy Maiestie and Might With Thy great Glory shining bright Are still to be adored solely V. The Heart that 's obstinate shall be With sorrowes laden heauily He that is wicked in his wayes What doth he but heape sinne on sin Which where it endeth doth begin Whom nothing being downe can raise VI. To the persuasion of the Prowd No remedie there is allow'd His steps shall faile that steddy seem'd Sinnes Root in him is planted deepe And there doth strong possession keepe He therefore shall not be esteem'd VII We know the Sinne from whence it grew We know the Torment thereto due And the sad place for it assign'd And yet the more we seeme to know The more we dull and stupid grow As if we sencelesse were and blind VIII Ope then our hearts our eyes vnmaske And grant vs what we humbly aske So much of Thy Diuinest Grace That we may neither erre nor stray But finding out the perfect way We may evade both Paine and Place IX Though Atheists seeme to jest at Hell There is a Tophet we know well O Atheismes pestilent infection There 's a Gehinnon a sad Graue Prepar'd at first for such as haue No hope in the blest resurrection X. Three times our Sauior wept we read When he heard Lazarus was dead Bewailing Humane frailty then When to Ierusalem he rid And a poore Asses Colt bestrid At the grosse folly blinding men XI He wept vpon the Crosse againe 'Gainst Humane Malice to complaine Seeing their insolence and pride When in such bitter grosse despight They crucify'd the Lord of Light Him who for Mans redemption dy'de XII How necessarie then are Teares To free vs from all future feares Of Death of Torment of Damnation Teares that can wash our Soules so white To bring vs to Eternall light Instating vs in our saluation XIII A contrite Spirit a broken Heart Moist eyes whence many dew drops start O grant vs then thou heav'nly King So we with Hearts and Tongues vnited May with the Psalmist be accited And Praise and Glory to Thee sing XIV Ye Sonnes of Men with one accord All Strength and Glory giue the Lord You that are Sonnes to men of Fame Giue them the Lord they are his due For know that it belongs to you To magnifie his holy Name XV. Within his glorious Temple Hee Deserueth Worship on the knee O kneele then at His sacred Shrine His Voice is on the Waters great His Glory thunders from his Seat His Pow'r doth on the Waters shine XVI His Voice is mighty glorious too For all things the Lords Voice can doo The strongest Cedars He doth breake When the Lords Voice from him is gon The Cedars ev'n of Lebanon Torne as they stand his Pow'r can speake XVII His Voice them of their leaues can strip He makes them like yong Calues to skip Nor doth the stedfast Mountaine scorne Or Hermon for his Dew so prais'd But when his voice aloft is rais'd To skip like a yong Vnicorne XVIII When the Lords Voice is lifted higher It doth diuide the flames of fire It makes the Wildernesse to quake Ev'n the great Wildernesse of all The Desart which we Kadesh call It doth compell to moue and shake XIX His Voice doth make the Hinde to beare And all those Forrests that cloath'd were Stand at his pleasure nak'd and bare And therefore in his Temple now All meet and to his Glory bow With Sacrifice of Praise and Prayer XX. The Lord the raging Seas doth sway The mighty Flouds to Him obay And neuer shall his Kingdome cease The Lord shall giue his People strength And will deliuer them at length And blesse them with his ioyfull Peace Non Delinquenti sed peccata relinquenti condonat Deus Ambros. THE PRINCIPAT Ex muner g glouer sculpt THE ARGVMENT of the seuenth Tractat. OF Gods great Works a serious view For which all praise to him is due The seuerall Classes that are held Amongst the Angels that rebel'd Of Lucifer the principall And his strange figure since his Fall Of Such as most in Power excell And of their Gouernment in Hell Their Orders Offices and Names And what Prioritie each claimes The List of Those that fell from Blisse The Knowledge that in Daemons is And how far stretcht Next of their Wrath Tow'rds Mankinde and what Bounds it hath Discouery of those Ginnes and Snares They lay t' entrap Men vnawares Of Compacts common in these Ages And of the Astrologomages The second Argument IN Heav'n in Earth in Hell some sway Others againe are taught t' obay The Principats GOds wondrous Works that haue before me beene I will record and speake what I haue seene Saith Wisedome No Worke present or decay'd But by his pow'rfull Word at first was made The Sun that shines and doth on all things looke What is it else but an illustrious booke In which th' Almighties Glory may be read Hath not the Lord who hath accomplished All things in season made each thing so rare That all his Saints his Glory shall declare These wondrous Workes surpassing humane sence T' expresse his Maiestie and Excellence The Heart he searcheth and the depth of man In his pre-Science knowing all he can Or thinke or act the wonders of the Skies And each obscure thing 's plaine before his eies Things past nor future can escape his brest All secret paths to Him are manifest No thought can Him escape of that be'assur'd Nor can the least word be from him obscur'd His Wisedomes exc'lent Works He doth extend From Euerlasting Neuer to haue end He needs no Counsellor his Will to act To Him can none adde no man can detract O how delectable Thou Lord of All Are thy stupendious Workes in generall By vs to be consider'd from things higher Ev'n to the very common sparks of Fire They liue by Thee created firme and sure And they to euerlasting shall endure And when he calls them to a reck'ning still As His they are obseruant to his Will Doubled they are one set against another And there is nothing his rare Works can smother The one the others workmanship commends How far then ô thou Mighty God extends Thy wondrous Pow'r or Who to Earth ally'd With thy great Glory can be satisfy'd Behold this high and sublime Ornament The beauty of the Heav'ns the Firmament So glorious to the eye in it the Sunne A maruellous Worke by the Creator done Which in it's dayly progresse through the Skie Points vnto vs the hand of the Most-Hye He burnes the Soile from his meridian seat And who is he that can abide his heat Three times more hot the mountaine tops he makes Than he that with his great care vndertakes To keepe a furnace in continuall â—lame His fiery vapors He casts out the same In their owne kinde so luminous and bright As that they dazle the beholders sight Great is the Lord that made the Sunne indeed And by his Word commands it run with speed The
For diuers Authors are in this agreeing Mans generation hath been multiply'de Aboue all other Animals beside Saith Daniel Thousand thousands Him before Stand and 'bout him ten thousand thousands more Which Thousand he thus duplicates to show Their countlesse number which our dull and slow Nature wants facultie to aphrehend As likewise when he further would extend Their Legions Miriads he to Miriads layes Noting to vs of those that sound his praise The infinite Armies like a Circle round The number ending where it first was found In Iohn 't is read A mighty voice I heard Of many Angels and their Troupes appear'd To be of thousand thousands Iob said well The number of his Souldiers who can tell 'Mongst others one much daring his bold Pen Seem'd to out-strip his Vnderstanding when He would confine each Chorus to containe The meere Chimaera of an idle braine Saying To each belongs in these blest Regions Six thousand six hundred sixty and six Legions Each Legion too doth bee'ng exactly told Six thousand six hundred sixty six Angels hold But of their number let no man discusse Further than sacred Scripture warrants vs. It followes that I next make inquisition Into the Angels motion a Position Needfull to be examin'd Know then He Is not contain'd in place as Brutes and we But Place it selfe he in Himself containes Bee'ng said to be still where his Pow'r remaines And though it passe our weake ingeniositie Yet He is knowne to be of strange velocitie And without passing places can with ease Or go or come at all times when he please From heav'n to earth He can descend and bee Aboue and here in space vnmomentarie Hence thence He vndisturb'd hath passage faire Through both the elements of Fire and Aire Without incumbrance or the least molest And though it sinke not into th' Ethnycks brest Hee 's without circumscription vnconfin'd For if these Spirits Places had assign'd And so from one into another shifted How could they then so suddenly be lifted Into the vpper Heav'ns or thence apply Themselues to th' earth in twinkling of an eye It is agreed vpon the Good and Euill The blessed Angell as the cursed Diuell Haue all those faculties and without aine Or passing intermediat things can gaine To what they purpose in one instant round The spatious world and where they please be found Those that the Mathematicke Art prosesse Tell vs That 'twixt th' eight Heav'n and earth's no lesse Than one hundred and sev'nty millions 100 and three Of spacious miles mete by Geometrie By which account the mighty space extending Is from the watry and tenth Heav'n descending Ten times so much at least for if a stone Should from the starry and eight Heav'n be throwne And ev'ry houre passe without intermission One thousand miles in it's swift expedition In motion still without stay or re-calling It must be sixty fiue yeares in it's falling To amplifie what hath before been said Some Sectifts haue their ignorance betray'd Affirming Angels are not If they were They with the Soule of force must likewise beare Bodies about them too and so to bee Subiect vnto our visibilitie How vaine this is it may be eas'ly ghest When none that hath Philosophy profest But hold That there are Substances Diuine Intelligence call'd which neuer did incline Into commixtion or knowne to require Substance from th' Earth the Water Aire or Fire A second thing th' object That if so great Their number be as that the Aire 's repleat With infinit Armies 't must be needs confest That they should hourely whole Mankinde molest But these consider not He that created All things out of meere Nothing hath instated Them in such order distance and consent One to another's no impediment Neither is any of his great Works found That hath the pow'r to passe beyond his Bound As in the Waters element though far It'exceeds the Earth yet keepes within it's baâ— And though the proud waues with curl'd billowes rore Threatning as if to swallow vp the shore Yet by th' Almighties hand their pow'r is stay'd No Inundation or great Deluge made Vnlesse his Wrath some sudden vengeance brings Opening Heav'ns spouts and letting loose the Springs No maruell then that Spirits be in number So many that the very Aire they comber And they to vs and we to them so odious They neither hurtfull are nor discommodious Their Malice not bee'ng able to withstand Those bounds prefixt by the Almighties hand For so much in Iobs Historie is found When Sathan saith he hath compast the earth round He doth not say In his large progresse hee Hath done to Man least discommoditie Or harme at all not that he wanted Will But in himselfe the Pow'r to hurt or kill Nor durst he touching Ioâ— make inquisition Till he from God himselfe had free permission Who gaue him limit and his fury sâ—aid Vpon his outward Fortunes when he said Lo all he hath now at thy â—â—â—cy stand Onely against his person 〈◊〉 hand Againe when He 〈◊〉 Body to him gaue Captiue his Life he did command him saue Whence we may ground Though this rebellious Prince Great Lucifer with his Adherents since Their Fall retaine th' abilitie and pow'r To measure th' Earth in least part of an houre Yet without leaue they neither dare nor can Vse the least violence on Gods creature Man Next touching the rare knowledge which insists In them by nature Some Theologists Affirme them pregnant in Theologie Philosophie Mathematicks Astrologie In Musicke they are skill'd expert in Physicke In Grammer Logicke and Arithmeticke Nay he that is among them the most low Contemn'd and vile more than weake Man doth know Nor are their reasons vaine for in respect A Spirit is but a meere Intellect Not burden'd with a body of agilitie Nimble and quicke therefore with much facilitie In all materials he acquainted is From the Earths superficies to th' Abisse He knowes such vertues as in Stones abide Gems Minerals creeping Wormes and Beasts for hide From him you nothing can for he doth vant Still in the Marble Porphyre Adamant The Corall Pumice and the Chrysolit The Smarage Topaz and the Margarit The Onyx Carbuncle Gold Siluer Lead Brasse Iron and Sulphur He is likewise read In the proprieties of Creeping things Ants Toads Snakes Serpents all that the earth brings Of all the sev'rall Fishes he hath notion Bred in fresh waters or the briny Ocean Of Beasts the sundry qualities he findes Lions Beares Tygres Camels Horses Hindes The Elephant the Fox Ape Asse Mule Cat Sheepe Wolfe Hare Hedge-hog with each other that The Earth produceth So in Herbs and Trees Plants Leaues Fruits Roots Seeds juices Liquors these No Artist hath like skill in He can tell The sev'rall qualities of Fowles and well Distinguish them as such and such belong To the Earth Aire or Water He is strong In further knowledge of the Elements As in their pow'r their natures and extents
all praise to him is due The sev'rall Classes that are held Amongst the Angels that rebel'd Of Lucifer the principall And his strange figure since his Fall Of such as most in pow'r excell And of their gouernment in hell Their Order Offices and Names With what prioritie each claimes The list of those that fell from blisse The knowledge that in Daemons is And how far stretcht Next of their wrath Tow'rds Mankinde and what bounds it hath Discov'ry of those ginnes and snares They lay t' entrap men vnawares Of Compacts common in all Ages And of the Astrologomages The Argument of the eighth Booke MICHAEL OF Sathans Wiles and Feats prestigious Appearing wondrous and prodigious Confirm'd by histories far sought Of Nouels by bad Daemons wrought And first of such is made expression That still with Mankinde seeke congression To whose fall they themselues apply Call'd Succubae and Incubi To finde those further we desire Of Water Earth the Aire and Fire And what their workings be to know As well aboue as here below How Authors 'mongst themselues agree What Genij and Spectars bee Faunes Sylvans and Alastores Satyrs and others like to these With stories mixt that grace may win From such as are not verst therein The Argument of the ninth Booke GABRIEL OF Spirits call'd Lucifugi From flying light I next apply My neere-tyr'd Pen of which be store In Mines where workmen dig for oare Of Robin Good-fellow and of Fairies With many other strange vagaries Done by Hob-goblins I next write Of a Noone-Diuell and a Buttry-Sp'rite Of graue Philosophers who treat Of the Soules essence and her seat The strange and horrid deaths related Of learn'd Magitions animated By Sathan the knowne Trutht ' abjure And study Arts blacke and impure Of Curious Science last the vanitie Grounded on nothing but incertaintie And that no Knowledge can abide the Test Like that in sacred Scripture is exprest The Seraphim Ex sumptib Tho Mainwaringe Armig THE ARGVMENT OF the first Booke A Ioue Principium the Creator Of all that liue sole Animator Atheisme and Sadducisme disputed Their Tenents argued and refuted A Deitie approv'd by all Gods Creatures in generall Into the world how false gods came And first began t' vsurpe that Name A Quaere made the world throughout To finde this God of whom some doubt 2 Argument The blessed Seraph doth imply The loue we owe to the most High INspire my Purpose fauour mine Intent O thou All-knowing and Omnipotent And giue me leaue that from the first of daies I Dust and Ashes may resound thy praise Able me in thy quarrell to oppose And lend me Armor-proofe t' encounter those Who striue t' eclipse thy glory all they can The Atheist Sadduce and Mahumetan That there 's a God who doubts who dares dispute Be'ng in it selfe a maxime absolute Which fundamentall Truth as it is seen In all things Light or Darke Wither'd or Green In Length Bredth Height Depth what is done or said Or hath existence in this Fabricke made By the word Fiat so amongst the rest In mans owne Conscience it is deep'st exprest Who 's he looks vp and sees a glorious Star Be 't fixt or wandering to appeare from far In bright refulgence can so stupid be Not to acknowledge this great Deity Who shall the Sun 's vnwearied progresse view As at the first creation fresh and new In lustre warmth and power still giuing chere To Plants to Beasts to Mankinde euery where Wh'obserues the Moon a lower course to range Inconstant and yet constant in her Change Ty'd to her monthly vicissitude And doth not thinke she also doth include A soueraigne power Looke downe the earth suruey The Floures Herbs Shrubs and Trees and see how they Yearely product The store of Herds and Flocks Grasing on pastures medowes hills and rocks Some wilde beasts others to mans vse made tame And then consider whence these creatures came Ponder the Wels Ponds Riuers Brooks Fountains The lofty Hils and super eminent Mountains The humble Valley with the spatious Plaine The faire cloath'd Medowes and full fields of graine The Gardens Desarts Forrests Shelues and Sands Fertilitie and Barrennesse of Lands Th' vnbounded Sea and vastitie of Shore All these expresse a Godhead to adore Be not in thy stupiditie deluded Thinke but how all these in one bulke included And rounded in a ball plac'd in the meane Or middle hauing nought whereon to leane So huge and pond'rous and yet with facilitie Remain immov'd in their first knowne stabilitie How can such weight that on no Base doth stand Be sway'd by lesse than an Almighty hand Obserue the Sea when it doth rage and rore As menacing to swallow vp the Shore For all the Ebbs and Tydes and Deeps profound Yet can it not encroch beyond his bound What brain conceiues this but the Power respects Which these things made moues gouerns and directs Do but ô man into thy selfe descend And thine owne building fully apprehend Comprise in one thy Body and thy Mind And thou thy selfe a little World shalt find Thou hast a nimble body to all motion Pliant and apt thou hast at thy deuotion A soule too in the which no motion 's seene But from all eyes hid as behind a skreene Th' effects we may behold from whose command The gestures come yet see we not the hand By which Th' are mov'd nor the chiefe Master He Who is prime Guide in our agilitie Is not so great of these things th'admiration So excellent a Worke of power to fashion Atheists anew and bring them to the way Let 's heare but what their owne Philosophers say One thus affirmes There 's no capacious place In Mans Intelligence able to embrace Th'incomprehensible Godhead and yet trace His steps we may his potencie still seeing In euery thing that hath on earth a being Saith Auicen He reason wants and sence That to a sole God doth not reuerence A third Who so to heav'n directs his eies And but beholds the splendor of the skies Almost incredible and doth not find There must of force be an Intelligent mind To guide and gouerne all things A fourth thus and the most learned of them doth discusse Seeming amongst the Heathen most to know There is a God from whom all good things flow To sing to the great God let 's neuer cease Who gouerns Cities People and gown'd Peace He the dull Earth doth quicken or make tame The Tempests and the windy Seas reclaime He hath the gouernment of States can quell Both gods and men his pow'r is seene in Hell Whose magnitude all visible things display He gouerns them with an impartial sway Where e're thou mov'st where so thou turnst thine eie Ev'n there is God there Ioue thou may'st espie His immense pow'r doth beyond limit run It hath no bound for what he wills is done What so thou seest throughout the world by day
world in euery Nation Feare first made gods with Diuine adoration Saith Martial If thy Barber then should dare When thou before him sit'st with thy throat bare And he his Rasor in his hand to say Giue me this thing or that Wilt thou say nay Or grant it him Take 't into thy beleefe He 's at that time a Ruffin and a Theefe And not thy Barber Neither can 't appeare Bounty that 's granted through imperious Feare Of the word Superstition the first ground Was To preserue to th' future whole and sound The memorie of Fathers Sons and Friends Before deceast and to these seeming ends Were Images deuis'd Which some would bring As their first author from th' Assyrian King Ninus whose father Belus being dead That after death he might be honored Set vp his statue which as most agree Was in his new built city Niniuee Whither all malefactors make repaire And such offenders whose liues forfeit are By the Lawes doom but kneeling to that Shrine Were sanctuar'd as by a thing diuine Hence came it that as gods they now abhor'd The Sun and Moone which they before ador'd With Stars and Planets they are now at strife And since by it they had recouered life Late forfeit hold it as a sov'raigne Deitie And therefore as it were in gratefull pietie They offred sacrifice burnt Incense gaue Oblations as to that had power to saue This which in Theeues and Murd'rers first began In time so generall grew that not a man But was of that beleefe and so withdrew That diuine worship which was solely due To the Creator and to him alone And gaue 't to Idols made of wood and stone And yet the Poet Sophocles euen then When the true God was scarsly knowne to men In honour of the supreme Deitie Much taunted the vain Greeks Idolatrie One God there is saith he and only one Who made the Earth his Footstoole Heav'n his Throne The swelling Seas and the impetuous Winds The first he calmeth and the last he binds In prison at his pleasure and yet wee Subiects vnto this fraile mortalitie Of diffident hearts determin and deuise To the Soules dammage many fantasies The Images of gods we may behold Carv'd both in stone and wood some left in gold Others in Iv'ry wrought and we vnwise By offring to them solemne Sacrifice Thinke we do God good seruice But the Deity Sole and supreme holds it as meere impiety Saint Austin neuer could himselfe persuade That such who mongst the antient Gentiles made Their Idoll gods beleev'd in them for he Saith confidently Though in Rome there be Ceres and Bacchus with a many more Whom they in low obeisance fall before They do it not as vnto absolute things That haue in them the innate seeds and springs Of being and subsistence but much rather As to the seruants of th' Almighty Father Yet these did worship something 't doth appeare As a Supreme whom they did loue or feare This Age breeds men so bruitsh naturall As to beleeue there is no God at all Such is the Atheist with whom can be had No competition one obtuse or mad Who cannot scape Heav'ns most implacable rod. The Psalmists Foole who saith There is no God Would such but spend a little vacant time To looke from what 's below to things sublime From terrene to coelestiall and confer The Vniuersall with what 's singuler They shall find nothing so immense and hye Beyond their stubborn dull capacity But figures vnto them his magnitude Again nothing so slight as to exclude It name amongst his creatures nought so small But proues to them his power majesticall Tell me ô thou of Mankind most accurst Whether to be or not to be was first Whether to vnderstand or not to know To reason or not reason well bee 't so I make that proposition all agree That our Not being was before To be For we that are now were not in Times past Our parents too ev'n when our moulds were cast Had their progenitors their fathers theirs So to the first By which it plaine appeares And by this demonstration 't is most cleare That all of vs were not before we were For in the Plants we see their set and ruin In Creatures first their growth then death pursuing In Men as well as Beasts since Adam's sinning The end is certaine signe of the beginning As granted then we boldly may proclaime it There was a Time if we a Time may name it When there was neither Time nor World nor Creature Before this Fabrick had such goodly feature But seeing these before our eyes haue being It is a consequence with Truth agreeing Of which we only can make this construction From some Diuine power all things had production And since of Nothing nothing can befall And betwixt that which is bee 't ne're so small And what is not there is an infinite space Needs must some Infinite supply the place It followes then The prime Cause and Effector Must be some potent Maker and Protector A preualent great and eternall God Who before all beginning had aboad Come to the Elements A war we see Twixt Heate and Cold Drought and Humiditie Now where 's Antipathy must be Annoy One laboring still the other to destroy And yet in one composure where these meet There 's Sympathie Attone and cons'nance sweet The Water doth not fight against the Fire Nor doth the Aire against the Earth conspire All these though opposites in vs haue peace Vniting in one growth and daily increase To make inueterate Opposites agree Needs must there be a God of Vnitie What is an Instrument exactly strung Vnlesse being plaid vpon it yeelds no tongue Or pleasant sound that may delight the eares So likewise of the musicke of the Spheres Which some haue said chym'd first by accident O false opinion'd Foole What 's the intent Of thy peruersenesse or thine ignorance Shall I designe what Fortune is or Chance Nothing they are saue a meere perturbation Of common Nature an exorbitation And bringing out of square these to controule Therefore must needs be an intelligent Soule For know you not you Empty of all notion That nothing in it selfe hath power of motion And that which by anothers force doth moue The cause of that effect must be aboue Th' originall of Mouing must be Rest Which in our common Dialls is exprest The Sun-beame pâ—ints the houre the shadow still From our shifts to another ev'n vntill Thou tel'st vnto the last yet 't is confest That all this while th' Artificer may rest The Earth in sundry colours deckt we know With all the Herbage and the Fruits below The Seas and Flouds Fish in aboundance store Fowles numberlesse within the Aire do soare And all these in their seuerall natures clad So fairely that her selfe can nothing add From whence haue these their motion Shall we say From th' Elements How comes it then that
astray as ev'ly minded For they in their owne wickednesse are blinded For nothing they Gods mysteries regard Nor of a good man hope for the reward Neither discerne That honour doth belong Vnto the faultlesse Soules that thinke no wrong For God created Man pure and vnblam'd Yea after his owne Image was he fram'd But by the Diuels enuy Death came in Who holds with him shall proue the Scourge of sin But in great boldnesse shall the Righteous stand Against the face of such as did command Them to the torture and by might and sway The fruits of all their labors tooke away When they shall see him in his strength appeare They shall be vexed with an horrid feare When they with an amased countenance Behold their wonderfull deliuerance And change their mindes and sigh with griefe and say Behold these men we labour'd to betray On whom with all contempt we did incroch And held them a meere by-word of reproch We thought their liues to madnesse did extend And there codld be no honour in their end How come they now amongst Gods Children told And in the list of Saints to be inrol'd Therefore from Truth 's way we haue deuious bin Nor trod the path the Righteous haue walkt in From the true Light we haue our selues confin'd Nor hath the Sun of Knowledge on vs shin'd The way of Wickednesse which leadeth on To ruine and destruction we haue gon By treading dangerous paths our selues w' haue tyr'd But the Lords way we neuer yet desir'd What profit hath our Pride or Riches brought Or what our Pompe since these are come to nought All these vaine things like shadowes are past by Or like a Post that seems with speed to fly Or as a Bird the earth and heav'n betweene Who makes her way and yet the path not seene The beating of her wings yeelds a soft sound But of her course there 's no apparance found As when an Arrow at a marke is shot Finds out a way but we perceiue it not For suddenly the parted aire vnites And the fore-passage is debat'd our â—ights So we no sooner borne and take our breath But instantly we hasten on to death In our liues course we in no vertue ioy'd And therefore now are in our sinnes destroy'd Th'Vngodlie's hopes to what may we compare But like the dust that 's scattered in the aire Or as the thin some gathered on the waue Which when the tempest comes no place can haue Or as the smoke dispersed by the wind Which blowne abroad no rest at all can find Or else As his remembrance steales away Who maketh speed and tarieth but a day But of the Iust for euer is th' aboad For their reward is with the Lord their God They are the charge and care of the most High Who tenders them as th' Apple of his eye And therefore they shall challenge as their owne From the Lords hand a Kingdome and a Crowne With his right hand hee 'l couer them from harme And mightily defend them with his arme He shall his Ielousie for Armor take And put in armes his Creatures for their sake His and their Foes to be reueng'd vpon He for a glorious breast-plate shall put on His Righteousnesse and for an Helmet beare True Iudgement to astonish them with feare For an invinc'd shield Holinesse he hath And for a sword he sharpens his fierce Wrath. Nay the whole World hee 'l muster to surprise His Enemies and fight against th' Vnwise The thunderbolts by th' hand of the most High Darted shall from the flashing lightnings fly Yea fly ev'n to the marke as from the Bow Bent in the clouds and in His anger go That hurleth stones the thicke Haile shall be cast Against them shall the Flouds and Ocean vast Be wondrous wroth and mightily or'eflow Besides the fierce Winds shall vpon them blow Yea and stand vp against them with their God And like a storme shall scatter them abroad Thus Wickednesse th' earth to a Desart brings And Sinne shall ouerthrow the Thrones of Kings You heare their doome It were not much amisse If we search further what this Atheisme is Obserue That sundry sorts of men there be Who spurne against the sacred Deitie As first Those whom Idolaters we call Pagans and Infidels in generall These though they be religious in their kinde Are in the manner of their worship blinde And by the Diuel's instigation won To worship Creatures as the Moon and Sun Others there be who the true God-head know Content to worship him in outward show Yet thinke his Mercy will so far dispence That of his Iustice they haue no true sence His Pitty they acknowledge not his Feare Because they hold him milde but not austere Some like brute beasts will not of sence discusse With such Saint Paul did fight at Ephesus Others are in their insolence so extreme That they deride Gods name scoffe and blaspheme As Holophernes who to Achior said Albeit thou such a vaine boast hast made That Israels God his people can defend Against my Lord who doth in power transcend Where th' Earth no greater pow'r knowes neere or far Than him whom I serue Nabuchadnezzar Diuers will seeme religious to comply With time and place but aske their reason Why They so conforme themselues They know no cause More than To saue their purse and keepe the Lawes There be to Noble houses make resort And sometimes Elbow Great men at the Court Who though they seeme to beare things faire and well Yet would turne Moses into Machiuel And but for their aduantage and promotion Would neuer make least tender of deuotion For their Diuinitie is that which we Call Policie their Zeale Hipocrisie Their God the Diuell whose Imagination Conceits That of the world was no Creation These haue into Gods Works no true inspection Dreame of no Iudgement Hell or Resurrection Reckon vp Genealogies who were Long before Adam and without all feare As those doom'd to the bottomlesse Abisme Hold There was no Noës Arke no Cataclisme Besides How busie hath the Diuell bin Ev'n from the first t' encrease this stupid Sin Not ceasing in his malice to proceed How to supplant the Tenents of our Creed Beginning with the first two hundred yeares After our Sauiours Passion he appeares In a full seeming strength and would maintaine By sundry obstinate Sectists but in vaine There was not one Almighty to begin The great stupendious Worke but that therein Many had hand Such were the Maniches Marcionists Gnostyes and the like to these The second Article he aim'd at then And to that purpose pickt out sundry Men Proud Hereticks and of his owne affinitie Who did oppose the blessed Sonne 's Diuinitie But knowing his great malice to his mind Did not preuaile he then began to find A cauill 'gainst the Third and pickt out those Who stiffely did the Holy-Ghost oppose Him from the
time this Being not to be at all Nay thus he will not leaue it but proceeds For Ignorance an Insolence still breeds If to this God saith he no body's lent He then can haue no soule by consequent Hauing no soule all action hee 's depriv'd Or if he haue a body that 's deriv'd From substance therefore subiect vnto change Appeares not this as friuolous as strange To any Vnderstander Who but knowes That euery action of the body growes From the Intelligent Soule whose facultie Allowes it motion and dexteritie Therefore ô miserable Worme I can In this afford thee scarce the name of Man Ope but the eyes of Nature and looke out Meerely with them none else and thou no doubt Wilt find thy selfe's obfuscate and obscur'd So void of sens'ble light and so immur'd With palped darknesse to be blind at least And nothing diffring from th' irrational Beast And therefore that of Zenophantes may Be well confer'd on thee Heare him thus say Had Brutes the art of Painting they of force Must draw themselues a Horse figure a Horse An Asse or Mule their Like the reason why They 're capable of no sublimitie Beyond themselues nor haue further extension Than meerely their owne brutish apprehension Such childish and vnmomentary grounds These Atheists build vpon which whoso sounds But with the line of Reason shall descry Their irreligious fond impiety He that shall with himselfe exactly way Those grosse and absurd lies may soone display That they are arrogant full of vain-glory Irregular from truth and refractorie Vnlearn'd replenisht with all lust and vice Seducers Mockers full of Riotise Time-soothers Flat'rers perfidious all In word deed thought meere diabolicall Now these because themselues haue left the best And against Nature heinously transgrest Of the Creator hauing no respect And casting on their owne soules a neglect By ill example others would persuade That Diuine Lawes for policie were made That Hell 's a Bug-beare to keepe men in feare That Scriptures to that end deuised were Persuading others to eat drinke and play Since after death there is no further day To be Accountant in Their lusts to cherish Since that the Soule must with the body perish That Man was made vnto no other end Than please his appetite be his owne friend And That all euills euen with good things runne If politiquely and in priuat done Such are their actions and their liues but when They 're brought vnto the Test behold them then At the last gaspe most ready to catch hold Vpon the least hope durst they make so bold Looke on your father Aristotle the best And Ipse that Philosophy profest When vnto him who all strange Nouels sought 'Mongst others Moses his first booke was brought Cal'd Genesis Those few words hauing read God in the first beginning created The Heav'ns and Earth c. Away with this saith he 'T is full of fables and new fantasy That speakes of many things but nothing proues And that a true Philosopher not loues But drawing neere his end when he began More truly to consider What was man He into strange anxieties doth grow Whether the Soule immortall were or no His body trembles euery ioynt doth shake And these 't is said were the last words he spake Pollutedly into the world I came Sad and perplext I liv'd and from the same Much troubled I depart O pitty me Thou of all Beings onely knowne to Be. If from the wisest of you all this came Learne to know Him who onely writes I am He is Heav'ns King and Lord of Earth alone In Person three but yet in Godhead one Truly Omnipotent All-knowing and In Heav'n and Earth of soueraigne sole command His Nature simple bodilesse vnseene Vncirconscribed t' whom nothing hath beene Is or shall be superior vnderstood Great without quantitie without quality good Most perfect without blemish without Time Eternall in his potencie sublime Strength without Weaknesse Life without Decay Present each where and yet doth no where stay All things at once without aduice directing All things at once without least paine protecting He is without beginning and yet giues A First to each thing that subsists and liues Who hath made all things changeable yet He Stable and free from mutabilitie Himselfe without place all things else instating Without materials all his works creating In greatnesse infinite goodnesse incomparable In vertue strong wisedome inestimable So secret no man can deceiue his trust In Counsels terrible in Iudgements iust Copious in Mercy glorious in his Name Holy in all his Works alwaies The same Eternall Sempiternall Liuing-God Inchangeable in Essence or Aboad Whom Space cannot enlarge nor Place confine Constant in Purpose and in Act Diuine Him Need compells not nor can Chances sad Disturbe neither can Ioyfull things make glad Obliuion takes not nor can Memory add To him Vnborne to whom old Time can lend No ' ncrease at all nor casuall Chance giue end He before Worlds Those are and These must be Was Is and shall liue to Eternity Aboue all Apprehension Thought Opinion Therefore to Him be all Praise Power Dominion All singular Honour Glory with Congruity Of Saints Angels and Men to perpetuity Be ascrib'd with all the Attributes extending Through all vnwearied Worlds and without ending QVod Deus est scimus sed quid si scire velimus Vltra nos imus sed quod sit sumus imus Vltimus primus scimus plus scire nequimus ¶ The English That there 's a God we know But what he is to show Beyond our selues we go His Height and Depth below Him First and Last we know But more we cannot show THEOLOGICALL PHILOsophicall Morall Poeticall Historicall Emblematicall Obseruations to the further illustration of the former Tractate THat nothing in these short Tractates may appeare difficult to the Ignorant I hold it necessarie vnto my present purpose as willing to be vnderstood by all to illustrate whatsoeuer may seem obscure as well by Precept as Historie Which though the Learned may passe ouer as things to them familiar and well knowne yet vnto others neither frequent in reading nor well trauelled in language no doubt but some of our marginal Annotations with other particular Obseruations may in their carefull perusall benefit such as reade not onely for fashion but vse and make it not their pastime but their profit For that was the end to which industrious Authors first aimed their Indeauors and spent so much Inke and Oile in their daies labours and nights watchings Nor do I this without president and therefore am the more willing to pattern my selfe by example Atheisme and Impietie saith Cardanus Paschal is a meere contempt of Religion and therefore by consequence the Fountaine of Impietie and Breeder of all Calamitie The contempt of Diuine Worship is injustice against God our Parents and Countrey as aduerse to Reason as Goodnesse and all that are thereunto obnoxious either beleeue not
her sonne Itis begot by her husband Tereus The Daiedes or Danaes daughters of Danaus for cutting the throats of their husbands and kinsmen the sonnes of AEgiptus The Lemniades or women of Lemnos who in the same Island most cruelly slew their sonnes and fathers Harpalice the daughter of Climenus who killed the childe which her incestuous father begot on her owne body Tullia the daughter of Servius King of the Romans who caused her chariot to be drawne ouer the body of her dead father for the horridnesse of which fact the street in the citie Rome where this was done was called Vicus sceleratus Of those abhorred for Incestuous congresse the most remarkable were Iocasta who had issue by her sonne Oëdipus and Pelopaea by her father Thiestes Harpalice with her Sire Climenus c. Some are to this day made infamous for killing their husbands As Clitemnestra the daughter of Thestius for conspiring with Egistus in the murder of her Lord Agamemnon the son of Atreus Iliona the daughter of Priam for killing her husband Polymnestor K. of Thrace Semyramis Queen of Babylon for the death of Ninus King of Assyria Helena after the death of Paris Deiphebus the sonne of Priam. Agave her husband Lycothersis in Illyria and Deianeira for sending the poysonous Shirt to her Lord Hercules of Lybia c. Others for killing their wiues As the same Hercules his wife Megara the daughter of Creon King of Thebes Theseus Antiopa the Amazon and daughter of Mars Cephalus the son of Deionis or of Mercury Procris the daughter of Pandion by his vaine jelousie c. Fathers for killing their daughters As Agamemnon the great General of the Grecian Army in their famous expedition against Troy who sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddesse Diana Climenus the sonne of Oeneus slew his daughter Harpalice because she killed her child and serued it in vnto him at a banquet Hyacinthus his daughter Spariantides vpon an answer returned from the Athenians Erichthaeus the sonne of Pandion his daughter Colophonia vpon the like occasion Cercyon the sonne of Vulcan his daughter Alopes for committing incest with Neptune AEolus his daughter Canace for the like done with her brother Mallaraeus c. Of mothers that most cruelly and vnnaturally haue murthered their owne children we reade That Medea the daughter of Oâ—tes King of Colchos slew her two sonnes Machareus Pherelus begot by Iason Progne the daughter of Pandion killed her son It is which she had by Tereus Ino the daughter of Cadmus yong Melicertes begat by Athamas the sonne of AEolus Althaea the daughter of Thestius Meleager by Oeneus the sonne of Parthaâ—n Themisto the daughter of Hypseus Plinthius and Orchomenes her two sonnes by Athamas Tyros the daughter of Salmoneus two sonnes begot by Sisiphus the sonne of Eolus Agave the daughter of Cadmus Penthaus the sonne of Echion at the imposition of Liber Pater c. So likewise of Selfe-murtherers Egeus the sonne of Neptune and father of Theseus cast himselfe headlong into the sea from whose death it still retaines the name of Mare Egeum i. the Egean sea Euhemus the sonne of Hercules precipitated himselfe into the riuer Lycorma which is now called Chrysorroas Aiax the sonne of Telamon slew himselfe for the losse of Achilles his armor Lycurgus the sonne of Briantus being strooke with madnesse by Liber Pater laid violent hands vpon himselfe Agrius the son of Parthaon being expulsed from his kingdome by Diomedes King of AEtolia slew himselfe So Ceneus the sonne of Elatus Menicus the father of Iocasta or as some call him Menaetis precipitated himselfe from the walls of Athens Nisus the son of Mars hauing lost his purple locke cast himselfe vpon his sword and so died As likewise Climenus the sonne of Coeneus King of Arcadia after he had committed incest with his daughter Cyniras the sonne of Paphus King of Assyria after hee had committed the like with his owne naturall childe Hercules cast himselfe into the fire and so perished Adrastus with his sonne Hipponous did the like Pyramus the Babylonian slew himselfe for the loue of Thisbe And Oedipus the sonne of Laius destroyed his owne life for hauing incestuous Issue by his mother whose name was Iocasta c. Of Women that so dispairingly died these Hecuba the wife of Priam cast her selfe into the sea as Ino the daughter of Cadmus did the like with her sonne Melicertus Anticlia the mother of Vlysses and daughter of Antolychus strangled her selfe because she heard a false rumour of her sonnes death The like did Stoenobaea the daughter of Iobates and wife of King Praetus for the loue of Bellerephon Evadne the daughter of Philacus because her husband Capaneus was slaine at Thebes cast her selfe into the same funeral fire in which his body was burned AEthra the daughter of Pythaus for the death of her children Iliona for the death of her parents Themisto for her children Erigone for her father Phedra for the incestuous loue borne to her step-sonne Hyppolitus Phyllis for Demophoon Calypso daughter to Atlas for the loue of Vlysses Dido the daughter of Belus for AEneas c. Time would sooner faile me than Historie yet these I haue introduced to this purpose to shew That Atheisme and want of the true knowledge of God hath bin the cause of so many Murthers and Incests hath made so many Parracides and Fratricides and indeed hath beene the ground of all prodigious acts and inhumanities whatsoeuer Something is requisit to be spoken of Idolatry The word is deriued from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. Cultus and Colo The definition thereof is Cultus Deo debitus Creaturae exhibitus i. The worship that is due onely to God conferre vpon the Creature An Idol is when any Statue or Image in which either some Deitie or any other thing shall stand for a Power a Patron Protector or Sauiour is represented and worshipped Of which kind was the golden Calfe Basil saith vpon the third of Esay What thing can appeare more vain and ridiculous than for a man to professe himselfe to be the workeman of his God and Maker To shew how abhominable Idolatry was in the eyes of the Almighty I will only quote you one place out of many in the holy Text Take therefore good heed vnto your selues for you saw no Image in the day that the Lord spake to you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire that you corrupt not your selues nor make you a grauen Image or representation of any figure whether it be likenesse of male or female the likenesse of any beast that is on the earth or of any feathered fowle that flieth in the aire or of any thing that creepeth on the earth or of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth And lest thou lift vp thine eyes to heauen and when thou seest the Sunne the
said The Lord our God's one Lord In which word One the Vnitie is meant Of the three Persons solely Omnipotent In which by One 't is well observ'd That he The second Person in the Trinitie Meant in the second word who hath the name To be Our God 'T is because we may claime Iust int'rest in him And though all the Three May be call'd ours more in particular He. One reason is Because he Heav'n forsooke And on himselfe our humane nature tooke In all things like so did his Grace abound Saue only that in him no sinne was found Next That he bore our sinnes freed our transgression And last For vs in Heaven makes intercession Two natures in one person so ally'd Some hold in Mans creation tipify'd From Earth his body Adam had 't is said His Soule from Heauen both these but one Man made Christs humane nature had with man affinitie Being very Man and from God his Diuinitie Being very God In both so to subsist Godhood and Manhood make vp but one Christ. In Iacob's Ladder figur'd this we see Which Ladder Christ himselfe profest to be Of which the foot being fixt vpon the ground The top to heauen thus much to vs doth sonnd That in this Scale at such large distance set The Heauen and Earth at once together met So Christs Humanitie from Earth was giuen But his Diuinitie he tooke from Heauen As from Earth Earthy as from Heauen Diuine Two Natures in one Person thus combine The choicest things about the Arke were fram'd Of Gold and Wood Wood worthlesse to be nam'd If with Gold valu'd for the Cedar's base Compar'd with th' Ophir Mine yet had it grace With it's rich tincture to be ouerspred In this respect the Godhood may be sed To be the Gold the Manhood baser wood And yet both these as truly vnderstood Made but one Arke So the two Natures raise Betwixt them but one Christ. He forty daies Fasted i' th Desart and did after grow Hungry by which the Text would haue vs know Hee 's God because of his miraculous fast Hee 's Man because he hungry grew at last He slept at sea when the great tempest rose This shew'd him Man as needfull of repose When he rebuk'd the Windes and Surges tam'd He his great Godhood to the World proclaim'd He wept o're Lazarus as he was man But foure dayes buried when he rais'd him than He appear'd God He dy'de vpon the Crosse As he was Man to redeeme Mankindes losse But at his death when th' Earth with terror shooke And that the Sun affrighted durst not looke On that sad obiect but his light withdrew By strange Eclipse this shew'd him to be true And perfect God since to confirme this wonder The Temples Vaile was seene to rend asunder The Earth sent forth her Dead who had abode Long in the earth All these proclaim'd him God The tenth of the seuenth moneth the Hebrew Nation Did solemnise their Feast of Expiation So call'd because the High-Priest then confest How He with all the People had transgrest His and Their sinnes Obserue how thence ensu'th A faire agreement 'twixt the Type and Truth Aaron the High-Priest went into the place Call'd Holiest of Holies Christ by ' his grace Made our High-Priest into the Holiest went Namely the Heauen aboue the Firmament Aaron but once a yeare He once for all To make way for Mankinde in generall He by the bloud of Goats and Calues but Christ By his owne bloud the blessed Eucharist Aaron went single in and Christ alone Hath trod the Wine-presse and besides him none He with his Priestly robes pontifically Christ to his Office seal'd eternally From God the Father Aaron tooke two Goats Which ceremoniall Type to vs denotes That Christ assum'd two Natures that which fled The Scape-Goat call'd to vs deciphered His Godhoods imp'assibilitie And compris'd In th' other on the Altar sacrifis'd His Manhoods suffering since that Goat did beare The Peoples sinnes Which in the Text is cleare Saint Paul in his Epistle we reade thus That Christ without sinne was made Sinne for vs. Hence growes that most inscrutable Diuinitie Of the three sacred Persons the blest Trinitie Which holy Mysterie hath an extension Aboue Mans braine or shallow apprehension Nor can it further in our brests take place Than we' are inlightned by the Spirit of Grace How should we then Finite and Mortall grow By meditation or deepe search to know Or dare ambitiously to speake or write Of what Immortall is and Infinite And yet 'mongst many other deuout men Heare something from the learned Nazianzen The Monady or number One we see In this great Godhood doth arise to three And then this mysticall Trine sacred alone Retyres it selfe into the number One Nor can this Diuine Nature be dissect Or separated in the least respect Three Persons in this Trias we do name But yet the Godhood still One and the same Each of the Three by right a God we call Yet is there but one God amongst them all When Cicero with graue and learned Phrase Had labour'd long the Godhood to emblaze He doth conclude it of that absolute kinde No way to be decipher'd or defin'd Because ' boue all things Hee 's superior knowne And so immense to be contain'd in none A prime and simple Essence vncompounded And though that many labouring to haue sounded This Diuine Essence and to'haue giuen it name They were not able yet to expresse the same As 't were afar off Epithites deuis'd And words in such strange circumstance disguis'd Nothing but quarrels and contentions breeding As Natures strength and Reasons much exceeding The Martyr Attalus when he was brought Before a Tyrant who esteemed nought Of God or goodnesse being askt in scorne What name God had A space from him did turne And after some small pause made this reply As th' Author doth of him historifie Your many gods haue names by which th' are knowne But our God being but One hath need of none Wise Socrates forbad men to enquire Of what shape God was Let no man aspire Saith Plato what God is to apprehend Whose Maiesties immensenesse doth extend So far and is so'vnimitably Great Beyond all vtterance or the hearts conceit Why then is it so difficult and rare Him to define It is because we are Of such streight Intellect narrow and rude Vncapable of his great Magnitude Our infirme sight is so obtuse and dull And His bright fulgence is so beautifull Hence comes it by no other names we may Call this great God than such as best display His Excellence Infinitie and all Wherein He'appeares solely Majesticall According to his Essence Him to know Belongs vnto Himselfe the Angels go By meere Similitude Man by a Glasse And Shape of things and can no further passe For he by contemplation
imply That it from Desit comes The reason why As most approv'd to be that only He In whom not any thing can wanting be Others confer on this inuisible Being Theos as much as we should say All-seeing Some of Deomai i. Timeo that 's To Feare Because that euery Nation far and neare Should dread His Name But no Tongue can expresse His Celcitude and high Almightinesse Which in his Wisedome He hath kept conceal'd Nor to his Seruant Moses once reueal'd Whom though in all things else He pleas'd to vse Familiarly as one whom He did chuse To be his Peoples Captaine when he came To aske that Answer'd I Am what I Am. Which sacred words the Hebrewes chosen Nation From Age to Age had in such veneration That saue their priests none might pronounce that phrase And they but on some solemne Festiuall daies Now therefore This long meditating on The wisest of all Men King Solomon Finding no word that could define Him right Or manifest his Magnitude or Might Astonisht and confounded doth exclaime In these few words What might I call His Name As should he say By what Voice Sound what Tongue Can this Eternall Deitie be sung Can a Word do 't To thinke it Heauen forbid Since from our Frailties'tis retruse and hid Excuse me Reader then if I desire To search no further than Such durst cnquire Lumen est Vmbra Dei Deus est Lumen Luminis Plato Explicit metrum Trastatus secundi Theologicall Philosphicall Poeticall Historicall Apothegmaticall Hierogriphicall and Emblematicall Obseruations touching the further illustration of the former Tractate HOw Idolatrous Worship first crept into the world by the instigation of the Diuell many Histories giue ample testimonie Amongst others That AEneas caried his Penates or houshold gods into Italy after the surprise and combustion of Troy which thence were deriued vnto the Latines and to the People of Rome We reade likewise That diuers of their Kings and Princes as Romulus Numa Pompilius Carmenta or Carmentis Iulius Caesar and others being related amongst the Indigites had Diuine honours decreed vnto them But of this and the like Idolatry Salomon in his Booke of Wisedome thus speakes That is cursed which is made with hands both it and he that made it he because he made it and it because being a corruptible thing it was called god For the Vngodly and their vngodlinesse are both hated alike of God so truly the worke and he that made it shall be punished together Therefore there shall be a Visitation for the Idols of the Nations for of the Creatures of God they are become abhomination and stumbling blockes vnto the soules of men and a snare for the feet of the Vnwise For the inuenting of Idols was the beginning of whoredome and the finding of them is the corruption of life for they were not from the beginning neither shall they continue for euer the vain-glory of men brought them into the world therefore they shall come shortly to an end When a Father mourned grieuously for his Sonne that was taken away suddenly hee made an Image for him that was once dead whom now hee worshippeth as a god and ordained to his seruants ceremonies and sacrifices Thus by processe of time this wicked custome preuailed and was kept as a Law and Idols were worshipped by the commandement of Tyrants c. Not much dissonant from this is that which wee reade in Cicero an Ethnycke Author The life and common custome of Man saith hee hath taken vpon him that for some benefits receiued by excellent Men on earth they haue therefore transferred them into the Heauens Hence Hercules Castor Pollux AEsculapius and others had Deities ascribed vnto them It likewise came to passe that Poets by Verses and Numbers composed according to their affections or fancies for flatterie or reward Deified many Princes and Patrons Which euill and mischiefe had originall from the Graecians by whose lightnesse it is incredible how many mists of falsities and errors they haue been the Authors of There be diuers coniectures made by the Theologists Why men should doubt or make question whether there be a God or no I will reduce them into the number of fiue The first ariseth from the despoiling of the Image of God in Man by Originall sinne The horrible deprauation and malice of the Heart in the which the illustrious apparances of the Godhood ought naturally to haue residence The second is Because with these bodily eyes we do not looke vpon Him in this World as when wee are in the presence of an earthly King a Prince or a Iudge The third groweth by reason of the miraculous euents into whose causes we are not able to search and which might be conjectured to fall out otherwise if there were a Iust God seeing and guiding all things with equitie and justice As the prosperity of the Wicked and aduersitie of the Godly as also That grieuous and crying sinnes are not punished in this world with all celeritie and seueritie The fourth springs from the tyranny of Death which snatcheth away the Good with the Bad which some men destitute of the light of the Diuine Word mis-interpret to their own destruction The fifth and last they ground from the power of the Diuell who doth delude and seduce them with diuers prestigious gulleries and dulls their sences and obdures their hearts not only to doubt whether there be a God but altogether to forget Him By which means they enter vnaduisedly and rashly vpon sinnes heinous and horrible Notwithstanding the former there be other inducements which meerly drawne from naturall reason without the strength of the vnresistable Word might be sufficient to withdraw men from such impious infidelitie First all the works of God contained within the vniuersal Machine are euident demonstrations of a wise powerfull and all-sufficient Maker and Protector of whom the wisest of the Gentiles were sensible and that such an one must of necessity be gaue these reasons First The admirable and inimitable feature of Man supplied and adorned with the innumerable testimonies of a Deitie insomuch that not without great cause hee is stiled a little and succinct world within himselfe in whom there is a perspicuous knowledge to distinguish good from euill which is the rule by which to direct all the necessarie actions of humane life neither is there any thing in him though in outward appearance of small value or validitie which is not a liuely and plentifull representation of a Deitie which is the more visible in the exact consideration of euery particular limbe and member of his body The second is of the Conscience for in all detestable and facinorous actions as Murther Incest Parricidie and the like the Conscience is by a secret instinct sensible of a God who hath inspection into the act as seeing it when it was committed and ready to reuenge it being done howsoeuer it be
concealed from the knowledge of the Ciuill Magistrate A third is The pulchritude order effect propagation conseruation and duration of the things in the world A fourth The distinction of euery Species which we see daily and yearely to propagate and multiply vpon the earth A fifth The Societies Kingdomes and Empires which are not planted and setled rashly or by chaunce confirmed sustained and changed A sixt The great and remarkable punishments of impious and wicked malefactors who though they escape the hand of the temporall Iudge here below yet cannot escape the rod of the Auenger aboue for it is a generall rule obserued as well in Moralitie as Diuinitie That for the most part heinous sinnes haue horrible punishments impending which neuer could be executed if God were not the Executioner of his owne Iustice. The seuenth The blessing and benefits conferred vpon good and godly men nay euen amongst meere Naturalists we see honour and offices bestowed vpon such as are meriting and wel meaning The eighth is The Order of Causes which in the nature of things doth not proceed into Infinites but of necessity they comply and returne to some prime Mouer by which they are gouerned and in which they insist Lastly Prodigies and Signes which forewarne great strange accidents as Eclipses Comets Earthquakes Gapings and openings of the earth in which whole Cities and Islands haue beene swallowed vp in an instant monstrous and prodigious births c. But I now proceed to speake something concerning the Vnitie of the Godhead This is hee of whom Petrarch speaketh in these words Who sees and heares vs before we speake He who said vnto Moses being silent Why do'st thou call vnto me He preuents our words and anticipates our actions Hee who knowes our very thoughts afar off long before they be conceiued He who heares our prayers before they yeeld any sound Hee who spieth our necessities before they appeare vnto our selues He who knows our ends before wee finde our beginnings and though Hee prooues vs to be wretched and vnworthy yet is alwaies ready to shew vs his grace and mercie And this is the sole God of Loue and Vnitieâ— of whom Boethius thus speakes Quod Mundus stabili fide Concordes variat vices Quod pugnantes semina Foedus perpetuum tenent c. That the World with stable Faith Concordant courses varied hath And that the wearing seeds of things From a perpetuall couenant springs Why Phoebus in his golden Throne The Roseat Morne and Day brings on Or Why those Stars that Hesperus Doth vsher forth to shine on vs The Moone takes charge of all the night Or why the Waues that hourely fight And with impetuous clamors rore To menace not inuade the shore For further than it's limited bounds No spot of Earth the Water drownds 'T is Loue that Soueraigne Empire hath Of Heauen Earth Sea that calmes their wrath And in a league of vnitee Bindes all the states of things that be ¶ So the Poet Claudian Nonne vides operum c. See'st not the World in glorious splendor shine Not by Force gouern'd but by Loue Diuine How vncompel'd in a most sweet desire From Age to Age the Elements conspire And how the trauelling Phoebus is content With his mid-road-way through the Firmament To no hand erring How the Sea 's restrain'd As willingly in his owne bounds contein'd And how the Aire wandring throughout the world Is hourely this way tost and that way hurld c. Pythagoras Samius in his Metempsuchosis or transmigration of Bodies as Cicero witnesseth of him was wont to say oftenâ— There is one God and not as many thinke without the administration of the world but Totus in Toto All in All. His Scholer Philolaus affirmed no lesse thus speaking There is one God Prince of the Vniuerse who is euer Singular Immouable and like onely vnto Himselfe Lactantius Diuinar Institut lib. 1. cap. 4. saith That Seneca the Philosopher though in his Writings hee inuocated many gods yet to shew that he beleeued but One you shall reade him thus Do'st thou not vnderstand the Maiestie and Authoritie of thy Iudge the Rector and Gouernor of Heauen and Earth the God of gods of whom all inferiour Deities adored amongst vs haue their dependance Againe in his Exhortations He when he first layd the foundation of this beautifull Machine and began that than which Nature neuer knew a Worke greater or better yet that all things might be gouerned by Captaines and Commanders though his sole Prouidence as He created so still guideth all he begot other gods as his Ministers and Superintendents Damascenus a Greeke Author writeth thus One hath produced all things who is adored in silence and is as the Sun which directly looked vpon is scarce seen the neerer the more obscurely but next it taketh away the very apprehension of the Opticke senses Iamblicus de Secta Pythagorica saith That there is of all things one Cause one God the Lord of all of whom euery good thing ought to be petitioned According to that of Horrace Epistol ad Lollium Sed satis est orare Iovem qui donat anfert Det vitam det opes c. Sufficient'tis if we to Ioue do pray Who life and wealth can giue or take away And Ovid lib. de Art Amand. facilè est omnia posse Deo An easie thing it is to God to do all things He is likewise the aime and end of all Contemplation nor is He any other thing to be contemplated than as an Abstract from a Multitude to an Vnitie This Vnitie therefore is God himselfe Prince of all Truth Felicitie Substance and of all Beginnings To this that of Lucan seemeth to allude si numina nasci Credimus To thinke the gods were borne we should be mad Most certaine 't is they no beginning had Heare what Proclus saith Who is the King The sole God of all things who notwithstanding he is separate from them yet from Himselfe produceth all things and to Himselfe conuerteth all Ends The End of Ends and first Cause of Agitation and Working and Author of all Good If thou dar'st beleeue Plato He is neither to be expressed nor apprehended Therefore this prime Simplicitie is sole King Prince and Ex-superance of all things that haue being He is supereminent ouer all Causes and hath created the substance of the gods so far as there is in them any apparance of Good Porphyrâ—us in his Booke wherein he discribeth the life of his Master Plotinus saith That God in his Vnitie hath generated and produced Many but so that this multitude cannot subsist if this Vnitie doth not still remaine One. And That they neither are of themselues nor haue any power to make others blest and happy Boethius hath these words Sedet Interia Conditor altus rerum regens flectit habenas Rex Dominus Fons Origo c. In th' Interim sits the Builder high And
more respect Man who hath Life with Sence and Intellect The ninth of a more subtile Essence far Inuisibilitie and Excellence are The Angels But the Tenth Who dares aspire Further of his Eternitie to enquire Or go about to apprehend That He Who containes all things should contained be He who of Nothing All things did compact Whose Will 's his Worke and euery Word his Act Who as He made all Creatures still doth feed them Of his meere goodnesse not that He doth need them Who in all places without Place doth dwell Soueraigne Immense the Only doth excell This leades me to a needfull Contemplation To thinke how vaine is Wisedomes ostentation Since we Gods praise can no way more aduance Than by acknowledging our Ignorance Which thus th' Apostle doth anatomise If any in this world would be held wise Let him be then a foole so wise to seeme Since the Worlds wisedome is in Gods esteeme Meere foolishnesse To thinke our selues exact In any thing we but from Him detract Wisedome shall publish her owne commendation Reioycing in the Centre of her Nation Of God be honour'd in his Temple tryd'e And before his great Power in triumph ride Her presence by her people be desir'd And in all holy meetings much admir'd In confluence of the Chosen she shall stay And by the Blessed be much prais'd and say Of all Gods Creatures the first borne am I And issu'd from the mouth of the Most-High The Light that failes not was by Me first made The lower Earth as with a Cloud I shade My dwelling is aboue where Light first shone And in the Pillar of the Cloud my Throne Alone the Compasse of the Heav'n I round And can the Seas vnbottom'd Channels sound All Seas and Earth and Nations I enioy And with my Power all Proud Hearts I destroy In all these things I wisht that Rest might cease me In some Inheritance that best might please me So the Creator gaue me a Command Euen He that made me by his Powerfull hand Appointed That in Iacob I should dwell And plac't mine Heritage in Israel That I amongst the Chosen might take root And willingly I did assent vnto 't From the Beginning er'e the World was made By Him I was created not to fade I serv'd Him in his holy Habitation And so in Sion had my setled Station My power was in Ierusalem his best Belov'd of Cities where he gaue me rest An honour'd People did my Name aduance The portion of the Lords Inheritance Like a strait Cedar I am set on high That seemes in Lebanon to braue the Sky I like a Cypresse tree my branches fill That hath tooke root on top of Hermon hill And like a Palme about the banks I grow Or like a Rose planted in Iericho Like a faire Oliue in a pleasant field Or a Plane tree where furrowes water yeeld Besides like to the Cinnamom I smel Or bags of Spices being mixed well I as the best Myrrh a sweet odour gaue Such as the Galbanum and Onix haue That sent which doth the pleasant Storax grace Or rich perfume that sweetens all the place My boughes I like the Terebinth haue spred Branches with Grace and Honour furnished As doth the Vine I made my clusters swell My Fruit was of an odoriferous smell The floures I bore were of a pleasant hew And from their fruit Honour and Riches grew I am the Mother of faire Loue of Feare Knowledge and holy Hope to me all deare And vnto euery Child my wombe forth brings As God commands I giue eternall things All grace of Life and Truth in me remaine All hope of Life and Vertue I retaine Come to me then you that desire me still And of my blest Fruits freely taste your fill For my remembrance doth breed more delight Than Hony to the hungry appetite My'Inheritance is of much sweeter taste Than Hony-combes my Name shall euer last Who eats me after me shall hunger sore And he that drinks me vp shall thirst the more Who so shall to my counsell lend an eare Ruine or sad Disaster need not feare He that works by me neuer shall offend Who makes me knowne shall life haue without end These of the booke of Life are the contents And Moses Law in the Commandements The Couenant of the most high God to ' inferre The knowledge of that Truth which cannot erre Commanded as an Heritage most sure To Iacobs House for euer to endure Then with the Lord the signes of valour leaue And be not saint or weary to Him cleaue The Lord Almighty for your God you haue Hee 's but one God and none but He can saue Who hath ordein'd That there in time shall spring From Dauids Line a high and mighty King To sit vpon the Throne for euermore Whom all the heathen Nations shall adore He filleth all things with his Wisedome so As Physon and as Tigris ouerflow In time of new Fruits Th' Vnderstanding He Makes to abound as we Euphrates see Or Iordan rise in Haruest As the Light So Knowledge he makes shine equally bright Which in the exercise thereof excells As Geon in the time of Vintage swells The first man of her knowledge stood in doubt Nor shall the last man truly finde her out For the conceptions fashion'd in her braine Are more aboundant than the boundlesse Maine Yea all her hidden Counsels more profound Than the great Deepe which neuer line could sound Out of my mouth I Wisedome flouds haue cast Am like a Riuers arme growne broad and vast And like a Conduit pipe of water cleare Run into Paradise to hide me there I 'le water my faire Garden then I said The pleasant ground which I haue fruitfull made Into a Flood my Ditch grew at the motion And instantly my Floud became an Ocean For I make Doctrine like the Light to shine The Mornings Light by me 't is made Diuine Th' Earths lower parts euen those that are most deepe I will pierce through and looke on all that sleepe For I haue power to awake them from the dust And lighten all who in the Lord shall trust There is a Doubt in which some men desire To be resolv'd What will not Man acquire To attaine the height of science as to know At what time Time began further to show In which of the foure seasons of the yeare The Sun the Moone and Planets did appeare Some say When God the Worlds faire frame begun And all things else created That the Sun Was found in that Signe which we Aries call Which is the Summers AEquinoctiall Others affirme It first began to shine And shew his glorious splendor in the Signe Call'd Libra that 's the ballance and euen'st Scale Which was the AEquinoctiall Autumnale Their reason is because iust at that time All the Earths fruits are ripe and in their prime This was the opinion of the
she will place him 'mongst the Stars The Charioter Boötes who his Car Driues 'bout the Poles in compasse circular About whom Authors are diuided thus Some thinke him Arcas others Icarus The Crowne Septentrionall as most haue said Inamour'd Bacchus fitted first and made For Ariadnes browes being first his Bride And by the god soone after stellifi'de Eugonasin whom Hercules we call And from the Articke Circle seemes to fall Yet stedfast in his course conspicuous in His Club the Hydra and the Lions skin Lyra the Harpe in by-corn'd fashion made Some thinke the selfe same on which Orpheus plaid Who for his Musicks skill was so aduanc't That Beasts and Trees and Stones about him danc't Next him the Swan with wings displaid and spred Stucke full of Stars one fulgent in her head And therefore in th' Heauens thought to be plac't Because Iove Laeda in that shape embrac't Next whom Cepheus hath place King of the blacke And Sun-burnt Moores in whom is now no lacke Of Diuine splendor him the Authors say To be the Father of Andromeda His wife Cassiopeia durst compare With the Nereides therefore in a chaire Sits with her armes fast bound not mouing thence A iust infliction for her proud offence Andromeda the sequent place doth claime Daughter to these to whom we last gaue name Who for her loue to Perseus was so grac't Her 'mongst the Spheres Coelestiall Pallas plac't Perseus shines next who in his right hand beares A crooked Harpee in his left appeares The Gorgons head his burnisht helme of steele And plumes like wings fastned to either heele Auriga mounted in a Chariot bright Else styl'd Heniochus receiues his light In th' aestiue Circle in that station nam'd Because he was the first who Coursers tam'd And in a foure-wheel'd Wagon taught them run To imitate the Chariot of the Sun The Serpentarius Ophincus who Is also call'd the Astrologians show To be a yong man rounded with a Snake Stucke full of starry lights and him they take For AEsculapius who a Dragon slew And was the first who Physicke taught and knew The Arrow plac't in Heauen still to remaine Alcides shot by it the Egle slaine Who then did on Prometheus intrals tyre Because from Iove he stole Coelestiall fire Which being risen you shall finde it fixt Th' AEstiue and AEquinoctiall line betwixt Next shines the Princely Egle who is sed To ' haue snatcht from earth the Trojan Ganimed And beare him vp to Heav'n for Ioves delight Both his Cup-bearer now and Catamite The Dolphine figur'd with his crooked traine Is therefore said his glorious Orbe to gaine Because when good Arion play'd and sung He listned to his voice and Harpe well strung And from the ship whence he was dropt before Swam with him safe to the Tenarian shore The Horse amongst the other Stars inroll'd The Articke Line directly doth behold And is that Pegasus the winged Steed Which Perseus backt when from the Whale hee freed Andromeda he in mount Helicon Strooke with his hoofe cleare water from a stone From him call'd Hippocrene the Muses Well Whence all high Raptures may be said to swell Deltoton we a meere Triangle call 'Twixt th' AEstiue Line and th' AEquinoctiall Like the Greek letter Delta It sends light From foure coruscant Stars and as some write Therein is figur'd the World Tripartite Others because that Delta doth emply Dios the word that God doth signifie It had it's place Next it appeares the Whale By Perseus slaine i' th Circle Hyemal For it 's great strength and bignesse so transpos'd And Pistrix call'd Eridanus inclos'd As in a bed of Stars is seene to shine The face in obiect of th' Antarticke Line Some Writers call 't Oceanus and those Not of meane iudgement others Canopos Of the bright splendor Canopos an Isle Whose bounds are washt still by th' AEgyptian Nile The Hare was said to make Orion sport In hunting and was stellified for 't Plac't in the Winters Circle Next shines He The Sonne of Neptune and Euriale Who in his course was said to be so fleet To run o're Riuers and not drench his feet Or on the land through well-growne Medowes passe Yet with his weight not once to bend the grasse Slaine by an Arrow from Diana sent After translated to the Firmament Arm'd with a Club and Sword in hostile guise And in his Course doth still with Cancer rise The greater Dog by Iupiter was set To watch when he with faire Europa met After bestow'd on Procris and by her On Cephalus her husband Some auer It was Orions Dog who tooke delight In hunting much which Star doth shine so bright It for the flame can scarce be lookt vpon And therefore by the Greeks call'd Syrion The lesse Dog did to Icarus pertaine Who 'cause he mourn'd his Master being slaine And was the cause the Murd'rers were descry'd Thought therefore worthy to be stellifi'de Him in the Milky Circle you may spy Fixt betweene Cancer and the Gemini The Ship call'd Argo for it's speed was such Doth almost the Antarticke Circle touch In this the antient Heroes launcht from Greece To Colchos and brought thence the Golden-Fleece Chiron from Saturne and Philiris bred You may perceiue to lift his star-crown'd head Betwixt th' Antarticke and the Hyemal Lines And for his justice shew'd on earth there shines He AEsculapius and Achilles tought And for his great sinceritie 't was thought The gods would suffer him to liue for euer But by a Shaft drawne from Alcides Quiuer The head thereof in Hydra's bloud being dipt Vpon his foot it through his fingers slipt A small wound it appear'd but searcht and try'd Fester'd Gangren'd and of that hurt he dy'd The Altar to it 's Sphere coelestiall borne With Aries sets riseth with Capricorne On which the gods their Coniuration made When Tytans Issue did the Heav'ns inuade And men since them who great things enterprise Before th' attempt on Altars sacrifice Hydra is figur'd with a Cup and Crow The reasons why would be too long to show This ougly many-headed Monster bred In Laerna was by Hercules strooke dead To take the length of three whole Signes 't is said Cancer the Lion and the Heauenly Maid The Stars of Piscis whom we Notius call Are twelue in number and Meridionall It with a yawning mouth seemes to deuoure Water Aquarius from aboue doth poure Who for a curtesie to Isis done A constant place amongst the Stars hath won Since whose translation to that glorious Seat Of diuers Fish the Syrians will not eat But keepe their shapes and figures cast in gold And these to be their houshold gods they hold The reason why one Circle in the night When all the rest 's blacke doth alone shine bright And therefore Lacteus call'd some hold to be Iuno vn'wares
them faint and fly Away they ran And by this means the gods the battell wan For which those Asses which so loud had bray'd Lights though but dull were then for Cancer made Leo whose looke doth bend vnto the West Seems as he did vpon the Hydra rest Not far from Cancer in his Sphere so put His middle doth the AEstiue Circle cut And is amongst the Signes the Noblest held In greatnesse too to haue the rest excel'd Him in Nemea Iuno's said to breed In constant hope that he should after feed On Hercules whom sternly she did hate Him seeking by all means to insidiate But when they came to grapple he before Scarce thought of vnaffrighted at his rore Gaue him a braue encounter and so faire That one hand tangled in his curled haire His other on his throat he fastned sure And thus they wrestled who should long'st endure His clawes he fixt vpon Alcides Brawnes And roar'd so that he shooke the Woods and Lawnes He tore the flesh till the bare bone was seene Still the bold Heroë swell'd with noble spleene Kept fast his hold nor could the Lions grin Though terrible the least aduantage win But that he shooke him by the throat the beard Gnasht teeth 'gainst teeth and was no more afeard At length the Lion almost spent began To'abate his rage when this Heroicke man Redoubled ire on fury till asham'd A Beast by him should be so long vntam'd Although invulner'd he put all his strength Into one gripe so strangled him at length Then cast him on the ground scarce seene to sprall Being said to make an earthquake in his fall Iuno when she beheld her Lion slaine Willing his memory should still remaine Prepar'd him place in the high Architect Where to this day he keepes his sterne aspect The Virgin hath beneath Boötes sted Who seemes to driue his Chariot o're her head Towa'rds the backe part of Leo she doth shine And with her right hand touch the AEstiue Line She doth part of her body seene by chance Aboue the Crow and Hidra's head aduance Now who she was 't is fit we should enquire From Iupiter and Thetis some desire To claime her birth Some thinke and those of name She from Ascraeus and Aurora came Some that shee 's Altergatis are assur'd And others Fortune since her head 's obscur'd Some Ceres on whom Proserpine was borne As holding in her hand fresh eares of corne Others her life from Iove and Themis giue And say she in the golden World did liue As then call'd Iusta And in her yong dayes Nation'gainst Nation did not forces raise To'inuade each other no man then for gaine Dar'd in a thin rib'd barke to crosse the maine No craft was knowne no fraud was vnderstood The vdders of their cattell leant them food The Fleece their garment only to defend From winde and weather for no other end Was cloathing made Pride was a Monster then Vnheard vnthought one fashion was to men Women another for no change they knew One garb they kept and studied nothing new None idle was but liv'd by his owne sweat The brooke their drinke the herbs and roots their meat And in those dayes did Iustice reigne sole Queene Through all her Court no vice was knowne or seene The graue Nobilitie that her attended Were from the first most antient House descended And all ally'd Wisedom the Kingdome guided And for the Houshold Industry prouided Good Prouidence a man well strook in yeeres Ey'd the whole State and sate amongst her Peeres Labour was then a Lord in great request Saw nothing want and claim'd place with the best Sinceritie and Puritie in heart In Counsell sate and these did claime a part In all her iust proceedings nothing past The Table but by them was first and last Consider'd of Her Women that did wait Were faire but simple and immaculate Humilitie was one Chaste Loue another And Bashfulnesse a third These from their Mother Vertue a most vnblemisht breeding had All bent on Good as knowing nothing bad Zeale and Innocuous Truth became the State For none but such did on her person wait But when Pride first made her ascent from hell To take the Worlds suruey she 'gan to swell And in her tumerous thoughts presum'd to raigne O're the whole Earth the Aire and boundlesse Maine With insolent vaine hope to atchieue at last by force that high place whence she first was cast Of most assured victorie she vaunts When she behold her six Concomitants Gluttony Wrath Sloath Envy Auarice Lust and no one but a notorious Vice And able in their owne power to subdue Mankinde at once when they shall come in view These setting forward in this proud ostent Began to fight and conquer'd as they went Few scap'd their fury sauing those that fled And Pride since domineeres in Iustice stead Who when she saw those Fiends began to sway For all her subiects were now made their pray The earth quite left vp to the Heauen she soar'd Where by some good men she is still ador'd But reigning there in such high eminence She by no prayers can since be drawne from thence Some say Apollo did beget this Maid Of Chrisotheme and her Name is said To be Parthenon but we are not bound To credit such as write vpon no ground Others the daugher to Icarius Erigone whose story I reade thus When Bacchus trauell'd in an humane shape To reach men know the sweetnesse of the Grape And so to'encourage them to plant the Vine As then vnknowne his course he did encline After a tedious long itineration To where Icarius had his habitation With his faire Daughter he being one of qualitie Receiv'd him with such liberall hospitalitie That Liber Pater at his parting thence To shew his gratitude in recompence Left with him certain vessels fill'd and bad When he and his their full contentment had He the Grapes vertue should to others tell And by the taste shew wherein't did excell So left him After his obsequious Host From his owne Countrey to the Atticke coast Made expedition with a Cart or Waine Laden with Wine with no more in his traine Than she and his Dog Mera Those he met First with were certaine Shepheards newly set To a spare dinner Here he thought to rest But first because he would augment their feast He sent his daughter to a village by What in his Scrip was wanting to supply The Swaines all bad him welcome in a word And told him what their bottles could afford He might command coole water from the Well He thank'd them first and then began to tell What a sweet tasted juice he had in store Presuming such they neuer dranke before So bad them try and not the vertue doubt They did so and the Mazer went about No one but now on this new liquor dotes And sweares the like went neuer downe their throtes They from a taste a deeper
goddesse which we Venus likewise name Who this their kindnesse bearing still in minde Sought some faire opportunitie to finde To shew her gratitudeâ— and then being great With Iupiter of him she did intreat He would be pleas'd their goodnesse to requite Bâ— whom her birth and being came to light He who the goddesse nothing could deny To send her pleas'd thence fixt them in the Sky Where with a radiant fulgence either shines Both making one of the Coelestiall Signes Since when these people rather than to tast That kind of Fish haue vow'd perpetuall Fast And with such reuerence they all Doues intreat To die themselues ere these Birds kill and eat But let me not ô Courteous Reader wrong Thy patience with insisting here too long I will not bring Philosophers to brall And quarrell 'bout the Worlds originall Of which their curious Ceâ—sures some haue past That this was euer and shall euer last Others That many worlds haue bin'tofore And this bee'ng ended wee shall still haue more Some Heretickes so impudently bold To draw their grounds from Scripture These of old Haue by Authentique Authors been confuted Therefore not needfull here to be disputed The World it selfe doth to all Tongues proclaime It 's owne first off spring and from whence it came i th' Elements first As thus The Earth doth shift Into the Water by th' Almighties Gift Aire into Fire doth passe as 't is exprest Aire into Water too So of the rest And yet this permutation cannot be But in the course of Time Now all agree Time of all Motion to be the true Measure And where is Motion cannot be the Treasure Of Durabilitie and alwaies lasting We either see the swelling Ocean hasting To fill his Tyde or to his Ebbe decline There 's no cessation in the mouing Brine Sometimes the gentle Aire blowes coole and soft Sometimes againe the Whirle-windes beat aloft As now the Moone doth in her Waine appeare And then some few nights after fills her Sphere The Sunne is in perpetuall trauell so The Stars nay euen the Herbs and Plants that grow Of what the Earth yeelds or from Heauen is leant Time is the sole producting Instrument This being prov'd now let vs if you please Examine Time whilest we consider these We reade how they which sacrificed first Religious Abel were and Cain th' Accurst The antient Writer Philo doth make mention That Letters had from Abraham their inuention Which he the Chaldaeans and Phoenicians tought These after Linus from Phoenicia brought And spread in Greece Cadmus some say deuis'd them And within Sixteene Characters compris'd them To which they say Palanâ—des added foure Simonides to them as many more Memnon spake Hierogliphycks thinking so To instruct men a neerer way to know Another Writing taught so by degrees First from Palme leaues them to the rindes of trees They grew to Paper and to Pens Some Rhyme Some writ in Prose All these produc't by Time At first th' Arcadians vpon Acomes fed And saue the Earth look'd for no softer bed Dainties and Downe were both as then vnknowne Whence then is our Effeminacie growne Now in such vse Those Surfets we desire Superfluous Fare and Pydenesse in Attyre When our first Parents were in skin coats clad For better Weeds then were not to be had No food saue Fruits no drinke saue Water small Time still in motion hath produc'd these all For grant that Man from euerlasting were Without beginning How may it appeare He spent his dayes Triptolemus we reade And Ceres were the first that deuis'd Bread What did they eat before An idle kinde Of Creatures sure they were that could not finde The vse of Garments nor of wholsome Food With infinite things since practis'd and held good They built no Cities for all such of Name Knowne Historie directs vs whence they came And both by whom and in whose reignes erected Rhemus and Romulus the place selected In which to plant great Rome Paris that is Of populous France the chiefe Metropolis Paris the Trojan built after the firing Of famous Troy thither himselfe retyring With Francon one of Hectors noble Sons For so the Chronicle with Carion runs Naples that we Parthenope haue read Was founded by the warlike Diomed. Parma by Trojan Chrysus Pallas friend Ancona likewise boasts her to descend From the Thessalian Dolopes Florence grew From Scilla 's souldiers who did first make new Those stately walls Caâ—thage Queene Dido rear'd If Virgil or Eusebius may be heard Troy from King Troös Thebes from Busiris came Of Genoa Genuinus layd the frame Yong Phaëtons companion Brixium Verona Patauia Aquilaea Barcelona Rhodes Malta Nicomedia Sarragosa Venetia Placentia and Tolosa These for the rest suffice the Ages tell them Of their vaine errors and withall refell them The first is by all Writers vnderstood From the Creation to the generall Floud The next from Noah to Abrahams birth accounted The third from him to Dauids time amounted The fourth from Dauids dayes fell iust vpon The Iewes Captiuitie in Babylon The fift from faire Ierusalems surprise By Nabuchadnezzar doth iust arise Vnto our Sauiors blessed Incarnation The sixt descends to this last Generation And though some Histriographers diuide These into Seuen by Eusebius 't is deny'de And diuers others all in this agreeing Though not in number That the World had being In Adam and our Grandam Eve created By Gods owne hand in Paradise instated That most of all those many yeares are past And That this Age we liue in is the last Grammer in Greece was by Prometheus sought And after was to Rome by Crates brought Before the time of the third Punicke warre Of Rhetoricke these the Deuisers are Tysias which Corax after did refine With Gorgias syrnamed Leontyne Cleanthes was the first Logicke profest Crisippus Daphila and 'mongst the rest Numbred Dionisodore and Euthidenius were The art of Memorie did first appeare In old Simonides Euclides found Geometry And Sapho layd the ground Of Musicke or as some Thersander will Others Pythoclides Physickes first skill Serapius claimes And Apis AEgypts King To be of Surgerie the source and spring Noah the Ship and Mercury the Lyre Pyseus was the ground of Musicke higher Namely the Trumpet Thales most haue said Was he the Horologe deuis'd and made Astrologie Anaximander taught Pictures and Statues first Cleanthes wrought Chiron of Herbs and Simples searcht the cause With their true vertue And the first made Lawes Was Rhadamant Bacchus did plant the Vine And Tharsus vnto Cities Walls assigne Which after the Cyclopians did adorne With sumptuous Turrets The first vse of Corne Queene Ceres Ninus War the art of Minting And vse of Coine did AEginata Printing Iohn-Gutenburgh But he that first did finde That Diuelish enemie to all
others were of a contrary opinion as shall be made plaine vnto you in the sequell Lucan lib 7. de Bell. Civil vseth these words Communis mundi superest rogus ossibus astra Mixturus Id est There is a common fire yet to come which with our bones shall mix the Stars As likewise Seneca in Hercule Octas Mundo conueniet dies Australis Polus corruet c. Vpon the World a Day shall call When as the Australl Pole must fall And whatsoe're by Lybia lyes What Spartan Garamas espyes The shrinking Northerne Pole shall flat And vtterly subuert Nay what Is at that season found to be Plac't beneath either Axle-tree What the North winde hath blowne vpon Shall all be in that ruine gone The Sun shall then cast off the day The Heav'n it selfe shall quite decay And haue a sure and certaine end The gods shall not themselues defend But either Death or Chaos shall To former Nothing turne them all No face shall be of Earth or Skye And Death must be the last shall dye Ovid agreeth with Seneca in this for you reade him thus in his Metamorphosis Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur adfore tempus c. Amongst the Fates there 's registred a Time When Sea and Earth and all the Heav'ns sublime Shall burne at once and all this goodly Frame Must be consum'd and cease to haue a name Lucretius you may likewise heare to the same purpose Principio Maria Terras Coelumque tuere First looke ô Memmius on the Sea the Land And Heav'n whose triple nature vnderstand Three bodies three formes so vnlike yet such As cannot for their shape be admir'd too much Yet this great Mole and Machine of the world Shall in one day be into ruine hurl'd Seneca in his Tragedie of Octavia thus speakes Nunc adest Mundo Dies c. Now to the World a Day drawes neare And that the last that shall appeare Which by Heav'ns ruine shall make immolation Of this most wicked Generation That a new Stocke may thence arise Of better Natures much more wise With a condition like sincere As in the Worlds first Age they were Hither may that speech of Tindarus in Plautus morally and not altogether vnproperly be applied Hic ille est Dies cum nulla vitae salus Sperabilis est mecum Neque exilium exitio est c. This is the Day in which no hope Or health of life can be by me expected Exile can be to me no end All helpe all comfort I haue now reiected Vnto my crafty fraudulencies Which were vnlimited and kept no bound For all my cunning sycophancies No shelter no euasion can be found Neither for my perfidiousnesse Can intercession any way preuaile For my apparant wickednesse There is no purchase of reprieue or baile For all my craft fraud and deceit There is no way by which I can euade It now too late is fauour to entreat All that I kept conceal'd is open laid My juglings are made manifest Bootlesse it is my punishment to fly And since I haue so far transgrest Doubtlesse that I an euill death shall dye All these may serue to expresse the Worlds dissolution Now concerning the Creation heare Claudian in Laudem Stellicon speaking of the great power and strength of Clemencie Principio magni custos Clementia mundi c. She that Clemencie is styl'd Was first who on the great World smyl'd She is the Zone that Iove embrac't And still she dwells about his wast The middle Firmament she swayes And both the heate and cold allayes And she is to be vnderstood The eldest of the Heav'nly Brood For Clemencie did first vnty As pittying the deformity Of the rude Chaos all that Heape And caus'd the Light from thence to leape Dispersing Darknesse Shee 's the prime That with cleere lookes made Age and Time Hauing heard the Poets let vs now heare what the Philosophers say Aristotle vseth these words Non plures Mundi sunt c. There are no more Worlds nor more can be if this consist of the vniuersall Matter as of necessitie it must And again Lib. Phys. 4. All things that are vnder heauen in time grow old corruptible and vile As concerning the multiplicitie of Worlds diuers Philosophers held with Many and of these some to be greater some lesse of which certaine of them to be enlightned with Sunne Moone and the rest of the Planets others to haue no illumination from any Star or Coelestial body and others againe to haue the benefit and vse of far more of these heauenly Lights than we in this inferior world enioy Moreouer that some of these worlds daily encrease and grow greater others of the contrary are obnoxious to contraction and diminution of which sundry of them are quite destitute of Plants Creatures and Inhabitants c. But which appeares most childish and ridiculous to all that are apprehensiue of any humane reason they maintaine That these worlds by mutuall wearing and ruine according to our plaine English Phrase fall foule one vpon another and are interchangeably shattered and broken life so many glasses or earthen vessells Metrodorus was of such madnesse that hee blushed not to attest That it was as preposterous to all true Iudgements to thinke that in so infinite a Vacuum there should be but one world as in a large and spatious field there to be but one spike or blade of grasse But these delirements and imaginarie Chimaera's haue been opposed by the better experienced Sophists as Pythagoras Samius Thales Milesius Anaxagoras Anaximander Melissus Heraclitus Zeno Citicus c. as is more amply expressed by Aristotle the Prince of Philosophers Aboue the rest Plato with his Scholler Aristotle conclude vpon one World namely this in which we now liue and reside To make this plaine let ys go no farther than the definition of the World according to Aristotle The World saith hee is that in which all things are contained and without which there is nothing that is or can be found So by consequence if there were any thing without the world then the world could not containe all things and therefore no world But to omit as many arguments and those too vnanswerable as would swell this single leaued Pagin into a many-sheeted Volume in these few words this question may be fully determined There is but one world and that perfect as there is but one most perfect Creator the absolute Prince and Gouernor thereof without which world there is neither Place Vacuitie nor Time Place there is not because there can be no Place without a Body if there be no Body then no Motion if no Motion all Time is excluded Nam Tempus est mensura motus i. For Time is the measure of all motion Let vs leaue then these wrangling and selfe-opinioned Sophists to their errors and for our own satisfaction as an vnfailing refuge sanctuarie our selues in that which the Holy-Ghost speaketh by the
Platonists call gods All those sublunary they Daemons styl'd As Apuleius in his booke compyl'd De deo Socratis makes ample mention According to his humane apprehension We know their Places and their Offices But of their Natures and their Substances Onely so far no farther we dare skan Than that they are more excellent than man Thus by the Psalmist warranted who sayes When our Nobilitie he semees to praise And what Man was before he did transgresse Thou mad'st him than the Angels little lesse Some would allow them Bodies and of them Tertullian one another Origen From Genesis The Sonnes of God 't is there Seeing Mens Daughters and how faire they were Tooke them to be their Wiues Now both agree That these no other could than Angels be Who if they married must haue Bodies those Compos'd of Forme and Matter to dispose Else how should they haue Issue And againe How are bad Sprites sensible of paine In Hells eternall torments if there faile That Substance on the which Fire may preuaile So diuers of the Fathers were of minde For in Saint Austines Comment you may finde The subtile essence of the Angels pure At first that they more fully might endure The sence of Fire was grossed in their Fall Of courser temper than th' Originall Moreouer Damascenus is thus heard Each thing created if with God compar'd Who onely incorruptible is shall finde Them Grosse and all materiall in their kinde For He alone 't is we may truly call Vnbodied and Immateriall Ambrose Lactantius and Basilius Rupertus Atlas Athanasius With Firmianus did beleeue no lesse As more at large their publique Workes expresse To these oppos'd in censure others are Who in their best of judgements not once dare Allow them Bodies but meere Spirits to bee Void of all matter and in this agree Nazianzen Gregorie Thomas Aquine Saint Chrisostome and Thomas Argentine Alexander Alexandri and Marselius Bonaventura Augustinus Niphus Hugo de S. Victore Scotus men Gen'erally approv'd and with these Damascen Who saith That in respect of God on hye His Pewer and most inserutable Qualitie They may be said to haue Bodies yet he wou'd Not haue it be so simply vnderstood But that they are not all so exquisite As mutable confin'd to place finite When as his Nature more Diuine by farre Is subiect to no Change as Angels ar ' An Infinite a Majestie so Immence No place can circumscribe his Eminence To leaue Authorities yet make this plaine Let 's see what grounds from Reason we can gaine If they haue bodies they must needs be linkt Of members as Mans is Organs distinct And like composure else they must be fram'd Confus'd and without those which we haue nam'd If Limbs and Organs consequently then They must haue Sence if Sence Passions as men And therefore capable of Perturbation So of Corruption and of Alteration As bee'ng compos'd of Contraries If we say Th' are from Corruption free t' infer that they Their bodies neuer can put off and so Into a grosse absurditie they grow To make them in worse state than Man for he Puts off all Cares with his Mortalitie But on their perpetuitie doth depend Trouble and Toiles sence which can neuer end Againe if Bodies they must either be Hard to be felt and of soliditie Or else Liquid and soft If stand vpon The last th' are signes of imperfection Subiect to be diuided and to take Strange shapes vpon them and the first forsake As to be chang'd to Water or to Aire Which doth not stand with sence for if we dare Allow them hard and sollid we' are deluded Since such from other Bodies are excluded As in dimention limited and space Because two Bodies cannot haue one place Nor can they with that quicke celeritie Moue in one Sphere then in another be 'T must likewise follow That such as are sent Downe to the Earth cannot incontinent But with much difficultie or'ecome the way First in one Heav'n then in another stay Haue time to penetrate as needs it is Now that Coelestiall Body and then this When as if Alphraganius we may trust Or Thebit Arabs both of force it must Be a great distance For these Authors write If that an Angell in his swiftest flight Should from the eighth Heauen to the Earth descend A thousand miles in threescore minutes to spend So far remote they are if truly told Six yeares six moneths his journey would him hold But now what difficult to some may'appeare To reconcile and all those doubts to cleare Ev'n as Mans wisdome being lustly way'd With Gods to be meere Foolishnesse is said Not that it is in its owne nature so And that than Brutes he doth no further know But in respect of God's so pure and holy It in that sence may be reputed Folly So th'vncorporeall Spirits Bodies claime Which if we with th' Almighties Essence name In that regard 't is palpable and grosse No better to be styl'd than Dung and Drosse Now by the Sonnes of God who beheld then The Daughters which were said to be of Men Is meant the Sonnes of Seth to make it plaine Seeing those Daughters which were come of Cain Of them tooke wiues each where he liked best Heare in a Lateran Councell what 's exprest Touching Spirituall and Corporeall Creatures Distinguisht thus The great God of all Features The sole Creator Visible and Vnseene Spirituall and those which Bodied beene Who from Times first beginning hath both fram'd Spirituall and those Corporeall nam'd By which we vnderstand Angelicall And Mundane here below He after all Did then create Man in his blest estate Both Soule and Body to participate The Phrase of Scripture doth confirme as much As oft as it doth on the Spirit touch A Substance without Body it approoues The Spirit is God saith Iohn and it behooues All such as will in worship fall before him Meerely in Spirit and in Truth t'addore him Besides Saint Luke doth witnesse One mans brest At once of a whole Legion was possest Of vncleane Spirits Which had they Bodies How Could it sufficient place to them allow To'inhabit when each Legion doth by List Of six thousand six hundred sixty six consist If there be any of Saint Gregories mind To thinke that Angels are to Place design'd All such must vnderstand it is not meant According to the limited extent Of their Angel-like Substances but rather Which from their great employments we may gather Of their owne vertues the determination In the determin'd place of operation Nor is 't of force That Angels by their Fall Should gaine a Substance more materiall On which th' infernall Fire it selfe might feed Of such a spissed Substance there 's no need Since of their lasting torments without pause The Fire is not the sole and principall cause But as an Instrument a power it hath From Gods owne hand and iust incensed wrath To the three Ternions I returne againe Linkt fast
together in a nine-fold Chaine 'Mongst whom there 's difference in Intelligence As there is in degrees of Excellence For the more Noble to the Lesser still Infuseth Knowledge by th' Almighties will The Second to the Third is like industrous And as degreed 't is more and more illustrous This Knowledge more perspicuous is and cleare In the first Chorus than it doth appeare i th' Second Third or Fourth so to the Last Of those that are o're things Terrestriall plac't This in the Prophet Zacharie's made plaine When God his People would redeeme againe From their Captiuitie in Babylon He in his Vision saw the Holy-One Reueale it vnto one of the Superiors Which he communicates to his Inferiors They to the Prophet Vnto this coheres What in Saint Austines Booke as plaine appeares As we perceiue the Moone the Stars t'out-shine And the Sunnes light more splendrous and Diuine Than the Moone 's shewes so'tis in the degrees Of those forenam'd Coelestiall Hierarchees Foure Angels as foure Vice-royes are exprest To sway the foure Windes plac'd aboue the rest All Princes and with mighty power endu'd Remarkable for that their Celsitude The East whence Eurus blowes swayes Michael The West whence Zephyre breathes guides Raphael The North whence Boreas blusters Gabriel The South whence Auster comes rules Vriel Which from th' Evangelist some Doctors ground Because 't is in th' Apocalips thus found On the foure Angles of the Earth I saw Standing foure Angels those that kept in awe The foure great Windes restraining them from blowing On Earth on Sea or any Tree then growing Some write That ouer euery Heauen or Sphere A seuerall Angell's plac'd and gouernes there The Sophists those Intelligences call The Hebrewes Cherubims whose lots thus fall Metraon doth the Primam Mobile guide Ophaniel in the Starry Heav'n reside The Sunnes Sphere Varcan the Moones lower rayes Arcan disposeth Mars his Lamach swayes Mercuries Madan Ioves Guth Venus Star Iurabatres and Saturne's seene from far Maion And all these in the height they'enioy Haue power Inferior Spirits to employ Seuen Angels as the Scriptures witnesse stand Before th' Almighty prest at his command And these by his Diuine infusion know How to dispose of all things here below As those Coelestiall who doth institute Those Seuen his Diuine Will to execute Yeares Dayes and Houres amongst them they diuide The Planets and the Stars they likewise guide The President of Sol is Raphael The Guardian of the Moone call'd Gabriel Chamuel the third Mars his bright Star protects Michael the Sphere of Mercury directs Adahiel o're Iove hath domination And Haniel of Venus gubernation Zaphiel is Saturnes Prince And of Spirits seuen Saint Iohn makes mention with their place in Heauen I saw seuen Angels stand before the Throne Of the Almighty and to euery one A seuerall Trumpet giuen c. The Rabbins they And Cabalists further proceed and say How warranted I know not That there be Twelue Potents of this Diuine Facultie Three Orientall and three Occidentall Three Septentrionall and three Meridionall Chaoz the first great Easterne Power they call Whose Prince Malthidielis and he swayes all That doth belong to Aries the next place Corona hath and Varchiel hath the grace Of that to be chiefe Regent Leo hee Hath subiect in his second Empyree Hermaus the third Adnachiel doth carry That potencie and rules the Sagittary The first Power Austral they Panthaeon stile Asmodes Prince in that doth reconcile The Signe call'd Taurus and the second Tim Hamabiel is the Prince that gouernes him In the Signe Virgo Haim is the third borne Hannuel the Prince and gouerns Capricorne The first Septentrionall Bethzan Manuel Prince And he the Signe of Cancer doth conuince The next Zonocharel by name they know Barchiel the chiefe and rules o're Scorpio Ouer the third Elisan Varchiel reignes He Pisces in his Principate containes The first of th' Occidentall Gelphor and Ambriel the Prince the Gemini they stand Beneath his sway Bleor the next his Lord Zaniel who guides the Scepter and the Sword Caphet the last Cabriel the President And o're Aquarius hath the gouernment Others there be that do not doubt to say That the foure Elements are forc'd t' obey Foure seuerall Angels Seraph reignes o're Fire Cherub the Aire and Tharsis doth aspire Ouer the Water and the Earths great Lord Ariel The Hebrew Rabbins thus accord But since of these the Scriptures make no mention Far be it that the least of mine intention Should be ro create Angels Hence it came That at a Roman Councell in the name Of Zachary then Pope one Aldebert Another Clement seeking to subuert The Church by Schismes were to the Consistorie Summon'd and there conuict of Heresie For thus they pray'd O Angell Vriel Angell Adimus Angell Raguel Angell Sabaothe Angell Michael Angell Tubuas Angell Semibel c. This in the Synod was no sooner read But they thus instantly were censured The very words of that Decree these are Of all those names most of them new and rare Of whom they invocate Michael alone An Angell we acknowledge the rest none By that and elsewhere it is manifest That other names than are to vs exprest In sacred Scriptures none ought to deuise Since from such Curiosities arise Schismes Heresies Opinions execrable Erring from Truth diuellish and damnable Nor are these darke words by these Rabbins vs'd Other than Phancies not to be excus'd Wherein some things signifi'cant are exprest Borrow'd from Naturall causes at the best For instance Seraph if we but retyre To the words force importeth nought saue Fire Cherub Aire Tharsus Water Ariel Earth And these at first had from those Doctors birth Ev'n by their owne confession If you please Thinke of the rest as hath been said of these Creaturae quaedam aeterna sunt à posteriore à priore solus Deus est aeternus Explicit Metrum Tractatus quarti Theologicall Philosphicall Poeticall Historicall Apothegmaticall Hierogriphicall and Emblematicall Obseruationsâ— touching the further illustration of the former Tractat. AS Fire cannot be long smothered but it will finde vent nor the Sunne be so eclipsed and cloudedâ— but it will soone worke it selfe into it's owne natiue glory and splendor so the Omnipotencie of the great Creator cannot be so darkened either by the stupidity of the Ignorant or the malicious obstinacie of the seeming-Wise but euen out of their voluntarie Blindnesse it will extract it 's owne Brightnesse Prophane Lucian who so generally taxed all the gods as that he was held scarcely to beleeue that there were any and therefore purchased to himselfe the Character of Blasphemus Maledicus c. yet he in one of his Coelestial Dialogues so stiled because they meerely consist of conference held amongst the vpper Deities in a discourse betwixt Maâ—s and Mercury introduceth Mars speaking of Iupiter to this purpose I will saith he If my inherent Power I'assume to me Ev'n when
did great things and in the comming of Antichrist the Pseudo-Christiani i. false-Christians before him with him and after him by the aid of the wicked Spirit did maruellous things And in another place commenting vpon the same Euangelist As when a man telleth thee a Tale which thou art not willing to heare the more he speaketh the lesse thou bearest away Or trauelling in haste when thy minde is otherwise occupied though in thy speed thou meetest many yet thou takest not notice of any that passe thee so the Iewes dealt with our Sauiour for though they saw many signes and maruellous things done by him yet notwithstanding they demanded a signe from him because they heard such things as they marked not and saw such things as they tooke no pleasure to behold Hugo De Operib 3. Dierum speaketh thus Res multis modis apparant mirabiles c. Many wayes things appeare maruellous somtimes for their greatnesse sometimes for their smalnesse some for their rarietie others for their beauty First according to their greatnesse as where any creature doth exceed the proportion of it's own Kinde so we admire a Gyant amongst Men a Leviathan or Whale amongst Fishes a Gryphon amongst Birds an Elephant amongst foure-footed Beasts a Dragon amongst Serpents c. The second for their smalnesse as when certaine creatures are scanted of that dimension proper vnto their Kinde as in Dwarfes small Beagles and the like or in Moths small Worms in the hand or finger c. which how little soeuer yet they participate life and motion with those of larger dimension and size neither are they any way disproportionate in their Kinds but the one as well declareth the power and wisedome of the Creator as the other Consider therefore whether thou shouldst more wonder at the tuskes of the Boare than the teeth of a Worme at the legs of a Gryphon or a Gnat at the head of an Horse or a Locust at the thighes of an Estrich or a Fly If in the one thou admirest the greatnesse and strength in the other thou hast cause to wonder at the smalnesse and dexterity as in the one thou maist behold eyes so great that they are able to daunt thee in the other thou mayst see eyes so small than thine are searce able to discern them and euen in these little creatures thou shalt find such adiuments and helps of nature that there is nothing needfull or defectiue in the smallest which thou shalt finde superfluous in the greatest c. We wonder why the Crocodile when he feeds moueth not his lower chaw how the Salamander liueth vnscorched in the fire how the Hedgehog is taught with his sharpe quills to wallow and tumble beneath the Fruit trees and returne home laden with Apples to his resting place who instructed the Ant to be carefull in Summer to prouide her selfe of food for Winter or the Spider to draw small threds from it's owne bowels to insidiate and lay nets for the Flies All these are infallid testimonies of the wisedome and power of the Almighty These are only wonders in nature but no Miracles Chrisostom supr Math. saith thus Quatuor sunt mirabiles imitatores c. There be foure miraculous Imitators made by Christ A Fisherman to be the first Shepheard of his Flocke a Persecutor the first Master and Teacher of the Gentiles a Publican the first Euangelist a Theefe that first entred into Paradise And further That of three things the World hath great cause to wonder of Christs resurrection after death of his ascention to heauen in the Flesh and that by his Apostles being no better than Fishermen the whole world should be conuerted But if any thing strange or prodigious hath beene heretofore done by Mahomet or his associates they haue been rather imposterous than miraculous Or admit they were worthy to be so called yet do they not any way iustifie his blasphemous Religion For you may thus reade Iustine Martyr De Respons ad Quest. 5. fol. 162. As the Sun rising vpon the Good and Euill the Iust and Vniust is no argument to confirme the euil and injust man in his wickednesse and injustice so ought it not to confirme heretiques in their errors if at any time miraculous things be done by them For if the effect of a miracle be an absolute signe and demonstration of pietie God would not then reply vpon the Reprobate and Cursed at the last day when they shall say vnto him Lord haue we not in thy Name prophesied and cast out diuels and done many Miracles I neuer knew you depart from me ô ye Cursed c. Christ was miraculous in his Incarnation his Natiuitie his Life Doctrine Death and Resurrection as will easily appeare but first it shall not be amisse to speake a word or two of his blessed Mother Petrus Chrisologus writeth thus Vnexpressible is the sacrament of the Natiuitie of our Lord the God of Life which wee ought rather to beleeue than to examine A Virgin conceiued and brought forth which Nature affourded not Vse knew not Reason was ignorant of Vnderstanding conceiued not This at which Heauen wondred Earth admired the Creature was stupified what humane Language is able to deliuer Therefore the Euangelist as he opened the conception and birth in an human phrase so he shut it vp in a Diuine secret And this he did to shew That it is not lawfull for a man to dispute that which he is commanded to beleeue And againe How can there be the least dammage vnto modestie where there is interessed a Deitie Where an Angell is the Messenger Faith the Bride-maid Chastitie the Contract Vertue the Despouser Conscience the Priest God the Cause integritie the Conception Virginitie the Birth a Maid the Mother Let no man therefore iudge that thing after the manner of Man which is done by a diuine Sacrament let no man examine a coelestiall mysterie by earthly reason or a secret nouelty by that which is frequent and common Let no man measure that which is Singular by Example nor deriue contumely from Pietie nor run into danger by his rashnesse when God hath prouided saluation by his Goodnesse Origen vpon Mathew moues this Question What was the necessitie that Mary the blessed Virgin should be espoused vnto Ioseph but either because that mysterie should be concealed from the Diuell and so the false Accuser should finde no cauil against her chastitie being asfied vnto an husband or else that after the Infant was borne he should be the mothers Conduct into AEgypt and backe againe For Mary was the vntouched the vnblemished the immaculate Mother of the onely begotten Son of God Almighty Father and Creator of all things of that Sonne who in Heauen was without a Mother in Earth without a Father in Heauen according to his Deitie in the bosome of his Father in Earth according to his humanitie in the lap of his Mother Gregorie the Great saith Though Christ Iesus be one thing of the
Emerald the Carbuncle with Gold The Timbrel and the Pipe were celebrated For thee in the first day thou wert created Thou art th' anointed Cherub made to couer Thee I haue set in honour aboue other Vpon Gods holy Mountaine placed higher Thou walked hast amidst the stones of fire At first of thy wayes perfect was the ground Vntill iniquitie in thee was found Thy heart was lifted vp by thy great beauty Therein tow'rds God forgetfull of thy duty By reason of thy Brightnesse being plac't ' Boue them thy Wisedome thou corrupted hast But to the ground I 'le cast thee flat and cold Lay thee where Kings thy ruin may behold In thy selfe-wisedome thou hast been beguild And by thy multitude of sinnes defil'd Thy Holinesse A Spirit still peruerse Stain'd by th' iniquitie of thy commerse Therefore from midst of thee a fire I 'le bring Which shall deuour thee into ashes fling Thee from thy height that all the earth may see thee This I haue spoke and who is he can free thee Their terror who did know thee heretofore Most Wretched thou shalt be yet be no more In this the Prophet as these would allude Striues in this first-borne Angell to include All Wisedome Pow'r Gifts Ornaments and Graces Which all the rest had in their seuerall Places God this precelling Creature hauing made With all the Host of Angels some haue said He then began the Vniuersall Frame The Heav'ns Sun Moon and Stars and gaue them name Then Earth and Sea his Diuine Will ordain'd With all the Creatures in them both contain'd His last great Workemanship in high respect Of Reason capable and Intellect But to the Angels natures much inferior Who with th' Almighty dwell in th' Heav'ns superior To all Eternity sounding his praise Man whom from Dust he did so lately raise Subsists of Soule and Body That which still Doth comprehend the Vnderstanding Will And Memorie namely the Soule Partaker Of those great Gifts is th' Image of the Maker The nature of the Body though it be Common with Beasts yet doth it disagree In shape and figure for with Eyes erected It beholds Heav'n whilest Brutes haue Looks deiected This compos'd Man is as a ligament And folding vp in a small continent Some part of all things which before were made For in this Microcosme are stor'd and layd Connexiuely as things made vp and bound Corporeall things with incorporeall Found There likewise are in his admired quality Things fraile and mortall mixt with Immortality Betweene those Creatures that haue Reason and Th' Irrationall who cannot vnderstand There is a Nature intermediate That 'twixt them doth of both participate For with the blessed Angels in a kinde Man doth partake of an intelligent Minde A Body with the Beasts with Appetite It to preserue feed cherish and delight And procreate it 's like in shapes and features Besides Man hath aboue all other Creatures That whereas they their Appetites pursue As solely sencible of what 's in view And gouern'd by instinct Mans eminence Hath pow'r to sway his Will from common Sence And besides Earthly things himselfe apply To contemplate things mysticall and hye And though his Excellence doth not extend To those miraculous Gifts which did commend Great Lucifer at first in his Majoritie Yet in one honour he hath iust prioritie Before all Angels to aduance his Seed Since God from all eternitie decreed That his owne Sonne the euerlasting Word Who to all Creatures Being doth afford By which they first were made should Heav'n forsake And in his Mercy humane Nature take Not that he by so doing should depresse The Diuine Majestie and make it lesse But Humane frailtie to exalt and raise From corrupt earth his glorious Name to praise Therefore he did insep'rably vnite His Goodhood to our Nature vs t' excite To magnifie his Goodnesse This Grace showne Vnto Mankinde was to the Angels knowne That such a thing should be they all expected Not knowing how or when 't would be effected Thus Paul th' Apostle testates 'Mongst the rest Without all opposition be 't confest Of Godlinesse the mysterie is high Namely That God himselfe apparantly Is manifest in Flesh is iustify'd In Spirit by the Angels clearely ' espy'd Preacht to the Gentiles by the World beleev'd Into eternall Glory last receiv'd With Pride and Enuy Lucifer now swelling Against Mankinde whom from his heav'nly Dwelling He seemes in supernaturall Gifts t' out-shine Man being but Terrene and himselfe Diuine Ambitiously his Hate encreasing still Dares to oppose the great Creators Will As holding it against his Iustice done That th' Almighties sole begotten Sonne Mans nature to assume purpos'd and meant And not the Angels much more excellent Therefore he to that height of madnesse came A stratagem within himselfe to frame To hinder this irrevocable Deed Which God from all eternitie decreed And that which most seem'd to inflame his spleene And arrogance was That he had foreseene That many Men by God should be created And in an higher eminence instated Of place and Glory than himselfe or those His Angels that this great Worke ' gant t' oppose Disdaining and repining that of Men One should be God Omnipotent and then That others his Inferiors in degree Should out-shine him in his sublimitie In this puft Insolence and timp'anous Pride He many Angels drew vnto his side Swell'd with the like thoughts Ioyntly these prepare To raise in Heav'n a most seditious Warre He will be the Trines Equall and maintaine Ouer the Hierarchies at least to raigne 'T is thus in Esay read I will ascend Into the Heav'ns and there my Pow'r extend Exalt my Throne aboue and my aboad Shall be made equall with the Stars of God Aboue the Clouds I will my selfe apply Because I will be like to the Most-Hye To this great Pride doth the Arch-Angell rise In boldest opposition and replies Whose name is Michael Why what is he That like the Lord our God aspires to be In vaine ô Lucifer thou striv'st t' assay That we thine innovations should obey Who know As God doth purpose be it must He cannot will but what is good and iust Therefore with vs That God and Man adore Or in this place thou shalt be found no more This strooke the Prince of Pride into an heate In which a Conflict terrible and great Began in Heav'n the Rebell Spirits giue way And the victorious Michael winnes the day Thus Iohn writes of the Battell Michael Fought and his Angels with the Dragon fel The Dragon and his Angels likewise fought But in the Conflict they preuailed nought Nor was their Place in Heav'n thence-forward found But the great Dragon that old Serpent bound They Diuell call'd and Sathan was cast out He that deceiueth the whole World about Ev'n to the lowest earth being tumbled downe And with him all his Angels headlong throwne This victorie thus got and he subverted Th' Arch-Angell with his holy Troupes directed
a sufficient answer namely That the Substances of things were created together but not formed and fashioned together in their seuerall distinct kindes They were disgested together by substance of matter but appeared not together in substantiall forme for that was the worke of six dayes Moreouer when Moses in his first Chapter of Genesis saith That things were created in euery one of the six dayes seuerally in the second chapter of the same Booke he speaketh but of one day only by way of Catastrophe or Epilogue All which hee had before distinctly described saying These are the generations of the Heauen and the Earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heauens Neither is this any contradiction for we must not take the dayes according to the distinction of Times for God had no need of Time as being first made by him but by reason of the works of Perfection which is signified and compleated by the number of Six which is a most perfect number Moreouer as the Psalmist saith A thousand yeares are vnto him but as one day Avenzor the Babylonian saith That he which knoweth to number well knoweth directly all things Neither was it spoken in vaine but to the great praise of Almighty God Omnia in mensura Numero Pondere disposuisti i. Thou hast disposed all things in Number in Measure and in Weight It is moreouer said in Eccles. 1 2. Who can number the sands of the Sea and the drops of the raine and the dayes of the world Who can measure the height of the Heauen the bredth of the Earth and the depth Who can finde the Wisedome of God which hath beene before all things c. It is worthy remarke which one ingeniously obserues Two wayes saith he we come to the apprehension and knowledge of God by his Workes and by his Word by his Works we know that there is a God and by his Word we come to know what that God is his Workes teach vs to spell his Word to reade The first are his backe-parts by which we behold him afarre off the later represent him vnto vs more visibly and as it were face to face For the Word is as a booke consisting of three leaues and euery leafe printed with many letters and euery letter containeth in it selfe a Lecture The Leaues are Heauen the Aire and the Earth with the Water the Letters ingrauen are euery Angell Starre and Planet the Letters in the Aire euery Meteor and Fowle those in the Earth and Waters euery Man Beast Plant Floure Minerall and Fish c. All these set together spell vnto vs That there is a God Moses in the very first verse of Genesis refuteth three Ethnycke opinions first Those that were of opinion the World was from eternitie and should continue for euer in these words when hee saith In the Beginning Secondly he stoppeth the mouth of stupid and prophane Atheists in this phrase Elohim created Thirdly and lastly hee opposeth all Idolaters such as held with many gods for the saith in the conclusion of the same Verse Elohim He created Heauen and Earth vsing the singular number It is the opinion of some antient Diuines That the Creation of the Angels was concealed by Moses lest any man should apprehend like those Heretiques spoken of by Epiphanius that they aided and assisted God in the Creation For if the day of their Creation which as the best approued Theologists confesse was the first day had beene named by Moses wicked and vngodly men might haue taken them to haue been Agents in that great and inscrutable Worke which indeed were no other than Spectators Therefore as God hid and concealed the Body of Moses after his death lest the Israelites so much addicted to Idolatry should adore and worship it so Moses hid and concealed the Creation of the Angels in the beginning lest by them they should be deified and the honour due to the Creator be by that meanes attributed and conferred on the Creature Rabbi Salom affirmeth them to be created the first day and some of our later Diuines the fourth day but their opinions are not held altogether authenticall It is likewise obserued That God in the creation of the world beginneth aboue and worketh downwards For in the first three dayes he layd the foundation of the world and in the other three dayes he furnished and adorned those parts The first day he made all the Heauens the matter of the earth and commeth downe so low as the Light The second day he descendeth lower and maketh the Firmament or Aire The third lowest of all making a distinction betwixt the Earth and Water Thus in three dayes the three parts or body of the World is laid and in three dayes more and in the same order they were furnished For on the fourth day the Heauens which were made the first day were decked and stucke with starres and lights The fift day the Firmament which was made the second day was filled with Birds and Fowles The sixt day the Earth which was before made fit and ready the third day was replenished with Beasts and lastly with Man And thus God Almighty in his great Power and Wisedome accomplished and finished the miraculous worke of the Creation Rabbi Iarchi vpon the second of Genesis obserueth That God made superior things one day and inferiour another His words being to this purpose In the first day God created Heauen aboue and Earth beneath on the second day the Firmament aboue on the third Let the dry land appeare beneath on the fourth Lights aboue and the fift Let the waters bring forth beneath c. On the sixt day he made things both superior and inferior lest there should be confusion without order in his Work Therefore he made Man consisting of both a Soule from aboue and a Body from beneath c. An Allegorie drawne from these is That God hath taught vs by the course he took in the framing and fashioning of the world how we must proceed to become a new Creation or a new Heauen and Earth renewed both in soule and body In the first day he made the Light therefore the first thing of the new man ought to be light of Knowledge for Saint Paul saith He that commeth to God must know that He Is. On the second day he made the Firmament so called because of it's stedfastnesse so the second step in Mans new Creation must be Firmamentum Fidei i. the sure foundation of Faith On the third day the Seas and Trees bearing Fruit so the third step in the New man is That he become Waters of relenting teares and that he bring forth fruit worthy of Repentance On the fourth day God created the Sunne that whereas on the first day there was light without heate now on the fourth day there is Light and Heate ioyned together So the fourth step in the new creation of the New man is That
and serue him Not that hee should proudly ouerweene That the shape and figure of God is answerable in a true and iust conformity with his owne for the word Image is not so to be vnderstood to accord correspond with the exterior shape or similitude but rather with the spirituall Intelligence which consists of the more pretious part namely the Soule For as God by his vncreated Power is wholly God gouerning and giuing life to all things for as the Apostle saith In Him we liue moue and haue our Being euen so the Soule by his prouidence giueth life to the bodie and vnto euery part thereof and is said to be the Image of God like as in the Trinitie for though in name it is but one Soule yet hath it in it selfe three excellent dignities The Vnderstanding the Will and the Memorie And as the Son is begotten of the Father and the Holy-Ghost and proceedeth both from the one and the other in like manner is the Will ingendred of the Vnderstanding and Memorie And as the three persons of the Trinitie are but one God so these three powers and faculties of the Soule make but one Soule Man then was created according to the Image of God that euerie Like delighting in his Like hee should euermore wish to bee vnited vnto his Similitude which is God first to acknowledge him next in knowing him to honor him and in honoring him to loue him and in louing him to serue and obey him For this cause he made him with an vpright and erected body noâ— so much for his dissimilitude vnto beasts who be stooping and crooked hauing their eyes directed to the earth as to eleuate his lookes and to mount his vnderstanding toward heauen his original leauing all the obiects of terrestriall vanities and exercising his faculties in the contemplation and speculation of things sublime and permanent God when he created Man bestowed vpon him three especiall good gifts the first His owne Image the next That hee made him after his owne similitude the third That hee gaue him the Immortalitie of the Soule Which three great blessings saith Hugo S. Victor were conferred by God vpon Man both naturally and by originall justice Two other gifts hee hath inriched Man with the one vnder him the other aboue him vnder him the World aboue him God The World as a visible good but Transitorie God as an invisible Good and Eternall There be three principall Hurts or Euils which abuse and corrupt the three before-named Blessings the first Ignorance of Goodnesse and Truth the second an appetite and desire of Euil and Wickednesse the last Sicknesse and infirmity of the body Through Ignorance the Image of God hath beene defaced in vs by Carnall desires his Similitude blemished and by Infirmities the body for the present made incapable of Immortality For these three Diseases there be three principall Remedies Wisedome Vertue and Necessitie to ouercome Ignorance we are to make vse of Wisedome that is to vnderstand things as they are without idle curiositie To suppresse the appetite to do euill we are to embrace Vertue which is the habitude of the Soule after nature conformable with Reason To make Necessitie tread down Infirmitie is meant of absolute Necessitie without which things cannot be done as without eyes wee cannot see without eares heare without feet walke c. There is another kinde of Necessitie which is called Conditionall as when a man is to trauell a journey he vseth an horse for his better expedition And so the like For these three Remedies all Arts and disciplines in generall haue been deuised and inuented as first to attain vnto Wisdome and Knowledge the Theoricke or Contemplatiue for the atchieuing vnto Vertue the Practiuqe and Actiue and to supply Necessitie Mechanicke which is that which we call Handicraft or Trading which as Iohannes Ludovicus in his Booke called The Introduction to Wisedome saith Vtile indumentum excogitavit necessitas c. i. Necessitie found out Garments profitable pretious light neat and vaine Man consisteth of the Body and the Soule The true exact measure of Mans body wel proportioned is thus defined His height is foure cubits or six feet a cubit being iust one foot and an halfe the foot is the measure of foure palmes or hand-bredths a palme is the bredth of foure fingers ioyned The armes being spread abroad the space betweene the end of the one longest finger vnto the other is the iust measure from the plant of the foot to the crowne of the head according to Pliny lib. 7. cap. 17. The parts of the Body are thus proportioned the face from the bottom of the chinne to the top of the forehead or skirt of the haire is the tenth part of the height or length thereof the same is the bredth of the forehead from one side to the other The face is diuided into three equall parts one from the bottom of the chinne to the lowest tip of the nose the second from thence vpward to the eye brow the third from thence to the top of the forehead The length of the eye from one angle opposed to the other is the fiue and fortieth part the like proportion beareth the distance and space betwixt the one eye and the other The length of the nose is the thirtieth part and the hollow of the nosthrill the hundred and eightieth The whole headâ— from the bottome of the chinne to the crowne of the head the eighth part the compasse of the necke the fifteenth the length of the breast and stomack and so the bredth almost the sixt part The Nauil holdeth the mid seat in the body and diuideth it selfe into two equall distances The whole length of the thighes and legs to the plant or sole of the foot is little lesse than the â—alfe part the length of the foot the sixt part so also are the armes to the cubit and the cubit to the hand the hand is the tenth part Vitruv. lib. 13. Cardan lib. 11. de Subtilitate c. Plotinus the Platonicke Philosopher being earnestly solicited by the cunning Painter Emutius that he would giue him leaue to draw his picture would by no meanes suffer him but made him this answer Is it not enough that wee beare this image about vs whilest we liue but we must by way of ostentation leaue it for posteritie to gaze on For he was of the opinion of Pythagoras who called the Body nothing else but the Case or casket of the Mind and that hee saw the least of Man who looked onely vpon his bodie And Diogenes the Cynicke was wont to deride those who would keepe their Cellars shut barred and bolted and yet would haue their Bodies continually open by diuers windowes dores as the mouth the eyes the nosthrils and other secret parts thereof Stoboeus Serm. 6. The Body is described by Lucretius in this one Verse Tangere enim aut tangi nisi corpus nulla
territorie in Italy betwixt Baiae and Cumae where a people called Cimerij inhabit which is so inuironed with hills and mountaines that the Sunne is neuer seene at any time of the yeare to shine amongst them From whence grew the Adage darker than the darkenesse of Cimeria Hell is called in the Scriptures by the name of Abyssus which implyeth a deepe and vast gulfe or a bottomlesse pit from which there is an ascent vp vnto the earth but no descent lower Nicolaus de Lyra vpon Esay holdeth it to be in the centre of the earth Rabbi Abraham in cap. 2. Iona saith Sheol a Graue is a deepe place and directly opposed to Heauen which is aboue Rabbi Levi in cap. 26. Ioan. affirmeth That Sheol is absolutely below and in the Centre Moses saith Fire is kindled in my wrath speaking of God and shall burne to the bottome of Hell The Psalmist calleth it the Pit of Perdition Psal. 55. And Psalm 140.10 Let him cast them into the fire and into the deepe pits that they rise not again Saint Iohn Revel 20. calleth it a burning Lake And Solomon speaking of the depth of this place saith that The Guests of an Harlot are in the depth of Hell And elsewhere The way of Life is on high to auoid Hell beneath Hell is likewise called Tophet which was a Valley neere vnto Ierusalem ioyning to the Fullers Poole and the field Acheldema scituate on the South side of Sion It is called likewise Gehinnon of the Valley of Hinnon because the place was the habitation of one Hinnon and for that it was once in his possession therefore euen to the dayes of our Sauior it bare his name Such is the opinion of Aretius and in this Valley did the Iewes following the abhomination of the children of Ammon sacrifice their children in the fire to the Idoll Moloch Montanus vpon Esay is of opinion That vnder the name of Moloch was signified Mercury Others as Scultetus writeth that it was Saturne whom the Poets feigne to haue eaten and deuoured his owne children It was a brasen Image hollow within and figured with his hands spread abroad ready to receiue all such infants as through their cursed Idolatry were tortured in the fire and sacrificed vnto him Snepfsius describeth this Idoll to be made of Copper and stretching forth his armes and hands in manner aforesaid The Iewes write of this Idoll Moloch That he was of a large and mighty stature fashioned like those vsed amongst the Serronides the antient Inhabitants of Gaule now France Hee had within his bulke or belly seuen seuerall roomes or chambers the first was to receiue all such meat as was offered vnto him the second Turtle Doues the third a Sheepe the fourth a Ramme the fist a Calfe the sixt an Oxe the seuenth a Childe This Idoll as the Talmudists write had a face of a Calfe in the imitation of the Idolatry which their fore-fathers had seene vsed in AEgypt His Priests Reg. 2.23 were called Chemarimes because they were smoked with the Incense offered vnto that Idoll This Tophet or Valley of Hinnon amongst many other abhominations was put downe by the good King Iosiah and in meere detestation thereof dead Carrion and the filth and garbage of the City cast therein The Iewes likewise report That in this Valley of Tophet there was a deepe ditch or caue called Os Inferni the Mouth of Hell which could neuer be filled into which the Chaldaeans hauing ouercome the Israelites in battell cast their dead carkasses which were neuermore seene And to trace my Author a little further Some thinke this word Tophet to haue deriuation à Tophis lapidibus from the Topaz stone which like to the Punicke nourisheth fire But this he holdeth not to be altogether authentique but rather of the Hebrew word Toph which signifies a Tabret or loud Instrument because when they sacrificed their children they strooke vpon their Tabrets that their noise might drowne the shriekes and clamors of their Infants when they past through the fire For so saith Piscator vpon Esay To the Dialogue of Lucianus before recited intitled Nyceomantia or an Answer from the Dead the most learned and neuer to be forgotten Sr Thomas Moore hath left this Argument Lucian saith he would leaue that chiefely to be remembred vnto vs which towards the conclusion of the Fable is whispered in the eare of Menippus by the Prophet Tyresias namely That a priuat and retyred life is the most contented and secure of all other Which the Grecians seeme likewise to allude vnto into their old Adage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For Riches Glory Power Potency with things of like nature and condition which the World seemeth most to acquire are most fraile and vncertaine But chiefly the liues and fortunes of Rich men as they are the most subject and obnoxious to casualtie and disaster so they haue the greatest correspondence with solemne Pomps and tragick Fables which in many of their miserable ends is frequent and apparant Which the World giueth vs cleerely to vnderstand by that Decree made in Hell against auaritious and rich men in their bodies are not onely designed to diuers pains and tortures but euen their minds and soules transmigrated and shifted into Asses and brute beasts By which he insinuateth vnto vs That these couetous men be for the most part barren of learning sloathfull and wanting iudgement It is inscribed An Answer commanded from the Ghosts or the Dead by which is manifest That hee obserueth the selfe same course in this Dialogue which ariseth from that which was before proposed to be learned from Tyresias For alwayes in these or the like titles some aime at the noblenesse of the person some at the dignitie of the Argument after the manner of Plato whom Lucian in this Dialogue seemeth most to imitate It consisteth of a long narration in which he commemorateth both the cause and the manner of his descent into the darke and lower Regions and the withall the occasion why so peremptory and strict an Edict was denounced against the Rich men of the world The maine and most illustrious things in this Fable contained are The frivolous and vncertaine doctrines and documents of the Philosophers the superstition and power presupposed to be in Magitions and Magicke The seuerall roomes and corners of Hell with the torments and punishments inflicted vpon the miserable and wretched Ghosts with the equalitie of the persons there And lastly a cgmparison of Humane life with the affinitie it hath to vaine Pompe and the Fables deuised by the Tragicke Poets The occasion and beginning being deriued from the habit and known absence of Menippus c. And now being so far entred into Lucian though not pertinent to the Argument in hand I will commend another of his Dialogues vnto your reading Incited thereunto by reason of the elegancie thereof and the rather because the Scoene lies in Hel. ¶ The Argument Three mighty Men amongst
Moone He likewise made in substance cleare According to the Season to appeare That it should be a future declaration Of Time and the Worlds Signe to ev'ry Nation Feasts are by it appointed the Moneths claime Proper denomination from her Name Waining or growing be she bright or dull In her continual Change shee 's wonderfull Shee 's a lampe plac'd aboue our heads and thence Sends downe her shining beames in excellence The beauty of the Heav'ns perceiv'd from far Is ev'ry great or lesse refulgent Star These lustre to the Firmament afford And shine in the high places of the Lord. From whose command they no way dare rebell But all night long keepe watch and sentinell Looke on the Rain-bow in it's mixed hew Obserue how beautifull it is in view What sev'rall colours with what cunning layd And praise Him who so great a Worke hath made He into such a spacious arch extends it It is the hand of the Most-High that bends it At his command the Snow makes haste from hye The Lightnings of his judgements swiftly flye When He vnlocks his Treasure Clouds repaire And like so many Fowles soare in the aire His Pow'r doth giue them strength When he but speaks The mighty Hail-stones into small he breaks At his dread sight the mountaines skip like Roes 'T is at his pleasure that the South winde blowes His Thunders sound the trembling Earth doth beat As doth the stormy North the fields entreat The Whirle windes like so many feather'd Fowle Scatter the Snow the white flakes downeward rowle As if so many Grashoppers together Should light-on th' earth brought in by stormy weather The Eye admires the whitenesse and the Braine Cannot conceiue the beauty of the Raine The Frost like Salt vpon the ground he powres Which hardned stickes vpon the Herbs and Floures When the bleake North winde from his Quarter blowes A congeal'd Ice vpon the Water growes Vpon the gath'ring of the waues it rests And with a chrystall couering armes their brests The Mountaines it deuours the Desaâ—ts burnes And like the Fire what 's greene to nothing turnes Yet by a melting Cloud and timely Raine These seeming dead are soone refresht againe He by his Word the blustring Windes doth still The Seas rough Surges All obey his Will He in the vnknowne Deepes foundations layes And in the midst thereof doth Islands raise They that the Ocean saile which hath no bound Tell of the wonders that are therein found Which so miraculous to vs appeare When they are told we stand amas'd to heare For there be his rare Works of Beasts and Whales Begetting terror from their sinnes and scales Through Him all things are aim'd as blessed ends And his establisht Word his Worke commends When we haue spoken most yet all ' â— but raine We neuer to their knowledge shall attaine This is the sum of all That He alone Must be the sole All and besides Him none Of his true Praise how can we giue account Since He we know doth all his Works surmount The Lord our God is terrible and great Who shall his Pow'r and marv'lous Acts repeat Praise laud and magnifie him all we can Yet doth He far exceed the thoughts of Man Exalt Him in our strength and be not tyr'd Yet shall not his â—east fully be admir'd Who is 't hath seene Him that his shape can tell Or who can praise him as He doth excell For greater things haue yet escapt our view And of his rare Works we haue seene but few The Lord hath made all things in Earth and Heav'n And vnto such as feare Him Wisdome's giv'n The Orders Names the Qualities and Charge Of the blest Angels we haue spoke at large It followes next to touch the true condition Of those malignant Sp'rits whose proud Ambition Cast themselues head-long both from the blest Place First made for them and from th' Almighties Grace Nor is it to be doubted but that those Who in their peruerse malice durst oppose Their glorious Maker and against Him war But that they likewise still intentiue ar ' And their peruersenesse totally enclin'd To Gods contempt and ruine of Mankind Now since those disobedient Sp'rites that fell With their grand Captaine downe from heav'n to hell Were out of all the Hierarchies extruded It therefore as a Maxime is concluded Not to be question'd That as th' Angels blest Who still inhabit their faire place of rest So likewise those by Lucifer mis-guided Are into sev'rall Ternions diuided And haue amongst them Orders and Degrees And though the benefit of Grace they leese Yet still that naturall pow'r and force retaine At first bequeath'd them bee'ng reduc'd againe To Order and their Offices still keepe As once in Heav'n so in th' infernall Deepe To this the Fathers with one voice agree For one writes thus In the great Hierarchie Of the blest Sp'rits some are employ'd to tell Things futurely to come others excell In working Miracles for no portent Is done on earth but by some Angell sent Some ouer others haue predominance Employing them Gods honor to aduance By executing Mysteries Diuine Others in greater pow'r and eminence shine Hauing vnnumber'd Armies in their sway Vnto whose Hests the lesse degreed obay Some are so plenteously endu'd with grace That God himselfe in them hath chus'd a place In which t' enhabit and these haue profest His secret judgements to make manifest Others are with so sacred links entir'd Vnto their Maker and withall inspir'd With such re-pur'd zeale there appeares not much Place intermediat betwixt Him and Such By what degrees they do precell the rest In ardent loue so much more interest They challenge with acutenesse to behold His Wisedome Iustice and Grace manifold Now as these sev'rall Functions are aboue With Those that still persever in their Loue So 'mongst the Disobedient is remaining Like order still their naturall pow'rs retaining For till the World be quite consum'd and gon It is a Maxim to be built vpon Angell o're Angell which none alter can Diuell o're Diuell Man shall rule o're Man Of the Rebellious Lucifer is prime Captaine and King who in the first of Time From out the seuerall Classes had selected Legions of Angels with like pride infected Against Iehovah and with expedition Hurld them with himselfe headlong to perdition And as in his Creation he was fram'd More glorious far than others before nam'd More goodly featur'd beautifull and bright And therefore had his name deriv'd from Light So since his Fall there 's nothing we can stile So ougly foule abominably vile The putred Fountaine and bitumenous Well From whence all Vice and malefactures swell Whose horrid shape and qualities infest Are by the Poet Dante 's thus exprest L' Imperador del Doloroso Regno Da mezo l petto vsciva Della Gliaccia Et pin eli ch'un Gigante iâ— ti conuegno
Of Thunder Tempest Meteors Lightning Snow Chasemates Trajections of Haile Raine And so With piercing eyes he hath a deepe inspection Into the Sunne Moone Stars the true direction Of all Stars fixt or wandring Zodiacke Lines Articke and the Antarticke Poles and Signes The courses of the Heav'ns the qualities Their influence their effects and properties And as they haue a vertuall pow'r to know All our inferior bodies here below So of the Sp'rits of Glory or Perdition The Orders Offices and the Condition Briefely There is no Creature God hath made From the first Chaos but it may be said Whether it be abortiue or full growne That to the Angels nature it is knowne Since then so great and so profound 's their skill Infus'd into them by the Makers Will No wonder 't is that they such strange things can Beyond the weake capacitie of Man We onely by things sensible attaine To a small knowledge and with mighty paine And into error we may quickly fall For in it is no certaintie at all Sp'rits cannot erre and be deceiv'd as we Seeing and knowing all things perfectly In their true reall Essence which is meant Onely of Naturall things and hath extent No further For as Angels Creatures bee Th' are limited in their capacitie In all such things as on Gods Pow'r depend Or Mans Free-will their skill is at an end And vnderstand no further than reueal'd By the Creator else 't is shut and seal'd Hence comes it that the euill Angels are So oft deceiv'd when as they proudly dare To pry into Gods Counsels and make show By strange predictions future things to know This makes their words so full of craft and guile Either in doubts they cannot reconcile Or else for cettainties false things obtruding So in their Oracles the World deluding Whose answers either were so doubtfull and So intricate that none could vnderstand Or meerely toyes and lies for their words were By interpointing so dispos'd to beare A double sence and seeming truth to tell Whether or this or that way the chance fell But the good Angels they can no way erre The reason is That they themselues referre Wholly to Gods good pleasure from which Square And perfect Rule they neuer wandring are They iudge not rashly hid things they desire not And after future chances they enquire not Nor further of ought else to vnderstand Than they are limited by his command How many thousand traines hath Sathan layd By which he dayly doth fraile man inuade By entring Contract as a seeming friend Thereby to draw him to more fearefull end Of which the Fathers witnesse for one saith The Diuell with Magitions compact hath Another That all Magicke cov'nants bee Meere superstition and Idolatrie Which growes from a societie combin'd Betwixt the euill Daemons and Mankind If these were not Why should the Ciuill Law Firm'd by th' Imperiall sanction keepe in awe Such damn'd Impostors For the words thus run Many we know abstruse Arts haue begun To put in practise to disturbe the Aire Vpon the innocent Soules these likewise dare Vomit their malice and from the graues call Spirits from rest by Diabolicall And cursed Spells All such as shall rely On things preposterous and contrary To Natures course Gods people to annoy The Churches Curse them and their Arts destroy The like against these selfe-opinion'd fooles Is Articled in the Parisian Schooles Of such like Miscreants 't is in Esay said We haue strooke hands to league with Death and made Cov'nant with Hell How can Man be exempt From this Seducer he that dar'd to tempt The Sonne of God All these will I giue thee If thou wilt prostrat fall and worship mee Of these Compacts and Couenants we finde Two sorts and both blasphemous in their kinde The first When willingly we seeke inspection Into that Art and labour our direction From Magicke bookes or vse their Circles Lines Their superstitious Characters and Signes The second when without maleuolence We search into that art with no pretence Of Curiositie onely we vse it Knowledge to gaine and got not to abuse it And that is dangerous too all Such compact League with the Diuell as in word or act Breathe words vnknowne obscure inserted vainly Or such things as are holy vse prophanely As by obseruing certaine Characters Signes Figures Angles Squares Diameters c. Certaine Dayes Houres Stars Planets Constellations Graines Numbers Instruments of antique fashions And these beyond their naturall operations When Sacraments or any thing that 's holy Shall be abus'd by their ridiculous folly When Images of Wax or such like matter Are cast into a pot and boyl'd in water When certaine Numbers vnknowne Markes or Notes Writ in strange coloured paper he deuotes To superstitious vse When as to Coine Of gold or siluer or of brasse they ioyne Stamps of new Characters and this to bee When such a Planet is in such degree Such Pieces did Pasetis vse to weare What e're he bought he neuer payd too deare Who parting from the Merchant did but name The sum he payd and backe to him it came When holy Ceremonies through the Malicious Are made idolatrous and superstitious When Linnen neuer washt is vs'd and hee Must hold a Wand that 's cut from such a Tree With which he strikes the East and then the West The North or South as to his purpose best That all his Haire shaues off by night or day Thinking thereby to driue the Div'll away That takes dust from a Sepulchre to vse Or from the Graue the Deads bones to abuse Or ought besides that shall seeme retrograde To Reasons course or what 's by Nature made Further Vnto this Cov'nant doth belongâ— All such as stand in their opinions strong To meditate those fond Bookes bearing name From Ada Abelus Enoch Abraham Cyprian Albertus Magnus or Honorius Paulus with those in Magicke still held glorious Who boast ambitiously with great ostent This Art had both it's birth and ornament Either from Adams Custos Razael Or else from Tobits Keeper Raphael Another strange Booke they produce and say 'T was Salomons call'd his Clavicula These Magi by old Sathan thus misguided Another Volume in sev'n parts diuided Stuft with Spels Charmes Oblations all Confusions Of Non-sence and the Diuels meere obtrusions As a Worke learn'd and sacred still prefer To ev'ry curious yong Practitioner All these are but his subtill traines to draw Men from Gods Feare and honour of his Law For in this Art whoeuer striues t' excell He strikes a lasting Couenant with Hell And as in these so likewise in past Ages He wanted not his Astrologomages For most of this prognosticating Tribe Mettals vnto each Planet can ascribe Siluer vnto the Moone to the Sunne was Gold sacred vnto Iove Copper and Brasse To Venus white Lead vnto Saturne Blacke Iron and Steele to Mars nor doth there lacke Amber to Mercury To each of them They
miserable the first pernitious the last pestilent Bernard in one of his Epistles saith Men are ignorant of many things needful to be known either by the injurie of Knowledge the sloathfulnesse in learning or the backwardnesse in acquiring yet are none of these excusable And the same Father sup Cant. The knowledge of God and thy selfe are both necessarie to saluation for as from the knowledge of thy selfe the feare of God ariseth in thee and by that knowledge thou art taught how to loue him So on the contrarie From not knowing thy selfe groweth Pride and from not knowing God Desperation And in another place Ignorantia sui initium omnis peccati ignorantia Dei consummato omnis peccati c. The blockishnesse of the minde is the stupiditie of acute reason bred from the grosse sences of carnall Intemperance Not euerie one that is ignorant is free from punishment for such may bee excused who gladly would learne if they knew what to learn but such cannot be pardoned who knowing from whom to learne apply not their will and industrie vnto it Seneca in one of his Proverbs saith It is a more tollerable punishment not to liue at all than not to liue a Knowing man And in another of them It is no lighter thing to be altogether ignorant what is lawfull than to do that which is vnlawfull Socrates saith Where there is no Capacitie there Counsell is vainly bestowed And Solon Ignorance hath euer the boldest face nor is it easie to be truely discouered till it be matched by Knowledge The Inscious man may be knowne by three things He cannot gouern himselfe because he wanteth Reason nor resist his carnal affections because he lacketh Wisedome nor hath he freedome to do what himselfe desireth because he is in bondage to Ignorance Idlenesse begetteth Ignorance and Ignorance ingendreth Error The three-shap'd Monster Sphinx is the emblem of Ignorance which is thus expressed Quid Monstrum id Sphinx est cur candida Virginis ora Et Volucrum pennas crura Leonis habet Hanc faciem assumpsit rerum Ignorantia tanto Scilicet est triplex causa origo mali What Monster 's that 'T is Sphinx Shew me the cause Why a Maids face Birds wings and Lions pawes Such shape beares Ignorance or want of skill And is the triple ground of so much ill Hauing somewhat discouered the defects of Ignorance let vs a little looke into the excellencie of Knowledge He that wanteth Knowledg Science and Nurture is but the shadow of a man though neuer so much beautified with the gifts of Nature It is a saying of Socrates That in war Iron is better than Gold And in the course of a mans life Knowledge is to be preferred before Riches Excellent was that Apothegme of Pythagoras He that knoweth not that which hee ought to know is a Beast amongst men He that knoweth no more than he hath need of is a Man amongst Beasts But he that knoweth all that he ought to know is a god amongst Men. The first thing we ought to study is truly how to know God For we reade in Ieremy Let not the Wise man glory in his Wisedome Let not the Strong man glory in his Strength Let not the Rich man glorie in his Riches But he that glorieth let him glory in this that he knoweth Me because I am the Lord who makes Mercy and Iugement and Iustice on the Earth He is knowne by the consideration of his Creatures Saith Iob Aske the Beasts and they will teach thee demand of the Fowles of Heauen and they will declare vnto thee Speake to the Earth and it will answer vnto thee the very Fishes in the Sea will tell thee For who is ignorant that the hand of the Lord hath made all these We may know him by the Scriptures Search the Scriptures saith Iohn because in them you thinke to haue life eternall and these are they that testifie of me Againe Cap. 17. For this is life eternall to know thee to be the onely true God and him whom thou hast sent Christ Iesus In the face of the Prudent Wisedome shineth saith Salomon And Ecclesiastes Cap. 8. The Wisedome of man shineth in his countenance and the most Mighty shall change his face Touching the Knowledge of our selues Be mindefull of thine owne nature saith Basil and thou shalt neuer be tumor'd with Pride so oft as thou obseruest thy selfe so oft shalt thou know thy selfe and the accurat knowledge of that is sufficient to leade thee as by the hand to the knowledge of God For man to acknowledge himselfe ignorant saith Didimus is a great point of Wisedome and of justice to know himselfe to be vnjust And Chrisostome saith That hee best knoweth himselfe who thinketh worst of himselfe Wise Socrates being demanded Why hee writ no Worke to leaue to future memorie with great modestie answered That whatsoeuer hee could write was not worthy the paper which hee should write in Stob. And Demonax being demanded When he first began to be a Philosopher replied At the very first houre when I began truly to know my selfe Stob. Serm. 21. Heraclitus being a yong man was therefore iudged to be most wise because being asked What he knew he made answer That he knew only this that he was able to know nothing Ex Aristom scriptis Theocritus demanded Why being of such ability in learning and iudgment he would write no famous Work to leaue vnto succession replied The reason is because to write as I would I cannot and to write as I can I will not Stob. ex Aristom Bias to induce men to the true knowledge of themselues counselled euery man to looke vpon his owne actions in a myrrhor that such things as appeared good and commendable he might cherish and maintain but whatsoeuer sauored of suspition or deformitie he might correct and amend As the eye which discerneth all other obiects yet cannot see it selfe so the corrupt heart of man can more accurately looke into the vices of other men than their owne We reade of Placilla the religious wife of the Emperour Theodosius Still to admonish her husband after hee came to weare the Imperiall Purple That hee would not forget that hee had beene once no better than a priuat man and that the title of Caesar should not make him thinke himselfe a god as others before him had done but rather calling still to minde his owne frailtie by acknowledging himself to be Gods Seruant he should proue the better Soueraigne Nicephorus Calistius lib. 12. cap. 42. Saith Terence in Heuton It anâ— comparatam c. Is the nature of men grown to that passe that they can looke better into other mens actions than they can iudge of their owne Or is the reason thereof That in our proper affaires wee are hindered by too much joy or too much griefe Horace giueth vs this counsell Lib. 1. Sat. 3. Teipsum Concute num
thither and entertained into his wonted lodging Philemium his Beloued came into the chamber spake with him supt with him and after much amorous discourse she receiued of him as a gift a Ring of iron and a Cup guilt and she in interchange gaue him a Ring of gold and an hand-kerchiefe which done they went to bed together The Nurse being very diligent to see that her new ghest wanted nothing came vp with a candle and saw them both in bed together She ouer-joyed runneth in hast to bring the Parents newes that their daughter was aliue They amased rise from their bed and finde them both fast-sleeping when in great rapture of ioy they called and pulled them to awake At which shee rising vpon her pillow with a seuere looke cast vpon them thus said O you most cruell and obdurat Parents and are you so enuious of your daughters pleasure that you will not suffer her for the space of one three dayes to enioy her deere Machates but this curiositie shall be little for your ease for you shall againe renew your former sorrowes which hauing spoke she changed countenance sunke downe into the bed and died at which sight the father and mother were both intranced The rumor of this came into the city the Magistrats caused the graue to be opened but found not the body there only the iron Ring and the Cup giuen her by Machates For the same Coarse was then in the chamber and bed which by the counsell of one Hillus a Soothsayer was cast into the fields and the yong man finding himself to be deluded by a Specter to auoid the ignominie hee with his owne hands slew himselfe Possible it is that the inferiour Diuels at the command of the superiour should possesse the bodies of the Dead for a time and moue in them as by examples may appeare Eunapius reports That an AEgyptian Necromancer presented the person of Apollineus before the people But Iamblicus a greater Magition standing by told them It was not he but the body of a Fencer who had before been slaine When whispering a stronger charme to himselfe the Spirit forsooke the body which falling down dead appeared to them all to be the stinking carkasse of the Fencer before spoken of and well knowne to them all The like is reported of one Donica who after she was dead the Diuell had walked in her body for the space of two yeares so that none suspected but that she was still aliue for she did both speak and eat though very sparingly onely shee had a deepe palenesse in her countenance which was the only signe of death At length a Magition comming by where she was then in the companie of many other Virgins as soone as hee beheld her hee said Faire Maids why keep you company with this dead Virgin whom you suppose to be aliue When taking away the Magicke charme which was tied vnder her arme the body fell downe liuelesse and without motion Cornelius Agrippa liuing in Louvaine had a yong man who tabled with him One day hauing occasion to be abroad hee left the keyes of his study with his wife but gaue her great charge to keepe them safe and trust them to no man The Youth ouer-curious of noueltie neuer ceased to importune the woman till shee had lent him the key to take view of his Librarie Which entring he hapned vpon a booke of Conjuration hee reads when straight hee heares a great bouncing at the doore which hee not minding readeth on the knocking groweth greater the noise louder But hee making no answer the Diuell breakes open the doore and enters and askes what he commands him to haue done or why he was called The Youth amased and through feare not able to answer the Diuell seiseth vpon him and wrythes his neck asunder Agrippa returneth findeth the yong man dead and the Diuels insulting ouer him Hee retyres to his Art and calls the Diuels to account for what they had done they tell all that had passed Then he commanded the homicide to enter into the body and walke with him into the market place where the Students were frequent and after two or three turnes to forsake the bodie Hee did so the body falls downe dead before the Schollers all iudge it to be of some sudden Apoplexy but the markes about his necke and jawes make it somewhat suspitious And what the Archi-Mage concealed in Louvaine being banished thence hee afterward feared not to publish in Lotharinge Don Sebastian de Cobarruvias Orozco in his treasurie of the Castilian Tongue speaking how highly the Spaniards prise their beards and that there is no greater disgrace can be done vnto him than to be plucked by it and baffled reporteth That a noble Gentleman of that Nation being dead a Iew who much hated him in his life stole priuatly into the roome where his body was newly layd out and thinking to do that in death which hee neuer durst doe liuing stooped downe to plucke him by the beard at which the body started vp and drawing his sword that then lay by him halfe way out put the Iew into such a fright that he ran out of the Roome as if a thousand Diuels had been behind him This done the body lay downe as before vnto rest and the Iew after that turned Christian. Let these suffice out of infinites Hauing discoursed in the former Tractat of the Astrologomagi it shall not be impertinent to speake something concerning Astrologie which is defined to be Scientia Astris a knowledge in the Starres of which as Pliny witnesseth in the 57 booke of his Naturall Historie Atlanta King of the Mauritanians was the first Inuentor Of this Art the sacred Scriptures in diuers places make mention As in Deutron 4.19 And lest thou shouldst lift vp thine eyes to heauen and when thou seest the Sun and the Moone and the Stars with all the Host of Heauen shouldst be driuen to worship them and serue them which the Lord thy God hath distributed to all people vnder the whole heauen Againe Esay 47.13 Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels let now the Astrologers the Star-gasers and Prognosticators stand vp and saue thee from those things that shall come vpon thee c. Now wherefore God created those blessed Lights of heauen is manifest Gen. 1.14 And God said Let there be Lights in the Firmament of the heauen to separate the day from the night and let them be for signes and for seasons and for dayes and yeares Againe Cap. 8. vers 22. Hereafter seed time and haruest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease so long as the earth endure Esay 44.24 Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer and hee that formed thee from the wombe I am the Lord that made all things that spread out the heauens aboue and stretcheth out the earth by my selfe I destroy the tokens of Sooth-sayers and make them that
make the meat disgest The good old man perceiuing by his looke And change of cheare he Gospell could not brooke Rose at the table and cry'd out amaine Auaunt thou Fiend with thy infernall traine Thou hast no pow'r howeuer thus disguis'd O're them who in Christs name haue beene baptis'd The roaring Lion shall not vs deuour That in his bloud are ransom'd from thy pow'r These words with such like were no sooner spoke But he with all his traine vanisht like smoke And of his people they no more could finde Sauing three ougly bodies left behinde With a foule stench and they were knowne to bee Felons before-time strangled on a tree Now of those Sp'rits whom Succubae we call I reade what in Sicilia did befall Rogero reigning there a yong man much Practis'd in swimming for his skill was such That few could equall him one night bee'ng late Sporting i' th sea and thinking then his Mate Had been before him catcht him by the haire To drag him to the shore when one most faire Appear'd to him of a most sweet aspect Such a censorious Cynicke might affect Though he had promis'd abstinence Her head Seem'd as in golden wires apparelled And lo quite naked shee 's before him found Saue that her modest haire doth cloath her round Astonisht first to see so rare a Creature Richly accomplisht both in face and feature He viewes her still and is surpris'd at last And ouer her his vpper garment cast So closely brought her home and then conueyd Her to his priuat chamber where she stayd So long with him that he with her had won Such grace she was deliuer'd of a Son Within some forty weekes But all this while Though she had lent him many a pleasant smile Not making anything betwixt them strange That wife might with her husband interchange She neuer spake nor one word could he heare Proceed from her which did â—o him appeare Something prodigious Besides it being knowne How this faire seaâ— borne Venus first was growne In his acquaintance Next how his strange sute Came first and that she still continu'd mute A friend of his that had a seeming care Both of his bodie and his soules welfare Told him in plaine termes he was much mis-led To entertaine a Spectar in his bed At which words both affrighted and inrag'd To thinke how desp'ratly he had ingag'd Both soule and body home he posts with speed And hauing something in himselfe decreed First mildely treats with her and after breakes Into loud termes yet still she nothing speakes At this more angry to haue no reply He takes his sword and sonne then standing by And vowes by all the oathes a man can sweare Vnlesse she instantly deliuer there Both what she is how bred and whence she came And vnto these particular answer frame His purpose is receiue it how she will The pretty Babe betwixt them got to kill After some pause the Succubus reply'd Thou onely seek'st to know what I would hide Neuer did Husband to himselfe more wrong Than thou in this to make me vse my tongue After which words she vanisht and no more Was thenceforth seene The childe threatned before Some few yeares after swimming in the place Where first the father saw the mothers face Was from his fellowes snatcht away and drown'd By the same Sp'rit his body no where found Besides these Marcus vpon Psellius findes To be of maligne Spirits sundry kindes That beare in the foure elements chiefe sway Some Fiery and AEtherial are and they Haue the first place Next Spectars of the Aire Water and Earth but none of them that dare Beyond their bounds Others that all light fly And call'd Subterren or Lucifugi Vnto the first those prodigies of Fire Falling from heav'n which men so much admire The Learn'd ascribe As when a burning stone Dropt from the Sky into swiâ—t AEgion A Floud in Persia in Darius dayes As when three Moones at once in splendant rayes With a huge bearded Comet did appeare To all mens wonder in the selfe same yeare Pope Iohn the two and twentieth by his pow'r Curst Lewis Bavarus then Emperour Because he cherishr in litigious hope Petrus Carbariensis Anti-Pope As when three Sunnes at once shoâ— in the Sky Of equall sise to all apparantly Neere to the Village cal'd Taurometane In Sicily a Merchant bred in Spaine Coasting that way sees where before him stand Ten Smiths and each a hammer in his hand About them leatherne aprons and before He can aduise well he espies ten more And one aboue them all like Vulcan lame So shapt that you would take him for the same Describ'd in Homer Him the Merchant asks To what place they were bound About out tasks Vulcan replies Is it to thee vnknowne How famous we are late in AEtna growne Which if it be lag but a while behinde And see what thou with thousands more shalt finde To whom the Merchant What worke can there bee For men of your profession where we see Nothing but drifts of snow the mountaines clad In Winters cold where no fire can be had That shall be try'd said Vulcan once againe And with that word he vanisht with his traine At which the Merchant with such feare was strooke That all his limbes and joints were Ague-shooke To the next house his faint steps he applies And had no sooner told this but he dies His life set with the Sun E're mid-night came The vast Sicilian Mount was all on flame Belching forth fire and cinders and withall Such horrid cracks as if the rocks would fall And tumble from their height into the Plaine Mixt with such tempests both of Haile and Raine Such bellowing shriekes and such a sulphur smell As had it been the locall place of Hell This dismall night so dreadfull did appeare Vnto all such as did inhabit neere They left their houses to seeke dens and caues Thinking no place so safe then as their graues And of this nature are those fires oft seene Neere Sepulchres by which many haue beene Deluded much in Church-yards and such places Where the faint-hearted scarce dare shew their faces Such are the Ignes Fatui that appeare To skip and dance before vs ev'ry where Some call them Ambulones for they walke Sometimes before vs and then after stalke Some call them leaping Goats and these we finde All to be most malicious in their kinde By leading Trauellers out of their way Else causing them mongst theeues or pit-falls stray And such are Sulphur-colour'd others white And these haunt ships and Sea-men in the night And that most frequent when a tempest 's past And then they cleaue and cling close to the mast They call it Helena if one appeare And then presage there 's some disaster neere If they spie two they iudge good shall befall them And these thus seene Castor and Pollux call them And from that kinde of Sp'rits the Diuination Held in fore-times
to this purpose and by me thus paraphrased Now of the Forrest trees all which are thine Thou Lord hast chosen to thy selfe one Vine And out of all the spacious kingdomes knowne One Piece of earth which thou dost call thine owne Of all the Sommer floures th' earth doth yeeld Pickt out one Lilly ' midst of all thy Field From all the Seas that compasse in the vast And far-spread earth one Riuer tooke thou hast Of all built Cities in thy choise affection Thou of one Sion hast made free election Of all created Fowles swift or slow flighted Thou in one onely Doue hast been delighted Of all the Cattell that the pastures keepe Thou hast appointed to thy selfe one Sheepe Out of all Nations vnder this vast Frame Cull'd one alone to call vpon thy Name And to that People thou a Law hast giv'n Which from grosse earth transcendeth them to heav'n Notwithstanding these and the many glorious Miracles visible to the eyes of their fore-fathers which were not onely deliuered vnto their posteritie by tradition but by the mouth and pen of the Holy-Ghost in the person of Moses and many other Prophets yet of their refractorie condition stiffe-necked rebellion their idolatries and vtter falling off from their powerfull and mighty Preseruer numerous nay almost infinite are the testimonies in Holy-Writ Opposit vnto Pride is that most commendable Vertue of Humilitie which Pontanus calleth the Sister of true Nobility Blessed are the Poore in Spirit saith our Sauior for theirs is the kingdom of God And Prov. 16. It is better to be humble with the Meek than to diuide the spoile with the Proud Againe saith our blessed Sauiour Suffer these little Ones to haue accesse vnto me and forbid them not for to such belong the Kingdome of Heauen For whosoeuer shall humble himself as one of these little ones he shall be great in the kingdom of heauen Againe Iudg. The prayers of the Humble and Gentle haue beene euer pleasing vnto thee And Psal. 112. Who is like the Lord our God who dwelleth in the most high place and from thence regardeth the Humble both in heaven and earth lifting the Weake from the earth and raising the Poore from the Dung-hill that he may place him with Princes And 1. Pet. 5. Be ye humbled vnder the mighty hand of God that yee may be exalted in the time of Visitation Saint Augustine de Verb. Dom. saith Discite à me non Mundum fabricare c. Learne of me not how to build the world nor create things visible or inuisible not to work miracles and raise the Dead vnto life but seeke to imitate me in my humility and lowlinesse of heart If thou thinkst in thine heart to erect a building in great sublimitie consider first the foundation which is layd in humilitie And of the same Vertue he thus proceedeth O medicine vnto vs most profitable all tumors repressing all defects supplying all superfluities rejecting all depraued things correcting What Pride can be cured but by the Humility of the Son of God What Couetousnesse healed but by the Pouerty of the Sonne of God What Wrath be appeased but by the Wisdome of the Sonne of God Againe High is the countrey but low is the way and therefore let not him that desireth to trauell thither refuse the path which leadeth vnto it In Sermon de Superbia hee vseth these words O holy and venerable Humilitie Thou causedst the Sonne of God to descend into the womb of the blessed Virgin Mary thou didst wrap him in vile and contemptible garments that he might adorne vs with the Ornaments of Vertue Thou didst circumcise him in the flesh that hee might circumcise vs in the Spirit Thou madest him to be corporeally scourged that he might deliuer vs from those scourges due vnto vs for our sinnes Thou didst crowne him with Thornes that he might crowne vs with his eternall Roses Thou madest him to be feeble and weake who was the Physition of vs all c. Greg. in Explic. 3. Psal. Poeniten saith That he which gathereth Vertues without Humilitie is like one that carrieth dust in the winde And Saint Bernard Lib. de Consider Stable and permanent is the foundation of Vertue if layd vpon Humilitie otherwise the whole building is nothing but ruin Leo in Serm. de Nativ Christ. saith In vaine are we called Christians if wee be not Imitators of Christ who therefore named himselfe the Way That the conuersation of the Master might be a president vnto the Disciple that the Seruant might chuse that humility which the Master followed who is Christ. Hugo de Claus. Animae telleth vs That in the spirituall Building the foundation below is placed in Humilitie the bredth thereof is disposed in Charitie the height thereof is erected in Good-workes it is tiled and couered by Diuine protection and perfected in the length of Patience Bernard in Vita Laurent Iustiniani compareth Humilitie to a Torrent which as in the Summer it is temperat and shallow but in the Spring and Winter inundant and raging so Humilitie in prosperitie is milde and gentle but in aduersitie bold and magnanimious Chronatus Episcop de octo Beatitud saith That as it is not possible in any ascent to attaine vnto the second step or staire before thou hast passed the first so no man can attain vnto Humilitie and gentlenesse till he be first poore in spirit Thriverus in Apothegm 200. vseth these words As the deeper a Vessell is the more it receiueth so euery man is capable of so much grace as he is before possessed of Humilitie The Hierogliphycke of this Cardinall Vertue according to Pierius Valerius Lib. 35. is a Bended Knee borrowed it seemeth from that of Horrace Ius imperiaque Phraates Caesaris accepit genibus minor A Fable to this purpose I haue read and not altogether improper to be here inserted Amongst a many tall straight faire and well growne trees there was one low crooked and not a little deformed which was hourely derided by the rest insomuch that it grew wearie both of it's place and life But not long after the Lord of the soile hauing occasion to build he caused all those goodly Timbers to be felld and laid prostrat on the earth which being soone after remoued this despised and dejected shrub as a thing held meerely vnseruiceable was left standing alone neither obscured from the comfortable beams of the Sunne nor couered from the chearefull and tempestiue showres of the Heauens At which she began to acknowledge the happinesse of her humility since that which she apprehended to be her griefe and miserie returned in the end to be the sole meanes of her preseruation and safetie Not much forrein vnto this is that counsell which Ovid gaue his Friend Trist. lib. 3. Eleg. 4. Vsibus edocto si quicquid credis Amico Vive tibi longe nomina magna vita Vive tibi quantumque potes perlustria vita Saevum praelustri fulmen ab
these that Truth transcendeth all The King 's inthron'd his Peeres about him stated To heare this strife betwixt them three debated The first begins O men who can define Vnto the full the pow'r and strength of Wine For needs must that be said to tyrannise Which tames the Strong and doth deceiue the Wise. The minde it alters and 't is that alone That makes the Scepter and the Sheep-hooke one For you in Wine no difference can see Betwixt the Poore and Rich the Bond and Free It glads the heart and makes the thoughts forget Trouble and sorrow seruitude and debt It doth inrich the minde in ev'ry thing That it remembers Gouernor nor King And causeth those who are in state most weake Not thinking of their wants of Talents speake It puts a daring in the cowards brest To loue those Armes he did before detest To draw his sword in fury and to strike Opposing his best friends and foes alike But from the Wine and when the tempest 's o're He soone forgets all that had past before Then ô you men for I 'le not hold you long Thinke Wine that can do these things is most strong He ceast the next began and thus O men Are not you strongest first by land and then By sea Are not all things in them contain'd Yours as at first vnto your vse ordain'd But yet the King is greater he rules all And is the Lord of these in generall Such as negotiate by sea or land Are but meere Vassals and at his command If he shall bid them war with least facilitie They take vp armes and run into hostilitie And if he send them against forrein Powers They breake downe Citadels demolish Towers Mountaines they with the vallies shall make ev'n Or in the dales raise structures to braue heav'n They kill or they are slaine in ev'ry thing They do not passe the precept of the King And if they ouercome by right or wtong The spoile and honour doth to him belong Nay those which do not to the battell go But stay at home to plow to till to sow The fruits of all their labours and increase They bring vnto the King to keepe their peace Yet he is but one man If he bid kill There is no sauing then much bloud they spill But if the word passe from him they shall spare To shed least bloud who 's he so bold that dare If he bid smite the smite or if he frowne And bid demolish all things are torne downe If he say Build they build or if destroy All goes to hauocke and yet he in ioy Meane time sits downe doth eat doth drinke doth sleep And all the rest a watch about him keepe Neither can any tend his owne affaires But the Kings only ev'ry man prepares To do him seruice reason too for they Dare not but his great potencie obey Then aboue others is not he most strong This hauing said the second held his tongue The third reply'd O men neither confine Strength to the potent Monarch nor to Wine Nor to the Multitude 'gainst their opinion Hath not the Woman ouer these dominion Woman into the World the King hath brought And all such people as haue Empire sought By land or sea from them had Being first Bred from their wombes and on their soft knees nurst Those that did plant the Vine and presse the juice Before that they could taste it to their vse Had from them their conception they spin they weaue Garments for men and they from them receiue Worship and honour needfull th' are no doubt As being such men cannot liue without If he hath gath'red siluer or got gold Or found out ought that 's pretious to behold Doth he not bring it to his choice Delight Her that is faire and pretious in his sight Leaues he not all his bus'nesse and affaire To gaze vpon her eyes play with her haire Is he not wholly hers doth he not bring Gold to her siluer and each pretious thing Man leaues his Father Mother Countrey all What he esteemes most deare to become thrall In voluntary bondage with his Wife To leade a priuat and contented life Which life for her he hasardeth and her 'Fore Father Mother Countrey doth prefer Therefore by these you may perceiue and know Woman to whom Man doth such seruice owe Beares rule o're you Do you not trauell sweat And toile that of your labors they may eat Man takes his sword regardlesse of his weale And Madman-like goes forth to rob and steale He sailes the seas sounds Riuers nothing feares He meets a Lion and his way he steares Through darknesse and what purchase spoile or boot Is got he prostrats at his mistresse foot This shewes his Woman is to him more deare Than he that got or she that did him beare Some haue run mad some Slaues to them haue bin Others haue err'd and perisht in their sin Do I not grant the King in pow'r is great And that all Nations homage to his seat Yet I haue seene Apame her armes twine About his necke the Kings lov'd Concubine And daughter to the famous Bartacus I haue beheld her oft times vse him thus From the Kings head to snatch the Royall Crowne And smiling on him place it on her owne Then with her left hand on the cheeke him smite Yet he hath gap'd and laught and tooke delight To see himselfe so vs'd If she but smil'd As if all pow'r from him were quite exil'd He laught on her If angry he was faine To flatter her till she was pleas'd againe 'T is you ô men whom I appeale vnto Are they not strongest then who this can do At this the King and Princes in amase Began each one on others face to gase When he proceeded thus Say ô you men Resolue me Are not Women strongest then The Earth is spatious and the Heav'n is hye And the Sun swiftly in his course doth flye For in one day the Globe he wheeleth round And the next morning in his place is found Him that made these things must we not then call Great and Truth therefore great'st and strong'st of all All the Earth calls for Truth Heav'n doth proclaime Her blessed all things tremble at her name For Truth no vniust thing at all can doo The Wine is wicked so the King is too Women are wicked all the sonnes of men Most wicked are and such must needs be then Their wicked works there is no Truth therein And wanting Truth they perish in their sin But Truth shall abide strong and still perseuer For it shall liue and reigne euer and euer With her of persons there is no respect She doth to this way nor to that reflect She knowes no diffrence what is just she loues But what 's impure and sinfull she reproues And all men fauor her good works because Her judgements are vpright and iust her lawes Shee 's the Strength Kingdome Power Dignitie And of all Ages Sov'raigne Majestie Blest be the
they Cannot endure it puts them to dismay Lactantius tells vs When vpon a season An Emp'ror of his Idoll askt the reason Of some doubt that perplext him a long space He answer'd not the cause was that in place A Christian then was present at that time Who had new blest him with the Crosses signe Good Angels when to man they first appeare Although they strike him with amase and feare Their em affies bee'ng done before they part They leaue him with great joy and cheare of heart As he at whose dread presence Daniel shooke As th' Angell Gabriel whom the Holy-Booke Makes mention of who when he came to bring To the blest Maid a message from heav'ns King Frightfull at first appear'd his salutation But th' end thereof was full of consolation But the bad Spirits bringing seeming ioy The end thereof's disaster and annoy From circumstance might many more arise But these for this place at this time suffice Be it held no digression to looke backe From whence I came inquiring if I lacke No fit accoutrement that may be found Behoofull for the journey I am bound Something I had forgot in my great speed Of Musicke then e're further I proceed I must deriue it from the first of dayes The Spheres chime Musicke to their Makers praise In the worlds first Creation it begunne From the word Fiat spoke and it was done Was sound and sweetnesse voice and symphonie Concord Consent and heav'nly harmonie The three great Orders of the Hierarchie Seruants vnto th' eternall Majestie In their degrees of Ternions hourely sing Loud Haleluiahs to th' Almighty King The Seraphins the Cherubins and Thrones Potestates Vertues Dominations The Principats Arch-Angels Angels all Resound his praise in accents musicall So doe the Heav'ns and Planets much below them Touching the first those that seeme best to know them Thus of their quicke velocitie relate As the supreme and highest agitate Their wheeles with swiftest motion so conclude The lowest finish their vicissitude That is their naturall courses much more soone As first in nine and twenty dayes the Moone The Sun and Venus in one twelue-month theirs And Saturne his in thirty compleat yeares But many thousands must be fully done Before the starry heav'ns their course haue runne Such and so great is mans innate ambition Into all knowledge to make inquisition The depth of Natures hidden wayes to sound Mystries to search and diue in arts profound As if we looke into the first of Time When as the World was in it's youth and prime Ev'n to this latest Age those much commended For deepe conceptions greatly haue contended Almost aboue capacitie indeed Laboriously each other to exceed But as the Fable of Ixion proud Saith he in Iuno's stead embrac'd a Cloud So for the most part those of wits refin'd Building vpon their amplitude of mind And by their owne vaine apprehensions sway'd In their maine course erroneously haue stray'd Either in all mistaking or some part Error for Truth and Ignorance for Art The reason is That in things vndecided By selfe-conceit bee'ng obstinatly guided And not acquiring out the perfect ground What 's finite they with infinite confound What 's humane with diuine what 's wrong with right As out of darknesse striuing to draw light Hence comes so many Sects and Schooles t' arise Amongst the Sophists thinking themselues wise As Pyâ—hagorians Epicures Platonicks Pythonicks Scepticks and Academicks Eleaticks Perepateticks Stoicks too With others more And all these as they doo Differ in names so in opinions and Vpon diuersitie of judgements stand For instance First as touching the foundation Of things that since the Chaos had creation And cause efficient some hold Earth some Fire Some Water others Aire some Sects conspire Vpon the full foure Elements to impose it One names the Heav'ns another saith he knowes it The Stars were workersâ— Atoms this man names Another Number and the former blames Some Musicall consent drawne from the Spheres Some Full some Empty by all which appeares Those things are only quarrel'd with not prov'd For nothing's constant sollid or immov'd In all their doctrines each with other jar And are indeed still in seditious war And therefore God reproues Iob for aspiring And to his hidden wayes too deepe inquiring Thus saying Who is he that doth obscure Knowledge with words imperfect and impure Gird vp thy loines thee like a man prepare I will demand and thou to me declare Where wast thou when I layd the earths foundation If thou hast knowledge giue me true narration Who measur'd it now if thou canst divine Or ouer it what 's he hath stretcht the line Vpon what are the solid Bases made Or who the corner stone thereof first layd When all the Morning Starres as but one-voic't Prais'd me together when all Saints reioyc't Who shut the Sea with dores vp when the same As from the wombe it selfe issu'd and came When for it I the Clouds a cov'ring found And as in swathing â—ands in darkenesse bound And said Thou hitherto shalt haue free way No further thou shalt here thy proud waues stay And after this the secrets doth pursue Of Snow Haile Tempests with the Light and Dew Raine Ice Death Darknesse and so further runnes To th' Pleiades Arcturus and his sonnes Saith Paul In this world none himselfe deceiue To thinke hee 's wise but such vaine phaâ—sies leaue And let him be a foole so to be wise For this worlds wisedome is a meere disguise Of foolishnesse with God Scriptures thus treat The Wise he catcheth in his owne conceit In Esays Prophesie the words thus sound The wisedome of the Wise I will confound The prudence of the Prudent reprehend Where is the wise man Where 's the Scribe now or He of this world the great Inquisitor Hath not God made all the worlds Wisedome Folly Who then dares thinke himselfe or wise or holy What was it that to Socrates first gaue Wisedomes great attribute and honour saue That he confest In all he did pursue He only knew this That he nothing knew What saith the Preacher When I did apply My heart to search out Wisedome curiously And to behold on earth the secrets deepe That day nor night the eyes of man take sleepe Gods entire worke before myne eyes I brought That Man could not finde out the worke he sought Beneath the Sun for which mans busie minde Labors to search but it can neuer finde And though the Wise man thinke it to conceiue He cannot doo 't without th' Almighties leaue When as the Academicks of the rest Of all the Ethnycke Sophists were held best Yet in their then supreme authoritie None durst contest and say So this shall be The Pyrhonicks of no lesse approbation Would not of any thing make attestation But made a doubt in all and held for true Whoeuer humane Science shall pursue No other base he hath whereon to sit Sauing the fraile
finde The excellent Greeke Poet Hesiod giues Venus the Epithit Aurea Some questioning With what proprietie he could call her Golden Venus she being in her natiue disposition solely deuoted to pleasure and sporting dalliance but no way tainted with the least as persion of gripple vngenerous Auarice one among the rest vnwilling he should be taxed with the least ignorance or mistake thus answered in his behalfe Hesiodus pulchre quid sit Venus Aurea Iusit Et peream si quid rectius esse potest c. Hesiod said well And let me die But when He call'd her Golden Venus he did then With rich conceit because we now behold There is no Match that is not made with gold And Venus chang'd to Vsus Venerie Is now conuerted to plaine Vsurie This Saturnes sonne well knew when bee'ng surpris'd With Danaës loue he came to her disguis'd In a rich golden Raine and through the tiles Sent liquid drops which she with gracefull smiles Spred her lap wide to take not bee'ng content To fold it vp till the whole showre was spent He made the president since when we finde That whilest we giue out Sweet-hearts thinke vs kinde But if we nothing bring Away be gon Full pockets now are only lookt vpon He that trusteth in his Riches saith Solomon shall perish He troubleth his owne house that followeth Auarice but he that hateth Couetousnesse shall liue He that hateth Couetousnesse his dayes shall be long and he that hastneth to be rich shall not be innocent The Couetous man shall not be fill'd with money and he that loueth Riches shall not receiue the fruits thereof He that heapeth to himselfe vniustly gathereth for others and another shall ryot in his riches He that is wicked vnto himselfe to whom can he be good in his goods he shall take no pleasure We reade Ierem. cap. 6. From the lesse to the greater all doat on Avarice from the Prophet to the Priest all study deceit Therefore I wil deliuer vp their Women to strangers and make others heires of their fields because from the least to the greatest all follow Auarice and from the Prophet to the Priest all study Lies Couetousnesse is called the Seruice of Idols Ephes. 5.5 The Root of euils 1. Tim. 6.10 And such as bee therewith infected are called Despisers of Gods Word Mat. 6.24 c. Cruel Prov. 12.10 Idolaters Coloss. 3.5 Miserable and vaine Iob 5.5 They are to be auoided 1 Cor. 5.11 They shall not inherit the kingdom of Heauen Ibid. 6.10 Infinit are the Texts in Scripture not only bitterly reprouing but vtterly condemning this base sinne of Auarice for breuities sake I will shut them vp with that godly admonition of the holy Euangelist Saint Mathew cap. 6. ver 19. Lay not vp treasures for your selues vpon the earth where the Moth and Canker do corrupt and where Theeues breake through and steale but lay vp treasures for your selfe in Heauen where neither the Moth nor Canker corrupteth and where Theeues neither digge through nor steale for where your treasure is there will your hearts be also Saint Augustine De Verb. Domini saith What is this aviditie of Concupiscence in man when euen the beasts themselues retaine a mediocritie They are rauenous when they be hungry but when their appetites are sated they spare to prey The auarice of Rich men is onely insatiate who alwaies raueth and is neuer satisfied He neither feareth God nor reuerenceth man◠hee neither spareth father nor acknowledgeth mother his brother hee forgetteh falsifieth faith vnto his friend he oppresseth the widow inuadeth the Orphan those that are free hee bringeth into bonds nor maketh he conscience to beare false witnesse c. O what a madnesse is this in men to despise life and desire death to couet Gold and to lose Heauen Obserue what Saint Ambrose saith in one of his Sermons It is no lesse fault in thee to take away from him that hath than when thou thy selfe art able to deny thy charitie to such as want It is the bread of the Hungry which thou detainest and the garment of the Naked which thou keepest backe the money which thou hoordest and hidest in the earth is the price and redemption of the Captiue and Miserable Know that thou takest away the goods of so many as thou deniest to do good vnto when thou canst and wilt not Those are not a mans riches which he cannot carry with him to the graue Mercy onely and Charitie are the inseparable companions of the Dead Hierome saith That when all other sinnes grow old in man Auarice onely continueth as youthfull to the end as at the beginning And in another of his Sermons he saith A Couetous man is the Purse of Princes a store house of Theeues the discord of Parents and the hisse of men Gregorie Moral lib. 14. saith That the sinne of Auarice so burdeneth and weigheth downe the mind which it hath once possessed that it can neuer be raised to haue a desire to behold things sublime and high Hugo lib. de Clav. writeth In the goods and riches which wee possesse there are foure things to be obserued namely That things lawfull to be sought we seek not vnjustly and things vniustly sought we inioy not vnlawfully that wee possesse not too much though lawfully nor things lawfully possessed we vnlawfully defend for either euilly to acquire or things euilly obtained what was lawfull maketh to be vnlawfull For a man to possesse much to himselfe hee commeth neere to couetousnesse and oftentimes it so falleth out that what is too much loued is euilly defended S. Bernard Serm. 39. saith Auarice is drawne in a Chariot with foure wheeles these are called Pusillanimitie Inhumanitie Contempt of God and Forgetfulnesse of Death The beasts that draw it be two Tenacitie and Rapacitie and these are guided and gouerned by one Chariotier called a Greedy Desire of Hauing For Couetousnesse alone because it will not be at the charges of hiring more is content with one seruant The Emperor Nero was neuer knowne to giue gift or to bestow office vpon any man but hee said vnto him Thou knowest what I haue need of This we do left any man what he hath should cal his owne Words saith Suetonius and Bion who report this of him better becomming the mouth of a Theefe and Robber than of an Emperour The Emperor Vespasian when by certaine Embassies he vnderstood that a rich Statue was to be erected vnto his honour by the publique Senat which would cost an infinit masse of money he desired them to forbeare and shewing the palme of his hand open he said vnto the Embassadors Behold here is a Base ready to receiue it Thereby intimating he had a hand to receiue that money liuing with which they purposed to honour him being dead Suet. in Vespas Marcus Crassus being on his journey to vndertake the Parthian war when in his way he found Deiotarus King of the Galathians
corpora sine vllo vitio sine vlla deformitate sine vlla corruptione in quibus quanta facilitas tanta foelicitas erit i. The bodies of the Saints shal rise againe without any defect without any deformitie without any corruption in which there shall be as much felicitie as there is facilitie And Schoonaeus ex D. Hieron Seu vigilo intentus studijs seu dormio semper Iudicis aeterni nostras tuba personat aures Whether I waking study or sleepe still The Iudges last trumpe in myne eares sounds shrill I conclude with Iacobus Catsius de Eternitate in these words Cum suprema dies rutilo grassabitur igni Perque solum sparget fulmina perque salum Protinus erumpet gelido pia turba sepulchro Et tolletur humo quod modo vermis erit Hic câ—i squallor iners cui pallor in ore sedebat Veste micans nivca conspiciendus erit Alma dies optanda bonis metuenda profanis Ades parvum suscipe Christe gregem ¶ Thus paraphrased When the last day with wasting fire shall shine Disperst through earth and sea beyond each line Straight from the cold graue shall arise the Iust And breathe againe who late were wormes and dust He in whom squallid palenesse latâ— hath beene Clad in white shining Vesture shall be seene O Day the good mans joy the bad mans feare That Christ his Small Flocke may receiue draw neare A Meditation vpon the former Tractate I. BEtimes awake thee And vnto sad and serious contemplation Dull Soule betake thee Thy selfe retyre And after the great GOD of thy Saluation With care enquire Withdraw thy selfe within thy hearts close center Whither saue him alone let nothing enter II. Then let thine Heart Thus say My GOD let me behold thy face Shew in what part Or in what ground Of the vast world what corner or what place Thou mayst be found How shall I finde thee if thou bee'st not here Or why not present being ev'rywhere III. 'T is Thou excellest And in thy great incomprehensible Light For euer dwellest How can fraile Eyes A Glory that 's so luminous and bright By Sence comprise Yet of thy Grace so much to me impart That though it check my Sight 't may chere my heart IV. Who shall abide Thine anger if thou beest insenc't with vs Or if Thou hide From vs thy face Poore wretches then how darke and tenebrous Would be our place Without the lustre of thy louing kindenesse Grope should we euer in Egyptian blindenesse V. Great GOD imprint The Seraphs Loue into this Heart scarce mine Once Flesh now Flint Stirre vp an heate In this my frozen brest by Pow'r Diuine I thee entreat And neuer let thy Grace from me remoue Since Loue is God and thou my GOD art Loue. VI. It was th' ambition Of knowing Good and Euill that first brought Man to perdition The Cherub who Is Knowledge and can teach vs as we ought Our God to know Is He the first Transgressors did expell And chac't from the blest place in which they fell VII Iust is the Throne Iudgement is thine ô GOD and it pertaines To Thee alone In ballance ev'n Vnpartiall thou weigh'st all that doth remaine In Earth or Heav'n Yet though all Iustice be to Thee assign'd In thy good Grace let me thy Mercy find VIII As thou art Iust Beyond all apprehension all opinion Ev'n so we trust That since to Thee With Maiestie likewise belongs Dominion Of all that bee Thou which with mighty sway the World maintainst Wilt pitty haue of those o're whom thou raign'st IX The Vertues they In their high Classe vpon thy Will attend And it obey Ready they are In dangers those that feare thee to defend And still prepare In hostile opposition to withstand Sathan with all his proud infernall Band. X. The heav'nly Pow'rs As Ministers about thy Seruants wait And at all how'rs Assistant bee From such as would our Soules insidiate To set vs free And when these Champions in the List appeare The Tempter flies surpris'd with dastard feare XI Should the great Prince Of this vast World muster his hellish Legions Vs to convince From Water Aire The Earth or any of the other Regions To make repaire Where any of the Principats are nam'd They leaue the place confounded and asham'd XII Proud Lucifer The first of Angels bearing name of Light Who durst prefer Himselfe before His pow'rfull Maker the Great GOD of Might Whom we adore Was in an instant by Prince Michael Cast from high Heav'n into the lowest Hell XIII Gabriel imploy'd I' th' Virgin Mothers blest Annuntiation Mankinde o're-ioy'd He first proclaim'd Vnto the World the LORD of our Saluation EMANVEL nam'd Who though on earth revil'd and dis-esteem'd Yet by his Suffring Mankinde he redeem'd XIV O Holy Holy Holy Three Persons and but one almighty GOD Vnto Thee solely Our Pray'rs we tender And in thy Kingdome hoping for abode Freely surrender Our Soules and Bodies Whilest we liâ—e when die Protect vs with thy heav'nly Hierarchie Obsecro Domino ne desperem suspirando sed respirem sperando FINIS A generall Table THE CONTENTS OF THE FIRST TRACTAT TO proue there is a God from the Conscience the Stars Earth Beasts Riuers Sea Globe Man Pag. 3 4. Poets and Philosophers concerning the Deity 5. The same illustrated by Historie 6. Sacriledge punished 7. Religion from the beginning with the multiplicity of gods among the Gentiles ibid. The historie of Syrophanes 8. Of Idolatry and Superstition 9. The originall of Idolatry 10. Of the Atheist with arguments against Atheisme 11. Of Chance and Fortune 12. Illustrations to confute Atheisme 13. The death of Lucian Atheos 14. A Paraphrase vpon Chap. 2. of the Booke of Wisedome against Atheisme 15. What Atheisme is 18. Seuerall sorts of Atheists 19. Gratitude toward God taught vs by Beasts Birds c. 21. Atheists confuted by their owne Oathes by Reason c. ibid. By Philosophie by Scripture 22. A Deity confessed by Idolaters 23. Proued by acquiring after Knowledge ibid. By the Ethnicks by the Oracle by the Sybils c. 24. Miracles at the birth of Christ. 25. Herods Temple and that at Delphos burnt in one day 26. The sect of the Sadduces with ridiculous tenets of the Atheists proposed and answered 27. Atheisme defined 31. Lawes amongst the Gentiles against Atheisme ibid. Atheists how punished 32. Iudgements vpon Atheisme and of Lucian 33. Of Timon his life death c. ibid. Prodigious effects of Atheisme 34 Holy-dayes obserued amongst the Gentiles ibid. Women famous for Chastitie and Pietie 35. Mortall men immortallised 36. Of the Semones ibid. Of diuers branded with impietie 37. Bad Wiues naughty Husbands wicked mothers vnnaturall Daughters 38 Of selfe-Murthers and Idolatry 39 Idols named in the Scriptures 40 Strange subtilties of the Diuell 42. Prodegies wrought by the Diuell in Idols 43 The malice of the Diuell 45 Augures amongst the Greeks and Romans 46. Aruspices Auspices
Rules to know faire weather or foule by the Sunne Apollo Why a god The names of the Horses of the Sunne Luna The Philosophers concerning the Moone The Poets of the Moone The senerall denominations of the Moone Why shee is said to loue Endimion Conjecturâ— of weather by the Moone Of Folly Diuersities of Fooles The effects of Folly Excuse for sinnes Customes not commendable are not to be kept Angeli in quot Choros diuiduntur The first Chorus The Seraphim and his office The Cherubim The Thrones Dominions Vertues Potestates Principates Arch-Angels Angels The Offices of the three Ternions Quomod Angel Chori sunt Concatinati Of such as hold there are no Angels or Spirits The opinion of the Peripateticks Natura Intelligilis Their opinions confuted And these Creatures the Angels Angels and Spirits proued from dreames The Dreame of Simonides Sylla a noble man in Rome Sabellicus Calphurnia the wife of Iulius Caesar. Caesars dream Amilcars dreame Paâ—sanias of Socrates Examples from the Old Testament Examples from the New Testament * If the later Herod were called a Fox the former who slew the young Infants may carrie a worse title Angels Angels visible Evill Spirits Digression The opinion of Rhabbi Achiba concerning Spirits The opinion of two learned Rabbies concerning Amor Odium Their reason of this Antipathie The Effect of these exprest in King Ferdinand The Effect proued in Iudges This is alleadged by Doctor Strozza lib. de Natur. Mag. of some particular men whom he had obserued in Italy in his time The Effect proued in Princes A true story Of Poets and Poetry A Meditation of Death Thersites deformed and Nereus the faire Greeke whom Homer loued The honour due vnto Poets The honour done to Poets of old A Satyricall poet An Epick poet A Tragicke poet Rob. Greene. Christ. Marlo Thomas Kid. Thom. Watson Thomas Nash. Francis Bewmont William Shake-speare Beniam Iohnson Iohn Fletcher Iohn Webster c. In his Elegy intitled quam misera sit conditio docentiuÌ„ literas humaniores c. Poenia is Paupertas or of pouerty Read Aristophanes in his Lenady called Platus Apollo who kept Admetus his Cattell Epigram eiusdem inscrip ad amicos Nemomeos ciâ—eres violis fragralibus ornet c. A reason giuen of the premisses Spirits Saturnine Iovial Mercuriall Spiriâ—â— Of the essence of Angels Arist Ethiâ— cap 9. The Platonists difference betwixt gods and Demons Psal. 8. Minuisti eum paulo minus ab Angelis Tertullian lib. de carn Christ. Orig. periarc cap. 2.3 Gen. 6. Psellus Apul. Philoponus Meruâ—a Olimpiodor Gaudentius c. The Fathers who opposed the former in this point Reasons to proue Angels incorporeat Two Arabian writers The solution of the former doubts This Councel was held vnder Pope Innocent the third Iohn Cap 4. The number of a Legion S. Gregory expounded A returne to thâ— first position Zach. 1.2 S. Aug. de Cognitione veritatis cap. 8. Dr. Strozza Lib. de Natur. magia Apocal. 7. Arist. Intellig. planet Tobit 6.12 Apoc. 8. These they call the Anâ—â—â—â— of the Zodiacke The first Quaternion The second Quatern The third Quatern The fourth Quatern Foure Angels ouer the foure Elements The sentence of the Councel against the Schismaticks Atheisme confesseth a sole Deity The object of Gods will in the Creation Homil sup Psal. 44. The Imployment of the Angels Coloss. 1.16 Meaning Saint Peter Lib de Somn. Vigil The Definition of Dreams Laert. lib. 6. Lib. 19. de Animalibus Eudemus his Dreame Galen Quint. Catulus Sophocles Alexander the Philosopher Sfortia M Antonius Torellus Alcibiades Croesus Aterius Ruffus Cambyses his Dreame Aspasia Titus Atimius Histories concerning predictions Nero. Philip K. of Macedon The Emperor Dioclesian Henry King of France Plato's opinion concerning Spirits The Academiques Pherecid Cyrus A Rhodian Porphirius SocraticuÌ„ Demonium Charmiades Strange opinions concerning Spirits The Sadduces answered Of Death Charon Mercury Charon Merc. Menippus Merc. Charmeleus Merc. Lampichus Merc. Lamp Merc. Lamp Merc. Lamp Merc. Lamp Merc. Lamp Merc. Damasius Merc. Damas. Merc. Damas. Merc. Crato Merc. Crato Merc. Menip Merc. Philosopher Menip Merc. Philos. Merc. Menip Merc. Menip Merc. Menip Merc. Menip Philos. Merc. Rhetorician Merc. Philos. Menip Merc Menip Philos. Menip Mercâ— Menip Mere. Menip Max. serm 36. Of Constancy in death Alian de var. hist. Plutar. in Laconic Apo. Seneca Content of Life Of Poetry Honour conferred on Poets from Antiquity Of Poets Scipio The Greeke Poets Euripides Sophocles Aratus Archias Cherilus Samius Gorgius Manilius Lenaeus Menander Homerus Iunior Oppianus Poetr miseria Homer Virgil. Ovid. Horace Hesiod These were Antiphon and Chlimenus Lynus Apollo sagip Antipater Sydon Bassus Cesius Lysimachus Plautus Calisthenes Quintus Lactantius Catulus Ibichus AEscilus Anacreon Petronius Arbiter Sapho Cuddy the Sheepeheard speaketh That Spirits haue power to transport men or beasts The great power of Spirits Daniel 14. Histories of strange transportations Apoll. Tyan Iamblicus Iohannes Teutonicus Euchides Platensis A strange History A noble man of Insubria The transportation of Witches A strange History of a maid of Bergamus Antonius Leo Captaine Antonius Adrianus Patricius Calligraphus Prince Partharus The Emperor Constantine Apoll. Tianaeus Govarus Caueats againg Temptation Objects are main motiues Of Deceit * The Hedgehogge Gods Power Wisedome Goodnesse Diouys Areopag de Celest. Hierarch The Concordance betwixt the Seraph and the Primum Mobile 1 Primus Motor * i. Pri. Mobile The Concordance betwixt the Cherub the starry Heauen The Concordance betwixt The Thrones and Saturne The Goulden World The Concord betwixt the Dominations and Iupiter Pythagoras The Concordance of the Vertues with Mars S. Mathew Ptolomaeus Hermetes Firmicus Alcabilius The malevolent Aspects of Mars The Concord of the Potestates with the Sunne Stars receiue names from the Sunne So Ptolomaeus and Firmicus write The Trinity in Vnity figured in the Sonne The Concord betwixt the Principates and Venus Orpheus in Testamento Amâ—r creauiÌ„t Mundum Dionysius Hocretheus Iamblicus The Concord betwixt the Arch-Angels and Mercury Ptolomaeus Firmicus Ovid. Meâ— The Concordance betwixt the Angels the Moone The various Influences of the Moone Averroës The former illustrated by a familiar example The three Religions at this day profest How the Iewes approue their Religion Wherein the Mahumetan opposeth the Christian Religion Meaning the second Person in the Trinity Their Abstemiousnesse Imposturous miracles Mahomâ—it Saints This Relique is a paire of old stinâ—king shooes Schollers adâ—mitted to read controuersies The Creation of things according to Mahomet These are all Principles in Mahomets Alcaron That the Earth was inhabited by Diuells 7000 yeres by Angels 1000 yeares Mahomets Paradise Mahomets reason why Sows flesh is not eaten in Paradice The first Sow according to Mahomet The first Mouse The first Cat. The Ioyes in heauen according to Mahomet Alcoron lib. 3. cap. 19. Alcaron lib. 3. cap. 6.276.34 A necessarie obseruation Mahomets Lapable and absurd Ignorance Mahomet of the Angels One of Mahomets Ridiculous Fables Adriel Mahomet Angell of
coniecture fooles and turne the wise men backeward and make their knowledge foolishnesse You shall reade also Ieremy 10.2 Learne not the way of the Heathen and be not afraid of the signes of heauen though the Heathen be affraid of such We heare what the Scriptures say let vs now examine the Philosophers Francisc. Patr. de Regno lib. 2. cap. 16. saith That Iulius Caesar was the most skilfull of all others in the art of Astronomie of which he published diuers learned bookes by which hee had knowledge to predict his owne fate but had not the skill to auoid it Astrologie saith Aristotle Metaph. lib. 12. cap. 4. hath a speculation into a sublime substance sempiternall and sencible which is heauen Other Mathematick Sciences meddle not with Substances as Arithmeticke and Geometrie Theon 1. de Anim. cap. 1. The nobilitie of Astrologie is more ample by reason of the more worthinesse of the subiect about which it is conuersant Astrologie saith Alexand. Aphrod Metaph. 5. doth not dispute of the nature of the Stars but of their course it onely contemplateth their motions progresses and regresses Plato de Republ. Dial. 7. proueth Astrologie to be not onely conducefull to Agriculture and to Nauigation but also to militarie Discipline Of the excellencie of Astronomie you may reade Pliny lib. 7. cap. 37. of the inuention thereof Cael. Rhodig lib. 20. cap. 7. of the Inuentors Iolidorus of the vse of it concerning militarie affaires Cael. Rhodig lib. 18. cap. 34. of the truth and profit thereof Io. Dansk de Saxonia of the defence thereof By Gabriel Perovanus What things euerie one hath found by Coelestiall obseruation Pliny Quantum Astronomia metiuntur tantum Astrologi mentiuntur saith Marcil Fic lib. 4. cap. 36. Now those who giue iust reasons Why judiciarie or Diuinatorie Astrologie ought to be exploded and abandoned are Epiphanius disputing against the Pharisies and the Manichees Basilius Hexameri Homil. 1. Chrisost. in Genes Homil. 5. Saint Augustine also greatly complaineth how himselfe had been deceiued therewith and inueigheth not onely against the Art but also against the Professors thereof Confess Lib. 4. cap. 3. and in diuers other of his Works Bion was wont to say That those Astronomers were to be held ridiculous who when they could not discerne fishes in the water swimming towards them on the shore yet would not blush to say That they were able to see and discouer those hidden things which were in the heauens Stobae Serm. 78. It was a Maxim held by Ariston That of those things whereof the Philosophers search to haue inspection some belong to vs to know and some not and some things are altogether aboue our reach Intimating That the discipline of good manners di◠pertaine vnto vs to know but not vaine Sophismes because they were not onely not profitable but also the breeders of wrangling contentions but Astrologie and Astronomie were altogether aboue our reach Stob. Serm. 78. Thales whilest he was earnestly looking vpon the Starres falling into a ditch and comming out all bedawbed with durt was thus taunted by his Maid-seruant Iustly Sir is this mischance hapned vnto you who looke vp towards the heauens to learne what is there being ignorant in the meane time of what lieth before your feet The Poet Accius was wont to say That hee neuer could giue any confidence to those Augurs and Star-gasers who onely filled other mens eares with aire to furnish their own priuat coffers with gold With this witty Dilemma was Favorinus wont to taunt the judicatorie Astrologers Either they predict saith he things aduerse or prosperous if in prosperous things they faile thou art made miserable in thy frustrate expectation if in aduerse things though they happen not thou art made miserable by thy vaine feare If they speake truly and things happen vnprosperously thou art made miserable in thy minde before thy miserie come vpon thee if they promise happy things and they in time happen vnto thee yet from hence discommoditie notwithstanding doth arise the expectation of thy hope will more trouble thee with doubtfull suspence than the fruit thereof when it commeth can yeeld thee profit or delight Therefore he concludeth I wish none of any braine or vnderstanding to trouble themselues in seeking after these presaging Astrologers who presume but vainly That they can truly predict of such things as are to come The AEgyptians hierogriphycally saith Pier. Valer. lib. 38. pag. 369 did signifie Astrologie Per maculosam Hinnulij pellem i. By the spotted skinne of a Dog-fish It was also emblematically obserued by Nestors Bowle the great cup which he vsed to quaffe in which Alciatus Emblem 101 expresseth thus Nestorum geminis Cratera hunc accipe fundis Quot gravis Argenti c. Nestor's great Bowle with double bottoms made Forg'd out of massie siluer was conueyd For obseruation being round inchac'd With golden studs on it foure handles plac'd On each of which a golden Doue was set Which Bowle the long-liv'd Nestor much in debt To Time and Nature onely as 't is read Of all the Greekes could lift it to his head And quaffe it brim'd for which he was commended Tell vs ô Muse what was by this intended In this large Goblet of so huge a masse Heav'n with the round circumference figur'd was Next in the Siluer mettall fin'd and try'de The colour of the Firmament's imply'de Then by the golden studs the Stars are meant The Pleiades the foure Doues represent And by the two embossed Bottoms were Figur'd the greater and the lesser Beare Wise Nestor these by long experience knew Howeuer they seeme difficult to you The Souldier knowes what'longs vnto the Wars But he that 's learned can command the Stars Icarus the sonne of Dadalus is another Astrologicall Emblem composed by the same Author who flying too neere the Sun and melting his waxen wings was precipitated into that sea which stil beareth his name From whom this admonition is deriued Astrologus caveat quicquam praedicere praeceps Nam cadet Impostor dum super Astra volat Astrologer beware what thou Dost rashly vndergo Th' Impostor aiming at the Stars Whilst looking high falls low Mathesis or Mathema is as much as Disciplina and signifieth Disce or Doceo Mathematri are called those Arts which consist of firme demonstrations in which those which are expert are called Mathematici namely those which professe Geometry Musicke Arithmeticke and Astronomie◠The Chaldaeans who in processe of time turned Astronomie into diuining Astrologie called themselues Mathematicians by which they haue made the name notoriously infamous Iohannes Picus Mirandula in Astrolog lib. 12. cap. 2. saith That Astrologie maketh not men wise and therefore of old it was only the study of children and whosoeuer giueth himselfe wholly to the practise thereof he giues great occasion and liberty to errors in Philosophie The Mathematicians or judiciarie Astrologers as Tacit. Lib. Histor. 1. relateth are a kinde of Professors to great men vnfaithfull