Selected quad for the lemma: life_n
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A20955
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Peter Du Moulin. His oration in the praise of divinitie Wherein is shevven that heathenish fables were first derived from holy Scripture. Transl. by J.M.
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Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; J. M., fl. 1640.
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1640
(1640)
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STC 7334; ESTC S118650
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19,856
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134
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the civill Law who deeply concealing his hatred with-holdeth his hand from the injury being restrained by feare of the Lawes Neither is vertue the end of civill Lawes but peace and concord And truly they are infinitely mistaken who suppose that the efficacy of civill Lawes doth consist in this that they are just For a Law hath its authority not because it is a Iust but because it is a Law and a rule established by him that hath power yea men live peacefully under evill lawes and miserably under good ones They live peacefully under wicked lawes when the Citizens do agree in the observation of them They live miserably under good lawes when the disobedient Citizens doe contemne the authority of the Law giver the force of the lawes doth lauguish From hence it is that divers people doe live after divers Lawes That by the Law of the twelve Tables it was lawfull for Creditors to cut in pieces the Debtour that was not able to pay them That by the same Lawes a father might thrice sell his Son and a Husband might kill his wife if his wine did stincke or if she counterfeited Child-bâ—râ—h That amongst the Lacedemonians theevery was permitted and that in Cyprus Virgins got their dowry by the use of their bodies That amongst the Calecut Indians that wife that was more beloved of her husband then the rest being gorgeously apparelled even to allurement is led forth unto her Funerall and burned alive with her husband that Kings are not to take to theÌ„selves wives but first laine withall by their Priests which are called Bramins That among the Turkes Polyga my is lawfull that men goe to Market to be sold as Cattell and to drinke wine is a matter of conscience Of all which things no one is observed amongst us so that it is evident that that Iustice which is commanded in humane Lawes is not so much a vertue as a custome and that therefore are things just because they are decreed but not decreed because they are just and lastly those Lawes are just which being founded upon nature are consentaneous to the Law of God If any one doth object to the contrary those intricate contentions of Divines and that men in matters of religion encounter with most inveterate hatred we answer that it is not the fault of the faculty but of men who seeke a knot in a bulrush as sayes the Proverb and abuse the depravation of most certain things for their avarice and ambition He doth ill that attributeth the faults of artificers to their Arts as if any one should impute his blearednesse to the Sunne or being stricken with sudden blindnesse should thinke that the Sun doth suffer an Eclypse But whosoever doth not obstinately stick to prejudicate opinions nor hath made his faith subject to his belly nor enslaved it to anothers will he shall find in the holy Scripture many evident sentences and needing no interpretation which are abundantly sufficient vnto salvation But whereas the nobility of practique sciences doth consist in the nobility of their end and in the fitnesse of meanes to attaine vnto this end it cannot be spoken how many degrees Theologie doth herein excell all other Arts and Sciences For every Science doth propose unto it selfe some particular end which is not extended to our whole life much lesse doth it reach unto those things which ensue this mortall life So Oeconomy serves for the instruction of an Nouse-holder Politickes of a good Subject and a good Prince Tactickes for the well marshalling of an Army Astronomy measutes the motions of heavenly bodies Their number and distances Only Theologie doth instruct a man as he is a man and coÌ„prchendeth the whole life of man and extending its care bey ond the bounds of nature is sollicitous for the life to come But men being preposterously wise and adicted to present things doe deliberate of the severall portions of their lives and have the manner of the whole disordered and fayle of their universall end From whence it comes to passe that by many things prudently provided for there amounteth one generall imprudence whilst they endeavor to abound in good things when themselves are evill Onely Theologie designeth the last end which is union with God and supplying fit means therunto it layeth open a way which was never trodden by any humane wisedome It onely restoreth the Image of GOD in Man which was almost defaced It onely poynteth out the way unto salvation It alone teacheth us to live as in the sight of God by whom the coverts of the darkest hypocrisie are most clearely seene through before whose tribunall are admitted no exceptions nor procrastinations nor escape by idle excuses Theologie instructeth the heart with holy meditations represseth anger bridleth the appetite detesteth fraud and lying by the feare of God expelleth all feare of men by the more vehement affection of the mind subduing and as it were swallowing up all inferiour perturbations And it so elevateth the soule above the body that it becomes a candidate of Divinity and begins to live an heavenly life in this mortall body For whereas the soule is united with the body in a two-fold bond whereof the one is naturall the other voluntary Theology either looseth or cutteth off the voluntary so long as by the Law of nature or the will of God a naturall dissolution is expected That J may not hold you long I esteeme that man truly a Divine who is a Divine not only in his word but in his life Cicero defined an Orator A good man skilfull in Ornaments of language But we more rightly define a Theologer a good man skilfull in divine things For as saye the Apostle 1 Cor. 4. The Kingdome of God doth not consist in word but in vertue This truly is a great praise of Theology and a remarkeable perogative that whereas there are but few Physitians among common people and few who are versed in the Lawes onely Theology doth forme and instruct every common man and in the Amphitheater of this life sits not onely amongst Senators and noble personages or amongst the fourteen orders but is also extended to the very utmost scaffold and the meaner sort of people Wee will also speake somewhat of the Antiquity of Theologie for that also doth much conduce unto its praise It is delight to contemplate the venerable Antiquity of this sacred Discipline Where in much ancient hoarinesse is seene But such old age as is both fresh and greene We are wont to wonder at the Pyramids of Egypt being the most ancient structure in the whole world And those raw Schollers who are called Philologers doe with great labour search after the old inscriptions of Tombes Coines eaten and worne out and Words which are mouldy obsolete with age and preserve them as precious treasuries But how late and fresh are these things yea how frivolous are they in respect of the reverend age of Theologie which doth almost challenge the Sunne in Antiquity and deriveth its
did flow from God and the Prophets and Apostles were his writers and Instruments of the holy Spirit The Apostle bearing witnesse in the 1 Cor. 2. Where he sayes We speake wisedome among them that are perfect yet not the wisedome of this world nor of the Princes of this world that come to naught but we speake the wisedome of God in a mistery For this is that fire which Prometheus by touching the wheel of the Suns Chariot with his staffe brought downe vnto the Earth But these things will be more illustrious if we make a comparison between Divinity and every other Science The first we meet with is Philosophy of which Cicero in his fifth Tusculane question sayes That one day spent according to the precepts of Philosophy is to be preferred wholly before immortality Hee could not have founded lowder nor in a small matter have vsed an higher speech But amongst wise men he shall never winne beliefe For those things which Philosophy stateth of the Soveraigne goodnesse are so divers and repugnant that they seeme not to consist by nature but opinion Augustine in his 19. booke of the City of God Chap. 1. recyteth out of M. Varrâ— 288. differing opinions of Philosophers concerning the chiefe goodnesse But if nothing certaine can be determined by Philosophy concerning that which is the chiefe and principall thing of all you easily conjecture what we may judg of the rest It is necessary that he wavereth in the means who faileth in the end that the strokes of the contention are not sure nor according to ayme if there be no certaine scope or marke whereat to strike Adde hereunto that Phylosophy doth by many meanes endeavour to perfit the intellect but Theologie with one onely which is vnion with God But multiplicity of meanes which are not subordinate is an evident token of imperfection Neither hath naturall Philosophy any thing in it which may satisfie the appetite because man is borne to some thing more excellent then all nature And how languishing affections are stirred vp by Philosophy from hence is apparent because there was never any hitherto found who would vnder goe death for Plato's or Aristosles Philosophy but for true Theologie and sincere faith in God death hath not been onely expected but desired and willingly met with and to effuse ones life for its sake is reputed for gaine Moreover as now the case standeth Philosophy is almost reduced vnto Schooles and they are very few who recall it to the common vse and exercise of life For it is all cumbred with briers and is wholly busied in tying indissoluble knots and vnweaving what it selfe hath woven and offers us stony bread which breaketh the teeth and tyreth the wit with sharpe and difficult trifles I omit that the old Christian Church found Philosophers most eager enemies to the doctrine of the Gospell Tertullian who calleth a Philosopher a creature of glory doth also call Philosophers the Patriarches of Heretiques It is commonly known that precepts of vertue are not so much borrowed from Philosophers as taken from them as vnjust possessors that they may be converted vnto a better vse And they are compared vnto those gold and silver vessels which without hope of restitution or intention to restore the Israelites borrowed of the Egyptians which afterward in adorning the Temple they consecrated to God But as that rich household stuffe which was brought our of Egypt and placed in the Tabernacle was but of slight small estimation in respect of the riches and splendor of Salomons temple which all over did shine with Gold so those instructions which Divines doe borrow from Heathens are in no wise to be compared with the abundance and the high value of sacred precepts which are read in the holy Scriptures Adde that whileft the Philosopher deriveth precepts of honesty from nature and bids us follow nature for our guide and referres his documents to good fame or the commodity of humane Society but not vnto the glory of God nor deduceth from the love of Gods duties towards our Neighbour hee onely shadoweth forth a few fading images of vertues and substitutes in the place of true and genuine vertue certaine gay and resplendent vices counterfeiting and belying the title of vertue But as for Medicine and civill Law there is no man of reason doth doubt but that they are excellent gifts bestowed by God on Man for the preservation of the body and the maintenance of humane society But what is their comparison with Theology Christ himselfe sheweth saying Luke 12.23 The life is more then meat and the body is more then rayment These are those three kinds of goods as of mind body and fortune Theology takes care for the good of the mind Medicine for the good of the body which is the health And civill Law is exercised in the goods of Fortune rendring unto every one what is his owne Perchance some one will say that Medicine doth instruct the mind in Morall vertue in that it enjoyneth sobriety It may also be added that Physitians and Chirurgions doe teach men patience whilest they put them to paines But it is most evident that sobriety is not prescribed by the Physitian for honesty but for health And truly the care of good health doth much more rightly appertaine to the Divine For there are three most certaine preservatives of health sobriety labour tranquility of mind These three doth Theologie take care for in that it forbids to be luxurious it restraineth lust it exhorts us to labor and bringeth forth true hilarity and tranquility of the mind by infusing into it a perswasion of the love of GOD towards us whereunto all sleepy potions and stupefactive Medicines are not to be compared Neither doth any thing procure so sweet a sleep or so effectually dispell all cares as doth the Spirit of adoption giving testimony to our hearts that wee are the Sons of GOD. But how uncertain is medicine how often Physitians grope out their way in darknesse and by officious diligence kill their patients is made manifest by dayly examples Wee have said that the civill Law is practised in goods of fortune For it is wholly busied in this that every one should receive that which is his owae What thou wilt say doth not Law instruct the mind in Iustice which is the principall of all vertues and ought it not to bee reckoned amongst the goods of fortune Did not Iustinian begin his Institutions with the definition of Iustice Truly whosoever sayes thus is not of my opinion Civill Law doth not impresse Iustice it selfe into the mind which is an habit of the regulated will but onely it governeth exterior actions prohibiting violence and recompencing dammages Onely Theology gives Lawes to the affections and instilleth honesty into the will in which the formall and essentiall nature of vertue doth consist For even by a wicked man and one that laboureth of inward vices may the duties of a good Citizen be performed He satisfieth