dead men or Diuels for that shal be handled more materially in another place But it shall suffice for this present to shewe the vniuersalitie of consent in this point and that euen those which through custome did celebrate the pluralitie of Gods did yet notwithstanding beléeue that there is but onely one true God Which thing I will first maynteyne by the wyse men which liued from age to age Mercurius Trismegistus who if the bookes which are fathered vppon him bee his in déede as in trueth they bee very auncient is the founder of them all teacheth euerywhere That there is but one GOD That one is the roote of all things and that without that one nothing hath bene of all things that are That the same one is called the onely good and the goodnesse it selfe which hath vniuersall power of creating all things That it is vnpossible that there should bee many makers That in Heauen he hath planted immortalitie in earth interchaunge and vniuersally lyfe and mouing That vnto him alone belongeth the name of Father and of Good and that without blasphemie those titles cannot be attributed either to Angels to Féends or to men or to any of al those whom men do cal Gods as in respect of honor and not of nature He calleth him father of the world the Creator the Beginning the Glorie the Nature the Ende the Necessitie the Renewer of all things the worker of all powers and the power of all works the onely holy the onely vnbegotten the onely euerlasting the Lord of euerlastingnesse and the euerlastingnesse it selfe the onely one and by whome there is but onely one worlde alone and himselfe alonly all namelesse and more excellent than al names Unto him alone will he haue vs to offer vp our prayers our Prayses and our Sacrifices and neuer to call vpon any other than him I would faine knowe whether it bee possible for vs to say any thing either more or better for the setting forth of the sayd vnitie In déede in some places hee speaketh of Gods in the plurall nomber as when he calleth the world a God and the Heauen with the Planets which rule the Heauen Gods but that is after the same maner which he sometymes calleth man himselfe a God notwithstanding that noman can doubt of his birth and death which are things cleane contrarie to the true Godhead The Starres saith he speaking of the Creation were nombred according to the Gods that dwell in them And in an other place he saith There are two sorts of Gods the one wandring and the other fixed But in the tymes going before he had sayd that God is the beginner of them That he made them That he is the Father and onely good vnto whom nothing is to bee compared either of the things beneath or the things aboue Also he saith further That the world is a second God and a sensible God and that Man is a third God by reason of the immortall Soule which is in him but yet he calleth them Children Impes and Creatures of the onely one God and most commonly Shadowes and Images of him neither is it his meaning to attribute so much vnto them as only one sparke of goodnes or power to make the least thing that is To be short hée setteth downe some Gods as principall some as meane and other some as vndergouernours But the conclusion of his matter is that the souereine dominion belongeth to God the souereine Lord of them all vpon whom alonly they depend and from whom they proceede who alonly is called Father and Lorde and whatsoeuer holyer name can be giuen who made both men and Gods yea and men sayth he much better and more excellent then all the Gods And as at the beginning of his worke he had prayed vnto him alone so thanketh and praiseth he him alone in the ende which thing I thought good to set out at length because many Philosophers haue drawne their skill and knowledge out of his fountayne Pythagoras speaketh of God in these termes God is but one not as some thinke without gouernment of the world but all in all He is the orderer of all Ages the light of all powres the Originall of al things the Cresset of Heauē the Father Mynd Quickener and Mouer of all Moreouer he calleth him The infinite power from whence al other powers flowe which cannot be verified but of him alone Philolaus a disciple of his sayth That there is but onely one God the Prince and Guyder of all things who is alwaies singular vnmouable like himselfe and vnlike all other things Also Architas sayth that he estéemeth no man wife but him which reduceth all things vnto one selfsame Originall that is to wit vnto God who is the beginning end and middle of all things And Hierocles one of the same Sect sayth that the same is he whom they call by the name of Zena and Dia the Father and maker of all things because all things haue their life and being of him Uerely by the report of Eudorus as he is alledged by Simplicius they called him the founder of matter And had we the hookes of Numenius we perceiue well by the things which we reade hére there that we should finde them manifest and plaine Now all these had this doctrine both from Nature and from the Schoole of Pherecydes the Syrian the Maister of Pythagoras vnto whom Aristotle attributeth it in his Metaphisicks Empedocles the successor of Pythagoras celebrated none other but this onely one as appeareth by these Uerses of his All things that are or euer were or shall hereafter bee Both man woman Beast and Bird Fish Worme Herb Grasse Tree And euery other thing yea euen the auncient Gods each one Whom wee so highly honor heere come all of one alone Parmenides and Melissus taught the same and so did their Schoolemaister Xenophanes the Colophonian as we bee credibly informed by the Uerses of Parmenides rehearsed by Simplicius in the which Uerses hee calleth him the Vnbegotten the whole the only one not which hath bin or shal be but which euerlastingly is all together and all of himselfe To be short of the like opinion were Thales Anaxagoras Timeus of Locres Acmon Euclide Archoeuetus and others of the auncientest Philosopher And Aristotle witnesseth in many places that it was the common Doctrine of the men of olde tyme The which Zeno hild so streightly that to deny the Unitie of God and to deny the Godhead it selfe he thought to bée all one And the cause of so saying among the auncient Philosophers was not their only reading therof in the writings of some that went afore them as we might doe now but also their reading thereof both in the World and in themselues But let vs come to the chiefe Sects of the Philosophers Socrates the Schoolemaister of Plato confessed only one God and as Aulus Gellius and Apuleius report was condemned to drinke
A Woorke concerning the trewnesse of the Christian Religion written in French Against Atheists Epicures Paynims Iewes Mahumetists and other Infidels By Philip of Mornay Lord of Plessie Marlie Begunne to be translated into English by Sir Philip Sidney Knight and at his request finished by Arthur Golding ¶ Imprinted at London for Thomas Cadman 1587. To the right Honorable his singuler good Lord Robert Earle of Leycestor Baron of Denbigh Knight of the order of the Garter and of S. Michaell one of the Lords of the most Honorable priuie Counsaile and Maister of the Horse to the Queenes Maiestie Lord Generall of her Maiesties Forces in the Lowe Countries and Gouernour Generall of the vnited Prouinces and of their Associates Arthur Golding wisheth long continuance of health much increase of Honour and in the life to come in endlesse felicitie MAny causes doe fully perswade me right Honorable that this present worke which I presume to offer vnto you will in diuers respects be vnto you very acceptable For vnto such as are of greatest wisedome vertue and Nobilitie the wisest best and weightiest matters are alwaies most agreeable And whereas all men are naturally desirous of the souereine welfare highest felicitie or cheefe good howbeit that very fewe doe knowe what it is or wherein it consisteth or which is the right way that leadeth thereunto And yet not withstanding without the knowledge of that trueth all their wisedome is but mere ignorance blyndnesse and folly all their goodnesse is but mere corruption wickednesse al their brauerie tryumphe iollitie and pompe is but vtter miserie and wretchednesse This present worke treateth of the trewnesse that is to say of the perpetuall and inuariable constancie and sted fastnesse of the Christian Religion the only band that linketh God vnto man and men one to another and all vnto God the only Lampe that enlighteneth mans wit with true wisedome the onely water-spring that replenisheth his will with true goodnesse and the only mightis power that giueth strength and courage to mans spirit whereby he is enabled both perfectly to discerne and beholde his souereine welfare or felicitie which is God the very founder furtherer and finisher of trueth or rather the very trueth it selfe and constantly to hold on with ioy to the obteynement of the same than the which no greater thing can by any meanes bee imagined And in the discourse of this most graue weightie matter many deepe poynts of humaine Philosophie and many high misteries of heauenly Diuinitie be learnedly breefly and plainly discussed and layd open to the vnderstanding euen of the meanest capacities that will vout safe to reade aduisedly to conferre the parts together with diligence For the Author of this work being a man of great reading iudgement learning skill and there with addicted or rather vowed as appeareth by this and dyuers other of his excellent writings to the furthering of Gods glorie by his most faithfull and painfull imploying of himselfe in the seruice of his Church hath conueyed into this worke what soeuer he found eyther in the common reason of all Nations or in the peculiar principles of the cheefe Philosophers or in the misticall doctrine of the Iewish Rabbines or in the writings of the Historiographers and Poets that might conueniently make to the manifestation of that trueth which he taketh in hand to proue VVherby he hath so effectually brought his purpose to passe that if any Atheist Infidel or Iew hauing read this his worke with aduisemēt shall yet donye the Christian Religion to be the true and only path way to eternall felicitie all other Religions to bee mere vanitie and wickednesse must needes she we himself to be either vtterly voyd euen of humaine sence or els obstinatly and wilfully bent to impugne the manifest trueth against the continuall testimonie of his owne conscience Not without iust cause therfore hath so great loue and lyking of this worke of his bene generally conceiued that many not onely of Gentlemen in the Court and Country but also of Students in both the Vniversities haue purposed and attempted the translating therof into our English tongue as an increase of comfort and gladnesse to such as are alreadie rooted and grounded in the trueth as a stablishment to such as any way eyther by their owne infirmitie or through the wilinesse of wicked persons are made to wauer and hang in suspence and as a meane to reuoke such as of themselues or by sinister perswasions are gone away into error and also if it possible bee to reforme the malicious and stubbornhearted Among which number of weldisposed rightlyzealous Gentlemen I may not without iust desert of blame 〈◊〉 to say some what though farre lesse than is meet of that right worthie and valiant Knight your good Lordships noble kinsman Sir Philip Sidney whose rare vertue valour and courtesie matched with equall loue and care of the true Christian Religion being disappoynted of their purposed end by ouerhastie death in the very enterance of his honorable race haue left iust cause to his louing Countrie to be wayle the vntymely forgoing of so great an Ornament and the sodeyne bereuing of so hopefull a stay and defence VVhereof not withstanding this comfort remayneth That he dyed not languishing in ydlenesse ryot and excesse nor as ouercome with nyce pleasures and fond vanities but of manly wounds receiued in seruice of his Prince in defence of persons oppressed in maintenance of the only true Catholick Christian Religion among the noble valiant and wise in the open field in Martiall maner the honorablest death that could be desired and best be seeming a Christian Knight whereby he hath worthly wonne to himselfe immortall fame among the godly and left example worthie of imitation to others of his calling This honorable gentleman being delighted with the excellēcie of this present work began to put the same into our Language for the benefite of this his natiue Countrie and had proceeded certeyne Chapters therein vntill that intending a higher kind of seruice to wards God and his Prince not drawen therto by subtile deuyce of a wylie Vlysses from companie of Courtly Ladies himself being disguised in Ladies attire after the maner of Achilles nor discouered against his will by the wisedome of a Palamedes after the maner of Vlysses but aduaunced through the hardynesse of his owne knightly courage like to Prosilaus he willingly passed for a tyme from the companie of the Muses to the Campe of Mars there to make tryall as well of the Pyke as he had done of his Pen after the example of the valiant Iulius Caesar whose excellencie in all kinde of knowledge and learning could not hold him backe from seeking to inlarge his renowme by hazarding his noble person among the weapons of armed Souldyers Beeing thus determined to followe the affayres of Chiualrie it was his pleasure to commit the performāce of this peece of seruice which he had intended to the Muses or
And yet notwithstanding in peinting of an Image thou lookest vpon it a hundred times and diuers dayes thou amendest it and thou busiest all thy wits about it If thou be the dooer of this woorke in the making of man tell mee why thou hast not children when thou wouldest and why thou hast them sometime when thou wouldest not Why hast thou a Daughter when thou wouldest haue a Sonne or a Sonne when thou wouldest haue a Daughter In peinting thy Pictures thou doest not so disapoint thy felfe Also if thou beest this good workemaister in making of thy child tell me how thou hast fashioned it Whence is the hardnesse of his bones the liquor of his veynes the spirite of his Heartstrings and the beating of his Pulses Seest thou this which is also as smally in thy power as if it were none of thine Tell mée what is hidden in his breast and the whole workemanship that is couched within him If thou hast not seene it in the opening of thy like thou knowest nothing thereof Tell mée yet further the imaginations of his brayne and the thoughts of his heart nay tell mee thine owne which oftentimes thou wouldest fame alter or stay and canst not It is a bottemlesse Pit the which thou canst not gage and therefore it followeth that thou madest it not Knowe thou therefore O man that all this commeth too thee from some cause that is aboue thy selfe And séeing that thou hast vnderstanding needes must that cause haue vnderstanding too and seeing that thou vnderstandest not thy selfe needes must that vnderstand thee and seeing that thou after a sort art infinite in nomber but much more infinite in thy thoughts and deedes needes must that bee infinite too And that is it which we call God What shal I say more or rather or what remaineth not for mee too say I say with the auncient Trismegist Lord shall I looke vpon thee in the things that are here beneath or oâ— the things that are aboue Thou madest all things and wholâ—â—ature is nothing els but an image of thée And I will conclude with Dauid Blesse ye the Lord all ye workes of his yée Heauens yée waters yée Winds yee Lightenings yee Showers yee Seas yee Riuers and all that euer is blesse yee the Lorde yea and thou my soule also blesse thou the Lord for euer For to lay forth the proofes which are both in the great world and in the little world it would stand me in hand to ransacke the whole world as the which with all that euer is therein is a plaine booke laide open to all men yea euen vnto Children to reade and as yee would say euen to spell God therein Nowe like as all men may reade in this booke as well of the world as of themselues so was there neuer yet any Nation vnder heauen which hath not thereby learned and perceiued a certeine Godhead notwithstanding that they haue conceiued it diuersly according to the diuersitie of their owne imaginations Let a man ronne from East to West and from South to North let him ransacke all ages one after another and wheresoeuer he findeth any men there shall he find also a kind of Religion and Seruing of God with Prayers and Sacrifices The diuersitie whereof is very great but yet they haue alwayes consented all in this poynt That there is a GOD. And as touching the diuersitie which is in that behalf it beareth witnesse that it is a doctrine not deliuered alonly from people to people but also bred and brought vp with euery of them in their owne Clymate yea and euen in their owne selues Within these hundred yeres many Nations haue bene discouered and many are daily discouered still which were vnknowen in former ages Among them some haue bene found to liue without Lawe without King without House going starke naked and wandring abroad in the fields but yet none without some knowledge of God none without some spice of Religion to shewe vnto vs that it is not so natural a thing in man to loue company and to clad himselfe against hurts of the wether which things wee esteeme to be verie kindly as it is naturall vnto him to knowe the author of his life that is to say God Or if wee yeeld more to the iudgement of those which were counted wise among the Heathen nations whome afterward by a more modest name men called Philosophers The Brachmanes among the Indians and the Magies among the Persians neuer began any thing without praying vnto God The lessons of Pythagoras and Plato and of their Disciples began with prayer and ended with prayer The auncient Poets who were all Philosophers as Orphey Homer Hesiodus Pherecides and Theognis speake of none other thing The Schooles of the Stoikes Academikes and Peripatetikes and all other schooles that florished in old time roong of that The very Epicures theÌ„selues who were shamelesse in all other things were ashamed to denie God To be short the men of old time as witnesseth Plato â—hose their Priestes which were to haue regard of the seruice that was to be yéelded vnto God from among the Philosophers as from among those which by their consideration of nature had atteined to knowe God And so which sildome happeneth but in an apparant trueth the opinion of the comon people and the opinion of the wise haue met both iump togither in this point Well may there bee found in all ages some wretched kaytifes which haue not acknowledged God as there be some euen at this day But if we looke into theÌ„ either they were some yong fooles giuen ouer to their pleasures which neuer had leysure to bethinke them of the matter and yet when yeeres came vppon them came backe againe to the knowing of themselues and consequently of God or els they were some persons growen quite out of kind saped in wickednesse and such as had defaced their own nature in theÌ„ selues who to the intent they might practise all maner of wickednes with the lesse remorse haue striued to perswade themselues by soothing their owne sinnes that they haue no Soule at all and that there is no Iudge to make inquirie of their sinnes And yet notwithstanding if these fall into neuer so little daunger or be but taken vpon the hip they fall to quaking they crye out vnto heauen they call vpon God And if they approch but a farre of vnto death they fall to fretting and gnashing of their téeth And when they be well beaten there is not any shadowe of the Godhead so soone offered vnto them but they imbrace it so ready are nature and conscience which they would haue restreined and imprisoned to put them in mind thereof at all howres They be loth to confesse God for feare to stand in awe of him and yet the feare of the least things maketh them to confesse him Nay because they feare not him that made all things therefore they stand in awe of all things as wee see in the Emperour
names which are attributed to the Gods are but deuices to experesse the powers of the onely one God the Prince and Father of all And therefore it is more behofefull to sende the Readers to the reading of that whole treatise of his throughout than to set in any more thereof here because they shall there see a woonderfull eloquence matched with this goodly diuinitie That which the first and most diuine saith his disciple Theophrastus will haue all things to bee exceeding good and it may be also that he is aboue the reache of all knowledge and vnserachable Againe There is saith he One diuine beginner of all things whereby they haue their beeing and continuance But in his booke of Sauors he passeth further and saith that God created all things of nothing But to create of nothing presupposeth an infinite power and againe that power presupposeth an vnitie Alexander of Aphrodise in his booke of Arouidence written to the Emperour Antonine attributeth Prouidence ouer all things vnto one only God which can doe whatsoeuer he listeth as appéereth by all his whole discourse And he was of such renowne amoÌ„g all the Aristotelians that they called themselues Alexandrians after his name To be short the most part of the Interpreters and Disiciples of Aristotle found it so néedefull to acknowledge one onely Beginner ond so absurd to maintaine any mo than one that to the intent they might not confesse any such absurditie in their Mayster they doe by all meanes possible excuse whatsoeuer might in his workes be construed to the contrarie As touching the Stoiks of auncientest tyme wee haue no more than is gathered into the writings of their aduersaries who do all attribute vnto them the maintenance of the vnitie infinitenesse of GOD according to this which Aristotle reporteth of Zeno namely that there must néedes be but one God for els there should be no God at all because it behoueth him to be singularly good and also almightie which were vtterly vnpossible if there were any mo than one Also Simplicius reporteth of Cleanthes that in his Iambick verses he praied God to voutsafe to guyde him by his cause which guideth all things in order the which cause hée calleth destinie and the cause of cause But the two chief among them whose doctrine we haue in writing will easely make vs to credit all the residue Epictetus the Stoik whose words Proclus Simplicius and euen Lucian himselfe held for Oracles speaketh of only one God The first thing saith he that is to be learned is that there is but one God and that hee prouideth for all things and that from him neither deede nor thought can be hidden He teacheth vs to resort vnto him in our distresses to acknowled him for our Master and Father to lift vp our eyes vnto him alone if wee will get out of the Quamyre of our sinnes to séeke our felicitie there and to call vpon him in all things both great and small Of all the Goddes that were in time past he speaketh not a word but surely he saith that if we call vpon the onely one God hee will informe vs of all things by his Angels As for Seneca he neuer speaketh otherwise What doth God saith he to such as behold him Hee causeth his workes not to be without witnesse And againe To serue God saith he is to Reigne God exerciseth vs with afflictions to trie mans nature and he requireth no more but that wee should pray to him These ordinary spéeches of his shewe that he thought there was but one God But he procéedeth yet fâ—rther From things discouered sayth he wee must proceede to things vndiscouered and seeke out him that is auncienter than the world of whom the Starres proceede And in the end he concludeth that the World and all that is conteyned therein is the worke of God Also he casseth him the FouÌ„der Maker Creator of the World and the Spirit which is shed foorth vpon all things both great and small And in his Questions It is he sayth he whom the Hetruscanes or Tuscans meane by the names of Iupiter Gardian Gouernor Lord of the whole world If thou call him Destinie thou shalt not deceiue thyselfe for al things depend vpon him from him comes the causes of all causes If thou call him Prouidence thou sayest wel for by his direction doth the World holde on his course without swaruing and vtter foorth his Actions If thou call him Nature thou doest not amisse for he it is of whom all things are bred and by whose Spirite we liue To be short wilt thou call him the World In very deede he is the whole which thou seest and he is in all the parts thereof bearing vp both the whole World and all that is thereof By this sentence we may also shewe that by the terme Nature the Philosophers ment none other than God himselfe accordingly as Seneca sayth in another place that God and Nature are both one like as Annoeus Seneca be both one man And whereas he sayth that God may be called the World it is all one with that which he sayth in another place namely GOD is whatsoeuer thou seest and whatsoeuer thou seest not That is to say whereas thou canst not see him in his proper béeing thou seest him in his works For in other places also he defineth him to a Mynd and Wisedome without bodie which cannot be seene but in vnderstanding Now of all the former things by him repeated in many places none can bee verified of any mo than one For he that maketh all gouerneth all and is all leaueth nothing for any other to make gouerne or be otherwise than from himself But he speaketh yet more expressely saying Thou considrest not the authoritie maiestie of thy Iudge the Gouernor of the World the God of Heauen and of all Gods All the Godheads which we worship euery man by himselfe depend wholly vpon him And againe When he had layd the foundations of this goodly Masse although he had spred out his power throughout the bodie thereof yet notwithstanding he made Gods to be officers of his kingdome to the end that euery thing should haue his guyde Now this is after the same maner that the holy Scripture speaketh of the Angelles So then he is not onely God the excellentest of all Gods but also their very Father Author and Maker Let vs yet further adde Cicero and Plutarch who haue of euery Sect taken what they thought good Both of them speake ordinarily but of one God the author and gouerner of all things vnto whome they attribute all things and in that ordinary style is their word Nature which surmounteth the custome of their tyme but yet doth their doctrine expresse much more héere Cicero treating of this matter in his booke intytuled Of the nature of the Gods acknowledgeth one souereine GOD whom he calleth the God of Gods that is the
end were both of the Father But yet were they diuided by a Fyre of vnderstanding and as it were by destinie distributed into other vnderstandings For afore the making of this sundry-shaped world God had conceyued an incorruptible patterne thereof as a world subiect only to mynd and vnderstanding In the mould whereof this present World being stamped became full of al those shapes of the which there is but one only gracious Fountaine And againe in another place he sayth as followeth That is to say The loue of God being a fyrie bond issued first from his vnderstanding and clothed it selfe with fire to temper the conueyances of the watersprings by spreading his heate vpon the same These are their accustomed obscurities wherein notwithstanding it is clerely enough vttered that there is a Father a Sonne and a Loue that linketh them together and moreouer that the sayd begotten Mynd or Understanding is he by whom God framed the World and that from him procéedeth the diuine Loue as I haue sayd heretofore In another place they say that the sayd Fatherly Mynd hath sowed and planted in our Soules a certeyne resemblance of the sayd begotten vnderstanding and that our willes be not acceptable vnto him vntill wée awake out of forgetfulnesse and bethinke our selues againe of the pure fatherly marke which is in vs. And againe that the same Understanding being of power to beget or bréede of it selfe did by considering cast a fyrie bond of Loue vpon all things wherby they be continued for euer But it is enough for vs that in the sayings afore alleadged wee haue a briefe Summe of the diuinitie of the Magies who held thrée beginnings whom as wee reade in other places they called Oromases Mitris and Ariminis that is to say God Mynd and Soule And surely wee should wonder at them much more if we had their whole bookes as we haue but péeces of them remayning Now the Magies were first in Chaldye and we reade in Moyses how highly Balaam was estéemed in that he was thought able to blesse Nations and Armies And these Chaldies are the same of whom the Oracle of Apollo answered That only they and the Hebrewes had wisedome parted betwixt them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All wisedome certesse parted is betweene The Chaldies and the Hebrewes as is seene Mercurius Trismegistus as we haue seene in the third Chapter acknowledged but only one God who cannot well bee named but by two names to wit Good and Father And because the same God is indewed with vnderstanding sometymes he calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 howbeit that most commonly he makes a differece betwéene the Father and the Understanding which he calleth Mynd likewise Which thing appeareth in this saying of his I am Poemander the Feeder of Men the vnderstanding of the Beer which is of himself But behold here records as cléere as can bée God sayth he who is also Mynd and Life and Light Male-fâ—male begate or bred Logon the Speech or Word which is another Mynd and the workmayster of all things with that Speech another which is the fyrie God and the Spirite of the Godhead Lo here a Mynd begotteÌ„ of a Mynd Understanding of Understanding and Light of Light and besides that moreouer a Spirit And againe This Speech that proceedeth from GOD being altogether perfect and fruitfull and Workmistresse of all things lighteth vpon the water and maketh it fruitfull It is the same thing that is spoken of in Moyses where God sayth And the waters immediatly brought foorth To be short vnto this holy spéech as he termeth it he attributeth the begetting ingendring spreading foorth of al things from ofspring to ofspring as is to be seene But here is yet more I thy God sayth God am Light and Mynd of more antiquitie than the nature of moysture that is issued froÌ„ the shadow And this lightsome Speech which proceedeth from the mynd is the Sonne of God That which heareth and seeth in thee is the word of the Lord and the Mynd is God the Father these differ not one from another and as for their vnion it is the vnion of life c. And againe This Speech being the workman of God the Lord of the whole World hath chiefe power next him and is vncreated infinite proceeding from him the Commaunder of all things which he made the perfect naturall firstborne Sonne of the most perfect To be short he calleth him the myndly spéech euerlasting vnchaungeable vncorruptible vnincreasing vndecreasing alonly like him and firstbeknowne after God and moreouer his onely Sonne his welbeloued Sonne the Sonne of the most holy whose name 〈◊〉 be named by mouth of man And is not this as much as to call him Coessentiall Coeternal and the Creator of all things And what more can we say thereof Of the third parson he speaketh more dackly Al kind of things in this World saith he are quickened by a Spirit One Spirit filleth all things the World nourisheth the bodies and the Spirit the Soules and this Spirit as a toole or instrument is subiect to the will of God But here is yet somewhat more All things saith he haue neede of this Spirit it beareth them vp it nourisheth them it quickeneth them according to euery of their capacities it proceedeth from a holy fountaine and is the mainteyner of all liuing things and of all Spirits Here yee sée the reason why we call him the holy Ghoste namely because he procéedeth from the fountayne which is the very holynesse it selfe And least we should thinke him to be a Creature There was saith he an infinite shadowe in the Deepe whereon was the water and a fine vnderstanding Spirit was in that confuzed masse through the power of God From theÌ„ce there florished a certeine holy brightnesse which out of the Sand and the moyst nature brought foorth the Elements and all things els Also the Gods themselues which dwell in the Starres tooke their place by the direction appoyntment of this Spirit of God Thus then hee was present at the creation of things and it is the same spirit whereof it is sayd in the Byble That the spirit of the Lord houered vpon the outside of the déepe But in some places he matcheth all thrée persons togither O lyfe sayth he saue that life which is in mee O light and God the Spirit inlighten mee wholy O worker which bearest thy Spirit about let thy word gouerne mee Lord thou art the only one God Againe there was sayth he a light of vnderstanding afore the light of vnderstanding and there was euer a mind of the lightfull Mind and besides those there was not any thing els than the vnion of them by one Spirit vpholding all things without which there is neither God nor Angel nor other Substance For hee is Lord Father and God of all and in him and vnder him are al things And hauing said so sayth
will whereby he disposeth all things wherevppon in the last Chapter I coucluded a second and a third persone Insomuch that in a certayne place he sayeth playnly that God is to be honored according to the nomber of thrée and that the same is after a sort the Lawe of Nature Now for asmuch as this doctrine is not bred of mans brayne if it bee demaunded whence all the Philosophers tooke it wee shall finde that the Greekes had it from out of AEgipt Orpheus witnesseth in his Argonawts that to seeke the Misteries that is to say the Religion of the AEgiptians he went as farre as Memphis visiting all the Cities vpon the Riuer Nyle Through out the land of AEgipt I haue gone To Memphis and the Cities euerychone That worship Apis or be seated by The Riuer Nyle whose streame doth swell so hy Also Pythagoras visited the AEgiptians Arabians and Chaldeans yea and went into Iewry also and dwelt a long tyme at Mount Carmel as Strabo sayth insomuch that the Priestes of that Countrey shewed Strabo still the iourneyes and walkes of him there Now in AEgipt he was the Disciple of one Sonchedie the chiefe Prophet of the AEgiptians and of one Nazarie an Assyrian as Alexander reporteth in his booke of Pythagorasis discourses whom some miscounting the tyme thought to bee Ezechiel And Hermippus a Pythagorist writeth that Pythagoras learned many things out of the lawe of Moyses Also the sayd AEgiptian Priest vpbrayded Solon that the Greekes were Babes and knewe nothing of Antiquitie And Solon as sayth Proclus was Disciple in Says a Citie of AEgipt to one Patanit or as Plutarke sayth to one Sonchis in Heliople to one Oeclapie and in Sebenitie to one Etimon Plato was the Disciple of one Sechnuphis of Heliople in AEgipt and Eudoxus the Guidian was the Disciple of one Conuphis all which Maysterteachers issewed out of the Schoole of the great Trismegistus aforenamed To be short Plato confesseth in many places that knowledge came to the Greekes by those whom they commonly called the barbarus people As touching Zoroastres and Trismegistus the one was an Hebrewe and the other an AEgiptian And at the same tyme the Hebrewes were conuersant with the AEgiptians as is to be séene euen in the Heathen Authors Whereby it appeareth that the originall fountayne of this doctrine was to bee found among them which is the thing that wee haue to proue as now I meane not to gather hether a great sort of Texts of the Byble wherein mention is made as well of the second person as of the third of which sort are these Thou art my Sonne this day haue I begotten thee The Lord sayth Wisedome possessed me in the beginning of his wayes afore the depths was I conceyued c. Also concerning the holy Ghost The Spirit of the Lord walked vpon the waters The Spirit of Wisedome is gentle And it is an ordinary spéech among the Prophetes to say The Spirit of the Lord was vpon me And in this next saying are two of them together or rather all three The Heauens were spred out by the word of the Lord and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth For they be so alledged and expounded in infinite bookes howbeit that the Iewes at this day do labour as much as they can to turne them to another sence But let vs sée what their owne Doctors haue left vs in expresse words for the most part culled by themselues out of writtē bookes afore that the cōming of our Lord Iesus Christ had made that docttrine suspected In their Zohar which is one of their Bookes of greatest authoritie Rabbi Simeon the sonne of Iohai citeth Rabbi Ibba expoūding this text of Deuteronomie Hearken ô Israel The Euerlasting our God is one God The Hebrewe standeth thus Iehouah Echad Iehouah Eloh enu By the first Iehouah which is the peculiar name of God not to bée communicated to any other Rabbi Ibba saith he meaneth the Father the Prince of al. By Eloh enu that is to say our God he meaneth the Sonne the Fountaine of all knowledge And by the second Iehouah he meaneth the holy Ghost proceeding from them both who is the measurer of the voyce And he calleth him One because he is vndiuidable and this Secret saith he shall not be reuealed afore the comming of the Messias The same Rabbi Simeon expoūding these words of Esay Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hostes sayth Holy is the Father Holy is the Sonne Holy also is the holy Ghost In so much that this Author who is so misticall among them doth in other places call them the Three Mirrours Lights and Souerein fathers which haue neither beginning nor end and are the name and substaunce to the Roote of all Rootes And Rabbi Ionathas in many Copies of his Chaldey Paraphrase sayth the same And therefore no maruell though the Thalmudists of olde tyme commaunded men to say that Uerse twise a day and that some obserue it still at this day Upon these words of the 50. Psalme El elohim Iehouah dibber that is to say The Lord of Lords the Euerlasting hath spoken The ordinary Commentarie sayth also that by the sayd repetition the Prophet meaneth the thrée Middoth Properties wherby God created the world According whereunto Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan sayeth that hee created by his word And Rabbi Simeon sayeth he created by the breath of his mouth And this saying of the Preacher That a thréefold Corde is not so soone broken is expounded by the same glose I examine not whether filthy or no that the inisterie of the Trinitie in the one God is not easie to bee expressed Nowe these thrée Properties which the Hebrewes call Panim the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we the Latins call Persons are betokened by diuers names among the men of old tyme but yet they iumpe all in one according as they vnderstoode them some more clearely than other some Some name them the Beginning the Wisdome the Feare of Loue of God and they say that this Wisedome is Meensoph as the Cabalists tearme it that is to saye of the infinite and most inward vnderstanding of God who beholdeth hymselfe in himself for so doe they expound it Which is the selfesame thing that I spake of in the former Chapter namely that God begetteth his Sonne or Wisdome by his mynding of himselfe Othersome call him Spirit Word and Voyce as Rabbi Azariell doth in these words following The Spirit bringeth foorth the Word and the Voyce but not by opening the Lippes or by speeche of the tongue or by breathing after the maner of man And these three be one Spirit to wit one God as we reade sayeth he in the booke of the creating of man in these termes One Spirit rightly liuing blessed bee hee and his name who liueth for euer and euer Spirit Word and Voyce
that is to say One holy Ghost and two Spirits of that Spirit Now this booke of the Creation which he alledgeth is one Rabbi Abrahams a very auncient Cabalist Neuerthelesse it is of so great authoritie amoÌ„g them that they father it euen vpon the Patriarke Abraham himselfe And that which he sayth agreeth wholy to that which we say for the mynd conceyueth the inward spéech and of the mynd and of breath procéedeth the voyce These three sayth Rabbi Hamay beeing one haue such a proportionable respect one towards another as that the one the Vniter and the thing Vnited are but one poynt to wit the Lord of the whole world Rabbi Isaac vppon the booke of the Creation maketh three nomberings which he termeth the Loftie one in the Ensoph that is to say in the Infinite that is to wit Garlond Wisdom and vnderstanding And to betoken them Rabby Assee sayth that the custome was to marke them in all ages after this maner with three Iods Iehouah which is as much to say as the Beeër or He that is To be short what diuersitie soeuer there is in the names they al agree in the thrée Inbéeings or Persons And it is no maruell though they could not so well expresse them as we can now Rabbi Ioseph the Castilian hauing learned it out of the auncientest writers sayeth thus The light of the Soule of the Messias is the liuing God and the liuing God is the fountaine of the liuing waters and the Soule of the Messias is the Riuer or Streame of lyse Aud in another place None but the Messias sayth he knoweth God fully because he is the light of God and the light of the Gentiles and therefore he knoweth God and God is knowen by him Now when as they say that he knoweth GOD fully they graunt him to be God for who can comprehend God but GOD himselfe And it is the selfesame thing which I spake of when I sayd light of light and when in comparing the Sonne to the Father I lykened him as a streame to the fountaine and the Sunne beames to the Sunne Also we shall see in place conuenient that by the Soule of the Messias they meant The Word and it is a wonderfull thing that all the names of God in Hebrewe sauing onely the name of his Essence or single béeing haue the plurall termination notwithstanding that they be ioyned with a verbe of the singular nomber whereof the auncient Iewes doe yéeld the same reason that we doe and that a great sort of the Texts of the olde Testament which we alledge for the proofe of the Trinitie are expounded by them in the selfesame sence howbeit that the Talumdists since the comming of our Lorde Iesus Christ haue taken great payne to wrest them to another meaning Rabbi Iudas Nagid whom they commonly called the Sainct and Prophet speaketh most plainly of all Wherevpon it is to bée vnderstood that men were forbidden to vtter the vncommunicable name of God that is to wit Iehoua saue only in the daies of attonementmaking and in sted thereof they were commaunded to vse the name of Twelue letters for the other afore meÌ„tioned hath but fower And beeing asked what the name of Twelue letters was he answered that it was Father Sonne and holy Ghost Also being demaunded what the name of Two and fortie letters was he answered The Father is God the Sonne is God and the holy Ghost is God three in one and one in three Now then it was a doctrine receiued from hand to hand in the Schooles of the Iewes as wee see by the long continuance thereof in the succession of their Cabale And therefore the contention of the Iewes and of the Rabbynes was not to speake properly in withstanding the doctrine of the thrée Persons in the Essence of God but in the applying thereof namely to the incarnation of the Word which in their eye was very farre vnbeseeming the Maiestie of God Let vs goe to Philo the Iew who wrate in Greeke and we shall finde him like in all poynts from leafe to leafe God sayth he is the souereine begetter and next to him is the Word of God Also There are two Firsts the one is Gods word the other is God who is afore the Word and the same Word is the beginning and the ende 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his good pleasure intent or will And in another place Like as a Citie saith he wherof the platforme is yet but set doune in the mynd of the Builder hath no place elswhere than in the Builder So this world had not any being elswhere than in the Word of God which ordeyned all things For what other place could conteyne the operations of God yea or euen the simplest of his conceiued patternes Therefore to speake plainly The World in vnderstanding is the Word or Conceyt of God that made it And this is not the opinion of me onely but also of Moyses himselfe And to conclude he calleth him the Patterne of all Patternes and the Mould wherein all things were cast And in an other place This World sayth he is Gods yonger Sonne but as for the elder Sonne he cannot bee comprehended but in vnderstanding For he it is who by prerogatiue of eldership abydeth with the Father Now this is word for word the same thing that S. Iohn sayth And the Word was with God And againe The Word is the place the Temple and the dwelling house of God because the Word is the onely thing that can conteyne him And that is the thing which I sayd namely that GOD comprehending himselfe by his vnderstanding begate the Sonne or the Word equall to himselfe because he conceyueth not any thing lesse than himselfe And to shewe the greatnesse of this Word he could scarce tell what names to giue it He calleth it the Booke wherein the essences of all things that are in the whole world are written and printed the perfect Patterne of the World the Daysonne that is to be seene but only of the Mynd the Prince of the Angelles the Firstborne of God the Shepheard of his flocke the chiefe Hyghpriest of the World the Manna of mens Soules the Wisedome of God the perfect Image of the Hyghest and the Organe or Iustrument whereby God being moued thereto of his owne goodnesse created the World And to be short he calleth him the Firstbeginner Lightfulnesse or altogether light God and the Béeer that is of himself All these are such things as more cannot be attributed to God himselfe and he could not haue sayd more expressely that the Word is Coeternall and Coessentiall with the Father that is to say of one selfesame substaunce and of one selfesame euerlastingnesse with the Father Neuerthelesse he addeth yet further That this Worde hath in it the seâ—des of all things That he hath distributed to euery of them their seuerall natures and that he is the inuincible bond of the whole
the Romanes nor in the Histories of the Greekes To be short to begin his Historie at the furthest end he maketh his enteraunce at the reigne of the Scyonians which was the very selfesame tyme that Ninus began his reigne euen the same Ninus which made warre against Zoroastres which was about that tyme of Abraham The same Varro accounteth Thebes for the auncientest Cittie of all Greece as builded by Ogyges wherevppon the Greekes called all auncient things Ogygians and by his reckoning it was not past two thousand and one hundred yéeres afore his owne tyme. Trogus Pompeius beginneth his Historie at the bottome of al antiquitie that remained in remembraunce and that is but at Ninus who by report of Diodorus was the first that found any Historiographer to write of his doings The same Diodorus saith that the greatest antiquitie of Greece is but from the time of Iuachus who liued in the tyme of Amoses King of AEgipt that is to say as Appion confesseth in the very tyme of Moyses And intending to haue begun his Storie at the beginning of the world he beginneth at the warres of Troy and he saith in his Preface that his Storie conteyneth not aboue a thousande one hundred thirtie and eight yéeres which fell out sayth he in the reigne of Iulius Caesar in the tyme that he was making warre against the Galles that is to say lesse than twelue hundred yéeres afore the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Also the goodly Historie of Atticus whereof Cicero commendeth the diligence so greatly conteineth but seuen hundred yéeres Which thing Macrobius obseruing commeth to conclude with vs. Who doubteth saith he whether the World had a beginning or no yea euen a fewe yeeres since seeing that the very Histories of the Greekes do scarsly conteyne the doings of two thousand yeeres For afore the reigne of Ninus who is reported to haue bin the father of Semiramis there is not any thing to be found in writing Yea and Lucrece himselfe as great an Epicure and despiser of God as he was is constreined to yéeld thereunto when he seeth that the vttermost bound which all Histories bee they neuer so auncient doe atteynt vnto is but the destruction of Troy For thus sayth he Now if that no beginning was of Heauen and Earth at all But that they euerlasting were and so continue shall How â—aps iâ— that of former things no Poets had delight Afore the wofull warres of Troy and Thebes for to wright Yea but the Registers of the Chaldees will some man say are of more antiquitie For as Cicero reporteth they make their vaunt that they haue the natiuities of Childred noted set downe in writing from natiuitie to natiuitie for aboue the space of thrée and fortie thousand yeres afore the reigne of the great Alexander And that is true But as it hath bin very well marked when they speake after their Schoolemaner they meane alwaies as witnesseth Diodorus the moneth yéere that is to say euery moneth to be a yéere which account being reckoned backe from the tyme of Alexander hitteth iust vppon the creation of the World according to the account of the yéeres set downe by Moyses Likewise when the Iberians say they haue had the vse of Letters and of writing by the space of sixe thousand yéeres agoe they speake after the maner of their owne accounting of the yéere which was but fower moneths to a yéere And in good sooth Porphirius himselfe will serue for a good witnesse in that behalfe who sayth that the obseruations of the Chaldees which Callisthenes sent froÌ„ BabyloÌ„ into Greece in the tyme of Alexander passed not aboue a thousand and nyne hundred yéeres As for the obseruations of Hipparchus which Ptolomie vseth they drawe much néerer vnto our tymes for they reach not beyond the time of Nabugodoâ—ozer To be short from our Indictions we mount vp to the Stories of the Romanes and from them to the yéerely Registers of their Priestes and so to the Calenders of their Feastes Holidaies and finally to the time of their driuing of the nayle into the wall of the Temple of Minerua which was done alwaies yéerely in the Moneth of September to the intent that the number of the yéeres should not bee forgotten From thence we procéede to the Greeke Olimpiads the one halfe of which tyme is altogether fabulous and beyond the first Olimpiade there is nothing but a thicke Cloude of ignorance euen in the lightsomest places of all Greece In which darknesse we haue nothing to direct vs if we followe not Moyses who citeth the booke of the Lords warres and leadeth vs safely euen to our first originall beginning And how should the Histories of the Gentiles be of any antiquitie when there was not yet any reading or writing From Printing we step vp vnto bookes of written hand from the Paper which we haue now we come to Parchment from Parchment to the Paper of AEgipt which was inuented in the tyme of Alexander from that vnto Tables of Lead and Waxe and finally to the Leaues and Barkes of diuers Trées From writing we goe consequently to reading and so to the inuention of Letters which Letters the Greekes taught vnto the Latines and the Phenicians to the Greekes who had not any skill of them at the tyme of the warres at Troy as the very names of them doe well bewray and the Iewes taught them to the Phenicians For in very déede what are the Phenicians in account of all Cosmographers but inhabiters of the Seacoast of Palestine or Iewrie And so the saying of Ewpolemus a very auncient writer of Histories is found true namely that Moyses was the first teacher of Grâ—â—â—mer that is to say of the Arte of Reading notwithstanding â—â—at Philo doe father it vpon Abraham and that the Phenician â—ad it of the Iewes and the Greekes of the Phenicians in râ—spect whereof Letters were in old tyme called Phenicians Phenicians were the first if trust bée giuen to Fame That durst expresse the voyce in shapes that might preserue the 〈◊〉 Here I cannot forbeare to giue Plinie a little nippe Letâ—â—â— sayth he haue bin from euerlasting And why so For sayth hâ— the Letters of the AEgiptians had their first comming vp about a fiftéeue yéeres afore the reigne of Ninus But Epigenes a graue Author sayth that in Babylone certeine obseruations of Starres were written in Tyles or Brickes a Seuenhundred and twentie yeeres afore And Berosus and Critodemus which speake with the least doe say fowerhundred and fowerscore yeres O extreame blockishnes he concludeth the eternitie of letters vpon that wherby they be proued to be but late come vp Now then seeing wee find the originall comming vp of Artes of Lawes and Gouernement of Traffick and Merchaundise of soode and of very Letters that is to say both of â—iuing wel and of liuing after any sort should we rather graunt an euerlasting ignorance in man than a kynd of youthfulnesse
the souereyntie of all other things That the world the Sea the Land and all other things obey Gods tokens And if aâ— any tyme he bring in an Epicure alledging such worshipfull reasons as this With what engines edgetooles did your God buyld the World and such other eyther he sendeth him away with such answere as he deserueth or els by holding his peace sheweth sufficiently that he deserueth no answere at all Varro the best learned of the Latins maketh an vniuersall Historie deuided into thrée tymes The first as I haue â—ayd alreadie is from the Creation of the world vnto the first Olimpiade This man being a man of great reading found the Creation of the world to haue bene but late afore yea and so late that he ioyned it immediatly to the tyme of the first Olimpiade Likewise Seneca found all things to be new and acknowledgeth in many places that God created the whole world and man peculyarly to serue him And euer since the beginning of the World sayth he vnto this day wee be guyded by the intercourses of daies and nights and so foorth Macrobius passeth yet further and sayth that the world cannot be of any long antiquitie coÌ„sidering that the furthest knowledge that is to be had thereof reacheth not beyond two thousand yéeres As touching the Poets whose spéeches do for the most part represent vnto vs the opinion that was admitted among the common people Virgill is full of excellent sentences to that purpose and Ouid hath made a booke expressely of that matter And euen Lucrece also who professeth vngodlinesse sayth that beyond the Warres of Troy and Thebes there was not any iote remayning to rememberance than by the which he could not better haue declared the World to be but young howbeit that after the maner of his own sect he fathereth that thing vpon chaunce which all the wise men ascribe to the euerlasting prouidence Plinie is the only man whom I wonder at that being so curious a searcher of Nature he could not conceyue that which is printed in euery part of it and which euery man might of himself learne by his owne reading therein He maketh a long Calendar of the first inuenters of things as of Letters of Houses of Apparell and of very Bread He reckoneth vp the Companies that haue fléeted from place to place for the peopling and replenishing of Countries And can there bee a greater proofe of newnesse than that Sometymes he sayth that the Earth is become weary and sometymes that it is wexed barreine in yéelding of fruite and Mettalles because it groweth olde But in one place he sayth expressely that mens bodies by little little become of smaller stature by reason of the witherednesse of the world which wexeth olde And is not this a reporting of the Skye to bee like a whéele which gathereth heate and chafeth with rowling and whirling about And what improteth this wexing old but that it had also as ye would say a birthtyme What meaneth the wearing thereof away but that it had erst bene newe What is ment by the chafing of it but that the temperature thereof is altered For if the World be eternall why is not the whéele thereof eternally in one heate and men eternally of small stature Or if at leastwise it be of very auncient continuance why were not men become Pygmées long ago And if the contrary bee to bee seene in Nature what remayneth but to confesse that the World is but of late beginning To bee short the Stoikes as Varro witnesseth of Zeno taught that the world was created of God and that it should perish The Platonists affirme that it is created and mortall but yet is susteyned from perishing by God The Epicures graunt that it had a beginning howbeit by haphazard and not by prouidence The Peripateticks say in their conclusions that it is without beginning and in their premisses they vtterly deny it The greatest despisers of God as Plinie and such other like doe write in their Prefaces That the world is an euerlasting God and throughout the whole treatises of their bookes they vnsay it agayne Now then after so many graue witnesses and after the coÌ„fessions of the parties them selues is there yet any of these pretensed naturalistes to be found which dareth thinke the contrarie still But now since the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ into the earth this doctrine hath bene receyued throughout the world so as the thing which had aforetymes bene disputable among the Heathen is now admitted as an article of faith welnere among all nations and sects on the earth It may bee that the myracles which were seene then in Heauen in Earth in the Sea vppon men and vpon the very Féends made the world to perceyue that there was a Creator of the world For who could doubt that the creating of a newe Starre the restoring of a deadman to life or onely the making of a blindman to see was not the worke of an infinite power yea euen as well as the buylding of the world considering that betwéene béeing and not béeing betwéene life and death betwéene the hauing of a thing and the nothauing the distance is infinite And it may be that the signes which we haue seene from Heauen in our tyme doe serue to make the blasphemers vpon earth vnexcusable But wherof soeuer it came the very Philosophers themselues began to make a grouÌ„ded principle therof insomuch that the Greekes Persians and Arabians and likewise afterward the Turkes and Mahometists did put it into their beléefe as a thing out of all controuersie To be short there is not at this day any ciuill or well ordered people which haue not their Chronicles and Histories of tymes begun alwaies at the Creation of the world wherein they doe all hold of Moyses and agrée all with vs Christians sauing in the controuersie of some fewe yéeres Of all the Philosophers only the Platonists continued in estimation and all men reiected the newfound opinions of Aristotle and they stood at defiance rather with the Gnosticks than with the Christians Sainct Austin sayth concerning the Philosophers of his tyme that their opinion was that God was afore the World howbeit not in time but in order and by way of vndersetting only like as if a foote sayth he were euer in one place the print thereof should also be euer there Unto whom it may be answered in one word that like as abilitie and intent of going went afore the going it self both in the man and in the foote so in God also the power and intent of creating went afore the Creation But it is best to heare their owne words Plotin in his booke of the World findeth himself not a little graueled in this case and he maketh very little account of all Aristotles supposalles If we say sayth he that the Skye is euerlasting as in respect of the whole bodie therof how can
good are those which séeke after the true good things and that the true good things are Godlinesse and Uertue and contrarywise that the euill folkes are those which are wedded to the things that are euill in déede that is to say to sinne and vngodlinesse and let vs not confound things together the good with the bad and the bad with the good For what goodes soeuer a man can haue or to speake after thyne owne maner whatsoeuer euilles he can méete with he cannot bee good though he haue all the goodes in the world so long as he himselfe is not good neither can he be in euill case as long as he himself is not euill As for the goods which goe about to beguyle vs vnder that attyre let vs say they bee outward things common to the one sort as wel as to the other for the which a man can no more bee termed good or bad blesfull or wretched than he can bee called wise or learned for wearing a rich garment And contrarywise that as all these false goodes are instruments to the wicked to make them woorse as riches to corrupt both themselues and other men authoritie to doe vyolence health to make them the lustier and stouter to doe mischief and so foorth so the euilles which thou termest euilles are helpes to good men to doe good and furtherers of them in the exercise of vertue as pouertie to bridle their lustes bacenesse to humble them sicknesse to méeken them and all maner of comberances to driue them to flee vnto GOD and to teach them to succour their neighbours in the like when God shal haue drawne them out of them euen after the same maner that a sickly bodie turneth all things that are ministred vnto it into the vnsound humor which getteth the vpper hand wheras on the other side the sound healthy bodie turneth to his nourishment euen the meates that are worst of digestion Now then let vs come to the poynt Wilt thou knowe why riches and honour are common both to good and bad It is because that God euen in spight of the wicked cannot but bee good insomuch that he maketh the showers to rayne and the light to shine vpon the one as well as on the other notwithstanding that the one sort doe curse him for wetting them or for making them to sweate and the other sort doe blesse him for moystening and ripening the fruites of their labours It is because God déemeth it not agréeable eyther to his owne honor or to the greefes and trauelles of his seruants to reward them with trifling things least they should set their myndes vpon them like as a father that kéepeth his heritage for his sonne thinketh it not to bee for his behoofe to apparell him in the liuerie of his seruants and slaues To bee short it is because he dealeth like a Prince who maketh his pay common to all his Souldiers but as for the Garlond of Oke he giueth it only to such as are the first that in scaling doe enter the breach or get vp vpon the wall of a Towne that is assaulted Likewise Kings doe cast their largesse at aduenture among the people but as for their honors and dignities they bestow them vpon those whom they especially fauour It misliketh thée that this man tilleth his ground with moe Ploughes than thou but aduise thy selfe well whether thou couldest find in thy hart to exchaunge that inward gifts of grace which GOD hath bestowed vppon thée with his Oxen and his Ploughes Another is in greater reputation and authoritie with the Prince than thou art But consider thou therewithall the hartbytings the enuie the hartburnings and such other things which he indureth and see whether the meanest degrée in Gods house where thou seruest being free and exempted from all those things be not much better than the best roome about any King The King for his seruice done by him rewardeth him with Lands fees and offices but if thou be so bacemynded and wrongfull to thy selfe as to foster thy body with the seruices and charges of thy Soule consider that God being liberall and iust intendeth to reward spirituall incounters with spiritual Garlonds and to recompence thée according to his own honor and not according to the bacenesse of thy heart and that so much the more because that in very déede he rewardeth not thy workes but his owne workes in thée Moreouer the reward is giuen not according to thy desart but according to the worthinesse of him that bestoweth it The recompence of one selfsame seruice is farre other at the hand of a King than of a meane Lorde If thou say thou couldest bee contented with a thousande French Crownes Alexander would answere thée that it might perchaunce be enough for thée to receyue but not enough for Alexander to giue And if thou wouldest haue GOD to giue thée no greater reward than plentie of Wine and Corne if thou knewest him well thou wouldest bee ashamed of thy selfe for it is the foode that is common to all men and not peculiar to those that are his Neuerthelesse if thou step not so farre but art desirous to knowe what be the goodes which good men haue in this world I speake of them that seeme not to haue them Seneca telles thée that they make their life allowable to God who knoweth them in him they repose themselues they haue peace in their Consciences if he increase not their present state they also doe abate their desires their enemies cōmend their vertue all the world bemoaneth their want and those that haue the distributing of goodes and honors are blamed for leauing them vnconsidered To bee short the very asking of that Question be thou a Christian or an Heathen man is vnto them an inestimable reward namely that whereas concerning the most part of other men it is wont to be demaunded wherfore they be aduaunced to riches honor and authoritie and they themselues are oftentymes ashamed to tell how they came by them euery man asketh how it happeneth that the good men are not rich honorable and in authoritie Now if thou haue the courage of a man wouldest thou not choose as Cato did that men should rather aske why thou haddest not an Image of thyne set vp in the open place and why thou wast not admitted to that honour than otherwise Yes sayst thou But if God listed not to giue mee them why haue I at leastwise forgone those which I had Why hath hee taken them from mée It may be sayth Seneca that if thou haddest not forgone them they would haue fordone thée I tell thée that if hée had not taken them from thée they would haue taken thée from him I pray thée how often hast thou taken from thy Childe a puppet or some other toye that he played withall to see whether he would be stubborne or no How oft haste thou plucked the knife out of his hand euen when he cryed to haue it still And what
but to vexe our minds in this lyfe In his bookes of the Soule hee not onely separateth the Body from the Soule but also putteth a difference betwixt the Soule it selfe the Mind terming the Soule the inworking of the body and of the bodily instruments and the mynd that reasonable substance which is in vs whereof the doings haue no fellowship with the doings of the body and whereof the Soule is as Plato saieth but the Garment This Mynd sayth he may be seuered from the body it is not in any wyse mingled with it it is of such substaunce as cannot be hurt or wrought vpon it hath being and continuance actually and of it selfe and euen when it is separated from the body then is it immortall and euerlasting To be short it hath not any thing like vnto the body For it is not any of al those things which haue being afore it vnderstād them And therefore which of all bodily things can it be And in another place he sayeth thus As concerning the Mynd and the contemplatiue powre it is not yet sufficiently apparant what it is Neuerthelesse it seemeth to bee another kind of Soule and it is that onely which can bee separated from the corruptible as the which is Ayeuerlasting To be short when as he putteth this question whether a Naturall Philosopher is to dispute of all maner of Soules or but onely of that Soule which is immateriall it followeth that he graunteth that there is such a one And againe when as he maketh this Argument Looke what God is euerlastingly that are wee in possibilitie according to our measure but hee is euerlastingly separated from bodily things therefore the time will come that wee shall bee so too He taketh it that there is an Image of God in vs yea euen of the Diuine nature which hath continuance of itselfe Uery well and rightly therfore doth Simplicius gather therof the immortalitie of the Soule For it dependeth vpon this separation vpō continuance of being of it self Besides this he sayth also that hunting of beasts is graūted to man by the lawe of Nature because that thereby man chalengeth nothing but that which naturally is his owne By what right I pray you if there be no more in himself than in them And what is there more in him than in them if they haue a soule equall vnto his Herevnto make all his commendations of Godlines of Religion of blessednes and of contemplation For too what ende serue all these which doe but cumber vs here belowe Therefore surely it is to be cōcluded that as he spake doubtfully in some one place so he both termed and also taught to speake better in many other places as appeareth by his Disciple Theophrastus who speaketh yet more euidently thereof than he The Latins as I haue sayd before fell to Philosophie somewhat later then the Gréekes And as touching their common opinion the exercises of superstition that were among them the maner of speeches which we marke in their Histories their contempt of death and their hope of another life can giue vs sufficient warrant thereof Cicero speaketh vnto vs in these words The originall of our Soules and Myndes cannot bee found in this lowe earth for there is not any mixture in them or any compounding that may seeme to bee bred or made of the earth Neither is there any moysture any wyndinesse or any firy matter in them For no such thing could haue in it the powre of memorie Vnderstanding and conceit to beate in mynd things past to foresee things to come and to consider things present which are matters altogither Diuine And his conclusion is that therefore they bee deriued from the Mynd of GOD that is to say not bred or begotten of Man but created of God not bodily but vnbodily wherevpon it followeth that the Soule cannot be corrupted by these transitorie things The same Cicero in another place sayeth that betwéene God and Man there is a kinred of reason as there is betwéene man man a kinred of blud That the fellowship betwéene man and man commeth of the mortall body but the fellowship betwéene God and man commeth of God himselfe who created the Soule in vs. By reason whereof sayth hée we may say we haue Alyance with the heauenly sort as folke that are descended of the same race and roote whereof that we may euermore be myndfull we must looke vp to heauen as to the place of our birth whether we must one day returne And therfore yet once againe he concludeth thus of himself Think not sayth he that thou thy selfe art mortall it is but thy body that is so For thou art not that which this outward shape pretendeth to be the Mynd of Man is the man in deede and not this lumpe which may bee poynted at with ones Fingar Assure thy selfe therefore that thou art a GOD For needes must that be a God which liueth perceyueth remembereth foreseeth and finally reigneth in thy body as the Great God the maker of all things doth in the vniuersall world For as the eternall God ruleth and moueth this transitory world so doth the immortall Spirit of our soule moue rule our fraile body Hereuntoo consent all the writers of his tyme as Ouid Virgill and others whose verses are in euery mans remembrance There wanted yet the wight that should all other wights exceede In loftie reach of stately Mynd who like a Lord in deede Should ouer all the resdewe reigne Then shortly came forth Man Whom eyther he that made the world and all things els began Created out of seede diuine or els the earth yet yoong And lately parted from the Skie the seede thereof vncloong Reteyned still in frutefull wombe which Iapets sonne did take And tempering it with water pure a wight thereof did make Which should resemble euen the Gods which souereine state doe hold And where all other things the ground with groueling eye behold He gaue to man a stately looke and full of Maiestie Commaunding him with stedfast looke to face the starry Skie Here a man might bring in almost all Senecaes wrytings but I will content my selfe with a fewe sayings of his Our Soules sayth he are a part of Gods Spirit and sparkes of holy things shining vpon the earth They come from another place than this lowe one Whereas they seeme to bee conuersant in the bodie yet is the better part of them in Heauen alway neere vnto him which sent them hither And how is it possible that they should be from beneath or from anywhere els thā from aboue seeing thei ouerpasse al these lower things as nothing and hold skorne of all that euer we can hope or feare Thus ye sée how he teacheth that our Soules come into our bodies from aboue But whether go they agayne when they depart hence Let vs here him what he sayes of the Lady Martiaes Sonne that was dead He is
things should haue disswaded him from woorshipping of the God of that people had not the most manifest trueth driuen him to the contrarie As touching the Romaines what tyme they extended their warres into Iewrie we reade that they reuerenced the Temple of Ierusalem insomuch that Augustus ordeined certeyne Sacrifizes to be offered there both yéerely and dayly and that diuers Heathen princes being prouoked by his sending of offerings thither so carefully followed his example in doing the like But seeing the Romaines brought all the Gods of all the Nations whom they had conquered into Rome how happeneth it that only this God could finde no place there Cicero answereth that it beseemed not the Maiestie of the Empire But if I should appose him vpon his conscience did Bacchus Anubis Pryapus and their shamefull night-wakes and misteries celebrated in the darke yéeld renowme to the state of the Empyre Nay if he will say the trueth they knew that the God of Israell and none other was the true God and that for the harbouring of him it behoued them to driue away all the rest but they had so long tyme foaded folke with Idolatrie that they were afrayd as many Princes are at this day least they might be deposed by their Subiects in receyuing their rightfull Lord. Yet notwithstanding will some saye this sillie people of the Iewes were caryed away from their own Countrey into the fower quarters of the world scattered among other people and parted amōg all Nations of the earth at the pleasure of their enemies that had gotten the vpper hand of them Surely Gods wonderful prouidence is to be noted in this case farre more without comparison than if that people had conquered the whole world by force of armes For by the things which the Poets haue written of them wee see in what contempt they were had of all men But yet let vs heare the wonderment that was made thereat not by a common person but by the great Philosopher Seneca Yet notwithstanding saith he the custome of that Nation hath so preuailed that it is the rather receyued of the whole world and they beeing vanquished haue I wote not by what meanes giuen lawes to their Conquerours Who seeth not here a great motion of mynd in this Philosopher And what man hauing common reason is not rauished thereat as well as he Is it possible for Kings to haue subdewed a people whom they could neuer inforce to chaunge their owne lawes The example thereof is Iewrie which hath bin trodden vnder foote by the Assyrians Persians Greekes Romaines and yet for all their chaunging of their Maysters they could neuer bee brought to alter their lawe There may perchaunce some like constancie bee found among other Nations as in respect of their lawes but that a people being conquered caryed away brought into bondage vnaccounted of led in triumph by diuers Empyres as the Iewes were should not only subdue the harts of their Conquerours to their GOD so as the Conquerours could not fasten their lawes vppon the vanquished sort but contrarywise the vanquished sort haue fastened their lawes vpon their vanquishers the Subiects vppon their Prince the Captiues vpon their Mayster and the condemned vpon their Iudge who I pray you would beléeue it vnlesse he sawe it And if a man see it how can he say that any other can possibly doe it but God But if Seneca will voutsafe to heare Seneca quietly it may be that he himselfe shall finde a resolution to his owne wonderment Namely that the Gods as he sayth which were called inuiolable immortall whom the Iewes left to other Nations were dumbe and sencelesse Images disguysed in the shapes of Men Beastes and Fishes and some in vgly and ilfauoured monsters and that the Feends which possessed those Images required woorse things of men for their seruice thā the horriblest Tyrants that euer were as that men should gash themselues mayme and lame themselues geld themselues and offer men women and children in Sacrifize to them But when folke heard speaking of the true God the maker of Heauen and Earth and that he wil be serued with the hearts and mynds of men that word issewing out of the mouth of a poore prisoner caught men prisoners and ouercame their Gods And in very déede as wee shall see hereafter if we reade the good authors of that tyme eyther they speak but of the one God or if they speak of mo Gods it is but for customes sake and in way of condemning them What els then were the manifold fléetings of the Iewes but as many conueyings abroad of companies of Preachers to shewe forth the true God and as many Armies to destroy the Idols and to roote them out Wee reade that the Coniurers which were in old tyme amōg the Gentiles did vse the name of the God of Israell the God of the Hebrewes and the God that drowned the AEgiptians in coniuring such as were possessed of Deuilles and that the Deuilles trembled at that name This serueth not to proue that they worshipped not other Gods but that they knewe those Gods to be of no force Iulian the Apostata did vnderset his shoulder to shore vp the seruice of the false Gods as much as he could But yet durst he not deny but that the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob is a great and mightie God and he sware by all his Gods that he was one of them that were conuerted to his seruice and that hee knewe him to be very gracious to such as serue him as Abraham had done Who now could euer make an Israelite confesse that any other God was good than the same whom he worshipped And if he be the very God how can it be euen by Iulians owne saying that all the residue should not bee euill seeing that this good God condemneth them and declareth them to bee all wicked Spirites and enemies of mankynde But if Iulian himselfe would tell vs what befell him at Antioche when he asked counsell of his Deuilles who made all his Philosophers to quake and all his great Sorcerers to runne away for feare wee should see well enough what stuffe they be insomuch that euen his owne Historiographer Zosimus is ashamed to make report of it Now I would fayne that the Heathen or their Aduocats should but shewe me one of these two things eyther where any Author of the Iewes yéeldeth record to any God of the Heathen or where any graue Heathen author hath condemned the God that is worshipped by the Iewes Forasmuch then as in a Chapter appropried to the same purpose I haue alreadie proued by all the auncient Authors and by consent of all people that there is but only one God and by Varro euen now that the Iewes do worship the same God what followeth therof but that al of them be Iewes in that poynt and that as many as are not so are al ydolaters and deceiued And for that cause when Orpheus
God and Man able to discharge mā of euerlasting death ageinst God and to purchase him the souerein felicitie of lyfe And this is it that I meant in the beginning of the chapter namely that this marke is so of the very substance and inshape of Religion that Religion without that should be vtterly vnauaylable and vayne The Heathen séeme to haue perceyued this necessitie by many examples They knewe that man was created to liue for euer and that hee could not inioy that benefite but by turning again vnto God But in this they fell short that they considered not that from vs to God the way is vnpossible to man if God himself be not our way whereby to come thither It may be that they haue heard that it behoued a man to dye for the sinnes of the world And therevpon the diuell did put in their heads to sacrifice men and so to lay the sinnes of a whole Citie or countrie vpon the backe of some one poore wretch And looke who was the greatest offender of all others and whom they had vowed to the gallowes for the multitude of his misdéedes him did they put to the pacifying of Gods wrath towards them Such are the accustomed Apish toyes of the Diuell But how shall he that is in Gods displeasure appease his displeasure And what shall the worst doo if the best can doo nothing The Emperour Iulian could not tell how to rid his hands of this necessitie in his disputations ageinst the Christians By reason whereof perceiuing that there must néedes bee a meane betwéene God and man for the cleansing of mens Soules hee bare himselfe on hand that Esculapius the Sonne of Iupiter was manifested to the world by the lyuely ingendring of the Sonne and that hee shewed him selfe first in Epidaurus and afterward in diuers other places to heale mens Bodies and to amend their Soules Which is a proof that the impossibilitie of the Incarnation of the Sonne of God which is pretended by some séemed not to him to be vnpossible forasmuch as the Iucarnation of Esculapius the sonne of Iupiter God in the opion of Iulian and the sonne of God seemed to him not onely possible but also come to passe And in verie déede why should it seeme strange that he which hath knit the Soule of man being a spirituall substance vnto his body being an earthly should bee able to vnite himselfe vnto man But I haue shewed afore that this Esculapius was a man and that the spirit which abused his name was a diuell and that both of them were wicked creatures And moreouer who euer beléeued or setfoorth this Fable of Esculapius but onely Iulian Nay verily Porphyrius hath outgone all antiquitie in this behalfe For hauing laid this foundation That the souereine welfare of the Soule is to sée God That it cannot see hym vnlesse it be first cleansed from the silth thereof and therefore that by Gods prouidence there must be some meane procured to cleanse mankind whē he commeth to the seeking of it out he saith That the Artes and Sciences doo well cleare our wits in the knowledge of things but they cannoth so cleanse vs that wee may come vnto God And wheras many men deceiued themselues in séeking this cleansing by Magik and Theurgie he sayd that imagination and common sence might well bee helped thereby in the perceyuing of bodily things but they atteyned not to the purging of the vnderstanding of the Soule neyther could they make a man to see his GOD or the trueth it selfe Againe whereas some Philosophers sought this clensing in the Misteries of the Sonne and of Iupiter that is to say in communicating as they surmised not with Deuils but with such as were estéemed to be good Gods he declareth that there was as small likelyhood thereof in their Misteries as in the Misteries of the rest and moreouer that those things extended but to very fewe men whereas this clensing ought to be vniuersall to the benefite of all mankind In the end hauing reiected all other clensings his conclusion is that the Beginnings onely and none others can worke and bee the meane to worke this vniuersall Clensing What he meaneth by the Beginnings the Platonists can tell well enough and I haue declared it by many sentences of his in my fifth and sixth Chapters that is to wit the persons or proprieties that are in God whom Porphyrius calleth expressely the Father the vnderstanding of the Father and the Soule of the World He could not almost haue come any néerer vs vnlesse he should haue met iumpe with vs and surely he seemeth to haue had this of the Chaldees from whom he acknowledgeth himselfe to haue receyued many diuine Oracles concerning this matter But it is enough for vs that wee haue gayned these poynts of him That there must of necessitie be some meane ordeyned of GOD for the clensing and sauing of mankynd That none can worke that Cleannesse except it bee some one of the Beginnings that is to say except it hee God himselfe and that he neuer met yet with any Sect in all Philosophie that setteth foorth the meane thereof Therefore it standeth vs on hand to seeke it not in Philosophie but in our Scriptures For seeing they bee of God and are reuealed for the welfare of Man they ought to direct vs to the only meane of the Saluation which we long for And like as Religion was bred and borne as soone as Man as I haue sayd afore so must it needes be that the meane of Saluation was reuealed as soone as Religion and set foorth in the holy Scriptures from tyme to tyme. And if we finde it so it will be an vnfallible testimonie both of our Religion and of our Scriptures together Let vs then begin with the Creation of man The Scripture sayeth that as soone as he was created God gaue him this Lawe If thou eate of the tree of the skill of good and euill thou shalt dye the Death That is to say If thou turne away neuer so little from the obeying of me thou shalt fall into my displeasure and from my displeasure into endlesse death Byandby after man is seduced by the Serpent that is to say by the diuel and breaketh the Lawe of his Creator by meane whereof he is in his displeasure and by sinne is become subiect to endlesse damnation Now seeing that this man was alone and that the world was made for him what should haue followed but the vtter destruction of the world out of hand and the burning of man euerlastingly in Gods wrath But see how Gods wisdome stepped in for the sauing of man and for the preseruing of his owne woorke and sinne was no sooner bred but the scripture immediatly sheweth vs the remedie thereof I will set emnitie sayeth the Lord to the diuell betweene thy seede and the womans seede Hir seede shall crush thy head and thou shalt byte it by the heele That is to say I will
prosperitie this shal be It is sayeth he that in his dayes Iuda shal be safe and Israel shal dwell without feare and the name whereby he shal be called shal be the Euerlasting our Ryghtuousenes that is to say the Iustifier of vs. For sayeth he the Lord hath sayd it Dauid shall neuer want a Successor sitting vppon his Throne neither shall there euer want a Priest of the Priests the Leuites to offer sacrifice before me Neither is it any more possible for you to breake this couenant than to breake the couenant that I haue made with day and nyght Now the Iewes cannot denie but that euen by the record of their owne Paraphrast this text is ment of Christ and yet notwithstanding that there hath not wanted a Successor both to Dauid and to Leuie and that both the Kingdome and the Preesthod are come to an end and therefore that he speaketh here of another Kingdome and of another Preesthod Likewyse sayeth Ezechiell I will set a shepherd ouer my flocke which shall feede them namely my Seruant Dauid I will bee their God and he shal be their Prince among them I wil enter into a Couenant of peace with them and make noysom beasts to ceasse from the earth I will rayse them shortly a plant of Renowne and they shall no more bee the iestingstock of the Gentyles And if we aske how They shall nomore be defiled sayeth he with their Idolles nor with their abhominations nor with their misdeedes but I will saue them from all their sinnes and make them cleane and they shal be my people and I wil be their God And that this text also is ment of the Messias the Iewes cannot deny For in their very Talmud they say that the Messias is called Dauid bycause he was too be borne of Dauids race and they alledge this present text and others for the same purpose Daniel in his second and seuenth Chapters expounding Nabugodonozors Dreame treateth of the fower greate Monarchies which should rise vp in the world euery one in his tyme the which are betokened there vnder these fower Metalls Golde Siluer Brasse and yron But when the Dreame representeth vs the stone heawen without hand which stryketh the Images yron feete and breaketh them apeeces it is as much as if it had told vs that the Kingdom of the Messias shall seeme to be of small stuffe without stay and without force of man and yet that it shall indure for euer bycause it is set vp by God And therefore whereas he addeth in another place That all People Nations and Toongs shal serue that Kingdome it is to be vnderstoode of another kynd of seruice than the ordinarie But in his fifth Chapter he sheweth wherein the same peculiarly consisteth It is sayeth he in bringing disobedience to an end and in sealing vp sinne to clense away iniquitie and to bring ryghtuousnes into the world to close vp prophesying and visions and to anoynt the holy of Holyes Yea and it is so little ment that Hierusalem should be the seate of that kingdome that it was to be destroyed anon after by the Romanes The nomber of the Children of Israel sayeth Ose shal be as the sand And where it hath bin sayd you be not my People there it shal be sayd ye be the people of the liuing God which is as much to say as that many people should become Israelytes And this shal be done sayth the Lord not by bowe nor by swoord nor by battel but bycause I will shewe mercy and saue them by their Lord God and marry them to me of my compassion Iewry sayth Ioel shal be inhabited euerlastingly and Hierusalem from generation to generation Yet had they greate ouerthrowes afterward yea euen in the Prophets owne tyme. But yet he addeth I will wype away the blud from those whom I haue not yet cleansed that is to wit the Gentiles and the Lord shall dwell in Syon Then speaketh he of another Iewrie and of another Syon that is to wit of the spirituall one which is the Church To the same end tendeth Amos when he sayth I will set vp the Tabernacle of Dauid againe and stop vp the breakes thereof and amend the decayes that he may possesse the remnant of Edom and of all other nations And Micheas sayth that many Nations shall come to the Lords Hill and talke there one with another saying as followeth namely that the name of the Lord shall bee called vpon ouer them and that the Law shall come out of Syon and the word of the Lord out of Hierusalem which shall teach them his waies And to the intent wee should not thinke that whereas Micheas sayth that the name of the Messias shall shortly bee magnified to the vttermost parts of the earth Israell shall tryumph after the maner of the world The Assyrians sayth he shall not ceasse to come into our Land and to walke vp and downe in our Palaces That is to say the good and vertuous folke shall not ceasse to be persecuted for all that but yet howsoeuer they fare Idolatrie shal be ouerthrowen as he saith afterward and the Anoynted shall reigne through the power of the Lord and he shall be our peace And Sophonie foretelleth to the same effect That God will starue all the Gods of the earth so as euery man shall worship in his owne place throughout all the Iles of the Gentiles that is to say That Hierusalem shall not bee the only place to worship in but rather that God wil haue euery place to bee a Hierusalem In Zacharie the Lorde hauing sayd I will make my seruant Braunch to come addeth immediatly and I will wipe away the wickednes of this land in one day And hauing sayd He shall reigne vpon his seate He addeth foorthwith that the Highpriest also shal sit there with him That is to say that Christ shal be both King and Priest He sayth in deede Bee glad thou daughter Sion and triumph For thy King commeth But see here with what furniture A righteous Sauiour a lowly sitting vpon an Asse euen vppon an Asses colt which is the Chariot of Ephraim and the Horse of Hierusalem the bowe of warre He shal speake myldly to all Nations and yet shal he be obeyed from the oneside of the earth to the other If there be no greater triumphe than this what néedeth so great ioy But he expoundeth himselfe in these words following Thou shalt bee saued by the blud of thy couenant and I haue let out thy prisoners from the waterlesse pit Now that this text is ment of Christ it appeareth by Rabby Samuel and Rabby Ioseph in the Talmud And Rabby Selmoh ben Iarchi as great an enemy as he is to vs expoundeth it not otherwise Agein In that day saith he a Welspring shal be opened to the house of Dauid and to the Inhabiters of Hierusalem to wash away their sinne and their filth I will roote out the names
the Prophet Haggeus expounded heretofore vntil at length after long and pernicious abusing of them when he could not deliuer them from the yoke of the Romaines in the end they knockt him on the head Yet notwithstanding afterward againe about a fortie yeres after the destruction of the Temple another of the same name gathered into the Citie of Bitter all the Iewes that were thereabouts and of him they report wonders as that he should haue a hūdred thousand men about him which vpon trust of their inuincible strength did cut off one of their fingers that going to battell he was wont to say Helpe vs not thou Lord of the world seeing thou hast forsaken vs c. And that the Rabbines which had bene deceiued by the former so greatly were they perswaded of the tyme receiued this man neuerthelesse and made him also to be receiued of others applying vnto him this text of the booke of Nombers A Starre shall come out of Iacob because the Hebrewe word Cocab signifieth a Starre and saying that in stead of Cocab it ought to be written Cozab or Cozba which was his name And this is written by their owne Histories and confirmed afterward by ours and also by the very Heathen writers which wrate the life of the Emperour Adrian Yet for all this they were still the more wasted and caryed away into Spayne and Hierusalem was peopled with other Nations and the whole Land of Iewrie made vtterly heathen And as many as went about afterward to abuse the Iewes vnder that pretence as one did not long since in Italie were by and by destroyed and welnere wyped cleane out of rememberance Let vs adde yet further that since that tyme which is now aboue fiftéene hundred yéeres agoe they neuer had any Prophetes any comfort from GOD any extraordinarie gifts no nor any knowledge of their Tribes which is a most euident token that the Prophesies which amed chiefly at Christ are fulfilled and that in him the Church is comforted and indewed with the giftes which it hoped for and to bee short that he for whose sake the pedegrees were to be kept certeyne is not now to be borne And therefore wee see how some of them doe say with Rabbi Hillel That the daies of Ezechias haue swallowed vp the Messias that is to say that he is not to bee looked for any more and that folke haue made themselues vnworthie of him and that some others through extremitie of despayre do pronounce them accursed which determine any certeyne tyme of the comming of the Messias Thus then we see now that the holy Scripture and the auncient interpretation thereof doe méete together in the tyme of Herod to shewe vs the Messias there and therevpon it is that we sée the people in the Gosphell so ready to ronne after Iohn Bapthst and Christ and to moue these ordinarie questions Art thou hee that should come When wilt thou restore the Kingdome of Israell Shall we waite for another yet still and such other But But let vs see what startingholes stubbornes hath inuēted against the things aforesaid The Messias say the new Rabbines was borne at the very same time and in the very same day that the second Temple was destroyed that this Prophesie of Esay might be fulfilled Before hir throwes or pangs came she was deliuered of a Manchylde but he is kept secret for a tyme. For so doe we reade vpon the xxx Chapter of Genesis And in the Talmud Rabbi Iosua the sonne of Leuy sayth that it is a Reuelation that was made vnto Elias I would faine then haue them to shewe me what one Text in all the Scripture giueth any incling thereof They ad that he shal be hidden sower hundred yeeres in the greate Sea eight hundred yeres among the sonnes of Coree and fower score yeres at the gate of Rome And Rabbi Iosua the sonne of Leuy saith in the Talmud that he himselfe sawe him there lapping vp his sores among the Lazermen What are these things euen by none other witnesse then them selues but tales contriued vpon pleasure of purpose to mock folke Some say he shal be set vp in great honour next vnto the Pope and that in the end he shall say to the Pope as Moyses did to Pharao Let my people goe that they may serue mee and so foorth If he be borne so long agoe and keepe him selfe secret as they say in their Talmud but till he be called to deliuer them what cause is there why he should kéepe himself away still seeing they haue called him so much and so lowd and so many hundred yeres seeing also that the time is expyred yea and almost dubble expyred and finally seeing that euen according to their owne exposition it is sayd I will hasten them in their tyme They answere yet still there remayneth but a good repentāce Tooto◠miserable surely were we if God should not preuent our repentance with his grace For the very repentance of the best men is but a sorynesse that they cannot be sory enough But let vs heere a pretie Dialogue of two Rabbins disputing in their Talmud of this matter It is written sayth Rabbi Eliezer Turne againe yee stubborne Children and I will heale you of your stybbornesse Yea but it is also written sayth R. Iosua Ye haue bene sold for nothing and ye shall be redeemed with mony that is to say ye haue bene sold for your Idolatryes which are nothing and ye shal be redeemed without your repentance good workes Yea but it is sayd sayth R. Eliezer Turne yee to mee and I will turne to you But let vs also reade sayth R. Iosua I haue taken ye in mariage as a wyfe and I will take you one of a Citie and twoo of a Household and giue you enterance into Sion R. Eliezer replyeth thus It is sayd ye shal be saued in calmnesse and in rest Nay sayth R. Iosua it is written in Esay thus saith the Lord the Redeemer of Israell to the despised Soule and to the people that is abhorred that is to say that your wickednes shal not stop the course of Gods decree In the end Eliezer sayth what meaneth Ieremy then to say If thou turne thee ageine ô Israell seeing it is a conditionall maner of speaking Nay saith Rabbi Iosua what ment Daniel then by this Text I heard the man that was clothed in linnen and stood vppon the Water of the Riuer and he lifted vp his right hand and his left hand vp to Heauen and sware by him that liueth for euer and it shal be for a tyme and tymes and halfe a tyme And the Talmud sayth that at this tert R. Eliezer was blankt and held his peace which was as much to say as that he condescended to that which R. Iosua had sayd namely that the offences of Israell should not stay the comming of Christ but that God would preuent Israell with his holy grace
Insomuch that their owne Historywriter beholding so many records of Gods wrath was in maner cōstreyned to come somewhat nye the cause thereof which he affirmeth to be that the Highpriest Ananus had vniustly and hastily caused Iames the brother of Iesus to be stoned to death and certeine others with him to the great griefe of good men and of such as loned the Lawe To the which purpose also may this saying of the notablest of their Rabbines be applyed That the second Temple was destroyed for their selling of the Rightuous and for hating him without cause according to this saying of Iesus concerning them They haue hated me without cause And whereas some Iewes at this day doe say that they bee punished because some of them receiued this Iesus for the Christ there is no likelyhood of trueth in it For considering that Gods maner is to saue a whole Citie for some ten good mens sakes if they be found in it he would much rather haue saued his own people for so many mens sakes being the chiefe and representing the state of the Realme of Iewrie which did put their hands to the accusing of Iesus and for so great a multitudes sake which cryed out Away with him away with him crucifie him And if God confirmed the Priesthood vnto Phinees for his zealousnesse in punishing a simple Israelite what thinke you your selues to haue deserued for crucifying as you beare your selues on hand an enemie of God one that named himselfe Christ the Lords Anoynted yea and which sayd he was very God himselfe Yet notwithstanding in the middes of all these calamities the Citie and Temple of this Iesus were builded vp first in Iewrie it selfe and afterward in the whole world and according to Daniels Prophesie the Couenant of Saluation was stablished among all Nations by the preaching of his Apostles and the Sacrifices of the Iewes were then put downe and neuer anywhere reuyued againe since that tyme. And within a while after the very ydolatries of the Gentyles which had possessed the whole world were likewise dasshed also as wée shall see hereafter Whereof Rabbi Hadarsan writing vpon Daniell seemeth to haue giuen some incling in that he sayth Halfe a weeke that is to say three yeeres and a half shall make an end of Sacrificing And so doth R. Iohanan in that he sayth Three yeeres and a half hath the presence of the Lord cryed out vppon Mount Oliuet saying seeke God while he may be found and call vpō him while he is nere hand And vpon the Psalmes it is sayd That by the space of three yeeres and a halfe GOD would teache his Church in his owne persone Now it is manifestly knowen that Iesus preached betwéene thrée and fower yeres about Hierusalem and that his preaching was pursewed and continued afterward by his Apostles Sothen we haue in the Prophets a Christ the sonne of God which was to be borne of a Uirgin in the end of the thréescore and and ten wéekes mention in Daniel at Bethleem in Iewrie whom being foregone by an Elias it behoued to preache the kingdome of God to dye a reprocheful death to mans Saluation and to ryse agayne with glorie shortly wherevpon should follow the destruction of Hierusalem and of the Temple And at the very selfesame tyme we haue in our Gospels in the stories of the Iewes themselues one Iesus the sonne of God borne of the Uirgin Marie at Bethleem in Iewrie who beeing foregone by Iohn the Baptist preached the kingdome of Heauen both in woord and déede was crucified at Hierusalem beléeued on by the Gentiles and reuēged by the ouerthrowe and destruction of the Temple And all these circumstances and markes are so peculiar vnto him that they can by no meanes agrée to any other Wherefore let vs conclude that this Iesus is the very same Christ that was promised from time to time in the Scriptures and exhibited in his dew time according to our Gospell For that is the thing which wee had to proue in these last two Chapters The xxxj Chapter An answere to the Obiections which the Iewes alledge ageinst Iesus why they should not receiue him for the Christ or Messias NOw let vs examine the obiections of the Iewes and sée what they can say ageinst the Testimonie of all the Prophetes which agreeth fitly to Iesus and can agree to none but him First If Iesus say they were the Christ who should haue knowen and receiued him rather than the great Sinagogue which was at that time This obiection is very old for in the Gospell the Pharisies say Doe any of the Pharisies or chiefe Rulers beleeue in him saue onely this rascall people which know not the Lawe who be accursed Here I might alledge Simeon surnamed the rightuous a Disciple of Hillels who had serued fortie yeres in the Sanctuarie how hée acknowledged Iesus for the Sauiour of Israell and the light of the Gentiles in the which Simeon the Iewes themselues confesse that Spirit of God to haue sayled which was woont to inspire the greate Sinagogue and inspired him still during all his lyfe Also I could alledge Iohn the Baptist whom they called the great Rabbi Iohanan who acknowledging Iesus to be the sonne of God sent his Disciples vnto him And likwise Gamaliel whom in the Acts of the Apostles we reade to haue sayd If this Doctrine be of God it will continew if not it will perish and in Clement to haue bene a Disciple of the Apostles and in their owne bookes to haue bene the Disciple of the sayd Simeon And finally S. Paule him selfe a disciple of the sayd Gamaliel soothly a very great man and of great fauour and authoritie among them of whom they cannot in any wyse mistrust To bee short Iosephus reporteth that this Iesus was followed among that Iewes of all such as loued the trueth and that as many as loued the Lawe did greatly blame Ananus the highpréest for causing the disciples of Iesus to be put to death Also R. Nehumia the sonne of Hacana hauing recounted the miracles of Iesus within a litle of whose tyme he was sayth expresly I am one of those which haue beleeued in him and haue bene baptized and haue walked in the right way Likewise the S. Rabbi seemeth to haue hild of Iesus and if he did not then is it yet more wonderfull than if he had knowen him considering that he séemeth to describe this Iesus by the selfsame circumstaunces that the very Christ is described by him But without any stāding vpō that poynt I say further to them That whereas the Synagogue receiued not Iesus for the Messias their so doing is a token that he was the very Messias in deede and that their receiuing of Barcozba for the Messias was a sure proofe that Barcozba was not the Messias For it is expresly sayd by the Prophetes that when the Messias came vnto them they should be so blynde as not too
The Euerlasting will be our rightuousnesse And in trueth in the booke of Sabbath where these texts are examined Rabbi Eliezer sayth plainly That warres shall not ceasse at the first comming of the Messias but only at his second comming that is to wit when he commeth in glorie to iudge the world Of the same stampe are the obiections that followe It is written say they that Mount Oliuet shall bee split asunder in the middes and the one halfe fall towards the East and the other half towards the West which thing wee sée not yet come to passe Well they cannot denye but that this text speaketh plainly of the destruction of Hierusalem and if they will néedes followe the letter they shall see in their owne Histories that when the Romanes beseeged the Citie they made their trenches on that side Againe it is sayd That the Lords hil shal be aduaunced aboue al hilles and therevppon they dreame that Hierusalem shal be hoyssed vp thrée leagues into the ayre But these people which otherwhiles delight so much in Allegories ought to vnderstand these euen by the text it selfe For sayth the Prophet folke shall say let vs goe vp to Syon and God will there teach vs his waies The Lawe shall come out of Syon and the word of the Lord from Hierusalem And I pray you when came they better out than when the Apostles of Iesus did spread them abroade from Hierusalem thorowe the whole world And therefore Rabbi Selomoh saith vpon those texts that the Lord should at that tyme be magnified in Hierusalem by a greater signeâ— than he was in Sinai Carmel Thabor And Rabbi Abraham the sonne of Ezra sayth that this Aduaunced hill is the Messias who shal be highly aduaunced among the Gentyles Also it is sayd in Esay The Woolfe shall feed with the Lambe and in Malachie The Angell of the Lord shal make the waies playne which things say they wee see not yet performed nor many other such like But yet doth Rabbi Moyses Ben Maimon their great teacher of Rightuousnesse say Let it neuer come in thy head that in the tyme of Christ the course of the world shall any whit bee chaunged but when thou readest in Esay that the Woolfe shal dwell with the Lamb call to mynd how Ieremie sayth A Woolfe of the wildernesse hath wasted them and a Leopard watcheth at their Cities to snatch â—p them that come out For the meaning thereof is that both Iewes and Gentiles shal be coÌ„uerted to the true doctrine and not hurt one another but feede both together at one Crib according to this saying of Esay in the very same place The Woolfe shall eate Hay with the Oxe And after that maner sayth he must we expound all such maner of speeches which belong to the tyme of Christ for they be parabolicall and figuratiue of the same sort also is the exposition of Rabbi Dauid Kimhi howbeit that ordinarily he followed the letter the translation of Ionathan himselfe And as touching the Angell or Ambassador that should leuell the waies mentioned in the text of Malachie The meaning thereof sayth Ramban is that a great Prince shall bee sent afore the Messias come to prepare the harts of the Israelites to the battell But Malachie expoundeth himselfe more fitly in these wordes He shall turne the hearts of the fathers to their Children that is to say he shall exhort Israell to repentance The Obiections that insewe hereafter haue a little more weight in them It is written I will destroy all the Idolles of the earth Also I will hungerstarue all the Gods of the Gentyles And againe They shall all serue mee with one shoulder Would God that the abuses which are crept into the Christians Church against Christes ordinance were not so great a Stumbling blocke to the Iewes Neuerthelesse let them consider the great nomber of Gods woorshipped by the Assyrians Persians Greekes and Romaines at what tyme euery Countrey euery Citie euery Household and euery person had his peculiar God and his Idols by himselfe and they shall finde that within a little while after the Apostles had preached the doctrine of Iesus to the world they were all gone and not so much as any rememberance of them had now remayned but that in publishing the glorie of God wee had also declared their ouerthrowe Let them reade the Histories of the Heathen and aske of them what is become of their Oracles I meane the Deuilles which hild them in with their Lyes and Dreames and would not bee pacified but with the Sacrificing of men yea and euen of their owne Children and of all those wickednesses which had taken roote all the world throughout can they now shew any print at all Euen in the tyme of Tyberius began men to aske these questions namely what was the cause that Oracles spake not any more that Deuils wrought not as they had done aforetymes And that their Priestes wanted liuing And the Heathen themselues were driuen to answer that since the tyme that Iesus had dyed and his Disciples had preached abroade Arte Magicke and the Deuils had lost their power So sodeine so vniuersall and so wonderfull to our very enemies was the chaunge in that tyme and of so great force was the onely name of Iesus in the mouth of those poore men against Kings and Emperours against their Kingdomes and Empyres and against the vpholders and worshippers both of the Deuilles and of their Idols For briefnesse sake I omit this Obiection following and such other as that all Nations haue not followed Iesus For the Prophets haue tolde vs that but a remnant shall bee saued and Iesus himselfe sayth that Many be called and fewe chosen And it suffiseth that the voyce of the Gospell hath bene heard ouer all the world and that the gate of the Church is set open to all Nations Againe to come to an issewe they knowâ— that the word Col that is to say All betokeneth not that all men without exception shall followe him but that all Nations without difference shall bee his people Againe the seede of Christ say they should be euerlasting but we see not the seede of Iesus to bee so They say very well in that by the word Seede they meane Christs Disciples and in their owne language they terme them Sonnes or Children thankes be to the Lord there are Disciples of his still euerywhere through the whole world But the principall Obiection remayneth yet behind and that is this If Iesus be the Sonne of God say they why chaungeth he the Lawe of God his father deliuered by Moyses beeing as hath bene sayd alreadie both holy and inuiolable which who so doth how can hee bee receiued for the Messias Surely in this poynt where they charge Iesus with the changing and abolishing of the Law we be flat contrarie to them affirming that he did not change it or abolish it but more plainly
Suydas he addeth this praier I adiure thee ô Heauen the wise woorke of the great God I adiure thee ô voyce which God vttered first when he founded the world I adiure thee by the onely begotten Speeche and by the Father who conteyneth all things c. There is no man but he would woonder to sée in this author the very woords of S. Iohn and yet notwithstanding his bookes were translated by the Platonists long tyme afore the coÌ„ming of our Lord Iesus Christ. And it is no maruayle though we find sayings of his in diuers places which are not written in his Poemander considering that hee wrote sixe and thirtie thousand fiue hundred and fiue and twentie Uolumes that is to say Rolles of Paper as Iamblichus reporteth And it is said that this Trismegistus otherwise called Theut is the same that taught the AEgiptians to reade and which inuented them Geometrie and Astronomie which deuided AEgipt into partes which left his forewarning against ouerflowings written in two Pillers which Proclus reporteth to haue beene standing still in his tyme and to be short which had bene reputed and honored as a God among them And it may be that the treble outcry which the AEgiptians made in calling vppon the first Beginner whome they tearmed the darkenesse beyond all knowledge like too the Ensoph of the Hebrewes and the Night of the Orpheus was still remayning vnto them of his diuinitie Thus haue you séene how Zoroastres and Mercurie haue aunswered vnto vs the one for the Persians and Chaldeans and the other for the AEgiptians For in matters of Wisdome the wise ought to be beléeued for the whole Nation Now let vs come to the Greekes Orpheus which is the auncientest of them all as soone as he beginneth to speake of these misteries doth first and formost shut all Heathenish folke out of the doores and then sayth thus Let thine eye be vpon the word of God and start not away from it for that is it that made the world and is immortall and according to the old saying is perfect of it selfe and the perfecter of all things and it cannot be seene but with the mynd And afterward I adiure thee Ô Heauen sayth he the wyse woorke of the great God I adiure thee thou voyce of the father which he spake first and so forth For this as appeareth afore was a praier which he had learned of Mercurie from whom also procéeded the common misterie of the Poets That Pallas was bred of Iupiters brayne The same man sayth that the first Moother of things was wisdome and afterward delightfull loue And in his Argonawte hee calleth this loue most auncient most perfect in it selfe and the bringer foorth and disposer of all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherevpon Pherecydes also sayth That God intending too make the worlde chaunged himselfe into loue And Iamblichus sayth that Pythagoras had the Philosophie of Orpheus alwayes before his eyes and therefore it is not for vs to woonder though he attributed the creation of al things to Wisdome as Proclus reporteth commended three Gods togither in one as Plato doth Howsoeuer the case stand Aristotle sayeth that they fathered all their perfection vpon thrée And Parmenides did set downe Loue as a first beginner insomuch that in disputing in Plato he leaueth vs there an euident marke of the thrée Inbeeings or Persones as Plotine noteth but we shall see it layd foorth more playnly hereafter by Numenius the Pythagorist Zeno the father of the Stolks acknowledged the word to be God and also the Spirit of Iupiter And Alcinous reporteth that Socrates and Plato taught that God is a mynde and that in the sauie there is a certaine 〈◊〉 which Inshape as in respect of God is the knowledge which God hath of himselfe and in respect of the worlde is the Patterne or Mauld thereof and in respect of it selfe is very essence This in fewe words centeyneth much matter that is to wit the one essence which God begetteth by the conâ—idering or knowing of himselfe according to the patterne whereof he hath buylded the world But yet Plato himselfe speaketh more playnly in his Epinomis Euery Starre sayth he keepeth his course according to the order which ho logos the Word hath set which word he calleth Most diuine In his booke of Commonweale hee calleth him the begotten Sonne of the Good most lyke vnto him 〈◊〉 all things the Good sayth he being as the 〈◊〉 that shineth in the skye and the begotten Sonne beeing as the power of the Sunne whereby we see that is to say as the light Also in his Epistle to Hermius Erastus and Coriscus hee chargeth them with an othe to reade it often and at the least two of them togither saying Call vppon God the Prince of al things that are and shal be and the Lord the Father of that Prince and of that Cause of whome if wee seeke the knowledge aright we haue as much sâ—ill as can bee giuen to blessed men Then is there a Lorde and Cause of all things and moreouer a father of the same Lorde But anto King Dennis who had asked of him the nature of God he setteth down al the thrée parsons The nature of the first saith he is to be spoken of in Riddlewise to the intent that if any mischaunce befall the Letter by Sea or by Land the reading thereof may be as good as no reading at all Thus then stands the case All things are at commaundement of the King of the whole world and all things are for his sake and he is the cause of the beautie that is in them And about the second are the secoÌ„d things and about the third are the third and so foorth Now these as he himselfe sayth are Riddies to Dennis the Tyrant vnto whome he wrote and my eâ—pounding of them of the three Iâ—béeings or Persones in the Godhead is by the consent of all the Platonists who haue made long Commentaries vppon those woords agréeing all in this poynt that by these three Kings hee meaneth the Good the vnderstanding and the Soule of the World And Origene against Celsus alledgeth certayne other places of Plato to the same purpose the which I leaue for auoyding of tediousnes But this doctrine which beeing reuealed from aboue came from hand to hand vnto Aristotle who liued about thrée hundred yeres afore the comming of Christ séemeth to haue decayed in him who intending to ouerthrowe al the Philosophers that went afore him corrupted their doctrine diuers wayes And therewithall he gaue him self more to the seeking and searching of Naturall things than to the mynding of the Author of them Yet notwithstanding he fathereth the cause of all things vppon a certayne Understanding which he calleth Noun that is to say Mynde acknowledging the same to bee infinite in God and also vppon a Frée