them CHAP. XVII Of the cause of the enmity and antipathy of the Spaniards and the French I Have endeavoured divers times to finde out by speulation the fundamentall cause of the disdaine and hatred betweene these two Nations Because that though it is true that the Divell hath been the principall authour of this antipathy and discord to hinder the fruit which might grow through their union yet we must presume that hee found in them some ground and root to increase such a cursed dissention and pernitious poyson Some doe attribute this contrariety to the difference of the starres and their influences as their universall cause and say that the situation of the heavens and constellation of Spaine being farre different from that which the French have consequently the temperament and humours of both must bee very different They confirme this with Hippocrates doctrine in his booke de Aere Aquis Locis which saith that the divers constitutions of the starres is cause of the variety of temperaments complexions and humours of man And verily hee that considers the humours of these two Nations in order with the constellation and change of time shall find some likelihood in this reason seeing that in Spaine if hot weather once begins it continueth in the same vigour three or foure months there being in all that time no notable change and of the same compasse is the Spanish humour seeing that setting upon a purpose hee keeps himselfe firme in it without any change or alteration at all It is otherwise in France for there bee it Winter or Summer the cold nor the heat nor the faire weather never lasts three dayes together but the variablenesse of this constellation is such that a man can never perceive what time of the yeare it is The inhabitants of Paris know this to bee true because that in one day there you shall have the weather change eight or ten times the morning or day breake being very faire and two hours after there falling a deluge of rain after the which the Sunne will appeare more bright and resplendent then in the month of June and hee shall scarce have spread his beams but you shall heare a noise of thunder lightning and winde as though the world were sinking and therefore there being a dependencie from the influence and constellation the French as subjected to an inconstant clymate must needs be voluble and inconstant in their determinations And therfore hee that will assigne for the reason of this Antipathy and hatred the diversity of climates will say that the Divell grounded his malice upon nature making use of the differences of the starres This reason though in appearance it bears some shew of truth yet it doth not resolve our question seeing that though the starres have dominion over naturall things yet they do not extend their force to acts of absolute command of the will which are hatred and love and therfore we must confesse that those who bring this reason that the starres encline things subject unto them yet naturall ones and by reason of the league which it hath with their wills this influence may somewhat touch them moving them in some manner but yet it cannot force them And since this matter gives me occasion of speaking of a difficulty which is commonly handled by curious and learned men I will not passe it over with silence without speaking that which my small talent will affoord me All the world almost marvailes at some things which the Astrologers fore-tell which depend on mans wil over which no constellation influence or celestiall vertue hath power to move it or force it but contrariwise the will and discourse command and governe the starres with their influences Whence came that common Proverb Sapiens dominabitur astris and yet wee see that many times they prognosticate the truth and so punctually as if the starres did directly enforce mans will 〈◊〉 whence holding such predictions to bee miraculous they call the Astrologians Magicians noâ— beleeving that such things may be known by naturall reasons thinking it impossible that the command of the starres should go beyond materiall things under the which are not comprehended the powers and actions of our soule Surely they which finde great difficulty in this doe it not without great ground but if they â—hall consider the order which our understanding and the will â—old in producing of their actiâ—ns they shall finde that it may â—e done only by the perfect speâ—ulation of the starres without â—oing beyond the bounds of naâ—…re Since all will yeeld to me â—â—at the starres have their influâ—nces in sublunary things and â—â—at they have great power over â—aturall things they being governed by them and that being true the consequence followes that the celestiall vertue and influence shall have command over that which is natural in man as might bee the body with the senses to which our soule is so linked and so depends upon them that it can produce no act without them representing unto them the matter which is the intelligible species it necessarily followes that by reason of this union and streight bond of amity which they reciprocally hold the soule must somewhat participate of the dominion which directly falls upon the senses And although by this meanes they do not force but onely incline yeâ— our will after sinne remained so contrary to the law of Reason and so annexed to the sensitive appetite that it seldome withstands or contradicts it reproving those things which it propounds unto it which senses being governed by the influence and power of the starres as subject and depending on them the will must needs follow that which the appetite propounds unto it And therefore the Astrologers judging the actions of the will by the influence which governes the sensitive appetite many times prognosticate the truth though absolutely it depend on the will of man From this doctrine though true it followeth not that the influence of the starres onely and the diversity of the clymates are the fundamentall causes of the hatred antipathy of these two nations being there are many other nations in the world farre more different in climates and constellations which have not so much hatred and contrariety amongst themselves as these two we must therefore find out some other reason more powerfull then this of the starres I remember I have read in the histories of France that King Lewis the eleventh came to meet the King of Castile upon the confines of France to confer with him about some businesse of importance This King though magnanimous and generous had notwithstanding his particuler humour as other men have and so he ordinarily wore a leaden medall in his hat his cloathes and other French mens who were his followers were ordinary and of meane stuffe so that he was but meanly cloathed without any statelinesse or pompe the Spaniards did cloath themselves the best they could using all the pompe they could beleeving that the King of France
equalled to a poore mans Poverty is the quintessence of contempt the root of all worldly miseries and the grave of vertue Give mee the valiantest and couragiousest man in the world if he be poore a Hare shall not bee more timorous or cowardly then hee If hee bee honest and mannerly there is none but seeing him poore will esteeme him an hypocrite And finally povertie comming to any mans doore the world knowes him not his kindred denies him his friends retire from him his servants forsake him and hee seemes a stranger to all the world flying from him as if hee had the plague about him Poverty is the mother of Infamy for finding a man poore hee will bee apt to worke any deceit or roguery and attempt any treachery his ordinary companions being dishonour cruelty ignorance contempt falshood infidelity treacherie which and the like a poore man shall bee apt to commit What difference is there betweene a poore man and a withered tree a bow without a string a ship without tackling a cart without wheeles a bird without wings or a body without a soule Surely not any Since hee remaines as unable to doe any good thing as the above-named things Since therefore these are the effects which poverty produces in man with very good reason the vulgar sort affirme that nobility consists in the want of nothing And what doth man desire more then with nobility to enjoy those priviledges which wealth bringeth with it For let a man be the most infamous fellow under the Sunne yea let him be a hangman if hee be a rich man and in prosperity he shall straightwayes be a Cavalier Noble and well descended from the line of Alexander the Great and the first of the Baldwins Let him never have taken sword in hand nor seene battle unlesse it were drawne in some picture and they shall presently say that hee is a valiant Captaine and that in the Gulfe of Lepanto hee overcame the Turkish Armie and tooke the King of Miramamolin prisoner Let him not know the first letter of the A. B. C. and they shall suddenly canonize him for a Mercurius Trismegistus Finally being rich he shall in the vulgars eye have all the vertues eminences and noblenesse in the world for all will respect and reverence him pulling off their hats to him a mile off If hee comes into the Church they will all make way for him and give him their places At banquets they place him at the upper end of the table when he speaks they all stand attentive and hearken to him as if a Cicero were speaking The rich mans house is frequented by all men his children are made much of his servants are respected and stiled gentlemen if he be sicke the City is turned upside downe to find out presents to bring him his gate stands full of foot-clothes his hall full of visiters his tables attended on with musicke and in conclusion as all manner of miseries accompany the poore man so all contents favours and priviledges belong to the rich since in this wretched age money is the absolute Lord over all our actions This commands governes and keepes in subjection all the world and all things as Salomon saith obey it It attaines to all things makes all things easie Money is the object motive and end of all mans cares and desires towards it are bent all his endeavours and employments and every thing is governed by it This makes the bitter sweet the impossible easie the little great the false true and finally of nothing it makes all things and by reason of its great power and worth all the world loves it seekes it and adores it tormenting and even martyrizing themselves for to obtaine it What moves the Souldier to march up to the knees in water in the winter time loaden with iron nigh dead with hunger and thirst broken and bruised all in peeces with death daily before his eyes but only money what makes the Labourer to break his armes yea his whole body tearing up the earth with his labors but onely money What makes the mechanicall artificer passe continually the winter nights in working but onely money Who makes the Merchant venture his life upon two inches of planck and suffer so many storms and tempests but onely money Who makes the Lawyer lose his sight in studying Bartolus and Baldus the Physician Hippocrates and Galen but onely money Who makes the Councellour confound his braines to defend his causes per fas nefas but onely money In conclusion money is the end towards which man directs all his actions and endeavours The Physicians Recipe the Apothecaries misce the Lawyers Bartolus the Scriveners Pen the Notaries c. the Logicians Ergo the Grammarians Nominatives the Astrologians Heaven the Philosophers infinitum the Metaphyficians unum verum bonum the Shoomakers Nawle the Taylors Needle the Plowmans Plough the Noblemans Gentility and finally life and death it selfe lies in the hands of money since reward is able to condemne a just man to death and to give life to one that is condemned to dye Whence finally I conclude that the vulgar sort speakes not much out of purpose when it attributes all the noblenesse of the world unto money since in the world infinite wonders are wrought by it CHAP. V. Of the Noblenesse and Worth of the French and Spanish Nations IT were fitting and reasonable to leave this chapter unto fame as a lawfull Chronicler of this heroicall enterprise it being onely reserved for her to end that which my pen could not in an age beginne For if true noblenesse consists in the generosity of actions as wee have said in the precedent Chapter the actions of these two Nations are so many so excellent and so heroicall that it would bee impossible almost in an age to rehearse the least part of them I will not now stand to set downe the beginning and descent of these two most noble Nations it being notorious unto all and ordinary for them who have written of this matter I will only insist a little upon the contemplation of the rare and perfect vertues which God infused into them of which he may come to have knowledge and notice who will attentively consider the marvellous order which God held in the six daies of his Creation in which time he had beautified the large field of this world with so many varieties of nature and that they might make shew of the perfection which hee had granted them hee made the fourth day two faire and bright lights to which hee gave certaine vicars and substitutes giving them full licence to assist the day and night dividing ordering and appointing times and seasons and producing those marvellous effects which daily experience presents unto us in the theatre of this visible world The greatnesse and perfection of these two Lights might sufficiently be proved by the onely knowledge of the senses since he must be altogether blinde that opening his sight towards heaven doth
THE ANTIPATHY betweene the French and Spaniard Englished By Robert Gentilys Sold by R Martine at the Venice in old Baly 1641 THE 〈◊〉 AND THE Spaniard OR of the world displayed in lively 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 representing the Antipathy of their Humours and different Dispositions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Customes of both those Nations By R. G. Gent. LONDON Printed for 〈◊〉 at the Princes Armes in Pauls Churchyard TO THE RIGHT Worshipfull SIR PAUL PINDAR Knight YOur well known goodnesse which makes you admired praised by every one excited long since a desire in me to testifie unto the world and your self that though a stranger unto you yet I was not such a stranger in the city but that I had heard and taken notice of your daily pious and charitable workes So that this my translation being to goe forth into the view of the world I have made bold to dedicate it unto you for two causes The first my desire to make knowne unto you that you had an unknowne servant who had long wished for some opportunity whereby he might manifest the desire he had to tender his service unto you The second to make this poore worke more acceptable to the world by prefixing your beloved name in the front of it which is greater in the worlds esteeme Quam cui possit invidia nocere Your curteous and noble mind will I hope not disdaine the gift though so smal that it meriteth not so great a Patron I promising ere long to present you with something which shall bee mine owne invention So wishing you many happy daies fore-runners of eternal happinesse I rest Your Worships most devoted servant Robert Gentilis To the Reader TO obviate an Objection I thought good to write these few lines unto thee For it may bee said that the extolling of one is in some sort the vilifying of another and the glorious praises given in this book to the French and Spaniards may seeme a disparagement to our Nation But when I think upon that Prince who desirous to have a valiant man brought before him and one being presented unto him who had many scarres about him which were questionlesse tokens of his bold adventerousnesse said he had rather have had the man who gave those wounds I resolve my selfe that our Nation is rather commended and magnified by their praises then otherwise For if their conquests be so glorious what must the English renowne be who never could bee said to have had but the upper hand of either of them in all attempts or enterprises witnesse Histories Chronicles of all ages If the Authour have beene any thing hyperbolicall in their praises impute it to the Spanish phrase humour which cannot speake in a low stile or strain in your owne discretion accept of his meaning circumscribe his generalities As for example when he saith that these two great Monarchs protect defend others taxe him not with so much indiscretion as to imagine he meant all but onely such petty Princes Dukes as have their adherencies and dependancies upon them And not those who equall in power need not crave ayde of any but God either to defend or vindicate them So submitting my authour and my selfe to thy curteous censure I rest Thine if thou esteeme me worthy of thy favour R. G. The opposition and conjunction of the two great lights of the EARTH CHAP. I. That Peace and Vnion are Gods Attributes and the perfection of nature THAT supreame God who made the Heavens chroniclers of his glory and greatnesse to give us by his visible effects some knowledge and notice of the invisible treasure deposited in the deepe treasures of his owne omnipotency In all his operations as well internall or as the Divines doe terme them ad intra which are the generation of the word and production of the holy Ghost as also in the externall as the creation the providence the preservation and the like sheweth us that his most essentiall and proper attribute is Union Since the reall distinction admitted by sacred Divinity betweene the Divine persons is not sufficient to make the Son not to be the same with the Father and both one with the holy Ghost Nor doth that infinite variety of divers natures whereof this artificial frame of the world is composed besides the universall dependency which they have from one beginning refuse the bond of peace wherewith they are straightly joined together For proof of the first the efficacy wherewith the same God did so much give in charge and urge unto his chosen people the unity of his divine nature shall serve me for a concluding reason he saying unto them a thousand times Hearken O Israel thy God is one and one is his name Which wordes as they are most true and unreproovable witnesses of this truth shall save me a labour of proving it by naturall and theologicall reasons The second which is the dependency which all creatures have from one onely beginning may be plainly demonstrated by that which historicall Moses writ the beginning of his sacred history attributing the creation of the world to one sole cause Which truth that great Mercurius Trismegistus did also leave engraven in pure Emerald beeing there in followed by the whole troop of Philosophers who unanimously confessed one first cause eternall independent and immortall needing therein no other Tutor but onely the light of naturall reason And if any curious man should aske me the proof of the third point he may yeeld himselfe satisfaction by considering the streight bonds and intrinsecall union wherewith all natures doe linke themselves one with another untill they come unto the first linke from whence they were taken Nor let any one thinke this union and naturall concord of the creatures to be a borrowed perfection or accidentally belonging unto them seeing that the supreame architect who made all thinges deliberately and with wisdome and measure having set every one of them in their owne poste and place convenient for their natures gave unto them all joined together union for the center of their preservation And that so properly and intrinsecally that if the said union could be broken the whole frame of the world whose harmony consisteth in the reciprocall consonancy of all its parts would be brought to nothing He that shall with particular attention consider the seven rings or linkes whereof the chaine of this world is composed shall easily finde out this marvailous bond of union Beginning from the first and last which is God who though he be generally united to all creatures which live in him subsist by him and move through him yet by a more particular assistance he is united unto the Angelicall nature as the perfectest of all creatures This joyneth it selfe with the nature of the heavens which by reason of its incorruptibility is the most perfect next unto the Angelicall To the celestiall enterlaceth it selfe the elementall in whose linke consisteth the diameter of the chain as that which according
harmony of the world might come to be lost whose preservation is grounded upon the incorruptible unity of this matter It hath bin created but not from everlasting as Plato and others have affirmed it being impious to give or attribute the glory of eternity and of being without a beginning unto a creature which is due onely to God Finally it is sufficient for us to know without engulfing our selves into any other metaphysick that the matter whereof all corporall things are framed is of one and the same kinde and by that reason all your materiall species or kindes are united and coupled together And because that the formes of the compounds which must necessarily be sundry and diverse to make a perfect and faire compound should not deviate from that unity which God ordaines and nature pretends The supreame Artificer determined that they should all come forth of the entrailes of the materia or as the Divines call it de potentia materie that so in all their alterations and changes they might be tributary unto that beginning out of whose bowels and entrailes they came the power of corrupting engendring and altering resting onely in it as not being subject to goe out of the bounds of union and peace By this doctrin is confuted the opinion of many moderne Phylosophers who judging by the sence that which is contrary to reason beleeve that the formes of the Elements have no other end then to destroy and corrupt As for example the fire which we see consumes and devoures all as it findes living in perpetuall warre with the water as also the earth with the ayre For if we leave that seemingnes which sence sheweth us and examine the trueth with reason we shall finde that the elements being constitutive parts whereof all your mixtes are compounded it is repugnant and contrary to them to have destruction be their end their nature being essentially ordained to compound Whence is concluded that the naturall end of the Elements is nothing but union And although there ordinarily seemes to be a continuall enmity betweene them destroying one another yet we must hold for a certaine that this warre is onely made for the preservation of peace and union since the fire in seeking to persecute its contrary doth nothing but seeke a temperament to the rigor of his proper strength and any thing else which might hinder the union and conjunction whereby the compound is preserved So that we will conclude this Chapter saying that Union is an attribute of God the treasure of nature the naturall center of creatures and chain of the whole world This unites the mortall with the divine as the eternall Word with humane nature The mortall with incorruptible as the body with the soule The materiall with the spirituall as the understanding with the sences The living with the insensible as beasts with the earth The heaven with their elements the elements with man man with God And finally from God to God there is nothing but peace concord union agreement and love CHAP. II. That enmitie and discord are monsters of nature and the divels owne children FRom the precedent Chapter we may by very good consequence inferre that which we seeke to prove in this For if union and peace as we have proved be Gods attributes and the perfection of nature it is plaine that enmity and discord capitall enemies of union must of necessity be contraries to God and nature being altogether averse to the noblest perfection that our understanding can conceive in God which is unity and simplicity wherewith his divine attributes and perfections are so indivisibly united together that no manner of distinction can be admitted betweene them either reall formall or fundamentall as Divines doe terme them unlesse we should allow of the distinction of reason which our understanding licenciously frameth conceiving that to be distinct which in it selfe is indivisibly one Daily experience sheweth us the great repugnancy and contrariety that is betweene discord and nature either of them shewing it by their effects seeing the proper and principall end of the one is to corrupt diminish ruine and undoe Of the other to generate to joyne to multiply and unite all wordly things with the most firme bond of peace Because that knowing by evident induction that discord and enmity are enemies unto God and the very plagues of nature we may with good reason conclude them to be the workes of the divell wrought by his owne hands so pestilent a fruite doubtlesse proceeding from such an accursed tree The Apostle did in three wordes admirably set downe the genealogie and discent of this fierce monster saying that through the divells envy death was come into the world Wherein we must note according to the exposition of some Doctors that the Apostle in this place calleth dissention and discord by the name of death And that very properly seeing that the Doctors meaning by death as well the soules as the bodies death we shall finde death to be nothing else but a wretched separation and unfortunate divorce tending to ruine and perdition And as for the death of the body none can be so ignorant as to deny this truth beholding with his owne eies the dissolution of the streightest and internallest friendship as humane understanding can conceive and after that the miserable accidents which ordinarily accompany a dead carcasse And if this passage bee taken for spirituall death it being an enmity and divorce between God and the soule and not an ordinary divorce but an infinite one by reason of the infinite distance that is between God and a sinner we still conclude that death and discord are one and the selfe same thing and both daughters to the divell and envy as the Apostle saith the motive which moved the divell to bring this accursed dissention into the world was a cruell impatient rage against man being not able to endure that God should grow enamored of so ugly base and wretched a nature as humane nature is and that he should enrich it with so many extraordinary favours priviledges as unite himselfe hypostatically to it and make it the instrument of redemption denying that favour to the Angelicall nature which is more noble and perfect then the humane and so being desperately enraged he contracted matrimony with envy in which wedlocke death was borne so that death or discord hath the divell for her father and envy for her mother her grandfathers were pride and contempt and her first root was ambition This cursed plant was the first Angels plague and that which made him to exceed the bounds of his owne nature rashly opening the way unto an unbridled appetite and ambitious desire to climbe up unto the heaven of divine perfection to place his throne above the starres and to be like unto the most high Making the consideration of himselfe and the beauty and perfections wherewith he was enriched the instruments of so blinde a pretence and proud absurdity Judging himselfe thereby
similitude and quality so wel both in the beginning middle and end that there is not the least tittle of difference For as for the beginning it is well knowne that they all came out of the dust or slime of the earth and that they were all borne naked and came into the world weeping The equality of the end may bee known by the universall attribute which all Adams posterity doe owe unto their birth Since that neitehr Scepter nor Miter could ever finde any Antidote or spell against death And as for the middle which is from the time of their birth untill death wee have already said with Iob that mans life is a continuall warfare full of all manner of afflictions and calamities as may bee devised or imagined And this is universall and common to all there being none exempt from crosses So that there being in man a perfect and totall similitude with all his particulars and all agreeing in one and the same degree of misery basenesse and calamity there being none in this more noble or priviledged then others we conclude that pride and persecuting of his like in man is a monster and prodigy of nature and a frenzy of the understanding Hee being by his basenesse bound to humble himselfe and by his equality tyed to love those of his owne species Whence I doe inferre that your naturallists doe with very good reason call the Lyon King of the Beasts and preferre him before other Beasts for generosity and strength because God made him advantaged and shewing oddes of the rest but by what reason can one man esteeme himselfe to bee more then another What prerogative or excellency did nature grant unto him which she denied to other men which being most certaine wee may securely say that a man which is proud and at enmity with another is worser then the Divell or to say better pride and ambition is not so unproper for the Divell as for man Because if Lucifer did pretend to set his throne above the starres to be like unto the most high and had other foolish fancies and rash propositions though hee had no true nor reall ground for it the creature being incapable of the creators perfection and noblenesse yet he saw and knew in himselfe some likelihood and colour for his unbridled appetite knowing himselfe immortall incorporeall and the most beautifull of all creatures being as Isaiah saith not onely a bright shining starre but Lucifer unto the morne and the most perfect of all other angelicall spirits Moreover the whole army of Divells is united and concordant in the persecution of the soule one not entermedling in the others office nor endeavouring to disturbe or crosse the temptation that another shall intend Whereby it is proved that man being the most abject and wretched creature and having nothing but what other men are also partakers of growing proud and persecuting another man hee goeth beyond the nature of a brute beast and is worser then the Divell himselfe CHAP. IV. Of the noblenesse of man THE conclusion of the precedent Chapter gives us great occasion to treate in this Chapter of the noblenesse of man and of his excellencies by reason of a motive any one may have to wonder at our last proposition wherein we concluded that man is the most abject imperfect and wretched creature of the world Which being considered at the first sight seemeth quite contrary to that which both Scripture and common Philosophy teacheth us Canonizing man for the noblest and perfectest creature And truely if we doe with particular attention consider that high sublime and lofty degree of noblenesse and perfection which man attained unto by that Hypostaticall union which the divine word made in the incarnation wee shall freely confesse that it is the noblest and perfectest of all creatures since the angelicall nature did not onely remaine inferior to it but also subject to adore it in Christs humanity Whence as some Doctors testifie the first Angell tooke occasion to rebell against his Creator not being able to brooke the exaltation of humane nature and the extraordinary and exquisite favors which by revelation hee knew God would communicate unto it Neither is that proofe which is ordinarily brought by them who thinke man inferiour to the Angell of any great force or power for whereas the vulgar translation saith Thou hast made him little lesse then the Angels the Hebrew hath it Thou hast made him little lesse then Eloim which according to some Rabbins interpretation signifies that man is little lesse then God because that the word Eloim signifies many times God and many times Angell And that exposition is not much out of purpose but grounded upon very good reason for if we attentively consider that marvellous union which God made with our nature we shall finde that Gods Epithetes were thereby so appropriated unto man that it may truly be said that man is little lesser then God which thing the Angell cannot glory in hee being deprived of so notable a favour And although in all creatures there bee in some fashion a certaine resemblance of God yet it is more perfect in man then in any of the rest since that in none but man is to be found the Word incarnate His composition consisting of Soule whose three powers are correspondent to the three divine persons and of body which united to the soule is correspondent to the divine Word in which are divinely united Body and Divinity And of all this the Angell is incapable because he is incorporeall The Divines call these perfections perfections of meere grace because that God would out of his will and mercie so favour this nature though shee could no way deserve it by any vertue or excellencie And in this all cōfesse that human nature is more noble then the Angelicall since God did not bestow so many favours upon the Angell as hee did upon man But if wee consider both these natures of themselves without any respect to grace many or almost all will say that the Angell is more perfect then man In the deciding of which question I cannot resolve my selfe but with a distinction Noting first that in man there are two things to be considered the Soule and the body Of the soule some say that it is of the same substance nature as the Angels are incorporeall and rationall as they but that is not a compleat substance as Logicians call it wherein it only differs from Angels Others ingulfing themselves into an abysse of Metaphysickes say that the Angell is more perfect then the soule since he is not subject to the imperfections and miseries of the soule and hath his will not indifferent to good or evill as the soule hath but onely frame himselfe to doe that which is good and just Which reason I cannot allow of For considering the Angell according to his owne nature or in puris naturalibus as Divines tearme it he is as indifferent to good or evill as the rationall soule
which barbarous nations have to multiply their beastly Customes Statutes and Edicts proceeds from nothing else but from the enmity and disagreement of these two and that the greatnesse of many Princes who at this time have great dominion and command in divers parts of the world groweth from the small confidence these have in one another each doubting to lose their owne whilest they engage themselves in the conquest of others Who makes any question but if they would with one accord have communicated that wonderfull talent of knowledge vertue and learning which God hath bestowed upon them but that they might have gotten out of the divells hands an infinite number of soules which for want of teaching lie now buried in the darknesse and chaos of ignorance and error And wee see that by reason of our sinnes and to the great affronting of the valour and greatnesse of these two nations a barbarous and tirant King governes all the East Christendome also in part yeelding him obedience hommage and tribute and all the world honours and holds him for a great Lord to the great disparagement of the honour due to the Catholick faith her chiefe and defenders yet it hath no other ground nor cause but this accursed hatred and pernicious enmity For the strength and valour of these two nations lying buried in themselves necessarily their enemies must increase and so innumerable heresies errors sects and unbeleefes spread themselves abroad in the world by which the body of the Church is daily persecuted and evill intreated wherefore the divell being cunning and well experienced made use of the invention and strategeme of the good shepeard when a troope of wolves fall upon his sheepe which is to set his dogs and mastifs upon them that whilest they two fight his flocke may passe securely and untouched A cunning and marveilous invention of the divell to come to his accursed ends He saw plainly that if he left the strength and mouthes of these two valiant Lions unmuzelled they would have swallowed up all infidelity and barbarisme filling it with all manner of holinesse and vertue so that there would have nothing redounded unto him but shame and confusion wherefore fearing to lose the command he had over the infidels he caused hatred and discord to come between these two nations and so diverted them that they might not disturbe the increase and prosperity of his vassals and truely when I consider this point I am astonished with wonder being not able to imagine or think what vaile or cataract so blinds these Nations as that they cannot see these evills and that they will suffer their enemies to grow great and exalt themselves before their faces to the blemish of that reputation they hold in the world it being thought that they are the two greatest Monarchies of it And if the zeale of their own honour did not move them to open their eies and to take it ill that they being stiled the one most Christian and the other most Catholick a barbarous infidell and tirant should usurpe and command the holy Sepulchre and that he should entitle himselfe grand Signior and the continuall cries of poore Grecia Bulgarie Sclavonia and Armenia and many other poore Christian Provinces which onely implore the favour and protection of those two Nations or either of them for to bring them out of the wretched slavery and servitude wherein they live yet might they be moved to compassion by reason that it is one of the easiest securest enterprises that is in the world as it is well knowne to them who have been in those parts This is the snare wherewith the divell keeps tied the strength of these two Nations and the vaile which hee hangs before their eies there being at this time an infinite number of valiant souldiers buried in sloth who study nothing but how to undo and breake the Spanish power and policy who if they were imploied against the infidells would performe more heroicall exploits then Homer writes of Hector and Vlysses With such perswasions and deceits doth this cursed enemy bewitch a great number of Cavalliers Gentlemen that live contented with their meane fortunes who if they would employ their valours and warlike courages in Turky would not make plaine Cavalliers but mighty Monarchs In the same manner are in France many Illustrious Princes and magnanimous Lords which following the ordinary course of the Court and service of their King live at home who if they did put to execution the inclination of their noble mindes in Africke or in Asia would conquer more Provinces then Ferdinand Cortese did in America Wherefore I know not by what diabolicall witchcraft such noble understandings are blinded that they doe not perceive that by this hatred and enmity both Nations lose many Crownes and Kingdomes which they might have subject to their dominions And that their union should not onely not suffer themselves to hurt one another but neither of them to bee hurt by other Nations but be assured also that such a concord and amity could have no other end nor issue but the service of God the exaltation of his Church the peace of the world the banishing of infidelity and the increase of the common good Things which this pestiferous venome of enmity troubles and hinders there redounding from it nothing but multiplicity of heresies in Europe institution of sects and religions in the East the observance of beastly and salvage customes and statutes in those parts of Libia and Ethiopia the exaltation of Mahomets law in Africke and Asia the Turks swelling pride in Constantinople the little respect and discourtesie of the King of Fesse and Marocco the poore Christians miseries which live among the infidels the captivity of the holy Sepulchre the martyrdoms and torments of an infinite number of slaves in heathen lands the multitude of Lordships and States which know no Kings nor Lords the persecution of the Catholicke Church the perturbations and commotions of common-wealths the small security of neighbours the contempt of those who are farre off and the boldnesse of vassalls All these things happen by reason of the hatred and enmity of these two nations which certainly if they were as well united in conformity of wills as they are in confederation by way of marriage scarce the world were able to resist the force of such an union In witnesse whereof I will alledge a reason which an old and wise Moore told me upon a Friday in Constantinople who after hee had long questioned with mee concerning the manner of living of the Kings of Europe and particularly of these two kingdoms which they confesse to bee the chiefe and the most powerfull of Christendome he told me that every time they came into their Moscheas to say their prayers they prayed to God that the hatred of these two Nations might last for ever that the one being continually suspicious and mistrustfull of the other they might not remember them nor thinke upon taking armes against
when hee gave the Israelites their freedome taking them out of Egypt hee could in the night have opened the gates of the citie and made them come out or by day have blinded all the people of Egypt that they might not have seene them or finde some other meanes to free them out of bondage but if he had done so hee had not caused that feare which materiall means did and the visible tokens which he shewed in turning the waters into bloud filling the land with Locusts and Frogges and Flies with other marvailous wonders effects by means of which all that barbarous people and even Pharaoh himselfe confessed the omnipotencie of the God of the Hebrewes and besought Moses and his brother Aaron to pray for them that those plagues might be taken away from them and that they would obey him And if God had used some other signe as had not been so plaine and manifest as this and that which hee used at the red Sea peradventure the Egyptians would not have attributed the deliverance of their slaves to the power of God nor the people of Israel who was rough and of a hard beliefe would have believed that he by his omnipotence onely could have wrought any such effect In the law of Grace God used the same meanes to make himselfe knowne seeing that all the miracles which hee wrought as the Evangelists set them downe were done by sensible and materiall signes from which every grosse and rough understanding might gather the greatnesse and the supreme power of the Creator For who could be so grosse but seeing sight restored to a blinde man with onely laying a little dirt upon his eyes might not know that the dirt of it selfe had no such vertue and that therefore hee who applied that medicine had a command above nature And who will but say seeing a Lazarus who had lyen in the grave foure dayes raysed onely by saying Lazarus come forth that hee had power over death And that the satisfying five thousand people with five loaves and two fishes onely by blessing of them doth not infer supreme worth and power And that seeing the healing of one the restoring of sight to another turning water into wine banishing death by naturall means doe not presuppose that this is a supernaturall power and vertue And if that Christ had done these wonders without visible and materiall meanes onely by his absolute power peradventure his infinite power had not beene knowne and therefore let us conclude with Saint Paul that by meanes of visible and materiall things wee come to the knowledge of the invisible things of God as his Infinitenesse his Immensity his Goodnesse and Omnipotencie And if in all nature there be any visible thing which sheweth us this divine power it is the miraculous conjunction of these two Nations so prodigious a one that any grosse understanding may plainly perceive that it is an immediate worke of Gods omnipotencie which only could undoe that which the Divell with so much diligence and art had done since we cannot imagine that any secondary causes could have so much worth industry and power as in an instant to unite two natures so infinitely distant one from the other and make them come froÌ„ an extream hatred and enmity to the other extreame of union And seeing that if the discord and contrariety of these two Nations had been a new or superficiall accident the onely consideration of good understandings and the perspicuity of wise and prudent persons might have been sufficient to remedy it but being nature and antipathy which like originall sin goes by succession from the Fathers to the children and so to the grand-children and especially being fostered and maintained by the Divels malice we must infallibly beleeve that it is the worke of heaven and that this union was onely reserved to God for to prevent an abysse of evils and miseries which by the said enmity were threatned And so God to whose goodnesse it belongeth to dispose sweetly of things having created and preserved the world by means of the union and peace of his creatures seeing that the discord of these two Nations was sufficient almost to ruine it stayed through his omnipotencie the fury of this raging evill and through his goodnesse and mercie provided such a perfect and salutiferous remedy as this divine union is that so the world might not only be freed from its imminent ruine the calamities which threatned it by reason of this enmity but might also bee enriched with those pretious fruits which from this union may be expected And as the end which God pretended in this confederacie is no other but this so it is plainly knowne that the Divell with all his followers hath not had power to hinder the execution of it though hee raised a thousand inventions pretences and feares both amongst the common people and also the most Noble egging them on with the fire of enmity and hatred to oppose themselves with all the power as might bee against Gods decree the Common-wealths repose and the good of the whole world and though the Divell went loose and puffed up holding the victory certaine with his forces against that small aid which was promised yet his care and labour being against the will of God and the universall peace I wonder not that God did send a woman to breake his head through the wisdom of so good a physitian whilest hee laid wait and snares for her heele And though there were no other reason to prove that this confederacie came from heaven this would of it selfe be a sufficient proofe that wee see it was gloriously effected against all humane endevours and propounded difficulties and against such great oppositions as I will now leave to the wise mans contemplation and the pennes of others who peradventure will write of this matter Wherefore I conclude saying that this conjunction being made at that time when this antipathy was most rooted between these two Nations wee must needs confesse that it was done by divine power since neither hatred nor disdaine nor the diversity of climates and humours nor the variety of customes nor mistrust nor the Divels endevours were able to hinder it CHAP. XIX Of Gods marvailous invention to unite these two Nations IT will not be hard to perswade an understanding man that this so important so glorious confederacie comes from heaven was ordained for the generall good of mankinde the effects circumstances means of effecting it having been such and so mysterious that they prove it to be true and that which now stupifies mans understanding is the marvailous and divine invention which God used in uniting those two Nations so different amongst themselves a meanes so â—ngenious and soveraigne that it not bee hoped nor looked for from any other place thâ—n from that inaccessible and majesticall Consistorie of the holy Trinity seeing that in it God hath shewed three effects of his immense God-head which are Omnipotencie in uniting from