matters and stirs them up by wicked and mischievous advice who hunts out for Causes and who is the greatest Scolder and Brauler to make the things which are just and true seem doubtful and unjust and by such Weapons as those to chase and overthrow Justice with whom Justice is nothing else but publike Gain and the Judge that sits upon the Bench is forc'd to confirm what Money makes appear just Nay they expose those things which are not even privations of things and Silence it self seeing that as none will speak but for Gain there 's none will hold his tongue but for Reward after the example of Demosthenes who when he askt Aristodemus a Compipiler of Fables what Fees he had got for Pleading answered A Talent But I replyed Demosthenes have got more to hold my tongue So that the tongue of a Lawyer unless fast bound in Silver chains is very mischievous and pernicious CHAP. XCIV Of the Calling of Publike Notaries AMong these Publike Notaries are to be reckon'd whose Injuries Falsities and Mischiefs continually by them wrought all are bound to endure while they pretend to have their credit license and authority from the Apostolike and Imperial power Among whom they are to be accounted the chiefest who know best how to trouble the Court perplex Causes counterfeit Wills and Deeds to abuse and deceive their Clyents and if need be to forswear themselves venturing at any Roguery rather than be outdone in plotting and contriving Cheats Scandals Quirks Tricks Quillets Treacheries Scylla's and Charybdis's by any other person whatsoever There is no Notary can frame an Instrument from whence there may not be some cause of Quarrel pickt out if any person have a minde to contest for there will be some way or other found out either to finde out a defect in the Writing or to invalidate the faith of the publike Notary These they call the Helps of the Law which they teach the Contentious how to flie to and lay hold of These are the effects of their Watching and Labour wherewith with they soften the rigour of the Law when they finde their Clyents willing to contend for he shall have so much Law as he can by his power maintain the Law averring that we cannot be equal to those that are more potent than we are CHAP. XCV Of the Study of the Law TO this those vast Gyants have relation who contrary to the Edict of Justinian have begot so many innumerable Volumes of Comments Glosses and Expositions every one differing in their Interpretation Besides this they have gathered together such Storms of Opinions so many Woods of dark and subtil Counsels and Cautions wherewith the Iniquity of Advocates is furnished as if Truth did not consist more in Reason than in confused Testimonies rak'd together out of such a monstrous heap of Opiniasters among whom there is so much Dissention so much Discord that he that knows not how to differ from another to contradict the Sayings and Opinions of others call in question the justice of Adjudged Cases and to wrest good Laws to their own Humours and Interests is not to be thought Learned among um Thus is the Study of the Law made a deceitful Net and Gin of Iniquity these are the Crafts and these the Arts by which the whole Christian world is governed the Foundations of Empires and Kingdoms and out of these Knaves are chosen Presidents of Parliaments Senators and several great Officers of Popes and Princes as if wicked Advocates would prove just Judges when they came to be the Heads of the Nation These like the Titans to Jove become formidable to their Princes themselves Out of these come the swag-belly'd Secretaries and Purple Chancellors of Emperours and Kings who govern all affairs of State dispose of all Favours Gifts Benefits Offices Dignities and Patents of the prince who sell all Right and Justice all Law Equity and Honesty and compel others to purchase of them According to whose will such and such are to be Allies such Enemies to the Prince with whom sometimes they joyn in Leagues sometimes make War according to their pleasures And being rais'd from the lowest degree of Poverty and meanness of condition to so high a pitch of Dignity meerly by prostituting their Tongues at length they grow so bold and audacious that without calling to answer without order of Council they will convict and condemn men and many times alter forms of Government they themselves growing fat with Thievery and Robbery CHAP. XCVI Of the Inquisition HEre we must not omit the order of Predicants Inquisitors after Hereticks whose power when it ought to be founded upon the holy Scriptures yet they derive it all from the Canon-Law and Pontifical Decrees as if it were impossible the Pope should erre leaving the Scripture as a dead letter and onely the shadow of Truth and reject it as the Buckler and defence of Hereticks Neither do they receive the Traditions of the ancient Fathers and Doctors because they may both deceive and be deceived but pretending that the Roman Church cannot erre of which the Pope is the Head and therefore the Authority of his Court is the Rule of their Faith enquiring no further in their examinations than whether men believe in the Church of Rome which if any person refractory do grant then quoth they the Church condemns such or such a Proposition as heretical scandalous and offensive to pious ears and then compel the person to revoke and recant his Errour If the offender continue to justifie himself by Reason or Scripture or both straight with great clamour and mouthing they interrupt him telling him he is not before the Chair of Doctors or a Convocation of Scholars but a Tribunal of Judges he is not to dispute there but to answer directly whether he will stand to or abide the Decree of the Church or renounce his Opinion if not they shew him Faggots and Fire saying Hereticks are to be convinced with Faggot and Fire not with Scripture and Arguments and so compel a man not convicted of any perverse obstinacie contrary to his Conscience to abjure those things which if he deny they deliver him over to the Secular power as a deserter of the Church to be burnt saying with the Apostle Remove the evil thing from among you In ancient times such was the lenity and meckness of the Church that they neither punisht those that relaps'd into Judaism nor Blasphemies and Berengarius revolting to a most damnable Heresie was not onely not put to death but continued in his Archdeaconship But now if a man slip into the least Errour 't is much more than his life is worth and he shall be thrown into the Fire by these Inquisitors for a trifle Perhaps it is now convenient for the Church to use such severe chastisement for fear of losing its innate piety Sometimes Hereticks are Inquisitors after Hereticks which was the occasion of the Decree which Clement made But Inquisitors ought not to hold dark
not the Opinions of Men not Custom nor the invented Fictions of the Wise not the Magnificent Decrees of Sects not Syllogisms Enthymems not Inductions not soluble Consequences but Divine Oracles consonant to one another received by the Universal Church with an unanimous and solid consent approved by Miracles Prodigies Wonders Holiness of life and testimony of Martyrdom The Doctors of this Prophetick Theologie were Moses Job David Solomon and many other Canonical Writers and Prophets The Teachers of the New Testament were the Apostles and Evangelists but all these notwithstanding they were fill'd with the Holy Ghost yet all at one time or other stray'd from the Truth and in some measure spake untruly not that they did so wittingly or craftily for to say so would be a greater Errour than that of Arius or Sabellicus subverting the whole Authority of the Scripture in which Errour notwithstanding the great and holy S. Jerome persisted disputing against S. Augustine about the reprehension of Peter for S. Paul said that S. Jerome told a lye craftily Which should it be granted and that such an untruth should be admitted in the Bible immediately as S. Austin saith the whole certainty of the Bible would fall to ruine But S. Jerome being thus admonisht after many Contradictions and defences at length acknowledged his Errour and confess'd the Truth But what I say that the holy Writers did secundum quid speak things not altogether true I would have to be understood so as that they did not willingly erre but onely stray through humane frailty Thus Moses failed in telling the people he would bring them out of Aegypt and carry them into the Land of Canaan for though he brought them out of Aegypt he did not carry them into the Land of promise Jonas failed in foretelling the destruction of Nineveh within forty days intended but delay'd Elijah failed in foretelling many things to come to pass in the days of Ahab which yet were not fulfill'd till after his death Isaiah failed foretelling the death of Hezekiah the next day when his life was prolonged fifteen years afterwards Many other Prophets also fail'd and their predictions are found either not to have come to pass at all or else to have been suspended The Apostles also and Evangelists fail'd Peter also fail'd when he was reprehended by S. Paul Matthew also fail'd when he wrote that Christ was not dead till the Launce had pierced his side But this defect was no defect of the Holy Ghost but either of the Prophet not rightly delivering what was suggested by the Holy Ghost or the Vision did declare or else proceeding from some alteration of the event of the Command the sentence of the Oracle being either alter'd or defer'd Hence it follows that all Prophets and Writers in some things seem to fail and erre according to the Scripture which saith All men are lyers Onely Christ both God and man never was nor shall be found to fail nor shall his words be altered or be defective who void of Errour divulged his Oracles most immutable as he said himself The heaven and the earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away Now because all Truth is through the Holy Ghost therefore onely Christ possesses this Truth firmly nor shall it ever depart from him but remains in him But it is not so with others for the Spirit was with Moses but when he strake the Rock it was departed It was with Aaron but departed when he made the Calf It was with Anna their sister but not when she murmured against Moses It was with Saul David Solomon Isaiah c. but rested not constantly with them Neither are Prophets always Prophets or Seers or foretellers of things to come nor is Prophecie a continual habit but a gift passion or transient spirit And whereas there is no man who doth not sin so there is no man from whom the Spirit doth not sometimes depart and leave him unless it be Christ the onely Son of God of whom it was therefore said to John He upon whom thou sawest the Spirit descending and remaining with him he is the Son of God who Baptizeth with the Holy Ghost being also able to impart the same to others Therefore as saith Simonides onely God hath this honour that he is onely Metaphysical so may we say of Christ that onely Christ hath this honour to be a Divine However let no man think that the Writings of the Old Testament since the Gospel of Christ had its divine birth from them are therefore obsolete and dead for they will ever live in high authority for by them have the Apostles proved their Tenets and without their testimony they have spoken nothing and Christ refers us to the search of them whose Gospel doth not at all abolish those Writings but fulfill'd the Law to the least tittle This is also to be noted that many Volumes of the Holy Scripture are lost which we may easily gather from the Scripture it self For Moses cites Books of The Wars of the Lord and Joshuah The Book of the Just Esther The Book of memorable things and Macchabees cites the holy Books of the Spartiatae and the Books of the Kings cite Books of Lamentations Books of Samuel the Seer Books and Writings of Nathan God Semeiah Haddo Ahia the Shilonite of Jehu the son of Ammon Jude also in his Canonical Epistle cites the Book of Enoch And some Authors of credit have cited a Book of Abraham the Patriarch All which are lost and never to be found Nor are these which we have received of equal Authority for Dionysius makes mention of A Gospel of S. Bartholomew and S. Jerome takes notice of A Gospel according to the Nazarenes and S. Luke in his Preface to his Gospel saith that many did undertake to write Gospels which are all lost And many others there are which are either corrupted with Heresie or set forth without Authority and so neither received by the holy Fathers nor approved by the Church I omit false Prophets who have come in by the by prophesying through vain-glory things which the holy Spirit never suggested but unheard-of lyes neither according to the Scripture nor tending either to unity of Spirit or the peace of the Church but for the introducing of Schism who rashly making themselves of Gods Privie Council dare presume to take the Word of God into their own mouthes and to write Scriptures and Prophecies altogether Heretical or Apocryphal Nor were the Canticles of Solomon inserted among the Canonical Books till they were corrected and approv'd by Isaiah From hence it appears how that Theologie it self that is to say the holy Scripture wants many of its Volumes and may in a manner seem defective and few of many that remain are true and certain really Books of life and Canonical CHAP. C. Of the Word of God YE have now heard how doubtful how uncertain how ambiguous all the Sciences are and how for any thing in them contained we
Principal Part of the substance of the Soul Aristotle believes the Intellect to be present only Potentially in the Soul and that Actually it works from without neither that it conduces to the Essence or Nature of Man but only to the Perfection of Knowledge and Contemplation Therefore he affirms That few Men and those only Philosophers are endu'd with Actual Understanding And indeed there is a great Dispute among Divines whether according to the Opinion of Plato the Souls of Men after they are Departed from the Body do retain any Memory of things done while the Body was alive or whether they altogether want the Knowledge thereof which the Tomists together with their mighty Aristotle firmly assert And the Carthusians confirm it from the Testimony of a certain Parisian Divine returning from Hell who being ask'd what Knowledge he had left him return'd Answer That he understood nothing but Pain and then citing the words of Solomon There is no understanding no knowledge no wealth in Hell he seem'd to them to make it out that after Death there was no Knowledge of any thing which notwithstanding is not only manifestly against the Opinion of the Platonicks but repugnant to the Authority and Truth of the Scripture it self also which teaches That the wicked shall see and know that he is God and that they shall give an account not only of aâ—l their Deeds but of all their idle Words and Thoughts Moreover there are some that have adventur'd to write and report many things concerning the Apparition of separated Souls and those oft-times repugnant both to the Doctrine of the Gospel and the sacred Text. For whereas the Apostle teaches us That we ought not to believe the Angels from heaven if they should preach otherwise than what is delivered yet the Gospel is so much out of date with them that they will rather believe one come from the Dead than the Prophets Moses Apostles or Evangelists Of this Opinion was the Rich Man in the Gospel who believed that his Brothers and Kindred living would give credit to any one that were sent from the Dead To whom so vainly Conjecturing Abraham made answer If they will not believe Moses and the Prophets neither will they believe any one that should be sent from the dead However I do not absolutely deny some Holy Apparitions Admonitions and Revelations of the Dead but yet I admonish ye to be very wary knowing how easie it is for Satan to Transform himself into an Angel of Light Therefore they are not absolutely to be believ'd but to be entertain'd as things which are Apocryphal and without the Rule of the Scripture There are many Fabulous stories to this purpose written by one Tundal in his Consolation of Souls and also by some others of which your Cunning Priests and Friars make use to terrifie the Vulgar sort and get Mony A certain French Notary hath also lately put forth a Relation of a Spirit walking at Lyons a Person of no Credit and less Learning But the most approved Authors that write of these things is Cassianus and James of Paradise a Carthusian But there is nothing in them of solid Truth or secret Wisdome tending to the encrease of Charity or edifying of the Soul only they thereby perswade people to Alms Pilgrimages Prayers Fastings and such other Practical Works of Piety which the Scripture nevertheless with far greater Reason and Authority enjoyns But of these Apparitions we have discours'd at large in a Dialogue which we have Written of Man as also in our Occult Philosophy But now let us return to the Philosophers All the Heathen who affirm the Soul to be Immortal by common consent also uphold the Transmigration of the Soul and farther That rational Souls do sometimes Transmigrate into Plants and Creatures void of Reason Of this Opinion of Transmigration Pythagoras is said to be the first Author of which thus Ovid Souls never die but in Immortal state From dead to living bodies transmigrate I now my self can call to minde how I When long since Troy the strength of Greece did try Was then Euphorbus that my life sold dear To crown the Conquest of Atrides Spear Which then my left hand bâ—re I knew the Shield Which late in Juno's Temple I beheld Much more has been written concerning this Pythagorical Transmigration by Timon Xenophanes Cratinus Aristophon Hermippus Lucianus and Diogenes Laertius But Iamblicus who has many other Abettors asserts That the Soul does not Transmigrate out of Man into Brutes nor return from Creatures Irrational into Men but that there are Transmigrations of Souls that is of the Souls of Beasts into Beasts and of the Souls of Men into Men he does not deny There are also Philosophers of which number Eâ—â—ripides is one a greatfollower of Anaxagoras together with Archelaus the Naturalist and after them Avicen who report the first Men to have sprung out of the Earth like Herbs in that not less ridiculous than the Poets who feign certain Men to have sprung from the Teeth of a Serpent sown in the Earth Some there are who deny that the Soul is Generated and others who deny that it has any Motion CHAP. LIII Of Metaphysicks BUT let us go a little farther and make it appear that these Philosophers are not only at a loss about those things that seem to have a Being in Nature but that they are also at great variance among themselves concerning such as have no Principle or Foundation at all it being altogether uncertain whether they be or no and which they believe to subsist without Body or Matter and which they call Separated forms which because they are not in Nature but thought to be above Nature therefore they are call'd Metaphysicks and said to be beyond Nature from thence sprang those Infinite every way contradictory and not less impious and unlearned Opinions concerning the Gods For Diagoras Milesius and Theodorus Cyrenaicus altogether deny that there was any God Epicurus held that there was a God but that he took no care of things below Protagoras said that whether they were or no they had little or no Power Anaximander thought that there were Gods Native of Countries some in the East and some in the West at great distances one from another Xenocrates held that there were Eight Gods Antisthenes that there were many popular Gods but one Supream the Creator of the rest Others have precipitated themselves into such a profundity of Madness as to make with their own hands the Gods which they intended to Worship such was the Image of Bell among the Assyrians which made and carved Gods Hermes Trismegistus does notwithstanding very much applaud in his Aesculapius But Thales Milesius discoursing of the Divine Essence asserted the Understanding to be God who Form'd all things out of Water Cleanthes and Anaximenes held the Air to be God Chrysippus Deified the Natural Ability endu'd with Reason or Divine Necessâ—â—y Zeno ascribes Divinity to the Divine Law of Nature Anaxagoras to
Moreover the Voice of the People is said to be the Voice of God Hence whatsoever is Enacted by the Generality whatsoever is Establish'd by the common consent of the People that seems to be Ordain'd by God himself and may be presum'd to be best and most just Besides they conclude this Form of Government to be safer than that of Aristocracy as being less subject to Sedition For the People seldome or never disagree among themselves but the Nobles very often and with great Contention In a popular Government there is all Freedome and Equality no oppression of Tyranny where the degrees of Estates are equal no man is richer than his Neighbour but all the People Rule and Command by â—urns Democracy therefore has been especially commended by Othanes the Persian Eufrates and Dion Syracusanus and we observe at this time the Venetian and Helvetian Commonwealths to be the most flourishing People in the Christian World renown'd for their Prudence Power Riches and Justice and no less famous for their Victorious Atchievements The Athenian Common-wealth also commanding a large Dominion with great Force and Power was govern'd only by Democracy all things being acted by the People and with the People The Romans also making use of this Form of Government became Masters of the greatest part of their Empire under Democracy and were never in a worse Condition than under the Command of their Kings and Nobility but chiefly suffered from their Emperours under whose Command their vast Dominion suffered Shipwrack So that which of these three Forms is best is hard to judge since there is neither of them but has its strong Defenders and Oppugners Kings they say who Command altogether according to their own Will and Pleasure seldome Govern well and very rarely without War and great Combustion Kingly Rule hath also this most unavoydable Mischief in it that they who before were counted good and just having obtain'd as it were a Regal Authority and Liberty to do evil grow uncontroulable and the worst of Men which is verifi'd in Caligula Nero Domitian Mithridates and many others Scripture also witnesses the same in Saul David and Salomon Kings chosen by God and of all the Kings of Juda few were approved of the Kings of Israel none Emperors also Kings and Princes that now adays Raign think themselves Born and Crown'd not for the sake of the People not for the Good of their Citizens and Commonalty not to Maintain Justice but to Defend their own Grandeur and Prerogative Governing so as if the Estates of the People were not committed to their Custody but to be shar'd and divided by them as their own proper spoyl and prey They use their Subjects at their pleasure and as they list themselves abusing the Power with which they were Entrusted Oppress their Cities with borrowing the Common People some with Taxes some with Penal Statutes others with excessive Subsidies and Imposts without Measure and without End Or if some more moderate do release the excess of these Grievances they do it not in respect of the Common good but for their own Private ends permitting their Subjects to be at quiet that they may live at ease themselves or else to gain to themselves the name of being Mild and Just. Others most severely punish guilty Offenders Confiscating their Goods and setting great Fines upon their Heads not caring how many they take in the same Premunire For as the Offences of Delinquents are the strength of Tyrants so does the Multitude of Offenders enrich Princes Being in Italy I had the honour to be very familiar with a powerful Prince whom when I once advis'd to suppress the Factions of the Guelphs and Gibellines within his Dominions he confess'd to me ingenuously that by means of those Factions above Twelve thousand Duckets came every Year into his Exchequer Now where the Nobility Command in chief there is nothing but Jealousie Hatred and Emulation Rarely therefore they agree in Amity every one seeking to be Chief and to make his own Sentence pass Hence Factions Seditions Slaughters Civil War and at length the Total Ruine of the Commonwealth Whereof there are infinite Examples in the Histories both of the Greeks and Latines And at this day in most of the Cities of Italy the Effects of those miscarriages are to be seen But Popular Government is Universally accompted the most destructive and worst of all Apollonius with many Reasons disswades Vespatian from it And Cicero Affirms That there is neither Reason Council Discretion or Diligence among the Vulgar People as the Poet also sings By opposite desires and humours led Th' uncertain Vulgar move once taking Head Othanes the Persian also asserts that there is nothing more insolent nothing more stolid nothing more proper to the Rabble than to know nothing but headlong like a Current to carry all business before ' um Demosthenes calls the people an Evil Beast Plato a Monster with many heads which Horace doth not forget And Phalaris writing to Egesippus All multitudes saith he are rash mad slothful apt to change their Opinion perfidious uncertain treacherous heady fraudulent good for nothing but to make a noise easie to love or condemn Hence it follows that he who in governing the Commonwealth strives to please the people must be contented to submit to a hundred undeserved Contumelies Lycurgus being ask'd why he had not erected a Popular Government in his City Rather do thou saith he submit to a Popular Government in thy house Aristotle also in his Ethicks condemns the government of the people to be the worst of all but the rule of one person to be the best for the Commonalty is the Ring-leader of Errour the Mistriss of evil Customs and a rude heap of Mischief No Reason no Authority no Perswasions can move where it either wants knowledge or is in contempt Therefore are the Vulgar so indocible and obstinate against all perswasion whose nature is so unconstant always desirous of Novelty despising the present Authority not to be curb'd by the learned Admonitions of the Wise by the Precepts of their Ancestors Authority of Magistrates or Majesty of Princes This we finde verifi'd in Socrates question'd by the Athenians about his opinion of the Gods In Capys the Trojan delivering his judgment about the bringing in of the Grecian Horse In Magius the Campanian advising that Hannibal should not be received into the City In Paulus Emilius perswading not to fight at the Battâ—l of Canna Lastly in so many of the Predictions of the Prophets of God no way obey'd or hearkned to by the people of the Jews Moreover as to the Laws and Statutes of the people how is it possible that any of them should be good or profitable seeing that it is impossible for the popular Multitude to understand which are good and which are evil the greatest part whereof are ignorant labouring Handicraft people not led by Reason of Justice or Equity but consisting onely in Number where there are generally more bad
spoken to contentious Theosophists but to the true Divines Apostles Evangelists and Messengers of the Word of God who say I dare not utter any thing which Christ doth not work by me Therefore the Traditions of these Divines concerning Faith and Godliness are truely Theological To the Writings and sayings of these men we give credit as being founded not upon contentious Syllogisms or Opinions of men but as S. Paul saith being divinely inspired not in defining compounding dividing contemplating after the manner of Philosophers but in an essential contact of Divinity apprehended through a clear vision in the divine light it self of which vision we finde several sorts in the holy Scripture as the Prophets had several dispositions to receive For we read how some saw God or Angels in the forms of men others in the shape of Fire others in the similitude of Air or Wind others in the shape of Rivers or Water others in the form of Birds Precious Stones or Metals others in the forms of Letters or Characters others in the sound of a Voice others in Dreams others in a Spirit residing within themselves others in the work of the Understanding And therefore the Scripture calls all Prophets Seers Thus we read of The Visions of Isaias The Visions of Jeremy The Visions of Ezekiel and the rest And under the New law S. John faith I was in the Spirit upon the Lords day On the wings whereof he was carried and beheld the Throne of God And Paul witnesses that he saw those things which it is not lawful for men to utter And this Vision is called a Rapture or Ecstasie or spiritual death Concerning this death it is said No man shall see God and live And in another place Precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints And it is more clearly expressed by the Apostle where he says You are dead and your life is hid with Christ. And it is necessary for him to die this death that will pierce into the secrets of Prophetick Theologie Now there is a double sight of this Deifick vision One when God is seen face to face and then the Prophets see what S. Paul faith Things which are not fit for men to utter and which no tongue of men or Angels can express nor Pen unfold There is also a certain contact or union of the Divine Essence and an illustration or enlightning of the pure and separate Intellect without appearance of any shape or likeness This Divines call The Meridional Understanding Of which S. Augustin upon Genesis and Origen against Celsus largely dispute The other sort of Seeing is that by which we see the hinder parts of God when the creatures which are the hinder parts or effects of God are understood with a more exalted judgement as by the knowledge whereof the Creator the chief workman and the First Cause that moves all things is the better known as the Wiseman faith From the bigness of the kinde and of the creature may be known the Creator of things And Paul also about the same subject The invisible things of God are known being understood by these things which are made And it is an usual Saying among the Peripateticks that they who argue from the Effects to the Causes are said to argue à posteriori from the hinder part Moses enjoyed both these Visions as the Scriptures witness Of the first we read that Moses saw God face to face As to the other we read what God spake to him Thou shalt see my hinder parts And by the means of this later Vision Moses made a Law instituted Sacrifices and Ceremonies built a Tabernacle and other Mysteries according to the most elaborate Exemplar of the whole world comprehending all the secret works of God and Nature therein This Vision is again twofold for we either behold the creature in God himself which Divines call The Morning-vision or else we behold God himself in the creatures There is also another Prophetick Vision in Dreams thus we read in Matthew how the angel of God appeared to Joseph in a dream And in another place that the Magi who ador'd Christ were admonisht in a dream that they should return another way into their own Country There are in the Old Testament many Examples thereof Now what this Vision is Job expounds where he says In the horrour of nocturnal visions when sleep falleth upon men and they sleep in their beds then he opens their ears and teaching them instructs them with learning And this being a fourth species of Vision is called Nocturnal There are also two other kindes of Prophecie the one receiv'd by word of mouth and thus was Moses enlightened and taught in Mount Sinai Abraham Jacob Samuel and many other Prophets under the Old Law Under the New Law the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were taught by the mouth of Christ he being alive among them There is another sort of Prophecie which consists in the agitation of the Spirit while the soul ravisht away by some Deity then joyn'd to that and abstracted from the body of man is by the same Spirit fill'd with Knowledge beyond humane strength or wit Which ravishment is not performed always by Angels but sometimes by the Spirit of God as we read of Saul that the Spirit of God came upon him and he prophesied and was changed into a new man and numbered among the Prophets And in the Acts of the Apostles the Spirit of God came upon them that were baptized in flames of fire Which Spirit also many times seizes upon men that are liable to sin so that there were many Prophets among the Gentiles as Cassandra Helenus Calchas Ampharans Tiresias Mopsus Amphilochus Polybius Corinthus also Galanus the Indian Socrates Diotyma Anaximander Epimenides the Cretan Also the Magi among the Persians Brachmans among the Indians Gymnosophists among the Aethiopians Druids among the Gauls and Sibyls among the Romans To which Prophetick seizure of the Spirit many times certain previous Ceremonies authority of Function and communion of sacred Mysteries do very much conduce as the Scripture amply declares concerning Balaam and in other places by the application of the Ephod And the Evangelist witnesses concerning Caiaphas that he prophesied being high priest that year Hence the Mecubals among the Hebrews adventured to counterfeit their Artificial Prophecie I omit what the Hebrews have written concerning the Two and thirty paths of Wisdom and what S. Austin has toucht upon concerning the Degrees or Albertus in his reception of Forms of which he reckons up seven Apparitions in Dreams and as many waking So we read in Plato and Proculus of Socrates that he was not inspired by an intelligible influx but by voice and familiar speech But these things come to pass more easily in Dreams But let us return to our purpose Now therefore Prophetick Theologie is that which by an Intuitive Inspiration teaches the unshaken Word of God But the Authority and Arguments by which that Truth is confirm'd are