Townes and Prouinces is inumerable there were before the comming of Christ infinite Idolatries in the worlde since his Incarnation besides Sectes amongst the Iewes Mahumetanes not to be numbred among Christians if we ioine these presēt heresies which now raigne almost 300. to those 400. and more which haue bin in formerages there haue bin 700. false professions in Christianitie and the impietie of men hath beene such especially in times of errors that there was neuer almoste any truth so euident but by one Cittie Towne Countrie companye of People or other it hath beene denied onlie this veritie of Religion and obligation of worshippe to God hath been so manifest that in so manie thousands of yeares in no one age yeare or day in so many vaste and populous Nations no litle Kingdome Prouince Citie Towne Village or priuate person but in such sense as I haue declared to their owne confusion called it into question TESTIMONIE OF ALL INTELlectuall Creatures ¶ CHAP. VII OR if the testimonie of all inferior thinges the witnesse of the whole worlde and all reasonable men from the first foundation till now so learned and wise euerie particular mans practise and experiēce by al sences powers of knowledge all reasons that can be aleadged all proofe in reason that can be vsed the vnyforme and euer agreeinge consent and example of al creatures wil not serue to dispute this questyon againste the blinde sencelesse and vnreasonablie deluded and wantonly bewitched appetites of some one or a fewe beastly and franticke men let vs seeke for a tryall to intellectuall and spirituall creatures which as by their perfection of nature they are of higher and more infallible iudgement so in respecte they are freed and exempted of corporall and bodylie composition from whence this blindnesse of sensualitie proceedeth are like to giue the truest sentence such be the heauenlye spirits seperated soules and the Diuels themselues though depriued of grace yet perfect in naturall vnderstandinge All Testimonies are recorde all Historians thousands and millions of men that haue beene present witnesses and euerye particuler person euen of this impious schoole it selfe hath prooued by one experimentall argument or other that there bee such perfecte intellectuall creatures The rare and wonderfull effects which bee daylie wrought by such meanes the apparitions of Angelles illusions of Diuelles their workes tempestes plagues and other miseries they haue procured theire possessinge bodyes both of men and women and beastes where their effects are manifest the appearing of soules deuided and separated from their bodies and still enduringe after death some miraculouslie vnited againe and telling what they endured in their seperation others not restored reporting either the ioyes they founde if they were trulie religious or the paines they endured if they were prophane and wicked haue testified these thinges The infinite miracles and supernaturall effects which the Angels and holy religious soules haue wrought in their apparitions haue euidently confirmed their sentence to bee true The vnspeakable torments of the wicked irreligious soules damned for impiety and irreuerence prooued by vndenyable arguments and the Diuels potent and wise conquered and cast out by poore religious men by nature their inferiors and these thinges seene prooued witnessed and written by millions of men of greatest iudgment Emperors Kings Princes Phylosophers Magitians and of all conditions not only priuate men and in secret but greatest assemblies in pubicke places are sufficient argument in this cause But in respect these Testimonies haue chieflie bin vsed to prooue true Religion in particuler and not the necessity of Reuerence in generall which for the euidence thereof needeth no such probation I wil passe it ouer to the proper place against externall Infidels and Heretickes where it shall be handled to the manifest confusion of all misbeleeuers not onely Atheists Epicures and deniers of worshippe but all enemies of Christian Catholicke Doctrine OF THE MYRACVLOVS AND most certaine Testimony of God ¶ CHAP. VIII I Will passe ouer in this place the testimony of the Creator and so manie thousands of miraculous and most certaine supernaturall Arguments of God which can neither bee deceaued in himselfe or be cause of erring vnto others both in regarde they are needlesse in this matter neuer called so farre into question that it craueth such extraordinary defence as also that they haue principally beene vsed to propose true worshippe in particuler to misbeleeuing Nations of which neuer any denyed a Religion in generall Therefore I am to make demonstration by that Argument hereafter against all professors of false worships which in some manner wil also appeare in my Chapters following of the extraordinary punnishment God hath inflicted vpon the Irreligious and the miraculous fauours wherewith hee hath honoured his holy and true worshippers in this place onely I affirme since the firste miraculous creation of man in the beginning and the supernaturall prouidence of God ouer him while hee continued in obedience and strange punishing of him for his neglecte of dutie therein he euer obserued the same order in all states and conditions The punishment of Adam drowning of the world confusion of the Tower of Babell destruction of the Egiptians abolishinge of Idols desolation of the Iews and a thousand strange miraculous punishments imposed vpon the Irreligious contrariewise as strange and wonderfull fauours towardes the godly exceedinge all limits of nature witnessed by millions of presēt wittnesses Princes and whole Cuntries and registred by moste credible writers both Pagan Mahumetan Ieweish and true beleeuers are euidence TESTIMONIE AND EXAMPLE of all creatures euen insensible ¶ CHAP. IX ANd this religious worshippe is so vniuersally due to be performed that if the verye sensible and insensible thinges that are not capable of vnderstandeinge were able to vtter that by wordes which they vniformelie practise in theyr operations or supernaturallye declare as often times they haue to the admiration of all and confusion of such men that naturall instinct and desire which is imparted to them all to doe homage reuerence to their Creator they would assemble thēselues in generall coūcell against this impious people and condemne them to be the moste vnnaturall senceles monsters of the world For the vnuiolable decree of nature is that euery effect must yeeld a certaine honor reuerēce to the cause by which it is produced exalted so in creatures of vnderstandinge the childe honoreth the parents by which he was begotten brought vp and norished the scholer his master by whom he was īstructed the subiect his soueraīe the seruant his master by whom they are ruled euery depēding thing that more exellent Regent of whom it hath dependance And al insensible things with one consent do answer by their acts deeds that they owe religion vnto god are boūd to worship him in their kind performe it for the heauens and celestiall spheres so all Eleaments and inferior creatures as well
shoulde be the only perfection and felicity of man which the very heroicall conceit if there were no other argument of euery one not drowned in beastlinesse will affirme For there is not one but in reason would scorne to chuse such thinges for his Summum bonum and felicity And yet that which is true happinesse neither is nor can be contemned of any but greedely sought and deserued of all as a most perfect state where all thinges to be wished are present and all thinges to bee auoyded absent To which not only al powers properties actes and operations of the reasonable soules of men when they were vnited with their bodies but many and great numbers of soules after their seperation haue testified and giuen infallible euidence to thousands of credible present witnesses For if the soule be not separable it coulde not remayne either by it selfe after separation or bee vnited againe to that bodie it had first enformed because in the separation it were to be dissolued and perish neither coulde any newe soule bee produced in those bodies no disposition or potentiality beeing left in them for such production Take this away and not only the nature of euery particuler man is destroied but all Communities Kingdomes Commonwealths Societies Townes Cities Families and ciuill estates which euer practised reuerence and cannot consist without Religion are ouerthrowne All Testimonyes and Reuelations of God in holye Scriptures are to be reiected Those sacred writings approoued by so many miraculous kind other Argumentes as I will alleadge in my next chapter that by no possibillitye they coulde bee vntrue are not to bee regarded Then can anye man become so traiterous and disobedient a Rebell to his Creator so enuyous a persecutor of his owne dignitye and preferment so malitious an enemye and opposer of himselfe to all creatures to giue so great attendance and homage to shorte and brutishe pleasures to liue as thoughe there were no God to whome he ought duty and religion no felicity after death no be atitude for man but as beasts enioy If this opinion be false as infinite testimonies prooue it to bee then hee is sure to be damned for euer if it shoulde bee true as GOD and all creatures and that man himselfe in iudgement denyerh yet he hath gayned no more then other brutish creatures haue done and that which a reasonable man would not accept THE TESTIMONIES OF AL HOly Scriptures for all thinges belonginge to Religion and theyr moste certaine and infallible Authoritie ¶ CHAP. V. WEE will adde to these naturall Testimonyes of all reasonble creatures the Supernaturall Witnes of the Creator himselfe registred in holie Scriptures where not onely the Infinite Omnipotent Maiesty of one Immortall Incomprehensible God his prouidence ouer all creatures extraordinarie protection to his religious seruants the Immortallitie and euerlastinge blessednesse of the soules of men and their duety religion to God in generall are sett downe but the very particuler manner and means of worshippe and things belonginge to adoration are recorded for all peoples instruction And let not any prophane Atheist or Irreligious monster take exceptioÌ„ against them or any one of those moste holy and sacred writings it is not the condemned sentence of anie Idolatrous Gentile beastlie Epicure Diagoras or Atheist or Apostating hereticke which all Iudgements and Generations haue disalowed that can call those vndoubted mouments of the will of God into question Shall the Simonians Basilidians Bogomites or any heretickes that liued thousandes of yeares after they were written make them doubtfull because they bee contrarye to his corrupted desires when they haue so manie generations of the moste renowned countries and peoples against them shall it be lawfull for Diagoras the first Athiest which liued thousandes of yeares after those thinges which be entreated in them were effected onelie reiect them because they witnes a God and worshippe to him which all the worlde and all kingdomes before and after him euer beleeued shall anie Pagan Idolater be receaued to disgrace those Sacred Testimonies when their superstitions are so late in respecte of that worshippe which they handle for as Iosephus doth demonstrate againste Appion the Pagan and Lactantius and other aâ—prooued Authors are euidence moste parte of the things recounted in the olde Testament were done before many of the Panime Gods were borne and the last writers of holy Scriptures Esdras Aggeus Zacharie and Mallachie were before most of the heathen Historians Abraham as the Gentyles themselues acknowledge was long before any of their gods were extant the eldest of theyr poets were not before Salomon which was aboue 900. yeares after Abraham And Moyses himselfe was much more auncient then Ceres Vulcan Mercury Apollo Aesculapius Casior Pollux Hercules and other their feigned Gods and both concerning those thinges hee recorded before from the first creation vnto his time he prooued them with so many miracles that coulde not bee vntrue that he was taken for God and accounted a wonder of the worlde The reason why the Pagans receaued not those holy Scriptures was because they prescribe a more seuere Religion then their licentious mindes allowed and ouerthrowe the corporieties pluralities and such impossible mutations which they allowe in diuinity which all reason knoweth to be ridiculous And yet besides the mighty Persian Emperours Cyrus and Darius King Ptolomy Aram and others that honoured the Israelites their holy lawe and Testament not only the Sybils and other for prophesie most renowned among those Pagans confirme the thinges that bee entreated in them But many others of the greatest account as well among them as in later ages as Melo Eupolemus Trismagistus Leodemus Aristeaeus Artahanus Nunenius Pithagoras Alexander Polyhistor Appion Porphiry Saconeathan Berosus Caldaeus Ierommus Aegiptius Nicholaus Damascenus Abydenus many monuments in the late discouered worlde Mahumet the whole Sinagogue of the later Rabbines all Iewes and Turkes of Christians there is no doubt giue testimony to those thinges that bee recorded in those holy writings Of Iewes and Mahumetanes there is no difficulty allowing the bookes of the old Testament which is enough for my purpose nowe to prooue a God and Religion so religigiouslie commended in that lawe For the Gentile Pagans I haue cited their most auncient and to exemplyfie in one of their first Orpheus had those sacred bookes and the misteries recorded in them in highest esteeme and plainely both affirmed that they were most auncient and deliuered by God himselfe his wordes when he had cited many things from thence are these Priscorum haec nos docuerunt omnia voces Quas binis tabulis Deus olim tradidit illis The voices of ancients haue taught vs these things which GOD deliuered to them in two tables Coulde Moyses if he were aliue againe to whome these tables were deliuered speake more plainely And the testimony of the Sybils were so manifest herein that it was made death by the Pagan lawes
endlesse and vnrecitable cares sollicitudes and miseries the Irreligeous vndergoe in procuring pleasures what labours and dangers in preseruing them what torments and and anguishes in forsakinge them what diseases sicknes violence vnhappines to those senses of theirs in which they woulde place their pleasures what immature sodaine vntimely deathes the ful priuatiō of al their ioyes felicities they incurre in exercising and possessing those banquets feastings luxuries honours riches and other pleasures Let vs forget the honour glorie of the godly by their sufferings and the ignominie dishonour of the others when they come to aduersity the comforts of the religious through their hope in God whom they worshippe the desperation of the irreligious spoiled of all consolation Let the euerliuinge vertues and reputation of the religious after death and they alwaies during infamy of the irreligious be omitted Let it not bee remembred that religion being a speciall morall vertue is to be repaied with corporall pleasures such as this worlde can giue but with eternall supernaturall and spirituall rewardes to obtayninge which terrestiall ioyes are often a let and hinderaunce by wedding vs to this worlde and the pressures of the godly by weaning vs from earthly delights the safest meanes to winne them Let mee make no argument that the aduersities of the iust in this life are the causes of their greater glorie after death and that both the pleasures and aduersities of the impious not regarding either the blessinges or corrections of GOD are the cause of their deeper damnation in Hell Wee will account it no felicitie or comfort for this time that the vertuous in theire greatest distresses are lamented of all and pittied with compassion often breeding greater ioye then their miseries bringe affliction and by hovve much their suffering is greater by so much bewayled and honoured more as the miseries and deathes of Millions of Martyrs and afflicted Saintes are witnesses honoured both of GOD and all creatures and the afflictions distresses and vnfortunate endes of the vvicked neglected and contemned both by GOD and man all thinges reioycing in their destruction vnhappines Lastelie to please the appetites of this people although we did grant them their owne absurditie and that which they seeke to find that the cheife and supreme felicitie of man is to bee expected and possessed in this life and that there is no pleasure or punnishment after death that the body is better then the soule the externall goods which they reckon honour riches pleasure prosperity and the like with health and long life to enioy them are most to be esteemed want debasement pouerty aduersitie affliction and other their infelicities most to bee auoyded although as these beeing often the cause of our chiefest good so the others are often the occasion of vnhappinesse Yet if we shoulde yeelde vnto them these vnreasonable requests and argue vvith carnall men by carnall Argumentes whatsoeuer they shall appoint to bee the greatest pleasure and happinesse in this worlde and to continue and perseuer longest for such thinges as be priuations of pleasures and corruptions of life and health wherein they are to be enioyed they will not esteeme for pleasures as honour riches health prosperity dignities and such others which is as much as any Epicure can demande or a beaste woulde aske if it had language and leaue to vtter the internall appetite Yet notwithstanding all this it will appeare that the prosperous estate and happy condition of the vertuous and professors of Religion hath often beene greater and their miseries and afflictions lesse in this life then of the impious and irreligious which onlie seeke for this preferment And to iustifie my assertion many Phylosophers Nations and Countries haue esteemed these temporall felicities to bee a temporall rewarde of Religion It was not lawfull for any amongst the auncient Egiptians to be a King except hee were a Priest and religious to the Gods and Mercurius sirnamed Trismegistus thrice-greatest was so called because hee was a King a Phylosopher and a Priest The olde and wise Romanes had the like custome and obseruation and all their Sacrifices Rites and Ceremonies some were as thankes for benefits receaued others to auoide afflictions to ease aduersities inflicted to cease plagues and pestilences to prosper attempts heale diseases encrease substance and the like not onely vsed of the Idolaters and false worshippers but of the true Israelites and instituted of God himselfe doe witnesse They esteemed no happines of this worlde to be without the true worshippe of God and many aduersities to come for irreligion This was the common sentence of the Caldeans Assirians Grecians Persians English and all Nations and to encourage all in this opinion by the generall and receaued Decrees of all vvorshippers those that were in the greatest degree of professing and exercising of this worshippe were euer had and esteemed in greatest honour so were the Patriarkes which were Priestes in the lawe of Nature Noe Abraham and other the high Priestes vnder the lawe of Moyses among the Israelites the Flamens and Archflamens amonge the Gentiles Brachmans with the Indians Caliphes in the lawe of Mahumet and among Christians Popes and spirituall Prelates are reuerenced vvith the greatest dignities And not onelie such estates whose calling was dedicated to vvorshippe but other conditions amongst all Nations which were most religious were reputed moste honourable and glorious and not onely amonge men but with God himselfe for by how much any people or countrey came nearer to true Religion they flourished more and they which truely followed it in the daies of their so doings were most happie and honourable and such as were most alienated from true reuerence of GOD and enemies thereof were most infortunate and miserable as manye persecutors of the Religious haue beene To giue example in the auncient religious Iewes so long as they continued their obedience God promised vnto them for that cause all prosperities and benedictions both spirituall and temporall Howe did hee honour them with visions apparitions of Angels from heauen what a propitiatory oracle did he ordaine to answere to their doubts and releeue their wants what Patriarches Prophets Priests Kinges Captaines and Iudges did he giue vnto them howe miraculouslie did he multiply their number and nation among their enemies how strangely did he punnish the Egiptians and deliuer them howe did he aduance them aboue mightie and potent Princes howe many did he depriue of their auncient possessions and made them rulers thereof howe miraculouslie did hee protecte them in theyr iournies feede them in their wantes defende them in their warres howe often howe many and miraculous victories did hee giue them howe did he enrich them with all temporall blessings riches gold treasure and abundance of all thinges which can be desired howe often did he promise to continue his care and prouidence if they remayned in duety and Religion howe well did he
to Iuppiter amonge the Cypryans The Thaures did offer to Diana the straungers that came vnto them So did the Frenchemen to Esus and Theutantes and Italyans to Iuppiter the Romanes and Italyans both men and infantes to Saturne So did the Carthaginians as when they were ouercome of Agathocles Kinge of Sicylie thinking their GOD Saturne to be angrie with them they offered vnto him for a Sacrifyce to appease his anger 200. children of noble men Others cut off their shame and secrets and offered them in Sacryfyce Among the Rhodyans Hercules was honoured with a Sacrifyce of 2. oxen and cursing and bannyng and it was accounted a greate iniquitye for one worde of pietye or modestye to bee spoken And this was in memorye of the cursing and banning that a ploughman of that country vsed against Hercules taking two oxen from him by violence and so of others But to passe ouer those Idolaters and come to the Iewes which before Christ were the chosen people of GOD and had the true Religion their errors contayned in their owne Thalmud and higheste Iudgement they haue shall bringe witnesse against them And to omytte their blasphemous errors against Christ because they professe them selues enemyes to Christians and speake of those whiche thy maintayne against the moste sacred diuyne Maiestye whome they ackowledge for theyr GOD and maker of all thinges that gaue their lawe to Moyses Thus they wright and generally beleeue of him that before he made the worlde leaste hee should fall to Idlenesse he exercised hym selfe in framing diuerse worldes which when hee had made he presently destroyed and renewed them againe vntill at length hee had learned to make this vvorlde which nowe wee haue That he spendeth the firste three howers of the daye in reading the Iewishe Lawe and that Moyses ascendinge to heauen founde him wrighting accents in the holye Scripture That on the firste daye of the newe Moone in the moneth of September he iudgeth the whole worlde and the nexte tenne daies he applyeth himselfe to wright the iust in the booke of life and the wicked in the book of death And many other like errors they holde that God hath a place in heauen seperate from all company in which at certaine times hee bewayleth with manye teares and afflicteth himselfe that hee was angrie with the Iewes ouerthrewe the Temple of Ierusalem and dispersed this people into captiuity And that daily he prayed deuoutly and putteth vppon his heade and armes fillettes or thonges of leather called Thephalin and putteth vppon his bodie a linnen coate named Zezith and so attyred falleth downe vpon his knees and prayeth that so often as hee remembreth the calamities which the Iewes suffer of the Gentiles he weepeth and letteth two teares fall into the Ocean Sea and for verye griefe knocketh his breast with both his hands That for his recreation the three laste howers of the daie hee vsed to plaie with a huge great fish called Leuiathan that the commaundement of the Sacrifice of the newe Moone was giuen to the Iewes to purge the sinne vvhich GOD committed when hee gaue that light vtno the Sunne which he had vniustlie taken from the Moone and that beeing angrie for a cause vnknovvne vvith his play-fellowe Leuiathan he killed him and powdered his fleshe vvith salte to giue to the soules of his Saintes That euery daye hee is angrie and at that time the combes of Cockes waxe pale coloured and they stande vppon one legge and if anye man shall curse an other at that moment hee shall presentlye fall dovvne deade When certaine Rabbines disputed againste Rabbi Eliezar GOD giuing sentence from heauen for Rabbi Eliezar the other Rabbynes beeing offended thereat excommunicated God whereat hee smiling saide my children haue ouercome mee That God disputing with the Rabbynes vppon a certayne kinde of leprosie iudgemente betweene them vvas referred to a very learned Rabbyne And that he hath beene deceaued by some Rabbynes and the like blasphemies That the Angell Gabriell committed a grieuous sinne for which GOD commaunded him to bee scourged vvith a fierie whippe That Dauid did not sinne either in his adulterye vvith Bethsabee or murther of her husbande and vvhosoeuer affirmeth he sinned is an Heriticke That a man may marry his daughter or sister that Rabbine which hateth not his enemies to death and seeketh not reuenge vpon him is not worthy the name of a Rabbine That they which contradict the words of their Scribes are more grieuouslie to be punnished then they which gainesay the law of Moyses and this man may be better absolued but the other must bee put to death If the greater parte shall condemne a man to death he must die but if all condemne him he must be dismissed That soules doe passe from body to bodye as Pythagoras helde onlie with this limitation that if the soule sinneth in the first bodie it goeth into a seconde if it sinneth in that it flitteth into a third body in which if it doth not cease to sin it is throwne into Hell And for example the soule of Abell did goe into Seth and from him to Moyses That in the resurrection the soules of the vnlearned shall not be vnited to their bodies Who soeuer shall eate thrise a day vpon the Sabaoth shal haue euerlasting life If anie man shall passe vnder the bellie of a Camell or betweene two Camelles or beetween two woemen he shal neuer learne anye thing out of the Thalmud wherein there is no ende of such blasphemies foolishe and ridiculous things hee that desireth more may peruse the places cited in the margine so that we may see the iust Iudgement of God executed vppon that people that they which before the comming of Christ were the chosen of God only seruing him in true religion since they reiected refused him are fallen into so many impious errors that except they were recorded by thēselues conteined in the very rule of their religiō their Thalmud no man would beeleue it and that euery man may knowe in what estimation the Thalmud wherin these and other errours are conteyned is with that people their owne wordes placed in the preface of that booke as these If any man shall denye the bookes of Thalmud to be most holye he denyeth God himselfe Lastlye to come to theeuish and laciuious Mahumet and his Mahumitans what other thing then such as I haue recited of the Iewes and Pagans can be expected of them if we eyther consider the occasion of his originall and beginning or the wicked and licentious lyfe eyther of Mahumet the scoller or his tutors and councellors Iohn an Heriticke of Antioch Sergius an Arrian and Apostata Monke and a Iewishe Astronomer or Necromancer Or the time when he came being borne in the yeaere of CHRIST 626 or the place and people where or whence he descended comming of the
borne vnder the constellation of our Kings that none but they enioyed the crowne Did not all the world bring forth one man when Clement the eight and Radulphus were borne that none other is a Pope or Emperour And if such Princes before their powers begun could prohibite others to be borne with them yet we see that many thousands daiely die with them whether they will or no as in so many battailes wherin hundreds of thousands of all estates ages and conditions differing from those Nobles haue beene slaine with Kinges And yet by these mens art all those that dyed with Kings should be Kings all of one age nature and condition Thus many thousands to one it is in their proceedings besides all other inuincible reasons that they are deceaued and God hath prouidence not onely of humane actions but all other thinges because no other cause can rule then experience telleth vs these thinges are true and their deuises false And the same experience is a tutor to euery priuate man that at all constellations he is of the same liberty of will to doe or not to doe and howe can the heauens and bodies more spirituall substances are they animated that they haue dominion ouer soules are they omnipotent that they can bring violence to our wils and freedome are they exempted from a chiefe gouernours authority and rule that they can gouerne all are they God and the first agent that they are independing and all depend of them these bee the absurdities of such people Besides which all reason and reasonable creatures Angels gloryfied Saints in heauen and the vnderstandings of all men of equal iudgment confirme it by their sentence all sencible thinges by their indefectiue order approoue it All insencible creatures simple and compounded the heauens elements and all others by their inuariable courses and proceedings euer haue ratified it to be so the meanest creature by the wonderfull composition of parts by which it is composed and certaine direction to come to those ends and perfections which for want of science it cannot knowe giueth euidence in this cause This mooued Galen that prophane and irreligious Phisitian attributing all to nature and nothing to the cause and ordayner of nature at last as himselfe is witnes to acknowledge the prouidence of God ouer these inferiour thinges and to make a Canticle in these wordes following in honour of our Creator Here trulie doe I make a song in praise of our Creaator for that of his owne accorde it hath pleased him to adorne and beawtisie his thinges better then by any art possible it coulde bee imagined Therefore if the prouidence of God is such to his meane basest creatures the common obiects of Phisitians most busied in bodies and more contemptible thinges what would be said if we should goe about to comprehende the least of so many â—housand glâ—â—â—ous creatures in the worlde What â—â—rticuler supernaturall prouidence and protection God hath alwaies vsed to his religious seruants aswell whole kingdomes countries and priuate persons deuoted to him in religious worship will appeare in the thirteenth chapter of this booke to the confusion of all Infidels and misbeleeuers In the meane time which I will omit that place let vs take for our example the cry of Hierusalem so renowmed for religious obseruations vnder the lawe of Moyses and the high Apostolicke See of Rome so famous for true worship since the time of Christ yet both odious amonge misbeleeuing people the first to Pagans the seconde both to them incredulous Iewes and Apostating Heretickes of all ages Concerning the first let vs passe ouer that miraculous prouidence God exercised towardes the Israelites his religious seruants inhabitants thereof from the time of Abraham to whome he made the promise to blesse him and his posterity and take especiall care of that nation whereof Christ was to descend vntil the time of building the Temple by King Salomon which was aboue 900. yeares I will not speake what blessings were bestowed vpon Abraham Isaac Iacob and their discent howe miraculously they were multiplyed in Egipt with what 〈◊〉 is their mighty enemies were confounded their meruailous deliuerye thence the drowning of their enemies their strange preseruation their miraculous life and protection in the desert the more then wonderfull conquests they obtayned ouer so many and potent enemies and other supernaturall fauors not onely recorded in holy Scriptures but remembred by other writers and manifestly knowne to many and great kingdomes But to passe these ouer what coulde be the fame of Hierusalem a city of Canaan a litle countrie when it was deuided into so many prouinces as it was before the Israelytes inhabited it what man maketh mention of anye honour or glorie it had but after religion was setled there how glorious was it to all nations it was the seate of the Kings and it was called the Citie of the King of Heauen the highe Priest with the greatest Maiestie of that lawe were planted there Sacrifices were there offered not onelie Iewes but Proselytes and conuerted Gentyles of all Nations honoured it with theyr accesse and presence Parthians Medes Elamites inhabitants of Mesopotamia Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrigia Pamphilia Egipt Libya Cyrene Romanes Cretensianes Arabianes and others How sumptuous gloryous was the Temple to all Nations where all thinges were almost made of Golde how pretious and myraculous as manie write were the attyres of the Priestes how honourable was theyr Oracle and Propitiatorie moste straungely gloriefied with the Presence and Answeres of God himselfe with what holie Relickes of the Arke Manna and others was it sanctified to what a mighty nation did that people encrease what Prophets had they howe were their ennemies Antiothus and others punished of God howe gratious were they to the greatest Princes howe miraculouslie were they their holie City and Temple preserued a thousand yeares togither howe were they deliuered from captiuities howe strangely did GOD mooue the heartes of the mightyest rulers of the Gentiles to honour their sacryfices and Temple And when the time was come that their law in the Messias should cease and they most prophanely had denyed and put him to death not onely as their owne Prophets but the Sybils and others among the Gentyles had foretolde and they falne to such notorious impieties as their owne Historian Iosephus is witnesse that neuer any nation had come to that degree of wickednesse yet God ceased not his special prouidence to that people but gaue them many wonderfull signes for their conuersion Besides those which the holy Euangelists report of the miraculous Eclips quaking of the earth rending of the rockes and tearing of the vaile of the Temple arysing of the dead and others Iosephus giueth euidence that in their great festiuity before their desolution in the night there appeared such a light about the Altar and Temple halfe an hower togither that euery man thought it was day And at the same
St. Paule in the lighte of nature speaketh in these wordes when the Gentiles which haue not the lawe of Moyses Christ naturally doe those thinges that are of the lawe the same not hauinge the lawe themselues are a lawe to themselues whoe shewe the worke of the lawe written in their hearts their conscience giuing testimony to them and amonge themselues their thoughts accusing or also defending And although the vnderstandinge in diuers first operations craueth aide from the imagination yet in many other noble acts thereof it is independing as in the iudgement of spirituall thinges and the vse of free will which no sence corporall organe or facultie was euer able to produce For betweene euery operation produced the cause which produceth it and the obiect and matter that is considered there must bee a due and correspondent proportion No vegetatiue power hath sence no sensitiue faculty can argue or conceaue immateriall thinges And yet we see that the vnderstanding of man is so farre from beeing wholy assisted of the body in these operations or to be hindred by separation from it that experience teacheth when it is vnited to this corruptible body the actes of the reasonable parts of the soule be more perfect by how much they are more abstracted and independing of the body as is euident in the exercises of all studyous and contemplatiue men and in some aged and decayed bodies when the soule hath lesse dependance when the vegetiue and sensitiue Organes are enfeebeled and not able so well to exercise theyr naturall operations when neyther Generation Augementation Heareinge Seeing or other such powers remaine yet often times when these thinges are nearest corruption or corrupted the Vnderstandynge and Immorrtall powers of the soule are moste perfecte expectinge a future ende and felicitie So lykewise it appeareth when wee consider that exellencye of the vnderstandinge aboue all Sensitiue Creatures howe it is ennabled not onelye to vnderstande all other things how eleuated soeuer aboue sence and imagination but to reflecte and ponder vpon it selfe and the other powers of the soule will ond memory and those also ouer themselues For not only the vnderstanding vnderstandeth and knoweth it selfe to knowe and vnderstand or that the will doth wish and desire or the memory remembreth but the will it selfe is reflected vpon it selfe willing it selfe to will and the memory aboue it selfe remembring that it did remember which is impossible for any corporall or sensible and corruptible power to doe The hearing heareth not it self to heare the foote cannot set it selfe and treade vpon it selfe and so of others The continuall combats and disagreements which the reasonable parte maintaineth against the sensible and corporall motions which is not in brute and sensitiue thinges For where all is like there can be no dislike and contention which groweth from vnlikenes and contrarietie those so often and vrgent feares of spirytuall domages belonginge to the soule and to happen after death and the hope of eternall pleasures then to be enioyed which euery man prooueth to exceede his corporall feares and bodely delights giue euidence in this case Then those so manie and Immortall Powers of the soule must haue their end and seeing the natures of thinges and their powers properties must agree be of the same order that substance of the soule which hath immortall and euer during properties and operations must be immortall for by no possibility where the subiect or substance is mortall the properties and qualities of that substance can be immortall for properties and accidents must haue some thing wherein to be subiected and receaued and those properties that be immortall an immortall subiect For properties and qualities be euer the properties of some thing to which they are belonging Therefore as those operations which the soule exerciseth only by dependance of the bodie and corporall organes as to eate to walke to growe to heare to smell and such other vegetatiue and sensible workes are an argument that soule which onely hath these works to perish with the body as the liues of Plants Herbes Birdes Beastes and Fishes doe because they wholy depend of that body which doth perish euen so the operations of the soule of man which are independing of the bodily helpe demonstratiuelie argue the separabilitie thereof and so duration for euer For that vvhich is intellectuall and spirituall cannot bee corrupted of anie corporall or naturall agent Neither hath it originall of decaye in it selfe but is altogither without contrarietie and repugnance And beeinge one simple spirituall and incompounded substance it must needes bee immortall after death and haue an euerlasting felicitie For the infinite wisedome of GOD vvhich coulde not constitute the leaste creature or doe anie thinge but to some ende hath assigned a certaine state and place vvherein euerye creature findeth center and rest where they enioye and preserue their perfection as the Element of Fire aboue the vppermost Region of the Ayre because it is highest the Ayre in his Regions as the Nature thereof requireth the heauier thinges Water and Earth in their lower elementary places and so of all other creatures and yet hitherto neuer anie man howe much soeuer beholdinge vnto nature couldâ— finde in earthly thinges a center and place of rest for the immortall appetites and faculties of his soule wherefore by no possibility his beatitude can bee in this vvorlde For although wee admitte in other creatures that all of euerye kinde obtayne not their ende yet to saie that none of anye sorte doe finde it is euidentlye vntrue Then to affirme that amonge so many millions of men so excellent creatures not one shoulde haue his ende and happinesse were to take all wisdome goodnesse and prouidence from GOD and argue him of ignorance and iniustice especially when wee often see wicked men in this worlde not onely to liue vnpunished but to bee exaulted with honor and passe their time in pleasures and the most holy and vertuous to liue in misery and to be afflicted with all aduersities which the infinite goodnesse of God woulde not doe except after death he had appointed punishment for the one and a beatificall rewarde for the other for of it owne nature vertue is honourable and sinne deserueth punishment For if there be no religion due to God but the soule of man is mortall and dieth with the body his end must be assigned in this life as it is in beastes other creatures must consist in corporal and temporal delightes Then cannot humilitie sobriety temperance abstinence patience virginity chastitie pennance prayer contemplation and other confessed vertues which be opposite enemies and a full priuation of bodely and sensuall pleasures be accounted vertues leading to a mans felicity when they directly depriue him of his supreame beatitude Or how could pride ambition oppression couetousnesse drunkennnesse theft rapine adultery and all vncleane wantonnesse of sensuality and other voluptuous sinnes bee so esteemed when they
exceping the miserable fleemish haue beene free from these vnhappie and irreligious dealinges and vvhen was the condition thereof so honourable in what age vvere the Spaniardes accounted such conquerours and souldiers in the vvorlde when was their fame and honour so great are not his Dominions and Kingdomes greater richer more ample and honorable then the possessions of anye Infidell in the worlde hath hee not in these very times when the irreligious partes of Christendome haue lost and bin infested so much wonne and lawfully vnited vnto him more mightyer richer greater and more glorious nations then any Infidel is owner of or any irreligious Ptince or state of Christians enioyeth as the Kingdomes of Castill legion Tollet Hispalis Murcia and Luzia and the Prouinces adioyning Burgundy and the 15. prouinces the Canary Ilands Sardinia Sycily Naples the Dukedome of Myllane Portugall the Philippine Ilands so many vaste and rich cuntries of America the East and West Indiās obtayned wone by the 3. last catholike religious kings of Spaine Philip 1. Charles 5. and Philip 2. in that time whē the irreligious places of Christians haue loste so much and yet what other christian warres haue beene which they haue not defended And if it were lawfull to make free comparisons of these latter daies of protestants and compare the estate of the countryes where the protestantes haue persecuted and catholikes haue been afflicted it woulde bee no difficultye to proue that the glorie honor and temporall felicity of the persecuted religious Catholiks haue far exceeded the pompe and prosperity of their persecutors But so muche as I neede to craue leaue to doe far Englande it apeareth alreadye in my epistle And I am assured there is no protestant in our nation but settinge the loue of his Abbey-liuynges aside woulde wishe the estate of his countrye for Honor Riches Strength Order Friendshippe of Forreine Nations loue and vnity of Nobility others and al other honors and blessings of a Christian kingdome were no worse nowe then it was in the 22. yeare of king Henry the eight when he reuolted If he either consider Clergie or layetie nobility or commonalty or let vs viewe the number of religious and catholicke Priests which aboue 100. in her maiesties time haue suffered death for this quarrell Looke into the liues and deathes of ministers and for that 100 of martyrs you shal finde 1000 and more ministers dying infamous miserable and beggerly deathes for most wicked and vnnaturall offences Looke into those ministers that have bene beste of life and in greatest fauour with Prince and subiects and we shal finde that our banished religious catholickes doe surmount them we haue by forreigne Princes rewarded with honours of Cardinal Bishoppe and all inferiour dignities we haue had more publicke professors of diuinity in other vniuersities then all Englande hath had at home our Priests religious men and namely the fathers of of the society of Iesus most odious in England haue bin in higher reputation with the greatest princes of the worlde in straunge countryes then the higheste Arche-bishop of protestants in England hath beene with his naturall Soueraigne And such is the ordinarie and common ignominy and dishonour to be reputed a Minister in the English Church that I suppose very few or no Catholike Priests of that nation woulde change their honour euen in England with so base infamous a generation What the wealth riches and other blessings be which the Protestants haue that wee want for all this time of persecution and empouerishing religious Catholickes I thinke no man perceaueth so manifest a distinction and yet the charges taxes and impositions which haue beene imposed vpon vs are 20. times greater then those vvhich Protestantes haue tasted And if the estate of Catholickes in Englande vvhere they are persecuted is such how glorious is it in Catholike nations where they are honoured if the times of persecution and Irreligion haue done vs no more dishonour what glorie will Catholike and Religious times affoorde vs if our ovvne contrie Protestant Historians can so litle disgrace vs as the history of Stowe and others will witnesse what commendation and credit wil Catholickes and Religious Cronicles both at home and abroade yeelde vnto vs so that we see what honour glory dignity or excellency soeuer it is which a man maye or can desire to haue either spirituall or temporall in this or in the life to come if it is a pleasure or preferment to a reosonable creature such as may be wished or enioyed without sinne Religion is the mother of all THOVGH THERE SHOVLDE BE no rewarde for Religion after death yet the state of the Religious is to be preferred before the Irreligious ¶ CHAP. XV. YEA if we shoulde yeelde so much to this franticke and brutish humor of Irreligious epicures to say this Question of Religion is doubtfull as there is nothing more certaine then that man oweth Religion vnto God yet we shall perceiue the Religious state euē in worldly and temporall happinesse farre to exceede the condition of the Irreligious that these are drowned and plunged in greater and deeper miseries then the others For what vnhappines or infelicity can be imputed to professors of religion if they should be in error al the pleasures and delightes which can be conceaued to belong to man consisting of a soule and body must of necessity be spirituall belonging to the first or temporall proportionate to the seconde The spirituall delights must needes be the vertues and perfections of the soule which onlie the Religious enioy and whereof the others are depriued thus the greatest happynesse is had of such as approoue Religion and the ennemies thereof haue loste it as for thinges of delight appertayning to the body if they bee entangled with sinne they cannot bee accounted pleasure as before but rather a double torment to the guiltye conscience of those vvhich for the repose and rest of delight offer a violence vnto nature and yet this is only that wherein the Irreligyous can exceede and his excesses is in his owne affliction for I haue proved beefore that actuallye whether there is any religion or no that all other externall thinges which may be accounted goodes of the bodie fortune or any extrinsicall preferment as Riches Honours Peace Rule and other prerogatiues of glorie dignity such delights haue euer beene more peculier and proper to the Religeous then to the Impious And that this Irreligious generation which onelye seeke for ease and pleasure and to bee free from myseries by many decrees haue euer in this life beene more afflicted then the reste If it hath euer chanced so in former times though wee shoulde denye the prouydence of God to doe the lyke in future ages yet if all thinges were ruled by fortune and came by chaunce fortune is as like to fauour professors of Relygion hereafter as heretofore And naturall reason teacheth vs that of necessity it muste bee soe for there neuer was
come to the Gentiles themselues not only the propheticall Sibilles who tolde most plainly of this distinction of persons in God but to others especially the Egiptians and such as liued in the confined and bordering countries to the Israelites For breuity I will onlie produce the wordes of the Oracle of Serapis to Thulis King of the Egiptians and Plotinus an heathen Philosopher The sentence of the first is this In the beginning God is then his worde and to these the spirit is added these are equall and tending into one The wordes of the second in his booke of the three principall Hypostasies or persons for so Christianlike it is intituled are these Before the worde not by priority of nature or time but onely by priority of origination is the fountaine and beginning of all diuinitye of this father the worde is begotten further euery thinge which begetteth loueth and desireth that which is begotten but that moste chieflie when the begetter and the begotten are alone Againste Mahumet I haue prooued a distinction of persons in God before out of his owne Alcaron and Sentence This beeing the greatest and chiefest Mistery I haue stayed longer therin and wil passe ouer the rest with more breuity The same Mahumet affirmeth that as Iesus was the Worde of God so hee was the most holy man that Prophet Messias which was promised in the lawe of Moises and was sent to supply the defect therof The Sibills as I haue prooued before haue set downe the whole lyfe of Christ and all the actions of his humanitye and tell how hee should die for the world and rise againe Other Prophesies among the Gentiles which I haue aleaged before affirme that Filius Dei nasceturex Virgine Maria et pro salute huminum patietur That the Sonne of God should be borne of a Virgine called Mary and should suffer for Mankinde The doctrine of the Rabbins before Christe so authentitall among the Iewes is most comfortable to this sentence Rabbi Haccados called for his learning and sanctitie our holy master affirmeth in his booke intituled a reueler of secrets where hee expoundeth that the Propheticall place of Esaye touching the Messias Emanuell God strong Prince of peace speaketh thus Because the Messias shall bee God and man his name is called Emanuell God with vs surely in our bodye and in our fleashe as Iob doth witnesse in my fleshe I shall see God For hee did deuise a māruailons counsayle of deliuering soules from the deuill which were damned for the sinne of Adam neyther coulde by any meanes bee saued except the king Messias should vndergoe most bitter death and many tormentes and for that cause he is called a man And because he hath all strength hee is called God strong And because hee is eternall hee is named the eternall father Also because in his dayes peace shall bee multiplyed he is called the prince of peace And because hee shall make haste to take awaye the spoiles of soules hee is called a swifte spoyler and taker of prayes And because he shall saue them and bring them to Paradise he is called Iesus that is a sauiour Hitherto be the woordes of that most holy and learned Rabbine Rabbi Ionathan who dyed before Christ was borne applieth the longe narration of Esay the prophet in his 53. chapter to the murther of the Messias by the Iewes and soone after him Rabbi Simion breaketh out into these wordes Woe be to the men of Israell for that they shall kill the Messias God shal send his sonne in mans fleshe to washe them and they shall murther him Rabbi Hadarsone vpon the prophesy of Daniell cōcerning the time of the comming and preaching of Christe vseth this speech Three years and a halfe shall the presence of God in fleshe cry and preach vpon the mount Oliuer and then shall hee be slayne Which the Iewes ordinarye commentarye vppon the Psalmes interpreteth of Christes preaching three yeares and halfe before his passion And the Thalmundists themselues haue set downe that the Messias shall bee put to deathe Concerning our moste holye Sacrifyce of the bodie and bloud of Christe as it is euidente before by the testimonye of the true prophets of GOD. The Sibbylles and Mahumet him selfe that in respecte of the lawe of Christe all their Religions and sacryfises were vnperfect and foretolde to cease in him and his oblation So that the Sacrifyce whiche should be offered in his lawe was to be his blessed bodye and bloud vnder the formes of bread and wine as Catholike Christians beleeue is moste plainely tolde out of those holie Scriptures by the auncient and approoued Rabbines before CHRIST The wordes of Rabbi Iudas speakinge of the Sacrifice of the lawe of the Messias are these The bread which is offered vppon the Altar is chaunged from the nature of breade and made the bodye and substance of the Messias But this bodye is inuisible with our eyes and free from all violence and not to bee touched Rabbi Symeon in his booke of searching secrettes hath the same discourse speaking euidentlie of transsubstantiating breade and wine into that moste sacred bodye and bloude and affirmeth it to bee the Sacryfice which shall bee vsed in the Kingdome and Religion of the Messias Rabbi Cahana vpon those wordes of Genesis hee shall washe his stole in wine and his cloake in the bloude of the grape vttereth this speech The Sacryfice which daylie shall be offered of wine shall not onlye bee chaunged into the substance of the bloude of the MESSIAS but into the substaunce of his bodye breade shall bee chaunged although externally there only appeare the collour of white Rabbi Hadarsan sayth that the bread which the Messias will giue is his bodye and there shall bee a conuersion of bread into his bodye Rabbi Barachias teacheth that at the comming of the Messias foode shall come from heauē like a litle cake Like be the sentences of Rabbi Ionathas and Rabbi Selomo teaching that a round cake of wheate as broade as the palme of an hand shall bee changed into the body of the Messias and vsed for the sacrifice of his lawe and bee listed ouer the heades of his Priestes All these Rabbins liued before Christ yet these be their expositions of the holye Scriptures concerning that most holy Sacrifice which Christiā Catholikes vse and such other misteries as depend from thence The Sibbills and Mahumet confesse that Christe shoulde and did abrogate the lawe of Moyses His Gospell was the perfection of that lawe that those sacrifices should cease in him yee he shall destroye Antechrist Pagannisme Iudaysme and Mahumetisme come in glory in the end of the worlde and be Iudge therof and only his religion to endure Thus I could exemplifye in other questions of christian doctryne but because these are the greatest and those which Infidels most dislyke in our religion I haue geuen instance in
c. The excellency of God the first cause worthy all Reuerence All creatures in the world all authorities euery argument for Religion in this worke prooueth a God The necessity of God to be the first efficient cause and Religion due to him Magist 4. dist 5 Duc. 2. Sent c. The preseruation of things by God binding to Religion One absolutely necessary and independing essence which is god worthye all worship The subordination of thinges by God c. God the finall end of all Supernaturall miracles which coulde not bee produced by any creature c. The testimony of all nations people Lactant. sup Absurdities of denying God c. The necessity of Gods prouidence for the dependance of creatures The vniforme and orderlye course euen of insensible thinges that can haue no prouidence in themselues Cicero l. 3. de Nat. Deor. Arist 2. Met. c. 2. text 5.8 Met. cap. 5. text 41. Auth. l. caus c. 1. c. Prouidence ouer creatures as much belonging to God as their creation Euseb lib. 3. Praep. Euang. No creature hath or can haue the generall prouidence of thinges No Maker of thinges endued with reason is vnprouident of his worke The infinite wisdome and goodnesse of God cannot but haue prouidence of thinges Euent of thinges cannot be imputed to the heauens and constellations Albert. lib. 1. Phisic ca. 19. tract 2. All authority prooueth the prouidence of God Example of Gods prouidence to euery meane creture Galen l. 3. de vsu part l. 5. Chap. 13. Examples of Gods supernaturall prouidence c. Gods prouidence to Hierusalem beefore the comming of Christ Gen. 12.15.17.18.3 Reg. 6. Gen 15. Act. 7. Exod. 12. Exod. 5.6.7.8 9.10.11.12.13.14.15.16.17 c. Porphyr l. 4. contr Christ App. lib. 4. contr Iud. Ioseph lib. 4. Antiquit. Arist lib. 7â— interpret 3. Reg. 6. Math. c. 5. Act. 2. Ioseph l. antiq Arist l. 72. interpret Machab. 1 Esdr 1.2.3 Arist supr Ioseph contr Appion 1. Esdr 1 2.3.4.5 6.7 c. Is 53. Hier. Sybil. apud Lact. 1.2 3.4 diu instit D. Tho. 3. p. Ioseph lib. 15.20.7 bell Math 27. Ioseph lib. 7. bell cap 12. Tacitus hist lib. 5. Ioseph lib. 7. bell cap. 12. Gods prouidence to the Apostoâ—ique See of Rome Sibil apud lact lib. diu instit Epist Apol. Bernard Lute Catal. haeret Casp Vlenb. 22. caus Miracles Cap. 10.11.13 infr Part. 2. Resol Arg. miracl The generall and vniforme consent of all countries and people Hist Eccl. Eus Niceph. Bed c. Alcaron Mah. Thalmud Iud. Petr. Maff. hist Indic c. Obiections of Epicures answered Cap. 2.3 sup Lib. 2. part 2. Resol Lib. 2. cap 6. part 2. Resol Arg. 5.6 c. Cap. 12.13.14 infr Cap. vlt. penult Seq The ende and felicity of man cannot bee in this life Cicero Tuscul quest et paradox Aristot lib. â— ethic cap. 1. Arist sup c. 8. The vnreasonable absurdities of Epicures and deniers of the soules immortality after death Deniers of the soule immortality deny themselues to be men Mercur. trism in Aescul plat c. Arist lib. 1. an text 20. lib. 2. an text 22. l. 12. met text 17.1 ethic c. 11. c. The powers of the soule in satiable in this life The absolute regiment of the reasonable powers ouer the sensible inferior Vertues spiritual qualities of man cannot be subiected in a Corporall and Mortall Subiecte The conscience and internal experience euen of the Epicures Rom. cap. 2.5.14.15 The chiefest operations of the soule independant of the body The principall acts of the soule more perfect when most abstracted from the body The reflected actes of mans soule The continuall contrarie Combats of the resonable soule and sensible powers The immortal powers of the soule which cannot be in a Mortall Subiect demonstrate the soule to be Immortall Euery kind of creatures except man hath an end in this life Seperated soules All scriptures The vndoub-Authoritie of holye Scriptures Antiquitie Iren. lib. 1. ca. 20.22.29 Epiphan haer 66. Euth part 2. panopl. tit 23. cap. 1. Anton. p. 4. tit 11. cap. 7. Beâ—gom hist in Diâ—g Genebr Chr. lib. 1. Ioseph lib. 10. contr Appi. Lactant. lib. 1.2.3.4 diu inst Eus in Chron. Euphemer mess in geneal Deor. Cicero nat Deor. Lactant. lib. 1.2 diu insstit Actaban hist Iud. polyhist hist Eupol c. 1. Esdr 1 2.3.4.5.6 7. c. Arist lib. 72. interpret 3 Reg 5. Sybil. apud Lactant. l. 2.3.4 5. diu instit D. Tho. 3. p. Gra. de Simb Ioseph lib. 1. antiq Eus lib 9. praepar cap 4. Nicl l. fraud Artab hist Iud. Polyh hist Iud. Arist l. de Iob Thalmud Alcoron Arist l. 72. intr Ioseph lib. 10. cont Appion App l. 4. cont Iud. Porphyr l. 4. cont Christ Ioseph lib. 1.2 antiq Orph. in car Iustin Martyr Orat. ad Anton pium Dion haliâ— lib. 4. The holines and excellencie of the writers of holie Scriptures aboue all other writers Hebr. 11 c. Plato ep 13. ad Dionis Efficacie of the doctrine in holie Scriptures Lib. 2.1 paâ— Resol The wonderfull consent in all things of al writers of holy Scriptures The miraculous translation and preseruation of scriptures Arist lib. 72. interpret The great authorization of scriptures in humane proceedings Thalm. Alco azoar 1 1. to 1.2 Concil Bellar. Chron. Genebr Cron Certaine foretelling of future contingent thinges Gen. 12.13.15.17 Exod. 12. Gen. 49. Numer 34.35.36 Ios 15.16.17 Deut. 31.32 Ios 6. â— Reg. 12. â— Reg. 23. 4. Reg. 20. Is 5.15.24.25.13.8 Hierem. 26. Zachar. 1. Hier. 37.29.38.39.25 4. Reg. 24.25 1. Esdr 1. 2. Esdr 2. Dan. 9 5. Is 53. Dan. 10.9 Is 42.40.50 Malach. 3. Is 1. Zach. 9. Psal 80. Os 2.3.6 Dan. 2. Agg. 2. Zachar. 11. Malach. 1. Is 1.2.3.5.6 c. Math. 24. Marc. 13. Luc. 21.19 c. Myracles to prooue the scriptures that by no possibility they can be vntrue Part. 2. Resol Aug. myracl cap. 10.11 seq c. Rich. des vict Patriarches Priests Prophets c. Gen. c. 3.4 Exod. Num. Leuit. Iudic. cap. 2. Phil. Iud. hist Ioseph l. Antiq bell Arist lib. 72. interpret Cic. l. de Nat. Deor. li diu Lac l. 1.2.3 4. c. diu instit Bed hist Ang. Al Kings Rulers Priests Oracles Archflamens c. of the Gentiles Hermond li. 1. disciplin Phil Bergom histor Euseb hist Virg. Bucol Iust in Apol. Lact. sup c. Poets Phylosophers Infr. tract 2 Argument 1. S. August apud Berg. hist Sybilles Eurip. in prollam Chrisip l diui Neu. lib. bell Punic Arastot in Annal Lactant. lib. diuin instit Cicero l. Nat. Deor. l. diuin Bergom hist in Sibill c. Lact. in Sibil S. Anton 1. part hist Infra tract 2. Argu. 1. c. Sages wise men Philip. Bergom hist Cicero Euseb c. Legistes and Lawemakers Gen. Gen. cap. 9. Phil. Iud. in hist Bergom l 2. hist fol. 4. Ioseph lib. 1. Antiquitat Lactant. sir l. diu instit Bergom in hist supr Cicero lib de Nat. Deor. instit Apol. Diodor.
the Emperour released theire tribute towardes their buildinge againe The Rockes were torne in peeces not onely about Hierusalem as the Euangelistes recorde and Golgatha did witnesse as Saint Cirill Bishoppe of Hierusalem reporteth but in diuers other farre more remote places as the mountaine of Auernia in Hetruria the promontarie of Cayeta and an Hill in Wales and other Countries About two hundred yeares agoe at Sefeelde in Germanye a Village betweene Ausburge and Iusburge the harde marble stones of the pauement of the Church gaue place and the grounde opened to swallowe vp the Lord Oswalde a Noble man of that Countrie irreligiouslie behauing himselfe in receauing the blessed Sacrament of the body of Christ and catching hold of the Altar of the church made of harde stone by which hee kneeled to communicate his hande sunke into it as though it had beene soft clay the print stil remayning so deep as any man may lay his whole hand there in as I haue seene and done and the B. Sacrament is reserued and remayneth in the proper species and forme after so many yeares with watery drops of bloude in such places as were bruised with the teeth of Baron Oswalde All this chauncing in a most famous assemblie in the festiuitie of Easter before so many witnesses and are still to be seene in the same place as thousands can witnes Howe haue the very Elements of which our bodies are composed and nourished persecuted vs for this disobedience How many irreligious Cities haue bin sunke vp by the earth whereon they were founded by the shaking and opening thereof Bura Helier in Achaia and in the time of Traïan foure Cities in Asia three in Greece two in Galaria Howe many drowned by water in the inundation of Ogigius ouer-flowing almost all Achaia and the floode of Deucalion in Thessaly Howe many infections in the aire an Elament for the comforte and preseruing of life in the Consulshippe of Lucius Cecilius Metellus and Q. Fabius Maximus Seuerinus all the irreligious inhabitants of Rome died of the pestilence not one remayning so likewise in the Consulship of L. Genneus and Q. Seruilius Howe hath the Sun the verie Prince of Planets and nurse of life wrought the destruction of thinges set them so strangely on fire and consuming them that some haue affirmed the Elaments and almost the whole worlde to haue bin inflamed and in the Iland of Lippara as it were the mouth of hell flaming and breaking out in such outrage that the stony rockes were set on fire the sea boyled the fishes were killed and the inhabitants suffocated About such time as the regimēt of the irreligious Turkes began the Sun was darkned 17. daies togither and gaue no light And before in the yeare of Christ 676. about which time Irreligious and prophane Mahumet entered to delude the worlde fire fell from heauen a wonderful rainebowe appeared and such dreadfull signes were seene that mē withered away with feare so excessiue thunder lightnings and pestilence reigned that men thought the ende of the worlde to haue beene come And Foxe himselfe affirmeth that about the irreligious reuolt of Luther there appeared in Germany vpon the garments of the Clergie and others men and women bloudie Crosses and signes and tokens of the nailes spunge speare coate and other thinges belonging to the passion of Christ But of all other Nations this matter is most manifest in the Iewish people which when it was religious vnto God was honorable through the world and miraculouslie preserued but since they fell to their irreligious forsaking of Christ the Messias all creatures both reasonable vnreasonable haue sounded a larumme and proclaymed wars against them And to conclude this matter with an example of our owne countrey in the time of Paganisme 300. yeares before Christ there neuer was any Prince of the British line so potent and victorious as King Brennus brother to King Beline was who subdued the Gaules Germans Italians Grecians and many mighty Princes yet when in the toppe of his pride he began to make a iest of Religion and blasphemouslie to vtter as though none were to be vsed presently not to approoue any false religion of the Pagans but to reprooue the impietie of Brennus to manifest the iustice of God vpon such as denie him worshippe the earth as quaking to heare such blasphemous speech trembled part of the Hill Pernassus fell vpon his souldiours slewe them after hailestones most strange for number greatnesse destroyed an other part of his army wherein he gloried so much and so wounded that irreligious Brennus that hee fell into dispaire and slewe himselfe with his owne sworde The like punishments although not alwaies in so prodigious manner haue fallen vpon all English kings that haue beene Irreligious to the See of 〈◊〉 that either they haue beene strangely punnished by GOD in their liues or come to miserable deathes So likewise all the auncient Pagans and irreligious Emperours and Princes that were enemies to the Religion of Christ were rewarded THE MIRACVLOVS OBEDIENCE and submision of all creatures to the Religious ¶ CHAP. XI COntrariwise to those that haue been most reuerent and religious to God the same creatures of his haue not onlye performed done their ordinary seruice and dutie but shewed extraordinary obedience so all sensible things as Birdes Beastes Fishes and vnsensible haue done homage not onelie to Adam in his religious estate of innocencie and after to Noe HeliZeus Daniell Ionas Tobias and others in the lawe of Moyses but in the Primitiue Churche of Christ thousads of martyrs and holye Sainctes as not onlye approoued ecclesiasticall writers but manie thousandes of Heathens that were present haue witnessed Manie of them chauncinge in most publique assemblies before Princes and Emperors at the verie Theatre of Rome the moste famous place of spectacles and meetings in the worlde So the Lion that was appointed to deuoure S. Prisca a christian virgine religious vowed to Christ fell downe at her feete before her persecutors and many thousands So the two Lions did to the two christian religious bretheren Primus and Felicianus in the presence of 1200. Pagan witnesses so that 500. with their families were conuerted The verie seate of Valens the Arian Emperor refused to beare his master when he woulde haue fitte to giue sentence agaynste S. Basill that religious Catholique Bishop or monkishe man as Luther calleth him three pennes one after another refused to giue incke to write the Edict of his exilement The very cruell Dragons honored and defended Aman the Abbotte againste his enemies The venimous spiders shrowded and concealed with theyr webbes S. Felix from his Irreligious Persecutors A Rauen a raueninge and deuoureynge byrde broughte victualles threescore yeares together to feede Sainte Paule the Eremite in the Desarte whyle he liued and when hee was deade the Lyons digged a graue where this bodie was entombed Angels
Patriarches and Prophets accompaning the soule to heauen as S. Anthony the great did see and witnesse whose sanctity and Religion likewise were such that the verye Diuelles themselues troubled at his verie name What visions of Angels lights from heauen and miraculous apparitions recorded in irreprooueable Authors chauncing in the sight of whole Townes and Countries haue approoued the Religion and pietie of S. Benedect the Abbot Geruasius Protasius S. Dominicke and thousands in sorreigne Countries S. Cuthbert S. Dunston S. Oswalde S. Suitbert Edithe Ethelderd and others in England The Religion of S. Leo Pope of Rome violented Attila that outragious Infidell sirnamed the Whip of God in his greatest furie to recall his armie from inuading Italy to the wonder of all his souldiours A vessell of boyling Lead Rosin and Pitch woulde not hurt the bodies of S. Vitus Modestus and Crescentia and the Lyon prepared to consume them fell downe and licked their feete wherupon Diocletian the Emperor causing them to be torne in peeces the verye insensible creatures wrought reuengement for thundrings lightnings and earthquakes oppressed their ennemies and ouerthrewe their idolatrous Temples At the comming of Christ besides those homages offices of al creatures both in heauen earth done vnto him and recorded by the holy Euangelists the Pagans themselues and other writers are witnesses that a miraculous circle compassed the Sun in the viewe of all the Romanes and after the same appeared in 3. circles one being enuironed with a fiery Garland Three Suns were seene to shine at one time in the firmament and to vnite themselues togither in one The high and great trees as hee trauailed from place to place miraculouslie burned themselues to the ground and reuerenced him And at Rome a spring flowed with oile a whole day togither when Christ our annoynted vvas borne And infinite more myracles of the submission and obedience of his creatures vnto him are recorded both in ecclesiastacall and prophane Authors where we may reade the like allegeance and dutie performed to his holy Saints and religious seruants but these are sufficient for this purpose and able to giue answere to the carnall imagination of any irreligious Politicke or Epicure which like beasts only mooued with corporall and sensible delights are often scandalized to see the impious and wicked sometimes exalted to honour and religious innocents oppressed with miseries For that honourable testimonie which God hath so often and strangely giuen for the glorie of his Saints and religious friends at such times as they were most oppressed in reproofe and condemnation of the impious their persecutors so much exalteth the glory and honor of the religious oppressed aboue the deceitfull happinesse of the other by howe much the testemonie and glory which is giuen of God is greater then the witnesse which is brought and honour that is desired of a carnall beastly man And although this extraordinary glory and honour is not sensiblie bestowed vpon euery religious Saint and oppressed seruant of his in this life for so he shoulde bee onely serued for honour and temporall rewardes yet in that he hath giuen it to so many and for the same cause for which the others bee oppressed no man can call into question but honour is due and belongeth vnto all and to be rendred vnto them either in this life or after death as experience sheweth all such religious innocents are glorious honourable euen with men when they are dead and their persecutors either forgotten or remembred with dishonour And yet of al temporall dignities glory is the greatest and that which euery man most desireth THE AFFLICTIONS AND ADuersities of the Religious and godlie for which the Epicures denie Religion are a manifest proofe thereof ¶ CHAP. XII AND to preuent the carnall obiectious of this sensuall people if aduersities tribulations and crosses had not chanced to the most renowmed and temporally honoured Princes Alexanders Cesars Hannibals Scipioes and others their honour had neuer beene so great for vvhat hath nobled them so much in glorie as their patience fortitude constancie and magnanimity in suffering distresses and performing difficulte and heroicall attemptes And if their sufferinges and valiant enterprises in temporall causes vvhen they vvere probable to bee broughte to passe haue made them noble vvith men vvhat shall inuincible fortitude and vnconquerable mindes of holye Saintes in causes appertayning to God and his greatest honour and in performance whereof they were assured to loose both life and other temporall dignities deserue If this bee not the meritte of honour nothing can be named honourable or called glorious And if these sufferinges shoulde be vtterly taken away from the friendes of God in this worlde the greatest honour that is due to vertue shoulde bee wanting For take this awaie and the vertues of patience fortitude magnanimitie and others which be the deseruing causes of glory cannot be excused because they principally consist in vndergoinge aduersities and effectinge difficult thinges And the excellency of this vertue of fortitude in patiently enduring aduersities and vndergoing harde and vneasie businesse is so greate that in auncient times amonge Phylosophers it was euer accounted one of the foure cardinall vertues And it is conuenient for true Relion not to wante this tryall and state of aduersitie euen in the greateste and moste perfect men So that the moste relgious men and such as haue beene in the greatest honor and account both with God man for that cause haue tasted of both estates Iob sometimes moste vnfortunate sometimes in highest aduancementes of prosperitie S. Paul that was rapt into heauen often depressed to the gteatest miseryes and so of others and not onlie priuate men but religious Commonweales Kingedomes and Empires the examples are manifest in histories And yet no Epicure or Machauell can say that this is an obiection against Religion or disgrace to the religious friends of God which be so visited with affliction but the contrarie because those vertues be then exercised which otherwise would not And that which is the chiefe act of Religion God reuerenced honored by them in such sort as they perhaps being in prosperitie would not so well haue performed And if honor and glorie bee the greate dignities of this life the religious sufferers of affliction are so farre from miserie by enduringe callamities or afflictions that they are rather made trereby more honourable and glorious THE TEMPORALL HONOVRS and delights of the Religious were often greater and their miseries lesse then of the Irreligious ¶ CHAP. XIII BVT to satisfie the carnall and sensuall appetites and conceiptes of Irreligeous voluptuous men to whom nothing is good but Bonum delectabile that which is delightfull vnto sense lett vs passe ouer all demonstrations before alleaged and for this time esteeme nothing of so many vnspeakeable ioyes which chaunce to the religious euen at those times when these men adiudge them most vnfortunate in their state of affliction the