and honour whilest our winding sheetes doe expect vs as having one foote in the graue within whose territories Plowmen are full compeeres to Kings where the spade may chalenge precedence of the scepter where the miter may not contest with the mathooke CHAPTER XXI Of Idolatrie occasioned from inordinate affection towardes Friends deceased or ceremonious solemnities at Funeralls 1. THe implanted notion of the God-head which with diversitie of affections hath its spring and fall was in some Heathens so buried that nothing but sorrow for friends departed or affection towards publique benefactors could reviue it Such were the Augilae a people of Africke which had no gods besides the ghosts of men deceased Their error though grosse was linked in a double chaine of truth the one that soules of men deceased did not altogether cease to be the other that the things which are seene were ordered and governed by vnseene powers yet loath they were to beleeue any thing which in some sort they had not seene or perceived by some sense Hence did their generall notion miscarry in the descent vnto particulars prostrating it selfe before sepulchers filled with dead bones and consulting soules departed Though not in the negatiue yet in the affirmatiue part of these mens verdit concerning the gods most Heathens vpon occasions did concurre The superstition might easily be either bred or fed from an opinion so probable to most in speculation as opportunitie would easily draw all to the practice The grand Censurer while he denies Deceased auncestors to be any whit affected with the weale or misery of posteritie implies this to haue beene a received opinion before his time for such for the most part he either refutes or refines This principle being once setled in mens mindes strong impulsions either of hope or feare would extort such prayers and supplications to friends or auncestors departed as vpon like occasions should haue beene tendered to them living And the supplicants not knowing any set meanes of procuring audience before patrons now absent and out of sight would try all they had knowne in like cases practised by others or could invent themselues Sacriaces amongst other meanes were as the common lure to wooe ghosts or spirits vnto familiar conference or at least to take notice of suits exhibited and to manifest their answers by the effect Thus Alexander though a Prince of Aristotles instructing being now bound for Asia offered sacrifice to Protesilaus vpon his Tombe with supplication for better successe then he to whom he offered sacrifice had there found being slaine in the Troian warre Did the great Monarch as we may conjecture thinke that the soule of this Grecian Worthy not pacified with such offerings would envy better successe vnto his successors of Greece or did he rather hope that Protesilaus by resolute adventure and vntimely death had merited a warrant from the gods to grant safe conduct vnto Graecian Nobles that vpon just quarrells invaded Asia For the reason why Alexander should sacrifice to him before any other was in that he of all the Grecian Captaines had set first foote in Asia as if by death he had taken possession of Protectorship over his Country-men in like expeditions But whatsoever motiue Alexander had to this Idolatrie from that generall improument of mens esteeme of others worth and vertue absent in respect of them present many nations were prone to adore them as gods after death whom they honoured and reverenced aboue others yet with humane honour onely whiles they liued From this observance amongst the Grecians Callisthenes ingenuously and wittily refutes Anaxarchus perswading the Macedonians to giue divine honour to Alexander ready enough to receiue it before his death Whatsoever the Barbarians may practise faith this Grecian Philosopher Greece I know hath no such custome nor did our Auncestors worship Hercules as a god so long as he conversed among them in humane shape nor after his death vntill the Delphicke Oracle had so appointed Anaxarchus on the contrary thought it a great Indecorum not to giue that honor to the Emperour whiles he liued which he doubted not would by publique consent be designed vnto him after death The like Parasiticall humor of the Tâ—asians a people of Greece had travailed before of like Idolatrie but brought forth onely a memorable jâ—st in that wise King Agesilaus vnto whom such proffered service smelled too rankly of base flattery My masters quoth he hath your Cittie the authoritie or art of making gods If it haue I pray let vs see what manner of gods you can make your selues and then perhappes I shall be content to be a god of your making 2. The Platonicall opinion of the soules inlargement in her principall faculties after delivery from this walking prison which she carries about with her did secretly water and cherish the former seeds of error For consequently vnto this doctrine men might thinke that they who by their wit especially had done much good whiles they liued in the bodie would be able to doe much more after their dissolution So Herod thought Iohn Baptist had brought more skill out of that world wherevnto he had sent his soule before the naturall time of her departure then in his first life he had beene capable of for Iohn in his life time wrought no miracles Not onely the commonly conceived dignitie of the soule separated from the body but the time or manner of its separation did much instigate mindes otherwise that way bent to grosse superstition and Idolatrie The Magicians that liued at Athens when Plato died offered sacrifice to his soule supposing him to haue beene more than man because he died on his birth-day having fulfilled the most perfect number in his course of life whose length was iust fourescore yeares and one But to this particular superstition the causes mentioned in the eighteenth Chapter had their ioynt concurrence Quirinus and Romulus whether two or one were in Tullies judgement rightly reputed Gods after death because good men whilest they liued and as it seemes he thought no way disenabled for doing good still in as much as they enioyed eternitie in their soules And Trismegist catechizing his sonne in the Egyptian Art of making gods tells him his grand-father who was the first inventor of Physicke being gone to heaven in soule or to vse his phrase according to his better man did still worke all those cures by his secret power which before he wrought by art the onely place where this divine soule would be spoken with was the Temple wherein his mundane man or bodie lay entombed wherein likewise he had an Idoll or Image as every other Egyptian Temple had vnto which by Exorcismes or Invocation they wedded either spirits or soules of men after they had relinquished their owne bodies By this art were most Egyptian gods procreated vntill error by Gods iust iudgement did reciprocate and idolatry ascend from beasts to men from whom it first descended For in
Philosophers labour to teach vs in many words yea in many volumes I can comprehend in this short precept Let vs persevere such in health as we promise to be in our sicknesse That this Heathen whiles thus well minded otherwise should be so mindfull of his God is a very pregnant proofe from the effect that the naturall ingraffed notions of the Deitie proportionably increase or wane with the notions of morall good or evill The cause hereof is more apparant from that essentiall linke or combination which is betweene the conceipt of vice and vertue and the conceipt of a Iudgement after this life wherein different estates shall be awarded to the vertuous and to the vitious hence the true apprehension of the one naturally drawes out an vndoubted apprehension of the other vnlesse the vnderstanding be vnattentiue or perverted For that any thing should be so simply good as a man might not vpon sundry respects abiure the practise of it or ought so absolutely evill as vpon no termes it might be embraced vnlesse we grant the soule to be immortall capable of miserie and happinesse in another world is an imagination vnfitting the capacitie of brutish or meere sensitiue creatures as shall be shewed by Gods assistance in the Article of finall Iudgement 5. That sicknesse and other crosses or calamities are best teachers of such good lessons as Plinies forementioned friend had learned from them Elihu long before him had observed whose observation includes thus much withall that such as will not be taught by these instructions are condemned for trewants and non-proficients in the schoole of Nature Vertue or Religion that is for Hypocrites and men vnsound at the heart For if the roote or seede of morall goodnesse remaine sound the Maxime holds alwayes true maturant aspera mentem Adversitie is like an harvest Sunne it ripeneth the minde to bring forth fruites of repentance He withdraweth not his eyes from the righteous but with Kings are they on the throne yea he doth establish them for ever and they are exalted And if they be bound in fetters and be holden in cordes of affliction then he sheweth them their worke and their transgressions that they haue exceeded He openeth also their eare to discipline and commandeth that they returne from iniquitie If they obey and serue him they shall spend their dayes in prosperitie and their yeares in pleasures But if they obey not they shall perish by the sword and they shall dye without knowledge but the Hypocrites in heart heape vp wrath they cry not when he bindeth them The truth as well of Plinies as of Elihues observation is presupposed by most of Gods Prophets with whom it is vsuall to vpbraid his people with brutish stupiditie and hardnesse of heart to brand them with the note of vngracious children for not returning vnto the Lord in their distresse as if to continue in wonted sinnes or riotous courses after such sensible and reall proclamations to desist were open rebellion against God Senslesnesse of paines in extreame agonies doth not more certainly prognosticate death of body or decay of bodily life and spirits than impenitency in affliction doth a desperate estate of soule For the people turneth not vnto him that smiteth them neither doe they seeke the Lord of Hosts Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and taile branch and rush in one day And in that day did the Lord God of Hostes call to weeping and to mourning and to baldnesse and to girding with sackcloth And behold ioy and gladnesse slaying oxen and killing sheepe eating flesh and drinking wine let vs eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye And it was revealed in mine eares by the Lord of Hostes surely this iniquitie shall not be purged from you till ye dye sayth the Lord God of Hostes 6. The reason of this truth it selfe thus testified by three rankes of witnesses is not obscure in their Philosophy to whom I most accord who teach that the seedes of all truth are sowne by Gods hand in the humane soule and differ onely in reference or denomination from our desires of knowledge indefinitely taken As to our first parents so vnto vs when we first come vnto the vse of reason knowledge it selfe and for its owne sake seemeth sweete and welcome whether it be of things good or evill we much respect not But this desire of knowledge which in respect of actuall apprehension is indifferent neither set vpon good nor evill is vsually taken vp by actuall or experimentall knowledge of things evill or so vnprofitable that our inclinations or adherences vnto them either countersway our inclinations vnto goodnesse or choke our apprehensions of things truely good Now after our hopes of enioying such sense-pleasing obiects be by affliction or calamitie cut of the soule which hath not beene indissolubly wedded vnto them or alreadie giuen over by God vnto a reprobate sense hath more libertie than before it had to retire into it selfe and being freed from the attractiue force of allurements vnto the vanities of the world the Devill or flesh the naturall or implanted seedes of goodnesse recover life and strength and begin to sprout out into apprehensions either in loathing their former courses or in seeking after better And every least part or degree of goodnesse truely apprehended bringeth forth an apprehension of the author or fountaine whence it floweth that is of the divine nature In my prosperitie I said I shall never be moved Lord by thy favour thou hast made my mountaine to stand strong thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled I cryed to thee O Lord and vnto the Lord I made my supplication It may seeme strange to our first considerations as Calvin with some others vpon this place obserue that God should enlighten Davids eyes by hiding his face from him without the light of whose countenance even knowledge it selfe is no better than darkenesse But so it is that prosperitie doth oftentimes infatuate the best men and adversity maketh bad men wise The saying is authentique though the Author be Apocryphall Anima in angustijs spiritus anxius clamat ad te O Lord God almightie God of Israel the soule in Anguish the troubled spirit cryeth vnto thee So is that other Castigatio tua disciplina est eis Thy chastisement is their instruction Calvin hath a memorable story of a prophane Companion that in his jollitie abused these words of the Prophet The heaven even the heavens are the Lords but the earth hath he giuen to the children of men Psal 115. vers 16. The vse or application which this wretch hence made was that God had as little to doe with him here on earth as he had to doe with God in heaven But presently being taken with a suddaine gripe or pang he cryed out O God O God Yet this short affliction did not giue him perfect vnderstanding for afterwards he returned againe vnto his vomit and wallowing
the same manner doth the intellectuall ingraffed notion before it be distinctly apprehended either mislike the suggestion of sundry phantasmes as apt rather to smoother or obscure than to manifest or expresse it or like of others as comming neere it or being some necessary adiunct of it but finally approues onely such as haue exact correspondency with it or cleerely represent it to it selfe or the intellectiue facultie wherein it resides or moues Hence perhaps may that maine question of questions be assoyled How wee become certainly perswaded of any truth this certaintie can never be wrought but by a repercussion of the ingraffed notion vpon it selfe Thus in all contemplations fully evident certaine we feele a gratefull penetration betweene the obiect knowne and the facultie knowing and as it were a fastning of the truth found vnto that part of the soule whence the desire of it sprung The soule it selfe by this penetration becomes so fully satisfied that the inclination which before wrought outwardly seeking where to rest delights now rather to retire inwardly and enioy it selfe Our manner of examining the certainty of truth supposed to be found out is by a kinde of Arietation a tryall which floating conceits or phantasmes not perpendicularly setled vpon the intellectuall notion cannot abide And without convenient and setled phantasmes the intellectuall intentions glaunce away without reflection or repercussion and consequently without all sense or notice of the Idaeall rules or notions whence they flow as lines from their center Some glimerings they may leaue of their indefinite truth none of their goodnesse as the Sunne-beames leaue some light or impression of light in the middle or vpper region of the aire none of heat vntill it meet with some solid bodie to reflect them CHAPTER XIIII What qualifications are required in the Phantasie or passiue vnderstanding for performing its dutie to the actiue vnderstanding specially for the right representation of matters morall or spirituall 1. FOr avoiding of erroneous conceites as well in matters sensible as immateriall it would be requisite to knowe somewhat more particularly what qualification is required of the phantasie what of the whole humane soule what peculiarly of the intellectuall and supreme facultie which sets all the rest a working and calls all their severall operations to precise examination and strict account Seeing every thing almost that is hath some affinitie with others and nothing can be knowne without speculation of phantasmes it will be hard to vnderstand either more excellent and transcendent natures truely or ordinary matters fully without varietie of phantasmes The next thing that can be required in the phantasie thus furnished with store of modells or representations is that it be stayed or setled Non sum adeo informis nuper me in littore vidi Cum placidum ventis staret mare I am not so ill favoured I saw my selfe ere while In calmer sea a glasse most true which can no man beguile saith the Shepheard in the Poet. But who hath seene his bodily shape at any time in a raging Sea or swelling streame although that concourse or efficiency which our faces or bodies afford to the production of their owne images or similitudes be in all places and all times the same So is the irradiation or agencie of the actiue vnderstanding in the Philosophers opinion perpetuall nor works it by fits or glimering So we were alwayes alike apt to learne or apprehend it is alwayes alike readie to make vs vnderstand For as nothing can be weary of its essence so neither can the intellectiue facultie be of this its proper operation which as the Philosopher thinkes is the selfe same with its essence The proper essence and operation of it is to diffuse these intellectuall rayes or ingraffed notions of truth but these we alwayes apprehend not we remember not their apprehensions because the passiue or fashionable vnderstanding which some take to be all one with the phantasie is subiect to change and corruption often so ill disposed that either no representations are made in it or els such as are false and vnperfect This I take to be the Philosophers meaning in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To thinke he should here giue a reason why our soules after separations from their bodies remēber not what they knew in them would make his soule I am perswaded yet to smile could it but reade the Interpreters glosses vpon these wordes to this purpose Not to insist vpon his authoritie nor to wrangle about his particular meaning in this place which perhaps he purposely left obscure and doubtfull all that can be gathered from his reason or from experience is this that the humane soule hath a perpetuall operation independent of the body which sufficiently proues it to be immortall but so is not humane knowledge because in the production of it the soule must be patient as well as agent and doth not worke vpon it selfe directly but by repercussion or reflection And seeing these are not wrought without some concurse of the phantasie whose operations as it selfe is are subiect to corruption and change our Intellection whether it be made by imitation or impression of phantasmes refined cannot be perpetuall or immortall 2. That potentialitie or aptitude which the soule hath to be linckt and made one substance with the body must needs abate some part of that perfection which is in Angels They are pure actes and perpetually apprehend their owne perpetuall operations the soule of man hath an immortall desire to doe the like but is held downe by the earthly and mortall body whose motions and vnruly appetites doe still counter-sway these inbred desires which the soule hath to contemplate her selfe as containing the ingraffed notions or similitude of all things Hence is that which the same Philosopher elswhere excellently obserues that sense and prudence doe in a manner voluntarily result from the stay or setled estate of the soule without variation Now these disturbances or turbulent motions of the soule which hinder knowledge arise for the most part from alliance with the body or from the allurements of externall senses For his reason as we said before when bodily calamitie or affliction cut off the hopes of temporary or sensuall pleasure and vntie or burst the strings which held vs fast vnto the pomps or vanities of the world the ingraffed notions of Gods power or providence the naturall dictates of conscience haue libertie and opportunitie to notifie and expresse themselues Then as Plinie sayth we know our selues to be but men and our soules begin to vnderstand themselues and their former errors they now see what precious seede was sowne in them so they had not suffered it to be smoothered and choaked with worldly cares nor suffred it to starue by nourishing vaine hopes of reaping forraine pleasures And yet even whiles the reasonable soule condemnes the senses for hiding this inestimable treasure of ingraffed knowledge shee cannot discover it without their helpe the representation is
slaine in such a stile as were enough to cast a musing Reader into a waking dreame or imagination that the walls the houses the very soile whereon shee trod had beene animated with some peculiar Genius capable of friendship and foehood Horruit Argia dextrasque ad moenia tendens Vrbs optata prius nunc tecta hostilia Thebe Si tamen illoesas reddis mihi coniugis vmbras Nunc quoque dulce solum With griefe o'regrowne to Theban-walls her suppliant hands shee bends Oh Cittie late too dearly lou'd since loue in sorrow ends Now hostile Thebes yet so thou willest my Consorts Corps restore Still shalt thou be a Soile to me as deare as heretofore These or the like speeches of heathen Poets if by Christians they may not be vttered without reproofe Lactantius his censure of Tullie for his too lavish Rhetoricall Prosopopeia made vnto Philosophie shall saue me a labour O Philosophie the guide of life the searcher out of vertue the banisher of vice without thee not onely wee thy followers should be no bodies but even the life of mankinde could be nothing worth for thou hast beene the Foundresse of Lawes the Mistresse of manners and discipline As if forsooth saith this Author Philosophie it selfe could take any notice of his words or as if He rather were not to be praised which did bestow her He might with as good reason haue rendered the like Rhetoricall thanks to his meate and drinke for without these the life of man cannot consist howbeit these are things without sense Benefits they are but they can be no Benefactors As they are the nourishment of the bodie so is wisedome or true Philosophie of the soule 3. That the seminaries of Poetrie should be the chiefe nurses of Idolatry argues how apt the one is to bring forth the other or rather how both lay like twinnes in the wombe of the same vnpurified affection vsually begotten by one spirit Woods and fountaines as every Schoole-boy knoweth were held chiefe mansions of the Muses to whose Courts the Poets resorted to doe their homage invoking their aide as the goddesses whom they most renowned hereto allured by the opportunitie of the place The pleasant spectacle and sweete resounds which woods and shadie fountaines afford will sublimate illiterate spirits and tune or temper mindes otherwise scarce apt for any to retired contemplations They are to every noise as an organized bodie to the soule or spirit which moues it Gentle blasts diffused through them doe so well symbolize with the internall agitations of our mindes and spirits that when wee heare them we seeme desirous to vnderstand their language and learne some good lesson from them And albeit they vtter not expresly what we conceiue yet to attentiue composed thoughts they inspire a secret seede or fertilitie of invention especially sacred 4. But is or was the notion of the Deitie naturally more fresh and liuely in these seminaries of heathenish Poetry than in other places Yes every vnusuall place or spectacle whether remarkeably beautifull or gastly imprints a touch or apprehension of some latent invisible power as President of what we see Seneca's observation to this purpose will open vnto vs one maine head or source of heathenish Idolatrie which well cleansed might adde fertilitie to Christian devotion In vnoquoque virorum bonorum quis deus incertum est habitat deus To proue this conclusion that God is neare vs even within vs thus he leads vs. If thou light on a groue thicke set with trees of such vnusuall antiquitie and height as that they take away the sight of Heaven by the thicknesse of their branches ouer spreading one another the height of the wood the solitarinesse of the place and the vncouthnesse of the close and continued shade in the open aire doe ioyntly represent a kinde of Heaven on earth and exhibit a proofe vnto thee of some divine power present Or if thou chance to see a denne whose spatious concauitie hath not beene wrought by the hand-labour of men but by causes naturall which haue so deepely eaten out and consumed the stones that they haue left a hanging mountain to ouer spread it like a Canopie the sight likewise will affect the minde with some touch or apprehension of Religion We adore the heads of great Rivers c. Vide Parag. 8. 9. of this Chapter 5. And because superstition can hardly sprout but from the degenerate and corrupt seeds of devotion wicked spirits did haunt these places most which they perceived fittest for devout affections As sight of such groues and fountaines as Seneca describes would nourish affection so the affection naturally desirous to enlarge it selfe would with the helpe of these Spirits sleights and instigations incite the superstitious to make their groues more retired and sightly Thus like cunning anglers they first baite the places and then fish them and their appearance being most vsuall when mens mindes were thus tuned to devotion the eye would easily seduce the heart to fasten his affections to the place wherein they appeared as more sacred than any other And to the spirits thus appearing as to the sole Lords and owners of the delightfull soile and chiefe Patrons of these bewitching rites and customes they thought their best devotions were not too good 6. Throughout the story of the Iudges and Kinges of Israel we may obserue how groues were as the banquetting houses of false gods the trappes and ginnes of sacrilegious superstition For this cause in all suppressions of Idolatrie the commission runnes joyntly for cutting downe groues and demolishing Altars So God Deuteronomie the 5. after commandement given to destroy the Amorites addeth this iniunction withall Ye shall overthrow their Altars and breake downe their pillars and ye shall cut downe their groues and burne their graven Images with fire And vnto Gideon the first in my remembrance to whom this warrant was in particular directed Throw downe the Altar of Baal that thy Father hath made and cut downe the groue that is by it Iudg. 6. v. 25. And Ezekiah whiles he remoued the high places and brake the Idolls cut downe the groues 2. King 18. v. 4. The like did Iosias after him 2. King 23. v. 14. How availeable either this destruction of groues was to the extirpation or the cherishing of them to the growth and increase of Idolatrie the good successe of â—agello his like religious policie in winning the Lithuâ—nians his stifly Idolatrous and strangely superstitious Country men vnto Christian Religion may enforme vs. I relate the Story at large as I finde it because it conteines fresh and liuely experiments as well of this present as of diverse other observations in this Treatise And no man will easily distrust auncient reports when he sees them parallele by moderne and neighbour examples The common sort saith mine Author speaking of the Lithuanian about two hundred yeares agoe was very stiffe and would hardly indure to be intreated to relinquish their
thrummes I would not buy Not one there is that cannot thus on th' Gods rely Yet such I haue knowne full mightily deceiu'd perdy 5. This kinde of Argument Satan knowes to be most forcible in all ages for working Atheisme or Infidelitie in such as detest nothing more than to be held silly or credulous To this purpose in former ages he hath had his false wonders to discredit all reports of true miracles and in these latter hath wrought many otherwise famous for no good qualities to counterfeit possessions by vncleane spirits that men out of their observation of such gulleries or distaste of those impostors persons might begin to suspect the Evangelicall story of imposture To some degree or other of like impious resolutions doth the naturall pride of heart or strength of inordinate desires sollicite most men of better parts or place Confident wits ioyning with curiositie of diving into secrets of what kinde soever not able to finde what they haue long sought are easily drawne to beleeue it is no where to be found for who should sooner finde it then they In this coniunction of the former propension to over-reach our selues in gathering the product of delightfull inductions and of this iealousie lest others by Gods graces might excell our naturall parts fall out many fearefull eclipses which though they vtterly obscure not the whole glory of the Godhead yet they often bereaue vs of the illumination of his providence or influence of graces suspected by many in heate of emulation and opposition to be but fancies As what man almost is there that hath overtopped others by height of place which will acknowledge any of his inferiors though never liable to the least suspition of such cunning trickes as he may be daily taken with and will not sticke to maintaine as lawfull to be more sincere than himselfe not that he alwayes mistrusts other mens present protestations or professed resolutions for tendring the safety of their consciences to be but faigned but these he imagines would alter with change of place from whose height every man would learne as he hath done either to discerne wonted strictnesse to be but vnexperienced scrupulositie or in charitie to esteeme such blemishes as appeare great in little ones to be but little in great ones And it may be curious observance of bad patternes set by others first emboldened him to adventure vpon like courses Thus finally from experience of their own and inspection of others liberty in matters disputable or rather in vnpartiall iudgements damnable the worldly minded labour to make vp this compleate induction That such strictnesse or sinceritie of life as some would professe is in these latter dayes but an affected fancy a shadow or picture taken from the auncient wherevnto no substance can now be found proportionable To suspect antiquity of fabulositie or hypocrisie is a degree of Atheisme wherevnto ordinary pride or emulation vnlesse ioyned with cutiositie can hardly impell them because few enter comparison with the dead without as great danger of disgrace for the attempt as can befall them by yeelding superioritie to the living with whom they are or can be compared for Christian integritie or sinceritie But could the opposition be as direct in the one case as in the other could iealousie lest former Saints might goe before them as much exasperate their proud thoughts as preferment of their present corrivals doth they would be more ready to giue Gods spirit the lye than to take the foyle rather should divine goodnesse it selfe be denied than any be acknowledged simply better than themselues Take them as they be they differ not much from Epicurus his temper who thought the gods were not of a gracious and benigne nature because men in his opinion were such from imbecillitie onely more sottish was his collection to proue the gods had humane bodies because he never had seene a reasonable or intelligent minde but in such bodies For as Tully well replyes he should by the same reasoÌ„ haue denied them to haue either body soule or being in as much as they had beene vnto him alwayes invisible Thus to conclude whilest men of proud mindes and vnsincere are so backward to beleeue any better things by others then they know by themselues or their consorts they proue themselues to be neither wiser nor honester than he that sayd in his heart There is no God Though Nabals be not their proper names yet foolishnesse is with them and if all be as they are all are corrupt all are abominable all without vnderstanding without God whose people they eate vp as a man would eate bread making a mocke of the poore because the Lord is his trust Consonant to this secret language of these polypragmaticall ambitious politicke hearts were the collections which their cousin Nabal vttered with his lips Having knowne perhaps some fugitiue servants in his time he can hardly perswade himselfe that Davids messengers were any better than vagrant persons worthy to be laid fast by the heeles for demanding a deede of charity on their masters behalfe at his hands Or admitting they be his true servants why what is David or who is the sonne of Ishai what excellency is either in father or sonne Would either of them take their bread their water and flesh which they had killed for their sheerers and send it to him by men whom they know not whence they were 1 Sam. 25. v. 10. In every covetous churlish proud and ambitious minde we may to this day obserue the like promptnesse to suspect truth of falsehood to put good for evill and evill for good to maligne or vilifie the best graces of God bestowed vpon his servants rather than their substance should be diminished by paying them tribute or their reputation or worth disparaged by suffring others to tender them such respect as is due to Gods faithfull messengers And if by these devices they did not hope to set themselues without the reach of their checke whose right esteeme standing in direct opposition to them would breed their reproach the Godhead it selfe the rule of goodnes should at the next push be impugnâ—d But this is an accursed plant which though it never grow to such height as to deny there is a God yet may it be much more deadly than the former branches of pertinacious disputatiue Atheisme What it wants of them in full height or growth is more then fully containd in the deadlinesse of the roote The other often springs from curiositie of fancy or artificiall trickes of wit or superfluitie of braine whereas nothing but satanized affection deeply rooted in the heart could affoord such store of malignant nutriment as this hellish slip must be fed with Nor doe Satan and his Angels deny there is a God whose power they often experience to be much greater than their owne But that he is better than they are or would be had they his power that he is more holy true and iust or more favorable to mankind than
they would haue prou'd might they haue gotten that place in heaven which they sought for is a comparison which they can in no way disgest The chiefe art they exercise to misleade man from the wayes of truth and life is to empeach God of falsehood as if he would lie for his advantage as they doe without any such necessitie as they haue or finally to cast such suspitious aspersions vpon his lawes and promises as their incarnate instruments do vpon the liues and resolutions of his Saints among whom they liue The virulent censures which these slaues of corruption vomit out giue vs the true taste of their Masters loathsome rancor against God CHAPTER VII Of malignant Atheisme Of the originall of enmitie vnto Godlinesse That the excesse of this sinne doth beare witnesse to the truth which it oppugnes 1 AS there is no passion for the present more impetuous than the burning fits of incontinency no corruption that can worke such strange suffusions in the eye of reason as the smoaking of fleshly lust so is there no permanent disposition of body or soule so apt to quench or poyson all naturall notions of God or religion as dissolute intemperancy once rooted by long custome Incontinency as the Philosopher obserues drawes vs to a blindfold choise of particulars whose vniversals we condemne and reiect but intemperance corrupts the very roote or first principles whence all touch or cōscience of good or evill springs If temperance according to the inscription which it beares in Greeke be the nursing mother of morrall prudence or safe gardian of the minde conscience what other brood can be expected from dissolute intemperance but that folly of heart which so disordereth all our thoughts and actions as if there were no God to over see them Civill wisedome in Platoes iudgement may sooner entombe than enshrine her selfe in bodies full stuft twice every day vnaccustomed to lye without a bedfellow by night and we Christians know that vigilance abstinence are as two Vshers which bring our prayers vnto Gods presence His spirit delights to dwell in brests thus inwardly clensed by abstinence and outwardly guarded with sobrietie and watchfulnesse But drunkennesse and surfetting as a Father speakes driues him out of the humane soule as smoake doth Bees out of their hiues howbeit that which goes into the mouth doth not so much offend him as that which comes out of the heart as adulterous or vncleane thoughts Yea the heart may be vndefiled with lust and yet vnqualified either for entertaining Gods spirit speaking to vs or for offering vp incense vnto him That Gods testimony of himselfe I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt might be imprinted in the Israelites senses they are commanded not to come at their wines when they came to heare it And there must be a seperation for a time betweene them whom God hath ioyned and made one body that they may by fervency of abstinent prayers be vnited to him in spirit Strange then it is not nor can it so seeme that sociall lust should haue such peculiar antipathy with that holinesse which makes vs capable of Gods presence without which we are but Atheists when as matrimoniall chastitie consorts no better than hath beene sayd with the puritie of Angelicall life when as the children of the resurrection as our Saviour tels vs shall no more brooke the marriage bed Now as they which in that other world enioy the sight of God can haue no minde of such bodily pleasures as may be lawfull to mortalitie so neither will the intemperate appetite of vnlawfull lust suffer mortalitie to see God in his Word his threats or promises This is the will of God even our sanctification that we should abstaine from fornication that every one should know how to possesse his vessell in holinesse and honour Not in the lust of concupiscence as doe the Gentiles which know not God Ignorance of God brought forth these lusts of concupiscence in the Heathen and the like lusts as greedily affected by Christians breede not ignorance onely but a deniall of God or of that holinesse which he is without whose symbole no man shall ever see him 2. To haue wrought the wise King to such grosse Idolatry as he polluted his soule withall by any other meanes than by tempting loue of strange women or other consorts of carnall pleasures had beene perchance a matter impossible to the great tempter himselfe To haue allured him in that age vnto Atheisme had beene bootlesse when as most of the gods which he worshipped were held as countenancers or abetters of luxury ryot and intemperance But now destitute of these pretended indulgences or dispensatiōs from supposed divine powers by whose authoritie the old world was easily enticed to impurity he labours to harden latter ages in this sinne whereto most of vs are naturally as prone as were our forefathers by perswading them there is no true God that will vndoubtedly call them vnto judgement for giuing the raines to headstrong lust Hardly can Atheisme be so absolute in any as vtterly to free them from all contradiction or checke of conscience whiles they wallow in vncleannesse but such contradictions compared with the strength of opposite desires seeme to argue rather light surmises or iealousies then any firme beliefe so much as morall or naturall that there is a God or righteous judge eternall To hold it more probable there is such a God or judge then none is the lowest degree imaginable of beliefe if not rather the one extremitie or vltimum non esse of infidelitie or vnbeliefe But this strong bent of lust where it raignes keepes mens coniectures of divine providence or finall judgment below this pitch As men of highest place or hautiest spirits so desires of greatest strength are alwayes most impatient of crosse or opposition Against them conscience cannot mutter but shall be as quickly put to silence as a precise Preacher that will take vpon him to reforme the disorders of a dissolute Court For whiles the delight or solace which men take in sensuall pleasures exceeds without comparison all sense or feeling of any spirituall ioy they cannot but wish to exchange their remote hopes of the one for quiet fruition of the other once possessed with eager desires there might be no King in Israel but that every man without any feare of after reckonings might doe what seemed good in his owne eyes their often longing to haue it so easily impels them to thinke it is so for miseri facile credunt quae volunt and this conceipt once entertained sets loose the sensuall appetite to runne its course without a curbe so doth presumption of vncontroleable libertie still whet the tast or sense of wonted pleasures which haue beene formerly abated by restraint Lastly from experience of this change and manifest improouement of accustomed delights necessarily ariseth a detestation or loathing of all scrupulositie as
hath nothing in it which was not first in the phantasie illuminated by the actiue vnderstanding nor could it euer reiect any information given in by the phantasie thus inlightned as is supposed by the noblest facultie of the reasonable Soule 2. Others there be who haue well refuted all intelligible formes or impressions of abstract Phantasmes vpon the vnderstanding which neverthelesse by going too farre against Platonicall Ideas or notions imprinted by nature haue made their owne opinion otherwise allowable obnoxious to the former inconveniences Actuall Intellection or vnderstanding to their apprehensions consists wholy in the true imitation of things presented and then we are said to vnderstand when the reasonable soule Proteus-like transformes herselfe into new similitudes not when it puts on their forme as it were alreadie made fit for her by the actiue vnderstanding and the phantasie All this being granted the former difficulties full remaine first how we should rightly vnderstand the materiall entities never presented by sense secondly how the reasonable soule should make vndoubted triall whether her own imitations of what sense presents vnto her be exact and true The great Philosopher himselfe from whose discourses the former broken Axioms are borrowed graunts that brute beasts haue no sense or apprehensions of their sensitiue functions although they haue oftimes a more liuely sense of externall obiects than man hath it is then mans peculiar to haue a true sense and iudgement of all his own functions whether sensitiue or intellectiue This reflexed apprehensions or revise whether of sensitiue impressions or intellectuall functions excited by them necessarily supposeth some rule or copy pre-existent by which their examination should be tryed Imposble it is this rule or copie should be taken from sense or any actuall intellection by sense occasioned both these being to be ruled or examined by it Regula autem est prior regulata CHAP. XI How farre Platoes opinion may be admitted that all Knowledge is but a kind of reminiscence or calling that to minde which was in some sort knowne before 1. PLATOES opinion that all acquired science is but a kind of reminisence though it suppose a grosse error is not altogether so erroneous but that it may lead vs vnto that truth from whose misapprehension happily it first sprung That our soules whiles they liued as he supposed long time they did a single celestiall life should be plentifully furnisht with all manner of knowledge but instantly loose all by matching with these harlotrie bodies was a conceit more wittie in him than warrantable in vs vnto whom God hath revealed the true reason of that Probleme the desire of whose resolutioÌ„ enforced him to this supposall of the Soules existence before the bodie More divine wee know by much then Plato could imagine any was that knowledge wherewith our first Parents soule though concreated with his bodie was instamped Not Aristotle himselfe with the helpe of all the Philosophers which had gone before him not after his laborious workes de Hist animal could so readily haue invented names for living creatures so well expressing their seuerall natures as Adam not a full day old gaue them at their first appearance Such notwithstanding as his was might our knowledge of all things haue beene vnlesse his fall by Gods iust iudgement had beene our ruine That oblivion then or obstupefaction wherein our soules as Plato dreames are miserably drencht by their delapse into these bodily sinks of corruption wee may more truely deriue from that pollution which we naturally draw from our first Parents wherewith our soules at first commixture with our bodies are no lesse soiled the characters of truth imprinted in them no lesse obliterated then if they had beene perpetually soakt in them since the first creation All of vs by nature seeke after knowledge as an inheritance whereto we thinke we haue iust title and auncient copies could we reade them of the originall evidences which our auncestors sometimes had 2. For what should impell vs to this sollicitous search no humane wit can divine vnlesse we graunt some such reliques or fragments of vniversall truth once had but now lost to reside yet in our collapsed natures as oftimes runne in our thoughts whiles surprised with oblivion of some particulars which we much desire to call to minde As wee cannot call ought to minde which we haue not actually and expresly knowne before so is it impossible wee should certainly know any things actually or expresly whose notion or Character was not in some sort formerly imprinted in our intellectiue facultie Remembrance knowledge expresse or actuall and these ingraffed notions differ onely as Adam Seth and Enoch did not by nature but in manner of descent Seth had a father as well as Enoch yet a father not begotten by a former father but created In like manner knowledge expresse or acquired cannot but proceede from knowledge pre-existent not acquired or expresse but implanted vnapprehended And as remembrance is but a reiteration of actuall knowledge so is actuall knowledge but an apprehension of imprinted notions pre-existent though latent These two parts of Platoes assertion we must admit as absolutely true First We can vnderstand nothing without vs but by recourse vnto these Ideall notions which are within vs not abstracted or severed from vs as he is wrongfully charged to haue taught Secondly As for a Master to seeke his fugitiue servant amongst a multitude were vaine vnlesse he had some pre-notions markes or notice of his shape or favour or carried some picture drawne by others to compare with his face never seene by him before so for vs to seeke the knowledge of any matters before vnknowne vnlesse we had some modell or character of them framed by nature would be altogether as bootlesse Those Ideall notions whereof this Philosopher and his followers so much speake are in true Divinitie the prints or characters of truth ingraven vpon our soules by the finger of our Creator And so many of these prints or reliques of divine impressions as wee can distinctly hunt out or discover so much of Gods image is renued in vs. CHAP. XII After what manner the Ideall or ingraffed Notions are in the soule 1. THe difficulties whose accurate discussion would cleare this whole businesse are especially two first the manner of these notions inherence or implantations in our soules Secondly by what meanes their distinct notice or apprehensions are suggested Their opinion which thinke these characters though latent should be in our soules after the same manner as Letters written with the iuice of Onions are in paper though not legible admitteth some difficultie For were they so distinct well severed in the soule though not apparant error would not be so riâ—e when they appeare nor should the sense delude the vnderstanding with such false shewes or resemblances as it often obtrudes vnto it the flesh could not intice the spirit to embrace that for an vndoubted and inestimable good which hath lesse similitude with true
felicitie then a Cloud with Iuno The favorers of the former opinion would perhaps replie that the manner of the inherence of intellectuall characters in the soule might in some sort be such as hath beene said though they be often mutually diffused one through another as if two should write with the iuice of Onions vpon the same paper the one not knowing what or where the other had written or that their fashion by the soules too deepe immersion in this fluxible matter might be so soiled that they could not be read but by confused coniectures as letters written in moist paper or it may be a Platonicke would require some chimicall purification of the soule vnto the extraction of the distinct and proper idea of truth how ever it be it is an error common to him and some Divines but very inconsequent to other points of both their doctrines that the soule of Man though truly immortall should be of the same nature with angelicall substances which are neither apt physically to informe bodies nor to participate of their infirmities or to loose their first naturall light although they were imprisoned or confined within them 2. More pertinently to the point proposed it may be questioned whether every specificall nature which we vnderstand or know haue a distinct and severall character answering to it in the soule Or whether the fabricke or compositure of the vnderstanding it selfe includes onely such a vertuall similitude to the formes or essences of all things as the organ of every sensitiue facultie doe to all the proper obiects thereto belonging The perception or representation of greene colours is not I take it made vpon any one part of the eye whose constitution hath more particular affinitie with greene then with blew or red but the whole humour wherein vision is made being homogeneall hath not colour in it actually is not more inclined to one then to another framed of purpose as an Aequilibrium or indifferent receptacle of all impressions in that kinde as apt according to every part as any to receiue the shape or image of any one colour as another Nor doth the common sense perceiue sounds and colours by two Heterogeneall parts whereof the one doth better symbolize with hearing the other with sight rather the internall constitution of this facultie includes an Homogeneall aequabilitie of affinitie vnto both these senses 3. The soule of man being created after the image of God in whom are all things though of an indiuisible and immortall nature hath notwithstanding such a vertuall similitude of all things as the eye hath of colours the eare of sounds or the common sense of these other sensibles woouen by the finger of God in its essentiall constitution or internall indissoluble temper Out of mixt bodies are drawne by art Quintessences whose substances though subtile and homogeneall vertually containe the force or efficacy of many ingredients The same proportions which these Quintessences haue to their materialls hath the soule of man to all sensible creatures of which it is the pure extract or perfection in nature and essentiall qualities more resembling celestiall then subluminary substances albeit vertually including as great affinitie to sublunaries as spirits or Quintessences doe to their compounds out of which they were extracted From this vertuall similitude which our soules haue with all things springs our eager thirst after knowledge which is but a desire of intimate and intire acquaintance with their nature and properties besides which meanes there is in truth no other possible for them to come acquainted with themselues The more they vnderstand of other things the better they vnderstand themselues Hence saith the Philosopher Intellectus cum factus fuerit omnia intelligit seipsum When the vnderstanding is made all things it vnderstands it selfe Nor could we take delight in the knowledge of any thing vnlesse in knowing it the soule did know it selfe and become more intimate with it selfe It is as truely said optimus as proximus quisque sibi nothing could desire its owne preservation most vnlesse its owne entitie were to it selfe the best and most to be desired if it knew rightly how to enioy it selfe The reason why Simile gaudet simili is because the actuall sympathie which mutually ariseth from presence of like natures in creatures sensible or reasonable causeth their seuerall identities to reflect vpon themselues and each as it were to perfuse it selfe with its owne goodnesse which it liketh best but whereof without such mutuall provocations it was vnapprehensiue or vncapable nothing can rightly ioy but in the right fruition or enioyment of it selfe Sense which is the foundation of pleasure is but a redoubling of the sensitiue qualitie or temper vpon it selfe Touch is but an apprehension or feeling of its owne tactike qualities being actually moved by other of the same kinde If this motion be according to nature it is pleasant and this pleasure is but a reflection of the moâ—ue facultie vpon it selfe or motions fruition of it selfe The delight in like manner which we reape from contemplation is but a reflection of these vertuall Idaeas or internall characters which are instampt vpon the very substance of the soule as the colour of fire is in blades newly come out of the forge The divine nature hath fulnesse of ioy in himselfe and of himselfe being all-sufficient to contemplate and intirely to enioy his owne infinite goodnesse without any externalls to caule or occasion such reflection as we neede The Angelicall natures can thus likewise reflect vpon themselues and enioy as much felicitie as they contemplate of their owne entitie both which they haue from and in their Creator The soule of man in as much as it hath some reliques of Gods image in it must needes haue some seedes of morall besides transcendentall goodnesse neither of which it can of it selfe inioy because not able to reflect vpon it selfe or contemplate the seedes of truth and goodnesse imprinted in it without the helpe of some externalls sympathizing with them provoking them to make some Crisis of their owne inherence All the felicitie any nature is capable of is the entire vncumbred fruition of its totall entitie the onely meanes of mans fruition of himselfe or of his owne soule is his knowledge The full measure then of mans felicitie must consist in the mutuall penetrations embracements of entitie and knowledge when these be thus intimately and exactly commensurable according to every degree of diuisibilitie which either of them hath there can be no more addition of delight to the humane nature than of water to a vessell full to the brimme And seeing as well our entitie as knowledge doth essentially and intirely depend on God it is impossible our ioyes should be full vntill we see him and our selues in him In this life as we know so are we happie but in part or rather in spe not in re when we shall know as we are knowne we shall be wholly and fully happy In
maketh warres to cease A God of wisedome and a God of glorie and yet a God that hath compassion on the poore and despiseth not the weake and sillie ones And as if he had feared lest Israel vpon such occasions as seduced the Romanes might misdeliver devotions confusedly intended to him vnto stormy waues or tempests or with the Aramites confine his power to vallies or mountaines or with others make him a God of the sea onely not of the land He hath sounded a counterblast to those impulsions where with the heathens were driven headlong into Idolatrie in that excellent song of Iubile The Lord is a great God and a great King aboue all Gods In his hand are the deepe places of the earth the strength of the hills is his also The sea is his and he made it and his hands formed the drie land O come let vs worship and fall downe let vs kneele before the Lord our maker For he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheepe of his hand It was his pleasure to try them with penurie of water after he had tried them with scaricitie of bread that by his miraculous satisfaction of their intemperate desires of both as also of their lusting after flesh he might bring them to acknowledge him for a God as powerfull over the foules of the aire as over the fish in the sea as able to draw water out of the hard rocke as to raine bread from heaven And having indoctrinated them by their experience of his power in these and like particulars he commends this generall precept or morall induction to their serious consideration Hath God assayed to goe and take him a nation from the middest of another nation by temptations by signes and by wonders and by warre and by a mightie hand by a stretched out arme and by great terrors according to all that the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes Out of heaven he made thee to heare his voice that he might instruct thee and vpon earth he shewed thee his great fire and thou heardest his words out of the middest of the fire Know therefore this day and consider it in thine heart that the Lord he is God in heaven aboue and vpon the earth beneath there is none else And lastly That no sencelesse or liuing creature through the faulty ignorance of man might vnawares purloine any part of his honour the Psalmist hath invited all to beare consort with his people in that song of prayse and acknowledgement of his power Prayse ye the Lord from the heavens prayse him in the hights Prayse yee him all his Angells prayse yee him all his hosts Prayse yee him Sunne and Moone prayse him all yee Starres of light Prayse him yee heavens of heavens and yee waters that be aboue the heavens Let them prayse the name of the Lord For he commanded and they were created He hath also stablished them for ever and ever he hath made a decree which shall not passe Prayse the Lord from the earth yee dragons and all deepes c. Let them prayse the name of the Lord for his name alone is excellent his glory is aboue the earth and heaven CHAPTER XIX Of divers errors in Philosophie which in practise proued seminaries of Idolatrie and sorcerie 1. THe best Apologie which the greatest heathen clearks could make for themselues for the grosser fopperies of the vulgar they would not vndertake to defend was borrowed from a plausible Philosophicall opinion thus expressed by the Poet His quidam signis atque haec exempla secuti Esse apibus partem divinae mentis haustus Aethereos dixere Deum namque ire per omnes Terrásque tractúsque maris coeâ—umque prosundum Hinc peciâ—des armenta viros genus omne serarum Quemque sibi tenues nascentem arcessere vitas Scilicet huc reddi deinde ac resoluta referri Omnia nec merti esse lâ—cum sed viva volare Syderis in numerum atque alto succedere coelo Sâ—me by these signes and these examples thereto drawne haue taught The soules of Bees to be divine of heavenly spirits a draught For God say they as find they may who Natures workes per vse Through earth through seas through heavens profound liue goodnesse doth diffuse From his liue presence Cattle men birds sucke the spirit of life From him all springs in him all ends though death be nere so rife Yet nothing dies what earth forsakes findes place in starry skie What we thinke into nothing slits aboue the Heavens doth flie This opinion was worse construed by some than either the Author or Commentator meant many the most auncient especially agree in this That Deus was Anima mundi That the world was animated by God as our bodies are by our soules Whence they concluded as some later Romanists doe That all or most visible bodies might be religiously worshipped or adored with reference to Gods residence in them The Antecedent notwithstanding being graunted the practises which they hence sought to justifie are excellently refuted by S. Austine who hath drawne them withall a faire and streight line to that marke whereat they roved at randome or blind guesse by wayes successiuely infinite For answering any objection the Heathen Divines could make against vs or refuting any Apologie made for themselues I alwayes referre the Reader to this good Fathers learned labours of excellent vse in his time But my purpose is not to make men beleeue these heresies are yet aliue by hot skirmishing with them The lines of my method rather lead me to vnrippe their originalls so farre onely as not discovered they might breed daunger to our times Now in very truth the opinion pretended by them to colour the filth of their Religion did minister plentie of fuell and nutriment as learned Mirandula hath observed to those monsters whose limmes and members had beene framed from the seeds of errors hitherto mentioned and the illiterate in all probabilitie tooke much infection at eies and eares from Poeticall descriptions or Emblematicall representations of Gods immensitie such as Orpheus if wee may beleeue Clemens Alexandrinus did take out of the Prophet Esay cap. 66. vide Ciem Alexand. lib. 6. Strom. Ipse autem in magno constans firmus Olympo est Aureus huic Thronus est pedibus subiectaque Terra Oceani ad fines illi protenditur ingens Dextera montanas atque intus concutit illi Ira bases motus nec possunt ferre valentes Ipse est in coelis terram complectitur omnem Oceani ad sinus expansa est manus illi Vndique dextera Not held by them He heavens doth firmely hold Whole earth 's but footestoole to his throne of Gâ—ld Ins mightie Palme the Ocean vast doth rolle The rootes of mountaines shake at his controlle Or e Heavens through earth his right hand doth extend It all inclasps all it not comprehend 2. Iupiter though
acknowledged by many to be the onely God from the former opinion became answerable to as many names as the world had principall parts and vpon diversitie of relations to effects or motioÌ„s presumed to issue from his amiable or liue presence subdivided into both sexes tearmed Neptune in the sea Liber in the vineyard Vulcan in the Smiths forge and Vagitanus in the Infants mouth in the aire Iuno in the earth Tellus Venilia in the sea-waue whilest current to the land Salatia in the same waue reciprocating The meere varietie of names or alteration of the sexe or gender would naturally suggest a multiplicity of gods and goddesses vnto the ignorant so would the diverse formes or shapes of those bodies whereof they imagined him to be the soule and spirit vnto the learned specially seeing the motions or operations of the elements or other inferior bodies haue no such vitall dependance vpon any one or few principall parts of the world as in man all other members with their functions haue on the heart the head and liver or perhappes all originally on the heart And yet the evident prerogatiue of these three parts hath perswaded great Philosophers to allot three severall soules really and locally distinct to each principall part one From which opinion it would with probability follow that in one man there should be three living creatures A plant a sensitiue and a rationall substaÌ„ce And Varro the most learned amongst the Romanes graunts that the auncient Romanes did worship mother Tellus Ops Proserpina and Vesta for distinct goddesses Though these titles in his refined Theologie rather imported so many severall vertues of the earth whose soule or spirit was but one And not absurdly as he thought might other goddesses be reduced to this olde Grandame Tellus But S. Austine demaunds how this can stand with the doctrine of his auncestors which had ordained severall rites to all these as vnto goddesses in nature different and consecrated peculiar votaries vnto Vesta It is not all one for one goddesse to haue many names and to be many goddesses or shall multiplicitie and vnitie be avouched of one and the same It may be saith Varro that in one many may be contained but this avoydes not the intended checke Saint Austine replies That as in one and the same man there may be many entities not many men so in one and the same goddesse there might be severall vertues not severall goddesses Varroes attempt to justifie his forefathers iolly and reconcile their grosse ignorance with his learned errors evidently bewrayes whose successors the Iesuites or other quaint moderne refiners of Schoole Paganismes are which hope to salue the contradictions of their doating forefathers and erring councells and patch vp the vnitie of their broken and divided Church by Schoole glue or Philosophicall querks 3. But concerning the animation of the world and its severall parts the opinions of Philosophers varied and their variation caused varietie of Idolatrie Every body had a peculiar spirit or genius besides Iupiter to whom the moderation of all was assigned whence we may without breach of charitie suppose the worshipping of dumbe and sencelesse creatures to haue beene a practise though wicked in all yet not altogether so brutish and sencelesse in some heathen as it is often generally censured without distinction For even the elements or inanimate creatures which they adored had in the opinion of some Philosophers their proper spirits though not to informe them as our soules doe our bodies yet to assist or guard them each of which spirits was held divine and indued with some peculiar power or vertue for producing or averting certaine effects proportionable to the bodies Authors for skill as well practicke as speculatiue not easie to be deceived and for their gravitie and morall honestie exempt from all suspition of purposed deluding others haue related strange apparitions about Mines The like might seduce some heathen to adore gold and silver not as mettalls but rather as visible pledges of an invisible Mammons presence conceived by them as a spirit or guardian of treasure by whose favour sollicited in peculiar rites or services wealth might either be gotten or increased The like conceit no question moved the â—ndians to present a Casket of gold jewels with such a solemne maske or superstitious daunce as they held most acceptable to their country-gods in hope Gold the Spanish God as they deemed it being pleased with their devotions would appease the Spanyards crueltie Why those semi-Christians should so hunger and thirst after gold and mettalls which could neither allay their hunger nor quench their thirst could not enter into these silly caitiffs hearts vnlesse it were to sacrifice it vnto some Mammon or spirit of Gold 4. Iulian the Apostata albeit he spared no cost to make Iupiter his friend whom he adored as King of gods and chiefe moderator of the world yet thought it no point of thrift or wisedome to neglect the Elementall spirits because these in the heathenish divinitie which he followed were powers truely divine able to qualifie their worshippers with the spirit of divination Neither was this opinion of their Deitie in the censure of those times or sects any Paradox nor the offering of placatory sacrifices any vnlawfull or superfluous practise Otherwise Amianus his plea to acquite his Master from suspition of sorcery or Magicall Exorcismes had beene as ridiculous in the sight of Heathens as it was impious in the judgement of Christians Because this Prince a professed louer of all sciences is by some maligned to haue gained the foreknowledge of things future by naughtie Arts we are briefely to advertise by what meanes a wise man as this Prince was may attaine vnto this kinde of learning or skill more than vulgar The spirit of all the elements saith this Author being enquickned by the vncessant motion of the celestiall bodies participate with vs the gift or facultie of divination and the favour of the substantiall powers or immortall substances being purchased by respectiue rituall observance the praediction of Fates or destinie is conveyed vnto mortalitie from them as from so many perpetuall springs or fountaines Over these substantiall powers the goddesse Themis sits as President so called by the Grecians because the iâ—revocable fatall decrees by her mediation become cognoscible This Themis the auncient Theologi haue therefore placed in the bedchamber and throne of Iupiter fountaine of life and liuelihood 5. Yet this conceipt of Themis soveraigntie was not the opinion of all or most auncient heathen Doctors For some haue taught that Tellus or the spirit of the Earth did giue Oracles before Themis medled in these businesses During the time of both their regencies Nox by others was esteemed at least as midwife of Revelations whereof sometime she had beene reputed Queene-mother because these secret praedictions of destinie or fatall doomes were vsually brought to light in silent darkenesses Not much different from Ammians Philosophy are
processe of time the hurtfull or profitable beasts which Princes had coÌ„secrated were adored as Trismegists father had beene and the Princes likewise which had consecrated them were coadored in their images The manner of this last errors intrusion as Vives hath well observed out of Diodorus descended in part at least from the devises or emblemes which Princes bare in their Shields or Crests Some best liking dogs others Lyons Wolues or Cats every one as sympathie of nature fancie or chance misled them The solemnitie vsed at their consecration that is whilest they were taken for armes being great did taint the spectators mindes with superstitious fancies And vnto minds thus tainted their liuelesse pictures being borne as crests or ensignes were reputed for no bystanders but for authors or coadjutors whether of victâ—tious successe in wars or of prosperous events in peace The Princes afterwards fell in loue with the names of the beasts propagated the incestuous title vnto Cities This speedie transportation of affectionate mindes from curious ceremony or solemnitie vnto grosse and formall Idolatrie the eternall Lawgiver did best know to be too naturall vnto man and therefore sought to prevent the disease by euacuating the antecedent cause To this purpose are those prohibitions of curious ceremony in mourning for friends deceased Yee shall not cut your flesh for the dead nor make any print or marke vpon you I am the Lord This remembrance I am the Lord intimates vnto vs that these prints or markes were the badges of another Master who by those curious expressions of mournfull sorrow for their dead sought to bring them vnto a never dying sorrow of body and soule The same prohibition is more particularly directed to the house of Aaron with speciall restraint from vsing such ceremonies as in other families of Israel were not vnlawfull vnlesse for parents brother or sister before marriage deceased no sonne of Aaron might mourne For want of such lawes to moderate and bridle this naturall affection of lamenting the dead both Priest and people among the heathens ranne headlong into this Idolatrie of invoking men deceased For as the wise-man obserues when a father mourned grievously for his sonne that was taken away suddainely he made an Image for him that was once dead This at the first was but to solace griefe by an imaginary or representatiue presence of him that was truely absent But that tender respect which parents beare vnto their sicke children for whose releife or ease no cost can seeme too great no attendance so it please too curious doth naturally enlarge it selfe after their death and having a picture whereon to gaze will hardly refraine to present it in more ceremonious and to 〈◊〉 sort with all those respect and services which were due to the partie liuing or like to die So the same wise man couples solemne Idolatrie as the immediate effect to such curiositie or ceremony Now he worshippeth him as a God and ordained to his seruants ceremonies and sacrifices Thus by processe of time this wicked custome prevailed and was kept as a law and Idols were worshipped by the commandement of Tyrants Wisedome 14 vers 14 1â— The first degree of this temptation observed by him every man I am perswaded may in some sort experience in himselfe The multiplication of the practise by imitation and flattery is plentifully experienced in most heathen stories But the originall of the temptation was thus 3. Impotent desires of still enioying their companies to whom wee haue fastned our dearest affections will hardly take a deniall by death But as some longing to be delivered of a well conceited argument haue set vp their cappes for Respondents and disputed with them as with liue Antagonists so we goe on still as in a waking dreame to frame a capacitie in the dead of accepting our respect and loue in greater measure then without envie of others or offence to them it could haue beene tendered whilest they were living Did not the spirit of God awake vs the Idolatrie issuing from this spring would steale vpon vs like a deluge in a slumber Many who by their preeminencie amongst men haue affected to be reputed gods haue of other mens Lords become such slaues to their own affectioÌ„ as to worship their dead fauorites with divine honour So Alexander having testified his loue to Hephestions corps with such curious signes and ceremonies of mourning as God in his Law had forbidden seekes afterward to solace his griefe by procuring Mortmaine from the Oracle for his dead friend to hold greater honours then this great Conqueror of the world could haue bestowed vpon him though he had liued to haue beene his heire To qualifie him by dispensation from Iupiter Ammon for an heroicke or halfe-god and thereby to make him capable of sacrifice could not suffice without a Temple whose curiositie and state would as the wise-man obserues thrust forward the multitude to increase their superstition The more beautifull the Temples were the better god would be seeme to the multitude easily allured through the beautie of the worke to take him now for a god who a little before was honoured but as man And good encouragement Cleomenes the Deputie or over-seer of these edifices had to see them most accurately finished having a pardon for all his faults disloyall practises or publicke wrongâ— done by him to the Egyptian Nation vpon condition there were no fault in the Temples erected for Hephesitons honour If all did follow the patterne which Cleomenes in the first sacrifice would set them few of the auncient gods were like to goe before this new halfe god or heroicke The issue of Adrians immoderate loue vnto his minion Antinous whiles he liued was after his death superstitious fopperie altogether as grosse vnlesse perhaps it were tempered as some thinke with Necromanticall impietie An Oracle was erected to speake for him who could not now speake for himselfe albeit Oracles I take it at this time were dumbe but so much the fittâ—r for a dead dog as the name of God speld backward would best befit him and others of his profession his sepulcher was according to the Egyptian fashion he had a whole Citie called by his name And to establish an opinion of the Emperours authoritie to create gods a new starre was either seene or fained as if the heavens by this apparition had ratified this earthly Monarchs graunt or charter Perhaps some Comet might at the same time be presented by the Prince of the aire to delude the inhabitants of the earth 4. But leaving these grosse fooleries That generall fallacie which opened the first gappe to heathenish Idolatrie had a peculiar efficacy in men honourably addicted to their deceased worthies From conversion of the common notion that divine nature was beneficiall and good every great benefactor was by the rude and ignorant adored as god Now the warlike and valourous were by every Nation held best deservers of the
conceiue and speake well in matters speculatiue or remote from vse but wants will or grace to temper his carnall affections with sobrietie of spirit or season his conversation with civilitie Were rats-bane as simply and grossely ministred to men as it is to rats few would take harme by it And of Popes and Cardinalls more haue vsed the helpe of ratsbane than of ratcatchers to poyson their enemies It were a brutish simplicitie to thinke the devill could not a preposterous charity to thinke he would not minister his receipts in a cunninger fashion since the promulgation of the Gospell than he did before although the poyson be still the same To eare figgs or other more cordiall foode with the infusion of subtill and deadly poyson exempts not mens bodies from daunger Much lesse can speculatiue orthodoxall opinions of the God-head free mens soules from the poyson of Idolatrous practises wherewith they are mingled 2. Taking it then as graunted what without paradox we may maintaine that the devill had as great a longing since Christ triumphed over him as he had before to worke the bane of mens soules throughout Europe He had beene the arrantest foole that ever either vndertooke to contriue a daungerous and cunning plott or adventured to act any notorious mischiefe or difficult villanie if he had solicited men to grosse Heathenisme or open profession of allegiance to those gods in whose service they had knowne their fathers perish the sodaine downfall of whose Idolls they had seene miraculously accomplished To haue perswaded them hereto had beene a more palpable importunitie then if a man in kindnesse should profer a cup wherein he had squeized the poyson of Spiders to one which had seene his mate fall downe dead by taking the same potion Now admitting a resolution in the great professor of destructiue Arts so to refine or sublimate his wonted poysons as they might the more secretly mingle with the foode of life where can we suspect this policie to haue beene practised if not in the Romish Church whose idolatrous rites and service of Satan in former ages haue beene so grosse that if we had seene the temptatiō vnacquainted with the success we should certainly haue thought the great Tempter had mightily forgotten himselfe or lost his wonted skill in going so palpably about his businesse Nor could any policie haue so prevailed against Gods Church vnlesse it had first beene surprised with a lethargie or brought into a relapse of Heathenish ignorance To entise men vnto Heathenisme since Romish rites and customes haue beene authorized or justified in solemne disputes he had lesse reason than to haue tempted the olde world vnto Atheisme whiles there was no delight or pleasure which the flesh can long for but had some seigned god for it's patrone And what branch of implanted superstition can we imagine in any sonne of Adam which may not sufficiently feed it selfe with some part or other of the Romish Liturgie or with some customes by that Church allowed concerning the invocation of Saints the adoration of reliques or worship of images By entertaining either more orthodoxall conceipts of the God-head than the Heathens had or better perswasions of one Mediatour betweene God and man than the morderne Iewes or Mahumetans do they giue contentment to many carnall desires especially covetousnesse preposterous pride and hypocrisie which would be readie to mutinier if simple Idolatrie should be restored to it's wonted soveraigntie CHAPTER XXIII Of the generall infirmities of flesh and bloud which did dispose divers auncient professors of Christianitie to take the infection of Superstition Of the particular humors which did sharpen the appetite of the moderne Romish Church to hunger and thirst after the poysonous dregs of Rome-Heathens Idolatrie 1. IN Churches of Pauls planting and Apollo his watering the seedes of sound and wholesome doctrine tooke roote with greater facilitie than sundry heathenish rites whereto they had beene so long accustomed could be extirpated That caveat But I would not haue you to be ignorant brethren concerning them that sleepe c. given to the Thessalonians otherwise most chearfull imbracers and zealous professors of the Gospell argueth some reliques of such superstitious demeano◠towards the dead as they had practised whiles they liued without hope of a resurrection to a better life vnto which practises perhaps they were so much more prone than others as they were naturally more kinde and loving Now if the first receipts of life ministred by a Physitian so wise and well experienced as S. Paul did not forthwith purifie this good natured peoples affections from the corrupt humors of Gentilisme it was no wonder if other lesse skillfull doctors by seeking the speedy cure of this disease did cast more vntoward patients then these Thessalonians were into a relapse of a contrary more hereditary and naturall to most Heathen Whether for preventing vnseemly and immoderate mourning for the dead or for encouraging the living to constancy in persecution the solemne celebration of their Funeralls and publique blazoning of their blisfull and glorious state after death which had liued Saints and died Martyrs was a method very effectuall and compendious Howbeit in hearts not throughly purified and setled by grace these panegyricall encomiasmes did reviue the seeds of superstitious respect to famous men deceased as fast as they quelled the reliques of hopelesse feare or abated naturall inclinations vnto immoderate mourning And happily that point of truth wherewith the Romanist seekes to condite or sweeten the poysonous fruit of his idolatrous and superstitious speculations might in part occasion or embolden the auncients to scatter some seedes of them before they had experience vnto what degree of malignācy they might grow when they grew ripe When the first Reformers of Religion demanded a difference betweene Heathenish adoration of inferior gods and Popish worshipping of Saints the vsuall and almost onely answer was that the Heathens adored naughtie and wicked men either altogether vnworthie of any or worthy of disgracefull memory after death whereas the Church did worship such as deserved as much respect as men are capable of men to whom who so omitted performance of sacred respect or religious worship did thereby commit most grievous sacrilege 2. To outstrip our adversaries in their owne policies or to vse means abused by others to a better end is a resolution so plausible to worldly wisedome which of all other fruits of the flesh is for the most part the hardliest and last renounced that almost no sect or profession in any age but in the issue mightily over-reached or intangled themselues by too much seeking to circumvent or goe beyond others The knowne successe of worldly policie in nursing Martiall valour and resolute contempt of life by decreeing divine honor to their heroicks after death did quickly set over the Christian world being almost out-wearied with continuall opposition of Gentilisme to foster and cherish spirituall courage by the like meanes The practise whereof notwithstanding as doe
seene vaiâ—ely puffed vp in his fleshly minde If so maine a pillar of Christs Church as S. Iohn who foresaw the generall Apostasie from the sincere worship of God to Antichristian Idolatry were thus shaken with this temptation it was not to be expected that any after that Sathan who can transforme himselfe into an Angel of light was let loose should be able to stand without vigilant attention vnto Iohns admonitions and these fayre warnings which God had given the world in him and Cornelius A senselesse and reprobate stupiditie more than Iewish hath befallen most of the moderne Romanists for their wilfull relapse into Heathenish Idolatrie What heathenish Priest did ever frame an answere to the obiections of the Orthodoxe either so ridiculous in it selfe or which might argue such a respectlesse esteeme of the divine Maiestie whom they were chalenged to wrong as Vasquez and Salmeron with others haue made to this instance of S. Peter and Cornelius St Peter say these Iesuites in part approved by Bellarmine who loues to haue two strings to his deceiptfull Bowe disclaimed the worship offred him not as if it were not due vnto him How then In modestie Doth this make for them or against them If it were his modestie to refuse it from Cornelius it would be good manners in them not to offer it till they know more of his minde or meete him face to face as Cornelius did who yet did not presse him to take it as in good manners he should if out of modestie onely he had refused it But they haue made S. Peters Image of such a mettall as it will not easily blush charm'd it with such new distinctions as it shall not tremble whiles they doe such homage to it as would haue moved S. Peter himselfe no lesse than the peoples dauncing before the golden Calfe did Moses The Image they thinke doth well approue of their service in that it doth not disallow it nor bid them stand vp saying what it could not truely say albeit these Impostors could teach it to speake for I also am a man Yet if S. Peter himselfe heare their prayers and see their gestures to it as well as if he were amongst them will he not be as modest in Gods presence who is alwayes an vndoubted spectator of this their service as he was before Cornelius Will he not disavow their practise as quite contrary to his example and their doctrine as directly contradictory to his instructions And doe they truely honour or rather fouly vilifie S. Peter and the rest of Gods glorious Saints in obtruding greater honour to their Images of liuelesse wood and stone than any Christians offred to them whilest they liued or were they present yet are capable of CHAPTER XXVII That the respect which wee owe to Saints deceased supposing they were really present with vs doth differ onely in degree not in nature or qualitie from the respect which wee owe vnto true liuing Saints That the same expression of our respect or observance towardes Saints or Angells locally present cannot without supersitition or Idolatrie be made vnto them in their absence 1. SVppose St Peter or the Angell whom St Iohn proffered to adore should vndoubtedly appeare vnto vs and vouchsafe vs libertie of proposing our desires vnto them we might and would tender them respect and reverence not for their civill dignitie or hopes of promotion from them but for their personall sanctitie which should exceed all the reverence wee owe to ordinary godly men as much as the civill Honcaâ— we giue to Kings doth our civill respect of any subiect that is our better But as our soveraigne observance of Kings or supreame earthly Maiestie may not transcend the latitude of civill honour so neither might wee tender such honour reverence or worship to S. Peter or the Angell were they present as would transgresse the vtmost bounds of that respect or reverence which is in some measure due to every godly man The difference betweene our respect to Angells the blessed Virgine or to Saints of the highest ranke and the lowest may be greater in degree than the latitude of civill honour in respect of Monarchs and their meanest officers can afford because the amplitude of sanctifying grace doth for ought we know farre exceed the measure of morall vertues or latitude of civill dignitie But the severall observances which we owe to Kings and to others that are our betters in the ranke of subiects differ more in specificall qualitie and essence than the severall respects which are due to Angels or Saints of the highest order and to religious Lazarus were both equally present For Kings in matters concerning our goods or bodies haue a soveraigntie communicated to them from God not communicate by them to their greatest subiects so haue no Saints or Angels in matters spirituall any Lordship or dominion over vs wee owe no allegiance of our spirit saue onely to one Lord. Christ in these cases is our sole King whose felicitie is communicated to all his followers his soveraigntie to none in respect of him the greatest Saints and Angels be our fellow-subiects What respect or reverence then doe we owe them in respect of prayers or invocations suppose we might speake with them face to face As our necessities would compell vs to request their prayers to God for vs so good manners would reach vs to fit the manner of our observance or submissiue entreatie to the measure of their sanctitie or of that favour which they haue with God in respect of ordinary godly men whose prayers we craue with due observance of their persons The rule of religious discretion would so proportion our obedience to their instructions as their instructions are proportioned to the directions of vsuall Pastors we would be readie to doe them any bodily service with so much greater fidelitie and better affection than we doe to others as we conceiue them to be more faithfull and fervent in Gods service than others are But Religion it selfe and the rule of Gods word which they most exactly obey would restraine vs from falling downe before them with our bodies with purpose to lift vp our minds vnto them as to our patrons or secundary Mediators To offer vp the fruites of the spirit or consecrate the spirit of prayer and thankesgiving to the honour of any saue onely of him that made redeemed and sanctified our soules and spirits is wee maintaine it vnto death sacrilegious heathenish impiety Yet must dulia which these men consecrate wholly to the honour of Saints be of necessitie an essentiall part of the spirit of prayer if the prayers themselues which it brings forth be as they contend Cultus ver è religiosus true or intrinsecally religious worship Religion is the bond or linke betweene the Creator and the creature the essence of religious prayers consists in the elevation of the spirit the vse and end of the spirits elevation is that we may be ioyned in spirit with Christ To fixe
a solemne invitation of infernall ghosts to keepe residence about them These are the Harpies which defile Gods service and devoure the peoples offrings which their inchanted Priests would perswade them were presented to accepted by Gods Saints To thinke the Saints should be permitted to receiue our particular petitions and not be permitted to returne their particular answers or not be enabled as freely to communicate their mindes to vs as we to impart our desires to them is an imaginatiō so grosse that it can haue no ground either of faith or common reason Wee may retort Bellarmines and his Consorts arguments for invocation of Saints vpon themselues That the Saints whom they invocate doe not impart their mindes vnto their supplicants in such particular manner as their supplicants impart their desires to them it is either because they will not or they cannot To say they will not if they can is to impeach them of pride or want of charitie to say they cannot is to slander them with impotencie or with want of favour with God For He that enables them as they suppose He doth to heare vs speak from earth to heaven can questionlesse enable them so to speake or expresse themselues that wee might heare them from heaven to earth It is but one and the same branch of his infinite power and goodnesse to giue Saints deceased the like vse and exercise of spirituall tongues as He graunts them by the Romanists doctrine of spirituall eares CHAPTER XXVIII The Romish Church in her publicke Liturgies expressely giues those glorious titles vnto Saints vnto which no other reall worship besides the worship of Latria is answerable 1. SEeing as well prayers in the first place directed vnto Saints as these which they tender immediately vnto God vpon Saints dayes are offered vp in honor of the Saints in the same place wherein and with the same externall signes of observance wherewith they solemnly worship God what note of difference haue they left to distinguish themselues from grosse Idolaters Onely the internall conceipt which they haue of divine excellency as much greater then Angelicall dignitie But how shall we know this different esteeme of God of Christ and of his Saints to be truely seated in their hearts without open confession of the mouth making some distinction in the solemne and publicke profession of allegiance to both Is the forme then of their devotion to God and Christ as accurately distinguished by any soveraigne title from their supplications vnto Saints as petitions to Kings and Princes are from petitions made vnto their officets One of the most peculiar titles of Christ as Mediator by Bellarmines confession is that in the tenth of Iohn Ego sum ostium I am the doore for from this attribute he proues him to be the only immediate Mediator If He who is the doore be the onely immediate Mediator what manner of Mediatrix must shee be which is the gate the blessed gate by which the righteous enter Did he conceiue his second proposition before mentioned in termes more wary then we were aware of Sancti non sunt immediati intercessores Saints are not our immediate intercessors but some Saintesse may make immediate intercession For so they pray vnto the blessed Virgine Ave maris stella Dei mater alma Atque semper virgo Foelix coeli porta Haile starre of the Sea Gods sweete Mother and Mate Everlasting Virgine Heavens happie gate And yet it seemes they make her withall the foundation or foundresse of our faith for so it followeth in the same hymne Funda nos in pace Yea the fountaine of sanctification from whose fullnesse we receiue grace for grace Virgo singularis Intra omnes mitis Nos culpis solutos Mites fac castos Vitam praesta puram Iter para tutum Of Virgines the very prime and floure Whose brest of meekenesse is the bowre From guilt vs free which soule doth waste And make oh make vs meeke and chaste Our liues vouchsafe first to make pure Next that our Iourney proue secure And because God is called the King of heaven and Father of mercy who hath the issues of death in his hands shee must be entitled the Mother of mercy c. Maria mater gratiarum Mater misercordiae Tu nos ab hoste protege Et horâ mortis suscipe Mary of grace Mother milde Who hast mercie for thy childe Hide and saue vs from our foe When from bodies soules shall goe From this her milde and mercifull temper they hope it seemes that shee is able to let some into heaven by the window which may not be allowed to come in by the ordinary doore or foregate Coeli foenestra facta es Officium B Mariae c. The attributes of Wisedome Ecclus the 24. are sung or sayd as part of her honour Ab initio ante secul creata sum vsque ad futurum seculum non desinam et i◠habitatione sancta coram ipso ministravi Of this stamp◠is that Hymne to the Apostles cited by Bellarmine without blushing Lib. de Beatitud Sanct. cap. 17. Quorum praecepto subditur Salus languor omnium Sanate aegros moribus Nos reddentes virtutibus By whose decree all like or pine To soule-sicke Patients health resigne And vnto Vertue vs incline But more sacrilegious by much is that Hymne vnto S. Iohn so well knowne and so common that the notes for Plaine-song were taken out of it vt re mi fa sol la which we might haue just cause to mislike did not the syllables sound otherwise extra dictionem than in dictione they did Vt queant laxis Resonare fibris Mira gestorum Famuli tuorum Solve peccantis Labij reatum Sancte Iohannes That with free hearts thy servants may Thy wondrous Acts and prayse display From sinnefull lips guilt take away O Holy Saint Iohn Did not such as first conceived or commonly vsed this song intend to honour S. Iohn with the best kinde of worship that was in their breasts when they desire their hearts and soules may be purified to the end they might more clearely sound forth his prayse Could the sweet Singer of Israel haue consecrated his best devotions in more solemne sort vnto God then these words imply In as much as wee never reade that S. Iohn did either send downe fire from Heaven or cause the mouths of these Priests of Bell to be stopt with haire and pitch this is to me and will be vnto the vnpartiall Reader a better argument that this blessed Saint did never heare those or like prayers directed vnto him than the Romish Church shall be able to bring That Saints deceased are ordinarily acquainted with mens petitions or desires in particular Yet vnto all these many like we must expect no answere but one but that wee may well expect should be a sound one and worthy the noting Est ergò notandum cum dicimus non deberi peti à sanctis nisi vt orent
sacrificers to reiterate his everlasting sacrifice here on earth as by joyning other everlasting intercessors with him as his assistants in heaven is an argument more directly pertinent to some Articles following in the Creede My present observations must be limited by the references to the maine conclusion intended That the Romish Church in her publicke Liturgie doth often giue the realtie of Christs soveraigne titles sometimes the very titles themselues vnto Saints sometimes leauing not so great difference betweene the divine Maiestie or glorious Trinitie and other coelestiall inhabitants as the Heathens did betwixt their greater and lesser Gods or as we do between ordinary Princes and their subiects Tyâ—urne or Bedlam would quickly take order with him that would seeke or suffer an act of the prerogatiue royall as granting of pardons creation of Barons calling of Parliaments to passe joyntly in the name of the Kings Maiestie of the Queenes or Princes in the name of all the officers of the Court and Common-wealth descending as low as Bay liffes Constables Church-wardens and Tythingmen And the Pope would take it as an hereticall diminution of his plenary power if every Bishop should receiue his Pall every sinner his indulgence every soule in Purgatory her dismission in his Holines name and in the name of all his Cardinalls Bishops Priests and Deacons Yet in the translation of a Christian soule from this life to a better after they haue directed their supplications to all the severall orders of Saints for their intercession with God in the very agony of death they draw their safe conducts in this forme Depart out of this world in the name of God the Father Almightie who hath created thee in the name of Iesus Christ the sonne of God who suffered for thee in the name of the holy Ghost who was powred forth vpon thee in the name of Angells and Aâ—changells in the name of thrones and dominations in the name of principalities powers in the name of Cherubims and Seraphims in the name of Patriarckes and Prophets in the name of holy Apostles and Evangelists in the name of holy Martyrs and Confessors in the name of holy Monkes and Eremites in the name of Virgins and of all Gods Saints and Saintesses This day let thy soule be in peace and thy habitation in holy Sion If thus they pray with their lips onely they mocke God as well as the Saints If thus they pray with internall affection of heart and spirit they really worship Saints with the selfe same honour wherewith they honour God Nor is it credible they doe intend or possible though intended they should in one and the same prayer or continued supplication produce the like change in the affections of their heart and spirit as an Organist doth in Musicke by changing the stoppes Or though they could produce the like change in every severall ejaculation yet the honour wherewith they honour God and the Saints should continue still of the same kind and differ onely in degree or modulation Or might they not with lesse impietie admit a Christian soule into the Church militant than translate it into the Church triumphant in other names besides the Trinitie They might better baptize them onely in the name of God the Father and of S. Francis S. Bennet and S. Dominicke c. without any mention of God the sonne and holy Ghost rather than joyne these as commissioners with them in dismissing soules out of their bodies To censure this part of their Liturgie as it deserues it is no prayer but a charme conceived out of the dregs and reliques of Heathenish Idolatrie which cannot be brought forth but in blasphemie nor be applyed to any sicke soule without sorcery CHAPTER XXIX Proouing by manifest instances and confessed matters of fact that the Romish Church doth really exhibit divers parts of that honour or worship vnto Saints which by her confession is onely due vnto God That her nice distinctions of Dulia and Latria or the like argue no difference at all in the reallitie or substance of the Worship but at the most divers respects of one and the same Worship 1. THe more vpon these occasions I looke into the Romane Liturgie the more I am enforst to commend the Heathen Philosophers ingenuous reply to Anaxarchus sophisticall allegations for honouring Alexander as a God I for my part sayth Callisthenes doe not thinke Alexander vnworthy of any honour which is convenient to be given to men But the differences betwixt Honour humane and divine are determined as by many other things so by the building of Temples by the erection of Statues Wee consecrate shrines and offer sacrifice and incense to the Gods vnto the same Gods Hymnes are due as prayses are to men But the honour due to the Gods is specially differenced by the manner of adoration Men are greeted with kisses but the Gods are saluted with adoration being placed so high that wee may not touch them Vnto the Gods likewise wee expresse our ioyfull thankesgiving in solemne dances and songs And no marvell if the honour which we giue to Gods be distinguished from the honour which we giue to men seeing divers kindes of honours are allotted to divers Gods The honour given to Heroickes deceased differeth from honour truely divine It is therefore vnfitting to confound these vnfitting to extoll men by lavish honour aboue humane state or to coarctate the Gods vnto a state vnfitting their dignitie or to worship them after the same manner as wee doe men Nor could Alexander himselfe be well pleased if a priuate man should vsurpe royall titles by election or vnlawfull suffrages Much more iustly will the Gods be moued with indignation if any mortall man shall either arrogantly affect or willingly accept divine honours though proffered by others 2. Yet thinks the Romanist either God will not be angry or els his anger may be quickly appeased with the mentall conception of former distinctions never vttered Albeit they make the Virgin Mary Queene of Heaven and Mother of mercie and bestow his other best titles in hymnes or solemne service vpon the Saints it must suffice him that some few other parts of divine honour mentioned by this Heathen as offering of sacrifice erection of Temples and Altars are reserved onely to his Maiestie These by their own confession are proper acts of that religious worship which may not be communicated to any Saint or Angell and so are vowes conceived in solemne and legall forme Let vs see then how well their practises sute with their speculations in these points and what neede the devotions of vulgar breasts haue of sublimated braines to preserue them from the poyson of damnable and more than Heathenish Idolatrie If I should aske one of them What service is this you celebrate to day Whose Church is this wherein you celebrate it they would make no scruple to say the one was S. Peters Church the other his Masse If both Church and Masse doe beare
out against him In this generall then Vasques and wee well agree that such externall worship as vpon speciall and rare occasions may be lawfully exhibited to some creatures becomes Idololatricall by vse or continuance without concurrence of like occasions The issue which wee desire to joyne with him and his fellowes from these grounds shall be this First whether the homage which they doe to Images be not in it selfe much greater and in respect of many circumstances far more solemne than Haman required of Mordecai Secondly whether the exhibition of it in Gods Temples be not more frequent and vsuall than Mordecais occasions and necessities of saluting Haman could haue beene in Assuerus Court Herein onely they truely follow Mordecais example that they seldome or never communicate Gods honour to secular Princes but on stockes or stones they vsually bestow all the signes of submission or other solemnities that can be appropriated to Gods service 2. The strict tenour of Gods commandement and that significant character whereby he expresseth his speciall observance of mens demeanour in this point evidently condemne the Romish Church of abominable Idolatry yet in my judgement it doth no way preiudice the performance of such externall respect or such testification of reverence vnto true reliques of Saints or vncouth places sometimes extraordinarily graced with Gods presence as Iacob tendered vnto the stone We ought in these cases to moderate the impulsions which their sight would procure by the analogie of that libertie which discretion and good manners grants vs in other points wherewith the occasions of Idolatrie haue most affinitie For Idolatry is but a spirituall fornication or adultery Now there is no man of discretion though otherwise more iealous than he hath iust cause but will permit his wife to salute his friends vpon speciall occasions or at first meetings after long absence But suppose a wanton vpon this libertie should presume to continue the same salutations evening and morning or most houres of the day for a moneth together and plead her excuse from the analogie of Romish Catechismes in cases of conscience concerning spirituall adulterie thus Sir I thought I might as freely kisse my friends and yours at one time as at another at all times as well as at any so long as I kisse them onely with kisses of loue and kindnesse not of lust and wantonnesse Would this distinction giue iust satisfaction to any husband no farther iealous than he hath occasion I thinke no Iesuite would relie vpon it if he should be detected to be thus over familiar with another mans wife of better spirit And yet in expresse denying the equitie of this apologie they implicitly graunt that their mother doth presume farther vpon the patience of the Almightie who in this case hath protested his especiall iealousie than any secular Strumpet dare vpon the patience of her loving or doting husband She hath done all the workes of a presumptuous whorish woman building her high places in the corner of every way and making her high places in every street and hath not bin as an harlot that despiseth a reward but as a wife that playeth the harlot and taketh others for her husband She is contrarie Other harlots receiue rewards of their lovers which for the most part repaire vnto them She compasseth sea and land and rangeth through all the Courts of the great Kings dominion with gifts in her hand to entice with the sacrifice of prayse and hymnes in her mouth to enchaunt the chast and loyall servants of her Lord vnto her lust And being deprived of their company prostrates her selfe evening and morning all the houres of the day and night vnto carved Images of both sexes with whom her Lord and husband hath so strictly forbidden her all familiaritie And yet in pride of her whorish cunning presumes shee is able to bleare that all-seeing eye vnto whose brightnesse light it selfe is in comparison but as darkenesse to whom the most secret corners of darknesse shine more clearely than the noone-light doth vnto vs if shee haue but leasure to wipe her lippes with this distinction I did kisse thy servants vnto whom I prostrated my body only with kisses of dulia not of latria The sent of dead corps cannot draw the Vultures halfe so far with such greedinesse as every vnsavoury tale or ridiculous wonder doth her children to feed their soules with the sight of counterfeit and putrified reliques The wisest of her sonnes are now become so foolish as to publish with their mouths what she had long since said in the pride of her heart Tush God was a iealous God in the dayes of the Synagogue his former wife which wanted discretion and proued vnfaithfull but this his new Spouse our holy mother the Catholicke Church is more wise and gratious in his eyes able to warrant whatsoever is done by her appointment she knows how to humor and please her loving husband who is not like man that he should be jealous of her carriage that meanes no harme cannot behaue her selfe amisse though to vnfaithfull eyes she may seeme outwardly to doe as wantons doe 3. God indeed is never jealous as men are without grounds of just occasion yet more tenderly observant of his spouses demeanour in this kinde than any husband is of his wifes because he knowes as by his law he would giue vs to vnderstand that familiaritie or dalliance with strange and wanton lovers is not so powerfull to corrupt the weaker sex as kissing or solemne salutations of graven Images is to pollute the wisest soules or to enveigle the strongest faith And vnlesse we knew he had determined to confound the wisedome of the wise it would seeme more than miraculously strange how such great schollers as are the Iesuites should be ignorant that the visible exhibition of Christ in the flesh makes all service of graven Images more abominable in the Christians than it could haue beene in the Iew. It is a truth sealed by the new Testament as well as by the Law We heard a voyce we saw no similitude besides the engraven Image of Gods substance by whom though he speake most plentifully to the world yet spake he nothing concerning Images Neither is there any instance or matter of fact in all the new Testament that can be pretended for worshipping Images or other visible creatures with such shew of probabilitie as the former instance of Iacob may be But whether Iacob did onely worship God praesente lapide or whether he did in some sort externally worship or coadore the stone with God or whether he did make vnto himselfe such sensible attestation of his solemne vow by anointing the stone and erecting it into a pillar as wee doe of our solemne oaths by kissing of the booke I leaue it to the Reader though for mine owne part I like this last forme of speech the best But however mens opiniōs may vary concerning the forme of speech the matter most to be considered by all which
God-head included in it a conceipt of happiest life Iupiter himselfe by whose provident care and magnificence the securitie and good estate of all the rest was procured and their necessities abundantly furnished could not in their opinions sufficiently enjoy himselfe or be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without associates Hence they imagined such a corresspondency between him and other gods or goddesses of meaner ranke as is betweene the father of every familie his wife and children and other domestickes or as is betweene the chiefe of every Tribe or Clan and his alliance or dependants or at the best such as is betweene Princes and the severall orders of their Nobilitie All the difference for the most part apprehended by them consisted rather in the diversitie of degree or order than in any difference of nature Parallel to their severall notions of felicitie whether private or publique were as well the nature and attributes of the greatest God as his manner of governement proportioned The forme of celestiall regiment was by most voyces held Monarchicall or Royall because that by consent of Nations was esteemed best Howbeit in as much as Tyrannicall abuse of Kingly authoritie had made it odious it seemed good to haue it tempered in heaven as it vsually was on earth by admixture of Aristocraticall Subpeeres by Tribunitiall inhibitions of fates or intercession of other imaginary powers supposed as absolute for some particular purposes as Ioue himselfe was for right disposing the vniversall Such as held externall feature no small part of their felicitie imagined the Gods and Goddesses to be of most rare and admirable feature But the belly had neither eyes nor eares nor can it be pleased with pleasant sonets though of feastings or with fairest pictures of daintiest meates Men pinched with hunger or ready to perish for want of looking to haue small desire of wealth or greatnesse saue onely for bettering their fare or attendāce Such smell-feasts as Homer was or rather such as he sought to please or set forth vnto vs conceived the life of their Gods to be such as themselues would haue led had they beene in their place The greatest part of heavenly joy seemed to consist in the quintessence of such delicates as they had seene or tasted or in the magnificent varietie of royall service Not much better was the degenerate Iewes conceipt of the sacrifice appointed by their God For that reproofe Thinkest thou that I will eate the flesh of Bulls or drinke the bloud of Goats seemes to argue a like faultinesse in them of measuring the Almighties delight by their owne appetite 2. Others out of a Philosophicall derision of high prized vanities or superfluities transformed the nature of the Gods into that disposition which liked them best Vacancy from care was the body innoxious merriment or recreation the soule of that happinesse which they affected as their portion in this life the whole world was to them but a stage wherein Princes and Statesmen served as Actors the alteration of States and Kingdomes but matter of Comoedie to feede their phantasies and passe the time Agreeable to this humor their opinion was that the chiefe vse or care the Gods had of men of best wit place or fashion was no other than men had of Apes or Munkeies or then great ones haue of fooles and jesters or Lords of misrules which kinde of ridiculous creatures are oft-times better kept and attended then befits their qualitie meerely for their sport that maintaine them 3. Such as had rightly valued the secret joy of contemplation in regard of all other contentments or solaces of mortalitie rested secure they had done the divine nature no wrong but grace rather in admitting it to be chiefe sharer in this kind of pure delight Aristotle thinkes that if the sweetnesse of that ioy which somtimes had raught his spirits could be continued fresh and liuely without interruption of contrary disturbances defatigation or satietie it might make vp so full a measure of felicitie as might well befit the principall mouer or supreme disposer of the heavenly Orbes that is the supreme power which he knew or did acknowledge 4. Out of the grossest speculations of heathen concerning God much matter of no vulgar consequence might be extracted Howbeit the best of their wisedome was alwayes mingled with folly and the purest truth that can be found in their writings still detained in vnrighteousnesse As in that booke De Mundo ad Alexandrum ascribed to Aristotle by greater authorities of the auncient then will easily be overswayed by noetericall Criticismes or moderne coniectures how many passages be there consonant to Christian truth about the vnitie the wisedome and glory of the God-head and yet while he seekes to surpasse himselfe in exemplifying the excellency of divine Maiestie he finally transformes it into the corrupt likenesse of the Persian Monarchie To reserue causes of principall importance to the Prince referring others of ordinary moment to the inferior Iudges was a point of wisedome apprehended by the auncient heathen yet quickly assented vnto by Moses the man of God and chiefe governour of his people This advise which he followed vpon necessitie was afterwards entertained by secular Princes as the mother of ease or nurse of pleasure by many improved to the maintenance of their Maiestie The author of the former booke could measure the Persian Monarches greatnesse by multitude of subiects and amplitude of dominions But to match these with an equall extent of provident care for the good of most particulars was to diminish his pompe or glory a great impeachment to his happinesse Glorious and happie he rather seemed in this that having the absolute commaund of so many he needed to trouble himselfe with the governance onely of some few Provinces by nature more choyse and delicate much beautified by art as so many pleasant gardens to entertaine his royall presence with varietie of delight The charge and over-sight of others affording lesse solace and more toyle was assigned to Vicegerents whose accompts if called they were at any time to account were as speedily dispatched as the briefe instructions for their proceedings were given This over-prizing the contentments of Monarchicall life whose practise could plead no warrant besides the limited perfection of humane excellency occasioned a like transfiguration of the divine Maiestie as well in the Latines as in the Graecians Magna Dij curant parva negligunt Cic. 2. de natura Deorum prope finem The Gods haue a care of great matters but neglect the smaller Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Iovi He who had made the earth and all therein must leaue the charge and government of it and all the rest of this inferior tumultuous Globe as little beseeming so great a Maiestie vnto his Angells or Deputie-gods The super coelestiall region must be to him as was Susa or Ecbatana to the Persian Kings not onely the sole garden of his delight or totall sphere of his residence but the compleat horizon of
stupiditie tremble at their sencelesse petulancy in this argument As the learned Papist hath no parallell the Iew excepted in this kinde so in the maine points of their Religion as in the doctrines concerning the authoritie of the Church and the sacrifice of the Masse they doe not goe so much beyond others as besides themselues The waight or consequence of the matters conteined in the mentioned controversies breeds an extreme desire to haue their profitable tenents countenanced by sacred authoritie and extremitie of desire an vnsatiable thirst or greedinesse of lucking wringing those Texts of Scripture which in colour of words or literall shew doe seeme at first sight to make somewhat for them but in truth and substance manifest the poyson of their doctrine and argue their eager appetite in maintaining it to be a spice or symptome of spirituall madnesse To proue the sacrifice of the Masse some not content to vrge that of the Prophet And they shall offer a pure oblation to me in all places or Melchisedeckes offering consecrated bread and wine which being once granted would everlastingly over-throw it would perswade vs the latine Missa was coyned in the Hebrew mint from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Masas which in the first signification imports as much as to blow whence the Verball 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Missah in a secondary sence signifieth tribute or Pole-money The implication is the very name of the Masse imports that this oblation or sacrifice is Gods tribute to be paid vnto him as duely as Peter-pence is to the Pope Their owne acknowledgement of this doting fancy in some of their writers leaues a suspition whether it were a true relation rather then a meere iest put vpon that ignorant Priest who being put to finde the word Masse in the Scriptures after a long and wearisome search when he was ready to giue over or fall asleepe lighting vpon those words in the first of Iohn Invenimus Messiam cryed out Wee haue found the Masse we haue found the Masse to the confusion of the Heretiques 2. I know not whether the Prophets interpretations of dreames and visions were of greater force to perswade the Heathen that the spirit of the immortall Gods did dwell in them than such dreaming interpretations as latter Iewes doe make of Prophecies or other divine Oracles are or might be of for confirming Christians beliefe that the Lord hath sent a spirit of slumber vpon them so like they are in their comments or meditations vpon Scriptures concerning Christ vnto such as dreame The same phantasmes which by floting in our braines breed dreames by night present themselues to our waking thoughts by day but want opportunitie to deceiue so long as our eyes and eares are open to receiue forraigne information But whiles the externall senses which serue as witnesses and that principall internall sense which sittes as chiefe Magistrate in the inferior part of the soule are surprized by sleepe the vainest fancies the braine can represent passe for currant without examination or checke The phantasie or common sense is as credulous of their suggestions or obtrusions as illiterate ignorant or vnexperienced people are of counterfeit commissions or pretended warrants As at this instant though I think of my good friends in London yet the sight of Oxford and other vndoubted pledges of my presence in this place wherein I am will not suffer my soule to be miscarried with false imaginations of being elswhere whereas whiles the gates of these outward senses are shut and the passages from the principall sense internall or examinatiue facultie stopped the modell of that famous Cittie rouling in my fantasie would forthwith breede an imagination that I were in it in their presence whose image or representation onely is present with me Vpon appearances altogether as light and frivolous are the Iewes transported from Christ now fully manifested and presented to them to imbrace such shadowes or prefigurations of him as had fallen out in the dayes of their Patriarkes or ancient Kings No man that reades their writings but will perceiue many phantasmes or modelles of Evangelicall truth swimming in their heads but the vaile being laid before their hearts disenables their iudgements for distinguishing figures from substances or apparitions from realities 3. The reliques of orthodoxall truths which vnto this day worke in this heartlesse peoples braines would be sufficient to forme Christ crucified in the hearts of Heathens not given vp to a reprobate sense For example that practicall pre-notion Gebher hath sinned Gebher must be punished wheron they ground their ceremonies in the feast of atonement being construed according to its literall and naturall sense is in effect the same with that divine Oracle As by man came death so by man came the resurrection of the dead or with that fundamentall Article of our beliefe that man was to satisfie for the sinnes of men But the passages of these latter Iewes internall senses being lockt vp in a deeper slumber in the day of their solemne feasts then our externall senses are in the dead of the night the cleare representatiō of the former Christian truth makes no impression in their heart but vanisheth into a heathenish dreame Like so many men that vse to walke and raue in their sleepe they vnwittingly act our Saviours sufferings after the manner of an Interlude putting Gebher which in their Rabbinicall language signifieth a Cock for meere affinitie of name for Gebher in Hebrew signifieth a man vnto all the tortures they can devise adding withall that every Gebher every man amongst them deserues to be so dealt withall as they deale with this poore creature Nor is any creature of this kind so fit for this purpose in their fantasie as a white one Their severall phantasmes or pre-notions concerning this mystery rightly put together and examined by vigilant thoughts signifie thus much that the matter of the sacrifice by which the atonement for mans sin was to be wrought was to be a Gebher a man without blemish or spot of sinne 4. If any prophecie include the least historicall reference or allusion to Abraham to Moses David or Solomon as the first draught almost of every Prophecie is some former History this is a motiue sufficient to these blinde guides to interpret the place as wholly meant of these types alone Christ who is the body therein presented God blessed forever which vpholdeth all things by the power of his word the very Center though they perceiue it not whereon their soules doe rest hath no more place in our thoughts than the bed wherein we lye hath in our night imaginations of walking or talking with our friends either deceased or farre absent Every metaphor or resemblance borrowed from things visible as mouldes for fashioning our conceits of matters spirituall or invisible to be accomplished in the life to come make these miserable wretches quite forget the estate as well wherein they are as whence they are fallen and cast them into pleasant dreames of
to purge it selfe from corruption although a wavering and floating imagination is for the present most vncapable of the impression of Gods image 3. As corruption of nature doth sway vs both to conceiue and bring forth evill of every kinde so our acquired prouenesse to practise it being outwardly curb'd or our naturall propensions by Gods providence diverted from such objects as might entice or inlarge them the light of nature as yet not sanctified will manifest the folly of our former wayes and oft-times cause notorious malefactors to water their cheekes with teares in signe they would as perhaps for the present in part they doe wash their consciences from wonted vncleannesse if it should please God to grant them opportunitie of testifying their resolutions by reformation of life prolonged And what they thus protest may be either meerely pretended or vnfainedly purposed So may purposes for the time being vnfained be either temporary and weake easie to be defeated by future opportunities or firme and constant able to resist all ordinary or wonted inticements to commit externall mischiefes Such they may be and yet never approach the confines of true spirituall renovation 4. That hearts thus farre cleansed and mollified are more apt to admit the true stampe or character of any morall truth and may be more easily and farther poized with any wholesome admonition or reproofe needs no further proofe than that which is aboue all proofes which can be brought to the contrary common experience And although in the heate of passion or by renitency of contrary impulsions our apprehensions of truths formerly imprinted or then first represented be not so cleare or though our judgements be corrupt and partiall yet such as haue laid vp these sacred principles in their hearts giving them little or no vent except in practise will in these cases suspect their iudgement and appeale from passion to calme and sober meditations Many pleasant and gratefull fancies which secretly intrude themselues by night are often mistrusted by some even whiles they dreame though the like dreames in others which haue lesse occasion to beleeue them are exempt from all suspition The cause of difference as an exquisite Philosopher tells vs is this In the one the passages betwixt the braine and the heart are in some sort open in the other so stopt that the head which serues as an illiterate messenger or newes-carrier to the heart can haue no direction or resolution thence but takes every thing for true that hath any appearance of truths formerly experienced in waking thoughts This falls out so as if whiles grand Counsellors sleepe Post-boyes should take vpon them to determine of matters of state by vulgar rumors concerning the secrecies inclosed in their Packets The vigilant thoughts of men attentiue to worldly businesse or bent to vice can be no better in sacred matters than dreaming fancies in matters secular No morall knowledge not implanted in a purified heart but vpon intercourse of passion or new occurrence either vanisheth or varieth as strangely and quickly as nocturnall representations Nor is it possible any sacred knowledge should enter into our hearts vntill they be in some measure cleansed of their natiue rust or adventitious foulenesse 5. Not vnconsonant to as much of S. Iames divinitie as hitherto hath beene discussed is that resolution of Seneca in the beginning of his naturall or theologicall questions for God and nature were to him as one Mustum interest inter bonam valetudinem c. There is a great difference betweene health and strength Thou carriest about no counterfeit face nor framest thy speech vnto anothers minde Thy heart is not invailed thou art free from avarice which depriues it selfe of what it hath purloined from others from luxurie which repaires the wasted stocke more filthily then it was wasted Thou art not subiect to ambition which seldome brings men vnto dignitie but by base and indigne practises Thou art as yet a non-proficient and rid of all other ill guests not of thy selfe The vertue we ayme at is magnificent not that it is in it selfe a happy thing to be without vice but that want of evill doth free the minde and prepare it for the knowledge of heavenly matters and qualifie it for acquaintance with God Plotin likewise avouching the consent of the auncient makes every vertue a beame or ray of the former purification in his opinion requisite for attaining vnion with the prime light or fountaine of beautie What is temperance but abstinence from bodily pleasures as being neither pure in themselues nor fit for any affecting puritie of life to follow Wisedome and Prudence erect the minde to things supernall and keepe it aloofe from this inferior and base part of the world which pollutes it Wherefore it was truely said That the goodnesse and beautie of the humane soule consists in being like to God But by what meanes in his divinitie must our soules put on his likenesse By putting off whiles they ascend to him the vitious habits which they put on in their descent to worldly spectacles as those that enter into the sanctuaries of the Temples put off their garments and approach not the presence of the gods till they be purified And againe Our soules must be divorced from all corporall beautie before we come acquainted with the prime light or fountaine of beautie of whom all bodily perfections are but images on which who so doates or esteemes as obiects worthy of his loue shall be partaker of his folly that drowned himselfe by assaying to embrace faire shadows in the water For thus enclaspt with loue of bodily decencie that he cannot acquit himselfe from it he must needs suffer a precipitation not so much of body as of soule into a pit darke and gastly to the minde of man blinded both amongst the infernall ghosts and even whiles they liue here haunted still with ghosts or shadowes That is our Country whence we came and there is our setled place of dwelling But what is the meanes or manner of our retire Wee need neither shippe nor chariot nor horse not so much as the vse of our owne feete all these we must forsake not vouchsafing once to looke backe vpon them after wee be set on in this iourney Our bodily lights being shutt wee must provide vs another eye But what must this internall eye beholde Vpon the first opening or wakening it cannot easily fixe it selfe vpon excessiue brightnesse What remedie then The soule must be invred by degrees first to looke into honest and ingenuous studies afterwards to contemplate such actions of famous men as are fit patternes for others to follow lastly to take the true characters of these good actors minds But they shall by this meanes be enabled to take a true draught of their own forme If thou canst not see thine own latent beautie propose the statuary for thy imitation pare of superfluities and exorbitances rectifie obliquities and giue lustre to parts obscure or duskie and never