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
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
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
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
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
soules with two distinct habites of Religion one of latria wherewith wee serue God another of dulia whereby we tender such respect and service as is fit for Saints and Angells For every abstract number without addition or subtraction of any vnitie without any the least variation in it selfe necessarily includes a different proportion to every number that can be compared with it and so doth every sanctified or religious soule without any internall alteration or infusion of more habites or graces than that by which it is sanctified naturally bring forth three severall sorts of religious and respectfull demeanour 1. towards God 2. towards Saints or Angells 3. towards Princes men in authoritie or of morall worth As it is but one lesson Giue honour to whom honour loue to whom loue tribute to whom tribute so it is but one religious habite or rule of conscience that teacheth the practise of it And in some sense it may be graunted that men in authoritie or of morall worth must be worshipped with religious worship in another sense againe it must be denyed that Saints are to be worshipped with religious worship though worthy of some peculiar religious respect whereto Kings and Princes vnlesse Saints withall haue no title 4. The respect or service which we owe to others may take this denomination of Religious from three severall References First from the internall habit or religious rule of conscience which dictateth the acts of service or submission secondly from the intellectuall excellency or personall worth of the partie to whom they are tendred thirdly from the nature and qualitie of the acts or offices themselues which are tendred to them with the manner or circumstances of their tendring According to the first denomination we must worship vngodly Magistrates and irreligious Princes with religious Worship For if wee must doe all things for conscience sake and as in the sight of God our service wheresoever it is due must be no eye service no faigned respect All our actions and demeanours must be religious as Religion is opposed to hypocrisie dissimulation or time-serving And in this sense religious and civill Worship are not opposite but coordinate Men truely religious must be religiously civill in their demeanor towards others If our respect or service take the denomination of Religious from the personall worth or internall excellencie of the partie whom we worship it is most true wee are to worship Saints with more than meere civill Worship None of our Church I dare be bound will deny that godly and religious men must be reverenced not onely for their vertues meerely morall or politicke but for their sanctitie and devotion Yet is this all that the moderne Papist seekes to proue against vs. And from this Antecedent which needes no proofe he presently takes that for graunted which he shall never be able to prooue either from these or other premises to wit That Saints are to be worshipped with religious Worship as it is opposed to civill Worship His meaning if it reach the point in question must be this Wee are bound to offer vp the proper acts of Religion as prayers with other devotions by way of personall honour or service to the Saints This wee say is formall Idolatrie 5. It is one thing to tender our service in lowlinesse of spirit for conscience sake vnto the Prince another to tender him the service of our spirit or subiection of our consciences Religion binds me to bow my knee or vse other accustomed signes of obeysance in vnfaigned testimony that I acknowledge him Lord of my body armed with Authoritie from the Maker of it to take vengeance vpon it for deniall of its service Or in case he punish me without cause the bond of conscience and Religion tyes me to submit this outward man in humilitie of spirit to the vnlawfull exercise of his lawfull power rather than I should graunt him the command or disposall of my Religion or honour him with the acts or exercises of it In like sort the sight and presence of any whom God hath graced with extraordinary blessings of his Spirit will voluntarily extort signes of submissiue respect from every sanctified and religious spirit in vndoubted token that they reverence Gods gifts bestowed vpon him and heartily desire their soules might take some tincture or impression from his gratious carriage or instructions which they can hardly doe without some nearer linke of familiaritie and acquaintance or at least would doe so much better by how much the linke were closer or their vicinitie greater The right end and scope whereto the instinct of grace inherent in our soules doth direct these externall signes of submission is to woe their soules and spirits whom we thus reverence to some more intimate coniunction This submissiue reverence though not required by them is on our parts necessary for holding such consort or iust proportion with the abundant measure of Gods graces in them as we may draw comfort and perfection from them Contemplation of others excellency without this submissiue temper in our selues either stirres vp envie or occasioneth despaire and yet all that these outward and vnfaigned signes of submission can lawfully plight vnto them is the service of our bodies or inferior faculties These we could be content to sacrifice not to them but for their sakes alwayes provided that we doe not preiudice the right or dominion which our owne spirits and consciences haue over our bodies immediately vnder God But to offer vp the internall and proper fruits of the Spirit vnto them by way of tribute and honour is to dishonour to deny that God which made them The seedes of grace and true Religion are sowne immediately by his sole powerfull hand and their natiue of-spring acts of faith especially must be reserved entire and vntouched for him Prayers intrinsecally religious or devotions truely sacred are oblations which may not which cannot without open sacriledge be solemnly consecrated to any others honour but onely to his who infuseth the Spirit of prayer and thankesgiving into mens hearts The principall crime whereof we accuse the Romish Church and whereof such as purposely examine the inditement put vp by Reformed Churches against her and her children are to take speciall notice is her open professed direct intendment to honour them which are no gods with those prayers or devotions with these elevations of mindes and spirits wherewith they present the onely wise immortall King in Temples dedicated to his service He that prayed in olde times to an Idoll in a Groue destinated to his worship did wrong the true God after the same manner that he doth which robs him of his Tyths before they be set apart for his house But to come into his house of prayer with serious purpose to honour him with the sacrifice of a contrite or broken spirit and in the time of oblation to divert our best intentions to the honor of our fellow-creatures is worse than Ananias and Saphirahs sinne a lying to the
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
circumstances is altogether as naturall to the fulnesse of those affections which proceed from supernaturall causes as to their fulnesse whose causes are meerely naturall The meere imitation of naturall motions is alwayes artificiall never naturall The imitation of such motions or externall actions as naturally flow from supernaturall inspiration is hypocriticall artificially Sathanicall Howbeit the Romanist cannot so properly be sayd to imitate as to invert Iacobs behaviour whiles he seekes to raise his affections by saluting or adoring Images or to transmit the affection which he so raiseth to God or the Saints by Images of his owne erection This is in truth not to invocate but to conjure God or the Saints The imitation if so we call it is as preposterous as if a man should striue to prophesie or counterfeit visions by affecting to speake non-sence because some Prophets in their visions haue beene raught beyond their senses In fine the scholasticke ape while he exactly imitates his master Satan that sets him a worke and his manner of worshipping God by Images hath the same proportion to Iacobs worshipping which he pretends for his warrant that the voyces or motions of bodies assumed by wicked spirits haue to the vitall motions or speeches of living men The one moue themselues as the spirit which God hath implanted in them directs the other suffer such motions as malignant spirits put vpon them The old Saracens adoration of a stone may with better probabilitie be justified by Iacobs example than the vsuall worship of Images in the Romish Church 8. Many passages in the Fathers though cruelly rackt by the Romish Church will reach no further than the former instance in Iacob Adoration in many of their languages is no more than decent salutation The phrases as Vasques obserues are with them indifferent nor were they sollicitous in what termes they expressed those expressions of their loue or reverence vnto those visible obiects which had affinitie with their extraordinary passions or peculiar reference vnto God or Christ as knowing the respect which they tendred to be voide of superstition when it flowed only from abundance of internall affection or was drawne from them vpon speciall impulsions They did not affect submissiue salutation or that emphaticall expression of their affections which they often vsed as a part of religious dutie or daily worship but as a point of decent behaviour And decent behaviour doth change the subiect only not alter its owne nature or forme whiles it is vsed in matters sacred Nor is the habit of civill complement or good manners such an vnhallowed weed as must be laid aside when we come into the Sanctuarie or into places sometimes graced with their extraordinary presence whom we reverence for their Religion and pietie The vse or frequencie of it notwithstanding must be limited by iust analogie to the knowne or approved vse of it in matters civill CHAPTER XXXVI The Arguments drawne from Iacobs fact and the like examples answered by Vasques himselfe in another case and by the Analogie of civill discretion 1. WIth what secret ioy or exultation the vndoubted sight of our Saviours sepulcher of mount Tabor or like sacred Monuments would feed my soule and spirit or in what externall testifications the abundance of these internall dispositions would vent themselues I cannot tell vntill I haue iust occasion to trie them But my heart I am perswaded should not afterward smite me much if vpon our first meeting I saluted them in such a manner as did I daily repaire vnto them with purpose to tender them the like salutations or to invite the former affections or exultations by kissing or bowing to them would convince my conscience of transferring the honour of God to stockes and stones The most learned amongst our Adversaries whiles they seeke to giue satisfaction to our obiections are enforced to acknowledge not onely the equitie of this libertie which we grant but the necessitie of the restraint which to their preiudice we make from the authoritie of a story more canonicall with them then with vs. For Mordecai to haue bowed his knees to a mortall man was not even in Romish glosses vpon Gods Lawes given to the Iewes altogether vnlawfull Nor did Haman desire to be adored Cultu latriae though some Romanists for want of a better answere haue beene put vpon this shift But their dreames Vasques hath very well refuted First because Assuerus himselfe never affected this kinde of honour and Haman could not be so foolish though so impious as to exact greater honour than had beene done vnto his soveraigne Secondly because Mordecai protested his readinesse to doe Haman greater honour than was exacted so his people might haue bin preserved or advanced by his deiection Yet to haue honoured Assuerus himselfe or any mortall man with divine honour had beene such an open wrong vnto the God of his Fathers as Mordecai would not haue done for prevention of any mischiefe that could haue befallen his people However if the protestation of his readinesse to kisse the soles of Hamans feete vpon condition the state of his people might be thereby bettered what truth is there in his pretence that being a Iew he durst not bow his knee to Haman lest by so doing he should transfer the honour of his God to a mortall man specially seeing the safetie of his nation was at that time so deeply indangered by refusall of worship which had beene tendered by his religious auncestours not onely to Kings and Prophets of Iudah but even to heathen Princes To this scruple Vasques out of Caietane hath made answere very appositely for Mordecai and for vs Noluit illud signum honoris praebere quia indignum ei videbatur vt solum reverentiae civilis gratiâ nisi magnâ aliqua causa exigente homini quotidie signum illud exhiberetur non quòd lege Iudaioâ id prohibitū esset sed quia ex cōmuni consuetudine non nisi magnâ aliqua ex causâ regibus et principibus illud signum exhibebatur sed soli Deo tanquam supremum cōmuniter erat reseruatū Atque hac ratione dixit Mardochae us Timui ne honorem Dei id est signum quod consuetudine populi nostri dei cultui applicatum est in hominem transferrem The briefe or abstract of his reply is this The signe of submission which Haman exacted was vsually tendered onely vnto God to Kings or Prophets or others in preeminence very seldome and vpon speciall occasions as in testification either of vnusuall sorrow or of thankfulnesse more than ordinary The truth of his observation is apparant out of Ruths behaviour to Boaz of Iudeths to Holofernes of Abigails and Mephibosheths to David and of the Captaines to Eliah 4. King 1. And albeit Haman was bent to doe the Iewes an extraordinary mischiefe for Mordecais sake yet Mordecai had no opportunitie offered him by divine providence to prevent it by submission of himselfe to Haman but rather by standing
necessary abode and these notions are vpon this occasion vsually either tainted with the contagion of such noysome lusts or much weakned by the reluctation of such contrary desires as lodge in the same roome or closet with them 6. Our readinesse in heat of passion or interposition of causes concerning our owne commodities to recall religious motions whose vndoubted truth and equitie we could in calme and sober thoughts be well contented to seale if need were with our bloud will easily induce mindes capable of any vicissitude of quiet and retired cogitations after turbalent and working fancies to admit the former difference betweene dictates of nature seated in the braine and others ingrafted in the heart to be for the manner of their severall evidences or perspicuities much what like the lightsomnesse of the inferiour and supreame region of the ayre The Sunne-beames are sometimes more bright in this lowest part than in the vppermost wherein they suffer no reflexion yet are they in this lower often so eclipsed with clouds with mists or stormes as he that did never looke out of doores but in such dismall weather might well imagine his day to be but night in respect of that clearnesse he might perpetually behold were his habitation aboue the clouds The continuall smoake of noysome lust the steames of bloudy and revengefull thoughts the vncessant exhalations of other vncleane and vast desires which raigne in the Atheists heart can never obscure the Mathematicall or Logicall notions of abstract truths in his braine The principles of moralitie or religion which Nature hath planted in his heart and conscience they quickly may they alwayes doe more or lesse eclipse according to the strength and permanency of their infectious and incompatible qualities Happy it is that he can acknowledge and somtimes magnifie the light of nature in matters speculatiue or concerning the body onely and now and then bragge as if he were her sonne elect and others but reprobates in comparison of that heroicall spirit she hath enabled him with in businesses of State or policie For who is this his Goddesse Nature Can he tell vs or what is her light that he should so much glory in it Doth she not borrow it from the father of lights whose habitation is in that radiant brightnesse which is inaccessable Thus I suppose such as dwell vnder the poles would commend the lightsomnesse of the ayre which they daily behold and hourely breath in but deny that there were any such glorious body as the Sunne that did enlighten it did it never come further Northward than within three or foure degrees of Aries or never moue farther Southward than within as many of Libra Now as the onely way vtterly to disswade men from an opinion so palpably grosse as by the former supposition might be conceived would be to remoue them out of their natiue clime into ours so the best meanes an Atheist can vse to refute his impious errors in denying there is a God is to relinquish his wonted courses in the wayes of darkenesse and to haue his conversation for a time at least or vpon triall with the sonnes of light And to make this triall he may perchance be sooner induced by discovering the severall heads or first originalls of his sacrilegious misperswasions more particularly CHAP. IIII. Atheisme Idolatrie Heresie Hypocrisie c. haue one common roote What estate or condition of life is freest from or most obnoxius vnto Atheisme or temptations thereto tending Of Atheisme in passion onely not habituated 1. ALL of those almost numberlesse inclinations which are vnited in the indivisible humane soule as lines sphericall in their center being apt to be impelled or poysed by their proper obiects it is impossible their severall bents should admit an equalitie of strength seeing as well their internall growth or eminencies as the potencies of their obiects are vnequall Much more must many of their actuall motions needs be incompatible in as much as the poynts whereon they are set and whereto they moue are oft times extreamly opposite and directly contrary Hence as in the former Booke is observed our assent vnto such branches of supernaturall truth or goodnesse as are stifly counterswayed by naturall desires or affections either for qualitie or intention most repugnant is alwayes wrought with greatest difficultie For even this assent which we terme Christian beliefe is but an inclination or bent of the humane soule vnto matters revealed by the spirit whose divine attractions or impulsions are alwayes oppugned by contrary lustings of the flesh more or lesse according to the diversitie of their strength or impetuousnesse whether in their acts or habits Now seeing Atheisme is but a compleat or totall eclipse whether of celestiall irraditions as yet externall not illuminating the soule or of that naturall and internall light which men haue of heavenly powers and providence divine we are not to seeke an originall of it altogether new or diverse from the originall of ignorance or vnbeliefe of particular revelations but onely a more direct and fuller opposition of those earthly parts of the humane soule whence these lesser defects are caused After those Iewes whose hypocriticall shufflings with the Prophet Ieremie was in the former Booke at large deciphered had fully experienced all hopes of good from their late elected Goddesse The Queene of Heaven to be as vaine as their Princes trust in Aegypt the next point whereat their floating imaginations could haue arrived had beene to deny there were any God or Gods at least any that cared for them or could doe them good The truth of what we here suppose as necessarily consequent to our former discussions will better cleare it selfe in the issue of these to wit that Atheisme Idolatry Heresie Hypocrisie c. spring all from one common roote i. Indulgence to corrupt affection onely the manner of their growth is different 2. Some desires of the naturall man though tainted with the deceiveable lusts of corruption yet haue no repugnancy with naturall notions of divine goodnesse indefinitely considered onely they sway too much vnto secondary causes best suiting with themselues or aptest to satisfie their vntemperate longings and as it were by popular factions set vp these secondary causes or meanes as Gods without consulting the Lawes of Nature never demanding reasons voice or approbation Some parts of the old man againe there be which include onely a dissonancy to some particular passages of the rule of life or partiall opposition to our naturall notion of God or his attributes and these sway onely vnto hypocrisie heresie or transfiguration of the divine will or word into the similitude of our corrupt imaginations Other lusts of the flesh there be either for qualitie multitude strength or abundance so mainly opposite to the most essentiall and generall notions of the Godhead that sometimes by being directly crossed other whiles by being fully satisfied they introduce either oblivion or flat deniall of any divine power or providence 3. The
vpon that levell whence the right aspect of heaven and heavenly powers is taken But lest having this libertie of trying all they should come to fasten on that which is best His pollicie is to cast them so farre one wrong way or other in youth that either they shall haue no thought or inclination to retire in mature age or no strength left when they grow old to recover the miscarriages of fresh and liuely motions To sway themselues that way which nature first enclined them or grace doth call them is not easie to be attempted almost impossible to be effected by men that haue beene long fettered in some linke of sociall lust or other filthinesse by men whose mindes haue beene perpetually enwrapt in the curiosities of their proud imaginations Those are the two speciall snares whereby Gods enemy detaines stirring spirits in the dregs of contradicting Atheisme But the men of whom we now speake such as haue wedded their soules to the earth count toyling and moyling in gainefull businesses greatest pleasures are as the tempter knowes of a cleane contrary constitution apt they are not to moue many wayes either vpward or downeward but onely to waggle to and fro within a narrow compasse without whose lists should he tempt them to outray much in any notorious dissolutenesse outragious villany or open blasphemy the vncouthnesse of their distemper procured by these vnnaturall motions might happily admonish them in good time to seeke a medicine The onely meanes he hath herein to prevent them is continually to feede this their deadly disease so kindly and gently as it shall never bewray any danger vntill they be past all possibilitie of recovery They goe to Hell as in a lethargie or deepe slumber Much what to this purpose it is in other parts of these comments observed that the equable morall temper which never alters much from it selfe is most obnoxious to finall miscarriage because seldome so fiercely assaulted by the enemy as to occasion any extraordinary terror of conscience And it is the lesse assaulted because it seldome or lightly rebels against him Now men never much affrighted with the danger wherein all by nature stand nor enflamed with loue of a better Country than they enioy cannot addresse themselues to any resolute or speedy departure out of the territories of civill moralities within which if Satan hold vs he makes full reckoning of vs as of his civill or naturall subiects and this as S. Gregorie obserues is the reason why many are not molested by him CHAPTER VI. Of Disputatiue Atheisme deniall of the God-head or divine providence with the severall curiosities which occasion it 1. FOrraigne supportance is seldome reiected by deserved fame and men of no deserts alwayes seeke to vnderprop their ruinous reputation or groundlesse prayse some by the place which they hold or by the societie wherein they liue others by their auncestors birth or education many by the subiect of their thoughts or worthinesse of matters which they vnworthily handle To professe noble sciences or at the most to haue taken degree in any is ground enough for some men to raise themselues farre aboue such as but yesterday were their full equalls or to stand vpon tearmes of comparison with the best And few there be of their owne Coate that would not willingly yeeld to them what thus they challenge as their due would they shew themselues either able or willing to repay that credit and estimation to the common profession which like bankrouts or decayed Marchants they are enforced either to borrow or beg from it as from the publicke stocke For all of vs are glad to see our owne profession grac't or exalted the rather because we hold it not safe to haue our heights measured onely by our personall stature vnlesse withall we take in the advantage of the ground whereon we stand 2. A second maine stem of habituated Atheisme arose as was lately intimated from this partiall desire in professors to establish the soveraigntie of those arts or faculties wherein they were best seene or most delighted And the best meanes for advancing or establishing their soveraigntie was to extend the limits of their wonted authoritie by reducing all or most effects to their principles as great Lawyers striue to bring most causes to those Courts wherin their practise or authoritie is greatest Another principall veine serving to feed the disease whereto this partiall and intemperate appetite of curious artists ministred first matter wee may if we mistake not fitly deriue from a generall aptitude of the humane soule to take impression from those obiects with which it is most familiar and to iudge of others by their correspondency with these Hence as sollicitors seeking after meanes conducible to any end vsually interceps our desires or intentions of the end it selfe for whose sake onely the meanes in reason were to be sought so doth the curious speculation of creatures visible divert the minds of many from the invisible creator vnto whom the fight of these by nature not misleveled by inordinate or vnwildy appetites would direct all And our generall facility to beleeue with speed what we much affect or strongly desire brings forth peculiar pronesses in the professors of severall arts to frame vniversall rules whether negatiue or affirmatiue from broken and imperfect inductions Now the power and wisedome of God being especially manifested in the workes of creation in the disposition of things created and in matters manageable by humane wit or consultation Satan by his sophisticall skill to worke vpon the pride of mans hart hath erected three maine pillars of Atheisme or irreligion as so many counter sorts to oppugne our beliefe or acknowledgement of the divine providence in the three subiects mentioned Many naturall Philosophers out of a partiall desire to magnifie their owne facultie observing none brought forth without a mother nothing generated without pre-existent seede or matter forth with concludes the course of things naturall which we daily see to haue beene the same from everlasting that generation had no beginning that corruption can haue no ending The imperfection of this induction and the over-reaching inference which some in this kind haue fram'd from a Maxime most true in a sense most impertinent Ex nihilo nihil fit falls in our way againe in the Article of creation The Astronomer likewise finding the influence of starres by experience to haue great force in this inferior world seekes to extend their dominion ouer humane actions or consultations as if all matters of state or private life were by their conventicles or coniunctions authentickly predetermin'd without possibilitie of repeale And thus as the Moone eclipseth the Sunne or lower Planets sometimes hide the higher so haue the Sunne the Moone and Hoast of heaven excluded his sight from approaching vnto the Father of lights Or if through them he can discerne the truth of his existence or see some glimpses of his generall attributes yet the eyes of his minde are so
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
alwayes effected by some concourse of the phantasie in which it is first begun as bodily paine or maladie oftimes manifestes it selfe not in the part which is principally affected but in some other which hath some neere bond of nature or peculiar sympathie with it And the former fault to speake the truth is not in sense or phantasie but in the reasonable soule which suffers her selfe to be misled by these her servants whose right nurture or making for hunting out latent truthes is in her power But as the French by often vsing the Switzers service vpon some especiall occasions were sometime said to haue brought themselues to such a passe that they could not manage any warre without them so the reasonable soule being vpon necessity beholding to externall senses for perceiving obiects sensible by too much relying vpon their informations difenables her selfe for more noble imployments The strict vxorius confederacy which is too oft enters with these two grosse senses touch and taste and her too much familiaritie with their adherents vtterly dissolues her natiue correspondency or acquaintance with intellectuall or more noble essences which are of the same descent and progenie with her Thus abused or misinformed as great men are vsually by their servants she neither can desire conceiue nor entertaine truth spirituall but after a fashion meerely carnall The originall or manner of these preiudices wherewith this image of God is by the suggestions of sense surprised are but such as cōmon experience witnesseth to be most rife in every particular sense the right frame or constitution of whose organs alwayes suppose a vacuitie of those reall qualities whereof they are sole competent and should be indifferent judges For if any one of these qualities haue once gotten possession and planted it selfe in the organ it excludes all the rest or makes what composition it listes often charging the externall sense with that whereof it selfe is sole cause As if any grosse or malignant humor haue incorporated it selfe into the tongue or palate it either quite takes away all taste of meates or drinkes or makes such as are indeede sweete and pleasant seeme iust such as it selfe is Or if any tincture of brighter colours whereon we haue long gazed sticke in our eyes it either dazells our sight or makes vs thinke other obiects to be of the same hew with that whence it was taken In like manner doth the contagion of every sense or studies vnto whose pleasures we are partially or too much addicted dissolue that aequilibrium or vertuall proportion which our soules haue with all things and whereby they are qualified for vnderstanding their natures essences or properties Bewitching delight in Mathematicall speculations though of all sensibles these be most abstract and immateriall hath beene as a false glasse to pervert the sight of some in matters philosophicall and cause them transforme materiall naturall bodies into imaginary or motionlesse figures From this roote spring all transformations of the divine nature or attributes whether in the Heathen the Romanists or true professors Of the particular branches with the two remedies to prevent their growth Purification of the heart and Sublimation of our spirit somewhat shall be said by Gods assistance in some Treatises following Thus much onely was here to be praemised That our ingraffed notions of Gods goodnesse or inclinations either naturally are or by evill custome become indefinite and indistinct more flexible to goodnesse sensible than to intellectuall to carnall than to spirituall alwayes apt to settle or continue their course where they finde first issue or vent and to be most addicted to their olde acquaintance CHAPTER XV. In what sense it is commonly sayd that Sense is of particulars and the vnderstanding of vniversalls Of the manner how sense misinformes the vnderstanding with some generall advertisements how to prevent its misinformations 1. THat pit wherein Democritus imagined Truth to be buried was questionlesse the heart of man Not much vnlike vnto his riddle was the saying of the wise King Counsell in the heart of man is like deepe water but a man of vnderstanding will draw it out Prov. 20. vers 5. But he must be a man of vnderstanding indeed that can draw any consultations God-ward out of his owne heart The reliques of Gods image in vs are so buryed in sense that no intellectuall conceit of his goodnesse can be fashioned without his especiall providence the best that can be fashioned by his providence must be revived by his spirit 2. Sense saith the Philosopher is of Particulars and every Particular in his language though presented to sense but as one includes an heape or cluster of ingredients or circumstances every one in nature much different from other We see the quantitie the colour shape and proportion of Socrates with other adherents not meere Socrates or the Individuall humane essence Sense then is of concretes or congests not of abstracts or essences whether apprehended as vniversall indefinite or singularized Those things we are properly said to vnderstand whose natures or entities are represented vnto vs as pure and immixt and as it were dissolued from the bundle wherein they were apprehended onely in grosse by sense Whatsoever we discerne can be truely avouched or denied of any thing thus considered apart and limited by its owne proper bounds must needs be avouched or denied of every like nature so considered And seeing things are thus considered by the vnderstanding onely to whom this power of ventilating and sifting Phantasmes or of dissolving or severing those combinations which delude sense properly belongs Intellection or vnderstanding is said to be of Vniversalls not of Particulars Every nature thus abstracted or conceived onely by it selfe without any forraigne adherents or admixture serues as a common measure for comprehending all of the same kinde and is apt to found an vniversall Rule or definition The falshood or imperfection of all Rules suppose some precedent defect in the abstracting or dissolving the parts or ingredients of sensitiue representations Many things we cannot rightly or perfectly conceiue but by composition of phantasmes which can never be rightly compounded vnlesse they be first rightly dissevered or abstracted Sometimes we may attribute that to one nature or ingredient which is proper to some other linked with it in the same subiect but not discerned and then the observation is false or true onely ex Accidente vt Musicus aedificat as if a man should thinke a Metrapolitane should doe that as privie Counsellor which belongs vnto his spirituall place because the actions of both kindes proceede from one and the same partie who notwithstanding is indued with a twofold authoritie Sometimes againe we may attribute that to one circumstance or ingredient which ioyntly issues from two or more And in this case the Rule failes when the Conjunction is dissolved As if we should thinke the Moone should alwayes be Eclips't when it is in the full or when after exact calculation it is found to
XVI The generall fallacie by which Sathan seduced the World to acknowledge false Gods 1. THe manner how indefinite notions of the Deitie did branch themselues into Idolatrie though many haue attempted to handle at large none in my judgement haue so directly hitt as the Philosopher doth in a touch or glaunce The fallacie was in converting that Maxime or generall notion simply which was convertible onely by Accident All conceived of God as the best obiect they could conceiue whence many finding contentment to their desires beyond all measure of good distinctly knowne before forthwith collected that to be God which had given them such contentment Others more desirous to gratulate their extraordinary benefactors with more then vsuall respect then able to distinguish betweene the severall degrees or sorts of honor made bold to borrow such as was due vnto the divine power therewith to gratifie men and so by custome or bad example brought posteritie to pay that as an ordinary debt which in heate of affection or vnwildie exuitation of minde had beene mis-tendered by way of complement or lavish gratuitie In mindes not well acquainted with the severall kindes of things desireable nor with the degrees of their goodnesse it is alwayes easie for any good of higher degree or ranke then hath beene formerly tasted to intercept that respect or affection which by rule of justice belongeth onely to the best And the affection thus alienated or misguided disenables our inclinations for aspiring any higher For although the capacitie of the humane soule be in a manner infinite and all of vs infinitely desire to be happy yet our apprehensions of goodnesse or happinesse it selfe are confused and indistinct The best of vs vntill Gods spirit become our guide are no better then blind men in the choyce of things good From this natiue blindnesse of our appetites and apprehensions we infinitely desire that which first or most frequently possesseth our soules with delight though in its nature but a finite good and our desires being infinitely set on that which is but finitely good doe dull our sight dead our appetite and abate our capacities of that infinite goodnesse which we naturally long after Thus as heretofore is observed our desires of good ends which admit no bound or limit are often taken vp by the meanes whose acquaintance was onely sought for better compassing the end And many yong wits finding vnusuall refreshing in extemporary exchange of jâ—sts of pleasant discourse or in opening some veine of Poetry are in short time brought to confine themselues wholly to this kinde of dyet contented to be continually fed with froth otherwise framed for contemplation of such mysteries as might perpetually distill Nectar and Ambrosia 2. By a wittie resemblance directly subordinate to this generall occasion of error â—re intimated doth the noble Mornay expresse the manner of some Heathens seducements to worship the Hoast of Heaven This saith he so fell out as if some Rustique that thinkes a great deale better of himselfe when he hath on his holy daies suite permitted to come within the Court should mistake the first gawdie coate he mette with for his Prince or Soueraigne Heaven they conceived to be the seate or court of divine powers and the Sunne Moone and Starres being bodies glorious in themselues and sensible procurers of common benefits to men partly by reason of their place partly by that high ranke of excellency or goodnesse which they enioy amongst the partes of this visible world might easily be adored for gods by such as had small or no relish of any other good than what was sensible Some Barbarians as is said to this day thinke vs Christians but a kinde of senselesse creatures for worshipping a God whom we neither see heare nor feele neglecting the Sunne to whose comfortable beames more senses then one are beholding This report though not avouched by any authentique Relator whiles related in my hearing by some who avouched themselues eare-witnesses of such expostulations with Barbarians I could not reiect as incredible because not vnconsonant to Caesars Narration of the auncient Germanes The Germanes saith he which worshipped no Gods besides the Sunne the Moone c. of whose beneficence they were sensible Their manner of life as is well knowne was but simple without varietie of trades for supplying of necessities much more destitute of good arts or curious inventions for ornament of publique State otherwise their gods had beene more Had the mystery of Printing to omit other profitable inventions of moderne Germanes beene invented in those auncient times whereof Caesar writes Gutenberg of Ments to whom the Christian world is vnder God most beholding for this sacred Art might haue beene a God of higher esteeme throughout Germany than Mercury or Iupiter himselfe or any other God of the Germanes by Caesar mentioned For with most people of those times as Zenoes scholler had observed any profitable Invention was title sufficient to chalenge the esteeme or honor of a God even the things themselues so invented if rare or extraordinarily beneficiall were enstiled with the attributes of divine powers Thus as the wise man had observed the Heathens multiplied their gods according to the varietie of the matters which they principally desired or feared And Cotta deriding the Somnolent and sluggish gods of the Epicures doth in comparison acquite the Aegyptians from their grosse foppery in that they consecrated no beasts but for some publique benefit in their opinion received from them 3. Of publique benefits freedome from daunger was held a part whence those beasts how loathsome soever vnto whose annoyance they were most obnoxious were reverenced and feared as gods Not the Crocodile but had his peculiar rites or pacificall ceremonies howbeit his worshippers held it a point of religious policy to hold like correspondency with Iohneumon a kinde of water Rat which devoured this gods young ones To attribute divine honour vnto beasts how beneficiall soever may seeme to vs very grosse and without some other collaterall impulsiue causes scarce derivable from the former originall of this error But whatsoever the causes might be experience hath proued the effect not vnusuall amongst barbarous people in this age There be at this day in Samogithia many Idolaters which nourish a kinde of Serpents that go or creepe vpon foure short feet like Lizzards their bodies blackish and fat about some three handfulls in length and these they nourish as their houshold Gods And whilest they come or creepe vpon set daies by ceremoniall invitation vnto their meate the Master of the house with his familie attends them with feare and reverence to their repast at their repast vntill they returne vnto their place It is a strange Narration which this Author in the same place commends vnto vs vpon the credit of his Hoast Which how farre it is to be taken I referre it to such as will take paines to reade the Author himselfe or his words here quoted in
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