the priuation thereof The office of this sence neither the 〈◊〉 eare the smell the taste nor the touche can performe By this I know 〈◊〉 â—…ng and I know this knowledge and I loue them both and know that I 〈◊〉 both L. VIVES SO a naturally A Stoicall and Academicall disputation handled by Tully Offic. 1. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Stoically and De fin 5. Academically b For their Foolishnesse is the greatest 〈◊〉 â—…nd wisdome the good So held the Stoikes c Deeper A diuerse reading the text 〈◊〉 both d Antisthenes the first Cynickes choise His reason was because to reioyce in â—…d minde was base and cast downe the minde from the true state Socrates in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alcibiades that possessions with-out wisdome are not onely fruitlesse but hurtfull e â—…re It is not then our witte or toyle but GODS bountie that instructs vs in the 〈◊〉 â—…ourse of nature and sharpens the iudgement which bounty the good man attaining 〈◊〉 bad must needs bee wiser though lesse learned or popularly acute Therefore saith 〈◊〉 Into an euill soule wisdome will not come The same that Socrates said Onely good men 〈◊〉 f Iust by By a forme left in my minde by seeing iustice done and the due conâ—…â—…ing thereto which be it absent I conceiue what iniustice is by seeing the faire 〈◊〉 â—…ent harmony subuerted I build not vpon hurts violence iniuries or reproches 〈◊〉 no priuations but may be iustly done vpon due command of the magistrate or with â—…ent but vpon this I see the vertues decorum broken Forme is neither to bee taken â—…pes or abstracts of things reserued in the soule and called motions say some Well 〈◊〉 they either want witte or knowledge And because they cannot make them-selues 〈◊〉 by things really extant they must fetch their audiences eares vp to them by pursuing 〈◊〉 non entia this is our schoole-mens best trade now a dayes â—…ther we draw nearer to the image of the holy trinity in louing of that loue by which we loue to be and to know our being CHAP. 28. 〈◊〉 wee haue spoken as much as needeth here of the essence and knowledge 〈◊〉 much we ought to respect them in our selues and in other creatures vnâ—…â—…ough we finde a different similitude in them But whether the loue that 〈◊〉 â—…e them in be loued that is to declare It is loued wee prooue it because it iâ—…â—…d in all things that are iustly loued For hee is not worthily called a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knowes good but hee that loues it Why then may wee not loue that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selues whereby wee loue that which is to bee loued They may both 〈◊〉 â—…e man and it is good for a man that his goodnesse increasing his â—…d decrease euen to the perfection of his cure and full change into 〈◊〉 for if wee were beasts wee should loue a carnall sensitiue life 〈◊〉 good would suffice our nature b without any further trouble if 〈◊〉 â—…ees wee should not indeede loue any thing by motion of sence yet should we seeme to affect fruitfulnesse and growth if wee were stones water winde fire or so we should want sence and life yet should we haue a naturall appetiâ—…e vnto our due c places for the d motions of weights are like the bodies loues go they vpward or downwards for weight is to the body as loue is to the â—…ule But because we are men made after our creators image whose eternity is true truth eternall charity true and eternall neither confounded nor seuered we runne through all things vnder vs which could not be created formed not ordered without the hand of the most essentiall wise and good God so through all the workes of the creation gathering from this e more playne and from that lesse apparant markes of his essence and beholding his image in our selues f like the prodigall childe wee recall our thoughts home and returne to him from whom we fell There our being shall haue no end our knowledge no error our loue no offence But as now though wee see these three sure trusting not to others but obseruing it our selues with our certaine interior sight yet because of our selues we cannot know how long they shall last when they shall end whither they shall goe doing well or euill therefore here we take other witnesses of the infallibity of whose credit wee will not dispute here but hereafter In this booke of the Citty of God that was neuer pilgrim but alwayes immortall in heauen being compounded of the Angels eternally coherent with God and neuer ceasing this coherence betweene whom and their darknesse namely those that forsooke him a seperation was made as we said at first by God now will wee by his grace proceede in our discourse already begun L. VIVES FOr that a is loue There is a will in vs arising from the corruption of the body which reason ruleth not as it doth the better will but it haleth it and traileth it to good it flyes all good properly and seeketh euills bodily delights and pleasures These two Paul calleth the law of the flesh the law of the spirit some-times flesh and spirit The first brutish foule hated of good men who when they can cannot expell it they compell and force it vnto Gods obedience otherwise it produceth a loue of things vnmeete b Without Either in this life or vnto our bodies c Places Or orders and formes of one nature the preseruation of which each thing desires for it selfe helping it selfe against externall violence if it bee not hindered d 〈◊〉 of this before the Latine word is momenta e More plaine Our reason plâ—…ceth an Image rather then a marke of God in vs. Man hath the sight of heauen and the knowledge of God bestowed vpon him whereas all other creatures are chained to the earth Wherfore the spirit ouer-looking the creation left his image in our erected nature in the rest whome hee did as it were put vnder foote hee left onely his markes Take this now as a figuratiue speech f Prâ—…digall Luc. 15. Of the Angels knowledge of the Trinity in the Deity and consequently of the causes of things in the Archetype ere they come to be effected in workes CHAP. 29. THese holy Angels learne not of God by sounds but by being present wiâ—… thâ—… â—…geable truth his onely begotten word himselfe and his holy spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of substantiall persons yet hold they not three Gods but one 〈◊〉 this thâ—…y a â—…ow plainer then we know our selues b The creatures also 〈◊〉 they know 〈◊〉 in the wisdome of God the worke-mans draught then in the thingâ—… produced and consequently them-selues in that better then in thâ—…-selues though â—…ing their knowledge in both for they were made are not of 〈◊〉 â—…nce that made them Therefore in him their knowledge is day in 〈◊〉 as we sayd twy-light But the knowledges of a thing by the means 〈◊〉 and the thing it selfe made are farre different c The vnderstanding 〈◊〉 a figure doth produce a perfecter
haire of their head they desire and waite for the resurrection of their bodies wherein they suffred such paines and are neuer to suffer more b For if they hated not their flesh when they were faine to bind it from rebelling by the law of the spirit how much shall they loue it becomming wholy spirituall for if wee may iustly call the spirit seruing the flesh carnall then so may we call the flesh seruing the spirit spirituall c not because it shal be turned into the spirit as some thinke because it is written It is sowne a naturall bodie but it arisâ—…th a spirituall bodie but because it shall serue the spirit in all wonderfull and ready obeisance to the fulfilling of most secure will of indissolluble immortality all sence of trouble heauynesse and corruptibility beeing quike taken from it For it shall not bee so bad as it is now in our best health nor as it was in our first paâ—…ts before sinne for they though they had not dyed but that they sinned 〈◊〉 â—…aine to eate corporal meate as men do now hauing earthly and not spiritual bodies and though they should neuer haue growne old and so haue died the 〈◊〉 of life that stood in the midst of Paradise vnlawfull for them to tast of affording them this estate by GODS wonderfull grace yet they eate of more 〈◊〉 then that one which was forbidden them because it was bad but 〈◊〉 their instruction in pure and simple obedience which is a great vertue in a â—…ble creature placed vnder God the creator for though a man touched no 〈◊〉 â—…et in touching that which was forbidden him the very act was the sinne 〈◊〉 obedence they liued therefore of other fruites and eate least their carnall 〈◊〉 should haue beene troubled by hunger or thirst but the tast of the tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was giuen them to confirme them against death and weakenesse by age 〈◊〉 rest seruing them for nutriment and this one for a sacrament the tree of life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earthly paradise being as the wisdome of God is in the heauenly whereof 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…itten It is a tree of life to them that imbrace it L. VIVES VNâ—… them a That Luc. 21. 7. b For if Ephes. 5. 29 no man euer yet hated his owne flesh c Not because Saint Origen faith that all our corporall nature shall become spirituall and all 〈◊〉 â—…ance shal become a body purer and clearer then the light and such an one as man canâ—…â—…ine God shall be all in all so that euery creature shall be transmuted into that which 〈◊〉 then all namely into the diuine substance for that is the best Periarch Of the Paridise wherein our first parents were placed and that it may be taken spiritually also without any wrong to the truth of the history as touching the reall place CHAP. 21. WHerevpon some referred that a Paradise wherein the first man was placed as the scripture recordeth al vnto a spiritual meaning taking the trees to 〈◊〉 â—…es as if there were b no such visible things but onely that they were 〈◊〉 signifie things intelligible As if there were not a reall Paradise because 〈◊〉 vnderstand a spiritual one as if there were not two such women as Agar 〈◊〉 and two sonnes of Abraham by them the one being a bond woman and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free because the Apostle saith that they signified the two Testaments 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Rocke gushed not forth in water when Moyses smot it because that 〈◊〉 â—…ay prefigure Christ the same Apostle saying the rocke was Christ No man 〈◊〉 that the Paradise may be vnderstood the blisse of the Saints the c foure 〈◊〉 foure vertues prudence fortitude temperance and iustice the trees all 〈◊〉 â—…sciplines the tree of life wisdome the mother of the rest the tree of the â—…edge of good and euill the triall of transgression for God decreed a puâ—…nt for sinne iustly and well if man could haue made vse of it to his owne 〈◊〉 These things may also be vnderstood of the Church and that in a better 〈◊〉 as prophetique tokens of things to come Paradise may be taken for the Church as wee d read in the canticles thereof The foure flouds are the foure Ghospels the frutefull trees the Saints their fruits their workes the tree of life the holy of holies Christ the tree of the knowledge of good and euill free election of will for if man once forsake Gods will he cannot vse him-selfe but to his owne destruction and therefore hee learneth either to adhere vnto the good of all goods or to affect his owne onely for louing himselfe he is giuen to himselfe that being in troubles sorrowes and feares and feeling them withall hee may sing with the Psalmist My soule is cast downe within me and being reformed I will waite vpon thee O God my defence These and such like may be lawfully vnderstood by Paradise taken in a spirituall sence so that the history of the true and locall one be as firmely beleeued L. VIVES PAradise a Augustine super Genes ad lit lib. 8. recites three opinions of Paradice 1. Spirituall onely 2. locall onely third spirituall and locall both and this he approues for the likeliest But where Paradise was is a maine doubt in authors Iosephus placeth it in the east and so doth Bede adding withall that it is a region seuered by seas from all the world and lying so high that it toucheth the moone Plato in his Phaedo placeth it aboue the cloudes which others dissalow as vnlikely Albertus Grotus herein followeth Auicen and the elder writers also as Polibius and Eratosthenes imagining a delicate and most temperate region vnder the equinoctiall gainst the old Position that the climate vnder the equinoctiall was inhabitable The equinoctiall diuides the torrid Zone in two parts touching the Zodiacke in two points Aries and Libra There did hee thinke the most temperate clime hauing twelue howers day and twelue night all the yeare long and there placed hee his Paradise So did Scotus nor doth this controull them that place it in the east for there is cast and west vnder the equinoctiall line Some say that the sword of fire signifieth that burning clymate wherein as Arrianus saith there is such lightning and so many fiery apparitions where Paradise was Hierome thinketh that the Scriptures doth shew and though the Septuagintes translate in Eden from the east Oriens is a large signification Hierome saith thus for Paradise there is Ortus Gan. Eden is also Deliciae pleasures for which Symmachus translateth Paradisus florens That also which followeth Contra Orientem in the Hebrew Mikkedem Aquila translateth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we may read it from the beginning Symmachus hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Theodotion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both which signifie beginning and not the east whereby it is plaine that God had made Paradise before he made heauen and earth as we read also in the Hebrew God had planted the
inflicted as sinnes punishment vpon the 〈◊〉 not the body it selâ—…e is heauy to the soule and if hee had not added it yet 〈◊〉 haue vnderstood it so But Plato affirming plainely that the gods that the â—…or made haue incorruptible bodies bringing in their maker promising 〈◊〉 as a great benefit to remaine therein eternally and neuer to bee seperated 〈◊〉 them why then do those neuer b dissemble their owne knowledge to 〈◊〉 â—…ristianity trouble and contradict themselues in seeking to oppose against â—…to's words c Tully translateth thus bringing in the great GOD speaking 〈◊〉 the gods hee had made d You that are of the gods originall whom I haue â—…d attend e these your bodies by my will are indissoluble although euery 〈◊〉 â—…ay bee dissolued But f it is euill to desire to dissolue a thing g compounded by 〈◊〉 but seeing that you are created you are neither immortall nor indissoluble yet 〈◊〉 neuer be dissolued nor die these shall not preuaile against my will which is a 〈◊〉 assurance of your eternity then all your formes and compositions are Behold 〈◊〉 â—…ith that their gods by their creation and combination of body and soule 〈◊〉 â—…all and yet immortall by the decree and will of him that made them If 〈◊〉 it be paine to the soule to be bound in any body why should God seeme 〈◊〉 â—…way their feare of death by promising them eternall immortality not 〈◊〉 of their nature which is compounded not simple but because of his 〈◊〉 which can eternize creatures and preserue compounds immortally froÌ„â—…on whether Plato hold this true of the stars is another question For h 〈◊〉 not consequently grant him that those globous illuminate bodies 〈◊〉 â—…ht day vpon earth haue each one a peculiar soule whereby it liues 〈◊〉 â—…ed and intellectuall as he affirmeth directly of the world also But this as 〈◊〉 no question for this place This I held fit to recite against those that 〈◊〉 the name of Platonists are proudly ashamed of the name of christians 〈◊〉 â—…e communication of this name with the vulgar should debase the 〈◊〉 because small number of the i Palliate These seeking holes in the coate â—…stianity barke at the eternity of the body as if the desire of the soules 〈◊〉 the continuance of it in the fraile body were contraries whereas their 〈◊〉 Plato holds it as a gift giuen by the great GOD to the lesser that they 〈◊〉 not die that is be seuered from the bodies he gaue them L. VIVES 〈◊〉 a is Philolaus the Pythagorean held that man hauing left his body became an 〈◊〉 God and Plato sayth our body depresseth our thoughts and calls it away from 〈◊〉 â—…emplations that therefore we must leaue it that in this life also as well as we can 〈◊〉 â—…her life where we shal be free we may see the truth loue the good Herevpon 〈◊〉 â—…th a man cannot bee happy without he leaue the body and be ioyned vnto God d 〈◊〉 An imitation of Terence tâ—… si sapis quod scis nescias a Tully translateth Tullies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a peece of Plato's Timaeus the whole worke is very falty in Tully He that will read Plato himselfe the words begin thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Plato had it out of Timaeus of Locris his booke after whom he named his dialogue for thus saith Timaeus God desyring to dâ—…e an excellent worke created or begot this God who shall neuer die vnlesse it please that God that made him to dissolue him But it is euill to desire the dissolution of so rare a worke d You that are of Deorum satu orti e These your Tully hath this sentence a depraued sence by reason of the want of a negatiue f It is euill Or an euill mans part g Compounded Or combined h We may not Augustine durst neuer decide this question Origen it seemes followed Plato and got a many of the learned vnto his side i Palliate The Romanes Toga or gowne was the Greekes Pallium and they that would seeme absolute Grecians went in these Pallia or clokes and such were obserued much for their Graecisme in life and learning For as wee teach all our arts in latine now so did they in greeke then They were but few and therefore more admired Against the opinion that earthly bodies cannot be corruptible nor eternall CHAP 17. THey stand in this also that earthly bodies cannot bee eternall and yet hold the whole earth which they hold but as a part of their great God though not of their highest the world to be eternall Seeng then their greatest GOD made another God greater then all the rest beneath him that is the world and seeing they hold this is a creature hauing an intellectuall soule included in it by which it liues hauing the parts consisting of 4 elements whose connexion that great GOD least this other should euer perish made indissoluble and eternall why should the earth then being but a meane member of a greater creature bee eternall and yet the bodies of earthly creatures God willing the one as well as the other may not bee eternall I but say they earth a must bee returned vnto earth whence the bodies of earthly creatures are shapen therefore say they these must of force be dissolued and die to be restored to the eternall earth from wheÌ„ce they were taken Wel if one should affirme the same of the fire say that al the bodies taken thence should be restored vnto it againe as the heauenly bodies thereof consisting were not that promise of immortality that Plato sayd God made vnto those gods vtterly broken by this position Or can it not be so because it pleaseth not God whose will as Plato sayth is beyond all other assurance why may not God then haue so resolued of the terrene bodies that being brought forth they should perish no more once composed they should bee dissolued no more nor that which is once taken from the elements should euer bee restored and that the soules being once placed the bodies should neuer for sake them but inioy eternall happinesse in this combination why doth not Plato confesse that God can do this why cannot he preserue earthly things from corruption Is his power as the Platonists or rather as the christians auouch A likely matter the Philosophers know Gods counsells but not the Prophers nay rather it was thus their spirit of truth reuealed what God permitted vnto the Prophets but the weakenesse of coniecture in these questions wholy deluded the Philosophers But they should not haue bin so far besotted in obstinate ignorance as to contradict themselues in publike assertions saying first that the soule cannot be blessed without it abaÌ„don al body whatsoeuer by by after b that the gods haue blessed soules yet are continually tied vnto celestiall fiery bodies as for Iupiters the worlds soule that is eternally inhereÌ„t in the 4 elements composing this vniuerse For Plato holds
he was properly called Basileus a Tyrian philosopher Aemelius his scholler whom Plotine taught Hee liued in A◅lians time and continued vntill Diocletians Thus farre Suidas Why he was called Basileus he sheweth in his maister Plotines life Amelius quoth he dedicated this booke to me and in the title called me Basileus for that was my name in the language of my country I was called after my father Malcus which translated is king Thus he of himselfe l Plato himselfe In his Timaeus he calles Saturne Ops and Iuno gods and all the rest brethren and kinsfolkes amongst them-selues and else-where hee commands sacrifices vnto their gods Demones Heroes saying it is these to whom the Cities good estate is to be commended De legib de repub in diuerse places Of Plato's affirmation that the gods were all good and louers of vertue CHAP. 13. WHerefore though in other points they and wee doe differ yet to ouer-passe them in this great controuersie now in hand I aske them what gods we must worship the good the bad or both nay herein we must take Plato's a assertion that holds all the good to be good no bad ones of them Why then this worship is the gods ◅or then it is the gods and if they be bad their god-head is gone This being true and what else should we beleeue then downe goeth the b opinion that affirmes a necessity of appeasing the bad gods by sacrifices and inuoking the good For there are no bad gods the good onely if there were must haue the worship without any other pertakers What are they then that loue stage-plaies and to see their owne crimes thrust into their honors and religion their power prooues them some-thing but their affects conuince them wicked Plato's opinion of playes was shewen in his iudgement of the expulsion of Poets as pernicious and balefull to an honest state What gods are they now that oppose Plato in defence of those playes hee cannot endure that the gods should bee slandered they cannot endure vnlesse they be openly defaced Nay they added malicious cruelty to their bestiall desires depriuing T. Latinus of his sonne striking him with a disease mary when they had done as they pleased then they freed him frō his maladie But Plato very wisely for bad all feare of the euill powers confirming himselfe in his opinion feared not to avow the expulsion of al these politique absurdities from a firme state all those filthinesses y◠those gods delighted in And this Plato doth Labeo make a Semy-god euen that c Labeo that holds that sad black and bloudy sacrifices do fit the euill gods mirthfull orgies the good why then dares Plato but a semigod boldly debarre the gods themselues the very good ones from those delights which hee held obscaence and vnlawfull These gods neuerthelesse confute Labeo for they showed them-selues cruell and barbarous against Latinus not mirthfull nor game-some Let the Platonists that hold all the gods to be good and in vertue the fellowes of the wise and affirme it a sacriledge to beleeue other of them let them expound vs this mistery wee will say they marke vs well we do so L. VIVES PLato's a Assertion Deleg 10. he saith the gods are good full of vertue prouidence and iustice but yet that they haue all this from him that hath the true being the Prince of nature as from the fountaine of all goodnesse This argument Socrates in their banquet vseth to proue Loue no god all the gods are good and blessed so is not Loue ergo Porphyry de sacrific 3. GOD is neither hurtfull nor needefull of any thing So held the Stokes as Tully saith Offic. 2 but wee are all for Plato now whereof Agustine speakes if wee should recite all what end should wee make b The opinion Apuleius saith some of the Daemones loue day offerings some the nights some mirthfull rites some sad and melancholy De deo socrat Porpherio vpon Horace his Carmen seculare saith it was a common opinion that some gods were worshipped least they should hurt and others from protection Plutarch saith that kings and princes did offer sacrifices to these great Daemones to auert their wrath which was alwaies most perillous Porphery saith that states neede some-times offer to the diuells to appease them from hurting their corne cattell or horses for sure it is quoth he that if they bee neglected they will become angry and doe men much mischiefe but lawfull worship they haue none and this the diuines not the vulgar onely do hold allowing sacrifices to bee offered them but that they must not bee tasted of De abstinent animat lib. 2. c Labeo Porphery in the said booke allowes no liuing creature but fruites flowers hony and meale to be offered to the gods aboue So vsed the ancients and so should it be saith Theophrastus and Pithagoras would neuer suffer creature to bee killed for sacrifice But blood and slaughter are expiations for the deuills And Porphery elsewhere saith that the lower the gods are the sadder sacrifies they require the earth-gods and hell-gods loue blacke cattell the first vpon alltars the latter in graues and pits Of such as held 3. Kinds of reasonable soules in the gods in airy spirits and in men CHAP. 14. ALL reasonable a creatures say they are threefold gods men deuills the gods the heighest then the diuells lastly men the first hauing place in heauen the second in the ayre the third on the earth each with his change of place hath difference in nature the gods are of more power then the spirits or men and men are vnder the spirits and gods both by place of nature and worth of merit b the spirits in the middest are vnder the gods and so their inferiours a◅oue men in place and therefore in power with the gods they are immortall with men passionate and therefore louers of loose sports and poeticall figments and are subiect to all humaine affects which the gods by no meanes can bee So Plato's prohibition of Poetry did not depriue the gods of their delights but only the ayry spirits Well of this question diuers but Apuleius a Platonist of Madaura chiefly in one whole worke disputeth calling it De deo Socratis of Socrates his god wher he disputeth what kind of god c this power that Socrates had attendant vpon him was It was as his friend forbad him to proceed in any action which it knew would not end prosperously Now there he plainly affirmeth that this was no god but onely an ayry spirit handling Plato's doctrine rarely concerning the height of the gods mans meannesse and the diuells midle interposition But this being thus how durst Plato depriue not the gods for them hee acquitted from all touch of humaine affects but then the ayry spirits of their stage pleasures by expelling of Poets vnlesse by this act hee meant to warne mans soule how euer here encheyned in corruption yet to detest the vnpure
and impious foulenesse of these deuills euen for honesties sake for if Plato's prohibition and proofe be iust then is their demand and desire most damnable So either Apulcius mistooke the kind of Socrates his Genius or Plato contradicts himselfe now d honoring those spirits and streight after abridging them their pleasures and expelling their delights from an honest state or else Socrates his spirit was not worth the approuing wherein Apuleius offended in being not ashamed to stâ—…le his booke e De deo Socratis of his god and yet proues by his owne distinction of Dij daemones that hee should haue called it De daemone Socratis of his diuell But this hee had rather professe in the body of his discourse then in his tiâ—…le for the name of a Daemon was by good doctrine brought into such hate that f whosoeuer had â—…ead Daemon in the title ere he had read the Daemons commendations in the booke would haue thought Apuleius g madde And what found he praise-worthy in them but their subtile durable bodies and eleuation of place when hee came to their conditions in generall hee found no good but spake much euill of them so that hee that readeth that booke will neuer maruell at their desiring plaies and that Iuch gods as they should be delighted with crimeâ—… beastly showes barbarous cruelty and what euer else is horrible or ridiculous that all this should square with their affects is no wonder L. VIVES REasonable a Creatures Plato reckoneth three sorts of gods the Deiâ—…yes the Daemones the Heroes but these last haue reference to men whence they arise De leg 4. Epinom Plutarch highly commends thoâ—…e that placed the spirits betwixt gods and men were it Orpheus some Phirgian or Aegiptian for both their sacrifices professeth it De defect oracul for they found the meanes saith he wherein gods and men concurre Homer saith he vseth the names at â—…don how calling them gods and now demones Hesiod fire made reasonable nature quadripartite into gods spirits Heroes and mortalles who liuing well arise both to Heroes and Daemones b The spirits Socrates in Platos Conuiuium mentioneth a disputation with Diotyma where hee affirmeth the spirits nature to bee meane betweene gods â—…nd mans c This power Socrates they say had a spirit that forbad him all acts whose euents it knew should not bee successefull but neuer incited him to any thing whatsoeuer d Honoring Teaching it also Epinom e De deo All that handled this before Apuleius called this spirit a Daemon not a deity him-selfe in aboue six hundreth places in Plato in Plato Zenophon also Cicero and Plutarch Maximus of Tyre who â—…rot a double demonstration hereof So did many other ca lit both Platonists and Philosophers of other nations â—…ecitall were tedious f Whosoeuer Whosoeuer reads the title before the booke ere he read the booke g Madde For the gentiles as then called the Demonyaks and such as were possessed with the deuill mad men That neither the ayry spirits bodies nor height of place make them excell men CHAP. 15. WHerfore God forbad that a soule that feares God should thinke those spirits to excell it because they haue more a perfect bodies So should beasts excel vs also many of which goe beyond vs in quicknes of sence nimblenes swiftnesse strength and long life what man sees like the Eagle or Vultur smells like to the dog is swifter then stags hares and birds strong as a lyon or an elephant or lines with the serpent b that with his skin put of his eares becomes yong again But as we excell these in vnderstanding so do wee the ayrie spirits in iust liuing or should do at least For therefore hath the high prouidence giuen them bodies in some sort excelling ours that we might haue the greater care to preserue and augment that wherein we excell them rather then our bodies and learne to contâ—…ne that bodily perfection which wee know they haue in respect of the goodnesse of life whereby we are before them and shall obtaine immortalitie of body also not for the eternitie of plagues to afflict but which purity of soule shall effect And for the c higher place they hauing the ayre and we the earth it were a ridiculous consequence to make them our betters in that for so should birds be by the same reason d I but birds being tyred or lacking meate come downe to earth to rest or to feede so doe not the spirits Well then will you preferre them before vs and the spirits before them if this bee a mad position as mad a consequence it is to make them excell vs by place whom we can nay must excell by pyety For as the birds of the ayre are not preferred before vs but subiected to vs for the equitie of our reason so though the deuills being higher then wee are not our betters because ayre is aboue earth but we are their betters because our saith farre surmounteth their despaire For Plato's reason diuiding the elements into foure and parting mooueable fire and immooueable earth by interposition of ayre and water giuing each an equall place aboue the other this prooues that the worth of creatures dependeth not vpon the placing of the elements And Apuleius making a man an earthly creature yet preferreth him before the water-creatures whereas Plato puts the water aboue the earth to shew that the worth of creatures is to be discerned by another methode then the posture of naturall bodies the meaner body may include the better soule and the perfecter the worse L. VIVES MOre a perfect Apuleius makes them of a meane temperature betweene earthly and aethereall more pure and transparent then a clowde coagulate of the most subtile parts of ayre and voide of all solidity inuisible vnlesse they please to forme themselues a groser shape b That with his skinne Casting his skinne he begins at his eies that one ignorant thereof would thinke him blind Then gettes he his head bare and in 24. houres putteth it of his whole body Looke Aristot. de gen anim lib. 8. c Higher place Which Apuleius gathers thus No element is voyde of creatures Earth hath men and beasts the water fishes fire some liuing things also witnesse Aristotle Ergo the ayre must haue some also but vnlesse those spirits bee they none can tell what they be So that the spirits are vnder the gods and aboue vs their inferiors our betters d I but birds Apuleius his answer thus Some giue the ayre to the birds to dwell in falsly For they neuer go higher then Olympus top which being the highest mount of the world yet perpendicularly measured is not two furlongs high whereas the ayre reacheth vp to the concaue of the Moones spheare and there the skies begin What is then in all that ayrie space betweene the Moone and Olympus top hath it no creatures is it a dead vselesse part of nature And-againe birds if one consider them well are rather creatures earthly