so common in all auncient Histories that Varro passeth it not ouer as a light thing but laboureth to yéeld a cause thereof For the punishment of Mankynd there flowed a generall Flud What Nation hath not beléeued it and what Author hath not spoken of it Among the AEgiptians Phenicians Greekes and Romaines nothing was more common And because they had heard that it befell in the primetyme of the world and were ignorant in the accounts of that tymes euery writer of Histories did set it downe in the tyme which he thought to be of most antiquitie as for example the Thebanes referred it to the tyme of Ogyges the Thessalyans to the time of Deucalion and so forth of others Moreouer in Brasilie in the new Spayne and in the Florida the beléef thereof is common and all of them impute it to mans sinne and to the wrath of the highest powred out vpon mankynd But let vs come yet to more particular poynts God commanded Moyses to make an Arke for the sauing of himselfe and his household and for the preseruing of the seede of the world there And he reckoneth vp vnto vs all the whole length breadth and depth thereof which is a proofe that he had the trueth it selfe wherof the residue had but the fame Yetnotwithstanding Alexander Polyhistor and Abydene doe write that Saturne foretolde vnto Xysuthrus the Flud ere it came and that he made him an Arke to saue all kynd of Cattell with him That he preserued his holy writings by ingrauing them in certeyne pillers at Heliopolis in AEgipt and sayled in his Arke towards Armenie that after certeyne daies he sent foorth certeyne Birds which found no drye ground that at the end of certeyne other daies he sent out certeine other Birds and that in the end perceiuing drye land hee came downe out of the Arke in Armenie where by their saying the remnants of the Arke are diligently kept by the Inhabitants who helpe themselues with it in many diseases And their talking of Saturne is according to the maner of the Greekes who surmised the Iewes to haue worshipped Saturne because they kept holy the seuenth day And it may bee that Xysuthrus may in the Assyrian tung betoken as much as Noe who in diuers places had diuers names as wee reade Neuerthelesse this difference serueth vs for a profe because we see it is not a simple supposall but a firme tradition from the Father to the Sonne The same thing is reported by Berosus not the counterfet Berosus but the same Berosus whom the auncient writers alledge and by Ierom the AEgiptian Mnaseas the Phenician and others Yea and they ad further that the place where Noe came downe out of the Arke was called Saleh Noah in Gréeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Noes comming downe and that it was at a certeine Mountaine called Baris or Paropanisus which according to their language at that tyme seemeth to come al to one Also Plutarke speaketh expressely of the Doue that Deucalion sent out of the Arke to seeke drye land and Phauorinus and Stephanus speake of the place where the Arke rested which cannot be vnderstood of any particular flud of Thessalie which doubtlesse was contriued out of the other vniuersall flud Now therefore not knowing what to replye in this behalfe they picke a quarrell at the measure of the Arke imagyning it hard for God to doe that which they themselues can not doe But besides that the Arke was a figure of the Church whereinto all Nations should one day be gathered and saued Origen sheweth to Celsus the Epicure by the Geometricall Cubit that it was of a marueilous greatnesse and capacitie And Buteon a Mathematick declareth expressely in a booke what it conteyned foote by foote To be short sith we reade that the Flud was vniuersall considering that that could not be but by Gods appoyntment who notwithstanding intended to saue those that were his the sight of such a myracle ought to make all the residue credible without alledging of measures in a power which is without measure For wheras some will néedes impute that Flud to a certeine great Coniunction of Planets which was at that tyme I send them to the Earle of Mirandula who not only proueth that there was not then any great Coniunction at al but also that although there had bene one yet they could not assigne it to the named poynt but rather that by their owne rules the Coniunction was such at that tyme that it betokened rather an vniuersall burning than an vniuersall drowning of the world At the going away of this Flud the Scripture telleth vs of a Ham or Cham which discouered the shame of Noe his father The Chaldees say it was Zoroastres who would with his Charmes haue made him barren The Greekes after them feyned their Iupiter Hammon to haue gelded him Thus turned they the Historie into a fable Likewise Iaphet is none other than the Iapetus of the Poets who tooke the renewing of the world after the Flud for the very first creation thereof Then followeth consequently the confusion of the tongues It is a very cléere case that languages are to no vse but in respect of the diuersitie of them insomuch that if there were no moe but one in all the world it were méere foundnesse to knowe any moe than that Therefore like as reason hath led vs to one first man so ought it also to leade vs to one first language which was but one alone like as there was but one man alone with his wife If the diuersitie of them consisted as now but in proprietie of phrases and forme of wordes it might be sayd that they had bene altered by processe of tyme. But it is well knowne that there are many Languages whose very originall words are farre diuers and vtterly vnlike one another sauing in some fewe words that haue bene brought out of other Countries by Trauellers and trade of Marchandise which haue euery where reteyned still the same names they had in the place from whence they came Ye will say then that men inuented them when they conueyed Inhabiters abroade to people other Countries But what a vanitie had that bin What life of man could haue suffised to do it What benefite could haue insewed of it either to the inuenters themselues or to their followers Nay who seeth not that it had bene a publicke miserie not a knowledge but an ignorance not a pleasure but a hell to posteritie Certesse wee say therefore that reason leadeth vs to that which the Scripture sayth namely that at the beginning there was but one language That the diuiding of Languages came not of men but that the diuiding of men came of the diuision of Languages and that it was not a deuice of men who at that tyme were sufficiently occupyed in the néedfull knowledge of nature and in the finding out of profitable Arts and Sciences but a punishment cast
that Amosis King of AEgipt reigned the same tyme that Inachus reigned in Greece and that in the tyme of the same Amosis Moyses went out of AEgipt with the people of Israell The same thing is affirmed by Appion the Grammarian the great enemie of the Iewes and also confirmed by Berosus the Babylonian Polemon Theodotus Ipsicrates and Moschus writers of the Stories of the Phenicians cyted by Eusebius and Affricanus Eupolemus in his booke of the Kings of Iewrie sayth that Moyses taught letters to the Iewes the Iewes to the Phenicians and the Phenicians to the Greekes by Cadmus And so by that reckoning Moyses should be not onely of most antiquitie in their Histories but also of more antiquitie than all Histories Numenius sayth that Plato and Pythagoras had nothing but from the AEgiptians and Syrians and namely from Moyses insomuch that he recyteth his historie almost word for word as we haue it in the Bible saying that Moyses was a great Diuine Lawmaker and Prophet Also Diodorus of Sicilie sayth that he vnderstoode by the AEgiptians who notwithstanding were enemies to Moyses and to all his race that he was the first Lawgiuer of all and moreouer a man of great courage and of very commendable life and that the Iewes estéemed him as a GOD as well for the knowledge that he had of GOD as for his authoritie and preheminence And he sayth Diodorus gaue a Lawe vnto the people of Israell which hee sayd hee had receyued of Iah for so doe they call the GOD whom they worship And who is this GGD Strabo sheweth vs sufficiently where he saith That Moyses hauing rebuked the AEgiptians for their vanities and follies and for resembling God who is to be worshipped and serued otherwise by the Images of Beastes and Men withdrew himselfe from among them that he might serue God To be short Porphirius in his fourth booke ageinst Christians beareth this record of Moyses that he had written the historie of the Iewes truely which thing he had perceyued by conferring it with Sachoniathon the Berutian who rehearseth the very same circumstances the which hee had learned out of the Registers of one Hierobaal a Priest of the God of Leuy that is to say of the God of Israell and out of the Chronicles of the cities out of the holy bookes which were woont to be dedicated to temples And this Sachoniathon saith he was somewhat after the time of Moyses about the tyme of Semiramis Now Porphirius giueth vs here more than we aske For we set Abraham in the tyme of Semiramis Moyses came certeine hundred yeeres after Now then the bookes of Moyses dooe leade vs vp from Sonne to Father vnto Abraham from Abraham to Noe from Noe to the first Man and from the first man to God the Creator beyond whome it is not possible to passe any further as I haue proued alreadie and in treating of the Creation we must alwaies néedes come backe agein And through out all this discourse Moyses telleth vs of the things that GOD hath discouered vnto men and the lawes which he hath giuen after maner of a couenant to the intent they should be his people and he should be their God The which Couenant it had surely bene both a shame folly for him to haue deuised for that hardhearted stubborne people whom hee burdeneth not with any other thing but that which was notoriously knowen vnto them and thereby they were certified of their originall natiuitie Neither is it to be suspected that he wrote these things as some list to say to get authoritie to himselfe and his for hee brondeth his Graundfather Leuy with an open marke of reproch expressed in these words of Iacobs Testament Simeon and Leuy are cruel instruments in their vanquishings c. Cursed bee their wrath for it was shamefull I will diuide them in Iacob and scatter them in Israell c. As who should say hee ment to disgrade Leuy and all his race to the saying wherof nothing compelled him Also he reprooueth Aarons idolatrie and Maries murmuriug notwithstanding that hee was his Brother and she his Suster and he repeateth oftentymes that for his owne fault God had told him that he should see the land of Canaan but not enter into it To be short hee ordeineth and leaueth Iosua to be his Successor whereas by reason of the authoritie which he had among that people he might by al likelyhod haue set vp his owne sonnes And yet we sée that naturally we conceale the faults of our Parents and corrupt their Pedegrees to make them the more vertuous and our selues the more commendable 〈…〉 and we be loth to acknowledge our owne faults 〈…〉 the homeliest men of vs all except it be among our 〈…〉 fréeds and as late as we can Much lesse can we find in our heartes to publish them to the knowledge of posteritie To bée short we be so desirous to leaue honour and estimation to our children that such as would not haue bene ambitious for themselues cannot refreyne from beeing ambitious for their posteritie Now then what may we conclude thereof but that he yéelded the honor of his auncetors and his owne too vnto Gods glorie the trueth And although wee procéede not so farre as to conclude absolutely that he wrote at that time as from God and not as from man yet notwithstanding forasmuch as in his writings he strippeth mans nature naked ought we not at leastwise to conclude that he which made lesse account of himself and his than of the trueth would not haue preferred vntrueth before it for any respect Some miserable kaytife that is quarelous against his owne welfare will say heere Admit that Moyses Iosua Dauid Esay and others were as auncient as ye list yet how shall I be sure that those bookes also were as auncient and of their writing It were inough to answere him How beléeuest thou that such bookes or such were Platoes Aristotles and Ciceroes Marry saiest thou because they haue bene conueyed vnto vs from them from hand to hand Use thou the like equitie towards the others which as great a nomber of men doe assure thee to haue come from them But if that will not perswade them yet want we not wherewith to inforce them First and formost I appeale to the conscience and iudgement of all persons which knowe what it is to indite whether the style of the Scriptures bee not such and so peculiar as it cannot by any meanes bee counterfetted or disguised And if there bee any that will néedes doubt thereof I pray him to make a triall thereof but in some one side of a leafe bee it in plainnesse of setting things downe as they were done or in feruentnesse of praying or in pitthinesse of Prophesying and he shall foorthwith perceiue that as well in the matter it selfe as in the maner of indyting there is a certeine new taste in sted of the old which is peculiar to all
round about him and he shal be clothed with light as with a garment For the auncient worde of him that is is clothed with the world c. Also in Malachie where it is sayd I will send myne Ambassadour before my face Rabbi Moyses the sonne of Maimon expoundeth it Before Christ the Anoynted And in Osee where it is written Wee shall liue before his face Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan sayth it is Christ the King And in the 17. Psalme where it is sayd I shall behold thy countenance in rightuousnesse and bee satisfied at the rysing vp of thy likenesse Rabbi Nehemias sayth I shall bee satisfied with the sight of thy Messias who is thyne Image And to the same purpose might a great many moe bee alledged The thing which they say is all one in effect with that which wee say namely that the Sonne or worde of God is the image of God and the brightnesse of his countenance To bee short we say that the Sonne is light of light and they say the same of the Messias For vpon the Lamentations of Ieremie Rabbi Biba being asked the name of the Messias answereth in the ende that it is Nehira that is to say Light according to this saying in the second of Daniel Light is with him And vppon the place of Genesis where it is written Let there bee light Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan sayth that it is the Messias according to Rabbi Abba and Rabbi Iohanan vppon the 36. Psalme where it is sayd We shall see light in thy light Oftentimes say they hath the light of Israell bene quenched and kindled againe when they were one while subdewed and another while deliuered But in the end he sayth it is not to be required that flem and blud that is to say a mortall man shall inlighten vs but God himselfe in his owne substance will doe it According wherevnto it is sayd in the 18. Psalme God hath bene our light And likewise in Esay Israell shall be saued by the Euerlasting To bée short like as we say that the Sonne as in respect of the Father is as a Riuer in respect of the Spring or as Reason is in respect of the Mynd so say the Cabalists that the light of the Soule of the Messias is in respect of the liuing God as Reason is in respect of the Mynd and that the liuing God as in respect of the Messias is as a Fountaine or Welspring of liuing water in respect of the streame or riuer of life that floweth out of it Now then we haue in our Scriptures a Mediatour that is both God and Man But reason hath led vs to two circumstances moe The one is that this Man must be of our race and the other is that he must be borne after another maner than wee bee the one for our behoofe the other for his owne dignitie and therfore let vs enquire yet further of the Rabbins concerning these poynts As touching the first poynt it is euident enough of it selfe and néedeth no long proofe For Christ is promised to come of the seede of Adam Abraham Isaac Iacob Iuda and Dauid and the Iewes haue beléeued it so certeinly that euen during the tyme of their Captiuitie at Babylon they chose their Resch Caluta that is to say the chiefe Capteyne of their Banished folke out of the house of Dauid as from whence they looked for a deliuerer And as touching the second poynt Behold saith Esay a Virgin shall conceiue beare a Sonne and call his name Emanuell which is as much to say as that the Messias shal be the sonne of a Uirgin and that he shall bee begotten without fleshly copulation The late writers of the Iewes say it is not written a Virgin or mayden but a wench or yoong woman I will not vrge them that the Hebrewe word Alma is taken ordinarily for a yoong Mayden or Uirgin as in the fower and twentie of Genesis where Rebecka is so called and in the second of Exodus where it is spoken of the Sifter of Moyses And euen in this place the thréescore ten Interpreters translate it in Gréeke idou he Parthenos that is to say Behold a Virgin c. But I would haue them to tell me what the token is that is giuen here to the house of Dauid and whether a token ought not to bee some speciall and notable thing and whether it bee not a matter of earnest sith it is God that giueth it who sayth expresly Aske me a token whether it be from beneath or from aboue I beséech them what straunge signe or token is there in that a yoong woman beareth a Child What thing is more ordinarie in the world and consequently more fond to bee giuen or taken for a myracle Nay the auncient Rabbines haue well waded euen into the depth of this matter And therefore Rabbi Moyses Hadarsan writing vppon the 85. Psalme vppon these words Trueth shall bud out of the earth sayth thus Rabbi Ioden noteth here how it is not sayd here shal be borne but shall bud because the begetting and birth of the Messias shall not be after the maner of other worldly creatures but he shall bee bred without companie or copulatiō And it is certeine that no man nameth his father but he is concealed and kept secret vntill he himselfe come and reueale him And vpon Genesis You haue sayd sayth the Lord we be fatherlesse and so shall the Redeemer be whom I will giue vnto you according to that which is sayd in the 4. of Zachary Loe this is the man whose name is Braunch and according to this which is sayd in the 110. Psalme Thou art a Priest for euer after the order of Melchisedech Also he reporteth that Rabbi Berachia gathereth the like But Rabbi Simeon ben Iohai sayth yet more expresly vpon Genesis That the spirit hauing bin shut vp in a womans wombe should come foorth with great force to bee the highest Prince which is Messias the King And the holy Rabbine procéedeth so farre as to seeke out by the proportion of their Cabalie what should be the name of the Israelitish Uirgin that should beare the Messias There remayne many other things to bee treated of concerning the tyme the place the life and the death of the Messias which are reserued for another place peraduenture more conuenient for them Let it suffice vs for this tyme That in the Religion of the Israelites there was promised from tyme to tyme euen from the beginning the Mediatour betwéene Gods Iustice and Mans Sinfulnesse the Sauiour of mens Soules and the Author of the selfesame clensing which the very Heathen themselues déemed to bee so néedfull namely Iesus Christ God and Man the euerlasting Sonne of GOD borne of woman in his due tyme without sinne frée from desert of Gods wrath as in respect of himselfe and able to appease it towards others cleane in his humane nature and
now foretold shall stand all desolate Being asked another tyme as sayth Porphirius whether was the better of the Word or the Lawe he answered likewise in verse That men ought to beléeue in God the begetter and in the King that was afore all things vnder whom quaketh both Heauen and Earth Sea and Hell yea and the very Gods themselues whose Lawe is the Father that is honored by the Hebrewes And these Oracles were wont to be sung in Uerse to the intent that all men should remember them the better as Plutarch reporteth Now I haue bin the longer in this Chapter because most men thinke this doctrine so repugnant to mans Reason that Philosophie could neuer allowe of it not considering that it is another matter to conceyue a thing than to prooue or allow it when it is conceyued And therefore aswell for this Chapter as for that which went afore let vs conclude both by reason added to Gods reuealing and by the traces thereof in the World and by the Image thereof shining foorth in our selues and by the Confession of all the auncient Diuines and by the very depositious of the Deuilles themselues that in the onely one Essence or substance of God there is a Father a Sonne and a holy Ghost the Father euerlastingly begetting the Sonne and the Spirit euerlastingly procéeding from them both◠the Sonne begotten by the Mynd and the Spirit procéeding by the Will which is the thing that we had here to declare And let this handling of that matter concerning Gods essence bee taken as done by way of preuention howbeit that it depend most properly vppon the reuelation of our Scriptures which being proued will consequently yéeld proofe to this poynt also There may bee some perchaunce which will desire yet more apparant proofes but let them consider that wee speake of things which surmount both the arguments of Logike and also Demonstration For inasmuch as Demonstrations are made by the Causes the Cause of all Causes can haue no Demonstration But if any be so wilful as to stand in their owne opinion against the trueth which all the World prooueth al Ages acknowledge let them take the payne to set doune their Reasons in writing and men shall see how they be but eyther bare Denyalles or Gesses or simple distrusts or misbeleefs of the things which they vnderstand not and that they be vnable to wey against so graue and large Reasons and Recordes as I haue set downe heretofore And therefore the glorie thereof be vnto God Amen The vij Chapter That the World had a beginning LEt vs now retyre backe againe from this bottomlesse gulfe for the thing that is vnpossible to be sounded is vnpossible to be knowen And séeing that our eysight cānot abyde the brightnesse of so great a light let it content vs to beholde it in the shadowe Now this sensible world wherein we dwell is as the Platonists terme it the shadow of the world that is subiect to vnderstanding for certesse it cannot be called an Image thereof no more than the buylding of a Maystermason is the Image of his mynd And yet for all the greatnesse beautie and light which wee see therein I cannot tell whether the woord shadowe doe throughly fit it or no considering that shadowes haue some measure in respect of their bodies but betwéene finite and infinite is no proportionable resemblance at all We that are héere in the world doe woonder at it and we would thinke wee did amisse if we should beléeue that any thing is better or more beautifull than that For our flesh and complexions are proportioned after the Elements thereof and to the things which it bringeth foorth as our eyes vnto the light thereof and all our sences too the sensible nature thereof and those which are of the world seeke but onely to content the sensualitie that is in them But as we haue a Mynd so also let vs beléeue that the same is not without his obiect or matter to rest vpon And as the sencelesse things serue the things that haue sence so let vs make the sensible things to serue the Mynd and the Mynd it selfe to serue him by whom it is and vnderstandeth My meaning is that wee should not wonder at the world for the worlds sake it selfe but rather at the woorkemaister and author of the world For it were too manifest a childishnes to woonder at a portraiture made by a Peinter and not to woonder much more at the Peynter himselfe Now the first consideration that offereth it selfe to the beholder of this woorke is whether it hath had a beginning or no a question which were perchaunce vnnecessarie in this behalfe if euery man would consult with his owne Reason whereunto nothing is more repuguant than to thinke an eternitie to bee in things which wee not onely perceiue with our sences but also doe sée to perish Howbeit forasmuch as the world speaketh sayth the Psalmist both in all Languages and to all Nations let vs examine it both whole together and according to the seuerall parts thereof For it may be that the worldlings if they distrust their owne record will at leastwise admit that which the world it selfe shall depose thereof Let vs then examine the Elements all together they passe from one into another the Earth into Water the Water into Ayre and Ayre into Water againe and so foorth Now this intercourse cannot be made but in tyme and tyme is a measuring of mouing and where measure is there can be no eternitie Let vs examine thē seuerally The Earth hath his seasons after Springtime commeth Sommer after Sommer succeedeth Haruest and after Haruest followeth Winter The Sea hath his continuall ebbing and flowing which goeth increasing and decreasing by certeyne measures Diuers Riuers and especially Nyle haue their increasings at certeyne seasons and to a certeyne measure of Cubits The Ayre also hath his Windes which doe one while cléere it and another while trubble it and the same Windes doe reigne by turnes blowing sometime from the East and sometime from the West sometime from the North and sometime from the South And vppon them dependeth Rayne and faire wether Stormes and Calmes These interchaunges which are wrought by turnes cannot bee without beginning For where order is there is a formernesse and an afternesse and all chaunge is a kind of mouing insomuch that the alterations which are made successiuely one after another must of necessitie haue had a beginning at some poynt or other on the Land by some one of the Seasons on the Sea by ebbing and flowing and in the Ayre by North or by South and so foorth For if they began not at any one poynt then could they not hold out vnto an other poynt The Land then by his Seasons the Ayre by his chaunges and the Sea by his Tydes ceasse not to crye out and to preach vnto all that haue eares to heare that there is no euerlastingnesse in them but that they
seeing that in all the Countrie where he planteth them wee finde Men Cities and Kingdomes no lesse whit florishing than the same wherein hee himselfe was and as for any lykelyhod of that which he writeth of those things we find none at all As touching the Southcountryes and the Northcountryes that is to wit beyond the Circles of the two Poles The fower Empyres which haue bene so renowmed neuer heard speaking of them but at randon and much lesse extended them selues so farre in so much that euen we our selues know but a little of them which Tempest and Shipwrecke hath taught vnto vs. What win wee then by this discourse Uerely that the World was not knowne of all those great Empyres and much lesse of them that liued vnder their subiection And that it was not peopled all at once but that as folke ouerswarmed in a place and chaunced to hit vpon a man that was aduentrus they spred themselues further and further vnder his guyding into the Countries next vnto them And to be short that the néerer any Countries were to our foresayd Centre the sooner were they inhabited made ciuill and manured which thing appeareth more plainly euen by the very genealogie of the World Therefore let vs take our Centre to be eyther the toppe of Mount Taurus where it is called Caucasus and where Stories report the Arke of Noe to haue rested or els the playne of Sennaar where Moyses sayth that the Languages were confounded and folke dispersed abroade or els some place of Mesopotamia for it skilleth little in respect of the world and by considering the auncientest Estates we shall finde the States of Assyria of Syria of AEgipt and of Persia to haue bin nerest to our Centre and that the State of Assyria was the greatest of them all and yet in very trueth but small in comparison of the States that succéeded it From that Assyrians the Monarchie came to the Persians from the Persians to the Greekes froÌ„ the Greekes to the Latins from the Latins to the Frenchmen and from the Frenchmen to the Almanes accordingly as Countries multiplyed their habitations and that their people growing in Ciuilitie matched their force with wisedome And Spayne which heretofore was counted the vttermost part of the World is now become the first discouerer of the newe World But let vs goe on with the East parts from the Persians wee goe to the Indians and from the Eastindians to the Westindians so long vntill wee come to their vttermost Coast which is the selfesame place where the Spanyards found their first landing And surely if two folke should kéepe on their way continually the one on the one side and the other on the other that is to say the one Eastward and the other Westward in the ende they should méete both together if there were firme land all the way for them to go vpon And in very déed like as Ireland a part of Scotland Laplond and Groneland being the vttermost parts of our side of the World are as good as sauage so also be the vttermost inhabiters of the Westindies namely Canada Baccalea Brasilie and Petagon which are descended of the Eastindies And contrarywise like as in our Countries the more they tend towards the Centre which I haue taken the mo tokens haue they of their antiquitie as Fraunce mo than Germanie Italy mo than Fraunce Greece mo than Italy AEgipt mo than Greece and so forth of the rest So the Spanyards who in their first Conquests found but Cotages and Bogges did at their entering further into the Land finde goodly Cities wel inhabited orderly distinction of Commons and Nobilitie Ministers of Iustice and men of Warre Trades and Handycraftes well gouerned Histories of their doings wonderfull antiquities Towers passing the Pyramyds of AEgipt and whatsoeuer els the world hath counted wonderfull And out of doubt the néerer they come to the Centre of that part the more shall they find still For there is no man ignorant nowadayes what goodly great Cities and florishing Kingdomes haue within these fewe yéeres bin discouered in the Westindies And where it commeth to face the Eastindia with the Sea betwixt them both there we see the great Empyre of China so beautifull so florishing and so well gouerned in al respects that the ciuilest tyme of all the Romane Empyre may well séeme vnto vs to haue bene barbarous in comparison of that It is in effect all one as though the Westerne Indians making Conquests vpon vs as we haue done vpoÌ„ them should haue arriued at the first in Ireland Scotland or Groneland for as little could they haue sayd of vs as wee of them And whereas it may be replyed that although the people there be rude yet notwithstanding it hath euermore bin peopled Let it be added thereunto that in following the Coastes men haue found many Countries euen yet vnpeopled And also that euen in the best peopled places of all their Conquestes they haue not found the tenth part of so much people as the Countrie being manured were able to beare whereas on the contrary part in our Countries the Natiâ—ns doe pester one another And wheras our very vttermost borders are more frequented then theirs the cause therof is that ours be much néerer the Centre which I set downe then theirs bee as the Cosmographers doe easly perceyue Wherevpon it hath come to passe that the people which haue bene spred abroade from our Centre vnto the vttermost Coasts of the frosen Sea finding them selues more multiplyed than their Lands were able to mainteyne and being not able to go any further for the Sea that hemmed theÌ„ in haue rebounded backe agayne vppon the next Countries as namely the Cymbrians vppon the Almanes and Romanes and afterward the Gothes vpon Italy and Fraunce the Humes vpon Pannoye the Vandales vpon Spayne and lastly the Turkes and Tartarians vpon all Europe Which thing hath not happened vppon the other part of the World because of the large scope of their Countrey which eniptyeth the Easterne Indya nito the Westerne The Westerne into newe Spayne newe Spayne into Brasilie and Brasilie into the Southerne land wherof not so much as the Sea-coast is yet knowne Neither befell it so vnto vs in the first ages because our part of the World was not yet sufficiently peopled to ebbe backe agayne but it befell chiefly a little afore or a little after the comming of Iesus Christ that is to wit towards the perfect age of the World To bee short were there neuer so much people yet were it no woonder to him that would take the peynes to account what onely one ofspring might amount vnto in one hundred yéeres and how many one man might see to come of himselfe in his owne lifetyme which in another hundred yéere might increase into an infinite multitude The Empyres haue alwaies extended their largenesse towards the North and the South but yet more Northerly than Southerly because the Centre which I take is still afore
were out of the bowelles of the moyst nature and likewise an ayre casting it selfe betwéene the water and the elementarie fire which is nothing els but a more cléere and suttle ayre The Sea and Land sayth Moyses were mingled together vntill God had spoken and then by and by eyther of them tooke his place by himselfe After the same maner Mercurie sayth that those two Elements lying erst mingled together seuered themselues asunder at the speaking of the spirituall word which inuyroned them about What more God say both of them created the Starres and the Planets At the voyce of his word the Earth the Ayre and the Water brought foorth Beasts Birdes and Fishes Last of all God created man after his owne Image and deliuered all his workes into his hand to vse them Is not this a setting downe nor only of one selfsame sence but also of the selfesame termes and words But when as Mercurie addeth afterward that God cryeth out vnto his works by his holy word saying Bring ye foorth fruite grow and increase may it not séeme vnto vs that we heare Moyses himselfe speaking And as for the small differences which are in him concerning the seuen Circles the Zones and such other things they serue greatly to the manifestation of the trueth namely that this maner of Mercuries writing is not a bare borrowing or translating out of Moyses but rather a tradition conueyed to the AEgiptians from the Father to the Sonne In another place he sayth that God by his holy spirituall and mightie working word commaunded the day sonne to bee and it was done that the Sea and Land should bee seuered asunder that the Starres should be created and that Herbes should growe vp euery one with his seede by force of the same worde Also that the World is but an alteration a mouing a generating and a corrupting of things and that it cannot be called good These are conclusions cleane contrary to eternitie or euerlastingnesse But forasmuch as if I should set downe all his sayings which he hath to that purpose I should be fayne to copie him almost whole out it is better for me to desire the Readers to go to the very place it self Orpheus the auncientest of the Greekes had bin in AEgipt as he himselfe skyth and there he learned That there is but one God and that The Ayre the Heauen the Sea the Earth and Hell With all the tâ—â—â—gs that in them all doe dwell were harberd in his â—reast from all eternitie And also that The running streames the Ocean Gods and Men Things present things to come lay all at ease In that wide lap of his and that within His belly large the bond lay lapped vp Which holdeth all this great huge worke together And afterward he addeth further These things which yet lay hidden all Within the treasure of his brest He into open light did call Creating as he deemed best This stately stage whereon to showe His noble doings on a rowe And what els is this than that God did euerlastingly hold the world hiddeny as the Apostle sayth in the Treasurie of his infinite wisedome Or as Dennis sayth in the Closet of his purpose and will and afterward brought it foorth in tyme when it pleased him And in another place I sing sayth he of the darke confusion I meane the confusion that was in the beginning how it was disfigured in diuers natures and how the Heauen the Sea and the Land were made And what more I sing sayth he of Loue euen of the Loue that is perfect of it selfe of more antiquitie than all these things and of all things which the same hath brought foorth and set in order yea of tyme it selfe I haue alreadie heretofore declared what he meaneth by this Loue namely the goodwill of GOD and that also doe euen some of the Hebrewes meane by the Spirit which Moyses speaketh of To be short he sayth that he himselfe made a booke of the Creation of the world which was a common argument among the Poets of that tyme as Empedocles Hesiodus Parmenides and such others which were all Philosophers And in many places he reduceth all things to Water and to a certeyne Mud as to their original which thing agréeth well enough to the déepe of Moyses The like is done by Homer and Hesiodus which came after him For Hesiodus maketh description not only of the Creating of â— world and of the parts thereof but also of the Chaos or confusion and of the Gods themselues And wheÌ„ Homer intendeth to curse a man I would sayth he that thou mightest returne to Water and Earth that is to say I would thou wert not any more as the time hath bene that thou wast not To be short Sophocles AEschylus and the very Comedywriters speake after the same maner and for proofe of them all Ewripides shall suffize who was the least religious of them all The tyme hath bene sayth he that Heauen and Earth were but a lumpe but after that they were separated they ingendred all things brought to light the Trees the Birds the Beastes of the field the Fishes and Men them selues For as for others they speake more to the purpose as Aratus who sayth that God hath set the Starres in the Skye to distinguish the Seasons of the yeare that he created all things that men are his ofspring that by the signes of Heauen he ment to giue them warning of the chaunges of the Aire and of Tempests And the voyce of these Poets is to bee considered as the opinion of the people to whom they sung their uerses Now let vs go on with the auncient Philosophers Pythagoras by the report of Plutarke saith that the World was begotten of God of it owne nature corruptible because it was sensible and bodily but yet that it is not corrupted because it is vphild and mainteyned by his prouidence The same thing doth also Diogenes Laertius witnesse And whereas Varro sayth that Pythagoras acknowledged not any beginning of liuing Wights Architas his Disciple shall mainteyne the contrary for his Maister For his wordes are these Of all liuing Wights man is bred most wise of capacitie to consider things and to atteyne to knowledge and to iudge of them all For GOD hath printed in him the fulnesse of all Reason And like as God hath made him the instrument of all Voyces Sounds Names and vtterances so also hath he made him the instrument of all vnderstandings and conceyts which is the workmanship of wisedome And euen for that cause saith he doe I thinke that man is of Gods creating and hath receyued his instruments and abilities at his hand Thales one of the seuen Sages hild opinion that all things had their beginning of Water and that GOD created all things therof who is alonly vnbegotten and hath not any end or any beginning And againe The World sayth he is most excellently beautiful for it is
eternal thing which hath not any other life or being than such as another eternall thing hath voutsafed to giue vnto it For let vs see I pray you what maner of thing they imagine this matter to bée They will haue it ot be a thing without shape but yet a receiuer of all shapes and they will haue shape to be without matter wherein to bee but yet as a mould wherein to fashion all matters so as the matter should haue no beeing at all but by reason of the shape or forme as of the giuer of being thereto But how can matter be without forme seeing that euen deformitie it selfe is a kynd of forme Or how can matter be alone by it selfe seeing that forme is the thing that giueth being vnto it Now then to say that matter is without forme is all one as to say that it is and is not which were the saying of a madman Yea say they but how is it possible for somewhat to be made of nothing sith there is an infinite distance betwixt somewhat and nothing Nay I say rather what is it which is not finite in respect of him that is infinite I meane in respect of him whom thou thy self affâ—rmest to haue bounded the selfesame matter which thou doest take and teach to be infinite But if thou listest to consider it thou shalt perceyue that thou confessest a thing no lesse vncredible to thyne owne sence than is the same which thou reiectest by thy sence For when thou imaginest a matter without forme and a forme without matter thou speakest things that destroy one another But whereas I say that God created the World of nothing that is to say without hauing any thing wherof to make it in déede I say a thing that is wonderfull howbeit which hath not any repâ—gnancie in it selfe Now there is great difference betwéene speaking aboue reason and against reason For trueth and mans reason are not inclosed within the like and selfesame bounds But forasmuch as thou hast graunted that God is the author and worker of Nature I would fayne knowe how thou canst be so bold to denye that he hath put life and mouing where none were afore and that he hath made both sight and light hearing and sounds spéech and vnderstanding where erst was more than death more than blindnesse more than dumbnesse and more than dulnesse that is to say more than the bare priuation or bereuing of those things â—onsidering that neither to bee nor euer to haue bene are much more waÌ„ts than simply not to be Now betwéene liuing and not liuing seeing and not seeing and so foorth there is an infinite distance as well as there is betwéene being and not being which distance can not be filled vp but by an infinite power and looke where an infinite power is it is alike mightie towards all things Therefore it followeth that sith thou attributest vnto him the making of thy sight of thy life and of thyne vnderstanding thou canst not deny him the creation of the things that haue light life and vnderstanding in them Which if thou graunt in one thing néedes must thou graunt it alike in all For to giue life and to giue béeing to giue forme or shape and to giue matter and to giue them to one thing and to giue them to all things are all workes of one selfsame power how diuers soeuer of degrées of them seeme vnto thée at the first sight He therfore that confesseth God to be the former or giuer of shape doth also confesse him to bee the creator of all things Nay I say more that when thou termest God the souereine or highest being as Aristotle doth or him that essentially and in very déede is as Plato doth thou sayst though vnwittingly that he is the Creator that is to say the author of the being of all things If we looke into nature the thing that holdeth the first place in things of order is commonly the cause of al the things that fall vnder it Among hot things some bee hotter than some but yet fire which holdeth the highest degrée in heate is the cause of heate in all things and sheadeth it selfe into all without diminishing of it selfe and by imparting it selfe to them is still increased insomuch that the striking of a Flint inforceth the castingforth of a thousand sparkes whereof euery one were enough to set the whole World on fire In light some things one light lighteth another and by imparting maketh it selfe after a sort infinite and the Sunne which is as the fountayne of light extendeth and spreadeth it selfe out infinitely without disseuering after a maner createth light where was nothing but darknesse Also in humaine affayres Kings impart their dignities to Princes Princes to their Uassalles Uassalles to their Subiects and when they giue any man a qualitie which he had not afore they terme him their Creature as hauing made him somewhat of nothing in respect of the qualitie wherewith he was indewed afore To bee short sents or sauors are shed foorth and Sciences are taught from one to another and from one to infinite yea and euen diseases which are nothing els but corruptions ingeÌ„der one of another without diminishing themselues Now as for Heate Light Sauour Science and Dignitie they be but qualities termed by the degrées of first second and third qualities yea and moreouer dead senslesse and liuelesse and yet notwithstaÌ„ding looke which of these qualities holdeth the first place the same doth naturally bring forth al the rest without diminishing it selfe And shall we then thinke it straunge that God who is the Béeing which euen by their owne confession holdeth the chiefe and first place of all Béeings or rather alonly can in very déede be sayd to be should by his being bring fooith all other beings Yea say they for wee see not any thing brought againe to nothing and therefore néedes must they haue bene created of something Nay if worldly things should returne to nothing considering how transitorie and fléeting they be alreadie how short a time could the world indure or rather how long agoe had it come to an end But it was Gods will that it should continue And therefore thou shouldest rather say thus I see that the Trées and the greatest Beastes yea and men themselues doe spring as it were of nothing and are resolued agayne into as good as nothing I see them multiplye liue and do wonders Of one selfsame seede I sée spring both flowers leaues and fruite and of another the wonderfulnesse of eyes the substantialnesse of bones and the finesse of vitall spirites Agayne I see all these things vanish away I wote not how so as there remayneth nothing of them but a handfull of dust And shall I now be so blockish as to say that he which of so little and in so little hath made so many wondrous things that were not afore could not make the little it selfe Or that he which created the life the
world and of the world it selfe hee sheweth sufficiently that as man tendeth to God so doth the world also but vnto that ende it should not tend vnlesse it were directed thether and who directeth it thether but he that first made it To bee short the perticular formes of all things present and to come in respect of vs but eternally present with GOD can haue no abyding without a perfect knowledge and a steadie direction of all things But if any dowt hereof remaine yet still let vs heare what the Platonistes say to that matter Surely Plotin hath made two or thrée bookes thereof wherein he teacheth prouidence by all things from the greatest to the smallest comming downe euen to the little flowers which wee see vnblowen in the morning and withered at night as though he had ment to say the same thing that wee reade in the Gospell namely Consider me the Lillies of the field and so foorth Unto the ordinarie complaynt concerning the prosperitie of the wicked and the aduersitie of the vertuous he answereth that the prosperitie of the wicked is but as a Stageplay and the aduersitie of the godly is as a gaming of exercise wherein they bee tyed to a streight dyet that they may win the prize for which they contend Unto the Question concerning euill he answereth that it is nothing els but a fayling of goodnesse which goeth on still diminishing it from degrée to degrée euē to the vttermost and that it procéedeth not from GOD but from the imperfection of the matter which he termeth nothing and that the euill which consisteth altogether in degrées and in fayling of good is so farre of from diminishing Gods Prouidence that it is rather the thing wherein Gods Prouidence sheweth it selfe the more as without the which there were no Prouidence at all to be séene and yet that therewithall God is the author of all abilities and the disposer or ouerruler of all willes Which things to auoyde long discourse are more conueniently to be seene in his owne workes His Disciple Porphyrius departed not from the same opinion howbeit that he was combered with the like perplexities that they be which dispute ageinst it Seeing that God sayth he doth by his skill ouerrule all things and order them by incomparable proprietie of vertue and that on the contrary part mannes Reason being very small is ignorant of most things how skilful and curiouse so euer it seeme to be of the trueth Surely we may then call it wyse when it is not curiouse in serching such doutfull and hard matters as are matched with daunger of blaspheming but rather graunteth that the things which are done are very well as they bee For what can our small Reason finde fault with or reprooue in the doings of that greate Reason to esteeme them eyther lawfull or vnlawfull seeing wee vnderstande them not And in another place If wee suffer a King saieth he to dispose of his owne affayres as he listeth shall wee deny vnto GOD the ordering and disposing of the things heere beneath which hee himselfe created And against such as founde fault with the gouerment of the world which they vnderstand not these are his very words Soothly sayth he there is not a more vniust speech than that which presumeth to teache God Iustice nor a more holy speech than that which yeeldeth to the trueth and to think otherwise is a disease of mynd a great cryme For God not only directeth all things at all tymes too the behoofe and full harmony of the whole vniuersally but also is the cherisher preseruer and repayrer of euery seuerall thing in particular I pray you hathe hee not shewed too Phisicians who haue so much prouidence as hee hathe giuen them skil the things that are too befall too the whole body of man how that some members are to be cut of some to be seared and othersome to be eaten away with Corrasiues for the health of the whole body And yet when the Nurces or Mothers see the Surgiō about to do it do they not weepe and cry out ryght strangely notwithstanding that they knowe it to be for the welfare of the childes body But what doth the Father then who is wiser than they but comfort the patient and hold the playster ready to lay to the wound God lykewyse for the curing of the whole hath ordeyned that men should dye That is the thing that Epicurus findeth fault with that they should be separated asunder as a Toe is sumtime cut of for the sauing of the whole body And could we enter into the mynd of God we should vndoutedly knowe why and to what good end hee hath from the beginning barred some things from being because he foresaw they should be to hurtfull and vnto other some hath giuen death in recompence of their godlynes The summe of all is that nothing is done but by the prouidence of God howbeit that many things seeme repugnāt to his wisdome and goodnes as the cutting off of a Leg or the searing of a member séeme repugnant both to the healing of the whole body and to the purpose of the Surgion Also as touching the aduersities of good men Sée héere what Synesius the Platonist answereth The aduersities sayth he which wee thinke wee indure without our deserts doe helpe vs too weede out our affections out of our ground which is to much inclyned too them and by that meanes the inconueniences which make fooles to doubt of Gods Prouidence doe confirme wise folke the more therein For what man would bee contented to part hence if he found no aduersitie here And therefore it is to be thought that the Rulers of the lower Regions he meaneth the Féends were the first founders of these prosperities which the comon sort maketh so great account of of purpose to bewitch men with them and to lull them a sleepe here Hierocles also hauing made a long discourse concludeth that if we fall into any aduersitie whereof wee cannot coniecture the cause it behoueth to consider that wee bee ignorant in all things and yet we must not procéede so farre as to say that God is the author of euill or that he hath not a care of vs for those sayth he were ouergreate blasphemies Aristotle speaketh not any otherwyse eyther in his greate Moralls or in his little Moralls howbeit that hee be more graueled in his Metaphysiks Howsoeuer the case stand in his booke concerning the world he graunteth vnto God the care of al greate things And thinke you it beséemeth man too set bounds too the wisdome of God who hath limited the natures of all things and to appoynt what God shall estéeme greate or small before whom nothing can be greate or small Neuerthelesse whereas he sayth that the world dependeth vpon God as the end thereof the best of his Desciples do by infallible consequence gather thereof the prouidence of God For seeing that the World dependeth vpon hym
begotten of Man wherein hee was contrarie too himselfe To bée short scarsly were there any to be found among the men of old time saue onely Democritus and Epicurus that held the contrary way whome the Poete Lucre immitated afterward in his verses Yet notwithstanding when Epicurus should dye hée commaunded an Anniuersarie or Yéermynd to bee kept in remembrance of hym by his Disciples so greatly delighted hée in a vayne shadowe of Immortalite hauing shaken off the very thing it self And Lucrece as it is written of him made his booke béeing mad at such times as the fittes of his madnesse were off him surely more mad when he thought himselfe wysest than when the fits of his phrensie were strongest vppon him Whosoeuer readeth the goodly discourses of Socrates vpon his drinking of poyson as they bee reported by Plato and Xenophon hymselfe can not doubt of his opiniō in this case For he not only beléeued it himself but also perswaded many men to it with liuely reasons yea and by his own death much more then by all his lyfe And so ye see we be come vnto Plato and Aristotle with consent of all the wyse men of olde tyme vngeinsayd of any sauing of a two or thrée malapert wretches whom the vngraciousest of our dayes would esteeme but as dronken sottes and dizards Certesse Plato who might paraduenture haue heard speake of the bookes of Moyses doeth in his Timaeus bring in God giuing commaundement to the vndergoddes whom he created that they should make man both of mortall and of immortall substances Wherein it may be that he alluded to this saying in Genesis Let vs make man after our owne Image and lykenesse In which case the Iewes say that GOD directed his spéeche to his Angels but our Diuines say hee spake to himselfe But anon after both in the same booke and in many other places Plato as it were comming to him himselfe ageine teacheth that GOD created Man by himselfe yea and euen his Lyuer and his Brayne and all his Sences that is to say the Soule of him not onely indewed with reason and vnderstanding but also with sence and abilitie of growing and increasing and also the instruments whereby the same doe woorke Moreouer hee maketh such a manifest difference betwéene the Soule and the body as that hee matcheth them not toogither as matter and forme as Aristottle doth but as a Pilot and a Ship a Commonweale and a Magistrate an Image and him that beareth it vpon him What greater thing can there be than to be like God Now sayth Plato in his Phoedon The Soule of Man is very like the Godhead Immortall Reasonable Vniforme Vndissoluble and euermore of one sorte which are conditions saith he in his matters of State that can not agree but to things most diuine And therefore at his departing out of the world he willed his Soule to returne home too her kinred and to her first originall that is to wit as hée himselfe sayth there to the wyse and immortall Godhead the Fountaine of all goodnes as called home from banishment into her owne natiue countrie He termeth it ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say of kin vnto God and consequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say Euerlasting and of one selfesame name with the immortall ones a Heauenly Plant and not a Earthly rooted in Heauen and not in Earth begotten from aboue and not héere beneath and finally such as cannot dye heere forasmuch as it liueth still in another place To be short séeing sayeth he that it comprehendeth the things that are Diuine and immortall that is to wit the Godhead and the things that are vnchaungeable and vncorruptible as trueth is it cannot be accounted to be of any other nature than they The same opinion doth Plutarche also attribute vnto him which appeareth almost in euery leafe of his writings As touching the auncienter sort of Platonists they agree all with one accord in the immortalitie of the soule sauing that some of them deriue it from God and some from the Soule of the World some make but the Reason or mynd onely to be immortall and some the whole Soule which disagreement may well be salued if we say that the Soule all whole together is immortall in power or abilitie though the execution and performance of the actions which are to be doone by the body be forgone with the instruments or members of the body The disagréement concerning this poynt among such as a man may voutsafe to call by the name of Philosophers séemeth to haue begonne at Aristotle howbeit that his Disciples count it a commendation to him that he hath giuen occasion to doubt of his opinion in that behalfe For it is certeine that his newfound doctrine of the Eternitie or euerlastingnesse of the World hath distroubled his brayne in many other things as commonly it falleth out that one error bréedeth many other Because nature sayth he could not make euery man particularly to continue for euer by himself therefore she continueth him in the kind by matching Male and Female together This is spoken either grossely or doubtfully But whereas he sayth that if the Mynd haue any inworking of it owne without any helpe of the Sences or of the body it may also continue of it selfe concluding thereuppon that then it may also be separated from the body as an immortal thing from a thing that is transitorie and mortall It followeth consequently also that the Soule may haue continuance of it selfe as whereof he vttereth these words namely That the Soule commeth from without and not of the seede of Man as the body doth and that the Soule is the onely part in vs that is Diuine Now to be Diuine and to be Humane to be of séede and to be from without that is to say from GOD are things flat contratrie whereof the one sort is subiect to corruption and the other not In the tenth booke of his Moralls he acknowledgeth two sorts of lyfe in man the one as in respect that he is composed of Body and Soule the other as in respect of Mynd onely the one occupied in the powres which are called humane and bodily which is also accompanyed with a felicitie in this lyfe and the other occupied iu the vertues of the mynd which is accompanied also with a felictie in another lyfe This which consisteth in contemplation is better than the other and the felicitie thereto belonging is peculiarly described by him in his bookes of Heauen aboue Tyme as which consisteth in the franke and frée working of the Mynd in beholding the souereine God And in good sooth full well doeth Michael of Ephesus vppon this saying of his conclude that the Soule is immortall and so must al his morals also néedes do considering that too liue wel whether it be to a mans selfe or towards other men were els a vaine thing and to no purpose
of remembrance there was no mention made by the History-writers and Poets of Greece Demetrius Phalareus answered him that it was a diuine lawe giuen of God which ought not to be touched but with cleane hands as Hecataeus himself writeth affirming moreouer that Theopompus a Disciple of Aristotles had done him to vnderstand that whereas some had gone about to disguise the Scriptures of the Iewes with Gréeke eloquence they were striken with amazednesse for their labour and vppon prayer made vnto God were warned in a Dreame that they should forbeare to vnhallow or defile those heauenly matters with the glosse of their owne inuentions Yea and that Theodotus a Tragicall Poet had told him that because he intended to haue intermingled some matters of the Scriptures with his Tragedies that is to wéet by drawing grounds of his Poetries out of the Byble as other Poets had done with the warres of Thebes and Troy he had suddeinly forgone his sight which was afterward restored agayne vnto him vppon continuall prayer and long repentaunce And this befell iust in the same tyme that the Greekes and Romaines did but begin to deale with Philosophie Also Numenius the Pythagorist whom many preferre before Plato made so great account of the Scriptures that his booke of Welfare of Number and of Place and his booke intytled The Lapwing were full of texts alledged out of Moyses and the Prophets with great reuerence And he is the same Philosopher whom Plotin had in such estimation that he voutsafed to write a Cōmentarie vpon him But I would that the Greekes should but shew me the like record of their owne writings and of their owne lawes not in our bookes but euen in their owne bookes and I beléeue that no indifferent person would refuse that offer Here followeth another obiection Namely that the Scriptures haue a simple bare and grosse style but if they were of God they would speake farre otherwise I demaund of them whither mens styles ought not to be according to the persones that speake and whither the grace of eloquence cōsist not in obseruing séemelynesse as namely whither the eloquence of a Subiect ought not to differ from the eloquence of a King the eloquence of a child from the eloquence of a father and the eloquence of an Aduocate from the eloquence of a Iudge or whether by the Rules of Rhetorick that which is eloquence in the one shall not bee foolishnes in the other Therefore if the Lawyer or Aduocate will pleade eloquently he must moue affections to the intent he may moue other men hee must first mooue himselfe The Iudge must vtter his wordes grauely and he must also be vnflexible and vnintreatable without moouing and without affection The King must simply and absolutely commaund for hee is both the voyce of the Lawe and the rule of the Iudge But if either the King come to perswade or the Iudge to debate cases then must the one put on the state of an Aduocate and the other the state of a subiect and lay aside the state of a King and Iudge What then I pray you shal become of the law of God the King of kings who is infinitely further aboue the greatest Monarkes than the greatest Monarkes are aboue their meanest Subiects and who excéedeth alyke both the Iudges and the parties that are to be iudged We would haue him to vse Inductions as Plato doth or Syllogismes as Aristotle doth or pretie sleightes as Carneades doth or outcryes as Cicero doth or fyne conceites as Seneca doth We would haue him to vtter his words by weight that they might fall in iust measure and sound and to interlace some farre sought words some allegoricall matters and some strange deuises wherwith comon vse is vnacquainted If we should sée a Kings Proclamations set foorth in such a style which of vs would not by and by note it as smelling to much of the Inkhorne and which of our Eares woulde not rather glowe at it than lyke of it Surely then the simpler that Gods Lawe is the better doth it beséeme the Euerlasting considering that the simpler it is the more it resembleth the voyce of him that can doe all things yea and which more is the simpler it is the better doth it fitte all people For the Lawe that is ordeined for all men without exception ought to be as an ordinarie foode or rather as a common kynd of bread applyed to the taste and relishe of all men But what will you say if the Scriptures haue in their lowlynes more statelynes in their simplicitie more profoundnes in their homelines more allurance and in their grossenesse more lyuely force sharpnes than are to bee found any where els Wee reade in the first chapter of Genesis God created heauen and earth God spake and the waters were seuered from the earth Hee commaunded and the earth brought foorth herbes There is not so very an idyot or so simple a man but he can vnderstand these things I meane so farre as is requisite to his Saluation yea and consent at the very hearing of them that the things must néedes bee as it is sayd there But if a man will wade déeper into the matter as how God hath in all eternitie chosen as ye would say one instāt whereat to begin this worke without stuffe or matter to woorke vppon and how he made it by his onely bare word they be such bottomlesse déepes as will make euen the stoutest afrayed and enforce the wysest to stoupe to the skill of the lowly and little ones so excellent is the simplicitie of the Scripture both to instruct the lowly and to confound the prowd both at once In our Bible we haue Histories and in Histories what desire wee A trueth for that is the very substance of them Now what greater proofe of trueth can there be than simplicitie A style or maner of indyting that setteth downe things past before our eyes as if they were presently in doing What greater token would we haue thereof than in our reading to féele the very same affections which those felt of whom we reade Let the hardest hearted men and the most vntoward in the world go reade the Histories of our Byble as how Isaac was led to be sacrifized how Ioseph became knowen agein to his brethren how Iephthe was vexed with the méeting of his daughter or how Dauid was gréeued at the death of Absalon and if they will say the trueth they shal féele a certeine shuddering in their bodyes a certeine yirning in their heartes and a certeine tender affection all at one instant farre greater than if all the Oracles of Rome or Athens should preach the same matters whole daies togither Let them reade the same stories ageine in Iosephus to whom the Emperour Titus caused an Image to be set vp for the elegancie of his historie and they shal find that after his inriching of them with all the ornaments of Rhetoricke he shal leaue them more
mée to whom they be vnpossible to whom they bée vncredible séeing they father them not but vpon God the maker of Heauen and Earth to whom all things are alike easie The Poets say that Iupiter thundreth aboue and that Neptune turmoyleth the Seas and rowleth vp the Earth and wee knowe that both Iupiter and Neptune were men as we be and therefore we say iustly that they report Fables for they father things vpon men which are aboue the abilitie of man to doe and which surmount the power of all Creatures But when things that are vnpossible to Creatures are reported of GOD whose power is infinite although men doubt whether they were doone or noe yet can they not deny but that hee was able to doe them And if their suspecting of them bee because they reade the lyke things in their owne Fables I haue proued already that these things were written long tyme afore they had either wryters of Histories Poets yea or any writing at all And therefore they ought to thinke that their Fables were deuised vpon our Histories and their Leasings vpon our truethes For lyke as a man hath bene afore his portraiture good Coyne afore counterfet Coyne a true Seale afore a forged Seale and a true Copy afore a forgerie so also was the true declaration of things afore Fables according to this rule of the Philosophers That euill hath not any being of it selfe but in another thing ne is properly a substance but a corruption of a substance Therefore we beléeue not the Fables of Homere nor the Inuentions of Euripides and Sophocles made vpon the battell of Troy and yet wee deny not but there was a Warre of Troy As little also doo wee beléeue the Romanes which vaunt of the twelue Péeres of Charles the greate the King of Fraunce and yet wee doubt not but there was a greate Charles that did greate things in his tyme and had greate store of Noble Parsonages in his seruice To be short had there neuer bene any Dogge Horse Beare or Lyon in the world neither Poets had feined nor Peinters had peinted vs any Cerberus Pegasus or Chymere Lykewise had there not bene a trueth of the things whereon the Poets made their Fables we should not haue had at this day any Fables in the Worlde Let vs come to particularities In all the whole Scripture there is not a more woonderfull thing than the Creation of the world and of man And if we admit those two poyntes nothing ought to séeme straunge vnto vs in the residew of the Byble For all the miracles which wee wonder at are but sparkes of the infinite power which vttered it selfe at that tyme in the creating of all things Now I haue proued alreadie both by liuely reasons and by witnesse of the auncient writers that the world and al things therein were created and that they were created by the only will of God at such tyme as pleased him and that it cannot bée otherwise imagined Uppon this trueth haue the Phenicians and AEgiptians fashioned their Fables saying that in the beginning there was a darknesse and a spirituall Ayre and in an infinite Chaos that this spirit couered the Chaos and that of the coniunction of them twayne was bred a certeine Moth that is to say a certeyne slyme whereof all liuing things were ingendred It can not be denyed but that this was a mistaken Copy of the holy and natiue Copie written by Moyes Concerning the creation of Man the AEgiptians say hee was created both Male and female Herevpon Plato gathereth that he was a Manwoman or Herkinalson and the Scripture had sayd that God had created them Male and female So befalleth it properly to a Portrayture that is drawen by another That which is taken at the lyuely image loseth a little of his nature That which is taken at the Patterne loseth somewhat more And so from one to another they varry in the ende so farre from the very originall that a man can scarsly find any resemblance thereof The fall of man hath bene proued of mée by many reasons and approued by all the Philosophers and euen by the very feeling of our corruption All men are inforced to confesse it But Moyses is the only man that setteth vs downe both the Historie and the cause therof Herevpon the Emperour Iulian quareleth thinking it straunge that a Serpent should speake which is no more but that the diuell spake by the Serpent And what is there herein which befell not dayly among the Gentyles diuels to deceiue men spake to them from out of Images The Féend of Dodon spake out of an Oke Phylostratus sayth that an Elme spake to Apollonius of Thyaney A Riuer sayeth Porphirius saluted Pythagoras Euen Iulian himself his Philosopher Maximus heard the diuell speake in diuers voyces in diuers maners in al this geare there is thought to be no straungenes at all For séeing that the diuell of himselfe is not visible to our eyes must hee not bee faine to put on a borowed shape And if he borowe one why should he rather take some other shape than the shape of a Serpent And if he speake why should he not speake as well by the mouth of a Serpent as of another liuing wight and as well of a liuing wight as of a thing that hath no lyfe Nay further this creature hath a manifest figure in that it trayleth vpon the ground and liueth of the dust and in that wée by our winding away from God to the base and Earthly things are brought to the same poynt at this day We reade of the men of the first age that they liued seuen eight or nine hundred yeres which thing some thinking to be incredible haue imagined that those yéeres were but moneths notwithstanding that in the historie of the vniuersall Flud which insewed the moneth is set downe to be of eight and twentie daies and the yéere to be twelue moneths and that otherwise wee must be faine to admit that they begate Children at lesse than ten yéeres of the sonne And yet is that one of the griefes which they conceiue against our Scriptures as who would say it were not as easie vnto GOD to extende our liues vnto ten thousand of yeeres as to a hundred to God I say who hath made both the life it selfe and the yéeres and the worlds of yeeres Yet notwithstanding Manethon the AEgiptian Berosus the Chaldean Moschus Hestiaeus and Hierom who wrate the Stories of the Phenicians doe confirme the saying of Moyses concerning the first men Also Hesiodus Hecataeus Acusilaus Hellanicus and Ephorus agree thereunto affirming that they were ordeyned to liue so long tyme as well for to studie the Sciences as to inuent the Handycrafts and specially for the finding out of Astronomie because say they if they had liued lesse than sixe hundred yéeres their obseruations had bene in vayne because the great yere cōtinueth so long To be short the matter was so cléere
the water a thing whereof it were vneasie to yéeld a reason But the sayd law of Moyses not being vnprofitable ne tending any higher than this present life did not without cause put a difference betwéene brute things For if we looke well to it it denouÌ„ceth al those brute things vncleane whereby the AEgiptians made their diuinations or tooke their foretokens as the Woolfe the Foxe the Dragon the Hare the Sparehauke the Kyte so foorth And that was to make the people of Israell to abhorre the vanities and abhominations of AEgipt like as if a man would keepe his children from fire he would prohibite them euen the Chimney And because those abuses were knowen among them the end and aimingpoynt of that Lawe was the redresse of them And therefore vppon this poynt I desire our despisers to suspend their iudgement in the things they vnderstand not For as in that tyme no fault was found with this difference in the Lawe of Moyses so should no fault be found with many others at this day if wee could set before vs the same tyme againe I omit concerning the things that liued vpon pray that ouer and besides that men tooke foretokens at them they had this doctrine in them without much stepping aside from the letter that men should not take away one anothers goodes And as touching the Swyne it is well knowne that for the inuention of Tillage which hee shewed to the AEgiptians by wrooting vp the ground with his groyne they worshipped him as a God in consideration whereof he was declared to be abhominable besides the which thing there appeared this euident allegorie that men should not bemyre them selues in the dirt and dung of this world As for the Sacrifices I haue touched them heretofore and will treat of them more at large hereafter forasmuchas they did put men hourely in rememberance of death dew for sinne and of the necessitie of a sacrifice to cleanse away the same namely of the sacrifice of Iesus Christ then to come which should serue for the clensing of all mankynd But admit that God to bring vs to obedience had listed to giue vs Lawes whereof we could not conceiue the reason What is it more than many Princes and Lawemakers haue done as Plutark sayeth Or than we our selues do to our Children and Seruants And yet who will think it méete that they should aske vs a reason why we do so Surely I desire no more but that they which come to our Scriptures should yeeld at leastwise the like regarde that they yeeld to Homer or Virgill If they find in them any dark sentences they say they will mark them with crosses and leaue them too Grammarians too martyr themselues withall Therefore let them not thinke it straunge that God hath left such things in his Scriptures to humble the mynds of diuines withal If in the Poet they meete any Solecismes that is too say incongruities of speeche byandby they be elegancies or figures Let them consider in the Scriptures also that the thing which they think doth disagree at the first sight wil bee found verie fit of him that vnderstandeth the figure To be short if a Poet haue spoken a woord that seemeth needlesse or without reason the Schoolemayster turneth it into al sences to find some sence in it the Scoller is out of patience if his Mayster find none and the Scholler will rather find fault with his Mayster and the Mayster with his owne ignorance than confesse any imperfection ar ouersight in the Poet. Now then if in these bookes confirmed with so manie Miracles and proceeding from soo greate authoritie we mâ—â— offeâ—th things which to our fleshly wit séeme vnprofitable or absurd it â—ere good reason that wee should bee the more diligent and heedfull in serching them and in turning them into al sences And if in the end of all this we find not wherewith to satisfie vs let the hearer confesse his dulnesse of vnderstanding and the teacher acknowledge his owne ignorance and let vs pray God to voutsafe to inlighten vs with his Spirit Now I thinke I haue sufficiently shewed by the antiquitie the style and the matter by the ende also and by the particularities of our Scriptures that they be of God and that they cannot procéede from any other than him By antiquitie for they bee the first of all writings and God hath bin reuealed in them euer since there were any men By their style for they instruct the lowly and pull downe the highmynded speaking with like authoritie to all men By their matter for their onely treating is of Gods doings and of his communicating of himselfe to men By the marke whereat they aime for they tende not to any other thing than Gods glorie and mans welfare And by their singularnesse for there are things without number which cannot bee bred in the mynd eyther of man or Angell The absurdnesse which wee suppose to be there is but a seeming so to our ignorance and the impossibilitie which to our seeming is in them is but in comparison of our disabilitie The truth of them is witnessed vnto vs in Histories at leastwise if the case so stand that Gods word haue neede of mans record He that is the Child of God knoweth his fathers voyce but yet it may be that for the better confirming of him my writing hereof shall not bee in vayne Who so refuseth that no man can perswade him thereto but yet shall this serue to conuict him and by Gods helpe a great sort which as yet haue had their eares so dulled with the noyse of this world that they haue hetherto but ouerheard it shall hereafter incline both their eares and their hearts thereunto Now I beséech the almightie who spake the worde and the world was made to speake effectually in our daies and that the world may beléeue him And because the marke that beléef shootes at is the welfare of man let vs see what welfare wee finde in this word which is our third marke of Religion and shal be the matter of the Chapter next following The xxvij Chapter That the meane ordeyned of GOD for the welfare of mankind hath bene reuealed alwayes to the people of Israel which is the third marke of Religion _â—Ow remayneth the third marke of true Religion to be examined which is that it teache the true and only way ordeined of God for the saluation and recouery of mankind without the which as I haue shewed already all Religion is vnauailable and vayne Howbeit forasmuch as this Doctrine importeth the welfare of the world and I haue interlaced many things by the way which may dim the remembrance thereof Let vs here call ageine to mind how néedfull this marke is in religion And soothly it will be one further marke of the heauenlynes of our Scriptures if we find that they teache vs the necessitie of that only meane and also direct vs to it from the beginning foorthon from tyme to tyme.
it by his only word without other helpe But let vs see yet more It is against nature to make something of nothing Here the Philosophers must stoope It is against nature to make a thing by speaking the contrarie Here the Orators are put to silence What wilt thou say then if besides all this there bée an extreame resistance in the thing it selfe if thou be a Phisition in the Complexion if thou bee a Capteyne in the Conquest if thou be an Orator in the willes of men Alexander did great things with fewe men I graunt But if men had made head against him as they might haue done in what case had he bin Let vs see contrarywise what resistance men made both generally and particulerly to shut Iesus out of the doores If ye speake of force he could scarsly preach without perill of death His Apostles could not open their lippes but thei were by and by whipped stoned racked crucyfied or burned The cruellest Emperours as Caligula Nero Domitian and such others wrought vpon them the chiefe déedes of their cruelties If any of those Emperours chaunced to bee more mield O what Iustice vsed he Forsooth If they bee not sedicious say they let them not be sought But come they once in Question wherefore soeuer it be let them not escape I would fayne learne what sect of Philosophers in all Greece would not haue ceassed at the least commaundement of a Magistrate And of what trueth doe we finde any monuments of Conquests ouer all the world but of the trueth of Iesus Christ If ye haue an eye to policie those that followed him were excluded from all promotions and offices And what a hell is that to a man of an ambicious nature Their Children were prohibited to goe to Schoole and what was that but a cutting vp of the tree by the roote if it had not growen by grace from Heauen Also certeyne counterfet Dialogs forged concerning Pylate and Christ full of wicked lyes and blasphemies were inioyned to bee read in Schooles and to be conned of Children by hart to steyne the name of Iesus and to make it odious and lothsome to all men for euer And what more pernicious policie could the Deuill himselfe haue deuised The Iewes worse than all others to whom notwithstanding he was promised were false Traytors to him and whereas they should haue preached him they did most eagerly accuse him insomuche that there scarsly came any of his Disciples into any towne but that they made Hew and crye vppon him to murder him Nay which more is in euery seuerall persone there was an inward incounter and an extreame resistance ageinst this word Yea sayd men within themselues shall I beleeue in Iesus An abiect man A crucified God Shal I beleeue his Disciples the ofscourings of the World and the outcasts of the Iewes Shall I beleeue in him for a two or three dayes to leaue behind me a wretched wyfe a reprochefull rememberance of myself and the report of a foole too my posteritie If the Emperours made so cruell warre ageinst this doctrine both by swoord and by their Lawes we may well coniecture what Warre euery man maynteyned ageinst it in himself And if we haue knowen what persecution is let vs here bethink vs of the battells betwéene the flesh and the spirit and of the lyuely and sharpe arguments which a man in that cace maketh ageinst himself Notwithstanding all this in the end whole Nations yeelded themselues to the word of those men and euen Empyres worshipped Iesus Christ crucified If weakenesse wrought this why did not force get the vpper hand If foly why did not wisdome tryumph ouer them If manhod why did not multitude preuayle No surely it was Iesus the sonne of God who repayred the world by his spirit as God had created it at the first by his word Cicero could not woonder ynough at Romulus for that sayeth he in a time which was not rude he had compassed so much as to be called a God And certesse I maruell at Cicero that he shewed himself so grosse in that behalf For if he were called a God who euer beleeued him to be so And what was Rome at that tyme and a long tyme after but a rout of ignorant and silly Shepherds But thereby wee may deeme what iudgment hee would haue giuen vppon Iesus Romulus was called a God but the Senate beleeued it not The Senate did put the people in feare and by that meanes made them to say it But all the whole Empyre of Rome could not scare one Disciple from professing of Iesus What resemblance then is there betweene them two The same may be sayd of Alexander as greate an Emperour as he was when he made men too woorship him as God For euen then did his army fall to mutinies he lost his estimation he disteyned his victories his owne howseholdseruants were contented too be beaten rather than they would knéele downe to woorship him And asfor Caligula Domitian Heliogabalus and others they were Laughed to skorne as long as they liued and they were not so soone dead but their Godheads were dragged in the myre lyke doggs and men voutsafed them not so much as a Tumb to be buryed in But what say yee to Iesus who being despysed all his lyfetyme was woorshipped as God after his death Whose Godhead 〈◊〉 Disciples preache euen vppon the racke and whom the very Emperours Tiberius and Antoninus and Alexander honored in their harts and woorshipped as God in their priuichambers And in what time Surely in the Learn eddest tyme that euer was and in the full florishing state of knowledge in all arts skills and sciences when Rhetoryk Logicke and all Philosophie were at their pryde and at such time as Magik and all maner of curious seiences had their full scope and were at their hyghest pitch If he be woorshipped for his wisdome what a nomber of graue Senators were there at that time If for Learning and Doctrine what a nomber of learned men If for Riches and parentage how would those greate men haue yeelded to such an ofcast If for his giltlesse death why not others also of so many which preached him and followed him And why was not Gabinius woorshipped so to being a Citisen of Rome a man of honour and vniustly crucified in whose behalf Cicero vttered all the goodly eloquence that he had Nay surely they sawe such a chaunge in the World so sodeine so greate and so vniuersall that they could not impute it to any other thing than to the power and operation of him that ruleth the world whose myghty power they perceyued in Iesus That this so suddein turning of Nations to woorship a man of Emperours to reuerence reproche and of wise men to haue folly as sayeth S. Paule in admiration is verie true I will take none other witnesses than themselues We reade in Suetonius and Tacitus that the name of Christ was knowen in Rome and throughout all Italy For they