THE VANITY OF THE EYE, First began for the Comfort of a Gentlewoman bereft of her sight, and since upon occasion enlarged & published for the Common good. BY GEORGE HAKEWILL Master of Arts, and fellow of Exeter Coll. in Oxford. The third Edition augmented by the Author.  Eccles. 31. 15. Nequius oculo quid creatum est● 
AT OXFORD▪ Printed by joseph Barnes, Printer 〈◊〉 the University. 1615.   

The Contents of the severa●● Chapters following.  

1 THat the eye is the instrument of wantonness, gluttony, and covetousness.  
2 How Idolatry hath a kind of necessary dependence upon the eye.  
3 How pride is begotten and nourished by the eye.  
4 That often seeing is the means to draw both things and persons into contempt.  
5 How curiosity and prying into other men● business is bred & maintained by the eye.  
6 Of bewitching by the eye.  
7 How the general rebellion of the body is occasioned by the eye.  
8 How the eye was the chief occasion of original sin and of examples in all those mischiefs which formerly are proved to arise from it.  
9 Of the false report which the ey● makes to the inner▪ faculties in the apprehension of natural things.  
10 A general discourse of the delusion of the eye by artificial means, ●a also by the passions of the mind.  
11 Of the delusion of the sight in particular by the immediate working of the devil.  
12 Of the delusion of the sight by the enchantments of sorcerers.  
13 Of the delusion of the fight by the exorcisms of conjurers.  
14 Of the delusion of the sight by the knavery and imposture of Priests & Friars.  
15 Of the delusion of the sight by the distemper of the brain.  
16 Of the delusion of the sight by the smooth carriage of Hypocrites.  
17 Of the delusion of the sight by stratagems of war.  
18 Of the delusion of the sight by painting.  
19 That the eyes serve not only as treacherous porters & false reporter● in natural & artificial things but also as secret intelligencers for discovering the passions of the mind, and diseases of the body.  
20 Of the insinit diseases & casualties which the eye itself is subject unto.  
21 That the eye is not so useful for the gathering of knowledge, as is pretended; whether we consider it absolutely in itself, or respectively in regard of hearing.  
22 Containing an answer to an objection that man alone hath therefore giv●n him an upright figure of body to the end he might behold the heavens.  
23 Setting down at large the hindrances of the eye in the service of God.  
24 That supposing the sigh● did not hinder▪ yet is it proved that it furthered little in the matter of religion; together with the particular answers to sundry objections.  
25 That the popish religion consists more in eye-service then the reformed.  
26 That the sight of the creature helpeth ●s little in the true knowledge of God.  
27 That the eye of the sense failing, that of the understanding & spirit w●x more clear.  
28 Treating of the diverse privileges of blind men.  
29 That blind men need not complain of the want of pleasures, especially the sense of many griefs, being by blindness much lessened, which is proved by the strong impression of those objects which to the inner faculties are presented by the eye.  
30 That blind men need not complain of their disability in serving the common wealth which is proved by some reasons but chiefly by examples in all kinds.  
31 A conclusion of the whole discourse by way of meditation or soliloquy.    

THE VANITY OF THE EYE.  

CAP. 1.  
That the eye is a special instrument of want oneness, gluttony, and cove tousnesse.  
THough many and singular be the commendations of the nature and frame of the eye, & the use of it in the ordinary course of life be no less divers than excellent as well for profit as delight, yet the dangerous abuses which arise from it not rightly guided, are so general, and almost inseparable, that it may justly grow to a disputable question whither we should more regard the benefit of nature in the one, or the hazard of grace and virtue in the other. For if we consider the testimony of scripture, and current of times, we shall meet with more examples of running into mischief by the suggestion of this one s●nse, and more prayers, & precepts bend against the abuse of it, than any of the rest severally, or all of them jointly; the same being often taken (as well in scripture, as in common speech) for all the other four, as S. Au●●stin● hath wittily observed in 〈◊〉 112 Epistle, for we say no● only see how it shines, but see how it sounds, see how it tastes, see how it feels, see how it smells and the same godly father hath written an entire chapter of this subject in his book of confessions, which he entitles the allurement of the eyes. His words are so sweet, & so fit for the present purpose, that I cannot pass by them without setting down a part of them, howbeit they cannot but lose much of their grace in rendering. 
L▪ 10. ●. 34.  Mine eye longs to look upon beautiful, & various shapes fresh, & pleasant colours, but l●t not these possess my mind, let God possess it, who indeed made these things very good, but he o●●y is my good, not these; & whiles I speak thereof, I am miserably entangled, but thou, o Lord, dost free me mercifully. Hence David having prayed God to turn his heart to the keeping of his testimonies, immediately 〈◊〉, turn away my eyes (O Lord) from regarding 
Psal. 119. v. 37.  vanity, as supposing this latter the readiest means, & best way for the attaining the ●orme●. But job steppeth yet one degree farther, from a prayer to a vow. I have made a covenant with mine eye, 
Ca 31. v. 1.  why then should I look on a maid? And, which is ●ore, from a vow to an imprecation. If mine heart have walked after 
Ca 31. v. 7.  mine eye, let me sow, & let another eat, yea let my plants be rooted out. After these holy men of God came Solomon, behind them indeed in time, but before them in wisdom, who, being led partly by a special illumination from heaven, and partly by his own great experience, layeth down this position, as a rule without exception, 
Prov. 23. v. 33.  Thine eyes shall look upon strange women, & thine heart shall speak lewd things. And in another place, 
Eccl. 9 5. 8  gaze not on a maid, lest thou fall by that that is precious in her. Turn away thine eye from a beautiful woman, & look not thou upon others beauty, for many have perished by the beauty of women, & through it love is kindled as a fire. Whereupon S. Peter marking out unto us the badges and cognisances of false teachers, forgets not this one among the rest most notorious, Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease to sin, 
Ca 2. v. 2.  where we see the very chair, & throne of adultery, to be seated in the eye; howbeit it be in truth but the passage, & pipe to convey it to the soul. The word in the original is full of an adulteress (a phrase of speech usual in holy writ for the full expressing of the suparlative degree) which some interpret to be meant of the pupil of the eye, and the rather for that the latin, and greek give it the name of a young maid, and the Hebrew, and Spanish term it the daughter of the eye. To proceed, our Saviour in the Gospel affirmeth that ʰ 
Ma●. 5. 28.  whosoever looketh after a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery with h●r already in his heart, where in doubt not but lusting even upon here say without looking, is no less justifiable; yet it pleased our saviour to instance in looking, as well knowing himself, and withal intending to make us known, that lusting for the most part follows looking. Which the very heathens well understanding in the dedication of the several parts of man's body to their several Gods, & Goddesses, as the ears to Minerva, the tongue to Mercury, the arms to Neptune, they leave the eye to Cupid their God of lust, as being the fittest for his use, the proverb holding alike in inordinate lust, as in ordinary love, out of sight, out of mind. For as the finger ever waits on grief; so doth the eye on love. Whence in the greek, the sane word only by the change of a vowel signifieth both to see, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  & to love, & as they come near in name, so, saith Plutarch, their cognation, 
L. 5. symp  and sympathy is in nature so marvelous, that they seem not to understand the strength, & force of it, who wonder at the property of a chalky brimstone mentioned by Pliny, 
Lib. 2. cap. 105.  which snatcheth fire to itself, though removed from it by a competent distance, the eyes drawing it to the soul (which is not so much where it liveth, as where it loveth) in a far larger distance, & by a nimbler kind of working: upon which consideration, Valerius Max. fitly calls the eyes the spies which lie in ambush for the under mining of other men's marriages, 
Lib. 2. ca 1.  & Alexander using a different phrase shot at the same mark, when he named the Persian maids, the griefs of the eyes, 
Plut. in vita Alex.  & thereupon in my judgement he justly refused that Darius' wife (whose beauty the Macedonians so much admired) should be once brought in to his presence, as fearing lest he that had manfully subdued so many nations, should in the end himself be shamefully conquered at the sight of a woman; which was also the reason, as I suppose, 
R●d●g. l. 3. cap. 38.  that Procopius the Emperor went always with his eyes fixed on the ground. This sense being therefore rightly termed by Mercurius Tresmegistus the tyrant, or butcher of reason, leading it captive in triumph, & delivering it over as a prisoner to the lower faculties, forcing it of a Queen, and mistress to be come an homager, and base vassal, being then none otherwise hearkened unto, or observed, than a magistrate in a state shaken, & torn with civil discords, to which purpose the fathers bring those two passages of I●remy, pertinent enough in regard of the matter, but whether natural from the text I doubt? (Mine eye hath devoured my heart) and in another place, 
Lam. 3. 31.  Death hath climbed up by the windows, 
Proph. 9 v, 21.  for by the eyes (saith Clemens Alexandrinus) 
Lib. 5. p●d▪ Cap. 11.  lo●e first entereth the lists to challenge combat with reason, that being it which is first tainted before any other part of the body be corrupted: & therefore the comedians (saith he) bring in on the stage the wanton Sardanapalus sitting in an ivory chair, reaching out his hand for his purple, & casting his eye in every corner, his conclusion is that i● is a matter of les● consequence to fall by the foot, then by the eye, since the one is only dangerous to the▪ body; but the other to both body and soul. Let us then for preventing this mischief, embrace the grave advise of S. Gregory; 
In commen●. super. 31. I●bi.  bridle thy soul (saith he) for fear that unadvisedly running, it fall not vp●̄ the sight of that which may stir it to lust, lest afterwards being hood winked, it begin to covet that which it saw; & so in the pursuit of things visible, it make shipwreck of invisible graces. How many have we seen, & heard of, who after the sight of women have grown peevish? & some stark mad, others have raised armies, and razed whole Cities, and towns to make away their competitors, and at length have laid violent hands on themselves? Nay if we proceed yet one step farther in ripping up, & searching out the abuse of the eye, we shall easily discover it to be an immediate in strument, not only of wantonness, but of gluttony, covetousness, ●●eft, idolatry, jealousy, pride, contempt, 
Psa. 112. ●10.  curiosity, ᵇ envy, witchcraft, 
〈◊〉. 26. v. 8.  & in a manner of the whole rebellion, & apostasy, as well of the body, 
●●ccl. 14 v. 〈◊〉  as the mind. Which assertion though it seem larg●, and by consequence bold; yet I find the way chaulked out unto it by Gregory Nissene in his exposition upon the Lord's prayer, in the article of lead us not into temptation. For the first then of these particulars, Solomon gives an excellent precept, Look not thou (saith he) upon the wine when 
Pro. ●3. 31.  it is red, & when it shows his colour in the cup, in the end thereof it will bite like a serpent, & hurt like a cockatrice, & in an other place, stretch not out thine h●nd wherso▪ 
Eccl. 31. 13  ever thine eye looketh, & thrust it not with it into the dish, as giving thereby to understand, that intemperate pouring down strong drink and inordinate devouring delicious meats, ariseth oftener from the greediness and uncontent of the eye, then from any real want, or desire of the appetite. For the second, the same Solomon in an other place maketh it as clear as the former. 
Eccles. 4. v. 8.  There is on● alone (saith he) and there is not a second, which hath neither son nor brother, yet is there no end of all his travel, nor can his eye be satisfied with riches, noting the chief cause of the restless discontent of the mind, and needless spending of the body to arise from the insatiableness of the eye. 
Eccl●s. 1. v. 8.  The ear being never filled with hearing, nor the eye satisfied with seeing. For a covetous man's eye hath never enough of a portion, and his wicked malice withereth his own soul, which the devil well understanding in his last, and hottest assault upon our Saviour, tempted him by the eye, in showing him all the kingdoms of the world, 
Mat. 4. 8.  & the glory of them. Which word no doubt is expressly added to signify the chief bait, by which the tempter had well hoped to have caught our Saviour.   

CAP. 2.  
How Idolatry hath a kind of necessary dependence upon the eye.  
I had thought to have passed over in silence the rest of those particular vices, which flow from the eye, without any farther opening of them, only contenting myself to have pointed at them, with some brief references in the margin, but upon farther search, I found some of them, and those of the higher degree to depend upon the sight in a more necessary, & immediate manner, then at the first I conceived: among the chiefest of which rank is Idolatry, which as it had his original from the eye, so is it still nourished by the same, the very name giving us to understand that primarily, 
Steph. in Thes. Z●●. de Re● lib. 2. cap. 17.  and properly in the nature of the word, it is northing else but the representation of somewhat, in a material shape, apprehended by the eye, & adored by the mind; whence it is in my judgement that among all these idolatrous nations, which worshipped false Gods, & went a whoring after their own inventions, ascribing the honour due to the creator, to some creature; the greatest part have ever consented in worshipping the host of heaven, the sun, the moon, or the st●rs, which among all creatures the eye most admireth, and delighteth in as the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Phoenicians, the Medes, the Massagetes, the Persians, & in a word, as Macrobius hath learnedly observed, 
Saturn lib. 10. cap. 21.  all the heathen; howbeit they differed much about the names of their Gods, yet really, and indeed they consented in the worship of some of these, ●nd mothinkes for this present purpose, 'tis worth the considering that they which held the sun for their God, adored him not at noon day, walking then as a giant in his full strength, not to be gazed on; but either at rising or ●alling because then he appears most glorious to the eye; & the greatest part at rising; because his glory after the darkness is most acceptable to the sight, it being therefore compared by the Psalmist, in rising, to a bridegroom coming forth of his chamber, who in passing by draws every man's eyes after him. For this cause doth God by his Prophet call 
Esa. 20. 78  the Idols of Egypt the abomination of the eyes, twice within the compass of 2. verse, and in the 15. of Numbers, 
Ver. 39  you shall not seek after your own heart, nor after your own eyes, after which you go a who ring, 
4. 15.  but that of Exodus is in my judgement yet much fitter for this present discourse. Take therefore good heed unto your selves, for you saw no image in the day that the Lord spoke unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire, that ye corrupt not yourselves & make a graven image, or representation of figure, and lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, with all the host of heaven, shouldst be driven to worship them. Which words in the weakest apprehension, at first view, cannot but enforce a very powerful, and active operation of the eye, in drawing the mind from the contemplation of the fairest visible creatures, to the fow lest of all sins, if it find not the grace of God, and the sense of true religion planted in it. I will conclude this point with that notable speech of job; 
31. 26.  where amongst the rest of his imprecations upon himself, he inserteth if I did behold the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in her brightness, this had been iniquity to be condemned, for I had denied the God above, which words the common stream of interpreters understand to be meant of the danger of falling into this spiritual fornication, & sinning against the Creator, by too much doting upon, & admiring the beauty of those glorious creatures.   

CAP. 3.  
How pride is begotten, and ●o●r●shed by the eye.  
THE next particular that offers itself worthy consideration is pride, which in nothing shows itself more, then in the pomp, and magnificence of masks, pageants, triumphs, monuments, theatres, amphitheatres: I speak not against their lawful use, but of their abuse: when they tie the eye in such manner unto them, as they withdraw the mind from the contemplation of that glory, which neither Praeter, 
T●m. 3. c. 1  nor Consul can exhibit (as S. Cyprian speaks) but he only from whom, and by whom we live, & move; The like may as justly be said of giving of alms to be seen of men, of all manner of excess in building, in household stuff, in apparel, as well for matter, 
Cap. 3. 18.  as fashion. Of which the Prophet Esay hath named some, taken up by the women of his time. As the ornament of the slippers, the calls, the round tires, the bracelets, the bonnets, the tablets, the earrings, the wimples, the crisping pings, the fine linen, the lawns; of all which surely the greatest part are devised rather for pleasing the eye, then for use either in covering nakedness, or in guarding the body, against scorching heat, or pinching cold. Some notwithstanding there are, who instead of purchasing the applause, and admiration, they pursue, incur the censure which the Anemolian Ambassadors found among the Vtopians, 
Ca de comer.  who as Sr T. Moor sets it down thinking to dazzle the eyes of the poor Vtopians, with the lustre, and glistering of their chains, & precious stones▪ the children playing in the streets, took them for great boys, which had not yet laid aside their brouches, & babbles? the women for the Ambassadors jesters, & the men for their slaves or servants; saluting those which were so indeed, instead of their masters, but misliking the chains, & bracelets, as being to little, and to lose, which by that means might easily either be broken, or cast of. But in this point, me thinks 'tis worthy special consideration, that nature having so framed the eye, as it can neither behold itself, nor the face, in which it is set, yet have men invented for the supplying of that use looking-glasses, as the artificial eyes of pride; the eye being as it were a living looking-glass, & the looking-glas again a dead eye, by means whereof many Narcissus like become enamoured of themselves, by to to much admiring their own beauty, or Pigmalion-like fall in love with their own images, or on the other side, with Io, & Actaeon in the fable, stand amazed at the ugliness of their own shapes; & sometimes with the Camel, and Buc●phalus (in stories) grow in regard at the sight of their own shadows. In which kind, I remember I have heard, of a young Gentleman of this University, who being newly recovered from the small pox, & by chance seeing the change of his face in a looking-glass, for mere grief fell into a relapse, and within short time died. And sure I am persuaded, that the use of it in the art of seeing, is not of such consequence as it can in any sort countervail the damage arising from it, in the art of manners, neither are there by it so many stains and blemishes discovered in the face, as imprinted in the soul.   

CAP. 4.  
That often seeing is the means to draw both things, & persons into contempt.  
The 5. considerable particular is contempt, whence it is that those things which we most fear, and reverence, are most removed from our sight as God, & the devil, heaven, & hell, among the Papists the relics of their Saints, & in the Egyptian temples the God which they worship. For which cause also, (as I suppose) God himself considering the weakness of man in this behalf, in the levitical law commanded, that none should enter into the holiest of all, 
●. 9 7.  save only the high Priests alone, and that once in the year only, and upon the same ground, no doubt it is, that the great Turk suffers not his subjects to look him in the face, when they speak unto him; and that those Eastern Princes the Duke of Mus●ovia, the great Cham of Tartary, and Praester john (as Boterus & Paulus Venetus report) present themselves to be seen of their subjects but once, or twice in the year at most; as well remembering that presence much weakeneth report; and that 4. good mothers bring forth four bad daughters: virtue, envy; peace; idleness; truth▪ hatred; and familiarity, contempt. To this effect also is that excellent discourse which Comineus hath in his second book, to prove that interviews between great Princes for the most part prove more dangerous, 
Cap. ●.  than profitable. The examples he brings, happened all in his own time, & some of them himself, had been present at, as that between Edward the 4 King of England, & Lewes the 11 King of France, & of the rest, had he been credibly informed. Among which, the first and chiefest for our purpose, is that which was held between the forenamed Lewes, and Henry king of Castille, in the conclusion of which those two confederate nations (saith he) began to scoff, and jest, each at other; the king of● Castille was deformed, & weak of behaviour, and the French misliked his apparel wherefore they derided him: Again the French king wore his apparel very short, and marvelous uncomely, & was sometimes clad in very course cloth, & beside wore an old hat, differing from the rest of his company, and an image of lead upon it, where the Castilians i●stiested, as if this proceeded from besenes, so that these two kings being ever before this interview confederates, & good friends, parted discontent on both sides & never loved heartily after● that meeting. Notwithstanding I deny not, but that there may be● Solomon, the very sight of whom may add much to hearsay, and report, as the Queen of Saba who came to see him witnesseth, in these words, 
King's li, 2. Ca 10. v. 6.  it was (saith she) a true word which I heard in mine own country of thy wisdom & of thy sayings, howbeit I believed not their report until I came, & mine eyes had seen it. The like issue had that renowned interview (if I may so term it) at that King of Denmark his coming over, to see his Majesty, the true Solomon of this age of whom I may as justly say, that his presence in this University, bred a greater admiration, and reverence than the report which was sent before him, which howbeit it were almost beyond credit, yet his presence much ou●streched it. But howsoever some on such Phoenix may arise in an age, yet for the most part (which arts, & precepts only consider) I durst confidently maintain my first position, grounded aswell upon reason, as common experience, that presence much weakeneth report, and diminisheth reverence, aswell towards persons, as things.   

CAP. 5.  
How curiosity and prying into other men's business is bred and maintained by the etc.  
THe 6. particular is curiosity, for such is the condition of most men, that although nature have seated the eye in the inner chamber of the face, yet are they prying always into other men's business; sharp sighted as Eagles in censuring other men's actions, but bats, & moles in their own. Not unlike those witches called Lamiaes, 
Cap. ●●  of whom Plutarch speaks in his book of Curiosity, who were wont to put up their eyes in a box whiles they stayed at home, and never to set them in their heads till they were going abroad. Insomuch that the oracle of truth itself, hath pronounced it for truth, that those who can see a mote in their brother's eye, 
Mat. 6. 4.  can not yet discern a beam in their own, & the second wise man that ever lived, hath laid it down for a maxim, that a wise man's eyes are in his head, but a fools are peeping in at every window: which lesson it seems Antoninus the Emperor was to seek of, when curiously casting his eyes about in another man's house, 'twas freely told him, that it became a (guest as he was) in that place to be deaf & blind; to which purpose also we read in the Acts of the Apostles, that our Saviour being taken up in a cloud, 
Cap. 1. 10.  out of their sight, they were checked by the Angels, for gazing curiously after him, and in a kind of reproof styled with the name of men of Galilee. 
1. 6. 19  Yet more memorable is that instance out of the book of Samuel, where 'tis said that the Lord smote the men of Bethshemish, because they had looked into the Ark, & as 'tis added in the text for that very fact he slew among the people fifty thousand 60. & 10. men, But for a pleasant example in this kind I have not met with any answerable to that of Rabelais, 
Lib. 3. c. 33  who reports that Pope john the 22 being in France & passing by the nunnery of Fonthenrant, the Abbess with her Nuns presented unto him a supplication that it might be lawful & sufficient for them, to confess one to another, since many secrets fell out among them which they durst not either for shame, or fear, trust the Priest withal; The Pope gave them the hearing, & told them he would consider of the matter; and at his departure delivers to the Abbess a little box (in which he had put a Linnot) to be kept without opening (under pain of excommunication) till his return; his holiness had no sooner turned his back, but they with one consent, set all upon the Abbess, for the opening of it, to see what was in it (such was their curiosity of prying even into the Pope's secrets) she being easily persuaded, did so, by which means the Linnot escaped; the Pope presently returning (under pretence of some other occasion) demands his box, but finding the bird gone, tells them that if they could not keep his counsel, upon so strait a charge, they would hardly keep one another's, and so inioines them their wont form of confession.   

CAP. 6.  
Of bewitching by the eye.  
THE seventh and last particular in this kind which I will speak of, is bewitching by the eye, to which the Apostle S. Paul alludes in his Epistle to the Galathians, where he demands [who had bewitched them?] 
●ap. 3. v. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the word in the original is found but this once only in the new Testament, & (as I think) in the Canonical scripture, & (as the learned Beza hath rightly observed) properly signifieth a kind of fascination, or bewitching by the eye, and therefore the Apostle in the same verse, continuing his metaphor, opposeth thereunto as an amulets, or preservative, the crucifying of Christ in their sight: and Tertullian in his book of the veiling of Virgins, 
De velandis Virginibus.  brings this as a reason to persuade them to the use of their veils, lest the heathen might thereby take advantage to bewitch them, in finding their faces uncovered, and by that means subject to malign aspects. 
Arist. sec●. 20. prob. 34.  And the chief secretary, or privy counsellor of nature as also his followers in their problems, 
Alex. lib. 2. prob. 54.  or questions, of the secrets of nature, have inserted among the rest, one of this kind of bewitching; not as doubting of the truth of the thing, but as searching only into the manner of it, and remedy against it; but the best that I have met with, for discovering this mystery, is Plutarch in the fifth book of tabletalk, where he witnesseth, 
Prob. 7.  that whole families, & nations have been tainted with that disease; & Pliny gives the reason of placing satires, and Antikes to be looked on, in the entries and portales of great men's houses, to have been the possessing by that means, of the thoughts of that malicious kind of people, by which their strength in hurting might either be diverted, or abated. Some write that women that have a double pupil in their eye, do most harm this way; but upon what certain grounds of experience, I cannot affirm; only in this, I find most of ancient heathen Philosophers to concur, & some of the latter christian Physicians, that not only men and women, 
Vlmus de occultis remediis c▪ 10  do interchangeably hurt one an other in this kind (as hath already been showed,) but both of them unreasonable creatures, and they again, both men, and women. For the first of which sort, 
Plin. li. 30. cap. 11.  it is in my judgement worth the observing, which many natural historiographers, (& these of the chiefest rank) report, & Plutarch adds, that himself hath tried, that a man being sick of the yelow-iandise, if he steadfastly look upon the eye of the bird Icterus▪ or Galgalus, himself may perhaps recover, but the bird dies instantly, without fail; And on the other side it is as commonly received not only among the vulgar, but the learned; that the Basilike by his eye killeth a man: 
Picolom. Zabarel in lib. de visu.  which the 2 greatest naturalists of this age▪ take as granted, when as having set down their state, that the act of seeing ariseth from somewhat received into the eye, they object this experience against it, and answer it rather by wai● of exposition, than denial, granting indeed that he hurts a man by his eye, but rather by some pestilent vapour, which proceeds from it, them by any ray, or beam, which helps it in seeing, which resolution of theirs, as it salveth their former assertion, so doth it plainly make for our present discourse, of poisoning by the eye▪ I here pass over the fresh bleeding of a dead corpse, at the looking on of the murderer, as also Medusa's turning men into stones, by her looks alone, which though it be indeed but a Poetical fiction, yet their meaning doubtless, stretcheth farther than the ordinary reader at first blush conceaveth; in shadowing under that fable, the sudden astonishment of men, at the rays of her rare beauty. But for the full clearing of this point, let us but consider the common experience of infecting one another, by blear eyes, and the spotting of a looking glass, especially if it be new, 
Arist. li. de insom. 2. c. 2.  and clear by the looking on of a menstruous woman, and this case● (as I think) in an indifferent▪ 
Lemnius lib. 2. c. 13.  judgement, not possessed with prejudice (howbeit Vairus and Vallesius●unne ●unne a contrary bias) will pass for currant.   

CAP. 7.  
How the general rebellion of the body is occasioned by the eye.  
NOw for the general rebellion of the body, the words of our Saviour are plain, if thine eye be evil, all the body is dark; 
Mat. 6. 23.  & in the chapter going before, he instanceth: in the eye, and the hand, as the two most offensive members of the body; the one a● the counsellor to the heart, & the other as the executioner; whence S. john fitly comparing all worldly vanities to a three headed Cerberus, or 3. shaped Chimaera, placeth the lust of the eyes▪ between the lust of the world, and the pride of life; to which middle head (in my judgement) may fitly be reduced, that excessive delight, which we naturally take, in beholding one beast cruelly to worry, and devour another. And which is worse, in seeing one man combating with an other; nay with wild beasts, & that even to the pouring out of blood, & sometimes the life itself, which among the ancient Romans was usual, 
De vero cul●u l. 6. cap. 2.  as may appear by that complaint of Lactantius in his time, They are angry (saith he) with the combaters, unless one of them be slain, & as if they thirsted after human blood; they are impatient of all delay, they require fresh men to enter the lists, that they may instantly glut their eyes with an other bloody spectable. 'tis an excellent observation, that S. Augustine hath of Alipius his friend in frequenting these sports, 
Confess. l. 6. cap. 8.  that being by his advice, once withdrawn from them, and by company drawn thither again; he told them, that they might force his body thither, but his eyes, they should not, which protestation he indeed made good; until at length, a grievous wound being given by one of the Combaters, a great shout was suddenly raised, through the theatre; at which (Alipius not able any longer to forbear) opened his eyes and seeing the blood trickling down, drank in cruelty with the sight, receiving a greater wound in his soul, than the combater did in his head, neither was he now the man that came thither, but one of the many▪ unto whom he came; and a true companion, or rather captain, of those who drew him thither by force. Hither also may be referred, the lewd masking, which the Papists use in their Carnivals', or rather Bacchanals, at Shrovetide; the women marching through the open streets, in man's apparel, and the men in women's; as also the jesuits exhibiting of heaven and hell, God & the devil, the damned, and the elect, upon their stages: to which may be added, the beholding of vain & wanton pictures, such as Aretine's, ordinary among the Italians, & west Indians. But for their dangerous effect, I refer the reader to that example, 
Lib. 2. c. 17 Ex Ter.  which S. Augustine allegeth in his book of the city of God, Of a certain young man, who looking upon a painted table, in which was described jupiters' descending in a golden shower, into Danae's lap, takes hold of the next opportunity, of running into the same kind of sensuality, and defends his fact, by the Example of jupiter the great Monarch and governor of the world. Lastly, here might challenge its due place, that lascivious gross action, which is ever represented, in the French Comedies and dances▪ and sometimes in our common Mercenary interludes here at home, whe● at the greatest part, would surely otherwise rather blush, then laugh; but that they hold that place in a manner privileged: Against this abuse in plays and the christians frequenting of them, being acted by the heathen, composed of heathenish matters, and instituted in honour of there heathenish Gods●; the fathers are eloquent, & copious but especially the golden mouthed Doctor, 
Hom. 3. de David▪ & Saul sparsim.  Art thou not afraid? (saith he) dost thou not tremble to behold with the same eye, with which thou lookedst on thy bed, where the foul adultery was represented, the sacred table where the tremblable mysteries of the sacrament are performed? Whiles thou accustomest thyself to see such spectacles, insensibly, & by degrees, bidding adieu to shame & modesty, thou beginnest to entertain & practise the same. Those very women, whom their own lewdness, & unhappiness, hath prostituted to the common use, are notwithstanding covered with the dark, & secret retiring places: & even they who have sold their blushing, yet in such actions blush to be seen. But this Monster enters the▪ theatre, dares mount the stage, & doth take a pride, to play his part, in the public view & face of the world; and not only to speak & do nought, but to glory & boast in it, & which is worse to profess himself a Master & teacher of Art; so that in regard of this boldness, the brazen forehead of the stews, may justly challenge the title of Modesty.   

CAP. 8.  
How the eye was the chief occasion of original sin, & of exam●es in all those mischiefs which formerly are proved to arise from it.  
NOw for original sin, which was the first personal in our first parents, and cleaves to all their posterity as natural, 
Gen. 3. 67.  we ●inde the first outward occasion of it to have been the fairness of the apple apprehended by the woman's eye, & the punishment first inflicted on it to have been the opening of the eyes, whether of the mind or the body I dispute not. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Whence it may be in the Hebrew the same word signifieth as well an eye as a fountain; to show that from it as from a spring or fountain did flow both sin itself, the cause of sin, and misery the punishment of both; and because by the eye came the greatest hurt, therefore God hath placed in it the greatest tokens of sorrow. For from it comes tears, by which the expressing of sorrow is peculiar to man alone: in which regard i● were to be wished that men would often peruse that excellent treatise of the government of the eyes written by M Grienham, a work undertaken upon like reason no doubt, as was that practical discourse of the government of the tongue, by the late reverend, and ever renowned Mr Perkins. The former of which we doubt not but is so much the more acceptable, and useful, as the subject is more large and error dangerous; for the tongue discloseth what evil ●loweth unto it, but the eye keepeth it close which is a thing more perilous. But to proceed from reasons & precepts to examples (the most popular arguments) there doth not want in holy writ a cloud of witnesses to bring in evidence of the necessity & use of the precepts before laid down. Of covetousness in Achan, of fornication in Sichem, in David & Putaphars' wife of adultery, of gulttony in our first parents, of anger, envy, and revenge in Soul: in each of which particulars it pleased the holy Ghost (no doubt that he that readeth might consider) to set down in express terms the sense of seeing, as the first motive which drew them into these particulars. 1. for Achan we have it registered under his own confession. 
los 7. 21.  I saw among the spoil (saith he) a goodly Babylonish garment & 200 shicles of silver & a wedge of gold of 200 shicles weight, & I coveted them & took them. 2. for Sichen the text itself is clear. Then Dinah the daughter of Lea. the which she bore to jacob, 
Ge●. 34. 1.  went out to se● the daughters of the Country whom when Sichem the son of Hamor Lord of the Country saw, he took her & lay with her & defiled her. 
2. Sam. c. ● v. 2.  3 for David we find it in the forefront of this temptation, & when it was evening, saith the Text, David arose from his bed, & walked upon the roof of the King's Palace, & from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, & the woman was very beautiful to look upon, than David sent messengers & took her away and she came to him, & he lay with her. And for Put aphars wife, the Text saith that she cast her eye on joseph, 
Gen. 39 7.  and said, lie with me. 4. For Saul, the scripture is very remarkable, where it's said that after the slaughter of the Philis●ians the women sang by course, 
1 Sam. 18. ●  Saul hath slain his thousand; & David his tenthousand; wherefore Saul had an eye on David from that day forward. Lastly for our first parents Moses, the penman of God or rather the spirit of God inditing to Moses, rather than that circumstance should be unurged in content to thrust it into a parenthesis. 
Gen. 3. 6.  see the woman (saith the Text) seeing that the tree was good for meat, & that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to get knowledge, took of the fruit thereof & did eat, and gave it also to her husband, & he did eat. To these may be added, as apocrypha the example of the 2 judges in the story of Susanna of whom it's said That they saw her walking daily in her husband's garden, 
Vers. 8.  & from thence their lust was first inflamed towards her, & to conclude this point for making up the music full to this universal deluge of sin may be added the cause that drew the general flowed of waters upon the old world, which in the letter of the Text is expressed to be, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair, 
Gen. 6. 2.  and they took them▪ wives of all that they liked, & sure it is to be thought that from the eye first sprang the sin of the Sodomites conceived against the Angels which Let received because from thence their punishment first began, 
Gen. 9 11.  according to that rule of the C●vilians; 
L●si quis de servi●u●e.  who advise not so much the fact i● self, as the first original cause from whence it springs to be looked into. Upon which ground was founded that more wise than strict law of Zalencus in commanding the eyes of an adulterer to be put out as being either the chief guides or counsellors in that work▪ 
Valerius.  and his own son afterward offending in the same kind, rather than his law should be broken, content he was good man to lose one of his own eyes, by that means to redeem one of his sons. And upon the same reason of justice did Oedipus in the Poet execute upon himself the same kind of punishment: 
Sen. in oe. ●ipo act. 5.  and in the same member, though in the appearance of men for a different offence, was Henry the 2. king of France stricken by the finger of God, having that eye put out by the splinter of a staff broken in Tilting, with which not long before he had vowed to see Anne of Burge one of the Precedents of the Parliament of Paris, & some other of his associates of the reformed religion to be burnt, (if they persisted in that opinion) as Serres, and Thuanus, both French, and excellent historiographers of this age have left recorded. But to return to the matter, once of this we are sure, that the pleasing of Herod's eye by Herodias daughters dancing was that which cost john Baptists head, 
Mat. 14. 6.  the mind of man ever conceiving great & little spots by the mediation of the eye, as Laban's sheep did their young at the sight of the peeled rods which jacob laid in the watering trough. 
Gen. 30. 37.    

CAP. 9  
Of the false report, which the eye makes to the inner faculties, in the apprehension of natural things  
NEither do our eyes only▪ serve as panders, and brokers, or rather traitorous porters, for the inletting of these enemies upon the soul, but also as false reporters in natural, & artificial things, and secret intelligencers in moral matters for discovering her weakness to the world: the former of which we daily try in discerning magnitudes, distances, proportions, Colours, in which reason by conclusions drawn out of her principles often checks & controls this sense for false reporting; for instance we need go no farther than those colours which appear in the rainbow, or on a doves neck by the reflection of the sun beams, those night-chas●●s & gapings in the firmament. The seeming of Comets to be in the same distance from us, that stars and one star from another; the sparkling in the dark of precious stones, of the eyes of certain beasts, of glow-worms, of ro●ten wood, of fish bones, and the like. S. Basil in his hexameron demands the question, who it is▪ that in his own experience hath not often tried, that throw in the water a little piece of silver, seems to be double in quantity? and strait things crooked? that from the tops of high mountains, herds of cattle seem to be but Ants, and from a▪ watch tower a far of, ships under sail, but as flying doves; large square towers like little round pigeon houses, and the sea and heavens to embrace and kiss each other. These things all men know, and the greatest part acknowledge, to be errors of the eye, Though the learned only, 
Vi●●llio In opricis Ar●st▪ in lib. de sensu & sensibili & in 〈◊〉  search into and find out the causes of it; the discoverl● of which because it falls not naturally within the compass of this discourse, I will not enter upon the unfolding of it; it being withal a theme (as I conceive it) of difficulty, and tediousness alike; but will only add a conclusion most undoubted out of the rules of art, though hardly believed of the vulgar; that the sun (which the sharpest eye cannot possibly judge to be above 2. or 3. foot broad) is found by just calculation, 
●laviu●.  to exceed in bigness the whole globe of the earth and water above 166. times. Hence is it that Charron in his Treatise of wisdom (a book second to none in this age for moral discourses) and the French Academy, insisting herein in the steps of the Stoics and Academics; hold this sense rather to hinder▪ than further true, and sound knowledge: though I confess Eusebius in his preparation to the gospel, 
Lib. ●. c. 7.  and Tertullian in his book of the soul labour the contrary, but rather out of a zeal (as I conceive it) offreeing the works of God from imperfection then out of any deep philosophical discussing of this point: neither (to speak a truth) do I see how in granting an imperfection in the work we should or can from thence draw an argument of want of goodness; or wisdom in the workman, especially if the work be of such nature, as that it have in itself free will, to retain, or deface that perfection, in which it▪ was created.   

CAP. 10.  
A general discourse of the delusion of ●he eye by artificial means as also by the passions of the mind.  
I Might here take occasion to enlarge of the delusion of the sight by the subtil●ie of the devil, by the charms of sorcerers by the spells and exorcisms of conjurers▪ by the legerdemain of jugglers, by the knavery of Priests and Friars, 
See Sco●. 〈◊〉 l 13. 〈◊〉  by the nimbleness of tumblers, and ropewalkers, by the sleights of false and cunning merchants, by the smooth deportment and behaviour of Hypocrites, by the stratagems of generals, by the giddiness of the brain, by the distemper of frenzies, and lastly, by the violent passions of fear, and melancholy; besides a thousand pretty conclusions drawn out of the bowels of natural Philosophy, and the mathematics; by the burning of certain mixed powders, oils, & liquors. By the casting of false lights, by● the reflection of glasses, and the like; of which kind I will only set down one conclusion, which myself have seen often practised, to the great astonishment of such, as beholding it, understood not the reason o● it. The practice is thus; take a study, or closet, where (by closing the wooden leaves) you may shut out all the light: then bore an hole, through the midst of one of the leaves to the bigness of a pease, and cover it with a piece of spectacle glass, and when the sun shines on the ground before the window, hold on the inside right before the hole (to the distance of two foot or thereabout) a sheet of white paper or a large piece of fair linen; and you shall perfectly discern by the shadows; the shapes, and motions of men, and dogs, and horses, & birds, with the just proportion of trees, and chimneys, and towers, which fall within the compass of the sun near the window.  
To this artificially Conclusion, of deluding the sight may be● added a pleasant merry i●st out of Cashlios' Courtier, 
Lib. ●.  of a gentleman who having lost all his money at dice, and getting to bed in a great chafe, instead of praying fell a cursing, and so a sleep; which his fellows perceiving, thought to put a trick upon him by putting out there lights & making a noise as if they had continued there play, whereat he suddenly awaking out of his new sleep, falls to his old railing, that having gotten his money they were set upon it purposely to vex him, having no light to see what they did; they told him he was either mad or blind; to think that they would play without light or not to see it standing full in his eye; to which he replies that if they spoke in earnest he had indeed lost his sigh● supposing it to be a plague of God sent upon him for wishing it so often on others: they to ripen the rest confirmed him in his opinion till at length they brought him to vow to our Lady I know not how many fasts & pilgrimages for the recovery of his sight; which being performed falling heartily to his prayers he falls a sleep; now was the time to work the feat; his Companions cause lights to be conveyed into the chamber and renewing the former noise, awake him the second time, 
Le d●nger pass Le Saint est ●rompè.  who now perceiving the lights which he saw not before gave God & our Lady solemn thanks for the recovery of his sight, but performed his vows at leisure.   

CAP. 11.  
Of the delüsion of the sight, by the immediate working of the devil.  
NOw for the other particulars above named, I will not dwell upon any of them, but will only point at some choice examples in the chiefest. First then for the devils sub●iltie in deceiving the sight, 'tis a matter agreed on on all hands▪ that he hath the power, (Vertum●us or Proteus like) to turn himself into any shape, or (Chameleon like) into any colour: nay which is more, whereas the chameleon cannot change himself into white; yet can the Devil transform himself into an Angel of light: and not only himself, but other things in such sort, that sometimes he makes them seem to be present when they are not, and sometimes not to seem when they are, and at other times again, to appear in another shape and fashion than they are indeed, & in their own nature. In all which kinds I find among the Dutch writers plentiful & rare examples, 
De spectris Von Zau. ●erey.  but chiefly in Lavater & Whitikind, who hath written the best in this kind of any I have met with; but in Dutch and under the name of Augustin Larcheimer. For the practice then, of making things appear to be present which indeed are not; the former of them brings this story. 
Lau. part▪ 1. de de spect●is ex Alb. Cran●z●o l. 4. c 5.  Henry the second Emperor of that name, uchemently suspecting Chunegund his empress, for using false play with a Courtier too familiar with her, his jealousy was (as he thought) justly increased, for that the Courtier was often seen to come forth of her chamber, early in the morning▪ and alone; but the good Empress, being put to her purgation by the Ordalian law for the clearing of this unjust surmise, walked over fire hot culters, with naked feet, unhurt, which discovered to the world, as well her innocency, as the devils policy, in counterfeiting such a shape and using it in such sort, as might most incense the Emperor, and draw the Empress, with others, into undeserved suspicion. The same author, in the same book, relateth that himself had heard of a wise, and grave man, one of the chief governors of the Tigurin Canton; that himself, and his servant, travailing in a summers morning, through the meadows, he saw (as him seemed) one of his neighbours committing bestiality with a Mare, but knowing the good honest report of the man, and thereby misdoubting his own eyes, he gets him presently to his house; where he finds him good man, in his bed, fast a sleep. Wherein we may see, as in the one, the devils business, in abusing the weakness of this sense, so in the other God's providence in clearing the innocent. I urge these examples to this end, that if these men had trusted there own sight, and not made farther search they had surely incurred what the devil by those ●leights hunteth after, the offending of God, and the endangering there own souls in the shedding of innocent blood. If I might without tediousness, I would add one history more, of the devils cunning in making things appear which indeed are not, which took effect according to his design. (I confess I urge it not so much for the fitness, as the strangeness of the story.) It fell out in the year 1282. in a town named Hammel, under the Duke of Brunswikes dominion, an odd mate coming thither under the habit of a Rat-catcher, and having done good service to the town, for which he was but poorly rewarded; one day he walks through the street; playing on his tabor and pipe, by which mea●es, a number of the children of the town, flocking after him, followed him so far, till at length coming without the gates, he led them all into a little hillock, where they all vanished together, & were never seen after to the number of 130. The relation I know cannot but seem very strange, and therefore will hardly passed for credible, but Wierus a German borne & chief Physician to the Duke of Cleves and (as his works show) a professed enemy to monkish fables, 
Li. 10. 16. de prae●lig. daemonum  constantly affirms, out of his own experience, that the act is at this day to be seen registered in the records of the town, and painted forth in the glass-window of the cathedral▪ church, and besides that the street through which they passed, bears his name of the accident, and their ancient public instruments of law, as bands, & leases bear date, as well from the year of the departure of there children, as from the incarnation of Christ; which inducements me thinks, are able to make a man swallow a greater difficulty.  
Now for the devils second practice, in deceiving the sight, by making things not appear which indeed are present, I find a memorable example, which happened not long since, 
Whitikin. dus cap. 6.  at Francfort upon Odera an university belonging to the marquess of Brandeburg, where a certain maid possessed as they thought, would often thrust her empty hand into the open air, and draw it back full of ven this is nothing else but a delusion of the sight either by fitting the skins of such beasts to the bodies of men and women, who by a deep strong imagination, or natural disease, suppose themselves to be such indeed, as they seem to be; or by applying to them airy bodies; which sometimes to be so is manifest in that being torn with the teeth of dogs, or stricken with staves, their former shape soon vanisheth, but the print of the blow remaineth. To which purpose Whitikind I remember maketh report of an old woman in the Dukes of Meckelburges country, 
12.  who appearing in the shape of a great Mastiff dog the hounds espying her, ran with full mouth upon her, & the country hinds with pronges, and pike staves, fell about her, till at length she being sore wounded, the shape of the Mastiff vanished, and nothing was left to the slake, out a poor silly old woman, begging mercy & pardon: this news being brought to the University of Francford, where our Author then lived, jodochus Willi●hius their professor of physic, from thence took occasion to discourse of this point now in hand, and in the end approved that conclusion which we have above proved. The patrons of the contrary opinion, as Bodin, & Sprenger in his book of the hammer of witches, urge the real transfiguration of Ulysses' followers into beasts, 
〈…〉  Diomedes soldiers into birds, & that unsavoury ridiculous tale, of an egg which a witch in the kingdom of Cyprus, near the city Salamin sold to an Englishman, and by the same transformed him into an ass; and made him her market Mule three years, and that at last she remetamorphised him into the shape of a man again. Besides these they bring the transformation of divers passengers in Italy in the time of S. Augustine, being there, into carriage horses, by certain alewives, but chiefly they stand upon Nabucadnesars' change in to a beast, and Lots wi●e into a pillar of salt: to which I answer that these changes are either to be understood to have happened rather in the affections of the mind, then in the figure of the body, or if so, rather by the immediate finger of God, them by the working of the devil and for those real true effects, which seem to be the inseparable companions of a real change, as swift running, devouring of children, undergoing of great burdens, and the like; I hold some of them to have been performed by the devil himself in a seeming fantastic body; others in the bodies of beasts, possessed by himself; and lastly not a few, by beasts themselves▪ suddenly conveyed into the place of such; as witches suppose they have transformed all by the delusion of the eye, and none of them by any real or true change: it being no more possible▪ for the reasonable soul of a man to dwell in the body of a beast, then for the unreasonable soul of a beast to dwell in a man's body; which if we● should grant, I see no reason but upon the same ground, aswell a gap might be opened, and way be given to Pythagoras' dream of the interchangable recourse of souls, from beasts to men, & from men to beasts again.   

CAP. 13.  
Of the delusion of the eye, by the exorcisms of Conjurers.  
FOr the exorcisms of Conjurers, and Necromancers, in raising the dead, that one example of the witch of Endor is sufficient, 
〈◊〉. 1. 28.  to prove them all mere delusions of the sight, it being not to be thought, (besides the general reason, that the souls of the righteous, are in the hands of God) that the true Samuel would be drawn to answer him, whom God had denied to answer by dreams, by urim, or by Prophets; or that Samuel would have suffered Saul, to have done him worship by inclining his face to the ground, and bowing himself; or lastly, understanding that Saul was rejected of God, would notwithstanding▪ have assured him of being with him the next morrow, except we should affirm, the good, & the bad, the castwaies, & the chosen to go both to one place. Though the Papists indeed, to maintain their Limbus, and their purgatory fire (which except, they still keep in, ●hat of the Pope's kitchen will soon go out) would needs have it to be a true real apparition, grounding themselves upon these words, 
V. 14.  & Saul knew that it was Samuel, which in my understanding, enforce not so much a certain knowledge, as a full persuasion which grew no doubt, out of the cunning & artificial counterfeit, which he saw represented before his eyes: the devils art being strange in that kind, as may appear by the apparition of, Marry Duchess of Burgundy to her husband Maximilian afterward Emperor, raised by Trithemius Abbot of Spainheim at the Emperors own request out of a vain curiosity of seeing her once again. The Ghost (as the story sets it down) did in all parts so living represent the dead Empress that not so much as a little black wart, which she had in the hinderpart of her nacke, was wanting▪ as both the Emperor himself & the standers by did well observe Cornelius Agrippa, & john F●ustus were renowned in this kind, for under this head may fitly be ranged the showing of the visage of such in a looking-glass, as had stolen any thing, or committed any villainy, and lay unknown; the pre●enting of banquets only for show to please the eye, by deceiving it; nor for substance to delight the taste, or content the stomach. But of all I have heard, or read of this nature, the rarest was that of Albert us Magnus, who living at Colen, and the Emperor William Earl of Holland passing that way, from his coronation at Aix, and hearing of ●his merry Monk, 
〈◊〉 cap. 8.  desirous to see some of his tricks, sent for him, and after kind entertainment, acquainted him with his purposes the Monk not scrupulous of she wing his art, thus drawn in began to set the spirit of his wits, or rather the wit of his spirits awork; and not long after caused the chamber, where was the Emperor, with his Courtiers about him, suddenly to be flored over with green gras●e, herbs, plants, flowers, roots, & trees among: upon which were delicate fruits, and birds; some singing, others chirping, to the great admiration, and astonishment of the beholders; It being in the dead of winter, a perfect representation of the spring.   

CAP. 14.  
Of the delusion of the eye by the imposture of Priests and Friar's.  
FOr the knavery of Priests, & Friars without doubt the greatest part of those Ghosts, fairs, pixes, hobgobling, that have been seen to walk in former ages have been set a foot by these people; partly to get money to their coffers, in causing them ever to beg somewhat for the Church; and partly reputation to their order in showing the virtue of their exorcisms upon them: The like may be said of the sweeting, and weeping of their images, of the rolling of their eyes, & nodding of the heads. It is worth the remembering which Erasmus recounts to this purpose, of a Priest▪ who a little before Easter in the night, 
Lib. 22. Epist. penult.  conveyed into his church yard live crabs, fastening little wax candles burning▪ to their sides, they creeping in this sort about the graves, made a fearful show in the night, and none dared come near to discover it. The report being cast abroad, was entertained with a fearful kind of reverence of the most, and the wisest were content to be hoodwinked for company. The next sunday comes the Priest, to play his part, and out of the pulpit tells them very seriously that these walking spirits were the souls of their dead friends, who being sore tormented in purgatory begged to be loosed from those pains, by masses & alms; this persuasion went currant, until at length by the negligence, or forgetfulness of the Priest, two or three of the crabs were found in the day time among the rubbish, with▪ the candles sticking to their sides, by which means the knavery was detected and the Priest punished. To these may be added those▪ comical impostures for the casting out of devils practised by Priests, and jesuits, in which the principal part is proved to be nothing else but the delusion of the beholder's sight; and Geoffrey Chaucer, who had his two eyes, wit, and learning in his head, spying that all these brainless imaginations were the forgeries, and legerdemain of crafty and lecherous friars either to mask their venery, or to enrich their treasures, plays upon them thus▪ 
For there as w●nt to walken was an Else  
There walketh now the limitor himself  
In every bush and under every tree.  
There is no other incubus but he.    

CAP. 15.  
Of the delusion of the sight by the distemper of the brain.  
FOR the distemper of the brain the case is clear in Aix, who ran upon an heard of Swine, with his drawn sword in his hand, supposing it to have been the army of the Grecians. & hung up the two greatest hog●▪ taking them for Agamemnon, & Ulysses, the former as his competitor, and the latter as a partial judge; the like we read of Pentheu● who in his mad mood▪ thought he saw two suns, and two cities of Thebes; of Orestes▪ who saw his mother in his sister and Agave wild beasts in her children. These mistakes were in raging persons; but others there as much mistaken▪ howbeit in a merrier vain, as he of whom Aristotle speaks in his book of wonders, who living in the City of Abydos in Asia▪ would spend whole days by himself alone in the empty theatre; commending the Actors, and clapping his hands as if he▪ had seen some stately tragedy.   

CAP. 16.  
Of the delusion of the eye by the smooth carriage of Hypocrites.  
FOR the smooth and cunning deportment of hypocrites, and dissemblers, I need not go farther than common experience, to show that there special skill consists in casting a mist before the eye of the world: which the Cynic, no doubt, well understood when he cried out that the grave beard, and the long cloak he saw, but the philosopher he saw not. Whence it is that these kind of men, are ever painted forth unto us by the resemblance of things, which most deceive our sight; as of Wolves masked under Sheep skins, of tombs, or monuments, which on the outside are whited over, and sometimes set out with curious works, in metals and carved stones, of divers colours, but within are full of rottenness, and dead men's bones: of Apothecary's boxes which without are fairly painted▪ but within are full of poisons: of tragedy books which without have covers of velvet, with strings of silk, and clasps of silver, but within are full of perjuries, and murders, and incests: of those apples, which are reported to grow in the land; where Sodom stood, 
Solinus.  which appear exceeding fair, & beautiful to the eye, but being once touched with the finger they moulder into ashes: of the hill Aetna which without is ever cold & white with a mantle of Snow but within burns with continual flames▪ of the Egyptian temples, which without shine with gold, and scat, and marble, but have within some secret isle, a Crocodile or serpent for the God, unto which they are dedicated: of those pictures which on the one side represent a fair gentlewoman, & on the other, an horned Satire: Lastly of Cebes tables in which pleasure, and good fortune are seated in● the forefront; but grie●e and punishment, and revenge, and despair, lie hidden in a dark obscure corner behind. So that except a man had the eyes of those Spaniards (which Delrio in his magical disquisitions reports himself to have seen at Madrid) who could see into the bowels of the solid earth, 
Lib. ●. Cap. 3. Qu. 4.  and there discern minerals, and quarries, & springs; It is impossible but that in our ordinary conversing with men, we should often with Esop's dog catch at shadows, and let go substances.   

CAP. 17.  
Of the delusion of the eye by stratagems of war.  
LAstly for stratagems of war I will instance only in two, the one of our own chronicles devised by Stygan, Archbishop of Canterbury, and put upon William the Conqueror at his entrance into Kent; by commanding his soldiers ready armed to range themselves into their squadrons with young trees, or big boughs in their hands, & so to attend the coming of their enemy; the conqueror, (according to the Archbishop's project) supposing he had seen a wood before him, and still marching towards it, found himself to be wrapped in the midst of his enemies, before he could descry where they lay in camped. The other is out of the Roman history, 
Livy.  invented by Hannibal, & put upon Fabius, by tying wads of straw to Oxe-hornes, which being fired, and the Oxen let loose toward the enemies camp, in the dead of the night, some of them affrighted with the sight, as it drew nearer and nearer toward them, withdrew themselves from there tents, & by little and little drew the rest after, till at length Hannibal found a clear coast to escape with his army, being before hardly beset, and in great straits. To these may be added two other famous oversights in war, of the same nature with the former, but differing in this, in that they were rather incurred, then imposed; The former by Charles Duke of Burgundy, 
Comines.  who lying at the siege of Paris; and having certain intelligence of the kings drawing toward him, for the raising of it, sent out his scouts to discover the coast, but the day being somewhat far spent, and cloudy withal, they took a field not far of, overgrown with high thistles, 
9 26.  to be the king's pikemen (as Gaal in the book of judges took the shadows of the● tops of the mountains to be men) which errour●caused afterward in the Duke's army much trouble and some loss. 
2. King. 3. 21.  The latter is of the Moabites who mistook the morning shining of the sun upon the waters for the colouring of blood: the words of the ●ext be these, & when the Moabites heard that the kings were come up to fight against them, they gathered all that were able to bear harness, and upward▪ and stood in their border, and they rose early in the morning, when the sun arose upon the waters, and the Moabites saw the water over against them, as red as blood, and they said the kings are surely slain & one hath smitten another: now therefore Moab to the spoil; & when they came up to the host of Israel, the Israelits arose & smo● the Moabits so that they fled before them, but they invaded them & smote Moab, not much unlike this serious narration is that jest which d' Accords puts on the Duke of Vandosme, the common tabor of the french wits; who (after their fashion) having caused his wine (in the heat of summer) for the better qualifying and refreshing of it, to be let down in a bucket, into the bottom of his well, and not long after going forth to see the manner of ●●t having never before seen his face in the water and then suddenly espying it, but not understanding from whence it should proceed, runs in in all haste, and cries for help for the beating down of the Antipodes, who were drinking his wine in the bottom of the well.   

CAP. 18.  
Of the delusion of the eye by painting.  
THESE later examples may not unfitly be reduced to the delusion of the sight, wrought by the ignorance of natural causes; but among all artificial deceiving of the eye, (whereof I intended in this place chiefly to speak) that of painting, and limming is the most noble; by which not only unreasonable creatures, as birds by flying at painted grapes have been deceived; but men also, nay (which is more) a painter himself; bidding his Corrival (if he feared not shame) by his work, to draw his curtain, & present his table to the public censure; whereas the curtain was indeed but counterfeit; and by that means was the price adjudged the latter, for that the one had deceived birds only, the other men. For so it is that this sense which I find not in any of the rest, is so bewitched that it's then most delighted, when 'tis most deceived, by shadowings, and landscapes, and in mistaking counterfeits for truths   

CAP. 19  
That the eyes serve not only as treacherous porters, and false reporters in natural and artificial things, but also as secret intelligencers, for discovering the passions of the mind and diseases of the body.  
NEIther do our eyes only serve as false reporters to the mind, in natural and artificial things, but as secret intelligencers, in moral matters, for discovering her weakness to the world. Thus by a fierce sparkling eye, we discover anger; by an open staring eye, unstaidnes: by a rolling unsettled eye wantonness; by a hollow wan eye, envy▪ and jealousy; by a haughty scornful eye pride; by a narrow dejected eye, baseness; by a dull fixed eye, heaviness of spirit; many times to the shame, & sometimes to the disadvantage of him that is discoured; his enemies by this means gaining advantage to work upon that passion, by which they see him Possessed, or to which they judge him most inclined: 
Prov. 17. 24.  to this agrees that of Solomon, wisdom is in the face of him, that hath understanding; 
3. 16.  but the eyes of a fool are in the corners of the world, and of Esar, 
Eccle. 9 7.  the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with stretched out necks & with wandering eyes, wherefore the ●on of Siraches council is good, go not thou gazing about in the streets of the city, neither wander thou in the secret places thereof, for a wise man will easily descry thee, & he that hath understanding will know thy thoughts. Nether are passions of the mind alone, but withal the diseases of the body, and in them their increasing & decreasing, by the eye more than by any other part, laid open to the view of the world: whence it is that Hypocrates out of his own observations rightly counsels practitioners in physic in visiting their Pati●nts to view the face well, and in it especially the eye, be cause by nothing sooner is the ability or weakness of the inner faculty discerned; & hence it● is that Orpheus terms the eyes the looking glass of nature, Aphrodiseus the casements of the soul, and Blemor the Arabian went so far as to affirm that the soul had her principal dwelling & mansion house in the eyes. Here then let Momus be summoned to nature's court, & pay her honourable amends, for having injuriously accused her, that in the fabric of man's body there wanted crystal windows in the breast, to discover the thoughts, & divers passions of the heart to the world.   

CAP. 20.  
Of the infinite diseases & casualties which the eye is subject unto.  
NOW besides this secret intelligence, which the eye gives the world of the souls weakness, & the body's imperfectons; I find themselves subject to far more diseases from within, and casualties from without, than any other member. 
Lib. 1. c. 11  Charron in his book of wisdom counts the diseases only to be sixscore, 
Lib. 7. c. 20  but Rhodigin, who runs over the particulars, brings in a catalogue of a greater number, and Laurentius in his treatise of the eye, purposing to speak of this matter begins in this manner. I will not undertake (saith he) in this place to set down any exact description of the diseases of the eye, it being an enterprise to tedious, which would require at least an hundred several chapters, the particulars are so infixit. And sure if we consider aright the divers pieces, & parcels of the eye, as the three humours, the 7 tunicles, the muscles, the veins, the arteries, the nerves, the spirits, & withal understand that each of these hath his several diseases proper to it, besides those which are many times imparted from the distemper of the brain (with which the eye holds a marvelous correspondence) and those which are incident to the whole bal of the eye as excess, or defect in quantity, improper situation, or figuration, or the like, cannot but conceive as much as is before affirmed, especially if to these internal diseases we join those external accidents, offensive to it, wind, dust, smoke, gnats, strains, stripes, bruises, sometime to the diminution, and sometime to the depravation, and not seldom to the total loss and perishing of the sight. But above all it is most considerable that light the very object in which it most delighteth, and comforteth itself, it notwithstanding most hurtful, and dangerous to it by dispersing and dissolving (as it were) the optic spirits; as may appear by S. Paul stricken blind, with a light from heaven, which suddenly shoane round about him: and by Zenophons' soldiers who traveling many days, through the snow, the greatest part of them lost their sight; To this end, 'tis worth the remembering, which Galen mentioneth in his tract of the sight, 
Lib. 10 de usu partii●. Cap. 3.  that Dionysius the tyrant of Sicily being disposed to punish any with blindness, would first cast them into a deep dungeon in which was no crevice, or chincke for admission of the sun beams, where having kept them by the space of certain days, they were in a clear sunshine weather, immediately from thence brought into a higher chamber full of lights, and all pa●ieted over with a bright kind of plaster; by which means surfiting (as it were) and glutting their eyes upon this new fresh lustre, within a while ●according to the tyrant's design) they became flarke blind. The truth of this assertion is also proved by the experience of seeing the stars at noon day, from the bottom of a deep well, or when the sun is eclipsed (as Thucydides witnesseth it happened in his time) the sight being otherwise so dazzled with the clearness of the sunbeams, that it cannot possibly apprehend or discern those lesser lights in presence of the greater. But beside these assaults of the sight from without, and diseases arising from the natural disposition from within'nt; divers kinds of meats, and sauces there are, in our ordinary diet, which serve as much to diminish or deprave the sight, as to nourish or augment the body. Of these D. Baily in his treatise of the preservation of the eye sight, hath mustered up a fair troop; which mixed withsome other accidents, the school of Salerne hath notwithstanding summarily, and pithily comprehended in a few verses, and and because they are happily rendered by S. john Harrington, I will set them down in our own mother tongue. 
Wine, women, baths, by ar● or nature wrought,  
Onions, garlic, mustard seed, ●ire, and light,  
Smoke, bruises, dust, pepper●to powder brought,  
beans, l●tiles, strains, wind, tears, & Phoebus' bright.  
And all sh●rpe things our eye sight do molest.  
Yet watching hurts them more than all the rest.  Among wh●ch one hath unhappily marked two things, as offensive to the sight, which notwithstanding are most necessary in the life of man, hic & haec ignis, the one to the preservation of mankind, and the other of particulars. The former of which notwithstanding is found to be less offensive to the eye ●ight in other countries, especially in the higher Germany than 'tis here with us; there being ever in their hypocausts a convenient warmth, howbeit the fire be never seen; so that, the scorching heat (which is it that dries the crystalline humour, ● & by that means hurts the eye) is not felt in those parts. Others there are, who note two other things, as useful in another kind & yet as offensive to the eye, ● to that purpose allege the authority of the same author. 
She that ha●h hap a husband ●●d to bury,  
And is therefore in ha●t, not sad, bu● meri●;  
Yet if in show good manners she will keep,  
●nions, and mustardseed will make her weep●.  But for my part I took especial notice of watching, and tears, the one being the readiest means to gain knowledge & the other to give vent to our grie●es, to which may be added fasting, as hurtful to the sight & yet more useful in a Christian man's life then any yet named.   

CAP. 21.  
That the eye is not so useful fon the gathering of knowledge, as is pretended, whether we consider it absolutely in itself, or in respect of the hearing.  
AND surely for the gaining of knowledge, I durst confidently affirm, that were the eye never so indefatigable in watching, or informed the inner faculties aright in all it apprehended; yet in most things 〈◊〉 it not possibly without the help of hearing, hunt out the truth, since as well in the works of art as nature, that which hath greatest force in actuating, & quickening the thing we see (as the soul in the body) is notwithstanding itself for the most not seen; the stateliness of houses, the goodliness of trees, when we behold them, delighteth the eye; but the foundation which beareth up the one, and the root which to the other ministereth sap and juice, is in the bosom of the earth concealed. And generally the sight is not capable, but of corporal, accidental, particular things; and in them only of their crust, and surface, and that only in direct objects, and by help of the light: whereas the hearing apprehends all manner of sounds, from all difference● of places, as well from behind as from before, & that at all times as well in the dark, as in the day, and that which chiefly makes for the increase of knowledge, universalls, immaterials, and the inward parts of things. Therefore Socrates as for other things, so for this among the rest was adjudged by the oracle the wisest living; that casting his eyes upon a fair but silent face, he bid him speak, that he might see him: as if he had said in other terms that the sense of hearing, makes more to the understanding of the true nature of things, then that of seeing; and in this case one care witness is of more value than ten eie-witnesses. Thus do we judge by the hearing only of the temper of metals, the soundness of timber, the emptiness of vessels, the deepness of waters; & ordinarily, in the course of life●, we find the hearing to be the sense of precept▪ & rule, safe, and certain alike; but● the other of example, and imitation no less dangerous▪ than uncertain. Whence it is that we have heard of many blind men who have become famous for wisdom & learning; but of deaf men we have not heard of any: for which cause (as I suppose) in our common law such as are borne dea●e●, though they see perfectly well, yet are they ranked among mad men, lunatic persons, and children, whom (as Bracton affirmeth) in cases of felony, their very want of common reason and understanding privilegeth from the ordinary punishment inflicted by law: but for such as are borne blind● I find no such privilege▪ the law supposing them to be as capable of reason as others, & no● only capable to conceive reason but to express it as well by speech as writing, which in men borne deaf is not only unusual, but (in mine understanding) impossible. Whereupon in the civil law, though they be indeed excluded from intercession or postulation as they call it, (though upon a blind 
h Quod in signia magistratus vider●●on p●ssi●●●● p. 1. l. 3▪ ●. 1.  reason in my judgement) yet are they not forbidden to supply the places of judges, or magistrates, it being not the blindness of the body, but of the mind, 
Lib. quaest. illust.  which taketh away the faculty of judging; as the judicious Hottoman hath well stated the question; 
Quest. 28.  affirming withal, in the same place, that he seeth no Canonical hindrance, but that me● blind from their very birth, may be sufficiently instructed in the civil law, and other liberal sciences. Upon which grounds I well remember, at the last commencement save one held at Cambridge, 'twas proved, & defended that a blind man might lawfully supply the place of a judge. And thus much myself da●e confidently affirm, that want of sight is many times the occasion of cutting of partial respects, than which nothing is more inwardly necessary to the office, and rightful proceeding of a judge. Now how forward we are to pass our judgement according to the outward appearance, let that one example of Samuel (one of the uprightest judges that ever Israel bred) suffice to prove, 
1. Sam. 16. 27.  who being commanded by God to anoint one of the sons of Ishai, king of Israel: when they were all come before him, he looked on Eliab the eldest & said, surely the Lords anointed is before him but the Lord said unto Samuel look not on his countenance nor on the height of his stature, because I have refused him, for God se●th not as man seeth, for man looketh on the outward appearance, but God beholdeth the heart, 
2▪ ●.  which in effect is the same thing that Saint james condennes in his Epistle to the 12. tribes, if there come into your company (saith he) a man with a gold ring & goodly apparel, & there come in also a poor man in vile raiment & you have a respect to him that weareth the gay clothing are ye not partial in yourselves, & are become judges of evil thoughts? When the evangelical Prophet Esay speaking of the Messias; 
10. 2 3.  tells us that the spirit of wisdom & council shall rest upon him▪ & immediately adds this as an effect flowing from it, or a ●igne to discern it by, he shall not judge according to the sight of the eyes. Commend not● therefore a man in his beauty, 
Ecclesiast.  nor despise a man in his outward appearance. Now besides the cutting off of these partial respects in a judge, blindness also occasioneth (as is already proved at large) the taking away of lustful looks, which as often pervert the course of justice, as may appear in the story of Susanna, and by that worthy speech of Pericles to Sophocles, who admiring and commending the fair face of a boy that passed by, Pericles telleth him plainly, that not only the Praetor's hands ought to be clean from bribes, but his e●es too (& that much ●ather) from lustful looks. But now to return again from the particular office of a judge, to the general point proposed which was the gathering of knowledge and wisdom: we read that Democ●itus supposing the sharpness of his sight to hinder the quickness of his wit; was content to pluck out both his eyes for the better compassing of that one end, which he attained so●wel, 
Tuscul. 5.  that (as Tully witnesseth of him,) though he were not able to pu● a difference between blacks and whites, yet was he able to distinguish between good and bad, just and unjust, honest and dishonest; & without the variety of colours could he live happily, without the knowledge of things he could not; and when others saw not that which lay before their ●ee●e, he traveled through all infinity, setting no stint● to his boundless conceit: and surely I for my part am clearly of opinion that howbeit his practice in this case, be not allowed, much less his example to● be followed, yet the reason and ground of the action was not so strange, and ridiculous as some men have conceited it, it being a necessary certain means for the unity of the thoughts, and by it redoubling of their force, which by the sight are commonly distracted in the variety of objects; & by consequent loose much even of their natural strength; the truth of this assertion partly appears in that little but excellent description of the Spaniards life, in which among all the masters of all conditions whom Lazarillo de Tormes served we find none comparable to his blind master, for the smelling out of his knaveries; but yet more fully in our night meditations, which by reason of the restraint of our sight spring from our most retired thoughts; and by that means for the most part savour as much of judgement, and ripeness, as those of the morning of quick and ready dispatch; for which cause (as I suppose) the greeks have given the same name to the night and good invention: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and one of the sharpest Philosophers that ever put pen to paper, 
Sco●us.  borrowed his name from darkness. Besides it is noted of our Saviour (whose imitable actions, 
Ma●. 6. 6.  ought ever to be our patterns) that he prayed oftener in the night, or alone in the garden or upon the mountain, then in the day or in the presence of company; and himself commands us the practice of the same exercise retired a part and our chamber door shut: & surely reason me thinks teacheth us thus much, that the soul being shut up, and kept in from peeping out, and as it were gazing abroad through the casements of the body, she must by constraint reflect her beams upon the contemplation of herself, and such things as she hath before apprehended.   

CAP. 22.  
Containing an answer to an objection, that man alone hath therefore given him an upright figure of body to the end he might behold the heavens.  
IF any here object that God hath given man above all other creatures an erect and upright countenance, and (as the Anatomists have observed) one nerve more then to bruit beasts, for the turning of the eye upward, to the end he might behold the heavens, and in them, (as in large characters drawn in fair velom) the glory of their maker; I answer that man indeed considered in the state of integrity, might & would have made excellent use thereof; but in the state of corruption the greatest part, either thereby are induced to Idolatry (as hath been before showed) or which is no less pardonable with Thales whiles they look up into heaven, fall into the ditch of curiosity, and presumption, and from the contemplation of the stars (notwithstanding that in producing particular effects, they concur only as universal causes) (rushing into the chair of God) have peremptorily decreed of the alteration of whole states, the destinies of Princes, and private men: secrets no doubt sealed up and fast locked within the bosom of the eternal wisdom; but only when itself pleaseth upon extraordinary occasions; to disclose & to impart them to the sons of men; and (which is worth the observing) whiles these men pretend to ●ee in the stars the notable actions, and events of the whole world, (as Menippus is ●abled to have done from the circle of the moon,) yet know they not many times what is acted in their own closerts, by their own servants, and children, or with their wives & daughters in their own houses. Parallel with these figure-flinggers may not unfitly be matched those fortune-tellers, who undertake to foretell men and women's marriages & fortunes by their pretended art of Physiognomy and chiromancy, the one con●isting in beholding the trays of the visage, & the other the lines of the hand; but the folly of both appears in that one wise answer of Socrates to a professor of these arts, who looking steadfastly on him, and out of the grounds of his profession pronouncing him to be viciously given, Socrates replies that indeed he said somewhat, if a man lived as a beast, and followed the disposition of his inbred corrupt nature, not rectified by education or moral virtue.   

CAP. 23.  
Setting down at large the hindrances of the eye in the service of God.  
NOW to proceed from the little service which the eye performs us in the gaining of knowledge to the ill offices which it supplies in spiritual exercises, let every man in this case but examine his own conscience, either when himself speaks to God in prayer, or when God speaks to him in preaching (which two are as it were the ascending and descending Angels in Jacob's ladder) & he shall surely find, that the div●l takes occasion to withdraw his mind from the ●crious thoughts of those exercises by nothing more than by the wandering of the eye. For the prevention of which mischief we see those that are appointed to die in commending themselves to God before the stroke of justice, and others, as well at thanksgiving at meals, as other public prayers, close their eyes, and cover their faces; which howbeit sun others censure, yet do I nothing doubt but the practice of it fi●st grew out of a sensible feeling of this kind of temptation. 
1. Cor. 1●▪ 〈◊〉  Whence it is that S. Paul commands wome to be covered in the church, by reason of the Angels either least the bad Angels, by that means take occasion to stir up ill thoughts (as some interpreters think) or lest the minister who is elsewhere named the Angel of God▪ should thereby take offence (as others are of opinion:) which custom remained among the Corinthians (unto whom S. Paul wrote this epistle) unto Tertullians' time, as himself witnesseth in his book de velandis virginibus, in which he disputs excellently for this present purpose. Such (saith he) are the eyes of the virgin that desires to be seen, as those that desire to see her, the sā● kind of eyes desire interchangeably to see one another, and it proceeds from the same root, the forwardness to see & to be seen; wherefore let the virgin fly to her head co●ering as to her helmet or targ●t, by which she may defend herself against the assaults of temptation & against all the darts of scandal, suspicion, surmise, & emulation. I beseech thee, whether thou be a mother, or a sister, or a daughter, cover thy head; if a mother, for thy son's sake; if a sister, for thy brethren's sake; if a daughter, for thy father's sake; for all ages are endangered in you: put on therefore the armour of modesty, entrench your selves within the bulwark of shame facenesse, build up a wall for the weakness of your sex, that neither your own eyes may pierce through it, nor admit others; for I cannot imagine how she should escape unpunished, who is unto others the cause of falling, for he perisheth through thy beauty, & thou art be come a sword to him. The Arabian women then shall judge you, who cover not their head alone, but (as Susanna before the judges, & Rebecca before Iscac) the whole face in such sort as they are content rather to see with one eye, then in seeing with both to have their whole face seen. In regard whereof for aught I know, 'tis no discommendable order which the jews (who derive the name of a virgin from retiring & hiding herself) observe at this day in their Synagogues, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  that their men have their seats in a room apart, and the women apart by themselves, there passing only a thin partition between them, in imitation of which there is a Church lately built in the Duke of Wirtenberges country, at the Dukes own charge, the fashion of which is so contrived, that neither the men see the women, nor the women the men, & yet both hearth minister sufficiently alike; & surely to speak a truth) for aught myself have seen or heard by report of others, or read out of written relations) I think nowhere in Christendom is the like freeness for the promiscuous sitting of men & women together, as in our English churches; especially our women wearing no manner of vail, which in other countries is useful not only in their Churches, but in their streets too; 
Villamont lib. 3. cap. 1  in which kind the very Turks as a french gentleman reports (who lived long among them) are so precise, that if a woman passing by discover any part of her body naked, if but her hand, they esteem her little better than a courtesan; and the same gentleman in his first book of the same work, discovering the manners of the Venetian women notes that their virgins being once passed 14. years of age, until the day of their marriage, never step over the threshal of their father's door, but only upon Easter day, to hear mass and receive their creator (as they term it) which done the poor souls return immediately into their former prisons, there to remain, and expect the coming of a husband. So that it is to be feared ●east those Arabians, & jews, & Turks, & Papists, shall one day rise in judgement against those Christians, who present themselves before God and his holy Angels; in the assembly of his Saints, with painted faces & naked breasts, as if they came rather to be seen of men, than (as David speaks) to see the beauty of God in his Temple.   

CAP. 24.  
That supposing the ●ight hinders not, yet is it proved that it furthers there's little in matter of religion, together with the answers to sundry objections belonging to that purpose.  
NEither, to speak a truth, see I what great use we have of our seeing though rightly guided in the furtherance of the service of God or our own salvation, but only in beholding the outward circumstances of the sacraments, the want of which may also sufficiently be recompensed by the other senses of feeling & smelling, but especially hearing and tasting; whence it is that men borne deaf are excluded from this sacrament by the common consent of divines but not blind; howbeit Danaeus in his book of the sacraments affirms that M. Beza & himself, 
●ib. 5. ●. 15  living in Orleans, admitted one Merardus borne deaf to this sacrament; being induced thereunto by reason of certain signs which he made for the demonstration of his faith; but how he should come to the knowledge, which might guide him to the making of such signs, or how the minister by them might apprehend his conceits, neither doth Daneus express, nor (to speak a truch) can I imagine. First then for faith which S. Paul defines to be the evidence of things not se●ne, 
He●. 11. ●. 2. Cor. 5. 7.  & by which we walk, not by sight, we find it to be bred by hearing only as the ordinary means, and nourished by the same alone, as by the ordinance of God, that only caseof the sacraments excepted; and therefore it is not said that a colour or a shape took flesh, but the word that was incarnate, that was God, 2. for hope, Paul in an other place speaketh thus, 
Rom. 8. 24.  hope that is seen is not hope: for how can a man hope, for that which he seeth? but if we hope for that which we see not, with patience we abide whiles we look not on the things which are seen, 
2. Cor. 4. 18  but on the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Lastly, 
●. 18.  for charity the third theological virtue, S. Peter highly commends them to whom he directs his Epistle, for loving the Lord jesus, whom they had not seen, 
Luk▪ 10. 24 Mat. 13. 16  & rejoicing in him with joy unspeakable & glorious. To the wish then of those Prophets and kings, or as the other Evangelists have it righteous men (making them reciprocal,) who desired to see the day of our Saviour, and saw it not, I answer that their desire concerned not so much the beholding of him face to face, as a distinct & particular knowledge of the Messias and the virtue of his incarnation and passion: in which sense Abraham is said to have rejoiced to have seen his day, and he saw it, & was glad, and the Apostles eyes are pronounced blessed for seeing those things which they saw. 
●oh. 8. 5●.  For otherwise judas that betrayed him, P●late that condemned him, the Priests that accused him, the faithless jews that s● i● him in the face, crowned him with thorns, buffered him with their fists, whipped him with rods, railed on him; & nailed him to the cross; should be more happy than we, to who● the light of the Gospel is fully revealed; or then Moses, and Paul, of whom the one was a faithful steward in the house of God, and the other, the doctor of the gentiles, in nothing inferior to the chiefest of the Apostles; neither of them, notwithstanding having ever seen our Saviour in the flesh: and for the song of Simeon, 
Luk. 2. 30.  now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, because mine eyes have seen thy salvation, I am surely of opinion that his peace consisted not so much in this, that he had seen our Saviour with his carnal eyes, and embraced him with the arm of flesh, as that he saw him by the eye of faith, and embraced him in the arms of spiritual affection; as 'tis truly said of the blessed Virgin, that her blessedness consisted not so much in bearing our Saviour in her womb, as in her heart: and for that speech of S. Augustine (if it be his) where he is said to have desired to have seen three things, Rome in her flower, Paul in the pulpit, and Christ in the flesh; I may justly suppose his meaning to have been rather in living in those times of the purity of the church for the fuller clearing of some controversies then afoot in his time, then out of any curiosity of seeing the person of our Saviour.   

CAP▪ 25.  
That the popish religion consists more in e●e service than the reformed.  
OUR adversaries indeed, place a great and main part of their superstitious worship in the eie-service; in the magnifike & pompous fabric, and furniture of their Churches and attiring their Priests; in gazing upon their dumb ceremonies, which with very multitude as leaves cover the fruits, in beholding the daily elevation of their Idol in the mass, (for the greatest part hear nothing) & last in fixing their eyes upon pictures, and images; giving them the Titles of remembrances for the learned, & books for the laity. And surely I am persuaded that it may very clearly be showed out of the history of the Church, that images never came to be of that use, & in that request which now they are, before the preaching of the Gospel grew so cold; that the Idol Priests not able to suffice their auditory in hearing; were forced to set up, and the people content to receive those Idols, for the satisfying of their minds by seeing. But S. Paul was of an other judgement in this case, as we may see in the third chapter of his Epistle to the Galathians, where he affirmeth that Christ was described (the original word is painted forth) before their eyes, 
VI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and among them crucified, which was not (as some Priests have sottishly urged in mine hearing) any corporal crucifix or picture upon a wooden table or glass-window with material colours, but a lively demonstration in the evidence of the spirit; as may be gathered by the words themselves, besides the drift of the place: and besides all this they have framed to themselves, instead of an invisible head in heaven, a visible head here on earth, as if the not seeing of a thing took away the not being or working of it; and those glorious titles which are given either to the invisible triumphant Church above, or the militant truly consisting of the elect here below, they for the most part attribute to a visible congregation of the Pope, and his Cardinals in their consistory, or to the assembly of an ecumenical Council.   

CAP. 26.  
That the sight of the creature helpeth us little in the knowledge of God.  
LAstly for the sight of the creatures & frame of the visible world, as S. Paul showeth in the first to the Romans, it shall rather serve for the inexcusableness & condemnation of those that bel●eue not, then for the furtherance of the salvation of them that believe: neither, (to speak a truth) is the sight of the creature so much available to the knowledge of the creator, as the understanding of its depending from him, and working by him, which notwithstanding is rather gotten by hearing then by seeing: & to grant all that may be reasonably required in this case yet still on the other side must it necessarily be yielded unto, that in all the articles of Christian religion (howbeit some of them may be proved by conclusions drawn from the sight) the words of our Saviour to Thomas ought to prevaìle with all true hearted christians, blessed are they that have not seen, & have believed, it being then most acceptable to God, to yield our consent in believing, when the experience of sense, and the reach of reason most fail us, and when they serve us best not to assent so much for their sakes, of which we have use only as men, as for our faith's sake alone which properly belongeth to us as christians. There are (●aith S. Augustin) in the beginning of his book of the faith of invisible things, wh● think Christian religion rather to be scorxed, than to be held, because in it nothing is demonstrated which may be seen, but the faith of things which are not seen is commanded: but for us, we know that we ought to believe many temporal things, which we see not, that hereafter we may be counted worthy to be admitted to the sight of eternal things which we now believe: whence it is that men utterly void of the sense of seeing, bring with them minds for the most part better prepared to religious exercises, than the common sort, remember more, and practise it better.   

CAP. 27.  
That the eye of the sense failing, that of the understanding & spirit wax more clear.  
SO ordained it is, in a manner by God, and nature; that as when one eye is deprived of sight, the other sees better than it did before; or as john Baptist decreasing Christ increased; and as the house of David waxed stronger & stronger, the house of Saul waxed weaker & weaker; so when the eye of the outward sense, grows dull, & dim, the intellectual eye of reason, and the spiritual eye of faith, grow more fresh, and clear; between which three I find the like proportion, as between the life of man in his mother's womb, the world, and the kingdom of heaven. Thus we see Paul's blindness in the eyes of his sense, and the opening of the eyes of his understanding, to have happened in a manner at the same instant: and in the Ecclesiastical story, 
R●ff. lib. 1. Cap. 17.  Paphnutius comforts Maximus his friend with this speech, that the mortal light of their bodily eye beein extinguished, they had gaine● a fullery fruition of heavenly and immortal brightness. And in the gospel we read not of any on whom our Saviour wrought so many miracles, as upon the blind, in restoring their sight, which must needs argue in them an extraordinary strength of faith, the virtue and effect of his working being ever proportioned to the belief of those on whom he wrought. To which we may from thence be the more easily induced to grant assent, for that among all those blind men which the scripture names and commends to our consideration we find none of them branded with any notorious vice: but on the contrary, many of them of excellent virtue, renowned in their ages, and commended to posterity: as Eli and Samson both types of Christ; Abiiah though blind yet counted worthy to be one of God's seers; Isaac and jacob both chief patri arches and pillars of Gods chosen people; of whom the one though he knew not his sons when he blessed them, yet in the manner of blessing he deserved to know them; by his blindness being occasioned, the effecting of God's purpose, in the preferring of jacob, before Esau; and the other, 
Gen. 27.  having laid his hands athwart, 
Gen. 48.  upon his two Nephews Manasses & Ephraim would not remove them according to the advice and desire of their Father joseph; but fixed them according to the guidance of that light which directed him from within, and when he could hardly see with the eyes of his body his sons which stood before him, yet with the eyes of his mind did he foresee and foretell what should become of each of them and their issue for many generations ensuing.  
To these may be added out of the new Testament the blind Bartim●●us, 
Mat. 10. 46  who left his cloak behind him on the earth, and with it his earthly affections, to follow our Saviour: and out of the Apocrypha Tobias, of whom S. Augustin speaks on this wise, Oath light which T●bias saw, when his carual eyes being shut, he set his son, 
Conf. 10. 34.  notwithstanding into the right way of life, & trod out a direct path before him (as a guide) with the never-erring foot of charity.   

CAP. 28.  
Treating of the drvers privileges of blind men.  
Our Saviour himself gives testimony of him that was borne blind, that neither his, nor his parent's sin was the cause of it, but that the works of God might be made manifest, 
job. 9 30  which testimony I find not given to any other infirmity of the sense or disease of the body. But yet more observable seemeth the last verse of the same chapter, where our Saviour not only excuseth blindness, as not proceeding from sin, but maketh it in a manner the cause of not sinning (if you had been blind (saith he) you had not sinned) both which passages I confess to be subject to interpretation, and for their full clearing to need many distinctions; yet for my purpose is the letter alone sufficient, in which no doubt but under the very rind of it (as in the whole scripture beside) the speaker being the engraven form of the godhead, and the eternal wisdom of his father, intended some special thing, besides the general drift, & scope of the place. His meaning in these words may somewhat the better appear, if we compare them with them in the gospel, where speaking by way of parable of the great supper provided in the kingdom of heaven, 
Luk. 14. 21  when the bidden guests refused to come, he expressly by name commanded the blind to be brought in, and placed at the table; and in a verse or two immediately going before, to make known his care and respect even toward those who are indeed bodily blind, he exhorteth his disciples and followers, that when they make a feast, one of their chief cares should be to invite the blind, as their principal guests; besides reason and law exempteth them from personal serving in the wars. And in the Levitical law of the jews we find an heavy curse, to be laid on such as should lay a stumbling block before the feet of the blind, 
Lev. 19 14  or turn him out of his right way: and the ancient Romans imposed on some of their chief families the surnames of blind & lame to this end (saith Plutarch) that the people should not scorn at those imperfections, 
In vita Coriol.  and by that means condemn or neglect those excellent gifts of the mind which many times reside in such bodies. Hence job when he would make his innocency clear to the world, knew not how to express it more effectually, or in better terms; than by professing himself to have been an eye to the blind. And Lewes the 8. of that name who was the only Saint, or at least one of the two in the whole three races of the french kings; howbeit he won many glorious conquests against the infidels, & erected many goodly buildings for religious persons, yet was he thought worthy that honour for nothing more, then for instituting the college of the 300. blind men, upon occasion of so many of his soldiers, who were taken in his wa●s against the Moors, and sent home with their eyes put out: the college is yet standing in Paris, & at this day devote to the same use▪ howbeit not replenished indeed, as it hath been.   

CAP. 29.  
That blind men need not complain of the want of pleasures, especially the sense of their grief being by blindness much lessened; which is proved by the strong impression of those objects which are presented by the eye.  
NOW besides this respect which God & man seem to bear toward his infirmity, me thinks it need not much complain of the want of delights even in this world. Besides those proper to the night, the mantle of defects & imperfections, and by consequent the mother of union and love; the repose and closing up of the days labours, as the morning is again, a fresh entrance & overturn to therenewing of travail: our daily cares in this case being likened to the marigold or dazy which openeth with the rising of the sun, and shuts with the setting. And where as the Poet witnesseth of the Carthaginian Queen that her care had always recourse towards the evening; I suppose it not so much to be meant of a sober & settled, as of a distracted, and distempered mind; such as he supposes hers to have been; if then the night bring not tediousness with it, why should a day which is like a night be thought to bring it? Though I deny not but to the pleasures of the night may also be added those which we use as commonly in the day; in hearing of books read, in playing upon musical instruments, in discoursing with friends, in exercising many pastimes, which require not the use of seeing. Nay in those very sports which seem necessarily to require it, as bouling, shooting, coiting, shoufgrating, & the like; how many have we seen beyond expectation excellent? in which kind I hard reported by those, to whom I give credit; that one Mouns. Guimins a gentleman of good note in the province of Britanny, when any of his acquaintance or other strangers come to visit him, he takes a singular delight in describing to them his maps, & pictures, as they hang in order in his gallery, & in conmmending unto them such or such a piece or proportion, for rare workmanship: and surely in my understanding those delights which blind men conceive to themselves must needs affect them much, as being freed from that loathsomeness, shame, terrors, grief, antipathies, & fearful dreams which by the glassy gate are often convaid in and presented to the mind; whose objects as they are in number more, and in action quicker, so are they for certainty more undoubted; & for impression decper than those of any other sense this faculty needing less helps in working and apprehending her objects in a farther distance and presenting them to the common sense, and from thence to the imagination with greater life & assurance; insomuch that the best Poets and Orators lead by art, and common people by nature, when they would make known a deep passion they have conceived, are wont to express it by these or the like terms, I myself was an eye witness, or I saw it with these eiet which Mark Antony well under standing in his funeral oration upon the death of Iuliu●, Caesar that he might (thoroughly incense and inflame the people against the murderers; opened the hearse where the corpse lay and showed them the fresh bleeding wounds which Caesar had received in the Senate, as the Lacedaemonian women were wont often to present to their sons the bloody shirts of their Fathe●s slain in the wars, thereby to make them more sensible of the injury and mindful of revenge. Since then the operation of the sight upon the imagination be thus forcible, 'tis no marvel that Pigmolius a grave Roman prelate living not long after the ●primitiue church, being fallen blind; was want solemnly to thank God, that by that means he was freed from seeing the enemies of his church, & especially julian the Apostate. And Petrarch a man renowned a like for variety of reading, 
Dial. 9●.  dexterity of wit, and soundness of judgement in his dialogue of blindness, comforts the affected and afflicted in that kind with this meditation; indeed (quoth he) thou canst not enjoy the pleasure of seeing the corny valleys, the airy mountains, the shadowy groves, the flowery banks, the clear sountains, the crystal rivers, the green meadows. & (which is held most delightful to look upon) the face of man; but consider withal that thou canst not see filthy dunghills heaps of dirt, & excrements, ugly misshaped monsters, raw, & rotten carrions, & the like: the very sigbt of which is many times as offensive to the stomach, as loathe some to the eye. And if there were none other commodity in blindness, yet for this alone, were it even to be wished for; that since there is no hope of flying from the beholding of base and shameful spectacles which at every turning present themselves (the reign of vice, & banishment of virtue, being every where alike) the loss of the sight, may serve for a kind of flight & avoidance of them: & by consequent to a mind virtuously disposed, of comfort & contentment; 
2. King. 12 v. 20.  & therefore God when he would pronounce a blessing upon josiah by the mouth of Huldath the prophetess delivered it in these terms behold therefore I will gather thee to thy fathers & thou shalt be put in thy grave in peace, & thy eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place: now as these kind of objects are offensive to the virtuous, so on the other side good divines are of opinion that, in the consummation of the world, it shall be one of the greatest terrors to the unconverted Gentiles, 
Mal. 24. 30 Revil, 1. 5.  to behold our Saviour coming in the clouds with power and great glory, & to the unbelieving jews to see the son of man, & to look upon him whom they have pierced through, and to both to see Abraham I saac & jacob, 
Luk. 13.  and all the Prophets in the kingdom of heaven & themselves shut out. And some think that Dives his seeing of Lazarus in Abraham's bo●ome was no less torment, 
Luk. 16. 23  than his sensible feeling of hell fire and that that Zedechias seeing his sons to be slain grieved him more than the putting out his own eyes, 
●. Kin. 25. 7.  etc. that the Samaritan Capta●ne was more punished in beholding the abundance of Corn after the great dearth then in being pressed to death before he could ●ast of it. 
Thou shalt see it with ●hine eyes but shal● not eat thereof. Rev. 7. 19 ●. 7.  And lastly that the mother of the Maccabees was more worthy of praise for looking on the martyrdom of her seven sons with a constant and patient eye, then for suffering it in her own body once of this am I sure that it, had been far better for Attili●● Regulus if he had been born● blind & never seen the sun then to have endured that punishment by seeing it which the Carthaginians laid on him by cutting of his eyelids and binding to a post with his face opposite to the sun beams, and I doubt not but the same might as justly be affirmed of Ham, 
Gen. 9 v. 23. 19 26.  Noaths son and Lot's wife, of which the one had his father's curse for looking forward when he should have gone backward with his brethren, & the other God's curse for looking backward when she should have gone forward with her husband and if I might presume so far upon the reader's patience, I would here set down the story of ● dissembling knave discovered by Duke Humphrey for whom no doubt it had been better to have been indeed blind then to have pretended the recovery of his sight by such a no torious cozenage; the story is recorded word forword, by Fox as followeth. In the young days of Henry the 6. being yet under the governance of Duke Humphrey his Protector, there came to S. Alban's a certain Beggar with his Wife, 
Act and Montanus p. ●705 Col. 1. Edit. 1583.  & there was wall king about the Town, begging 5. or 6. days before the Kings coming thither, saying that he was borne blind & never saw in his life, and was warned in his dream, that he should come out of Barwike, where he said he had ever dwelled to seek S. Albon, and that he had been at his Shrine, & had not been holpen, & therefore he would go & seek him at some other place: for he had heard some say, since he came, that S. Alban's Body should be at Colen, & indeed such a contention hath there been. But of truth as I am surely in formed, he lieth at S. Albenes, saving some Reliks of him, which they there show shreyned. But to tell you forth, when the King was comen, & the town full, suddenly this blind man at S. Alban's shrine had his sight again & a Miracle solemnly rung, & Te Deum song, so that nothing was talked of in all the town, but the miracle. So happened it then, that Duke Humphrey of Gloucester, a man no less wise, then also well learned, having great joy to see such a Miracle, called the poor man unto him; & first showing himself joyous of God's glory, so showed in the getting of his sight, and exhorting him to meekness; & to no ascribing of any part of the worship to himself, nor to be proud of the people's praise, which would call him a good & go●ly man thereby, at last he looked well upon his eyen, & asked whether he could see nothing at all, in all his life before. And when as well his Wife as himself affirmed fastly no, them he looked advisedly upon his eyen again & said: I believe you very well, for me thinketh ye cannot see well yet. Yes sir, quoth he, I thank God and his holy Martyr, I can see now as well as any man. Yes can? (quoth the Duke) what colour is my Gown? Then anon the Beggar told him. What colour (quoth he) is this man's Gown? He told him also, & so forth without any sticking, he told him the names of all the colours that could be showed him. And when the Duke saw that, he bade him▪ walk 
* M, Fox indeed saith Traitor, but the word in Sr T. Moor out of whom he hath the story is Fay tour. S. Th' Moor dialogue of the venerat and worsh: of images. l. ●. c. 14 It is in his works in English. p. ●34. Edit. ●557.  Traitor, & made him to be set openly in the stocks: for though he could have seen suddenly by miracle the the difference between diverse colours, yet could he no● by the sight so suddenly tell th● names of all these colours, except he had known them before no more than the Names of all the men that he should suddenly see.   

CAP. 30.  
That blind men need not complain of disability in serving the common wealth, which is proved by some reasons, but especially by examples.  
OThers▪ there are who having lost the use of their eyes, complain not so much of the loss of pleasures with it; as of their indisposition, by that means to steed their friends, or to serve the common wealth as they desire. To whom I reply that what is necessary, is also of necessity pardonable, and when we cannot do as we would, God and good men accept the will as the deed; and what is wanting in actual performance, may be supplied with tears, and prayers for the public good, 2. to some end no doubt it is, that both the Poets, painters, & comedians of all ages, have consented to represent the 4 great monarches of human affairs, the God of riches, the God of love, justice, and fortune all blindfold. 3. I find partly by credible report and partly by written history, that many famous men have lived (besides such as are before upon occasion named) of all estates, and of all ages, who having lost the light of their eyes, have notwithstanding remained as lamps and torches in the world, to some by their good example, and to others by their counsel & good advice. For Emperors I sacius, & Constantine the 6. of that name, surnamed the Imagebreaker, both Emperors of the East. For kings, Alphonsus the 4 king of Spain, & john king of Bohemia, 
Petrarch. D● al. 96.  who siding himself with the French in a set battle against the English, and understanding that our men were in great hope to have won the glory of the day, commands himself to be led into that part of the fight, where the king of England was, whither being brought, spurring his horse into the thickest ranks of the enemies, by his example, drew his followers after him, and so purchased the victory to the French, though by his own death. For a Prophet, Tiresia●, the light of whose eyes being taken away, it was replanted with usury in his breast; wherefore the Poet never brings him in complaining of his misfortune in the loss of his sight, but Polyphemus that unreasonable monster he describes, making a dialogue with a Ram, and commending his estate, in that he could go & come whether and when he listed, 
Tus● 5.  but in that (saith Tully) he was surely little wiser than the ram, to which he spoke. For an Archbishop, Robert Wau●op▪ a Scot by birth, 
Carion. a●●. 1551.  who notwithstanding he were borne blind, profited so well in the study of the Divinity; that he deserved and obtained the degree of a Doctor in that faculty; in the University of Paru; and not long after going to Rome, was by P●ule th● 3. consecrated Priest, & within a while Archbishop of Armach in Ireland, and at length Legatus a latere, by julius the 3. his monument is to be seen ●in▪ the monastery of the minorits at Paris. For a Bishop Richard Fox founder of Corpus Christ● College here in Oxford; whose foundation hath yielded oil to mani● rare lights for learning and religion, among which were, Cardinals, Poole, Ludovicus Vives, I●●ll, Hooker, Wotten, and that rare Precedent of industry and pieti● john Raynolds; Behind the rest in deed in time, but inferior to none of them in variety of reading or strictness of life. For professed divines venerable Bede, & Jerome Zanchy an Italian, the principal reformed schoolman; who during his blindness wrote that excellent tract of the spiritual marriage of Christ and his Church; And in one of his sights Paphautius; which was put out by the Arrians for with standing their heresy, whom for that very cause (as Ru●●in 
Ru●●. 1. 4.  witnesseth in his ecclesiastical story) Constantine had in that reverence, and estimation, that he would often send for him to his court lovingly embracing him and greedyly kissing the eye, which had lost his own light, for maintaining that of the catholic doctrine▪ For a lawgiver Lycurgus: 
Aeneas Sylvi  for renowned generals Timoleon & Ziska that worthy Bohemian, who after that he had fought, and won many pitched fields against the enemies of God's Church, lying on his death bed, willed that after his death, of his skin should be made a drum, which his enemies hearing, they might as well fear him after his death, as they did fly from him alive. Not inferior to Ziska●s courage was Belisarius his patience, general of justinians army, who having brought the Vandals on their knees, triumphed over the Persians, swept the Goths out of Italy, growing by that means into reputation with all men, & by consequent in to suspicion & jealousy with the Emperor, was first dismissed from his offices, & then his eyes put out; insomuch that afterward living in a little base cottage, near a beaten high way, he was wont to beg in this form, Passenger give Belisarius an half penny whom virtue raised & envy blinded. To these may be added the example of Tyrrhenus who having lost his eyes in a fight with Lygdamus commanded his body to be set right against the face of the enemy as great pe●c●s are wont to be mounted that so he might discharge his darts upon them & at leastwise in receiving his deadly wound supply the room or spare the turn of a valiant and seeing soldier▪ Last among the ancient Captains (as Plutarch hath worthily observed) four of the greatest warriors, & that have done the noblest exploits, by wit had but four ●ies, Philip Hā●ibal Antigonus & Sart●riu●. For a statsman, Appi. Cla●d. surnamed th● blind whose counsel against Pirr●●● had it not prevailed, the eye of the common wealth had been extinct. For a Lawyer, Caius Drusius whose house was frequented at the oracle of the city, and by whom those that guided him to the pleading place, were themselves guided to the winning of their plead. For Poets Thamyra, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Stesicherus, & Homer who was not only blind, but took his name of blindness, and yet gave light to all that writ since in that kind, having in such sort described every creak and corner of Greece, the ranging of battles, the manner of fights, the situation of towns, the passions of men, that though himself saw nothing, yet hath he caused us to see all these as in a table or glass. For a thetorician, Passeratiu●, who not long since in a public lecture in Paris made a learned & eloquent oration in the commendation of blindness, 
Orat●vl●.  which is printed and extant in his book of orations. For Philosophers, 
Strab● lib▪ 14.  Zenarchus sometime in ward with Augustus & Asclepiades who made none other account of his blindness, but that being wont to walk alone he had now a boy ever attending on him, and as the Persian kings used other men's ●ares, so did he ●ther men's eyes; to these may be added Nich●laus & Lippus both Florentines, and well known (as it seems) to jovianus Pontanu●, 
Lib. 2. c. 7.  who reports of them that the one every holiday was wont to recite out of the pulpit some history of the bible, or the annals of their country in Italiam verse, with an extraordinary concourse & applause of all the learned, who then lived at Florence; and the other being but young daily frequented the schools of the rhetoricians and Philosophers; marvelous was he in the study of antiquity & perfection of the Latin tongue, and for behaviour in accosting his friends exceeding pleasing; yet to his blindness was also added poverty & to both youth, of all ages most impatient of misery, both which notwithstanding he bore with such indifference of mind as he seemed to be sensible of neither. 
Cael. lib. 2.  For Historiographers, 
Cap. 13.  Aufidius Praetorius and As●onius Paedianus. 
Tus●. 5.  For a mathematician, Di●dorus the Stoic, who lived in Tully's own house, & which seemed strange, would in that case exactly prescribe to his auditors from whence, how far, & in what manner their geometrical lines were to be drawn. And lastly for the work of the ministry, myself have seen more than once in this University a blind man in our solemn meetings, making a godly & profitable sermon to the body of the University assembled: and sure I am persuaded he spoke by so much the more from the conscience, and by consequent to the conscience, by how much the less he trusted his papers or his mind was distracted by the sight of his auditors: tending to which purpose it is a merry jest howbeit seriously related by him who hath written Bedaes' life, that his guide persuading him one day as he passed by an heap of stones, that the people (according to their wont manner) were there assembled to hear him preach; the good old man moved at his speech, was content to give them a sermon, but there being no body present to say, amen, at his conclusion, the very stones cried out amen venerable Priest, by which means being then baptised by the name of venerable, he hath retained it ever since. Of better use & more certainty is that history which S. Jerome in his Epistle to Castrutius (written upon like occasion as this present discourse) ●ecordeth to have fallen out during his infancy, 
Epist. 33:  which he reports in this manner; S. Anthony being sent for by S. Athanasius to come to Alexandria for the refuting and beating down of the Arrian heresy then a foot, Didimus an excellent divine but blind in both his eyes, came thither to visit him; the sharpness of whose wit S. Antony admiring demands of him whether he conceived any grief or no for the want of his sight; which Didimus seeming by his silence and modesty to confess, the other replies that he could not but much marvel how so wise a man as himself could be moved with the loss of those eyes, which were common to him with mice and flies and gnats, and not rather rejoice in the fruition of those which were proper to Saints and Angels.   

CAP. 31.  
Containing a conclusion of the whole discourse by way of private meditation or soliloquy.  
THese and the like considerations may in some good measure, serve to qualify the grief conceived for the loss of that sense, which by just proof we find in use to be more dangerous than necessary; & withal rouse up our thoughts to these, or the like heavenly meditations. I have lost I confess the fruition of the fight of the heavens; but by that loss I know the worth of that fruition the better; and now mine eyes is ever fixed upon the soon of righteousness, the fra●mer and governor of the heavens. Mine eyes were the guides of my body: but now mine advantage is that whereas mine eyes at their best could not prevent many casual mischiefs, now all the eyes of my friends as a continual sentinel watch more tenderly over me, the angels pitch their tents about me, and he that neither slumbereth nor sleepeth is my keeper. True it is that I cannot read good books as I was wont, but my children can supply that with less pain to me, and more profit to them; well then, I will not be c●st down for the loss of my sight which is subject to so many diseases from within, and casualties from without, but I will rather rejoice for the use of my hearing the sense of wisdom and religion, by which God speaks to me out of his word, and of my tongue by which I speak● to him again in prayer. Good God how many in the world are blind in faith and religion? As Atheists, and Pagans, and Turks, and jews, and Heretics, and Idiots; how many in judgement and reason? As children and fools▪ and mad men, and dotards, and drunkards; what infinite numbers in their affections, with anger, with fear, with love, with malice, with envy, with pride, who like the Idols of the heathen have eyes and see not? All which kinds of blindness, as they are in extent more universal, so are they in their nature more dangerous than that of the body, unto which also, all flesh in time must subject itself, when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and they wax dark that look out by the windows. Why should I then lament as if I were alone or with a few only unfortunate? We see when the great eyes of the world, the sun & the moon are eclipsed & darkened, they still shine notwithstanding upward, & after a while recover again their light downward. Why should I then murmur if the eyes of this little world be eclipsed, since I know that inwardly toward mine own soul & upwardly toward God, the light of my mind is enlarged? And which is more, am sure that my Redeemer liveth & he shall stand the last on the earth, & though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet shall I see God in my flesh, which I myself shall see & mine eyes shall behold him & none other for me. Thou o Lord wilt lighten my candle the Lord my God will lighten my darkness, thy word o Lord is a lantern unto my feet, & a light unto my paths, teach thy servant the way o Lord, & lead me in a right path, for with thee is the well of life & in thy light shall we see light, even that light which shined in the darkness, & the darkness comprehended it not, it being the brightness of the everlasting light, the undefiled mirror of the majesty of God, & the image of his goodness, more beautiful than the sun above the order of the stars & the light of the heaven is not to be compared unto it for night cometh upon that, but wickedness cannot overcome this. Thou which opneds the eyes of jonathan after the eating of the honey comb, & of Agar that she saw a well of water springing up for the refreshing of herself & her young babe; & of Elishaes' servant that he saw in the mountain horses & charets & fi●e round about. Sweet jesus thou which openedst the eyes of thine Apostles when after thy resurrection they took thee for a spirit, of the two disciples in the way to Emmaus when they knew thee not but in the breaking of bread▪ of Mary Magdalem when in seeing thee her Lord & Saviour she supposed she had seen the garden (which showed them all the dullness of their carnal eyes, in discerning spiritual things.) Open thou the ●ies of mine understanding that I may see the wonders of thy law, which is my delight, the honey and honey comb are not so sweet. I will lift up mine eyes then unto the mountains from whence mine help shall come, the Lord shall preserve me from all evil he shall keep my soul, he shall preserve my going out and my coming in, he will guide me by his counsel, & after receive me to glory to the mount Zion, the city of God, the celestial jerusalem, to the company of innumerable Angels, & to the congregation of the first borne, whose names are written in heaven, & to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just and perfect men, & to jesus the mediator of the new testament, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things then that of Abel & to unspeakable joys, which neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath hard nor have at any time entered into the heart of man: now we see through a glass darkly, but then shall we see face to face even as we are seen. Then shall God wipe away all tears from our eyes, and there shall be no more death neither sorrow, neither crying, neither shall there be any need of the sun or moon to shine in that City, for the glory of God doth light it, and the lamb is the light of it. Now unto the Father of lights and yet invisible God who dwelleth in light, that no man can attain unto, whom never man saw, neither can see one in e●●ence and three in persons, be all honour and power for ever and ever. Amen.  
Road caper vites, tamen bic cum stabis ad ar●● In tua quod sundiCornua, possit, erit.  
FINIS.    

BEing not willing to burden the text with these ensuing collections, & the margin not able to receive them, I thought good in this third edition aswell for the contentment of the Printer, as the learned reader to reserve them to this place.  

CAP. I.  
That the eye is the instrument of wantonness.  
Mars videt hanc visamque cupit polilnrque cupi●a.  Ov● 
Inscius Act●eou vidit si●e vest Dianam  
Praeda ●uit canibus n●c minus ille suis.  Ovid. 
I. Caninis affectibu●  
Phoenissa: ardescitque tuendo  Virg. 
Foemina. Vri●que videndo  Idem 
Gig●itur exvis●, non ergo sirmice caecus  
Nascitur, ex o●ulo cum generetur, amor.  Ovenur. 
Nasonis Quamvis teneram perlegeris artem,  
Nescis inexpertu, dicere quid sit amor.  
Naturâ non a●te docetur, scilicet in cor  
Ex ocul●s non ex auribusintrat amor.  Idem. 
Cynthia prima sais miserum me caepit ocellis  
C●ntractum nullis ante libidmibus.  Prop. 
Oculi sunt in amore ●●ces.  Idem● 
I have seen a dialogue between the hear and the eye touching this point, which in the end reason decides thus,  
Ratio litem compu●at desinitivo cale●lo,  
Vtrumque reum reputat, sed non pari pericul●.  
Cordicausam imputans, occasionem oculo.  
Of jealousy which passion the Poets have therefore expressed by the hundred ●ies of Argus.  
Constiterat qu●cunque loco spectabat ad I●,  
Anteocul●s Io quamvis aversus ●abebat.  Ovid. 

Of Envy.  
Videt ingratos inta●cscitque videndo▪  
Successus hominum.  Idem. 
Livor tabisicum malis ven●num,  
Intactis vorat ossibus medullas,  
Su●at srigidus intuens quod odit.  Vir. The wicked shall see it and be angry, he shall gnash with his teeth and con●unie away. Psal. 112. 10.   

CAP. 2.  
How Idolatry hath a kind of necessary dependence upon the eye.  Ad de●unctorum vultus per imaginem detinēd●s expres●a primo simulachra. Cyp de van Idol. Again, the ambition of the crafts●man thrust forward the ignorant to increase the superstition▪ for he peradventure willing to please a Noble man, laboured with all his cunning to make the Image of the best fashion, and so through the beauty of the work, the multitude being alured, they took him now for a God, which a little before was but honoured as a man. Wisd. 14▪ 18. Ad simulachra mu●a abripiebamini. 1. Cor. 12. 2. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 si●●appellatur quicquid est quo nob●● repraese●tatur forma alicuius rei vel fictae vel etiam verae: apud ecclesiasticos autem scriptores 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculiari significatione vocantur simulachra numen aliquod representantia quod honore & cultu affic●atur. Step●.  Certum est omnes Idololatras solitos semper fuisse, ●eque Deum vel verum, vel falsum, vel v●lam creaturam externa adoratione colere ni●i sub & in aliqua ●igura illum repraesentante. Zanch de red. lib. 2. cap. 17. 

Of worshipping the sun and the stars.  
Illi ad surgentem conversilumina solemn  
Dant fruges manibus salsas.  Virg. They thought the lights of heaven to be the governors of the world, but though they had such pleasure in their beauty, that they thought them Gods, yet should they have known how much more excellent he is that made them, for the first author of beauty hath created these things. Wisd. 13. 3.   

CAP. 3.  
How pride is nourished by the eye.  
Spectat inexplet● mendacem lumine formam  
Perqque oculos perit ille suos.  Ovid. of Pigm.  

CAP. 4.  
That often seeing is the means to draw both things and persons into contempt  Continuus aspectus minds verendos ipsa sati▪ etate facit. Liv. lib. 35. Maiestati maior ● longinquo reverentia. Tac. 1. Annal. 
Hence do the grammarians derive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies venerable from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is invisible   

CAP. 5.  
How curiosity is bred and maintained by the eye.  
Cum tua p●rvi leas oculis male lippus iniunctis  
Cur in amicorum vitiis tam cernis acutum,  
Quam aut Aquila, aut serpens Epidaurius?  Hor. 
Pallas Erichthonium prolem sine matre creatam  
Clauserat Actaeo textâ de vimine cis●â  
Virgimbusque tribus gemino de ce●rope natis  
Servandam dederat sic inconfessae quid esset  
El legem dederat sua ne secreta viderent.  
Abdita ●ronde levi densa speculabar abulmo  
Quid facerent, commissa duae sine ●raude tuentur  
Pondrosos alque hearse timidas vocat una sorores  
Aglauros nodosque manu diducit & intus  
In●an: emque vident apporrectumque Draconem.  Ovid.  

CAP. 6.  
Of bewitching by the eye.  
Lupi Maerin videre priores.  Ovid. 
Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi falcinat agnos.  Virg. 
Non illic obliquo oculo mea commoda quisquam  
Li●at.  Hor. 
Vuaque conspecta livorem ducit abv●a.  juven. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Theoc. 
Dum spectant oculos laesilaeduntur & ipsi,  
Multaque corporibus transitione nocent.  Ovid 
Quandoquidem memini Tusci altain rupe viterbi  
Ipse se●em vidisse serum, cui dira vigebant  
O●a▪ grauéque oculi s●ffecti sanguine circum  
Ille truci (scelus) obtutu genus omne necabat.  
Reptantum tenues animas parvasque volantes.  
Quinetiam si quando hortos ingressus ibi omnes  
Cernere erat subito a●●latu languescere flores.  Vida. 
Quondam puleher ●rat crinibus Entelidas.  
Sed sese ipse videns placidi● in sluminis undis  
Livore infamis perdidit invidiae,  
Fascinus attraxit morbum fermamque peremit.  Plut sympos quaest. 7. 
Physicians affirm a get and coral to preserve against this kind of witchcraft which gave occasion as 'tis thought of hanging it about children's necks.  
Nimirum quia sunt G●llorum in corpore quaedam  
Semina quae cum si●t oculis immissa ●conum.  
Pupillas interficiunt, acremque dolorem  
Praebent ut contra nequeant durare seroces.  Lu●re●. 
Flatu perimit lethalis ●celli.  Bart. de Basilis. Unto thine Almighty hand that made the world of nought, it was not impossible to send among them a multitude of beastsque or fierce Lions, which should breathe out blasts of fire & cast out smoke, as a tempest or shoot horrible sparks, like lightning, out of their eyes, which might not only destroy them with the hurting, but also kill them with their horrible sight. Wild, 11. 14.  

CAP. 7.  
Of the dangerous effect of beholding vain pictures.  
Quae manus obs●aenas depinxit prima tabellas  
Et posuit casla turpia visa d●mo  
Illa pu●llarum ingenuos corrupit ocellos  
Nequi●iaeque suae noluit esse rudes.  
Non istis ●lim variabant tecta figuris  
Cum paries nullo crimine pictus crat.   

CAP. 8.  
How the eye was the chief occasion of original sinew.  
Nitidique cupidine pomi  
Declinat cursus.  Ovid. Met. Fuerunt haeretici qui humanum genus serpenti plurimum debere affirmârunt, quod eius suasu aperti suerint primorum parentum oculi, sed isti improbè audent damnare deum qui serpenti maledixit. Pet. Mart. Com. in Gen. 

Of tears the greatest token of sorrow.  
Vana videndo vagus quicquid commisit ocellus  
Abluit erratis illachrymanda suis.  Oren. 
Himaritales statim  
Fodiantur oculi, debitas poe●as tuli,  
Inventa thalamis digna nox iadem meis.  Sen. in oed   

CAP. 9  
Treating of the false report of the eyes in natural things.  
In quo diversiniteant cum mill colores  
Transitusipses tamen specta●tia lumina ●allit.  Virg. 
Quadratasque proculturres cum cerminus urbis  
Proptere● sit uti videantur saepèrotundae  
Angulus obtu●us quia longè cernitur omnis.  Lucret. 
Terraeque urbesque recedunt.  Virg. 
Phoebe bis oct ●gies terra pulcherrime maior  
Innumerabiliter cum videare minor:  
Qui mi●i tantillus vermi sol tante videris  
Tantulus heu videor quantulus esse tibi.  Oven.  

CAP. 11.  
Of the delusion of the sight by the immediate morking of the devil.  
He causeth that we see to seem invisible,  
And make of things not scene a shape to rise.  Ariost. 
Modo te i●venem, modo tevidere Leonem,  
N●nc violentus aper, nunc quam vid●sse timerent  
Anguis eras, modo telaci●bant cornua taurum,  
Sepe lapis, peteras arbour q●oque saepe videri,  
Interdum saciem liquidarum imitatus aquarum  
Flumen eras, interdum undis contrarius ignis.  Ovid. Hu● referri potest illud Plautinum. 
In faciem versus Amphitruonis jupiter  
Dum bellum gerrer●t cum Thelebois hostibus  

The renewing of the sight and travail both together.  
I am C●dmaeis incly●a baccis  
Aspersa die dumeta rubent,  
Labour exoritur durus & omnes  
Agitat curas apcri●que domos  
Pastor gelida cae●a ●ruina  
Grege dimisso pabula carpit.  Sen.  

Of the deep impression which is wrought upon the mind by the objects presented by the eye.  
Vidi puduitque videre.  Ovid. 
Qu. eque ipse miserr●ma vidi.  Virg. 
Vidi Hecubam centumque nurus &  
Quam soe'ix esses situ qu●que luminis huius  
Orbus ait ●ieres nec Bacchica sacra videres.  Ovid. 
Vidi inquam vidi & illum hausi dolorem velacerbissimum in vi●a, cum Quintus Metellus abstraheretur è sinu gremioque patriae. Tul in orat coeli.  
Quocunque in loco quisquis est idem est ei sen● sus & eadem acerbitas ex interitu ●erum & publicarum & suarum tamen oculi augent ●olorem qui ea quae cae teri audiunt intueri coguntut nec avertere à miserijs cogitationem sinunt●idem ad Torqu. famil. 6.  
Oculos, germane, nocentes  
Spectato genitore fero.  Luc. 
Ge●●ata per urbem  
O●a ducit, quae trans fixo sublimia palo  
vidimus.  Idem   

CAP. 31.  
Of the blindness of the understanding by ignorance.  
O coecas hominum m●ntes, ô pectora caeca  
Qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque peri●●is  
Degitur hoc avi quodcunque est?  Lucr. 
Idem induit Virgilius cum iter designat quo insistebant Aeneas & Deiphobe tendentes ad Elysium.  
Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbram  
Q●●le per incertum lumen sub luce maligna,  
Est iter in sylvis ubi coelum condidit umbra  
jupiter & rebus nox abstulit atra colorem,  Virg. 

Of the blindness of the mind by the sway of passions.  
Hine metuunt, cupiuntque dolent, gaudentque nec auras  
Respiciunt clansitenebris & carcere caeco.  Idem. 
Ante pedes caecis lucebat semita nobis  
Scilicet insanonemo in amore videt.  Prop.  

In Amphitruone Plauti Amphitruo i●. se inquit Blepharoni.  
A. ubi illic sceles●us est? B▪ Quis? A. So●ia.  
B Eccum illum A. uhi? B. A●te oculos,  
Non vides? A vix video prae ira  
Adeo me isthic delirum fecit.  
Non hercle te praevideram quaesone  
Vitio vortasita ●racundia obstitit oculis, idem in  Asi●●, 
Tu queque si vis  
Lumune claro  
Cernere v●rum,  
Gaudia pelle  
Pelle timor●m,  
Spemque fugato,  
N●c dolor ad●it,  
Nubila mens est  
V●ct●que fraeais  
Haec ubi ●egnant.  Boet. 
FINIS.