A Work concerning the trewnesse of the Christian Religion, written in French:  
Against Atheists, Epicures, Paynims, jews, Mahumetists, and other Infidels.  
By Philip of Mornay Lord of Plessie Marlie.  
Begun to be translated into English by Sir Philip Sidney Knight, and at his request finished by Arthur Golding.  
¶ Imprinted at London for Thomas Cadman. 1587.    

To the right Honourable his singular good Lord, Robert Earl of Leycestor, Baron of Denbigh, Knight of the order of the Garter, and of S. Michael, one of the Lords of the most Honourable privy Counsel, and Master of the Horse to the Queen's Majesty: Lord General of her majesties Forces in the Low Countries, and Governor General of the united Provinces, and of their Associates: Arthur Golding wisheth long continuance of health, much increase of Honour, and in the life to come in endless felicity.  
MAny causes do fully persuade me (right Honourable,) that this present work which I presume to offer unto you, will in divers respects be unto you very acceptable. For unto such as are of greatest wisdom, virtue and Nobility, the wisest best and weightiest matters are always most agreeable. And whereas all men are naturally desirous of the sovereign welfare, highest felicity, or chief good, howbeit that very few do know what it is, or wherein it consisteth, or which is the right way that leadeth thereunto: And yet not withstanding, without the knowledge of that truth, all their wisdom is but mere ignorance blindness and folly, all their goodness is but mere corruption & wickedness, & all their bravery triumph jollity and pomp is but utter misery and wretchedness: This present work treateth of the trewnesse, that is to say of the perpetual and invariable constancy and stead fastness of the Christian Religion, the only band that linketh God unto man, and men one to another, and all unto God, the only Lamp that enlighteneth man's wit with true wisdom, the only water-spring that replenisheth his will with true goodness, and the only mightis power that giveth strength and courage to man's spirit, whereby he is enabled both perfectly to discern and behold his sovereign welfare or felicity, which is God the very founder furtherer and finisher of truth or rather the very truth itself; and constantly to hold on with joy to the obteynement of the same; than the which no greater thing can by any means be imagined. And in the discourse of this most grave & weighty matter, many deep points of humane Philosophy, and many high mysteries of heavenly Divinity, be learnedly briefly and plainly discussed and laid open, to the understanding even of the meanest capacities, that will vout safe to read advisedly, & to confer the parts together with diligence. For the Author of this work being a man of great reading, judgement, learning & skill, and there with addicted or rather vowed (as appeareth by this and divers other of his excellent writings) to the furthering of God's glory by his most faithful and painful employing of himself in the service of his Church; hath conveyed into this work, what soever he found either in the common reason of all Nations, or in the peculiar principles of the chief Philosophers, or in the mystical doctrine of the jewish Rabbins, or in the writings of the Historiographers and Poets; that might conveniently make to the manifestation of that truth which he taketh in hand to prove. Whereby he hath so effectually brought his purpose to pass; that if any Atheist Infidel or jew having read this his work with advisement, shall yet donye the Christian Religion to be the true and only path way to eternal felicity, & all other Religions to be mere vanity and wickedness; must needs she we himself to be either utterly void even of humane sense, or else obstinately and wilfully bend to impugn the manifest truth against the continual testimony of his own conscience. Not without just cause therefore hath so great love and liking of this work of his been generally conceived; that many not only of Gentlemen in the Court and Country, but also of Students in both the Universities, have purposed and attempted the translating thereof into our English tongue, as an increase of comfort and gladness to such as are already rooted and grounded in the truth, as a establishment to such as any way either by their own infirmity or through the wiliness of wicked persons are made to waver and hang in suspense, and as a mean to revoke such as of themselves or by sinister persuasions are gone away into error, and also (if it possible be) to reform the malicious and stubbornhearted. Among which number of weldisposed & rightlyzealous Gentlemen, I may not without just desert of blame 〈◊〉 to say some what (though far less than is meet) of that, right worthy and valiant Knight, your good Lordship's noble kinsman Sir Philip Sidney, whose rare virtue, valour, and courtesy, matched with equal love and care of the true Christian Religion, being disappointed of their purposed end by overhasty death in the very entrance of his honourable race, have left just cause to his loving Country to be wail the untimely foregoing of so great an Ornament, and the sudden bereving of so hopeful a stay and defence. Whereof not withstanding this comfort remaineth, That he died not languishing in idleness riot and excess, nor as overcome with nice pleasures and fond vanities; but of manly wounds received in service of his Prince, in defence of persons oppressed, in maintenance of the only true Catholic & Christian Religion, among the noble valiant and wise, in the open field, in Martial manner, the honourablest death that could be desired, and best be seeming a Christian Knight, whereby he hath worthly won to himself immortal fame among the godly, and left example worthy of imitation to others of his calling. This honourable gentleman being delighted with the excellency of this present work, began to put the same into our Language for the benefit of this his native Country, and had proceeded certain Chapters therein; until that intending a higher kind of service to wards God and his Prince, not drawn thereto by subtle device of a wily Ulysses from company of Courtly Ladies, himself being disguised in Lady's attire after the manner of Achilles; nor discovered against his will by the wisdom of a Palamedes after the manner of Ulysses; but advanced through the hardiness of his own knightly courage like to Prosilaus, he willingly passed for a time from the company of the Muses to the Camp of Mars, there to make trial as well of the Pike as he had done of his Pen, after the example of the valiant julius Caesar, whose excellency in all kind of knowledge and learning, could not hold him back from seeking to enlarge his renown by hazarding his noble person among the weapons of armed Soldiers. Being thus determined to follow the affairs of Chivalry; it was his pleasure to commit the performance of this piece of service which he had intended to the Muses or rather to Christ's Church and his native Country, unto my charge; declaring unto me how it was his meaning, that the same being accomplished should be dedicated unto your Honour; a matter so acceptable unto me, both in respect of the charge itself, and of the party that imposed it upon me, and of the person to whom it was intended: that although in respect of the toilsome and tedious troubles wherewith I was then pressed and am yet still in manner oppressed, I could have found in my heart to have forborn the undertaking of so great a task at that time; yet notwithstanding I gladly took it upon me, & (by the goodness of God) have faithfully performed it to the uttermost of my skill. In his name therefore & as an executor of his will in that behalf, I humbly offer this excellent work unto your good Lordship, as his and not mine. Wherein if any words or phrases shall seem strange, (as in some places perchance they may) I doubt not but your good Lordship will impute it to the rareness and profoundness of the matters there handled, not accustomed heretofore to be treated of in our language. For the avoiding of which inconvenience as much as might be, great care hath been taken, by forming and deriving of fit names and terms, out of the fountains of our own tongue, though not altogether most usual, yet always conceivable and easy to be understood; rather than by usurping the Latin terms, or by borrowing the words of any foreign language, lest the matters which in some cases are mystical enough of themselves by reason of their own profoundness, might have been made more obscure to the unlearned, by setting them down in terms utterly unknown unto them. Wherefore forbearing to withhold your Honour with any further process of words from reading the matter itself, which may much more delight you: I refer both myself and it to your favourable acceptation. Written the 13. day of May 1587.  
Your good Lordships most humble always at your commandment, Artbur Golding.   

To the right high & mighty Prince, Henry king of Navarre, Sovereign of Bearne, and a Peer and chief Prince of the blood royal of France.  
IN this wretched time Sir, wherein ungodliness (which was wont but to whisper men in the ear, and to mumble between the teeth) hath been so bold as to step into the pulpit, and to belike out blasphemies against God and his Gospel: I take upon me (though a new kind of hardiness, as in respect of the small ability that God hath put into me) to convince her, even by her own principles and peculiar records, that if I cannot make her to come back again to a better mind, I may at leastwise yet make her hold her peace for shame, and keep close her venom in her hart: A right great enterprise, and (in the judgement of most men) overhard, but yet such as wherein I see great helps to embolden me; namely the World, Man, the open examples of all ages, and (at one Word) God himself (who never faileth those which seek his glory) and all that ever he hath uttered concerning himself, as well in the creating as in the go●ering of all things. The world, for that it is as a shadow of God's brightness: and Man, for that he is his image and likeness: And both of them, for that if it appear even by the philosophers themselves, that the World was made for man, how greatly then are we bound unto the Creator thereof? How great is the dignity of this creature? and what else is his sheet-anchor and his welfare, but to stick wholly unto God? Sooth he for whom the world was made, must needs be made for more than the World. He for whom so durable and substantial a thing was made, must needs be made for another than this frail and wretched life, that is to wit for the everlasting life, with him that is the everlasting. And that is the foundation of all Religion. For Religion (to speak properly) is nothing else but the school wherein we learn man's duty towards God, and the way to be linked most straightly unto him. Again, in the world we see a steady and fastsettled order, and every creature to do service in his sort. Only man withdraweth his duty, shrinking from God, and wandering away in himself. He that is most indebted, is loathest to pay and least able to pay. He for whom the highest things are made, is become a bondslave to the basest and vilest things: And the Records of all ages are as inditements against all mankind; proving him to be unthankful to God, a murderer of his neighbours, a violater of nature, and an enemy to himself. Shall not he then, which instead of doing his duty, is not asbamed to offend God, stand in dread of the death which waiteth upon him for his offence? ●es: for what is God, but justice? What is justice, but a judgement of duty? And before that judgement who dareth appear? What remedy than is there, both for God's glory and for man's welfare: but that the debt be discharged by release, and the justice satisfied with free favour? The duty therefore of true Religion, is to convict us by the Law, and to justify us by grace, to make us feel our disease, and there with all to offer us remedy. But who shall purchase us this grace so necessary for man's welfare? Either the world (as we think) or else man. Nay, what is there in man (I say even in the best man) which burneth not before God's justice, and which setteth it not on fire? And what shall become of the world then, if man for whom it is created be unable to stand? sooth it is the well-beloved son of God that must stand for all: the righteous for the unrighteous, the mighty for the unmightye, the rich for the poor, the darling and the well-beloved for them that are in the displeasure and curse of God his father, and the same (say I) is our Lord jesus Christ. The fool (saith the Psalmist) hath said in his heart, 
Psalm. 14, Avicen the Arabian.  There is no God. And a Heathen man hath passed yet further, saying: He that denieth the one God and his prourdence in all things, is not only witless, but also senseless. And his so saying is, because the world which offereth itself continually unto us, replenisheth our wits with the knowledge of God: even in this respect, that with one view of the eye, we see this universal mass furnished with so many and so diverse things, linked one to another, and tending all to one mark. Traly I dare say and by God's grace I dare under take to prove, that whosocuer will lay before him wholly in one table (so as he may see them together with one view) the promises and prophecies concerning Christ, the coming of our Lord jesus and the proceeding of his Gospel, he shall not be able to deny, even by the very rules of Philosophy, but that he was sent of God, yea and that he was God himself. Howbeit, in this lieth our fault, that (whether it be through ignorance or through negligence) we consider not the incomparable work of our creator and Recreator, but by piecemeal, without laying the one of them to the other: like as if a man would judge of the whole space of time by the night, or by some one season of the year, or by some one of the Elements: or as if he would judge of a building by some one quarter: or of an Oration by some syllables thereof: whereas notwithstanding, God's wisdom in creating things cannot be considered, but in the union of the parts with the whole, and of themselves among themselves: nor his goodness in recreating or renewing them, and in regenerating of mankind for whom he made the world, but by the heed full conferring of all times from the first birth of Man unto the second birth, and repairing of him again, which it hath pleased God to ordain and make for him.  
As for the world, it is sufficiently conversant before our eyes, and would God it were less graven in our hearts: and therefore let us leave the world, and busy ourselves in the universal table of man's salvation and reparation. When man had by his sin drawn God's wrath and the decay of the world upon his own head: Gods everlasting wisdom, even the same whereby God had created him, stepped in and procured his favour, so as it was promised unto the first man, that Christ should come and break the serpent's head, and make atonement between God and man. That was the foundation-stone of the wonderful building of the Church, and the seed whereof men were to be regenerated new again, whom God did as it were create, beget, and adopt new again in his son, which is his everlasting wisdom. This promise was delivered over from hand to hand, and conveyed from Father to Son, solemnly declared to Abraham, Isaac, and jacob: committed as a pawn by Moses to the people of Israel, celebrated by David in his songs, and renewed from time to time by many excellent Prophets, which pointed out the time, place, and manner of his coming, and set down plainly and expressly his stock, his parents and his birth, many hundred years, yea and some thousand years a forehand: which are such things as noman could know, nor any creature teach or conceive. What were they else therefore but Heralds that foreshowed the coming of the king of the world into the world: and certes by another spirit than the spirit of the world: After a long success of these Heralds, came the saviour in the self same manner which they had foretold and painted out. Whatsoever they had said of him, agreed unto him, and which more is could agree to none but him. Who then can doubt that the promise is not performed, and that he is not the bringer of the promised grace to the World? And seeing that the prophets could not tell any tidings of him but from God, from whence can he be sent but from God? I know well that this one thing is a stumbling block unto us, namely that after the sounding of so many clarions and trumpets, we see a man in outward show base, and to the sight of our fleshly eyes contemptible, come into the world; whereas notwithstanding if we opened the eyes of our mind, we should contrariwise espy in that wretchedness, the very Godhead, and in that human weakness, the selfsame infinite almightiness which made both the world and man. He was borne say you: but of a virgin. He was weak: but yet with his only voice he healed all infirmities. He died: but yet he razed the dead, and rose himself from the dead too. If thou believe that, thou believest that he was both sent and sustained by God. Or if thou wilt doubt thereof, tell me then how he did the things after his death, which are witnessed by thine own histories? As soon as he was borne say I, he by and by changed the outward shape of the world, making it to spring new again all after another sort. When he was once crucified, he turned the reproach of his cross into glory, and the curse thereof into a blessing. He was crowned with thorns, and now Kings and Emperors do cast down their crowns and Diadems at his feet. What a death was that, which did such things as all the living could not do? By ignorance he subdued learning; by folly, wisdom; by weakness, power, by misery, victory; by reproach, triumphs; by that which seemed not to be, the things which seemed verily and chief for to be. Twelve Fishermen in effect, did in short space subdue the whole world unto him, by suffering and by teaching to suffer, yea and by dying, and by teaching to die And the great Christian kingdoms which we now gaze at, and which we exalt so much, are but small remnants of their exploits, and little pieces of their conquests. If his birth offend thee, look upon the Heralds that went a fore him, and upon the Trumpeters that told tidings of him, both in the beginning and in the chief state of the world, from whom, but from him that made the world? And wherefore in all ages, but for the welfare of the world? If his cross offend thee, see how the Emperors and their empires, the Idols whom they worshipped, and the devils whom they served. Lie altogether overthrown, broken in pieces, fast bound and stricken dumb at the feet of this crucified man. And how, but by a power passing the power of man passing the power of Kings, passing the power of Angels, yea, passing the power of all creainpes togethers If the little show of the Apostles move thee: consider how the silionettes of those Fishermen, dre we the pride of the world, namely 〈◊〉 wisemen, the Philosophers, and the Orators, by ignorance (as thou termest it) to believe, and by folly to die for believing. And forbeleaing of what? even of things contrary to the law of the world, and to the wit of man: namely that this jesus Christ crucified is God, and that it is a blissful thing to endure all misfortune for his sake. Behold also how one of them draws me into his net the lesser Asia, another italy, the third Egypt. And some other of them extend unto the scythians, the Ethiopians, and the Indians, and unto other places, whither the power of the most renowned empires did never attain, and which have hardly come to our knowledge now within these hundred years, and yet have we even there found very great conquests of theirs● & like renowned to●ens of their victories as are here among ourselves. Nay, which more is, see how these conquero●● enriched with 〈…〉 from him, and that they be nothing, further forth than they are in him and for him? that is to say, that he liveth and maketh th●m to live, yea even for e●er, which die in him and for him. surely upon the considering of this table, we become as men ravished, distraught, and besides ourselves, ● and have nothing to say, but that he which created man and the world of nothing, and none other was able to make and regenerate man and the world again of nothing, even in despite of man and the world This invisible God which hath made himself visible by creating the visible world & hath she wed himself almightic, in 〈…〉 infirmity of contemptible man, is the 〈…〉 Man, the Son of God, and is come in the flesh 〈…〉 Lord.  
Hear Sir, you have in few words the shoot-anchor of this book, wherein I declare the trewnesse of the christian Religion, and that (as I hope) with such Reasons, that the despisers of God, if they will believe, shall at leastwise find themselves graveled to gainsay it. Moreover to offer this to your Majesty, I have chief two causes, the one is, that God hath made you to be borne, not only a Christian, but also a Christian Prince, to whom it belongeth chief both for himself and for others, to know what the Christian Religion is. For ye shallbe the more instamed to advance it, when you be thoroughly persuaded that it is not a devise of man as other Religions are, but the Law and truth of God, which maketh both kings and kingdoms. and hath made you a manly ● and set you over men. To be short, that it is both your prosperity in this life which dependeth upon God's gracious goodness, and your welfare in the other life which is of far greater importance, than all that ever we can endure or attain unto here.  
The other reason is, that forasmuch as God hath called me to be about your Majesty (as I hope) to do you service in that notable work which he is about to do in our days to his glory, and wherein he hath put into your hart to employ your person without sparing of your life: reason would that the fruits both of my labours and of my leisure should be yours, as well as the field is yours, without that it should be in my power to dispose otherwise thereof. And I pray the almighty to increase his grace in you from day to day, and to give unto you his spirit to go for ward with his work, and unto me to do you service to the uttermost of my small power as long as I live. Amen.  
Your most humble, obedient, and faithful Servant, Du. Plessis.   

The Preface to the Reader.  
IT is the ordinary matter of Prefaces, to declare first of all the apparent profit, or rather necessity that moveth them to undertake any work. But I to my great grief, do think myself discharged of that pain, in this case. For he that shall but read the title of this book, Of the Trewnesse of the Christian Religion, if he list to call to remembrance how main blasphemies he heareth● hourly against God and his word; how many despisers of Religion he meeteth with at every step; and how great either coldness in the things which they ought to follow most wholly, or doubting in the things which they ought to be leeve most steadfastly, he findeth even in those which profess the Christian godliness: shall by and by answer and yield the reason of himself, why I have taken this work in hand, more needful now adays (yea even (which I am ashamed, to say) among those which bear the name of Christians) than ever it was among the very Heathen and Infidels. Some busy themselves so much about their pleasures, that they can never find any leisure, not to mount up unto God, but only so much as to enter into themselves: in somuch that they be more strangers to their own nature, to their own Souls, and to the things which concern them most nearly and peculiarly, than they been either to the deserts of Ind, or to the Seas that are worst to be haunted & least known. That is the very wellspring of the Atheists, who (to speak rightly of them) offend not through reasoning, but for want of reasoning; nor by abusing of reason, but by drowning of reason, or rather by bemiring it in the filthy and beastly pleasures of the world. Othersome match their pleasures with malice, and to make short way to the attainment of goods or honour, do overreach and betray other men, selling their friends, their kinsfolk, yea and their own souls, & not sticking to do any evil, that may serve their turn, never alleging or pretending honesty or conscience, but to their own profit. Of such kind of stuff are the Epicures made, who because they feel their minds guilty of so many crimes, do think themselves to have escaped the justice and providence of GOD by denying it. And of these we may say, that their reason is carried away and oveimaistered by the course of the world, whereunto it is wholly tied, so as they can have none other course or discourse than his.  
Some go yet a little further, both in respect of God, and of themselves. They think there is a God, and that of him man hath received an immortal soul: that God governeth all things, and that man ought to serve him. But forasmuch as they see both Gentiles and jews, Turks and Christians in the world, and in diverse nations diverse Religions, whereof ●uery one thinketh he serveth God, and that he shall find salvation in his own Religion: These (like men at a stop where many ways meet,) in steed of choosing the right way by the judgement of reason, do stand still amazed, and in that amazement conclude that all comes to one, as who would say, that South and North lead both to one place. But foothly if they applied their wit as advisedly to judge between truth and falsehood, godliness and worldliness, as every man in his trade doth to judge between profit and loss: they should forthwith by principles bred within themselves, and by conclusions, following upon the same, discern the true Religion from the false: and the way which GOD hath ordained to welfare, from the deceitful byways and from the cross and crooked inventions of men. What shall I say of the most part of us? Of us I mean which believe the Gospel and profess the Christian Religion, and yet live as though we believed it not? Which preach the kingdom of heaven, and have our groins ever rooting in the ground? Which will needs seem and be taken to be God's children and coheirs with Christ, children of so rich a father and heirs of so goodly an inheritance, and yet do scarcely think earnestly upon it once in a whole year, but are ready to forsake it every hour, for less than a mess of gruel and a bit of bread? Surely we may well say then, that if ever it were needful, it is needful at this time to waken such as are asleep, to bring back such as are gone astray, to lift up such as are sunk down, and to chafe them a heat which are waxed cold. And that is to be done by painting out the true Religion lively before their eyes, with the joy, happiness, and glory which ensue thereupon, to the intent that the voluptuous may seek their joy, the covetous their gain, and the ambitious their glory there, bending themselves with their whole hearts unto that alone, which all only can fill their hearts, and satisfy their desires.  
That is the thing which I endeavour to do in this work, and GOD of his gracious goodness vouchsafe to guide my hand, to his own glory and to the welfare of those that are his. But afore I enter into the matter, I have to answer unto two sorts of people. The one are such as say that Religion cannot be declared unto Infidels or unbelievers by reason. The other sort are those which uphold, that although reason do somewhat enlighten it, yet it is neither lawful nor expedient to do it. But let us see what reason they can have, to exclude reason from this discourse. The first sort say, It is to no purpose to dispute against such as deny grounded principles. And by this means, because one grounded principle is denied them, they break of quite and clean, as though all mean of conference were taken away. Surely this principle of theirs is very true, but yet (in my judgement) it is very ill understood. I grant it is to no purpose to dispute against such as deny grounded principles, by the same principles which they deny: That is very true. But there may be some other principles common to both sides, by the which a man may profitably dispute with them, and by those common principles oftentimes prove and verify his own principles. And that is the thing which I intent to do in this work. As for example; The Christian groundeth himself upon the Gospel; the jew denieth it: and therefore it were to no purpose to allege it unto him. But both the jew and the Christian have one common principle and ground, which is the old Testament: By this may the Christian profitably dispute against the Iew●yea even to the verifying of the gospel, as if ye should make one to call some man to his knowledge, by the draughts or descriptions of his portraiture. Likewise the jew is grounded upon the old Testament, which the Gentile would mock at if he should allege it unto him. But both the Gentile and the jew have one common nature, which furnisheth them both with one common Philosophy, and with one common sort of principles; as that there is one God which governeth all things; that he is good, and no author of evil; That he is wise, and doth not any thing in vain. Also that man is borne to be immortal; that to be happy he ought to serve God and continue in his favour. And therewithal, that he is subject to passions, inclined to evil, weak unto good and so forth. Of these common principles, the jew may draw necessary conclusions, which the Gentile shall not perceive at the first, like as when a man understandeth a proposition, but conceiveth not yet the drift and consequence thereof. He that marketh that the Adamant or Loadstone pointeth to the North, perceiveth not forthwith that by the same a man may go about the world, although he was of capacity to cenceive it. After the same manner, by this principle: 
Euclid. lib. 1. prop. 45.  He that from equal things taketh equal things, leaveth the remainder equal; and by a few other propositions which children learn in playing; the Mathematician leadeth us gently (and ere we be aware of any mounting) unto this so greatly renowned proposition and experiment of Pythagoras, that in a Triangle, the side that beareth up the right Angle, yieldeth a square equal to the other twain, which at the first sight seemeth unpossible, and yet by degrees is found to be so of necessity. Thus shall the jew by common principles and conclusions, verify his own ground which is the old Testament. For he shall prove unto the Gentiles by their own Philosophers, that unto God alone, things to come are present, and that unto Spirits they be known but only by conjecture, and so far forth as they can read them in the stars. And he shall prove by their Astrologers, that the names of men and the circumstances of their doings cannot be betokened nor red in the stars. And he shall prove by their Historiographers, that the books of the old Testament, which contain so many and so particular prophecies, were written many hundred years afore the things came to pass. Now what will reasonably ensue hereof, but the proof of the principle which is in controversy, by the principles which are agreed upon between them both: namel●e that the old Testament is of God, seeing it cannot be from any other. And what else is all this, than that which is commonly done in Geometric and Logic, which by two lines or by two propositions that are commonly known & certain, do gather a third proportion that was unknown, or a third proposition (that is to say a conclusion) that was erst either doubted of or hidden, and by means of the other two is evidently found out, and necessarily proved. Such are these proofs against the Atheists: nothing hath moving of itself. It is nature that saith so. The world turneth about, and the heavenly bodies have a moving: and that doth man himself see. Therefore they must needs be moved by some other power and that is the Godhead; which our eye seethe not, and yet by means of the eye, our reason conceiveth and perceiveth it in all things. Against them which deny christs Godhead, [we allege this principle of their own.] That naturally of nothing nothing is made. It is the saying of Aristotle, and the schools would have him by the ears that should deny it. jesus Christ hath of nothing made very great things, yea even contraries by contraries. The Heathen wonder at it, all ages cry it out, our eyes do still behold it. He that will deny this; must deny the world, he must deny all things, he must deny himself. It followeth then that Christ wrought by a power, that is mistress of Nature. Aristotle himself saw it not, and yet Aristotle maketh us to see it. The writers of Histories took no heed of it; and yet they themselves make us to believe it. The Philosopher thought but only upon nature, and the Histographer but only upon his own writing. And yet from both twain of them, we draw both the Godhead of Christ, and the truth of our Scriptures: certes in like manner as by Arithmetic, out of two and six we draw out one continual proportionable line hidden after a sort in either of them, and yet greater than both of them together, which is Eighteen: & as out of two sticks chafed one against another, we draw out fire which is not seen in the two, the consuming of them both out of hand. To be short, the mark that our faith looketh at, is the Author of Nature & principle of all principles. The rules therefore & the principles of Nature which he hath made cannot be contrary unto himself. And he is also the very reason and truth itself. All other reason then, & all other truth dependeth upon him, & relieth upon him, neither is there, or can there be any reason or truth but in him: So far off is it, that the thing which is true and reasonable in nature, is or can be false in Divinity, which (to speak properly) is not against nature, but against the corruption of nature, and in very deed about nature.  
Now come I consequently to the other sort, 
How far matters of faith are to be dealt with by reason.  which say that although it be possible in some sort; yet the faith (that is to say, the Christian doctrine) ought not to be proved or declared by reason: And their reason is, because it consisteth in many things which exceed the capacity of man, & therefore that he which should measure them by reason, should diminish the dignity and greatness of them. Surely I will say more for them than they require: namely, that man's reason is so far off from being the measurer of far●n, which very far exceedeth nature, that it is not so much as the measurer of nature, & of the least creatures which lie far underneath man; because of the ignorance and untowardness which is in us and reigneth in us. But in this they deceive themselves, that they imagine us to uphold, that we should believe no further than reason can measure & comprehend. For what a great way doth the truth of things excend further than man's reason? But we say that man's reason is able to lead us to that point; namely, that we ought to believe even beyond reason, I mean the things whereunto all the capacity of man cannot attain. And like wise, that when things are revealed ●nto us, which reason could never have entered into nor once imagined, no not even when it was at the soundest; the same reason (which never could have found them out) maketh us to allow of them: the reason I say (whereunto those mysteries were insuisible afore) maketh them credible unto us: surely even after the same manner that our eye maketh us to see that in the visible things, which we ought to believe of the invisible, without the which the visible could have no being: that is to wit, the invisible God, by the visible Son, & also to see many things when the Sun is up, which were hidden afore in darkness: not that the eyesight was of less force, or the thing itself less visible afore: but because the Son is now up, which lighteneth the air with his brightness, which is the mean both whereby the eye seethe, & whereby the thing is seen. As for example, we believe that there is one God, the Father, the Son, & the holy Ghost. This is the article which they oppose against us, & therefore do I take the very same. This article cannot in any wise fall within the compass of understanding, & much less be comprehended by man's reason. But yet doth reason lead us to the said point, that there is a God: that he hath created man to live for ever: that whereas man hath stepped out of the way, to follow his own sway, he reformeth him again by his word: That this word (as I have said already heretofore) is the old and new Testament, which contain things that cannot proceed from creatures. Hear Reason stayeth, & holdeth itself contented. For seeing that God speaketh, it becometh man to hold his peace: and seeing that he vouchsafeth to teach us, it becometh us to believe. Now we read this doctrine in God's foresaid books, yea oftentimes repeated. Lo how Reason teacheth us that which she herself neither knew nor believed, namely by leading us to the teacher, whom we ought to hear and believe; and to the book wherein he vouchsafeth to open himself unto us, in giving us infallible marks and tokens, whereby to discern what cometh of God, and what cometh not of him. But when Reason cometh to the reading of the doctrine, and is persuaded thereof; then she awaketh, and if the Gentile refuse it as impossible and repugnant to reason and truth, then steppeth she forth stoutly, and marketh the likeness thereof in nature, the images thereof in herself to set it forth, and the Records of the Gentiles themselves to encounter them withal.  
Also she findeth out solutions of their arguments, and answers to their absurdities. For surely all truth cannot be sufficiently proved by reason, considering that many things exceed reason and nature. But yet cannot any untruth pr●●ayle by reason against truth; nor any truth be vanquished by the judgement of reason. For untruth is contrary to nature, nature helpeth reason, reason is servant to truth; and one truth is not contrary to another, that is to say, to itself. For truth cannot be but truth, and Reason, reason.  
The like may we say of the incarnation of the Son of God; that no man could of himself have imagined it, nor as now also conceive it● and yet not withstanding, that reason 〈◊〉 able both to teach it us, and to defend it. What will she say then to us in this behalf? That the works which JESUS wrought could not proceed, neither from a man, nor from a devil, nor from an Angel considered in their several kinds, but only from God the maker of heaven and earth. And this will she prove unto us, both in the respect of the history, and in respect of the kinds of his works, as well by the Historiographers and Philosophers who were enemies to Christ and his doctrine, as by conclusions of necessity conveyed from the principles which remain in the natures of every of them. And what will ensue thereof, but that jesus working by the power of God, was sent of God, and therefore aught to be heard and believed? Believed (say I) to be God the son of God, because he saith it; and to be man borne of woman, because the world saw him to be so; & that otherwise he should be an enemy to God, and God an enemy to mankind; God (I say) too good to assist him with his power to our overthrow, and too wise to lend him his spirit, to the defacing of his own glory? But if ungodliness stir coals; Reason will open her mouth and show, that it was agreeable to God's justice, and necessary for man's welfare; possible to the power of the creator, and agreeable to his will and promises; behoveful for our baseness, and beseeming his glory. And even in ungodliness itself she will find wherewith to put ungodliness to silence, howbeit that even in all godliness, she findeth not wherewith to speak thereof sufficiently. The same is to be understood of other like mysteries, which shallbe treated of in their due places. And this bringeth us back again to the said point, that the truth being revealed, enlighteneth reason; and that reason rouseth up herself to rest upon truth. And so far off is Reason from abasing faith, to make us attain thereto, that contrariwise she lifteth us up as it were upon her shoulders, to make us to see it, and to take it for our guide, as the only thing that can bring us to God; and the only schoolmistress of whom we ought to learn our salvation. To be short, we say not that because. Reason comprehendeth not this or that, therefore let us not believe it: for that were a measuring of Faith by Reason, as they say. But we say that Reason and Nature have such a Rule, and that that is the common way, and yet notwithstanding, that this thing or that thing is done or spoken beyond reason and beyond nature. I say then that the work and word of God are an extraordinary case, & that forasmuch as they are of God, it behoveth us to believe them; and to believe is to submit our reason and understanding to him. And so it is a making of reason servant to faith by reason, and a making of reason to stoop to the highness of faith: and not an abasing of faith to the measure of reason.  
Now forasmuch as we take reason to our help against the Infidels, the proofs which she shall yield unto us to guide us to the doctrine and school of faith, shallbe chief of two sorts; namely, Arguments & Records. The Arguments which we will use against the jews, we will take out of the grounds of the jewish Religion, the majesty of God, the nature and state of man, and the most evident and best authorised principles or conclusions among them. Against the Gentiles, we will take them out of their substantialest Rules, out of the most renowned Authors of Philosophy, and out of the expositions of their own most approved Interpreters; one while abiding upon their principles, & another while standing upon the conclusions which they themselves do gather of them, & sometimes drawing such necessary consequents and sequeales out of them myself, as they oftentimes perceived not, as though they had not understood what they themselves spoke. Also against either of them, we will judge of the cause by his effects, and of the effects by their cause; of the end, by the instrument or mover thereto, and of the mover, by the end, & so forth of other things: which are the strongest arguments that can be, as which are either demonstrative, or very near demonstrative. At a word, we will not allege any argument which shall not be substantial, or at leastwise which we shall not think to be so, neither will we urge any thing whereof we be not thoroughly persuaded in ourselves: choosing always the evidentest & easiest that we can, to apply ourselves to all men's capacities. Notwithstanding, let not any man look here for arguments that may be felt, as that I should prove fire to be hot by touching it, or the mysteries of GOD and Religion by the outward sense: but let it suffice him that mine arguments shall be fully as apparent, and commonly more apparent, than the arguments which the Philosophers allege in natural things: Howbeit that Aristotle would have men to look for arguments of less source at his hand in his first Philosophy, then in his discourses of natural things; and for reasons of less force in his morals (so they be likely,) than in his first & highest Philosophy: which thing we may with much better right require in the things that surmount both nature and man, that is to wit, in Divinity. Moreover, oftentimes here shall be questions propounded to unfold, or objections made to be confuted, which might trouble the Reader if he were not satisfied in them, or else break off the continuance of our proofs. And in them I shall be compelled now and then to be obscure, either by reason that the nature of the thing depending in controversy, may perchance be of some old forworn opinion, or else in respect of the terms peculiar to the case, which may hap to be less understood of the common sort, and more diffuze, and less pithy in our language, wherein such things have not hitherto been treated of. Nevertheless, I hope to take such pains in the opening of them that the Reader whosoever he be, if he take any heed at all, shall easily attain to the understanding of them.  
As touching the Records, they shallbe (in my judgement) of the worthiest sort, and such as are least to be suspected or refused, as near as I can choose. We be to declare our doctrine unto men, & men themselves are a part of the doctrine which we set forth. And what more clearness can there be, than to make themselves parties in the proof, judges in their own case, and witnesses against themselves? Unto men therefore we will bring the witnessings of men, even the things that every man readeth in his own nature, and in his own heart, from whence he uttereth them either wittingly or unwittingly, as things that are so written there, that he cannot wipe them out though he would never so feign. These are common insightes, or inse●s (as a man may term them) namely the persuasion of the Godhead, the conscience of evil, the desire of immortality, the longing for felicity, and such other things, which in this neither world are incident unto man alone, and in all men, without the which a man is no more a man; insomuch that he cannot deny them except he be out of his wits, nor call them in question without beiying of himself wrongfully. And here of proceedeth the agreeable consent of all mankind in certain beliefs which depend immediately upon the said Principles; which consent we ought to hold for certain and undoubted. For the universalnesse of this consent showeth that it is nature, and not instruction, imitation, or bringing up, that speaketh, & the voice or nature is the voice of truth. As for lying or untruth, it is a fondling, and not a thing bred; a mere corruption, and not a fruit of nature. Nevertheless, whether it were through ignorance which hath as good as choked the, or through frowardness which hath turned reason a wrong way & made man as a stranger to himself: those common and general Insets have remained barren in the most part of men. Yet notwithstanding some men in sundry nations have mounted above the common rate, and endeavoured to cherish and advance the said Insights, and drawn some small sparks of truth and wisdom out of them, as out of some little fire raked up under a great heap of ashes; the which they have afterward taught unto others; and for so doing have been called Sophies and Philosophers, that is to say, Wise men and lovers of wisdom. These also do we take for witnesses of our doctrine; and amongst them, the notablest and such as the world hath esteemed to be wisest. And wheresoever they shall disagree, either one with another, or with themselves; there shall common reason be judge. And like as they have caught some sparks from the fire, so will we kindle a fire of their sparks: how be it (in very deed) not to lead us to salvation the haven of our life; for in that behalf we have need of God himself to be our Pilot: but to show us as it were from a Tower; which way it standeth in the dark wherein we now be, to the end we may call to God for help, and ever after make thither ward with all our whole hart. Particularly against the Atheists and Epicures, we will bring themselves, the world, & the creatures therein for witnesses. For those are the Records which they best love and most believe, & from the which they be loathest to departed. Against the false naturalists [that is to say professors of the knowledge of nature and natural things] I will allege nature itself, the Sects that have sought out nature, & such writers in every Sect, as they hold for chief Disciples, Interpreters, and Anatomists or Decipherets of nature; as pit hagoras, Plato, Aristotle, the academics and peripatetics both old and new, and specially such as have most stoutly defended their own Philosophy, and impugned our doctrine; as jamblich, Plotin, Porphirie, Procle, Simplice, and such others: whose depositions or rather oppositions against us, I think men will wonder at.  
Against the jews I will produce the old Testament, for that is the Scripture where to their fathers trusted, and for the which they have suffered death, & whereby they assure themselves of life. And for the interpreting thereof, I will allege their Paraphrasts, & those which translated it into the Greek and Chaldey tongues afore the coming of our Lord jesus Christ. For they were Iewes borne, of the notablest men among them, chosen by public authority to translate it, and at that time reason was not so entangled with passions, as it hath been since. Also I will allege their ancient doctors, dispersed as well in their Cabales as in their Talmud, which are their books of greatest authority and most credit. And diverse times I will interlace the Commentaries of their late writers, which generally have been most contrary to the Christian doctrine, whom (notwithstanding) the truth hath compelled severally to agree, in expounding the Texts whereon the same is chief grounded.  
Now in these allegations I shall sometimes be long, and peradventure tedious to the Reader, whom manifest reason shall have satisfied already, so as (to his seeming) there needed not so many testimonies. But I pray him to believe, that in this longness of mine, I strain my nature to apply myself to all men; knowing that some like better of Reasons, and othersome of Testimonies; and that all men (notwithstanding that they make more account of the one than of the other) are best satisfied by both, when they see, both reason authorised by witnesses, (for that is as much to say, as that many men had one self same reason) and also Records declared by reason; for that is as much to say, as that credit is not given to the outward person, but to the divine thing which the person hath within him, that is to wit, to Reason. Herewithal I thought also, that all men have not either the mean to come by all books, or the leisure to read them; whose labour I have by that mean eased. And oftentimes I am driven to do that in one Chapter; whereof others have made whole volumes.  
To conclude, I pray the Reader, first to read this book throughout, for without mounting by degrees, a man cannot attain to high things; and the breaking of a ladders steal casteth a man back, & maketh the thing wearisome which was easy. Secondly I desire him to bring his wit rather than his will, to the reading thereof. For foredeeming and foresetled opinions do bring in bondage the reason of them that have best wits; whereas notwithstanding, it belongeth not to the will to overrule the wit, but to the wit to guide the will. Thirdly and most of all I beseech him to bear alway in mind that I am a man, and among men, one of the least; that is to say, that if I satisfy him not in all points, my reason attaineth not everywhere so far as truth doth; to the end that mine ignorance and weakness prejudice not the case, mine undertaking whereof, in good sooth is not upon trust of mine own wit, or of mine own ability; but upon assured trust of the clearness, soundness, substantialness, and soothness thereof.  
Now God vouchsafe to shed out his blessing upon this work, and by the furtherance thereof to glad them that believe, to confirm them that waver, & to confute them which go about to shake down his doctrine. This is the only pleasure that I desire, the only fruit which I seek of my labour. And (to say the truth) I feel already some effect and contentment thereof in my hart. But let us pray him also to vouchsafe in our days, to touch our stony hearts with the force● of his spirit, and with his own finger to plant his doctrine so deeply in them, as it may take root and bring forth fruit. For certes it is God's work to persuade and win men, albeit that to counsel them, yea and to move them, seemeth in some sort to lie in man.   

The Sums of the Chapters.  

That there is a God, and that all men agree in the Godhead.  
That there is but only one God.  
That the wisdom of the world acknowledged one only God.  
What it is that man is able to comprehend concerning God.  
That in the one substance of God there are three persons, which we call the Trinity.  
That the Philosophy of old time agreed to the doctrine of the Trinity.  
That the world had a beginning.  
When the world had his beginning.  
That the wisdom of the world acknowledged the creation of the world.  
That God created the world of nothing, that is to say, without any matter, substance, or stuff whereof to make it.  
That God by his providence governeth the world, and all things therein.  
That all the evil which is or which seemeth to be in the world is subject to God's providence.  
That man's wisdom hath acknowledged God's providence, and how the same wadeth between destiny and fortune.  
That man's soul is immortal.  
That the immortality of the soul hath been taught by the ancient Philosophers and believed by all nations.  
That man's nature is corrupted, and he himself fallen from his first original, & by what means.  
That the men of old time are of accord with us concerning man's corruption and the cause thereof.  
That God is the sovereign welfare of man, & therefore that the chief shootanker of man ought to be to return unto god  
That the wisest of all ages are of accord, that God is the chief shootanker, and sovereign welfare of man.  
The true Religion is the way to attain to that shootanker & sovereign welfare, and what are the marks thereof.  
That the true God was worshipped in Israel, which is the 1. mark of true religion's  
That the Gods which were worshipped by the heathen, were men consecrated or canonised to posterity.  
That the Spirits which made men to worship them under the names of those men, were wicked spirits that is to say, fiends or devils.  
That in Israel God's word was the Rule of his Service: which is the second mark of the true Religion.  
That throughout the whole process of the Bible or old Testament, there are things which cannot proceed but from God.  
That the things which seem most wonderful in our scriptures, are confirmed by the heathen themselves. Also the solutions of their objections.  
That the mean which God hath ordained for man's salvation, hath been revealed from time to time to the people of Israel, which is the 3. mark of the true religion.  
That the mediator or Messiah is promised in the Scriptures to be both God & man, that is to wit, the eternal Son of God taking man's flesh unto him.  
That the time whereat the mediator was promised to come, is overpast: & therefore that he must needs be come already, as well according to the Scriptures, as according to the traditions of the jewwes.  
That resus the Son of Mary came at the time promised by the scriptures, & that he is the mediator and Messiah.  
A solution of the Objections which the Iews allege against jesus, that he might not be received for the true Christ or Messiah.  
That jesus Christ was & is god, the son of god, contrary to the opinion of the Gentiles.  
A solution of the objections of the Gentiles against the Son of God.  
That the Gospel doth in very deed contain the history and doctrine of jesus Christ the Son of God.   
¶ The Conclusion of the whole book.   

OF THE TREWNES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.  

The first Chapter.  
That there is a God, and that all men agree in the Godhead.  
SUch as make profession to teach us, do say they never find less what too say, then when the thing which they treat of is more manifest and more known of 〈◊〉 self, than all that can be alleged for the setting forth thereof. And such are the principles of all the Sciences, and specially of the certeynest, as which consist in Demonstration. The whole (will Euclyde say) is greater than his part. And if from equal things ye take equal things, the remainder shall be equal. This is rather perceived of every man by common sense, then proved by sharpness of Reason. And like as they that would go about too prove it, do show themselves worthy to be laughed at, as which should take upon them to enlighten the Sun with a Candle: so they that deny it, do show themselves to be wranglers and unworthy of all conference, as contenders against their own mother wit, yea and against their own confession; according to this common saying of the Schools, That there is no reazoning against those which deny the Principles. Now, if there be any matter wherein this Rule is found true; it is most peculiarly in this, that there is a God. For it is so many ways and so lively painted forth in all things, and so peculiarly engraven in man's hart; that all that ever can be devized, said, and written thereof, is much less than that which is seen thereof every where, and which men feel thereof in themselves. If ye look upward, ye see there infinite bodies and infinite movings; divers, and yet not trubling one another. If ye look downward, ye see the Sea continuasly threatening the Earth, and yet not passing his bounds: and likewise the Earth altogether heavy and massy, and yetnotwithstanding settled or rather hanged in the Air, so as it stirreth not awh●. These bodies direr us incontinently too a Spirit, and this orderlines too a certain governor; forsomuch as it is certain in nature, that bodies have of themselves no moving, and that even those bodies which are quickened, could not agree steadfastly either with other bodies or with themselves, but by the ordering and governing of a Superior. But when we enter afterward into ourselves, and find there an abridgement of the whole universal; a body fit for all sorts of movings, a Soul which (without removing) maketh the bodies too move which way it listeth; a Reason therein which guideth them everichone in their doings; and yetnothwithstanding, this Soul too be such as we can neither see it nor conceive it: It ought in all reason too make us all too understand, that in this great universal mass, there is a sovereign Spirit which maketh, moveth, and gouern●●● all that we see there; by whom we live, move, and be; who in our bodies hath framed a Counterfeit of the whole world, and in our Souls hath engraven an image of himself. 
T●imegistus in Poeriandro. jamblichus, concerning mysteries. Chapt. 8.  This is it that caused one ancient Philosopher too say, that whereas our eyes cannot pierce unto God; he suffereth himself too be felt with our hands: And another too say, that the very first use of Reason, is employed in conceiving the Godhead; not properly by knowing it, but as it were by feeling it, which is more certain: yea, and that the being of our Soul is nothing else, but the knowing of God upon whom it dependeth. And Avicen speaketh yet more boldly, saying that he which acknowledgeth not the Godhead, is void, not of Reason, but even of Sense. Now, if these Senses from whence our first knowledge proceedeth, do witness the thing unto us; and we do firmly believe a thing when we feel it, and that (as they teach us) we may feel GOD as well in the world as in ourselves: Surely unto him that treateth of Religion, it ought too be granted as an unviolable Principle, That there is a God; and all men ought too be forbidden too call it into question, upon pain of ●ot being men any more. For if every Science have his Principles, which it is not lawful to remove, be it never so little: much more reason is it that it should be so, with that thing which hath the ground of all Principles for his Principle. Nevertheless, let us with the leave of all good men, bestow this Chapter upon the wickedness of this our age: and if there be any which by forgetting God, have in very deed forgotten their own shape, and mistaken their own nature: let them learn hereby too reknowledge themselves again.  
It is a strange case, 
The World leadeth us v●to God.  that these men which ordinarily speak of nothing but the world, will not see in the world, the thing which the world showeth and teacheth in all parts. For, let us begin at the lowest, & mount up too the highest; and let us consider it whole together or in his parts; and we shall not find any thing therein, either so great or so small, which leadeth us not step by step unto a Godhead. In this world (too consider it first in the whole,) we have four degrees of things: to wit, which have Being, which have Life, which have Sense, and which have Reason: Some are endued with all these gifts, and some but with some of them. The Air, the Sea, and the Earth are great, and have a great scope. They bear up and sustain all things that have Life, all things that have Sense, and all things that have Reason. And yet notwithstanding, they themselves have not any more than only bore Being, without Life, without Sense, without Reason: that is too say, the nearest too not being. The Plants, besides being, have also life, and they draw their nourishment from the Earth, and their refreshing from the Air. The Beasts have both Being, Life, and Sense, and take their food both from the Elements and from the Plants. Man hath Being, and Life, and Sense, and Reason; and he enjoyeth the Elements, liveth of the Plants, commandeth the Beasts, and discourseth of all things both above him and beneath him. Lo here an order, such from degree too degree, that whosoever conceiveth not by and by some Author thereof, hath neither Reason nor Sense, no nor is worthy too have either life or being. I pray you from whence cometh this goodly proportion, and this orderly proceeding of things by degrees? Whence cometh the difference in their partitions? Whence cometh it that the hugest and widest things are underlings to the least and weakest things? Whereof cometh it that some things have but a dead being, and next unto notbeing; and that othersome have a being that is moving, sensible, and reasonable, howbeit some more, and some less? cometh it of the things themselves? How can that be? For seeing that nothing doth willingly become an underling unto others: why be not the heaviest masses allotted to the best shares? Whereof cometh it that the living things which in respect of the whole Sea are but as a drop, and in respect of the whole Earth are but as a grain of dust, are in degree of pre-eminence above them? And whereof cometh it, that man being the fraylest of all living wights, is served by the Elements, by the Plants, and by the Beasts, yea even by the wildest of them? Then is there a divider or distributer of these things, who having imparted them to others, had them first himself, and that most abundantly; and who moreover is of necessity, almighty, seeing that in so unequal partition, he holdeth them nevertheless in concord. I say further, that all things are comprised under these four: that is too wit, under Being, Life, Sense, and Reason, according too his divers imparting of them unto all things.  
Now I demand, whether was first, of Being or Notbeing; of Living or Notliving; of Sensible, or Notsensible; of Reasonable or Notreasonable? Surely it was neither Reasonable, nor Sensible, nor living; for the time hath been that we were not. But we know that we had fathers, and that our fathers had forefathers: and the end of them maketh us too believe that they had a beginning. In like case is it with beasts and plants; for we know the breeding, growing, decaying and fading of them. Much more than may we say the same of Being. For the things here beneath which have but only bore being, are far inferior too the other things; and therefore cannot bring forth themselves, and consequently much less bring forth the other things. It remaineth then that Notbeeing, Notliving, Notsensible, and Notreasonable, were afore Being, Living, Sensible, and Reasonable. And yet notwithstanding we have both Being, Life, Sense, and Reason. It followeth therefore that it is a power from without us, which hath brought us out of Notbéeing into being, and hath parted the said gifts among us diverlly according too his good pleasure. For otherwise, from out of that nothing which we were (If I may so term it,) we should never have come too be any thing at all. Now between nothing and something, (how little so ever that something can be) there is an infinite space. Needs therefore must it be that the cause thereof was infinite (at leastwise if it may be called a cause,) and that is the very same which we call God.  
Let us come to the nature of the Elements whereof the whole is compated. The Fire is contrary too the Water, and the dry to the moist; and of these contraries are infinite other things produced under them. Now the nature of contraries is too destroy one another; and no two things, even of the least, can be coupled together, but by the working of a higher power that is able too compel them. But we see that these things do not encroach or usurp one upon another, but contrariwise that they match together in the composing of many things: and yet notwithstanding that not so much as two strings being of one selfsame nature, can agree in one tune, without the wit of a man that can skill too strain them and too slake them as he seethe it good. It followeth therefore that the heavenly harmony wherein so many contraries are made too accord both universally and particularly, are set together and guided by a spirit. Insomuch that if we will say, that according too the common opinion, the air is spread forth as a stickler between the Fire and the Water, and is joined too the one by his moisture, and too the other by his heat: ye must needs say also, that there is a great and sovereign judge above them, which hath made them too abide that stickler.  
Let us mount up higher. We see the Heaven how it mowweth round with a continual moving. Also we see there the Planets one under another, which (notwithstanding the violence of the first movable) have every one his several course and moving by himself. And shall we say that these movings happen by adventure? But the same adventure which made them to move, should also make them to stand still. Again, as for adventure or chance, it is nothing else but disorder and confusion: but in all these diversities, there is one uniformity of moving, which is never interrupted. How then? Do they move of themselves? Nay; for nothing moveth itself, and where things move one another, there is no possibility of infinite holding on; but in the end men must be feign to mount up to a first beginning, and that is a rest. As for example, from the hammer of a Clock we come too a wheel, and from that wheel too another, and finally too the wit of the Clockmaker, who by his cunning hath so ordered them, that notwithstanding that he maketh them all too move, yet he himself removeth not. It remaineth then that of all these movings, we must imagine one [Mover] unmovable: and of all these so constant diversities, one [unvariable] always like itself: and of all these bodies, one spirit. And like as from the Earth we have stied up too the Air, from the Air too the Sky, from the Sky too the Heaven of Heavens, still mounting up from greater too greater, from light too light, and from subtle to subtle: so let us advance ourselves yet one degree higher, namely too the infinite, too the light which is not too be conceived but in understanding, and too the quickening spirit; in respect whereof, the thing that we wonder at here beneath, is less than a point, our light is but a shadow, and our spirit is but a vapour. And yet notwithstanding he hath so painted out his glory and instuitenesse, even in the things which we most despise; as that even the grossest wits may easily comprehend it.  
Let us come down again too do the like here below. We shall see the Earth replenished with Herbs, Trees, and Fruits: both Sea and Land furnished with Beasts, fishes, Worms, and Birds of all sorts; every of them so perfect in his kind, as man's understanding cannot spy any want or superfluity in them. Whence is all this? Is it of the Elements? Nay, how shall the thing which hath neither life nor sense, give life and sense too other things? Or cometh it of the Sun? Nay, when did we ever see him bring forth any such like thing: Whence then is this variety, but of a mast fruitful & unconsumable might? Whence cometh this perfection, but of a singular wisdom? Of Plants, some are hot, and some cold; some sweet, and some bitter; some nourishing, and some healing. And of the most dangerous, the remedy is found either in themselves or in the next unto them. Also as touching Beasts, the wildest and such as live by pray, keep by themselves alone, because the flocking of them together would be noisome. But the tame & such as are most for our profit, do naturally live in flocks and herds, because the great numbers of them are for our commodity. Is this also a work of fortune? Nay, I say further: The Sun heateth the Earth, the Stars do limit her seazons, the Air moisteneth her drought; the Earth serveth the Grass, the Grass serveth the Beasts, and the Beasts serve man.. Each thing serveth other, and all serve one alone. Whence may this bond come? If things be everlastingly, and of themselves; how have they thus put themselves in subjection? By what means or when began they first too do so? Also how can one of them be for another, seeing that the end wherefore things are, is ever afore the things themselves, either in nature, or else in consideration; and that the eternity hath not any thing either afore or after it? So that if they have had their beginning of themselves; did they bring forth themselves in seed, in flower, or in kernel? in Egg, or in full life? small or great, and so forth? Again, seeing that the one cannot be without the other, neither Beasts without Grass, nor Grass without the Earth, nor the Earth bring forth any thing without the Heaven: which of them came afore, and which of them came after? Or if they were all bred together: whence cometh this agreement among so many divers things; but of the same mind which made and still governeth all things? Seeing then that these things are so linked together, and that they tend all to one: let us conclude also that that cannot come to pass but through one, who brought them forth altogether at one instant and one burden, when he thought good. But now let us see whence cometh this other one whereunto they tend, that is to wit Man; and whether he also be not for and by that one which hath made them, that is to wit, for and by God.  
He that seethe but only the portraiture of a man, 
Man leaded● us to God.  falleth by and by to think upon a Painter; and the first speech that he uttereth, is to ask who made it. Now, if a dead work do make us to conceive a living worker: much more reason is it, that a living work as man is, should make us to bethink us of a quickening workmaster: yea even of such a one as may be (at least wise) as far above man, as man is above the portraiture of his own making, (forsomuch as there is an infinite distance betwixt being and not being, living and not living;) and the same again is God. The proportion in man's body, which is so well observed, that all our Arts do borrow from thence, doth witness unto us a singular Cunning: and the parts also in that they all serve each others use, and every of them serve the whole; betoken a great wisdom. Now, where Cunning and wisdom be, there chance hath no place. For when a man loseth an eye, an arm, or a leg; we following the common error do commonly say, it is a mischance. But when a member that was out of joint is set in again, or a member that was lost is supplied, though it be but with a botched one: none of us will say it was chance; because that in the judgement even of the grossest sort, the property of chance is to undo and to mar things, and not to make or mend any thing at all. Again, by our Senses which conceive all Colours, Sounds, Scents, Savours, and feelings; we may see, hear, smell, taste, and feel, that one selfsame workman made both the Senses, and the things that are subject to the Senses. For to what purpose were the Senses without the sensible things? or the sensible things, without the Senses? And seeing that they rely one upon another; which of them was bred first in the world? If man made them for his Senses; why maketh he not the like still? If he made himself to be borne for them; why suffereth he himself to be bereft of his Senses one after another? Then is it to be sought for elsewhere then in man. But when in the same man we yet further consider Speech: must we not needs say that he was made to communicate himself to many? And how are they borne one for another? Again, when we come to his Mind, which in discoursing reacheth far beyond all sensible things; shall we not say that there are things merely to be comprehended by understanding, for the which the Mind was made? And on the other side, if we find a Mind in ourselves which are but a little grain of the whole world; dare we say that there is no Mind elsewhere then in ourselves? Moreover, seeing that by this Mind of ours we understand all other things; which Mind yet for all that understandeth not ne knoweth not itself, neither perceive we what or whence this Mind is which so understandeth in us: ought we not to acknowledge that there is a Mind above us, whereby we have understanding of other things, and which understandeth & knoweth in us the things which we ourselves know not there?  
Now then, seeing we understand not ne know not ourselves, (my meaning is that we be ignorant what we be, and what it is from whence our noblest actions proceed:) can we be the authors of ourselves? And from whence then ought we too acknowledge ourselves too have our original? O man, it may be that thou lookest but too thy father. But from father too father, we shall come at length too a beginning. And sooth thou art very dull-headed too think thyself too be the author of a man, considering that neither thou in begetting him, nor his Mother in breeding him, did once think upon the fashioning of him in her womb: No more (say I) than the Nuttree doth when a Nut falleth from it to the ground, which nevertheless without the Nuttrées thinking thereof, groweth into Root, Sprig, Bark, and boughs; and in the end shootefoorth into Leaves, Flowers and fruit: And yet notwithstanding, in peinting of an Image thou lookest upon it a hundred times, and divers days; thou amendest it, and thou busiest all thy wits about it. If thou be the doer of this work in the making of man, tell me why thou hast not children when thou wouldst, and why thou hast them sometime when thou wouldst not? Why hast thou a Daughter, when thou wouldst have a Son, or a Son when thou wouldst have a Daughter? In peinting thy Pictures thou dost not so disappoint thy self. Also, if thou be'st this good workmaster in making of thy child; tell me how thou hast fashioned it? Whence is the hardness of his bones? the liquor of his veins, the spirit of his Heartstrings, and the beating of his Pulses? Seest thou this, which is also as smally in thy power, as if it were none of thine? Tell me what is hidden in his breast, and the whole workmanship that is couched within him. If thou hast not seen it in the opening of thy like, thou knowest nothing thereof. Tell me yet further the imaginations of his brain, and the thoughts of his heart: nay, tell me thine own, which oftentimes thou wouldst fame alter or stay, and canst not. It is a bottomless Pit, the which thou canst not gauge: and therefore it followeth that thou madest it not. Know thou therefore O man, that all this cometh too thee from some cause that is above thyself. And seeing that thou hast understanding, needs must that cause have understanding too; and seeing that thou understandest not thyself, needs must that understand thee: and seeing that thou after a sort art infinite in number, but much more infinite in thy thoughts and deeds: needs must that be infinite too. And that is it which we call God. What shall I say more? or rather or what remaineth not for me too say? I say with the ancient Trismegist, Lord, shall I look upon thee in the things that are here beneath, or o● the things that are above? Thou madest all things, and whol●●ature is nothing else but an image of thee. And I will conclude with David, Bless ye the Lord all ye works of his; ye Heavens, ye waters, ye Winds, ye Lightnings, ye Showers, ye Seas, ye Rivers, and all that ever is, bless ye the Lord: yea and thou my soul also bless thou the Lord for ever. For, to lay forth the proofs which are both in the great world and in the little world; it would stand me in hand to ransack the whole world; as the which (with all that ever is therein,) is a plain book laid open to all men, yea even unto Children to read, and (as ye would say) even to spell God therein.  
Now like as all men may read in this book as well of the world as of themselves; 
Universal Consent.  so was there never yet any Nation under heaven, which hath not thereby learned and perceived a certain Godhead, notwithstanding that they have conceived it diversly, according to the diversity of their own imaginations. Let a man run from East to West, and from South to North: let him ransack all ages one after another: and wheresoever he findeth any men, there shall he find also a kind of Religion and Serving of God, with Prayers and Sacrifices. The diversity whereof is very great; but yet they have always consented all in this point, That there is a GOD. And as touching the diversity which is in that behalf, it beareth witness that it is a doctrine not delivered alonely from people to people; but also bred and brought up with every of them in their own Climate, yea and even in their own selves. Within these hundred years many Nations have been discovered, and many are daily discovered still, which were unknown in former ages. Among them, some have been found to live without Law, without King, without House, going stark naked, and wandering abroad in the fields: but yet none without some knowledge of God, none without some spice of Religion: to show unto us, that it is not so natural a thing in man to love company, and to clad himself against hurts of the wether, (which things we esteem to be very kindly:) as it is natural unto him to know the author of his life, that is to say, God. Or if we yield more to the judgement of those which were counted wise among the Heathen nations, (whom afterward by a more modest name men called Philosophers:) The Brachmanes among the Indians, and the Magies among the Persians, never began any thing without praying unto God. The lessons of Pythagoras and Plato, and of their Disciples, began with prayer and ended with prayer. The ancient Poets (who were all Philosophers,) as Orphey, Homer, Hesiodus, Pherecides, and Theognis, speak of none other thing. The Schools of the stoics, Academics, and peripatetics, and all other schools that flourished in old time, rung of that. The very Epicures themselves who were shameless in all other things, were ashamed to deny God. To be short, the men of old time (as witnesseth Plato) ●hose their Priests (which were to have regard of the service that was to be yielded unto God,) from among the Philosophers, as from among those which by their consideration of nature, had attained to know God. And so (which seldom happeneth but in an apparent truth) the opinion of the common people and the opinion of the wise, have met both jump together in this point.  
Well may there be found in all ages some wretched kaytifes, which have not acknowledged God, as there be some even at this day. But if we look into them, either they were some young fools given over to their pleasures, which never had leisure to bethink them of the matter, and yet when years came upon them, came back again to the knowing of themselves, and consequently of God: or else they were some persons grown quite out of kind, saped in wickedness, and such as had defaced their own nature in themselves; who to the intent they might practise all manner of wickedness with the less remorse, have strived to persuade themselves by soothing their own sins, that they have no Soul at all, and that there is no judge to make inquiry of their sins. And yet notwithstanding, if these fall into never so little danger, or be but taken upon the hip, they fall to quaking, they cry out unto heaven, they call upon God. And if they approach, but a far of, unto death, they fall to fretting and gnashing of their teeth. And when they be well beaten; there is not any shadow of the Godhead so soon offered unto them, but they embrace it: so ready are nature and conscience (which they would have restrained and imprisoned) to put them in mind thereof at all hours. 
Suctonius in the life of Caligula.  They be loath to confess God, for fear to stand in awe of him; and yet the fear of the least things maketh them to confess him. Nay, because they fear not him that made all things, therefore they stand in awe of all things; as we see in the Emperor Caligula, who threatened the Air if it rained upon his Gameplayers; and yet notwithstanding he wrapped his Cape about his head, or hide himself under his Bed, at every flash of lightning. I believe (saith Seneca 
Seneca in his first book concerning Wrath.  concerning the same matter) that this threatening of his did greatly hasten his death, for so much as folk saw that they were too bear such a one, as could not bear, even with the Gods.  
Among the learned, 
Objections concerning such as were counted Atheists.  although the liberty of Sects was lawless: yet the chief that men counted for Atheists, were one Diagoras a Melian Poet, one Theodore a Cyrenian, one Ewhemere a Tegean, and a very few others. But to say truly, these rather scorned the Idols and false Gods of their times, than denied the true God. Accordingly as we see many of them yet still among us, which hold themselves contented with the knowing of untruth, without seeking after the truth; and with mocking of Superstitions, without seeking the pure and true Religion. Of the said Diagoras it is reported, that as he was burning an Image of Hercules in his fire; he said, Thou must now do me service in this thirteenth encounter, as well as thou hast done to Euristheus in the other twelve. This was but a scorning of Idols. For notwithstanding this: his Verses began thus, that all things are governed by a Godhead. Also it is reported of the other, that he should say to the Egyptians; If they be Gods, why bewail ye them? and if they be dead folks, why worship ye them? This also was a disproving of the false Gods. And as for Ewhemere of Tegea, men are of accord that the cause why he was called an Atheist, was for that he wrote the true History and Genealogy of the Heathen Gods; showing that they were Kings, Princes, and great Personages, whose Images being kept for a remembrance of them were turned into Idols, their worthy doings into yearly Gamings, and their honouring into worshippings. And which of us at this day believeth not as much? There were in deed a kind of Philosophers called Sceptics (that is to say Dowters') which did rather suspend their judgement concerning the Godhead, then call it in question. But yet it ought to suffice us, that they be the selfsame which deny all Sciences, yea even those which consist in Demonstration; and which profess themselves to doubt of the things which they see and feel; in so much that they doubt whether they themselves have any being or no. But yet for all that, let us see after what manner these kind of people do reason. Against the thing which the world preacheth, which Nations worship, and which wise men wonder at; these folk say at a word for all, how shall we believe that there is a God, sith we see him not? O fool, and (which worse is) O fool by being wise in thine own conceit: Thou believest that there is a Sun, even when thou art in a Dungeon or in the bottom of a Prison, because his beams are shed in at thy windows: and doubtest thou yet still whether there be a God or no, when he showeth himself to thee through the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars; in the Air, the Earth, the Sea; in all things that they contain, yea and even in they self? If thou hadst never seen Tree afore, thy wit at the very first sight of it, would lead thee to the root which is under the Tree: and the sight of a River would lead thee to the wellspring thereof, which may peradventure be two hundred Leagues of. And whosoever should tell thee the contrary, thou wouldst stand at defiance against him. O man, like as the Tree leadeth thee to the root by his branches; doth not the root lead thee likewise to the kernel, and the kernel to him that made it? And as the River leadeth thee to his head; shall not the head lead thee to the original spring thereof, seeing thou canst not doubt but it hath a beginning, sith thou seest that it runneth with a stream? If thou shouldest arrive among the Indians, and find but some sislie Cottage in the desolatest Country thereof; Thou wouldst by and by conclude, this I'll is inhabited, some man hath passed here. And why? Because thou seest there some tokens of man's wit, and knowest well that the Goats which thou hast seen ranging or skipping upon the Rocks, can build no such thing. Now, when thou being borne beneath, seest here a hundred and a hundred thousand things which are not possible to be made by man: nay (which more is,) which it is not possible for him to know nor to understand: oughtest thou not to say immediately, God's spirit hath passed this way, needs must here have been some higher thing than man?  
Mention is made of certain precise persons, 
Plutarch in his treatise of the ceasing of Oracles, reporteth that a Ruler of Cilicia which was an Atheist, came to the belief of a God, by an answer given from the Oracle of Mopsus, to a demand of his which was delivered sealed.  which believed nothing but that which they saw, and the Wizards made them to see devils: Whereupon they came to believe also that there is a God. It was a mad kind of conversion, to believe in God by the ministery of the Devil. But what a number of other things believest thou which thou seest not? Thou believest that the Plants have a kind of Soul, that is to say, a certain inward power or virtue which maketh them to shoot forth in their season. Thou seest them, but thou seest not it; neither knowest thou whence it cometh, or where it lieth. Thou believest that the Beasts also have one other kind of Soul, which maketh them to move: and yet thou seest it as little as the other. Also thou believest that thou thyself (besides these) hast an ability of reasoning both upon them, and upon thyself, and upon such as are like thyself. And yet as touching the body, thou seest not any thing altered in the parts thereof after death; neither within nor without. Where is that Soul then, or where hast thou ever seen it? If thou believe thereof because of the effects which thou seest, which cannot come from any thing else: I assure thee even by the same effects, that if thou believe nothing thereof but that which thou seest with thine eyes; thine eyes see not but by thy Soul, and thine eyes themselves see not thy Soul. To be short, thou believest that thou hast a face, which without a looking Glass thou seest not: And wilt thou not believe there is a God, whose face shineth forth in all things?  
Othersome to show themselves more fineheaded, have argewed thus. If there be a GOD, he must needs be a bodily living wight, or else he should be senseless. And if he have senses, then is he changeable; and if he be changeable, then may be perish: that is to say, he is no longer God. Beasts are they in very deed, which can conceive no better than that which is common to Beasts.  
Others have said thus: If he be without body, he is also without Soul, and consequently without action. Or if he be a body, he is subject to the changes thereof. Alas that they should not be abls to conceive a Spirit without a body, nor to see that even in ourselves it is the only Soul that worketh, and that the body stirreth not but as it is moved by the Soul.  
Others again do reason, that if there be a God, he must needs be perfectly happy: and if he be perfectly happy, he is virtuous: if virtuous, he overmastereth his affections: and if he overmaster his affections, he is tempted of his lusts; a thing altogether unbeseeming the Godhead. And by these incouneniences they conclude, that there is no God at all: not perceiving, or rather wilfully refusing to perceive that which Plutarch 
Plutarch in his treatise of moral virtue.  saith very well: namely, that the person which overmastereth his affections, is but half virtuous, but the stayed person is wholly virtuous, because the one doth but bridle his passions by force of reason, whereas the other hath them already settled according to reason, But there is yet more in God: for he is reason itself, and there is nothing in him but reason. Sooth this kind of reasoning of theirs agreeth in effect with this saying of Xenophanes, 
Xenophanes as he is alleged by Clement of Alexandria in his Stromats'.  that if Beasts were able to paint, they would portray God like to themselves, because they could not naturally conceive any further. Such and other like are the arguments of these goodly Philosophers, which even little babes might laugh to scorn: but else they could not have been against so manifest and evident a truth. And yet dare I also well assure you, that they themselves knew the falseness of those arguments, but that they were as it were sworn to doubt of all things, and to gainsay all things.  
Let us then conclude with the learned and the ignorant, the Greeks and the Barbarians, Men and Beasts, things sensible and senseless, the whole and every part thereof: That there is a God. And if there be yet any folk that cast doubts thereof, endeavouring to race out not only God but also man himself out of their hearts: let us boldly appeal even unto themselves; not doubting at all, but that their own Conscience which cannot be defeated, will one day make them to understand it.   

The second Chapter.  
That there is but only one God.  
LEt us study further in the book of nature, 
The World leadeth to one only God.  and see whether that as it hath taught us a Godhead, it teach us not also that the same consisteth in only one God. I have told you already, that of things, some have being, some have being and life, some have being, life and sense; and other some have being, life, fence, and reason. These four sorts fall into three, from three into two, and from two into one, and that one is Being; afore the which (as I have proved already) there went a Notbeeing. The residue therefore how divers so ever they be, are all conveyed in the one Being, and this one Being must needs rest in the power of one first Being, whereof the being which we see, is but a shadow. Again, in all the things which we see; we reduce the particulars too an underkind, the underkinds' to an upperkind, and the upperkind to a most general. As for example, we reduce all particular human persons under the term of man; All men under the term of Wight; all wights under the term of living things; and all living things under the term of things that are or be; always referring every diversity to some unity, and the same unity to another unity which is more universal. It remaineth then that when we can mount no higher, we must distinguish the things that are, into the thing which is of itself, and the thing which is not of itself. That which is not of itself, is the World and all that ever is therein, as I have proved afore. That which is of itself, is the thing which we call God, beyond whom nothing can be imagined, and by whom all things both are and have been, as which could have no being of themselves. Now to produce from Notheeing into being, requireth an infinite power. For between nothing and something is an infinite distance; and two infinites cannot be abidden, no nor imagined together. For the infiniteness of the one doth incloase and bind the power of the other, and look whatsoever is given too the one, is taken away from all others. Therefore like as there must needs be one Infinite, so must there be but only one, yea and most simply one: from whose unity nevertheless flow all the diversities which we see in the whole world, like as from a Prick, proceedeth a Line, an outside, and all substantial bodies. And of unity or one in nombering, proceedeth even and odd, round and square, and all the multiplicities, proportions, and harmonies which we see: saving that the Prick and the unity of number are intermingled and interlaced with all things, whereas the foresaid most single and alonely One, abiding still one in itself, bringeth forth all the other unities, and containeth them all.  
Let us examine every sort of things severally by themselves, and we shall learn the like still in them. In the Elements we see contrary qualities & operations. And where contraries are, there need but two heads to set them at war. For they cannot dwell together, neither can they match together, and much less can they reign together. The further that any of them extendeth his power, the less can he away with any fellow. Now than if one reigned over the Heat, and another over the Cold; one over the Dryth, and another over the Moisture; so as there were divers makers or governors of the world: we should also see diversities of factions, Element against Element in the whole world and in every thing that is compounded, and continual war in the mids of their Bowels. But now see we no such thing; but every of them embraceth other, both in the whole and in every several thing, notwithstanding that naturally they displace and destroy one another.  
Furthermore they stand not at defiance alone by themselves, but the Sea becleapeth the Earth, the Sea and Earth together are lapped up in the Air, the Air is compassed about with the Sky, and every of them stoopeth under other; insomuch that of their contrarieties ye see there proceedeth a goodly uniformity. Seeing then that there are not two factions, there is but one maker, and seeing they yield all into one, it cannot be but also by one. In the Earth we see Rivers, which run a very long race, but yet from one head: and again many streams, which yield themselves all into one, which one is the Sea; and the Sea also being undividable passeth through the whole inferior world. Like as they come out of one unity, so do they yield themselves up into one other unity. In the Heaven we observe infinite divers movings, but yet all obeying unto one. There is one light which sheddeth itself throughout all places, but yet it proceedeth from one only; which seemeth to multiply itself infinitely, & yet cannot by any means be parted: I mean one Sun, whose beams spreading out on all sides, do reach from the Sky unto the Earth, and yet nevertheless continue still fast knit together in one bond by one unity. Now all these parts, which proceed from one and tend to one, do make us to believe that all proceed from one most single one.  
Again, in the things that have life, as in Herbs and Trees; we see a bark, a stalk or trunk, many boughs or branches, and an infinite number of leaves. The body hath no likeness to the leaves, nor the leaves to the fruit, nor the fruit to the blossoms. And yet do all these come from one root, which hath his force united to itself; and the root springing of a kernel or of a grain, (which cannot be the work of any more than one workman) conteyveth all the said diversities in his uniformity, and of itself alone yieldeth forth infinite of the same kind; and of one beginning of life which is not multiplied in itself, maketh itself a beginning of life (as well within itself as without itself) unto many things that have life.  
Likewise as touching wights, we see in every of them a thousand divers parts. Outwardly, Head, Eyes, Nose, Ears, teeth, Tongue, Feet, Tail, and so forth: and inwardly the Heart, the Lungs, the Stomach, the Liver, the Bowels, the Kidneys, the Bones, the Sinews, the Heartstrings, the Veins, and such other things. The beginning of this whole Mass and of all those so manifold parts, is next cousin unto nothing; a very small drop, of one shape, but only one. Yet notwithstanding, it hath the beginning of life and sense united in itself; which multiplieth itself into many abilities, senses, actions, and movings: and that not inwardly only, but also outwardly in infinite numbers of the same kind, which in process of time do fill whole Countries. So certain is this principle in nature, that all multitudes come from an unity or One, and that there cannot be any multitude, unless the same have first been no multitude. But we take no heed of it, because we see it every day: and yet is it given us to look upon, to the end we should have regard of it. Howbeit, forasmuch as man is both the image of God, and the Counterpane of the world together: we cannot see this unity so apparently in any thing, as in man himself. 
Man leadeth us to one God.  If we look upon his body, all the parts thereof are made one for another, and minister one to another with mutual duties: and without so doing, he could not continue nor live. The Eyes guide the Feet; the Feet bear the Eyes; by one part the things that are needful are taken in; and by another the things that are superfluous are voided out: and all and every of them refer their doings to the benefit of the whole body. This union of divers operations tending all to one point, shows that the framing of man was made by one only workmanship. And as the workmanship is but one, so must the workmaster also needs be but one. For, like as by a building that is made by pieces and of divers proportions, we deem the diversity of the maysterbuilders; so by the uniformity thereof we judge it to be the devise and workmanship of one alone. The Veins are spread forth throughout the whole body, howbeit from one welhead, that is to say from the Liver: so be the Sinews, howbeit from the Brain; So likewise are the Heartstrings, howbeit from the Heart. By these three sorts of Cunditpypes, are life, sense, and breath shed forth even to the least and uttermost parts, and the branches thereof are without number, but the original of all is only one. But yet doth this shine forth more clearly in the Soul of man. It hath life, sense, and moving. All these are dealt forth, maintained, and guided by the only one Soul. Here ye see already one unity. The Soul which hath his powers so divers and so far spread, is whole throughout all the whole body, and whole in every part thereof, as much in the least as in the greatest, and as much in the least as in the whole. There ye see yet a straighter unity. Again, the Soul is yet more straightly shut up into Mind, which is the Soul of the Soul, as the Apple of the Eye is the Eye of the Eye; and yet notwithstanding, this Mind (as entirely one as it is,) conceiveth and doth infinite things, entereth into a thousand places without removing, passeth over the Seas, mounteth up to the Heavens, and reacheth down to the depth of the Earth. Lo here an unity most straight in itself, and yet extended to the utmost parts of the world.  
Hermes saith that the sunbeams of God are his Actions, the sunbeams of the World are the Natures of things, and the sunbeams of Man are Arts and Sciences. Therefore let us see whether the Arts and Sciences will guide us to the same unity, whereunto those Actions and the natures of things have led us already, beginning at the lower, and mounting up to the higher. Grammar teacheth us to bring the divers parts of speech into one congruity, and the end thereof is to speak; and the end of speaking is society. Rhetoric teacheth to draw men's minds to one selfsame opinion. Logic teacheth to sift out the truth from a number of falshods, which truth can be but one. Their ends then are congruety, society, unity of mind and truth, which are but sundry sorts of unity. Arithmetic proceedeth from unity, Geometry from a prick; and Music from agreement of sounds; and the end of them is to reduce things to one common reason, to one proportion, and to one harmony, all which are kinds of unity, and their branches are branches of the same. For Perspecttive draweth all his lines to one point: Masourie and Carpentrie tend to uniformity. The handicraft endeavoureth to bring many powers and many movings under one, to overrule them all: All which again are but sundry sorts of unity. Physic tendeth to the preservation or restitution of health; and health is nothing else but a wel-proportioned union of divers humours together. The skill of Law tendeth to Right, and there is but one Right, though there be infinite wrongs. Then serves it but to maintain, restore, and bring men back again unto unity. Let us proceed further; Moral Philosophy subdeweth many divers passions and affections unto one reason, in one man. How should government bringeth many men to the obeying of one householder: Civillgovernment reduceth many households into one Commonweal, which is nothing but an unity of many people, whether it be under one Law or under one magistrate; insomuch that even the most popular Comonweales have (in their extremities) taken a Dictator, and in their ordinary course of government a Consul, the one after the other. Now than all that ever man conceiveth, inventeth and disposeth, doth lead us always to an unity. Where unity is lost, there things go to wreck, Arts are confounded, and Commonweals are dissolved. Then like as in ununited diversity we find waste and subversion; so must we look in unity for the increase and preservation of all things. Now if man, and all that is within man and without him do lead us to one alone: shall he suffer himself to range out unto many? And if all the Sonnebeames of man, I mean his Arts and Sciences, tend too one unity: shall only divinity turn us aside to a plurality of Gods? Nay rather, by so many unities, she will make us sty up to the true and perfect unity, and that unity is the only one God.  
But let us see now how all things being so divers in the whole world, are referred one to another. The Water moisteneth the Earth, 
The linking in of things together.  the Air maketh it fat with his showers, the Sun enlighteneth it and heateth it according to his seasons. The Earth nourisheth the Plants, the Plants ●eede the Beasts, & the Beasts serve man. Again, nothing is seen here to be made for itself. The Sun shineth and heateth; but not for itself: the Earth heareth and yet hath no benefit thereby: the Wind's blow, and yet they sail not: but all these things redound to the glory of the maker, to the accomplishment of the whole, and to the benefit of man. To be short, the noblest creatures have need of the bacest, and the bacest are served by the noblest; and all are so linked together from the highest to the lowest, that the ring thereof cannot be broken without confusion. The Sun cannot be Eclipsed, the plants withered, or the Rain want; but all things feel the hurt thereof. Now then, can we imagine that this work which consisteth of so many & so divers pieces, tending all to one end, so coupled one to another, making one body, & full of so apparent consents of affections; proceedeth from elsewhere than from the power of one alone? When in a field we see many Battles, divers Standards, sundry Liveries, and yet all turning head with one sway; we conceive that there is one General of the field, who commandeth them all. Also when in a City or a Realm we see an equality of good behaviour in an unequality of degrees of people, infinite trades which serve one another, the smaller reverencing the greater, the greater serving to the benefit of the smaller, both of them made equal in justice, and all tending in this diversity to the common service of their Country: we doubt not but there is one Law, and a Magistrate which by that Law holdeth the said diversity in union. And if any man tell of many Magistrates; we will by and by inquire for the sovereign. Yet notwithstanding, all this is but an order set among divers men, who ought even naturally to be united, by the community of their kind. But when things as well light as heavy, hot as cold, moist as dry, living as unliving, endued with sense as senseless, and each of infinite sorts, do so close in one composition, as one of them cannot forbear another; nay rather to our seeming, the worthiest do service to the bacest, the greatest to the smallest, the strongest to the weakest, and all of them together are disposed to the accomplishment of the world, and to the contentment of man who alonely is able to consider it: ought we not forthwith to perceive, that the whole world and all things contained therein, do by their tending unto us, teach us to tend unto one alone? And seeing that so many things tend unto man; shall man scatter his doings unto divers ends? Or shall he be so wretched as to serve many masters? Nay further, to knit up this point withal, seeing that all things the nobler they be, the more they do close into one unity, (as for example, we see that the things which have but mere being are of infinite kinds, the things that have life are of infinite sorts, the things that have sense are of many sorts, howbeit not of so many; and the things that have reason are many, only in particulars): doth it not follow also that the Godhead from whence they have their reason (as nobler than they) is also much more one than they, that is to say, only one as well in particularity and number, as also in kind?  
Howbeit, notwithstanding all these considerations, 
The objections of such as maintain more Gods than one.  forasmuch as there is diversity, yea and contrarity in worldly things; some have gathered upon this diversity, that there be divers Gods, acknowledging nevertheless one Almighty above them all. And othersome, in respect of the contrariety, have set down but two Gods only. 
julian the Apostata, in Cyrillus.  The first say, If only one God had made all things, there should have been no difference in things: but there is difference; and therefore it must needs be that there are many Gods. Surely had these men well considered the things afore alleged by me; they should have seen that nature is wholly and altogether against this Consequence. There is great diversity in one Plant, in one Wight, in one Man: and yet notwithstanding the ground thereof is uniform. Yea and it is so true that only unity is fruitful, that we see how the diversity itself and that which cometh thereof, is utterly barren, both in Wights, (as in Mules) and in Plants, as in the Stergon, 
Stergon is an herb which groweth of an Onion stuffed with linseed or seed of Flax.  and also in all other like things. If they consider the Sun, he maketh Plants to grow all at one time, divers one from another, and as divers in themselves. He maketh some of them too shootefoorth, some to ripen, and some to whither. At one instant he both worketh drought in the Earth, and draweth up Clouds out of it to moisten it: he giveth Summer, Daylight, & fair weather to some, and Winter, night, and fowl wether unto othersome: He maketh some folks white, some black, some read, and some Tawny; and yet is he but one selfsame Sun, and one selfsame Creature, which at one selfsame instant, by one selfsame course, and with one selfsame quality of heat, doth all the said things, not only divers, but also contrary. And he that should say that it is any other than one selfsame Sun that maketh the Ethyopian black, and the Scotte yellowish, were not worthy to be answered. Now if a Creature doth by heat (which is but a quality) breed so divers effects; what shall we say of the Creator, I mean the infinite Being of GOD, who imparteth himself to all things?  
Again, if man consider himself, he feeleth, he seeth, he speaketh, he understandeth a thousand divers things, without any alteration in himself. Nay which more is, he conceiveth, he inventeth, and he performeth so divers works, that Nations do wonder one at another. One man portrayeth out the whole world in a little piece of Paper, peinting out all the Images of the Heavens, and all the Climates of the Earth. Some one other counterfeiteth all living wights, which Creep, which Go, which Fly, which Swim. And all this cometh but of one mind which conceiveth and breedeth all these forms, because it hath no form of it own; for had it any of it own, it could not breed them, because it own would occupy it to the full. What have we then to think of him, whose willings are powers, and whose thoughts are deeds? Who is an infinite mind; in comparison of the brightness whereof our minds are but a shadow? If we, who (to speak properly) are but in outward show, do things in outward show so divers: do we doubt that he which is in very truth, cannot do them also in very truth? Moreover, if the diversity make us to imagine divers Gods, howbeit all proceeding of one alone: shall we say that he which in his unity, bred the rest of the Gods with their so divers powers, had not the same powers in his unity? Again, seeing the said diversity was once included within the said unity; is it to be said that he was fain to hatch up divers Gods, for the bringing of that diversity to light? Nay, like as nature doth all things the shortest way: so also God made all things immediately. And if they say it was his pleasure to make the high things himself, and to leave the low things to be done by the petty Gods: we must consider that High and low, Noble and Unnoble, are but considerations of man. For to make the one or the other, is all one unto God; who of his infinite goodness and power, hath drawn both twain of them out of nothing, which was no more the one than the other, as we shall see hereafter.  
Let us come to such as have uphold two beginnings, 
Against two beginnings.  the one good whom they call Oromases; and the other evil whom they call Arimanius; 
Plutark in the life of Osiris and Isis.  which opinion men say proceeded first from Zoroastres, and afterward from the Persians and Manichies; but we shall find no foundation thereof in nature. Their meaning is, that the Elements, the Plants, Beasts, Men, yea and Spirits, were as ye would say parted betwixt these two Gods, so as the one should be the Creator of the one, and the other of other; the good God, of the good; and the evil of the evil. If it be so, then is there a Civil war fully furnished, of forces set in battelray on both sides: so as there remaineth nothing but fight, and yet after so long time we see no such fight at all. And therefore let us conclude, that this contrariety of beginnings is not. Unto the one, they allotted Light: and unto the other, Darkness: unto the one, Summer: and unto the other Winter: unto the one, Heat: and unto the other, Cold. In very deed these are Contraries, but yet is one selfsame Sun the doer of them all, after as he goeth further from us or cometh nearer to us. And his going from us is not to forego his light, but to shine therewith the neerlyer unto others; nor to cool himself, but to heat other folks. Then if these contraries come of one selfsame one, that is to wit of the Sun: Much more likely is it in reason, that the Sun himself should not come of two. Again, why should the one of these contraries be good, and the other bad? Whosoever shall have tried the extremity both of the Heat and of the Cold, shall not be able to discern which is the worse. Likewise he that shall have observed the benefit that cometh of either of them in their seasons, shall not be able to discern which of them to take for the better. The Heat ripeneth fruits; but it also seareth and parcheth them. The Cold starveth them; but it also maketh them to bud. Take away either of them both, and you take away all fruits. And like as both of them are needful to one selfsame thing, that is to wit, to the bringing forth of fruits: so be they also procured by the course of one selfsame might, which is the Sun. The same Sun is the lightner of our eyes to our behoof; and he is also the blinder of them if we gaze upon him at the heyhth of the day. Yet notwithstanding, both in the Sun and in our eyes is the selffame light which they call good, and which by his reckoning should be to them both good and bad: and if it be so, on which side shall they turn themselves?  
They add further: Among Plants there are so many poisons, and among living wights, so many noisome Beasts: that how should a good God be author of them? Silly man that thou art! The Poisons thou occupyest in Tryacles for thy health, even against the Plague. And of those Beasts thou canst skill to use the skins to cloth thee against the Cold. And if thou hast an evil opinion of some of them, because thou canst not serve thy turn with them; as much wouldst thou have said sometime of the Horse, which as now doth thee service so many ways: & as much might the Satire have said of Fire when it burned him, notwithstanding that as now it be so many ways necessary. Now than they might benefit thee, if thou wistest how to use them: and whereas they annoy thee, it is not of their nature, but through thine own weakness or rather ignorance. But if they be good so far forth as thou hast skill of them: shall they not be good to him which knoweth them thoroughly? In the Closet of a Surgeon who is but a man as thou art, thou shalt find a thousand tools; and thou wilt perchance esteem him so wise, that thou wilt not think there is any one of them, which serveth not to some purpose. Yea, and if any of them do cut thee or raze thee; thou wilt not blame the tool nor the master thereof, but thyself which tookest it by the blade, whereas thou shouldest have taken it by the handle. And as little canst thou say, that the tool which did cut thee, as that the tool wherewith thou didst cut what thou wouldst, had another master or maker. Now then, wilt thou bring less regard with thee in this great shop of the Creator? It is his will that some things shall serve other living wights which serve thee, and othersome shall serve thee alone. Yea, and he will have even the harms which thou receivest by them, to serve thee to some purpose: and he serveth his own turn better by thee, than thou canst serve thine own. And if thou which art nothing, hast yet so much wit as to draw some peculiar good to thyself, out of another bodies works, yea even out of such as thou accountest evil; as out of Poison, health; from the Wolf, his skin to cover thee; from the night, rest; and so forth: Shall not the almighty and infinity Spirit much better dispose them for the benefit of all men, yea and of all the whole world which comprehendeth so many things together?  
They say yet again; But why should a good God take pleasure in so many needless things? For to what purpose serveth the Fly, and such other things? Tell me, wouldst thou like well that thine own Children should speak such reproach of thy works? Nay rather wherein doth the Fly annoy thee? And wherefore served the Fly that Zeuxis painted in his Table? It served to make his greatest disdeyners, (even those which would have had that rather than all the rest wiped out of the Table) to confess his art and excellent skill. And this serveth to convict thee of blockishness, thee (I say) which hadst rather to find fault with God and with the Fly, then to wonder at the excellency of him, who hath enclosed so lively a life, so quick a moving, and so great an excellency in so little a thing. So then, it is not for us to chase her out of the table; but rather to confess our own ignorance, or else to chase it away. Hereby therefore we perceive, that of all the things which they can allege, there is none which is not good and behofefull in itself; and that the evilness thereof cometh only through us, and therefore that the thing hath but only one Beginner thereof, who is good.  
But behold, they urge the matter yet more strongly. Howsoever the case stand (say they) it cannot be denied but there is evilness in things, seeing that they corrupt themselves, and the sin that is in ourselves is utterly evil: and sith it is so, from whence may that be? For if God be good, he cannot be the author of evil; and therefore there must needs be another author thereof. This question shall be handled more lightsomely when I come to treat of Man's fall, which is the bringer in of the two evils, namely both of pain and fault; but yet may we assoil it if we take heed. We say that making and creating are referred to natures or substances, and that all natures and substances are good; and therefore that God who is good, is the author and Creator of them. On the contrary part, we say that evil is neither a nature nor a substance, but an income or accident which is fallen into natures and substances; It is (say I) a bereving or diminishing of the good qualities which things ought naturally to have. This evil hath not any being in itself; neither can have any being but in the thing that is good. It is not an effect, but a default; nor a production, but a corruption. And therefore to speak properly, we must not seek whence cometh the doing of evil, but whence cometh the undoing of good. As for example, Wine is of Gods creating, and it is good. Now this good substance falling to decay, that is to say, to abate or diminish of his virtue, becometh Vinegar. Whereupon no man asketh who made the substance that is become sharp, for it is the selfsame that it was afore; but they ask whence cometh the sharpness or eagerness, that is to say, the alteration that is befallen to the substance. If thou say that it cometh of the foresaid evil Beginner the author of all evil, as the good Beginner is the author of all goodness: forasmuch as evil is nothing else but a default, want or failing of good; it is the sovereign or chief default or failing, as the good is the sovereign or chief being. And if it be the chief default, then is it not any more. For the default or failing of a thing, is a tending of the thing to notbeing any more the same that it was: and the failing of all, is a tending to the utter unbeing or notbeing of the whole.  
Moreover, the said evil Beginner, which worketh not but in the substance that is made or created by another, could do nothing if the good Beginner wrought not first; and so should he have the Commencement of his power depending upon another than himself, which is a thing repugnant to a Godhead. And if you ask what is then the cause thereof: 
Nothing being ● negative, causeth nothing which is the privative.  I tell you it is the very nothing itself; that is to wit, that God almighty, to show us that he made all of nothing, hath left a certain inclination in his Creatures, whereby they tend naturally to nothing, that is to say, to change and corruption, unless they be upheld by his power, who having all in himself, abideth alonely unchangeable and free from all passions. As in respect then that things be, they be of God; but as in respect that they corrupt & tend to notbeing that which they were afore; that cometh of the said notbeing, whereof they were created. And so they be good, as in respect of their bare being; and evil as in respect that they forego their formal being, that is to say, their goodness: Good on the behalf of the [sovereign] Good, the father of all substances; Evil as on the behalf of the Nothing: And sooth neither by nature nor by justice ought they to be made equal with the unchangeable Being of their Creator. And this is to be seen alike in all things. An Apple rotteth, and a man dieth. The Apple and the man, that is to say, the natures of them are Gods Creatures. As for the rottenness and the sickness, they be but abatements and defaults of the good nature that was in either of them from the good Creator. Man again becometh a Sinner, and hereunto he needeth no new creation. It is a vanishing away of the good nature, which loseth her taste. And therefore S. Austin saith, that the Latins term an evil man Nequam, and an evillnesse Nequitiam, that is to say, Naughty and Naughtiness. Now, like as of rightnought there needeth no beginner; so also is there none to be sought of naughtiness or evil. And by that means there remaineth unto us but only one God the beginner and author of all things, as we have defined him already afore. Plato, Plotin, 
Plato, in his Timaeus. Plotin, in Enn. 1. lib. 8.  and other great Philosophers of all Sexts, are of opinion that evil is not a thing of itself, nor can be imagined but in the absence of all goodness, as a deprivation of the good which ought to be naturally in every thing: 
Trisinegist in Asclepio. Simplicius upon Epictetus.  That evil is a kind of notbeing, and hath no abiding but in the good, whereof it is a default or diminishing. That the cause thereof is in the very matter whereof God created things, which matter they termed the very unbeing, that is to say, in very troth no being at all, whereof the Creatures retain still a certain inclination, whereby they may fall away from their goodness: And that in the very Soul of man, the evil that is there is a kind of darkness, for want of looking up to the light of the sovereign mind which should enlighten it; and through suffering itself too be carried too much away to the material things which are nothing. But now that we have done with nature, it is good time to see what the wisest men will teach us concerning the only one God.   

The third Chapter.  
That the Wisdom of the world hath acknowledged one only God.  
SOme man will say unto me, if in the world, if in the things contained in the world, if in man himself, it be so lively painted out that there is but only one God; whereof then cometh the multitude of Gods among men, yea and among those whom the world counted wisest? I will not prove here that all those Gods were either dead men or Devils: for that shallbe handled more materially in another place. But it shall suffice for this present, to show the universality of consent in this point, and that even those which through custom did celebrate the plurality of Gods, did yet notwithstanding believe that there is but only one true God: Which thing I will first maintain by the wise men which lived from age to age. Mercurius Trismegistus, who (if the books which are fathered upon him be his in deed, as in truth they be very ancient) is the founder of them all, teacheth everywhere, That there is but one GOD: That one is the root of all things, and that without that one, nothing hath been of all things that are: That the same one is called the only good and the goodness itself, which hath universal power of creating all things: That it is unpossible that there should be many makers: That in Heaven he hath planted immortality, in earth, interchaunge, and universally, life and moving: That unto him alone belongeth the name of Father and of Good; and that without blasphemy those titles cannot be attributed either to Angels, to Féends, or to men, or to any of all those whom men do call Gods as in respect of honour and not of nature. He calleth him father of the world, the Creator, the Beginning, the Glory, the Nature, the End, the Necessity, the Renewer of all things, the worker of all powers, and the power of all works, the only holy, the only unbegotten, the only everlasting, the Lord of everlastingness, and the everlastingness itself; the only one, and by whom there is but only one world; alone, and himself alonely all; nameless, and more excellent than all names. Unto him alone will he have us to offer up our prayers, our Praises, and our Sacrifices, and never to call upon any other than him.  
I would feign know whether it be possible for us to say any thing, either more, or better for the setting forth of the said unity? In deed in some places he speaketh of Gods in the plural number, as when he calleth the world a God, and the Heaven with the Planets which rule the Heaven, Gods: but that is after the same manner which he sometimes calleth man himself a God, notwithstanding that noman can doubt of his birth and death, which are things clean contrary to the true Godhead. 
Mercurins Trismegistus, in his Poemander. Chap. 3. 8. 10. 11. 12. And in his Asclepius. Chap. 2. 6. 8. 9  The Stars (saith he, speaking of the Creation) were numbered according to the Gods that dwell in them. And in an other place he saith, There are two sorts of Gods, the one wandering, and the other fixed. But in the times going before, he had said that God is the beginner of them, That he made them, That he is the Father and only good, unto whom nothing is to be compared, either of the things beneath, or the things above. Also he saith further, That the world is a second God, and a sensible God: and that Man is a third God, by reason of the immortal Soul which is in him: but yet he calleth them Children, Imps and Creatures of the only one God, and most commonly Shadows and Images of him; neither is it his meaning to attribute so much unto them, as only one spark of goodness, or power to make the least thing that is. To be short, he setteth down some Gods as principal, some as mean, and other some as undergovernours: But the conclusion of his matter is, that the sovereign dominion belongeth to God the sovereign Lord of them all, upon whom alonely they depend, and from whom they proceed, who alonely is called Father and Lord, and whatsoever holier name can be given, who made both men and Gods, yea and men (saith he) much better and more excellent than all the Gods. And as at the beginning of his work he had prayed unto him alone; so thanketh and praiseth he him alone in the end: which thing I thought good to set out at length, because many Philosophers have drawn their skill and knowledge out of his fountain.  
Pythagoras speaketh of God in these terms: 
Alleged by Cicero, Plutarch, Clemens of Alexandria, and Cyrillus.  God is but one; not as some think, without government of the world, but all in all. He is the orderer of all Ages, the light of all powers, the Original of all things, the Cresset of Heaven, the Father, Mind, Quickener, and Mover of all. Moreover, he calleth him The infinite power from whence all other powers flow; which cannot be verified but of him alone. Philolaus 
Philo the jew: and jamblichus of the Sect of Pythagoras.  a disciple of his saith, That there is but only one God, the Prince and Guider of all things, who is always singular, unmovable, like himself, and unlike all other things. Also Architas saith, that he esteemeth no man wife, but him which reduceth all things unto one selfsame Original, that is to wit, unto God, who is the beginning, end, and middle of all things. And Hierocles 
Hierocles against the Atheists.  one of the same Sect, saith, that the same is he whom they call by the name of Zena and Dia, the Father and maker of all things, because all things have their life and being of him. verily (by the report of Eudorus as he is alleged by Simplicius 
Simplicius in his Phis. ) they called him the founder of matter. And had we the hooks of Numenius, 
Numenius concerning the Good.  we perceive well by the things which we read & hére there, that we should find them manifest and plain. Now, all these had this doctrine both from Nature and from the School of Pherecydes the Syrian the Master of Pythagoras, unto whom Aristotle 
Arist. 14. Metaph. Cap. 4.  attributeth it in his metaphysics. Empedocles the successor of Pythagoras, celebrated none other but this only one, as appeareth by these Verses of his. 
Aristo le allegeth them in his first Philosophy and in his book of the World.   
All things that are, or ever were, or shall hereafter be,  
Both man & woman, Beast and Bird, Fish, Worm, Herb, Grass, & Tree,  
And every other thing, yea even the ancient Gods each one  
Whom we so highly honour here, come all of one alone.  
Parmenides and Melissus taught the same; 
Aristo. 1. Phis: cap. 10. lib. 3. Simply. lib. 1. Phis.  and so did their Schoolmaster Xenophanes the Colophonian, as we be credibly informed by the Verses of Parmenides rehearsed by Simplicius; in the which Verses he calleth him the Unbegotten, the whole, the only one, not which hath been or shallbe, but which everlastingly is all together and all of himself. To be short, of the like opinion were Thales, Anaxagoras, Timeus of Locres, Acmon, Euclid, Archoevetus, and others of the ancientest Philosopher. And Aristotle witnesseth in many places, that it was the common Doctrine of the men of old time; The which Zeno held so straightly, that to deny the Unity of God, and to deny the Godhead itself, he thought to be all one. And the cause of so saying among the ancient Philosophers, was not their only reading thereof in the writings of some that went afore them, (as we might do now); but also their reading thereof both in the World and in themselves. But let us come to the chief Sects of the Philosophers.  
Socrates the Schoolmaster of Plato, 
Academics.  confessed only one God, and (as Aulus Gellius and Apuleius report) was condemned to drink Poison, for teaching that the Gods which were worshipped in his time were but vanity: And for that in scorn of them he was wont to swear by an Oak, by a Goat, and by a Dog; as who would say there was no more Godhead in the one than in the other. Yet notwithstanding, he was the man whom Apollo by his Oracle deemed to be the wisest of all Greece; thereby confessing that he himself was no God. His Disciple Plato delivereth a rule in few words, 
Plato in his 13. Epistle to King Denis.  whereby to discern his meaning. When I writ in good earnest (saith he) you shall know it hereby, that I begin my letters with only one God: and when I writ otherwise, I begin them with many Gods. verily his ordinary manner of speeches were not, If it please the Gods, with the help of the Gods, and such like: but if it please God, by the help and guiding of God, God knoweth it, Such a man is the cause thereof next unto God, and such other like. Whereas he affirmeth all other things not to be in very deed: He calleth God, the Father of the whole World, the Béer, that is to say, he who only is or hath being; the selfbred, who also made the Heaven, the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the times and seasons, and all other things both heavenly and earthly, high and low, and whatsoever else is. In other places he calleth him the Beginning, the Middle, and the End; by whom, for whom, and about whom all things are; 
Plato in Timoeus, in his 10. book of his Commonweal, and in his Epistle to Dion, Hermias, and Coricus. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the Governor of all that ever is and shall be; the very Goodness, and the Pattern of all goodness; the King of all wight endued with reason and mind; of whom all things have their Being, and which is of more excellency than the word Being. And the names and titles which he giveth unto the true God, are commonly given him under the name of jupiter, and he thinketh that they be not to be communicated unto any other. In deed sometimes he suffereth himself to be carried away to the common manner of speaking, perhaps for fear of the like end that his Schoolmaster had, & he doth it expressly in his book of Laws, 
Plato in his book of Laws, and in his book intyled Epinomis.  which was to be published to the people. For there and in divers other places, he calleth the heavenly 
* We call them Angels.  Spirits by the name of Gods: but yet he maketh God speaking to them as to his Creatures; naming them Gods begotten and made by him; and him on the contrary part the Father & God of Gods. Also he honoureth Heaven with the same name, because of the substantialnes thereof: and likewise the Stars, by reason of the perpetuity of their course: And it may be that in that respect the Greeks called them 
* Of the word Thein, which signifieth to Run.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Gods. Howheit, he addeth that they be visible Gods, and that the Heaven was made by [the only one invisible] God, That it hath none other immortality, than such as he hath given unto it, and that he hath placed the Stars in the Sky for the measuring of times, seasons and hours, appointing unto every of them his Circuit. 
Plato in his Timoeus and Laertius in Plato's life.  As touching men, he showeth well enough what he believed of them, by his declaring of their Genealogy: that is to say, their mortality; to wit, that he acknowledged in them some shadow of the Godhead, but that the very essence or substance thereof was in the only true God.  
All the Platomists have followed the said doctrine, bringing it so much the more to light, as they themselves have drawn nearer to our tyme. Damascius saith; 
Damascius. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The one bringeth forth all things; The one ought to be honoured by silence: The one (like the Sun) is seen dimly a far of, and the nearer the more dimly, and hard at hand taketh away the sight of all things. jamblichus surnamed the Divine, 
jamblichus in his book of the Sect of Pythagoras.  acknowledged every where a divine cause, which is the beginning, end, and middle of all things: That there is one God the master of all, at whose hand welfare is to be sought: That the end of all Contemplation is to aim at one, and to withdraw from multitude unto unity: And that the same one or unity is God, the Ground and of all truth, happiness, and substance, yea and of all other Grounds themselves. He saith in deed, (and his books are so full of it) That there are both Gods and Fields; and of them he maketh divers degrees, as, good and bad, 
jamblichus in his book of Mysteries. Chap 1. 3. 5. 12. 16. 17. 39  high and low, and so forth. But yet for all that, he always acknowledgeth one chief, whom he calleth the only one God, which hath vin afore all that is, and is the Fountain and Root of all that first understandeth or is first understood, that is to say of all forms, shapes or Patterns [conceived or conceivable in mind or imagination,] Sufficing to himself and Father of himself; the begetter of the Souls of the other Gods, according to the Patterns conceived in his own mind; who is not only the chief Being, but also the superessential Being, [that is to say, a Being which far surmounteth, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  passeth, and excelleth all beings:] nor simply Good, but the very Good and Goodness itself: Insomuch that he calleth all the other Gods severed essences, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Goodnesses derived, and Minds sparkling forth from the Godhead of the Supersubstantial God, [that is to say, of the God whose substance surpasseth and excelleth all manner of substances:] which Gods understand not any thing but by beholding the said One, nor are any better than dealers forth of certain gifts which they have from him. And Theodore the Platomist addeth, that all of them pray earnestly ot the first, and draw from him which is of himself; and that otherwise they should go to nought.  
Proclus, 
Proclusin Plato's Divinity.  (after the manner of the Platomists, which was for the most part to be very Superstitious) turneth himself oft-times aside to many Gods: but yet his resolution is this in express words. Who is he (saith he) that is King of all, the only God separated from all, and the producer of all things out of himself, which turneth all ends unto himself, and is the end of ends, the first cause of operations, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the author of all that ever is good and beautiful, the inlightener of all things with his light? If thou believe Plato, he can neither be uttered nor understood. And anon after, Then is it this first simplicity which is the King; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the sovereignty and Superexcellency of all things, uncomprehensible, not to be matched with any other thing, uniform, going beyond all causes, the Creator of the substance of the Gods which hath some form of goodness. All things go after him and stick unto him: for he produceth and perfecteth all things that are subject to understanding, like as the Sun doth to all things that are subject to sense. To be short, it is the unutterable cause which Plato teacheth us under two names in his Commonweal, calling it the very Goodness itself, and the fountain of truth, which uniteth the understanding to the things that are understood. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  And in his Parmenides, The One or Unity whereupon all the divine Unities are grounded, and which is the Original of all that is, and of all that as yet is not. In his book of the Soul and of the Spirit, 
Proclus in his book of the Soul and the Spirit cap. 32. 42. 53.  he teacheth us the way to attain from many multitudes to this supersubstantial Unity, which he calleth the Nature grounded in eternity, the life that liveth and quickeneth, the waking understanding, the wellspring of all welfare, the infinite both in continuance and in power, and yet notwithstanding without quantity, and so forth. Nevertheless, he attributeth much to Angels and fiends according to Art Magic, which the Platomists did greatly affect in those days: howbeit in such sort, as he continually followeth this rule of his so oft repeated in his books, That all things are from the true God who is hidden; 
Many Gods (saith Proclus) is Godlessness.  and that the second degree of Gods, that is to say the Angels and fiends, are from the very selfsame: and (to be short) that to believe any more Gods than one, and to believe none at all, are both one thing.  
Simplicius saith: 
Simplicins yp● the Epictetus of Arrian.  Whatsoever is beautiful, cometh of the first and chief beauty: All truth cometh of God's truth: And all beginnings must needs be reduced to one beginning; which must not be a particular beginning as the rest are, but a beginning surpassing all other beginnings, & mounting far above them, and gathering them all into himself, yea, and giving the dignity of beginning to all beginnings, accordingly as is convenient for every of their natures. Also, The Good (saith he) is the Wellspring & Original of all things. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  It produceth all things of itself, both the first, the middlemost, and the last. The one Goodness, bringeth forth many Goodnesses; The one Unity, many Unities; The one Beginning, many Beginnings. Now, as for Unity, Beginning, Good, and God; they be all but one thing. For God is the first cause of all, & all particular Beginnings or Grounds, are fast settled and grounded in him. He is the Cause of Causes, the God of Gods, and the Goodness of Goodnesses.  
Porphyrius 
Porphyrius in his z. book of Abstinence, & in his book of Occasions. chap. 21.  acknowledged the one GOD, who alone is every where, and yet in no one place; who filleth all places, and yet is contained in no place; by whom all things are, both which are and which are not. This God doth he call the Father, which reigneth in all: & he teacheth us to sacrifice our Souls unto him in silence, and with chaste thoughts. On the other side, he acknowledgeth the other Gods as his Creatures and Servants, some visible, & some unvisible: unto whom he alloweth a material service, far differing from the service of the true God.  
As touching Plotin 
Porphyrius in the life of Plotin.  his Schoolmaster, surnamed the Divine, whom the Oracle of Apollo (as is reported by Porphyrius himself) didregister in the number of the wise men of this world, and in the number of the Gods in the other world: 
Plotin in his first Enneade lib. 8. Chap. 2. Enneade 6. lib. 4. cap 1 2. 3. 4. & in the whole 6. book, and in the 3. Enne: lib. 8.  He that would allege the things which he hath spoken divinely concerning the unity of the one God, should be fain to set down his whole treatises undiminished. The Sum is, That there is one Beginner of all things, who hath all thiugs and is all things and is all things, whose having of them is as though he had them not, because his possessing of them is not as of things that were another man's; and his being them is as though he were them not, because he is neither all things, nor any thing among things, but the power of all things. That this Beginner dwelleth in himself, is sufficient of himself, & of himself bringeth forth all manner of Essences, Souls, and sives, as being more than Essence, and all life. That by his Unity he produceth multitude, which could be no multitude, unless he abode One. As touching the undergods, he saith that they neither be nor can be happy of themselves, but only by the same mean that men can become happy; namely, by beholding the light of understanding, which is GOD, through their parttaking whereof they abide in blessedness. Yea, he affirmeth that the Soul of the whole world surmised by the Platomists, is not happy but by that means: namely, by beholding the light which created it, like as the Moon shineth not, but by the overshining of the Sun upon her. That was the very opinion of the Platonists as well old as new concerning the only one God, 
Augustin: de Civitate Dei. lib. 10. cap. 2.  notwithstanding that of all Philosophers they were most given to the serving and seeking out of the bodiless Spirits, whom we call Angels and Devils, and whom they called Gods and Fée●ds.  
Now let us come to the Peripatetics, 
The Peripateecks.  and begin at Aristotle Plato's Disciple, who notwithstanding was unreligious in many places, in not yielding unto God his due glory, after the manner of these superstitious folk, who are overliberal in bestowing it upon others: and yet even in him shall we find this selfsame truth. Aristotle leadeth us by many movings, 
Aristotle in his Metaphisiks, and in the first book of his Natural Philosophy.  unto one first mover, whom he declareth to be infinite, without beginning and without end. From thence a man may step further: for that which is infinite can be but one, because (as I have said afore) the infiniteness of one restraineth the power of all others. Afterward he defineth him to be Living, Inunortall, and Everlasting. And again. [he nameth him] he only possessor of wisdom, the Beginner of all Causes, and such like: None of all which things can be attributed to any more than only one. 
Aristotle in his book of Heaven.  Yet notwithstanding, he setteth certain Godheads in the Heaven, in the Stars, and in the Sun & Moon; unto which Godheads he alsotteth the government of those things, and termeth them heavenly Minds, First substances, unchangeable and unpassible, which (in his opinion) cannot wax old, because they be above the first Movable, & consequently above tyme. Yea, and Common custom, with the force of Love carried him so far, as to set up Images unto juno and jupiter, under the name of saviours, for the life of Nicanor, and to do Sacrifice to a woman whom he loved, as the Athenians did unto Ceres. But yet in his Abridgement of Philosophy, which he dedicated in his old age unto Alexander, his final doctrine is this. 
Aristotle in his book of the world, which justine the Martyr affirmeth to have been named his Abridgemeut of Philosophy. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  This world (saith he) wherein all things are orderly disposed, is maintained by God; & the highest thing that is in it, is that it is Gods dwelling place. No nature is sufficient of itself to endure, if it be not assisted by his tuition. He is the Father of Gods & Men, the breeder and maintainer of all the things whereof this world is composed; and yet for all that, he entereth not into them, but his power and providence oversitting them from above, attain unto all things, move the Heaven the Sun and the Moon, Preserve the things on earth, and make all and every thing to do according to their nature. He likeneth him to the great King of Persia, who from out of his privy Chamber governed his whole Empire by his power and officers; saving (saith he) that the one is God infinite in power, and the other a very base and feeble wight. He saith moreover, that all the names which are attributed to the Gods, are but devices to experesse the powers of the only one God the Prince and Father of all. And therefore it is more behofefull to send the Readers to the reading of that whole treatise of his throughout, than to set in any more thereof here, because they shall there see a wonderful eloquence matched with this goodly divinity.  
That which the first and most divine (saith his disciple Theophrastus 
Theophrastus' in his Metaphisiks. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. ) will have all things to be exceeding good; and it may be also, that he is above the reach of all knowledge and unserachable, Again, There is (saith he) One divine beginner of all things, whereby they have their being and continuance. But in his book of Savours he passeth further, and saith that God created all things of nothing. 
Theophrastus' in his book of Savours.  But to create of nothing, presupposeth an infinite power; and again, that power presupposeth an unity.  
Alexander of Aphrodise 
Alexander of Aphrodise in his book of Providence, and cyril against julian the Apostata.  in his book of Arovidence written to the Emperor Antonine, attributeth Providence over all things unto one only God, which can do whatsoever he listeth, as appeareth by all his whole discourse. And he was of such renown among all the Aristotelians, that they called themselves Alexandrians after his name. To be short, the most part of the Interpreters and Disiciples of Aristotle, found it so needful to acknowledge one only Beginner, and so absurd to maintain any more than one; that to the intent they might not confess any such absurdity in their Master, they do by all means possible excuse whatsoever might in his works be construed to the contrary.  
As touching the Stoics 
The Stoics.  of ancientest time, we have no more than is gathered into the writings of their adversaries; who do all attribute unto them [the maintenance of] the unity & infiniteness of GOD, according to this which Aristotle reporteth of Zeno; namely that there must needs be but one God, for else there should be no God at all, because it behoveth him to be singularly good and also almighty, which were utterly unpossible if there were any more than one.  
Also Simplicius reporteth of Cleanthes, that in his iambic verses he prayed God to vouchsafe to guide him by his cause, which guideth all things in order, the which cause he calleth destiny and the cause of cause. But the two chief among them whose doctrine we have in writing, will easily make us to credit all the residue.  
Epictetus' 
Epictetus' in Arrianus.  the Stoik (whose words Proclus, Simplicius, and even Lucian himself held for Oracles;) speaketh of only one God. The first thing (saith he) that is to be learned, is, that there is but one God, and that he provideth for all things, and that from him neither deed nor thought can be hidden. He teacheth us to resort unto him in our distresses, to acknowled him for our Master and Father, to lift up our eyes unto him alone if we will get out of the Quamyre of our sins, to seek our felicity there, and to call upon him in all things both great and small. Of all the Gods that were in time past, he speaketh not a word: but surely he saith that if we call upon the only one God, he will inform us of all things by his Angels.  
As for Seneca, 
Seneca every where.  he never speaketh otherwise. What doth God (saith he) to such as behold him? He causeth his works not to be without witness. And again, To serve God (saith he) is to Reign. God exerciseth us with afflictions to try man's nature: and he requireth no more but that we should pray to him. These ordinary speeches of his, show that he thought there was but one God. 
Seneca in his Book of the happylyfe, & in his Treatise of Comfort.  But he proceedeth yet f●rther. From things discovered (saith he) we must proceed to things undiscovered, and seek out him that is ancienter than the world, of whom the Stars proceed. And in the end he concludeth, that the World and all that is contained therein, is the work of God. Also he casseth him the Founder, Maker, & Creator of the World, and the Spirit which is shed forth upon all things both great and small. 
Seneca in his natural Questions, and in his books of Benefiting.  And in his Questions: It is he (saith he) whom the tuscans or Tuscans mean by the names of jupiter, Guardian, Governor, & Lord of the whole world. If thou call him Destiny, thou shalt not deceive thyself; for all things depend upon him, & from him comes the causes of all causes. If thou call him Providence, thou sayest well; for by his direction doth the World hold on his course without swerving, and utter forth his Actions. If thou call him Nature, thou dost not amiss: for he it is of whom all things are bred, and by whose Spirit we live. To be short, wilt thou call him the World? In very deed he is the whole which thou seest, and he is in all the parts thereof, bearing up both the whole World and all that is thereof. By this sentence we may also show, that by the term Nature the Philosophers meant none other than God himself, accordingly as Seneca saith in another place, that God and Nature are both one, like as Annoeus & Seneca be both one man. And whereas he saith that God may be called the World; 
Aristotle calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say, All the whole.  it is all one with that which he saith in another place: namely, GOD is whatsoever thou seest, and whatsoever thou seest not: That is to say, whereas thou canst not see him in his proper being, thou seest him in his works. For in other places also he defineth him to a Mind and Wisdom without body, which cannot be seen but in understanding. Now, of all the former things by him repeated in many places, none can be verified of any more than one. For he that maketh all, governeth all, and is all, leaveth nothing for any other to make, govern, or be, otherwise than from himself. But he speaketh yet more expressly, saying; 
Seneca in his book of sudden death, & in his exhortations alleged by Lactantius. lib. 1. cap. 5.  Thou considerest not the authority & majesty of thy judge, the Governor of the World, the God of Heaven and of all Gods. All the Godheads which we worship every man by himself, depend wholly upon him. And again; When he had laid the foundations of this goodly Mass, although he had spread out his power throughout the body thereof: yet notwithstanding he made Gods to be officers of his kingdom, to the end that every thing should have his guide. Now, this is after the same manner that the holy Scripture speaketh of the Angels. So then, he is not only God the excellentest of all Gods; but also their very Father, Author, and Maker.  
Let us yet further add Cicero and Plutarch, who have of every Sect taken what they thought good. Both of them speak ordinarily but of one God, the author and governor of all things, unto whom they attribute all things, and in that ordinary style is their word Nature, which surmounteth the custom of their time; but yet doth their doctrine express much more here. Cicero treating of this matter in his book entituled Of the nature of the Gods, acknowledgeth one sovereign GOD, whom he calleth the God of Gods, & that is the difference which he maketh. The Nature of the Gods 
Cicero in his book of the Nature of the Gods.  (saith he) is neither mighty nor excellent; for it is subject to the selfsame (beit Nature or Necessity) which ruleth the Heaven, the Earth, and the Sea. But there is not any thing so excellent as God, who ruleth the World, and is not subject to Nature, but commandeth Nature itself. And he is full of the like sentences.  
As for Plutarch, 
Plutarch in his treatise of Isis and Osiris of Oracles that are ceased: Of calmness of Mind: Against ignorant Princes:  he suffereth himself to range overoften into fables; but yet in good earnest he speaketh thus. Let us not worship the Elements, the Heaven, the Sun, the Moon, and so forth: for they be but Lookingglasses for us, wherein to consider the cunning of him that ordained all things; and all the World is but his Temple. Again: Wherefore doth Plato call God, the Father and Maker of all? He calleth him the Father of the begotten Gods, and of men, like as Homer also doth: but he calleth him the Creator of the things that have no life nor Reason. 
Of Platonical Questions: Against the Stoics: Against Epicures: What is meant by this Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. ei.  And therefore (saith he in another place) he made the World as a Common house both to Men & Gods. Yea, (saith he further) Although there were many more such Worlds as this is; yet notwithstanding the one only God should govern them all. Now this true God, whom he calleth the great God, the great Workemayster, the Sea of Beauty, the Ground of all good things, and the true Being, of whom alone it can be said: Thou art, and not thou hast been or shalt be; is he whom he meaneth by the name of jupiter, saying: That of the Gods, one is called Liberal, another Gentle, and a third the driver away of evil; but the great jupiter is in Heaven, who hath care universally of all things. Thus ye see then how all the Philosophers of all times, of all Sects, and of all Nations have agreed in one God: which is the thing that the learned Varro 
Varro, as he is alleged by S. Austin in the City of God. lib. 4. cap. 9 11 & lib. 7. cap. 54. 9 23.  noted very well; namely, that although the Teachers of the Heathen named many Gods and Goddesses: yet notwithstanding they comprehended them all under one, which was jupiter, of whom the residue were but powers and functions: And this jupiter, is he whom such folk worshipped under another name, as worshipped the only one God without Images; and he saith that so God ought to be worshipped. And to that purpose allegeth he these verses of the right learned Poet Valerius Soranus. 
The love almighty is the King of Kings and God of Gods,  
One God, and all, the Father both and Mother of the Gods.   
But now it is time to come to the ancient Poets, 
poets.  which were also Philosophers, and who by their feynings opened the gap to the plurality of Gods. Among these the first that we meet with is Orpheus, whom justine 
justin in his book of Monarchy. justin to the gentiles. Athenagoras in his Treatise concerning the Resurrection. The Recantation of Orpheus who is called the Author of the plurality of Gods.  calleth the first Author of them, the first giver of names unto them, and the first blazer of their Pedegrées. But yet there is a Recantation of his in his Hymn unto Musaeus, which is called his Testament, that is to say, his last doctrine, whereunto he would have men to stick. Lift up thine eyes (saith he) to only maker of the World; He is but one, bred of himself: and of that one are all things. He is all in all, he seethe all and is seen of none. He only giveth both welfare and woeful tears and war. He sitteth in Heaven governing all things; with his feet he toucheth the Earth, and with his right hand the utmost shores of the Sea He maketh the Mountains, Rivers and deep Sea to quake, and so forth. And in another place he calleth him the Firstborne, the Great, the Apparent, who hath created an incorruptible house for them that are immortal. 
Clemens in his Protreptik to the Gentiles.  Also under the name of Zeus or jupiter, he saith of him as followeth.  
Look up to that same only King, which did the world create.  
Who being only one, selfbred, all other things begat.  
And being with them all, unseen of any mortal wight,  
Beholdeth all things; giving Man now wealth and heart's delight,  
Now woeful war: For sure there is none other King but he.  
I see him not, because the Clouds a covert to him be.  
And in the eye of mortal man there is but mortal sight,  
Too weak too see the lightfull jove that ruleth all with right.  
For sitting in the brazen Heaven aloft in Throne of gold,  
He makes the earth his footstool, and with either hand doth hold  
The utmost of the Ocean waves: and at his presence quake  
Both Mountains huge, & hideous Seas, and eke the Sigean Lake.  And anon after again. 
The endless Sky and stately Heavens, and all things else beside,  
Did once within the Thundering jove close hoardward up abide.  
The blessed Gods and Goddesses whose being is for ay,  
And all things past or yet to come within Ioues bowels lay.  
From Ioues wide womb did all things come; jove is both first & last;  
Beginning, mids, and End is jove; From jove are all things past.  
jove laid foundation of the Earth, and of the starry Sky.  
jove reigneth King; The selfsame jove of all things far and nigh  
The Father and the Author is. One power, one God is he;  
Alonely Great, one Lord of all. This royal Mass which we  
Behold, and all the things that are contained in the same,  
As Fire and Water, Earth and Air, and Titan's golden flame  
That shines by Day, and droopy Night, and every other thing  
Are placed in the goodly House of jove the heavenly King.  
Phocilides 
Phocylides,  followeth him in these words. There is but only one God, mighty, wise and happy. And again, Honour the only God. Also, All of them are mortal men, God reigneth over their souls. And Theognis (who is of the same time) speaketh not any otherwise. Homer 
Theognis. Homer.  (whom Pythagoras reporteth to be punished in Hell for making Fables of the Gods) cannot make a notabler difference between the true GOD and all the rest of the Gods whom men worshipped in this time; than when he saith, That if they were all hanged at a chain beneath; he would pull them up spite of their teeth: and also that he maketh them all too quake under him: and that whensoever there is any greater deed talked of, he speaketh always but of one God in the singular number. Also Hesiodus 
Hesiodus.  who described the pedigrees of the Gods, showeth his heléef sufficiently in this only one verse written to his brother. Both Gods and Mortal Men, from one self race descend. That is to say, All the Gods are created by the only one God.  
Likewise Sophocles 
Sophocles in Cyrillus against julian the Apostaia.  saith thus. 
certes of Gods there is no more but one,  
Who made the Heavens, and eke the earth so round,  
The dreadful Sea which cleaps the same about,  
And blustering Winds which rayze the Waves aloft.  
But we fond men through folly gone astray,  
Even to the hurt and damning of our souls,  
Have set up Idols made of Wood and Stone,  
Thinking like fools, by means of honouring them  
To● give full well too God his honour due.  Euripides 
Euripides Clemeus in his  goeth yet further, saying. 
Thou Neptune, and thou jupiter, and all  
You other Gods, so wicked are you all,  
That if due justice unto you were done,  
Both Heaven and Temples should be empty soon.  And yet in defacing the false Gods, he ceaseth not to commend the only true God in many places.  
Aratus 
Aratus. iovis genus sumus  in the same place which is alleged by S. Paul, attributeth all to one jupiter, whom he would have to be honoured without ceasing.  
As touching the Latins, Ovid 
ovid.  in his Metamorphosis attributeth the Creation of the World and of all things therein, unto the only one God. And Virgil 
Virgil in his fourth book of Husbandry & everywhere else.  doth ordinarily call him the King of Gods and Men; and he describeth him shedding forth his power to the uttermost coasts of Heaven and Earth, and with his virtue quickening the World, and all that is therein.  
But forasmuch as Scoevola 
Scaevola, as he is alleged by S. Austin in the City of God lib. 3. Cap. 27.  the Highpréest of the Romans distinguished the Gods of old time into three sorts, that is to wit, Philosophical, Poetical, and Civil; and we have seen how the Philosophers and Poets, (notwithstanding their own Wyndlases and fables, and the infinite superstitions of their times,) do meet one another in the only one GOD: let us see consequently what the Civil sort will say unto us, that is to say, what hath been believed, not only by the learned sort of all Nations, but also by the very Nations themselves. 
The consent of People.  Sooth so incredible hath the vanity of men been since their turning aside from the true way, that all Nations have let themselves run loose after such absurdities as we would not believe, if we saw not the like still at this day. Some worshipped the Heaven, the plants, and the Stars like silly souls which at their first coming into a King's Court, do think that the first gay appareled man whom they meet with is the King. Some made Gods of the Goods which God gave them. Some worshipped the Beasts which were for their benefit. And finally they made Gods, not only of themselves, but also of their Spears, Shéelds and Swords, and builded Temples to their own Passions, as unto Fearfulness, Hardiness and such others; yea and even unto things so filthy and loathsome, as a man may be ashamed and abashed to hear spoken of. Nevertheless, the costomable use of such things made folk too have no regard of them, and the most spiritual sort of them were so possessed with Ambition, that it filled all their minds to the full. Yet notwithstanding, when they were once awaked, and fell a little to the bethinking themselves as of a thing in very deed against Nature, they were ashamed of their doings, yea and even of themselves. 
In the City of God. lib. 4. cap. 24.  Why Sir, (answered they to Saint Austin? Think you that our Forefathers were so foolish and blind, as to believe that Bacchus, Ceres, Pan, and such others were Gods? It is not possible. Nay, they believed but in the only one GOD, whose gifts and functions they honoured under divers names; and whatsoever is more, is but Superstition. Truly the egyptians (as we read) did honour Devils, Men, Beasts, Serpents, and Plants: and to be short, every thing was to them a GOD. But as touching the true GOD, they described him in their holy Carects as a Pilot alone governing a Ship. And all their divinity (as is to be seen in jamblichus, 
jamblichus concerning the Mysteries of the Egyptians. cap. 37. 39 ) was referred unto only one God. Insomuch that the people of I hebais in AEgipt, rejected all the said absurdities of many Gods, saying that there was none other God but only he whom they called C●ef, which was never borne, nor could ever die, 
Plutarch in his treatise of Isis and Osiris.  that is to say the Everlasting. Also in Say a City of AEgipt, the Image of Pallas, that is to say of Wisdom, had his Inscription: I am all that hath been, is, or ever shallbe, and there was never yet any mortal man that uncovered my face. And Proclus addeth thereto, And the Fruits that I have brought forth is the Son, as who would say, It is the Wisdom whereby God worketh, which is the Goddesseworker. Now if even among the egyptians the opinion of the one only God was not quenched: much more reason have we to deem, that it was not quenched among other nations.  
In the Laws of the twelve Tables were written these words: 
Cicero in his second book of Laws. Deos adeunto casté: opes amovento: si secus faxint, Deus ipse vindex erit: that i● Go to God chastened: remove away riches: If any do otherwise God himself will punish him. Tertullian in his Defence.  Let Men come to the Gods chastened. Let Pomp be removed away: If they do otherwise, God himself (that is to say, jupiter whom only they called the most gracious and most mighty) will revenge it. Yet notwithstanding, it is certain that afterward Rome became the very Sinckpan of all the Idolatries of the world: for in winning of Nations, they won also their Superstitions. But could all this wipe out in them the print of Nature? Nay, contrariwise, Tertullian speaking of the Heathen of his time, saith thus: As wholly as their Souls are brought in bondage to false Gods, yet when they awake as a drunken man out of his sleep, they name but one God, and the speech of every man is, as it pleaseth GOD. They call upon him as their judge, saying; God seethe it, I refer myself to God, God requite it me. O record of a Soul by nature Christian! To be short, in uttering those words, they look up to Heaven, and not to the Capitol: for they know that Heaven is the Seat of the living God. Lactantius 
Lactantius. lib. 2. cap. 1.  who came a good while after, saith the like. When they swear, (saith he) when they wish, when they give thanks; they name neither jupiter, nor Gods in the plural number, but the only one God: so greatly doth Nature constrain them to acknowledge the truth. If there come an Alarm, or if they be threatened with war; they do after the same manner: But as soon as the danger is past, by and by they run to the Temples of many Gods, whereas notwithstanding they called but the one God to their succour. And in very truth, if we consider the natural motions which we have in our afflictions; they part not our hearts into divers prayers at once, but do put us in mind of only one God, and to offer our prayers up unto him.  
Now, forasmuch as Nature, Man's wisdom, and the voice of all people, do in all Languages commend, worship, and confess one only God: It remaineth for us to see whether we may not gather the like, even by the very confession of the false Gods themselves, 
Lactantius lib. 1 Chap. 6. justine in his Apology. The Cracles of the Sibylles.  which have gone about to deface his name by all means. It is a case disputed among the learned, by what Spirit the Sybils spoke, because it is not unconvenient that God should compel the very Devils to set soorth his praises. Howsoever the case stand, they speak but of only one God, saying.  
There is but only one true God, right great, and everlasting,  
Almighty, and invisible, which seethe every thing,  
But cannot be beheld himself of any fleshly man.  
Also they cry out against the false Gods, and exhort men to beat down their Altars, accounting them happy which give themselves to the glorifying of the only one God. But let us here Apollo himself. Being asked at Colophon by one Theophilus whether there was a God or no, and what he is: He answered in 21. Greek verses rehearsed by Lactantius, 
Lactan. lib. 1. cap. 6.  whereof I will hold me contented with the latter three, which are to be englished thus.  
The selfebred, bred without the help of Mother,  
Wise of himself, whose name no wight can tell,  
Doth dwell in fire beyond all reach of thought:  
Of whom we Angels are the smallest part.  
The rest of these Verses commend and set forth the Majesty of the great God, but these suffice for this matter. Here the Fiend doth what he can to magnify himself, saying that he is an Angel and a little portion of God, but yet he acknowledgeth him as his sovereign. Porphyrius 
Porphyrius in his tenth book of the praises of Philosophy.  the great enemy of Christians, rehearseth many other like. The same Apollo being asked how GOD was to be worshipped, answered in 22. Verses, calling him the everlasting Father, the Walker upon the Heaven of Heavens, the Fashioner or framer of substances, the father of all things, the father of all wights both mortal and immortal. And on the other side he calleth all others his Children, his Servants, his Messengers, and the Heralds or blazers abroad of his praises. In another answer comprised in ten Verses, he calleth him the burning Flame, the Wellspring and Original of all things, the author of life, and so forth; and afterward he concludeth, 
I am but Phoebus; more of me ye get not at my hand;  
It is as little in my mind as I can understand.   
Being asked at another time by the 
* Pausanias.  Founder of Constantinople, whether he should resist an enemy of his or no; he answered thus: 
Apollo is not of that mind; beware  
How thou dost deal; he is too strong for thee.  
For God it is that makes him undertake  
This enterprise, and doth the same maintain,  
Even God I tell thee under whom both Heaven  
And Earth and Sea and every thing therein,  
And Phoebus eke and Hell itself doth quake.   
Proclus 
Proclus upon Timaeus.  saith, that the Oracles acknowledged the great God the Wellspring of the fountain of all things. And for an example he allegeth this Oracle of four Verses; From God springeth the generation of all matter; from the same ground riseth the fineness of the fire, and the Globes of the World, and whatsoever else is bred, and so forth. That is the answer of Apollo the God so greatly renowned among the Heathen, when he was asked what God was. And being urged to tell what he himself was, and how he would be called, he said: Call me the Fiend that knoweth all and is right sage and wise. And at another time he saith thus.  
We Fiends which haunt both Sea and Land through all the world so wide,  
Do tremble at the whip of God which all the world doth guide.  
These foresaid Oracles are reported by Porphyrius, Proclus, and other Heathen men, whereof some be rehearsed also by Lactantius: which may suffice to show how the very Devils do believe one God, and quake at him. But I hope I shall be pardoned for handling this matter a little at the largest, because the consent of all men in that behalf which I have already proved, is contrary to the opinion of many men. And therefore ye see here how the World, Men, and the devils themselves cry out with the holy Scripture, Harken O Israel, 
Deuter. 6. Psalm. 85.  the Lord thy God is but one God, the God of Gods, who only worketh wonders, & hath not his like among the Gods. And that is the thing which I have gone about to prove in these last two Chapters.   

The fourth Chapter.  
What it is that we can comprehend concerning God.  
NOW, albeit that the least things which are in Nature and in ourselves, do sufficiently show us that there is but one GOD: Yet notwithstanding all Nature is not able to teach us what that God is, neither is man, in nature able to comprehend any thing of him: and the reason thereof is evident in both twain. In Man, because the greater can never be comprehended by the lesser, 
Man cannot comprehend God.  neither can Man have any thing in understanding, which hath not first been in his senses, as from whence proceedeth unto him the beginning of all natural knowledge: And he neither seethe nor perceiveth God in himself, but only by his effects. In Nature, because it is a thing wrought by God, and no work or effect how great so ever it be, can perfectly express the cause or worker thereof. Man is able to discourse after a sort, of the things that are less than himself, as of Beasts, Plants, and Stones. And yet if he will enter into their substances; he must needs stop short, and is constreyved to stay upon the histories of them, confessing his knowledge to be but ignorance. If he come to himself, to know his own Soul by the power of his Soul: by and by he is at his wit's end: For the manner of his discourse is but to proceed from kind to kind, and to pass from one reason to another. But on the contrary part, his mind seethe not itself, but only turneth into itself, leaving not any thing empty without itself whereunto to extend, no more than a Circle doth. And yet notwithstanding, every thing is equal to itself, and measurable by itself. What shall we then think that Man can do, if he advance himself to the considering of God's nature; seeing that the least Creatures that are do put him to his trump? That is the very thing which hath made the ignorant sort to overshoot themselves so far, as to counterfeit God by a shape like themselves: which thing the very Beasts (saith Xenophanes) would have done, if they had been Painters, as which cannot ordinarily conceive any greater thing than themselves. Ye see then how Man is of himself too far unable to conceive such a Greatness. Again, if we consider the effects, a man planteth, buildeth, painteth, and weaveth a thousand divers works: and we think it not strange that the bruit Beasts conceive not thereby what Man is, howbeit that there is always some proportion of understanding between Creature and Creature; but between the Creature and the Creator there is none at all. Nay, there is yet this more, that a man shall see and feel the works of another man, and he shall know from whence he taketh his stuff, after what manner he matcheth things together, and what Art he hath observed: But shall he for all that, know what the Soul or Mind of that man is? No; nor yet his own Soul. For his doings come nothing near to that which he is, no not so near as the heat which the Sun sheddeth into us from above, approacheth near to the natural power that is in the Sun; the which notwithstanding we durst not take upon us to describe, if we had never felt it otherwise than in a Prison. But if thou couldst have entered into the mind of that man at the making of his work, 
Cicero in his book of the Nature of the Gods.  thou shouldest have seen it far more beautiful there: and all that ever he could do or thou say, is always far less than his Conceit; and yet the same Conceit of his is but as a spark of the Mind, whereof the same work is a part. 
Plotinus Enn. 6. lib. 8. cap 11 Galen in his 9 book upon the Decrees of Hypocrates. Although it appear by certain demonstration, that it is a divine workmayster that hath procreated us: yet can we not by any wit or reason conceive, neither what his substance is, nor how he made us. For we must consider that it is a far other thing, to show that a certain Providence made us: than to know the substance, either of our own Soul, or of him that made us.  Now then, if thou being a man, canst not conceive the mind of a man by his doings, though thou bear the like mind about thee thyself; and if his doings (of what sort so ever they be) come far short of that which he himself is: darest thou be so bold as to describe God by his works what he is, and to dispute of his substance? And if thou canst not conceive him by his works; how wilt thou then conceive him, seeing thou canst not behold him otherwise? To this purpose we have the common History of Simonides, who being asked by Hiero King of Syracuse what God is; demanded one days respite to give answer, and afterward two, and then four, and in the end confessed that the more he thought thereon, the less he understood thereof; and yet he was the man which taught very well, that God was the very wisdom itself. Xenophon, Plato, Plotin and others say that he is a thing which cannot be found, nor aught to be sought. To be short, all the Philosophers cry in one voice with David, 
* Pesuit tenebras latibulum suum, Defect in A●rijs tuis Domine.  Lord, thou hast made darkness thy Covert, Lord I am wearied even in thine outer Courts. Yet notwithstanding, whereas men are not able to attain to God's substance; they have gone about to betoken it by the excellentest names that they could devise, as we have seen in the last Chapter. They considered that forasmuch as all things have their being from him, he himself was the sovereign Being; and that to be so, it behoved him to be ever, and therefore they called him the Everlasting. And that to have being without life; is nothing: and that he which giveth life to all, must needs be all life: and therefore they call him the living God. And again, that life without understanding is dead, and understanding without power is unperfect; and that he which giveth both of them to all, must needs have them in himself for all: and therefore they call him Mind and Might, attributing unto him the perfect knowledge and infinite power of all things. Finally, forasmuch as to be, to Live, to Understand, and to be mighty, the higher that they be, are so much the less to be esteemed, if good also abound not on all parts: because men on the other side receive so many good turns at his hand, they call him Good, exceeding good, and the goodness itself; assuring themselves that no other name doth so peculiarly fit him as that. Yet notwithstanding neither that, nor any thing else that we can imagine more, can come near him by infinite distance. Let us attribute unto him the highest degree of all perfections that can be, (as in very deed he must needs have them at the highest pitch, seeing that there is not any that hath measured them unto him:) yet do we attribute unto him but imperfection. For if any of them be finite, then is he not infinite, as we ought to conceive him to be: and infinite it cannot be, because the one of them should by the infiniteness thereof shut up the other within bounds. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Therefore it behoveth us to conceive a most single singleness, which nevertheless in one perfection comprehendeth all perfections, as the root of them; which seemeth a thing contrary to man's understanding: that is to wit, that his Providence is no more Providence than justice, nor his justice more justice than mercy, nor his knowledge more knowledge than life, nor his life more life than single being: To be short, that his being is such a being as is wholly and alonely all, I mean altogether deed, 
Mercurius Trismegistus in his Poemander. cap. 2. & 6.  altogether form, altogether perfection and so forth. And that is the thing which God himself teacheth us, in that being asked his name by Moses, he answered him, I am that I am: 
Ehjch asher ehjeh.  which name the jews had in such reverence, that the very Priests themselves (as they say) named it not but at the great Feasts. And yet in the judgement of Plotine, that name is not sufficient for him. 
Plotiri. Ennead. 7. lib. 7. cap. 38.  Also we call him the good, and yet is that too little for him; for Good is the good of goodness, as heat is the heat of hotness. But God is the goodness itself; and whatsoever is good, is of him. Yet notwithstanding, the very word Goodness is not sufficient; for goodness hath his being in some substance. But in God there cannot any thing be conceived, which is not substantially, yea and more than substantially substance. Again, when we say, he seethe, he knoweth, he understandeth; these things have relation to time; and he that made time is without the reach of time. Also when we say, he is here, or he is there, it is all one; for he that made all places is not contained in any place. And therefore Tiismegistus saith very well, 
Mercurius in his Poemander. prover. 30. v. 4.  That he is better and mightier than any name can express. And Solomon crieth out with admiration, what is his name? As who would say, man is not able to utter or conceive any word that doth properly fit him, neither in Nouns nor in Uerbes nor in complete speech, because man is an essence subject to time, place and accidents, which cannot pass beyond itself. Now then, what is the uttermost point that all our sine conceits can reach unto? 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Porph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Porph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. in praepositionibus. Dennis in his book of the names of God.  verily the most in effect that we can know concerning his being, is that we can understand nothing at all thereof. Insomuch that whatsoever we say thereof affirmatively, whether we term it Scothnesse or Wisdom, or Kingdom, or Unity, or Godhead, or any thing else which we mean thereby, it can not fit him. Finally, we can no more name him than comprehend him, how high so ever we think we mount up. And therefore we must with Trismegistus call upon him in silence; and say unto him with David, Lord, the best praise that I can give unto thee is silence.  
Now seeing we cannot know what God is, but by not knowing it, it standeth us on hand to know what he is not, which is no small help for us to know him after a sort. Wherein we must follow a clean contrary rule. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Tibi silentium laus. What God is not.  For as we have said, that of all the things that are spoken and affirmed of God's essence or substance, none fitteth him, being taken strictly: so whatsoever is spoken thereof negatively, shallbe found true, being taken after the same manner: Insomuch that that man may be said to be most skilful in that behalf, which knoweth most Negatives or Remotions (as they term them.) To make this point yet clearer, nature hath taught us by the divers movings which we see here beneath, that there is a GOD which is the first mover of the whole world. And by the same reason, we say that he himself is unmovable, 
unmovable.  that is to say, removeth not at all. For we see that the nature of him which maveth, insomuch as he moveth, is to be and to be settled in rest. Even our Soul (as in respect of the body) is unmovable, notwithstanding that it cause and procure all the movings of the body: and the more things that a man intendeth to move, the more it behoveth him to have his mind settled. Forasmuch as God is evermore doing, he is ever at rest, and he hath not his resting in another but in himself, or rather is his own rest himself. And therefore the ancient Philosophers called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
1. physic. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  that is to say, the unmovable and steadfast, to put a difference between him and the heaven, the Planets, and the Stars, which are subject to moving, and whom the ignorance of folk hath called Gods. hereupon we say also that he is unchangeable: for the change of a thing in itself, as a kind of moving which tendeth out of itself. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Out of the verses of Parmenides reported by Simplicius. Unchangeable.  As for example, He that desireth or coveteth, desireth or coveteth the thing which he hath not. But God is one, & all together; neither is it possible for him to receive being from any other: for nothing is changed but by some other thing, which in some respect is more mightier than it, as Wood is changed by Fire. But all things have their power & force from God alone. Therefore by this term Unchangeable, we deny him to be like the immortal souls, which admit such passions as we perceive, or also to the very bodiless Spirits, whom we call Angels, & the Philosophers call Gods; who be not unchangeable, saving so far forth as they rest in the beholding of him which cannot be changed. And it maketh nothing against the matter, that we see so divers changes in all things. For it is one thing to change one's self, & another thing to will that there should be a change; like as it is one thing to move one's self, & another thing to will that there be a moving. The Sun maketh many divers changes in the things which we see here beneath, he maketh things green, he maketh things yellow, he ripeneth things, he withereth things & so forth, and yet notwithstanding he changeth no whit of his heat; and had he also a mind (as some suppose him to have,) he might also will all these changes without changing himself. So also may God, and much better. He without altering his own being, willeth & maketh all the changes in the beings of things: & yet it is as certain that he is unchangeable, & that if he were not so the whole changeable nature should perish; as it is certain that if he were not unmovable, all moving should utterly cease. Now out of these two negatives we draw a third, namely that he hath neither beginning nor end, which thing we call Everlastingness. 
Everlasting.  For the beginning and ending of all things, proceedeth of moving and change: and therefore he that is not subject to them, can have neither beginning nor end. Moreover, Time is but a measure of moving, wherein there is both a foreness & an afterness. He therefore which is not subject to moving, is not subject to time, and he which is not subject to time, hath not his being by continuance of succession from one moving to another. And so Gods being is altogether at once, which is the peculiar property of everlastingness. And whereas we say, he hath been, and he shall be; it is as much to say as there was never any time when he was not, neither shall it ever come to pass that he shall cease to be.  
Again, 
Mere Act.  being everlasting he is not subject to any passive possibility; that is to say, look whatsoever he is, he is the same actually and in very deed, and he cannot become any other thing than he is already. For, were there any passive possibility in him as from himself, than should there be a change in him; and if it were from elsewhere, then should there be a moving from possibility to deed, or to doing; & he is not subject to any of them both. 
Erom Possibility into deed.  Furthermore, everlastingness cannot be in way of possibility, but only actually and in very deed. For every manner of deed being simply taken is afore the possibility thereof, as the cause is afore his effect, forasmuch as the possibility is (as ye would say) quickened by the deed. As for example, from a grain to an Herb, 
A grain may become an herb, and a kernel a tree: which they be not so long as they continue a grain and a kernel. Vnmateriall.  and from a kernel to a Tree by the power of the Sun. But as for everlastingness, it can abide neither foreness nor afterness; and therefore look whatsoever it can be, it is the same all at once, and actually or in very deed, and ever. Whereupon it followeth also immediately, that God is neither matter nor material: for the property of matter is to be merely passive; that is to say, capable of divers forms or shapes, and such as may in possibility receive, being itself altogether naked and such as the Philosophers describe it to be. By these conclusions we come to another, which is, that God 
God is single and uncompounded.  is not compounded. For whatsoever is so, we say is of later time than the things whereof it is compounded. But God is everlasting, and unto him nothing can be new. Again, Compounding is a knitting of many things into one; & ere those things could be united in very deed, it behoved them to be first in possibility; that is to say, to be capable thereof. Now, as for God, he is not a thing in possibility (which is an unperfect being) but altogether actually and in very deed.  
Moreover, we say that God made all things, and knoweth all things. Now, if he had in him the nature of any of them, the same would trouble the natures of the rest, as we see that the tongue of a sick man that is sick of an ague, is unable to judge of the taste of things, because it is furred by a choleric humour; and the eye which hath any matter therein, can see nothing. It followeth then that too make and too know all things, God must needs be very single, and not holding any thing at all in him. And the more single he is, the more is he capable of the innumerable multitudes of things; like as the eye is then most capable of all colours and the ear of all voices; when [in themselves] the one is least troubled with noyzes and the other with colours. Whereupon it followeth that seeing he is not compounded, he cannot be a body: 
Bodylesse. Numenius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  for all bodies are contained within bounds, and have parts, which thing most people have known well enough as Numenius the Pythagorean reporteth. 
Place is to be considered, either as a thing created, or as a conteyner of a thing placed. This way God is nowhere: the other way he is every where. So is he both every where, and no where. No where by limitation or pointing down of place, & every where by filling all places.  And not being a body, he cannot be in place, neither wholly nor partly. By reason whereof, we may say in strict speech, that he is no where, that is to say, that no part of him is limited within any place to be pointed at. Notwithstanding, like as he made all things by the power of his being; so doth the same power enter into all things, fill all things and contain all things. And forasmuch as the same is undividable, it is whole in all, and whole in every part: and so likewise is he himself; that is to say, he is everywhere, whole throughout, in whom all things have their being, howbeit that he is not determinately or definitely in any thing. We have an image hereof in our own mind, which yet notwithstanding is but a vain shadow. For, in as much as all the things which we conceive are less than we; they be in the mind without intermingling of the mind with them, and the mind after a certain fashion toucheth them all, although it be not comprehended in any of them. Now, if all these things be in our mind, because they be entered into it by our senses: how much more shall all essences be in God and he in all of them, seeing that all of them proceed from him, and that his only conceiving of them hath brought them forth? Now then, let us not imagine any intermingling in this behalf. The light of the Sun continueth entirely throughout; it cannot be divided into parts, nor shut up in any place, nor severed from the wellspring thereof: it sheddeth itself into all places, it filleth all places, and it is present with all things which we see, (I speak after the manner of the Divines) in essence, in power, and in presence. The Air is lightened with the presence thereof, and darkened with the absence, and we perceive both twain of them; and yet for all that, it intermingleth not itself with the Air, ne leaveth any whit of itself into it. And shall we presume to think less of the light which is not to be conceived but in understanding; considering that we see the like with our eyes? Or shall we think it strange that GOD should be both every where and nowhere, considering how we see that from a body there isseweth such a bodiless thing, as without touching any of them, lighteneth them all? And if a light shine in all things that shine; shall not the sovereign essence be in all things that are? And seeing that things could not have been made unless God's power (which is his very essence) had been present with all things & with every of them; shall any thing let him from being present with all things still? Now, like as the light of the Sun hath divers effects through the disposition of men's eyes, and of the shéerenesse of things, and the diversities of the substances whereon it lighteth: so is God's presence divers too divers things, and yet is it without any diversity in itself. He is (saith S. Austin 
S. Austin upon the Psalms. ) in himself, as the beginning and the end: to the World, as the Author and governor thereof: to his Church, as a father in his House: to our Souls, as a Bridegroom in his Chamber: to the righteous, as a Helper and defender: to the Reprobates, as a trembling and terror. No man fleeth from him but to him, from his rigour to his goodness, and so forth. For what place shall he meet with (saith he) where he shall not find they presence? The selfsame presence which was present at the making of all things, 
1. Phisic. 2. etc. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  is present with every thing to preserve them all: and yet is it nevertheless absent from all things and from every thing, as it was at the time that there were no things at all; because none of them containeth it or any part of it, but it containeth all things.  
But we must pass yet one step further. God (say we) is present everywhere. Then is he infinite, 
Infinite.  and yet is he not contained in any place, for he is not a body. It followeth therefore that he is not infinite in body, 
Infinite, not by stretching or straining out, but by shedding in.  but in Spirit; nor in quantity, but in goodness and power, and better if better may be said. Wherefore, let us not imagine him to be a huge or massy lump, as the ignorant sort do. The massiness of things is that (as we see) which maketh them unable to do things. Contrariwise, the more spiritual a thing is, the more active it is. He then which is the action of all powers, must needs be a Spirit of infinite power, and yet notwithstanding exempted from all quantity, (which properly is but a weakness or want of power) yea, and yet in such sort infinite, as all the infiniteness thereof be comprehended within bounds as to himself, that is to say, so as he finish or bound himself, because he neither is nor hath any thing without himself. Thus have we by reason (and we may also have it by the devils in the forealleged Oracles, and likewise by all the Philosophers) that GOD is unmovable, unchangeable, beginninglesse, endless, single, bodylesse, and infinite; all which are terms whereby we declare, not what he is, but only what he is not; not to make us to conceive him, but to keep us from deceiving ourselves by our own vain conceits. And of all these Negatives we conceive but one affirmative, as we did at the first; namely, that God is his own being, as he himself faith unto Moses; insomuch that he is of himself, and all things are of him, and he cannot be aught else than he is; insomuch also that it is all one with him to be great and mighty, as merely and simply to be; which is as much to say as that we must (as much as we can) conceive him to be good without quality, great without quantity, everlasting without time, everywhere present without place, and so forth. And to conclude this Chapter, whereas we cannot comprehend God in his very being, we will endeavour to come near to the knowledge of him three ways by considering his effects; howbeit in such sort as that we must think infinitely of him, above and beyond the things which seem greatest unto us in the perfections which we perceive to be in all things; as, goodness, truth, wisdom, justice, life, unity, and such like; and yet conceiving him (if we can) to be but one only perfection comprehending all perfections in one, and yet every of them infinitely above the highest degree of perfection that we can imagine. And finally as in respect of the imperfections which are in all things, (as changeableness, weakness, materialnesse, and such like,) by conceiving them to be more infinitely far of from his nature, than we can set them of in our understanding. But when we have or shall have taken never so much pains in that behalf, yet the uttermost that we shall have learned, is but only not to be ignorant of our own want of knowledge. And therefore, to the intent we lose not ourselves in seeking him, the surest way for us is to possess him by loving serving and worshipping him; the which thing he of his love towards us grant us to do.  
Amen.   

The fifth Chapter.  
That in the only one Essence or Substance of God there are three persons which we call the Trinity.  
LET us presume yet a little further, not by rash inquisitiveness of man, but by the merciful guiding of God, who hath vouchsafed to utter himself unto us in his Scriptures: and let us see whether reason will help us to maintain and prove the things which she of herself could never have found out. For, reason is after a sort in like case towards God, as our eye is towards the Sun. Neither the Sun nor any thing under the Sun, can well be seen without the Sun: likewise neither God nor any thing belonging to God can be seen without God, how good eyesight or myndsight so ever we have. But when the Sun shineth, than our eye seethe the things which it saw not afore, & judgeth of them at his ease, notwithstanding that the eye be but the same it was afore, and have but the same power of sight which it had afore, without receiving any new increase thereof. Likewise, when GOD vouchsafeth to utter any doctrine unto us, the selfsame reason which otherwise could never have perceived it, doth then see it, and discourse it, and allow of it, without receiving any new power ability or change in itself. We have concluded by reason, that God is a most single essence: And we believe by discovery from heaven, that in the same most single essence are three persons or Inbeings. Reason of itself could never have attained to the finding thereof: for we cannot distinguish things unless we conceive them; and yet nevertheless, reason will serve us to prove it.  
First of all, 
The begetting of the Son, or of the second Person  we have already acknowledged by God's effects or doings, that there is in him a working nature or power, (I must be feign to speak in the speech of man seeing that the divine speech is unknown to us) which is the beginner and mover of all things. And in every of his works, we see a singular cunning; and in the knitting of all, both great and small together, we see a wonderful order, as I have discoursed heretofore; and we see there is neither order nor cunning where there is no understanding. It followeth therefore that the sovereign understanding is in God from whom this great order and cunning proceed. Again, albeit that of the things which are in this world, some understand, and some understand not; yet notwithstanding, all of them are appointed to some certain end and mark, as the Sun to make the day & to heat; the Moon to lighten the night, and all the Planets and Stars to mark out the Seasons; and so forth of all other things. N●ne of them stumbleth in his way, none steppeth aside from his end●: and yet notwithstanding, the most part of them could not prescribe it to themselves. For the beginner of all ends is understanding, and in the most of these there is no understanding. Needs must it be therefore, that God the maker of them did also appoint them their ends, and consequently that he had understanding for them. Now, the innumerable multitude of things, and the linking of their ends one to another as they now be, do show that all of them have their beginning from one selfsame understanding. Then must it needs be, that this common author of their being, that is to say, the sovereign being, must also be the sovereign understanding, seeing he imparteth the effects of understanding to so many things which have it not. Moreover, the things which have understanding are the disposers and orderers of the other things, and not contrariwise. Man buildeth, planteth, reareth up cattle, and maketh his commodity of all of them together. Of men themselves, the skilfullest make Laws, and take upon them to rule others. To be short, the things which have no understanding do naturally serve as instruments to those which have it; and the thing which hath the less of it, serveth that which hath the more of it; and no part in nature dealeth to the contrary. And (as we have proved by all the Philosophers themselves) it is God that created all things that have understanding, as well those which are not tied to bodies, as those which have bodies; allotting to them their offices and ends, and so consequently he is the very beginner and end of them himself.  
Then once again, so far forth as we can describe this understanding by the outward effects thereof, it must needs be in God a most excellent ability (if it may be so named) by direction whereof he executeth most wisely the active or inworking virtue power and nature which we mark in all things in this world, howbeit, so as the chief working of them doth abide and rest still in him. I have proved heretofore that God is infinite: which being so; nothing can be imagined in him, which is not infinite likewise: for otherwise he should be as well finite as infinite both together. And infinite he were not, if he could understand or know that to day which he understood not afore. Needs then must it be, that he from all eternity understandeth and knoweth the things which have been, which are, and which shall be; the whole, and the parts; the generals, the specials, and the particulars; the originals, the proceedings, and the aftercommings; the doings, sayings, and thoughts of men; and so forth, ●o as this understanding in God is everlastingly infinite.  
Again, understanding is an inworking which abideth and remaineth in the party which hath it, and passeth not into any outward thing. For, when we understand the course of the Sun, we become the more skilful thereof in ourselves; but as for the Sun, he is nothing altered thereby. Also I have told you already, that God is most single, and that there is not any thing in him which is not his very essence or being. Whereupon it followeth, that God not only hath understanding, but also that his understanding is his very essence [that is to say, he is the very understanding itself.] Now then, let us see what it is that this understanding begetteth. I have told you that God is a mere doing, and that whatsoever he doth, he doth it from everlasting; and that on the other side being most single, there is nothing in him which is not a doer. Whereupon it followeth that this understanding is everlastingly occupied in doing. And wherein then is it occupied? What is the thing that it worketh upon? Surely it can meet with nothing but itself. God then conceived and understood himself; and it must needs be that he understood himself, seeing that the chiefest wisdom is to know one's self, whereof he could not fail. Therefore it was of necessity, that this understanding of God, should yield a reflection back again to itself, as a face doth in a Looking-glass, and as our mind doth when it setteth itself to the considering of it own proper nature; and that it should conceive and beget in itself a perfect image of it own self, which image is the same thing which in the Trinity we call the Son, the Word, or the Speech; namely, the lively and perfect image and wisdom of the Father. Now, this understanding is actually everlasting, [that is to say, everlasting in ●éede] and everlastingly actual, [that is to say, everlastingly doing,] and therefore we say that the second person which it begetteth is also everlasting: and God in his understanding had not conceived any thing that is less than himself; for it is equal with him. And whereas we comprehend not ourselves; that cometh of the darkness and lumpishness of our flesh, which maketh us unlike ourselves. We say then that the Son is equal to the Father, and the image of the Father. But yet moreover, the being of the Father and his understanding are both one: & his being or essence (being understood of itself) is none other thing than the being of the Son, who is bred and begotten by the Father's understanding or minding of himself. Whereupon we conclude again, that the essence of the Father is the essence of the Son, [that is to say, that look whatsoever the Father is, the Son is the same;] so as they differ not but by way of relation: and consequently that they be coeternal, Coequal, and Coessential, [that is to say, of one selfessame everlasting continuance, of one selfsame state condition and degree, and of one selfsame substance or being;] which is the thing that we be taught in the Church. This second person for divers respects is betokened, by divers names. He is ordinarily called the Son, because he is a Conception of the understanding which is in God, and a perfect resemblance of him. And here we have to consider, that according to the diversities of natures; the manner of breedings or beget do vary also. For every life (if I may so speak) begetteth or breedeth a Son, issue or offspring in itself afore it send it out; and the excellenter that the life is, the more inward to it is that which proceedeth or is bred thereof. Hereupon some have supposed the Fire to be a living wight, because it breedeth or begetteth another fire like itself. But howsoever the case stand, like as the Elements are naturally the bacest things in degree, so hath Fire the bacest manner of breeding or begetting; as which is not able to do it but out of itself, and by the applying of some outward matter to him. The Plant conceiveth moisture in itself, which springeth forth into bud, from bud into flower, and from flower into fruit; which fruit being ripe falleth to the ground, and there bringeth forth another Plant. Now, this second Plant lived in the first Plant ere it lived in itself; and all living wights do live, move and feel in their Dams bellies, afore they come forth; which is yet a more inward manner of breeding and begetting than the other. The sensitive life conceiveth an imagination which hoardeth up itself in the memory: but as it proceedeth from the Senses and sensible things; so doth it departed out of itself. The reasonable life hath his conceptions and breedings yet more inward than all the rest. For it hath his reflection back to itself; and we commonly term the doings or actions thereof by the name of Conceptions or conceits, after which manner the learned sort do call their books their Children. But yet there is this more in this matter; namely, that in men this conceiving proceedeth of imagination, which is an outward thing unto it, because nothing can enter into the understanding of man but by the Senses; and moreover, for that the thing which is minded or understood, and the mind or understanding itself, are not both one in us. But forasmuch as only God is altogether life, and his life is altogether understanding, which is the highest degree of life; he hath his manner of conceiving and begetting most inward of all. 
Why the second Person is called the Son, the word, Speech, Wisdom. etc.  For, he conceiveth in himself and of himself, and his conceiving is a begetting, and this begetting abideth still in himself, because his understanding can never any where meet with any thing but that which he himself is. And that is the second person whom we call the Son, and unto whom that name doth so much the more properly agree, because his resembling of him is more perfect, and his begetting or Sonship (if I may so term it) is more inward, than all the breedings and beget which we commonly see, or than any other that we can imagine. Also we call him Logos, which some translate Word or Speech, and othersome Reason. Either of those significa●ious is ordinary to the word Logos, and agreeable to that which is ntended to be signified thereby, so far forth as divine things can be expressed by the speech of man. 
Look in the 12. Chapter of Mercurius trimegistus Poemander.  When we call him Speech or Word, it is according to the doctrine of the Philosophers, who have marked that there is in man a double Speech; the one in the mind, which they call the inward Speech, which we conceive afore we utter it; and the other the sounding image thereof, which is uttered by our mouth and is termed the Speech of the voice; either of both the which we perceive at every word that we intent to pronounce: which thing those folk might yet much better observe, which had never learned any Language, because they should not cease to have those inward conceits in themselves [though they could not speak] For the wit or understanding doth by and by conceive an inward Speech upon the thing which is offered unto it, 
Rapid● quadam Corusca●ione perfundit animum. that is to say, it sheddeth through the mind with a certain swift glistering.  and begetteth or breedeth that conceit in our mind as it were by a sudden flash of Lightning, and afterward our mind uttereth it more at leisure by the voice, the which voice (notwithstanding) is unable to represent or express the inward Speech perfectly: insomuch that we see many men have a great number of goodly conceits in their minds, which they be not able to express; and that in expressing them either by word or by writing, they mislike their own doings, because they be far inferior to the things which they had conceived in their minds. Now, the speech of the mind is very Reason itself: 
Vox profert, Animus ratiocinatur, Mentis 〈…〉 is to say● the voice uttereth, the mind reasoneth or deba●eth, and so Reason is the very word or 〈…〉 Mind.  and look what the speech of the mind reasoneth and debateth, that doth the voice utter, and either of them is the image of the next that went afore. For look what proportion is between the voice or Speech of the mouth, and the Speech of the mind; the like proportion is between the Speech of the mind, and the Speech of the understanding. The voice hath need of air, and is divided into parts, and requireth ●eysure: The Mind in deed is undividable, but yet hath it need of time to pass from one conclusion or reason to another. But as for the understanding, it accomplisheth his action or working in less than a moment, and with one only act doth so fill the Reason and mind, that it is constrained to make many acts of one. And this diversity may every man mark in himself, notwithstanding that all these acts seem to be done together like Thunder and Lightning. Now then, the said Conception or Conceit which Gods understanding hath conceived everlastingly in himself, we call Speech or Word; which is the perfect image of his understanding, and God's understanding, is God himself. Also we call it Reason, because Reason is as ye would say the Daughter, Speech or word of the understanding, and we say that by the same Speech or word, God made all things. For, as the Craftsman maketh his work by the pattern which he had erst conceived in his mind, which pattern is his inward word: so God made the World and all that is therein, by that said Speech of his as by his inward skill or art. For he being but one, conceiveth all things by conceiving himself. To be short, we call him also the Wisdom of the Father, yea, and even merely and simply wisdom. For, Wisdom (even in man) is nothing else but a haviour proceeding of divers conceits or inward speeches, whereby our mind is perfected in the knowledge of high things. Now, God is the height of all heyghthes, and by the conceiving of himself he knoweth himself. But yet we must take this withal, that the thing which is a haviour in us, is essence in him, [that is to say, that he is the very things themselves which we obtain to have by means,] and that he himself is the ground of his own wisdom, whereas the true wisdom of men, hath not any other ground than God. Now then, can there be any greater wisdom in God, than to know himself? And is not that knowledge bred of understanding?  
Let us come to the third person. 
The proceeding of the holy Ghost, or third person.  We have acknowledged heretofore, that in the most single essence of God, there is a workfull power, ability, or nature, matched with an understanding, according whereuto the said virtue or power executeth his actions. Now, in the selfsame essence, should there not also be a Will besides the said understanding? If we consider all the things in the world, we shall find in them a kind of Will, tending to the several welfare of every of them: & the more understanding they have, the more will also have they; becasue that the more their welfare is known unto them, the more also is it desired; & the more it is desired, the more also is their will uniform, and the less parted. I omit the senseless things, as Plants, Herbs, and Stones, which have certain natural inclinations, sufficiently marked by the fear●hing out of their natures. But yet it cannot be denied, but that the Beasts have a sensitive appetite to follow the thing which their Sense taketh hold of to be good for them. Men also do run with all their hearts after the thing which they suppose to be good for them, whether it be honour, riches or pleasure. And the more they know it or think themselves to know it, the more do they yield their will unto it: and the more they hold and possess thereof, the more is their hart settled thereupon. Only their understanding being bewitched by vanity, is deceitfully driven to choose the evil for the good; by means whereof, the will which ought to be discreet and full of wit and understanding, is forced of necessity to degenerate into fleshly and beastly lust. The Angels likewise (as say the Philosophers) have also a will, and much more simply one & more lively than ours. And as by their understanding they know the very good itself, that is to wit God; so have they their will ever settled on him alone, without turning it aside to any of all the great multitude of objects whereon we be wont to set our minds. Now, shall not he himself have a will, who hath given will to all living things and imprinted it in them? And he that hath imparted so many benefits to all things, to some more and to some less; hath not he (say I) bestowed those benefits upon them willingly? And he with the beholding of whom the blesseddest Spirits do feed their wills, hath not he the pleasure of contenting himself thoroughly with himself, seeing he knoweth himself perfectly? And what else is this pleasure, than will fulfilled, yea even filled to the full with the true Good which sufficeth to himself, which is the only peculiar thing whereon the very will resteth in deed? Again, the nature of will is to apply all abilities to their actions. To no purpose have we hearing, if we lift not to hear; to no purpose have we sight, if we list not to see; to no purpose have we ability to do things, if we li●t not to do them. And this appeareth daily in all our doings, which never come to effect, till they be quickened and put forth by the will. But we see that God hath applied his power to the doing of many things, yea of things infinite and infinitely divers. Therefore it followeth that he listed to do them, and that he listed to make one thing to one end and another to another, and one of them for another, and finally all for himself, and so consequently that he hath a will. And this will (so far as we be able to discern it by the effects) is a certain ability whereby he applieth his workfull power, when, where, and how he thinketh good; guiding and performing it according to his own mind, howbeit that the chief act thereof is performed within itself. Nevertheless, this is spoken always after the manner of men. For if we have much a do to discern the difference between the abilities of Will and Understanding in our own Souls, by reason of the linking of them together: much more reason is it that in this essence of God which is most single, and infinitely more one than ours, we should deem all these things to be but one in him, notwithstanding that they differ in certain respects. God understandeth, but I have told you, that to be and to understand is all one in him. Also God willeth or listeth; but too will and too understand are likewise both one in him: and so all three come into one essence [that is, be all one thing.] The reason hereof is very evident: namely, that willing or listing of is no more an action that passeth into the outward thing, than Understanding is; but abideth still in the Willer. For by our listing of a thing, we may perceive some alteration in ourselves; but the thing itself that is listed or willed feeleth nothing thereof. Now, I have proved heretofore, that whatsoever is or resteth in God, is his very being; and moreover, God willeth not any thing but as in respect that he understandeth it; for the known good is the ground of his will, and he understandeth not but by his essence, [that is to say, for that he is the very understanding itself.] It followeth then, that in God, his Will is his very essence as well as his understanding; insomuch that he is both Power, Understanding, and Will all in one.  
But let us see now what proceedeth of GOD by his Will. I have said afore, that God is mere Action, and moreover, that he is most single: therefore he is still doing from all eternity, and so likewise is whatsoever else we consider in his essence. Now, there we have found an Understanding, by the Inworking whereof he knoweth himself; and also a Will, whereby he cannot but will himself, seeing he knoweth himself. And this Understanding, by a certain Reflection of itself upon itself, hath begotten us a second person, whom we call the Son and the Wisdom of the father. This will then which worketh everlastingly, having likewise none other thing to work upon but itself, doth also by his working strike back upon himself, and delight itself in the infinite good which it knoweth there, and so sheddeth out itself wholly to the loving thereof; and by this action it bringeth us forth a third person (if I may so term it) whom we call God's Spirit and the holy Ghost, that is to wit, the mutual kindness and lovingness of the Father and of the Son; of the Father the understander, towards the Son conceived and begotten by his understanding: and of the Son back again towards the Father, acknowledging all that he hath and all that he is to be of the Father. And this said Will is the essence of God himself, and consequently eternally active, and actively eternal. For, in the everlasting all things are everlasting; and in a mere act, all things are act; and of such can nothing proceed which shall not be like them. Needs therefore must this Spirit, this lovingness, or this goodwill, be also actually everlasting. Moreover, the will extendeth as far as the understanding: for (as I have said afore) will and understanding are both one in God; and understanding doth perfectly comprehend the thing that is understood, namely the thing that is beloved, that is to wit God himself. The will then doth by his action (which is love & liking) extend itself as far as God himself; and so the third Person is equal to the second and the first. And yet doth this third Person proceed of the will, and the will is God's essence, & of that essence can nothing proceed which is not his essence. Therefore he is not only coeternal and coequal, but also coessential. Again, we see that in us, there goeth always some act of the understanding afore the act of our will; for the cause why we will things, is that we think we understand them; and we desire them for the good which we perceive in them; & the love of a thing cannot be in the lover thereof, but upon his knowing of the thing loved; neither is will any thing else than appetite, bred of understanding. The third Person therefore proceedeth from the first, not only by the will, but also by the understanding, and by the knowledge which the understanding breedeth. And because it proceedeth of two, and not by way of resemblance, but by act of Will; we term him Proceeding and not Begotten; which is in effect the reason of all that is taught us in the Church concerning that matter. Notwithstanding, whereas we say that the action of Understanding goeth afore the action of Will; our meaning is not to imagine any going afore or coming after in these persons; but only to lay forth this proceeding by the order of Nature, which we could not have done so well by the truth of the matter: as if we should say, that the Son is considered afore the holy Ghost, in like manner as the knowing of a thing goeth afore the desire of it, because that if they could have had any beginning, the Son had been foremost in that case.  
As touching names, we call him most commonly the holy Ghost. Holy, because there is nothing in God which is not pure and holy; 
Why the holy Ghost is called love. etc.  whereby he is discerned from all other Spirits: and Ghost or Spirit, because we commonly call those things Spirits, the beginning of whose moving is unknown to us; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  as the Winds, whose beginning is unknown unto us: the breathing of the Heartstrings, which proceedeth from an inward beginning that is hidden from us; and such other things: and to be short, because that in all things which have life, the inward force proceedeth from some kind of will by a certain Spirit. Now, as for love, it is nothing else but a certain covert forwardness or foorthgoing of the will towards the thing that is loved; insomuch that the very benefit which we receive by his love, is a secret and insensible through breathing, which worketh in us, & yet we cannot well perceive from whence it cometh. Again, we call him also Love and Charity, because all the actions of will are in love and wellyking as in their root, in like manner as all the doings of God's Understanding, mée●e altogether in his wisdom. For, whereas we desire the thing which we want, or be glad of the thing which we have; the cause thereof is that we love it or like well of it. Likewise also, whereas we fear a thing, or loath it; that cometh of a hatred, which can have no place in God, whose will nothing is able to withstand. Therefore as we have God of God (that is to wit, the Son of the Father) by the everlasting inworking of his Understanding; so also have we God of God again (that is to wit, the holy Ghost or love of them both) by the jointworking of the Understanding and Will together. Whereupon we conclude three distinct persons or Inbeings in one essence; not to exclude the singleness thereof which it behoveth us to hold still; but to express the diversity thereof after a sort, which ought not to be unknown; namely the power of the Father, the wisdom of the Son, & the goodness of their love; for whom, by whom, and in whom, 
Of whom, by whom, and in whom.  it hath pleased the said only one unspeakable essence to create and to love all things.  
But there is yet more, namely, that as there are three Inbeings or Persons 
Three Persons and no more.  in this essence; so also there can be no more but three: which thing may be made evident by the same reason. Whoso denieth that there is Understanding and Will in God as we have seen afore, must also deny that he hath made any thing, or that he doth any thing: for all the things which we see here below, are marked both with the one and with the other. Likewise, he that confesseth that all things are in him, (according to their preaching unto us) must needs also confess the Son and the holy Ghost, to be the wisdom and the love; for they be but actions of those two, which cannot be without their action; neither can action be everlastingly any where else than in God himself. Now, as we can not imagine God without his actions; so can we not consider any other than those to abide in him, nor consequently any other under-beings that proceed from thence; whereupon we say also, that a fourth person cannot be admitted. As for example, we say he is the Creator, and we say true; and in so saying we find also a relation to the Creatures. But this power of Creating proceedeth from the power which is in the Father, and is not an action that abideth still within him, but passeth directly into the thing created, which in respect of the Creator, is as nothing in comparison of infiniteness, whereof it cannot have the pre-eminence. Also we say he is a Saviour: and that is all one with the other. For his being a Saviour, is by his Son, as we shall see hereafter; and moreover, it is an action that passeth into the thing saved, and abideth not in God alone. Therefore it maketh not to the stablishing of a fourth person or inbeing; for than it ought to be Coessential. To be short, all God's operations do either proceed from within him, and abide still in the worker and in their first ground; or else they proceed from without, and pass into the outward effect. That work or action which proceedeth from within, can be of none other essence than the thiug from whence it cometh: for in GOD there is nothing but essence, and in that esseuce can nothing abide but the essence itself. That which proceedeth from without, is always of a sundry essence, as are the Creatures and works of God, which come nothing near the essence of the Creator. The thing which doth the work without, is God's power, howbeit accompanied with his understanding and will. And the thing that doth the work within, is his understanding and will and nothing else, as we may discern in ourselves, who are but a very slender image thereof. And like as in beholding a painted Table, or in reading the verses of a Poet, we imagine not therefore that there was a peculiar and immediate ability of painting or versifying in the mind or sovereign part of their Soul; but we refer those skills and all other like, unto Wit and Will: even so and much more according to reason, of all the works and doings which we see done by God's power, we cannot gather any other persons or inbeings in him, than those which proceed immediately of his Understanding and Will; and alonely those and none other can be Coessential in him. Now, Understanding and Will in GOD, are essence; and his essence is merely one and most single. And moreover, the Word or Speech conceiveth not another Speech, but turneth wholly unto the Father; neither doth the Spirit conceive another love than the love of those two; but resteth and reposeth itself altogether in them. So then, there can but one only word or speech proceed by the understanding, nor but only one Love proceed by the Will; neither can any other proceed of that Word and that love. And so there remain unto us the only three persons of the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost; by the which two, the Father governeth and loveth all things, because he himself alone is all things.  
Now, as we have read in nature that there is but one God, as a thing which we find written even in the least creatures: 
Traces of the Trinity in the World and in man..  so may we now perceive the evident footsteps of the chrée inbeings or persons in one e●sence, as a mark of the worker that made them, in some more and in some less, according to their dignity; which yet notwithstanding are such, as we could not well perceine them, until the doctrine thereof was revealed unto us, no more than we can understand the letters of Cyphering, which we can neither read nor decipher, unless we have some knowledge of the matter which they import, from other folks hands, or by conjecture, or by some other way. We find an Unity in all things, yea even in those which have but only being. For all things are inasmuch as they be one: and whensoever they cease to be that one, they consequently cease also to be. Again, we see in them a form or shape, and that is the mark of that witful action (that is to say, of the everlasting Word or Conceit whereby God made them) which hath bred us the essential form or shape, and all other manner of forms and shapes. Also we see an inclination or disposition, in some more apparent than in othersome; in some to mount aloft, as in fire; in some to sink down towards the Centre, as in a Stone; and in all, to hold themselves united in their matter & form. This is the mark of the workfull Will, wherein God hath vouchsafed to stoop unto them; and of the union which proceedeth thereof, wherein he loveth, upholdeth, & preserveth all things. But even in some of the things of this bacest sort, there appeareth not only a trace, but almost an image thereof. For, the Sun breedeth or begetteth his own beams, which the Poets do call the very son of the Sun: and from them two proceedeth the light, which imparteth itself to all things here beneath; and yet is not the one of them afore the other; for neither is the Sun afore his beams, nor the Sun or his beams afore the light, otherwise than in consideration of order and relation, that is to wit, as in respect that the beams are begotten and the light is proceeding; which is an apparent image of the Coeternity. Likewise in Waters, we have the head of them in the earth, & the Spring boiling out of it, 
The welhead, the Spring, & the stream.  & the stream which is made of them both and sheddeth itself out far of from thence. It is but one selfsame continual and unseparable essence, which hath neither foreness nor afterness, save only in order and not in time, that is to say, according to our considering of it, having respect to causes, and not according to truth. For, the Welhead is not a head, but in respect of the Spring; nor the Spring a Spring, but in respect of the Welhead; nor the Stream a Stream, but in respect of them both; and so all three be but one Water, and cannot almost be considered one without another, howbeit that the one is not the other. It is an express mark of the original relations and person's Coessential in the only one essence of God. The like is to be said of Fire, which engendereth fire, and hath in it both heat and brightness unseparable. Also there are other examples to be found of such as list to seek them out. In Herbs and Plants there is a root, which yieldeth a slip, stock or imp, and the same imp groweth afterward into a Tree. It cannot well be named or deemed to be a root, but that therewith it hath also engendered an imp or stock; for in that respect is it called a root, and so is the one as soon as the other. Also there is a sap which passeth from the one to the other, joining, knitting, and uniting them together by one common life, without the which life, neither the root should be a root, nor the slip a slip, and so in effect they be altogether, the one as soon as the other. Moreover, among all living wights, every of them engendereth after his own kind and form; of whom one is an ingendrer and another is engendered; among men, a father and a son; and by and by through knowledge, there proceedeth a natural love and affection from the one to the other, which knitteth and linketh them together. All these are traces, footsteps, and images, (howbeit with the grossest) of that high mystery; and also I have told you afore, that no effect doth fully resemble his cause, and much less that cause which in all respects is most infinite.  
Notwithstanding, in man's Soul, (when I say Soul, I mean there the highest power thereof) the image and likeness of the Trinity is yet much more lively and more express. For first there is in it a Nature & ability of working, and as it were a mere act, whereby it liveth and giveth life, and is itself in continual working. The Latins call it men's [that is to say Mind] & we call it also the reasonable Soul, the which we may liken to the Father. This Mind breedeth an understanding or Wit, by the which we understand and discern, not only other things, but also ourselves; and again by understanding we come to will, through the which we love other things, and most of them for our own sakes. These three powers are very distinct in us: for we work not always by Wit, not always by Will, and yet our mind worketh continually. Moreover, oftentimes we will the thing which we understand not, and we understand the thing which we will not. And therefore to will and to understand are not both one. Nevertheless this Working, Understanding and Willing, are not three lives or three Souls in us, but one life and Soul, and that so straightly united in once essence, that even in the selfsame instant that our mind doth a thing, it also understaudeth the reason why it willeth it or willeth it not, in which work both our inworking power and also our wit and our will do concur all together. Yet notwithstanding, this image is far from the thing itself. For these three powers are several in the essence of our Soul; and how nearly so ever they be united together, yet is not the one the other; But in God who is most singly one, Being is Understanding, and understanding is will, as I have said afore. And again, by God's understanding and by his will there proceed from him two Inbeings, by reasons whereof he mindeth and loveth himself, and in himself all things. As for our Soul there can no such thing proceed from it by the wit or the will, because although they be both in it, yet they take their grounds from without themselves, insomuch that it can neither understand nor love, unless the abilities thereof be set working by some outward thing. And which more is, the more it understandeth itself, the more doth it strain itself to understand and know another than itself: and the more it loveth itself through true knowledge of itself, the more doth it seek contentment by loving another, which other it cannot love but by hating itself; that is to wit, it straineth itself too behold and love God, and to know and love itself but only for his sake, to whom alonely it belongeth to understand all things in himself, and to love all things of himself. But now it is high time henceforth to see what antiquity will say to us concerning this matter, the which it willbe better for us to reserve to the next Chapter following. And as touching the questions that may be made by the curious sort upon this point, we answer them at one word; Let them tell us how they themselves are bred and begotten, and then let them ask us of the begetting of the Son of God: Let them tell us the nature of the spirit that beateth in their Pulses; and then let them be inquisitive at our hands for the proceeding of the holy Ghost. And if they must be fain to keep silence in so common matters, which they daily see and feel in themselves; let them give us leave to be ignorant in many things, which are such (as saith Empedocles) as no eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor wit of man can conceive.   

The vj. Chapter.  
That the Philosophy of old time consenteth to this doctrine of the Trinity.  
SUrely (as I have said afore) this doctrine is not bred of man's brain, though it be painted there after some sort; but was verily inspired into our forefathers from above, who (as saith Plato 
Plato in his Philebus. ) were better than we, and nearer also unto God. And in good sooth we see an infallible argument thereof, in that the elder the world groweth, the more do men's doctrines grow to perfection & knowledge. But contrariwise, the further that this hath gone from the former ages, the more hath it been found darkened, 
Plato. lib. 3. of his Commonweal: and lib. 10. & 12. of Laws.  & hath nowhere been so lightsome as at the wellspring thereof; until that by the birth of the true daysonne in deed, it received greater light than ever it had afore. And therefore when Plato, yea and Aristotle 
Aristo. lib. 1. of Heaven. & lib. 12. of his Metaphisiks. Plotin often. etc.  himself speak of the Godhead, of the Creation of the World, and of other like Mysteries; they be fain to allege the ancient report, and the record of antiquity descended from hand to hand, as the surest staff to stand by in matters that exceed the capacity of man. Which thing they express ordinarily by these speeches, According to the old Saw, 
The Chaldees heard speak of the trinity. Zoroast●es. Plutarch in his treatise of Isis and Osiris. Pliny and Aristotle bear witness that he wrote many books.  as the ancientest reports go, As our forefathers and elders say, and such like. Among these men of the ancientest sort, the first that we meet with is Zoroastres, whom Plutarch reporteth to have lived certain thousands of years afore the wars of Troy. Nevertheless, by report of the best Authors, he descended of Cham, and was vanquished by Nynus King of the Assyrians. Of him came the Magies, that is to say the Wisemen of Chaldey, and from them sprung up the like in Persia, who had in their custody the Registers of the Kings of those days, & wrote their deeds, and had the ordering of matters pertaining to Religion. And now mark what we find in their sayings gathered by men of old time, which are commonly called Logia, that is to say Oracles. The father (saith Zoroaftres) did perfect all things, and gave them to a second Mind whom all mankind taketh for the first. And Pletho Gemistus 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pletho Gemistus.  a Platonist saith, that by this second Mind, he meaneth a second God which succeedeth the Father, and hath his begetting of the Father; and that men have taken him for the first, because God created the World by him, howbeit that the Father created the myndly shapes, and gave the government of them to this second Mind. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Ye see then here is a second person begotten of the Father. Proclus rehearseth the same, saying; This Mind having alone taken the flower of Understanding from the power of the Father, possesseth the understanding and power to deal forth his Father's understanding or mind to all originals and all Beginnings of things. Then hath he his being and his understanding from the Father, and all other things have them from him. But the things which are found in his Commentary upon the Parmenides of Plato are wonderful.  
For the better yielding of the sense whereof, 
Proclus lib. 2. & 3. upon Plato's Parmenides.  I will translate it into Prose, notwithstanding that it be written in verse in the Greek. The Mind of the Father (saith he) being settled by determinate purpose, did shed forth shapes of all sorts; which issued all from one selfsame fountain, because the devise and end were both of the Father. But yet were they divided by a Fire of understanding, and (as it were by destiny) distributed into other understandings. For afore the making of this sundry-shaped world, God had conceived an incorruptible pattern thereof, as a world subject only to mind and understanding: In the mould whereof this present World being stamped, became full of all those shapes, of the which there is but one only gracious Fountain.  
And again in another place he saith as followeth.  
That is to say, The love of God being a fiery bond, issued first from his understanding, and clothed itself with fire to temper the conveyances of the watersprings, by spreading his heat upon the same. These are their accustomed obscurities; wherein (notwithstanding) it is clearly enough uttered, that there is a Father, a Son, and a Love that linketh them together: and moreover, that the said begotten Mind or Understanding is he by whom God framed the World, and that from him proceedeth the divine Love, as I have said heretofore. In another place they say that the said Fatherly Mind hath sowed and planted in our Souls, a certain resemblance of the said begotten understanding, and that our wills be not acceptable unto him, until we awake out of forgetfulness, and bethink ourselves again of the 
‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  pure fatherly mark which is in us. And again, that the same Understanding, being of 
* 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  power to beget or breed of itself, did (by considering) cast a fiery bond of Love upon all things, whereby they be continued for ever. But it is enough for us that in the sayings afore alleged, we have a brief Sum of the divinity of the Magies, who held three beginnings, whom (as we read in other places) they called Oromases, Mitris, and Ariminis, [that is to say] God, Mind, and Soul. And surely we should wonder at them much more, if we had their whole books, as we have but pieces of them remaining. Now, the Magies were first in Chaldye, and we read in Moses how highly Balaam was esteemed, in that he was thought able to bless Nations and Armies. And these Chaldees are the same of whom the Oracle of Apollo answered, That only they and the Hebrews had wisdom parted betwixt them.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
All wisdom certes parted is between  
The Chaldees and the Hebrews as is seen.  
Mercurius Trismegistus 
Mercury. The Egyptians  (as we have seen in the third Chapter) acknowledged but only one God, who cannot well be named but by two names, to wit, Good, and Father. And because the same God is endued with understanding, sometimes he calleth him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, howbeit that most commonly he makes a differece between the Father and the Understanding which he calleth Mind likewise. Which thing appeareth in this saying of his, I am Poemander, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Of the selfebeing in his Poemander. cap. 2.  the Feeder of Men, & the understanding of the Beer which is of himself. But behold here records as clear as can be. God (saith he) who is also Mind, and Life, and Light, & Male-f●male; begat or bred Logon the Speech or Word, which is another Mind, and the workmayster of all things; & with that Speech, another which is the fiery God and the Spirit of the Godhead. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  Lo here a Mind begotten of a Mind, Understanding of Understanding, and Light of Light; and besides that, moreover a Spirit. And again, This Speech that proceedeth from GOD being altogether perfect, and fruitful, and Workmistresse of all things, lighteth upon the water and maketh it fruitful. It is the same thing that is spoken of in Moses, where God saith, And the waters immediately brought forth. To be short, unto this holy speech (as he termeth it) he attributeth the begetting, engendering & spreading forth of all things from offspring to offspring, as is to be seen. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  But here is yet more: I thy God (saith God) am Light and Mind, of more antiquity than the nature of moisture that is issued from the shadow. And this lightsome Speech which proceedeth from the mind, is the Son of God. That which heareth and seethe in thee, is the word of the Lord; and the Mind is God the Father; 
Mercury alleged by Cyrillus. lib. 1. against julian. & in his Poemander cap. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  these differ not one from another; and as for their union, it is the union of life, etc. And again: This Speech being the workman of God the Lord of the whole World, hath chief power next him, and is uncreated, infinite, proceeding from him, the Commander of all things which he made, the perfect & natural firstborn Son of the most perfect. To be short, he calleth him the myndly speech, everlasting, unchangeable, uncorruptible, unincreasing, undecreasing, alonely like him, and firstbeknowne after God; and moreover his only Son, his well-beloved Son, the Son of the most holy, whose name 〈◊〉 be named by mouth of man. And is not this as much as to call him Coessential, Coeternal, and the Creator of all things? 
Merc. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Austin in the Prayer of Five Heresies. Mercury in his Esculapius. Chap. 3. & 7.  And what more can we say thereof?  
Of the third parson he speaketh more dackly. All kind of things in this World (saith he) are quickened by a Spirit; One Spirit filleth all things; the World nourisheth the bodies, and the Spirit the Souls; and this Spirit as a tool or instrument, is subject to the will of God. But here is yet somewhat more. All things (saith he) have need of this Spirit; it beareth them up, it nourisheth them, it quickeneth them, according to every of their capacities: it proceedeth from a holy fountain, and is the maintainer of all living things and of all Spirits. Here ye see the reason why we call him the holy Ghost, namely, because he proceedeth from the fountain which is the very holiness itself. And lest we should think him to be a Creature, 
Mercury in his holy Sermon in his Poemander. cap. 3.  There was (saith he) an infinite shadow in the Deep, whereon was the water, and a fine understanding Spirit was in that confused mass through the power of God. From thence there flourished a certain holy brightness, which out of the Sand and the moist nature brought forth the Elements and all things else. Also the Gods themselves which dwell in the Stars, took their place by the direction & appointment of this Spirit of God. Thus then he was present at the creation of things; and it is the same spirit whereof it is said in the Bible, 
Gen. 1.  That the spirit of the Lord hovered upon the outside of the deep. But in some places he matcheth all three persons together. O life (saith he) save that life which is in me. 
Mercury in his Poemander. cap. 13.  O light and God the Spirit enlighten me wholly. O worker which bearest thy Spirit about, let thy word govern me. Lord, thou art the only one God. Again, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Cyrillus against Tulgentius.  there was (saith he) a light of understanding, afore the light of understanding, and there was ever a mind of the lightfull Mind, and besides those, there was not any thing else than the union of them by one Spirit upholding all things: without which there is neither God nor Angel, nor other Substance: For he is Lord, Father, and God of all, and in him and under him are all things. And having said so (saith Suydas 
Suidas in his Mercury. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. ) he addeth this prayer. I adjure thee o Heaven the wise work of the great God; I adjure thee o voice which God uttered first when he founded the world; I adjure thee by the only begotten Speech, and by the Father who containeth all things, etc. There is no man but he would wonder to see in this author the very words of S. john: and yet notwithstanding his books were translated by the Platonists long time afore the coming of our Lord jesus Christ. And it is no marvel though we find sayings of his in divers places which are not written in his Poemander, considering that he wrote six and thirty thousand, five hundred, and five and twenty Uolumes, that is to say Rolls of Paper, as jamblichus 
jamblichus in his 39 Chap. of Mysteries.  reporteth. And it is said that this Trismegistus otherwise called Theut, is the same that taught the egyptians to read, and which invented them Geometry and Astronomy, which divided AEgipt into parts, which left his forewarning against overflowings written in two Pillars, 
Plato in his Phedon and Philebus. Eusebius of Demonstration  (which Proclus reporteth to have been standing still in his time;) and to be short, which had been reputed and honoured as a God among them. And it may be, that the triple outcry which the egyptians made in calling upon the first Beginner, whom they termed the darkness beyond all knowledge, like too the Ensoph of the Hebrews, 
jamblichus Chapt. 1. Produs upon Plato. Damascius the Platonist.  and the Night of the Orpheus, was still remaining unto them, of his divinity. Thus have you seen how Zoroastres and Mercury have answered unto us, the one for the Persians and Chaldeans, and the other for the egyptians. For in matters of Wisdom, the wise aught to be believed for the whole Nation.  
Now let us come to the Greeks. 
The ancient Greeks.  Orpheus 
Orpheus.  which is the ancientest of them all, as soon as he beginneth to speak of these mysteries, doth first and foremost shut all Heathenish folk out of the doors, and then saith thus: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. And again. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.  Let thine eye be upon the word of God, and start not away from it, for that is it that made the world, and is immortal, and (according to the old saying) is perfect of itself, and the perfecter of all things, and it cannot be seen but with the mind. And afterward, I adjure thee Ô Heaven (saith he) the wise work of the great God, I adjure thee thou voice of the father which he spoke first, and so forth. For this (as appeareth afore) was a prayer which he had learned of Mercury; from whom also proceeded the common mystery of the Poets, That Pallas was bred of jupiters' brain. The same man saith that the first Mother of things was wisdom, and afterward delightful love. 
Clemens lib. 5 Strom. Orph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  And in his Argonawte he calleth this love, most ancient, most perfect in itself, and the bringer forth and disposer of all things.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Whereupon Pherecydes 
Pherecydes in Proclus.  also saith, That God intending too make the world, changed himself into love. And jamblichus saith that Pythagoras had the Philosophy of Orpheus always before his eyes; 
Orph. in Argonaut.  and therefore it is not for us to wonder, though he attributed the creation of all things to Wisdom, & (as Proclus reporteth) commended three Gods together in one, as Plato doth. Howsoever the case stand, Aristotle 
Aristotle in his first book of Heaven.  sayeth, that they fathered all their perfection upon three. And Parmenides did set down Love as a first beginner; insomuch that in disputing in Plato, 
Parmenides in his Cosmogonic ailedged by Plutarch.  he leaveth us there an evident mark of the three Inbeeings or persons as Plotine noteth; but we shall see it laid forth more plainly hereafter by Numenius the Pythagorist. Zeno the father of the Stolks, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  acknowledged the word to be God, and also the Spirit of jupiter. And Alcinous reporteth that Socrates and Plato taught that God is a mind, and that in the savie there is a certain 〈◊〉, which Inshape as in respect of God, is the knowledge which God hath of himself; and in respect of the world, is the Pattern or Mauld thereof; and in respect of itself, is very essence. 
Plotin. Ennead. 4. lib. 1. Chap. 8. Zeno the stoik Aleinous concerning the Doctrine of Plato.  This in few words centeyneth much matter, that is to wit, the one essence which God begetteth by the considering or knowing of himself, according to the pattern whereof he hath builded the world. But yet Plato himself speaketh more plainly in his Epinomis. Every Star (saith he) keepeth his course according to the order which (ho logos) the Word hath set, which word he calleth Most divine. 
Plato in his Epinomis.  In his book of Commonweal he calleth him the begotten Son of the Good, most like unto him 〈◊〉 all things, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the Good (saith he) being as the 〈◊〉 that shineth in the sky; and the begotten Son being as the power of the Sun whereby we see [that is to say, as the light.] Also in his Epistle to Hermius, Erastus, and Coriscus, he chargeth them with an oath to read it often, 
Plato in his sixth book of Commonweal.  and at the least, two of them together, saying: Call upon God the Prince of all things, that are and shallbe, and the Lord the Father of that Prince and of that Cause, of whom if we seek the knowledge aright, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Plato in his Epistle to Hermias, Erastus, and Coriscus. Plato unto Dennis the Tyrant. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  we have as much s●ill as can be given to blessed men. Then is there a Lord and Cause of all things, and moreover a father of the same Lord. But anto King Dennis who had asked of him the nature of God, he setteth down all the three parsons. The nature of the first (saith he) is to be spoken of in Riddlewise, to the intent that if any mischance befall the Letter by Sea or by Land, the reading thereof may be as good as no reading at all. Thus then stands the case. All things are at commandment of the King of the whole world, and all things are for his sake, and he is the cause of the beauty that is in them; And about the second are the second things, and about the third are the third, and so forth. Now these (as he himself saith) are Riddies to Dennis the Tyrant unto whom he wrote, and my expounding of them of the three I●béeings or persons in the Godhead, is by the consent of all the Platonists, who have made long Commentaries upon those words, agreeing all in this point, that by these three Kings he meaneth the Good, the understanding, and the Soul of the World. And Origene 
Origen in his 6. book against C●lsus.  against Celsus allegeth certain other places of Plato to the same purpose; the which I leave, for avoiding of tediousness. But this doctrine which being revealed from above, came from hand to hand unto Aristotle, (who lived about three hundred years afore the coming of Christ (seemeth to have decayed in him; who intending to overthrow all the Philosophers that went afore him, corrupted their doctrine divers ways. And therewithal he gave himself more to the seeking and searching of Natural things, than to the minding of the Author of them. Yet notwithstanding, 
In his first book of Philosophy.  he fathereth the cause of all things upon a certain Understanding, 
Also in his book of the World.  which he calleth Noun, that is to say Mind, 
In his first book of Heaven.  acknowledging the same to be infinite in God; and also upon a Free will whereby he disposeth all things; whereupon in the last Chapter I coucluded a second and a third person. Insomuch that in a certain place he sayeth plainly, that God is to be honoured according to the number of three, and that the same is after a sort the Law of Nature.  
Now, for as much as this doctrine is not bred of man's brain; if it be demanded whence all the Philosophers took it; we shall find that the Greeks had it from out of AEgipt. Orpheus witnesseth in his Argonawts, that to seek the Mysteries (that is to say the Religion) of the egyptians, he went as far as Memphis, visiting all the Cities upon the River Nile.  
Through out the land of AEgipt I have gone 
Orpheus in h●● Argonawts.   
To Memphis and the Cities everichone  
That worship Apis or be seated by  
The River Nile whose stream doth swell so hy.  
Also Pythagoras visited the egyptians, Arabians and Chaldeans, yea, and went into jewry also, and dwelled a long time at Mount Carmel (as Strabo saith: 
Cicero. jamblichus. Porphyrius. ) insomuch that the Priests of that Country showed Strabo still the journeys and walks of him there. 
Clemens in the first book of his Stromars.  Now, in AEgipt he was the Disciple of one Sonchedie the chief Prophet of the egyptians, and of one Nazarie an Assyrian (as Alexander reporteth in his book of Pythagorasis discourses) whom some (miscounting the time) thought to be Ezechiel. And Hermippus 
Out of Alexander & Hermippus.  a Pythagorist writeth that Pythagoras learned many things out of the law of Moses. Also the said Egyptian Priest upbraided Solon, that the Greeks were Babes, and knew nothing of Antiquity. 
Plato in his Timaeus.  And Solon (as saith Proclus 
Proclus upon Timaeus. ) was Disciple in Says a City of AEgipt, to one Patanit, or (as Plutarch 
Plutarch in his Treatise of Isis and Osiris.  saith) to one Sonchis; in Heliople, to one Oeclapie; and in Sebenitie, to one Etimon. Plato was the Disciple of one Sechnuphis of Heliople in AEgipt; and Eudoxus the Guidian was the Disciple of one Conuphis; all which Maysterteachers issewed out of the School of the great Trismegistus aforenamed. 
Plato in his Epinomis, Cratylus, and Phil.  To be short, Plato confesseth in many places, that knowledge came to the Greeks by those whom they commonly called the barbarus people. As touching Zoroastres and Trismegistus, 
justine & Manethon alleged by josephus against Appion.  the one was an Hebrew, and the other, an Egyptian. And at the same time the Hebrews were conversant with the egyptians, as is to be seen even in the Heathen Authors. Whereby it appeareth that the original fountain of this doctrine was to be found among them; which is the thing that we have to prove as now. I mean not to gather hither a great sort of Texts of the Bible, wherein mention is made as well of the second person as of the third, of which sort are these, 
Psalm. 2.  Thou art my Son, 
Proverb. 8.  this day have I begotten thee. 
Gen. 1.  The Lord (saith Wisdom) possessed me in the beginning of his ways; afore the depths was I conceived. etc. Also concerning the holy Ghost, 
Esay. 53.  The Spirit of the Lord walked upon the waters. The Spirit of Wisdom is gentle: And it is an ordinary speech among the Prophets to say, 
Esay. 61.  The Spirit of the Lord was upon me. And in this next saying are two of them together, or rather all three. 
Psalm. 33.  The Heavens were spread out by the word of the Lord, and all the power of them by the Spirit of his mouth. For they be so alleged and expounded in infinite books, howbeit that the jews at this day do labour as much as they can, to turn them to another sense.  
But let us see what their own Doctors have left us in express words, 
The jews themselves do prove the Trinity.  (for the most part) culled by themselves out of written books, afore that the coming of our Lord jesus Christ had made that doctrine suspected. In their Zohar which is one of their Books of greatest authority, Rabbi Simeon, the son of johai, citeth Rabbi Ibba expounding this text of Deuteronomie, Harken o Israel, The Everlasting our God is one God. The Hebrew standeth thus, jehovah Echad jehovah Eloh enu. By the first jehovah which is the peculiar name of God not to be communicated to any other, Rabbi Ibba saith he meaneth the Father the Prince of al. By Eloh enu that is to say our God, he meaneth the Son the Fountain of all knowledge. And by the second jehovah he meaneth the holy Ghost proceeding from them both, who is the measurer of the voice. And he calleth him One, because he is undividable; and this Secret (saith he) shall not be revealed afore the coming of the Messiah. The same Rabbi Simeon 
R. Simeon been johai expounding the 6. of Esay.  expounding these words of Esay, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts; saith, Holy is the Father, Holy is the Son, & Holy also is the holy Ghost. In so much that this Author who is so mystical among them, doth in other places call them the Three Mirrors, Lights, and sovereign fathers, which have neither beginning nor end, and are the name and substance to the Root of all Roots. And Rabbi jonathas in many Copies of his Chaldey Paraphrase, saith the same. And therefore no marvel though the Thalmudists of old time commanded men to say that Verse twice a day, and that some observe it still at this day. Upon these words of the 50. Psalm, 
Psalm. 50. and the Midra●ch upon the same.  El elohim jehovah dibber, that is to say, The Lord of Lords the Everlasting hath spoken: The ordinary Commentary saith also, that by the said repetition the Prophet meaneth the three Middoth Properties whereby God created the world. According whereunto Rabbi Moses Hadarsan 
R. Moses Hadarsan upon the 42. of Gen. Midrasch Cobeleth chap. 4.  sayeth that he created by his word; And Rabbi Simeon sayeth he created by the breath of his mouth. And this saying of the Preacher, That a threefold Cord is not so soon broken, is expounded by the same gloze, (I examine not whether filthy or no) that the inisterie of the Trinity in the one God is not easy to be expressed. Now these three Properties, (which the Hebrews call Panim, the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and we & the Latins call Persons) are betokened by divers names among the men of old time, but yet they jump all in one, according as they understood them, some more clearly than other some. 
Rabbi Isha● been Schola upon the last verses of the 111. and 112. Psalms.  Some name them the Beginning, the Wisdom, & the Fear of Love of God: and they say that this Wisdom is Meensoph, as the Cabalists term it, that is to say, of the infinite and most inward understanding of God, who beholdeth himself in himself, for so do they expound it. Which is the selfsame thing that I spoke of in the former Chapter, namely that God begetteth his Son or Wisdom by his minding of himself. Othersome call him Spirit, Word, and Voice: as Rabbi Azariell 
R. Azariel in his Commentary or treatise of Holiness.  doth in these words following. The Spirit bringeth forth the Word and the Voice, but not by opening the Lips, or by speech of the tongue, or by breathing after the manner of man; And these three be one Spirit, to wit one God, as we read (sayeth he) in the book of the creating of man in these terms: 
jepher haije●sirab.  One Spirit rightly living, blessed be he and his name, who liveth for ever and ever, Spirit, Word, and Voice, that is to say, One holy Ghost and two Spirits of that Spirit. Now this book of the Creation which he allegeth, is one Rabbi Abraham's a very ancient Cabalist; Nevertheless it is of so great authority among them, that they father it even upon the Patriarch Abraham himself. And that which he saith agreeth wholly to that which we say; for the mind conceiveth the inward speech, and of the mind and of breath proceedeth the voice. These three (saith Rabbi Hamay 
R. Hamay in his Treatise of Speculation. Hagnij ●n. ) being one, have such a proportionable respect one towards another, as that the one, the Vniter, and the thing United are but one point, to wit, the Lord of the whole world. Rabbi Isaac 
R. Ishaac upon the book of the Creation.  upon the book of the Creation maketh three nomberings, (which he termeth the Lofty one) in the Ensoph, that is to say, in the Infinite, that is to wit Garland, Wisdom, and understanding. And to betoken them, Rabbi Assee 
Cether chochnah binah. Rabbi Assee.  saith that the custom was to mark them in all ages after this manner with three Iods jehovah: which is as much to say as the Beeër, or He that is. To be short, what diversity soever there is in the names, they all agree in the three Inbéeings or Persons. And it is no marvel though they could not so well express them as we can now. Rabbi joseph 
In his book entitled, Schaguar orah. that is to say, The Gate of Light.  the Castilian, having learned it out of the ancientest writers, sayeth thus: The light of the Soul of the Messiah, is the living God; and the living God is the fountain of the living waters; and the Soul of the Messiah is the River or Stream of lice. And in another place, None but the Messiah (saith he) knoweth God fully, because he is the light of God and the light of the Gentiles, and therefore he knoweth God, and God is known by him. Now when as they say that he knoweth GOD fully, they grant him to be God; for who can comprehend God but GOD himself? And it is the selfsame thing which I spoke of when I said light of light, and when in comparing the Son to the Father, I likened him as a stream to the fountain, and the Sun beams to the Sun. Also we shall see in place convenient, that by the Soul of the Messiah, they meant The Word: and it is a wonderful thing that all the names of God in Hebrew (saving only the name of his Essence or single being) have the plural termination, notwithstanding that they be joined with a verb of the singular number, (whereof the ancient jews do yield the same reason that we do:) and that a great sort of the Texts of the old Testament which we allege for the proof of the Trinity, are expounded by them in the selfsame sense, howbeit that the Talumdists since the coming of our Lord jesus Christ, have taken great pain to wrest them to another meaning.  
Rabbi judas Nagid whom they commonly called the Saint and Prophet, speaketh most plainly of all. Whereupon it is to be understood, 
The Epistle of the Secrets of R Nehumia the Son of Hacana.  that men were forbidden to utter the uncommunicable name of God, (that is to wit jehova,) save only in the days of attonementmaking; and in stead thereof they were commanded to use the name of Twelve letters, for the other afore mentioned hath but four. And being asked what the name of Twelve letters was, he answered that it was Father, Son, and holy Ghost. Also being demanded what the name of Two and forty letters was; he answered, The Father is God, the Son is God, and the holy Ghost is God, three in one, and one in three. 
* This is to be seen even in Saint Math. chap. 1. ver. 20. where the Angel saith to joseph, that Mary was with child by the holy Ghost: for otherwise it had been to no purpose to have spoken of the holy Ghost, of whom they had not heard any speaking afore.  Now then, it was a doctrine received from hand to hand in the Schools of the jews, as we see by the long continuance thereof in the succession of their Cabal. And therefore the contention of the jews and of the rabbins was not (to speak properly) in withstanding the doctrine of the three Persons in the Essence of God; but in the applying thereof, namely to the incarnation of the Word, which in their eye was very far unbeseeming the Majesty of God.  
Let us go to Philo the jew who wrote in Greek, and we shall find him like in all points from leaf to leaf. God (saith he) is the sovereign begetter, and next to him, is the Word of God. Also, 
The same is also in the Preaching of john the Baptist, Chapter 3. verse 20. He shall baptise ye with the holy Ghost & with Fire. And in divers other places. And in very deed the name of the holy Ghost is rife among all the Rabbins. Philo in his Treatise upon the six Days. In his treatise, That Dreams are of God. In his book of the World. In his book of the removings of Abraham.  There are two Firsts; the one is Gods word, & the other is God who is afore the Word; and the same Word is the beginning and the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his good pleasure, intent, or will. And in another place, Like as a City (saith he) whereof the platform is yet but set down in the mind of the Builder, hath no place elsewhere than in the Builder: So this world had not any being elsewhere than in the Word of God which ordained all things. For what other place could contain the operations of God, yea or even the simplest of his conceived patterns? Therefore to speak plainly, The World in understanding, is the Word or Conceit of God that made it. And this is not the opinion of me only, but also of Moses himself. And to conclude, he calleth him the Pattern of all Patterns, and the Mould wherein all things were cast. And in an other place, This World (saith he) is God's younger Son; but as for the elder Son, he cannot be comprehended but in understanding. For he it is who by prerogative of eldership abideth with the Father. Now, this is word for word the same thing that S. john saith, And the Word was with God. And again, The Word is the place, the Temple, and the dwelling house of God, because the Word is the only thing that can contain him. And that is the thing which I said, namely, that GOD comprehending himself by his understanding, begat the Son or the Word equal to himself, because he conceiveth not any thing less than himself. And to show the greatness of this Word, he could scarce tell what names to give it. 
Philo in the Allegories of the law, in his Books of of Dreams, of tillage, of the fiery sword, of the Heir of heavenvly things, of the evil that layeth snares for the good, etc.  He calleth it the Book wherein the essences of all things that are in the whole world are written and printed; the perfect Pattern of the World; the Daysonne, that is to be seen but only of the Mind; the Prince of the Angels; the Firstborne of God; the Shepherd of his flock; the chief Hyghpriest of the World; the Manna of men's Souls; the Wisdom of God; the perfect Image of the highest; and the Organ or justrument whereby God (being moved thereto of his own goodness) created the World. And to be short, he calleth him the Firstbeginner, Lightfulnesse, or altogether light, God, and the Béeer that is of himself. All these are such things as more cannot be attributed to God himself: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and he could not have said more expressly, that the Word is coeternal and Coessential with the Father, that is to say, of one selfsame substance and of one selfsame everlastingness with the Father. Nevertheless, he addeth yet further, That this word hath in it the se●des of all things; That he hath distributed to every of them their several natures; and that he is the invincible bond of the whole world & of all things therein. So then, he is (if I may so term him) the material, efficient, and formal cause of all things. 
Philo in his books concerning the Heir of Heavenly things, of the mo●esty of Women, and of the word, etc.  And unto whom can that be attributed but unto God? Again, There are (saith he) Two Speeches or words; the one being as an Original deed, is above us; and the other being as an Exemplification or Copy thereof, is within us. And Moses (saith he) calleth the same the Image of God; and this other which is our understanding, he calleth a later Copy thereof. And the said first Speech (sayeth he in his book of the World) is the express print or stamp of God, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, as a print printed in Wax,  and everlasting as God himself is. And what more saith S. john, or the Apostle to the Hebrews? And in all those places, (which are worthy to be read throughout,) he useth S. john's own term (namely Logos) to signify the said Speech, or Word.  
Of the holy Ghost he speaketh more darkly, because the Hebrews (as we shall see hereafter) aimed chief at the Word or second Person. But it is enough for us to have seen, that this fountain abode sufficiently clear among the Hebrews, till the coming of Christ (for Philo lived under the emperors Tiberius and Caligula) though the streams thereof were as good as dried up among the Gentiles; verily because the Messiah was to be borne among the Hebrews, of the belief in whom, this doctrine was to be the groundwork. For as soon as Christ was come into the World, it took light of him again, as at the day sun which enlighteneth not only the half compass where on he shineth, but also even a part of that which seethe him not. For this doctrine was not only received in the Church, but also embraced of all the great Philosophers that came after, notwithstanding that in all other things, they were deadly enemies to the Christians.  
Numenius, the excellentest of all the Pythagorians, 
The later Pythagorians & Academiks. Numenius in his book of the Good. Look Eusebius and Cyrillus. lib. 8.  (of whom Porphyry reporteth Plotinus to have made so great account, that he wrote a hundred books of Commentaries upon him) saith these words. He that will know the first and second GOD, must well distinguish, and above all things he must well settle his mind; and then having called upon GOD, he may open the treasure of his thoughts. And therefore let us begin thus. God (I mean the first who is in himself,) is single, throughout compacted, and one in himself, and in no part dividable. Also the second and third God is one: but yet you must consider, that the First is the father of him that is the worker of all things. [Now ye must understand, 
The Reader must understand, that by three gods they mean three Inbeeings, as they themselves do declare it.  that] whereas we say, the first, Second, & Third Person; it is their manner to say, the First, Second, and Third God, which thing you must mark here at once for all the residue following. And whereas he saith that the first of them is the Father, and that he is single, and that they be but one; it is not to be doubted but that he maketh them all one Essence, so as the second holdeth of the first, as the Light holdeth of the Sun. Again, The first God (saith he) is free from all work, but the second is the maker which commandeth Heaven: and therefore are there two lives, the one from the first, and the other from the second; the one occupied about things subject to understanding, and the other about things subject both to understanding & sense. And moreover, by reason of the moving which goeth afore in the second, there is also a sending which goeth afore in the first; and so there is a certain joint-moving from whence the healthful order of the World is spread forth universally. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  Now, whereas he speaketh of moving, it is after the manner of the Platonists, who (metaphorically) do mean, that to be understood or known is to move, and to understand or know is to be moved, because they wanted words to express these deep matters. And in the same sense do we read in the Scripture, that the Son is sent of the Father. And again, God the worker or maker (saith he) is the beginner of Begetting; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and God the Good is the beginner of Being: and the Second is the lively exppresser of the First, as Begetting is an Image of Being. And in another place he saith, That this Worker being the Son, is known to all men by reason of the creating of the World; but as for the first Spirit, which is the Father, he is unknown unto them. And surely (considering their manner of speaking) he could not have said more plainly, That the Son is the Image of the Father, that he hath his being in him, that he is one with him, & that by him the Father made all things. And it is agreeable to that which Proclus witnesseth of him, who reporteth of this Numenius, that he worshipped three Gods; of whom he calleth the first the Father, the second the Maker, and the third the Work proceeding from them both. Wherein we ought not so much to seek into the default, as to commend the good that is therein. Besides this, it is good to mark here once for all, that these men which speak unto us here of three Gods, are the same which confessed unto us heretofore, that there is but only one God. Whereupon it followeth that those three be but three Inbeings or Persons, 
This Plotinus lived under the Emperor Galen about the year of on Lord 25 or. Plotin. Enn. 5, lib. 1.  in one Essence.  
Plotinus, who was very well studied in the books of Numenius, steppeth yet further into the matter. And first of all, he hath made a Book expressly & purposely of the three chief Inbeings, whereof I will set down here a certain brief Sum. There are (saith he) three chief Inbeings, the One or the Good, the Understanding or Wit, 
Of the three sovereign or chief persons or Inbeings.  and the Soul of the World. And of these three it is not for any man to speak, without praying unto God, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. To the intent the Reader think not any obscurity in this or other that follow, he must remember that to the first Inbeeing, (that is to say, Person) the Philosophers give the names of the One, The Mind, the Good, the Father, and the Begetter: unto the second person, the names of Beeër or he that is, wit or understanding, the Beautiful, and sometimes Speech, word, Reason, wisdom, Son, and the begotten: and unto the third person, the names of Love, Will, Power, and the Soul of the World: & sometimes, the second world, etc.  & without settling his mind afore unto quietness. And if it be demanded how one of them begetteth another; it is to be considered that we speak of everlasting things, and therefore we must not imagine any temporal begetting. For this begetting which we speak of here, importeth and betokeneth but only cause and order. How cometh it to pass (saith he) that this Vnderstnding is begotten of the One? Surely it obtaineth not his being by means of any assent, commandment, or moving of the One; but it is a light shed forth everywhere, streaming from the One as brightness from the Sun, and begotten of the One, howbeit without any moving of the One. For all things, as in respect of their continuing of their nature, do necessarily yield out of their own essence and present power, a cetteyne nature that dependeth upon them, which is a very Image and countershape of the power from whence it proceedeth. As for example, Fire yieldeth heat, & Snow cold: and Herbs yield chief scents or savours. And all things when they be in their perfection, engender somewhat. That than which is everlastingly perfect, doth everlastingly beget, yea and it begetteth a perfect and everlasting thing, howbeit that the thing begotten is less than the begetter. And what shall we say then of the most perfect? That nothing proceedeth from him? Nay rather, that the greatest next him proceedeth of him? Now, the greatest and chiefest next unto the One, is the Understanding; the which hath need alonely of the One, but the One hath no need of it. Needs then must it be, that that thing which is begotten of that which is better than Understanding, must be the Understanding itself. And this Understanding, being the very Word of GOD and the Image of GOD, beholdeth God, and is unseparably joined with God, and cannot be separated from him otherwise than respectively, for that the one of them is not the other. verily after the same manner that we affirm the Father to be one person and the Son another, 
In respect of this Third, they call the First the Amiable, and in respect of the Second, they call him the Mind, as shall be seen by examples.  and yet neither of them both to be any other essence than the other. But let us see how God begetteth this Understanding, this Wit, or this Word. It is (saith he) by the supper abundance of himself. And therefore this begotten Understanding must needs retain much of the begetter in him, and have almost like resemblance unto him, as the light hath unto the Sun, howbeit so as the begetter is not the very understanding itself: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Another person and not another thing.  that is to say, they must differ respectively and not essentially; which expresseth his former speech where he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after another manner. And how then shall he (saith he) beget him? Even by a certain turning back of the begotten to behold the begetter, and this beholding is nothing else but the minding or understanding, of the good. And like as the One is but One, so the understanding thereof is all things. For by being bred of the First Beginner, it knoweth all things, and bringeth forth all things that are: namely, all Beauty of shapes, yea and all the Gods that are to be discerned by insight of Mind. These words of his are repeated infinite times, and therefore I will forbear to rehearse them here any more.  
As touching the third Inbeing, 
Plotin Enn. 5. lib. 2. &. lib. 3. Chap. 85. & Ernead. 3. lib. 9 Cap. vlt.  whom he calleth the Soul of the World, thus saith he thereof. Like as the Understanding, is the begotten issue, Word and Image of God or of the one; so is the Soul of the World the issue, Word and Image of the Understanding, and is as a certain Reason engendered of the Understanding, 
The understanding of the Good.  the substance whereof consisteth in contemplation; and the same Reason is as the light of the Understanding and dependeth thereupon. And as there is no mean between the One, and the Understanding; so is there no mean between the Understanding & this Soul of the World: but the difference is only this, that the one of them is as the very heat which is in fire itself, & the other is as the heat which Fire communicateth or imparteth unto other things [by heating them with his heat.] And that is the same thing which we affirm when we say, That the holy Ghost proceedeth from the father by the Son, calling him the Gift of God, because that by him (who is his Love) he vouchsafeth to impart himself to us here beneath. But we shall discern his meaning yet better by the effects which he attributeth unto him. This Soul (saith he) hath breathed life into all living things in the Air, in the Sea, and on the Land. It ruleth the Sun, the Stars and the Heaven; It hath quickened the Matter which erst was nothing and utterly full of darkness; and all this hath it done by the only will of itself. It is all throughout all, like to the Father, as well in that it is but one, as in that it extendeth itself into all places. And he concludeth thus: And thus far extendeth the Godhead. In deed he speaketh not so distinctly thereof, as Gregory Nazianzene; but yet forasmuch as he saith that they be all three eternal, of one selfsame substance, and differing only in this, that the one of them is not the other, the same may well be gathered of his sayings. In the residue of his book he proveth that the same was the opinion of Plato, Parmenides, and Anaxagoras. And because the inward man (as he termeth it,) is the Image of God; he taketh proof of the three Inbeings, from the consideration of our Soul, wherein there is a Mind, a Reason and a Life; which three be (notwithstanding) all but one Soul. Nevertheless, he expresseth the manner of the said begetting in divers other places. The One (saith he) begetteth the understanding, of the abundance of himself. 
Plotinus Enn. 5. lib. 2. & lib. 3 Chap. 5. 6. 7. 12. & lib 4. Chap. 2.  And the understanding is the Beeër, yea and the very being of the Beeër (mark those words for all that followeth) and turneth back again to him, and is filled with him. And his conclusion is, that the Mynder, the minding and the Minded, are in the Godhead all one thing; and that this minding, which is the first and most excellent act of the Godhead, is essential, that is to say, the very substance or being of the Godhead, because that all the actions of the Godhead are the very Godhead or God himself. Now, by the Mynder, he meaneth the One or the First person; and by the Minded or Beeër he meaneth the Second; and consequently that they be Coessential, [that is to say, both one selfsame thing, which is GOD.] Again, * There is (faith he) a double kind of minding: For a man mindeth, either another, or himself. Now, he that mindeth himself, hath not a several being from that thing which he mindeth, but being both in one, he beholdeth himself in himself, and so becometh two parties, which yet notwithstanding be both but one thing still. Now therefore there remaineth no more but to conclude, that the Begetter and the Begotten, 
Plotin. Enn. 5. lib. 5. Ch. 3. & lib. 6. Ch. 1. & lib. 8. ch. 12. & Enn. 3. lib. 8. cap. 7. 8. 10.  the Mynder and the Minded are both together, and also both one selfsame thing; and that if they be both one selfsame thing, the one of them is not better than the other. Whereupon it followeth, that whereas he said heretofore that The One is better than the Understanding (which he calleth here the Minded,) he meant it but in way of relation, and not in way of being. For in another place he saith again, ‖ He that is the very Living himself, is not the Minded, but we call him the Mynder. And although they differ one from another, yet notwithstanding it is not possible for them to be dissevered. Only they may be discerned in understanding, the one from the other, because the one of them is not the other; which manner of discerning is no impediment but that they remain both one thing still. For only God is both the party that is conceived in Mind or Understanding, and also the party that conceiveth him. Insomuch that when we say, that the Mynder beholdeth the forms or Patterns of things; 
Plotin. Enn. 5. lib. 9 Chap. 1.  we mean not that he looketh at them in another, but that he possesseth them in himself, by having in himself the party that is minded. Or rather were it amiss to say, that the same which is minded is the very Mynder himself in his unity and settled state; and that the nature of the Minded which is beheld, is an act that isseweth from him that Mindeth, which act consisteth in beholding or minding him, and in beholding him becometh one selfsame thing with him? Again he saith in a● other place; To be and to understand, are both one thing [in God:] and if any thing proceed thereof inwardly, yet is it no whit diminished thereby, because the Mynder and the Minded are both one same thing. For the beholding of one's self in his self, is nothing but himself: But yet must there needs be always both a selfesamenesse and also an otherness. Now then, let us conclude thus; that these two Inbeings or Persons, namely, The Minded and the Mynder, are both one thing; and therefore that they differ not but only in way of relation: And that forasmuch as there must needs be ever both a selfesamenesse and also an otherness, 
Plotin. Enn. 6. lib. 7. ch. 39 & lib. 7.  (If I may so term them) the selfesamenesse is in the Essence or being, 
The same in one respect, & another in another respect; or, all one in one respect, & divers in another respect.  because that from God there proceedeth nothing but God; and the otherness is in the Inbeings or Persons, as in respect that the one is the begetter and the other is the begotten.  
Moreover, this Plotinus calleth the begetter the Father, and the begotten the Son, after the same manner that we do. certes (saith he) the understanding is beautiful, and the most beautiful of all, (and therefore in divers other places he termeth him the Beautiful, (as he termed the First the Good) and sitteth in clear light and brightness, 
Plotin. Enn. 5. lib. 5. cap. 12.  and containeth in him the nature of all things that are. As for this World of ours, although it be beautiful, yet it is scarce an image or shadow of him; but the world that is above, is set in the very light itself, where there is nothing that is void of understanding, nor nothing dark, but every where is led a most blessed life. Now, like as he that beholdeth the Sky and the Stars, falleth by and by to seeking the author of this World: So he that considereth and commendeth the World that is not to be discerned but in understanding, doth likewise seek the author thereof, namely who he is that begat that World, and where and how he begat that Son, that understanding, that Child so bright and beautiful, even that Son full of the Father. As for the sovereign father he is neither the understanding, nor the Son, nor the Child, but a Mind higher than Understanding and Child. And next unto him is the Understanding or Child, who needeth both understanding and nourishment, and is next to him that hath need of nothing. And yet for all this, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the Son hath the very fullness of understanding, because he hath it immediately and at the first hand. But as for him that is the higher (that is to wit the Father;) he hath no need of him: for than should the Son be the very good itself. So say we also that the Son hath all fullness, howbeit of the Father, and that the Father hath all fullness, but of himself: and that the Father is not the Son or the word, but that the Son or the word is of the Father. And in another place he saith, What shall a man have gained by seeing or beholding God? That he shall have seen God begetting a Son, and in that Son all things, and yet holding him still in him without pain after his conceiving of him, of whom this World (as beautiful as we see it to be) is but an Image: In which sort a painted Table is after a manner a portreyture of the mind of him that made it. I said moreover that this Son is the Wisdom of the Father; 
Plotin. Enn. 5. lib. 8. Chap. 5.  the like whereof Plotinus also saith unto us. All things (saith he) that are done either by Art or by Nature, are done by Wisdom. If they be done by Art, from Art we come to Nature, and of Nature again we demand from whence she hath it: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  whereby we finally come to a Mind, and then are we to seek whether the Mind have begotten Wisdom: And if that be granted, we will inquire yet further, whereof? And if they say it begetteth it of itself: That cannot be, unless the Mind be the very Wisdom itself. Wisdom therefore shallbe the Essence, and the very Essence shallbe Wisdom, and the worthiness of the Essence shallbe Wisdom. And therefore every Essence that wanteth Wisdom, is in deed an Essence as in respect that Wisdom made it: but forasmuch as it hath no Wisdom in itself, it is no true Essence in deed. Now, the ordinary teaching of Plotine is, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  to call the Understanding or second Person the very Béeer in deed, or the very true Essence; and the first person a thing higher than Understanding or Essence. Whereupon it should follow, that with him, Wisdom and true Essence are both one: that is to say, that the second person is Wisdom. To the same purpose also he saith, 
Plotin in his book of Inshapes.  that the said Mind possesseth all things in his homebred Wisdom: 
Enn. 3. lib. 9 Chap. 2.  That all shapes are but beams and effects thereof: and that the same is the truth, yea and King of truth; which is a name that the Scripture also attributeth to the second person.  
As touching the third person, whom he calleth the Soul of the World, 
Plotin. Enn. 6. lib. 8. 8. Chap. 13. 15. 27.  he seemeth in his other books to lay us a foundation of a better opinion. For, God (saith he) hath wrought, & he wrought not unwillingly: and therefore there is a will in GOD. Now surely he whose power is answerable to his will, should by and by become the better. God then who is the good itself [than the which nothing can be better,] filleth his own will to the full, so as he is the thing that he listeth to be, and lifteth to be that which he is, and his will is his very Essence. This will again, is his act or operation, and that act is his very substance. And so God setteth down himself in this act of Being. And this is in a manner all one with the things which I spoke in the former Chapter: namely, that God by his will produceth a third person, that is to say, the love of himself by delighting in himself. And in another place, This same GOD (saith he) is both the lonely and love: and this Love is the love of himself: for of himself and in himself is he altogether beautiful. And whereas he is said to be altogether with himself; it could not be so, unless that both the thing which is and also the person which is together therewith, were both one selfsame thing. 
Plotin Enn. 3. lib. 8. Chap. 10.  Now, if the together beer, (for I must be fain to use that word) & the thing together wherewith he is, be both one; and likewise the desirer and the thing desired be one also; Surely the desire and the Essence must also needs be one selfsame thing. And this desire of the Mind is the Love itself, whom we call the holy Ghost, which proceedeth by the Will, and so by the foresaid reasons is proved to be Coessential. 
Plotin. Enn. 3. lib. 9 Chap. 1.  And this desire (saith he in another place) is in the Mind, which always desireth and always posseth the first. This Love than proceedeth not alonely from the first person, but also from the second, according to his former teaching concerning the Soul of the World, which is, that it proceedeth from the first person by the second. And thus have we the three Persons or jubeings acknowledged and laid forth by Plotinus, whom I have alleged somewhat the more at length, because he avowweth it to be a very ancient doctrine, and that he had learned it of his predecessors Numenius, Severus, Cronius, Gaius, Atticus, Longinus, and Philarchaeus, 
Cyril against julian lib 8. Porphyrius in the life of Plot●●us.  and did afterward teach it to his Discipies, (who esteemed him as a God,) as we shall see hereafter in their writings.  
jamblichus 
Plotinus against the gnostics. Enn. 2. lib. 9 Chap. 1. jamblicus of the sect of the Pythagorists, and in his book of the Mysteries of the Egyptians. Chap. 37. and 39  saith plainly that God made the World by his divine Word, but he playeth the Philosopher more profoundly in this behalf. The first God (saith he) being afore the Beeër, and alone; is the father of a first God whom he begetteth, and yet nevertheless abideth still in the soleness of his unity: which thing far exceedeth all ability of understanding. This is the Original pattern of him that is called both Father to himself and Son to himself, and is the Father of one alone, and God verily good in deed. Now, when he saith that he is father to himself, and father to a second; therein he distinguisheth the persons. And whereas he saith that notwithstanding this begetting, yet he abideth one still: he showeth that there is no separating of the essences. And he speaketh there after the opinion received among the Divines of AEgipt.  
But let us hear Porphirie, 
Porphirie in his 4. book of 〈◊〉 Philosophers.  (to whom Plotinus committed the overlooking of his books,) the best learned of all the Philosophers as saith Saint Austin, 
cyril. against julian. lib. 1.  and yet nevertheless the sworn enemy of Christenfolke. In his History of the Philosophers, these are his words: Plato taught (saith he) that of the Good, (that is to say of the first person) is begotten an understanding, by a manner unknown to men; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and that the same understanding is all whole next unto himself. In this understanding are all things that truly are, and all the Essences of all things that have being. It is the first beautiful, and beautiful of itself, and hath the grace of beauty of himself, and before all worlds proceeded from God as from his cause, selfeborne and father of himself. And this proceeding of his, was not as ye would say by Gods moving of himself to the begetting of him; but by his own proceeding of himself from God, and by his issewing of himself. I say by proceeding, howbeit not at any beginning of time: (for there was not yet any time,) and time is nothing in comparison of him; But this Mind is without time and only everlasting. Yet notwithstanding, as the first God is always one, and alone although he have made all things, because nothing can match or compare with him: so also is this Understanding or Mind everlasting, alone, without time, the time of things that are in time, and yet always abiding in the unity of his own substance. Of a truth he could not have said more plainly, that the Son is the Son eternally, and of the father's ow●e substance.  
Again, expounding that foresaid so greatly renowned place of Plato's Episte, 
cyril against julian. lib. 1.  The Essence of God (saith he) extendeth even unto three Inbeeings; For there is the highest GOD or the good; and next him, the Second, who is the workmayster of all things; and lastly the third, who is Soul of the World: for the Godhead extendeth even unto the Soul. And that is the thing that Plato meant in speaking of three Kings: for although all things depend upon these three: yet is their depending, first upon the first God, secondly upon the God that isseweth of him, and thirdly upon the third that proceedeth from him. Now, in that he rangeth them in order thus one under another; he seemeth to play the Arrian. And yet is that very much in a Heathen man. But whereas he acknowledgeth one selfsame essence; he showeth that the diversity is only in the functions, and in the order of causes, which is one step beyond the Arrians. Also S. Austin saith that he did put the third person as a mean between the other two, after which manner we also do call him the band and union of them two, notwithstanding that Plotine do put him under the Understanding. But in his book of the chief Fathers or first Authors of things, Proclus 
Porphyrius in his book of the chief fathers, alleged by Proclus.  setteth down his opinion yet more plainly: saying, that there is an everlasting or eternal Mind, and yet notwithstanding, that afore the same there is a fore-eternal or former everlasting, unto whom the everlasting sticketh, because the Foreeverlasting is beyond all: and that in the everlasting being, there is a second and a third: and that betwne the Foreeverlasting and the Everlasting, Eternity resteth in the midst. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Now, forasmuch 〈◊〉 Eternity's are alike equal, this foreness and afterness which are attributed to the persons, is not in respect of time, but (as Plotine saith) in respect of Nature, and (as ye would say) inconsideration of cause.  
Proclus the Disciple of jamblichus sayeth that the aun●●ent Platonists did set down three Beginners (whom we call Persons.) Of the which, the first, they called the One, The second (namely the said Understanding) they called the one many, and [the third, that is to wit] the Soul [of the world,] they called the One and many. But it is best for us to hear what he himself saith. The Essence or understanding (sayeth he) for among the Platonists both are one) is said first of all, 
Proclus in Plato's Divinity.  to have his being, of the Good, and to be about the same Good, and to be filled with the light of truth which proceedeth from it, and to be partaker thereof by the union which it hath therewith, and is most divine, because it dependeth originally upon the Good. Here ye see now a second person, Light of Light, having his fullness from the first, And whereas he saith of the first light that it is most divine; it is because he knoweth not by what words to express the pre-eminence of the Father. In another place he sayeth that this understanding, (that is to say the Soul) is become One with the Good, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  that is to say, with the Father. And also that by his inyndly Inworking he is the very eternity itself, saving that he dependeth upon the Unity; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and that he is like unto the One: and that the Soul or third person is like to the mind, from whence it proceedeth. But here is yet a more evident thing. The most part (saith he) do set down three Beginnings, the Good, the Understanding or the Beeër, & the Soul. The first principal and uncommunicable, is the One, who is before and beyond all things. Next unto him is the one Unity, which hath his being about the said first substance, and aboundeth by participation of him that is the One first of all. And this Inbeing is more than Substantial, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  and the first of all the Inbeeings in the Trinity that is to be conceived in understanding. And seeing that these two namely the One and the Understanding be in the first rank of the Trinity, the first as the Begetter, the second as the Begotten, the first as the Perfecter, the second as the Perfected: there must needs be a mean power betwixt them, whereby and wherewith the one may yield being and perfection to the understanding or Beeër. For this proceeding of the Beeër from the One, and likewise the turning back of the Beeër unto the One, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  is done by a certain power or might, and so there is a Trinity; which is the full number of things belonging to a Mind, so as this Trinity is Unity or Oneness, Power or Might, and Understanding of Mind. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The One is the Producer or yeelderforth, the Understanding is the thing produced or yeeldedfoorth, and the Power or Might depending upon the One, is also linked to the Understanding or Beeër And this Trinity is the Unity or Oneness, the Beeër or Understanding, and the Behaviour of them both, whereby the Unity is the Unity of the Understanding, and the Understanding is the understanding of the Unity or One. Whereby Plato showeth that the Father is the Father of the Understanding, & the Understanding is the Son of the Father, and that the Might or Power is covertly comprised between them both. Now sooth, considering that he was a professed enemy to us Christians, and therefore eschewed to use our terms; he could not have spoken better, nor have said more plainly that the three Inbeings or persons differ only by way of relation, so as there is a Father, a Son, and a Behaviour of them both, which we would have called the Love, the Union, or the kindness of them, that is to wit the holy Ghost.  
Amelius the Disciple of Plotine, 
Amelius a Platonist.  (as Proclus reporteth) maketh also three kings or three Understandings: namely, the Beeër, the Haver, and the Seeër: the first, the real Understanding, the second the Understanding from the first, and the third the Understanding in the second. Whom Theodorus imitating, hath termed them, the substantial Understanding, the Understandable substance, and the Fountain of Souls. Nevertheless, as great an enemy as Amelius was to the Christians, yet notwithstanding after many flourishes and fetches about, in the end speaking of the second Person he yieldeth to that which S. john speaketh of him in his Gospel. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Surely (saith he) this is the Word that was from everlasting, by whom all things that are, were made, as Heraclitus supposed. And before God (saith he) it is the very same Word which that barbarus fellow (for so did he term S. john) avoucheth to have been with God at the beginning in the ordering and disposing of things when they were confused, and to be God, by whom all things were absolutely made, and in whom they be living and of whom they have their life and being; and that the same Word clothing itself with Man's flesh, 
Cyril. against julian. lib. 8. Austin in the City of God. lib. 10.  appeared a Man, and yet left not to show the Majesty of his nature. Insomuch that after he had been put to death, he took his Godhead to him again, and was very GOD as he had been afore ere he came down into Body, Flesh, and man.. Another Platonist speaking to the same effect, said that the 〈◊〉 of S. john's Gospel was worthy to be graved every where in letters of Gold. Thus ye see that the Greek Philosophy as well afore as after the coming of our Lord jesus Christ, agreeth with our Divinity.  
As touching the Latins, 
The Latin Philosophers. Chalcidius upon Plato's Timeus.  they fell to Philosophy somewhat late● but yet as little as we have of their doings, they digress not from the others. Chalcidius who wrote upon Plato's limaeus, hath these words: The sovereign and 〈◊〉 God, is the Original of all things; next unto whom is his Providence as a second God, who giveth the law aswell for the temporal as for the eternal life. And furthermore, there is a third substance as a second Understanding, which is the keeper of the said eternal Law. The highest God commandeth, the second ordereth, and the third uttereth or publisheth. Now the Souls do the Law, and the Law is the very Destiny itself. And a little afore he saith, that the said Providence, which he setteth in the second place, is the everlasting Understanding of God, which is an everlasting act, and a resembler of his goodness, because he is always turned towards him that is the very Good itself. Also Macrobius 
Macrobius upon the Dream of Scipio. God & Mind begotten of God.  saith, that Plato's opinion concerning the one chief God and the one Understanding bred and borne of him, is no falile at all, but a thing certain, howbeit that he could not otherwise express it than by examples of the Daysonne and such other things. And surely if we had the books of Varro, and other great Clerks, it is possible that we should find much more to this purpose. Thus than ye see how the Platonists are all of one opinion and mind in the doctrine of the Trinity, wherein some of them saw more and some less; some affirm the premises whereof our conclusions ensue, and othersome conclude the same expressly with us.  
The Aristotelians have no voice here, because they stand all in commenting upon Aristotle, who gave himself more to the liberal Arts and the searching of Nature, than to looking up to God the maker of all things. Yet notwithstanding, Avicen 
Avicen.  rejected it not: insomuch that he saith that the first Mind yieldeth forth a second Mind, and the second a third; but he waded no deeper into the matter.  
Let us add here the confessions of the very devils, 
The Oracles of devils. Sibyl.  who either by means of the revelations thereof which have been made unto us, or by reason of their falling from above, have had some knowledge thereof● 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Sooth it is always a pleasure to hear them yield record to the truth even spite of their hearts. We read that one Thulis reigned in old time in AEgipt, who waxing proud, asked Serapis the chief Idol of the egyptians, (adjuring him strongly that he should not deceive him) who he was that had reigned afors him and who should reign after him, and also who was mightier or greater than he. To whom Serapis answered in these four, Verses.  
First God, and next the Word, and then their sprite;  
Which three be one and join in one all three.  
Their force is endless; get thee hence frail wight, 
Suidas in the life of Thulis   
The man of life unknown excelleth thee.  
Also Apollo being demanded concerning the true Religion, answered in ten Verses thus.  
Unhappy Priest, demand not me the last  
And meanest Fiend, concerning that divine  
Degetter, and the dear and only Son  
Of that ren●wmed King, nor of his Spirit  
Containing all things plenteously throughout,  
Hills, Brooks, Sea, Land, Hell, Air, and lightsome Fire.  
Now woe is me, for from this house of mine  
That Spirit will me drive within a while,  
So as this Temple where men's destinies  
Are now foretold, shall stand all desolate.  
Being asked another time (as saith Porphirius,) 
Porphirius as he is alleged by S. Austin in his ninth book of the City of God. Cham 23.  whether was the better of the Word or the Law; he answered likewise in verse, That men ought to believe in God the begetter, and in the King that was afore all things, under whom quaketh both Heaven and Earth, Sea and Hell, yea and the very Gods themselves, whose Law is the Father that is honoured by the Hebrews. And these Oracles were wont to be sung in Verse, to the intent that all men should remember them the better as Plutarch reporteth. Now I have been the longer in this Chapter, because most men think this doctrine so repugnant to man's Reason, that Philosophy could never allow of it; not considering that it is another matter to conceive a thing, than to prove or allow it when it is conceived. And therefore aswell for this Chapter as for that which went afore, let us conclude, both by reason added to Gods revealing, and by the traces thereof in the World, and by the Image thereof shining forth in ourselves, and by the Confession of all the ancient Divines, and by the very depositious of the devils themselves; that in the only one Essence or substance of God, there is a Father, a Son, and a holy Ghost; the Father everlastingly begetting the Son, and the Spirit everlastingly proceeding from them both● the Son begotten by the Mind, and the Spirit proceeding by the Will: which is the thing that we had here to declare. And let this handling of that matter concerning God's essence be taken as done by way of prevention, howbeit that it depend most properly upon the revelation of our Scriptures, which being proved will consequently yield proof to this point also. There may be some perchance which will desire yet more apparent proofs: but let them consider that we speak of things which surmount both the arguments of Logic and also Demonstration. For, inasmuch as Demonstrations are made by the Causes, the Cause of all Causes can have no Demonstration. But if any be so wilful as to stand in their own opinion against the truth which all the World proveth & all Ages acknowledge: let them take the pain to set down their Reasons in writing; and men shall see how they be but either bare Denyalles, or Guesses, or simple distrusts or misbeleefs of the things which they understand not, and that they be unable to weigh against so grave and large Reasons and Records, as I have set down heretofore. And therefore, the glory thereof be unto God.  
Amen.   

The seven. Chapter.  
That the World had a beginning.  
LEt us now retire back again from this bottomless gulf; for the thing that is unpossible to be sounded is unpossible to be known. And seeing that our eyesight cannot abide the brightness of so great a light; let it content us to behold it in the shadow. Now, this sensible world wherein we dwell, is (as the Platonists term it) the shadow of the world that is subject to understanding: for certes it cannot be called an Image thereof, no more than the building of a Maystermason is the Image of his mind. And yet for all the greatness, beauty, and light which we see therein, I cannot tell whether the word shadow do thoroughly fit it or no, considering that shadows have some measure in respect of their bodies, but between finite and infinite is no proportionable resemblance at all. We that are here in the world, do wonder at it, and we would think we did amiss if we should believe that any thing is better or more beautiful than that. For our flesh and complexions are proportioned after the Elements thereof, and to the things which it bringeth forth, as our eyes unto the light thereof, and all our senses too the sensible nature thereof: and those which are of the world seek but only to content the sensuality that is in them. But as we have a Mind, so also let us believe that the same is not without his object or matter to rest upon. And as the senseless things serve the things that have sense; so let us make the sensible things to serve the Mind, and the Mind itself to serve him by whom it is and understandeth. My meaning is, that we should not wonder at the world for the world's sake itself, but rather at the workmaster and author of the world. For it were too manifest a childishness to wonder at a portraiture made by a Peinter, and not to wonder much more at the painter himself.  
Now the first consideration that offereth itself to the beholder of this work, is whether it hath had a beginning or no: a question which were perchance unnecessary in this behalf, if every man would consult with his own Reason, whereunto nothing is more repuguant, than to think an eternity to be in things which we not only perceive with our senses, but also do see to perish. Howbeit forasmuch as the world speaketh (saith the Psalmist) both in all Languages and to all Nations: let us examine it, both whole together, and according to the several parts thereof. 
The world itself telleth us that it had a beginning.  For it may be that the worldlings (if they distrust their own record) will at leastwise admit that which the world itself shall depose thereof. Let us then examine the Elements all together: they pass from one into another; the Earth into Water, the Water into Air, and Air into Water again, and so forth. Now this intercourse cannot be made but in time, and time is a measuring of moving, and where measure is, there can be no eternity. Let us examine them severally: The Earth hath his seasons, after Springtime cometh Summer, after Summer succeed Harvest, and after Harvest followeth Winter. The Sea hath his continual ebbing and flowing, which goeth increasing and decreasing by certain measures. divers Rivers, and especially Nile, have their increasings at certain seasons, and to a certain measure of Cubits. The Air also hath his Winds, which do one while clear it and another while trubble it: and the same Winds do reign by turns, blowing sometime from the East, and sometime from the West; sometime from the North and sometime from the South. And upon them dependeth Rain and fair wether, Storms and calms. These interchaunges which are wrought by turns cannot be without beginning. For where order is, there is a formernesse and an afterness, and all change is a kind of moving, insomuch that the alterations which are made successively one after another, must of necessity have had a beginning at some point or other; on the Land, by some one of the Seasons; on the Sea, by ebbing and flowing; and in the Air, by North or by South; and so forth. For if they began not at any one point, than could they not hold out unto an other point. The Land then by his Seasons, the Air by his changes, and the Sea by his Tides, cease not to cry out and to preach unto all that have ears to hear, that there is no everlastingness in them, but that they have had a beginning all of them. Again, when we consider that the Earth receiveth his Seasons from the Sun, the Sea his Tides from the Moon, & the Air his Winds from an outward power that is unseen: ought we not to seek the beginning thereof above and not beneath, without them and not within them, seeing that nothing here below hath moving of itself? And if the Elements which are accounted for the very grounds and beginnings of things, acknowledge a beginning of their movings; ought we not to acknowledge the same in all other things? Again, if we consider how this Moon which maketh the Tides in the Sea, hath no light but from the Sun which maketh the Seasons on the Earth; do we not conclude by and by, that the Seasons of the Earth, and the Tides of the Sea, and the continual changes, movings, and (as ye would say) backebreathing of the Elements, have one common beginning? But it may be that these movings have place but only under the Moon, and not in that fifth Quintessence of the Heaven, the substantialness and eternity whereof Aristotle doth so highly commend. Nay, what if the higher we mount up, they proclaim their beginning still the louder? What if the thing which we most chief wonder at in the Heaven, be most repugnant to eternity? The Sun maketh there his natural course in the Zodiac between the two Tropics or Turnepoynts, so as the Zodiac is as it were his race, and the Tropics are his utmost lists, both the which are so distinguished by degrees and minutes, that he cannot pass one hearebredth beyond them. The points of his two stops are his utmost bounds, the which so soon as he cometh at, by and by he turneth head back again. Must he not then needs have had a place to set out from, seeing he hath a place whereat to stop? Every four and twenty hours he is carried from East to West by the moving of the Sky: and like as by his natural moving he maketh the Summer and the Winter; so by this violent moving he maketh Day and Night. Can such succession of times and Seasons be made otherwise than in time, or rather be any other thing than time? The Moon likewise finisheth her course every month: we see how she changeth, groweth, becometh full, and waneth. Every Planet hath his prefixed time and his ordinary course. To be short, men see the rising and the going down of the Stars, and likewise their appearing and their tarrying out of sight: and the very Heaven itself which with himself carrieth all the rest about, doth it not but by moving. Now whatsoever is moved, is moved in time; and all doings or whéeling about, must needs begin at some one point; like as in the drawing of a Circle, the one shank. of the Compasses is set fast in some place, and the other shank is carried round about. What followeth the●, but that the moving of the Heaven and of all the things which the Heaven beareth and carrieth about, hath had a beginning? Then let us not wonder at the brightness and light thereof as Aristotle did; for that bewrayeth the matter so much the more apparently, in that it hath not that light but by distribution of moving; nor at his perpetual moving, for that showeth the more his straight service whereto he is subject; nor at his Constancy, for that is necessity; nor at his huge greatness, for he is so much the more hugely bowed down. Surely the Sky is as the great wheel of a Clock, which showeth the Planets, the Signs, the hours, and the Tides, every one in their time, and that which seemeth to be his chief wonder, proveth him to be subject to time, yea and to be the very instrument of tyme. Now, seeing he is an instrument, there is a Worker that putteth him to use, a Clockkéeper that ruleth him, a Mind that was the first procurer of his moving. For every instrument, how movable so ever it be, is but a dead thing so far forth as it is but an instrument, if it have not life and moving from some other thing than it itself. 
An objection.  Yea, but (will some man say) the Heaven goeth about continually; and in so many worlds and ages as have been, we perceive no alteration at all. Wretched man that thou art! Thy Hart and thy Lights also have a continual moving, and never lie still; and thou, with all the wit thou hast, canst neither increase it nor restrain it. The Physicians themselves feel it, but can find no cause of it. The Philosopher's overtyre themselves in seeking it, and yet canst thou not tell the end and the beginning thereof. Dost not thou things thyself which men as thou art do deem to be without end, as strange mills and Trindles, and such other kind of selfmoving, of whose beginnings not even Children are ignorant? And yet under colour that the great wheel of Heaven hath now of long time turned about without ceasing, wilt thou be so childish or so blind, as to believe that it hath turned so from everlasting? O man, the same workmayster which hath set up the Clock of thy hart for half a score years, hath also set up this huge engine of the Skies for certain thousands of years. Great are his Circuits and small are thine; and yet when thou hast accounted them thoroughly, they come both to one.  
Let us come to the things that have life and fence. The Plants shoot forth into branches, and bear both bud and fruit: but yet either the plant springeth of the kernel, or the kernel of the plant, and both of them proceed of a maker. Of living wights, some bring forth their young ones alive, and some lay Eggs, and we know which is engendered of which: but whether the Egg come of the Hen, or the Hen of the Egg; it must needs be confessed that the one of them had a beginning. But I will leave this vain disputing whether of them was the first; which question the holy scripture will discuss in one word. Yea and nature itself also will discuss it, which requireth to have the first things brought forth in their perfect being. For it is enough for our purpose, that they may find themselves convicted of a beginning throughout all things. And I pray you, if they cannot tell whether the moving of their Heart or of their Lungs, began first with shutting or with opening, at the thrusting of the breath forth, or at the drawing of it in; (whereof notwithstanding they cannot but know that there was a beginning:) ought they to be admitted to deny that things had a beginning, because it might be doubted at which point they began?  
Now if the Dumb and spéechelesse things ●ry out so loud, and the things that are void of reason conclude so reasonably; shall only man whom God hath endued both with speech and reason, 
Man had a beginning.  be either so unhonest as to hold his peace, or so shameless as to resist? Sooth as touching our bodies, we know the beginning of them; and our so curious searching out of Pedigrees, maketh us too confess it whether we will or no. And if any thing in the world might have any true pretence or likelihood to boast of an eternity; our Souls might do it, which without moving themselves do do cause a thousand things to remove. They mount up unto Heaven, and go down to the deep, without shifting their place. They hoard up the whole world in the storehouse of their memory, without combering of any room there. They pack up all times past present and to come together, without passing from one to another. To be short, they conceive and contain all things, and after a sort even themselves also. And yet shall we be so bold as too say they be eternal without beginning? Nay, how can that be, sith we see that they profit and learn, yea and oftentimes also appair and forget, from age to age, and from day to day? How (I say) can that be, sith we see that they pass from ignorance to knowledge, from darkness to light, from gladness to sadness, and from hope to despair; and that not by years, but even in minutes and moments? And (which more is) we see them receive great trouble and alteration by and for the things that are mutable and transitory, which flourish in the morning, and are withered and parched as in an Oven at night. Now, to be altered and changed, importeth a moving, and he that granteth a moving, granteth also a beginning; and to be moved by things mutable, showeth an over great inconstancy of nature, which is a thing too too contrary unto eternity. To be short, how can that thing be eternal or everlasting, which cannot so much as by any imagination resemble aught that this word eternity betokeneth? And yet this soul of ours is the thing which in man joineth Heaven and Earth together, marketh the changes in things above, and for the most part worketh them in the things beneath, carrying up a handful of dust above the skies, and after a sort bringing down Heaven unto the Earth. Much more reason than is it that neither in the Heaven, nor in the Earth, nor in all the Harmony of the whole world which we so greatly wonder at, there should not be any approaching at all unto eternity.  
Some man perchance will say unto me, 
An objection.  that in the parts of the World there is no eternity, but yet there may be in the whole. Nay, how can a Whole be eternal, which is composed of brittle and temporal parts? And what call they the Whole, but the huge frame of Heaven, whose moving proveth that it had a beginning? Again, some other will perhaps say, there is a beginning of moving in the world, as well in the whole as in the parts thereof; but yet it doth not therefore follow, that it had beginning of being. Nay, if the being thereof was everlastingly afore the moving thereof; how could it be called in Latin Mundus & in Greek Cosmos, that is to say, A goodly or beautiful order, seeing that for the most part, Order dependeth upon moving? For, take from the Heavens their turning about, and from the Sun his course, and set them fast in some place where you list; and you shall make the one half of the Earth blind, and the whole Earth either scorched with his continual presence, or desert and uninhabitable by his absence: and ye shall make the Sea for the most part unsayleable, and the Air unfruitful or untemperate. Therefore it will follow at the least, that the World hath not been inhabited everlastingly, nor the Plants thereof been eternal, nor the living Creatures (no not even Mankind) been without beginning. Surely I wot not what eyes these Philosophers had, who had lever to eternise the Stones, Rocks, and Mountains, than themselves for whom those things were made. And again, to what purpose served the Sun and the Moon at that time? Wherefore served Air, wherefore served Sea, when nothing did yet live, see, and breath? It remaineth then that afore moving, it was but a confused heap, mass or lump of things without shape, and that in process of time (as some say) a certain Soul wound itself into it, and gave shape to that body, and afterward life, moving and fence to the parts thereof, according as he had made every of them capable to receive: insomuch that the world is nothing else but that confused heap now orderly disposed, endued with soul and life, so as of that soul and confused lump together, there is now made one perfect living wight. A proper imagination surely, and meet for a very Beast, to father his so orderly essence upon the shapelessenesse of a Chaos, that is to say, of confusedness removed away; rather than upon the wisdom & power of a quickening Spirit. But seeing that this Chaos could not receive either shape or order, but by the said Soul; if they be both eternal, how met they together in one point, being of so contrary natures, the one to shape and the other to be shaped? If it were by adventure, how did that Soul by adventure so set things in order, and how happeneth it that it hath not since that time put them out of order again? Or if it were by advise; of whom should that advise be but of a Superior? And who is that Superior, but God? Again, either this Soul was tied really and in very deed to this body of the world from all eternity; or else it did but only pierce through it by his power, as seemed best of the own free-will. If it were tied, specially to such a confused mass; by whom but by force of a higher power? And than what else could that confused Chaos be to him, but an everlasting grave? And what else also were that to say, than that the said Chaos was as a shapeless Child yet newly begotten and scarce set together in the mother's womb, which within a few days after, by the infusion of a Soul beginneth to have shape, moving, and sense; and afterward in his due time is borne, and being grown up decayeth again, and so endeth, as our bodies do? Or if a Soul pierced into it and went through it by a free-will and power; (let us not strive about terms; for a Soul is so named in respect of a body whereto it is tied) the same is the living GOD, who at his pleasure gave it both shape, life, and moving. But I will show hereafter, that he not only gave the World his shape, but also created the very matter stuff and substance thereof. But it sufficeth me at this time to wrest from them, that he is the maker and shaper thereof.  
Let us yet more clearly set forth the original of the World. I ask what the world is of itself? If it move not, it foregoeth both his order and his beauty, as I said afore. And if it move, it showeth itself uncapable of eternity. 
The linking of things together.  But there is yet more. These lower spaces of the world are the harbour of living creatures, and specially of man, who knoweth how to take benefit thereof. The temperateness of the air serveth for him; and yet the air can not be tempered nor the Earth lighted, without the Son and the Moon: Neither can the Sun and the Moon give light and temperateness without moving. The Moon hath no light but of the Sun; neither can the Sun yield it either to the Moon or too the Earth, but by the moving of the Heaven: and the great Compass of the Heaven going about, is the very thing which we call the World, not esteeming these lower parts (as in respect of their matter) otherwise than as the dregs of the whole. And whereas the Elements serve man, and the Planets serve the Elements, yea and the Planets themselves serve one another: do they not show that they be one for another? And if they be one for another; is not one of them in consideration afore another; as the end afore the things that tend unto the end, according to this common rule, that the Mind 
The inwoorking of the Mind beginneth at the end.  beginneth his work at the end thereof? Now then, if the turning about of the Heaven serve to show the Planets, and they to yield light to the Earth and to all things thereon: doth it not serve for the Earth? And if it serve the Earth; I pray you is that done by appointment of the Earth, or rather by appointment of some one that commandeth both Heaven and Earth? Again, seeing that the end is in consideration afore the things that tend thereto: shall this consideration be in the things themselves, or rather in some Spirit that ordereth them? Sooth, in the things themselves it cannot be: for if they have understanding, they have also will; and the will intendeth rather to command than to obey, and unto freedom rather than bondage: and if they have no understanding, then know they neither end nor beginning. Moreover, forasmuch as they be divers, and of contrary natures; they should aim at divers ends, whereas now they am all at one end. Nay, which more is, how should the Sun and the Moon, the Heaven and the Earth have met everlastingly in matching their dealings so jump together, the one in giving light, and the other in taking it? In what point, by what covenant, and under what date was this done, seeing it dependeth altogether upon moving, which is not to be done but in time? It remaineth then, that the said consideration was done by a Spirit that commandeth all things alike, and that he putteth them in subjection one to another as seemeth best to himself, forsomuch as he is mighty to keep them in obedience, and wise to guide them to their peculiar ends, and all their ends unto his own end; and he that thinketh otherwise thinketh that a Lute is in tune of it own accord. Or if he say that this Spirit is a Soul enclosed in the whole, he doth fond incorporate the Spirit of the Luteplayer in the Lute itself, and likewise the builder in the building. In effect it is all one as if a Child that is borne and brought up in a house, should think the house to be eternal or else made of itself, because he had not seen it made: or as if a man that had been cast out newly borne in a desert Island, and there nursed up by a Wolf as Romulus was; should imagine himself to be bred out of the Earth in one night like a Mushroom. For, to believe that the World is eternal, and that the race of Mankind is bred of itself without a maker, is all one thing, and spring both of one error. Do not the two Sexes of Male and Female in all living things overthrow the said eternity? For how should they be everlastingly the one for the other, seeing they be so divers? Again, have they been everlastingly but two, or everlastingly more than two? If but two, where are those two become, seeing that eternity importeth immortality, and a beginninglesse forebeing from everlasting inferreth an endless afterbeing or continuance to everlasting? And if they were many: see ye not still the selfsame absurdities? And if ye say they be made everlasting by succession of time; what (I pray you is death) but a token that they were borne? What is life (I speak of this our life) but a continuance of death? and what is succession, but a prolonging of time? Thus than ye see how that aswell by the parts of the World, and by the whole World itself, as also by the agreement of the whole with his parts, and of the parts among themselves; we be evidently taught that the fraine of the World had both a workmayster and a beginning. But now some man will ask us when it began? And that is the point which we have to treat of next.   

The viii. Chapter.  
When the World had his beginning.  
Sooth, it is not for me to stand here disproving the doubts of the Accounters of times; for the odds of some years, yea or of some whole hundreds of years, is not to be accounted of between eternity and a beginning. But if we have an eye to the proceeding of this lower World: we shall evidently percèyve, that like a Child it hath had his ages, his changes, and his full points, rests or stops; so as it hath by little and little grown, been peopled, and replenished; and that (to be short) whereas the world supposeth that it shall endure for ever, it doth but resemble an old Dotard, which (be he never so forworn and drooping for age,) yet thinks himself still to have one year more to live. But I have already sufficiently proved, that both Heaven and Earth have had a beginning; and also that seeing the one of them is for the other, they had the same at one self same time, and both of them from one self same ground. And therefore look what shallbe declared of the earth, shall also be declared of the heaven: and forasmuch as the earth serveth for the use of living creatures, and specially of man; look what beginning we shall prove of man, the like shall we have proved of the disposition of the earth. For to what purpose were the Heaven being embowed about these lower parts like a Uault; or to what purpose were the earth being as a flower or plancher to go upon; if there were no inhabiter at all upon earth? Surely if the World were without beginning, 
The Original of Sciences. Lucr: Carus: This nature & reason of things was lately fo●d out, and I m●y self was one of the first that did stumble upon it, & am able to turn it into my native language. ●●d Persius saith, It came hither after the time that my Countrymen began to taste of Pepper and Dates.  it should also have been inhabited from without beginning, and no people should be of more antiquity than other: Or at leastwise how ancient so ever it were, yet should no new thing be found therein. But if even the oldest and ancientest things of all, be but new; ought it not to be a sure argument unto us, of the newness thereof? What thing I pray you can we pick out in this world, for an example of antiquity?  
Let us begin at the Liberal Sciences; and we shall read of the first comings up of them all. Philosophy, which consisteth in the searching out of natural things, is of so late continuance, that afore the time of Pythagoras, the very name thereof was not known. The Romans counted it for folly long time after that. And Lucrece the Epicure singeth in his time, that the nature of things was found out but late afore. Also Seneca who came long after him, saith that from the first coming up of Philosophy to his time, there were not full a thousand years. Socrates is said to have been the first that brought it from study to practise, drawing it (as they said) from Heaven to Earth, and from Cities to houses and persons: 
Austin. lib. 18. of the City of God, Cham 37. Cicero: jamblicus: Porphyrius.  that is to say, by teaching men to know themselves and to govern both themselves and others. And that is not above two thousand years ago at the most: For he was since the time of Esdras, who is that last Historiographer of the Bible. And whatsoever knowledge they had thereof, they had it (as I said afore) from the egyptians, 
Orpheus in his Argonauts.  & the egyptians had it from the Hebrews and Chaldeans. For Pythagoras learned his skill of Sonchedie, and of the jews; 
Proclus upon Timeus. Plutark in his Isis and Osiris. jamblicus in his book of Mysteries. Chap. 1.  Plato, of Sechnuphis; Eudoxus, of Conuphis; and all they, of the Disciples of Trismegistus; and Trismegistus, (as appeareth by his books) learned of (Moses.) To be short, Clearchus the Peripatetic saith, he saw the jew of whom Aristotle himself learned his Philosophy. Also jamblichus maketh mention of Mercury's Pillars, wherein Pythagoras and Plato had read his Doctrine: 
Clemens Alexandrin. in his book of Stromats' alleging Alexander, Hermippus, & Clearchus, Porphyrius alleged by Ensebius. lib. 11.  And Porphyrius witnesseth that all the Philosophy of the Greeks which they boast of with so many words, came up at the least a thousand years after Moses. Now if the study of Wisdom be so late in the world; how late is Wisdom itself? And if Greece were so lateward therein; where shall the antiquity thereof be found among the Gentiles?  
Some man will say that in as much as Socrates drew men from Heaven to Earth; Astrology ought to be of more antiquity: and I willingly agree thereto: for when a man looketh up to Heaven, he setteth his first thoughts upon that place. But how many years shall we gain by that? If Thales 
Laertius in the life of Thales.  were the first that taught it to the Greeks, (as they themselves say:) we know both by the very Greek authors & by Thales 
Thales in his Epistle to Pherecydes in Clemens Alexand: Pliny. lib. 5. 6.  himself, that he had it of the egyptians, & the egyptians of the Chaldeans, who are in very deed the Authors thereof, insomuch that the word Chaldean is ordinarily put for an ginger. And if we say with Pliny, that jupiter Belus was the Author thereof; if the same Belus was the first of that name, than was it about the time of Abraham. And if the phoenicians were the founders thereof, as it is said in another place: what were they else but the Hebrews? Again, I pray you what was the Astrology of those folk? By the report of Pliny, 
Pliny. lib. 2. Plutark in the life of Niceas. Quintilian. lib. 1.  Thales was the first among the Greeks, and Sulpitius Gallus among the Romans that observed the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon. Insomuch that their Armies (as plutarch and Quintilian report) were dismayed at the sight of them; so as the one of them did let pass the next three days, & the other did let pass all the rest of that Moon, ere they durst enterprise or go in hand with any thing. Nay: it was counted high Treason towards God to allege any natural cause thereof. Anaxagoras was put in Prison for it, and Pericles had much ado to get him released. Protagoras was banished Athens for it; and the Mathematicals were utterly condemned for it. And what more do the savagest people of the world our poor Americans? It was attributed unto Thales, that he was the first that observed the North Star; and to Pythagoras, that the morning star and the evening star be both one, and that the Zodiac goes a Skiew, and girdeth the World about like a Girdle: and unto Solon (as saith Proclus) that the Moon finisheth her course in thirty days. Afterward came Archimedes, who gathered the observations of many things, and thereof made the Sphere. Yet notwithstanding, all these are but little entrances; for the great Speculation of the Planets came long time after. What shall we say to this, that the very account of the year was uncertain and confused in the country of Europe, until the time of julius Caesar, and so remaineth still unto this day in the greater half of the world? Insomuch that until a three hundred years afore the birth of our Lord jesus Christ, 
Censorius concerning Christ's birthday. Cap. 9 Varro.  the Greeks and Romans had not yet any Quadrant, nor any Clock, Dial, or distinction of hours.  
As touching Arithmetic and Geometry, 
arithmetic & Geometry. Plato in his Epinomis.  which were taught so precisely unto children in Plato's time, it is well known that the authors of the notablest grounds of those arts, are Pythagoras, Eudoxus, and Euclides (who gathered them out of the writers of old time) and certain others. And they which father the finding of them upon Trismegistus, could not have led us more directly unto Moses.  
But forasmuch as man is naturally more careful of his health and commodity, 
The Original of Crafts, Trades and Artes. Varro in his fifth book & first Chapter of Husbandry.  than curious of the Stars, it may be that his Trades, Crafts and Arts, are of more antiquity than his Sciences. Surely as touching handicrafts, Varro a great searcher of antiquities witnesseth, that all the handicrafts were invented within the space of a thousand years reckoned back from his tyme. And let not the Greeks brag any more, For even in their Histories we find the first invention or finding out of Fire, which is the ground and beginning (if I may so term it) of the most part of Handicrafts. And forasmuch as there are which have written particularly of the finding out of every of them: I send the Reader unto them.  
But let us speak of Leachecraft which containeth physic and Surgery, 
Leachecraft which comprehendeth physic and Surgery.  the Art which is so necessary for all mankind. Do we not see how it breedeth, and from day to day groweth and increaseth of sicknesses and Wounds, yea and even of the death of men? Diodorus attributeth it too the egyptians, and Moses in Genesis maketh some mention of Pharaos' Physicians. Others do father it upon Esculapius, and some upon Arabus the son of Apollo: but what manner of Physic was that? If we follow the words of Moses, they were rather Imbalmers of Dead bodies, than Physicians of sick person. And Esculapius (as saith Cicero 
Cicero in his book of the nature of the Gods. ) was esteemed as a God for teaching to pull out teeth, and to loozen the Belly. Also Podalirius and Machaon his successors, meddled not but with outward Cures. To be short, Herodotus 
He o lotus. lib. 1.  saith, that one was a leech for the Eye, another for the Head, and a third for the Feet; and that when they were at their wit's end, they laid the diseased person in a place of resort, to try there upon him the receipt, of whosoever came first: and that was a kind of Lechecraft, which as yet had neither Head nor Tail. Also the brute beasts taught men divers Herbs and remedies by little and little, and some men did put them in proof upon others, unto the which Herbs they left their names; insomuch that in the end one Hypocrates and certain others made a collection of all those things, and so of many men's experiences was made an art, and that Art hath been enriched from time to time, and more peradventure in our age than ever it was before. Howsoever the case stand, it is certain that the first Physician that was seen in Rome was one Archagatus, who about a sixscore years afore the coming of Christ, in the Consulship of Lucius AEmilius Paulus, and Marcus Livius, was made free of the City; after whom divers other Greek Physicians came thither by heaps, but they were by and by driven away again by Cato the Censor, as Hangmen or Torments sent by the Greeks to murder the Barbarians (for so did the Greeks call all other Nations besides themselves) rather than Physicians to heal the diseased: and that was, because that in all cases without discretion, they used lancing and searing to all Sores. Now sith we see the Sciences and Arts grow after that manner from Observation to Observation, and from Principle to Principle, and to be so newly come up among the Nations of greatest renown and learning; shall we doubt to conclude that it was so among the ruder nations likewise?  
Let us come to Laws; 
The original or government.  for even the barbarousest people had of them: and it may be that seeing man is borne too society and fellowship, they had greater care to set an order among themselves by good Laws, than to mark the order of the Skies or the disposition of their own bodies. But doth not the Law written, lead us forthwith to the Law unwritten? And do not the great volumes of Laws which we turn over now adays, lead us to the pieces of Trebonian; and Trebonian, to the scevola's and africans; and these again to the Laws of the Twelve Tables? And I pray you what else be the twelve Tables, but the infancy of the Roman Laws, which being very simple rudiments of Civil government, like those which are to be found at this day among the most barborests Nations, we through a foolish zeal of antiquity do wonder at in the ancient Romans, and despise them in the ancient almains, Thuringians, Burgonions, Salians, and Ripuaries, who notwithstanding had them far better than the Romans? 
〈…〉 Cap. 21.  But what antiquity can be said to be in them, seeing their continuance hath not been past a four hundred years afore the coming of Christ, as the Roman Histories themselves inform us? 
Pomponius of of the first coming up of the Law.  Again, do not the twelve Tables send us back to the Grecians? And of whom had the Greeks them, but of Draco and Solon as in respect of the Athenians, who lived in the time of Cyrus' King of Persia; and of Lycurgus as in respect of the Lacedæmonians, who lived about the end of the Empire of Assiria? And what else is all this huge Depth of Antiquity whereof the Greeks make so great boast, but late newness among the Iewes? Moreover Plutarch saith that Solon and Lycurgus 
Plutark in the lives of Solon and Lycurgus, and in his treatise of his and Osiris.  had been in Egypt to seek Laws, and that there for all their bragging of antiquity, they were scorned as young Children. The egyptians also had their Laws of Mercury, & Mercury doubtless had them from the Pattern of Moses, whom Diodorus witnesseth to have been the first Law maker of all. 
justine the Martyr allegeth Diodorus in his exhortation.  To be short, what shall we say, seeing that (as josephus noceth against Appion) the very name of Law was unknown among the Greeks in the time of Homer?  
But it may be that there have been King's time without mind: for they were as a living Law, 
josephus against Appion  and their determinations were turned into Laws. Let us mark then, that from the great monarchs we come to the Kings of several Nations, and from them to underkings of Provinces and of Shires, and afterwards to Kings of Towns, Cities, and villages, and finally to Kings of Household's which were the Fathers and Masters of houses, and were the ●ldest erauncient est of them; and these do send us to the one common stock (that is to say, the one common beginning) of them all. And when was that? Surely justine the History writer witnesseth, 
justine in his first book.  that the Kings which were afore Ninus King of the Assyrians, were but particular judges of controversies which rose between folk of any one Town, or City, or household, and that the said Ninus was the first King of whom any Historiographers have, written. 
Plini, lib. 7. Merodotus. lib. 2.  And Herodotus saith that the egyptians had the first Kings. And he that will mount up any higher, must do it by the holy Scripture, which teacheth us that Nembrod was the first that broke the said fatherly order of Household government, wherein every father reigned over chose that descended of him, without any other prerogative than of age, which sort of Governors Manetho calleth Shepherdkings, 
〈…〉  saying that they had been a thousand years afore the wars of Troy. For as for the Greeks and Romans, either they were not as yet at all, or else surely they lived with Acorns like the People whom we at this day call Savages.  
But let us see if at leastwise the Gods of the Heathen have any antiquity: 
The original o● the Heathen Gods.  for in as much as the essential shape of man is to acknowledge a certain Godhead, it is likely that nothing should be of greater antiquity than that. And in very deed Nations have been found both without Laws and without Kings: but without Gods and without some sort of Religion, there was never any found. But what shall we say if men have been borne afore Gods, yea and also do live still after them? Let us not buzie our brains about the first coming up of the petigods as well of the Romans as of the Greeks, who had more of them than they had of Shires, Cities, Towns, and Houses; nor yet about their Pedigrees which are sufficiently described by their own servers and worshippers the Idolaters themselves: but let us go to the very root of them. What is to be said of the first Saturn, who is called the father of them all? Of what time is he? Sooth if we believe the notablest Storywriters among the Greeks, & the epitaph of Osiris reported by Diodorus the Sicilian Saturn, (I mean not the Saturn of the Greeks, but the ancientest of all that Saturn's) is none other than I'm the son of Noah, neither is Osiris any other than Misraim the youngest son of Cham, And those which would make Saturn ancientest, say he was but Noah himself. I forbear to say what Berosus and others of the like stamp report of him, because I hold them for fabling and forged authors. As touching jupiter, if ye mean him that was surnamed Belus, that is to say Ball or Master; he was the Son of Nembrod, which Memrod was also called Saturn, which was a common name to the ancientest persons of great Houses. And if he were that jupiter which was surnamed Chammon or Hammon; he was the same Cham or Chamases the Son of Noah, which was worshipped in Lybya: for it is certain that he took his ioyrney thither. For as for jupiter of Crete or Candy, and Saturn his Father, which were worshipped among the Greeks after the example of the other jupiter and Saturn which were of far more antiquity: they were but a little while afore the wars of Troy, and long after the time of Moses. What manner of antiquity than is that, which passeth not the space of three thousand years? And should the Greeks have come by the knowledge thereof, if it had not been written by others than themselves? But this point shall be handled more at large in another place.  
What shall we say of Traffic between Nations, and of bargaining between man and man, 
Traffik of merchandise, and bargaining, buying and selling.  seeing that from Coin of gold we must come to Coin of silver, from Coin of silver to Coin of brass, and from Coin of brass to Coin of iron, yea even among the Romans themselves? And again, from Money stamped and coined, to Money by weight and measure without stamp, from weight to exchange of wares and of one thing for another, and from exchange to that blessed comonnesse of all things which was in the first ages of the world? Nay, the greater half of the world continueth still the said exchange, even unto this day; and some Nations had never had any skill thereof as yet, if the Navigations of our time had not taught it them. And as for Navigation itself, 
Navigation. Pliny lib. 7.  which is as the sinews of Traffic and merchandise; if we believe Pliny, the first Ship that ever was set a float, was upon the red Sea; and the first Ship that ever came into Greece, came from the Coast of AEgipt. And if we credit Strabo, 
Strabo. lib. 16.  the Tyrians were the first that excelled in Navigation, insomuch that some men make them the first authors thereof. 
Tibullus Ele●ia. 7.  For, as touching the Navigations of Ulysses, they passed not out of the Midland Sea. And what else was it (if it were a true Story) but a floating of a vessel at the pleasure of the wind, without keeping of any certain course or direction? For it is certain that the voyage which he had to make, is ordinarily done nowadays in less than six or seven days. And doth all this lead us any further than to that little Country which on the one side is 
* That is to say the Land of Canaan. Berosus alleged by josephus against Appion.  bounded with AEgipt, and on the other side with the red Sea? And do not the Stories of that Country direct us to the Ark of No? For what else was that Ark but a Ship, as the true Berosi●s doth in deed call it: And whereas Moses telleth us that anon after the Flood, such and such of noah's offspring inhabited the Isles; is it not as much to say, as that the example of the Ark had emboldened them to venture upon the Sea?  
But forasmuch as Traffic seemeth to serve for living wealthily, 
Feeding.  and simple living went afore living wealthily: I pray you how long is it ago (may we think) since men lived by Acorns? From the delicates of Apitius, we come to honest household far; and from such household fare, to poor labouringmans' fare: that is to say, from deyntinesse to thriftiness, & so forth from thriftiness to brutishness, at such time as men waited for the falling of Acorns and Mast from the Trees like Swine. To be short, from Cities and Towns, we come to houses dispersed; from houses, to Sheds; from Sheds to Tents; and from Tents to the life of the people called the Nomads or Grazyers. I mean not here the americans, nor yet the barbarous people of old time; but even the very Greeks and Romans themselves? We know the first finding out of Corn, of Meal, and of Ploughs. 
Pliny. lib. 7. & Diodorus. lib. 1. 2. 6.  If it were Triptolemus, who taught it to the Greeks; he was the son of Ceres: Or if it were Ceres; it was the Goddess of AEgipt the wife of Osiris. And what was this Osiris (to speak of his most antiquity,) but Misraim the graundchild of No? Pliny saith that afore the Persian wars, there was no common Baker in Rome. The first Cherries that came in Rome, were brought thither by Lucullus. When the Galls came into Italy, there were no Uynes in all Gallia: insomuch that the word which signifieth Wine aswell in Greek as in Latin, is strange to them both, and is borrowed of the Hebrew word jaijn. The Earth hath been manured by little and little, & even yet it is scarcely half inhabited. And at one word, our deifying of the first founders of Corn, of Wine, of Tillage, of Fuel, and of Baking, as of personages of great account above us all; doth well convince us of our former rudeness. And yet we mock at the silly barbarous people [of the Newfound Lands,] for terming us folk fallen from Heaven, when they see our great Ships: whereas notwithstanding it is not yet full two thousand years ago, since we were worse than they.  
But we should not have known those things (will some man say) unless they had been put in writing; and therefore Histories 
The first coming up of Histories.  are of more antiquity than all the things that we have spoken of. be it so. But yet let us repair from the Histories of the Romans to the yearly Registers of their Hyghpriests, and we shall find that the Roman Writers are of much later time than the Greeks, and the Greeks of much later time than the Babylonians. For their greatest antiquity is but from the reign of the Persians. And Phericydes the Assyrian, whom they report to have been the first that wrote in prose, was well near eight hundred years after Moses. 
Pliny. lib. 7. Apuleius in his Flourishes.  The Roman History flourished not, until such time as their Commonweal began to droop: and the beginning thereof is nothing thing else but a Musterbooke of names, and a recounting of Shéelds fallen from Heaven, and of Lances trimmed with flowers. The Greek Histories began at the Empire of the Persians: And Plutarch 
Plutark in the l●fe of Theseus.  (who was a diligent searcher thereof,) saith expressly that beyond Thebes, the Country was nothing but Sand, and a waste Wilderness unapprochable, a frozen Seacoast, or scorched Countries, such as men paint in the uttermost parts of Maps, that is to say, either vain fables or dark ignorance. And yet for all this, what else is the life of Theseus than a heap of fond fables, or what evidentnesse or certainty is there in the Greek Histories, afore the fowerscorthe olympiad, that is to say, afore the reign of Darius, 
Censorinus.  seeing there was not yet any skill used in marking out the time either of the wars of the Medes, or of the wars of Peloponnesus? Varro the best learned of the Latins, intending to make an History of the World, could well skill to divide it into three parts. The first, concerning that age which was from the beginning of the world unto the Flood; the second, from the Flood unto the first Olimpiad, which falleth out about the time of the building of Rome; and the third, from the first Olimpiad, unto his own tyme. But as he calleth this later age Historical; so calleth he the second age fabulous, because he found not any certainty thereof, neither in the Original Registers and Records of the Romans, nor in the Histories of the Greeks. To be short, to begin his History at the furthest end, he maketh his entrance at the reign of the Scyonians, which was the very selfsame time that Ninus began his reign, even the same Ninus which made war against Zoroastres, which was about that time of Abraham. The same Varro 
Varro in his third book of Husbandry unto Pto:  accounteth Thebes for the ancientest City of all Greece, as builded by Ogyges, whereupon the Greeks called all ancient things Ogygians; and by his reckoning it was not passed two thousand and one hundred years afore his own tyme. Trogus Pompeius beginneth his History at the bottom of all antiquity that remained in remembrance; and that is but at Ninus, who (by report of Diodorus 
Diodorus. lib. 3. ) was the first that found any Historiographer to write of his doings. The same Diodorus saith that the greatest antiquity of Greece is but from the time of juachus, who lived in the time of Amoses King of AEgipt, that is to say (as Appion confesseth) in the very time of Moses. 
Clemens alexander. in his first book of S●om:  And intending to have begun his Story at the beginning of the world, he beginneth at the wars of Troy: and he saith in his Preface, that his Story containeth not above a thousand one hundred thirty and eight years, which fell out (saith he) in the reign of julius Caesar, in the time that he was making war against the Galls; that is to say, less than twelve hundred years afore the coming of our Lord jesus Christ. Also the goodly History of Atticus, whereof Cicero commendeth the diligence so greatly, containeth but seven hundred years. Which thing Macrobius observing, cometh to conclude with us. Who doubteth (saith he) whether the World had a beginning or no, yea even a few years since, seeing that the very Histories of the Greeks do scarcely contain the doings of two thousand years? For afore the reign of Ninus, who is reported to have been the father of Semiramis, there is not any thing to be found in writing. Yea and Lucrece himself (as great an Epicure and despiser of God as he was) is constrained to yield thereunto, when he seethe that the uttermost bound which all Histories (be they never so ancient) do attaint unto, is but the destruction of Troy. For thus saith he.  
Now if that no beginning was of Heaven and Earth at all, 
Lucretius the Roman Poet.   
But that they everlasting were, and so continue shall:  
How ●aps i● that of former things no Poets had delight  
Afore the woeful wars of Troy and Thebes for to wright?  
Yea, but the Registers of the Chaldees (will some man say) are of more antiquity. For (as Cicero reporteth) they make their vaunt that they have the nativities of Childred noted & set down in writing (from nativity to nativity) for above the space of three and forty thousand years afore the reign of the great Alexander. And that is true. But (as it hath been very well marked) when they speak after their Schoolemaner, they mean always (as witnesseth Diodorus 
Diodorus. lib. 8. 1. ) the month year, that is to say, every month to be a year: which account being reckoned back from the time of Alexander, hitteth just upon the creation of the World, according to the account of the years set down by Moses. Likewise when the Iberians say they have had the use of Letters and of writing by the space of six thousand years ago; they speak after the manner of their own accounting of the year, which was but four months to a year. And in good sooth Porphirius himself will serve for a good witness in that behalf, who saith that the observations of the Chaldees which calisthenes sent from Babylon into Greece in the time of Alexander, passed not above a thousand and nine hundred years. As for the observations of Hipparchus, (which Ptolemy useth) they draw much nearer unto our times; for they reach not beyond the time of Nabugodo●ozer. To be short, from our Indictions we mount up to the Stories of the Romans, and from them to the yearly Registers of their Priests, and so to the Calendars of their Feasts & Holidays, and finally to the time of their driving of the nail into the wall of the Temple of Minerva, which was done always yearly in the month of September, to the intent that the number of the years should not be forgotten. From thence we proceed to the Greek Olympiads, the one half of which time is altogether fabulous; 
Pliny lib. 7. Herodotus. lib. 5.  and beyond the first olympiad, there is nothing but a thick Cloud of ignorance, even in the lightsomest places of all Greece. 
Varro in his first book of Analogy. Crates the Greek Philosopher demanding why the Greeks declined not the names of their letters saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as they said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was answered by the Greeks themselves, that it was because those names of their letters are not Greek but barbarus. Lucan. lib. 3. Eupolemus in his book of the Kings of juda alleged by Clemens of Alexandria in his fourth book.  In which darkness we have nothing to direct us, if we follow not Moses, who citeth the book of the Lords wars, and leadeth us safely even to our first original beginning. And how should the Histories of the Gentiles be of any antiquity, when there was not yet any reading or writing: From Printing, we step up unto books of written hand; from the Paper which we have now, we come to Parchment; from Parchment, to the Paper of AEgipt, which was invented in the time of Alexander; from that, unto Tables of Lead and Wax; and finally to the leaves and Barks of divers Trees. From writing we go consequently to reading, and so to the invention of Letters: which Letters the Greeks taught unto the Latins, and the phoenicians to the Greeks, (who had not any skill of them at the time of the wars at Troy, as the very names of them do well bewray) and the jews taught them to the phoenicians. For in very deed what are the phoenicians, in account of all Cosmographers, but inhabiters of the Seacoast of Palestine or jewrie? And so the saying of Ewpolemus a very ancient writer of Histories, is found true: namely, that Moses was the first teacher of Grammar, that is to say, of the Art of Reading; (notwithstanding ●●at Philo do father it upon Abraham;) and that the Phenician ●ad it of the jews, and the Greeks of the phoenicians; in respect whereof Letters were in old time called Phenicians.  
Phenicians were the first (if trust be given to Fame)  
That durst express the voice in shapes that might preserve the 〈◊〉.  
Here I cannot forbear to give Pliny a little nip. Let●●● (saith he) have been from everlasting. And why so? For (saith h● the Letters of the egyptians had their first coming up about a fiftéeve years afore the reign of Ninus. But Epigenes a grave Author saith, that in Babylone certain observations of Stars were written in Tiles or Bricks a Sevenhundred and twenty years afore: And Berosus and Critodemus (which speak with the least) do say fowerhundred and fourscore years. O extreme blockishness! he concludeth the eternity of letters, upon that whereby they be proved to be but late come up. Now then, seeing we find the original coming up of Arts, of Laws and Government, of Traffic and merchandise, of food and of very Letters; that is to say, both of living well, and of living after any sort; should we rather grant an everlasting ignorance in man, than a kind of youthfulness which hath learned things according to the growths thereof in ages? And seeing that the Sciences, Arts, Honours, and Dainties of the life itself do prove us a beginning thereof: is there any man either skilful or unskilful, great or little, Philosopher or Handicrafts man, labourer or Follower of the worldly vanities; that w● any more be so bold as to stand in contention that the world is without beginning? What shall we then as now conclude of all this discourse? First that the invention of all things is of so late time, that it is of sufficient force too make all men believe, (of what trade or profession so ever they be) that it is but a while ago since the world began. And secondly that the said inventions gathering together into one time, do lead us to some one certain Country as to a Centre, where mankind hath first sprung up, and afterward spread itself abroad as to the outermost parts of all the Circle. This time is the same space that was betwixt Moses and the universal Flood: And the Country is the same where mankind did first multiply after their coming out of the Ark: that is to wit, all the Coast from Mount Taurus along by Mesopotamia, Syria and Phenice, unto Egypt; wherein we comprehend the land of Palestine or jewrie as the middle thereof, which by the ancient Greek and Latin Historiographers, (who were unskifull in geography) is diversly accounted and allotted to the greater Countries that lie round about it, accordingly as it bordereth upon them; one while to Syria, another while to AEgipt; some time to Phenicia, and some time to Araby the desert. And therefore as touching time and antiquity, it is good reason that we should believe the Histories of those Nations, and not of the Greeks or of the Latins, who are but young babes in respect of the others; especially seeing that we would think it a thing worthy to be laughed at, if a man should stand to the judgement of the stories of jewrie in the matters of the Greeks. But now let us hear their contradictions.  
If the world be so new (say they) where of cometh it that it is so well replenished and full of people? 
Objections.  Nay rather, if it be without beginning, or of so great antiquity as thou surmizest; how happeneth it that it hath not always been known? whereof cometh it that it is even yet so slenderly peopled? how comes it too pass that it is not thoroughly inhabited in all places, or at leastwise in the best places of the world, where even in our time are found both Isles and main Lands well habitable, and yet uninhabited? It is not past a hundred years ago, 
The World scarce known in old time.  since we knew nothing at all of more than the better half of the world. We were but at the entrance of the earth, and we thought ourselves to have been come to the full knowledge of geography. We thought ourselves to have known the uttermost Coasts of the world, when as we had not yet passed the Southcircle which divideth the world in twain. 
Read the Navigations of the Portugese's and Spaniards.  And yet notwithstanding, he that had spoken otherwise, should have been counted of most men for a fool. Yea and even yet still at this day, we know nothing of that main Land of the South, & but very little of the North. It is not past two hundred years ago, since the Swedians sent the first inhabiters into the country of Groneland: and both Scotland and Ireland (being in our part of the world) are yet still half barbarus. Ye shall read in Caesar's Commentaries, that in his time Germany was a continual Forest, wherein a man might have gone 50. days journey ere he could see any end of it, and that the people thereof were savage and beastly, sacrifysing their own Children to their Gods. He seemeth here to speak of the Cannibals or the people of Brasilie. It was long time after ere the Romans durst adventure over far in that Country. Whereby it appeareth that all the ancient Towns and Cities which stand upon the Rivers of Rhyne and Danowe, towards France and Italy, did serve rather for a Bank or a jettie against the overflowing of the Germans, than for Fortresses to assail them withal. Even in the time of Tacitus, what were the people on the Sea coast of Germany? What were the Saxons in the time of Charles the great? And a few hundred years ago, what were the Low Countries of Germany, which at this day be the florishingest people of all Ewrope? The same is to be said of Ingland in Caesar's time; and likewise of France, Italy, and Spain, if we mount a little higher. For seeing that Room is the oldest city of the Latins; how happeneth it that Alexander (who sought new worlds to conquer) knew it not by the stateliness thereof? how happeneth it that he knew as little also of the Frenchmen and Spaniards, of whom all the ancient Histories speak either nothing at all, or else with wonderful ignorance? And what shall we say of Ephorus, whom men account the diligentest Historiographer of them all? As great a Country as Spain or Iberia is; he writeth thereof in such sort, as if it were but only one town. Also what was Greece afore the time of Orpheus and Amphion, who (as Thucydides 
Thucydides in his first book.  reporteth) drew the Greeks out o● their Forests and Fens, about the time of the wars at Troy? And where learned Orpheus 
Orpheus in his Argonauts.  to lay away his own savageness, but in Egypt? The holy Bible itself when it speaketh of the Greeks and of the lesser Asia, speaketh of them as of islands, that is to say, as of Countries that were furthest of from the knowledge of that time. Thus do ye see the lateness of the Western Nations; whom I call so, as in respect of the rest of the whole world, and of the Centre and middle point thereof, which I have taken too be from Mount Taurus unto Syria.  
Now let us see the Eastern Nations also. The Country of India beyond the River Ganges, was unknown in the time of Alexander, who notwithstanding had cast the platform of his Conquest, on that side of the world. And his Pilots which went to seek new Worlds, passed not beyond the Island of Sumatra then called Taprobane, which is under the Equinoctial and Easterly a great way of from the Molucques. 
Herodotus, lib. 4.  And when it was told the Romans that a Ship was found which by the commandment of Necho King of Egypt had sailed about all the Coast of Africa, they took it for a fable: and therefore much less did they ever come at java the less or java the more, or at the firm Land which is next unto them. To be short, they did not ordinarily pass the Streytes of Gibraltar; by reason whereof their greatest Philosophers could less skill of the nature and course of the Tides, than the meanest Seamen or sailor of our time. Now than what is to be said of Pliny with his Dogheaded men, his Oneeyed men, his Longeares, his Centaurs, his Pigmies, and his Cyclopes, seeing that in all the Country where he planteth them, we find Men, Cities, and Kingdoms, no less whit flourishing than the same wherein he himself was; and as for any likelihood of that which he writeth of those things, we find none at all? As touching the Southcountryes and the Northcountryes, that is to wit, beyond the Circles of the two Poles: The four empires which have been so renowned, never heard speaking of them but at random, and much less extended themselves so far; in so much that even we ourselves know but a little of them, which Tempest and Shipwreck hath taught unto us.  
What win we then by this discourse? verily that the World was not known of all those great empires, and much less of them that lived under their subjection. And that it was not peopled all at once, but that as folk overswarmed in a place, and chanced to hit upon a man that was adventrus, they spread themselves further and further under his guiding, into the Country's next unto them. And (to be short) that the nearer any Countries were to our foresaid Centre, the sooner were they inhabited, made civil, and manured: which thing appeareth more plainly even by the very genealogy of the World. 
The proceeding or growing forward of the World.  Therefore let us take our Centre to be either the top of Mount Taurus where it is called Caucasus, and where Stories report the Ark of Noah to have rested; or else the plain of Sennaar, where Moses saith that the Languages were confounded, and folk dispersed abroad; or else some place of Mesopotamia, (for it skilleth little in respect of the world) and by considering the ancientest Estates, we shall find the States of Assyria, of Syria, of AEgipt, and of Persia to have been nearest to our Centre, and that the State of Assyria was the greatest of them all, and yet in very truth but small in comparison of the States that succeeded it. From that Assyrians, the Monarchy came to the Persians; from the Persians, to the Greeks; from the Greeks, to the Latins; from the Latins, to the Frenchmen; and from the Frenchmen to the almains, accordingly as Countries multiplied their habitations, and that their people growing in Civility, matched their force with wisdom? And Spain which heretofore was counted the uttermost part of the World, is now become the first discoverer of the new World. But let us go on with the East parts: from the Persians we go to the Indians, and from the Eastindians to the Westindians, so long until we come to their uttermost Coast, which is the selfsame place where the Spaniards found their first landing. And surely if two folk should keep on their way continually, the one on the one side and the other on the other (that is to say, the one Eastward and the other Westward:) in the end they should meet both together, if there were firm land all the way for them to go upon. And in very deed, like as Ireland, a part of Scotland, Laplond, and Groneland, being the uttermost parts of our side of the World, are as good as savage: so also be the uttermost inhabiters of the Westindies; namely Canada, Baccalea, Brasilie, and Petagon, which are descended of the Eastindies. And contrariwise like as in our Countries, the more they tend towards the Centre which I have taken, the more tokens have they of their antiquity; as, France more than Germany; Italy more than France; Greece more than Italy; AEgipt more than Greece; and so forth of the rest: So the Spaniards, who in their first Conquests found but Cottages and Bogs; did at their entering further into the Land, find goodly Cities well inhabited, orderly distinction of Commons and Nobility, Ministers of justice and men of War, Trades and handicrafts well governed, Histories of their doings, wonderful antiquities, Towers passing the Pyramyds of AEgipt, and whatsoever else the world hath counted wonderful. And out of doubt the nearer they come to the Centre of that part, the more shall they find still. For there is no man ignorant nowadays what goodly great Cities and flourishing Kingdoms, 
An History of the Realm of China.  have within these few years been discovered in the Westindies: And where it cometh to face the Eastindia with the Sea betwixt them both; there we see the great Empire of China, so beautiful, so flourishing, and so well governed in all respects; that the civilest time of all the Roman Empire, may well seem unto us to have been barbarous in comparison of that. It is in effect all one as though the Western Indians making Conquests upon us as we have done upon them, should have arrived at the first in Ireland, Scotland, or Groneland; for as little could they have said of us, as we of them. And whereas it may be replied, that although the people there be rude, yet notwithstanding it hath evermore been peopled: Let it be added thereunto, that in following the Coasts, men have found many Countries even yet unpeopled. And also that even in the best peopled places of all their Conquests, they have not found the tenth part of so much people as the Country being manured were able to bear; whereas on the contrary part, in our Countries the Nati●ns do pester one another. And whereas our very uttermost borders are more frequented than theirs; the cause thereof is, that ours be much nearer the Centre which I set down, then theirs be; as the Cosmographers do easily perceive. Whereupon it hath come to pass, that the people which have been spread abroad from our Centre unto the uttermost Coasts of the frozen Sea, finding themselves more multiplied than their Lands were able to maintain, and being not able to go any further for the Sea that hemmed than in; have rebounded back again upon the next Countries, as namely the Cymbrians upon the almains and Romans, and afterward the Goths upon Italy and France, the Humes upon Pannoye, the Vandals upon Spain, and lastly the Turks and Tartarians upon all Europe. Which thing hath not happened upon the other part of the World, because of the large scope of their Country, which eniptyeth the Eastern Indya into the Western; The Western into new Spain; new Spain into Brasilie; and Brasilie into the Southern land, whereof not so much as the Sea-coast is yet known. Neither befell it so unto us in the first ages, because our part of the World was not yet sufficiently peopled to ebb back again: but it befell chief a little afore or a little after the coming of jesus Christ, that is to wit, towards the perfect age of the World. To be short, were there never so much people, yet were it no wonder to him that would take the pains to account what only one offspring might amount unto in one hundred years, and how many one man might see to come of himself in his own lifetime; which in another hundred year might increase into an infinite multitude. The empires have always extended their largeness towards the North and the South, but yet more Northerly than Southerly, because the Centre which I take, is still afore towards the North, and in the temperatest Climate of our half Globe, that is to wit, towards the 35. and 40. degréees (or thereabouts) of the Equinoctial line, which divideth that World even in the midst; which thing I desire the Readers to mark advisedly. And truly Iseland (which in old time was called Thule,) was known in the time of great Alexander, notwithstanding that it be situate about 68 degrees North; whereas yet for all that, the greatest part of Africa was unknown to them, and the uttermost reach of their knowledge was the isle of Taprobane, which nevertheless are but under the Equinoctial: so far of were they from attaining to the Southpole. To be short, the Coast of Africa or Barbary & of Spain, was peopled by the Phenecians, whom we read to have been long time Lords of the Sea. And the Commonweal of Carthage, which was so highly renowned and reached so far of, was an imp of Tyrus the chief City of Phenecia, which bordered upon jewrie. For Tyrus sent thither the one half of their people; whereupon it was called Carthago, that is to say, the half town. And the first people that dwelled there, 
Strabo. lib. 3. Plutark in the life of Scipio.  went into that Country by a narrow piece of dry land called Catabathmos, which is a falling ground that joineth Palestine unto AEgipt, as remained yet still to be read in the time of the historiographer Procopius, upon a Pillar in Tingie a City of Africa, set there by the inhabitants of Chanaan which had fled away from the sight of josua. And in good sooth, as appeareth by many sentences of S. Augustine's, the Punic tongue was but a kind of several propriety of the Hebrew.  
Some persist yet still in demanding, 
The Histories of Africa.  from whence the South-land, the Country of Brasilie, the Land of Perow and such others could be peopled? And whence I pray you was Africa peopled, for the replenishing whereof thou canst not but know that inhabitants were sent thither both by Sea and by Land? Africa was peopled first by the foresaid narrow piece of dry Land cassed Catabathmos, and afterward refreshed again by the straits of Gibraltar. And the Southland was peopled on the one side by the isle of Taprobane, & on the other side by the straits of Magellan which do butt there upon Brasilie. And Perow likewise was peopled by the narrow point of land called Darien, by the which way Brasilie also was peopled. At such time as the Spaniards entered first into that great Nesse which containeth both Brasilie and Perow, they thought it to have been an Island. In like manner, if the Perovians had landed in Africa by the Athlantick Sea, and had fennd so long a side as the side of Africa is that stretcheth unto the red Sea, so as they being wearied with following it as the Romans were, had made the like question: we would then have mocked at them because we know the passage whereby men came thither: and they have like occasion to mock us, because they know theirs. But yet again, from whence came the people which are spread abroad from the Land that is called new Spain by the straight of Daryen? Proc●ede on yet a little further, and thou shalt find Cathay and Indya joining to that Land; and Groneland facing it on the Northside; and the straight of Anian on the West side, which is almost as near within the view of it as Spain is unto Africa by the straits of Gibraltare. And I pray you what more marvel is it that they should have passed by that straight, than that the Latins passed into Sicily by the Fare of Messana, or that the Vandals passed into Africa and the Sarzins into Spain by the said streygh●s of Gibraltare? But the mischief is, that nothing can suffice us for proof of the truth; but for witness against it, we admit both Ignorance, hearsay, and Doubts, and the very lest suspicions or surmises that can come in our mind. For I pray you what can be more childish, (or rather as Varro saith in his Eumenideses) more worthy of Hell; than to say that men sprung up in a Country as beets and Rapes do? After that manner were the Athenians called Aborigenes, that is to say, Homebred or bred in that place: and in token thereof they wore a grasshopper in their Cap or Bonnet: 
Aristides in his Pautheuaik,  insomuch that Aristides to flatter them withal, told them that their Territory was the first that ever bore men; and yet for all that, there had been whole Realms of men in Syria, afore there were any men in Greece. The Latins also would vaunt themselves of the same: but Dennis of Halycarnassus and Porcius Cato acknowledge them to have come out of Achaia. Ask the Savages, and they will say the very same that these Sages say: for they know neither one thing nor other, further than their own remembrance can reach.  
But go to Moses, and he will tell you the originals of the first Nations, and the Genealogy of the whole World. And the names of them remaining from thence unto us, will put the matter out of all doubt to a man of understanding. For of No by his eldest Son japhet, issewed the Gomerians or Cymbryans, the Medes, the jonians who were the first inhabiters of Greece, the Twiscons Duchmen or almains, the Italians, and the Dodoneans: namely of Gomer, Maday, javan, Aschenes, Elisa, and Dodanim. By I'm there issewed the Chananites, the egyptians, the Libyans, the Sabeans, and so forth; who retained the names of his Children, that is to wit, of Chanaan, Misraim, Lud, Saba, and so forth: For Misraim in Hebrew betokeneth AEgipt. By Sem there descended the Elamites & Persians, the Assyrians, the Chasdeans or Chaldees, that Lydians, the Aramites or Syrians, the people of Ophir & others; that is to wit, of Elam, Arphaxad, Lud, Aram, Ophir, and others. And these names were written and recorded by Moses, afore those Nations were of any reputation, and they remain yet still among the Hebrews at this day. Now look in what measure these fathers of houses increased their Children, so did every of them spread out his branches a far of, insomuch that the offspring of that stock did cover and overshadow the whole earth, and the Ark of Noah did after a manner sail over the whole world.  
But here is an Objection which seemeth stronger. 
An Objection of Floods taken out of Plato.  These reasons (say they) do bring us up to the Flood; but as the Flood brought mankind to that small number, whereby the World was by little and little renewed again: So may it be that there were other former Floods, that had done the like afore; so as this latter Flood was rather a renewing of the World, than a first beginning thereof. And to this purpose they will allege this saying of Plato in his Timaeus, that the overflowings of waters and the burnings by fire, do from time to time refresh the World, and destroy the remembrance of the former ages, and also of all Arts, Sciences, and other Inventions. This is worthy of some examination. Surely of Burn either universal or any thing great in respect of the whole world, there is no mention found in any Story. Also of any other general Flood, than that which we take to be the first, and last, there is as little to be found, unless they will apply that name to the overflowings of Rivers in some final quarter, or to the winning of the Sea by force of his breaking into some Country a League or twain, which can nothing serve to this purpose. And if their alleging of it in that behalf be unfeignedly and in good earnest as I believe it is; well mought they far for their confession. For than will I ask them whether this Flood were universal, or particular but to some one Country. If it were particular; how cometh it to pass that all Nations confess it to be universal? And how cometh it to pass also that the Countries which had no part thereof, have no incling thereof either in memory or in writing? Or if it were universal; did any men escape from it, or no? If none escaped, how then come we to the knowledge of it? And whence are we also, but of a new Creation? And he that was able to create us again, why was he not able to create us also afore? If some escaped, as all of us do consent that there did: why believe we them not as well in the things that went afore the Flood, as we believe them concerning the Flood itself? And who be those that escaped but Noah and his issue, who lead us to the first beginning both of the World and of men? For in all the Histories of the Heathen, what find we thereof worth the alleging? Again, I demand whether this said Flood and others which they pretend to have abolished the remembrance of the former times, befell by chance or by providence? If by chance; was it not possible, that of so many which may perchance have been either from everlasting or of very old time, perchance not so much as any one should have escaped? Or if by Providence; by whose providence should it be but by Gods? or who could have power to undo and confound this work, but only he that made it? And what warrant hast thou that he destroyed it more than once, seeing thou art enforced to grant that he made it but once? Nay, it may be that it befell through some Conjunction of the Stars. And who told them so? And if they know so much thereof, let them tell us what Stars. I omit to tell them that such Conjunctions (as they themselves teach) threaten not the whole World, but some small part thereof. After this manner did the Astrologers say, that in the year 1524. there should meet the like Conjunction as was at the general Flood, by reason whereof the whole earth should be covered with water: and yet as (vives saith) a fairer year was never seen. To be short, all things will go for payment with these folk, saving the truth.  
But see here their last Ankerhold. How happeneth it (saith Auerrhois 
The objection of Auerrhoes. ) that God forbore so long, and where had he that new device of making the world? Silly soul that thou art! which gloriest in ask Questions whereas skill consisteth in answering. Thou wilt needs prove the world by thy reasons to be without beginning: and yet in three words which thou hast spoken, thou showest that thou knowest not what eternity or everlastingness is. In eternity (friend mine) there is neither length nor shortness of time: the everlasting providence is not tied to new casualty. Consider that thou art a man. The Plants cannot judge of Sense; the Beasts cannot judge of the drift of Reason; neither canst thou which art subject to time, judge of eternity which is without time. For if even thy little Babe which is in time, cannot conceive what time is: how shall he that is but in time, understand the everlastingness of the everlasting? After that manner the brute beasts (if they had speech) would decipher the reach of thy wit according to their own imagination. And thou wouldst mock at them if they should go about to describe what thy memory is, which joineth past, present, and to come all in one. And how thinkest thou thyself able to judge of eternity, which alterest with the Winds, with the Moons, and with the seasons of the year; every day, every hour, and every minute? Askest thou why God forbore so long time? Nay rather, ask why God listed to make the time itself; for in one undividable moment is eternity joined both too the beginning and to the end of tyme. Learn this also, that where there is any bound orend, there is no long tyme. The long time of a Worm, is a month; of an Ant, a year; of a Horse, thirty years; of a man, a hundred years; of all mankind, certain thousands of years; of time itself, a certain space of time; and the terming of any of all their times long, is in respect of the long continuance of their life in time; but unto him that made time, nothing endureth less while than time. Put the case that the world have lasted a hundred thousand years, or (if ye will) tenhundred thousand, what shall ye gain by that? That the world shall have been of the greater antiquity. But in respect of whom? of God, or of thyself? of a Worm, or of a Spirit? of eternity, or of time? And what is all that in comparison of infiniteness? Is not that Question all one still? Whence is this device? whence is this chance? as well in a hundred; as in a thousand, and as well in a thousand as a thousand thousand? Yet was the device and purpose eternal, notwithstanding that the execution thereof be in time, insomuch that he hath brought forth time, and time is measure of moving, and moving proveth a beginning, and the beginning which it taketh is ever new. Thou than which by a moving haste a beginning proved unto thee, give over thy surmised eternity and confess a newness of time, for nothing is newer than tyme. With like reason mist thou demand why God made the World rather here than elsewhere. For these distinctions of time and place were created and brought forth together at one instant with the World, so as they be neither without it nor afore it. He that is without time and without place, made both time and place; and if he had been subject to time and place, as thou imaginest; he could not have made either place or tyme. Yea, but what did he then (sayest thou) afore the world and out of the world? Once again amend thy plea. For in God there is neither afore nor after, within nor without. But surely it is a goodly question, and welbeseeming a great wit. Afore thy Clock or thy building was made, thou didst not cease to live and to delight thyself in the perfectness of thine Art; and afterward thy building added nothing unto thee, but thou unto thy building. Thou wouldst have been ashamed to have asked of Scipio what he did at home in his house in the Country, after he had given over the affairs of the Commonweal and the warre●: and he would have answered thee that he was never less idle than when he was idle, nor less alone than when he was alone. And yet thou thinkest that it stood God greatly on hand to make this goodly place of that world for thee, and to harbour such blasphemers as thou art therein, as if he could not have forborn thee, or lived without thy company. God did the same thing without the world, which he doth still with the world: that is to wit, he is happy in himself. The world hath nothing at all augmented his felicity or happiness. But to the intent (as y● would say) to shed forth his happiness out of himself; it liked him to create the world. Yea, but why did he it no sooner? What a number of faults are here in one speech? Thou wilt needs be privy to the cause of Gods will in all things, and yet is Gods will the cause of the causes of all things. By eternity thou hadst not been able to have known his power; for the Majesty thereof would have made the dark; and it is so bright that thou couldst have seen less, than thou couldst see now if thou wert lodged in the body of the Sun. Now he maketh thee to perceive his power, by the creation of the world; his eternity, by comparison of time; & his glorious brightness, by the shadow thereof. By eternity, thou couldst not have known his wisdom; for thou wouldst have deemed all things as wise as he, seeing they had been as everlasting as he. And what wisdom had remained in him, if all things had been of necessity, and nothing at his own choice and liberty? But now thou seest his wisdom in the Stones, in the Herbs, in the dumb creatures, yea and even in the workmanship of thyself. Thou seest it in the order, in the succession, and in the breeding of all things. Thou gasest at it in the greatest things, and thou wonderest at it in the smallest; as much in the Fly and the Ant, as in the whole Cope of heaven: whereas the eternity of things would have caused thee to have attributed Godhead to the Skies, the Stars, the Earth, the Rocks, the Mountains, and in effect to all things rather than thyself, as they did which were taught so to do. Also by this eternity thou couldst not have conceived his goodness, because thou wouldst have thought that GOD had had as much need of the World, as the World had of him. Thou shouldest not have known thyself to be any more beholden to him, than to the fire for heating thee or to the Sun for giving thee light, because they should no more be either fire or Sun, if they forwent that nature. But he showeth thee by the creation, both that he himself is ever, and that thou hast had thy being since the time that it pleased him to create thee: that he without thee is eternal; and that thou without his goodness hadst never been that little which thou art: and to be short, that he is not tied to any need or necessity as Aristotle's God is, (which could not refuse to drive that Mill, but was tied to it whether he would or no:) but that his doing of things is altogether of his own infinite goodness, wherethrough he vouchsafeth to impart himself unto others, by making the thing to be which was not; yea and by making the thing happy, which of itself could not so much as be. Now, had man any will or skill to acknowledge the power, wisdom, and goodnessen of his God? [I think not.] Then was it for thy benefit and not for his own, that he made not the World either of greater antiquity, or eternal. For had he made it eternal; (let us so speak seeing ye will have it so,) thou wouldst have made a God of it, and thou canst not even now forbear the doing thereof. And had he made it of more antiquity; thou wouldst have made it an occasion to forget thy God; and for all the newness thereof, yet wilt thou not bear it in thy mind. Then seek not the cause thereof in his power. The cause thereof is in thy●e own infirmity: Nay, the cause thereof is in his goodness, in that he intendeth to secure thine ignorance. And so, notwithstanding all their objections, we shall by this means hold still our conclusion, to wit, That the World is but of late continuance; That it had a beginning; and that concerning the time of the first beginning thereof; and concerning the continuance thereof unto our days, we ought to believe the books of Moses above all.   

The ix. Chapter.  
That the wisdom of the World hath acknowledged the Creation of the World.  
SIth we have seen with what consent that whole harmony of the World chaunteth the Creation thereof and the praise of the Creator; now it followeth that we see what the wisdom of the world hath believed in that behalf: wherein we have to consider the selfsame thing which we considered in the doctrine of the three Persons; that is to wit, that the nearer we come to the welhead thereof, the more clearer we find it: yea and it is also a schoolepoynt of Plato's teaching, That in these high matters of the Godhead, of the Creation of the world, and of such other like, we must give credit (as unto a kind of Demonstration,) to the sayings of men of most antiquity, as folk that were better and nearer to God than we. Here I should begin at Moses, as the ancientest of all writers, and whom all the Heathen Authors do honour and wonder at in their writings● And the very first word of his book simply set down in these terms, In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth; aught to be unto us as a maximée of Euclyde, which in those days men were ashamed to call in question. 
The men of most antiquity believed the Creation of the world.  But to the intent we confound not the word of God with the word of man, forasmuch as the folk with whom we have to deal, are such as refuse those whom they cannot accuse: let us overcome them rather by their own Doctors. Certainly whosoever will take the pain to confer Mercurius 
Mercury in his Poemander.  Trismegistus with Moses, shall reap thereby most singular contentation. In Genesis Moses describeth the Creation of the World; and so doth Mercury likewise in his Poemander. Moses espieth darkness upon the Waters: And Mercury seethe a dreadful shadow hovering on the moist nature, and the same moist nature as it were brooded by the word of God, Moses saith that GOD spoke, and forthwith things were made: and Mercury acknowledgeth and bringeth in God's word shining, whereby he created the light and made the World and all that is therein. Moses parteth the nature of moisture into twain, the one mounting aloft which he calleth Heaven, and the other remaining beneath which he calleth Sea: And Mercury seethe a light fire which he calleth AEther mounting up as it were out of the bowels of the moist nature, and likewise an air casting itself between the water and the elementary fire, which is nothing else but a more clear and subtle air. The Sea and Land (saith Moses') were mingled together until God had spoken; and then by and by either of them took his place by himself. After the same manner Mercury saith that those two Elements lying erst mingled together, severed themselves asunder at the speaking of the spiritual word which environed them about. What more? God (say both of them) created the Stars and the Planets. 
Mercury in his Poemander, the. 1. & 3. cap.  At the voice of his word, the Earth, the Air, and the Water, brought forth Beasts, Birds, and Fishes. Last of all, God created man after his own Image, and delivered all his works into his hand to use them. Is not this a setting down nor only of one selfsame sense, but also of the selfsame terms and words? But when as Mercury addeth afterward, that God crieth out unto his works by his holy word, saying, Bring ye forth fruit, grow, and increase: may it not seem unto us that we hear Moses himself speaking? 
Mercury alleged by Cyrillus in his second book against julian the Renegade. Mercury in his holy Sermon.  And as for the small differences which are in him concerning the seven Circles, the Zones, and such other things; they serve greatly to the manifestation of the truth; namely, that this manner of Mercury's writing, is not a bare borrowing or translating out of Moses; but rather a tradition conveyed to the egyptians from the Father to the Son. In another place he saith that God by his holy, spiritual and mighty working word, commanded the day son to be, and it was done: that the Sea and Land should be severed asunder; that the Stars should be created; and that Herbs should grow up every one with his seed, by force of the same word. Also that the World is but an alteration, a moving, a generating and a corrupting of things, and that it cannot be called good. These are conclusions clean contrary to eternity or everlastingness. But forasmuch as [if I should set down all his sayings which he hath to that purpose,] I should be fain to copy him almost whole out: it is better for me to desire the Readers to go to the very place itself.  
Orpheus the ancientest of the Greeks, 
Orpheus in his Argonawtes.  had been in AEgipt as he himself skyth, and there he learned, That there is but one God, and that 
The Air, the Heaven, the Sea, the Earth, and Hell  
With all the t●●●gs that in them all do dwell,  were harberd in his ●reast from all eternity. And also that 
The running streams, the Ocean, Gods and Men,  
Things present, things to come lay all at ease  
In that wide lap of his: and that within  
His belly large the bond lay lapped up  
Which holdeth all this great huge work together.  And afterward he addeth further, 
These things which yet lay hidden all  
Within the treasure of his breast,  
He into open light did call,  
Creating as he deemed best  
This stately stage, whereon to show  
His noble doings on a row.   
And what else is this; than that God did everlastingly hold the world hiddeny, (as the Apostle saith) in the Treasury of his infinite wisdom: Or (as Dennis saith) in the Closet of his purpose and will; and afterward brought it forth in time when it pleased him? And in another place, I sing (saith he) of the dark confusion, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  I mean the confusion that was in the beginning, how it was disfigured in divers natures, and how the Heaven, the Sea and the Land were made. And what more? I sing (saith he) of Love, even of the Love that is perfect of itself, of more antiquity than all these things; and of all things which the same hath brought forth, and set in order, yea of time itself. I have already heretofore declared what he meaneth by this Love: namely, the goodwill of GOD; and that also do even some of the Hebrews mean by the Spirit which Moses speaketh of. 
Orpheus in his Argonawtes.  To be short, he saith that he himself made a book of the Creation of the world, which was a common argument among the Poets of that time, as Empedocles, Hesiodus, Parmenides, and such others, which were all Philosophers. And in many places he reduceth all things to Water and to a certain Mud as to their original, which thing agreeth well enough to the deep of Moses. The like is done by Homer and Hesiodus, which came after him. For, Hesiodus 
Hesiodus in his book of works and Days, and in his Genealogy of the Gods.  maketh description, not only of the Creating of ● world and of the parts thereof; but also of the Chaos or confusion and of the Gods themselves. And when Homer intendeth to curse a man, I would (saith he) that thou mightest return to Water and Earth: that is to say, I would thou wert not any more, as the time hath been that thou wast not. To be short, Sophocles, AEschylus, and the very Comedywriters speak after the same manner: and for proof of them all, Ewripides shall suffice, who was the least religious of them all. The time hath been (saith he) that Heaven and Earth were but a lump: but after that they were separated, they engendered all things, & brought to light the Trees, the Birds, the Beasts of the field, the Fishes, and Men themselves. For as for others, they speak more to the purpose, as Aratus, who saith that God hath set the Stars in the Sky to distinguish the Seasons of the year: that he created all things: that men are his offspring: that by the signs of Heaven he meant to give them warning of the changes of the Air, and of Tempests. And the voice of these Poets is to be considered as the opinion of the people to whom they sung their verses. 
Plutark in his book of the opinions of the Philosophers.   
Now let us go on with the ancient Philosophers. Pythagoras (by the report of Plutarch) saith that the World was begotten of God, of it own nature corruptible, because it was sensible and bodily; but yet that it is not corrupted, because it is upheld and maintained by his providence. The same thing doth also Diogenes Laertius witness. And whereas Varro 
Varro in his second book of Husbandry.  saith that Pythagoras acknowledged not any beginning of living Wights: Architas his Disciple shall maintain the contrary for his Master: For his words are these: 
jamblichus one of the sect of Pythagoras, citing Architas.  Of all living Wights man is bred most wise of capacity to consider things, and to attain to knowledge, and to judge of them all. For GOD hath printed in him the fullness of all Reason. And like as God hath made him the instrument of all Voices, Sounds, Names and utterances; so also hath he made him the instrument of all understandings and conceits, which is the workmanship of wisdom: And even for that cause (saith he) do I think that man is of Gods creating, and hath received his instruments and abilities at his hand. Thales 
Laertius in the life of Thales.  one of the seven Sages held opinion, that all things had their beginning of Water, and that GOD created all things thereof, who is alonely unbegotten, and hath not any end or any beginning. 
Plutark in his banquet.  And again, The World (saith he) is most excellently beautiful, for it is the work of God. Also being asked whether was first of the Day or the Night; he answered that the Night was sooner by one day: as if he had meant to say, that afore God had created the light, it must needs be confessed that out of him there was nothing but darkness. Now this Philosopher also as well as the rest had gone to School in AEgipt.  
Timeus of Locres termeth Time the Image of eternity, and saith that it took his beginning from the creating of Heaven and Earth, and that God created the very Soul of the World afore the World itself, both in possibility and in tyme. To be short, Plutarch affirmeth that all the natural Philosophers of old time, held opinion that the begetting or creating of the World began at the Earth as at the Centre thereof: and that E●pedocles saith that the finest kind of AEr which they call AEther, was the first part thereof that was drawn up on high. And Anaxagoras is reported by Simplicius, to affirm that God (whom he calleth Mind or Understanding) created the Heaven, the Earth, the Sun and the Stars; and scarcely is there any one to be found, which teacheth that time is without beginning.  
Some of Plato's latter Disciples, (as namely Proclus writing against the Christians) would needs bear their Master down, that he believed the world to have had no beginning. But if we may believe Aristotle, 
Aristole in his eighth book of natural Philosophy. Epicurus in Cicero.  who was a scholar of his a two and twenty years; he taught that the world was created; and it is one of the chief Principles wherein they most disagree. Philo who was as another Plato, saith that Plato had learned it of Hesiodus. And Plutarch 
Plutark in the Opinions of the Philosophers, and in the creation of the Soul.  who showeth himself to have perused him thoroughly leaf by leaf, speaketh of him in these words. There are (saith he) some studyers of Plato, which by racking his words, endeavour by all means to make him deny the creation of the World and of the Soul, and to confess the everlastingness of time, notwithstanding that in so doing they bereave him of that most excellent treatise of his concerning the Gods, against the despisers and scorners of whom in his time he wrote. And what needeth any thing to be alleged for proof thereof, seeing that his whole book of Timeus is nothing else but an express treatise of the Creation of the World? The same thing also doth Aphrodisius 
Aphrodisius as he is alleged by Simplicius upon the books of Heaven.  witness concerning Plato. In his book entitled Athlantick, he termeth the world a thing Longago created. In his matters of State he saith that the world was settled and founded by God, and that it containeth store of good things, and that the troublesomeness which it hath, is but a Remnant or remainder of the former confusion. Also Socrates in his book of Commonweal, termeth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  A Godhead begotten or created. And which of the ancient writers did ever doubt, that Plato taught not the Creation of the World, considering that he hath made descriptions, both of all the parts thereof, and of the Gods themselves? And also that he saith that the world was created corruptible of itself, but yet abode immortal and uncorruptible through the grace of God which upholdeth it? But let us examine the racking which Proclus offereth unto him. Plato (saith he) affirmeth in his Commonweal, that whatsoever hath a beginning hath also an end: Now the World, as he saith in his Timeus, shall have no end: Therefore it followeth that it had no beginning. If another man should reason after that manner against Proclus, Proclus would laugh him to scorn: for he shifteth the terms: and yet our Souls which he concludeth to be without end, fail not to have had a beginning. But though we were never so well contented to let him pass: yet doth Plato assoil him in one word. The world (saith he) is corruptible of itself, for every thing that is compounded, may also be dissolved: but it is not God's will that it should be corrupted. And mine ordinance (saith the everlasting) is of more power to make thee to continue, than thine own Nature is to make thee to perish. 
Plato in his commonweal.  The which thing he speaketh yet more shortly in another place, saying that the world hath received an Immortality at the hand of the workmayster which made it. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Now then, seeing that by Nature it may perish; surely by Nature it had a beginning: and the power that hath preserved it from perishing, is the very same that made it to be. Proclus addeth: Plato propoundeth a Question (saith he) whether the World was created after the pattern of a thing forecreated, or of a thing without beginning. Therefore he doubted whether it were eternal or no. What a conclusion was this for a great Philosopher? I ask whether men be bred of themselves or created of another; therefore I uphold that they be bred of themselves: as who would lay that in disputing, it were not an ordinary matter to set down both the Contraries, for the affirming of the one and the denying of the other. Again, if it were begotten or created after the example of a thing aforecreated, could it be beginninglesse, seeing that the pattern thereof had a beginning? And if it were created after the example of a thing uncreated, can it come to pass that it should be everlasting, seeing that it is not the very pattern itself? No: but as I have said afore, we admit horned arguments against the truth, whereas in defence of the truth the perfectest demonstrations suffice us not. Also in another book entitled of a String he saith thus: Plato in his book of Laws saith that Commonweals and Arts have infinite times been utterly destroyed by Waterfluds and Burn, and therefore that men cannot certainly say from what time men have first grown into Commonweals: Ergo, he believed that the World had no beginning. Nay, he saith these things in his Timeus, which is the book whereof thou canst not doubt, but that he treateth there expressly of the Creation of the World. And he repeateth the same again in his book of Commonwealematters, having said afore, that God created Heaven & Earth, the Stars and Gods. Now then, seeing it is one selfsame Author that speaketh these things, and in one selfsame place, and one immediately after another: is it not certain that he meant not to match clean contrary doctrines together? What is to be said then, but that he spoke there after the manner of the common multitude, who (as Aristotle saith) do call the things infinite, which they be not able to number? Or as Moses himself speaketh, who calleth the things eternal, everlasting or endless, which are of very long continuance, notwithstanding that he make a book expressly of the Creation of all things? But in deed it was a surmise of the ancientness of the World, which Plato (as it should seem) had brought home out of AEgipt, accordingly as the report of Solon sufficiently declareth, who telleth him that the egyptians had Registers of nine thousand years, that is to say (as Plutarch interprets it) nine thousand Moons.  
But let us come to Aristotle, 
Agenist Aristotle's Eterniti.  to whom this opinion doth properly belong. For although some of his Scholars being ashamed on his behalf, would fain bear him on hand that he was of another opinion, or at leastwise that he held it as a doubtful point; yet notwithstanding his sentences in that case are too certain, too clear, and too manifest, 
Aristotle in his. 1. 3. & 8. books of natural Philosophy; In his first book of the Heavens. and in his first book of the breed of living things.  for them to go about to cloak his opinion. But seeing he was so bold as to remove the former bound fettled by the authority and belief of all that went afore him: needs must it be that he had very express terms, and very certain Demonstrations. And I pray you let us see what manner a once they be? From the movings that are here beneath, he leadeth us to the movings that are above, and from them to a first mover. Hitherto he is well. But afterward he will have this first mover to move everlastingly, and therefore that time should be everlasting also. Neither the ground nor the consequence of this argument are aughtworth. How will ye prove that the first mover moveth eternally? Nay contrariwise, moving argeweth a beginning. For in moving there is a certain point from whence the moving is made, unto another point whereto it tendeth: and even according to Aristotle's own doctrine, foreness, afterness, and continuance of time do follow foreness, afterness, and continuance of moving: and that implieth a manifest contrariety to the definition of moving from place to place. And that time should be beginninglesse, what else is it to say, than that time is not time, and (as ye would say) an implying of contradiction in the very word itself? For what else is time according to Aristotle himself, than the number of moving by foreness and afterness, by past and to come. And if it be a number, where is the infiniteness thereof become? And if there be afore and after, where is the eternity thereof? In another place he saith, that moving is eternal because time is eternal; and that the cause why time is so, is that it is always joined to that which is past. I pray you what a childishness is this? By the same reason I may say that the moving of a Mill, or the stirring of any living wight is eternal: for in those cases every instant followeth immediately in the neck of that which is past, no less than in the moving of time; and yet we be not ignorant that they have a beginning. But like as there is a certain first forthsetting in those, so is there also in the moving of the Heaven, who is the breeder of tyme. And Algazel 
Algazel.  answereth Auerrhois very well upon this point; That look what a point or prick is in things that hold on whole unbroken of; the same is an instant or moment in things that immediately or continually succeed one after another: and that as a point or prick is the beginning of a line, so an instant is the beginning of time: & Auerrhois could not disprove this reason, otherwise than by flowering him for it. He replieth yet again, and saith; Yea but if the World had a beginning, how shall the maker thereof be void of alteration? To such a question as this is, me thinks he himself should answer thus: That the alleging of an inconvenience assoileth not the question. But good Sir Philosopher! By your seeking to bring us to this inconvenience, you grant at leastwise that God created Nature. And is it not a strange oversight in you, that you will needs tie him to the laws of Nature, which is the maker of Nature? and measure the power and liberty of the Clockmaker, by the subjection of the Clock unto him? Art thou not ashamed to yield less pre-eminence to GOD, than thy King whom thou exemptest from subjection to his laws, because he is the maker of the laws? I pray thee what a thing were it, if thou shouldest undertake but only to measure Nature by thine own wit? What a number of times hast thou found thy wit to stumble at the least things? How often hast thou found it against thyself? Now, if Nature go beyond the reach of thy wit, how far shall the very maker of nature outgo it? Thou canst not shift thy place without removing; and therefore thou deemest the like of God. But consider at leastwise that they Soul or Mind not being limited within any place, is the place of a thousand things, & that a thousand things are the place thereof. Again, thy Soul cannot conceive any thing, without passing from contemplation to action: no nor abide in contemplation, without change. Now thy desire is to have GOD like thyself in this behalf. But if thou wilt not yield thyself to other men's reasons; at leastwise yield thyself to thine own reasons. For whereas thou sayest, that beyond the Heaven 
Aristotle in his first book of Heaven▪ cap. 9  there is neither emptiness nor time; but that whatsoever is there, is exempted from all manner of time, moving, change, and passibility; and that in that universal eternity all things do lead a most happy and welcontented life: darest thou say less of God, whom thou thyself dost place far above all those things? The very brute Beasts would babble after that manner of the nature of thy Soul, yea and more to the purpose too. For whereas there is no comparison between God and thee; they yet have a thing that doth somewhat resemble thee▪ For thou changest in doing, because thy doing is another thing than thy being; and the thing that thou amost at is out of thyself; which thing cannot change for thee, and therefore thou art fain to change for it. Also thou changest in beholding; for the thing which thou beholdest, and thou which beholdest it, are two: and to be short, in beholding, thou dost after a sort suffer at the thing which thou beholdest, & in doing, thou sufferest at the thing which thou dost: but unto him which is the maker of all things, to be and to behold, to behold and to do, to do and to will are all one thing. For even in willing a thing he hath done it, and his willing thereof is after a certain & determinate manner, (I use human words for the uttering of my meaning). To be short, unto him that beholdeth all things in himself, nothing can spring up that shall be new. Let us now put the case, that the forealleged inconvenience be most to purpose; and let us see at leastwise if thou canst skill to avoid it in thine own opinion. If God (sayest thou) do make any thing new, he must needs change his mind. And yet thou sayest therewithal, that in all things which are done here beneath by natural causes, 
Proclus concerning the Influence of the first cause.  there is a certain influence of God, at leastwise of the universal influence under the which thou puttest all things. So speakest thou, so speaketh Auerrhois, so speaketh Proclus and the rest of you thereof. Now, seeing that GOD doth every day a thousand new things here beneath; I demand of thee whether he doth them upon new devise, or upon everlasting forepurpose? If he do them upon new devise, thou stumblest at that which thou wouldst eschew: for (by thy reckoning) God doth that which he did not afore, namely, in shedding forth his influence anew, and in producing (by that influence) the thing that was not afore. Or if he do them upon everlasting forepurpose; then confessest thou that which thou meanest to deny; to wit, that God determined everlastingly to make or do things by his power, and that according to that determination, he giveth to every thing in their times, whatsoever he had foreallotted them of his goodness. For what difference makest thou in the case between one Plant, and all Plants? between the Plant that is new sprung up to day, and the Plant that was withered a thousand years ago? between the whole World, and the least thing contained therein; if thou be fain too admit a new device, as well for the least thing as for the greatest? Nay thou hast devised thee a God that is turned about upon his Wheel, a God that hath but a little more wit than thyself, and a little more strength than thyself: and yet such are thy speeches of him sometime, that I cannot tell whither thou wouldst be contented to be likened to him or no.  
Let us see his other Reasons. All the ancient Philosophers (saith he) saving Plato, believed that time is without beginning. A strange case, that he which taketh so great pleasure in controlling all men that went afore him, will now needs shield himself under them! But I have already proved that that saying of his is false. And again what greater contraries can there be, than time and eternity? Also, The Heaven (saith he) is a divine body, uncorruptible, the dwelling place of the Gods, wherein there hath not any corruption been seen that can be remembered: Ergo it is eternal. But how will he prove this Divinity, and this Quintessence of his? Whence will he prove this uncorruptible nature? What will he answer to this saying of his own, that the Gods and Godheads dwell above Heaven, and utterly without the compass or reach of time? Is not this a setting down of that thing for a ground, which is the thing that resteth to be proved, and (to speak after his own manner) a craving of the principle? But if we believe Plutarch, who affirmeth that Aristotle held opinion that the Heaven is a mingled nature of heat and moisture together; shall it not be corruptible of itself as well as the grounds are whereof it is composed? he addeth that the ancient Greeks called it AEther [as ye would say Ayrun] because it runneth about continually. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Plato in his Cratilus. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  And what will he answer to Plato, who saith that the Heaven or Sky is called AEther, of his brightness, in which respect also he calleth the Star of Mars, Aithon. Also what will he answer to all the former Philosophers, who are of opinion that the Sky is as Crystal composed of Water? And finally what is this Running about: but a departing from one place to another? Sooth great reasons to maintain eternity; for if a man do but breath upon them they vanish into smoke. And therefore Plotin in his book of the World, 
Plotin in his book of the world.  and Damascius in expounding Aristotle's book of the Sky, 
Damascius upon the books of the Sky  and Proclus in his second book upon Plato's jimeus, have very well noted, that for the proving of the eternity, Aristotle hath set down many things which need none other disproof than bare denial, and which would be as hard for him to prove, as to prove the eternity itself. What is to be thought then, if even by the propositions of Aristotle 
Proclus in his second book upon Timeus. Aristotle against Aristotle.  himself and of his Scholars, we prove against him and his Scholars, that the World had a beginning? The World (say they) is eternal, and yet as eternal as it is, it dependeth upon God. In that point they all agráe. The disagreement among them is in this, that some of them make the depending thereof upon God to be as upon an efficient cause, and some as upon a final cause, and every of them draweth Aristotle to his side as much as he can. Now, if it depend upon GOD, as an effect dependeth upon his efficient cause; who seeth not that an effect is after his cause, and that there went a working power afore the effect distinguished essentially from the cause thereof. And where is then this goodly ground of theirs become, that the World is eternal because no foreworking power went afore it? 
As in way of end.  Or if it depend upon God as the final cause thereof, that is to say, if it were for him and not from him; so as it was not a thing of his making, but a thing that he could not conveniently forbear: wheresoever an end is intended, is there not also a forecast? And where forecast is, can chance and necessity bear there any sway? And if God had no need of the World, was it not at his choice whether it should be or no? And being at his choice, can it be beginninglesse, seeing that the being thereof dependeth upon another than itself? Again, if the World depend upon God as upon the end thereof; the working power which they themselves require in the creation of all things, shall either have gone afore it or not. If it must needs have gone afore it; then was it not from everlasting; for this word forego being a betokener of time, excludeth the world from eternity or everlastingness. Or if there needed not any foreworking power to have gone afore the world, but that it be simply an issue proceeding from the force of the cause; why should it not proceed as well in time as from everlasting, seeing that the said force or power is directed by Reason and by Will? And why then hold they this principle, That the World cannot be of creation, because that if it were so, some cause must needs have gone afore it? Again, whence hath the Sky his beginning of moving, but from an Instant? And whatsoever could be never so little a while without moving, why might it not be without moving a longer while, seeing that the respect is all one, both of eternity unto all times, and of infiniteness unto all places? Therefore whereas Aristotle saith that the World (notwithstanding that it is eternal) dependeth upon God; he granteth consequently that it is not eternal. Secondly, contrary to the teaching of all that went afore him, he delivereth us three first grounds; namely, Matter, Substance, or stuff, form, shape, or fashion, and Privation, Want, or bereaving; and his Schools are so greatly delighted therewith, that there is nothing else to be heard spoken of in them. But if these be the first beginnings or grounds of things; where is then their eternity? And if they keep a circuit in going round about; how can it be that they had not a beginning? Also how can a substance be imagined to be without form, shape, or fashion; or form, shape, or fashion to be without a substance; seeing that even mishapennesse itself is a kind of shape, and also that a shape is nothing else than the form or fashion of a substance? Moreover, what greater absurdity can there be, than to make that a beginning of being, which hath by itself no being at all, nor can have any being but in another thing, as if a man would make blindness to be the beginner of sight, or darkness the beginner of light? Again, seeing that neither substance nor shape have of themselves any being at all: how can they cause other things to be? Or how comes it to pass that two things which have had no being at all, do meet together in one essence or being; but by virtue of the sovereign Béeer, who hath willed and determined that it should be so? And if his willing or determining be the cause of the being of them; who is he that did set or appoint him the term wherein to do them? But to excuse one untruth, a man tells a thousand; and to shift of one error, he falleth into ten thousand: and yet it cannot be eschewed, but that the truth will sparkle out of the Contrariety of untruths, as fire sparkles out of the knocking of one Flints●●one against another. 
Aristotle in his problems Sect. 10. Probl: 64.  In his book of Problems (which seem notwithstanding to be of many men's gathering,) he saith concerning the engendering of living things, that the small things, as Worms, Cutfoules, and such other, are engendered by the ordinary alterations of the time, the greater by the greater alterations as things that have need of great ●●●ginnings or grounds; and that there hath in time passed been such an alteration, as of itself hath engendered them, yea even the notablest living things and man himself, 
Sect. 10. Probl. 15.  supplying therein both the room of the efficient cause, and also of the material, both at once. And it may be that that is the cause why Va●ro saith that Aristotle believed that there was no beginning of living things, or that living things have been from ever without beginning. Also in another place he saith, that there was such an alteration at the same time that living things were first brought forth; and that if it behove Nature to bring forth any more of them, there must be such another alteration going afore, namely, by a rare Conjunction of some Stars. 
Aristotle in his third book of the breeding of living wights. Lucrece: The Wombs of the Earth grew fit for roots.  And in another place he saith further, that if Man and other living wights had a beginning; it was either in egg, in seed, or in worm, and so forth. What a number of Monsters are here for the stablishing of one Monstar, and yet he hath not alleged any thing which is not against himself. The lesser Conjunctions (saith he) do breed the smaller living things, the mean breed the mean, and the great ones breed the great. Well, be it so. Yet these Conjunctions meet not but by the course of the Stars; and that course is a moving, and every moving hath a beginning: and therefore it followeth that wights had a beginning. Again, if the moving of the Sky and of the Stars be everlastingly; the Conjunctions thereof are everlastingly also, as Aristotle himself concludeth; 
Aristotle in his xjj. book of Metaphisiks' Chap. 7.  and so on the contrary. For if it have turned about from everlasting, the Conjunctions have likewise encountered from everlasting. But everlastingly they could not encounter: for the small ones, the mean ones, and the great ones are not all at once together, but they come severally one after another with the space of certain hundred years, & with divers revolutions betwixt them: whereas if they were eternal, none of them could go or come afore another. Therefore it followeth that there is a beginner of living wights, and a beginner of the doings about of the Sky and of all the whole order which we see: And that is even God himself.  
How much better had Aristotle done, 
Aristotle in his second book of Generation and Corruption. Cap. 10. and in his books of Comonweale.  if he had held himself to that which he saith well in other places; namely, that forasmuch as most things cannot have a perpetual continuance in the particular, that is to say in themselves, by reason of being too far distant from their beginning: therefore God hath continued them by the spreading forth of their kind; and to that end hath made them male and female and ordained copulation betwixt them. For if we make the living things without beginning, do we not make them to be everlasting? And if we ground their beginnings upon some revolutions of the Skies; can those Revolutions be everlasting? Also, how shall they have been brought forth, in full growth, or young, seeing that at the bringing forth of all things, the things are tender and unperfect? And if the things be not everlasting, where then is the everlasting moving of the Heaven: that is to say, where is Aristotle's eternity become? The same followeth also of that which he saith in another place; namely that he which did first gather men together, was the author of very great good. For in acknowledging that there was a time wherein folk lived like the men of Brasilie, or like the wandering nomads; he acknowledgeth also an infancy of the World. For else what should let that men have not been either everlastingly dispersed, or else everlastingly united together? And how comes it to pass O Aristotle, that there have not been Aristotle's from everlasting? Again, who shall choose out the very instant in eternity for the breeding and bringing forth of any thing particularly, but he that is the Lord of eternity itself?  
Aristotle in his morals commendeth godliness, and be highteth blessedness to them that follow it; teaching us that it consisteth in Contemplation. Now, seeing that this Contemplation or beholding is the mean to make us blessed; it must needs be the beholding of a thing that is right blissful: but blissful it cannot be, if it consist in these inferior things which are base and subject to so many miseries and turmoils: Therefore he meaneth the Contemplation which is the beholding of the only one God. Also in other places he saith that our Souls are of a divine nature, that they be immortal, that they come into us from without, & that they be (after a sort) a kin to the Gods: and his Disciples would be offended at him that should say, that their Master doubted of the immortality of the Soul. And whereto is all this, if the World be eternal? If it be eternal; either our Souls also be eternal, that is to say without beginning, or else they be not eternal. If they be; how happeneth it that they have imprisoned themselves in these our bodies? Or if they be so imprisoned at the appointment of an other: who shall that other be but God? And if God appoint or allot them to this new state in time certain; who hath made one eternity subject to another? And what is then become of this Maximée of theirs, that the World is eternal because God maketh not any thing there a new? Moreover, if they be everlasting; who hath made them proportionable to their bodies; that is to wit, infinite Souls to infinite Bodies? And then what becomes again of this other Rule of theirs, that Nature cannot abide any infiniteness? Or if they be everlasting and yet of some certain number, going and coming into new bodies by course: is not that the opinion of Pythagoras, which Aristotle doth so greatly mislike? And if our Souls at their departing out of our bodies, do go to the enjoying of the blessed immortality; doth it not follow, that from after the passingover of that revolution, men must move without Soul, dispute without reason, and judge without mind; yea and that even Aristotle himself speaketh and reasoneth without wit? To be short, what hooteth it to be godly or religious, if our Souls acknowledge no better thing than themselves? What availeth it to look for the blessed Contemplation, if they be perfectly blessed of themselves? But perfectly blessed they be, if they be eternal. And whereto then serveth the rewarding of them with immortal life; if they have the eternity or immortality already? What else then is his upholding of the world to be eternal, than a turning of the whole world upside down? But there are (saith Aristotle) Godliness, Blessedness, & Immortality: then doth it follow that our Souls are not eternal. And if they be not eternal; then have they a beginning; and that beginning have they, either of God, or of the world. Of the world they have it not: for (as I have said) were the world eternal, the Conversions or turnings about thereof should be eternal too, and consequently so should our Souls be also, as which should be bred of their power. But now are all things mortal that are engendered by those Conversions, as Aristotle himself granteth. But we put the case that they have an original notwithstanding that they be immortal. Therefore it remaineth that the same is from God. Now, they could not proceed from God as beams of his substance: for all of the Philosophers uphold that he is a single and undivided substance, united in itself and most perfectly one: but we be subject to alteration, to ignorance, to evil affections and such other things. It remaineth therefore (and otherwise it cannot be) that our Souls are the work of God's power. Now, if our Souls (which after a sort do comprehend the World and all things therein) be the effects of God's power, which through his goodness uttereth itself when he listeth: shall not the world itself and the senseless and transitory things which serve us, yea and our bodies also which are but the Coats or Instruments of our souls be so in likewise? Now then, let Aristotle's Disciples choose whether they will give over the eternity of the world, or the immortality of their Souls: the everlasting turning about of a wheel, or the immortal settledness of blessed state: for both of them together cannot stand.  
But surely his Disciple Theophrastus 
Theophrast in his book of Sents, Savours, or Smells.  seemeth to have perceived these inconveniences and contradictions well, when he proceedeth so far as to say that God created the world, yea even of nothing. And so doth Algazel the Saracen against Auerrhois, unto whom he saith, that God for the creating of the world needed neither stuff nor new advisement, but that like a most perfect workman, having all things in a readiness, he took his own leisure for the performance of his work when it pleased him. And yet it seemeth that Aristotle towards the end of his life repented him of that doctrine: insomuch that in his book of the world, he saith that GOD is the breeder and preserver of all things in the world after what manner soever it be. And even in his metaphysics, having rejected the opinions of many men concerning these things; he saith thus. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  He that saith that GOD or the sovereign Mind is the Cause & Author not only of living things, but also of Nature itself and of the World, and of all the order therein; seemeth to speak discreetly and well advisedly; and they that speak otherwise, speak unadvisedly. And they that are of the former opinion, have very well set down that Cause for the ground of all things that are, as the which is such a beginning as giveth moving to all things. And in his book of Wonders, (if it be his) he speaketh yet more evidently: saying, that naturally the Sea should cover the Earth as higher than it; but that God hath caused the Sea to withdraw itself, that the Earth might be uncovered for the use of man and of other living wights. And this is in effect a commingbacke to the opinion of his predecessors, from the which he would so fain have departed afore. Howsoever the case stand, all the ancient Philosophers do either conclude the Creation of the world with us, or else yield us arguments into our hands wherewith to conclude it against themselves. To be short, when Aristotle who was the first that stepped out of the high way, saith that the world is without beginning, he seemeth to be Aristotle no more; he doth so often gainsay himself and offend against his own rules. And where he chanceth to say that the world was created, he seemeth to be minded to yield himself to us. And where the case concerneth not (at leastwise expressly) the one nor the other: he leaveth us many Conclusions, which do quite overthrow and destroy the said opinion of his, and make him whether he will or no, to conclude on our side.  
The Latins 
The Latins.  fell to Philosophy somewhat later than the Greeks; by reason whereof they had the more cause to overshoot themselves in the case of Eternity: but yet we see that the most part of them followed the opinion of Plato. That man (saith Cicero 
Cicero in his first book of Invention, & in his first book of the Orator. ) that first gathered together men afore dispersed, was surely a great parsonage. And (as saith Pythagoras) so was he which did first give names to things, and which first comprised within a certain number of letters, the sounds of man's voice which seemed to be infinite, and which marked the Courses and proceed of the wandering Planets, and which first found out Corn, Cloth, building, defences against wild Beasts, and the rest of the things that make our lives the more civil. What else is this than an acknowledging of a beginning? For if men were from everlasting, did they not from everlasting speak? Did they not from everlasting give names to things? Can they not invent every thing from everlasting. Yes: and therefore he concludeth, We be not created by haphazard; but surely there was a certain Might or Power which had a care of Mankind, and which would not have begotten him to fall into the mischief of endless death, after he hath outworn the great and innumerable adversities and toils of this world. Now, if we were created, and that there be a sovereign power which hath had care of Mankind; surely then hath there been a beginning, seeing that the said power had a care of us, either when as yet we were not at all, 
Cicero in his second book of the Nature of the Gods.  or after the time that we were. And in another place he saith, That God created and furnished man, and that it was his will that he should have the sovereignty of all other things. That the world, the Sea, the Land, and all other things obey Gods tokens. And if a● any time he bring in an Epicure alleging such worshipful reasons as this, With what engines & edgetooles did your God build the World, 
Cicero in his Laws.  and such other; either he sendeth him away with such answer as he deserveth; or else by holding his peace, showeth sufficiently that he deserveth no answer at all.  
Varro 
Varro.  the best learned of the Latins, maketh an universal History divided into three times. The first (as I have ●ayd already) is from the Creation of the world, unto the first olympiad. This man being a man of great reading, found the Creation of the world to have been but late afore, yea and so late, that he joined it immediately to the time of the first olympiad. Likewise Seneca 
Seneca in his first book of the happy life. Chap. 31 and 32. and in the first book of his natural Questions: and in his Epistles. Macrobius lib. 1. Saturnalium. Virgil. ovid. Lucretius the Poet.  found all things to be new, and acknowledgeth in many places that God created the whole world, and man peculiarly to serve him. And ever since the beginning of the World (saith he) unto this day we be guided by the intercourses of days and nights, and so forth. Macrobius passeth yet further, and saith that the world cannot be of any long antiquity, considering that the furthest knowledge that is to be had thereof, reacheth not beyond two thousand years. As touching the Poets, whose speeches do for the most part represent unto us the opinion that was admitted among the common people: Virgil is full of excellent sentences to that purpose; and Ovid hath made a book expressly of that matter. And even Lucrece also who professeth ungodliness, saith that beyond the Wars of Troy and Thebes, there was not any jot remaining to remembrance; than by the which, he could not better have declared the World to be but young, howbeit that (after the manner of his own sect,) he fathereth that thing upon chance, which all the wise men ascribe to the everlasting providence. Pliny 
Pliny.  is the only▪ man whom I wonder at, that being so curious a searcher of Nature, he could not conceive that which is printed in every part of it, and which every man might of himself learn by his own reading therein. He maketh a long Calendar of the first inventors of things, as of Letters, of Houses, of Apparel, and of very Bread. 
Pliny. lib. 7.  He reckoneth up the Companies that have fléeted from place to place for the peopling and replenishing of Countries. And can there be a greater proof of newness than that? 
Plin. lib. 2.  Sometimes he saith that the Earth is become weary, and sometimes that it is waxed barren in yielding of fruit and Metals, because it groweth old. But in one place he saith expressly, that men's bodies by little & little become of smaller stature by reason of the witheredness of the world which waxeth old. And is not this a reporting of the Sky to be like a wheel, which gathereth heat and chafeth with rolling and whirling about? And what improteth this waxing old, but that it had also (as ye would say) a birthtyme? What meaneth the wearing thereof away, but that it had erst been new? What is meant by the chafing of it, but that the temperature thereof is altered? For if the World be eternal; why is not the wheel thereof eternally in one heat, and men eternally of small stature? Or if at leastwise it be of very ancient continuance; why were not men become Pygmées long ago? And if the contrary be to be seen in Nature; what remaineth but to confess that the World is but of late beginning? 
The Stoics.  To be short, the stoics (as Varro witnesseth of Zeno) taught that the world was created of God, and that it should perish. The Platonists 
The Platonists  affirm that it is created and mortal, but yet is sustained from perishing, by God. The Epicures 
The Epicures.  grant that it had a beginning, howbeit by haphazard and not by providence. The Peripatetics 
The Peripatetics.  say in their conclusions, that it is without beginning; and in their premises they utterly deny it. The greatest despisers of God, as Pliny 
Pliny.  and such other like, do write in their Prefaces, That the world is an everlasting God; and throughout the whole treatises of their books, they unsay it again. Now then, after so many grave witnesses, and after the confessions of the parties themselves, is there yet any of these pretenced naturalistes to be found, which dareth think the contrary still?  
But now since the coming of our Lord jesus Christ into the earth, 
The opinions of the Platonistes.  this doctrine hath been received throughout the world, so as the thing which had aforetimes been disputable among the Heathen, is now admitted as an article of faith, well near among all nations and sects on the earth. It may be that the miracles which were seen then in Heaven, in Earth, in the Sea, upon men, and upon the very Féends, made the world to perceive that there was a Creator of the world. For who could doubt that the creating of a new Star, the restoring of a deadman to life, or only the making of a blindman▪ to see, was not the work of an infinite power, yea even as well as the building of the world; considering that between being and not being, between life and death, between the having of a thing and the nothaving, the distance is infinite? And it may be that the signs which we have seen from Heaven in our time, do serve to make the blasphemers upon earth unexcusable. But whereof soever it came, the very Philosophers themselves began to make a grounded principle thereof: insomuch that the Greeks, Persians and Arabians, and likewise afterward the Turks and Mahometists, did put it into their belief as a thing out of all controversy. To be short, there is not at this day any civil or well ordered▪ people, which have not their Chronicles and Histories of times, begun always at the Creation of the world, wherein they do all hold of Moses, and agree all with us Christians, saving in the controversy of some few years.  
Of all the Philosophers, only the Platonists continued in estimation: and all men rejected the newfound opinions of Aristotle, and they stood at defiance, rather with the Gnostics than with the Christians. Saint Austin saith concerning the Philosophers of his time, that their opinion was, that God was afore the World, howbeit not in time, but in order and by way of undersetting only: like as if a foot (saith he) were ever in one place, the print thereof should also be ever there. Unto whom it may be answered in one word, that like as ability and intent of going went afore the going itself, both in the man and in the foot; so in God also, the power and intent of creating, went afore the Creation. But it is best to hear their own words. Plotin in his book of the World, findeth himself not a little graveled in this case, and he maketh very little account of all Aristotle's supposalles. 
Plotin. Ennead: 2. lib. 1. cap. 1. and. 2.  If we say (saith he) that the Sky is everlasting as in respect of the whole body thereof: how can that be, seeing that the living Creatures die, and the Elements pass from one into another, and that (as Plato affirmeth) the Sky itself is in continual wheeling? If we say that the Elements and the living wights continued their perpetuities in their kinds: why doth the Heaven continue his perpetuity rather in number and particularity? If the cause thereof be, that nothing can slip out of it because it containeth all things: how can that reason agree to the Stars and Planets, which do not contain all things as the Heaven or Sky doth, and yet we affirm them to be everlasting? And if nothing impeach it without; what should let that something may not impeach it within, seeing that all living wights do naturally perish through the distemperance of their parts, notwithstanding that they live even while they be a dissolving? And what ensueth hereof, but that both sorts of bodies, as well Celestial as terrestrial, do perish? yea and both Heaven and Earth likewise, saving that the Celestial endure a longer time, and perish more slowly than the Earthly? Certainly (saith he) if we took this word eternity (as well in the whole world as in the parts thereof,) not to betoken an everlastingness [that is to say, a perpetuity or continuance without beginning or end,] but only a difference of continuance; there would be the less doubtfulness in the matter. But all shall be out of doubt, if we father the same eternity upon the will of GOD, which of itself is able enough to uphold the World; for so shall things have their continuance according to his pleasure, some in their kinds, and some particularly in themselves. Now, if the World were eternal; were it not impossible that it should be otherwise than it is? But if it have this being from the will of GOD; is it not discharged of that necessity? And what shall then become of this saying of his, which he setteth down in divers other places, namely that the World is of necessity, because it would behove a second Nature to accompany the first; unless we understand it to be spoken of the necessity that is conditional, and not of the necessity that is absolute as they term it. Again, the same will which made the World to be, and hath given continuance to the parts thereof, some after one sort and some after another, and hath disposed of them as it listed itself; shall it not also have made them when it listed itself? Whosoever then ●aith, that the being of the world, as well in the whole as in the parts, dependeth upon the will of God, taketh from the world all necessity of being. And he that sayeth that there is no necessity that it should have been from everlasting, (let us use those words for want of other,) saith therewithal that it is not everlasting.  
In his book of Eternity and of Time, 
Plotinus Ennead. 3. lib. 2. Chap. 2.  he saith that eternity and time differ in this respect, that eternity is verified but of the everlasting nature, and time is to be verified of the things that are created: So as eternity, is and abideth in God alone, whom he calleth the World that is to be conceived but in mind or understanding; and time abideth in the world that is subject to the senses: adding nevertheless, that the world (to speak properly) was not made in time; after which manner we also do say that it was not made in time but together with the tyme. But when he hath deliberately scanned all the definitions of time made by the former Philosophers, and hath searched all the corners of his wit too find out the best; in the end he● concludeth thus. We must needs come back (saith he) too the said first nature, which I affirmed heretofore to be in eternity, I mean the unmovable nature, which is wholly all at once the infinite and endless life, and which consisteth whole in one, and tendeth unto one. But as yet there was no time at all, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  or at leastwise it was not among the Natures that consist in understanding, but was to come afterward, by a certain manner and kind of posteriority. Now than if a man will understand, how time proceeded first from the higher Natures which rested in themselves; good cause shall he have to call the Muses too his help, for the uttering thereof: For it may be that the Muses also were as then. Therefore let us say thus; Afore such time as foreness issued forth and had need of afterness; Time, (which as then was not,) rested in God with the residue of all things that now are. But a certain nature bend to many doings, that is to wit the Soul of the world, being desirous to have more than the present, began to move itself, and so from thence immediately issewed time, which passeth on continually and is never the selfsame. And we beholding the length thereof, have imagined time to be the image of eternity. And what is meant by all this contemplation, but that a certain Soul or mind proceeding from God, that is to wit the Spirit of God, did move and carry the world about. That with that moving and of that moving, time was bred and brought forth? That afore that moving, there was a settled state or rest, as eternity afore time? And that (as he himself saith there) Time and Heaven were made both at once, and eternity was afore them both.  
As touching that it is demanded what God did afore the World: doth not Plotinus himself furnish us with sufficient answer, in that he saith that God not working at all but resting in himself, doth and performeth very great things? And is not the like concluded by the godly doctrine of God's providence, whereof he treateth in books expressly bearing that title? for if it be possible for the World to be eternal as well as God: where then can there be any providence? For what else is Providence, than the will of God uttered forth with Reason, and orderly disposed by understanding? And if Gods will be required: where is then the necessity of being, which in other places he attributeth too the world? Also where is this saying of his become, that our Souls are immortal? and that some of them are eternal and afore all time? And likewise this; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  that afore God had created the world and breathed a soul into it; it was but a dead corpse, a minglemangle of earth and water, a dark matter; a thing of nothing, and (at a word) such a thing as even the Gods themselves were abashed at it: and that after that God had shed this Soul into the world, both life & moving were thereby breathed into the Stars, Planets, and Living wights. For seeing that from notbeing, notliving, and notmoving, there is an infinite distance to being living and moving: Doth it not follow also that there is infinite odds between him that is, liveth, and moveth, that is to say God; and the thing that waiteth to have being life and moving at his hand, that is to wit the forementioned Chaos. And what is it that hath bounded or filled up this distance, but only the will of him who only is? And if will were the doer thereof; then was it not of necessity: And if it was not of necessity; then where is the eternity thereof?  
Porphyrius disputing of the Mind or Understanding, the which he termeth the beginning, ground, or wellspring of the World; sayeth that it was bred of God from everlasting, by a certain eternal or beginninglesse breeding, even such a one as was afore all eternity. It was not bred in time (saith he) for as yet there was no time at all: and after that time was made, the world can scar●ly be said in very deed to be, if it be compared with the foresaid Understanding or Mind. This is all one with the saying of Trismegistus in a certain place, where he calleth this mind, the true, everlasting, and first borne Son of God; and this world God's younger Son: the one begotten of his very nature, and the other of his will.  
Proclus 
Porphyrius.  and Simplicius keep a great coil in maintenance of the eternity of the world, and have made books thereof against Philoponus: but all their reasons are sufficiently refuted, by the things which I have discoursed against Aristotle. But seeing they maintain God's Providence and the immortality of the Soul, do they not reject eternity whither they will or no? And whereas Proclus writing against such as upheld that there be infinite worlds without number, saith that such infiniteness is against reason and knowledge; and that the admitting thereof excludeth God, and abandoneth all things to fortune: why should he rather admi● infiniteness of time in this one world than infiniteness of number in many, specially seeing he alloweth God's providence? And whereas Simplicius condemneth those to hell which believe no● the Providence upon the Reasons of Epictetus: doth he not consequently condemn the defenders of the eternity of the world too the same punishment? And when Auerrhoes himself saith that it is our duty to magnify God by prayer and sacrifice, and that it is planted even in nature to offer sacrifice; is he not contrary to himself? for to what end reverence we God, if we be nothing beholden to him? nevertheless my alleging of these things is not as though I knew not well that the Platonists, yea and even these aformentioned philosophers also, do call the world everlasting and unbegotten: but to show that the very surest of them have wavered in this opinion: insomuch that they have left us principles contrary to their conclusions: and after all their long skirmishes, they find no rest but in our Camp. And sooth the most part of them be driven to acknowledge certain Degrees of eternity. Whereof the first should be, that which is measured by the continuance of that which is evermore of itself, and becometh neither the longer for aught that is to come, nor yet the shorter for aught that is past; and that is it which is to be ascribed alonely unto God. The second as the measure of such things as have a fixed and being stable, and yet have also a certain succession in their operations, of which sort are the understanding spirits or Angels; and this is properly called Aynesse. The third as the measuring of durableness continued by foreness and afterness, having a beginning but not an end, and this they call Time, attributing it properly to the World. And what else is this than to speak that thing by circumstance, which we utter in one word? For to what purpose call they a thing eternal or everlasting, if by the terms Eternal and Everlasting, they mean temporal? After which manner the Emperor justinian 
justinian in the preface to his Digests.  speaking unproperly of his own Laws, said he hoped that they should be eternal and everlasting.  
As touching the opinion of Epictetus the Stoik & of Plutarch, no man can doubt except he quite and clean disannul their books. GOD (saith Epictetus') hath ordained that there should be Wiinter and Summer, good seasons and bad: he hath given to the Earth both fruitfulness and barrenness; and his disposing of things so by contraries, is to maintain the harmony of the whole. He hath brought us into the world, given us bodies and members, and assigned us heritage's & fellowheires. It is he that hath made both the sight and the colours, and neither sight nor colours were aught worth, if it were not for the light; and therefore hath he also made the light. Thus from point to point he leadeth us to this conclusion, that GOD made the World and all that is therein. Plurarke saith thus: 
Plutark in his Psychogonie.  If God were not the maker of all things, than should he be restrained in some things, and so were he not Lord of all: But he is to be acknowledged for Lord of all, and therefore of consequence he is the maker of them all. 
Galen in his third book of the use of the Parts of men's bodies.  And here might a great number of the forealleged sentences of the selfsame Authors be alleged again.  
But what shall we say if Galen (who in common account is the most heathenish of all writers,) after he hath thoroughly ripped up both man and the world itself, be in the end constrained too come back to the same point? I make here (saith he in his book of the use of parts) a true Hymn in the honour of our Maker. Whose service I believe verily consisteth not in the sacrificing of hundreds of Oxen unto him, or in burning great heaps of Frankincense before him; but in acknowledging the greatness of his wisdom, power, and goodness, and in making the same known unto others. For whereas of his own free will he hath vouchsafed to garnish and beautify all things in the best manner that could be, and hath not envied so great a benefit to any thing; I hold it for a proof of perfect goodness: and so far praised be his goodness. Again, to have found out the means how to adorn things so richly, showeth a sovereign Wisdom, and to have brought to pass and perfected all that ever he had forepurposed, betokeneth an incomparable might and power. 
Gal. lib. 11. & 17.  And in his seventeenth book, who so considereth (saith he) the composing & knitting together of every living thing, shall find that it carrieth in it a proof of the Creator's wisdom. And seeing that in the mids of that Puddle of humours each living wight hath a Soul dwelling, endued with so great force and virtue: he ought of reason the more to wonder at the greatness and excellency of the Mind that dwelleth in heaven. 
Galen in his book of the breeding of Children.  And who is he (had he said afore) which looking but only upon the Skin of a thing, woondereth not at the cunning of the Creator? Yet notwithstanding he dissembleth not that he had tried by all means to find some reason of the composing of living wights, and that he would rather have fathered the doing thereof upon nature, then upon the very author of nature. But yet for all that, 
Galen in his fifteenth book of the use of Parts.  in the end he concludeth thus. I confess (saith he) that I know not what the Soul is, notwithstanding that I have sought very narrowly for it, neither can I yield a reason how the Babe is form in the Mother's Womb. Well do I see that in that case there is very great Wisdom; and therefore I am of that opinion that it is not for any man too meddle with the searching out of it, but that it ought to suffice us that our Creator hath willed it to be after that fashion. For shall we presume to seek a reason of the doing of that thing, which (without making of an Anatomy) we should never know to have been done? It is all one as if he should say, that Nature whereat we wonder so much, is nothing else but whatsoever it pleaseth God to command.  
And now what remaineth more but to hear Apollo (that is to say, the very Devil himself) who being prayed to say an Hymn to the great God, beginneth it with this verse.  
Which made the first Man and called him Adam: which verse justine the Martyr affirmeth to have be●e commonly song in his tyme.  
After the confession of wickedness itself, if we list also to hear the confession of Ignorance, there is not at this day so brutish a Nation, which either by reading it in the great letters of the Heavens, or by tradition from their predecessors, retain not the opinion that the world was created, howbeit that the case doth stand with them as it doth with the diversity of Portratures drawn out, the first from the lynely pattern itself, the second from that first, a third from the second, and so foorthon until the last counterfeit retain scarce any feature at all of the first original pattern. Of the Nations which we call Savage or wild, some affirm themselves to keep and reverence the places where they surmise too have been the original of the Sea, of the Son, of the Moon, of the first man and of the first woman, etc. Othersome hold opinion that there came one from the North into their country which heighthened the Ualleyes and leveled the Hills, and replenished their Country with Men and Women whom he had created, and that the same party giveth them fruits of all sorts abundantly. Who (whensoever they provoke him too wrath,) will change their good soil into barren land, and take from them the fatness of the heaven. May ye not see clearly here the creation of the world, the sin of man, and the curse which God hath given to the earth for man's sake? And as for the party whom they speak of, it is a mingling of the story of the Creation, with the story of some party that first brought people from the North into those Countries too inhabit them even long time after, joining the creation of the world with the peopling of Countries, as things not far divers, accordingly as is done in divers Histories. And I pray you how many even of our Neighbournations that inhabit the uttermost borders of the world, could even at this day answer more fitly too that question?  
Now seeing that the World and all the parts thereof do sing out the creation; seeing the wisdom of the world teacheth it, ungodliness (even whither it will or no) avoweth it, Ignorance seeth it, and all together in all ages both taught, avowed, and perceived it: may not we with the allowance even of the blockishest and of the wickedest, pronounce this definitive sentence, That the World had a beginning, and that it had it at such time as it pleased God the Creator thereof? But there remaineth yet one point to be discussed; namely, whereof God created the World: and that is matter enough for another Chapter.   

The x. Chapter.  
That GOD created the World of nothing; that is to say, without any matter or stuff whereof to make it.  
I Cannot tell whether I may wonder more at the good insight of the ancient Philosophers in the knowledge of many natural things, or at their blindness in the knowledge of the author of them, in that they set it down for a definitive sentence, That nothing in all the world is made of nought, and therefore that the great workmayster himself could not make any thing without matter or stuff whereof. For in effect it is a measuring of the builder and his building both by one rule or scantling, and an aba●ing of the power which they themselves confess to be infinite, unto the state of our infirmity. God (say they) cannot make any thing without matter whereof. And why? Because a Mason cannot make any building without stuff whereof. As who would say there were a more absurd kind of reasoning in Logic, than to conclude from the finite to the infinite, from the mightless to the almighty, from the transitory to the everlasting. Nay rather thou shouldest reason thus. Man, who is less than a Worm in comparison of the highest, draweth gold out of the Rock, or out of the dust of the earth: Of the same earth or stone he maketh such cloth, wire, and leaves of gold foil, as no man would deem to have come of so gross a matter. Of the green Herb he draweth out white flower for his sustenance: of the stalks of Flax and Hemp, he draweth out thread to make cloth of: of rags he maketh Paper to write on: and of the excrements of the little Silkworm he draweth out a great ●eale of Silkcloath. Again, he turkyneth some one rude & rough kind of stuff into a hundred thousand fashions: of the least things he maketh very great things, and by the excellency of his wit draweth most excellent things out of that where the most part of men (notwithstanding that they be men as well as he) found not ne perceived not any thing at all: as for example, out of the F●●●t, fire to warm him: out of the barren Ferne and vile Seawéede, glistering Glass: out of a Shelfish that the Sea casteth up, Purple to make Ornaments of. To be short, after a certain manner, he maketh somewhat of nothing. Now, seeing that the weakness of mortal men can do so much, shall not the mighty power of the everlasting, be able to do much more? And seeing that a thing of nought is able to do so much, shall any thing be unpossible to the maker of all things? But although this which I have said might suffice the discreet, yet notwithstanding let us discuss more largely this matter concerning matter or stuff.  
Sooth if God needed matter or stuff to work upon; either he himself made it, or else it was eternally of itself as well as he. If he made it, he made it of nothing: for in seeking the matter of matter, ye shall proceed to infinite; and so have I the thing I would have. If it were from everlasting, then were there two eternalles together; which is a thing repugnant to all reason and contrary to itself. For nothing can be more contrary to eternity, than to say that there is a matter or stuff which attendeth or waiteth to have his shape form or fashion at some workmaster hand; or that there is an eternal thing which hath not any other life or being, than such as another eternal thing hath vouchsafed to give unto it. For let us see I pray you what manner of thing they imagine this matter to be? 
He that granteth God to be former, fashioner, or giver of shape; doth therewith confess him to be the Creator.  They will have it ot be a thing without shape, but yet a receiver of all shapes: and they will have shape to be without matter wherein to be, but yet as a mould wherein to fashion all matters; so as the matter should have no being at all, but by reason of the shape or form, as of the giver of being thereto. But how can matter be without form, seeing that even deformity itself is a kind of form? Or how can matter be alone by itself, seeing that form is the thing that giveth being unto it? Now then, to say that matter is without form, is all one as to say that it is and is not; which were the saying of a madman.  
Yea (say they); but how is it possible for somewhat to be made of nothing, sith there is an infinite distance betwixt somewhat and nothing? Nay, I say rather, what is it which is not finite, in respect of him that is infinite? I mean in respect of him whom thou thyself affirmest to have bounded the selfsame matter which thou dost take and teach to be infinite? But if thou listest to consider it, thou shalt perceive that thou confessest a thing no less uncredible to thine own sense, than is the same which thou reiectest by thy sense. For when thou imaginest a matter without form, and a form without matter, thou speakest things that destroy one another. But whereas I say that God created the World of nothing, that is to say without having any thing whereof to make it: in deed I say a thing that is wonderful, howbeit which hath not any repugnancy in itself. Now, there is great difference between speaking above reason, and against reason. For truth and man's reason are not enclosed within the like and selfsame bounds. But forasmuch as thou hast granted that God is the author and worker of Nature, I would fain know how thou canst be so bold to deny, that he hath put life and moving where none were afore, and that he hath made both sight and light, hearing and sounds, speech and understanding, where erst was more than death, more than blindness, more than dumbness, and more than dullness; that is to say, more than the bare privation or bereaving of those things considering that neither to be nor ever to have been, are much more wants than simply not to be. Now, between living and not living, seeing and not seeing, and so forth, there is an infinite distance as well as there is between being and not being, which distance can not be filled up but by an infinite power: and look where an infinite power is, it is alike mighty towards all things. Therefore it followeth that sith thou attributest unto him the making of thy sight, of thy life, and of thine understanding; thou canst not deny him the creation of the things that have light, life, and understanding in them. Which if thou grant in one thing, needs must thou grant it alike in all. For to give life, and to give being; to give form or shape, and to give matter; and to give them to one thing, and to give them to all things; are all works of one selfsame power, how divers soever of degrees of them seem unto thee at the first sight. He therefore that confesseth God to be the former or giver of shape, doth also confess him to be the creator of all things. Nay, I say more, that when thou termest God the sovereign or highest being, (as Aristotle 
Aristotle in his second book of things ●bo●e na●●●re.  doth) or him that essentially and in very deed is, (as Plato doth): thou sayest (though unwittingly) that he is the Creator, that is to say, the author of the being of all things.  
If we look into nature, the thing that holdeth the first place in things of order, is commonly the cause of all the things that fall under it. Among hot things, some be hotter than some; but yet fire, which holdeth the highest degree in heat, is the cause of heat in all things, and sheddeth itself into all without diminishing of itself, and by imparting itself to them is still increased: insomuch that the striking of a Flint enforceth the castingforth of a thousand sparks, whereof every one were enough to set the whole World on fire. In light some things, one light lighteth another, and by imparting maketh itself after a sort infinite: and the Sun which is as the fountain of light, extendeth and spreadeth itself out infinitely without dissevering, & after a manner createth light where was nothing but darkness. Also in humane affairs, Kings impart their dignities to Princes, Princes to their Uassalles, & Uassalles to their Subjects: and when they give any man a quality which he had not afore, they term him their Creature, as having made him somewhat of nothing, in respect of the quality wherewith he was endued afore. To be short, scents or savours are shed forth, and Sciences are taught from one to another, and from one to infinite: yea and even diseases, which are nothing else but corruptions, engender one of another without diminishing themselves. Now, as for Heat, Light, Savour, Science, and Dignity; they be but qualities, termed by the degrees of first, second, and third qualities; yea and moreover dead, senseless, and lifeless: and yet notwithstanding, look which of these qualities holdeth the first place, the same doth naturally bring forth all the rest, without diminishing itself. And shall we then think it strange that God, (who is the Being, which even by their own confession holdeth the chief and first place of all beings, or rather alonely can in very deed be said to be) should by his being bring fooith all other beings?  
Yea say they; for we see not any thing brought again to nothing, and therefore needs must they have been created of something. Nay, if worldly things should return to nothing, considering how transitory and fleeting they be already, how short a time could the world endure; or rather how long ago had it come to an end? But it was God's will that it should continue. And therefore thou shouldest rather say thus: I see that the Trees, and the greatest Beasts, yea and men themselves do spring as it were of nothing, and are resolved again into as good as nothing. I see them multiply, live, and do wonders. Of one selfsame seed I see spring both flowers, leaves, and fruit, and of another, the wonderfulness of eyes, the substantialness of bones, and the finesse of vital spirits. Again, I see all these things vanish away I wot not how, so as there remaineth nothing of them but a handful of dust. And shall I now be so blockish as to say, that he which of so little and in so little hath made so many wondrous things that were not afore, could not make the little itself? Or that he which created the life the sense and the moving, could not create a drop of water, a blast of air, and a handful of earth? Nay, I will reason thus rather: That if God were not able to create the very matter of matter itself, surely he could neither give form or shape to the matter, nor create such things of the matter. Yes will they say: for it appeareth that all things return as it were into one common matter, whether we follow the ancient Philosophers which reduce them to the Elements, or that we follow the late writers which reduce them into Oil, Salt, Water, etc. Be it so: and then oughtest thou to conclude thereupon, that seeing there is but one matter, there is also but one God; unto whose power thou oughtest not to deem any thing unpossible, seeing that of that one thing he maketh so many things, not only divers, but also contrary. For he that of one selfsame thing maketh both fire and water, doth he less than he which maketh that one thing itself?  
What wilt thou say then if I make thee to see that there is not that thing which hath not in itself a peculiar creation, or a property created, 
The particular Creation of all things.  which cannot be attributed to the matter whereof it consisteth, but is a greater thing than the matter itself, without the which, neither the matter, nor the elements, nor all the things that thou drawest out of them were any thing at all? And sith thou wilt needs play the Philosopher afore thou dost believe; I demand of thee whether things in their nature have their being from matter or from form? If from matter: why is a Plant rather a Plant than a metal, seeing that (by thine own saying) matter being but one, is no more one thing than another, ne inclined to one thing more than to another, nor bounded within any one particular substance otherwise than by form or fashion? And forasmuch as thou hast taken so great pains in resolving or bringing things back again into their first matter; whence cometh it that thy extractions or the things which thou drawest out of it, have so divers or contrary operations, if besides the matter itself there be not another substance which giveth them theirs?  
If things have their being from form; I demand again whether form be a substance or no. If it be not a substance, how can that which is not a substance make a substance, and how may an accident or income make an essential difference, & cause life, sense, and moving to be where they were not afore? And if it be a substance (as most Philosophers teach in express words) yea and a very perfect substance, as which perfecteth the matter and maketh it to be that which it is named to be: must it not needs follow, that he which gave this form shape or fashion to the matter, created a substance which was not afore, yea and a much more excellent substance than the matter which thou surmisest to have been afore it? Now, why should not he that was able to create the better, be also able to create the lesser good? Rightly therefore doth Aphrodiseus 
Aphrodisaeus in his first book of the Soul.  in his book of the Soul say, that the form shape or fashion which the Craftsman giveth to his work, is no more a substance than the art, craft, or cunning whereby he giveth it: but that the form which Nature giveth, is no less a substance than Nature itself is. Let us proceed further. Of the Metals, thou esteemest Gold & Silver: of the Herbs, thou esteemest some for food, and some for Physic: of the Beasts, thou esteemest some to eat, and some to serve thee: of men, (which yet notwithstanding make all but one kind) thou admittest and acceptest some for one purpose and some for an other. Now, if thy esteeming of them be for the matter whereof they consist; how is that matter but one? Or if it be for the form, as in respect whereof Gold is not the same that Lead is; is not that form a substance? And if it be a substance; shall it not follow that he which gave that shape form or fashion to the matter, is also the Creator of the matter itself? And seeing there is such difference of Metals, Herbs, Beasts, and Men; doth it not follow that there are as many diversities of Creation? And whereas he hath created all these diversities of substances, wouldst thou make him to fail in that one the bacest of all? What shall I say to it, that some one thing shall have divers powers, virtues and operations in divers parts thereof; so as it shallbe cold without and hot within, white in the outside and red in the substance, cold in the leaf and hot in the root, laxative in the pith and costiffe in the bark? As for example, the rind of the Orrendge is hot, and the meat within it is cold; the leaves of flowers of the wild Vine do cool, and the inner part of them doth burn. physicians report that the Lungs of a Hare healeth folk that are shortwinded; that the blood of him breaketh the Stone, and that the hear of him stauncheth blood. Have not these divers parts divers forms, besides the universal form of the thing whereof they be the parts? And are not these divers forms as many divers substances, and consequently as many Creations? The Adamant or loadstone draweth iron to him, and showeth continually the Northpole, and yet is disappointed of his force by Garlic. The Amber also draweth all light things unto it; Hors●yes laid to a man's heel make blisters in his bladder; Agaricke purgeth Phlegm, Rhubarb Choler, and Elleborus Melancholy. If these operations come of the matter alone, tell me how that may be. And why be not the same operations common to all things? Or if (as thou sayest) they come of a secret property; doth it not then come of the substantial form, seeing that nothing can be said to be that which it is, or to have any peculiar property, but by reason of the substantial form? Thou wilt perchance say, that it is the mingling of the Elements together that giveth form or shape. Nay: for if it be that mingling, where is then the foresaid common matter become? and what mingling together or what m●dley or mixture can be made of one selfsame thing? And if thy meaning be that the foresaid matter is a divers composiding of the Elements together; then is thy matter a▪ form compounded of divers forms. For wherein do the Elements (being so contrary) differ one from another, but in their essential forms? And if it be a mixture or Composition, where is then the eternity thereof? Moreover, we see that in Plants, Beasts, and Men, the Composition that is made of the mixture of the elements, abideth even when they be cut down or killed. For put a block into the fire, and the moisture that was in it when it grew a Tree boileth out with the heat, the air thereof steameth up into smoke, the fiery matter thereof burneth out in an oily substance, and the earthly parts thereof falleth down into ashes. And in all living wights aswell as in man, the outward lump (which thou wilt have to be composed of the mixture of the Elements,) remaineth whole after they be dead. But as for the Soul whereby the things have their life, sense, and reason; which Soul is the peculiar form both of Trees, Beasts and Men each after their kind: that appears no more when the thing is once dead. And therefore it followeth, that besides the matter (which is lifeless) and the mixture of the Elements, there is also a substantial form, which maketh the thing to be a Tree, a Beast, or a Man; and without the which it is not a Tree but a block, nor a Beast or a Man, but a dead Carcase or Carrion. Furthermore, when a Tree is dead, there remain still certain virtues both in the bark, and in the wood, and in the leaves thereof; which virtues are not only divers, but also sometime contraries, and those virtues proceed not of the matter, but of the substantial form. Whereof it followeth, that besides the form of the Plant which fadeth by the death of the Plant itself, there are also other forms peculiar to every part thereof, which abide after that the form of the whole Plant is perished. Now, if the mixture of the Elements cannot make the form whereby the upperkyndes differ one from another, as the senseless things from the things that have sense; and the things that have but only sense, from the things that have reason too; can it make the difference that is between the underkynds that are comprehended under every of the upperkynds; or between the particulars that belong to every underking; or between the several parts that are in every particular? If the mixture of the Elements (say I) make not a Tree to live, that is to say to be a Tree; shall it make it to heal, both some certain diseases, and also some certain parts of it, some certain parts of man? And if it make not a Beast to have sense, that is to say to be a Beast: can it make it to be a Lion, an Elephant, or a Stag? And if it make not a man to have life, sense, and moving; can it make him to speak, and to reason, one of one thing and another of another, each man according to his several inclination? But how should the Elements give life, which they themselves have not? or free moving, they themselves being carried up & down whether they will or no? or also sense, being themselves but the objects of our senses? Then must we conclude that the difference of the upperkynds from the underkynds, of the underkynds from the Particulars, and of their parts one from another, consisteth not in the matter whereof they be made, but in their form; and that the same form is the peculiar substance of every thing; and that look how many sundry sorts of forms there are, so many sundry sorts of creations there have been, all proceeding from the power of the Former or giver of them. And so, he that attributeth unto God the forming or fashioning of the World, must whether he will or no attribute unto him the power of creating it also. For without creating of a new substance (what matter soever ye presuppose to have been afore) he had not created the World in such sort as it is. And he that was able to create any one of them, was able to create them all. For like might and power is requisite to the creating of an Emet as of an Elephant, of a Pond as of the Sea, of a piece of the world as of the whole world.  
They proceed on still with their Chimere. 
The Peripatetics.  God (say they) draweth the form out of the Ability of the matter. Let us examine this doterie yet further. Ability (saith Aristotle) is the beginning of moving and of change. Also there are (say his Disciples) two sorts of Ability: the one which worketh the said beginning in the other, and that is God; and the other which suffereth the moving and change at the others hand, and that is matter or stuff, which by the moving wrought into it by the other, receiveth his perfection which is termed Form. Now, I demand whether this passive Ability of the matter, be a quality or a substance. They dare not say it is a substance; for were it a substance, then even by their own doctrine it were a form also: and wheresoever is a form, there is also an act, and that is more than an ability: but matter (as they say) is a mere ability. And if they say it is a Quality, (as Aristotle himself affirmeth): then followeth it that God draweth a substance out of the quality of an accident. Now, he that draweth the very Essence or being of things out of the passive ability of an other, can much more draw it out of his own active ability or workfull power. For shall he be barren of himself, which maketh a quality (yea and less than a simple quality) fruitful in bringing forth so many things? And seeing that Quality and Substance and all the highest kinds of Contraries be (as they teach) further differing one from another than fire from water; and also that quality and accident are nothing of themselves: shall it not follow that God is able to create substances of nothing? Surely it is the saying of Trismegistus in many places, that God created the World and all that is therein; and man with all his parts by his most fruitful word: and also that the will of God was the breeder of the Elements. Pythagoras and all the old Divines affirm, that God or the only One is the beginner of all things, yea even of the first matter, as Simplicius 
Simplicius upon the naturals.  reporteth in alleging the record of Eudorus. And Syrian the Master of Simplicius saith, that in that behalf Plato followed Archenetus and Brotinus, 
Syrian upon the Supernaturals.  which agreed with Pythagoras. And in very deed he telleth us, that to speak properly, Matter is no Essence at all, nor can be conceived otherwise than by a bastard reason, that is to wit by imagining it void of all shape, and consequently also void of all being.  
As touching Aristotle, he maketh matter to be the first beginning of all things. But if he believed the world to have been beginninglesse according to his own teaching; where is this beginning become? Also he disproveth the Chaos with very lively reasons; and to scape that, he holdeth himself to the eternity, which is quite and clean against him. But howsoever the case stand, it is fully agreed upon among his most approved interpreters, that these names of Matter, Form, and Privation, serve not too bet●ken things truly being the same whereof they pretend the names; but only are invented to teach their scho●lers, after what manner things are bred & corrupted, by putting of one shape and putting on another? And whereas he saith that the power of all life seemeth to be partaker of some divine thing, & better than the Elements; and that the Soul of man hath his being from without, 
Aristotle in his second book of the breed of living things. chap. 3.  and not from the elements or from matter as the body hath: And that all Souls are forms, and all forms are substances: Doth he not make God to be the creater of substances, yea and of better substances than the elements? again, when he saith that the knitting parts that is to wit the bones, the skin, the Sinews and such like may be made of the mixing together of the elements, and that the unknitting parts as the Head, 
Aristotle in his 4● book of Meteores, Chap. 10.  the Leg, the Arm, and so forth cannot be so made, but are made by nature and heavenly skill; insomuch that the proper essence and form of the knitters, proceedeth neither of heat nor of cold, of moisture nor of dryth: Doth he not acknowledge in every several part a several form and substance which cometh from some other where, than of the matter or of the mixture of the elements? 
Aristotle in his second book of the breed of living wights, towards the end.  And sith he saith in another place, that it were possible to have such a conjunction of the heavenly bodies, as might produce not only an efficient cause, but also even matter itself for the creating and bringing forth of living things, yea and of mankind also: why should he have thought it uncredible, that GOD who dwelleth very far above such Conjunctions, should be able to do the like? 
Arist. in his probl. sect. 10. probl. 64.  Also we see that Theophrast the greatest Clerk of all his Disciples, findeth himself so graveled in his book of Savours or Scents, by reason of the particular natures of things, that he bursteth out into express words, and sayeth that God created all things of nothing. 
Aphr. probl. 1.  And Algazel the Arabian disputing against Auerrhoes, sayeth that the cause of all things, did also make matter itself. Also Aphrodiseus declareth in his problems, that the philosophers were fain to refer the effects and virtues of many things, to some other thing than to the Elements. And if they could not father them upon the Elements, how could they father them upon matter or stuff, seeing that the Elements have power and force to do, whereas matter hath ability but only to suffer or to be wrought upon. And if they could not father them upon matter; upon what else should they father them than upon God, who hath created both the property and the substance of them together?  
The Platonists 
The Platonists  that wrote since the coming of Christ, have given liberty too their own brains, to gad out into a thousand imaginations. But whereas Plotin 
Plotin in his book of Contemplation & of the One.  telleth us that God's actions and effects, are contemplations which imprint in nature the seeds of all things: he teacheth us too thrust far from us such brutish questions as these; namely, Of what kind of stuff did God frame the world? And with what tools did he it? which are further of from the nature of the Godhead, than our doings are from mere contemplations. For what else is contemplation (according to their own docttine) than to be wholly severed from matter? He speaketh often of the first matter, but how doth he describe it? He sayeth that the very matter itself which is joined too the form hath not any true being, and he termeth it The being of a Notbeeing, that is to say, a thing, that in deed is not; and that doth he too distinguish these transitory natures from the very Being of God, which he termeth The supersubstantial Being. But as for the first matter, he calleth it The very Notbeeing that is too say an imaginative thing which hath not any being at all in deed; as if ye would say (as he himself addeth) a certain unshapednesse, which is the cause of all mishapennesse, the chief default or want; which is the cause of all the defaults or wants that are in particular things; the very evil, which is the original of all evils; and to be short, a thing that can neither be known nor imagined, otherwise than we imagine what Darkness is by the knowledge of light; namely an utter absence of all light.  
Yea, but (will some man say) Although it be not an Essence, yet ought it at the least to be a Quality; and by his terming of it an Evil he seemeth after a sort to make it a quality. 
Plotin in his 1. book Enne. 2. Whence evil cometh.  Nay; like as (saith he) when we call the first of all Beings by the name of Goodness, we mean not that that Goodness is in him a Quality, but a very substance, yea and more than a substance: So when we call Matter by the name of Evil, our meaning is not that it is a Quality or hath any Quality in it; But that it is no Quality ne hath Quality in it: For had it any Quality in it, than should it be a Substance, and consequently a shape or form too; but it is not any form at all. 
Ennea. 2. lib. 4.  That in effect is the sum of his book concerning evil and the original thereof. In his book of Matter, he declareth that there was a matter, (for he would not else have made books thereof in vain;) but yet he saith that the same was neither essence, quality, nor quantity, nor had any essence, quality or quantity in it; ne differed any whit from privation, saving in this respect, that privation is verified as in respect of some subject or substance that is bereft of some thing that is peculiar or incident unto it, whereas Matter is an universal and utter want of all things, that is to say a thing far worse than privation. And yet for all this, he will not have it to be utterly nothing at all, but as a waist or empty space, a thing without bounds, a being without being. And what or where then shall that be? At length he findeth it in the world that is to be conceived but only in understanding, that is to say in God, in whom he will have it to abide as a form or pattern of the universal mass of all things. What a ranging is here abroad to fall always into one selfsame path again? Might he not with more ease have confessed plainly, that God is both the formal and the material cause of all things, that is to say, the Creator former and shaper of all things by his wisdom and power? 
Plo●n in his book of Providence, & Enn●d. 6. lib. 1. Chapt. 17.  Again, whereas in other places he telleth us, that Matter being itself no essence at all, cannot be the cause of the particular beings of so many sundry things; nor having no life, be the cause of life, but that both life and being are breathed into all things from without, even from the sovereign mind: doth he not jump with us, which say that GOD created all substances of nothing? And if he could create that which was, and give unto it both being and life: could he not also forbear the thing that was not, that is to say matter? Atticus and his adherents would needs bear Plato down by reason of certain sentences of his Timeus and of his Commonwealematters misunderstood, that matter was eternal as well as God, howbeit that the same being void of reason, was brought unto reason by him that is the very reason itself. With these fellows we ourselves shall not need to deal, but only hear Porphyrius 
Porphyry upon Timaeus.  disproving them after this manner. If neither God (saith he) be of Matter, nor Matter of God, but both of them be Beginnings alike; whereof then cometh it that there is so great odds betwixt them, sith we hold opinion that God is Good and the very worker or Doer, and contrariwise that Matter is Evil, and but only a Sufferer? The cause of this difference cannot proceed from the one to the other, at leastwise if our saying be true: namely, that the one of them is not of the other. And much less proceedeth it of any third, considering that we acknowledge not any higher cause: which being admitted, it followeth that these two so disagreeable Beginnings met and matched together by chance, and consequently that all things are tossed and tumbled together by Fortune. Again, If God (saith he) be apt to the beautifying and orderly disposing of Matter; and Matter be apt to receive beauty and orderlines at God's hand; I demand from whence this mutual aptness and disposition cometh? For considering that they be so disagreeing and so full contrary one to another; surely they could never have agreed of themselves, but must of necessity have had a Third to make the atonement betwixt them. Now I am sure you will not say that there was any third to command them: Neither will I believe, that they fell to greement by adventure. To be short, seeing that Matter is not sufficient of itself to be in happy state, but needeth Gods help thereunto; but God is of himself abundantly sufficient, both to be, and to be happy: who seethe not that GOD is of more excellency than Matter, and that Matter is not of itself so much as able to be? For were it able to be, it were also able to be happy. And therefore it is not to be denied, but that he whom we confess to have perfected Matter, was also the very first maker and Creator of Matter. But how could he make it of nothing? Let us hear once again what the said Porphyry saith unto this point. handicrafts (saith he) have need of instruments or tools. For their working is outwa●●●, and they have not their matter or stuff at commandment. But the natural Powers as more perfect, & being within things, do perform all their doings by their only being. After that sort the Soul by his essential life, doth nourish, grow, engender, breath, feel, and so forth. So likewise the Imagination, by the only one Inworking of itself, giveth divers qualities and movings to the body, all at one instant. So also the bodiless Spirits themselves, (as the Divines report) do work wondrous things by their imaginations, without instrument or action. Much rather therefore shall the workemayster of the whole world who is a Mind, give substance to the whole by his own only being, that is to wit, to this dividable world, himself being undividable. For why should it be thought strange, that a thing which is without a body, should produce things that have bodies, considering that of a very small seed there groweth so great a Beast, composed of so many, so great, and so differing parts? For though the seed be little, the reason of the seed cannot be small, seeing it worketh so great things: neither on the other side can it be great, forasmuch as it uttereth and showeth itself even in the smallest parcels. Now, this reason of the seed needeth matter to work upon, but so doth not the Reason of God; for he needeth not any thing, but maketh and frameth all things; and notwithstanding that he bring forth and moveth all things, yet abideth he still in his own proper nature. Now, when as the sorest and learneddest enemy that ever Christians had, acknowledgeth this doctrine in good faith and in so express words who dareth open his lips any more against it? Dare the Epicures with their motes do it? How can they allege any reason for themselves, being by their own opinion made by haphazard at adventure without reason? Or shall the natural Philosophers do it, with their tempering and mixtures? First let them examine their Master Galene, concerning the things which I have alleged out of him in the former Chapter: and if that will not suffice them, they shall hear him yet again in this Chapter. certes as it cannot be denied, but that as he laboureth by all means possible, to father the causes of all things upon the Elements, and upon the mixture of them together: so is he driven at every turn, to acknowledge somewhat in them which he is ashamed to father upon them. In discoursing how the babe is form in the mother's womb, he findeth himself turmoiled with many opinions. 
Galen in his book of the fashioning of infants in their mother's womb.  But yet in the end, Sooth (concludeth he) I see so great a wisdom, and so mighty a Power, that I cannot think that the Soul which is in the child that is begotten, maketh the shape thereof, considering that it is altogether void of reason; but rather that it is form by that which we call Nature. In his book of the tempering of things, a place that served best for the exalting of the powers of the Elements to the uttermost; 
In his second book of Tempering.  he very sharply reproveth those which father the cause of the forming of the parts of the bodies of living things, upon the qualities of the Elements. Notwithstanding (saith he) that these Qualities be but instruments, and that there be another that is the framer or fashioner of things. In his book of the opinions of Plato and Hypocrates, he maketh the vital spirit to be the excellentest of all things that have a body: and yet for all that, he will not have it to be either the substance or the dwelling place, but only the instrument of the Soul. And in his book of fleshes he proceedeth further, & saith that in treating of Leachcraft he spoke often according to the common opinion: but that if it came to the point of uttering the opinion that he himself held, he declared that both man and Beast have their beginning from above, and that their Souls are from Heaven, and finally that the Soul proceedeth neither from the qualities of the Elements, nor from any of all the things that we see here beneath. Now, if the Soul of man, or of the very Beasts, proceed not of the Elements: how should it possibly proceed of the Matter? And if it proceed not of the Matter, must it not needs proceed of the form, or rather must it not needs be the very form itself? And what else is so excellent a form, than an excellent substance? And from whence is that (by his own saying) but from a former fashioner or shaper? And what else shall that former be, than a Creator, seeing that even shaping, is a creating of a substance?  
Now therefore, let us conclude for this Chapter, both by unsoluble reasons, and by the testimonies aswell of our enemies as of our friends; that God both was able to create and also did in deed create the World of nothing, that is to say, by his own only power, without the help of any thing whereof to make it. And (to comprehend in few words whatsoever I have treated of heretofore) that GOD of his own goodness wisdom and power, did make, shape, and create the World: that is to say, That (if a man may so say) he is the efficient formal and material cause thereof, without that he needed either help, pattern, or stuff to make it withal. And now let us consequently see the final cause: that is to wit, how and to what end he guideth it: which shall serve for the next Chapter following.   

The xj. Chapter.  
That God governeth the World and all things therein by his Providence.  
ARistotle was wont to say, that the diversity of Questions ought also to have diversity of Answers. Some (saith he) do ask whether Fire be hot: & these must be made to perceive it by touching it; for their sense is sufficient to shape them an answer. Some demand whether their father & mother be to be honoured; & such are not worthy to be disputed with, but rather to be rebuked right sharply. And others desire to have it proved to them by apparent reasons, that there is a Providence which ruleth the world. Such kind of folk (saith he) should be answered by a whip or a hangman, and not by a Philosopher. His meaning was in few words, that there is not any thing so sensible and natural, nor any thing whereof the feeling is so fresh in our senses, or so deeply printed in our nature, as God's providence over the world: and that we ought to think it more sure, than the things which we feel with our hands, or than the things whereof our own Conscience convicteth us. For in that he ordaineth a greater punishment for him that doubteth of God's providence, than for him that resisteth sense and nature; he doth us to understand, that the fault is untolerable, as the which is either a manifest guile, or at leastwise an overgrosse ignorance, 
Ignorance next cousin unto Guile.  which the Lawyers affirm to be next ●owsen to guile. And in very deed, if the denying that there is any God, be a belying of a man's own senses, and of his own nature, and of all the whole world itself, as I have said afore: I cannot say but that the granting that there is a God, and yet notwithstanding to deny him the government of things, is more untolerable than the other; considering how great injury is offered unto him in confessing him after such a sort, as to attribute unto him eyes without sight, ears without hearing, might without mind, mind without reason, will without goodness, yea and a Godhead without properties peculiar to a Godhead: In respect whereof the ancient Philosophers called the Godhead itself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to ●ay God or Providence, becave the one cannot be imagined without the other. And therefore in their judgement, as much an Atheist was he that denied God's providence, as he that denied the Godhead itself. I demand of any man which confesseth that there is GOD, I say even of the savagest of them all, whereby he knoweth it? He will answer, by the orderly conveyance of things which he seethe both above and beneath; by the order which they keep without failing, and by the tending of so innumerable contrarieties to one mark; the Heaven heating the Earth, the Air moistening it, the Earth bringing forth Herbs, the Beasts feeding upon the same, and all serving for the use of man. It is all one therefore as if he should say, that he knoweth him by his Providence, and by the interlinking of all things together which he hath marked in them all. Again, he will say he hath perceived, in Metals, (as ye would say) certain wombs which nourish them and bring them forth; in Plants, a certain virtue which draweth their nourishment from the earth, and with very good proportion distributeth the same abroad from branch to branch, and from leaf to leaf; and which (as though it had a kind of understanding of the own mortality) bringeth forth a seed at such time as the decay thereof approacheth: and in Beasts also, that one member doth for another, and every of them for the whole; a desire to increase their kind; Doogges to give suck; and a skilful care to nourish and preserve their young ones: And he hath considered that none of all this could be so laid for aforehand by itself, and therefore that there was some other thing above them. Thus must it needs be, that he is led again by the consideration of the providence, to the knowing of God. Now, if the providence which we have marked, do make us to say that there is a GOD by mounting up from the effects to the causes of them; doth it not follow that Providence is the peculiar effect of God, and that he which denieth that, denieth the Godhead itself, forasmuch as the Godhead is not to be known but by the Providence?  
If God have no care of the world, I ask of thee whether it be for that he cannot, or for that he will not? If he cannot, how canst thou say he is almighty? Or how canst thou say he is infinite, seeing thou knowest the bounds of his power? Again, how canst thou call him wise, sith it is the property of wisdom to guide things to some certain end, and not to leave any thing subject to fortune? And seeing that his power and wisdom have extended to all things for the creating of them, who shall keep them from extending to all things for the ordering and maintaining of them? Besides this, the Plant hath no reason to guide itself, nor to preserve itself against that which is to come, and yet notwithstanding thou seest there a mind which furnisheth out all the parts thereof, and a wisdom which watcheth over it against that which is to come. The Beast also hath no more reason than the Plant, though it both feel and move. Yet is there an Inwit in it which the Beast knoweth not of, which Inwit concocteth, digesteth, and distributeth that which the beast hath eaten, and disperseth it forth into his parts by just proportion, watching for it when it sleepeth, and thinking upon it when it thinketh not thereon. It perceiveth (I wo●e not how) that it hath need of Earth, of Air, or of Nest to lay the young ones in: it provideth aforehand for the time to come, and shiftety countries according to the seasons of the year, cho●sing them out naturally, without failing at any time. In all these things there shineth forth a certain providence, which yet for all that, the beast neither knoweth nor conceiveth. Thou thyself which art endued with reason, hast a forecast, and by that forecast dost the things which other wights do by nature, or rather which nature (that is to say the foreordinance of the Creator doth for them,) the more whereof thou hast, the more also dost thou provide aforehand. For as little a worm as thou art, thou inventest a thousand trades and arts, which are everyone of them so many points of wisdom, and consequently as many providences. As much as thou canst, thou makest all things to stoop to thy lur●, thou appliest the rain and the drought, the heat and the cold, to thine own commodity: thou turnest the doings of thy neighbours, of the City and of thy Commonweal to thine own profit and honour: yea and if it were possible, thou wouldst apply the heaven, the earth, the sea, and oftentimes even God himself to thine own benefit. Now than who provideth for the Plants and for the brute beasts in whom thou seest so great providence though they themselves have none at all, but only he which made them? Or who directeth the Arrow to the mark, the Arrow (I say) which seethe not the mark, but the Archer who hath eyes for it? And cannot he provide for all, which giveth providence to all? And he that giveth it thee in such sort as thou the● by makest all things to stoop to thy Lure, whereas yet notwithstanding thou madest them not, and of whom thou scarcely knowest the names, is not he able to govern every one of them according to their nature, and too direct them, yea and thee too, unto the end that he hath purposed, seeing he hath made them? Again, if God be not able to provide for things, and to direct them to their end, how say we that he surmounteth all that ever we can imagine, sith we cannot deny, but that he which provides aforehand is of more ability than he that cannot. And if we can imagine any thing to be greater than he, why should not we ourselves be that thing? And if even in man, the ability of providing be better than the unability, seeing we uphold that whatsoever is excellent in ourselves, (which yet notwithstanding is but in measure and by participation,) the same is infinitely and originally in God: Why do we not grant that God by his infinite wisdom can direct all things to his end, as well as every thing can by their particular wisdom which he hath printed therein, provide for the things which the nature thereof requireth? Too be short, seeing that Providence 
What Providence is.  is nothing else but a wise guiding of things to their end, and that every reasonable mind that worketh, beginneth his work for some end, and that God (as I have said afore) the workmaster of all things, hath (or to say more truly) is the sovereign mind, 
All working of an understanding mind is to some end.  equal to his own power: doth it not follow that God in creating the world, did purpose an end? And what other could that end be, than himself and his own glory, considering that the end whereunto a thing tendeth, cannot be less good than that which tendeth unto it? and again that as far as his power extendeth in ability to create the world at the beginning, so far doth his wisdom extend in ability to guide and direct it to that end? And seeing that the beginner and the end of things (the Archer (I mean) and the mark that he shoots at) are both one, that is to wit God himself: can any thing cross him or encounter him by the way, to hinder his attaining thereunto? Well then thou seest now, that thou canst not deny GOD the government of the world, under pretence that he is unable.  
But you will say, that he will not vouchsafe to have a care thereof. How come you I pray you to be so privy to his will? Hath nature taught you? Nay, thou seest, in the Plants a certain inclination to nourish all their parts; in beasts, a charishnesse to bring up their young; in men, a desire to provide for their children and household; and in all folks a regard to the maintenance of the things which they have either made or manured. And him that doth otherwise thou esteemest to be, not a barbarous person or a wild beast, but a very block or a stone. Now then shall not he which hath given such inclination to all things, yea even to the very senseless creatures by his touching of them, shall not he himself (I say) have it for them all? Darest thou bereave him of that which thou takest to be a praise to thyself? or darest thou father that upon him, which thou takest to be an injury to thyself? Nay, like as this care is a spark of goodness, so he that is the goodness itself and the wellspring of all that ever is good in all things, sheddeth forth this care into all things by his goodness. He say I which hath vouchsafed to create us, will not disdain to preserve us. But forasmuch as it was his will to create us to some purpose, (for if nature do not any thing in vain, how much less doth he that created nature?) he will also guide us to that purposed end, by his wisdom.  
Let us see what things wickedness can allege against so manifest a doctrine. First of all steps me forth Epicurus, and denieth that he sees any providence at all in the world, but thinks to mark many things to the contrary in the whole world; 
Objections against God's Providence. Alphonse the tenth King of Spain said that if he had been with God at the creation of the world, it should have been much better ordered than it is: and God punished him for so saying. Roderik of Toledo in the sixth chap. of his 4. book.  whereby he will needs gather that there is no providence, no nor (if he durst say it) any God at al. For if there were a providence (saith he) why should Mountains occupy any part of the Earth? why should there be any wild beasts? why should there be any Sea? And of that little dry ground that is, why should two parts be uninhabitable, the one for over great heat, and the other for over great cold; and the third part be in danger to be unhabited also, were it not that men plucked up the briars and Thorns that would overgrow it? Why falleth the Snow upon the Corn, and the Frost upon the vines? Why blow the winds both on Sea and Land? To be short, why happen sicknesses and diseases according to the seasons of the year, and finally death? And at a word, why is man borne in worse case than the least thing that creepeth on the earth, and hath need of many things which all other wights may well forbear?  
Nay, he should rather have said, I see a thousand movings in the Heaven, whereof every one hath his peculiar end, and yet tend all nevertheless to one selfsame general end. I see them all carried by one universal moving, notwithstanding that every of them enforce themselves to the contrary by their own proper courses; and that this universal motion is moved by one Mover, which mover so overruling them, must needs be of sufficient power to rule them all, considering that even with one twinkling of an eye, he ruleth even the same Heaven that carrieth all the rest about. It followeth then that there is one principal mover, which governeth the Heaven and all the diversity contained therein. Again, I see that the Globe of the Earth and of Sea together, is in respect of the Heaven but a little point, or (as Pythagoras said) but as one of the least Stars: that the Moon ruleth the Tides of the Sea, and the Sun the seasons of the Earth, and they both are disposed by the course of the heaven. Whereupon I conclude, that he which ruleth the Heaven, ruleth both the Sun and the Moon, and that he which ruleth them, doth also rule both the Sea and the Earth. For how is it possible that he which ruleth the whole, should come short in ruling any part of the whole? Or how should the force of him be impeached by the Earth, which governeth those by whom the earth hath her force? Insomuch that if (to my seeming) his providence appear more lightsomly in the Heaven than in the Earth, (which yet notwithstanding is not so,) and I cannot yield a reason of all the things which I see: I will consider with myself that I have seen many instruments made by men as I myself am, whereof I see plainly the effects, but I conceive not the causes of them: Also that in other some I perceive well the use of some parts of them, namely of the greatest and notablest parts, but as for the smaller parts, as the vices, Nails, pings, Rivers, Buttons and such like, I have thought them to be but bywoorks, and yet without them the residue could not hold together, nor perform that which they were made for: and although they were taken all a sunder, and showed me severally one by one; yet could I hardly conceive them. Yea and moreover that I myself have made some, whereof my Servants and Children have not perceived the reason at all, but would have burned them in the fire as serving to no use. And therefore I will praise GOD in the things which I know, wonder at him in the things which I conceive not, and rather think myself (who am as nothing) to want wit and understanding, than misdeem him that is the maker of all things too be faulty in his providence. But sith fools must be answered to their follies, lest they should think themselves wise; and that the wisdom of these folk consisteth all together in putting forth questions, and in answering to nothing: let us examine these goodly demands over from point to point. 
The objection of Mountains.  If there be a Providence (say they) whereto serve the Mountains? Nay, say rather, if all were of one sort, where were then Providence? For what else is Providence, but a disposing of many sundry things to some one end? And how can any such disposing be, where there is but one selfsame thing everywhere throughout? Bruit beast that thou art! So would an Ant speak of thee. It would ask whereto served the rising of thy nose above thy face, or of thy brows above thine eyes, or of thy ribs above the rest of thy body; all which are higher above thy body, than the Mountains are above the Plains of the earth. Thou esteemest greatly of the beauty that is in thy face, and of the proportion that is in thy body; insomuch that thou fallest even in love with them in another; and yet thou wilt find fault with it in the whole world, as a deformity and want of order. But thou Lucrece, durst thou (I pray thee) be so bold as to speak so of a Painter? Or would it not offend thee if another man should speak so grossly of thy books? If a man should find fault with the shadowing of a picture in a table; it would be answered that the Shoemaker ought not to presume above the Pantople. For without the black, the white could have no grace; neither could the bright be set out, without a dimming; nor difference and proportion of parts appear, without a medley of contrary resemblance; nor finally the ●unning of the Painter be perceived, without diversity of colours. Also he that should find fault with the art of thy book, having red but some pieces of it here and there; should by and by be answered by the Lawyer, That a man cannot judge of the Law, without reading it wholly throughout. And if there happen any absurdity; by and by there starts me up a whole world of Grammarians, which enforce their wits to the uttermost to excuse it, and to find some elegancy in thine uncongruities. Alleging that that which is unseemly in the part, beautifieth the whole work, and the shadow more than the perfect colour, and the dim more than the bright, when they be fitly placed. All the commendation of these painted things, consisteth in their diversities. Insomuch that if thou see a Plain overhanged with a shady Rock, or a dankish den at the head of a River springing out of it; thou likest the better of the table for it, and praisest the Painter the more for his skill. Surely it is not possible that the Plain should please thee more than the Hills, or the River more than the Rocks, but that neither without other could please thee at all. Now, if thou didst consider the World as the work of God, and the Mountains and other parts which thou mislikest, not in themselves but as they be small pieces of that work; doubtless thou wouldst say as much thereof. And therefore sith thou canst not at one view behold all the whole world together, to judge of the proportion of the whole mass and of the several parts thereof at one instant; learn to commend the cunning of the workmaster in the things which thou thinkest thyself to understand, rather than to call it into question, for the things which thou understandest not.  
But let us see further what reason thou hast to complain. Thou wouldst shun both Rain, hail, & Frost. Behold, the Mountains furnish thee with wood and Timber to house thee, to shelter thee, and to make thee warm. Thou followest the commodity of Traffic; and behold, they serve thy turn with Rivers from East, West, North, and South, making way from the midst of the Land to the Sea, and joining the Coasts of Sea and Land together. The ambition of thy neighbours is suspected of thee, and thine perchance is noisome unto them: the high Mountains are as bounds to separate Nations asunder, and to keep them from encroaching one upon another. I omit the Wines and fruits which they yield forth, the clear waters which they shed out, the flocks and herds of cattle which they feed, and the pleasant dwellings which they convey in them. If thou couldst find as many things in thy bare Plain alone, I would give thee leave to complain of the Mountains. Nay, on the contrary part, if thou hadst felt the discommodities of the Plains of Lybie; or but only of the Plains of Beawsse, or of the Desert of Champaign, thou wouldst by and by wish that all were Mountains; and yet notwithstanding, if all were plain, or all were hilground, thou couldst not tell how to commend or discommend either of them both. Now then, let this stand for an answer to all those Philosophers which take upon them to control the parts of a work which they conceive not whole. For, to blame the whole World for the Mountains sake, or the Mountain for the Woods that grow thereon, is all one as if ye should find fault with the whole man for less than a wert or a hear; when as yet notwithstanding, in an old man thou honourest the same hear which the Barber cutteth off and casteth into the fire, yea and thou honourest the old man for the very same.  
But let us proceed with the rest of their arguments. Thou complainest of the wild Beasts; 
wild Beasts.  And who hath made them wild but thyself? Nay rather, thou shouldest wonder at the providence of God, who (as Apollonius hath well marked) hath printed such an awe of man in them, that they hurt him not unless they be assaulted or pinched with extreme hunger. And therein what do they more than man would do in like extremity? But thou hast yet further cause to wonder at his providence, in that the Beasts which might hurt thee, go single alone by themselves, and haunt the Coverts and Caves of the earth, and make but small increase; whereas the Beasts which are for thy benefit, how huge and strong soever they be, come home familiarly to thee, submitting themselves in whole flocks and herds to a Child, and increasing into thousands within small tyme. Tell me in good earnest, is it a work of fortune, that the Beasts which may annoy thy life do shun thee, and that those with whose life thou maynteynest thine own life, should come and offer themselves unto thee?  
But the Sea displeaseth thee for occupying so much of the Earth. Wart thou a dweller in the Sea as thou art on the Land, the Earth would displease thee for occupying so much of the Sea. 
The Sea, Aristotle concludeth that there is a Providence, because the earth is uncovered, which the Sea as the higher element would else overwhelm. In his book of Wonders.  And yet what a deal thereof is still empty, which were sit to be inhabited? Know thou, that thou art beholden to it for the great number of living wights which it fostereth for thee, for the great number of Towns and Cities which it enricheth for thee; for the Navigations whereby it shorteneth thy way and yieldeth thee Traffic; and for his vapours wherewith he maintaineth the air and maketh the earth fat. For put the case that the Sea were dried up at an instant: what a number of Cities thinkest thou should be seen desolate and Nations desert, when men should be in case with the drought, as Fishes are that be left on dry ground at the going away of the tide? Why shouldest thou not rather commend the beneficialnes thereof the more, in that not thinking it enough to lend itself to thee to do thee service otherwise: it also teacheth thee the mighty providence and provident might of him that made it, when thou seest it overdreepe the earth, and threaten it with drowning every minute of an hour, and yet is not able to pass his bounds: or when thou seest it seek to environ a great Country round about as though it were to embrace it; and yet to stay at a very narrow baulk, or else to wind itself into the bowels of the Land at a narrow channel; whereas notwithstanding an infinite sort of little Isles are settled in the midst of the deep, like a sort of small motes in a Pond. For, seeing that thou seekest thy commodity and profit thereby, thinkest thou not that he also seeketh his glory? And though thou hadst none other profit by it, were it not very much for thee to have had it as a ground and matter wherefore to magnify him?  
The Winds 
The wind  perchance do make thee to hate it: for thou must needs have a saying to them too; and yet on the other side, if it hold calm, thou art weary of it. But couldst thou without them have known the tenth part of the Earth? How couldst thou have discovered the Land of Perow and the Isles of Moluckes? Nay, how couldst thou have come to the nearest Isles unto thee, without them? Now, if thou like of the Wind when it is favourable to thee; why should not another man that hath to do in a contrary Coast, like well of it when it is contrary to thee? And if both of you find fault with the storminesse thereof; know ye that he which made it willbe glorified thereby, in that he doth thee to understand, that he is able to meet with thee both on Sea and Land, and thou art taught to call upon him, when the selfsame wind which hath carried thee at thy pleasure, is ready to dash thee against the Land.  
But of that little of the dry ground which remaineth, two parts (sayest thou) be unhabitable. 
The Earth unhabitable.  Who told thee so? Nay rather, why dost thou not conclude thereupon, that there is a Creator; seeing that even in thy time those parts were not inhabited? Surely the Winds whom thou blamest so much, have taught us that in those Climates are goodly Countries, people of better health and greater strength than we, more beautiful Cities, and more delicate fruits; and we find them so temperate, that we forsake the temperatest Countries here, to go thither. The days and years are measured otherwise in one Country than in another: but yet in this variety there is a constancy: and the one selfsame Sun which maketh so many diversities, doth thee to understand, that he which made the Sun could well make the other things. To be short, there is so great eunning in all these things, that thou hast been enforced to make an Art for the learning of them. And what else is an Art, but the setting of divers Rules in order together? And if Art be so needful for the knowing of them; who will not say that there is much more Art in the thing itself?  
Thou blamest the Thorns briars and Bushes for covering the earth: but thou considerest not into how many mischiefs idleness plungeth thee. Thou blamest the Frost and Snow for hindering thy Husbandry, whereas in deed they twitch thee by the ear, to put thee in mind that the foison of the earth cometh of God. Thou blamest the Rain for wetting thee; whereas yet notwithstanding it moisteneth thy grounds and makes them fat. At a word, thou playest the babe, who thinks his Nurse does him wrong when she combs his head or puts on his clothes, or rather when sometimes she plucks a firesticke from him, or takes a knife out of his hand: that is to say, thou misconstrewest all the good which the bountiful providence of God doth unto thee.  
But in the end (sayest thou) why be we not able to help ourselves assoon as we be borne? 
The birth of man..  Why be we subject to so many diseases, and in the end to death? I will not now press thee with that which I will speak of hereafter: namely, that for all these things none is to blame but thyself: for even in the same things which thou findest fault with, I will show thee still to thy face, the providence of God. The babe is borne without ability to help himself, and hath none other skill at all but to cry. Contrariwise the bruit Beast is no sooner come from his Dam, but he is able to go. Be it so. Yet notwithstanding, of all these babes (which to thy seeming are but as forlorn things) none dieth for want of nurse or nourishment, though there be nothing but pain and care in bringing them up. Therefore it must needs follow, that even from the beginning, a certain providence hath watched over them, which hath engraven this kindly affection and carefulness in the mother's breast; and the less that babes can do for themselves, the more manifestly doth God's power shine forth in providing for them. As for the bruit Beasts, it was not requisite for them to be brought into the world in that sort, forasmuch as being unable to conceive reason, they had no interest at all in the knowledge of those things.  
As touching diseases, 
Sicknesses and Diseases.  if thou blame the seasons of the year for them; thou mayst as well blame the fire for burning thee, which yet notwithstanding thou canst not forbear: For the fault is in thine own undiscréetnesse, and not in their nature; and in thine own unruliness, and not in their distemperance. The selfsame heat wherewith thou findest fault, ripeneth the Corn, Wine, and Fruits wherewith the most part of the world are fed. And if thou think that any man be thereby cast into an Ague; he might have forborn the to have gone into the Sun, but he could not have forborn the shining of the Sun upon the earth. But if fathers of households have rods at hand to correct their children withal, and that a part of their government consist therein: thinkest thou it strange 〈◊〉 he which hath set us in the World, should have means to 〈◊〉 us in awe, & to bring us home to him? What wilt thou say 〈◊〉 a number of diseases, which are as certain fruits of some vices & sins? as one of Drunkenness; and another of Lechery, and so forth? Or what wilt thou say to Hypocrates himself, who speaking of ordinary sores and diseases, enjoineth the Physician in any wise to consider well, whether there be any peculiar stroke of God in them or no? that is to say, whether the sickness or disease be extraordinary, so as the proper and nearest cause thereof, be the hand of God upon the party? Now furthermore, if there be nothing but disorder and wretchedness in this World; why blamest thou death, which maketh thee to departed out of it? If it be because thou hast goods which thou art loath to forego: thou must consider that if thy parents had not given place to thee by order of Nature, those goods had now been none of thine. If it be because Death maketh clean riddance of most things; think also that in so doing it maketh place for other more that are to spring up in their place. But yet if thou wouldst consider how often men go to seek Death where it seemeth to be dolven most deep, and yet find it not; how many meet with it at Banquets, at Feasts, at Marriages, at Triumphs, and where they would most feignest forget it; how many there be which die young and in good health; and how many live fore diseased even to the depth of old age; how many return safe from most cruel Battles, to die in their beds; and how many die in battle or in some fray, which have shunned strife and tumult all their life long: thou shalt easily perceive that our life and our death are not in our own hand, ne yet depend upon fortune, forasmuch as we scape so many places where fortune seemeth to reign; and that much less doth our life and death depend upon Nature, seeing it is not with us as it is with Trees and other living things to whom there is set a certain term, which for the most part they fulfil and overpass it not: but that our life and death depend upon a higher cause, whose only will disposeth and boundeth them, accordingly as is expedient for his own glory, for the order of the whole, yea and for ourselves too.  
Had it not been better than (sayest thou) that man had been made immortal rather than mortal? And had it not been much better also (I say) that the earth had rather been fire than earth, or that the ear had rather been eye than ear, seeing that the one is more excellent than the other, and in the opinion of the Philosophers it is better to have qualities active than passive? Had the earth been fire, where couldst thou have rested? And if thine ears had been eyes, what had become of thy speech, yea & of thy reason too? Now therefore my friend, give this world leave to be a world, that is to wit a disposing of divers things, and an order of many degrees. Every kind of thing hath his bounds and buttelles, accordingly as God hath listed to appoint thereto. The Plant is a Plant because it doth but live and grow; if it had sense also, them should it be a Beast. A Beast is a Beast, because it liveth and hath sense: if it proceeded so far as to have reason also, then were it a man.. Man reasoneth and discourseth because he is Man; and were he thereto unchangeable, he were a God. He therefore that demandeth why the Plant hath no sense, and why Man is not immortal in this World; demandeth why the Plant is a Plant, and why Man is man.. To be short, the cause why it is so, is that it hath pleased God to set as it were the divers strings of the World in tune to make one harmony, insomuch that whosoever taketh away the diversity of things, taketh away the World itself.  
But this is a point whereon they greatly stand. Well say they, Admit that the divine Providence have established the World, yea and that it have an universal care thereof: Yet to toil itself in the cark and care of so many particular things, 
Objection of base and vile things.  specially in this sink here beneath, I mean in this elemental world which is subject to so many changes; seemeth rather worthy of dispraise than of praise. Nay say I, but if it be a praise unto God to have created all things as well beneath as above; what discommendation can it be unto him to preserve them all? And seeing he made them all of nothing, whence proceedeth their worthiness or unworthiness but of his will? Why should the cloth of Gold be of more account than the cloth of Hemp, or the Silk of more account than the Linen, to the Painter that painted them both? If God govern the Heaven, why should he not also govern the Earth, whereon do go so infinite sorts of living things, in every of the which, yea even in the Fly and the Ant, the greatness of the Creator shineth forth more than in the very Heaven: as namely in their so lively life, so ready use of senses, so nimble and free moving, yea and in the very littleness of them, which in so small room containeth so many great things together? For we wonder more at the Clockmakers cunning in making a Clock which a Fly may cover with her wings, than in making a Clock of great compass, where the very greatness if self diminisheth the estimation thereof. If thou be afraid lest the spirit of God should soil itself in these corruptible things; remember that look with what mind Cincinnatus commanded his men of War and ruled the Commonweal, with the very same mind did he both till and dung his ground, and yet thou countest him never the more defiled or imbased thereby. The selfsame Sun which giveth light in the Sky, pierceth through the dark Clouds and foggy Mists, drieth up drawghts and Sinks, and sheddeth forth his beams even into the things which seem most filthy and loathly; and yet he himself is not blemished or defiled therewith. Now then, art thou afraid lest God who careth for all things without care, moveth them without touching them, and attaineth to them without putting himself forth, is not able to wéeld these lower things without defile himself by them? But it were more convenient (saith Aristotle) that God should deal with the great things himself, as the King of Persia doth in his privy Chamber, and that he should leave the care of the smaller things to his Princes. As who would say, that the Gardyner which hath sowed both the great Cabbage and the little Turnip, both the Gourd and the Melone, should make more account of the one for the greatness thereof, than of the other for the smallness thereof. Or as though thou wouldst not also the more wonder at the King, if without stirring out of his privy Chamber, he could appoint all things to be done, or rather do all the things himself which other men do. What is the thing (I pray thee) which thou commendest in Mithridates, but that he could call all his Soldiers every one by his own name? Or in Philip King of Macedon, but that he himself made the provision for all his whole Host, even for their carriages and for fodder for their Beasts? Or in the great Captains of our time; but that they can skill, not only to make War and to order their Battles, but also to set down what the daily expenses of their Armies will come unto, even to every loaf of bread and every bottle of Hay? and well near within one or two shot, how many shot of the Cannon will make a breach in such a wall or such a Bulwark, and so forth? Or finally in this Captain or that, saving that this Captain could skill to set the Sun upon the face of his enemies; and another to cast the wind, the dust or the smoke in their eyes; and another to serve his own turn by a Marris; and some other to draw his enemy into a miry and dirty Country? And what viler or base things can there be than these aforerehearsed? Finally what is it that ye commend in the skilfullest Warriors of them all, but that they could skill to serve their own turn? Or in the most glorious Conquerors, but that they got the victory in the end? And so thou must needs grant that whereas the Counterparties failed to do the like, it was not for want of courage or goodwill, but for want of power or skill. Now, whatsoever is in the whole World, is the Army or Host of God, an Army or Host (I say) not which he hath gathered of his neighbours, but which he hath created with his own hands? He knoweth all the Stars by name; for he made them. He hath provided food for all living things, and one of them is no greater to him than another: for they have no being at all any longer than he listeth. If he make war here beneath, all his Armies are ready to do him service and to wage battle under his Banner, yea even the ambitiousness of Princes to punish themselves one by another. If Nations wax proud; he armeth against them the grasshoppers, and the Locusts, the Horefrostes and the Blastings, the Winds and the Uapors of the Earth. In every of us he hath his inlookers' to chastise us; in our flesh, our corruptions; in our mind, our passions; and in our Souls, our sins and disorders. There is not so small a thing, which serveth not him to very great purpose; nor thing so vile, which serveth not his glory; nor thing so enemylike, which fighteth not to get him the victory; nor thing so wrongful, which executeth not his justice; nor thing so much against him, which hitteth not the mark that he aimeth at. Therefore plead not in this behalf unadvisedly for God's glory. For, the more stirring, the more change, the more disorder there is here beneath; the more doth he show the unmovable decree of his everlasting Providence, which (will they or nill they) directeth all the uncoustancies of this world to one certain end. And if perchance thou be afraid lest GOD should be tired with the pain and travel: (for he hath need of thine ungodliness to relieve him) consider how thine own Soul, without any toil to itself, and without thy privity, doth at one selfsame instant both provide for the sustaining of thee, and make all thy parts to grow, every of them according to his peculiar portion and proportion, giving sense even to thy nails and the hears of thy head, which are but outgrowing and not parts of thy body. And if thou wilt know how this Providence is occupied without toil; consider how that thy Soul (notwithstanding all the business which thy Soul doth without thy thinking thereon) forbeareth not also in the mean while to mount up even unto heaven, and by the discourses thereof to turmoil the whole Earth; to lay for the maintenance and defence of innumerable howsholds, & likewise for the decay and overthrow of as many others; and to search into the dealings of the enemy, to make them to serve his own turn; to treat both of War and Peace together at one time, and with the selfsame persons both at once. And darest thou now think that God is toiled in the things which thou thyself dost without toil? Or that he is tired with the governments wherein thou wouldst take pleasure? Or that he being a free and infinite Spirit, doth not that in a limited body, which thy Soul being finite in itself, doth in thy body where it is as in a prison? To be short, seeing thou presumest to do thy will with the things whereof thou canst not make one hear; shall GOD be unable to do his will with the things which he of his own only will hath made and created? The virtue that is in a kernel or a Plant, sheddeth itself from the root to the uttermost branches, yielding nourishment severally to the stock or stalk, to the pith, to the bark, to the flowers, to the leaves, and to the fruit, to every of them according to the proportion and nature thereof. The Sun itself in keeping his course, and without minding any such thing, yieldeth heat to innumerable Plants, and to innumerable people; and yet heateth not himself one whit the more. Now, if a creature do so: what shall we say of the Creator? What shall we say of him which is not the Soul of the Plant, or of the Beast, or of Man; but the maker of all things, yea which made them of nothing, who is not (as some Philosophers have upheld) the Soul of the World; but rather (if he may be so termed) the very life and Soul of all life and Soul in the World? But as we see daily, if the Counsel of a Realm can not cease one week, without confusion of the Commonweal; nor the Soul of a man or a Beast, forbear working be it never so little, without the death of the party; nor the life that is in Plants stay without withering of the Plant; nor the Sun go down without procuring darkness, or suffer Eclipse without some notable change: much more reason have we to believe, that if the world and all that is therein were not guided, upheld, and cared for by the same power wisdom and goodness that created it and set in such order as it is: it would in one moment fall from order into confusion, and from confusion to nothing. For, to have no care of it, is to mislike of it: and to mislike of it, is in God to undo it, forasmuch as God's willing of it, was the very doing of it. Now, if God's Providence extend itself throughout to all things, aswell in Heaven as in Earth: we cannot doubt but that it extendeth also unto man. For what thing is there of so great excellency, either on Earth as man's body, or in Heaven as man's Soul? And in extending itself to man, it must needs extend itself equally to all men. For who is either great or small, poor or rich, in respect of him which made both of nothing? Or what odds is there betwixt them, saving that whereas both of them be but slaves to him that setteth forth the tragedy, he appareleth the one in Cloth of Gold to play the King, and the other in a course Pilche to play the Beggar, making them to change their apparel when he listeth?  
But behold, here cometh almost an universal grudge. For if there be (say they) a Providence; how cometh it too pass that ill men have so much prosperity, and good men so much adversity? that some be so long unpunished, and othersome so long unrewarded? And to be short, that one for his wickedness cometh to the Gallows, and another for the same cause obtaineth a Diadem or Crown? 
This fellow for his lewdness got a Gibbet, He a Crown.  This question hath cumbered not only the most virtuous among the Heathen, but also even the most Religious of all ages. But it were best to take here a little breath, and to put it over among divers other things which remain to be treated of in the next Chapter following.   

The xii. Chapter.  
That all the evil which is done, or seemeth to be done, in the world, is subject to the providence of God.  
I Said heretofore concerning GOD, that all things teach us that there is but one, and yet notwithstanding that all things together cannot sufficiently teach us what he is. Also let us say concerning Providence, That in all things we see a manifest Providence; but yet to seek out the cause thereof in every thing, is as much as to sound a bottomless pit, if it be not much worse, seeing that the will of God is the cause of all causes. Surely if a man will blame God's providence, because it agreeth not with his own opinion; he is a thousandfold too be more misliked, than he that should find fault with the master of an household for the order of his house, where he hath not lodged above one night; or control the Laws & Counsel of a strange country, whereof he hath had no further experience than by resorting too the Taverns and common Inns: Or than the Babe that should take upon him to give sentence of his father's doings, or than the varlet that should presume to judge of the determination of a Court of Parliament, under pretence that he had held some man's Male at the Palace gate: or (I will say more) than the brute beast that should undertake too deem of the doings of men. For what are we to be admitted to the Counsel of God, which cannot so much as abide the brightness of his face? And what understand we further of him, than he vouchsafeth too reveal unto us? What Princis Counseler is so wise, that he can give his Lord good advice, unless his Lord do first make him privy to his purpose as well present as past, and to all the other circumstances pertaining thereunto? Or what Husbandman coming from a far, will presume to understand better what tilth, what seed, what compost, and what time of rest such or such a piece of ground requireth; than he that hath been acquainted with it all the days of his life? And how far greater thing is it to create, than to till? But forasmuch as God is reason itself, and we through his grace have some spark thereof: let us see whether it be not so evident in all his doings, that in this point it enlighteneth even the darkness of our reason. And if we perceive it not so clearly in all things, let us acknowledge ourselves to be but men, between whom and God there is no comparison, whereas in very deed there were no difference betwixt him and us, if we could thoroughly conceive all his devices.  
Now than whereas it is said, that if there be a providence, why have good men so much evil, and evil men so much good, afore we deal with the matter, let us agree upon the words. I ask of thee which men thou callest good, and which thou callest evil; and likewise what things thou meanest to be properly good or evil. If I should ask thee why healthy men have so many diseases, and diseased men so much health, thou mightest with good reason laugh me to skorue: for health maketh healthy, and sickness maketh sick. But whereas thou askest me why good men have so much evil, and evil men so much good, pardon me though I cause thee to expound thy meaning: for naturally I cannot conceive, that either good men have evil, or evil men have good. For if by good men you mean rich men, men of honour, and men that are healthy; and that ye take riches, honour, and health to be the good things: then is your question absurd. For it is all one as if ye should demand, why herded men have hear on their chins, and beardless men have none. But if (as I hear thee say) thou esteemest Solon's poverty to be better than the gold of Crassus; and Plato's honesty better than Dennysis tyranny; and the Colic and the Stone of a wiseman with his wisdom, to be better than the health and soundness of body of the fool with his folly: then art thou deceived with the fair name of Good: for it is another thing than these goods, which causeth thee to prefer them and to esteem them the better. Therefore let us say that the good are those which seek after the true good things, and that the true good things are Godliness and Virtue: and contrariwise that the evil folks are those which are wedded to the things that are evil in deed, that is to say, to sin and ungodliness; and let us not confound things together, the good with the bad and the bad with the good. For what goods soever a man can have, or (to speak after thine own manner) whatsoever evils he can meet with; he cannot be good though he have all the goods in the world, so long as he himself is not good; neither can he be in evil case, as long as he himself is not evil. As for the goods which go about to beguile us under that attire; let us say they be outward things, common to the one sort as well as to the other, for the which a man can no more be termed good or bad, blissful or wretched; than he can be called wise or learned for wearing a rich garment: And contrariwise that as all these false goods are instruments to the wicked to make them worse, (as riches to corrupt both themselves and other men; authority, to do violence; health to make them the lustier and stouter to do mischief, and so forth:) so the evils which thou termest evils, are helps to good men to do good, and furtherers of them in the exercise of virtue, as poverty to bridle their lusts, baseness to humble them, sickness to méeken them, and all manner of comberances to drive them to flee unto GOD, and to teach them to secure their neighbours in the like, when God shall have drawn them out of them: even after the same manner that a sickly body turneth all things that are ministered unto it, into the unsound humour which getteth the upper hand; whereas on the other side, the sound & healthy body turneth to his nourishment, even the meats that are worst of digestion.  
Now then, let us come to the point. Wilt thou know why riches and honour are common both to good and bad? 
That the false goods are common both too good and bad.  It is because that God (even in spite of the wicked) cannot but be good; insomuch that he maketh the showers to rain and the light to shine upon the one as well as on the other, notwithstanding that the one sort do curse him for wetting them or for making them to sweat, and the other sort do bless him for moistening and ripening the fruits of their labours. It is because God deemeth it not agreeable either to his own honour, or to the griefs and traveles of his servants, to reward them with trifling things, lest they should set their minds upon them; like as a father that keepeth his heritage for his son, thinketh it not to be for his behoof, to apparel him in the livery of his servants and slaves. To be short, it is because he dealeth like a Prince, who maketh his pay common to all his Soldiers: but as for the Garland of Oak, he giveth it only to such as are the first that in scaling do enter the breach, or get up upon the wall of a Town that is assaulted. Likewise Kings do cast their largesse at adventure among the people; but as for their honours and dignities, they bestow them upon those whom they especially favour. It misliketh thee that this man tilleth his ground with more Ploughs than thou: but advise thyself well, whether thou couldst find in thy hart to exchange that inward gifts of grace which GOD hath bestowed upon thee, with his Oxen and his Ploughs. Another is in greater reputation and authority with the Prince than thou art. But consider thou therewithal the heartbitings, the envy, the hartburnings, and such other things which he endureth; and see whether the meanest degree in God's house where thou servest, being free and exempted from all those things, be not much better than the best room about any King. The King for his service done by him, rewardeth him with Lands, fees, and offices: but if thou be so bacemynded and wrongful to thyself, as to foster thy body with the services and charges of thy Soul; consider that God being liberal and just, intendeth to reward spiritual encounters with spiritual Garlands, and to recompense thee according to his own honour, and not according to the baseness of thy heart; and that so much the more, because that in very deed, he rewardeth not thy works, but his own works in thee. Moreover, the reward is given, not according to thy desert, but according to the worthiness of him that bestoweth it. The recompense of one selfsame service, is far other at the hand of a King, than of a mean Lord. If thou say thou couldst be contented with a thousand French Crowns, Alexander would answer thee, that it might perchance be enough for thee to receive, but not enough for Alexander to give. And if thou wouldst have GOD to give thee no greater reward than plenty of Wine and Corn, if thou knewest him well, thou wouldst be ashamed of thyself: for it is the food that is common to all men, and not peculiar to those that are his. Nevertheless, if thou step not so far, but art desirous to know what be the goods which good men have in this world, (I speak of them that seem not to have them) Seneca tells thee, that they make their life allowable to God who knoweth them; in him they repose themselves, they have peace in their Consciences; if he increase not their present state, they also do abate their desires; their enemies commend their virtue, all the world bemoaneth their want, and those that have the distributing of goods and honours, are blamed for leaving them unconsidered. To be short, the very ask of that Question (be thou a Christian or an Heathen man) is unto them an inestimable reward; namely, that whereas concerning the most part of other men, it is wont to be demanded wherefore they be advanced to riches, honour, and authority, and they themselves are oftentimes ashamed to tell how they came by them; every man asketh how it happeneth that the good men are not rich, honourable, and in authority. Now, if thou have the courage of a man, wouldst thou not choose as Cato did, that men should rather ask why thou hadst not an Image of thine set up in the open place, and why thou wast not admitted to that honour, than otherwise? Yes sayest thou: But if God listed not to give me them; why have I at leastwise foregone those which I had? Why hath he taken them from me? It may be (saith Seneca) that if thou hadst not foregone them, they would have fordone thee. I tell thee that if he had not taken them from thee; they would have taken thee from him. I pray thee how often hast thou taken from thy Child a puppet or some other toy that he played withal, to see whether he would be stubborn or no? How oft hast thou plucked the knife out of his hand, even when he cried to have it still? And what evil meanest thou towards him, when thou weanest him from his Dug? Now then, thinkest thou it strange that GOD should cast thy goods into the Sea, which else would have helped to drown thee in destruction? O how greatly did Plato's Shipwreck advantage him, to make him wise? Or that he should pluck the Sword of authority out of thy hand whereof thou art so desirous, which else (peradventure) had slain thine own Soul? Or that to prepare thee to another life better than this, he should serve thee with such fit means, as might make thee to be in love with it? Thou wilt say that thou wouldst have used them well: but what a number of men have been seen, which under the chastisement of poverty were good men, whom riches and honour did afterward mar & corrupt? Thou sufferest the Physician to take from thee some kinds of meats which thou lovest well, and to abridge thee both of thy fare and of thine exercises, and of thy pleasures, because he hath seen thy water or felt sometimes thy pulse: and wilt thou not suffer God (who having created thee and shaped thee, feeleth everlastingly the pulse of thy Soul) wilt thou not suffer him I say, to bereave thee of some outward thing which he himself made, and which would work thy destruction? Thou commendest the Captain, who to make his journey the speedier against his enemy, dispatcheth away all bag and baggage from his Army, that his Soldiers may go the lighter, and that the breaking of a Chariot may not stay him by the way: and canst thou not find in thine heart that he which made thee and governeth thee, should dispose of thy baggages: that is to wit, of thy purchases or inheritances which thou hast gotten here below, to make thee the nimbler against vice, and against the continual temptations of this world?  
But Envy pricketh thee. Why taketh he them not (sayest thou) aswell from this man and that man, as from me? And why loveth he thee perchance better than them? Tell me why the Physician appointeth thee a greater portion of rheubarb, than him? Because such a one is more moved with one dram, than another is with three. One is better purged with a single Clyster, than another is with a very strong Purgation. One man is sooner warned of God by the loss of his crop of Grapes or Corn, than another is by the burning of his house, the loss of all his goods, and the taking of his Children prisoners. So job saw the loss of his cattle, the burning of his houses, and the death of all his Children, and yet for all that, he praised God still. That which was constancy in him, might have seemed blockishness in another. But when God came once to the touching of his person, he could not then forbear to dispute with him. Now then, seeing that the things which thou termest evils and mischiefs, are in very deed both Medicines and Salves; wilt thou not have them ministered according to the complexion of the patiented? And thinkest thou thyself wiser in discerning the disposition of thy Soul, than he that created it, thou I say which darest not trust to thine own knowledge in the curing of thy body? The same is to be said of divers Nations, whereof some one may happen to be afflicted a longer time & more sharply with the Plague or with War, than another, and oftentimes also even for the selfsame causes. For God knoweth both the common nature of whole Nations, and the peculiar natures of every several person. Some nature, if it should not see the scourge always at hand, would become too too proud and presumptuous: Another, if it should see it continually, would be quite out of hart and fall into despair. If some were not kept occupied with their own adversities, they could not refrain from working mischief to others. Another again being more given to quietness, is contented to sweat in tilling his grounds, & in trimming his gardens, without coveting other men's goods so he may keep his own. In like case is it with Plants: some require dunging, some rubbing to make them clean, some pruning, some new graffing again with the same to take away the harshness of their fruit, and some to have their head cropped quite and clean off. One selfsame Gardyner doth all these things, and a Child of his that stands by and sees it, wonders at it: but he that knoweth the natures of things, will count him the skilfuller in his art.  
Yea sayest thou, but though these evils may be Medicines and Salves, how may death be so? For what a number of Innocents 
The murdering of Innocents and guiltless persons.  do we see slain in the world? What a number of good folk do we see put to the slaughter, not only good in the judgement of us, but also even in the judgement of those that put them to death? Nay rather, what is death but the common passage which it behoveth us all to pass? And what great matter makes it, whether thou pass it by Sea or by Land? by the corruption of thine own humours, or by the corruptness of thy Commonweal? Again, how often have judges condemned some man for a crime, whereof he hath been guiltless, and in the denial whereof he hath stood even upon the Scaffold, and yet hath there confessed himself faulty in some other crime, unknown both to the judges and to the standers by? a manifest reproof either of the ignorance or of the unjustice of the judges, but a plain acknowledgement of the wisdom and justice of the eternal God? And if God hring them to that point for one fault, and the judge for another; what unjustice is in God for suffering them to be condemned wrongfully by the judge, yea and to be punished with death or otherwise, for a crime whereof their own conscience cleareth them as guiltless, when as God and their own conscience do justly condemn them for some other? As for example, The judge condemneth them for conspiracy against the commonweal, whereas God condemneth them (perchance) for behaving themselves loosely in defending the commonweal. The judge under colour of offence given to the Church, and God for not rebuking the Churchmen freely enough. For I speak as well concerning Heathenfolke, as Christians in this behalf. And what a number do we see, which confess of themselves, and witness of their familiar friends, that by thy punishing of them, wherewith thou being the judge meantest to have put them in fear and too have restrained them, they have taken warning to amend, and been the more quickened up and encouraged? And what else is this, but that as in one selfsame deed, God had one intent and thou another, so also he guided it to the end that he himself aimed at, yea and to a contrary end to that which thou didst purpose? But what a thing were it if thou sawest the fruit that GOD draweth out of it? The Child that behold his Father treading of goodly Grapes, could find in his heart too blame him for so doing, for he thinketh that they should be kept still, and cannot conceive to what use the treading of them should serve: but the Father knowing the goodness of the Fruit better than the Child, (for he planted them, tended them, and pruned them) considereth also that within two moons or little more, they would whither and dry away, and therefore to preserve the virtue of them, he maketh no account of the eating of them, but treadeth them in a Fat to make Wine of them. And when the Child comes afterward to discretion, he museth at his own folly, and acknowledgeth that at that time he played the very Child, notwithstanding that as than he thought himself wiser than his Father. And after the same manner doth he when he sees him make conserve of Roses, of Violets, or of other flowers. He is sorry to see them marred (as he thinketh) and is ready to weep for it, and he cannot be quieted, because he would make Nosegays of them, which anon-after would whither, and he himself would cast them away by the next morrow. Now consider I pray thee, whither without any further inducement, thou find not thyself too resemble this Child. GOD who made the good men that which they be, hath no less consideration and love toward them, than those which bewail them. He knoweth to what end their life serveth in this world, also he knoweth when it is time to gather them, and to put to his Hook or Sickle, to cut them down, that they rot not upon the tree or upon the ground, and how long they may be preserved in their kind. And thinkest thou it strange that he should take some when they be fresh and green, too preserve them all the year long, or that he should make Conserves of their flowers to be kept a long time, or that he should of their grapes make wins? Thinkest thou it strange say I, that he should after a sort make their savour, their sweet scent, and their strength, that is to say their godliness, their uprightness, and their virtue too live after them, which otherwise should be buried with them? And that they which for themselves could not have lived past three or four years, should live to the benefit of the Church and the commonweal, not years but worlds of years? If thou be a Christian take for me example the Apostles and a great number of the Martyrs which have suffered persecution: dost thou not even yet still drink of that liquor of theirs? doth not their constant confession make thee also to confess Christ, and their death help thee too the endless life? Can Ignatius and Policarpus have lived above five or six years more than they did? And yet what part of all their ages hath lasted so long or done so much good, as the last half hour wherein they died? Or if thou be a Heathen man, consider me the death of Socrates or of Papinian? If Socrates had not drunk the juice of Hemlock without gilt, hadst thou had those goodly discourses of his concerning the immortality of the Soul? Or wouldst thou have believed it so easily? and thereupon have been contented to forego thy life so freely for the defence of thy Country, or for the maintenance of the truth? And if Papinian had not showed how honourable a thing it is to die for doing right, and how far the sovereign magistrate is to be obeyed, should we not be bereft of a singular goodly example of stoutness and rightful dealing? What thing did they in all their whole life, either so much to their own honour, or so beneficial to them that were to come after them, as their dying in such sort? Now therefore, let us say we be but babes. And forasmuch as we perceive the wisdom of our Father t●o be so great, whereas we condemn him of want of skill, and forasmuch as our own ignorance is so gross, whereas we boasted of wisdom, let us rather confess our weakness in all cases, than presume to doubt of his sage providence in any thing.  
But Cato 
The Gods allowed that case which had the upper hand. But Cato with the vanquished, against the Gods did stand.  of Utica would needs that God should yield him a reason, why Caesar overcame Pompey: as who would say, that the veriest rascal in the Realm, should command the high Court of Parliament to yield him account, why his case was overthrown. For all our great Quarrels and Complaints are less before God, than the least case of a poor Villain is afore the greatest Monarch of the world. Nay, he should rather have considered that private States are punished by order of Law, and Commonweals and public States by civil wars: And that the Commonweal of Rome was (even by his own confession) so corrupted in manners, in government, and in the very Laws themselves; that he might have had much juster cause to have doubted of God's providence, if after her punishing of others for the like things, she herself had scaped unpunished: That the Great men, what part so ever they maintained, were the members most infected, in so much that the wisest men of that age said, We see what part we ought to shun, but not what part we ought to take: And that as Caesar made war openly against his Country, so Pompey covertly and under hand made his partakers too fight for the maintenance of his own ambition, which was peradventure discountenanced too the common people, but could not be counterfeited before God, who seethe the very bottom of our hearts. Now then shall we think it strange, that to the intent to show the common people how greatly they be subject to be deceived under pretence of good faith; and to teach great men how fore he mistiketh that they should shroud their lewd lusts under the Cloak of justice; God should suffer Pompey to fall into the hands of his enemies? And that to punish the pride of the Senate and the whole state; he should cause their Army to be vanquished, and let them fall into the hands of their own Countryman their natural Subject? Nay how could God have showed his providence more manifestly, than by overthrowing that State by her own force, which thought there was not any Power in the world able too punish her? and by making her a bondslave to her own Servant, which had brought so many Cities, Commonweals & Kings in bondage unto her? But it may be that Caesar himself scapeth unpunished. Nay: To show unto tyrants that the highest step of their greatness is tied to a halter, and that they be but God's scourges which he will cast into the fire when he hath done with them; within a while after, he was slain miserably in the Senate when it was full. 
Seneca in his third book of Anger.  And by whom? Even by those in whom he trusted, which had fought under his Standard against the Commonweal, and which presuming themselves to have deserved more at his hand than they had in deed, 
Caesar saw Cimbrus Tullius, who had a little afore been very hot in his defence, & others of his own confederates in Arms, stand now with their Swords draw about his Chair of Estate, and taking part with the Pompey's after Pompey's decease.  meant to deserve also of the Commonweal in murdering him. Were we now as diligent in marking the proceedings of things done in Histories, as we be in noting the manner of speeches, the order of inditing, or the antiquities which the writer reporteth: We should find the like providence of God 
The cause why men find fault with God's Providence.  in the change of all States. But I content myself with this one afore mentioned, as the which is best known too all men, except I were minded to take some example of our present age to enlighten the matter withal. Now then, whereas Cato slew himself through impatiency, think ye not that if he had lived still, he would have ceased to contend with God, and have commended his justice, and have written books of his singular providence? Yes: But the mischief is, that whereas we would not judge of a Song by one note, nor of a Comedy by one Scene, nor of an Oration by one full Sentence, we will presume to judge of the Harmony and orderly direction of the whole world, and of all that is therein, by some one action alone. Again, in Music we bear with changes and breathes, with pauses and discords; In Comedies, with the unmeasurable barbarous cruelties of an Atreus, the wicked presumptions of an Ixîon, and the lamentable outcries of a Philoctetes: and all this is (if we will say the truth) because we have so good opinion of the Musician, that we think he will make all to fall into a good concord: and of the Comediemaker, that all his disagréements shall end in some marriage: and of the Tragediewryter, that ere he leave the Stage, he will tie the wicked Ixîon to the Wheel, or make the fiends of Hell to torment the Atreus, or contrariwise cause GOD to hear the woeful voice and pitiful cry of the poor Philoctetes. And if God seem erewhiles to hold his peace, and to suffer men to play their parts; ought we not too have so good opinion of his wisdom, as to think that he can tell when it is time to pay them their hire? And that although he let the wicked walk at large upon the stage, and the godly to lie in prison: he can also provide to end the braveries of the one sort with just punishment, and the woeful complaints of the other sort with joyful triumph? When a Tragedy is played afore thee, thou art not offended at any thing which thou hearest. Why so? Because that in two hours space: thou hast showed unto thee the doings of a ten or twelve years, as the ravishing of Helen, and the punishment of Paris, or the miserable end of Herod upon his murdering of john Baptist. Insomuch that although thou be not acquainted with the story, yet the art which thou perceivest, and the end which thou expectest, make thee both to bear with the matter, and to commend the thing which otherwise thou wouldst think to be both unjust, and also cruel in the governor of the Stage. How much more oughtest thou to refreine thy misliking, if thou considerest that the world is a kind of Stageplay, conveyed to a certain end by a most excellent maker? And what an excellent order wouldst thou see there, if thou mightest behold all the ages and alterations thereof as in a Com●●●e, all in one day? yea or but the success of some one only Nation for an hundred years, which were less than the interview of two Servants in a Comedy? Thou hast seen Pompey overcome. Lo here a discord that offendeth thine ears. Thou hast seen Caesar to bring home his Sword bathed in the blood of the Senate. If thou be a Child, thou weepest at it: but if thou be'st a man, thou pacifyest the Child and attendest for the knitting up of the matter, and for the judgement of the Poet: Hereupon the Chorus singeth, and then maketh a pause. All this while the Poet seemeth to have forgotten justice, and if thou depart out of the company at that point, thou canst not tell what to make of it. But tarry a while and hearken to the note that followeth. Caesar is put to death by his own men. See here how the discord is turned into a good concord. Thy Child seethe that this proud Peacock which vaunted himself above all the world, is in one day stabbed in with infinite wounds. Whereby, how little a one soever thy Child be, he hath some perceiverance of the forecast of the Poet. Dost thou not see then again, that we be like Children, which would control the Song of all ages by one Note, or a long Oration by one Letter, whereas notwithstanding, our life as in respect of the whole world, is less than a short Minim in comparison of a whole song? If thou be a Christian, thou readest the History of joseph. When thou readest how he was sold into AEgipt, thou canst not be angry enough with his brothers, nor sufficiently bewail his poor old Father. Again, when he is cast into the deep Dungeon in recompense of his chastity, thou couldst find in thy heart to blame, not only Pharaoh, but even God himself. But when thou seest him taken out of Prison to read the King's Dreams, and (within a few days after) as a King in AEgipt; a succour to his father in his old age; and the raiser up again of his whole house at their need: then thou persuadest thyself that he which made him to reign in AEgipt, did suffer him to be sold to the egyptians; that he which made him the deliverer of his house, did also make him to be sold into bondage afore by his brethren: and to be short, that the discord which offended thee and the harmony which delighteth thee again, proceed both from one selfsame Musician. Howbeit, afore we conclude this matter, see once again how much more upright thou art towards thy Prince, than towards God. Thou seest a great number of his Army come home wounded: if thou be a man, it must needs grieve thee. Anon one brings thee home thine own Son dead: if thou be a Father, thou canst not forbear tears. A neighbour of thine assureth thee that he was slain in doing his duty, in getting victory to his Country. Though thou take not comfort in it at the first brunt, yet at leastwise thou wilt not be so mad as to lay the blame in thy Prince. Within a while after, when thou fallest to considering the fruit of the victory; then as it hath grieved thee to forego thy son, so wilt thou thank God that he died in defence of his Country, and that he did his part in so noble a service. Shall not God then have as great pre-eminence in setting forth his glory, as Kings for the obtaining of their victories? God over his Creatures, as Kings over their Subjects? Or shall not we have as much patience in the death of those whom we bring up, when they die for his service, as when they die for the honour of our Prince? Or shall we have less trust in him as touching his employing of them to good purpose, than we have in King's Princes and Captains, which know not the issue of their own enterprises, or at leastwise for the most part know it not, ne have any care of the life or death of them that serve them? Let this suffice for answer to such as vex themselves either for their own afflictions, or for the sudden death of those whom they love and esteem. And let us now consequently see, if we can satisfy those which are grieved, at the prosperity and slow punishment 
The slow punishment of the wicked.  of the wicked.  
Thou sayest that the wicked have welfare at will. King Cyrus was not of that opinion, when for a punishment to the people of the City of Sardis, he commanded them to spend their time in gaming & feasting. Nay, thou shouldest rather say, that they have misery; for all the good things which thou termest good, and which we count neither good nor evil, do in the hands of the wicked turn into evil, Well (sayest thou) howsoever they be termed, they have great commodities in this world. What wilt thou say then, if their own wicked disposition, and their own sin, do work them more mischief than all the harms and evils which thou bewailest in the good men? Sith there is not a greater mischief than to be wicked, and that all the commodities which thou enuyest them, have as little force against the evil which they harbour within them, as Velvet Pantoples have against the Gout, or Dyademes against the Headache, or Purple Robes against the Colic; Guess (if thou canst) what fear, and what Agewfits they sustain in following their wicked lusts; as namely, this man in haunting of Harlots, that man in riding to commit a Robbery; one in poisoning his own brother, that he may succeed him in the Kingdom; another in ridding good Commonwealemen o●t of the way, that he may maintain himself still in his tyranny. Consider what misery they endure, afore they can come to the performance of their evil; what they abide in the very doing thereof; and what a turmoil their own Conscience maketh of it, after they have performed it: and thou shalt see that it is a continual Fever, a strange unquietness, and a sharp sorrow; so much always the more dangerous, because the shamelessest of them all, dareth not bewray his disease to the Physician. Alexander the Tyrant of Pherey, was wont even in the chief of his prosperity, to get himself within a Mote and to draw up the Bridge after him, when he went to lie with his Concubine. Dennis of Sicily being afraid to put any Barber in trust with the trimming of his Beard, made his own Daughters to supply that office: and growing afterward in jealousy of them, he findged it off himself with a burning firebrand. Another, as oft as he went to bed with his wife, searched her whether she had not a knife hidden in her bosom or about her. Think you not that the happiest of all these Tyrants, was more miserable than the person that was most oppressed under his tyranny? With what sauce think you did Dennis eat his dainties, when he imagined himself to have a naked Sword hanging continually by a hear with the point over his head, as he sat at his Table? And yet what a number were there at that time, which envy the Purple Robes the Dyademes and the dainty fare of those Tyrants, and which found fault with God for the ease and prosperity which he gave them? Babes that we be! We would change our state with a kai●ife, that in playing the King in a Tragedy sweepeth the scaffold with a long gown of cloth of Gold, which within a few hours after, he must be fain to deliver home again to the Upholster with payment for the hire of it: and in the mean time we consider not what ragged clouts, what seabbes, what vermin, and what itch and scurf lies hid underneath it, nor how that oftentimes in counterfeiting the Majesty of the King, he was fain to s●ruh, and in menacing others, to grind his teeth in his head. But were we clothed but one hour with that which he beareth about him, and whereof he cannot rid himself; we would rather go naked than be so clothed. And whereas it spiteth thee to see Tyrants reign, 
Wickedness is a punishment to itself. Seneca in his Thebais. Fear not: for he shallbe punished, & that right sore. He shall reign: That is a punishment. And if thou doubt thereof, believe his father and his grandfather.  and to stout it out, and to triumph, yea and that some of them come to their Crowns by doing the same things for which othersome come to the Gallows: doth it not greatly skill (think you) whether a man be tormented in a coat of Velvet or in a coat of Cannas? whether he be manacled and fettered in gives of gold or of iron? or whether in so short a show, he play the great Lord or the poor Beggar? How often hast thou seen the Cutpurse hanged with the purse about his neck, and the thief hanged in the same apparel that he had stolen? Be thou of high or low degree, be thou rich or poor, be thou Prince or Peazant; assoon as thou hast given over thyself to vice and wickedness, by and by thou art become their prisoner and slave. And if it be so, what skills it who thou be, if thou be not thine own man? Or whereto serves thee all that thou art, but to be the more wicked, which is in deed to be the more wretched? But although vice be a punishment to itself, and that (as saith Hesiodus) it spring up with the very misdeed itself: yet notwithstanding, many men cannot content themselves with God's justice, unless they see the offender led by and by to the Gibbet: that is to say, unless the punishment be speedy, an open example and visible, as who would say, that the Gibbet were but the beginning of punishment and not rather the end of it; or that they which are cast in prison for stealing, had not the halter about their necks already, from the very instant that they be taken, notwithstanding that sometimes forgetting their own misery, they play together at Cards and Dice.  
Nay contrariwise, whereas Epicurus doth ground his greatest argument thereupon; let us learn thereby to have God's providence in the greater admiration. I demand therefore what is the end of all judges in punishing, whether it be not the amendment of the transgresser, if he be not put to death; or else that he should be an example and warning to others by his death? If it be the amendment of the party, why findest thou fault with it, for that he is not put to death? God is a Physician and not an Executioner. He knoweth better than thou, what hope of recovery there is in the disease. The party (sayest thou) was unruly in his youth. The Wine that is now mild and good, was a two months ago both hard and sharp, and it will grow riper yet in tyme. Moreover, let the offender flee as far as he list, yet is he in safe prison and under sure guard. God stands in no such doubt as thou dost: The offender can never scape his hands. No: but thou wouldst that God should at leastwise brand him with the broad arrow. Where? In the forehead. Why, art thou afraid that God could not know him again, if he had once shifted his apparel in some other privy place? And doubtest thou that his branding-iron can not pierce even to the heart, which thou seest not? Nay rather, the selfsame Land which for want of tillage and husbanding brought forth briars and Thistles, that is to say, vices and enormities, may by good husbanding bear good Wine and good Corn, that is to say, Godliness and Urtue. And hadst thou once shamed him by the Pillory or by Carting; might it not grieve thee to have made him past grace? If the Athenians (saith Plutarch) had killed or diffamed Themistocles for the outrage of his youth; or Miltiades for his rebelling in Chersonesus; where had the goodly Uictories become, which they obtained in the Plains of Marathon, on the Coast of Artemisia, and at the River Eurymedon? Or had Constantine also been rigorously punished, for the cruelty wherewith his former years were distained, and that thou hadst then known aforehand, what things he was to do afterward for the advancement of Christianity; thou wouldst have bewailed him. And why savest thou some from punishment for great crimes, in respect that one is a good builder, another an excellent Musician, and a third a man of learning; whereas thou knowest not what they will prove afterward; & yet thinkest not that in so doing thou dost any hurt, but rather good service to thy Commonweal? But as for God, he knoweth which ground is evil of itself, and which it is that beareth Brambles and Thistles for want of husbanding. He knoweth what is in every of our minds afore we ourselves know it. The things which we are to do in time to come, be as present in his sight, as the things that we have done already. Neither Nero with his five years good behaviour, nor Constentine, with the wicked disorder of his younger time, could beguile God, though thou which seest but the outward man, callest the one the Father of his Country, and the other an unkindly Murderer. He knoweth when the tamed Wolf will turn again to his kind, and when the churlish Dog will put off his churlishness. He foreknoweth men's natures in the very seed, whereas we scarce know them in the flower. Whereas we play the blind Barbers of the Country, in having recourse at every instant to searing, cutting, lancing, and sawing for every fore; he hath a thousand receits to heal vices withal, and a thousand kinds of scourges to correct offenders withal, according to every of their complexions. And thinkest thou then that he neglecteth his cure, because thou seest not the fearing iron in his hand? Or that his potentials (as the Surgeons term them) are not stronger than thine actuals? And when thou seest the sinful person cured after that manner without lancing, yea and without scarce; oughtest thou not to commend the curing thereof so much the more?  
But there are which amend not a whit the more for the delay of their punishment. Admit it be so: Yet what a number also are there which do amend? Nay, consider yet further, whether they be not suffered to live to punish thee; thee I say which hast been scourged by them already, and yet art never a whit amended. Thou wouldst have thy father to throw his rod into the fire, and thou hast still a cursed heart that cannot yield and ask forgiveness. Blame thine own stubbornness that he burneth not the rod. Consider also whether it be not a greater punishment to them to live after they have done amiss, than to have died in the deed doing, forsomuch as they see that their slaughters have not success according to their wills, but that all the mischief which they have wrought is in vain, so as they have but provoked God & the whole world against themselves to no purpose, and have gotten nothing thereby but shame and reproach and torment of mind; And whether God do not by that mean compel them to cry out, We have wearied ourselves in the way of wickedness, until we can no more? If God (say I) by his seeming to be flow, do both amend thee and punish the other both at once; dost thou not perceive a wonderful work of Providence? Moreover, what is the whole continuance of all a man's life in respect of God, but one moment? shorter than the time between the drinking of the Hemlock, and the death of him that drinks it? and much shorter than between the kill of a man in the morning, and the being hanged for it in the afternoon? if thou have an eye to the chief end of punishments, namely the example of them that live still, to the benefit of the commonweal. I ask of thee whether thou thinkest not, that they were better warned by Nero's killing of himself a good while after his committing of so many slaughters & his setting of Rome on fire, having neither Friend that could save him, nor foe that would slay him; than if he had been burned in the foresaid fire which he caused to be kindled? Nay, consider whether it ought not to be yet a better warning to thee, when thou seest that the wicked man is eu●n then held fastest by the neck, when he thinketh himself to have escaped the hand of God; seeing there cannot be a plainer proof, That no man can prescribe time for his wickedness against God's justice? Again, when Maximian after the committing of so many cruelties, languisheth and pineth away by péecepeale in infinite miseries; I refer it to thine own judgement, whether he do not more apparently preach God's justice against tyrants and wicked Courtiers, than if he had been slain when he was young, as Domitian and Commodus were? And whether he seem not too thee, to have been as a crier hired for the nonce, to make this Proclamation publicly with lamentable and languishing voice all his life long, Take warning by me to do justice, and not too despise God? Or whether, when Dennis the Tyrant of Sicily became a Schoolmaster at Corinth, and fell too beating of children's Buttocks; it was not a better beating to him, than if the people had caused his shoulders to have been rend from him upon a Scaffold? and whether all the youth in the City were not better taught what the end of Tyranny is, by beholding him with his Rods in his hand in the School; than they should have been by seeing him put to death incontinently in the place?  
And if thou think it not enough that Lyciscus do rot above the ground, yea and that he cry out that he rotteth for his treazon; unless the same Orchomenians whom he betrayed, do come to the beholding of it: or if thou think it not enough that Nero make a mizerable end; except Agrippina whom he unnaturally murdered, do feed her eyes with the sight of it: or that Herod become a forlorn creature, unless the Innocents whom he flew, be called to look upon him: beside that thou requirest a thing against reason, thou must also understand, that God punisheth not after the manner of worldly judges, namely to content them that have suffered wrong, or to satisfy thy mind desirous of revenge, or too purchase himself the report and estimation of a good judge at thy hand: but because he hateth the evil, which he intendeth to correct, and will also draw good out thereof. And like as a discreet father, when his Child complaineth to him of some wrong done unto him by one of his Servants, doth not by and by run upon his Servant with a cudgel, (for so should he make his Child cockish, and cause him not only to do the like for every trifle, but also to take the staff in his own hand & to lay about him, whereas he would have him to bridle his passions, and to refer the redress of his wrongs to him being his father;) but rather taketh his servant aside, and chastyzeth him either before his fellows, or before others of his children which bear him not so much grudge or ill mind: even so it is not to be thought strange, if God do oftentimes chastise the wicked far from the view of the world, yea and sometimes also even after the decease of them that made complaint against them. His intent is to punish their passions, but not to gratify thine. He will teach me his justice, but he will not have thee too think that thou shalt have him at thy commandment, to strike whensoever thou wouldst have him. If he should strike at thy appointment, then should he be but thy Executioner, and thou shouldest be the judge. But know thou that he executeth his own justice and not thine.  
Yea (sayest thou) but what justice is it, that Children should be punished for their fathers? And (say I) what unjustice is it, if the Children be not considered for the good service of their fathers? A Prince giveth privileges too some City, for the faithful service which it hath done unto him: and who will not blame his Successor which shall take them away again a hundred years after? Another Prince bereaveth a City of their Liberties and fraunchizes, for rebelling against him: who will think it any rigour, that their Children which come after them should be in the same state? The Prince doth it for fear lest the Children having the same territory, should rebel as their fathers did. God standeth not in fear of men, but he seethe what they be: and his knowing of them is not as we know the Aspworme by his stinging of us, or the viper by his biting of us; but he knoweth them afore they be either Aspwoorme or viper; and may he not then by that reason sometimes punish the Children, in the same respect that he punished their fathers? As for example, by taking away their authority if they committed tyranny, lest they might abuse their authority still? Or by taking away their goods which they spent in riot and excess, lest they should set their minds upon these vices still? and so forth of other things? But why do I term it punishing? I should rather term it curing. For what more is all this, than we see daily done by Physicians, who in caces where the fathers were diseased with the Stone, the Gout, or the Dropsy, do forbidden the Children the same things which they forbade their fathers, although the Children be not yet troubled with the same diseases? And what else are sins and vices, but diseases and sicknesses of the Soul? And what strangeness is there in Gods doing, sith that thou thyself doest the very same? Thou Disinheritest the Children of them that have attempted treason against the Prince: and if the Prince may do it for the defence of his state; how much more commendable is the doing thereof, for the preservation of the parties themselves? But yet in this appeareth the mercifulness of God, that if the Child of the wickedest man in the world, refuse to be heir of his father's sin, and wickedness, and follow godliness and virtue; God doth not only release him the debt due to such succession, that is to wit, the pain and penalty which is an unseparable appurtenance of sin; but also adopt him into the number of his own Children, to make him partaker of his heavenly heritage. Nowthen, wh●t cause have we to complain, either of the prosperity of the wicked, or of the adversity of those whom we account to be good men, seeing that all these things tend, not only to God's glory and the benefit of the Comonweale, but also to the welfare and soul-health of those whom we bewail? And if we did consider yet further, how many there be whose miseries we bewail, which foster a festered sore in their bosom; how many there be whose prosperity we envy, which have much cleaner hearts than the other, and do spit out all their venom outwardly; how many there be which have their nails whole, and yet do but little harm with scratching; how many there be which would tear all things in pieces, if their nails were not pared very short; who for want of power (I mean) or for want of courage to execute their naughtiness, seem for the present time good men, and a thousand other such circumstances which are to be marked in every particular person: surely they which do so lightly charge God's providence, would change their opinion; and where it seemeth to them most worthy of blame, there would they the more wonder thereat and commend it.  
But this is yet the greatest point of all: That although God punish evil never so much; yet it can not be denied, but that he leaveth evil still in the World, 
How God suffereth evil in the World.  seeing we agree all in this, that sin or vice is evil. Now if he be altogether good, how can he forbear to hate it? And if he be Almighty, how can he suffer it? And if he order and dispose all things, how doth he permit it? This Question shall be the clearelyer discussed, where we prove how evil came first into the World; namely by the fall of man. And then shall we have wherefore too wonder at God's Providence, who having punished us by our own naughtiness, could skill too turn the same both to his own glory, and too the welfare of mankind. To glance at it in few words; by the way, It was requisite (and otherwise it could not be) that there should be some difference between the Creator and the Creature, to the intent that the Creature should acknowledge itself to be a Creature, and yield honour to his Creator who had made him of nothing. Now the Creator is the good that is infinite and unchangeable: and therefore the goodness that is in any Creature, could not but be finite and changeable, saving so far forth as it consented to depend upon him alone. God therefore created man good, howbeit chaungeably good; free from evil, howbeit so as he might choose the evil; and he created him rightly minded, howbeit in such sort as he might also go a stray. And this man by turning away from the Wellspring of goodness, did thereby fall away from his own goodness; and by following his own will in stead of God's Will, he left his freedom and became a bondservant unto evil. All they that are borne of this corrupted seed, retain the faultynes of that first fault, and cannot wit it upon any other than the first man. Therefore if it be demanded why God created man free, and not unfree, seeing his freedom made him bond, it is all one as if it were demanded, why he created fire to be light and subtle, that is to say Fire, or why he created water moist and cold, that is to say, Water, or the World full of so many varieties, that is to say, a World, and to be short, every kind of thing, to be of this or that nature. For to have free moving and capable of Reason, is to be a man, and if we had not had it so, we would have complained. Again, to have free moving and such as cannot be but reasonable, is to be reason itself, that is to say, to be God. Now God meant not to create a God, but a man to serve him, like as when he intended to create Beasts for the service of man, he created them Beasts and not men. But wherein wilt thou more wonder at the providence of the everlasting GOD, than in that he not only ordereth & disposeth the things that he hath created, but also the thing which he created not; insomuch that he draweth good out of the evil, yea and compelleth the evil (contrary to the nature thereof) to serve unto Good? If a Captain were of such skill as to order all things in such wise in his Army, that every thing should serve to the atteynement of his victory; thou wouldst commend him highly, & it were in deed one of the rarest feats of War. But if he could moreover gain some part of his enemy's Host, and make them to take his own part; thou couldst not wonder sufficiently at his policy. What wilt thou say then of him, which could make them to fight on his side unwitting to themselves, and that even his enemy's Hargwebusses should help to give themselves the foil? Sooth even after that sort is it that God can skill to make both sinners and their sins to serve him. Cyrus (as appeareth by the Histories) was an ambitious Prince; and ambition (as ye know) cannot be welliked of God. Now, to satisfy his ambition, Cyrus' jevyes a great Host against the Assyrians. If a man should have told him it had been to deliver the Israelites, and to build up God's Temple again, as Esay had foretold; what think you he would have said unto it? Yet notwithstanding the end of his Wars and of his warfare, fell out to be so in deed. Thus ye see how an ambitious person and his ambition served God, without meaning any such thing. The Emperor Titus meant to bring jewry to due obedience: and it had been foretold, that of Jerusalem one stone should not be left standing upon another. No doubt but that Titussis own passion carried him; but yet see how God overruleth it. The same man which persecuted the Christians at Rome, goeth to revenge Christ's death at Jerusalem, and (as saith josephus) in that fact he took not himself as Emperor of the World, but as the executer of God's justice against the jews. judas through Covetousness betrayed the blood of the righteous to death. But God by the shedding of that blood (if thou be a Christian) redeemed thee; and yet the holy Scripture saith, that the Devil being in judas, did put that purpose into his heart. Ye see then that not the Covetousness of judas only, but also the Devil himself served GOD. Besides that, the Stories of the Bible be full of such matter, we might mark the like examples ordinarily in the books of the Heathen, if we were as diligent in observing them, as we be in observing the art of Rhetoric or Logic in the author's which we read. For by reason of the great corruption which reigned at those days in Rome, all men cried out that there was not any Commonweal there, appealing to God for defence against the unjustice of the Senate, at the same time that GOD executed just vengeance upon them for it, by the unjust covetousness of Caesar. Likewise when Attila entered even into the bowels of Europe, all the Preachers of Christendom did nothing else but bewail the wretchedness of that tyme. 
Saluian in his seven book of Providence.  Ye must think that when this great Robber cast lots in his Country of Scythia, whether he should lead the third part of that Land, he had another meaning than to reform the world. Yet notwithstanding, all men acknowledged him to be a necessary scourge of GOD, and to have come in due season. Yea, and he himself considering that he had conquered much more of the Country, than ever he hoped at the first to have seen, insomuch that he had overcome even those which were counted the strength of the World: as barbarous as he was, he fell to think of himself, that he was the Scourge whereby God chastised the World. Not that God is not able to chastise us himself whensoever he listeth; (for his Storehouse is never unfurnished of rods to scourge us withal, as of Plagues, Diseases, Famine, and such other things,) but that as a Master of a household holdeth scorn to whip his Slaves himself, causing either his thief Servant or some other of their fellows to do it: yea and when his own Children offend him grievously, he vouchsafeth not to beat them with his own hands, (for so should he do them too great an honour) but causeth (peradventure) the groom of his stable to do it, to the intent to show them the justness of his displeasure: Even so doth God punish the wicked one by another, whom he could consume all at once in one hour; yea and his Children also by the wicked, when not counting of them as of his Children, but being ready as it were to disherit them, he disoeyneth to punish them with his own hands. Thus therefore ye see, how God serveth his own turn by the wicked and their wickedness, to his own glory and to the welfare of those that are his.  
And as touching the offences whereinto he suffereth good 
The very Sins of good men are redressed to their benefit.  folks now and then to fall: what greater point of providence can there be, than to turn them into instruments and furtherances of virtue? If God should hold us always by the hand, it is certain that we could never trip. And it is not to be doubted also, but that we would think at the length, that it was of our own steadynesse, and not of Gods upholding of us, not only that we tripped not, but also that we tumbled not down. For what made us fall but pride? and what manner of pride, but that we thought we would be Gods without God, yea even of ourselves? Now, to make us to know our infirmity, wherein it is his pleasure to show his strength: sometimes he letteth us go alone by ourselves for a while, and then stumble we at the next job that we meet with. Nevertheless, this tripping and stumbling saveth us from a greater fall: for it maketh us to call for his hand to hold us up. After the same manner dealeth the Nurse with her Nurcechild that maketh haste to go alone too soon: She suffereth him to stagger and to reel till he cry; but yet in letting him go with the one hand, she holdeth him up with the other; and sometimes he thinks he goes abalone, when as she guideth him both with her eye and with her hand. Sometimes also when we be overlusty, God suffereth us to fall into some sin, both wittingly and willingly, & afterward maketh us to feel such gripes and heartbitings for it, that even the vice itself serveth us for a Schoolmaster, to drive us to eschew it. So the father suffereth his Child to burn his finger in a Candle, only of purpose to make him afraid of fire, that the little findging of his finger, may keep him from the burning of his face. There are examples hereof in S. Peter, in David and in others, which received good by their trips and falls. And I have no doubt but that a great sort even of the Heathen, have felt in themselves how greatly their experience of vice in themselves hath profited them to the more earnest love of virtue. 
Evils are in the world as things set one against another, after the manner as it is in the eloquence of words.  So then, let us not grudge at the prosperity of the wicked; for unto them it is a bane: neither let us complain of the miseries of the godly; for they be to their welfare. Let us not reverence the vizor of virtue in the wicked, for it is but an instrument of vice; neither let us disdain the falls of the virtuous, for they be but quickenings up unto virtue. But rather let us glorify God, which maketh the evil good whether it will or no, which causeth vice to do service unto virtue, and which guideth even the most sinful deeds, to his glory; the most unjust, to the executing of his justice; and the most uncertain, to the hitting of his mark. And notwithstanding that he do all this, yet can he not be blamed to have wrested any thing in the World, nor to have maintained evil in any manner a wise, no more surely than the Soul or ability of moving 
The actions and movings are of God; but the disorders of them and the haltings are of ourselves.  that is matched with a lame leg, is too blame for that the lame man halteth, though it yield forth moving into the leg, and guide the leg whether soever it will for all the lameness of the leg. What shall I say more? If any do yet still doubt of the things afore rehearsed, I will put him but to one proof; for his answer whereto upon leisure, I will believe him upon his oath. If he be a despiser of God, let him call to mind if he can, how much evil he hath sustained in the having of his goods, and how much evil he hath endured to do evil. Let him remember how greatly he hath tired himself with his own wishes, tormented himself with his good successes, set himself on fire when he thought but to warm him, and wandered quite away, when he meant to have brought others to the bent of his own bow. Or if he be one that seareth God, let him consider how much evil he hath left undone, in forbearing to have so great store of those false goods: how many things he hath wished which he would have eschewed, if he had foreknown the issue of them which he saw afterward: how greatly he had been dreaded and misliked of others, though he could not devise to have done better: how often his falls and slidings have served to make him to take sure footing against sin: how oft his wanderings out of the way have made him to escape the liings in wait and the théeveries of the world: how oft his own wiles have served to turn him from the right: & how often his own oversights have served to bring him to his intended end: and I doubt not but the heedful marking of these things, both in others and in himself, will make him to perceive that a certain everlasting providence watcheth over our lives and all our doings. At leastwise unless we will deny, that to lead the forecasts of others to another end than they purposed; to bring the unadvised oversights of others to better pass than they themselves could wish; and to make the wisdom of the wisest to do service, not only to his own divine wisdom, (if a man may so term it) but also oftentimes even to the undiscréetnesse of the meanest, is the work of Providence.   

The xiii. Chapter.  
That man's wisdom hath acknowledged God's Providence, and how the same wadeth between Destiny and Fortune.  
NOW, like as men of old time 
The Men of old tyme.  have acknowledged the maker of the world, some in express terms, and othersome by consequence: so have they also easily perceived the Providence, which they have deemed to depend upon the same as an appurtenance thereunto. Insomuch that even they which have flatly denied the Creation, have neverthelater granted the Providence, by reason that they found it so clear and manifest a matter; howbeit that to deny the Providence and to deny the Creation is all one. Hermes espies it out everywhere, as well in the Creation of the whole and of the parts thereof, as in the order and maintenance of all things. And if it be demanded of him, what providence it is, to have brought forth so many things which seem needless and unprofitable; his answer is ready shapen, That God created all things to his own glory: and that it is a glory, both to him to have created all things, and unto all things to have been created by his hand. 
Hermes in his Asclepius, and Cyrillus in his second book.  And if it be asked again, whence the evil cometh that is in things: He answereth, That GOD created them good, howbeit that (to speak properly) there is nothing purely good but only God. As for the evil, it is come in upon the good, like as all generation is accompanied with corruption. The iron rusteth; thou wilt not wite it upon the Smith. The Wine soureth; thou wilt not wite it upon the Uintener. The things that are created do corrupt; as little also oughtest thou to wite it upon the Creator. Why? Because that only he is unchangeable, and it is meet that there should always be some difference between the Creator, and the things created; between all, and nothing. Plato in that he teacheth the Creation, doth also sufficiently teach the Providence. For if God's power, wisdom, and goodness be equal, or rather all one thing; look where his power is, there is his wisdom, and thither also extendeth his goodness. But his power extendeth even to the least things, for else they could have no being at all: therefore his wisdom also extendeth unto them to guide and govern them, and likewise his goodness without the which nothing could be preserved. And so, God's provident goodness and gracious wisdom do watch over all things. Again, when as Plato setteth down God to be the end of man, and man to be the end of all things in the world and of the world itself: he showeth sufficiently that as man tendeth to God, so doth the world also; but unto that end it should not tend, unless it were directed thither, and who directeth it thither, but he that first made it? To be short, the particular forms of all things present and to come in respect of us, but eternally present with GOD, can have no abiding without a perfect knowledge and a steady direction of all things.  
But if any doubt hereof remain yet still; let us hear what the Platonistes say to that matter. Surely Plotin hath made two or three books thereof, wherein he teacheth providence by all things from the greatest to the smallest, coming down even to the little flowers which we see unblowen in the morning and withered at night, as though he had meant to say the same thing that we read in the Gospel: namely, Consider me the Lilies of the field; and so forth. Unto the ordinary complaint concerning the prosperity of the wicked, and the adversity of the virtuous; he answereth that the prosperity of the wicked is but as a Stageplay, and the adversity of the godly is as a gaming of exercise, wherein they be tied to a straight diet, that they may win the prize for which they contend. Unto the Question concerning evil, he answereth; that it is nothing else but a failing of goodness, 
If the man that suffereth be good; also. Plotin lib. 3. Ennead. 4.  which goeth on still diminishing it from degree to degree even to the uttermost; and that it proceedeth not from GOD, but from the imperfection of the matter, which he termeth nothing: and that the evil, (which consisteth altogether in degrees and in failing of good,) is so far of from diminishing God's Providence, that it is rather the thing wherein God's Providence showeth itself the more, as without the which there were no Providence at all to be seen: and yet that therewithal, God is the author of all abilities, and the disposer or overruler of all wills. Which things (to avoid long discourse) are more conveniently to be seen in his own works.  
His Disciple Porphyrius departed not from the same opinion, howbeit that he was cumbered with the like perplexities, that they be which dispute against it. Seeing that God (saith he) doth by his skill overrule all things, and order them by incomparable propriety of virtue; and that on the contrary part, man's Reason being very small, is ignorant of most things how skilful and curious so ever it seem to be of the truth: Surely we may then call it wise, when it is not curious in searching such doubtful and hard matters, as are matched with danger of blaspheming; but rather granteth that the things which are done, are very well as they be. For what can our small Reason find fault with or reprove in the doings of that great Reason, to esteem them either lawful or unlawful, seeing we understand them not? 
Porphyrius to Nemertius.  And in another place, If we suffer a King (saith he) to dispose of his own affairs as he listeth; shall we deny unto GOD the ordering and disposing of the things here beneath, 
Cyrillus in his second and Fifth books against julian.  which he himself created? And against such as found fault with the government of the world which they understand not, these are his very words. Sooth (saith he) there is not a more unjust speech, than that which presumeth to teach God justice, nor a more holy speech than that which yieldeth to the truth; and to think otherwise is a disease of mind & a great crime. For God not only directeth all things at all times, too the behoof and full harmony of the whole universally; but also is the cherisher preserver and repairer of every several thing in particular. I pray you hath he not showed too Physicians, (who have so much providence as he hath given them skill,) the things that are too befall too the whole body of man, how that some members are to be cut of, some to be seared, and othersome to be eaten away with Corrasives, for the health of the whole body? And yet when the Nurses or Mothers see the Surgeon about to do it, do they not weep and cry out right strangely, notwithstanding that they know it to be for the welfare of the child's body? But what doth the Father then who is wiser than they, but comfort the patiented, and hold the plaster ready to lay to the wound? God likewise for the curing of the whole, hath ordained that men should die, (That is the thing that Epicurus findeth fault with) & that they should be separated asunder, as a Toe is sometime cut of for the saving of the whole body. And could we enter into the mind of God, we should undoubtedly know why and to what good end he hath from the beginning barred some things from being because he foresaw they should be to hurtful, and unto other some hath given death in recompense of their godliness. The sum of all is, that nothing is done but by the providence of God, howbeit that many things seem repugnant to his wisdom and goodness, as the cutting off of a Leg, or the searing of a member seem repugnant both to the healing of the whole body, and to the purpose of the Surgeon.  
Also as touching the adversities of good men, 
Syn●sius the Platonist.  See here what Synesius the Platonist answereth. The adversities (saith he) which we think we endure without our deserts, do help us too weed out our affections out of our ground; which is to much inclined to them; and by that means the inconveniences which make fools to doubt of God's Providence, do confirm wise folk the more therein. For what man would be contented to part hence, if he found no adversity here? And therefore it is to be thought, that the Rulers of the lower Regions (he meaneth the Féends) were the first founders of these prosperities which the common sort maketh so great account of, of purpose to bewitch men with them, and to lull them a sleep here. Hierocles also having made a long discourse, 
Hierocles.  concludeth that if we fall into any adversity whereof we cannot conjecture the cause, it behoveth to consider that we be ignorant in all things, and yet we must not proceed, so far, as to say that God is the author of evil, or that he hath not a care of us; for those (saith he) were overgreat blasphemies.  
Aristotle 
Aristotle in his morals to Nicomachus and Eudemus.  speaketh not any otherwise either in his great Morals or in his little Morals, howbeit that he be more graveled in his Metaphysiks. Howsoever the case stand, in his book concerning the world he granteth unto God the care of all great things. And think you it beseemeth man too set bounds too the wisdom of God who hath limited the natures of all things; and to appoint what God shall esteem great or small, before whom nothing can be great or small? Nevertheless whereas he saith that the world dependeth upon God as the end thereof; the best of his Desciples do by infallible consequence gather thereof the providence of God. For seeing that the World dependeth upon him and tendeth unto him; the beginning of that direction cannot proceed of any other, than of him to whom it tendeth. Again, seeing that (as he saith in other places) all kind of things tend too some one particular end every one peculiar to itself, and all meet together in one universal end, and yet all of them have not reason or understanding to appoint that end too themselves, or to hold themselves within that bound. It followeth then that there is a certain providence which hath that reason for all and every of them, and that the same reason resteth in God upon whom all of them depend, as Aristotle's best learned interpreters are constrained to confess. To be short, the quick sentence which is attributed unto him, which is, That such as require a proof of God's providence are to be answered with the lashes of a Whip: doth give us sufficient credit of his opinion.  
Of the opinion of Theophrastus we cannot doubt. For he that granteth the creation of a thing, cannot doubt of providence, considering that power and goodness are alike equal in both of them. But behold here the express words of Alexander of Aphrodise in his book of Providence. 
Alexander of Aphrodise in his book of Providence.  That God should have no will (saith he) to care for the things here beneath, is too far disagreeing with his nature; for it is the property of an envious person. And that he should be unable, were to unseemly for him, for he is able to do more than he hath yet done. Therefore let us not doubt of him, either the one or the other, but let us rather conclude, that he both can and will have care of all things that are done here below. And in another place he gathereth this very conclusion, That all our welfare lieth in the serving of God, and that the fear of him is a gift of his, in that he vouchsafeth to extend his providence unto us.  
Of the opinions of Plutarch and Seneca, their own books do expressly testify: namely plutarch's treatise concerning the slow punishment of evil doers, for him; and Senecaes' books concerning benefits, 
Seneca concerning Benefits, lib. 2. Cap. 4. 5. 6. 21. 31.  and a treatise of his concerning Providence; for him. So likewise doth the wise Philosopher Epictetus upon whom Simplicius hath written. For after many forespéeches concerning the greatness and majesty of God, and the weakness of man, they assayed to yield a reason of all things that offended the weaker sort in this case, yea even to the very accidents and to the thunderclaps. And I desire my readers to take the pains to read them whole, that they may see how conformable the things which Christians teach, are to the wisdom of the best sort among the Heathen. Whereunto they may for an income, add this Oracle of Apollo himself reported by Porphyrius.  
No man too hide himself from God by cunning can devise;  
No man by slights or subtle shifts can blind or dim his eyes.  
All places he fulfilleth, 
Porphyrius in his Collections of Philosophy. Oppianus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  He is present everywhere,  
And giveth life to every thing that moves and life doth bear.  
And as concerning all other people of the Earth, in whose behalf the Poets (which are full of such sayings every where) may answer, as Orpheus, Homer, Hesiodus, Aratus, Sophocles, Phocylides and such others: surely in as much as we see that all Nations have some Religion, it is a visible precedent, that God's providence is believed and received of all with one accord. For in vain do meu serve God, if he see it not; in vain do men pray to him if he regard them not, in vain complain they to him, if he judge them not; and to be short, in vain do we call upon him both on Sea and Land, (where counsel and casualty seem most to take place) for the maintaining of our welfare, and the preserving of us from harm; unless we be thoroughly persuaded that he heareth us, and that he ruleth Heaven and Earth and all things in them from above, yea and even the very hazard of war as Caesar termeth it, wherein fortune seemeth to bear greatest sway. But afore we give our determinate judgement, we have yet two Advocates to hear, namely the Advocate of Fortune, and the Advocate of Destiny. For (saith the one) if all things pass under the guiding of providence, what becometh of Fortune which we see in so many things? And (sayeth the other) what freedom then hath man? must it not needs be confessed, that a certain destiny compelleth every man to do whatsoever he doth?  
If ye mean fortune as she is painted by the Poets, 
against Fortune.  blind, standing on a bowl, and turning with every wind: it is as easy to wipe her away as to paint her. For who seethe not that there is an uniform order, both in the whole world, and in all the parts thereof, and how then can one that is blind be the guider thereof? Also who understandeth not, that to move things belongeth to steadfastness and not unto unsteadfastness? for how can that thing rule and wéeld others, which is carried away itself? Or how can he hold the stern who floateth himself upon the water? Seeing then that there is so certain order in all things: it followeth that fortune beareth no sway in any thing, and therefore that there is no fortune at all. But if by the word fortune they mean as Proclus doth, 
Proclus upon Timeus.  a certain divine power that gathereth causes far distant one from another, all to one end: surely in that case we be more friends to fortune than they be. For we admit it, not only in things uncertain wandering and wavering, but also even in the things that are most certain, yea and in all things whatsoever; as the which is but God himself disguised under another name.  
Nowthen to speak properly, what is Fortune? Is it a Substance? Even by their own confession, it hath no being but in the disorder of other things. Shall we term it an Accident? How should an accident work so divers accidents? 
junenall. I here wants no God at all, where wisdum doth advise: we ●ooles have fortune deified and placed above the Skies, Cicero.  What is it then, if it be any thing at all? Surely it is a word that signifieth nothing but respectively, that is to say, as having respect of some things or persons that are spoken of, and it hath no ground or being but of and in our own ignorance. That which is fortune to the Child, is no fortune to the father: that which is fortune to the Servant, is none to the Master: that which is fortune to the fool, is none to the wise man: that which is fortune to the wise man, is none unto God. According to the measure of our knowledge or ignorance, so doth fortune increase or abate. 
Error, & Blindness and the not knowing of things and causes, have brought up the names of Nature and Fortune.  Take away ignorance from men, and fortune is banished from all their dealings. The father letteth a thing fall in his Garden, to see whether his child will bring it to him or steal it away. The child thinks it to be fallen by chance; and his father who knows to what end he did let it fall, smiles at him. And so the thing that was chance or fortune to the child, was of set purpose in the father. A Master sendeth forth divers Servants divers ways, all to one place, to the intent that of many, some one at the least may escape and come home again. They meet there all together. At the first sight the thing which was forecast by good order, seemeth to them to happen by adventure. A Captain having devised to take the Gate of some City, causeth a Cart or a Chariot to be broken upon the Drawbridge as it were by some mischance, that his ambush may in the mean while break forth and enter the Town. The Warders fall to beating of the Wagoner for it, and othersome excuse him as overtaken by misfortune. And so the thing which was a policy of War in the Captain that devised it, is a chance or fortune to the Town that witted not the ground of it. A wise man to give a glyke to another wise man, or a Captain to beguile a Captain, or an enemy to delude his enemy, cyphereth a letter grossly for the nonce, and sendeth it such a way as he imagineth that it shallbe surprised. He that lighteth upon it is glad of so good adventure, and thinking that he readeth the secrets of his adversaries hart, buildeth all his affairs in good earnest upon things contrived to deceive him. And so the thing which was a rare devise in the one, is a rare adventure to the other. Now if among men, which are all of one kind, and have well-near like portion of reason, there be such odds between age and age, between quality and quality, and between wit and wit; that the same which in one is providence, is fortune in another: shall we think it strange, that the thing which seemeth fortune to us that are but blindness and ignorance, should be singular providence as in respect of God? Or that he which is the only cause of all causes, should have the skill to assemble them together to some one certain effect, how far distant soever they be? As for example, if he make thee to find a treasure in digging of a pit, or to scape a fall from a plancher in going to walk upon it; wouldst thou steal that benefit from the goodness of GOD, who brought thee to the one place, or saved thee from the other? I say from God who is thy maker, to father it upon blind Fortune which knoweth thee not? And why should it be harder for him to match two causes together that are far asunder, than to have made them so far at odds one from another? Or than it is for thyself to put wood to fire, and fire to water, & thy meat into the water, which are causes so far distant, and yetnotwithstanding thou joinest them together to one certain end, which is the nourishment of thy body? And what things are further distant in thy mind, than a Chariot, a Draw-bridge, and an Host of men; which things notwithstanding thou couldst skill to bring fitly together for the taking of a City? Thus look wherein thou dost chief place fortune, there doth the rarest and most wonderful point of Providence most evidently show itself.  
But now comes me the other Advocate; 
against Destiny.  who to bring us unto Destiny, and to a certain necessity of all things and of all doings, maketh his hand of all the things which we have alleged against Fortune. Therefore let us see how we may walk between Fortune and Destiny, so as we may shun chance without failing into necessity, and perceive whether the same be Providence or no. If all things (say they) be guided by GOD to some one certain end, yea even those also which seem casual; then can they not be turned any other way. I willingly grant them that. And if they cannot be turned; then are not men's doings free, but of necessity. Nay, this consequent is utterly false; because the things which have free will to endeavour themselves contrary to Gods will, have not free power to restrain his will from overruling them. But let us lay forth this matter more at large, that it may be the better understood. We see in the Sky a great number of Stars that are fixed, and many also (as the Planets) which have every of them their peculiar movings turns & courses severally to themselves. Now, the highest Heaven, by his universal moving carrieth all the Stars about, as well the movable as the unmovable, without any stopping or interrupting of their particular movings, whereby Bee made innumerable figures aspects and respects, which I leave to the Astrologers to declare. The Sun maketh the day and the year; the Moon maketh the months & the quarters; the Pleiads and Hyads make the Seasons; the D●gstarre maketh the heat of the Summer, and so forth. Let us put the case that the highest Heaven stood still, and that the lower Heavens kept on their peculiar movings: or let us put the case that he went on, and that all the rest stood still; and then should there be none of the said figurings and aspects to be seen. But let them all alone as they be: let the highest Heaven by his moving carry all the Stars about, and let every of them continue the having and executing of his own peculiar nature, the movable as movable, and the unmovable as unmovable, and every of them endeavour accordingly against the Universal; and then shall we see the woonderfulnesse of the Heaven, which by an uniform kind of moving that leaveth to every Star his proper and peculiar moving, yieldeth every day divers forms in the Sky, which cause alterations in the air; which thing neither his own sole moving could do if the residue of the Stars stood still, neither could the courses and movings of the Stars bring it to pass, if they were not carried about by the moving of him. Now let us see how this example agreeth with our matter. God by his will and power hath created all powers, and disposed all wills. That his power overruleth all powers, all men confess. For who is he that maketh a Clock and cannot rule it? But that his will should direct all wills to such end as he listeth, without forcing them from their nature which is to be free; there is the dow●. God forbidden that he which created nature to do him service, should be unable to use the service thereof without marring it. God then (say I) guideth all things to the performance of his will, the movable by their movings, and the unmovable by their steadfastness; the things endued with sense, by their appetites, and the reasonable things, by their wills; the natural things, by their thraldom, and the things that have will, by their freedom: And the freer that they be, the greater is his glory, as in deed it is a more commendable thing to cause liberty to yield freely to obedience by gentle handling, than to hale it by for●e and compulsion as it were tied in a chain. If the wills of all men were carried by God's will without having their own peculiar movings: the power of God could not shine forth in them so much as it doth now, when all wills enforce themselves severally against his will, and yet nevertheless even in following their own sway, do find themselves led (they wot not how) whether soever it pleaseth him. Neither should we see the said diversities of figures in the Heaven, which breed so divers effects, of Wars, of Peace, of decays, of prosperity, of adversity, and such other; which serve all to the Providence of the everlasting God; but we should see everywhere one uniform will holding all other wills fast fettered, and carrying them whether soever it listed; and the more straightly that they were tied up, the less should we esteem of his power, as who would say he stood in fear to let them lose. Again, if we imagine all those wills to have free scope, to follow their own likings without any government of higher power to overrule them, and restrain their wh●n they intent to break out: we should undoubtedly see divers ends in things, where as now they tend all to one: And liberty would turn into looseness, looseness into disorder, and disorder into destruction; whereas the world doth necessarily require order, and order requireth all things to be referred to some one certain end. God therefore to show his power in our freedom and liberty; hath left our wills to us; and to restrain them from ●●senesse, he hath so ordered them by his wisdom, that he wor●●th his own will no less by them, than if we had no will at all. Let us enforce ourselves as much as we list against his will, and yet even our disobedience shall turn to the fulfilling of his will. Let us go Eastward when his will goes Westward, and yet doth his moving conduct us still. But alveit that God do lead forth and guide the one will as well as the other; yet notwithstanding right happy as that will which endeavoureth to follow, and unhappy is that which must be haled and dragged. Likewise in a keness of Hounds, every of them runneth according to his natural inclination, and yet all of them serve the purpose of the Hunter. Also in an Host of men, one fighteth for honour, another for spite, a third for gain, and all for victory to the Prince that sent them into the field. Take from the Hounds their natural inclinations, and from the Souldierr● the● particular wills and dispositions; and ye do away Hunting, and the Army must needs disperse.  
Yea (say they) 
Gods foresight or Forknowledge.  but God saw all things and all the courses of the world from everlasting all at one instant, and things cannot fall out otherwise than he hath foreseen them. It seemeth therefore that nothing is casual nothing at the choice of our will, nor any thing that is not of necessity. Yes: for as God beholdeth all things with one view, 
If it be predestined (saith one) that thou shalt recover thy sickness, it is in vain for thee to send for the Phisision. If it be thy destiny (answereth another) to have Children; it is in vain for thee to company with thy wife.  so doth he also behold every of them working according too their several properties. He seeth the motting of the Heaven, and the particular movings of the Sun and the Moon to bring forth the Eclipses of necessity: he seethe men consulting of war, of peace, of alliance and other things, willingly; and he seeth the Plants sp●ing up and grow naturally. He himself hath set down the second, third, yea, and fourth causes, and hath linked them one to an other, to do what he will have done: but the thing that deceiveth us in this case, is that we consider not that our wills are among these causes and that according to their fréenesse such as it is, they work freely in the doings of this world, like as all other causes work every of them according to their peculiar movings, inclinations, abilities, natures or kinds. After the same manner the man that is acquainted with● his howseholdmatters, will deem aforehand which of three parts his eldest son will choose, and which his second will choose, though he be far of from them, because he knoweth their natures and inclinations; and yet for all that, he inclineth them not to the doing of the one or of the other. again, another foreseeth that a Prince will keep peace or make war, because he knoweth him two be either of a quiet or of an unquiet disposition. Even so is it with God: saving that he being near and innermore to all things than the things themselves are, doth know them most perfectly, whereas we have nothing but by conjectures, and those very weak. To be short, as in respect of God the things are of necessity, which as in respect of themselves are things of casualty; the cause whereof is, that the matter which in the things themselves is to come, is present to his sight everlastingly; and his foreseeing of things to come, is not in the causes of them as it is unto wise men, but in himself who is the cause of all causes; and therefore he seeth not that thou shalt do this or shalt not do that [as of a thing to come] but whatsoever thou art to do, he seeth thee doing it from everlasting; naturally if it be to be done naturally, and willingly if it be to be 〈◊〉 willingly: and yet thy will is no less subject to his will, than thy nature is subject to the power that created it: neither is the freedom of thy will (such as it is now after thy fall) any more compelled in taking deliberation, than thy nature is compelled in growing or shuming. When I speak here of free-will, I mean not to deal with this Question whether it lie in us to choose the way of Sa●●ation or no. For as it is a thing that surmounteth the whole nature of mankind, and exceedeth the proportion of our 〈◊〉 understandings: so must it necessity ensue that we must be drawn by some higher cause from above, as in a case that concerneth the forsaking of ourselves and of our own desires, and not the following of them. again, I intent not to take away the extraordinary motions which God worketh in us, when he useth us sometimes beyond the inclination of our nature; ●y breeding that in us by a secret operation, which was not in us of ourselves, But I speak peculiarly of these inferior doings, which are proportionable to our wit and to the capacity of our reason; in which things our free-will (as may●od as it is) hath ability to exercise itself, notwithstanding that is be utterly lam●aud unable to mount up any higher. After that manner therefore may we 〈◊〉 between the Fortune of Epicurus and the de●mie of Chrysippus, by Providence; and between casualty and necessity by the will of God; and between looseness and Bondage by leaving their movings free which yet nevertheless shall come to the end which God hath listed to appoint unto them, whatsoever windings and wreathe they seem to themselves to make in the mean tyme. And as touching the destiny of the Astrologers, who make all things subject to the whéelings about of the Sky, and make all things to be as much of necessity as the movings thereof: we will leave them to plead their case against that great Learned man the County of Mirandula, praying them to consider at least wise, whether the great study and pains which those great Clerks have tak●n to disprove this destiny, can by any means be fathered upon destiny.  
Now then, for a small conclusion of this whole discourse, let us say that God is a sovereign Being, and a sovereign mind, and that Being and minding are all one in him; and therefore that as in creating things the might and power of his Being extended even to the least things or else they had not been at all: so the Providence, forecast and direction of his mind extend to all things, or else they could not continue. Let not the confusion of things which we see ●eere below trouble us; for the greater the same is, the great●● doth God's providence show itself therein, as the skill of a Physician doth in the intricateness of a disease. But who is he that can limit the sight of the Everlasting God? Surely not the prosperities of the wicked; for they be but visors: nor the adversities of the godly, for they be but exercises; nor the Deaths of the guiltless, for it is but a powdering of their virtues to preserve them to the use of posterity. Nay, let not even sin itself, which is the very evil in deed, cause any grudge of mind in us; for God Created Nature good, but evil is sprung thereof. He Created freedom, and it is degenerated into looseness. But let us praise God for giving us powers, and let us condemn ourselves for abusing them. Let us glorify him for chastising us by our own looseness, for executing his justice by our unjust Dealings, and for performing the ordinance of his rightful will by our inordinate passions. It we see a thing whereof we know not the cause; let us acknowledge our ignorance, and not name it fortune. The causes that are furthest a sunder, are near at hand unto him, to perform whatsoever he listeth. If we do any unreasonable thing; let us not allege necessity. He can skill to use all things without marring them; the movable, according to their movings; the things endued with will, according to their passions; and the things endued with reason, according to their reasonings. In thinking to do our own will, we bring his to pass. We be free to follow out own Nature; and our Nature is become evil through sin. O wretched freedom, which bringeth us under such bondage! And affore this nature of ours, we can neither shun it nor drive it from us: for we be bondslaves to it, and it to sin, and there behoveth a stronger than ourselves to rid us thereof. Therefore let us pray God to bring the freedom of our wills in bondage to his will, and to free our souls from this hard and damnable kind of freedom, and to grant us by his grace, not as to the wicked, to do his will in being unwilling to do it; but as to his Children, at least wise to be willing to do it even in not doing it.   

The xiv Chapter.  
That the Soul of Man is immortal, or dieth not.  
Hitherto I have treated of the world that is to be conceived in understanding, and of the sensible World (as the Platonists term them) that is to say, of God and of this World. Now followeth the examining of the Little World (as they term it) that is to say, of man. Concerning God, we have acknowledged him to be a Spirit: and as touching the World, we have found it to be a body. In man we have an abridgement of both, 
Man is both Soul & body.  namely of God in respect of Spirit, and of the World in composition of body, as though the Creator of purpose to set forth a mirror of his works, intended to bring into one little compass both the infiniteness of his own nature, and also the hugeness of the whole world together. We see in man's body a wonderful mixture of the four Elements, the veins spreading forth like Rivers to the uttermost members; as many instruments of sense, as there be sensible natures in the world; a great number of sinews, Fleshstrings, and knitters; a Head by special privilege Directed up too Heaven-ward; & Hands serving to all manner of services. Whatsoever he is that shall consider no more, but only this instrument, without life, without sense, and without moving; cannot but think verily that it is made to very great purpose; and he must needs krie out as Hermes or as the Sarzin Abdala doth, that man is a miracle which far surmounteth, not only these Lower Elements, but also the very Heaven and all the ornaments thereof. But if he could (as it were out of himself) behold this body receiving life, and entering into the use of all his motions with such forwardness, hands bestirring themselves so nimbly and after so sundry fashions, and the Senses uttering their force so far of, without stirring out of their place: think you not that he would be wonderfully ravished, and so much more wonder at the said life moving and sense, than at the body, as he wondered afore at the body, to behold the excellency of the proportion thereof above the mass of some stone? For what comparison is there between a Lute and a Luteplayer, or between a dumb instrument and him that maketh it to sound? What would he say then if he could afterward see how the same man being now quickened attaineth in one moment from the one side of the earth to the other without shifting of place; descending down to the centre of the world, and mounting up above the outermost circle of it both at once; present in a thousand places at one instant, embracing the whole without touching it; kreeping upon the earth, and yet containing it; beholding the Heavens from beneath, and being above the Heavens of Heavens both at once? Should he not be compelled to say, that in this silly body there dwelleth a greater thing than the body, greater than the earth, yea greater than the whole world together? Then let us say with Plato, that man is double; outward, and inward. The outward man is that which we see with our eyes, which foregoeth not his shape when it is dead, no more than a Lute foregoeth his, shape when the Luteplaier ceaseth from making it to sound, howbeit that both life, moving, sense, and reason be out of it. The inward man is the Soul, and that is properly the very man; which useth the body as an instrument; whereunto though it be united by the power of God, yet doth it not remove when the body runneth. It seethe when the eyes be shut, and sometimes seethe not when the eyes be wide open: It traveleth while the body resteth, and resteth when the body traveleth; that is to say, it is able of itself to perform his own actions, without the help of the outward man, whereas on the contrary part the outward without the help of the inward that is to wit, the body without the presence of the Soul, hath neither sense, moving, life, no nor continuance of being. In the outward man we have a Counterfeit of the whole world, and if ye rip them both up by percelmeale, ye shall find a wonderful agreement betwixt them. But my purpose in this book is not to treat of the things that pertain peculiarly to the body.  
In the inward man we have a sum of whatsoever life sense and moving is in all creatures, and moreover an Image or rather a shadow (for the Image is defaced by our sin) of the Godhead itself. And that is the thing which we have to examine in this Chapter. In Plants, we perceive that besides their bodies which we see, there is also an inward virtue which we see not, whereby they live, grow, bud, and bear fruit: which virtue we call the quickening Soul, and it maketh them to differ from Stones and Metals, which have it not. In sensitive living things, we find the selfsame virtue, which worketh while they sleep & are after a sort as the Plants; and therewithal we find another certain virtue or power which seethe, heareth, smelleth, tasteth, and feeleth; which also in many of them doth hoard up the things brought in by the senses; which manner of power the Plants are void of. This do we term the sensitive Soul, because the effects thereof are discerned and executed by the Senses. 
In Man are three Abilities of Soul.  In man we have both the quickening and the Sensitive, the former uttering itself in the nourishing and increasing of him, and the later in the subtility of sense and imagination, wherethrough he is both Plant and Beast together. But yet moreover we see also a Mind which considereth and beholdeth, which reapeth profit of the things that are brought in by the Senses, which by his seeing conceiveth that which it seethe not; which of that which is not, gathereth that which is; & finally which pulleth a man away both from the earth & from all sensible things, yea and (after a sort) from himself too. This do we call the reasonable Soul, and it is the thing that maketh man to be man, (and not a Plant or a brute Beast as the other two do,) and also to be the Image or rather a shadow of the Godhead, in that (as we shall say hereafter) it is a Spirit that may have continuance of being alone by itself without the body. And by the way, whereas I say that the inward man hath a quickening power as a Plant hath, a sensitive power as a Beast hath, and a power of understanding whereby he is a man: my meaning is not that he hath three Souls but only one Soul; that is to wit, that like as in the brute Beast the sensitive Soul comprehendeth the quickening Soul; so in man the reasonable Soul comprehendeth both the sensitive and the quickening, and executeth the offices of them all three, so as it both liveth, feeleth, and reasoneth even as well and after the same manner, as the mind of a man may intend to his own household-matters, to the affairs of the Commonweal, and to heavenly things all at once. Or to speak more fitly, these three degrees of Souls are three degrees of life, whereof the second exceedeth and containeth the first, and the third exceedeth and containeth both the other two. The one, without the which the body cannot live, is the Soul or life of the Plant, and is so tied to the body, that it showeth not itself in any wise out of it. The second, which cannot live without the body, is the Soul or life of the Beast; which doth well utter forth his power and force abroad, but yet not otherwise than by the members and instruments of the body whereunto it is tied. The third, which can of itself live and continue without the body, but not the body without it, is the Soul of man, which giveth life inwardly to all his parts, showeth forth his life abroad in the perceiving of all things subject to Sense, and retaineth still his force (as shallbe said hereafter) yea and increaseth it, even when the strength of the body and the very liveliness of the senses fail. And in very deed, ye shall see a man forego all his senses one after another as the instruments of them decay, and yet have still both life and reason unappaired. The cause whereof is, that some of the instruments of life and sense do fail, but the life itself which quickeneth them faileth not. And therefore the Beast foregoeth not life in losing sense, but he utterly foregoeth sense in foregoing life. And that is because life is the ground of the abilities of sense, and the sensitive life is a more excellent life than the quickening life, as wherein those powers and abilities are as in their root. To be short, he that bereaveth man or beast of the use of Senses, or man of the right use of reason, doth not thereby bereave him of life; but he that bereaveth the beast or the outward man of their life, doth therewithal bereave them of sense and reason. Therefore it is a most sure argument, that the Soul which causeth a beast to live, and the Soul that causeth it to have sense, are both one, that is to wit, one certain kind of life more lively and more excellent than the life that is in Plants. And likewise that the Soul which causeth man to live, to have sense, and to reason, is but one, that is to wit, one certain kind of life more excellent, more lively, and of further reach, than the life of the Beast. But like as sense is as it were the form or Selfebeing (if I may so term it) of the life of a beast; so is reason or understanding the very form and Selfebeing of the Soul of man; and (to speak properly) it is the Soul or life of the Soul, like as the apple of our eye is the very eye of our eye. And in very deed, when the mind is earnestly occupied, the senses are at a stay; and when the senses are overbusied, the nourishment and digestion is hindered; and contrary wise: which thing could not come to pass if the Soul were any more than one substance, which by reason that it is but one, cannot utter his force alike in all places at once, but yieldeth the less care one where so long as it is earnestly occupied anotherwhere. In this Soul of man (which yet notwithstanding is but one) the diversity of the powers and abilities is very apparent. The quickening power doth nourish, increase and maintain us; and Reason and Sense meddle not therewith, neither have they power to impeach the working thereof. The truth whereof appeareth in this, that those things are best done when our mind is at rest, and our senses are asleep; insomuch that oftentimes we forego the sense and moving of some parts by some Rheum or some Palsy, and yet the same parts cease not to be nourished still. Also, the sensitive life seethe and perceiveth a far of, yea oftentimes without setting of the mind thereupon, or without considering what the Sense conceiveth. Some men which have but weak Senses, have very quick understanding; and likewise on the contrary part. Again, some fall into a consumption, which ●ant not the perfect use of their Senses. Sometime the reasonable part is so earnestly bend and occupied about the things that i● liketh of, that by the increasing of itself, it hurteth and diminisheth the part that quickeneth. Also it standeth in argument against the Senses, and reproveth them of falsehood, and concludeth contrary to their information. And it may be that the man which hath his digestion perfect and his Senses sound, hath not his wit or reason sound in like case. Now, were the Soul but only one ability, it could not be so. But now is the same divided manifestly into wit or understanding, and will; the one serving to devise, and the other to execute. For we understand divers things which we will not, and we will divers things which we understand not: which contrary operations cannot be attributed both to one power. Nevertheless, the uniting of all these powers together is with such distinctness, and the distinguishing of them is with such union, that ordinarily they meet all together in one selfsame action, the one of them as readily (by all likelihood) as the other, howbeit that every of them doth his own work severally by himself, and one afore another as in respect of their objects.  
Thus have we three sorts of men, according to the three powers or abilities of the inward man. Namely the earthly man, which like the Plant mindeth nothing but sleeping and feeding, making all his senses and all his reason to serve to that purpose, as in whom the ear of this present life only, hath devoured and swallowed up his senses and understanding. The Sensual man (as S. Paul himself termeth him,) who is given wholly to these sensible things imbacing and casting down his reason so far, as to make it a bondslave to his senses and the pleasures and delights thereof: And the reasonable man, who liveth properly in spirit and mind, who entereth into himself to know himself, and goeth out of himself to behold God; making this life to serve to the atteynment of a better, and using his Senses but as instruments and servants of his reason. After as any of these three powers do reign and bear sway in man, that is to wit, after as a man yieldeth himself more to one than to another of them; so becometh he like unto the Spirits, the brute Beasts, or Plants, yea and the very Blocks and Stones. But it is our disposition even by leynd, to be carried away by our corrupt nature, and by the objects which hem us in on all sides; but as for against our nature yea or beyond our nature, our nature is not able to do any thing at all.  
Now, it is not enough for us to know that we have a Soul whereby we live, feel, and understand, and which being but one hath in itself alone so many sundry powers or abilities: for it will be demanded of us by and by what this Soul properly is. And sooth if I should say, I cannot tell what it is, I should not belie myself a whit; for I should but confess mine own ignorance, as many great learned men have done afore me. And I should do no wrong at all to the Soul itself; for sith we cannot deny● the effects thereof, the less that we be able to declare the nature and being thereof, the more doth the excellency thereof shine forth. Again, it is a plain case, that no thing can comprehend the thing that is greater than itself. Now, our Soul is after a sort less than itself, inasmuch as it is wrapped up in this body, in like wise as the man that hath gives and fetters on his feet, is after a sort weaker than himself. Nevertheless, let us assay to satisfy such demands as well as we can. And forasmuch as it is the Image of God, not only in respect of the government and maintenance of the whole world, but also even in the very nature thereof: as we said heretofore when we spoke of the nature of GOD, if we cannot express or conceive what it is, let us at leastwise be certified what it is not. First of all, that the Soul and the Body be not both one thing, 
The Body and the Soul be not one selfsame thing.  but two very far differing things, and also that the Soul is no part of the body, it appeareth of itself without further proof. For if the Soul were the body or a part of the body, it should grow with the body as the other parts of the body do, and the greater that the body were, the greater also should the Soul be. Nay, contrariwise, the body increaseth to a certain age and then stayeth; after which age is commonly the time that the Soul doth most grow, and those that are strongest of mind are commonly weakest of body, and the Soul is seen to be full of liveliness in a languisshi●g body, and to grow the more in force, by the decay of the body. The Soul than groweth not with the body, and therefore it is not the body, nor any part of the body. And whereas I speak of growing in the Soul, by growing I mean the profiting thereof in power and virtue, as the body groweth in greatness by further enlarging. Again, if the Soul were the body, it should lose her strength and soundness with the body, so as the maimed in body should therewith feel also a maim in his understanding as well as in his members: whosoever were sick of any disease, should also be sick in his reason: he that ●impeth or halteth, should therewith ha●● in Soul also: the blind man's Soul should be blind, and the lame man's Soul should be lame. But we see contrariwise, that the maimed and the sick, the Cripples and the blind, have their Soul whole and sound, and their understanding perfect and cléeresighted in itself. To be short, many a man dieth whose body is sound, and differeth not a whit in any part from that it was when it was alive, and yet notwithstanding, both life, moving, sense, and understanding are out of it. Let us say then that in the body there was a thing which was not of the body, but was a far other thing than the body.  
Some wilful person will object here, that the force and strength of the Soul groweth with the body, as appears in this that a man grown will remove that which a child cannot, and that a child of two years old will go, which thing a babe of two months old cannot do. But he should consider also, that if the selfsame man or the selfsame child should have a mischance in his leg or in his arm, he should thereby forego the strength and moving thereof, whereas yet notwithstanding his Soul should have her former force and power still to move the other as she did afore. Therefore it is to be said, not that the child's Soul is grown or strengthened by time; but rather that his sinews are dried and hardened which the soul useth as strings and instruments too move withal and therefore when age hath loosened and weakened them, a man hath need of a staff to help them with, although he have as good a will to run as he had when he was young. The soul then which moveth them all at one beck, hath the selfsame power in infancy which it hath in age, and the same in age which it hath in the prime of Youth: and the fault is only in the instrument, which is unable to execute the operations thereof: like as the cunning of a Luteplaier is not diminished by the moistness or slackness of his Lute strings, nor increased by the over high straining and tytght standing of them; but in deed in the one he cannot show his cunning at all, and in the other he may show it more or less. Likewise the speech of Children cometh with their teeth, howbeit that the speech do manifestly v●ter itself first, in that they prattle many things which they cannot pronounce: and in old men it goeth away again with their teeth, and yet their eloquence is not abated thereby. Asfor Demosthenes, although he surmounted all the Orators of his time, yet were there some letters which he could not pronounce. Give unto old age or unto infancy the same sinews and teeth, and as able and lusty Limbs and members as youth hath; and the actions which the soul doth with the body and by the body, I mean so far forth as concern the abilities of sense and liveliness, shallbe performed as well in one age as in another. But hadst thou as great indifferency in judging of the force and power of thine own soul, as of the cunning of a Luteplayer, (I say not by the nimbleness of his fingers which are perchance knotted with the gout, but by the plain and sweet Harmony of his Tabulatorie as they term it, which maketh thee to deem him to have cunning in his head, although he can no more utter it with his hanoes,) so as thou wouldst consider how thou hast in thyself a desire to go, though they feet be not able to bear the; a discretion to judge of things that are spoken; though thine eyes cannot convey it unto thee; a sound eloquence, though for want of thy teeth thou cannot well express it; and which is above all the rest, a substantial quick and heavenly reason, even when thy body is most earthly and drooping. Thou wouldst soon conclude that the force and power of quickening, moving, and perceiving, is whole and sound in thy Soul, and that the default is altogether in thy body. Insomuch that if she had a new body and new instruments given unto her, she would be as ●ustie and cheerly as ever she was, and that the more she perceiveth the body to decay, the more she laboureth to retire into herself, which is a plain proof of that she is not the body nor any part of the body, but the very life and inworker of the body.  
And sith it is so, 
That the Soul is a substance.  there needeth no long scanning whether the Soul be a substance or a quality. For, seeing that qualities have no being but in another thing than themselves; the life which causeth another thing to be, cannot be a quality. Forasmuch then as the Soul maketh a man to be a man, who otherwise should be but a Carcase or carrion: doubtless (unless we will say that the only difference which is betwixt a man and a dead Carcase, is but in accidents) we must needs grant that the Soul is a forming substance and a substantial form, yea and a most excellent substance infinitely passing the outward man; as which by the power and virtue thereof causeth another thing to have being, and perfecteth the bodily substance which seemeth outwardly to have so many perfections.  
But hereupon ensueth another controversy, whether this substance be a bodily or an unbodily substance: which case requireth somewhat longer examination. Sooth, if we consider the nature of a body, it hath certain measurings, and comprehendeth not any thing which is not proportioned according to the greatness and capacity thereof. For, like as itself must be fain to have a place in another thing; so must other things occupy some certain place in it; by reason whereof it cometh to pass, that things can have no place therein if they be greater than it, without annoying the one the other. To be short, if the thing be less than the body that containeth it, the whole body shall not contain it, but only some part thereof: And if it be greater, then must some part thereof needs be out of it: for there is no measuring of bodies but by quantity. Now we see how our Soul comprehendeth heaven and earth, 
Bodiless.  without annoying either other; and likewise time past present and to come, without troubling one another; and finally innumerable places, persons, and Towns, without combering of our understanding. The great things are there in their full greatness, and the small things in their uttermost smallness; both of them whole and sound, in the Soul whole and sound, and not by parcelmeale or only but in part of it. Moreover, the fuller it is, the more it is able to receive; the more things that are touched in it, the more it still coveteth; and the greater the things be, the fit is she to receive them even when they be at the greatest. It followeth therefore that the Soul (which after a sort is infinite) cannot be body. And so much the less can it so be, for that whereas it harboureth so many and so great things in it, itself is lodged in so small a body. Again, as a thousand divers places are in the Soul or Mind without occupying any place; so is the Mind in a thousand places without changing of place; & that erewhiles not by succession of time, nor by turns, but oftentimes altogether at one instant. Bid thy Soul or Mind go to Constantinople, and forthwith to turn back again to Rome, and strait way to be at Paris or Lions: Bid it pass thorough America, or to go about Africa; and it dispatcheth all these journeys at a trice: look whether soever thou directest it, there it is; and or ever thou callest it back, it is at home again. Now, is there a body that can be in divers places at once, or that can pass without removing, or that can move otherwise than in time, yea and in such time as (within a little under or over) is proportioned both to his pace, and to the length of the way which it hath to go? Then is it certain that our Soul is not a bodily substance; which thing appeareth so much the more plainly, in that being lodged in this body which is so movable, it removeth not with the body. Also it is a sure ground, that two bodies cannot mutually enter either into other, nor contain either other: but the greater must always needs contain, and the lesser must needs be contained. But by our Souls, we enter, not only either into others bodies, but also either into others minds, so as we comprehend either other by mutual understanding, and embrace either other by mutual loving. It followeth then that this substance which is able to receive a bodiless thing, can be no body; and that so much the rather, for that the body which seemeth to hold it, containeth it not. Nay verily, this Soul of ours is so far of from being a bodily substance, and is so manifestly a Spirit; that to lodge all things in itself, it maketh them all after a sort spiritual, and bereaveth them of their bodies; and if there were any bodylinesse in it, it were unable to enter into the knowledge of a body. So in a Glass a thousand shapes are seen: but if the clear of the Glass had any peculiar shape of it own, the Glass could yield none of those shapes at all. Also all visible things are imprinted in the eye; but if the sight of the eye had any peculiar colour of it own, it would be a blemish to the sight, so as it should either not see at all, or else all things should seem like to that blemish. Likewise, whereas the Tongue is the discerner of all tastes; if it be not clear but cumbered with humours, all things are of taste like to the humour, so as if it be bitter, they also be bitter; and if it be waterish, they be waterish too; yea and if it be bitter, it can not judge of bitterness itself. That a thing may receive all shapes, all colours, and all tastes; it behoveth the same to be clear from all shapes, from all colour, and from all savour of it own. And that a thing may in understanding know and conceive all bodies, as our Soul doth, it behoveth the same to be altogether bodylesse itself; for had it any bodylinesse at all, it could not receive any body into it. If we look yet more nearly into the nature of a body, we shall find that no body receiveth into it the substantial form of another body, without losing or altering his own, ne passeth from one form into another, without the marring of the first; as is to be seen in wood when it receiveth fire, in seeds when they spring forth into bud, and so in other things. What is to be said then of man's soul, which receiveth and conceiveth the forms and shapes of all things without corrupting his own, and moreover becometh the perfecter by the more receiving? For the more it receiveth, the more it understandeth; and the more it understandeth, the more perfect is it.  
If it be a bodily substance, from whence is it and of what mixture? If it be of the four Elements, how can they give life, having no life of themselves? Or how can they give understanding, having no sense? If it be of the mixture of them, how may it be said that of divers things which have no being of themselves, should be made a thing that hath being? Or that of divers outsides should be made one body? or of divers bodies, one Soul? or of divers deaths, one life? or of divers darknesses, one light? Nay rather, why say we not that he which beyond nature hath made the mixture of these bodies, hath for the perfecting of our body, breathed a Soul also into the body? To be short, the property of a body is to suffer, and the property of our Soul is to do. And if the body be not put forth by some other thing than itself, it is a very block; whereas the mind that is in our Soul ceaseth not to stir up and down in itself, though it have nothing to move it from without. Therefore it is to be concluded by these reasons and by the like, that our Soul is a bodylesse substance, notwithstanding that it is united to our body.  
And hereupon it followeth also, 
Vnmateriall.  that our Soul is not any material thing, forasmuch as matter receiveth not any form or shape but according to his own quantity, and but only one form at once, whereas our Soul receiveth all forms without quantity, come there never so many at once or so great. Again, no matter admitteth two contrary forms at once; but our Soul contrariwise comprehendeth and receiveth them together, as fire and water, heat and cold, white and black; and not only together, but also the better by the matching and laying of them together. To be short, seeing that the more we depart from matter, the more we understand; surely nothing is more contrary to the substance of ou● Soul, than is the nature of matter. Furthermore, if this reasonable Soul of ours is neither a bodily nor a material thing, nor depending upon matter in the best actions thereof: then must it needs be of itself, and not proceed either from body or from matter. For what doth a body bring forth but a body; and matter but matter; and material but materials? And therefore it is an unmaterial substance, which hath being of itself.  
But let us see whether the same be corruptible and mortal or no. 
The Soul hath being of it sel●. Plutark in his tre●y●e why God deferreth the punishment of the wicked: Uncorruptible.  Sooth, if Plutarch be to believed, it is in vain to dispute thereof. For he teacheth, that the doctrine of God's providence, and the immortality of our Souls are so linked together, that the one is as an appendent to the other. And in very deed, to what purpose were the World created, if there were no body to behold it? Or to what end behold we the Creator in the world, but to serve him? And why should we serve him upon no hope? And to what purpose hath he endued us with these rare gifts of his, which for the most part do but put us to pain and trouble in this life: if we perish like the brute Beast or the Herbs, which know him not? Howbeit, for the better satisfying of the silly Souls which go on still like witless Beasts, without taking so much leisure in all their life, as once to enter into themselves; let us endeavour here by lively reasons to paint out unto them again their true shape, which they labour to deface with so much filthiness. The Soul of man (as I have said afore) is not a body, neither doth it increase or decrease with the body: but contrariwise the more the body decayeth, the more doth the understanding increase; and the nearer that the body draweth unto death, the more freely doth the mind understand; and the more that the body abateth in flesh, the more woorkfull is the mind. And why then should we think, that the thing which becometh the stronger by the weakness of the body, and which is advanced by the decay of the body, should return to dust with the body? A man's Senses fail because his eyes fail, and his eyes fail because the Spirits of them fail: but the blind man's understanding increaseth, because his eyes are not busied: and the old man's reason becometh the more perfect by the loss of his sight. Therefore why say we not that the body faileth the Soul, and not the Soul the body; and that the Glasses are out of the Spectacles but the eyesight is still good? Why should we deem the Soul to be foregone with the Senses? If the eye be the thing that seeth, and the ear the thing that heareth; why do we not see things double, and hear sounds double, seeing we have two eyes and two ears? It is the Soul then that seethe and heareth; and these which we take to be our senses, are but the instruments of our senses. And if when our eyes be shut or picked out, we then behold a thousand things in our mind; yea and that our understanding is then most quicksighted, when the quickest of our eyesight is as good as quenched or stark dead: how is it possible that the reasonable Soul should be tied and bound to the senses? What a reason is it to say that the Soul dieth with the senses, seeing that the true senses do then grow and increase, when the instruments of sense do die? And what a thing were it, to say that a Beast is dead, because he hath lost his eyes, when we ourselves see that it liveth after it hath foregone the eyes? Also I have proved that the Soul is neither the body, nor an appertnance of the body. Sith it is so, why measure we that thing by the body, which measureth all bodies; or make that to die with the body, whereby the bodies that died yea many hundred years ago, do after a certain manner live still? Or what can hurt that thing, whom nothing hurteth or hindereth in the body? Though a man lose an arm, yet doth his Soul abide whole still. Let him forego the one half of his body, yet is his Soul as sound as afore: for it is whole in itself and whole in every part of itself, united in it self and in the own substance, and by the force and power thereof it sheddeth itself into all parts of the body. Though the body rot away by piecemeal, yet abideth the Soul all one and undiminished. Let the blood drain out, the moving wax weak, the senses fail, and the strength perish; and yet abideth the mind nevertheless sound and lively even to the end. Her house must be pierced through on all sides, ere she be discouraged; her walls must be battered down ere she fall to fleeting; and she never forsaketh her lodging, till no room be left her to lodge in. True it is that the brute Beasts forego both life and action with their blood. But as for our Soul (if we consider the matter well) it is then gathered home into itself; and when our senses are quenched, then doth it most of all labour to surmount itself: working as goodly actions at the time that the body is at a point to fail it, yea and oftentimes far goodlier also, than ever it did during the whole lifetime thereof. As for example, it taketh order for itself, for our household, for the Commonweal, and for a whole Kingdom; and that with more uprightness, godliness, wisdom, and moderation, than ever it did afore, yea and perchance in a body so forspe●●●, so bare, so consumed, so withered without and so putrefied within, that whosoever looks upon him sees nothing but earth, and yet to hear him speak would ravish a man up to heaven, yea and above heaven. Now, when a man sees so lively a Soul in so weak and wretched a body, may he not say as is said of the hatching of Chickens, that the shell is broken, but there cometh forth a Chicken?  
Also let us see what is the ordinary cause that things perish. Fire doth either go out for want of nourishment, or is quenched by his contrary which is water. Water is resolved into air by fire, which is his contrary. The cause why the Plant dieth, is extremity of cold or drought, or unseasonable cutting, or violent plucking up. Also the living wight dieth through contrariety of humours, or for want of food, or by feeding upon some thing that is against the nature of it, or by outward violence. Of all these causes, which can we choose to have any power against our Soul? I say against the Soul of man, which (notwithstanding that it be united to matter and to a body) is itself a substance unbodily, unmaterial, and only conceivable in understanding? The contrariety of things? Nay, what can be contrary to that which lodgeth the contraries alike equally in himself? which understandeth the one of them by the other? which coucheth them all under one skill? and (to be short) in whom the contrarieties themselves abandon their contrariety, so as they do not any more pursue but ensue one another? Fire is hot, and water cold. Our bodies mislike these contraries, and are grieved by them; but our mind linketh them together without either burning or cooling itself; and it setteth the one of them against the other to know them the better. The things which destroy one another through the whole world, do maintain one another in our minds. Again, nothing is more contrary to peace then war is; and yet man's mind can skill to make or maintain peace in preparing for war, and to lay earnestly for war in seeking or enjoying of peace. Even death itself (which dispatcheth our life) cannot be contrary to the life of our Soul: for it seeketh life by death, and death by life. And what can that thing meet withal in the whole world, that may be able to overthrow it, which can enjoin obedience to things most contrary? What then? Want of food? How can that want food in the world, which can skill to feed on the whole world? Or how should that forsake food, which the fuller it is, so much the hungrier it is; and the more it hath digested, the better able it is to digest? The bodily wight feedeth upon some certain things, but our mind feedeth upon all things. Take from it the sensible things, and the things of understanding abide with it still: bereave it of earthly things, and the heavenly remain abundantly. To be short, abridge it of all worldly things, yea and of the world itself, and even then doth it feed at greatest ease, & maketh best cheer agreeable to his own nature. Also the bodily wight filleth itself to a certain measure, and delighteth in some certain things. But what can fill our mind? Fill it as full as ye can with the knowledge of things, and it is still eager and sharp set to receive more. The more it taketh in, the more it still craveth: and yet for all that, it never feeleth any rawness or lack of digestion. What shall I say more? discharge our understanding from the minding of itself, and then doth it live in him and of him in whom all things do live. Again, fill it with the knowledge of itself, and then doth it feel itself most empty, and sharpest set upon desire of the other. Now then, can that die or decay for want of food, which cannot be glutted with any thing, which is nourished and maintained with all things, and which liveth in very deed upon him by whom all the things which we wonder at here beneath are upheld?  
And what else is violence, but a justling of two bodies together? and how can there be any such between a body and a spiritual substance? yea or of two spirits one against another, seeing that oftentimes when they would destroy one another, they uphold one an other? And if the Soul cannot be pushed at, neither inwardly nor outwardly: is there any thing in nature that can naturally hurt it? No: but it may perchance be weakened by the very force of his encounter, as we see it doth befall to our senses. For the more excellent and the more sensible the thing is in his kind which the sense receiveth, so much the more also is the sense itself offended or grieved therewith. As for example, the feeling, by fire; the taste, by harshness; the smelling, by savours; the hearing, by the hideousness of noise, whether it be of Thunderclappe or of the falling of a River; and the sight, by looking upon the Sun, upon Fire, and upon all things that have a glistering brightness. I omit, that in the most of these things, it is not properly the sense itself, but the outward instrument of sense only that is offended or hurt. But let us see if there be the like in our reasonable Soul. Nay, contrariwise the more of understanding and excellency that the thing is, the more doth it refresh and comfort our mind. If it be dark so as we understand it but by halves, it hurteth us not; but yet doth it not delight us. Nay, as we increase in understanding it, so doth it like us the better; and the higher it is, the more doth it stir up the power of our understanding, and (as ye would say) reach us the hand to draw us to the atteynement thereof. As for them that are dim-sighted, we forbidden them to behold the things that are overbright. But as for them that are of rawest capacity, we offer them the things that are most understandable. When the sense beginneth to perceive most sharply, then is it fain to give over, as if it felt the very death of itself. Contrariwise, when the mind beginneth to understand, then is it most desirous to hold on still. And whereof cometh that, but that our senses work by bodily instruments, but our mind worketh by a bodiless substance which needeth not the help of the body. And seeing that the nature, the nourishment, and the actions of our Soul are so far differing, both from the nature, nourishment, and actions of the body, and from all that ever is done or wrought by the body: can there be any thing more childish than to deem our Soul to be mortal by the abating and decaying of our senses, or by the mortality of our bodies? Nay contrariwise it may be most sound and substantially concluded thereupon, that man's Soul is of it own nature immortal, seeing that all death as well violent as natural cometh of the body and by the body.  
Let us see further what death or corruption is. 
What is death  It is (say they) a separating of the matter from his form. And forasmuch as in man the Soul is considered to be the form, and the body to be as the matter: the separation of the Soul from the body is commonly called Death. Now then, what death can there be of the Soul, sith it is unmaterial as I have said afore, and a form that abideth of itself? For (as one saith) a man may take away the roundness or squareness from a table of Copper, because they have no abiding but in the matter: but had they such a round or square form, as might have an abiding without matter or stuff wherein to be, out of doubt such form or shape should continue for ever. Nay (which more is) how can that be the corrupter of a thing, which is the perfection thereof? The less corsinesse a man hath, the more hath he of reason and understanding. The less our minds be tied to these bodily things, the more lively and cheerful be they. At a word, the full and perfect life thereof, is the full and utter withdrawing thereof from the body and whatsoever the body is made of. All these things are so clear as they need no proof. Now, we know that every thing worketh according to the proper being thereof, and that the same which perfecteth the operations of a thing, perfecteth the being thereof also. It followeth therefore, that sith the separation of the body from the Soul, and of the form from the matter, perfecteth the operation or working of the Soul (as I have said afore) it doth also make perfect and strengthen the very being thereof, and therefore cannot in any wise corrupt it. And what else is dying but to be corrupted? And what else is corrupting, but suffering? And what else is suffering, but receiving? And how can that which receiveth all things without suffering, receive corruption by any thing? Fire corrupteth or marreth our bodies, and we suffer in receiving it. So doth also extreme cold: but if we suffered nothing by it, it could not freeze us. Our senses likewise are marred by the excessive force of the things which they light upon. And that is because they receive and perceive the thing that grieveth them, and for that the manner of their behaving of themselves towards their objects, is subject to suffering. But as for the reasonable Soul, which receiveth all things after one manner, that is to wit, by way of understanding, wherethrough it always worketh & is never wrought into; how is it possible for it to corrupt or mar itself?  
For what is the thing whereat our Soul suffereth aught in the substance thereof, I mean whereby the substance of our Soul is any whit impaired or hurt by minding or conceiving the same in understanding? As little doth the fire hurt it as the air, and the air as the fire. As little hurt receiveth it by the frozen ice of Norwey, as by the scorching sands of Africa. As little also doth vice annoy it as virtue. For vice and virtue are so far of from incombering the substance of the Soul, that our mind doth never conceive or understand them better, than by setting them together one against another. That thing therefore which doth no whit appair itself, but taketh the ground of perfecting itself by all things, can not be marred or hurt by any thing.  
Again, what is death? The uttermost point of moving, and the uttermost bound of this life. For even in living we die, and in dying we live, and there is not that step which we set down in this life, which doth not continually step forward unto death, after the manner of a Dial or a Clock, which mounting up by certain degrees foregoeth his moving in moving from Minute to Minute. Take away moving from a body, and it doth no more live. Now let us see if the soul also be carried with the same moving. If it be carried with the same moving, then doth it undoubtedly move therewithal. Nay, contrariwise, whether the mind rest, or whether it be buzyed about the proper operations thereof, it is not perceived either by any panting of hart, or by any beating of pulses, or by any breathing of Lungs. It is then as a Ship that carrieth us away with it, whether we walk or sit still; the stickingfast whereof or the tying thereof to a post, hindereth not our going up and down in it still. again, if the Soul be subject to the final corruption of the body, then is it subject to the alterations thereof also; and if it be subject to the alterations, it is subject to time also. For alterations or changes, are spices, or rather consequents of moving, and movings are not made but in tyme. Now man in respect of the body hath certain full points or stops, at the which he receiveth manifest changes, and thereafter groweth or decayeth. But commonly where the decay of the body beginneth, there beginneth the chief strength of the mind! Houbeit that in some men, not only their chins are covered with down, but also their beards become grey, whose minds for want of exercise, show no sign at all either of ripenesss or growing. Moreover, time (as in respect of the body) cannot be called again, but in respect of the mind it is always present. Yea and time perfecteth, accomplisheth, and increaseth our mind, and after a sort reneweth and refresheth it from day to day, whereas contrariwise it forweareth, washeth away and quite consumeth, both itself, and the body with the life thereof. It followeth then that the reasonable Soul is not subject to time, nor consequently to any of the changes and corruptions that accompany tyme. Nay we may say thus much more; That nothing in the whole World is nourished with things better than itself; neither doth any of them contain greater things than itself; But the things that are corruptible do live of corruptible things, and cannot live without corrupting them: as for example, beasts live by herbs, men by beasts, and sofoorth. And therefore things which live by uncorruptible things, and can so receive and digest them, as to turn them into the nourishment of their nature, and yet not corrupt them; are uncorruptible themselves to. Now the Soul of man, I mean the reasonable soul or mind, conceiveth reason and truth, and is fed and strengthened with them. And reason & truth are things unchangeable, not subject to time, place or alteration, but stedye, unchangeable, and everlasting. For that twice two be four, and that there is the same reason in the proportion of eight unto six that is of four unto three, or that in a triangle, the three inner angles are equal with the too right angles; and such like; are truths which neither years nor thousands of years can change; as true at this day, as they were when Euclyde first spoke them. And so forth of other things. It followeth then that the Soul comprehending reason and truth, which are things free from corruption, cannot in any wise be subject to corruption.  
Again, who is he of all men that desireth not to be immortal? And how could any man desire it, if he understood not what it is? Or how could he be able to understand it, unless it were possible for him to attain unto it? Surely none of us coveteth to be beginninglesse, for none of us is so; neither can any of us be so. And as we cannot so be, so also can we not comprehend what it is. For who is he that is not at his wits end, but only to think upon eternity without beginning? On the contrary part there is not so base a mind which coveteth not to live for ever; insomuch that whereas we look not for it by nature, we seek to obtain it by skill and policy, some by books, some by Images, and some by other devices; and even the grossest sort can well imagine in themselves what immortality is, and are able both to conceive it and to believe it. Whence comes this, but that our souls being created cannot conceive an everlastingness without beginning, and yet nevertheless, that forasmuch as they be created immortal, they do well conceive an immortality or everlastingness without end? And whereto serves this universal desire, if it be not natural? or how is it natural if it be in vain? and not only in vain, but also too bring us to Hell and to Torment? Let us wade yet deeper. Who can dispute or once so much as doubt whether the Soul be immortal or no, but he that is capable of immortality? And who can understand what difference is betwixt mortal and immortal, but he that is immortal? Man is able to discern the difference between that which is reason, and that which is not, and thereupon we term him reasonable. Whosoever would hold opinion that a man is not reafonable, should need none other disproof than his own disputing thereof; for he would go about to prove it by reason. Man can skill to discern the mortal natures from the immortal; And therefore we may well say he is immortal. For he that should dispute to the contrary, shallbe driven to bring such reasons, as shall of themselves make him to prove himself immortal. Thou sayest the Soul can not be immortal: and why? Because (sayest thou (that to be so, it would behove it to work severally by itself from the body, When thou thinkest that in thy mind; consider what thy body doth at the same tyme. Nay yet further, who hath taught thee so much of the immortal nature, if thou thyself be nor immortal? Or what worldly wight can say what the inwoorking of a reasonable wight is, but the wight which in itself hath the use of reason?  
Yet sayest thou still, if the Soul be immortal, it is free from such and such passions. How interest thou so far into the Nature that is so far above thee, if thou thyself be'st mortal? All the reasons which thou allegest against the immortality of the soul, do fight directly to the proof of it. For if thy reason mounted no higher than to the things that are mortal, thou shouldest know neither mortal nor immortal. Now it is not some one covetous man above all other, that desireth immortality, nor some one man excelling all others in wisdom, that comprehendeth it, but all mankind without exception. It is not then some one several skill or some one natural property, that maketh such difference between man and man as we see to be between many, but rather one selfsame nature common to all men, whereby they be all ma●● to differ from other living wights, which by no deed do show any desire too overlive themselves, ne know how to live, & therefore their lives do vanish away with their blood, and is extinguished with their bodies. If ever thou hast looked to die, consider what discourse thou madest then in thy mind: thou couldst never persuade thy conscience nor make thy reason to conceive, that thy Soul should die with the Body; but even in the selfsame time when it disputeth against itself, it shifteth itself I wot not how from all thy conclusions, and falleth too consider in what state it shall be, and where it shall become when it is out of the body. The Epicure that hath disputed of it all his life long, when he cometh to death, bequeatheth a yearly pension for the keeping of a yearly feast on the day of his birth. I pray you to what purpose serve feastings for the birth of a Swine, seeing he esteemeth himself to be no better than so? Nay what else is this, than a crying out of his Nature against him, which with one word confuteth all his vain arguments? Another laboureth by all means possible, to blot out in himself the opinion of immortality; and because he hath lived wickedly in this world, he will needs bear himself on hand, that there is no justice in the world tocome. But than is the time that his own nature waketh, and starteth up as it were out of the bottom of a water, and at that instant painteth again before his eyes, the selfsame thing which he took so much pains to deface. And in good sooth, what a number have we seen, which having been despisers of all Religion, have at the hour of death been glad to vow their Souls to any Saint for relief; so clear was then the presence of the life to come before their eyes. I had lever (said Zeno) to see an Indian burn himself cheerfully, 
Cleu●. lib. 1.  than to hear all the Philosophers of the world discoursing of the immortality of the Soul; and in very deed it is a much stronger and better concluded argument. Nay then, let us rather say, I had lever see an Atheist or an Epicure witnessing the immortality of the Soul, and willingly taking an honourable farewell of nature upon a Scaffold, than to hear all the Doctors of the world discoursing of it in their Pulpits. For whatsoever the Epicures say there, they speak it advisedly and (as ye would say) fresh and fasting; whereas all that ever they have spoken all their life afore, is to be accounted but as the words of Drunkards, that is to wit, of men besotted and fallen asleep in the delights and pleasures of this world, where the Wine and the excess of meat, and the vapours that fumed up of them did speak, and not the men themselves. What shall I say more? 
Three lives i● man..  I have told you already that in the inward man there are (as ye would say) three men; the living, the sensitive, and the reasonable. Let us say therefore that in the same person there are three lives continued from one to another: namely, the life of the Plant, the life of the Beast, and the life of the Man or of the Soul. So long as a man is in his mother's womb, he doth but only live and grow; his Spirit seemeth to sleep, and his senses seem to be in a slumber, so as he seemeth to be no thing else than a Plant. Nevertheless, if ye consider his eyes, his ears, his tongue, his senses, and his movings, you will easily judge that he is not made to be for ever in that prison where he neither seethe nor heareth, nor hath any room to walk in, but rather that he is made to come forth into an opener place, where he may have what to see and behold, and wherewith to occupy all the powers which we see to be in him. As soon as he is come out, he beginneth to see, to feel, and to move, and by little and little falleth to the perfect using of his limbs, and findeth in this world a peculiar object for every of them, as visible things for the eye, sounds for his hearing, bodily things for his feeling, and so forth. But besides all this, we find there a mind; which by the eyes as by windows beholdeth the world, and yet in all the world finding not any one thing worthy to rest wholly upon, mounteth up to him that made it; which mind like an Empress lodgeth in the whole world, and not alonely in this body; which by the senses (and oftentimes also without the senses) mounteth above the senses, and straineth itself to go out of itself, as a child doth to get out of his mother's womb. And therefore we ought surely to say, that this Mind or Reason ought not to be ever in prison. That one day it shall see clearly, and not by these dim and cloudy spectacles: That it shall come in place where it shall have the true object of understanding: and that he shall have his life free from these fetters and from all the affections of the body. To be short, that as man is prepared in his mother's womb to be brought forth into the world; ●o is he also after a sort prepared in this body and in this world, to live in another world. We then understand it, when by nature it behoveth us to departed out of the world. And what child is there which (if nature did not by her cunning drive him out,) would of himself come out of his Covert, or that cometh not out as good as forlorn and half dead; or that if he had at that time knowledge & speech, would not call that death, which we call birth; and that a departure out of life, which we call the entrance into it? As long as we be there, we see nothing though our eyes be open. Many also do not so much as stir, except it be at some sudden scaring or some other like chance; and as for those that stir, they know not that they have either sense or moving. Why then should we think it strange, that in this life our understanding seethe so little, that many men do never mind the immortal nature, until they be at the last cast, yea and some think not themselves to have any such thing, howbeit that even by so thinking they show themselves to have part thereof? And imagine we that the unborn babe hath not as much ado by nature to leave the poor skin that he is wrapped in, as we have hindrance in our senses and in our imprisoned reason, when we be at the point to leave the goods and pleasures of this world, and the very flesh itself which holdeth us as in a grave? Or had the babe some little knowledge; would he not say that no life were comparable to the life where he than is, as we say there is no life to the life of this world wherein we be? Or would he not account the stage of our senses for a fable, as a great sort of us account the stage that is prepared for our Souls? Yes surely: and therefore let us conclude where we began, namely that man is both inward and outward. In the outward man, which is the body, he resembleth the being and the proportion of all the parts of the world. And in the inner man he resembleth whatsoever ky●nd of life is in all things or in any thing that beareth life in the world. In his mother's womb he liveth the life of a Plant, howbeit with this further, that he hath a certain commencement of sense and moving which exceed the Plant, and do put him in a readiness to be endued with Senses as a Beast is. In this life he hath sense and moving in their perfection, which is that property of a sensitive wight; but yet besides these, he hath also a beginning to reason and understand, which are a beginning of another life such as the sensitive wight hath not, & this life is to be perfected in another place. In the life to come he hath his actions free and full perfected, a large ground to work upon able to suffice him to the full, and a light to his understanding in stead of a light to the eye. And like as in coming into this world, he came as it were out of another world; so in going yet into another world he must also go out of this world. He cometh out of the first world into the second, as it were failing in nourishment, but growing in strength unto moving and sense: and he goeth out of the second into the third, failing in senses and moving, but growing in reason and understanding. Now, seeing we call the passage out of the first world into the second a birth, what reason is it that we should call the passage out of the second into the third, a death? To be short, he that considereth how all the actions of man's mind tend to the time to come, without possibility of staying upon the present time, how pleasant and delightful soever it be: we may well discern by them all, that his being (which in every thing (as saith Aristotle) followeth the working thereof) is also wholly bend towards the time to come; as who would say this present life were unto it but as a narrow grindle, on the further side whereof (as it were on the bank of some stream or running water,) he were to find his true dwelling place and very home in deed.  
But now is it time to see what is said to the contrary: 
Objections.  wherein we have to consider eftsoons that which we spoke of afore; namely that if all that ever is in us were transitory and mortal, we should not be so witty to examine the Immortality as we be: for of Contraries the skill is all one. If a man were not mortal, that is to say, if he had no life, he could not dispute of the mortal life; neither could he speak of the Immortal, if he himself also were not Immortal. Therefore let us go back retrieve. Some man will say, that the Soul dieth with the body, because the Soul and the body are but one thing, and he believeth that they be both but one, because he seethe no more but the body. This argument is all one with theirs, which denied that there is any God, because they saw him not. But yet by his doings thou mayst perceive that there is a God: discern likewise by the doings of thy soul, that thou haste a Soul. For in a dead body thou seest the same parts remain, but thou seest not the same doings that were in it afore. When a man is dead, his eye seethe nothing at all, and yet is there nothing changed of his eye: but while he is alive it seeth infinite things that are divers. The power then which seeth is not of the body. Yet notwithstanding how lively and quickesighted so ever the eye be; it seeth not itself. Wonder not therefore though thou have a soul, and that the same soul see not itself. For if thine eyesight saw itself; it were not a power or ability of seeing, but a visible thing: likewise if thy Soul saw itself, it were no more a Soul that is to say the worker and quickener of the body, but a very body, unable to do any thing of itself, and a massy substance subject to suffering. For we see nothing but the body and bodily substances. But in this thou perceivest somewhat else than a body, (as I have said afore) that if thine eye had any peculiar colour of it own, it could not discern any other colour than that. Seeing then that thou conceivest so many divers bodies at once in imagination: needs must thou have a power in thee which is not a body. Be it (say they) that we have a power of sense; yet have we not a power of reason; for that which we call the power of reason or understanding, is nothing but an excellency or rather a consequence of sense, insomuch that when sense dieth, the residue dieth therewith also. soothly in this which thou haste said, thou haste surmounted sense; which thing thou hadst not done, if thou hadst nothing in thee beyond sense. For whereas thou sayest, if the sense die, the rest dieth also; it is a reason that proceedeth from one term to another, and it is a gathering of reasons which conclude one thing by another. Now the senses do in deed perceive their objects, but yet how lively so ever they be, they reason not. We see a Smoke; so far extendeth the sense. But if we infer, therefore there must needs be fire, and thereupon seek who was the kindler thereof: that surmounteth the ability of sense. We here a piece of Music; that may any beast do as well as we. But his hearing of it is but as of a bare sound; whereas our hearing thereof is as of an harmony, and we discern the cause of the concords and discords, which either delight or offend our sense. The thing that heareth the sound is the sense; but the thing that judgeth of that which the sense conceiveth, is another thing than the sense. The like is to be said of smelling, tasting, and feeling. Our smelling of scents, our tasting of savours, and our feeling of substances, is in deed the work of our Senses. But as for our judging of the inward virtue of the thing by the outward sent thereof, or of the wholesomeness or unwholsomnes of food by the taste thereof, or of the whotnesse or vehemency of a fever by feeling the pulse; yea and our proceeding even into the very bowels of a man, whether the eye being the quickest of all senses is not able to attain; surely it is the work of a more mighty power than the sense is. And in very deed there are beasts which do here, see, smell, taste, and feel much better and quicklier than man doth. Yet notwithstanding none of them conferreth the contraries of colours, sounds, scents and savours; none sorteth them out to the serving one of another, or to the serving of themselves. Whereby it appeareth, that man excelleth the Beasts by another power than the Senses; and that whereas a man is a painter, a Musician, or a Physician; he hath it from elsewhere than from his senses. Nay, I say further, that oftentimes we conclude clean contrary to the report of our senses. Our eye perchauce telleth us that a Tower which we see afar of is round, whereas our reason deemeth it to be square: or that a thing is small, which our reason telleth us is great: or that the ends of lives in a long walk do meet in a point, whereas our reason certifieth us that they run right foorth with equal distance one from another. For want of this discretion, certain Elephants (saith Vitellio) which were passing over a long bridge, turned back being deceived; and yet they wanted not sight no more than we do. But they that led them were not deceived. Their Leaders then besides their eyesight, had in them another virtue or power which corrected their sight, and therefore aught to be of higher estimation. In like ●ase is it with the rest of the other senses. For our hearing telleth us that the thunderclap is after the lightning; but skill assureth us that they be both together. For there is a certain power in us, which can skill to discern what proportion is between hearing and seeing. Also the tongue of him that hath an Ague, beareth him on hand that even sugar is bi●●er, which thing he knoweth by his reason to be untrue. To be short, those which have their senses most quick and ly●ely, be not of the greatest wisdum and understanding. A man therefore differeth from a beast, and excelleth men by some other power than sense. For whereas it is commonly said, that such as have seen most are commonly of greatest skill: we see that many have traveled far both by sea and land, which have come home as wise as they wentfoorth. A horse hath as good eyes as he that rides upon him, and yet for all his traveling, neither he nor peradventure his Rider whom he beareth become any whit the wiser by that which they have seen: whereby it appeareth that it is not enough to see things unless a man do also mind them to his benefit.  
Now there is great difference between the liveliness of the Sense, and the power that governeth the Sense; like as the report of a Spy is one thing, and the Spy himself is another, and the wisdum of the captain that receiveth the report of the Spy is a third. Nay, who can deny, that Sense and Reason are divers things; or rather who will not grant, that in many things they be clean contrary? Sense biddeth us shun and eschew grief; whereas Reason willeth us to proffer our leg sometime to the Surgeon to be cut of. Sense plucketh our hand out of the fire, and yet we ourselves put fire to our bare skin. He that should see a Scevola burn of his own hand, without so much as once gnashing his teeth at it, would think he were utterly senseless: so mightily doth Reason overrule sense. To be short, Sense hath his peculiar inclination, which is appetite; and Reason likewise hath his, which is will. And like as reason doth oftentimes overrule sense and is contrary to it; so will correcteth the sensual appetite or lust that is in us, and warreth against it. For in an Ague we covet to drink, and in an Apoplexy we covet to sleep, and in hunger we covet to eat: and yet from all those things doth our will restrain us. The more a man followeth his lust, the less is he led by will: and the more he standeth upon the pleasing of his Senses, the less reason useth he ordinarily.  
Again, let us consider the brute Beasts which have this sensitive part as well as we. If we have no more than that, how cometh it to pass that a little child driveth whole flocks and herds of them whether he listeth, and sometimes whether they would not? Whereof cometh it that every of them in their kind, do all live, nestle, and sing after one sort; whereas men have their laws. Commonweals, manners of building, and forms of reasoning, not only divers, but also commonly contrary? Now, what can harbour these contrarieties together, but only that which hath not any thing contrary unto it, and wherein all contrary things do lay away their contrariety? Surely it is not the Sense that can do it, whose proper or peculiar object is most contrary to the sense. Besides this (as I have said afore) whereas we conceive wisdom, skill, virtue, and such other things which are all bodiless, our senses have none other thing to work upon, than the qualities of bodily substances: And whereas we make universal rules of particular things; the Senses attain no further than to the particular things themselves: And whereas we conclude of the causes by their effects; our Senses perceive no more but the bare effects: And whereas concerning the things that belong to understanding, the more understandable they be, the more they refresh us; Contrariwise, the stronger that the sensible things are, the more do they offend the Sense: To be short, the selfsame thing which we speak in behalf of the Senses, proceedeth from elsewhere than from the Senses. And we will easily discern, that he which denieth that besides the common Sense there is in man a reason or understanding, distinct and severed from the Sense, is void both of understanding and of Sense.  
But see here a gross reason of theirs. This reason or power of understanding (say they) which is in man, is corruptible as well as the power of perceiving by the Senses. I think I have proved the contrary already; nevertheless, let us examine their reasons yet further. The form or shape of every thing (say they) doth perish with the matter. Now, the Soul is as ye would say the form or shape of the body: therefore it corrupteth with the body. This argument were rightly concluded, if it were meant of the material form. But I have proved that the Soul is unmaterial, and hath a continuance of itself. And in deed the more it is discharged of matter, the more it retaineth his own peculiar form. Therefore the corrupting of the matter toucheth not the Soul at all. Again, if men's Souls live (say they) after their bodies, then are they infinite; for the world is without beginning and without ending, and (as we know) nature can away with no infinite thing: therefore they live not after their bodies. Yes say I; for I have proved that the world had a beginning, and that with so substantial reasons, as thou art not able to disprove. Therefore it followeth that the inconvenience which thou allegest can have no place. Another saith, If dead men's Souls live still, why come they not to tell us so? And he thinketh he hath stumbled upon a wonderful subtle devise. But how doth this follow in reason? There hath not come any man unto us from the Indies of a long time: ergo there be no Indies. May not the same argument serve as well to prove that we ourselves are not, because we never went thither? Again, what intercourse is there between things that have bodies, and things that have no bodies; or between heaven and earth, considering that there is so small intercourse even between men, which live all under one selfsame Sun? He that is made a Magistrate in his own Country, doth not willingly return to the place of his banishment. Likewise the Soul that is lodged in the lap of his God, and come home into his native soil, foregoeth the desire of these lower things, which to his sight beholding them from above, are less than the point of a Needle. On the other side, he that is put in close prison, (how desirous soever he be) cannot go out; so the Soul which is in the jail of his sovereign Lord God, hath no respite or sportingtyme to come tell us what is done there. Unto the one, the beholding of the Everlasting God is as a Paradise wherein he is wiling to remain; and unto the other, his own condemnation is an imprisonment of his will. But we would have God to send both the one and the other unto us to make us to believe. As who would say, it stood him greatly on hand to have us to believe, and not rather us that we should believe. And in effect what else is all this, but a desiring that some man might return into his mother's womb again, to encourage young babes against the pinches and pains which they abide in the birth, whereof they would be as shy as we be of death, if they had the like knowledge of them? But let us let such vanities pass, and come to the ground.  
Ye bear us on hand (say they) that the Soul of man is but one, though it have divers powers. Whereof we see the sensitive and the growing powers to be corrupted and to perish: therefore it should seem that the understanding or reasonable power also should do the like. At a word, this is all one as if a man should say, you tell me that this man is both a good man, a good Swoordplayer, and a good Luteplayer altogether; & that because his sword falls out of his hand, or his hand itself becometh Lame, therefore he cannot be a good or honest man still as you reported him to be. Nay though he lose those instruments, yet ceaseth he not therefore to be an honest man, yea and both a Swoordplayer and a Lute-player to, as in respect of skill. Likewise when our Souls have foregone these exercises, yet cease they not to be the same they were afore. To enlighten this point yet more; of the powers of our Soul, some are exercised by the instruments of the body, and othersome without any help or furtherance of the body at all. Those which are exercised by the body, are the senses and the powers of the Senses and the powers of the growing, which may carry the same likeness that is between a Luter and a Lute. Break the Luters Lute, and his cunning remaineth still, but his putting of it in practice faileth. Give him another Lute, and he falls to playing new again. Put out a man's eyes, and yet the ability of seeing abideth still with him, though the very act of seeing be disappointed. But give unto the oldest Hag that is the same eyes that he had when he was young, and he shall see as well as ever he did. After the same manner is it with the growing or thriving power. Restore unto it a good● stomach, a sound Liver, and a perfect heat; and it shall execute his functions as well as ever it did afore. The power that worketh of itself and without the body, is the power of reason or understanding, which if we will we may call the mind. And if thou yet still doubt thereof, consider when thou mindest a thing earnestly what thy body furthereth thy mind therein; & thou shalt perceive that the more fixedly thou thinkest upon it, the less thou seest the things before thee; and the more thy mind wandereth, the more thy body resteth: as who would say that the workings of the body, are the greatest hindrance and impediment that can be to the peculiar doings of the mind. And this ability of understanding may be likened to a man, which though he have lost both his hand and his Lute, ceaseth not therefore to be a man still, and to do the true deeds of a man, that is to wit, to discourse of things, to mind them, to use reason and such like; yea and to be both a Luter and a man as he was afore, notwithstanding that he cannot put his Luteplaying in exercise for want of instruments. Nay, (which more is) this understanding part groweth so much the stronger and greater, as it is less occupied and busied about these base and corruptible things, & is altogether drawn home wholly to itself; as is to be seen in those which want their eyes, whose minds are commonly most apt to understand, and most firm to remember. Do we debate of a thing in ourselves? Neither our body nor our Senses are busied about it. Do we will the same? As little do they stir for that too. To understand and to will (which are the operations of the mind,) the Soul hath no need of the body; and as for working and being, they accompany one another saith Aristotle. Therefore to continue still in being, the Soul hath not to do with the body, nor any need of the body: but rather, to work well and to be well, the Soul ought either to be without the body, or at leastwise to be utterly unsubiect to the body.  
Yea (say they) but yet we see men forego their reason, as fools and mealancholike persons: and seeing it is foregone, it may also be corrupted; and if corrupted, it may also die: for what is death but an utter and full corruptness? Nay, thou shouldest say rather, I have seen divers which having seemed to have lost their right wits, have recovered them again by good diet and medicinable drinks. But had they been utterly lost and foregone, no Physic could have restored them again: and had they been utterly perished, the parties themselves should have had neither sense nor life remaining. Therefore of necessity the sold of them was as sound as afore. But our Souls we see not otherwise than by the body and by the instruments of the body as it were by Spectacles; and our mind which beholdeth and seethe through his imaginations as it were through a Cloud, is after a sort troubled by the dimining of the Spectacles and by the smoakinesse of the imaginations. After that manner the Sun seemeth to be dimmed and eclipsed; and that is but by the coming of the Moon or of some Clouds between him and us; for in his light there is no abatement at all. Likewise our eyesight conceiveth things according to the Spectacles wherethrough it looketh, or according to the colour that overthwarteth the things which it looketh upon. Ta●● away the impediments, and our eyes shall see clear: purge away the humours, and our imagination shall be pure: and so our understanding shall see as bright as it did afore, even as the Sun shineth after the putting away of the Clouds. And it fareth not with our Souls as it doth with our bodies, which after a long sickness retain still either a hardness of the Spleen, or a shortness of breath, or a falling of the Rheum upon the Lungs, or a scar of some great wound that cannot be worn out because of the break that was made in the whole. For neither in their understanding, neither in their wills do our Souls feel any abatement, saving that there abideth some maim or blemish in the instruments; to wit (as I will declare hereafter) so far forth as it pleaseth GOD for a just punishment, to put the Soul in subjection to the body whose sovereign it was created to have been, because it hath neglected the will of the Creator, to follow the lusts and likings of the body. This appeareth in Lunatic folks and such others, which have their wits troubled at times and by fits. For they be not vexed but at the stirring of their humours, being at other times sober and well enough stayed in their wits. The like is seen in them that have the falling sickness. For their understanding seemeth to be eclipsed, and as it were stricken with a Thunderclap, during the time of their fits; but afterward they be as discreet as though they ailed nothing. To be short, the body is subject to a thousand diseases, wherewith we see the understanding to be no whit altered, because they touch not the instruments of the Senses and of the Imaginations, which move the understanding. Troubled it is in deed by those few things only, which infect the Sense and the Imagination, which by that means report the things unfaithfully whereon the mind debateth. Therefore ye shall never see any body out of his wits or out of his right mind, in whom the Physicians may not manifestly perceive, either some default of the instruments, as a misshapen and misproportioned head; or else an overabounding of some melancholic humour, that troubled and marred his body afore it troubled or impaired his mind. And like as the wisest men being deceived by false Spies, do make worng deliberations, howbeit yet grounded upon good reason, which thing they could not do unless they were wise in deed: So the reason that is in our mind maketh false discourses, and gathereth wrong conclusions, upon the false reports of the imaginations; which it could not do, if it were either diminished or impaired, or done away. Whereunto accordeth this ancient saying, That there be certain follies which none but wise men can commit, and certain Errors which none but learned men can fall into: because that in some cases, discretion and wisdom are requisite in the party that is to be deceived, even to the intent he may be deceived; and learning is required in a man that he may conceive and hold a wrong opinion. As for example, to be beguiled by a dubbledealing Spy or by the surprising of a cozening letter, belongeth to none but to a wise man. For a grossheaded fool never breaketh his brain about such matters as might bring him to the making of false conclusions by mistaking likelihoods in stead of truth. Likewise to fall into Heresy by misconceyving some high and deep point, befalleth not to an ignorant person; for he is not of capacity, neither doth his understanding mount so high. To be short, whosoever saith that man's Soul perisheth with the body, because it is troubled by the distemperature or misproportionatenesse of the body; may as well uphold that the Child in the mother's womb dieth with his mother, because he moveth with her, and is partaker with her of her harms and throws, by reason of the straight conjunction that is between them; howbeit that many children have lived safe and sound, notwithstanding that their mothers have died; yea and some have come into the world even by the death of their mothers.  
And whereas some say, that because our mind conceiveth not any thing here, but by help of Imagination; therefore when the Imagination is gone with the instruments whereunto it is tied, the Soul cannot work alone by itself, nor consequently be alone by itself: surely it is all one as if they should say, that because the Child being in his mother's womb taketh nourishment of her blood by his navel; therefore he cannot live when he is come out of her womb, if his navillstrings be cut off. Nay contrariwise, then is the time that the mouth, the tongue, and the other parts of the Child do their duty, which served erst to no purpose, saving that they were prepared for the time to come. After the same manner also do we cherish our mind by Imagination in this second life; which in the third life being (as ye would say) scaped out of prison, shall begin to utter his operations by himself, and that so much the more certainly, for that it shall not be subject to false reports, nor to the senses either inward or outward, but to the very things themselves which it shall have seen and learned. To be short, it shall live, but not in prison; it shall see, but not through Spectacles; it shall understand, but not by reports; it shall list, but not by way of lusting: the infirmity which the body casteth upon it as now, shall then be away: the force which it bringeth now to the body, shall then be more fresh and lively than afore. Now then, notwithstanding these vain reasons of theirs, let us conclude, That our soul is an understanding or reasonable power, over the which neither death nor corruption have naturally any power, although it be fitted to the body to govern it. And if any man doubt hereof, let him but examine himself; for even his own doubts will prove it unto him. Or if he will stand in contention still, let him fall to reasoning with himself: for by concluding his arguments to prove his Soul mortal, he shall give judgement himself that it is immortal. And if I have left any thing unalledged which might make to this purpose, (for why may I not, seeing that even the selfsame things which I have been able to allege on the behalf of mine adversaries, do drive them thereunto?) let us think also that he which feeleth himself convicted in himself, and for whose behoof and benefit it were greatly, both to believe it and to confess it, needeth no more diligent proof than hath been made already. But if any man will yet of spite stand wilfully still against himself, let him try how he can make answer to my foresaid arguments: and in the mean while let us see what the said opinion of the wisest men, yea and of the whole world hath been upon this matter.   

The xv. Chapter.  
That the immortality of the Soul hath been taught by the Philosophers of old time, and believed by all people and Nations.  
Sooth it had been a very hard case, if this mind of ours which searcheth so many things in nature, had not taken some leisure to search itself and the nature thereof, and by searching attained to some point in that behalf. And therefore as there have at all times been men, so shall we see also that men have at all times believed & admitted the immortality of the Soul; I say not some one man or some one Nation, but the whole world with general consent, because all men universally and particularly have learned it in one School, and at the mouth of one Teacher, namely even their own knowledge in themselves. The holy Scripture which teacheth us our salvation, useth no school arguments to make us believe that there is a God: and that is because we cannot step out of ourselves never so little, but we must needs find him present to all our Senses. And it seemeth to speak unto us the less expressly of the immortality of our souls, specially in the first books thereof, because we cannot enter into ourselves be it never so little, but we must needs perceive it. But inasmuch as from the one end thereof to the other, it declareth unto us the will of God: in so doing it doth us to understand, that it is a thing whereof it is not lawful for us to doubt. 
The opinion of the Men of old tyme.  And whereas it setteth forth so precisely from age to age, the great and manifold troubles and pains which good and godly men have sustained in indevering to follow that will; it showeth infallibly that their so doing was in another respect than for this present wretched life. For who is he that would departed with any piece of his own liking in this life, but in hope of better things? and what were it for him to lose his life, if there were not another life after this? This serveth to answer in one word to such as demand express texts of Scripture, and are loath to find that thing in the Bible, which is contained there, not only in every leaf but almost in every sine. For whereas God created man after the world was fully finished and perfected: it was as much as if he had brought him into a Theatre prepared for him, howbeit after another sort than all the other living things which were to do him service. As for Beasts, Birds, Plants, and such other things, the Elements brought them forth: but Man received his Soul by inspiration from God. Also the brute Beasts are put in subjection to man, but man is in subjection only unto God. And the conveying of that good man Henocke out of this life for his godliness, was to none other end, but to set him in another life void of all evil and full of all good. 
The belief of the patriarchs. etc.  But when we read the persecutions of Noah, the overthwarting of Abraham, the banishment and wayfaring of jacob, and the distresses of joseph, Moses, and all the residue of the Fathers; they be all of them demonstrations that they did certainly trust and believe that the Soul is immortal, that there is another life after this, and that there is a judgement to come. For had they been of opinion that there is none other life after this; the flesh would have persuaded them to have held themselves in quiet here, and they would have liked nothing better than to have followed sweetly the common trade of the world, Noah among his friends, Abraham among the Chaldees, Moses in Pharaos' Court, and so forth. So then, although the Scripture seem to conceal it; yet doth it speak very loud thereof in deed, considering that all the cries of the good and godly, and all the despairs of the wicked which it describeth unto us, do sound none other thing unto us, if we have ears to hear it. And it may be, that in the same respect, this article of the Immortality of the Soul was not put into the ancient creed of the jews, nor also peculiarly into the creed of us Christians, because we believe beyond reason, and this is within the bounds of reason; and whosoever treateth of Religion must needs presuppose God eternal and man immortal, without the which two, all Religion were in vain. Also, when we see that Godliness, justice, and virtue were commended among the Heathen of all ages: it is all one as if we should hear them preach in express words the Immortality of the Soul. For their so doing is builded every whit upon that, as upon a foundation without the which those things could not stand. I will spend my goods or my life for the maintenance of justice. What is this justice but a vain name, or to what end have I so many respects, if I look for nothing out of this present world here? I will (said a man of old time) rather lose even the reputation of an honest man, than behave myself otherwise than honestly. But why should I do so, if I look for no good in another world, seeing I have nothing but evil here? 
The wise Men of Egypt.  Surely if there be none other thing than this life, then is virtue to be used no further, than profit and commodity may grow upon it; and so should it become a Chaffer and Merchandise, & not virtue in deed. Yet notwithstanding, those are the ordinary speeches, even of such as speak doubtfully of the Immortality of the Soul. Therefore they do but deny the ground and yet graune the consequence; which is all one as if a man having first been burned, should fall to disputing whether fire be hot or no. But now (which is better for us) I will here gather together their own speeches one after another.  
Hermes declareth in his Poemander, 
Hermes in his Poemander.  how at the voice of the everlasting, the Elements yielded forth all reasonless living wights as it had been out of their bosoms. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  But when he cometh to man, he saith, He made him like unto himself, he linked himself to him as to his Son, (for he was beautiful and made after his own Image) and gave him all his works to use at his pleasure. Again, he exhorteth him to forsake his body, (notwithstanding that he wonder greatly at the cunning workmanship thereof) as the very cause of his death, and to manure his Soul which is capable of immortality, & to consider the original root from whence it sprang, which is not earthly but heavenly, and to withdraw himself even from his Senses and from their traitorous allurements, to gather himself wholly into that mind of his which he hath from God, and by the which he following God's word, may become as GOD. Discharge thyself (saith he) of this body which thou bearest about thee, for it is but a cloak of ignorance, a foundation of infection, a place of corruption, a living death, a sensible carrion, a portable grave, and a household thief. It flattereth thee because it hareth thee, and it hateth thee because it envieth thee. As long as that liveth, it bereaveth thee of life, and thou hast not a greater enemy than that. Now, to what purpose were it for him to forsake this light, this dwellingplace and this life, if he were not sure of a better in another world (as he himself saith more largely afterward?) On the other side, what is the Soul? 
Hermes in his Poemander. cap. 10.  The Soul (saith he) is the garment of the mind, and the garment of the Soul is a certain Spirit whereby it is united to the body. And this Mind is the thing which we call properly the Man, that is to say a heavenly wight which is not to be compared with Beasts, but rather with the Gods of Heaven, if he be not yet more than they. The Heavenly can not come down to the earth without leaving the Heaven, but Man measureth the Heaven without removing from the earth. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  The earthly man than is as a mortal God, and the heavenly God is as an immortal man. To be short, his conlusion is, That man is double, mortal as touching his body, and immortal as touching his Soul, which Soul is the substantial man and the very man created immediately of God (faith he) as the light is bred immediately of the Sun. 
Hermes in his Esculapius. AEnaeas Gaz. concerning the immortality of the Soul.  And Chalcidius saith that at his death he spoke these words. I go home again into mine own Country, where my better forefathers and kinsfolk be.  
Of Zoroastres who is yet of more antiquity than Hermes, we have nothing but fragments. Nevertheless, many report this article to be one of his, 
Gha●deans.  That men's Souls are immortal, and that one day there shall be a general rising again of their bodies; and the answers of the Wise men of Chaldye (who are the heirs of his Doctrine) do answer sufficiently for him. There is one that exhorteth men to return with speed to their heavenly father, who hath sent them from above a Soul endued with much understanding; and another that exhorteth them to seek Paradise as the peculiar dwelling place of the Soul. A third saith that the Soul of man hath God as it were shut up in it, and that it hath not any mortality therein. For (saith he) the Soul is as it were drunken with God, and showeth forth his stauders in the harmony of this mortal body. And again another saith, It is a clear fire proceeding from the power of the heavenly father, an uncorruptible substance, and the maintainer of life, containing almost all the whole world with the full plenty thereof in his bosom. But one of them proceedeth yet further, affirming that he which setteth his mind upon Godliness, shall save his body, frail though it be. And by those words he acknowledgeth the very glorifying of the body.  
Now, 
The Greeks.  all these sayings are reported by the Platonists, & namely by Psellus; and they refuse not to be acknown that Pythagoras and Plato learned them of the Chaldees; insomuch that some think, that the foresaid Hermes and Zoroastres and the residewe aforementioned, are the same of whom Plato speaketh in his second Epistle, and in his eleventh book of Laws, when he saith that the ancient and holy Oracles are to be believed, which affirm men's Souls to be immortal, and that in another life they must come before a judge that will require an account of all their doings. The effect whereof cometh to this, That the Soul of man proceedeth immediately from God, that is to say, that the father of the body is one, and the father of the Soul is another: That the Soul is not a bodily substance, but a Spirit and a light: That at the departure thereof from hence, it is to go into a Paradise, and therefore aught to make haste unto death: And that it is so far from mortality, that it maketh even the body immortal. What can we say more at this day, even in the time of light wherein we be? Pherecydes 
Pherecydes.  the Syrian, the first that was known among the Greeks to have written in prose, taught the same. And that which Virgil saith in his second eclogue concerning the Drug or Spice of Assyria, 
Assyrium vulgo nascetur Amonium.  and the growing thereof everywhere, is interpreted of some men to be meant of the Immortality of the Soul, the doctrine whereof Pherecydes brought from thence into Greece; namely, that it should be understood everywhere throughout the whole world. Also Phocylides who was at the same time, speaketh thereof in these words.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
That is to say: 
Phocylides.  
The Soul of man immortal is, and never wears away  
With any age or length of time, but liveth fresh for ay.  And again, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
The Remnants which remain of men unburied in the grave,  
Become as Gods, and in the Heavens a life most blessed have.  
For though their bodies turn to dust, as daily we do see,  
Their Souls live still for evermore from all corruption free.  And in another place he says again: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
We hope that we shall come again  
Out of the earth to light more plain.  And if ye ask him the cause of all this: he will answer you in another verse thus. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
Because the Soul, God's instrument and Image also is.  Which saying he seemeth to have taken out of this verse of Sibyls. 
Sibyl.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  
In very reason Man should be  
The Image and the shape of me.   
Of the same opinion also are Orpheus, Theognis, Homer, Hesiodus, Pindar, 
Pindar in the second song of his Olympiads Homer in the Funerals of his Iliads.  and all the Poets of old time; which may answer both for themselves and their own Countries, and for the residue of their ages. Likewise Pythagoras a disciple of Pherecides, held opinion that the Soul is a bodylesse and immortal substance, put into this body as into a Prison for sinning. And whereas the fleeting of souls out of one body into another, is fathered upon him; although the opinion be not directly against the immortality of the Soul, yet do many men think that he hath wrong done unto him. And his Disciple Timoeus of Locres reporteth otherwise of him. For what punishment were it to a voluptuous man, to have his Soul put into a beast, that he might become the more voluptuous without remorse of sin? Sooth it is all one as if in punishment of Murder or theft, ye would make the Murderer to cut the throats of his own Father and Mother, or the Thief to commit treachery against God. Howsoever the case stand, he teacheth in his verses, that man is of heavenly race, and that (as jamblichus reporteth) he is set in this world to behold God. And his Disciple Architas saith, 
Pythagoras. Hera●litus as he is reported by Philo. Epicharmus as he is reported by Clement of Ale●andria.  that God breathed reason and understanding into him. Likewise Philolaus affirmeth that the Divines and Prophets of old time bare record, that the Soul was coupled with the body for her sins, and buried in the same as in a Grave. Of Epicharmus we have this saying. If thou be'st a good man in thy heart, Death can do thee no harm, for thy Soul shall live happily in heaven, etc. Also of Heraclides we have this saying, We live the Death of them (that is to say of the blessed) his meaning is, 
Thales, Anaxagoras, Diogenes and Ze●o.  that we be not buried with our bodies; and we die their Life, that is to say, we be still after this body of ours is dead. Of the like opinion are Thales, Anaxagoras, and Diogenes concerning this point; yea and so is Zeno too, howbeit that he thought the Soul to be begotten of Man, wherein he was contrary too himself. To be short, scarcely were there any to be found among the men of old time, save only Democritus and Epicurus, 
Epicurus.  that held the contrary way; whom the Poet Lucre imitated afterward in his verses. Yet notwithstanding when Epicurus should die, he commanded an anniversary or Yéermynd to be kept in remembrance of him by his Disciples: so greatly delighted he in a vain shadow of immortality, having shaken off the very thing itself. And Lucrece 
Lucretius.  (as it is written of him) made his book being mad, at such times as the fits of his madness were off him, surely more mad when he thought himself wisest, than when the fits of his frenzy were strongest upon him. Whosoever readeth the goodly discourses of Socrates upon his drinking of poison, as they be reported by Plato and Xenophon 
Socrates, Plato and Xenophon.  himself; can not doubt of his opinion in this case. For he not only believed it himself, but also persuaded many men to it with lively reasons, yea and by his own death much more than by all his life. And so ye see we be come unto Plato and Aristotle, with consent of all the wise men of old time, ungeinsayd of any, saving of a two or three malapert wretches, whom the ungraciousest of our days would esteem but as drunken sots and dizards. certes Plato 
Plato in his Timaeus.  (who might peradventure have heard speak of the books of Moses) doth in his Timaeus bring in God giving commandment to the undergoddes whom he created, that they should make man both of mortal and of immortal substances. Wherein it may be that he alluded to this saying in Genesis, Let us make man after our own Image and likeness. In which case the jews say that GOD directed his speech to his Angels; but our Divines say he spoke to himself. But anon after, both in the same book and in many other places, Plato 
Plato in his Timaeus, and in his third book of a Comonweale.  (as it were coming to him himself again,) teacheth that GOD created Man by himself, yea and even his liver and his Brain and all his Senses; that is to say, the Soul of him, not only endued with reason and understanding, but also with sense and ability of growing and increasing; and also the instruments whereby the same do work. Moreover he maketh such a manifest difference between the Soul and the body; as that he matcheth them not together as matter and form, as Aristottle doth: but as a Pilot and a Ship, a Commonweal and a Magistrate, an Image and him that beareth it upon him. What greater thing can there be than to be like God? Now (saith Plato in his Phoedon) 
Plato in his Phoedon, in his matter of state, in his Alcibiades, and in the tenth book of his Comonweale.  The Soul of Man is very like the Godhead; Immortal, Reasonable, Uniform, Vndissoluble, and evermore of one sort, which are conditions (saith he) in his matters of State) that can not agree but to things most divine. And therefore at his departing out of the world, he willed his Soul to return home too her kindred and to her first original, that is to wit, (as he himself saith there) to the wise and immortal Godhead the Fountain of all goodness, as called home from banishment into her own native country. 
Plato in his fifth book of Laws.  He termeth it ordinarily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, of kin unto God, and consequently 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, Everlasting, and of one selfsame name with the immortal ones, a Heavenly Plant and not a Earthly, rooted in Heaven and not in Earth, begotten from above and not here beneath, and finally such as cannot die here, forasmuch as it liveth still in another place. To be short, seeing (sayeth he) that it comprehendeth the things that are Divine and immortal, that is to wit, the Godhead, and the things that are unchangeable and uncorruptible, as truth is: it cannot be accounted to be of any other nature than they. The same opinion doth plutarch also attribute unto him, which appeareth almost in every leaf of his writings. As touching the ancienter sort of Platonists, they agree all with one accord in the immortality of the soul, saving that some of them derive it from God, and some from the Soul of the World, some make but the Reason or mind only to be immortal, and some the whole Soul: which disagreement may well be salved, if we say that the Soul all whole together is immortal in power or ability, though the execution and performance of the actions which are to be done by the body, be foregone with the instruments or members of the body.  
The disagreement concerning this point among such as a man may vouchsafe to call by the name of Philosophers, seemeth to have begun at Aristotle, howbeit that his Disciples count it a commendation to him, that he hath given occasion to doubt of his opinion in that behalf. For it is certain that his newfound doctrine of the Eternity or everlastingness of the World, hath distroubled his brain in many other things, as commonly it falleth out, that one error breedeth many other. 
Aristotle in his second book of living things.  Because nature (saith he) could not make every man particularly to continue for ever by himself, therefore she continueth him in the kind by matching Male and Female together. This is spoken either grossly or doubtfully. But whereas he saith that if the Mind have any inworking of it own without any help of the Senses or of the body, it may also continue of itself, concluding thereupon that then it may also be separated from the body, as an immortal thing from a thing that is transitory and mortal: It followeth consequently also, that the Soul may have continuance of itself, 
Aristotle in the third book of the Soul.  as whereof he uttereth these words, namely, That the Soul cometh from without, and not of the seed of Man as the body doth, and that the Soul is the only part in us that is Divine. Now, to be Divine and to be human, to be of seed and to be from without, that is to say, from GOD; are things flat contratrie, whereof the one sort is subject to corruption, and the other not. 
Aristotle in his tenth book of morals.  In the tenth book of his Morals he acknowledgeth two sorts of life in man; the one as in respect that he is composed of Body and Soul, the other as in respect of Mind only; the one occupied in the powers which are called human and bodily, which is also accompanied with a felicity in this life; and the other occupied in the virtues of the mind, which is accompanied also with a felictie in another life. This which consisteth in contemplation, is better than the other; and the felicity thereto belonging, is peculiarly described by him in his books of Heaven above Time, as which consisteth in the frank and free working of the Mind, & in beholding the sovereign God. And in good sooth, 
Michael of Ephesus upon Aristotle's morals.  full well doth Michael of Ephesus upon this saying of his conclude, that the Soul is immortal; and so must all his morals also needs do, considering that too live well, whether it be to a man's self or towards other men, were else a vain thing and to no purpose but to vex our minds in this life. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  In his books of the Soul, he not only separateth the Body from the Soul, but also putteth a difference betwixt the Soul itself & the Mind, terming the Soul the inworking of the body and of the bodily instruments; and the mind that reasonable substance which is in us, whereof the doings have no fellowship with the doings of the body, and whereof the Soul is (as Plato saith) but the Garment. This Mind (saith he) may be severed from the body, it is not in any wise mingled with it, it is of such substance as cannot be hurt or wrought upon, it hath being and continuance actually and of itself; 
In his second book of the Soul.  and even when it is separated from the body, then is it immortal and everlasting. To be short, it hath not any thing like unto the body. For it is not any of all those things which have being afore it understand them. And therefore which of all bodily things can it be? And in another place he sayeth thus: As concerning the Mind, and the contemplative power, it is not yet sufficiently apparent what it is. Nevertheless it seemeth to be another kind of Soul, and it is that only which can be separated from the corruptible, as the which is Ayeverlasting. To be short, when as he putteth this question, whether a Natural Philosopher is to dispute of all manner of Souls, or but only of that Soul which is immaterial: it followeth that he granteth that there is such a one. And again, when as he maketh this Argument; Look what God is everlastingly, that are we in possibility according to our measure: but he is everlastingly separated from bodily things, therefore the time will come that we shall be so too. He taketh it that there is an Image of God in us, yea even of the Divine nature which hath continuance of itself. Very well and rightly therefore doth Simplicius gather thereof, the immortality of the Soul. For it dependeth upon this separation, 
In the last book of the parts of beasts. In the tenth of his Supernaturalles.  & upon continuance of being of itself. Besides this he saith also, that hunting of beasts is granted to man by the law of Nature, because that thereby man challengeth nothing but that which naturally is his own. By what right I pray you, if there be no more in himself than in them? And what is there more in him than in them, if they have a soul equal unto his? 
In his first book of matters of state.  Hereunto make all his commendations of Godliness, of Religion, of blessedness, and of contemplation. For too what end serve all these, which do but cumber us here below? Therefore surely it is to be concluded, that as he spoke doubtfully in some one place, so he both termed and also taught to speak better in many other places, as appeareth by his Disciple Theophrastus, who speaketh yet more evidently thereof than he.  
The Latins 
The opinion of the Latin writers.  (as I have said before) fell to Philosophy somewhat later than the Greeks. And as touching their common opinion, the exercises of superstition that were among them, the manner of speeches which we mark in their Histories, their contempt of death, and their hope of another life; can give us sufficient warrant thereof. Cicero 
Cicero in his first book of his Tusculane Questions, & in his book of Comfort.  speaketh unto us in these words. The original of our Souls and Minds cannot be found in this low earth: for there is not any mixture in them, or any compounding that may seem to be bred or made of the earth. Neither is there any moisture, any windiness, or any fiery matter in them. For no such thing could have in it the power of memory, Understanding, and conceit, to beat in mind things past, to foresee things to come, and to consider things present, which are matters altogether Divine. And his conclusion is, that therefore they be derived from the Mind of GOD, that is to say, not bred or begotten of Man, but created of God: not bodily, but unbodily; whereupon it followeth that the Soul cannot be corrupted by these transitory things. The same Cicero 
Cicero in his second book of the Nature of the Gods: and in his fust book of Laws.  in another place sayeth that between God and Man there is a kindred of reason, as there is between man & man a kindred of blood. That the fellowship between man and man cometh of the mortal body, but the fellowship between God and man cometh of God himself who created the Soul in us. By reason whereof (saith he) we may say we have Alliance with the heavenly sort, as folk that are descended of the same race and root; whereof that we may evermore be mindful, we must look up to heaven as to the place of our birth, whether we must one day return. And therefore yet once again he concludeth thus of himself. Think not (saith he) that thou thyself art mortal, 
In Scipio's dream.  it is but thy body that is so. For thou art not that which this outward shape pretendeth to be, the Mind of Man is the man in deed, and not this lump which may be pointed at with ones Fingar. Assure thyself therefore that thou art a GOD; For needs must that be a God, which liveth, perceiveth, remembereth, forseeth, and finally reigneth in thy body as the Great God the maker of all things doth in the universal world. For as the eternal God ruleth and moveth this transitory world, so doth the immortal Spirit of our soul move & rule our frail body. Hereuntoo consent all the writers of his time, as Ovid, Virgil and others, whose verses are in every man's remembrance.  
There wanted yet the wight that should all other wights exceed 
Ovid in his first book of Metamorphosis.   
In lofty reach of stately Mind, who like a Lord in deed  
Should over all the resdewe reign; Then shortly came forth Man,  
Whom either he that made the world and all things else began,  
Created out of seed divine, or else the earth yet young  
And lately parted from the Sky, the seed thereof uncloong  
Retained still in fruitful womb: which japets son did take,  
And tempering it with water pure, a wight thereof did make,  
Which should resemble even the Gods which sovereign state do hold.  
And where all other things the ground with groveling eye behold;  
He gave to man a stately look and full of Majesty  
Commanding him with steadfast look to face the starry Sky.  
Here a man might bring in almost all Senecaes' writings; 
Seneca writing to Gallio and to Lucillus.  but I will content myself with a few sayings of his. Our Souls (saith he) are a part of God's Spirit, and sparks of holy things shining upon the earth. They come from another place than this low one. Whereas they seem to be conversant in the body, yet is the better part of them in Heaven, always near unto him which sent them hither. And how is it possible that they should be from beneath, or from anywhere else than from above, seeing they overpass all these lower things as nothing, and hold scorn of all that ever we can hope or fear? Thus ye see how he teacheth that our Souls come into our bodies from above. But whether go they again, when they depart hence? Let us here him what he says of the Lady martia's Son that was dead. He is now everlasting (saith he) and in the best state, 
Seneca concerning the Lady Martiaze Son and the shortness of this life In his Questions, and in his hook of Comfort.  bearest of this earthly baggage which was none of his, & set free to himself. For these bones, these sinews, this coat of skin, this face, and these serviceable hands, are but fetters and prisons of the Soul. By them the Soul is overwhelmed, beaten down, and chased away. It hath not a greater batterll, than with that mass of flesh. For fear of being torn in pieces, it laboureth to return from whence it came, where it hath ready for it an happy and everlasting rest. And again: This Soul cannot be made an Outlaw: for it is a kin to the Gods, equal to the whole world, and to all time; and the thought or conceit thereof goeth about the whole Heaven, extending itself from the beginning of all time to the uttermost point of that which is to come. The wretched coarse being the jail & setters of the Soul, is tossed to and fro. Upon that are torments, murders, and diseases executed. As for the Soul, it is holy and everlasting, and cannot be laid hand on. When it is out of this body, it is at liberty and set free from all bondage, and is conversant in that beautiful place (wheresoever it be) which receiveth men's Souls into the blessed rest thereof as soon as they be delivered from hence. To be short, he seemeth to prick very near to the rising again of the dead. For in a certain Epistle to Lucilius, his words are these. Death, whereof we be so much afraid, doth not bereave us of life, but only discontinew it for a time; and a day will come that shall bring us to light again. This may suffice to give us knowledge of the opinion of that great parsonage, in whom we see that the more he grew in age, the nearer he came still to the true birth. For in his latest books he treateth always both more assuredly and more evidently thereof.  
Also the saying of Phavorinus is notable. 
Favorinus.  There is nothing great on earth, (saith he) but Man; and nothing great in Man, but his Soul. If thou mount up thither, thou mountest above Heaven. And if thou stoop down again to the body, and compare it with the Heaven; it is less than a Fly, or rather a thing of nothing. At one word, this is as much to say, as that in this clod of clay, there dwelleth a divine and uncoruptible nature: for how could it else be greater than the whole world?  
As touching the Nations of old time, 
The common opinion of all nations.  we read of them all, that they had certain Religions and divine Services, so as they believed that there is a Hell, and certain fields which they call the Elysian fields, as we see in the Poets Pindarus, Diphilus, Sophocles, Euripides & others. 
Porphyrius in his 4. book of Abstinence.  The more superstitious that they were, the more sufficiently do they witness unto us what was in their Conscience. For true Religion and Superstition have both one ground, namely the Soul of man; and there could be no Religion at all, 
Which with their own hands made the fire to burn their bodies in: and saw alive the kindled flame that should consume their Skin.  if the Soul lived not when it is gone hence. We read of the Indians, that they burned themselves afore they came to extreme old age, terming it the letting of men lose, and the freing of the Soul from the body: and the sooner that a man did it, the wiser was he esteemed. Which custom is observed still at this day among the people that dwell by the River Niger otherwise called the people of Senega in Africa, who offer themselves willingly to be buried quick with their Masters. All the demonstrations of Logic and Mathematic (saith Zeno) have not so much force to prove the immortality of the soul, as this only doing of theirs hath. Also great Alexander having taken prisoners ten of their Philosophers, (whom they call Gimnosophists) asked of one of them to try their wisdom, whether there were mo●men alive or dead. The Philosopher answered, that there were more alive: Because (said he) there are none dead. Ye may well think they gave a dry mock to all the arguments of Aristotle and calisthenes, which with all their Philosophy had taught their scholar Alexander so evil. Of the Thracians, we read that they sorrowed at the birth of men and rejoiced at the death of them, yea even of their own children. And that was because they thought that which we call death, not to be a death in deed, but rather a very happy birth. And these be the people whom Herodotus reporteth to have been called the Neverdying Getes, and whom the Greeks called the Neverdying Getes or Thracians. Who were of opinion that at their departing out of this world, they went to Zamolxis or Gebeleizie, 
Gebeleizie, that is to say, Register or Giver of caze & rest.  that is to say (after the interpretation of the Getish or Gothish tongue) to him that gave them health, salvation or welfare, and gathered them together. The like is said of the Galls, chief of the inhabiters about marsiles and of their druids; of the Hetruscians and their Bishops; and of the Scythians and their Sages; of whom all the learning and wisdom was grounded upon this point. For look how men did spread abroad, so also did this doctrine, which is so deeply printed in man, that he cannot but carry it continually with him. Which thing is to be seen yet more in that which we read concerning the hearers of Hegesias the Cyrenian, who died willingly after they had heard him discourse of the state of men's Souls after this life; and likewise concerning Cleombrotus the Ambraciote, who slew himself when he had read a certain treatise of the immortality of the Soul. For had it not been a doctrine most evident to man's wit, they would never have been carried so far by it, as to the hurting of their bodies. And if among so many people, there be perchance some few wretched caitiffs, that have borne themselves on hand the contrary; which thing nevertheless they could never yet fully persuade themselves to be out of all doubt or question: surely we may believe that they had very much ado and were utterly besotted like Drunkards, afore they could come to that point: so as we may well say of them as Hierocle 
Gebeleizie, that is to say, Register or Giver of caze & rest.  the Pythagorist said: namely, That the wicked would not have their Souls to be immortal, to the intent they might not be punished for their faults: But yet that they prevent the sentence of their judge, by condemning themselves unto death afore hand. But if they will neither hear God, nor the whole world, nor themselves: let them at leastwise hearken to the Devil as well as they do in other things; who (as saith Plutark 
Plutarch in his treatise of the flow punishing of the wicked. ) made this answer to Corax of Naxus and others in these verses.  
It were a great wickedness for thee to say  
The Soul to be mortal or for to decay.  
And unto Polites he answered thus.  
As long as the Soul to the body is tied,  
Though loath, yet all sorrows it needs must abide.  
But when fro the body Death doth it remove,  
To heaven by and by than it sties up above.  
And there ever youthful in bliss it doth rest,  
As God by his wisdom hath set for the best.  
Not that any saying of the devils own is to be alleged in witness of the truth; furtherforth than to show that he speaks it by compulsion of God's mighty power, as wicked men divers times do when they be upon the Rack. Now we be come to the time or near to the time that the heavenly doctrine of jesus Christ was spread over the whole world, unto which time I have proved the continual succession of that doctrine, which could not but be unseparably joined with the succession of men. 
The opinion of the later Philosophers.  But from this time forth it came so to light among all Nations and all persons; that Saint Austin after a sort triumphing over ungodliness, crieth out in divers places, saying: Who is now so very a fool or so wicked, as to doubt still of the immortality of the Soul? Epictetus' a Stoikphilosopher, who was had in very great reputation among all the men of his time, is full of goodly sayings to the same purpose. May we not be ashamed (saith he) to lead an unhonest life, 
Epictetus. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 . and to suffer ourselves to be vanquished by adversity? we be allied unto God, we came from thence, and we have leave to return thither from whence we came. One while, as in respect of the Soul, he termeth man the offspring of GOD, or as it were a branch of the Godhead; and another while he calleth him adivine imp or a spark of God: by all which words (howbeit that they be somewhat unproper) (for what words can a man find to fit that matter?) he showeth the uncorruptiblenesse of the substance of man's Soul. And whereas the Philosopher Simplicius 
Simplicius.  hath so diligently commented upon his books, it doth sufficiently answer for his opinion in that case, without expressing his words here. Plotinus 
Plotinus. Plotin. lib. 1. Ennead. 4. concerning the Being of the Soul, & lib. 2. cap. 1. & lib. 3. cap. 18. 19 20. 21. 22. 23. lib. 4 cap. 11. & the seventh book throughout.  the excellentest of all the Platonists, hath made nine treatises expressly concerning the nature of the Soul, besides the things which he hath written dispersedly here and there in other places. His chief conlusions are these. That men's Souls proceed not of their bodies, nor of the seed of the Parents, but come from above, and are as ye would say graffed into our bodies by the hand of God: That the Soul is partly tied to the body and to the instruments thereof; and partly frank, free, workfull, & continuing of itself; and yet notwithstanding that it is neither a body nor the harmony of the body, but (if we consider the life and operation which it giveth to the body) it is after a sort the perfection [or rather the perfector] of the body; and if we have an eye to the understanding whereby it guideth the movings and doings of the body; it is as a Governor of the body: That the further it is withdrawn from the Senses, the better it discourseth of things; insomuch that when it is utterly separated from them, it understandeth things without discoursing, reasoning or debating, yea even in a moment; because this debating is but a certain lightning or brightness of the mind, which now taketh advisement in matters whereof it doubteth, and it doubteth wheresoever the body yieldeth any impediments unto it; but it shall neither doubt nor seek advisement any more when it is once out of the body, but shall conceive the truth without wavering: That the Soul in the body is not properly there as in a place, or as in a ground, because it is not contained or comprehended therein, and may also be separated from it; but rather if a man had eyes to see it withal, he should see that the body is in the Soul, as an accessary is in a principal, or as a thing contained in a conteyner, or a shedding or liquid thing in a thing that is not liquid, because the Soul embraceth the body, and quickeneth it, and moveth it equally and alike in all parts. That every ability thereof is in every part of the body, as much in one part as in another, as a whole Soul in every part; notwithstanding that every several ability thereof seem to be severally in some particular member or part, because the instruments thereof are there; as the sensitive ability seemeth to rest in the head, the ireful in the heart, and the quickening in the Liver, because the Sinews, Heartstrings and Uaynes come from those parts: Whereas the reasonable power is not in any part, saving so far forth as it worketh and hath his operation there, neither hath it any need of place or instrument for the executing of itself. And to be short, that the Soul is a life by itself, a life all in one, unpartable; which causeth to grow, and groweth not itself; which goeth throughout the body, and yet is not contained of the body; which uniteth the Senses, and is not divided by the Senses; and therefore that it is a bodiless substance, which cannot be touched neither from within nor from without, having no need of the body either outwardly or inwardly, & consequently is immortal, divine, yea and almost a very God: Which things he proveth by many reasons, which were too long to be rehearsed here. 
Plotinus in his book of the Senses, & of Memory. En. 4. lib. 3. and in his book of doubts concerning the Soul chap. 26. 27.  Yea he proceedeth so far as to say, that they which are passed into another world, have their memory still, notwithstanding that to some men's seeming it go away with the Senses as the treasury of the Senses. Howbeit he affirmeth it to be the more excellent kind of memory; not that which calleth things again to mind as already past, but that which holdeth and beholdeth them still as always present. Of which two sorts, this latter he calleth Myndfulnes, and the other he calleth Remembrance. I will add but only one sentence more of his for a full precedent of his Doctrine. The Soul (saith he) hath had company with the Gods, and is immortal; and so would we say of it (as Plato affirmeth) if we saw it fair and clear. But forasmuch as we see it commonly troubled, we think it not to be either divine or immortal, howbeit that he which will discern the nature of a thing perfectly, must consider it in the very own substance or being, utterly unmingled with any other thing. For whatsoever else is added unto it, doth hinder the perfect discerning of the same. Therefore let every man behold himself naked without any thing save himself, so as he look upon nothing else than his bare Soul: and surely when he hath viewed himself in his own nature merely as in respect of his Mind, he shall believe himself to be immortal. For he shall see that his Mind, aimeth not properly at the sensible and mortal things, but that by a certain everlasting power, it taketh hold of the things that are everlasting, and of whatsoever is possible to be conceived in understanding: insomuch that even itself becometh after a sort a very World of understanding & light. This is against those which pretend a weakness of the Soul, by reason of the inconveniences which it endureth very often in the body.  
Of the same opinion are Numenius, jamblichus, Porphirius, and Proclus, notwithstanding that now and then they pass their bounds, suffering their wits to run royet. For in their Philosophy they had none other rule, than only the drift of their own reason. It was commonly thought that Alexander of Aphrodise believed not the immortality of the Soul, 
Alexander of Aphrodise in his books of the Soul.  because he defined it to be the form of the body proceeding of the mixture & temperature of the Elements. Surely these words of his do us to understand, either that he meant to define but the sensitive life only (as many others do) and not the reasonable soul; or else that he varieth from himself in other places. And in very deed he sayeth immediately afterward, that he speaketh of the things which are subject to generation and corruption. But speaking of the Soul he sayeth it is separable, unmaterial, unmixed, and void of passions, unless perchance we may think as some do, that by this Soul he mean but only God, and not also the Soul that is in us; for the which thing he is sharply rebuked by Themistius, who notwithstanding speaketh never a whit better thereof himself. Howsoever he deal elsewhere, these words of his following are without any doubtfulness at all. The Soul (saith he) which is in us, cometh from without and is uncorruptible. 
In his second book of Problems.  I say uncorruptible because the nature thereof is such, and it is the very same that Aristotle affirmeth to come from without. And in his second book of Problems, searching the cause why the abilities of the Soul are oftentimes impeached: If a man's brain be hurt (saith he) the reasonable soul doth not well execute the actions that depend thereon. But yet for all that, it abideth still in itself, unchangeable of nature, ability and power, through the immortality thereof. And if it recover a sound instrument, it putteth her abilities in execution as well as it did afore. But I will reason more at large hereafter against the opinion that is fathered upon him.  
What shall we say of Galene, (who fathereth the causes of all things as much as he can, upon the Elements and the mixture and agreeable concord of them) if after his disputing against his own Soul, 
Galen in his book of the Manners of the Soul.  he be constrained to yield that it is immortal? Surely in his book concerning the manners of the Soul he doth the worst that he can against Plato: and in another place he doubteth whether it be immortal, and whether it have continuance of itself or no. Yet notwithstanding, in his book of the doctrine of Hypocrates and Plato, 
In his book of the doctrine of Hypocrates and Plato.  It must needs be granted (sayeth he) that the Soul is either a sheer body and of the nature of the Sky, (as the Stoics & Aristotle himself are enforced to confess) or else a bodiless substance, whereof the body is as it were the Chariot, and whereby it hath fellowship with other bodies. And it appeareth that he inclineth to this latter part: For he maketh the vital spirit to be the excellentest of all bodily things, 
In his book of Conception.  and yet he granteth the Soul to be a far more excellent thing than that. What shall we then do? Let us weigh his words set down in his book of the conception of a Child in the Moothers Womb. The Soul of Man (sayeth he) is an influence of the universal Soul that descendeth from the heavenly Region, a substance that is capable of knowledge, which aspireth always to one substance like unto itself, which leaveth all these lower things to seek the things that are above, which is partaker of the heavenly Godhead, and which by mounting up to the beholding of things that are above the heavens, putteth itself into the presence of him that ruleth all things. Were it reason then that such a substance coming from elsewhere than of the body, and mounting so far above the body, should in the end die with the body, because it useth the service of the body?  
Now hereunto I could add infinite other sayings of the ancient 
The universal consent.  authors both Greek and Latin Philosophers, Poets, and Orators from age to age, wherein they treat of the judgement to come, of the reward of good men, of the punishment of evil men, of Paradise and of Hell, which are appendants to the immortality of the Soul: but as now I will but put the reader in mind of them by the way, reserving them to their peculiar places. To be short, let us run at this day from East to West, and from North to South, I say not among the Turks, Arabians, or Persians, (for their Alcoran teacheth them that man's Soul was breathed into him of God, 
In the Alcoran, Azo: 25. and 42.  and consequently that it is uncorruptible) but even among the most barbarous, ignorant & beastly people of the Wold, I mean the very Caribies and Cannibals; 
It appeareth by the stories or the East and West Indies.  and we shall find this belief received and embraced of them all. Which giveth us to understand, that it is not a doctrine invented by speculations of some Philosophers, conveyed from Country to Country by their disciples, persuaded by likelyhods of reasons, or (too be short) entered into man's wit by his ears: but a native knowledge, which every man findeth and readeth in himself, which he carrieth everywhere about with himself, and which is as easy to be persuaded unto all such as view themselves in themselves, as it is easy to persuade a man that never saw his own face, to believe that he hath a face, by causing him to behold himself in a glass.  
There remain yet two opinions, to be confuted. The one is the opinion of Auerrhoes, 
against Auerrhoes.  and the other is the opinion of Alexander of Aphrodise, who affirm themselves to hold both of Aristotle; namely in that they uphold that there is but one universal reasonable Soul or mind, which worketh all our discourses in us, howbeit diversly in every several person. And this thing (if we believe Auerrhoes) is done according to the diversity of the Fantasies or Imaginations wherewith the mind is served as with instruments. But if we believe Alexander, 
Let the Reader bear these terms & their significations in Mind, for all the discourse here ensuring.  it is done according too the diversities of the capable mind as they term it, that is to say, of the ability or capability that is in men to understand things, by receiving the impression of the universal mind that worketh into every of them which in respect thereof is called of them the worker. Sooth these opinions are such as may be disproved in one word. For this only one Mind, whether in possibility or in action, could not have received or imprimted in every man one selfsame common belief and conceit of the immortality of the Soul, in so great diversity of imaginations, and in so many Nations, as we see do believe it, considering that the very same conceit is directly repugnant against it. Nay, it may well be said that Auerrhoes and Alexander had very divers conceits and imaginations one from another, and very contrary to all other men's, seeing they had so divers and contrary opinions imprinted either in their mind or in their imagination. Howbeit forasmuch as there may be some, the will make a doubt of it; Let us examine them severally yet more advisedly. 
Auerhoes, upon Aristotle's third book of the Soul.  First Auerrhoes will needs bear Aristotle on hand, that Aristotle is of that opinion. Let us see how this surmise of his can agree with the propositions which Aristotle hath left us. Aristotle telleth us that the Soul is knit to the body as the form or shape too the matter; that the Soul hath three chief powers, namely of life, of sense, and of understanding; and that the understanding part containeth in his power both the other two powers, as a Fivesquare containeth both a Fowersquare and a Triangle. 
Aristotle in his second book of the Soul.  Whereupon it followeth that if any one of the three powers of the Soul be joined to the body as a form to the matter; all the three be joined so to, as which are all in one soul as in their root. Now Auerrhoes neither can nor will deny that the powers of growing and of perceiving by the senses are joined after that manner too the body; and therefore it followeth that the understanding power is to joined also, and consequently that according to Aristotle, as every body hath his form, so every body hath his Soul. 
Aristotle in his first book of the Soul.  The same Aristotle findeth fault with the former Philosophers for holding opinion that a Soul might pass out of one man into another: because (sayeth he) that every certain Soul must needs be apportioned and appointed to some one certain body. Now look by what Soul a man liveth, by the same Soul doth he understand: for it is but one Soul endued with three divers abilities, as he himself teacheth opently. One understauding or Mind therefore, must (according to Aristotle) work but in one several body, and not in many bodies. Also according to Aristotle, a Man & a Beast agree in this, that both of them have one sensitive power and one selfsame imagination of things perceived by the senses, & that they differ in this, that man hath yet further a mind and reason above the beast, which thing the beast hath not. Now if this Understanding or Mind be without the man, as the Son is without the Chamber that it shineth into and enlighteneth; then cannot he be called reasonable or endued with understanding, neither doth he consequently differ from a beast. For the difference must be in nature, and not in accident. And so should it ensue that Aristotle's foresaid definition of a man is false, as if he should define a Chamber by the shining of the Sun into it: Or say that a Dog differeth not from a man in kind; yea and that Beasts are eapable of understanding, forasmuch as they have Imagination ready aforehand to receive the influence thereof as well as we. But Aristotle is always one in his defining both of beast & of man; and Auerrhoes also holdeth himself to it, without doubting thereof at all. This conclusion therefore cannot in anywise be upheld by such grounds.  
Again, if there be not in every several man a several mind, but only one universal mind common to all men, which becometh divers by the only diversity of our imaginations: Then in respect that we have sundry imaginations, we shall be sundry living wights; and in respect that we have all but one mind, we shall be all but one man. For man is not man in respect of the sensitive power, but in respect of the reasonable part which is the mind. But Aristotle granteth that we be not only divers living wights, but also divers men. And therefore he must needs mean also, that we have not only divers imaginations, but also divers minds. Now besides many other Reasons that might be alleged, ye might add this also, That otherwise Aristotle's morals and his discourses concerning justice, free-will, the Immortality of the Soul, the happy bliss, the reward of the good, and the pains of the wicked, were utterly fruitless and to no purpose: For as our fancies or imaginations did come and go, so would all those things come and go likewise; and so should they have no continuance of themselves, but only be as a shadow and vain fantasy. But let Aristotle alone, (for he hath wrong) and let us come to the matter itself. The Philosophers do ordinarily make a double mind; the one which they call possible or in possibility, which is capable and of ability to understand things; and this they liken to a smooth table; the other they call working or workfull, which bringeth the ability into act, whereas notwithstanding they be not two minds, but two several abilities of only one mind. Now, as for this ability or possibility of understanding, we affirm it to be in the Soul of every man. Contrariwise, Auerrhoes affirmed only one universal capable mind to be shed abroad every where throughout all men; and that the same is diversly perfected and brought into act in every several man, according to the diversity of the imaginations which the man tonceyveth, even by the help or influence of the said univerall workfull mind, which he saith is also a substance severed from man, and (in respect of the understanding in possibility) is as the Sun is to the sight of our eyes; and the understanding in possibility is to the imaginations, as the sight is unto colours. Now, I demand first of all, whether these universal Minds of his, be substances created or uncreated. If they be created, where becometh then his conclusion, That the world is without beginning, and without ending, seeing that he will have them to be continued everlastingly in all men that have been, are, or shall be? If they be uncreated, how can so excellent substances be made subject to our fond imaginations, to yield influence into them at their pleasures? Or rather how happeneth it that they correct them not? How happeneth it that they leave them in such errors, yea even in the knowledge of themselves, seeing that by the erring of the imaginations, the very understanding and reason themselves must also needs be so often beguiled? Again, as concerning these substances, which extend into so many places; are they Bodies or Spirits? How can they be Bodies, seeing they be in infinite places at one instant, and do infinite things, yea and flat contraries? And if they be Spirits, doth it notfollow thereupon, that they be wholly in all men, & wholly in every man; that is to say, that every man hath them whole to himself? And therefore that if they be deceived by the fantasy of any one man, they be consequently deceived in all men? And whereof comes it then, that one man overcometh his imaginations, and another man not? Or that one man resisteth them, and another suffereth himself to be carried away by them? Moreover, who can deny that a man willeth things, whereof he hath understanding; and likewise that he willeth some things which he understandeth not; and that he understandeth some things which he willeth not? And also that he willeth things even contrary to his appetites, and concludeth oftentimes contrary to his imaginations, as cometh to pass in Dreams and in Lookingglasses; which thing the brute Beasts do not? When a man willeth contrary to his appetites, willeth he not contrary to his senses, yea and contrary to his imagination too? for what else is fantasy or imagination, than the rebounding back of the senses? And if this workfull understanding be the only worker in his possible understanding by mean of imagination; how cometh it to pass that a man willeth contrary to his imagination? Again, when either in dreaming or in debating, reason concludeth clean contrary to that which fancy or imagination offereth; whereof cometh it that a man is contrary to himself, or that the deed is contrary both to that which imprinted it, and to that wherein it is imprinted? Also what else is imagination (according to the opinion of Auerrhoes,) than a certain operation annexed to the body, steaming up from the Hart to the Brain? And on the contrary part who can say nay, but that the Will and Understanding are able to perform their operations without the instruments of the body, seeing that a man doth both will and debate things that are most repugnant to the body? 
Aristotle in his ●. book of Supernaturals.  Yea and that (as Aristotle saith) those be not actions which pass into the outward man, but those which abide within and make perfect the inner man? And who can make Will and Understanding to be things depending upon imagination, seeing that both waking and sleeping and all manner of ways else, they daily utter infinite judgements and determinations against it? Now, if we have nothing in us above Imagination: then considering that we do both will and understand, it must needs be that this power or ability to will and understand is shed into us from without. And if it be but only one universally in all men; then seeing that the actions thereof are executed without the imagination, without the senses, and without the instruments of the body, yea and against them: it followeth that it willeth and understandeth in us whatsoever it liketh and listeth, even in despite of all impediments and lets of the body; and that as it is but one, so it shall will but one selfsame thing, and likewise also understand but one selfsame thing in all men. For if (as Aristotle confesseth) our imaginations make not our will and reason subject unto them; much less do they make the foresaid universal mind subject to them as Auerrhoes pretendeth. But now contrariwise we see there be as many Wills as men, yea even in one matter; and that the understandings of men are not only divers, but also contrary. It followeth then that every particular person hath in that behalf a particular substance, which willeth and understandeth, frank and free from all imaginations whensoever it listeth to retire into itself; and not that there is but one universal mind which willeth and understandeth all things in all men. Besides this, by the judgement of Aristotle as I said afore, this universal mind could not work will and understanding in us: for to will and understand (saith he) are operations that pass not into the matter nor into the outward thing, but abide still in the worker, that is to say in the mind, as actions and perfections thereof.  
Let us yet again take of that which hath been said afore. If the said universal only one working mind, have wrought from everlasting in the said universal only one capable mind, by the Imaginations of men: then hath the knowledge of all things been evermore imprinted in the said capable mind; for it shall evermore have brought the ability into act: And therewithal, the working and perfection of the thing that is everlasting, shall have depended upon a thing that is temporal; which is unpossible. And although Auerrhoes supposed not the World to be everlasting: yet notwithstanding, the said capable mind which hath been set a work so many hundred years, by so many imaginations of men, and in so many sundry Nations, could not now meet with any new thing whereof it had not the knowledge afore. For this capable mind (saith Auerrhoes) is a certain spiritual substance, which spreadeth itself forth into all men and into all ages, and the nature of such sort of substances is to be all in the whole, and all in every part thereof. For they be not tied to any one place, but are wheresoever they work, and their working is in respect of the whole and not in respect of any one part, forasmuch as they be undividable. Therefore it should follow by his opinion (as I have said afore) that the one universal capable mind is & worketh whole and unparted in every man. And if it be so; then is the being of it there, not in way of mere ability or possibility only, but in way of operation and perfect inworking, as a wicked spirit is in a Witch, in a Pythonesse or in a possessed person: which spirit, (were he possessed of the man as he himself posseseth the man, (after which manner Auerrhoes affirmeth us to possess the understanding in possibility, by our imaginatious;) would make the man capable of all that ever the Spirit himself knoweth or is. Whereupon it will follow, that this understanding in possibility shall everlastingly in all men from their very birth, actually understand and know all things that all men understand, as well in the old as the young, and in the ignorant as the skilful; so as we shall have no more need of senses, nor of imagination to understand withal. Too be short, although Auerrhoes admitteth not the World to be without beginning: yet at leastwise he will not deny, but that [by his reckoning] they which come into the world at this day, should come far more skilful than all their predecessors, and the children of them more skilful than their fathers, and the offspring of those children more skilful than those children themselves, and so forthon, because they should succeed in the knowledge continued throughout all ages. Whereupon it will also ensue, that all Sciences shallbe equally in all men that make profession of them. As for example, we will speak here but of some one special Science, as Grammar and Arithmetic. Now if there be any diversity in the skill thereof, that diversity cannot come but of the diversity of the subject or ground wherein the skill is. Now the ground of the skill is the capacity of the mind or understanding, (which Auerrhoes supposeth to be but only one, common to all men) and not the Imagination, which is but a reflection or rebounding back of the Sense. And so forasmuch as there is (by his saying) but one ground in all men; it followeth that the knowledge or skill of this or that Science must needs be equal & alike in all men: or else that if it be not equal, but do vary, as we see it doth in divers degrees; then the same varying or diversity happeneth through the diversity of the ground wherein the skill is, and consequently that there is one particular understanding or one peculiar mind in every man, and not one universal mind common to all men. Also it is a general rule, that the receiver of a thing hath not the thing afore he receive it. For (as Aristotle 
Aristotle in his third book of of the Soul.  saith (that which is to receive a thing, must needs be first utterly void of the thing which it receiveth. Now afore that our Sense and Imagination had any being at all, this universal common mind had received & possessed all things aforehand; and not only received them, but also kept them together. For as Aristotle himself saith, that manner of mind is the place of all underkinds' & sorts of things, and thereto hath no less power than the Imagination, to retain whatsoever the Senses receive. In vain therefore should that universal mind understand by our Imaginations, considering that it understandeth by itself: in vain likewise should the Imaginations imprint those things in it, which were imprinted in it so long afore: and in vain is Aristotle's settingdowne of a workfull understanding, which should bring our understanding in ability, from possibility into action; if the said only one universal mind or understanding be perfect of itself from everlasting, as it followeth to be upon the opinion of Auerrhoes. Neither is it to be said, that although the conceivable underkinds' of things have been imprinted everlastingly in the said universal mind; yet notwithstanding there needed an Imagination for the understanding of them, as there needeth now whensoever we will use the things that we have seen or learned afore. For by that reckoning, to learn all manner of Sciences, we needed no more but to bethink us by imagination, of the things that were already aforehand in the said only universal one mind, as we do the things that have been printed sometime in our memories, and are somewhat slipped out of our remembrance; and so might we ourselves learn all sciences without a teacher, because that in the said universal mind of ours, we should have all the skill that ever any man had attained to, in like manner as the person that hath once had the skill of arithmetic or cosmography thoroughly settled in his mind, needeth no teacher to teach it him again, but only to overturn his own imagination, and to search his memory for the finding again of that which he had laid up there. Now we know that whosoever learneth nothing▪ knoweth nothing, and that ordinarily he which most studieth, most learneth: and that all the tossing and turmoiling of a man's own imagination that can be all his life long, will never make him to attain of himself to so much as the very principles of the least science that is. By reason whereof it followeth, That we have not the skill of any science in us, until we either be taught it or find it out by beating our wits about it: and that our imagination serveth not to revive the Sciences in us, but to bring them into us, and to plant them in us. And forasmuch as all the Sciences should be in all men from the beginning, if there were but one universal mind in all men, [which is not so] it followeth that there is in every particular person a particular and peculiar mind, and not any one universal mind common to all men. Moreover, our mind attaineth after a sort to the understanding of itself: which thing it could not do in very deed, if there were but one universal mind common to all men. For too understand itself, it must needs work upon itself. But if we believe Auerrhoes, our mind shall but only be wrought upon and receive into it from the Imagination, as a Window receiveth light from the Sun. again, the capacity of the universal understanding in possibility, could not do that. For it behoved it to have some other thing besides itself, to bring itself into action. And surely Imagination could not help it, for it doth but offer up the sensible things unto it, & attaineth not so far as to the things that are to be discerned by drift of reason. Yet notwithstanding we understand that we understand, and we reason and judge both of our Imagination, and also of our reasoning and understanding itself. The thing then which doth so enter and pierce into itself, is another manner of power than an Imagination, or than an universal understanding in possibility. What is to be said to this, that of one selfsame Imagination, one selfsame person concludeth now after one sort, and by-and-by after in another sort; and thereoutof draweth both contrary arguments and contrary determinations: or that divers persons by divers imaginations do close together in one will and one mind? Is it possible that this should proceed of an everlasting substance in one selfsame person, seeing that euerlastingness is not subject to any change of time or place? Or that it should proceed of any one selfsame substance in many men, seeing that the imaginations of them be so divers one from another? at leastwise if the said substance work not but by such instruments?  
As touching the opinion of Alexander of Aphrodise, 
Against Alexander of Aphrodise.  who upholdeth a certain univer shall working mind that imprinteth things in the understanding in possibility, that is to say in every man's several capacity, and bringeth it forth into action: the most part of the Reasons alleged afore against Auerrhoes, will also serve against him. Howbeit forasmuch as by this workfull mind, he seemeth to mean God himself, there is thus much more to be added unto it; That God who is altogether good and altogether wise would not imprint in our mind the fond and wicked conceits, which we find there, nor leave so great ignorance and darkness as we feel there, but would in all men overcome the infection which the body bringeth: and although he inspired not all men alike with his gracious gifts, according to the diversity of their capacities after the maver of a planed Table; yet would he not at leastwise peint the World with so many false portraitures and Trains, as every one of us may perceive to be in ourselves. Again, were there any such inspiration or influence, it should be either continual or but by times. If continual or everlasting, we should without labour and without cunning understand all that ever our imagination offereth unto us. And if it be but at times, than should it not lie in us to list or to understand any thing at all, though we would never so fain. For contrariwise, we have much a do to understand some things, so as we must be fain to win them from our ignorance by piecemeal: and there be some other things, which we understand by and by as soon as they be put unto us, and when we list ourselves. There is then in us a power of Understanding, though very feeble; but yet neverthelater obedient to our will: which thing cannot be fathered upon God. Also if there be but only one Mind working in all men, there shall be but one selfsame understanding in all men, I mean naturally, notwithstanding that it differ in degrees. For into what place soever the Sun do shed his beams, he doth both enlighten it and heat it, howbeit diversly according to the nature and condition of the places and things that receive him, some more and some less, some brightlyer and some dimlyer. But howsoever the case stand, his light yieldeth no darkness, nor his heat any cold. So then, if the diversities of men's imaginations do cause diversities of effects in the inspiration or influence that floweth into the capacity of our understanding; surely it must needs be after this manner, namely that one man shall understand one selfsame thing more, and another man less; but not in that any man shall take untruth for truth, unright for right, or one thing for another. Now, we see unto how many errors we be subject, I mean not in such things as this, namely, that one man seethe better a far of, and another better at hand; but that one man seethe white and another seethe black (which are things contrary) in one selfsame ground and at one selfsame tyme. It followeth therefore that divers and sundries minds do work in divers persons, and not one selfsame mind in all persons. By force of which reasons and of such others, I say that every man shall find in himself and of himself, That every man hath a particular Soul by himself, that is to say a spiritual substance united to his body, which in respect of giving life to the body is as the form thereof, and in respect of giving reason, is as the guide of our actions: That in every man there is a certain Sunbeame of Reason, whereby they conceive things and debate upon them; wherethrough it cometh to pass, that oftentimes they agree both in the Reason itself which is one, and in the manifest grounds thereof, and in whatsoever dependeth evidently upon the same: That every man hath also a peculiar body by himself, and likewise peculiar complexion, humours, imaginations, education, custom and trade of life: whereof it cometh that every man takes a divers way, yea and that one selfsame person swerveth diversly from the unity of Reason whereof the path is but one, and the ways to stray from it are infinite: That this Sunbeame of reason which shineth and sheddeth itself from our mind, is properly that understanding which is termed The understanding in ability or possibility, which is increased and augmented by all the things which it seethe, heareth, or lighteth upon, like fire, which gathereth increase of strength by the abundance of the fuel that is put unto it, and becometh after a sort infinite by spreading itself abroad: Also it is the same which otherwise we call the Memory of understanding, or mindful Memory: and it is nothing else but an abundance of Reason, and as it were a hoarder up of the continual influences of the Mind: That the Mind from whence this floweth as from his spring, is properly that which they the said Auerrhoes and Alexander do term the working or workfull Mind, which is a certain power or force that can skill to extend reason from one thing to another, and to proceed from things sensible to things unsensible, from things movable to things unmovable, from bodily to spiritual, from effects to causes, and from beginnings to ends by the mean causes. This Mind is in respect of Reason, as cunning is in respect of an Instrument or tool; and Reason, as in respect of imagination and of the things that are sensible, is as an Instrument or tool in respect of the matter or stuff that it works upon: Or to speak more fitly, this Mind is unto Reason, as the mover of a thing is to the thing that is movable, and Reason is to her objects, as the movable thing is to the thing whereunto it is moved. For to reason or debate, is nothing else but to proceed from a thing that is understood, to a thing that is not understood, of purpose to understand it: and the understanding thereof is a resting that ensueth upon it, as a staying or resting after moving: That both of them as well the one as the other, are but only one selfsame substance; and like as a man both when he moveth and when he resteth, is all one and the same man, or as the power that moveth the Sinews is one selfsame still, both when it stirreth them, and when it holdeth them still; so the reasonable or understanding Soul that is in every man, is but only one selfsame substance bodylesse and immaterial, executing his powers partly of itself and partly by our bodies. And seeing that Auerrhoes and Alexander make so great estimation and account of the effects which are wrought in us, that they be enforced to attribute them to some uncorruptible and everlasting Mind; let us take of them, that in very truth the thing which worketh so great wonders in the body, can be neither sense, nor body, nor imagination; but a divine, uncorruptible and immortal mind, as they themselves say.  
But let us learn the thing of more than them, which all wise men teach us, and which every of us can learn of himself; namely, that this Understanding or Mind is not one universal thing as the Sun is that shineth into all the windows of a City, but rather a particular substance in every several man, as a light to lead him in the darkness of this life; for surely it was no more difficulty to the everlasting GOD, to create many sundry Souls, that every man might have one severally alone by himself, than to have created but only one Soul for all men together. But it was far more for his glory, to be known, praised, and exalted of many Souls, yea and more for our welfare to praise, exalt and know him, yea and to live of ourselves both in this life and in the life to come: than if any other universal Spirit, Soul or Mind whatsoever, should have lived and understood either in us or after us. Now then, for this matter let us conclude, both by reason, and by antiquity, and by the knowledge that every of us hath of himself; That the Soul and the Body be things divers: That the Soul is a Spirit and not a Body: That this Spirit hath in man three abilities or powers, whereof two be exercised by the body, and the third worketh of itself without the body: That these three abilities are in the one only Soul as in their root: whereof two do cease whensoever the body faileth them, and yet notwithstanding the Soul abideth whole without abatement of any of her powers, as a Craftsman continueth a Craftsman though he want tools to work withal: And finally, that this Soul is a substance that continueth of itself, and is unmaterial and spiritual, over the which neither death nor corruption can naturally have any power.  
And for a conclusion of all that ever I have treated of hitherto in this book, let us maintain, That there is but only one God, who by his own goodness and wisdom is the Creator and governor of the world and of all that is therein: That in the world he created Man, after his own Image as in respect of mind, and after the Image of his other creatures as in respect of life, sense, and moving; mortal so far forth as he holdeth the likeness of a creature; and immortal so far forth as he beareth the Image of the Creator: that is to wit, in his Soul: That he which goeth out of himself to see the world, doth forthwith see that there is a God, for his works declare him everywhere: That he which will yet still doubt thereof, needeth but to enter into himself, and he shall meet him there; for he shall find there a power which he seethe not: That he which believeth there is one God, believeth himself to be immortal; for such consideration could not light into a mortal nature: and that he which believeth himself to be immortal, believeth that there is a God: for without the unutterable power of the one God, the mortal and immortal could never join together: That he which seethe the order of the world, the proportion of man, and the harmony that is in either of them compounded of so many contraries, cannot doubt that there is a Providence; for the nature which hath furnished them therewith, cannot be unfurnished thereof itself; but as it once had a care of them, so can it not shake of the same care from them. Thus have we three Articles which follow interchangeably one another. Insomuch that he which proveth any one of them, doth prove them all three, notwithstanding that I have treated of every of them severally by itself. Now, let us pray the everlasting God, that we may glorify him in his works in this world, and he vouchsafe of his mercy to glorify us one day in the world to come.  
Amen.   

The xuj. Chapter.  
That man's nature is corrupted, & man fallen from his first original: and how.  
YET for all this, let not man be proud of the excellency or immortality of his Soul: for the more he hath received of his maker, the more is he indebted to him; and the more excellent that his nature is, the more loathsome and dangerous is the corruption thereof. The Peacock is said to be proud of his gay feathers, when he sets up his tail round about him: but when he hath once stretched out his wings, he falls into a dump, and as soon as he looks upon his feet, he casts me down his tail and is ashamed. Even so, as long as we think upon the liveliness of our Spirit, and the excellency of our Soul as in respect of the nature thereof; surely we have whereof to glorify God that gave it unto us, and of his gracious goodness hath vouchsafed to honour us above all other creatures. On the other side, if we consider how this nature of ours is strangely defiled and corrupted, and how far it is digressed from the first original thereof: surely there is no remedy but we must be ashamed of ourselves, and wonder to see from how great a height we be now fallen and sunk down. Even so the best Wine becometh the sharpest and eagrest Vinegar, and of Eggs (which were in old time the delicates of Kings) is made the rankest poison. For look what degree of goodness a thing holdeth while it abideth in his nature, the same degree of evil doth it come unto, when it falleth into corruption. Now then, look how much our original generation was the better; so much shall the corruption that lighteth into it be the worser: which thing according to the order which I have used hitherto, we may examine towards God, towards the world, towards men, and towards ourselves.  
Greatly in good sooth is man bound unto God, 
Man's corruption appeareth in his respect to Godward.  if he would consider it; and very blind is he if he have not the skill to perceive it. Of the great multitude of Creatures which God had created, he hath given to some but only bore being; to some, both being and life; and to other some both being, life, and sense; But unto man he hath given all these, and moreover a reasonable mind, whereby he (and only he here beneath) knoweth in all things what they have and what they be, which thing they themselves know not. Which is an evident proof, that whatsoever they have or whatsoever they be, they have it and are it for man, & not for themselves. For to what purpose are all their virtues and excellent properties, if they themselves know them not? The Son excellent among the celestial bodies, and the Rose among flowers. The beast is a degree above the Trees, and among the Beasts, one hath some one point which another hath not. But what skills it what thou art or what thou hast, if thou know it not? What booteth thee the light, if thou see it not? what art thou the better for sweet scents, if thou smell them not? Or what availeth it thee to excel in any thing if thou discern it not? Of a truth, only man of all the things in this inferior World, can skill of these things and how to enjoy them; and therefore it must needs be that they were made for none but him; that is to wit, that to speak properly, GOD hath given unto him whatsoever all other creatures either have or be; and he hath not dealt with him simply as with a Creature, but rather as with a Child of his, for whom he hath expressly created this world and given it him to possess. Now if the thing that is possessed be infinitely less than the possessor thereof; and the world is given to man to possess: how far then doth man excel the world? And how greatly is man bound unto God, who created him of nothing that is to say, not only hath given the world unto man, but also given even man to man himself? Wherefore if he acknowledge not him to whom he is beholden, not only for this inheritance but also even for his own being: what shall we say but that he is an unnatural and bastardly Child, even such a one as hath lost not only his right mind, but also even his senses? But of so many men, of whom all and singular persons stand bound, both jointly and severally in the whole and for the whole of that great bond for performance of the Condition thereof, how few be there which do once think of it, and how much fewer be there which think well of it? Nay, how few be there which know that there is such a bond, and how much fewer do dispose themselves to acknowledge it? And if perchance some one or two among many do dispose themselves thereunto, yet notwithstanding who is he that ever was able to attain unto it, considering that it importeth a yielding unto God of that which is his due: that is to wit, the employing of ourselves and of all that he hath given unto us, even our whole being and life, our Senses, our Reason, our doings, and finally all that ever we have both within and without us, in his service? and that we contrariwise turn all things to ourselves as to their proper end, yea and even ourselves to ourselves which are nothing? If we kept a reckoning of our life, how small a part thereof do we bestow upon God? How few of our steps do we walk in his service? How few of our thoughts are directed unto him? And if we look upon our very prayers, what are they but continual offences, seeing that even in the midst of our greatest vehemency, we vanish away by and by into vain imaginations, and are carried as far away from our prayers into wandering conceits, as heaven is distant from earth, and further? What Son will not fall out with him that speaks evil of his Father? or else all that stand by will count him a coward if he pass it over with silence? Contrariwise, which of us is moved when he heareth God's name blasphemed? or if he be moved, that setteth himself in defence of him: or if he set himself in defence, doth not by and by forget it? What then doth this argewe, but that in very truth, our Soul liveth not, but our Body; and that our Soul hath not her movings and actions free and lively, seeing it is not moved at the injuries that are done to the Soul and to the father that made the Soul, but at the wrongs that are done to the body and to the father of the body? If a man break the Scutcheons of our Arms, we take it to be a great disgrace to us, and a touching of our credit; and if he break our Images or Pictures, we fall out with him and will never be reconciled: And if it be done to a Prince, he makes it a point of high Treason; and that we do not the like, it is not for want of pride, but for want of power to revenge it. On the contrary part, which of us is grieved at the wrong that is done to his neighbour, or rather which wrongeth not his neighbour every day? Or which is much moved when he seethe a man slain before his face, unless he be his brother or near friend? Nay, which of us ourselves doth not daily kill his brother, either in very deed, or in heart, either with the Sword I mean, or by hatred, even for the least offence that can be pretended, and so teareth or breaketh not the Image of God which he hath painted and engraved in man, even every hour without any regard? Now what else is this, but that we know not this Image of God to be in ourselves? For otherwise how dared we be so presumptuous, as to offer any hurt or harm unto it, but because the secret consent of all mankind in such outrage, confesseth it to be quite and clean foregone, or at leastwise to be so disfigured and defaced, and so strangely bewrayed, that it can scarcely be discerned any more? And because the kindred that is between all men, derived from the father of their Souls, moveth us very little, but the vile kindred of the flesh moveth us very much, which is as far inferior to the other, as there is odds betwixt the soul and a lump of earth, or between the fathers of either of them; that is to wit, between GOD and Man: Yet notwithstanding, seeing that the wickedest man in the world, and such a one as seemeth to be touched with nothing, having once slain him whom he hated most of all men, doth by and by after the deed done, feel a hart● biting in his mind, and a torment in his Conscience; which thing he feeleth not for the kill of a thousand beasts every day; what can we say to be the cause thereof, but only the remainder of God's Image common to all men, which putteth him in mind of the wickedness that he hath done, and is highly offended at his own offence, and which (according to this saying The good blood lieth not) maketh our indictment of itself, and would fayne even itself be revenged of us within us? Therefore let us say (which thing we cannot deny unless we deny ourselves) that God created man to be to him as a Child, and that man is grown out of kind, yea strangely grown out of kind, not regarding (as we see in most men) to be known either of his father or of his brethren, (which thing notwithstanding the bastards of this world do seek to their uttermost to do) but by his will going about to abolish his pedigree and all his titles of kindred, that he might be called the Son of the earth, 
The son of the earth.  (which was the name of Bastards in old time) rather than the some of him that begat him, and created so many things for him to enjoy. For proof whereof to be true, what am we at in all our studies and endeavours, but the earth and earthly things? Had we continued still in our original creation, we should according to the spiritual substance of our Souls, have naturally pursued spiritual things, yea and have mounted up above the very heavenly things. But where seek we now our inheritance, our welfare, and our felicity, but in these transitory things? And whereof are all our suits and quarrels in this world, but of cattle, of Corn and of Land? Wherefore we must needs confess, that it is a witness of the dishereting of Mankind from the heritage of his father, and that he is in his father's displeasure and disfavour, and that he doth but run after Peasecoddes as the prodigal Child did, when he had wasted his inheritance licentiously.  
But now to come to those which make most profession of godliness; whence (think we) cometh the distrust that all of us have naturally of God's goodness and assistance; but of the feeling of our just disherison, which our conscience is grieved at within us? The son of a good and rich father behighteth himself as much relief as his father is able to yield, and as he himself hath need of. If not; but that the Child doubt thereof: we presume so far of the father's goodness, that we conclude that his son hath offended him, and made himself unworthy of his goodness by some great crime. Now then, seeing that God is the very goodness and riches themselves, whereof cometh it that no man can assure himself of them? that no man can rest himself boldly enough upon him? that no man can trust unto him so assuredly as his goodness requireth? and finally that our requests are so full of distrust, and our hearts so full of unbelief? Surely, seeing the fault cannot be in God's goodness, which is a fountain that cannot be drained dry: it must needs be that the fault remaineth alonely in the naughtiness and frailty of ourselves, which dare not hope for good at the hand of him which is most excellently good, because our whole nature telleth us that we be unworthy of his grace, by reason we have offended him too grievously.  
If we consider the government and order of the World, 
In respect of the World.  we may even there also find apparently, that man holdeth not himself in his state, but is fallen from the seat of honour wherein God had placed him. God had set him aloft, above the Stones, above the plants, above the Brute beasts, yea and above the world itself. If he abide still in his degree, whence cometh it that so many men make themselves bondflaves to Gold and other metals? and that so many men do lead the life of Plants and brute beasts in the bodies of men? some giving themselves to nought else than to eating, drinking and sleeping, and never lifting themselves up any higher; and othersome consuming and wasting themselves in most beastly delights & pleasures? For what beast is there that would be a Plant, or Plant that shooteth not up to get out of the ground? To be short, what thing is there in the whole world saving only man, which doth not very precisely keep the own state and degree? I pray you if a man should see one with a princely Crown all miry on his head, tilling the ground and following the Plough; what would he think but that he were deposed from his Throne, and that some mischief were befallen him? And what then is to be said of that man, which toileth in Doonghils and skulketh into corners to wallow himself in a thousand sorts of filthiness, and employeth all his wit upon such things: but that he is fallen from the top of his mind, and that by the greevonsnes of that fall, he hath so lamed and maimed all his abilities, that it lieth not in him to return again from whence he is fallen? For who can deny but he is borne to greater things than he doth? Or who can think that GOD hath given him an immortal Soul, to the intent he should employ himself altogether about things which are not so much as worthy to be mortal? Or a countenance which he calleth continually to the minding of Heaven, to look groveling on the mire? Or a Sceptre, to play the dizzard with it in a Play? Or a triple Mace to rake Dounghilles withal, or too dig the ground withal?  
Again, how is the Law and order of government which shineth forth in the whole world and in all the parts thereof, turned upside down in man who is the Little World, by the disobedience of the Body to the Soul? In plants, in Trees, and in brute beasts, the soul distributeth nurrishment by proportion. Their bodies obey the direction of their Souls without gainsaying, and every ability performeth his duty accordingly. The nurrishing ability followeth his appetites, and goeth not beyond them. The sensitive followeth his natural delights, but it violateth them not. But as for man, what shall we say of him? Surely that his body commandeth his Soul, as if the Plough should draw the Horses, as they say; that his will suffereth itself to be ruled by his appetites; that his reason is an underling to his senses, and that his very whole nature is most commonly quite out of order. So must we needs confess an overthrow of nature, in him for whom nevertheless nature itself was made, and that man was swerved aside from his right way, seeing that all other parts of the World do follow their Nature, and that Nature itself teacheth us it. What is to be said then, but that man is not only fallen from the state wherein he was, to be set in lower degree than he was afore; but also that he is fallen in himself and from himself, in and from his own peculiar nature? Moreover it is manifest that the world was created for man's use; for the world knoweth not itself, nor the creatures that are therein. And again, as for the Angels, they needed it not; and as for the brute beasts, they have no skill to use it. Only man hath understanding to use the service thereof, and a body that hath need of their service. Sith it is so, who can doubt that God created man with a knowledge of his creatures, and also gave him power over them? Whereof cometh it then that the beasts do naturally know their seasons, the remedies of their diseases, and the Herbs that have a propriety of nature to heal them; and that only man among all other living things, knoweth them not, insomuch as he is fain to go to School to the brute beasts to learn them? Also whereof cometh it that these creatures (which surely GOD made not to be snares to man, for that had been repugnant to the goodness of the Creator, but for man's benefit and service) do now kick and spurn against man, yea even those which have no power or strength at all to withstand him? Let us omit Wolves, Leopards, and Lions, which seem to have some force to overmatch the weakness of man. What meaneth it that worms make us war within our Bowels, that vermin devoureth our Corn, and that the earth yieldeth us not any kind of fruit which hath not a peculiar enemy in it, to mar it ere it come to our hand: but to drive us to confess, that man must needs have offended his maker right grievously, and that whereas Gods putting of his creatures in subjection to man, was to the end that man should have continued in obedience unto GOD, now because man hath rebelled against God's Majesty, God also suffereth those to rebel against man, whom he had put in subjection to man, yea even to the very off kouring of the earth? For what else is this contrariety of the earth to him that tilleth it, of the Sea to him that saileth it, and of the air to the success of all our labours and travels, but a protestation of whole nature, that it disdeineth to serve a creature that was so presumptuous as to disobey his Creator; a creature I say, which by doing service to the creatures, hath foregone the authority which he had received of this Maker?  
Now consequently let us consider man towards man. 
In respect of man..  What is there more disordered or more contrary to nature, than is the nature of man himself? If beasts of one kind do kill or eat one another; we take it for an ugly thing. What an ouglynesse than ought it to be unto us, when we see how men (who alonely be endued with reason,) do every hour kill one another, and root out one another? Nay rather is it not a great wonder to see good agreement and friendship, not among Nations, not between Countries, not among Companies; but even in households, yea and between Chamberfellowes? Wolves are cruel: but yet in what race of Wolves shall we find Caribies and Cannibals? lions also are cruel: but yet where were they ever seen in Battle one against another? Now what is war, but a gathering and packing up together of all the sorts of beastliness that are in the world? And yet what is more common among men than that? A Beast (say some) will bark or grunt ere he bite; a house will crack ere it fall down; and the Wind whistleth ere it break things. But contrariwise what is man towards man? who even in laughing, threateneth, in saluting slayeth, & under fair countenance of courteous entertainment, cloaketh a thousand Serpents, a thousand Lions, a thousand Quickesands, and a thousand Rocks at once? Well: let us leave the wicked which discover themselves too much. What do we in all our bargaining, buying and selling, but beguile one another? or what do we in our dallying, but delude one another? And what else is the whole societte of man which we so highly commend, but a selfgaine, and a very encroaching one upon another, the greater sort as tyrants upon the meaner, the meaner upon the inferior sort, and the inferior sort one upon another too take him in some trip? To be short, if we do any good, it is but to the end to be seen; as for in secret, we will do none at all. again, if we forbear to do evil, it is but for fear lest the World should know it; and were that fear away, we would stick at nothing. Whereto then serveth us our reason which should further us unto all goodness, but to cover our naughtiness, that is to say, to make us worse and more unreasonable? yet notwithstanding how unreasonable so ever we be in all our doings, we cannot but know that there is a reason; and were it not in us, we could not conceive it; and were it not corrupted, we should not serve from it; and yet if we examine ourselves, we shall not be able to deny, but that we digress very far from it. Therefore we may well deem of our reason, as of an eyesight that is either impaired or enchanted. It hath the ground of sight still; but yet it standeth the party in no stead, but only to beguile him by false images and illusions.  
Let us come to man in himself, 
Man in respect of himself.  and see whether at leastwise he love himself better than other men: and the more we stir him, the more shall we feel the stench of his corruption. When a diseased man feels pain, we say there is corruption in his body; and furthermore that there is a default in Nature, or that the party hath taken some great surfeit, which hath brought him to that case. Nowthen what shall we say of the great number of diseases wherewith mankind is pained, and wherewith he is so wholly overwhelmed, that there is not any age of his life, any part of his body, or any small string in any part of his flesh, which hath not some peculiar disease? Nay I say further, that man alone is subject too more diseases, than all other living things in this World together. The Philosophers saw it, and have made books expressly thereof, and are utterly amazed and graveled in seeking out the cause thereof; and they could never yet yield any Reason thereof which might satisfy others or themselves. Nevertheless the most part of them come to this point, that man is the most unhappiest of all living wights; and they find fault with God and nature for it, whom notwithstanding they confess to have done nothing but justly in that behalf. One says, that only Man flayeth himself through impatience of grief. Another says, That the life of man is such, as that death is rather to be desired of him than life. And of such speeches do all their Schools ring. There is another which with great wonderment, reckoneth up certain hundreds of diseases whereunto the eye alone is subject. Now which of all the beasts hath so much as the thirtieth part of them in his body? Is it likely that God, which hath given to Man so great pre-eminence above all his creatures, created him of purpose to torment him above all other creatures? Or rather is it not to be said, that man in his original was created far after another sort than he now is, whether it be in respect of the Creator himself, or of the end for which he created him? Surely then, let us say as we have said afore, that the very cause why Man alone hath more diseases in his body, than all other Creatures together; is for that he having abused Gods gracious gifts, hath done more evil than all they could skill too do: and that the very evil and untowardness that is in them, is but to punish man withal: as for example, the Hail and snow serve not to hurt the earth or the fruits of the earth, but to punish him that should take the benefit of them.  
Again, when we come to consider the Soul and the body knit together; what a number of affections do we meet withal there, (which as saith Plutark) are so much more sorrowful and grievous than the bodily diseases, as the Soul is more sinful and blameworthy than the body? To bring these passions to some reasonable order, the Philosophers have made books expressly of Moral virtue, and given precepts (say they) to bring them to obedience: wherein they confess the rebelliousness that is naturally in us against reason. But who feeleth not in himself, that their remedies serve not so much to take away the mischief, as to cloak it? Which is a plain declaration, that it is not a spot which may be washed away, but a deep impression branded in nature as it were with a fearing iron, which in very deed is not to be wiped out again, but covered; nor to be subdued and overcome, but with much a do to be restrained and held short. Furthermore, seeing that reason is so much more excellent than passion or affection, as the form shape or fashion (say they) is more excellent than the matter or stuff wherein it is: whence cometh this infection in us, that maketh the matter to overmaster the form, and causeth the form (as ye would say) to receive shape and fashion of the matter; that is to say, which putteth reason in subjection to affection, & to the impressions which affection yieldeth, contrary to the order which is observed in all the whole world beside? For what else is this Intemperance of ours, but reason (such as it now remaineth) imprinted with lust and concupiscence? And what else is anger, but reason attainted with choler, and so forth of the rest? And if a man will say, that these things are natural in us; whereof cometh it that of these affections, we conceive inwardly remorse, and outwardly shame; yea and that so naturally, as we must of necessity needs feel them whether we will or no, and can no more let them than we can restrain the beating of our Pulses or the panting of our Hearts: but because that shame and remorse for sin are natural in us, but the sin itself is against nature? As for example, there be things the doing whereof is in us vice; and in brute Beasts, nature: for they be angry, they advenge themselves, and they company together indifferently and in open sight: and of so doing they be not ashamed, because it is their nature. Now, were these affections and fleshly pleasures as natural in us as in the Beasts; as little should we be ashamed of them, as they. But contrariwise, if an honest man come in while we be angry, by and by our rage is repressed, as who would say our vice did hide itself from him: and if a man come upon us unawares in taking our pleasure (yea though it be well lawful) we blush, as if our blood were desirous to hide and to cover our doings. Yea and how secretly soever we be alone by ourselves in execution of our vices; we encounter continually with a companion in ourselves, which not only beareth witness of them, but also condemneth and punisheth them in us. Sooth then, the motions of anger and lust against reason in man, are not natural nor original, that is to say, 
Diodorus lib. 4.  they proceed not of his first creation; but are come in afterward by corruption. 
Herodotus in his Clio.  And therefore the remorse which happeneth unto us in those passions, is nothing but a secret (howbeit very lively) warning of nature, which is ashamed to play the brute beast; which thing she would not be, if those things were originally of man's nature. And in very deed, the universal consent of mankind in being ashamed to go naked, 
Austin in his work of the City of God, lib. 14. Chap. 17. and 18.  insomuch that they had lever to see the skin of a Beast, or the excrement of a Worm upon themselves, than to see their own flesh: and the thing which Saint Austin noteth in all men; namely, that they will rather do open wrong in all men's sight, than have to do with their lawful wines openly; do evidently show that the beastliness (that is to say the concupiscence or lust) that is in carnal copulation, is not an original nature, but a mere corruption thereof. Which thing our present age (but surely nothing to her praise) may better prove unto us, than all the reasons in the world. For certainly, considering the excessive overflowing of vices which is to be seen, & the customable use of them, yea even of such as are against nature, turned almost into nature; if ever voluptuousness could have transformed itself into nature, and prevailed against nature, it must needs have been in this our age; wherein notwithstanding, as strongly armed, authorised, and reigning as vice seemeth to be, yet is she enforced to hide herself even in the midst of her triumphs, undoubtedly as acknowledging that she reigneth not over her own, but over another man's.  
Again, if ye have an eye to friendship, to charity, to the bringing up of Children, to society in Marriage; who will not say that for all our training up to lead us thereto, and for all our reading to instruct us therein, yet we had need to resort to the brute beasts to learn of them, and to take example of them, which is a token (as I said afore) that their nature is less corrupt than ours? If the case concern the turning away from the vices of Intemperance; Lechery, Drunkenness, Incest, & such others: who would think that our nature being so excellent, and (besides the discourse of reason (having so many Laws, Statutes, Penalties, & Magistrates to help it; and being bridled with so many dangers, sorrows and pains insewing the same; should yet notwithstanding not be restrained: whereas on the contrary part, the brute beasts do naturally forbear both food and pleasure, saving only so far forth as nature requireth, that is to wit, for the maintenance and preservation of themselves and of their kind? And seeing their nature doth so uphold itself, and that our nature being stayed so many ways, and closed in with so many bars, cannot be upheld nor kept within compass: who can say that our nature (in case as it is now,) is not in worse plight than theirs is? And yet who will say that the Nature of the excellentest of all other Creatures, hath always been such from the first original beginning thereof? All the said things are common both to Man and Beast: but yet moreover, Man glorieth of an excellency of mind enriched by God with infinite goodly gifts. What is to be said then, if in the thing whereby he surmounteth them, he be found inferior to them? Or if in that which of itself is uncorruptible, corruption be most open and evident? Of so many men endued with Reason, I pray you how many be there that use it? That is to say, Of so many men, how many be not brute beasts? Or what rarer thing is there among men, than a very man in deed? And of such as use Reason, how many be there that use it well; that is to say, how many be there which be not Devils? Now take me out of mankind the beasts and the devils, and who will think it strange that a Philosopher took a Torch at high noonday, to seek for a Man in the mids of a multitude? One sort all their life long do set their mind upon nothing but this life; they spare not so much time as to consider what that power is which worketh that thought in them. What booteth it these more to have a mind, than it booteth a man to have eyes that doth nothing but sleep? Others employ it about the defile of some man's wife, or the deflowering of some maiden, or the glozing of some wrong, or the eluding of some right, or the sowing of discord in some household, or the setting of fire on the four corners of some Realm. To what purpose again is it for these men to have a mind, which is bend and intended to nothing but mischief? Or what else is such a mind, than the eye of the 
* The Catopleb and also the cockatrice.  beast of AEgipt, which killeth those whom it looketh upon, and itself also by the rebounding back of his own sight? Some in deed do lift up the eye of their mind aloft; but how far or what see they? Surely (as saith Aristotle) even as much as an Owl in the bright sun. The Edge of understanding rebateth at the outside of the least things that are: and how then shall it be able to enter into them? Our mind is dazzled with vapours; and what will it be then at the unaprochable light for which it was created? GOD created the World for man; therefore his intent was that man should have the service thereof: and that he might have the service of things, it behoved him to know them. Contrariwise, what thing do we knowe-sufficiently? What know we in comparison of that we know not? And how can we use the service of them, seeing even the least things commanded us; not the Beasts, the Herbs, and the Stones only, but also even the Earth and the very dross thereof? God hath created man for his own glory; and as man is the end of the World, so is GOD the end of man.. And it is not to be doubted, but that as God gave man knowledge of the world, that he might use it too his behoof; so he gave him knowledge of his Godhead, that he might serve him. But how many be there which aim at this mark? and how shall we hit it if we am not at it? and how shall we am at it, if we see it not? and how shall we ●ee it, if we think not on it nor pass not for it? Again, let us bend our wits to it as stoutly as we can; who is he that feeleth not himself to quail, when he is to think upon God? Who is he that bursteth not, if he strain himself to far? And whereof cometh this, but that the string of this Bow hath fallen into the Water, and is made so wet that it will serve to no purpose any more? This mind bringeth forth deeds; and because they be somewhat slow, they be done with the more advisement. But what are the best of those deeds but sin? If we commit any crime, all our whole mind goeth with it, and our doing of the evil is for the evils sake. But if we do any good; which of us doth it not as a bywoorke for some other things sake, rather than for the love of the good itself; as one for honour, another for gain, and a third for fear? And what else is this, but a serving of vanity, and not an obeying of virtue? And whereas evil is nought else than a bereving or wanting of good: who is he on the contrary part, which thinketh not himself a man goodynough, if he do no evil? As who would say that good also were nothing else but the bereving or absence of evil. And in very deed whom do we call good and honest men, but such as abstain from doing men wrong, from stealing, from extorting, and from lending upon Usury, albeit that it behove them to proceed further, and to be liberal in giving, forward in helping, and diligent in serving, forasmuch as goodness is not a defect or a notdooing of things, but an effect or doing of things, and consisteth not in only refreyning or ceasing, but in working and performing. And in effect, what else is it to define an honest man to be such a one as doth nothing at all; than to define a good Archer to be such a one as never shooteth at all? This mind of ours doth also yéeldfoorth words: and they pass out more swiftly than deeds, yea even from the wisest. If a man would keep a reckoning of his words but for one day; what should he find at night but a heap of vanities, as backebyting, slanders, leasings, railings, besides a thousand sorts of slipperdevices and idle words, which even by their only idleness do well bewray our vanity? And sith i● is evident that whereas speech was given us to procure and maintain society, we see it is commonly applied to the breaking thereof, by sowing of discord and debate: who can deny but that there is a notable corruption in the mind, which uttereth forth that speech? again, seeing it is an universal vice, against which the better sort do strive with all their force and cannot overcome it: who can say it is a vice that is incident but to some peculiar persons, and not to the whole kind of man? What is to be said then of our thoughts and wits, whereof whole thousands pass through our mind in an hour, which our minds can neither repress nor express? O how many do we esteem to be good men, whom we should see to be wicked men if their thoughts lay open, or if we had eyes to see into them? O what a sort of wild beasts should we see harbered in a man's heart as in a Forest? And what is then our skill, but ignorance; our wizdome, but vanity; and our holiness, but hypocrisy? Wherein consisteth our virtue, but in concealing our vices, whenas in truth (as saith Aristotle) it were both more for our behoof and more approaching to righteousness, if we laid them open? Moreover, what is all our enforcing of ourselves to vanquish our vices, but a labouring to outronne our own shadow, which (do we what we can) will always accompany us whether we will or no? And surely we ought to be ashamed, not so much for that we be such, as for that either we know not ourselves to be such, or be not sufficiently ashamed that we be such. Neither is there a stronger proof of our corruption, than that: in like manner as we deem them to be filthy and stinking, which are raking in Privies and feel not the stench of them: and those to be more sick which feel not themselves sick, than those which are most pained with their disease: and those too be more frantic which find not themselves to be brainsick, than those which seek to the Physician for the curing of their frenzy. For had we the wit to consider our changes, to feel the unevenness of our Pulses, and to observe the steamingup of our humours with the impressions which they make in our brain: we should by such discerning of our diseases, become half sikfolke and half Physicians. But surely considering the state wherein we now be, how we live as it were by a borrowed Soul; I wot not whereunto I should compare us, except it be to certain diseased persons, of whom Hypocrates maketh this express Aphorism, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  saying: When such as are very sore sick, do feel no pain, but fall to playing with their Coverlet, pulling out the hears, and picking out the motes; the case goeth very hard with them, and there is small hope or lykelihod that they shall live. And what else is this life of ours, but even such? We lay stick to stick, stone to Stone, and Penny to Penny, no more minding the life of our Soul, than if we had no Soul at all. If any man do yet still doubt hereof, I offer him a condition, which if he will put in trial, I dare assure him he will doubt thereof no more. Let him but set down in writing, all the thoughts and imaginations that come in his head by the space of one day, and at night let him review them and take the account of them; And I dare undertake he shall find in them so many vanities, so many crimes, so many Hobgoblins, and so many Monsters; so strange, so fond, so foul, and so ugly; that he shallbe afraid of himself like the beast that starkleth at the sudden sight of himself in a looking-glass; and that he shall not stand gazing, enamoured at his own beauty as Narcissus did; but run away ashamed of his foul deformity, to seek where to wash away the mire that he hath wallowed in. What a thing than were it, if he considered it thus all the week long without putting it in writing. And how much more were it, if he should do it a whole year; and finally all his whole life? To be short, to set man in few words before our eyes, we read commonly that there are four powers or abilities in man's Soul, namely, Wit, Will, the ability of being angry, and the ability of lusting, and in these four we lodge four virtues, that is to say, in Wit, Wizdome; in Will, Rightfulness; in the ability of being angry, Hardiness; and in the ability of Lusting, Staidness. Now, Wit is maimed with ignorance; Will, with wrongfulnes; Hardiness, with Cowardliness, and Staidness, with Licentiousness; so as in this world they can neither be cured without scar, nor be brought to a scar. Also we perceive there are in man the outward senses, Imagination, and Appetite, which three the brute beasts have as well as he, over and beside the which, he hath also wit and will as peculiar gifts given him of God. And if we be men, we esteem ourselves better than beasts, and look to have them to be our underlings. Contrariwise, whereas Imagination ought to rule the Senses, and Reason to rule Imagination, and will to rule Appetite: now the outward sense carrieth away Imagination, Imagination Reason, and Appetite will, insomuch that the only sense being bewitched or beguiled, carrieth a man headlong into all evil after the manner of Phaeton whom the Poets speakeof. It is a plain case therefore, that man hath made himself an underling to the beast, and consequently that mankind is turned strangely upsidedown, and doubtless far more monstrously, than if we saw him go upon his head with his heels upward. Nowthen, seeing that man is so overturned, whereof can he brag, but of offending God uncessantly in this life, and of infinite punishment in another life, according to the infiniteness of him whom he hath offended? And to what purpose therefore shall his immortality serve him, but to die everlastingly and never to be dead?  
But let us leave this matter to another place. 
Whence man's corruption cometh.  And forasmuch as by considering man what he is to Godward, to the worldward, to Manward, and to himself, I have evidently proved his corruption & frowardness; namely, that he is utterly contrary to the end to which he was created of God, to the order of the whole World, to the welfare of all Mankind, and to his own benefit: Let us henceforth consider from whence and from what time this mischief may have befallen him, and what may have been the cause thereof. certes, if we say it came of God and that he had it of his creation; we blaspheme God too too grossly. For God is good, and the very goodness itself: and therefore he cannot have made any thing evil. Also it appeareth throughout the whole government of the world, that he is the master and maintainer of order. And therefore how is it possible that he should make the little world (namely man) to be a mould of confusion and disorder? Again, no other thing than his own glory and the welfare of man, moved him to create man; and yet man being in case as he is, forbeareth not to blaspheme God's name, and to purchase his own destruction. Needs then must it be that Man was made a far other creature at the beginning, than he is now: as in very deed the Husbandman createth not the weevil in the Corn, nor the Uintener the sourness in the Wine, nor the Smith the rust in the iron; but they come in from elsewhere. Nevertheless, the man that never drank other drink than Vinegar, would think it to be the natural sap and taste of the Grape. And we likewise who never felt other in ourselves than corruption, and are bred and brought up in darkness like the Cimmerians, would bear ourselves on hand, that GOD is the cause and author thereof. Now, let us which have tasted both the Wine and the Vinegar, judge what manner of creatures we may have been in our first creation: in doing whereof there is yet notwithstanding this great difference, that the pa●at of our bodily mouth is able to discern the sweet from the sour; but the palate or tas●● of our soul, is unable to do either of them both the one, because corruption can not judge of cleanness; and the other, because it cannot judge well of itself. In Wine and Vinegar we discern a liquid nature common to them both: but as concerning their qualities, the Wine is sweet, warm, and friendly to nature; whereas the Vinegar is sharp, cold, and corrosive: yea and the very colours of them are unlike one another. Lo here two things utterly contrary; and yet notwithstanding, the Vinegar is nothing else but Wine altered from his nature. And because we have seen the one as well as the other; we will never be made to believe, that the Vinegar was Vinegar from the very Grape. Let us judge of our Souls with like discretion. We find there a spiritual nature, immaterial and immortal; and that is the only remainder of her first original. But yet this Spirit of ours is forward to nothing but evil, nor inclined to any other than base and transitory things. It clingeth to the earth, and is a bondslave to the body. To be short, in stead of stying up, it crauleth I wot not how, contrary to the nature of a Spirit, which mounteth up on high, and cannot be shut up in these vile and drossy things. Therefore it must needs be said, that this nature of ours was not so of nature; it departed not such as it now is from the hand of the workmayster: but contrariwise, good, free, pure, and endued with far other qualities than it hath now: for now it is stained with naughtiness, bondage of sin, and corruption. Nay will some man say, seeing it was created clear from all corruption, who was able to corrupt it as we see it to be now? Sure we be that it is a spiritual nature: and therefore neither the Elements nor any other body, could naturally do any hurt unto it; and as little also could time do any thing thereto: for time is nothing but the moving of bodies. Moreover it was free of itself, and Lady of the body, and therefore could not receive her first corruption from the body. And yet notwithstanding we see, that as now it is subject to be corrupted, both of her own flesh and of the vanities of the world, which by nature had no power over it. Needs then must the maker of nature himself, have given a power to these things above their nature, whereby they might prevail against the nature of the Soul; the doing whereof surely could not but have been rightful in him, considering that he is the very righteousness itself. For justice layeth not any punishment, but where some fault or offence hath gone afore. Therefore it must needs be said, that man had committed some hey●●●s crime against his maker, whereupon such penalty and bondage were appointed justly unto him. And therefore let us say, that the Soul of man being the first corrupter of itself, did of it own accord vanish away as Wine turneth in itself and of itself into Vinegar: whereas if the Soul had held herself in awe and under coverture, and had rested on her lees as is said of Wine; that is to say, if she had abidden steadfast in beholding her maker, without seeking her welfare in herself: she might have continued utterly uncorrupted still. And again, that by turning so away from GOD to herself, she offended her maker, and forwent the gracious gifts which she had received of him; whereupon followed the curse of the Creator, and the sentence of his just wrath upon his creature; wherethrough it came to pass, that the same was not only bereft of all the grace wherewith it was replenished by beholding itself in him, but also was made an underling to the selfsame things which were made to have done it service. Now what this sin was, we cannot better understand, than by the punishment thereof. For punishment and sin have a mutual respect one to another, as a sore and a salve, and may after a sort be known the one by the other. Order would that our wit should obey GOD, and that all our senses and appetites should obey our reason: but we see that as now our senses and appetites hold reason under foot. This punishment ought to set our fault before our eyes, when as we see ourselves fallen down and thrust under ourselves; namely, that man intended to have mounted up above God. The same order would also that all the whole world and worldly things should have served man, and man have served GOD; that God might have been the mark of man, as man should have been the mark for all other things to have aimed at. But we see that at this day man is an underling to the least things that are: insomuch that even those which have neither sense nor life do resist him, and he pitcheth the end of all his desires in earthly things, as if they were of more value than himself, accordingly as all of us know, that the end is always better than the things that tend to the same. Seeing then that nature is revolted from man, it is certain that man is revolted from God: for it is the ordinary punishment of rebellious Subjects, that their own servants and underlings also do kick and spurn against them. And moreover, seeing that man not only findeth all manner of mischief and misfortune in himself, but is also so blind as to seek his felicity in the mire, and in the dirty dunghills of this world; it is a token that he sought his happiness in himself, and elsewhere than in God? To be short, we be stricken in our Souls with ignorance of the things that are most needful for us; and in our bodies with continual infirmities, and finally with death: and that is because we have been curious in seeking trifling things, as not contented with the lesson that GOD had given us; and would needs have made ourselves immortal, howbeit not by the everlasting power of God's quickening spirit, but by the forbidden use of transitory things, yea even which had no life in them. Thus see we now whereof the corruption of mankind is come, namely even of our own transgression, and of the punishment that followed upon the same.  
But it is demanded of us yet further, 
How long ago corruption came into man.  how long it is ago since this befell. If we had espied this corruption in us but from some certain hundred years hence; it were not for us to seek any further for it. But let us hold on our course up the stream of Mankind even to the rivers head, and we shall find it still always foul and muddy; and we shall from age to age hear these outcries even among the best, I love well the good, but I cannot do it; and (to be short) that man is inclined to do evil, and subject to receive evil; which are in one word both the fault and the punishment. Again, were it but in some households, or but in some Nations only, men would not stick to father the fault upon the Climate and the Soil, or upon the misteaching or misexample of the Parents. But when we see that in that respect all men are in one selfsame taking, aswell the men of old time as the men of our days, saving that sin increaseth continually, as well under the Equinoctial line as between both the Tropics, and as well on the further side as on the hither side of them, saving that some take more pain to keep it from sight than others, and that those which have most wit are worst; forasmuch as I have already sufficiently proved the creation of the world and of the first man: we be driven to mount up again to the same man, and to say that as he is the root of our offspring, so is he also the wellspring of this corruption which reigneth in us, as in whom our whole race was both attainted with sin, and attached with punishment. In this behalf it is not for us to plead against GOD, but to submit our shoulders to his justice, and to lift up our eyes to his mercy. For necessarily from point to point doth this consequence ensue: The Soul is corrupted in all mankind: Who is so corrupted that he feeleth it not? This corruption cannot proceed from the Creator. For when did ever pureness yield forth corruption? The other creatures could not have defiled it. For what maketh a thing unclean, but the taking of uncleanness unto it? and what causeth the taking of uncleanness unto it, but the touching thereof? and what touching one of another can there be between a Spirit and a Body? It remaineth therefore that our Soul corrupted itself by forsaking her duty, either of her own accord, or by the admitting unto it of some wicked Spirit, that is to say by persuasion of that Spirit, which persuasion is unto Spirits, as touching is unto bodies. And again, this corruption is from all time: then comes it not of training. And in all Nations: then comes it not of Constellation. And in all ages, both old young and middle sort: then comes it not of imitation or exampletaking. Therefore it must needs proceed both from one only man, and from the firstcreated man, who turned away from God through pride, whereupon God also did justly turn away from him, as we read of our first father Adam in the holy Scripture. Now then, what remaineth more for us, but to conclude that thing by nature, which we believe through Scripture? namely, That God created man good: That he told him his will: That man chose to live after his own liking, and would needs become equal with God: That thereupon he was banished from God's presence and favour: That the Earth became rebellious against man, and man against himself: and to be short, that man was wrapped in the wretchedness of this world, entangled with sin in himself, driven to live ever dying in this life, and (were not God's wrath appeased towards him) sure to die everlastingly in the life to come.   

The xvij. Chapter.  
That the men of old time agreed with us concerning man's corruption and the cause thereof.  
IT followeth that we gather the voices and judgements of the wisest sort, yea & of all men in general; the which in mine opinion ought to bear the more sway with us, because it is a kindly thing with us, both to love ourselves, and also to think overwell of ourselves. For what cause hath a man to complain, if being made judge in his own case, he frame his own indictment, and willingly bear witness against himself, by his own voluntary confession? Surely, that man is strangely infected with vice; it is witnessed sufficiently by the Histories of all ages, which in effect are nothing else but registers of the continual Manslaughters, Whoredoms, Guiles, Ravishments, and Wars? And when I say Wars, I think that in that word I comprehend all the mischief that can be imagined. 
The Conscience of Sinne.  And that these vices were not created in man's nature, but are crept into it; it appeareth sufficiently by the books of the Ceremonies of all Nations; all whose church-services are nothing but Sacrifices, that is to say, open protestations both evening and morning, that we have offended God, and aught to be sacrificed and slain for our offences according to our deserts, in stead of the silly Beasts that are offered unto him for us. Had man been created with vice in him, he should have had no conscience of sin nor repentance for it. For repentance presupposeth a fault, and conscience misgiveth the insewing of punishment for the same. And there can be neither fault nor punishment in that which is done according to creation, but only in and for our turning away from creation. Now, the churchservice and Ceremonies of all Nations, do witness unto us a certain forthinking and remorse of sin against God. And so they witness altogether a forefeeling of his wrath, which cannot be kindled against nature which he himself created, but against the faultiness and unkindlynesse that are in nature.  
Also what else are the great number of Laws among us, but authentical Registers of our corruption? And what are the manifold Commentaries written upon them, but a very corruption of the Laws themselves? And what do they witness unto us, but as the multitude of Physicians doth in a City; namely, the multitudes of our diseases; that is to wit, the sores and botches whereto our Souls are subject, even to the marring and poisoning of the very plasters themselves? Again, what do the punishments bewray which we have ordained for ourselves, but that we chastise in us, not that which GOD hath made or wrought in us, but that which we ourselves have undone or unwrought: nor the nature itself, but the disfiguring of nature? But yet when we consider that among all Nations, that Lawmaker is believed and followed by and by, which saith, Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness; whereas great persuasion is required in all other laws which are not so natural: It must needs be concluded, that the Consciences of all men are persuaded of themselves, that the same is sin, and that sin deserveth punishment; that is to wit, that sin is in nature, but not nature itself. But to omit the holy Scripture, which is nothing else but a Looking-glass to show us our spots and blemishes; what are all the Schools of the Philosophers, 
The opinion of the Ancient Philosophers.  but instructions of the Soul? And what else is Philosophy itself, but an art of healing the Soul, whereof the first precept is this so greatly renowned one, know thyself? Aristotle 
Aristotle.  in his morals, showeth that the affections must be ruled by reason, and our mind be brought from the extremes into the means, and from jarring into right tune. Which is a token that our mind is out of tune even of it own accord, seeing that it needeth so many precepts to set it in tune again. And yet is not Aristotle so presumptuous as to say, that ever he brought it to pass in his own mind. 
Theophrast.  Theophrast his Disciple was wont to say, that the Soul paid well for her dwelling in the body, considering how much it suffered at the body's hand. And what else was this, but an acknowledgement of the debate between the body and the mind? But (as saith Plutarch) he should rather have said, that the body hath good cause to complain, of the turmoils, which so irksome and troublesome a guest procureth unto him. 
Plato in his Phedrus.  Plato who went afore them, saw more clearly than both of them. He condemneth everywhere the company and fellowship of the body with the soul, and yet he condemneth not the workmanship of God. But he teacheth us that the Soul is now in this body as in a prison, or rather as in a Cave or a grave. And that is because he perceived evidently, that contrary to the order of nature, the Soul is subject to the body, notwithstanding that naturally it should and can command it. The same Plato saith further, that the Soul creepeth bacely upon these lower things, and that it is tied to the matter of the body: the cause whereof he affirmeth to be, that she hath broken her wings which she had afore. His meaning then is, that the soul of her own nature is winged and flieth upward, that is to say, is of a heavenvly & divine nature, which wings she hath lost by means of some fall. But to get out of these bonds, and to recover her wings, the remedy that Plato giveth her, is to advance herself towards God, and to the things that concern the mind. By the remedy we may conjecture what he took the disease to be namely, that our Soul having been advanced by God to a notable dignity, the which it might have kept still by sticking unto God; fell to gazing at her gay feathers, till she fell headlong into these transitory things, among the which she creepeth now like a silly worm, retaining nothing as now of her birdlike nature, save only a rousing of her feathers and a vain flapping of her wings. Now he saith that he learned all this of a secret Oracle, the which he had in great reverence. And of ●●●cueth, in this doctrine of the original of our corruption, we have to mark the same point which we have noted in some other things afore; namely, that the nearer we come to the first world, the more clear and manifest we find the matter. 
Empedocles and Pythagoras.  Empedocles and Pythagoras taught that the Souls which had offended God, w●● condemned and banished into bodies here below. And Phil●●●aus 
Philolaus.  the Pythagorean addeth, that they received that opinion from the Divines and Prophets of old tyme. Their meaning is, that the body, which ought to be the house of the soul, is by God's just judgement turned into a prison to it; and that which was given it for an instrument, is become Manacles and Stocks. So then, there is both a fault and the punishment: and the fault must needs proceed from one first man, even in the judgement of those men of old time, which acknowledged the Creation of the world. Also those ancient fathers seem to have heard what provoked the first man to sin. For Homer speaketh of a Goddess whom he calleth Até, (that is to say Waste, Loss, or Destruction) which troubled heaven, and therefore was cast down to the earth, where she hath ever since troubled Mankind. And hereupon Euripides calleth the fiends 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, Fallen from Heaven. And the egyptians, who be of most antiquity, held and taught the same in their Mysteries. It is a meetly clear shadow of that which we read in the Scripture concerning the fall of the devil, whereunto he drew mankind afterward by his temptations. 
Pherecydes alleged by Origen against Cellus.  But when as Pherecydes the Syrian agreeing therein with Sibil, telleth us expressly that this Devil which hath marred and destroyed the whole earth was a Serpent, (whom he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, Snakebread or Adderbread,) which armeth men by whole troops against God: we by gathering all these testimonies together, shall have the whole story of the fall of man. Hermes 
Hermes in his Poemander.  being ancienter than all these, doth plainly acknowledge the corruption of man, yea and that so far, as to say that there is nothing but evil in us, & that there is no way for us to love God, but by hating ourselves. And to keep us from accusing the Creator, The workmaster (saith he to cut off all quarreling) is not the procurer of the rust, neither is the Creator the author of the filth and uncleanness that is in us. On whom then shall we father the cause thereof? God (saith he) created man after his own likeness, and gave him all things to use. But man in stead of staying upon the beholding of his father, would needs be meddling and doing somewhat of himself, and so fell from the heavenly contemplation into the Sphere of Elements or of Generation. And because he had power over all things, he began to fall in love with himself, and in gazing upon himself, to wonder at himself; whereby he so entangled himself, that he became a bondslave to his body, whereas he was free and at liberty afore. Now he entangleth this truth with his accustomed speculations. But yet what is this in effect, but that the first man being proud of the grace which he had received, drowned himself in the love of himself, whereas he might have lived everlastingly by drinking still of the love of GOD? And if we mount up yet higher to Zoroastres, 
Zoroastres  who (as is written of him) was noah's graundchild: we shall find that in his Oracles, he bewaileth the race of Mankind in these words. Alas alas, the Earth mourneth even unto Children! which words cannot be otherwise interpreted than of original sin, which hath passed from the first man into all his offspring; after which manner the Cabalists and namely Osias the Chaldian interpret it; whereunto Gemistus 
Gemistus.  the Platonist is not repugnant. And as touching the original of this mischief, he denieth in these words that it came of creation; The thing that is unperfect (saith he) cannot proceed of the Creator.  
Now that we be come as it were up the stream to the first man Adam by whom sin entered into the world, and by sin, death: let us see henceforth what the opinion of the Philosophers hath been, since the coming of the second man jesus Christ. We have a little book of one Hierocles a Stoic, 
Hierocles the Stoic against Atheists.  upon the golden sayings of Pythagoras, which shall answer both for the Pythagorists and for the Stoics. Man (sayeth he) is of his own motion inclined to follow the evil and to leave the good. There is a certain strife bred in his affections, which stepping up against the will of Nature, hath made it to tumble from Heaven to Hell, by undertaking to fight against God. He hath a free will which he abuseth, bending himself wholly to encounter the Laws of God: and this freedum itself is nothing else but a willingness to admit that which is not good, rather than otherwise. What else is this, but as the holy scripture saith, that all the imaginations of manes hart are altogether continually bend to evil? and which we daily dispute of, namely that our freedom is fresh and forward unto evil, but lame and lazy unto doing well? If ye ask him the cause thereof, Let us not blaspheme for all that, (sayeth he) nor say that God is the author of our sins: but rather that man is of his own accord become untoward; and that whensoever we fall into sin, we do that which is in us, but not which was in us from God. How then shall we make these propositions of his to agree; namely that God created man; that man is froward and corrupted; and yet that God created not man such a one: unless we say that God created man good, and that afterward man degenerated from his nature? But it is the very thing whereunto he cometh of himself. Ambition (saith he) is our bane; and this mischief have we of ourselves, because we be gone away from God, and do give ourselves to earthly things, which make us to forget God. And that this mischief is common to all mankind, he confesseth sufficiently in that he giveth us an universal remedy that is to wit Religion: the which alonely is able (sayeth he) to rid us from earthly ignorance, without the riddance whereof, we can never come again to our former shape, and to the likeness of our kind, which was to be like unto God. Now if all the whole kind be defiled as he sayeth it is; surely we must resort back to one first father, from whom it is spread out into the rest by natural generation. 
Plutarch in his book of Moral virtue, and in his book of the mutual love between Parents and their Children and That Beasts have Reason.  Plutarch writing of Moral virtue, findeth it a very hard matter to make our affection subject to reason, and the body obedient to the spirit. And he is driven to marvel greatly, That our feet should be so ready to go or too stand still whensoever Reason loozeneth or pulleth back the Bridle; and that on the contrary part, our affections should carry us away so headlong for all the restraint that we can make. Also he thinketh it strange, that in our discourses of the greatest matters, as of Love, of the bringing up of our Children, and of such like, we be driven to take the brute beasts for our judges, as who would say that nature had stamped no Print of them in ourselves; And he findeth himself so sore graveled in his consideration, that he preferreth the brute beasts before us in all things, saving in the capacity which we have to know God; undoubtedly as perceiving a continual following of their kind in all of them, whereas in us only there is contrariwise such an unkindly and Bastardly Nature, that not even the best of us have any whit of our former nature remaining in us, saving only shame that we have it no more. And this very gift of knowing God which remaineth to man, graveleth Plutarch more than all the rest. Man (saith he) is a reasonable Creature; God hath set him in the world to be served & honoured of him, and he hath made him to be borne to common civil Society. Whereof cometh it then that in his doings he is more unreasonable, more contrary to Gods will, and more against the Law of Nature, than the very brute beasts? In this perplexity, one while he saith that man had received fair and sound Seed, but that he corrupted it afterward: Anotherwhile he saith that he dealt with reason as perfumers do with Oils, which never cease meddling and mingling of them, till there remain no sent of Oil at all: And in one place, perceiving (by all likelihood) this corruption to be so universal: he saith further, that at the very beginning and from their first coming into the World, men entangled and confounded themselves with sin. Whereby we may perceive, that had the thing been declared unto him in such sort as we believe it; surely he would willingly have embraced and received it, as the only solution of so many perplexities wherein he was entangled.  
Let us come to the Platonists. All of them agree in these points; That the Soul of Man is a spirit; and that a spirit cannot naturally receive any affection from a body, neither which may cause it to perish, nor which may do so much as once trouble it. Yet notwithstanding, on which side so ever they turn themselves, they cannot deny but that our minds are troubled with infinite affections and passions in this body, and that they be subject one while to starting besides themselves through pride, anger or envy; an another while to be cast down with Riotousness, Gluttony, and Idleness; yea and to receive divers impressions not only from the body, but also from the air, the water, and from Mists, and finally from every little thing in the world. Now how can this contrariety be reconciled, except their meaning be as ours is, that naturally our Souls are not subject to any of these things, but that they be put in subjection to them beyond the course of nature? If it be beyond the course of nature; by whom is it done, but by him that commandeth nature, to whom it is as easy to put a spirit in Prison, as to lodge a man in a house? If it be done by him who is the righteousness itself; doth it not follow that it was for some fault committed by the Soul? If for some fault; then seeing that the punishment thereof is in all men, in whom should that first fault be, but in that man which was the original of all men, as in whom all of us (say I) were materially? Now again, this fault cannot be imputed to the body, for it is in the will, and the body of itself hath no will: neither can it be imputed to any ●●fection received first from the body; for the Soul could not be wrought into by the body. In the Soul therefore must the fault of mankind needs be, and for the soul's offence doth the Soul itself suffer punishment, and make the body also to suffer with her.  
Howbeit, that we may the better judge of their opinions, let us hear them in the chief of them one after another. Plotine having considered that the Soul is of nature divine, heavenly, and spiritual; concludeth that of itself it is not wrought into by the body. But afterward perceiving how it is defiled, overmastered by sin, 
Plotin: Enn. 3. lib. 2.  and by force of necessity linked unto lust; he cometh back to this solution, That her being here beneath is but a banishment to her, 
Also Enn. 1. lib. 6 Cap. 5. Also Enn. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 14. & Enn. 6. lib. 9 Cap. 9  which he termeth expressly a fall, and otherwise (as Pato doth) a losing of her wings: That the virtue which she hath, is but a Remnant of her former nature; That the vice which she hath, is taken by dealing by these base and transitory things: and too be short, that all the virtue which is learned, is but a purging of the Soul, which must be fain to be as it were newfurbished, to scour of the great Rust that hath overgrown it. In these Contradictions therefore he maketh this question to himself: 
Plotin. lib. 1. Enn. 5. Cap. 1.  What should be the cause (saith he) that our Souls being of a divine nature, should so forget both God their father, and their kindred, and themselves? Surely (answereth he) the beginning of this mischief, was a certain rashness & overboldness, wherethrough they would needs pluck their necks out of the collar, and be at their own commandment; by which abuse turning their liberty into licentiousness, they went clean back, and are so far gone away from GOD, that (like Children which being newly weaned, are by-and-by conveyed away from their Fathers and Moothers, they know neither whose, nor what they be, nor from whence they came. Now in these words he agreeth with our Divines, not only in this, that corruption came in by sin, 
Plotin. Enn. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 4.  but also in the kind of sin, namely Pride, whereby we be turned away from our Maker. In another place, The Soul (saith he) which was bred for heavenly things, hath plunged itself in these material things, and matter of itself is so evil, that not only all that is of matter or matched with matter, but also even that which hath respect unto matter, is filled with evil, as the eye that beholdeth darkness is filled with darkness. Here ye see, not only from whence we be turned away, but also too what: that is too wit, from God, to vanity, from the Creator to the creature, from good to evil. But of this inclining to the material things, he sometimes maketh the body to be the author, 
Plotin. Enn. 3, lib. 5. Cap. 5.  as though the body had carried the Soul away by force of his imaginations; and he acquitteth the mind thereof as much as he can, insomuch as he sticketh not to affirm, that notwithstanding all this marrednesse, yet the Soul liveth and abideth pure and clean in God, 
Enn. 3. lib. 3. Cap 4.  yea even while the Soul (whereof the Mind is as ye would say the very eisight or apple of the eye) dwelleth in this body. Howbeit, beside that he is reproved for it by Porphyrius, Proclus and others; his own reasons whereby he proveth that the Soul is not naturally subject to the body, be so strong; that it were unpossible for him too shift himself from them. In this the great Philosopher is overshot, that he will needs seek out the cause of sin in Man as Man is now. Where finding Reason carried away by Imagination, and Imagination deceived by the Senses; he thought the fault to have proceeded of that; whereas in deed he should have sought the cause in Man as he was first created, when he had his Senses and Appetites absolutely at commandment, whose wilful offending hath brought upon us the necessity of punishment which we endure. And in good sooth, this saying of his in another place cannot be interpreted otherwise; namely that the cause why the Soul endureth so many troubles and passions in this body, is to be taken of the life which is led afore out of the body: that is to say, that the subjection of the Soul to the Body is not the original cause of the sin thereof, but rather a condemnation thereof to punishment. 
Plotin. Eun. 1. lib. 8. Cap. 14. & lid. 3. Cap. 4  Neither also can he scape from these conclusions of his own, namely that the Soul being separated from the body, hath her wings sound and perfect: and that the Body being joined to the Soul, hath no power to break her wings, and yet that she findeth herself there to be weak and without wings: except he hold with us, that the Soul hath by her fall foregone her strength, and that the body by the feebleness of the Soul and the sentence of the Creator, is strengthened in his weakness: that is to wit, in so much as the body (as I have said afore) is of a House become a Prison to the Soul. To be short, granting God's justice, as he doth; he can never wind himself out of this question which he himself maketh; namely why the sins are imputed to the Soul, seeing it doth them not but by infection of the body; unless he make this infection to be a punishment of the fault which the Soul had committed afore in the body.  
But Porphyrius, who perceived these inconveniences, hath spoken more distinctly of the matter than his Master did, agreeing with him nevertheless in the corruption of man, 
S. Austin in the City of God, lib. 10. Cap. 23. and 32.  and in the cleansing of the Soul; Which cleansing of the Soul (saith he) is so needful a thing, as that it cannot possibly be but that God hath provided some universal mean of cleansing mankind. How is it possible then (saith he) that the fall of the Soul, should come of Imagination which knitteth the Soul to the body, seeing that the higher things are not drawn down by the lower, but contrariwise the lower are drawn up by the higher? Nay rather (saith he) the higher substances come down in themselves from understanding into imagination, from spiritual things to bodily things, from high things to low things, from perfect things to unperfect things. And whereas by sticking fast unto God they might have abidden firm, not so much by their own strength as by his, and might have lived and wrought as under his form; they be come to a fall of themselves by stooping to matter. And therefore 
Porphyrius in his book which showeth how to do the things that are to be conceived alonely by reason and understanding.  (saith he) in the substances which are inclinable to such things, there is befallen (as men say) a sin, and a certain unbelief which is condemned, because they fell in love with the Creatures, and turned away to them from the Creator. To be short, he cometh to this point, that the fall of men's Souls, is like the fall of the fiends that is taught by the jews, and that through the fault of the wit and the will, which he termeth unbelief or unfaithfulness, man is fallen into the folly of concupiscence, that is to say, 
Also in his third book of Abstinence.  from the fault into the punishment thereof, from the rebellion of the Soul, into the bondage thereof to the body. And ye must not think we speak contraries when we say, one while that man sinned by advancing himself too high, and by presuming to become as it were equal with God; and another while that he sinned by stooping down to these base and low things. For in very deed, the lifting up of a man's self to Godward, is the true abasing and humbling of himself: for who is he that can rightly look up to God, and make account of himself, or rather not be abased in himself? And to incline to a man's self, is in very truth a presuming to make himself equal to God. For it is a seeking of that thing in ourselves, which is not to be found but in GOD, namely of welfare and felicity; and what else is pride, but a selfestimation or an overweening of a man's self?  
Proclus 
Proclus concerning the Soul and concerning the Fiend. cap. 4.  doth ordinarily call the inclining of our nature unto evil, a descending or coming down; and the corruption thereof, a fall, because the highest that our Soul can attain unto, is the beholding of God; and the descending, stooping, or coming down thereof, is to fall into estimation of ourselves; and the fall is to be thrust down [in subjection] under ourselves, like a body that falleth from some high place. But as touching the cause of the corruption, he fathereth it upon our Mind, that is to wit, the highest part of our Soul; saying that if the same had continued sound, and sticked fast unto God, (as saith Plotin) it had also held reason sound still, which is the Sunbeame thereof, and consequently all our actions should have been found, so as we should not have been subject to sin. Seeing then that the punishment is come even to the highest part of us, which we see cumbered with so many passions, dimmed with so much darkness, and defiled with so many vices: surely the fault proceeded only from thence. Hereunto we might add many other sayings; but we will content ourselves as now with only Simplicius 
Simplicius upon Epictus.  the famous interpreter of Aristotle. As long as man's Soul (saith he) cleaveth fast unto God the author thereof, it abideth sound, and holdeth her perfection wherewith she was created of God: but fall she once to shrinking away from him, by and by she withereth as having lost her root, and comes to nothing; neither can she recover her former liveliness, except she be reunited again to her former cause. Now perceive we everichone of us, that our nature is withered; and therefore let us say that we be slipped from our root. And the root leaveth not the branches, but contrariwise the branches leave the root. Let us say then that we have bereft ourselves of the gracious goodness of God, who would have maintained us still: for to nourish and quicken, is the property and nature of the root. In one only thing do the Philosophers differ from us in this behalf: namely, that they uphold all men's Souls to have sinned every one in himself; and we say, That the only first man sinned, and thereby hath bound all his whole offspring to the punishment. But yet do both come back again to one point, seeing that even by their own reasons I proved the creation of the world, which of necessity leadeth us to one man the father of us all, whereas the Philosophers hang wavering still unresolved in that point.  
Among all people we see there were prayers to crave pardon for sin, 
Universal consent,  Sacrifices to appease God's wrath, Mystical washings, and Satisfactories or Uotaries that were 〈…〉 ●he sins of some whole Realm, City, or 〈…〉 (as I have said afore) are public protestations of a public 〈◊〉. The Philosophers were sore cumbered in finding a mean 〈…〉 Mankind from his filthiness; some would have done it by the Morals; some by the Mathematicals; and some by Religious Ceremonies: but in the end they confess that all these ●●●ngs can do nothing in that behalf. They be fools in their remedies, but wise in discerning the disease. We read of the people of Africa at this day, (who be given enough to contemplation,) that they fall into great conceits of mind, and are not able to persuade themselves that all their Churchseruices are sufficient to make them clean. And that is a proof that they feel a mischief within them, whereinto neither the eye of the Physician can see, nor the medicine that he ministereth can attain. 
Agathias in his second book of the Persian Wars.  Also the Persians were wont to hold a holiday every year, which they called The Death of vices: In the which Feast, for a token of devotion, they killed of all sorts of Serpents & wild Beasts. And doubtless that was because they had learned, that man doth covertly carry in his breast all manner of Beasts, the which it behoveth him to kill in himself, according to this saying of the Platonists, That the readiest way to return unto God, and consequently to a man's first nature, 
The general History of the Indies ca 122.  is to kill his own affections. But what shall we say to that which we have learned in these our days among the barbarous Nations of the West Indies? There came a man into their Country (say they) which called himself the Son of the Son, who by his word and power replenished the Land with men and women whom he created, and gave them great abundance of fruits. Who doth not hereupon call by and by to remembrance the creation of man and woman in the Scripture, where God saith unto them, Increase and multiply and fill the earth; I have given you all herb bearing seed, and all trees bearing fruit, and so forth? But (saith the book of their Divinity) because some men provoked his displeasure, he afterward changed the good soil which he had given them, into dry and barren sands, and bereft them of Rain, and left them nothing but a few rivers to help themselves withal by their great labour and travel. Who espieth not here again the sin of man, God's curse upon the earth, and namely these words, In the sweat of thy brows shalt thou eat thy bread all the days of thy life? And who should be ignorant of God, when as even those know him, whom we esteem to be almost of another kind than we be?  
But here the wicked perceiving themselves to want matter to reply, 
Objections.  do fail to railing against God. Seeing that man (say they) sinned through the free-will which GOD gave unto him; how can God be called good, having given man wherewith to sin? By the same reason I say at once for all, if God be good; why hath he made Man, or any thing for Man? If he should take from thee all that thou abusest, I pray thee what should be left thee? Thy Reason? What is there in thee that maketh thee more unreasonable? Thy Senses? To what other service dost thou put them, than to the marring of thy Senses? Thy Tongue? How much more eloquent is it in speaking evil, than in speaking good? To be short, where shall the good things become which he hath given thee for the maintenance of thy health and life? Nay, on the contrary part, which of them is it that thou turnest not to thy death and to thy bane? Now is the founder of them to blame, if thou kill thyself with the things without the which thou couldst not live? Or if thou become evil by the things without the which thou couldst not be good? GOD hath given thee a will; and without will thou couldst not be good. Unto will he hath added a good wit to guide it: and without wit thou couldst not be wise. If thou be loath to be either good or wise, it is but because thou art loath to be a man. Thy will was given thee to love God withal. Now, love delighteth to be fréeharted; neither would God be loved of us as enchanted to it, but freely and utterly unconstreined. Therefore it behoved this will to be free. Likewise thy wit was given thee to behold God withal. And hadst thou but only thy Senses, what hadst thou more than the brute Beasts? And if thou hadst no more than they; why were they and all the whole world made for thee? Now then, which of these two canst thou find fault with, seeing that without them both, thou couldst be neither good, nor wise, no nor a man? Thou wouldst have been created unchangeable; howbeit, not as a Rock or a Mountain, but as a man.. Surely the unchangeablness of Spirits, was created to depend upon their linking in with their maker. Thou wouldst peradventure have been an Angel: but there are even of the Angels that are fallen; and as they were far higher than thou, so was their fall more dangerous than thine. O man, acknowledge the goodness of the Creator in creating thee good; and acknowledge the vanity of the creature, which cannot stand in his own goodness, but in the goodness of the Creator. But especially above all things commend thou his goodness and mercy, in that he hath not only relieved thee in thy fall, but also as it were upheld thee that thou mightest fall the softer.  
Another taketh exception to Gods justice. What justice is it (saith he) to punish a man so rigorously for so small a fault? Nay, what is more just than nature? What is more natural than to run into darkness, when a man turneth away from the Sun? Or (as Plotin saith) to impair and wax nought, when a man departeth from the sovereign good? But O thou man which thinkest thyself juster than God, what punishment wouldst thou appoint to thy Son, not being a babe or a young child, but being come to years of discretion, and a mangrowen; not pinched and pined, but flowing in all wealth: if upon a bravery and lustiness of courage, he would disobey thee for a thing of nothing? Then set thou Adam also before thine eyes newly come into the world by the goodness of the Creator, not stark naked, but furnished with the whole world to serve him; not witless, but with a pure sound and skilful mind; not subject to his lusts, but able to hold them in awe to his will, and having his will obedient to reason. Now, whether thou consider his sin, his rebellion, his unfaithfulness, and his pride; or whether thou have an eye to the easiness of abstaining from sin: what punishment wilt thou not deem him worthy to have?  
Yea (sayest thou) but why useth he this rigour against his children? Nay rather, say, why is he so merciful, why is he so gracious, as to keep them low in their father's fall, lest they should fall [more grievously] through the same rashness? Thou buildest a City, and the custom is to beautify it with Privileges. Afterward this City rebelleth; thou take●● away their privileges, their Bells, their Armour, and their weapons; and this punishment of their Insurrection extendeth to all their posterity, albeit they were but few at the beginning, and grew to be mightily multiplied afterward. The granting of the Privileges to the first, was a point of goodness; for otherwise they might have had occasion to complain of thee. Likewise it is justice to take them so from them, and mercy to withhold them from their posterity who have the same rebellious mind in them, and had else run headlong into extreme punishments. God gave thee the privilege of freedom, and enriched thee with singular gifts both of body and mind: praise thou his goodness. Now, because thou hast abused them, he either taketh them clean away, or else diminisheth them: acknowledge thou his justice. And because thy children might do as thou hast done, and would not be amended by thine example, he taketh them from them also and diminisheth them in thee: commend thou still his mercy in his justice, but specially honour thou his justice in his mercy, in that of this rebellious race he causeth the party to be borne, which can appease his justice.  
Yet for all this, they give not over. If by the sin of the first man (say they) nature be corrupted in all men: why be not the children more corrupted than their Fathers, by means of so many sins committed by their Fathers? In this behalf they mislike of God's clemency, and yet could not God's justice have contented them. Now the Lords intent in punishing the rebellious Citizens, was to make them submit themselves again under his government, and not to destroy them utterly. And it was God's intent to humble mankind by making him to feel the smart of his fall; and not to break him in pieces in his wrath, but to reclaim him by his mercy. We be fallen into a Pit, we be fallen from our highness: now what would a second fall be? We have broken our Wings already against the Earth; whether would we fall at the next fall, being unable to make a second flight? We be fallen (say I) from the goodness of our nature into naughtiness, from God's favour into his wrath: how can we fall any lower? Nay rather by creeping halfebroken upon the Earth, we know that we be fallen; and feeling the loss which we have sustained, we cry unto God for relief, and like little Nurcechildrens we beseech him to stay and uphold us with his mighty hand.  
Now therefore let us conclude for these two last Chapters, That man's nature is corrupted; and that it was not so created of God; but that man abusing God's grace, did cast himself down from goodness into naughtiness, and from Gods freefavour into his just displeasure; and that the man in whom the said Nature was first corrupted, was the first man: from whom we have received our corruption, as well as our nature. But let us not so much muse to take an account how we be fallen into this pit of infection, as earnestly bethink us by what means we may get out again, which is the thing that we have to treat of next.   

The xviij. Chapter.  
That God is man's sovereign welfare, and therefore that the chief mark which man should aim at, is to return again unto God.  
WE say that the chief point wherein fools differ from wisemen, is that fools shoot out their doings at allaventure into the air, and that wise men direct all their doings to some certain end. And again, that the point wherein good men differ from evil men, is that good men determine with themself upon the good things, and evil men upon the evil things, the good upon that which is good in deed, and the evil upon that which is good in show. Therefore it standeth us greatly on hand, both to have some one certain mark, and the same to be good: & to have but one, because God hath given us but one wit, and the perfection of wit is wisdom: and to have the same good, because he hath given us but one will, and the perfection of the will is goodness. Surely God being the very goodness and wizdome itself, was not without this one mark and the same very good, when he first created all things. For Nature (say the Philosophers) doth nothing otherwise than well and to a good end. If they spoke so of the Handmaid, what shall we say of the Master of the house? But forasmuch as he himself is the beginner, the holder on, and the ender of all things: he in all his doings did not set down any other end than himself. 
Things are said to be good, either by cause they come to good end, or were purposed to a good end.  We his creatures, who take our beginning and continuance from him, can have none other end than him. Yet notwithstanding, the reaso●●●● creature wisheth well to itself, and doth always purpose a certain end with itself, which it thinketh to be behoveful. For the end of every thing, is the peculiar good, benefit, or welfare thereof: and this desire being in us by kind, cannot be in vain. Therefore it must needs be that the true welfare of man consisteth in his true end or in his true amingpoynt: and that the true amingpoynt of man, and the end which the Creator intended, must meet jump together: 
Man's end or amingpoynt and his welfare consist or rest both in one thing.  That is to wit, he must employ himself to the glory of God, whose creating of all things was for his own glory, and by tending thitherward attain to his own welfare, which is the thing that all things do naturally seek. And therefore if we find either man's chief amingpoynt, or his sovereign welfare; we find them both: for they be both but one selfsame thing; which in respect that his wit looketh thereat, is called his amingpoynt, and in respect that his will resteth thereon, is called his welfare, both of them together being the restingpoint of the whole man. And unto this end is he to apply himself and all his motions, all his endeavours and all his desires, as to his highest felicity benefit and welfare.  
Now, 
The Mark●● whereby to know the amingpoynt and welfare of man..  had we continued in our original nature, we should have had no pain at all to seek them: for our wit was enlightened with the sight of our mark, and our will was drawn by our welfare, that is to say, by GOD by whom and for whom we were created; whereas now through our pride our eyes are gazing at all things, saving our right way and our chief welfare. Yet notwithstanding, we may trace it out by certain marks, specially if we bear in mind that we be fallen: for than we will not stand groping for it in the filth of the things that are here beneath, as folk amazed at our fall; but we will seek for it in the grace and in the face of our maker from whence we be fallen. For like as when we seek to know the use and goodness of a tool (as for example, of a Saw,) we consider it not by the rustiness thereof that hath eaten away the teeth, or by the breaks that it hath taken by some falls; but by the teeth thereof which are sound, sharp, and smooth, such as they were when they came new out of the Sythemakers' shop: even so must we do with man; we must not judge of his end by the blindness, ignorance, naughtiness, and corruptness that is come upon him, but by the excellency, goodness, and light that was in him at the first when GOD created him. Also we judge not of the use of the Saw by the metal thereof in that it is Steel, or in that it hath a handle, or in that it hath an edge to cut withal: for a knife hath all things, which yet notwithstanding is never the more a Saw for all that: but we deem thereof by some peculiar shape, and by some property of the teeth thereof, which make it to differ, not only from a Knife, the which hath no teeth, but also from a File which hath teeth, howbeit of another sort. Then let us do the like still in man. If we deem of the use whereto God hath appointed him, by that he liveth, or by that he hath senses; what needeth man to be made, seeing that the Plants are endued with life, and the brute Beasts both with life and sense? But now hath he made Man, and he hath not made him in vain. The use of him therefore is to be taken, of that part which GOD hath given him specially and peculiarly to make him a man; of that (I say) which maketh him to differ from the things which have but only being, life, and sense: I mean the very highest part of his Soul. Again, the said particular shape which giveth a particular use to the Saw, is common to all tools which bear the name of a Saw: and therefore the special property of Man which giveth him a peculiar use which no other Creature hath, must needs be after such a sort peculiar unto him, as it may nevertheless be common to all of the same kind: that is to say, as all men are created with that property, so all men must tend to that end. And forasmuch as that end is the sovereign welfare of Man; it hath consequently certain marks or tokens whereby it is to be known. Man feareth nothing more than his end, neither desireth he any thing so much as to continue for ever: and yet notwithstanding the sovereign welfare is the end of Man: and therefore it must needs be an end without end; and end which doth not consume or waste, so as the thing which tendeth to it should thereby be fordone: but which perfecteth & fulfilleth it, so as beyond it there is not aught that can be desired or be. If there were any other beyond it, it were neither an end, nor sovereign or chief. But for such a one do we seek. And if it could either waste or perish, we might be afraid to lose it: and the greater that the pleasure were, the greater also should the grief thereof be. But the property of felicity or happiness is, to content the desire & to exclude fear. Now then, as touching the thing which we seek; in respect that we seek it as our end, it behoveth it to be agreeable to the very nature of Man, peculiar to the whole kind, and common to all that be of the kind: and in respect that it is our sovereign welfare, it behoveth it to be universal, perfect, and continual. And now let us see what that may be.  
Surely if we consider man and the world; 
The world is not the end to which man was made.  in man the Senses, and in the World the sensible things: man as the beholder, and the world as a Theatre: man as the guest, in the world the Feast prepared of all things convenient for him: we will say by and by, not only that they be made the one for the other, but also that in very deed the World was made for man, and not man for the World or for any thing therein. And again, if we consider how that in the World there is wherewith to content the eye the ear and all the senses; but nothing that can sufficiently content the mind, the which (as earthly as it is) passeth from the things visible to the invisible, from the bodily to the ghostly, and from the creatures to the maker: shall we not easily conclude (which thing I will treat of more at large hereafter) that as the world cannot be man's end, so can it not also be his contentation? And yet notwithstanding man is not created for nought; neither is the desire of his own welfare planted in him to no purpose. For as say the Philosophers, nature hath made nothing in vain, neither is she maimed in things needful. Therefore it must needs be, and otherwise it cannot be, but that the creator is the end and contentment of man, whose mind cannot be satisfied nor his will contented to the full, if any part of him do rest upon these vile and transitory things. By the way whereas we commonly affirm that God is both the end and the welfare of all things for that than he guided and led whither soever be listeth by his providence, and also be made partakers of his goodness: we must understand that this is verified of man after a ●ore high and excellent manner. Of the Creatures here beneath, some have but sense and appetite, and other some but only a bare inclination of nature: only man hath wit and will, which make him a man. Now all these are unfallibly directed whether soever it pleaseth God, as the arrow is leveled at some mark by the Archer, who shooteth the Arrow straight though it have no eye to see with. But man by a peculiar pruiledge hath an understanding wit which was given unto him clear sighted and clean, that he might see the mark whereat he is leveled, and will, which he received frank and free, that he might repose all his delight therein: the one to know and discern it, the other to love and embrace it; the one to see, and behold it, the other to obtain and enjoy it. Nowthen, as the hither end of all Creatures here beneath is man, and the furthest end of them is God: so the nearest and immediate end of man is to know God, and his only welfare is to stick wholly unto him.  
Let us imagine man as much as we list, 
God is the end or Mark that Man aimeth a●.  to be still as sound as ever he was: yet what end, or what contentment could he have but only God? We make great account of riches; what could he be the better which had gotten all, or which had all riches gotten for him all ready to his hand? For what else is the getting of this world, but a proof of want and poverty? we esteem highly of honour, of vain titles, and of dignities: And what else are all these but a bain gazing and wonderment of people, which can be none at all where no people are? Surely then was not man set in the world, to the intent that that should be his mark to aim at; and much less could he seek his contentment there. Yet notwithstanding he had received more wit than we have, and not to no end. And therefore we must needs say it was to direct him to some further thing than vanity, which at that time could have no place at all. Some will say, his fovereine welfare consisted in his health. What was his health; but his very being, and what maketh he●th to be esteemed, but sicknesses and who longeth for it, but he that is diseased? But whereto serveth so excellent a wit, if it be to have nothing more than the brute beast? Another 〈◊〉 it consisted in virtue. How in virtue, seeing that virtue is nothing else but the subduing and conquering as affection by reason; whereof he was in possession already by nature, and had 〈◊〉 it still without contradiction she had not of his own 〈…〉 himself 〈…〉 who sees not that many brute beasts do pass man in lively force both of life and sense? But in this alone he (as Plutark saith) doth pass them all. Secondly, it must nevertheless be common to all men. Now (as utterly blinded and corrupted as we be) what is more common among us all, than the knowledge of God? If Riches and Honour be the mark we shoot at; how few of so many men which level at it with Heart, Eye, Hand, and Sinews, do hit it? If our welfare consist in having our health, in being virtuous, in dealing uprightly, or in calmness of mind; how few do enjoy it? On the contrary part, who is so blind, that he fee not God, as soon as he doth but look out with his Eyes? or which findeth him not within himself? or which attaineth not to him, if he look above himself? And who seethe not this mark, so clear that the world is but a shadow to it? so great that the whole world is nothing to it; and so near, as that we be not nearer to ourselves? Or who can be afraid to be shut out from it, whose greatness hath room enough for all, and whose sufficiency is such, as the former shot can be no impediment to the latter to have a lighting place? Surely therefore we may well say, that if we had continued sound, we could have had none other mark or end but him; for all things else had been nothing. And now also for all that we be corrupted; we ought not to tend or intend to any other than him; for he alone can be all to all, and this point can be nowhere but in him. To be short, like as the Soul is the shape of man, so is the knowledge of God the true shape of all understanding of man. Nevertheless, although the shape of man was disfigured in the first man, yet there remaineth a certain common conceiving of God, howbeit so defaced and beslubbered, that either we discern him no more to be our end, though he put us in mind thereof on all sides; or else imagining ourselves to level at that mark, we serve aside one while to ungodliness, and another while to superstition; or at leastwise we had lever for the most part, to rove at every thing that our senses meet withal, and too wallow in these base things like Beasts which have no more but their senses.  
Thirdly in our sovereign welfare, I required that it should be universal. Now where shall it be found to be so but in God, who is in deed the very good of all goodness, and the very welfare of all welfare that is in the world? Also that it should be perfect and full. And what desire we but the things that are? And what can he want, which possesseth him in whom all things are? Again, I added that the same must be everlasting and unchangeable. Now who can be so, but the maker of order and change itself? and what thing see we heer● in this word, yea even in ourselves, which a ●deth in one state by the space of two moments? To be short, if we desire to content our senses, he hath made sensible things for the ●once; and if we desire to content our mind, he himself is the things that are to be minded. Where then is the thing to be recovered which we covet, but only in him? Now as touching this universal sovereign good, true it is that all of us are able too desire it, but for the most part of us, unable to discern it, and none of us able to attain unto it. There remaineth nothing to us at all, I mean even to the best of us since our fall, but a grief that we have it not any more, and that we be not able of ourselves to recover it again here below. Then let us say, that as it had been a happy case for us, to have continued still in our first state: so is it now for us to return thither again; that is to say, to be set again in God's favour, that we may oneday see his face yet again. And because this blessedness cannot be brought to perfection in this life so full of wretchedness: we must dispose our life in this world, not to live still in the world, but to die in respect of these dead things, and to live unto God; at leastwise if we intent to live the true life, and to live everlastingly in him.  
Now than we see that we have found our true restingpoynt and our true welfare, 
The false ends and the false Welfares.  that is to wit the turning again unto God, from whose favour and fellowship we be departed. For proof thereof, we need but to examine from point to point the other ends and welfares which worldly men do set down to themselves, by the tokens & proofs which I have made of the other already. Whereby as we shall find a common desirousenes in all men to seek the welfare; so will we doubtless wonder at such diversity of tastes, which like to the lustings of them that have the green Sickness, (who be greedy of Dust, Coals, Ashes and such other baggage) cannot but bewray unto us a strange distemperature and corruption of our whole nature. Most men have in all ages spent their whole life, either in raking together of riches, or in Ambition, or in purchasing of Lands, or in puffing up themselves with the wind of Pride. And what can be more contrary to the liking of our understanding, than those things? The end whereto things tend, is better than the things themselves. What is it then for a man too ●end himself to these outward things; but too show that we be worse than Earth and dung? And who would not believe that the Soul of man were infinitely less made for such things, than cloth of Gold to wrap up mire and dirt in?  
Also we seek the uttermost end of man. 
Riches.  Now who is he that desireth not Riches for some other end, than for the Riches themselves? namely that he might spend them either wanton or honourably, or necessarily? Nay who would pass for them at all, if he might have the other things without them? Were it not so; what were more wretched than man in whose end consisteth his welfare; seeing that either the Wind, or Fire, or robbing may bereave us of that felicity; that is to wit, overwhelm us with miseries in one moment? Again, how can Riches be the common mark for all men to shoot at, seeing that the enriching of one man is the impoverishing of another? Yea and that the very being of them consisteth but in the opinion of men, some counting Gold, some stones, some Shells, and some Nuts to be Riches; and all resembling young children, which set all their felicity in Checkstones & pings? And what is it for men to set their felicity in things which are neither Man nor of Man, as if they should set the goodness of a Knife in the Sheath, or of a Horse in his Foot-cloth or Saddle? To be short, how can that be the sovereign Good, which is no good at all? which is common as well to the bad as to the good, and doth rather impair men than amend them? Or how can that be our chief mark to shoot at, which of all things turneth us most from the true mark, that is to wit, from God; as in truth there is not a readier way to drive us quite and clean from God, than to draw us nearer and nearer to worldly riches?  
And what is Ambition? 
Honor.  We might discourse of that time without end: for in very deed it hath no end. Some attain to some certain point: othersome be quite excluded. Which of them in our opinion are the happiest? Sooth they that are excluded are disappointed of their pretenced felicity. That is all the harm they have by it. They that attain to honour, are in continual torment, spiteful or spighted, doing mischief or receiving mischief, overmated or overmating. What is this but many evils for one, and a multiplying of miseries without number, for the obteynement of one silly shadow of felicity? We will leave the residue to declamers: what are the fruits of these hellish torments, what are they? Forsooth Honour, Reputation, and Power or Authority. What is all this but wind, which cannot fill us, nor scarcely puff us up? I shall be saluted as I go abroad, I shall sit highest at meetings. In having these things, what have I, which a wicked man may not rather have than I: And if it be a good thing, how is it given to evil men? I shall have reputation. If it be among evil men, O how shall I be blamed among good men! Perhaps I shall have it among good men. If for virtue: who seethe not that reputation is but a shadow, made to follow virtue? And who will run after the shadow, to forego the body? If freely for nothing, (as men say) upon Credit: who knoweth not that thing to be nothing worth, which is given for nought, and by such as are noughtworth? And who will believe that we be borne to such an end as that? Nay rather, how many be the slanders wherewith good men be charged: insomuch that divers times they be fain to forego their reputation, for the preservation of their Conscience?  
Finally, 
power Authority and Soucreintie.  I shall have obtained power and authority. If that be the end of Man; how happeneth it that for one man's having of it, so many millions are fain to go without it? And if it be his sovereign good; whereof cometh it, that not only it is turned to evil, but also commonly turneth the possessors thereof to evil? But let us put the case that all this is good. To whom? For every one that is honoured as a Prince, ten thousand are fain to kneel: For one that triumpheth, a hundred thousand are led in captivity: For one that reigneth, ten hundred thousand serve as Slaves. By this reckoning, some only one man should be the end of many men: and the felicity of three or four should be the infelicity of a whole world. Now our seeking is for the end and felicity, not of some one or two men, but of all the whole kind. What will ye say then if even those few have it not? I take to witness the happiest Courtiers that are, whether one wry look of their Prince do not sting them more at the heart, than a thousand flatterers and as many crouchers and cappers can delight their ears and eyes? Nay, I report me even to the greatest Princes themselves, whether one Rebellion of their Subjects against them, do not vex them more than all their honourable triumphs do rejoice them? And were it not a shame to say, that man's sovereign good should stand in awe or depend upon a grim look? What else then are all these things, but resemblances of the Apples that grow about Sodom, which being pleasant to the eye, and provoking to the appetite, do vanish into smoke or into soot as soon as a man puts his teeth to them?  
Besides this, the felicity of man ought to abide in the thing it self. But the contentment of the ambitious person, dependeth upon another. Also it ought to be everlasting: But ambition endeth with the body, and is buried with it in the same grave. Again, the things that ambition craveth, are fought sometimes for some other things sake: but we demand an end whereupon to rest, and not a mean to an end. To be short, so far of is ambition from being a way to bring us to sovereign good or felicity; that in very truth (as I have said afore) it casseth us miserably down, and maketh us to fall quite and clean from it.  
Now, 
The utmost end & ●●uerein good of Man are not in himself.  seeing we cannot find the thing we seek for, neither among men, nor in these worldly things; doth it not follow that we must seek it in ourselves? Surely the world is not of itself, nor for itself, but was made by another, and for another; neither hath man his own beginning of himself: and therefore he cannot be the end of himself. The maker of a thing maketh it not for the things sake, but for his own sake: and therefore he himself is the end of his work. Again, the thing that is made is not good in respect of itself, but for the ●fe or end whereto the maker maketh it: and therefore the maker himself is the sovereign good thereof. But let us discover the matter ●et more largely. Man is composed of Body and Soul; the Body mortal, the Soul immortal. Now, if we set man's felicity in his body only; we do too great wrong, both to the Soul, and to the whole man. For if it consist in the body, it perisheth and fades away with the body. And than what remaineth to the Soul which over liveth, but wretchedness? But we look for 〈◊〉 which belongeth to the whole Man, and to his whole life both together. 
Beauty.  Again, what should be this felicity of the body, unless perhaps it be Beauty; which gladdeth more the beholder than the haver thereof, and yet within a while after, is lost by some wound, soon sore, some pimples, or some Sunburning? In the Soul joined with the body we have three abilities, namely of life, of 〈◊〉 and of understanding. Let us see in which of these three man's sovereign welfare and end may be harbered. The Soul giveth life to man's body, 
Health  and the perfection of life is health. If our life serve to none other end than that; what had the first man to do with it, who was created healthful? If it must be the end of us now after our corruption; what is more unhappy than man? Nay, what is more uncapable of happiness than man? A body subject to a thousand diseases, a thousand harms, a thousand dangers; weak, frail, fraught with miseries within, wrapped in them without; always uncertain of life, always sure of death; whom a Worm, an Herb, a grain of dust may kill: who if he looked for none other happiness than that, were much better to be a Plant than a man.. Again, who is so sound and healthy of body, or so diseased in mind, which (if he were put to the choice) had not lever to have a sound mind in a sick body, than to be out of his wits having perfect health of body? Sooth then it is a very clear argument, that our chief happiness resteth in our mind, seeing we can find in our hearts to redeem it with the miseries of our body.  
Let us come too the sensitive part. 
Bodily Pleasure, voluptuousness, or Sensuality.  The happiness thereof seemeth to consist in Uoluptuousenes or Sensuality. If that make us happy; then happy be brute beasts, as who do use it both more freely and with more delight than we: and unhappy is man, who cannot wholly becone a beast, do what he can. The beast taketh his pleasure, without regard who sees him, without remorse of conscience, and without any argewing against himself. Contrariwise, what man is he which feeleth not a Law in himself that goes about to bridle him; which feeleth not a hartbyting in the m●●ds of his pleasure; or whose greatest delights leave him not a sting of repentance behind them? And what happiness can that be whereof we be ashamed, and which compelleth us to seek covert for the doing thereof? Also what a fond workman was he, that framed us so far unfit for such a purpose● insomuch that whereas all our body is liable too aches & stiches both within & without and on all sides; we scarcely have above two or three parts upon us capable of pleasure, and even those also subject to grief and peyve. Let there be a man (sayeth Plutarch) that hath led his whole life in pleasure and sensuality; and about a two or three hours afore he draw towards death, let him be put to his choice whether he had lever too delight his senses by lying with his Lais, or delight his mind with delivering his Country from some great peril. will be (think you) be so very a beast, as to doubt which of them he shall choose? who seeth not then that the pleasure of the mind, is both greater than the pleasure of the body, and more peculiar to man, and more agreeable too his end? We seek a sovereign good; if it be good, it will amend us. But what doth mar us and impair us more both in body and soul, than fleshly pleasure? Also we mean it should be perfect. If it be so, it will make us perfect too. But what consumeth us, what decayeth us more than sensuality? Again, we seek an end; but yet an endless end, not which maketh an end of our pleasures, but which doth still feed our desires. Contrariwise, what is there which is sooner at an end in itself, which sooner maketh an end of us, or which sooner wearieth us and less contenteth us, than the bodily pleasures; considering that (as the Poet saith) the pleasure and pain go both together? Moreover, how may that be the sovereign good, which is not so much as a mean good? For who can deny, but that abstinence is taken for a virtue, even among the vicious sort? And what manner of good is that, which may become evil by increasing, if it were not evil of itself afore? Finally, all bodily pleasures consist in the Senses, and are executed by the sensitive parts. Now, the Senses are oftentimes forstalled in us, either by diseases or by old age: and the sensitive parts are dispatched at the least by death.  
Now albeit that a man have a double life, the one in this world, the other in another, the one dying, the other immortal; the first which is here tending to the second as the worse to the better; yet is not our seeking for such an end or such a felicity as dieth with us, but for such a one as maketh us happy, quickeneth us, 〈…〉 sheath us everlastingly; the which surely is not to be found in mortal things. Now followeth therefore the Understanding part, which is occupied one while in itself, another while in the government of the world, and another while in contemplation of heavenly things: and of these three operations spring three perfections; namely Virtue, Policy, and Wisdom. Let us see yet in which of these 〈◊〉 consisteth our sovereign felicity and contentation. Sooth it is not to be doubted, but that our end will be found to consist in that part: for whether can the mind of man reach, beyond the world and man and him that made them both? But let us see if we come near it in this world. 
Virtue.  I pray you what is Virtue? The cal●edesse of our affections. What are these affections of ours? The waves and storms of our Souls, raised with every little ●last of wind, which do so ●osse and turmoil it upside down, that even the best Pilots are fain to strike Sail, and reason itself is driven well near to forsake the Helve. If M●n were created to this end, why was he created with calmness of mind? Or if his sovereign good consist now in overmaystering his affections; what more contrariety can there be, than to be ●oyd of affections and to be a man? Let us put the case that some man attain thereunto: shall he also stay there? No: for valiantness hath an eye to war, war to peace, peace to the prosperity of the Commonweal, weal, and so soorth of others. Now, that which tendeth unto another, cannot be the utmost end. But will man at leastwise be contented therewith? Nay, let us commend Virtue as much as we list, and let us busy ourselves in making books of it; yet if it extend no further than to the things on earth, I dare well say there is not any thing, I say not so happy, but so wretched & miserable as man. folk will say he is an honest man; but yet as honest as he is, they will let him starve for hunger. The Prince will say he is a faithful, a sound, and an upright dealer, neither led by covetousness nor carried away with ambition: but yet he will not put him in trust with the managing of his affairs in this world. The foulest vice in the world shall find a mate: but if Virtue run through the whole world, she shall scarce find a husband. Now then, if we seek our felicity in this life; what is Virtue but very misery? And if we seek it in the other life; what shall become of this virtue where we shall have no affections to encounter with? Surely then is not Virtue our end: for the end that we seek, hath not an eye to a further thing; neither doth the sovereign good thereof which goes jointly with it come to any end.  
What then? 
Policy.  Is Policy that end? We call Policy the right use of reason in the governing of worldly affairs. Besides that, it may also properly be defined, to be an art or skill of guiding men's doings to a certain end. Now the skill and the end that it aimeth at, cannot be both one thing. But (to be short) what is this world? Strife, War, Discord, Envy, Rancour, Burning, Sacking, wasting, Spoiling, and destroying; a miserable ground for man too buid his felicity upon. What is the governing and disposing of all these things, but a dealing with By●es, Botches, and Cankers, whereof if we have no feeling, they can (to go the best way) do us no good; and if we have feeling, they work us nothing but sorrow, grief, stinch, and loathsomeness ● Yea, but the happiness or felicity is in healing them. Happy then is that comonweale which receiveth good by thy pain; but not thy pain happy which thou hast taken to heal it. For when a Physician healeth a man, who receives the benefit, the Physician, or the Patient? And if the Phition did his Cure for gain, and the Magistrate his duty for honour; who sees not that the skill of curing was not the end of the one, nor the skill of governing the end of the other; seeing that they tended either of them to a further end, and that so ●●lie aone? Notwithstanding all this, in the end Man dieth and the World perisheth; but the Soul liveth still, and yet giveth over the dealings of the world. Therefore needs must some other thing than Policy be our sovereign good, seeing that this Policy is limited within the bounds of this world.  
Now then, 
Wisdom or religiousness.  let us examine Wisdom. It is the beholding of God and of things belonging to GOD. This requireth a man to lift up himself above the world, and above himself; I mean that a man should retire from all outward things into his own soul, the Soul unto her Mind, and the Mind unto God. Surely there is great likelihood that our doings ought to be referred to this wisdom, and that our end and welfare should consist therein. For the perfecting of such a contemplation, we say there are required Wealth, Health, Virtue, and Policy. For want and poverty, be as Fetters of Iron to a weldisposed mind: a sickly and diseased body, is as a torture to it; unruly affections dazzle it and make it see one thing for another; Policy is the stablisher of Comonweales, & whosoever giveth himself to contemplation, it behoveth him to be settled in a quiet place, that he may hold the plummet of his mind steady without shaking or stirring. Thus do all things seem to serve to that use. But when they come all to the forenamed point, to help us; yet I pray you how far do they further us? It is naturally bred in man to believe that there is a GOD: and his works do put us in mind of it every hour. But shall we enter into our woorkemayster, seeing that the very outside of the least of all his works doth stop us? Again, who knoweth not, that if there be not a God, there can be no happiness at all? And sith we know it, even (as ye would say) from our birth; why take we so much pain in seeking that which we have already? Reason telleth us further, that God is good and just; that is to say, that he loveth that which is good, & hateth that which is evil. And our own conscience telleth us, that we do little good or none, but much evil. And if the little good which we do be done amiss, what happiness is there, or rather what unhappiness is there not in that knowledge which maketh us to feel a continual torment in ourselves? But the party that is given too contemplation, mounteth up yet higher, and considereth that God is immortal, unchangeable, and not to be wrought into; which is as much to say, as that he is not as we men are, who do die, move, and change: and when he comes to that point, he is at the highest that his wit can reach unto. And what is all this stying up, but a creeping still upon the earth? For, to say that of a thing which it is not, or to say it is not this or it is not that; what else is it but a protesting that we know not what it is? as if a man should boast that he knows an Elephant, undr pretence that he knows it is not a Snail? What then is our highest contemplation but deep ignorance? And who would make ignorance his highest felicity & furthest end or sheet-anchor? Yet notwithstanding how few be there which attain so far? And if any through rashness adventure any further: 〈◊〉 what error and blindness do they fall, no less than they which forego their fight by looking against the Sun?  
It remaineth then in the end, 
Faith or Belief.  that we must attain to that by Faith, which we cannot attain unto by Reason; that we must mount up by lively belief above our understanding, unto the things whereunto the eye of our mind is not able to reach. 
Agazel in the beginning of his Supernaturalles.  And Algazell the Arabian proceeded so far, as to say that the root▪ whereby the felicity to come is atteind unto, is faith. And what is this faith in God, but a believing that our welfare lieth in him? What is the believing, but the hoping for it? What is hope, but the desiring of it? What is the desire of it, but the not having of it? And to be short, what is the continual belief of it here, but a bewraying that here we can neither have it nor see it? If we have not faith; what have we but ignorance? And if we have faith; what have we but only a desire and longing; considering that the greater our faith is, the more we despise these base things; and the greater our desire is, the more we hate ourselves, and the more earnestly do we love God. To be short, What is faith? Welfare behighted. But we would see it. Again, what is faith? The way unto felicity. But we would possess and enjoy it. Look then what proportion is between that which is present, and that which is to come; such proportion is there betwixt the hope which we have here (yea even above the world and above ourselves,) and the perfect and full fruition of the good which we seek to attain unto. But let us in few words gather together what we have said heretofore. Whereas we seek for an end or restingpoint, the world is made for man, man for the Soul, the Soul for the mind, the mind for a much higher thing than itself, and what else can that be but God? As for that which we understand here as concerning▪ God by our natural wisdom; it is but ignorance; and that which we conceive by our supernatural power, 〈◊〉 but belief; and belief maketh not things perfect, but only moveth the understanding. It followeth then that our doings can have no end to rest upon here, but only in the life to come, which is the beholding and knowing of God. Again, if we seek the sovereign good; our appetites own obedience to our will, our will to our reason, and the perfection of our reason is the knowing of God. And so the contentment of our will is our possessing of God. Now we possess not God, but so far forth as we love him: we love him not, but so far forth as we know him: and neither can ignorance engender earnest love, nor belief engender full and perfect fruition, but only a certain hope, which hope is matched with impatience even in the best of us. It followeth therefore that we cannot enjoy our sovereign welfare, until we be come to our utmost end; nor have our full contentation, until we have full knowledge: that is to wit, we cannot have it in this world, nor in man, which two cannot content the mind or satisfy the will of man, forsomuch as either of them both is a world of wretchedness: but though we have a double life, yet can we have our utmost restingpoynt and our only sovereign welfare, nowwhere else but only in God and in the everlasting life.  
Here I should declare what that felicity of man shallbe, when he is come to his utmost restingpoynt. But who willbe so rash as to open his mouth in that behalf, after him that hath told us that neither eye hath seen it nor hart can conceive it? And how should we know it here, being unable either to see it or to have it here? Now therefore at one word, let us be contented with this, that all our desires shallbe satisfied at that day, seeing they extend not but too the things that are; and that in God we shall at that day see, have, and know all things. But yet for a more larger confirmation of this former point, it is now time to here what the Philosophers say thereof.   

The nineteen. Chapter.  
That the wisest of all ages agree that God is the utmost end and sovereign good, felicity, or welfare of man.  
SUrely man doth naturally desire, for the contentment of his will, to be well; and for the exercise of his wit, to have some certain end. And therefore there is not a ryfer nor a larger place in Philosophy, than the searching out of the chief end and sovereign good of man; insomuch that Cicero saith that the whole authority of Philosophy, consisteth in that point alone. Notwithstanding, forasmuch as by reafon of our fall, we find ourselves astonished here by love like folk fallen out of the Clouds, and moreover benighted with very deep darkness in a place that leadeth many sundry ways clean contrary one from another; we know not in this perplexity which way to take, and yet every of us thinks himself wise enough to direct his companion. One calls to the right hand, and another to the left: One points ye up the hill, and another sets ye through the plains: and yet all of them can as little skill of the right way one as another: and at the last the most part of them perceive in the end of their travel, that the more haste they made, the further they wandered from their way. But what wonder is it if blind folks, or such as are guided by blind folks, or such as have no guide at all, do go astray? Nay rather, were it not to be esteemed for a miracle, if any of them all, howbeit being guided from above, should happen to hit upon the right way? Natural desire causeth men to seek their welfare. And all Philosophy lieth in that point of seeking out the welfare of man. Sin hath put us from it, and maketh us to lose it. And therefore the wiser sort have laboured to recover it by eschewing sin. But most men knowing not that this sin is come upon us by a high fall, and therefore imagining themselves to be nestled still in their former place: do busy their heads about the seeking of it there, not perceiving that they be thrown down very low, far from GOD, and underneath themselves. 
Austin in his nineteen book and first cap. of the City of God.  That is the cause why we to no purpose do seek by groping round about us, for that which is not to be had there, nor is to be found there. Varro saith that in his time there were twohundred fourscore and eight opinions, concerning this point in the books of the Philosophers: that is to wit, two hundred fourscore and eight Sects: for that was the badge or Cognisance that made the difference betwixt them. It was a wonder to see so many diversities, and a more wonder that of so many, so few could hit upon the truth. Yet notwithstanding they triumphed one over another, and were curious in confuting one another; as in deed it is always more easy to reprove a fault, than to amend it; and to convince a lie, than to find out the truth. But yet at leastwise we have won thus much at the hands of them all, That there is one chief end and one sovereign good, whereat all men ought to aim: and we find even by the contrariety of their own reasons one against another, that it is none of all those things wherein they have sought it: whereupon we may easily conclude, that it cannot be anywhere else, than where we seek it. Had they well considered, that Man is fallen from his former dignity, and compared the glory of his former state with the wretchedness of his present state; they would have sought none other happiness or felicity than to return thither, that is to say, than to be linked again unto GOD: and they would never have followed so many fond fancies, more worthy to be pitied than to be laughed at. Nevertheless there are some few to be found in all ages, which have leveled at this mark, like as among all the rest, we see that some have had a certain knowledge of our first original nature.  
The Epicures sought this sovereign good in the pleasures and delights of the body: 
The Epicures. Antisthenes' answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and the stoics mocked them for their labour, perceiving well, that there is not here so fair and sweet a Rose-bush, which hath not very sharp pricks, and that it was the next way to make a man a beast. To be short, the Epicures themselves were so much ashamed of the matter, that to make Lady Pleasure to go for an honest woman, they were fain to disguise her as much as they could, and to say that by Pleasure they meant the delights of the mind, and not the feverous pleasures of the body, which pass away in the turning of a hand. But in the end, what were their pleasures? Forsooth (say they) to bethink a man's self how oft he hath made good cheer, or how oft he hath seen his trull. O strange beastliness. As who would say (saith Plutarch) that the pleasures of this world were to be kept in Conserves, or to be laid up as Restoratives in the closet of man's memory: or rather (say I) as though the remembrance of troubles past, yea or of some grievous sickness recovered, were not more delightful than the greatest joys that are possible to be had.  
The stoics 
The Stoics.  therefore do give us another kind of happiness or welfare; namely Moral virtue, which consists in the quiet reigning of reason in us. But what is this else than a mere imagination? How will they answer to the Peripatetics, which say that man is not made for himself alone, but for common society: That his virtue must aim at a further end: That virtue neither in respect of that whereat it aimeth, nor of that whereon it worketh can make men happy? To be short, what will they say to their own companions, who for the upholding of this their surmised felicity, do underprop it with wealth, health, courage, and measurable pleasure, as unsufficient to stand alone without aid? But I have ripped up this point sufficiently in the Chapter going last before  
What then do the Peripatetics 
The peripatetics or walkers.  set us down? As the Stoics left the Body to mount up to the Soul, so these mount up from the Soul to the Mind. There are (saith Aristotle 
Aristotle in his morals. lib. 5 ) two sorts of Blessedness. The one civil and public, called Policy; which consisteth in action: and the other private & of household, called Wisdom, which consisteth in Contemplation. He thinks verily that he hath said somewhat. But how can Policy be this blessedness, considering that according to his own saying, Policy is but a cunning or skill to lead things to a certain end, and is not the end itself? Or how can Wisdom be it, seeing that (as he himself saith) our understanding seethe as little in matters concerning God, as the eye of an Owl doth when she cometh near the Sun? Our understanding is dull, our judgement uncertain, and our memory deceitful. The deepest of our knowledge (saith Socrates) is ignorance; and all Philosophy (as Porphyrius 
Porphyr. in his first book of the Soul to Byrithius and Anebon.  upholdeth) is but mere conjecture, easy to be overthrown with every little push. Now then, how may this be a happiness, unless we will grant that the Owl is happy in coming near the Sun; or a blind man happy in beholding colours?  
His Disciples Alexander and Auerrhoes, perceiving that all our contemplation is but vexation of mind, most commonly to no purpose; have found us out another device. Which is, that all our happiness consisteth in joining the capacity of our mind, or rather of our imagination, unto certain separated substances, to be informed by them in all manner of knowledge: for the which device they be reproved of most Philosophers, and as I believe, in the end they laughed themselves to scorn for it. But as I have said already, what are these separated substances of theirs? Or rather why did they not set our felicity in being knit unto GOD, whom they confess to be better than all these things? Again, who is he, were he never so fantastical, even though it were Auerrhoes himself, that could vaunt himself to have ever attained to that imagined Conjunction of theirs in this life? 
The Academiks. Plato in his Commonweal lib. 10. In his Epinomis. In his Theete●●s.  And seeing that (as they bear us on hand) the knowledged of the nature of all sensible things, is required to the atteynment of that felicity of theirs; how shall we attain to the full height thereof, if we stop at the very beginning?  
The academics therefore, who take upon them to wear Plato's livery, mounted up one step higeher, and considered very well that all our contemplation is but a continual wrestling, one while against the darkness of the things, 
Laertius in the life of Plato-Plato in his Phoedon.  and another while against the darkness of our own mind. And as they acknowledged our hurt to proceed of a fall, whereby we broke our wings, which (as Plato interpreteth them) were Moral virtue and contemplation: so conceived they thereupon, that it were a great good turn for us to recover them again. But whether to be carried by them? Let us hear that of Plato. All the things in this world (saith he) which we call goods, as Beauty, Riches, Strength, Nobility, and such other; are so far of from being goods in deed, that they be rather corrupters and hinderers of good. Then are they very far of from being the sovereign good of man, or consequently the End whereat he out to stay. Again, It is unpossible (sayeth Plato) that men should be happy in this life, do what they can: that is to be had in another life, where the virtuous shall receive felicity for a reward. In vain then do we seek that here beneath, by our deeds and contemplations, which is not here to be found: and in vain do we set our utmost end here, where is not the furthest end of our life. But in the end, what is this felicity? It is (saith Plato) to be joined unto GOD, and to become like unto him, who is himself the highest top, the furthest end, and the utmost bound of all felicity. Thus ye see that (by Plato's judgement) the two things which we seek, do meet both together alonely in God. The end of our life is to be joined unto God. And our Blessedness or felicity which ought to content us, which consisteth in the full fruition of all good things, is the possessing of God, who is the very felicity itself. Yet nevertheless, Aristotle seemeth to have come at length to the same point, in that he saith, 
Aristotle in his book of the World: And in his Morals; and in his first book of the Heavens.  That God is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things: and again, that man's felicity consisteth in the same thing wherein the felicity of the Gods consisteth, that is to wit, in perfect contemplation of that which is above all movable things.  
Pythagoras said that the end of this life is Contemplation; 
The Philosophers of old tyme.  that the end of all Contemplation, is God; and that the felicity of man is to be lifted up unto God. Also he taught us that we be but as Pilgrims in this world, 
Pythagoras. Mercurius Trif megistus, otherwise called Hermes.  and as folk banished from God's presence: and what doth the banished man desire more, than to be restored home into his own Country? And Mercury sayeth, that our end is to live in Soul, which in this world is as good as buried; That in this world there is not any thing that is worthy to be said to be well or good. It is in another place therefore that man must live and enjoy his welfare, namely (as he saith) in being become one again with God. And Zoroastres 
Zoroastres.  saith, that we must travel with all our power towards the brightness of the father, who is the giver of our Soul. Also he hath told us that we be fallen away from this brightness of light into thick darkness, and have lost God's favour by going about to set ourselves free from his service. But as the world hath taught us more and more that there is no good in the world: so the later Philosophers have discoursed yet more largely thereof, than those that went afore. Here therefore we might rehearse a good part of Seneca and Cicero and others, whose opinion forasmuch as I have alleged already in the Chapter of the Immortality of man's Soul, where it may be known well-enough: I will content myself for this time with a four or f●ue of them.  
Surely Plutarch 
Plutarch.  is wonderful in confuting the beastliness of the Epicures and the awk opinions of the Stoics; setting against the Epicures, the pleasure that a good man receiveth in seeing God well served here on earth, and in having him for his Leader from above: and against the Stoics, the strife which man hath against himself, which all their Philosophy is not able to appease, and therefore he resolveth himself in the end, that as in the mysteries of the men of old time, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  the looking upon them was the end why they took the orders of them upon them; so the end of true Philosophy is the Contemplation and beholding of the myndly and immortal nature, that is to say of God the Creator.  
jamblichus was surnamed the Divine: 
jamblichus.  and it is said that he was so called, because he spoke so Divinely of this matter. Thus therefore doth he say: Shall we say that to be healthy, to be fair, to be rich, to be honoured, to be of a good wit, and such like are man's happiness? No surely. The strength of man is but a jest, and his honour a mockery. Yea, Man himself and all that he maketh account of, are but a fleeting shadow. Nevertheless, unto good men, they be good possessions; but unto wicked men, they be evil and dangerous. What then? should not the possessing of them for ever, and not as in a Dream that vanisheth away, be the true happiness? No: the possessing of them for ever, if it were without virtue, were a very great mischief, and the sooner they were taken from us, the less harm it should be. Nay, the very true mean to attain to the heavenly felicity, is praying and calling upon the Gods, & cheely upon the great God which reigneth over them all. And therefore he saith in another place, Whatsoever a man doth or leaveth undone, aught to be referred to the Godhead▪ and all this life is ordained for nothing else but to follow God; the knowledge of whom is perfect virtue, Wisdom and blissfulness, which maketh us like the Gods, that is to say (after his manner of speaking, like the Angels. Let us hear yet more of him. The time hath been (saith he) that man was fast tied to the beholding of God: but afterward he was made subject to the body, and tied to the necessity of Destiny; & therefore it behoveth him to be well advised, by what mean he may be rid of it. Now, other knowledge there is none that can deliver him, but only the knowledge of God. For the pattern of felicity, is to know the good, and the knowing of good, is the holy gate whereby to come to the maker of all things. Now (saith he again afterward) the care of these inferior things which maketh us to forget God, cannot be separated from this transitory life wherein we be: for this body will never suffer us to play the right Philosophers in deed. It followeth then that this knowledge of God under the which he comprehendeth all virtue, all wisdom, and all study of Philosophy, cannot be atteind unto nor become perfect in this life, but only in the life to come.  
The final end of Man (saith Plotin) is the pure Good, 
Plotin. Enn. 1. lib. 4. cap. 15. 16.  that is to wit God; and all other things are but appurtenances to that end, and not the end, itself. Whosoever possesseth this good, 
Plotin. Enn. 6. lib. 9 Cap. 10.  can have no good taken from him, nor any good put unto him. For it is not only an uniting unto God, but almost a being of God himself. Now who is he that can take such possession of it in this life? And therefore he addeth. There our mind beholdeth the fountain of life, of understanding, of being, the cause of good, and the root of the Soul. There lieth our welfare after such a sort, that to be far from it, is as good as not to be at all. There is the beginning and end of life. The beginning; for from thence doth it proceed; and the end; for there is the welfare whereon it resteth. The welfare, say I; for in attaining thither, it becometh again that which it had been afore. For as for the being which it hath here, what is it but a downfall, whereby it hath lost her wings? Here reigneth a base and vile Venus; but there reigneth a heavenly one. Here a love of the World; there the love of God. And what a grief ought it to be unto us, to be wedded to the earth? And on the contrary part, how desirous ought we to be to feel God in all parts above? Yea and to be so joined unto him, as one centre is within another, so as both of them may be but as one? Now he is full of such and larger sayings; and always he concludeth blesednes & everlastingness follow one another, whereby he excludeth them, both out of this world and out of this life.  
But for the more speed, let us come to others. What is the end of Man (saith Porphyrius)? 
Porphyrius in his work of abstinence. lib. 1. cap. 2.  It is undoubtedly to live in Mind. And how is that? By contemplation in this life? No (sayeth he in another place). All Philosophy is but guessing, a light belief received from hand to hand, and which hath nothing therein which may not be called in question. What manner of Contemplation then shall the true one be? 
Porphyrius concerning the Soul, to Byrithius and Anebo the Egyptian. Simplicius upon the naturals and upon Epictetus.  Not a heap of words (saith he) nor a patching together of precepts; but a true union of the beholder and the thing that is beheld, that is to say of our Mind and of God.  
Simplicius the Peripatetik, whether he learned it of Epictetus or some where else, speaketh of it thus. The greatest good that is in the knowledge of Nature, is that it is a fair path to lead men to the knowing of the Soul, of the separated substances, and of Gods being. Moreover it inflameth us to the serving of God, leading us by the effects to the Majesty of the Creator; whereupon followeth an onement with God, with assured faith and hope, which are the things for which philosophy is chiefly to be used. And in another place; The beginning (saith he) and the end of happy life, and the perfection of our Soul, consisteth in being bend and turned unto God, as well by acknowledging that he governeth all things with justice, as by consenting to all that he doth, as proceeding from a rightful judgement. For so long as our Soul abideth in him as in the root, it abideth in the perfection wherein GOD created it. But if it fall to starting out of him, it becometh withered and droopeth, until it turn back and be united again unto him. The cause then of our unhappiness, is our separating of ourselves from God; and the cause of our happiness is our linking in again with him; and man seeketh a happiness agreeable to his kind, as all other things do. The end of man therefore is to turn again unto God, that he may become one with him.  
Syrian the Schoolmaster of Simplicius writing upon 
Upon these words, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  Aristotle, hath comprehended the matter in one word; we deal with Philosophy (saith he) for our own benefit; that is to say, for our own welfare; which welfare is to be united unto God.  
And Alexander 
Alexander in his book of Providence, cited by Cy●illus.  of Aphrodise cometh not far behind when he saith, that our sovereign felicity consisteth in devotion towards God, beyond whom there is not any further reward to be desired. For seeing (saith he) that the worthiest operation of the Soul is contemplation; & contemplation properly is the knowing of the best things; & none are so good as the things that concern God: our end and felicity ought to be the contemplation of things belonging to God. To be short, the best-esteemed interpreters of Aristotle, do make him to yield to this point whether he will or nill, as men ashamed in his behalf, that having sought so much for the true end of man, he hath not set it down more certainly.  
Now, the Philosophers of old time knew in all times, 
The ends both of the good & of the bad.  not only that those which attain to the said end for which Man was created, are happy; but also that those which despise it do fall into extreme wretchedness: the one sort receiving everlasting felicity, the other sort being by God's justice condemned to endless pain. Also it is an article expressly set down in the creeds of all people, as a point that is probable to all men at the very first sight, That God is righteous and good; and that evil is accompanied with punishment, and good is accompanied with reward. 
In their book of shame concealed.  As for the Cabalists of the jews, it is no wonder though they have handled this matter well: for they have drawn matter out of the fountains of the holy Scripture. And therefore let us hear but the Heathen.  
Those (saith Hermes) 
Hermes Trismegistus in his Poemander.  which have obtained the favour of God, are of mortal become immortal, and conceive the only Good, which maketh them to fall into a misliking of these inferior things, that they may endeavour with all their power to return to him the more speedily.  
Orpheus' speaking yet more clearly, 
Orpheus.  bringeth good men into God's presence, to the seat of felicity, and to the feast of the righteous, where he maketh them drunken with the perfect and everlasting contemplation: but as for the wicked he burieth them in a quamyre, tormenting them with vain thoughts, & making them to draw water into a Siue: 
Pythagoras. Pindarus Diphilu● Sibylla.  that is to say, he assureth the one sort of perfect contentation, and putteth the other sort in extreme despair.  
Of Pythagoras we have these verses. 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Tat is to say, they that worship the soothfast and everlasting God, shall inherit life for ever time without end, dwelling in paradise alike ever flourishing green. But of the other sort she saith thus.  
If reason here thou follow for thy guide,  
Then at thy parting hence thou shalt be sure,  
In Heaven a God immortal to abide,  
No death thenceforth for ever to endure.   
And these verses were followed by all Poets, who commonly represented the received opinion: among whom Pindarus and Diphilus proceed so far, as to describe an excellent Garden replenished with all things, & appointed to be a reward for good men, as if they had heard speaking of the Paradise of the jews; or else had read Sibyl's verses concerning a certain green Garden which she also calleth Paradise, affirming it to be assighed for an heritage to such as follow the way of God: that is to wit, which take him for their shootanker, with whom they shall have everlasting life and light: whereas on the contrary part, the wicked (saith she) shall lie burning like firebrands and Torches in endless pains.  
Also Timeus of Locres hath not forgotten this point in his little book, where he saith thus. There is a certain vengeance both according to the Laws and according to the Oracles, which maketh us to fear both heaven and earth. For strange and unentreatable punishments are prepared for the wicked in hell.  
Asfor Plato, he taketh so great pleasure in this matter, that he cannot be drawn from it: and he scarcely passeth any one dialog, wherein he hath not some speech thereof; meaning doubtless to do us to understand, that without that, all Philosophy and all Divinity be maimed; and it should seem that the constancy of Socrates his teacher, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. That is to say, roasted continually with fyrebrands of peines Socrates in defence of himself.  had confirmed him not a little therein; in whose defence of himself, which was as it were his last will, we read these words. Death would be grievous to me, if I were not sure, first that when I am departed hence I shall go to the wise Gods (so did they term the Angels or Created minds) and secondly to the men that are delivered out of this life, who out of doubt are in better case than those that are here. And unto Cratylus again he sayeth, when the good man departeth this world, he cometh to great honour and to a great inheritance; for he becometh a Daemon according to the true signification of the word, that is to say, skilful and wise. 
Plato in his Cratylus.  That then is the perfection of a Philosopher, 
Plato in his Theetetus.  whose end and profession is to have knowledge and skill. And in his Theetetus he sayeth, that with the Gods there is no evil, but evil walketh here beneath among these transitory things, and therefore that we must high us thither and flee from hence, that is to say, we must become righteous and wise. For (saith he) such as shall have followed the way of folly and wickedness, shall not be admitted into the restingplace of the blessed sort which are exempted from all evil; but according to their lewd life, they shall be condemned to dwell for ever with the evil. In his Gorgias 
Plato in his Gorgias.  he maketh mention of an ancient Law under Saturn, which he affirmeth to have been then still in use, namely that when good men depart out of this life, they be sent into the fortunate Isles (which Isles Pindarus also describeth very curiously) and the wicked into the jail of Vengeance, which he calleth Tartar; undoubtedly betokening these unknown places, by places known unto them, which they took commonly to be either most pleasant or most horrible; like as the jews betokened the Restingplace of the blessed sort by a goodly Gardyne, and Hell by the valley of Onan or Ghehinom, which was an irksome place near jerusalem. 
Plato in his Phoedon, and in his tenth book of Laws.  In his Phedon he bringeth in a certain Prophet raised from the dead, which reporteth that those which are justified, go on the right hand, pure, and clean, and are sent up to Heaven; and that the damned sort go on the left hand, besmeared with filth and mire, weeping and gnashing their teeth, and in the end are sent into low deep places. Yea and he describeth there the blessed Country in such terms, that some men have taken the pains to confer it, with that which is written there of in the apocalypse. 
Plato in his Axiochus.  To be short, in his Axiochus he calleth the place of judgement the field of truth; from whence (saith he) they which have followed the inspiration of the good spirit, shallbe sent into a paradise or pleasant garden, which he describeth there in the delyghtfullest manner that he can devise, to represent the things which he cannot conceive, by the things which we see here on earth: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  and that they which have been led by wicked fiends, that is to say by the instinct of the devil, shallbe condemned to darkness and confusion, where he describeth a great number of endless torments. Nevertheless he showeth that these things are not to be taken according to the letter, when he saith in his Comonweale, 
Plato in his Commonweal.  that neither the punishments nor the rewards of this world are any thing at all either for number or for greatness, in respect of those which are prepared for either sort in the life to come.  
Cicero who would needs be as a Plato in Latin, followeth him as it were step by step; 
Plutarch, concerning the slow punishing of the wicked.  and so doth Plutarch also, who counterfeiting Plato, bringeth in one Thespesius raised from the dead, and maketh him to discourse of the life to come. And without calling in Plotine, Porphyrius, Proclus, Hierocles & such others, whom it would be overlong to hear, only jamblichus shall suffice, whose words are these: The good Soul shall dwell with GOD, and walk up and down in Heaven, where it shall have a dwelling place. But the Soul that is defiled with cursed deeds, shallbe sent under the Earth, to the judgements which are there executed upon Souls. Now what can we demand more of the Philosophers, than that which they confess? Namely that the happiness and the end of man, are not in this life but in the other, and that the mark which man should shoot at, is to employ this in the knowing of GOD, that in the other life he may everlastingly enjoy all good things in him.  
So then, let us conclude both by man's reason and by the authority of all Philosophy. That as the body of man relieth upon his Soul; so his mortal life relieth upon the immortal life that is to come: That the end whereto man was created in this world, is to know and serve God, and to possess him wholly above. Howbeit for as much as by our fall we be fallen from knowledge into ignorance, and therefore although we have some little glimmering sight of our end which we am at, yet we wot not how to shape ourselves to it; And again, by the same fall we be fallen from our sovereign welfare into a bottomless pit of misery, where we creep so lame as it is not possible for us to return again to our former state: Let us see whether God of his mercy, have not left us some remnants whereby to get up again, and to be directed into our right way; and whether he himself also do not reach us out his fatherly hand, through the clouds of darkness wherewith we be overwhelmed, to pull us back and to call us home again to him, as very Bastards, Rebels, and unworthy caitiffs as we he.   

The xx. Chapter.  
That the true Religion is the way to attain to the said end, and sovereign welfare; and what are the marks of that Religion.  
I Have proved already, That there is but one God the father of Mankind: That he created the world for man's use: and that he governeth both the World and Man by his providence. hereupon the lea●t man among all will conclude by and by, That ●ith he is our father, we own him obedience; sith we hold all things of him in fee, we own him fealty and homage; sith he provideth all things for us, we ought to call upon him in all our doings and in all our necessities. Also I have showed, that Man is of nature immortal: and therefore he must apply himself withal his heart to immortal things. That by sin he is fallen from God and from himself: and therefore he must crave forgiveness of him, that his wrath may be appeased: That this offence was a certain pride and overweening of himself; and therefore he must acknowledge his frailty and wretchedness, and humble himself before GOD. Now in one word, what is all this to say, but that as there is but● one God and one Mankind; so there aught to be but one Religion, that is to say, one ordinary duty & service of man towards God? For what else are all the exercises of Religion, but appurtenances of the Articles which we have proved; that is to wit, of the creation of the world, and of God's Providence; of the Immortality of the Soul, and of Man's fall; and of Man's sovereign welfare? In Religion men 〈◊〉, men kneel, men have ordinances to observe: this is done in token of obedience. Again; they give thanks 〈◊〉 praise unto GOD, and they give him the first-fruits both of their cattle and of their Corn: that is a sign of acknowledgement that they be but as his Tenants: They call upon him in their adversity, and they ask prosperity of him in all their doings, be they never sosmall▪ It is properly a commending of themselves to his providence. Also in Religion there is weeping, forrowing, fasting, putting on of sackcloth, and besprinkling of themselves with du●t. This is in token that we ought to humble ourselves beneath the very earth. Again, there be Sacrifices both general and particular; and what are those but protestations that all of us and every of us have deserved death? In the end of all this, there cometh a promise and a pretence of everlasting life, to such as discharge their duty towards God: which is as much to say, as that those Ceremonies and observations are not the things that we must rest upon, but are means to lead us to our right end, which is to lift us up on high. But between these two last Articles, namely between the death which we protest ourselves to have deserved, and the everlasting life that is behighted us to inherit, there is a marvelous waste distance to be filled up: and yet notwithstanding either it must needs be that man is set in the world in vain, or else that there is a way or a bridge ordained for the passing thereof. Therefore Religion, which hath brought us to the pits brim, must also show us this bridge; that she may unite and link us again unto God, from whom we be gone so far and so strangely by our fall; and that she may reconcile us as bastardly children to our father, and as rebellious Subjects to our Prince: without which reconciliation or (according to the Latin derivation) Religion, God ceaseth to be our father, and we to be his children; and all Religion, how gay and glorious show soever it have, is utterly unprofitable and vain. Now, the end that man should aim at in this life, is to return unto God, and it cannot be in vain: but in vain it should be, if there be no way to lead man unto GOD, or rather to bring God unto man. To the intent therefore that neither GOD be defrauded of his glory, nor man of his end and felicity, there must according to my former profess) needs be a way, that is to say a mean to reconcile man unto God, and to unite him again unto him, that he may be saved; which way we will (according to the common speech) call Religion.  
Now, 
There is but one true Religion.  all the ancient men agree fully, that there ought to be a Religion among all men; as in deed there is not a thing that doth more necessarily follow, than a GOD, a Man, and a Religion; a Father, a Son, and an Obedience; a Master, a Servant, and a service: a Giver, a receiver, and a reward: or rather a Lender, a debtor, 
Marsilius ficinus concerning the Christian Religion.  and a Bond. And therefore full well doth one say, The Philosophers ought to have been the first Divines. For, inasmuch as we make towards GOD with two wings, that is to say, with Wit and Will: Wit can no sooner conceive that God is our father, but by and by Will inferreth thereupon, Ergo we ought to obey him and to serve him: yea and it proceedeth yet further, that sith he is our father and we his children, it is for our most behoof to return unto him. 
In the last cap. of his Esculapius.  O Lord (saith Hermes) What thanks shall we yield thee? And by-and-by he answereth, Lord, there is but only one thank, and that is the acknowledging of thy Majesty. And again: The only way to come unto God, is godliness matched with knowledge, that is to say, to know how he willbe served, and thereupon to serve him. And Pythagoras was wont to say to the same purpose, forasmuch as we be nothing without God, it becometh us to live unto God. 
Plato in his Epinomis and in his Thoe●tetus.  Plato commendeth Religion in a thousand places, whereof I will not take past two or three sayings here. It is man's felicity (saith he) to be like unto God. As how? By being righteous and holy. How may that be? By Religion towards GOD, which is the greatest virtue that can be among men. Aristotle (by many men's report) was Religious, and as for Auerrhoes his interpreter, he was utterly irreligious. Nevertheless see how nature swimmeth over ungodliness. 
Aristotle in his fifth book of morals: and in his first of Heaven.  Aristotle saith it is graffed in nature to do sacrifice. And 
Auerrhoes upon that first book of Heaven.  Auerrhoes saith that we be bound by nature to magnify God with Prayers and Sacrifices. What is this to say, but that it is natural to man, yea even in respect of his shape and substance, to have a Religion? And why? 
Alexander of Aphrodyse, concerning the providence of God, cited by Cyrillus.  Alexander professeth himself to be the interpreter of Aristotle, and therefore he shall interpret him for us here. It is (saith he) because our whole felicity consisteth in devotion towards God. For we look for none other reward but God himself, and him being the very sovereign good, we obtain by serving him. Now when we hear these words, we may think it was a strong torment of conscience that wrong this truth out of them. For all men know, that chéesly Auerrhoes urgeth the eternity of the world, and the universality of one only Mind, which yet notwithstanding cannot match with godliness.  
Epictetus maketh not the like flourishes of Philosophy, but yet he playeth the Philosopher much better in deed. If we had wit (saith he) what should we do but praise God continually, and sing Psalms of thanksgiving unto him, even in digging and tilling the ground, and both in journeying and in resting? As how? Even saying thus: Great is God which hath given us these tools to till the earth withal; Great which hath given us hands to work withal; Great which hath given us too grow even not woting it, and to breath even being a sleep, for these are things that cannot be imputed to our own cunning. Such (saith he) ought to be the Songs of every of us. And again: If I were a Nightingale, I should do as Nightingales do: but being a reasonable Creature, what shall I do now? I will evermore praise God (saith he) without ceasing; and I will exhort you all to do the like. 
Simplicius upon Epictetus.  And Simplice his interpreter having first made many goodly discourses, addeth that he which is negligent and slothful in serving and honouring God, cannot be diligent in any other thing, how needful so ever the same be. 
Hierocles in his first chapter against Atheifts.  Of all virtues (saith Hierocles) Religion is the guide, for it concerneth the matters of God, and therefore Pythagoras beginneth his precepts thereat. And the word which he useth there for a guide signifieth a Queen, which one word importeth very much, namely that all the virtues which we make account of, as Hardiness, Wisdom, justice, and Temperance, are nothing if they be not referred unto God, and used in respect of him, that is to say, if Religion do not direct and lead them to God the principal end whereto all our doings ought to tend. 
Hierocles. cap. 6. 19 11.  But what is Religion? It is (sayeth he) the obeying of God, the mother of all virtues, and the disobeying of all vices. And our obeying of God must be of such a sort, that we must rather disobey our parents, yea and lose our lives to than disobey him. For our obeying of our parents must be for the love of God; and it is of his goodness that we possess our lives. 
jamblichus in his 45. Chapter of Mysteries,  jamblichus sayeth thus. Let us begin at the best and most precious; namely the observing of Religion, which is the serving of God. And in another place. Thou surmisest (saith he) that there is some other way than Godliness to attain to felicity, and thou askest of me what that way may be. But surely (say I) if the very substance and original power of all goodness and welfare be in the Gods: only those are happy which consecrate and unite themselves to God after our example. For in that state are both contemplation and knowledge accomplished; and besides the knowledge of the Gods, there is also the knowledge of ourselves, which is gotten by casting back our understanding towards ourselves. 
Proclus in his book of praying.  To be short, Proclus as well upon his own judgement as upon the opinions of Plato, jamblichus, Porphyrius, Plotin and others, saith that Religion and the calling upon God are proper and peculiar to man after the fourth manner as Aristotle termeth it; that is to say, a natural property which agreeth fitly to the whole kind of man, and only to man, and without the which he cannot be a man. Now I am not ignorant that they speak sometimes of the serving of the Gods in the pulrall number, as though there were more Gods than one; insomuch that some of the Philosophers turned aside to art magic, and all of them yielded to the I dolatries & Superstitions of their times. For in deed, to know that God ought to be served, and to know after what sort he willbe served, and to serve him thereafter, are things far differing. But it is enough for this time that we win thus much at their hands, that of necessity there is a Religion; which thing even the Navigations of our time do show to be imprinted in all the Climates of the world, and in all kinds of men; as which have discovered Nations that wander in Woods, without Law, without Magistrate, without King, but none without some kind of serving of God, none without some shadow of Religion.  
Hereby than we know that there is a Religion, 
Tha● there is but one true Religion.  that is to say, a way to Salvation, or a way whereby to come home again unto God. But are there many ways, or but only one? It is a high question, but yet easy to be decided, if we consider what Religion requireth of us, and what it is to get for us. Religion (as the men of old time themselves have taught us) requireth of us in effect, that we should yield full obedience unto God: full obedience say I, so as we should dedicate ourselves to his glory, both our thoughts, words and deeds, in such sort that ourselves and all that ever is in us should be referred to his honour. If Religion require this, how can it be any other then one? Or what diversity can it admit? And if any require less of us, contented peradventure with the outward man, (which is all one as if they would rob God of one half of a Man;) what is their doing but Hypocrisy or high treason against God? But now again, seeing that Religion bindeth us in so great a bond, even by nature, that there is not any man which is not enforced to confess the debt so witnessed by the whole world: surely there is no man that feeleth himself able to pay it, or which doth not willingly plead guilty, yea and which is not enforced to say, that the most part of his thoughts, words and deeds, are not only far of from God, but also tending directly to offend GOD. Now then, if Religion offer us not as well a mean whereby to discharge and cancel the bond, as it offereth us the bond itself: It is so far of from being the way to welfare which it ought to be, that it is rather a definitive sentence of death, and an express condemning of us. Therefore let us see whether there be many ways of satisfaction, or but only one.  
What shall the devoutest man in the world offer unto God for his own discharge? Shall he offer his first fruits? God gave him both the seed and the whole crop. Sacrifices? The Wood, the Fire, and the cattle, are all of God's gift. The whole world, if a man had it? He hath lost the inheritance and the right thereof in seeking to enfranchise himself from the service of God. Nay (which more is) God not only gave the world unto man, but also man to man himself. The world then and all that ever is therein, cannot discharge man against God. What may man himself do? Surely an acceptable Sacrifice should man be to GOD (as Hierocles saith) if he were such a one as he ought to be. But what should the best of all men offer up in sacrificing himself? Sooth nothing but envy, hatred, railing, backbiting, vain thoughts, untrue words, wrongful dealing, and (to go yet further) faint thanks, with cold and counterfeit prayers. Now these are so far of from amounting to a discharge, that they turn to a huge heap of worse and more undischargeable bonds, according to the infiniteness of the Majesty of the Creator that is offended by them. Now then, if neither that world nor man can discharged man against God; what remaineth to do it, but God himself, whom Religion must offer to man for his discharge; even God merciful, to God just; God a paymayster, to God the creator: verily, that having showed us how deeply we be indebted to GOD; it may also teach us the wonderful mean ordained by God and in God, whereby he and his sovereign justice may be satisfied, and our extreme iniquity be therewith relieved? Now the debt of us all is all of one sort and nature; namely that we own ourselves all wholly unto God; and our unability to discharge it is also all alike; namely that all that ever cometh of ourselves can deserve nothing but death upon death. Our common bond (say I) entered into of us all by God's benefits towards the first man, is by his disobedience become forfeited, both in respect of himself and of all mankind. Besides this, the creditor and the payer are both one, and cannot be but both one. For it is only God that both doth and can satisfy himself. It followeth then, that the true Religion can be but one; namely even that only one which showeth us the only one mean of salvation: and that all other Religions, if they abate any whit of man's debt unto God, are traitorous to his majesty; and if they set not down a sufficient mean of discharge, they be but vain and unavailable ceremonies: and so as well the one sort as the other, utterly unworthy of the name of Religion. Furthermore, if there be divers true Religions, I mean divers, as in respect of the substance of them, whereof riseth that diversity? Of the thing which they point at? Nay, in God (whom Religion looketh at) there is such unity, that all other manner of unity is diversity in respect of that. And then if it be so that one Religion rely upon one God, and another upon another, we be sure that there is but one God, and that all other Gods are either Creatures or Vanities, insomuch that (as Proclus himself saith) more Gods and no God differ nothing at all. And so what shall those other Religions be, but either Idolatry or Atheism, that is to say, utter Godlesnes? Whereof then? Of their ground? Nay, Man which is the ground whereon Religion worketh, is but one kind of thing. Also as the disease being in all men cometh of one root, so is it of one selfsame nature. Likewise the remedy thereof (as I have said already) is but only one. Now where the ground is all one, the disease all one, and the remedy all one too: who will ever say that there should be diversity of Arts in the handling or ministering of them? If a man be too humble himself, I would fain have them to tell me, what other way there is than to know himself: what other way to know himself, than to behold himself: what other way to behold himself, then to look into a fair clear glass? And what clearer glass is there, than the Law of God, and the perfect obedience which GOD requireth at man's hand? And seeing that this law, and the perfect obedience required by the same, can be but one, How may Religion be divided into more than one? again, if man be to be lifted up unto God, what other way is there than to make him know God as his Creator, that he may honour him; as his governor, that he may call upon him; as his father, that he may obey him; and altogether just, that he may seek to appease his wrath? Which thing sith he cannot do of himself, what shift hath he but to have recourse to the remedy? And seeing that the remedy can be but only one; doth it not follow that salvation lieth in that only Religion which showeth it unto us, and that to have any more Religions, is but confusion and vanity? And to speak properly, what is Religion? An art or skill (if I may so term it) how to save men. And wherein consisteth this art? First in showing men their disease; secondly in showing them that it is deadly; and finally in teaching the fit and convenient remedy. In deed the very Law of Nature leadeth us well too the first point. For who is he which even of Nature accuseth not himself, and whose conscience nippeth him not when he hath sinned? Reason also leadeth us to the second point. For who is he that concludeth not with himself, that the Creature which offendeth his creator deserveth to be rooted out, that is to say, that sin engendereth death? And thus far may all Religions come, and all Ceremonies ordained by man, as Prayers, Sacrifices, Wasshins, Cleansings, & such others. But what is all this but a bringging of us to Hellgate, or rather a showing of Paradise unto us a far of, howbeit with such a horrible and infinite gulf betwixt us and it, as man and all the whole world can neither fill up nor pass over? Yet must there needs be a passage; For the end of Man is to be united unto God, and this end is not in vain; the mean to be united above, is to be reconciled here beneath; and the mean to be reconciled here beneath, is (as I have said already) but only one, which is, that God himself acquit us without our discharging of the debt which we own unto him. Only that Religion then (and none other) which leadeth us straight to the said passage, and by the following whereof we find it, is the true Religion, as that which alonely attaineth to the end of Religion, which is the saving of man. May not men (will some say) worship God diversly, some lifting up their eyes to heaven, and othersome casting their faces down to the ground? Yes, for the worshipping is but one, and the humbling of men's selves is but one still, though there be difference in the signs. But our disputing here is not of the Ceremonies, but of the substance of them. Also may not men offer Sacrifice diversly? Yes. But if thy Sacrifices have no further end than the shedding of the blood of a beast; then (as saith Hierocles) they be to the Fire but a feeding thereof with fuel and vapours; and to the Priests, a superfluous maintenance of butchery. It is requisite therefore that sacrifices should be referred to somewhat; namely that by them thou shouldest protest, that whereas the silly innocent beasts do suffer death, it is thou thyself that hast deserved it both in body and Soul. Again, if thou have nothing else in thy Religion, but Sacrifices and prayers; how goodly a show soever they make, thou hast nothing but a confession of thy fault, and a sentence of death against thee for the same. For if those Ceremonies aim not at a certain mark, they be trifling toys; and if that be the end whereat they aim; then come they short, as which do but lead thee unto death, and there leave thee.  
There are some that would bear us on hand, 
An objection.  that Religion is but an observation of certain Ceremonies in every Country; by which reason, that which is holy here, should be unholy in another place; and that which is godly in one Land, should be ungodly in another. To be short, they make it like the Laws that depend upon Custom, which pass no further than the bounds of the place where they be used. If Religion be nothing else but so; what science, art, or trade is more vain than that? Or rather what is to be said of it, but that in deed it is no Religion at all? Leachecraft is uncertain in many respects, as of air, of water, of age, and of climate: but yet, the which is Leachecraft in one Country, is not manquelling in another. Lawecraft hath almost as many sundry Laws as caces, and the caces that are in the world are infinite. Yet notwithstanding who seeth not that all these diversities of caces are brought under one uprightness and reason? and that they which yield not thereunto, are not reputed for men, but rather, for enemies of mankind and wild beasts? Also virtue hath the affections to work upon, a ground more movable than the Sea and the wind. And yet who will say, that that which is hardiness between the too Tropiks is Cowardliness in all other Countries; or that that which is staidness in one half of the world, is unstaidness in the other half? To be short, what thing is more subject to rising and falling, or to be cried down or enhanced, than coin of silver and gold, as which seemeth to follow the wills of princes? And yet notwithstanding, for all their ordinances and proclamations, both gold and silver do always keep a certain rate and value. What shall we say then to Religion, which hath a firmer and substantialler ground than all these; I mean not men's bodies, goods, affections, or fantasies; but the very soul and mind of man, who also hath such a rest to stay upon, as is settled, unmovable, and the Lord of all Changes, that is to wit, God? How much more wisely doth our Pythagorist Hierocles teach us, that Religion is the governess of all virtues, and that all virtues tend to her as to their certain end, as who would say, they be no virtues if they serve from her; insomuch that hardiness being referred to any other than godliness, becometh rashness; wisdom becometh wiliness; lines; and justice becometh juggling; and at a word, all virtue is but masking and hypocrisy? If Religion be the end of all virtues, must it not needs be fixed and unmovable? Or if it be movable, what is there then that is just, good, or virtuous? And if the case stand so; what thing in the world is more unavailable than man, or to speak more rightly, what thing is to less purpose in man, than his mind? But there is virtue, and the wickedest man that is, will avow it. Therefore there is also a certain Religion, which maketh it to be virtue, and whereunto virtue referreth itself; and the ungodliest man that is cannot scape from it.  
Let us look yet further into the absurdities of this opinion. Who can deny but that among the diversities of Religions, there were many sorts of wickedness and ungodliness openly executed; some worshipping the creatures in Heaven yea and on earth, as the Egyptians did in old time, and as the Tartarians do at this day; some offering up men in Sacrifice, as the Carthaginenses did in old time and as the Western Isles do yet at this day: and othersome permitting things not only contrary to all Laws, but also even horrible and loathsome to nature? If all this be good; I pray you what good is there, or rather what evil is there in the world? But if it be evil in itself; who can deny but that there were wicked and ungodly Religions in the world, (I use the word Religion after the common manner) and that a man had need of a Rule whereby to discern the good Religion from the bad? And in very deed it is so rooted in nature to believe that there is but one Religion to be had, as well as to believe that there is but one God; that (as we may daily see) a man will rather endure the change of a temperate air into an extreme hot or into an extreme cold; of freedom into bondage; and of justice into Tyranny, than any alteration at all (though never so little) in the case of Religion: verily as who would say, it were not so natural for a man too love his native Country, to be free, and to be at his easy; as to have some one certain Religion to gwyde him to salvation.  
Now my meaning hath been to lay forth this truth after the more sorts, of purpose to take away the doubts, and to avoid the krinks invented anew by certain Libertines. But forasmuch as there are many Ceremonies which disguise themselves in the attire of Religion to deceive us: 
The first mark of the true Religion.  it is more needful for us to have sure and infallible marks, whereby to discern the true Religion. First of all therefore let us lay this foundation which I have laid and settled already heretofore, namely that Religion is the right Rule of serving God, and of reconciling and reuniting man again unto God, that he may be saved. Now man's Salvation is nothing else but his felicity, happiness, sovereign good, or welfare: and his welfare (as I have declared afore) is to be knit unto God. For neither the world, nor any creature in the World can make man happy, but only he that made man. And it is a clear case that we ought to serve him here beneath, who is to make us happy above, and nòne other but him. All Religion therefore, (how goodly a show so ever it have to the eye,) which turneth away from serving God to serving the Creature, is but Idolatry and ungodliness unto us. Also all Religion which causeth us to seek our welfare anywhere else, than only in him that is the maker of all welfare; willbe unto us not only vanity and a thrusting of us out of the way; but also a murdering of ourselves, and a casting of us headlong into all wretchedness. They may well have in them an offering of first fruits, of thanksgivings, and of other services: but all these are but injuries and blasphemies against God, if we think ourselves beholden too any creature for the things which we neither have nor can have of any but the Creator. Also they may well have prayers, and sacrifices, but those prayers shallbe both vain and ungodly, being made to him that cannot hear them, and which impute the government of the world unto Creatures, or to such as see them not, or can scarcely see the things that are afore them. And as for their Sacrifices, they shallbe but smoky savours, yea full of traitorous treachery to God, in that they confess their lives before dead things and make amends to Creatures for the offences which they have committed against the Creator. Now therefore let the first mark of the true Religion which we seek, be this; that it direct us & all our church-services unto the true God the maker of Heaven and earth, the only searcher of men's hearts, which are the things wherewith he will chiefly be served; that it may distinguish it from all Idolatries, which seek unto wood, to stone, to the Sun, to the Moon, to Men, to Angels, and to all the Creatures that are in Heaven and in earth. And it is not needful to heap up here great numbers of proofs, or to repeat again the things that have been discoursed in the second and third chapters of this work. For sith there is but one God, and but one Religion; there is not also any thing more agreeable to nature, than to refer the same wholly to the creator. And in very deed Plotin, Porphyrius, Proclus, jamblichus and such others; which worshipped the Angels or good spirits as they thought; said that their so doing (wherein nevertheless they were more unexcusable) was to attain by degrees to the highest God.  
But will this said mark alone suffice us? 
The second mark of true Religion.  No: we must not only serve GOD, but we must also serve him aright. Now then, what is the Rule of this service, or who is he that can set it down in writing? That we may serve him aright, it behoveth us to know him aright: and which of us can vaunt of that? How many be there which after long study, can but so much as tell us what it is not? And what followeth then, but that like as the wizdome of the world, cannot without the overthrow of itself, attain any further concerning God, than to say what he is not: so the same wizdome may well attain so far as to discern what serving of God is false; but it can no more set down and point out the true service, than it can attain to the knowledge of the Godhead. The Country cloyne shallbe scorned for his labour, if he take upon him to appoint how his Prince is to be served; and yet is he a man as well as the Prince, differing from the Prince in state and calling, but not at all in nature and kind. What is to be said then of Man, who is but a worm, yea and less than a worm in respect of the everlasting God; if he will needs shape him & serve him after his own fancy? The Philosopher will say that GOD ought to be served. And if he be a Divine, he will pass somewhat further, and say, that he is not served with vapours and smokes, nor with the shedding of blood. But which of them hath ever said, God is spirit and served in spirit? And if any of them have come any thing near it; how wide hath he wandered away again when he came to the particular pointing out of that service? Of a truth, what are all the worshippings of God which man hath ordained of his own head, but childish imaginations, not only unbeseeming the Majesty of God, but also inferior to the discretion of a man? as Gamings, Shows, stageplays, Ronnings of Horses, justs, a thousand sorts of Combats, Swordplaying, Wrestlings, Buffetings and such other? And what doth all this betoken, but that man mounteth not above man; and that when he thinketh himself to fly his lightest pitch, he scarce heaveth himself upright upon his feet, but never riseth above the earth? For what man is he which calling his wits about him, and looking advisedly unto himself, could find in his heart to be honoured and served after that manner? Surely then let us say, that look how far God vouchsafeth to stoop unto us, so far be we able to mount up unto him: for his coming down, is our mounting up. For if we cannot see the Son but by help of the Son, how welsighted so ever we be: much less can God be seen or known of us, without the help and light of God himself. To be short, we cannot serve God except we know him nor know him except he vouchsafe to discover himself to us, and therefore we can not know how to serve and worship him, furtherforth than he listeth to show it unto us by his word. And yet for the discovering of himself unto us, he needeth neither to draw us up to his brightness, nor to come down to us in his majesty. For our minds could no more abide it than our eyes can away with the beholding of the Son: but he must be fain too stoop to our small ability, by telling us what service he requireth at our hands, not according to his spiritual nature which we cannot possibly comprehend, but as it were through a glass or a scarf, according to the fleshly nature which we bear about with us. Thus have we found our second mark of Religion; namely that the service of God which Religion is to teach us, must be grounded upon his word, and revealed unto us by his ownselfe.  
Let us hear what the heathen say in this case, who knew very well that all the Ladders of their Philosophy were too short to reach thereunto, and that it behoved men to be enlightened and instructed from above. Divinity (saith Plato 
Plato in his second Epistle: and in his Parmenides. ) cannot be laydforth after the manner of other kinds of serving, but hath need of continual minding. And then our wit is forthwith kindled as with a fire, which afterward gathereth light more & more, and maintaineth itself. Finally (saith he) we know nothing of God's matters by our own skill. If he which of all the ancient Philosophers saw most clear, confess here that his sight faileth very much if it be not aided from above: what may we deem of others? And in good sooth, in matters of Religion he sendeth us evermore to the ancient Oracles, that is to say (according to his meaning) to God's word. 
Aristotle in his Supernaturals.  Aristotle in his Supernaturals rehearseth and commendeth a certain answer of Simonides too Hieron King of Sicily; which is, that it belongeth to none but only God, to have skill of the things that are above nature; and how much less than to be skilful in Divinity, and to dispose of Religion, that is to say to show the mean how to overcome and surmount nature? And whereas Cicero in his Laws sayeth, 
Cicero in his first book of Laws.  that there is not any law among men whereto men are bound to obey, unless it be ordained by GOD, and delivered as it were with his own mouth: if he had been well examined, he would have said no less concerning Religion. It is certain (saith jamblicus 
jamblichus. ) that we be bound to do the things that please God. But which are those? Surely (saith he) they be not possible to be known of any man, but of him that hath heard God himself speak, or which have learned them by some heavenly instruction. And Alpharabius the Arabian agreeth thereunto in these words. 
Alpharabius in his book of Sciences.  The things that concern GOD, and are to be believed through holy faith, are of a higher degree than all other things, because they proceed from divine inspiration, and man's wit is too weak, and his reason too short too attain to them. And therefore we read that as they which have ordained and established any Religion in any Nation, have given it forth as proceeding from God; verily because nature taught them, that it belongeth to none but to God alone, to appoint how he shallbe served; neither would the ordinance thereof otherwise be observed, because the parties that were to obey it, would make as great account of themselves as of the party that should enjoin it. Thus by the definitive sentence of the Philosophers, our second mark standeth firm, which will serve us to discern the true Religion from the inventions of men, so as we may well refuse for untruth, whatsoever is not grounded upon God's word. But in following our former purpose, let us consider yet further whether this will suffice or no. 
The third mark of true Religion.   
We have need of a Law that proceedeth from God's mouth: and what may that I pray you be, but the same which proceedeth from holiness itself, namely that we should be holy as he is holy? And if we cannot of ourselves know God, nor how he ought to be served; alas how shall we perform it when he hath declared it unto us? The end of Religion (sayeth Plato) is to knit man unto God. The way to bring this to pass, is to become righteous and holy, or (as saith jamblichus) to offer unto GOD a clean mind void of all naughtiness and clear from all spot. What man (as even they themselves confess) could ever vaunt thereof? And what else then is Religion to all of us, but a book wherein we read the sentence of our death, that is to wit our very death in deed, unless that in the end we find some grace or forgiveness of our sins? Yet notwithstanding Religion is the Pathway to life, yea even to eternal life; a Pathway that hath a certain end, and which beguileth us not. Therefore it must by some means or other fill us up the great gulf that is between endless death, and endless life, and between the dwellingplace of blessedness, and the horribleness of Hell. And therefore let our third mark be, That Religion must put into our hands, a mean to satisfy God's justice, without the which, not only all other Religions, but also even that which containeth the true serving of the true GOD were utterly vain and unprofitable. Now, man's reason hath well perceived that some such mean was needful in Religion: but to know what that mean is, was to high a thing for man's reason to attain unto. In respect whereof the Platonists busied themselves very much in finding out some mean to cleanse men from their sins, and too knit them unto God being reconciled to his favour, and they set down certain degrees whereby to attain thereunto. But yet in the end they confess all their washings and cleansing to be utterly unsufficient. There are which say it is to be done by abstinence, by virtuous behaviour, by skill, or by jupiters' mysteries; and some say it is to be done by all of them successively one after another. But yet when they have bestirred themselves on all sides, Porphyrius conclusion is, That they be Ceremonies without effect, and yet notwithstanding that there must of necessity needs be a mean to purge and justify men, and that the same must be universal, and that it is not possible (admitting God's providence as we ought to do) that God should leave mankind destitute of that mean. And that this remedy ought to be contain din Religion, he showeth sufficiently in that he seeketh it in taking the Orders, and in the Consecrations, hallowings and other mysteries of his own Religion, which in the end he letteth go again. But yet more apparently doth Hierocles show it, 
Hierocles in his 14. and 24. Chapters, and in his preface.  who saith that Religion is a study of Wisdom that consisteth in cleansing and perfecting the life, that men may be at one with God, and become like unto him: and that to attain to that cleanness, the mean is to enter into a man's own conscience, and to consider of his sin, and to confess it unto God. Thus far he is very well. Nevertheless, here they stop overshort everichone of them: for upon confession ensueth but death, unless God (who is the very justice itself, and more infinitely contrary to evil than we can imagine,) be appeased and satisfied for our offences, whereas in Religion we seek for very life. To be short, of the great number of Religions which are in the World, some have no certain restingpoint at all; as we read of some people of Africa, which worship that thing which they meet first in the morning; and that is but a vain Ceremony: Some have a restingpoynt, howbeit an evil one; as for example, all they that direct us to the creatures; and those are nothing else but Idolatries. Some do set unto themselves a good end, in that they aim at the Creator; but they will needs worship him after their own fancy; and that is a swerving aside to superstition, or rather (which worse is) a serving of their own fancy, and not of GOD. And among the residue, there is one which hath an eye to the Creator and honoureth his Law, and that is the Religion of the jews. This again is a way that leaveth us in the mids of our way, leading us into the wood, but not leading us out again. But the true Religion in deed and which deserveth the name of Religion, is only that which hath God for her sheet-anchor, his word for warrant of her worshipping, and a mean appointed by him to pacify him withal; and in that only and in none other resteth any Salvation.  
Some tell us that Religion is nothing else but charity; 
An objection.  that is to say, the performing of a man's duty towards his neighbour: and those men would tell us if they durst, that Religion is but an instrument of civil government. But when they have enlarged the commendations of charity as far as they can, what can they (at a word) say more than we say thereof; namely, that Charity is of such force and weight, that Religion can by no means stand without it? Nevertheless, to speak properly thereof, Charity is not the mark whereby to discrene the true Religion, but rather to discern who is rightly Religious. Too the intent a man may be happy, he must return unto God; therefore he must needs serve him. That is the badge of Religion. But the godly or Religious man uttereth his Religion, (that is to say, that God hath touched him truly in his hart,) in that he performeth all the duties of unfeigned friendship and godly affection towards his neighbour who is the Image of God. Charity therefore is nothing else but a rebounding of godliness or of the love of God, back unto our neighbour, or a reflection or sigh upon this Image. Also that a man may be happy, he must be linked unto God; and that he may be linked unto God, he must be reconciled into his favour. Now this charity which they speak of, is but a linking of Man unto man.. It is not that which maketh a man happy, neither doth the fault which hath destroyed us all, consist in want of charity, (I mean that Charity which they pretend); but in rebelling against God. Therefore it booteth us not to be at one with our neighbour, except we be at one with God. Nevertheless it is a good sign that our hart is servant in the love of God, as the child is in the love of his father, when being unable as yet to unite ourselves unto him, we link ourselves in one body and one mind to all those which bear his Image. To be short, the true mark of fire is not heat; for there are other things which are hot as well as fire: but it is a virtue that is so linked unto it, that as soon as ye hear of fire, it followeth immediately that there is heat also, but not contrariwise. Likewise Charity is not the true religion itself, but a virtue which accompanieth it so of necessity, that a man can no sooner say there is Religion in this man or that man; but that it must needs follow incontinently, that there is charity in him also. And what manner of charity? Sooth not such as they take it to be which refreyne from misdealing for fear of man's Law; for that is but hypocrisy: nor a desire of credit that we may have the better speed in our affairs; for that is but a chaffaring. Nor a desire of honour whereby we be spurred to dowel; for that is but a self love. But it is a certain fear and love of God, which maketh us to cherish and love all those for God's sake, which are of him and hold of him. Now what man is he that dareth vaunt of this perfect charity, that he loveth his neighbour as he ought, and in such respect as he ought, that is to say as himself, and for the love of God? For how can we have this charity, if Religion go not afore? And if our love towards God be so short and feeble (as I said afore); what rebounding back thereof will there be upon our neighbour.  
Now therefore let us conclude, That as man hath but one end, namely of returning unto God; so there is but one right path to lead him thither, and that is Religion. And that as there is but one God; so there can be but one true Religion, that is to say, one way that leadeth to salvation; which Religion hath these three unfallible marks whereby to discern it; namely that it worship the true GOD; that it worship him according to his word; and that it reconcile to God the man that followeth it. And now let us consequently see which of all the Religions in the world it is, that alonely is to be discrned by these marks.   

The xxi. Chapter.  
That the true God was worshipped in Israel: which is the first mark of the true Religion.  
THe first mark of the true Religion, without the which it cannot rightly bear the name of Religion, is the serving of the true God. And the true God (as I have said before) is the same that created heaven & earth and all things in them; which governeth them by his wisdom; which maintaineth them by his goodness; which wéeldeth them according to his will, and directeth them according to his glory. By this so notable a mark we cannot fail to decipher the true God from the false Gods, and by the selfsame mean to discern the true Religion which beareth our first mark, from all other Religions how painted and disguised so ever it is possible for them to be. This God which hath done those things can be but one. For seeing he created all things, all the things which we see here beneath are but creatures. Now then, whatsoever Religion pointeth us to any more Gods then one, we ought to abhor it even at the very first approach. Again, the same God is also infinite and incomprehensible. For the work cannot conceive the woorkmayster, but contrariwise the woorkemayster conceiveth the work. Whatsoever work therefore is made to counterfeit him or too resemble him, or to show him unto us, can be nothing else but Idolatry and Superstition, invented by the Devil or by man.  
Now let us come nearer to the rabble of Religions; and we shall see there throngs of hundred thousand Gods distinguished by strange fantastical devices of men, of women, of beasts and of monsters. Yet shall we not see there any whit of that which we seek for. But there is one Religion to be seen among all the rest, which for all the rest, beareth this mark graved in her forehead, In the beginning GOD created the Heaven and Earth: and soundeth out this speech aloud everywhere, The Lord our God is but one God; and in the mids of all the rout that barketh and biteth at her on all sides, crieth out courageously, All your Gods are but error and vanity. Therefore without staying upon the others, which are not worthy so much as to be looked on, we will proceed to that only one Religion which alonely in truth professeth the true way, and the knowledge of the place whereunto we would come. Now, to show the way, the end whereto it leadeth must be known: and the end which all of us tend unto, is a happy life. And to lead a happy life, is to live in God who is the very happiness itself. And the same God (as I have made the heathen-men themselves to confess) is but one. The Religions therefore which were not the livery of that, but of many, cannot bring us too the happiness which we seek: for it is but one, and to be had at the hand of that one. Which then is the one Religion that shall lead us to the one God? Shall we seek for it among the Assyrians? They worshipped as many Gods as they had Towns. Among the Persians? They had as many Gods, as there be Stars in the Sky and Fires on Earth. Among the Greeks? They had as many Gods as they had fancies: Among the egyptians? They had as many Gods as they sowed or planted Fruits, or as the Earth brought forth fruits of itself. To be short, the Romans in conquering the world, got to themselves all the vanities in the World, and they wanted no wit to devise others of their own brain. What shall it avail us to ask the way of these blind Souls, which go groping by the Walls sides, and have not so much as a Child or a Dog to lead them as some blind folk have, but catch hold unadvisedly of every thing that comes in their way? But yet among these great Nations, we spy a little Nation called the people of Israel, which worshippeth the maker of all things, acknowledging him for their Father, calling upon him alone in all their needs, as (for all the small account that others made of them) abhorring all the glistering gloriousness of the great kingdoms that were out of the way. It is in the Religion of this people and not elsewhere, that that we shall find our said former mark. And therefore we must seek it only there, and leave the damnable footsteps of the rest, as being assured that we may more safely follow one man that is cléeresighted, than a thousand that are blind. For what greater blindness of mind can be, than to take the Creature for the Creator, a thing of nothing for the thing that is infinite?  
Now, that the people of Israel worshipped the true GOD in such sort as I have described him; the continuance of their whole History showeth well enough. All men know in what reverence the Bible hath been had in all times among the Hebrews. And if any man doubt whether it be God's word or no; that is a question to be decided otherwise. But yet for all that, it is out of all doubt, that the Hebrews themselves took it to be so, and that we cannot better judge of their belief and Religion, than by the Scriptures, for the which they have willingly suffered death. And what else do those Scriptures preach from the first word of them to the last, than the only one God the maker of Heaven and of Earth? As soon as you do but open the Bible, by-and-by ye see there, In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. At the very first step in at the gate of that book, it excludeth all the Gods made or devised by man from that people, to the intent to keep them wholly to the true God that created man. Open the book furtherforth at all adventure wheresoever you list, and from line to line you shall meet with nothing but the praises of that God, or protestations and thunderings against the strange Gods. God made man excellent, who for his disobedience is become subject to corruption. Who could punish and imprison such a substance, but he that made it? He founded the world and peopled it, which afterward was overwhelmed by the flood, and who could let the waters lose, but he that held them at commandment? The people of Israel found dry passage through the Red Sea; and who prepared them that way, but he that founded the Earth upon the déepes'? Also the Sun stood still and went back at the speaking of a word; and of whose word? but of his whose word is a deed? I dispute not here as yet, whether these things be true or no; but I say only that the Hebrews believed them, yea and that they believed them in all ages; and that they worshipped him whom they believed to be the doer of those things; who certes cannot be any other, than the same of whom the first line of the book sayeth, That he made the Heaven and the Earth. 
job. 38.  Ask of job who it is whom he worshippeth; and he will not say it is he whom the invention of the craftsman, or of the Imbroyderer, or of the proyner of Uynes hath devised; nor that is spun, weaved, or hamered; nor that hath a Tail cut with a Razor; nor an Image turned arsyversie, nor some juggling trick to dazzle children's eyes withal; for such (as we shall see more plainly hereafter) are the Gods of the heathen: (but he will say) it is the same GOD that founded the earth, and stretched out his Metlyne over it, which hath shut up the Sea within doors, and bounded the rage of his waves; which made the light and the darkness; which holdeth back the Pleiads and unbindeth Orion; which hath created the world, and given understanding to man. 
P●alm. 104.  It is he (saith David) which spreadeth out the Heavens as a Curtain, and maketh him Chambers among the the Waters; which hath settled the Earth upon her Pillars, and chased away the Sea at one only threatening of his; which maketh the Winds his messengers, and the Elements his servants. It is he (sayeth Esay) which is the first and the last; 
Esay. 48. & 61.  His hand hath grounded the Earth, and his right hand hath measured the Heavens. As soon as he called them, they appeared together before him: Heaven is his Seat, and the Earth is his Footstool. Yea and besides all this, Moses will tell us, that strain we ourselves to say what we can of him, we can say no more of him but that it is he whose name is I am that I am; even he that alonely is, of whom all things that are have their being, and in comparison of whom all things are nothing, whom neither words nor works can express, only in effect, and yet infinite therewithal.  
Some man will say, it may be that this so great a God, vouchsafeth not to stoop down unto us, but hath left the charge both of the world and of men to some Servants of his whom it behoveth us to worship. Nay, as he is high and great in power, so is he deep also in wisdom and goodness. Art thou sick? It is he that both maketh health and sendeth sickness; thou seest how he was Ezechias Physician. wouldst thou have Children? It is he that openeth and shutteth the bearingplace. Insomuch that he made the old age of Sara fruitful, and the barren Anne a mother and a Nurse. Doth thine enemy vex thee? He is the God of Hosts, whom Gedeon findeth as strong with a small army as with a great. wouldst thou have a prosperous wind? 
job. 38.  It is he (saith job) that sheddeth forth the Eastern wind upon the earth, and at whose call the northwind cometh. Doth thy husbandry dry away with drought? It is he that dealeth forth both the morning and the evening rain; which beget the drops of the dew; and which maketh it to rain upon the ground, yea even where nobody dwells. To be short, art thou afraid of famine? He prepareth food for the Ravens to pray upon, 
Psal. 104.  and their young birds cry unto none but him. The lions whelps roar unto him for food, and all things that live in the air, on the Land, and in the water, do wait upon him for the supplying of their needs. And what is all this in effect, but that the God whom Israel woorshipeth, is the Creator and Governor of all things? The very true God which maintaineth all things by his goodness, as well as he made them by his power. As careful for all things yea even to the least, as he is myghtfull and of ability to maintain them. All the whole scripture from the one end to the other, that is to say the people of Israel from age to age, sing nothing else but that. Now if we read over the old ceremonies of the Egyptians, Persians, and tuscans leaf by leaf; where shall we find in them one word of the true God, but only in renowncing, and blaspheming him? And what are all their Gods but carriers of receits, like these dogleaches which profess but the curing of some one disease only, or like these common craftsmen, which profess but the skill of some one craft or mystery? But this true God (as I have said) is the only one God. What other people have been forbidden to call upon many Gods? Nay rather, what other people have not been commanded to have infinite Gods, as a token of Religion? He is a quickening Spirit which cannot be counterfeited nor conceived. What other God hath said, Whereunto will ye liken me, which do hold the Earth between my Fingers? What house will ye build for me which make the Earth my footstool and the Heaven my feat? And to what other people hath it been said, 
Origen against Celsus. lib. 3.  Thou shalt not make any graven Image? And what other people hath chosen rather to die a thousand times, than to break that commandment? Insomuch that they would not admit either painter or carver into any of their Cities. contrariwise, which of all the Gods of the Heathen have not required Images? Yea and (as we read in Porphirius) taught how they should be painted? Much more vain in good sooth than the men that worshipped them. To be short, the true God which governeth the whole world, must also (as I have said afore) govern both men and their wits to his glory. And to govern them so, it behoveth him to know them; and to know them, it behoveth him to see them; and to see into their hearts, it behoveth him to have made them. For the father which thinketh himself to be the begetter of a Child, seethe not into the hart thereof; nother doth the schoolmaster see into his scholars wit, whereof he thinketh himself to be the framer. And much less can an Imaginative God do any of those things, having not made the one nor the other. What other God shall ye read to have said, Thou shalt not covet: or to have required the sacrifice of the hart, or the fasting of the spirit, or a hartbroken and lowly mind? Who else can forbid covetousness and hypocrisy, but he which is able to punish it? And who can punish it, but he that sees it? And who can see it in man, but he that made man? On the contrary part, who seeth not that the Laws which are reported to have been inspired by the Gods at Rome, in Athens, and in Lacedaemon, extend no further than to the outward man? 
Cato in his oration for the Rhodians.  Insomuch that none of them (as sayeth Cato) is found to have said He that is minded to steal, but only He that stealeth, shallbe guilty. Which is as much to say, as that they be but Laws of men, who see not into folk's hearts; Laws of Creatures which pierce no further than the Coat or the Skinue. The people of Israel therefore are the people that served the only true God that made man, and all other people served Gods made by men.  
Now this silly people (as we read in Histories) was strangely despised and trampled under foot, 
The Heathen acknowledged the true God to be in Israel.  as though all the devils had conspired and banded themselves against that people, which alonely worshipped the true God. But what are the Heathen compelled in the end to confess? Varro the best learned of the Romans, who made a beadroll of all the Gods, for fear (as he saith) lest they should stray away: concludeth in the end, that those do worship the true God, which worship the only one, without Images, and which believe him to be the governor of the whole world. Yea and (which more is) he saith that the jews (by what other name soever they call him) do worship the same God truly: 
Austin, in the Citi of God. lib. 8. chap. 31. Denis of Halycarnassus. lib. 1.  and that if after their example all Images had been forbidden, (as they were a long time in Rome) men had not fallen into so many superstitions & errors. It is not to be doubted but that he which spoke so of that whole rabble of false Gods that were in Rome, would have spoken much more of them, if he had not feared men more than his Gods. And whereas some of the heathen to excuse their own sacrilege, have borne the world on hand that the jews worshipped the head of a wild Ass, because a beast of that kind had showed them a fountain in the wilderness, at a time that they were distressed with thirst: Polybius, Strabo, 
Tacitus, lib. 5. or (as some editions have) lib. 2.  and Tacitus himself the maker of that goodly report, do witness, that in the Temple of the jews there was never yet found any Penon, Pencil, Relik, or Image, neither at the time that Antiochus through covetousness sacked it, nor when Pompey for reverence spared it. 
Appion against josephus.  And truly the said Assish report of the Ass' head, is scarce worth the disproof. But more rather because the jews rested upon the Sabbath day, which the Gentiles dedicated afterward unto Saturn, many men have thought that they worshipped Saturn, whereas if the heathen had asken but some Babe of the jews concerning that matter, he would have taught them that the GOD of Israel never fled away for fear of a man as Saturn did, but that he abideth in Heaven, and that the whole Earth quaketh at his presence. Notwithstanding, the chief Monarckeys of the world armed themselves in all ages against this small people: but yet the smaller that they were, the greater appeared the mightiness of their GOD. Sennacharib King of the Assyrians had subdued all his neighbours, and intended to fill up the Dyches of jerusalem as he had done by the overthrow of other Cities. For performance whereof he sent Rabsaces the General of his Host to subdue Ezechias King of juda. In the opinion of men senacharib's argument was good and well concluded. If I should send thee two thousand Horses (saith he) ready furnished to Battle, 
2. Kings. 18. 19  thou couldst hardly furnish as many men to ride them. And canst thou think then that thou art able to resist my whole army? I have conquered Aram, and Arphad, and Ana, and Ava, and Sepharnam, and what shall then become of jerusalem, if it stand wilfully against me? But when as he said, Consider what became of the Gods of those Nations, supposing the GOD of Israel to have been of the same stamp: therein his argument failed, not for that (as the Logicians say) he concluded from the particular to the general, or from that which is true simply to that which is true but in some certain respect, but for argewing from that which is nothing at all to that which is all, namely from the vanity of Idols, to the almightiness of the Creator. But what became of this victorious Monarch, and of his men, and of their Idols? Although the holy Scripture had said nothing thereof, Herodotus can tell us it sufficiently. The Host of Sennacharib (saith he) was miserably discomfited, his state came to decay, his own sons murdered him in the Temple of his Idols, the babylonians gathered up the scatterings of his Empire, (which more is) in a certain Temple of AEgipt, an Image of his was set up with this Inscription, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  Learn at the sight of me to fear God. What more almost saith the holy Scripture unto us thereof? And who can say that this was not a very arch of victory and triumph to the true God, against the Gods of the Heathen, in the person of that Prince which had destroyed so many of them? From henfoorth the Monarchy of the Assyrians did never prosper, but the Medes and Persians came to be Lords of it, who at the first seemed to take warning by the example thereof. For they restored the jews home again into their Country, according to the Prophecies, and gave them leave to build up their Temple again, furthering them by all means therein, and giving them certain allowances for the maintenance of their Sacrifices, acknowledging in their Letters to their Lieutenants, that the God of the jews was the true God, and none other.  
But what shall we say of the Gods of Greece, who in conquering the Persians, came to take a foil in jewrie? For Alexander having subdued the Persians, made men to worship him as a God; and hearing that in the Mountains of Palestine, there was a people whom neither the Assyrians nor the Persians could subdue to their Gods, for all the rigour and cruelty they could show; insomuch that at his own being in Babylon, certain jews that had been conveyed thither, did flatly disobey him, when he meant to have builded there a Temple to jupiter Bele, 
Hecataeus the Abderita.  as Hecateus reporteth, who accompanied Alexander in that voyage: he turned head towards jerusalem, with a venomous rancour to that poor people. But when jaddus the Highpriest of the jews came before him in his Priestly attire, accompanied with his Levites about him; Alexander cast down himself at his feet & worshipped him. This 
* Moenina, Alexander who vaunted himself as a God.  God I say whom that greatest personages worshipped thenceforth, did there worship a man that came to make supplication unto him. Parmenio thinking this to be a very strange sight, asked Alexander the cause why he did so. It is not the man (quoth Alexander) whom I worship, but the God whose Priest he is: for I saw him (said he) in the same attire, when I was yet in Macedony; 
josephus in his Antiquities, lib. 11 cha. 8.  and when I doubted whether I might meddle with Asia or no, he gave me courage to proceed, assuring me that by his guiding I should overcome the Persians. Hereupon he went up into the Temple, and offered Sacrifice unto GOD, in such manner as the Highpriest instructed him; who showed him the book of Daniel, wherein it was prophesied certain hundred years afore, that a certain Greek should come & conquer the Persians, which now fell out to be he. Whereupon he suffered the jews to live after their own laws, and from seven years to seven years released them of all tributes, which thing he denied to the Samaritans. Now, of all the great number of Nations, of whom he conquered many more than he saw, where read we that ever he did the like to any of them? And whereunto shall we attribute this deed of his, but to his bethinking him of the thing which he had learned in secret of the great Priest of the egyptians called Leon, namely, that all the Gods whom the Gentiles worshipped, were Kings of old time, of whom the memorial had been consecrated by their posterity: and therefore he is a greater King than any of them all, thought also that he might well be the greatest God of them all. But in the God of Israel he acknowledged another manner of thing: namely, that he was God of Gods and King of Kings, the changer of empires at his pleasure, which upholdeth Kings with his hand, not to perform their vain attempts, but to bring to pass his own everlasting decrees. By the death of Alexander the Monarchy of the Greeks came to be dispersed, so as the Ptolemy's gate the sovereignty in AEgipt. And what greater proof would we have of their acknowledging the only one God, than to see Ptolemy Philadelph cause the Bible of the Hebrews to be so solemnly translated at his own charges? For what do Conquerors desire, but to give laws to those whom they have vanquished: and therefore what else was this, than a receiving of laws at the hands of the jews? And seeing that the men of Israel were weaker than the men of AEgipt: what can we say, but that the God of Israel had subdued the Gods of AEgipt? And sooth, afterward when Ptolemy surnamed the bountiful had gotten the sovereignty of Syria, he offered not Sacrifice for his victories unto the Gods of AEgipt (which notwithstanding were very many in number, and seemed to have given law to the Nations round about them): but he went to jerusalem, and there acknowledging himself to have received his prosperity of the God of Israel, did consecrate the Monuments of his victories unto him. And yet was this in the time of the greatest adversity of the jews, even when their Country was forayed, and their Temple unhallowed by their enemies and by their own Priests themselves; that is to say, at such a time as all outward things should have dissuaded him from worshipping of the God of that people, had not the most manifest truth driven him to the contrary.  
As touching the Romans, what time they extended their wars into jewrie, we read that they reverenced the Temple of jerusalem: insomuch that Augustus ordained certain sacrifices to be offered there both yearly and daily, and that divers Heathen princes, being provoked by his sending of offerings thither so carefully, followed his example in doing the like. But seeing the Romans brought all the Gods of all the Nations whom they had conquered into Rome: how happeneth it that only this God could find no place there? 
Cicero in his oration for Flaccus.  Cicero answereth, that it beseemed not the Majesty of the Empire. But if I should appose him upon his conscience, did Bacchus, Anubis, Priapus, and their shameful night-wakes and mysteries celebrated in the dark, yield renown to the state of the Empire? Nay, if he will say the truth, they knew that the God of Israel (and none other) was the true God, and that for the harbouring of him, it behoved them to drive away all the rest: but they had so long time foad folk with Idolatry, that they were afraid (as many Princes are at this day) lest they might be deposed by their Subjects in receiving their rightful Lord.  
Yet notwithstanding (will some say) this silly people of the jews were carried away from their own Country into the four quarters of the world, scattered among other people, and parted among all Nations of the earth, at the pleasure of their enemies that had gotten the upper hand of them. Surely Gods wonderful providence is to be noted in this case, far more without comparison, than if that people had conquered the whole world by force of arms. For by the things which the Poets have written of them, we see in what contempt they were had of all men. But yet let us hear the wonderment that was made thereat, not by a common person, but by the great Philosopher Seneca. 
Seneca in his Book of Superstitions.  Yet notwithstanding (saith he) the custom of that Nation hath so prevailed, that it is the rather received of the whole world, and they being vanquished, have (I wot not by what means) given laws to their Conquerors. Who seethe not here a great motion of mind in this Philosopher? And what man having common reason, is not ravished thereat as well as he? Is it possible for Kings to have subdued a people whom they could never enforce to change their own laws? The example thereof is jewrie, which hath been trodden under foot by the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks & Romans; and yet for all their changing of their Masters, they could never be brought to alter their law. There may perchance some like constancy be found among other Nations, as in respect of their laws: but that a people being conquered, carried away, brought into bondage, unaccounted of, led in triumph by divers empires, as the jews were, should not only subdue the hearts of their Conquerors to their GOD, so as the Conquerors could not fasten their laws upon the vanquished sort, but contrariwise the vanquished sort have fastened their laws upon their vanquishers, the Subjects upon their Prince, the Captives upon their Master, and the condemned upon their judge: who (I pray you) would believe it unless he saw it? 
Seneca in his book of Superstition. Austin de Ci●itate Dei. lib. 6. cap. 10.  And if a man see it, how can he say that any other can possibly do it but God? But if Seneca will vouchsafe to hear Seneca quietly, it may be that he himself shall find a resolution to his own wonderment. Namely, that the Gods (as he saith) which were called inviolable & immortal, whom the jews left to other Nations, were dumb and senseless Images, disguised in the shapes of Men, Beasts, and Fishes; and some in ugly and ill-favoured monsters; and that the Fiends which possessed those Images, required worse things of men for their service, than the horriblest Tyrants that ever were; as that men should gash themselves, maim and lame themselves, geld themselves, and offer men women and children in Sacrifice to them. But when folk heard speaking of the true God the maker of Heaven and Earth, and that he willbe served with the hearts and minds of men: that word issewing out of the mouth of a poor prisoner, caught men prisoners and overcame their Gods. And in very deed (as we shall see hereafter) if we read the good authors of that time; either they speak but of the one God, or if they speak of more Gods, it is but for custom's sake and in way of condemning them. What else then were the manifold fléetings of the jews, but as many conveying abroad of companies of Preachers, to show forth the true God; and as many Armies to destroy the Idols and to root them out? 
Origen against Celsus. lib. 3.  We read that the Conjurers which were in old time among the Gentiles, did use the name of the God of Israel, the God of the Hebrews, and the God that drowned the egyptians, in conjuring such as were possessed of devils, and that the devils trembled at that name. This serveth not to prove that they worshipped not other Gods, but that they knew those Gods to be of no force. 
julian against the Galileans.  julian the Apostata did underset his shoulder, to shore up the service of the false Gods as much as he could. But yet durst he not deny, but that the God of Abraham Isaac and jacob is a great and mighty God; and he swore by all his Gods that he was one of them that were converted to his service, and that he knew him to be very gracious to such as serve him as Abraham had done. Who now could ever make an Israelite confess that any other God was good, than the same whom he worshipped? And if he be the very God, how can it be (even by julian's own saying) that all the residue should not be evil, seeing that this good God condemneth them, and declareth them to be all wicked Spirits and enemies of mankind? But if julian himself would tell us what befell him at Antioch, when he asked counsel of his devils who made all his Philosophers to quake, and all his great Sorcerers to run away for fear: we should see well enough what stuff they be: 
Zosimus. lib. 4. Socrates. lib. 3. cap. 11.  insomuch that even his own Historiographer Zosimus, is ashamed to make report of it.  
Now, I would fayne that the Heathen or their Advocates should but show me one of these two things; either where any Author of the jews yieldeth record to any God of the Heathen: or where any grave Heathen author hath condemned the God that is worshipped by the jews. Forasmuch then as in a Chapter appropried to the same purpose, I have already proved by all the ancient Authors, and by consent of all people, that there is but only one God; and by Varro even now, that the jews do worship the same God: what followeth thereof, but that all of them be jews in that point, and that as many as are not so, are all idolaters and deceived? And for that cause when Orpheus had praised God in these and such like verses alleged in the third Chapter. 
There is but one perfect God the maker of all things,  
Who cherisheth and fostereth all things. etc.  He addeth immediately, Never man yet knew his incomprehensible being, saving one of the blood of the Chaldees.  
Which saying of his some refer unto Abraham, othersome to Moses; and some of the Platonists to Zoroastres the grandchild of Noe. And Apollo himself being demanded by the Gentiles, what people was rightly religious from of old time; answered him thus. 
The Chaldees and the Hebrews have all wisdom twixt them twain,  
And of the true God only they the worship do maintain.  Whereunto agreeth this verse of Sibyl's: 
The jews are sure a heavenly race, divine, and full of bliss.   
But it will be yet much more, if we can by their own best Authors, prove their Gods to be nothing but vanity & leazing: which is as much to say, as that they have not only allowed the God of Israel, but also condemned all their own Gods.   

The xxij. Chapter.  
That the Gods worshipped by the heathen, were men consecrated or canonized to posterity.  
I Have sufficiently showed heretofore in the second and third Chapters, that there is but one God; That both Angels and fiends are but Creatures, the one servants, & the other slaves; That Nature and Philosophy consent together therein, notwithstanding that overrooted custom have like a waterstreame carried folk away, and that the wise of the world have loved better to follow the course of the stream, than to row against it. Yet for all that, it shall not be superfluous to see what they themselves have written of their own Gods, both generally of them all, and particularly of every of them. 
Hermes in his Esculapius, translated by Apulcius.  Therefore to begin with Hermes, whom we have heard so highly commending the only one GOD; He writeth of them in these words Like as the Lord God (saith he) is the maker of the Gods in Heaven, so is man the maker of the Gods that are content to dwell in Temples, that they might be near unto men. 
Austin de Civitate Dei. lib. 8. cap. 23. The Gods of the Egyptians.  Man then maketh Images after his own likeness, whereunto he calleth Spirits by Art Magic, or else they come into them of their own accord, and foretell unto men things to come. But the time will come, that all this kind of Religion of the egyptians shallbe abolished, and that all their worshippings shall vanish away. And in very deed (saith he) Esculapius the Grandfather of Asclepius, and Mercury mine own Grandfather, which are worshipped at Hermopolis in AEgipt, were Men, whose worldly men, that is to say their bodies) lie the one in Lybia and the other in Hermopilis, and under their names are worshipped certain Devils, whom I alured and drew into their Images. What more substantial witness now could we produce against the Gods of AEgipt, than the very party himself that made them? 
Cyprian concerning the vanity of Idols  And what else were they then, than either men, or Devils shrouded in the Images or in the dead carcases of men? But I proceed with these two parts the one after the other.  
The great Highpriest of AEgipt called Leon, being asked secretly by Alexander, concerning the original of their Gods, and fearing more his power than their wrath; bewrayed unto him, that all the great Gods, yea even those whom the Romans termed The Gods of the greater Nations, were all of them men. But he prayed Alexander that he would not tell it to any body, saving his Mother Olimpias, and that she should burn his Letter as soon as she had read it. 
Plutarch in his treatise of Isis and Osiris.  For as for the Beasts which the egyptians worshipped, Plutark saith that some of them were worshipped as Planets and signs celestial; and othersome because that when Osiris led his people to Battle, he had divers Antesignes according to the diversities of the Countries, as in one a Dog, in another an Ox, and so forth: which afterward through emulation were turned into Superstition. As touching the phoenicians, 
The Gods of the Phoenicians.  their next neighbours, Sanchoniation their own Chronacler writeth, that they honoured such men for Gods as had been great among them, 
Sanchoniation translated by josephus.  or had invented any thing profitable for the life of man: and that as they were long time Lords of the Sea, and conveyed many companies of their own countrifolke into Libya & Spain to inhabit there: 
The Gods of the Greeks. Herodotus, lib. 2.  so they peopled them with their Gods also. Concerning the Gods of the Greeks, we read that Orphey, Homer, and Hesiodus were the first bringers of them in, and did set down their Pedigrees in writing, giving them names and Surnames, and appointing them honours at their pleasures. 
Aulus Gelliu● lib. 3. cap. 11. & li. 17. ca 21.  Of whom Pythagoras saith, that their Souls were hanged upon a Tree in Hell, & there pinched with Serpents on all sides for their so damnable devices. 
Pophirius in the life of Pythagoras.  And what he himself deemed of those Gods, we may see in his life written by Porphirius. For he wrote verses upon the Tumb of Apollo at Delphos, declaring him to have been the Son of Silenus that was slain by Python, and buried in a place called Tripos, because the three daughters of Triopus came thither to mourn. Afterward again, coming into a Cave of Ida, where he found a Throne set up unto jupiter, he wrote this inscription upon it: 
Apuleius and Aulus Gelins.  Pythagoras to jupiter. Hear lieth the great Zeus whom men call jupiter. Socrates in despite of those Gods did swear by an Oak, by a Goat, and by a Dog; and was condemned to drink poison, because he taught that there was but only one God. Which is as much to say, as that he deemed less godhead to be in those Gods, than in the least creatures. Yet notwithstanding, he was the only man whom Apollo avowed to be the wisest man of all Greece: wherein he had showed himself to have had less wit than those beasts, if he had deemed such a one to be wisest as had condemned the Godhead. But it is the property of the Devil, both to abuse men and also to mock them for their labour. They cried out against Socrates that he was a blasphemer, and made him to drink his own death. But within a while after, the Athenians did set up an Image of him in one of their Temples, and in a rage did put his accusers to death: [which deed of theirs made notably against themselves:] for surely they could not better have condemned their Gods, than by their justifying and honouring of the party that condemned them. As for his Disciple Plato, this saying of his shall suffice. When I writ unto you in good earnest, I speak but of one God; and when I mean otherwise, I speak of many. He employed his Gods about vanity, because the esteemed them to be but vain. To be short, one says, If they be Gods, why mourn ye for them? and if they be lifeless, why worship ye them? Another says, be of good cheer my Countrymen, men lived afore the Gods, and the Gods die afore men. And the Poets themselves, who made the Gods to be such as they be, take as great pleasure in the unmaking of them, as little Children do in playing with their Puppets: insomuch that there is no Tragedy good, which doth not baffle some one of the Gods, as Euripides (among the rest) doth in these verses.  
Thou Neptune and thou jupiter, and all you other Gods,  
So wicked are you everichone, so fell, so far at odds,  
That if due justice for your deeds were justly on you done,  
Ye should be banished out of Heaven and from all Temples soon.  

The Gods of the Romans.  You will say perchance that the Romans may possibly have some better stuff. By the original of them which they themselves describe, we may judge what they were. And let us note that the writers of these things were no Greeks, which might have bred some suspicion; but they were Romans, even the Idolaters themselves. The first that ordained Religion among them, was King Numa; who to authorize it the more, feigned himself to have had conference with a Goddess called Egeria which was a witch: and under that gay pretence, 
Titus Livius, Decad: 4 libro ●kimo.  he bewitched the ignorant people with a thousand superstitions. A long time after, in the Consulship of Cornelius and Bebius, 
Valerius Ma●mus lib. 1.  it happened that in the ground of a certain Scrivener named Petilius, near to the place called janiculum, there were found two Coffins, in one of the which was the body of Numa, 
Plinius lib. 13. cap 13.  and in the other were seven books in Latin concerning the Laws of their Priesthood, that is to say, their Ceremonies and Churchseruices; 
Austin lib. 7. cap. 14.  and other seven Books in Greek concerning the study of Wisdom; 
Lactantius. lib. 1.  whereby he overthrew, not only the Gods of other Nations, but also the very self same whom he himself had instituted. The Senate hearing thereof, caused the Books to be burnt openly before the people; which was as much to say as that they condemned all the Gods and all their Services to the Fire. Among many other Stories, Varro reporteth the same too: and he concealeth not that Numa used Waterspelling, and had communication with Devils. And as touching the Gods whom the Latins worshipped before the time of this Numa Pompilius; Varro and Caius Bassus say, that Faunus ordained Sacrifices to his Grandfather Saturn, to his father Picus, and to his Suffer and Wife Fauna, whom the good huzwives call Fatua of Fate, that is to say Destiny, because she was wont to read their Fortunes; and afterward the people worshipped her by the name of Good Dame or Goddess. And surely of no better value were those whom AEneas brought thither, whom Virgil termeth vanquished Gods, and after a sort putteth them and little Babes both together in one Basket. Scevola the Highpriest of the Romans (as I have said afore) made three sorts of Gods: Poetical, worse than the worst men, Philosophical, whom they taught to have been men, howbeit that it was not good for the people to know it; and Civil, made by Princes to hold their people in awe with; for the which purpose also Varro addeth, that it is good for captains and Governors to be persuaded that they be descended of Gods, that they may the more boldly undertake and the more happily perform their enterprises. But who could answer better to the matter, than the Highpriest himself? And which are these better Gods, which are no Gods at all furtherforth than it pleaseth men? Varro saith likewise, that his writing of human things afore divine things, is because there were Cities afore there were Gods made by them, as the Painter is afore his Picture. How much more reasonable had it been that the Gods should have committed themselves to the custody of the Cities, than that the Cities should have committed themselves to the custody of the Gods? 
Austin de Civitate Dei, lib. 7. cap. 17.  Also he divideth his Gods into certeynes and uncerteynes. The certain (saith he in his second book) are as much or more subject to uncertainty than the uncertain. What certainty will he report of the Gods, if they themselves be uncertain? But behold the godliness of the man. He saith he will make a Register and an Inventory of them: and wherefore? for fear (saith he) lest they should be lost, not so much by some sacking of the City, as by the negligence of the Citizens, which began sore at that time to make no account of them. Sooth the Romans had been the more excusable, if they had deified this Varro that had such a care to save and preserve their Gods. But the wise Senate thought themselves to have provided well for the matter, by making this ordinance, That no GOD should be admitted into Rome without their advice. As who would say, that to be a God it was meet that a bill of petition should first be exhibited unto them, and men were to be sewed unto for the obteynement of their voices. By which one argument of theirs they declared themselves to be more divine than their Gods. And thereupon it came to pass, that they received into their City all the devils, all the Tyrants, and all the filthy Rakehelles of the world for Gods. As for the only one true God the Creator of men, the founder of Cities, & the remover of empires; he had no name at all among them. 
Cicero concerning the Nature of the Gods, the first of his Tusculane questions.  Concerning the nature of the Gods, Cicero hath written three books; which to speak properly, are made to overthrow all the Gods of the Romans. For he reckoneth up their ages, their garments, their deckings, their offsprings, their ancestors, and their alliances. He saith that their Temples are their Tombs; their sacrifices and Ceremonies, representations of their lives; and that from the least of them to the greatest, they were all men, and all their Religious Superstitions and old wives tales. As touching the true God, he speaketh far otherwise. For he saith that he made all things, that he made man, that he made the very Gods themselves, and to be short, that it is much easier for him to wonder at God, than to utter what he is; and to declare what he is not, than what he is. And whereas sometimes after the manner of the stoics, he goeth about to draw natural things out of the fables of the Gods; he doth it but only to keep the people in ignorance, and according to his own saying in the selfsame books, where having condemned his own Gods, he saith that yet for all that, those things are not to be uttered to the people; and his allegories are so cold, that it is to be thought that even he himself laughed at them. As touching the Birdgazers he himself being a Birdgazer doth flatly scorn them, that is to say even his own profession, yea and all such as sought counsel at Crows and Ravens, that is to wit, the whole Senate of Rome. Likewise we read that Caesar held still the Province of Africa against the forewarnings of the Birdgazers; and that Cato wondered how two Birdgazers could meet one another or look one upon another without laughing. 
Seneca. lib. 2. cap. 4. and 42.  And Seneca saith in his book of Questions, that the Bowelgazers were invented for nothing else but to hold the people in awe. So little did the Wisemen believe the things which they themselves did to be wondered at and worshipped of the common people. And thus much concerning their Gods in general.  
But if we come to the particulars, the matter will be yet more clear, wherein I will be as brief as I can, because it is a matter that is treated of expressly by others. Among the innumerable rabble of Gods, 
The Gods of Greater Nations.  they have twelve of principal renown, whose names are comprehended in these two verses of Ennius.  
juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars,  
Mercurius, jupiter, Neptune, Vulcanus, Apollo.  
And unto these some added Bacchus and Saturn; 
Eusebius de prepar. evangelica, lib. 4.  this latter, because he might seem to have wrong, if he should not be counted a God as well as his son: and the other, because it might come to pass, that (being a fiery fellow) he would else make some fray, seeing that Ceres is a Goddess. To dispatch the chief of them quite and clean of that doubt, Euhemere of Messene will alone suffice; who gathering the history of jupiter and the rest, setteth down their titles, Epitaphs & Inscriptions which were in their Temples, & namely in the Temple of jupiter Triphillian, where was a pillar set up by jupiter himself, whereon the notablest of his doings were engraven. And this history being called holy, was translated by Ennius, the words whereof are these. 
Euhemere as he is cited by Lactantius.  Saturn (saith he) took Ops to his wife, and Titan being his elder brother claimed the kingdom; but Vesta their mother, & Ceres and Ops their Sisters, counseled Saturn to keep his possession. Which thing when Titan perceived; finding himself to be the weaker, he compounded with Saturn, upon condition that if Saturn had any Sons, he should not suffer them to live, that the kingdom might revert again unto his Children. According to which composition, the first child that was borne to Saturn was killed. Afterward were borne jupiter & juno twins both at one birth: of whom they showed but juno, and delivered jupiter to Vesta to be brought up in secret. After them came Neptune, who was served likewise. And last of all came Pluto and Glauca; of whom only Glauca (who died within a while) was showed, and Pluto was nurced secretly as jupiter was. Now this came to Titan's hearing, who assembling his Sons to him, took Saturn and Ops and put them in prison. But assoon as jupiter came to age, he gave battle to the Tytans; and getting the upper hand of them, delivered his father & mother out of prison. At length perceiving that his father, whom he had set up again, was jealous over him and sought his life; he deposed him from his estate and drove him into Italy. In this only one history we see what Saturn, jupiter, juno, Vesta, Ops, Neptune and Ceres were, that is to wit, men and women; yea surely even men, and among men, but only mere men. And yet were they the fathers and mothers of the rest of the Gods, and reigned in the Isles of the chief Midland Sea; and in Candy, a little afore the wars of Thebes and of Troy. And by that means we see also, from whence the Poets have fetched their fables; which are not (as some think) mere fancies or imaginations without ground, but disguising of the truth, and of the History: True in that they report deeds rightly beseeming men; untrue in that they attribute them as to Gods, and not as to men. Saturn is taken for the father of them al. And look what is found of the father, is to be verified of his offspring. The Historiographers therefore have said, that his wife did hide his children from him: and the Poets have said that he did eat them up, because a Soothsayer had told him that one of them should depose him. To avoid the absurdity of the word Krovos which is Saturn, the stoics have turned it to Chronos, (that is to say time,) which devoureth all things. But how will they apply all the rest of the Allegory unto the History? Who shall be the days lost, and who the days saved? What shall Ops be, and jupiter, and Pluto? who shall be this son of time, that perisheth not with the time nor afore it? 
Hermes in his Aselepius.  But Hermes (whatsoever he be) who knew this pedigree well enough, holdeth himself to the letter, accounting Uranus, Saturn, and Mercury among the rare men that were in time past. And Ennius saith that this Varnus was the father of Saturn and reigned afore him. Now, because Uranus in Greek signifieth Heaven; the stoics more fabulous (as saith Plutarch) than the Poets, have called his son, Time; and his graundsonne jupiter, the Welkin or highest region of the air; whom Euhemere reporteth to have ordained Sacrifices unto Uranus. And Ennius his translator reporteth, that he ordained them unto his Grandfather Heaven, who died in the Ocean, and lies buried in Aulatie. To be short, of all these writers of antiquities, such as Theodore the Greek, Thallus, Cassius, Severus, Cornelius Nepos and others were; none describeth him otherwise than a man: insomuch that even Orpheus himself who canonised him for a God, speaketh of him after the same manner. What read we of jupiter? jupiter (saith the History) deposed his own father, held his assemblies in Mount Olympus, stole away Europa in a ship named the Bull, and carried away Ganymed in another ship called the Eagle: but he forbore Thetis, because an Achilles (which should be a man of greater might than his father) was to be borne of her. Finally, after he had made certain Laws, and parted the offices of his estate among his friends, he died and was buried in the Town of Gnosus. What a life is this, but the life of a man? yea and of a most wicked man, unworthy, not to reign in heaven, but even to go upon the earth? Nevertheless, because his successors enforced men to worship him as well as his Grandfather, yea and he himself in his life time had caused his Subjects, Uassalles and Confederates to dedicate Temples unto him; by reason whereof we see he was called by the names of Labradie, Ataburie, Tryphill, and divers other: all things were fain to be applied and referred unto him: insomuch that of a man, the Poets made him a God; of the Mountain Olympus, they made Heaven; of a Ship, and Eagle; and of Thetis, a Goddess. Yet for all this, his burial place putteth all out of doubt, and so doth the Epitaph that Pythagoras wrote thereon. For, to have a Temple in one place, and a Tomb in another; and to be worshipped with prayer in the one, and to be eaten with worms in the other, are things far differing. Callimachus will needs taunt the cretans for showing his Tomb with this inscription, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say, jupiter the son of Saturn: and yet he considereth not, that in saying that Rhea was delivered of him among the Parrhasians, he himself maketh him to die. For what is birth but a beginning of death? And therefore Sibyl speaketh of the Gods in these words. 
The fond vainglory which the cretans use  
About their Gods doth many a man abuse.  
They be but ghastly Ghosts and fiends of hell,  
Or graves of men in whom no soul doth dwell.  To be short, Amalthea, and her Goat that nurced jupiter, which were honoured in the Capitol, and all his other mysteries, represented nothing else but the travels of his Childhod and of his life; as, how he was stolen away, how he was hidden, and how he was nurced: all which things are a manifest derogation of his Godhead. 
Seneca in his morals.  And Seneca taketh it to be a matter so worthy to be laughed at, that he forgetteth his own gravity to give a mock●vnto it. Seeing (saith he) that this jupiter was so lecherous, why begetteth he not Children still, if he be yet alive? Is it because he is threescore years old? Or hath the Law of Papie restrained him? Or hath he obtained the privilege of three Children? 
The Law of three children.  Or finally, is it come into his mind to look for the same measure at other folk's hands, which he hath measured unto others, so as he is afraid lest some Son of his should deal with him, as he himself dealt with Saturn? After that manner did this great Philosopher mock at his great God; wherein he was so much the less to be excused, because he worshipped him, knowing so much as he did.  
As touching juno, I will not stand so much upon the Poets. Varro himself saith that she was brought up in Samos, and there married to her brother jupiter, by whom she could not concey●e, in respect whereof, that Island was called Parthenie, that is to say Maydenland. There also was her famousest Temple, where she stood in wedding attire; and her yearly feasts are in very deed but plays ordained after the fashion of old time, to represent her life, that is to wit, her marriage, her jealousy, and her incest.  
And as concerning Minerva jupiters' daughter, we read that she was deffowred by consent of her father, who had made a promise to Vulcan, not to deny him whatsoever he should ask: so monstrous and Lawless was the whole race of them. For as for Venus, whose adulteries are more than her Children; Euhemere reporteth her too have been the first bringer up of Stews in the world, and that her worshippers to honour her withal, did call her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and such other, which names even a woman that were very far past shame would take in great disdain. To be short, in the Temple where Cinaras' King of Cyprus was buried, who was the first that entertained her; surely I am ashamed that the Heathen were not ashamed of such shamefulness; but yet much more, that such as bear the name of Christians, are not ashamed too make songs thereof in their books.  
Let us proceed to the rest. Neptune (as their holy History reporteth) had the Seacoast for his share, or (as othersome affirm) he was jupiters' Admiral, in respect where of the Poets of our time call Admirals, Neptunes. Pluto had the government of low Countries, which they disguising turned into Hell. Mars had the Leading of Soldiers in the wars, and should have been hanged at Athens for a murder. What manner of Gods (I pray you) be these, which stand at men's courtesy for their grace? And what is the Law of that Heaven, which receiveth those for Gods, whom men would have hanged on the gallows upon earth? Also Apollo became a Shepherd for love, and of a Shepherd, he became Laomedon's Mason. He played a few juggling tricks to deceive folk withal; but in the end (as Porphyrius telleth us) he was killed by Python, mourned for by the daughters of Triopus, and buried at Delphos. Who ever saw a thing more against reason, than the transforming of him into the Son, which is as much as to shut up the Son into the earth? But yet such are the Gods of the Greeks and Romans; that is to wit deadfolks, even kings and Queens whom love or fear hath made to be taken for Gods. And in good sooth, they did not any thing to their Gods, which men do not at this day to their dead & to such as are of reputation. They make them Temples, chapels, and altars; they apparel them after their age; they set them up Pencils and Pennons according to their degree or trade of living; they make them a funeral feast; they celebrate anniversaries or Yeermynds all of one sort. Insomuch that (as Tertullian saith) the Obitfeast differeth not from jupiters' feast, nor the wooden Can from his Drinking-cup, nor the Cearer of deadfolks from the Birdgasers; for the Birdgasers also had to deal with the dead. And therefore we must not think it strange, that Alexander would needs be a God, sith he knew that men worshipped such: 
Scipio African in Ennius.  or that Scipio Affricane thought that the great gate of Heaven ought to be set open for him: for his argument concluded the like; saying. 
If men for slaughters made, to heaven admitted be;  
Then should the greatest gate of Heaven be opened unto me.  Or that the gentle Ladies Larentia and Flora were Canonised at Room, for they deemed themselves to have deserved as much by their profession, as Venus had deserved at the hands of the Cyprians: Or that Caligula took upon him to have Altars erected and sacrifice offered unto him; for he was both more mighty and also more mischievous than those whom he worshipped. Let this suffice for the Great ones. And for the Little ones, we will content ourselves with Esculapius alone, 
Esculapius. julian against the Galilaeans.  whom the Emperor julian, that great enemies of Christians, commendeth as his saviour above all the rest. He is (sayeth he) the Son of jupiter. Then (say I) he is a man: for men begot not Gods. But he came down into the World by the Son, and from the Son unto the Earth, for the health and welfare of men. What Author, either in earnest or in jest, did ever say so? No, but he was (sayeth the History) the son of the fair Coronis renowned in these verses; 
A goodlier Lady was not to be found,  
In all Emonia going on the ground.  This Coronis being with Child by Apollo's priest, gave it forth, for the saving of her honour, that she was gotten with Child by Apollo himself; whereby it appeareth that her son Esculapius, was not the Child of Heaven as julian reporteth, but (as men said in old time) a Child of the Earth, that is to say a bastard. And Tarquilius a Roman writeth, that he was a Child found in Messine, and learned the virtues of some herbs at the hand of Chiron the Centaur, and played the Pedlar a while at Epidaure; and that afterward being stricken to death (as Cicero saith) with Thunder, he was buried at Cyvosures. To be short, what miracle read we to have been done by him, more than that he showed men the herbs called Scordion and Asclepiodotes? By which reason we may as well Deify the bird Ibis for the Clysters, or the Stag for the herb Ditanie. But to conclude, what a beastliness were it to leave the Creator of all things, and to worship a man for his knowing of some two or three of them?  
Among other Nations of the world, the egyptians have upon the like reasons Deified their King Apis; forbidding all men upon pain of death, to say he was a man: and I am even ready to shudder at the remembrance of his mysteries. Likewise the Babylonians deified their Bele; the Mawres their juda; the Macedonians their Cabyrus; the latins their Faunus; the Sabines their Sa●cus; and the Romans their Quirinus; that is to wit the first founders of their Towns and Cities, or the leaders of them to inhabit in foreign Countries; and the eldest of these their Gods, that is to say their ancientest Princes, they called Saturn's, their Sons, jupiters', their Graundsonnes, 
Xenophon in his Equivocations.  Herculese; and so forth; whereupon it came to pass, that in divers Nations there were divers Saturn's, jupiters', and Herculeses. Afterward the Emperors deified themselves, and their friends, and some, their Minions, as Alexander did Ephestion, and as Arian did Antinous, and some their Children, and some their wives. Cicero being but a Citizen of Arpie; was so prwd that he would needs Deify his daughter Tullia, & he sticked not to say to Atticus, that he would make her to be worshipped as another juno or Minerva, considering that she was not inferior to them in any thing. But he came in too rough a time to make Gods. What more? Even in one man were a thousand Gods to be found. For they made Gods of faithfulness, of constancy, of wisdom, and of all the other virtues; and likewise of Love, of Pleasure, of the instruments of pleasure, and of all other vices; Also of fear, paleness, gastfulnes, and all passions; Likewise of agues, of the hemorrhoids, of the Falling sickness, and of maladies and diseases; Also of Dounghils, of Snow, of Blastings, and of the very Winds, insomuch that the great Emperor Augustus did sacrifice to the wind Circius, which troubled him in Gall. The cause of these absurdities is in two things, the one is Gods just striking of men with blindness for their turning away from him unto man, insomuch that whereas they will needs become equal with God, they fall by degrees from point to point, even to the casting of themselves down unto Beasts and Worms, that is to say, they become inferior to beasts. The other is, that Princes unlightened by GOD are so desirous of vainglory, and their Servants are such flatterers, that the Princes perceiving themselves to have men at their commandment, think themselves to be more than men, and their servants, to be made Idols themselves, do willingly make Idols of their Princes. Hereof we read in the very Laws of the Christian Emperors, that their answers are called Oracles, their persons Godheads; and their countenances divine brightness. Who reading this can doubt, but that if such Lawyers had come in the first ages, they would have made us good store of Gods? Nay, would God we saw not still among us, great numbers of lively and plaine-speaking examples, of man's inclined disposition to the worshipping of creatures, notwithstanding that our Law in every line thereof do reprove us for it, and after a sort twitch us every hour by the Coat, to pull us from it. Now therefore, let the premises be a precedent unto us, both of the vanity of the Gods, and of the blockishness of men, which have both worshipped them and made them. 
Cicero concerning the Nature of the Gods, in his book of Laws, and in his Tusculane Questions.  And so let us commit the knitting up of this matter to Cicero himself, who saith thus. The conversation and custom of men (saith he) hath allowed the advanuncing of those men into heaven, both in reputation & in good will, by whom they had received any great benefit. Of that sort are Hercules, Castor, Pollux, Esculapius Liber, and such other; so as Heaven is peopled with mankind. And if I listed to search & ransack the Antiquities and Registers of the Greeks, I should find that the same Gods whom we take for the greatest, have had their original from among us. And for the verifying thereof, Inquire whose the tombs are that are showed in Greece, and consider with thyself what their mysteries and Ceremonies are, and thou having access thither, shalt understand without doubt, that my saying reacheth very far.   

The twenty-three. Chapter.  
That the spirits which made themselves to be worshipped under the names of those men, were fiends, that is to say, Devils or wicked Spirits.  
NOw seeing that the said Gods were but men, yea and not Men, but Stocks and Images of men, & that the same slocks, if they had been any more than Stocks, should rather have worshipped men: we must needs say with Seneca, that the men which worshipped them were become worse than stocks. But hereunto it will be answered, that they gave answers of things to come, and that they wrought effects beyond the reach of man; which showed that there was a life and power in them, or else they had not seduced folk so long time. This is the second part which I have taken in hand to prove: namely that although all the ancient Philosophers agree, that there are both good Spirits and bad, the one sort (whom we call Angels) Servants and Messengers of God; and the other sort Devils, enemies to God's glory and our welfare: yet notwithstanding, the Spirits which were served in Stocks and Images as Hermes hath told us, were unclean and mischievous Spirits. These Féends therefore (to purchase themselves authority) did borrow the names of men, and most commonly of the wickedest men. Yea and when they were asked what they were, they said in their own Oracles that they were so: as for example, he that was worshipped at Delphos, said he was the son of Latona, Esculapius, 
Porphyrius in his book of the Answers of the Gods. Eusebius de praeparat. euangel: lib. 3. Cap. ultimo.  the son of Apollo, Mercury the son of jupiter and Maia; and so forth, as we read in Oracles rehearsed by Porphyrius. But what honest man will not refuse for never so great gain, to take upon him the name of a wicked man? or rather abhor both the name and the very remembrance of him? And who then will not conclude that those Devils which [to win themselves credit] clothed themselves after that sort with the cases of so wicked men, were worse than the men? Also they were drawn (saith Hermes) into Images by Art Magic; yea and (by the report of Porphyrius 
Porphyries in his said book of the Answers of the Gods. Euseb. de praepart: evang. lib. 5. Cap. 6. and. 7.  and Proclus) they taught men receits wherewith to draw them thither and to bind them there, as we read of proserpine, Hecate, and Apollo. Of whom, one commanded to beset her Image with Wormwood, to paint a certain number of Rats about it, and to offer unto her Blood, Myrrh, and Storax, to draw her thither. Another commanded to wipe out the lines and figures, to remove the tuzzimuzzies of flowers from his feet, and to take the branch of Olife out of his hand, that is to say, from his images hand, that he might withdraw himself. Who sees not that they made themselves to be drawn in and driven out by things that have no force at all, specially over Spirits? 
jamblychut concerning Mysteries. cap. 27. and 31.  That it say, that (as jamblichus also perceived full well) their whole seeking was to deceive us by their coming, and to go away again when they witted not what to say; more desirous to lie, than we blockish to believe? And when they obeyed us or pretended to obey us, let us see what service they required at our hands: verily that their Images should be well painted and well quoted, and that they might be worshipped, prayed unto, and sensed. Now, if they were the Images of Spirits; what greater untruth can there be, than for a Spirit to be resembled by an Image? And if they were the Images of men; what greater beastliness (saith Seneca) can there be, than to offer Sacrifice to a stock, and to make the Carver which made it, to eat at the second table, and to kneel down before a counterfeit of his own making, or to make the Painter thereof to stand bareheaded unto it? Now then, what else were they but teachers of untruth, whose intent was to turn men not only from God to his works, but also to themselves, and finally into very stocks?  
Apollo being asked what service was to be yielded to the Gods, declared that Sacrifice is to be offered to them all, as well them that dwell in the Air and the Fire, as them that dwell in the Sea and in the Earth; to some, with white Beasts, and to some with black; to some upon Altars, and to othersome upon banks of earth: to some the foreparts of Beasts, and to othersome the hinderparts, and such other like stuff. And because they would needs play the Apes with God in all things: they required this service after the example of the old Testament. For (as saith Porphyrius) nothing delighteth them more, 
Porphyrius in his book of answers etc. Euseb. lib. 4. Cap. 4.  than to be esteemed as Gods: insomuch that the greatest of them all (whom they call Serapis and we Beelzebub) will needs be worshipped as the sovereign God. But what resemblance is there betwixt them and the true God? God requireth of us the firstlings of our fruits and of our cattle. And forasmuch as he hath created them for us; is it not reason that we should acknowledge ourselves beholden to him for our Corn, and for our increase of cattle? On the contrary part, these Gods require the acknowledgement of those things to be done to themselves & to their Images. God's enjoining of us to sacrifice brute Beasts, is to witness the death that we deserve by our sin: but they bear us on hand, that by the death of a Beast we be discharged from all sins. God saith unto us, your sacrifices are nothing worth, I will have obedience and not Sacrifice: your Oblations loathe me, and your Incense stinketh: the thing that I look for is a broken and a lowly heart. The false Gods speak of nothing but of the shedding of blood, without telling or knowing why or wherefore, without end, without ground, without signification, and without coming any whit near the heart. Now then, what are they else than slavish Rogues and Rebels, endeavouring to filch away the praise of our Creator? 
The Sacrificing of Men. Enseb. lib. 4. Cap. 7.  And yet for all their disguising of themselves for a time, they be not able to conceal their own 
Denis of Halycarnassus lib. 1.  lewdness any long while. For they command us to Sacrifice Men, Maids, and Children unto them. Had they ordained such things at their first coming in, who would not have abhorred them? 
Diodorus of Sicily lib. 20. Porphyrius in his book of Abstinence. Histrus and Manethon cited by Eusebius.  But when they had once wound themselves into credit by some answers delightful to our curious ears, and by some jugglingtricks which seemed wonderful to the weakness of our eyes: we suffered them to go by little and little whithersoever they themselves listed, as though it had been unpossible that they should have said otherwise than well, or that we should have done otherwise than well in obeying them. According whereunto we read, that Children were Sacrificed to Saturn, 
Tertullian in his book of Apology. Erichtho in Lucan. The godly AEnaeas in virgil.  in Candy after the manner of the Curets; In Rhodomene, the sixth day of the month Geitnion; In Phenice, in times of Plague, War, and Famine: and likewise in Africa they Sacrificed men, until the Uiceconsulship of Tiberius, who caused the Priests themselves to be crucified in the same Woods where they were wont to do their sacrifices. Also they offered the like kind of Sacrifice in Cyprus to the Nymph Agrawlis, and to Diomedes; and in the isle of Tenedos unto Bacchus; and in Lacedaemon to Mars. And all these abominations are reported by Porphyrius, who thereupon concludeth, that all such Gods were of the wickedest sort of devils. Moreover, we read that Aristomenes of Messene Sacrificed three hundred men at once to jupiter Ithometes, of whom Theopomp King of the Lacedæmonians was one: And that the Latins Sacrificed the tenth of their own Children to jupiter; and that because they had discontinewed the doing thereof, they thought themselves to be plagued with dearth and diseases. That those false Gods themselves answered the Carthaginenses, that the misfortunes which lighted upon them, happened for that whereas they had used to sacrifice the choicest of their Children, they Sacrificed none but the Rascals, changelings, Bastards, and Bondlings. The like was done by the Druids in Gaullond, 
Caesar in his books of his Wars in Gaullond. Procopius. lib. 2. of the wars in Gothland.  by the almains, by the Scandinavians, by the Tawricanes and others; insomuch that Chiron the Centaur had such sacrifices offered yearly unto him. So far and with so passing superstitious cruelty was the devils kingdom extended, that the Devil & none other could be the founder thereof. Who can now doubt after all this, but that those Gods were devils, which were workers of such things as not only goodmen mislike, but also even wicked men cannot but abhor? In deed we read that one Diphilus King of Cyprus, made the Idol of Cyprus to be contented with an Ox in stead of a Man; and that Amosis King of AEgipt appointed that in stead of the three young men which were wont to be sacrificed to juno in Heliople, there should be offered three Calves: and that afterward Pallas of Laodicea was contented with a Hind: and that Hercules in traveling through Italy, gave them men of Hay to be thrown into Tiber, but surely it had been more to his commendation, if he had punished those Gods, than to have overcome the great monsters for which he is so renowned. Yet was that custom observed still: 
Euseb. lib. 4. Cap. 7.  Insomuch that even in Rome, every year the same day that men had been wont to be sacrificed, the Altars were washed with man's blood, howbeit, about a fourscore years afore coming of Christ, the Senate had condemned such sacrifices at Rome. Now seeing that (as Seneca saith) they required such a service as Busyris or Phalaris durst never to have demanded: 
The year after the building of Rome 657. Pliny, lib. 30. Cap. 1. Quintilian in his book of Fanatical things.  who will not conclude with Porphirius, (as great an enemy to Christians as he was) that they were all devils and wicked fiends? Or with Quintilian, that such Gods could not be but witless and stark mad? And whereas the Senate which worshipped them, did nevertheless condemn and abolish their Sacrifices, was not their so doing a condemning of the founders of them also? I mean of the wicked Féends themselves, which required those kinds of Sacrifices so instantly, 
Shameful Services. Austin in his second book of the City of God. Cap. 11.  and were so sore offended at the discontinewing of them? Labeo whom men took for a great master of those Mysteries, said that the good spirits were to be discerned from the wicked by this, that this latter sort became not favourable but by manslaughters and deadly supplications, (which was a flat condemning almost of them all: and that the other sort were pacified with Plays, Gamings, Feasts and Banquetings, Mummeries and Maskings, and such other things. But if these good ones (as they term them,) delight in such things as wise men shun and fools are ashamed of, what followeth but that even those good ones are worse than the worst men? Let us examine their Plays and shows, for it is the difference that Labeo setteth down. 
Austin in his first book of the City of God. Cap. 32.  The Gods being sought unto in an extreme plague, commanded for assuaging thereof, that they should ordain certain Stageplaies. Contrariwise, Scipio Nasica the Highpriest of those Féends, to the intent (as he said) to eschew the Plague, forbade the setting up of the Scaffolds. Now of this Scipio or of the Gods, which I pray you shallbe found the wiser? The stageplays that were meant, were tales of love, of adultery, and of lechery, interlarded with a thousand filthy speeches, insomuch that the Housebands forbade their wives, and the Parents their Daughters to come at them. Fools laughed at them, and wise men blushed at them, and all men at their going away from them, did with one common consent banish the Players of those Interludes out of all good company, and declared them to be infamous persons by excluding them from all Offices, and by rejecting them from bearing any witness. Now seeing that the serving of God is so commendable a thing; if these were Gods, why was it an infamy and reproach to serve them? The requirers of those plays, are honoured; and why then are the players of them reproached? 
Austin. lib. 2. Cap. 4. 5. 6. 13. In infinite places in the Digests.  The Greeks step up to reason against the Romans, and say that such Gods are worthy to be worshipped, their Stageplayers deserve to be reverenced too. This proposition of theirs is well grounded, and apparent of itself. But the Romans taking another ground as sure as that, affirm it to be unpossible for the Comedyplayers to deserve reputation, considering what they do and say. Whereupon we are to conclude, that those Gods ought not to have been worshipped at all. And so hath Nasica gotten the better hand against his own Gods and their Plays. And yet are they the selfsame Gods that were confirmed by so many Oracles, 
Zosimus. lib. 2.  whom Zosimus that great enemy of Christians so much bewaileth, that he affirmeth the welfare of the Roman Empire to have ended with the abolishing of them by Constantine. And what else are the mysteries which he highly commendeth, but remenbrances of the whoredoms, incests, murders, and deceits committed by the men whose names those devils did bear? And what man is so brazenfaced, as that he will not be ashamed of his sin, and blush to hear it told unto him? Nay who doubteth that if those men were alive again, they would be both ashamed and astonished at those things before the standers by? And who then can doubt that those Gods were of the worst sort of Devils, which not only take pleasure in ill doing themselves, but also do bedaube themselves with the evil which they did not? As for example, who would think that the goodly Gossip whom they call the Mother of the Gods, but whom the veriest kaytife in the world would be loath to have to be his Mother, could have heard the villainous speeches wherewith her feast was solemnised, and not have hidden herself away for shame? And if Dame Flora could have read the Floralles of Auleius, who doubteth that she would not have done the like, and much more been abashed to see so great a Clerk and so grave a Senator as Cicero, carried with devotion to the celebrating of them? For what else, at a word, are all those mysteries, but Schools of Lechery, Sodomy, and Incest? And if the end of Religion be (as Plotin saith) to become like the party that is worshipped, what else could be the mark that those Ceremonies aimed at, than to make men ripe in all sorts of wickedness? and what readier way could there be to become Devils in deed, than to resemble them? For whereas they say that after their spewing out of all those filthy things openly, they give some precepts of uprightness and modesty to their Scholars in secret: thereby their naughtiness appeareth the more plainly to be altogether devilish, in that they first corrupt the manners of a whole people, both by their Religious Services and by their example, and afterward preach of modesty and temperance to two or three, making as it were public Sermons of all naughtiness, to lay the Bridle in every man's neck, and then (too keep credit with a few that are of more conscience than the rest) rowning them secretly in the Ear with some little talk of virtue. For who hath ever read that any of them did ever give one good precept, or one good example to the people, whither it were for the withdrawing of them from vice, or for the drawing of them to true virtue? And yet notwithstanding to what end desire we to have God or his blessed Angels conversant with us frail and weak men, but that they of singular good will, should induce, lead, and guide us into the way of salvation?  
But their defenders reply, saying: Yet notwithstanding, 
The Oracles of the Gods were false, uncertain, vain and wicked.  they prophesied and wrought great and strange miracles. Let us omit that is more natural to believe the party which preacheth good things, without divinations and miracles, than to believe the party that keepeth a School of evils, though he prophesy and work miracles. But in the end what were the Oracles and Miracles which they so highly commend? The Oracle of Delphos was one of the greatest in reputation. The beginning thereof may be an argument for the rest. A heard of Goats (saith Diodorus) was the first mean to bring it in credit. And afterward a young wench was set there, to utter forth the Oracles which she received, (as they say) by her privy parts. And for the slanders that grew thereof, it was ordained that the Wench should be a Maid of fifty years old. By these circumstances a man may gather what manner a God that could be. To Croesus therefore being desirous to know what should be the issue of his wars against the Persians, the Oracle answered. 
King Croesus passing over Haty stream,  
Shall overthrow the proud and stately Ream.  Croesus' gathered hereof that he should overthrow the Empire of the Persians, but in deed he overthrew his own; which thing the Oracle had provided for aforehand, by making the answer so doubtful that it might be taken both ways yet was there great reason that Apollo should have preserved Croesus: for of singular devotion he had greatly enriched his Temple at Delphos. And unto Pyrrhus (as Ennius saith) he answered thus. 
I say the son of AEacus  
The Romans sure shall overcome.  Presuming hereupon that he should overcome the Romans, he himself was overcome of them. Also he counseled the Athenians to flee before Xerxes: and he foretold the Salaminians that they should be overcome by the Persians either in Winter or in Summer. Who perceiveth not by these doubtful speeches, that Apollo knew nothing certainly, and therefore that he ever left himself a backedoore to scapeout, at all assays? And as for the coming of these foresayings to pass; who doubteth that Themistocles perceiving so puissant an army to approach, deemed not as much thereof himself, specially seeing that afore he had heard the answer of Apollo, he counseled his Countrymen to wait for their enemies upon the sea? And what a number of wise Senators and good captains were there (think we) in those free Cities and kingdoms, which would have given their advice more to the purpose in that case?  
Zosimus reporteth that when the Palmirenes asked counsel, whither they should obtain the Empire of the East or us; an Oracle answered them in this wise: 
Go get ye hence like guylfull folk and Couseners as ye be;  
The things ye now do take in hand displease the Gods I see.  And some such other doth Zosimus report, whereof he maketh great reckoning. But what else are such wandering and general answers, but deceitful doubts, and (as ye would say) shoes that will fit both feet, as agreeable to folk that are furthest of, as to the parties that ask the Counsel? Therefore Oenomaus a Philosopher and Orator of Greece, having oftentimes (as he himself confesseth) been beguiled by the Oracle of Delphos, gathered a Register of the lies thereof and did set forth a book against it, entitled the falsehood of Oracles. And Porphyrius who likewise made a collection of them, even without adding diminishing or changing so much as one word; sayeth that upon examining of them, he found them ordinarily false: and he addeth the cause thereof to be, 
Porphyrius in his books of the Answer of Oracles.  That their foretelling, of things is not by foreknowledge, but by conjectures taken of natural causes, and of the movings and meetings of the Stars, as hath appeared in many Oracles. For Apollo being asked by one whither he should have a Son or a Daughter, answered, a Daughter; because (qd Apollo himself) that at the time of the conception, Venus' overshadowed Arares. And being asked another time whither that year should be unhealthful or no; he anwered yea, because the constellation thereof was dangerous for the Lungs: and so of other things. How many wise women and learned Physicians would have answered that matter better, and yet for so doing men would not have offered sacrifice unto them? Nay, which more is, Porphyrius sayeth that upon a time, Apollo of Delphos being unable to conjecture by the Stars, desired folk to let him alone, telling them flatly that if they were importunate upon him, he would answer them with lies. And that at another time he answered flatly, that at that instant the course of the Stars could show him nothing. Now I pray you what manner of Gods are these, which learn their wisdom of the Stars? Nay, which worse is, how can they be said to be good Spirits, which threaten to lie, if they be urged too far? And in good sooth such are the answers which the conjured devils do yield yet still at this day by these Sorcerers and Witches; for the doing whereof, these servants of theirs are by all laws condemned to be burnt, as he was that deceived Manfred when he was to fight with Charles Duke of Anjou in the Realm of Naples, by this doubtful construction of Grammar, Non, non Gallus superabit Appulum: which may be Englished as doubtfully thus; No, the French man the Italian shall not overcome. For Manfred considered not that in Latin two Negatives may countervail an Affirmative. Many such other like tricks there are, which we may with less trouble read in Histories. And if they know not the certainty of the things that are demanded of them; why do we either worship them or wonder at them? And if they speak that which they know not, are they not deceivers? And if they speak against their own knowledge, are they not liars? And if it belong unto Gods to deceive and to lie; wherefore do we blame our neighbours and beat our children for so doing? Nay (which more is) to lie and to deceive in matters of such importance, where the case concerneth the blood of so many silly Souls, and the sacking of so many poor houses; who can deny it to be the property of the Devil, who even from his first beginning hath been found to be doth a Murderer and a liar? As for Birdgazers, I have touched them in a word or twain afore. The egyptians observed them after one sort, and the africans after another; the Greeks on the right side, the Romans on the left: and Aristotle scorned them because they determined not the time; and Pliny mocked them, because that even by their own doctrine, they touched not them at all which had no regard of them. Yea and even the greatest Birdgazers themselves, as Cato, Caesar, and Cicero made a mock of it. And if at any time they happened to hit right upon a thing; it was but after the manner of our Almanacs, the flat contrary whereof who so followeth, shall commonly come nearest the truth. Nevertheless, if their Gods foresaw any Plague by natural Conjectures, as Philosophers, Physicians, Hunters, and Shepherds also do; they feigned themselves to be angry at some State or Commonweal. And for what cause? Forsooth for omitting of common Plays and Interludes; that is to say, for shutting up the Schools of Lechery and ribaldry: Or for that they had not made their wont shows of Fencers and Swordplayers; that is to say, of men that slew one another openly to please them withal, and to make a whole state guilty of manslaughter and murder. And if they judged by the season of the year that the Plague should cease; Then it was the goodly Sacrifices that had appeased them, and that made men the carefuller to continue them. Insomuch that when the Romans had lost the bloody battle at Cannas; it was said to be, because their Consul Varro had put a fair young boy to the Galley. And when things went amiss in the City, it was either because some Dancer or Gambolder had displeased them at the Gamings and Shows in the Kirke, or because some Malefactor had been conveyed that way to the Gallows. What a Godhead is that I beseech you, which is provoked to anger by Modesty, and appeased by mischief? In the favour whereof a man cannot stand, but by dealing wickedly; but is so strangely offended by the doing of justice?  
But let us see further whether they be any better Divines than Prophets. The Oracle of Delphos saith thus: 
A God in sooth is Cleomede, and not a mortal wight;  
The last begot of heavenly race; an Altar to him dight.   
This Cleomede was one of those that pleasured these Gods, by beating one another with strokes of hand and foot; of whom we read that he slew his adversary at one blow. But of such a one as Socrates, Plato, or Pythagoras, he would never have said so much.  
Again he saith thus.  
Archilochus is a very Saint and servant of the Gods: Yea verily of such Gods in deed; for he chose the wickedest and leaudest subject of whom to make his verse. But of Theognis, or of a Phocylides which had exhorted folk to good life, he would never have said so much.  
Of Cypselus he said thus.  
A happy man is Cypselus and loved of the Gods. If it be so: then what are Busyris, Phalaris, and all other Tyrants? for there never was a greater Tyrant than he. But the said Oracle said also, that jupiter and Apollo had prolonged the life of Phalaris, for his well handling of Cariton and Menalippus. Now, what fit mean can there be to make Tyrants, (that is to say, enemies of mankind in the world) than to bear men on hand that such are beloved of the Gods? Zosimus their great Patron, rehearseth an Oracle which answered, That for the appeasing of an Earthquake at Athens, it behoved them to honour Achilles as a God. This was a plain turning away of man from God to the creature. The same answered likewise to the men of Methymnus, that it behoved them to worship a wooden head of Bacchus that was found by fishing in the Sea. And this was a making of them more blind than the stock itself. And when they were demanded concerning the manner of worshipping and serving these Gods; they answered: 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉   
That is to say: Send you the heads to jupiter, the lights unto his Sire.  
The double signification of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fos, which signifieth a man, and may also signify a Torch or a Light, did cut off the lives of many folks. Which doubtfulness of speech the Idol coveted, not of any intent to spare them, but to have matter of excuse against such as made conscience to do it. For being asked by the Athenians how they might make amends for their kill of Androgeus; he willed them to send yearly to King Minos, seven bodies of either sex chosen from among them all, to appease the wrath of God; and that kind of Sacrifice continued still in Athens in the time of Socrates. Now then, what else is all their doctrine than a serving of the Devil and of Creatures, yea even with a service which in very deed is devilish and horrible? All these Oracles are reported by Oenomaus a Heathen man, who sought them out: by Porphyry our enemy, who by them would induce us to make great account of them; who in the beginning of his book, appealeth unto GOD that he setteth not any thing down of his own head: by Chrysippus the Stoic in his book of Destiny, who by those Oracles goeth about to prove it: and by Zosimus himself, who maketh so great moan to see their mouths stopped and their Temples shut up. And surely it is not to be marveled, though the Peripatetics putting them to trial, did utter great griefs against those Oracles: and that the Platonists (which went to work more faithfully) were driven to conclude, that not only the unclean Spirits, but also even their Gods whom they thought to be pure, were subject to lying.  
Let us come to their Miracles. 
False Miracles.  In the Temple of Venus there was a Lamp that never went out; and the Image of Serapis hung unfastened in the air. divers deceits may be wrought in the like case; and it is well known that the like wonders are seen even in natural things, as a Fountain to light a Torch, and a Stone to hang by iron in the air. And they which have the skill to use such things, and to gather together the virtues of many into one, may wonderfully blear the eyes, even of the wisest. As for example, it hath been seen that some have found out a devise how to burn up one water with another; and to break open a strong Lock, almost without touching it. And that the Féends (which know more than we) do better serve their own turns with the wonders of Nature than we do, it is not to be doubted: Insomuch that the Physician which knoweth the virtues of Herbs, maketh things of them which the Gardyner that sowed them and cherished them up would wonder at and cannot do. But lo here a strange case. Accius Navius the great Birdgazer of Rome, did cut asunder a Whetstone with a Razor in the presence of King Tarquin. What a number of Witches are daily burned which do much more by their familiarity with the Devil? For they stop a Tun that is pierced full of holes; they hold fast a Waterspout from running; and they bind the natural abilities: and yet notwithstanding they confess that their so doing is by the wicked Spirits, and the wicked Spirits discover not themselves otherwise than so unto them. And in very truth, the Angels and the Féends differ not properly in strength and power, but in will and practise: like as among men, the good men differ not from the wicked men either in strength of body or in stoutness of courage, but in the applying of their bodies and minds. Also it may be that the Image of Feminine Fortune hath spoken, and likewise the Image of juno Moneta, and such others: And that Castor and Pollux have wiped away the sweat from the Horses of the Romans as they traveled: And that the Lady Claudia drew the Ship wherein the Idol of the Goddess Bona was, which so many young men could not once stir. Let us admit all these things to be true, notwithstanding that Titus Livius say that he becometh old in reckoning them up. We stand not to dispute whither Spirits can speak by Images or no: for we doubt not thereof. But I say that the Spirits which speak in them be wicked Spirits, and turn us away to the Creature, to make us offend the Creator. Neither do I hold opinion that Spirits cannot take bodies upon them; nor that they be unable to do feats far passing the power of men: for thereof examples are to be seen, yea more than were requisite. But the thing that I uphold is this, that the Spirits which seek to have the praise of a victory obtained, or of the assuaging of a Plague, which is due but to the only one God; or which will have them ascribed to Fortune, which is but an imagination; or to a juno, which is but a Block; or to a good Goddess the mother of the Gods, a mother whom the veriest wretches in the world (as I said afore) would disclaim to be their mother, are very devils. And in good sooth, whereas the Devil which took upon him the name of that Goddess, suffered himself to be drawn by Claudia, who had so ill report among all men: It agreed very well to the life which the Goddess herself had led, and to the miracles of the Féends, & to the mark that they shot at: namely, to give the more boldness to Claudia to continue her lewd life, and occasion unto others to follow her.  
Also one was counted a God because he drove away grasshoppers; another because he killed Frogs, Crickets, and Flies. And hereof it came that the Chananites called their Belzebub, and the Greeks their jupiter, 
jupiter. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  by the name of Scareflye. Another (saith Zosimus) sent Birds to devour the grasshoppers. Admit that all these effects have not their particular causes: yet what miracles are they to make Gods withal? For by that reckoning, why should not those also which by certain receits do kill Serpents, Rats, and Féeldmyce, or which do moreover drive away vermin out of men's bodies, be counted Gods? Nay, if we will see miracles, let us look upon the doings of the only one God, which are utterly unpossible, wonderful, and uncommunicalle to any creature. He made the world, and he destroyed it. He made the Sea, and he drieth it up. He made the Sun, and he causeth it to stand still. Yea and (which is yet much more) he made all these things by his word, and with a blast of his mouth he changeth them as he listeth. These are the miracles of the God of Israel, which have not their like among the other Gods. And if they will deal uprightly in disputing, they must as well believe our books for these miracles, as we believe their books for theirs.  
Also if we look upon the miracles of the good Spirits, and of the servants of that one God; they be not casts of Legierdemame to dazzle men's eyes withal; nor nimble tricks & sleights, nor wonders to no end, to no reason, to no instruction: but when they strike, it is to chastise men; and when they heal, it is to glorify God. If they speak, it is to teach; and if they appear to us, it is to lead us to welfare. If they foretell, they do it as messengers from God; and if they work miracles, they do it as executors of his power. And they be so far of from being angry at a Song mistuned, or at a Gambauld misbegun in the honour of them after the manner of the Heathen Gods; that (as we read in our Scriptures) they be offended with nothing more, 
Marks whereby to know Devils.  than when men thank them or honour them for the things which they ought to thank and to worship the Creator.  
By the tokens which the Platonists give us thereof, we shall perceive yet better whether those Gods were good Spirits or bad, 
Porphirius in his second book of Abstinence. In his Epistle to Anebon alleged by Eusebius. lib. 4. cap. 11. jamblichus in his book of Mysteries in many places.  Angels or devils; notwithstanding that that Sect was too too much overtaken in the serving of them. The devils or wicked Spirits (saith Porphirius) delight in bloodshed, in filthy and rybawdly speech, in giving Poison, in furnishing folk with charms of love, and in provoking them to lechery, and to all vices. Yea, and they bear men on hand, that all the Gods and the very sovereign GOD himself, taketh pleasure in such things; either feigning themselves to be the souls of some deadfolkes, or taking upon them to be Gods. Which of all these tokens have I not noted already in their Gods? Again (saith Porphirius) They turkining themselves as much as they can into Gods, that is to say, into Angels of light, to beguile our sense and imagination with strange vanities: Insomuch that he that is the chief of them, will needs be esteemed to be the sovereign God. And yet notwithstanding, their foretelling of things is but by guess, and all of them generally be subject to lying and deceiving. They be angry at every small trifle; & are pacified again with fond and vain things. Nevertheless they have beguiled some vain Poets and Philosophers, and consequently by them have drawn the silly people to the worshipping of them as Gods. What is all this but a description of the very same Gods whom he himself worshipped? Likewise jamblichus who maketh an Anatomy of them, 
jamblichus in his book of Mysteries.  saith thus. They transform themselves (saith he) into good Spirits; but in deed it is but a brag, whereby they pretend more than they be in deed. They make a gallant show, and daunt men with their words. They play the Gods, and yet are troubled with light passions. 
Apulcius.  But the great Witch Apuleius saith yet more. They be pacified with gifts (saith he) and wroth with wrongs. They be pleased with Ceremonies, and angered with the want of them be it never so little. They take upon them the ruling of Birdgazers and Bowelgazers, and of the Oracles and Miracles of Witches and Wizards. To be short, they be unkindly wights, passionate of Spirit, reasonable of understanding, airy of body, and endless of time. To whom can these things agree but to his own Gods? And what remaineth then, but that they were Devils; so much the more miserable, as they be more vehement in their passions, and immortal in their nature.  
Now is there nothing behind but their own Confession, and thereof we shall not yet fail. Apollo therefore as one upon the Rack, doth in many of his Oracles acknowledge the sovereign God, and to make the most of himself, he termeth himself one of his Angels, as appeareth by this Oracle of his alleged afore. 
We Angels are a parcel of the sovereign God of all.  And being asked upon a time by what name he would be called and prayed unto, he answered, 
Call me the fiend that knows all things to whom belongs all skill.  And in another; 
The witty Fiend, the Harmony and Cresset of the World.  And again. 
We Fiends which run through Sea and Land, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Austin in his ninth book of the City of God. chap. 19  do tremble shrink and shake,  
To see the Whip of that great God which makes the World to quake.  And yet notwithstanding, the Greek word Demon (which is the word whereby they termed their Gods, and which in this place I english Fiend) was so odious even among the learned men themselves who knew the original thereof, that they would have been loath to call a Slave so. But when as we read further that these Gods do quake at the naming of the Stygian marish, that is to say of Hell, insomuch that even jupiter himself sweareth thereby, and is afraid to be forsworn: what else is to be thought thereof, but that these Gods which feign themselves to reign in heaven, are tormented in hell? Besides this, the miracles and Oracles of these Gods are come to an end, and their Services and Sacrifices are come to nought, and at length folk have acknowledged the only one GOD the maker of Heaven and Earth, and ruler of the whole world, to be the same whom the jews have worshipped. And in that respect it is that Seneca cried out, That the Slavish jews had given law to the whole Earth. But who can marvel that he which made both the world and man, should in the end make men to acknowledge him to be as he is? So then, let us conclude for these last three Chapters, That there is but only one God; That the same was worshipped, served and called upon by the people of Israel: That the Gods of the Heathen were men; That under the names of those men, devils were worshipped; and finally that our first mark whereby to know the true God, is not to be found elsewhere then in the jewish Religion; whereupon it followeth that all other Religions were Idolatry and Vanity. For whereas some allege in excuse, that the serving of many Gods may well match with the serving of the only one; If they be Gods in deed, that is to say Angels; they take themselves to have wrong, for they seek nothing but the honouring of God. And if they be Devils, then are they Gods enemies; and then the worshipping of them is a rebelling against God. To be short, as little agreement is between the service of the true God, & the service of the Heathen Gods, as is between light & darkness; the true goodness and utter naughtiness; most extreme holiness of will, (which is in him) & extreme teaudnesse of will (which is in them); welfare and soul-health, whereof we be desirous, and destruction and wretchedness, which they have purchased to themselves by their rebellion.   

The xxiv. Chapter.  
That in Israel Gods word was the Rule of his Service; which is the second mark of true Religion.  
NOw have we seen by the former Chapters, how blind man is in matters concerning God, and his own welfare; seeing that in stead of the true God his maker and saviour, he hath worshipped not only the vilest and basest creatures, but also the very enemies of God's glory and of his own welfare. And that ought to warn us the more, how needful this second mark that I have givenfoorth, is in religion; namely that God's word is the Rule of his service. For surely he that overshooteth himself so far as to take, not a Star but the very darkness itself for the Son: cannot but overshoot himself much more in discoursing of his own nature, course, and virtue. And like as he that hath miss his way at his first settingfoorth, the more he hasteth him the more he goeth astray: so doubtless he that is overseen in the object of Religion, that is to say, the true God; the more he talketh of Religion and divine servis, the more shall he blaspheme the name of the everlasting, and the further shall he wander away from his welfare. The heathen (as we have seen) did worship the devil in stead of the true God; & what service ensued thereof? Plays, Fables, Combats; which were Schools of whoredom, of Incests and of murder; bloody Sacrifices, and ordinary manslaughters. If their godliness, were such, what might their ungoblynes be? These extreme mischiefs made some to suspect that there was an abuse. But what did that avail them? One sort said, seeing that Religion consisteth in such things, it were meet to be banished quite out of the World: and thereof sprang the School of Epicurus: and that is a falling from one breakenecke too another. A●othersort sacrificed as the common people did; and hil● opinion in their hearts with that wisest sort. Such were Aristotle, Cicero and others; of whom the former bequeathed a Sacrifice to Ceres by his last will; and the other celebrated the shameful feasts of the Goddess Flora. What else is this, than a mocking of God, a deceiving of folk of set purpose, and a betraying of their own salvation? There have been some few who in their writings have let slip some words against such ungodliness, and have taught that there is but only one God, and that he was not served with such Ceremonies. But when they come too give a rule of Religion, at what point are they? One speaks one thing and another another, every man after his own fancy. They dispute and cry out one against another too overthrow one another. But if ye take the hottest of them aside, & let them cool theiheate a little; they will tell you that they be scarce sure of that which they assure you; and that they be but the opinions of men, and therefore are disputable on both sides; only they think they find more likelihood of truth in their own, than in the opinion of their adversaries. To be short, among all the things which the wisemen of the world have written here and there of the service of GOD, ye may hap to find some one good saying in a hundred years, and foam one other in another hundred: but when ye have gathered them all together as diligently as ye can, yet shall ye not be able to make of them neither Rules, nor Grounds, nor scarcely good Problems. So greatly is man by his corruption, both blinded in things concerning God, and reckless in things that concern his own welfare. Yet is it sooth (and so have we proved,) that God hath set man in this world to serve GOD his Creator; and that Service we call Religion. Whereupon it followeth, that even since the first time that there was any man in the world, there hath also been Religion. For the duty which man oweth unto GOD, is of the same date that man himself is; and the duty which he oweth unto God, is true godliness and Religion. Again, Religion could not be the invention of Man: for the invention of men tending to their own pleasure or profit, proceed from ground to ground, from principle to principle, and from experience to experience, and at the first are rude, and afterward are polished, not by the same man that found them out, but most commonly a hundred year or twain after: whereas Religion (that is to say, man's duty towards God) was not so much instituted as bred with man, for his own welfare and for the glory of God. The thing (say I) without the which, God should not have made man, and man might have been sorry that he had been made; aught (even at the first beginning) to be perfect and fully accomplished to his end: which thing Religion could not be, if it were devised by man's brain, considering that after his fall he was stricken with ignorance in his wit, and with frowardness and lewdness in his will. Needs therefore must it be, that the rule of God's service was given to man by God himself, who alonely is able to utter his own will, 
What and where the true Religion is.  to make rules of his service, and to tell us what things do please him. Now, true Religion is the true service of the true God: and the true God (as I have proved already) was not known in old time elsewhere than in Israel. As for the Gods of the Gentiles, they were Devils, and consequently their Oracles were the word of Devils. Whereupon it followeth that there is no seeking for the true service of GOD and for the true word of God, but only among the people of Israel; yea and that it must of necessity also be found there. For seeing that of necessity there must needs be a Religion; and that in Religion there must needs be a rule proceeding from GOD, according to which rule God will be served; and that God was served in Israel and no where else: The Rule which we seek must needs be found in Israel too. For as it is unpossible that it should be elsewhere, because the true God was not anywhere else: so is it not possible that it should not be there, forasmuch as there was one there, and that the true God also was there. Now therefore, the people of Israel had always certain books which we call the Bible or old Testament, which books they reverenced and followed as the very word of GOD, whereby he hath showed unto men after what manner he will be served and worshipped. And those books have been kept continually from time to time, even since the creation of the world: and they have been of such authority among the true Israelites, that they believed not any other books, and for the maintenauce of them have endured wars, oppressions, banishments, removings, deaths, and slaughters; which are such things as are not to be found among other Nations, notwithstanding that the Lawmakers of other Nations, in giving them their laws, made them believe that they proceeded from the Gods, because it was a thing as good as granted among all men, that the setting down of rules for Religion and for man's soul-health, belonged only unto God. And therefore we might well gather this conclusion, whereof the premises are proved heretofore; That there is but one true God, one true Religion, one true Rule of serving God, revealed by and from the true God. And that this true God was not known and worshipped elsewhere than among the people of Israel. Unto Israel then was the said word revealed, and that word must needs be the Bible or old Testament, whereby the Israelites were taught the service of God. But forasmuch as we have to do with folk that will sooner be driven to silence by arguments, than persuaded by reason to believe, as though it stood God on hand to persuade them for his honour, and not them to believe for their own welfare: I will by the Readers leave, set forth this matter at large.  
First of all, 
Marks whereby to discern God's word.  forasmuch as there is a Service of God to be had; and that service should rather be a misseruice than a Service, if it were not according to his will; and his will cannot be conceived of us by conjectures, but must be manifested unto us by his word; I ask them upon their conscience, if they were to discern that word from all others, by what marks they would know it, that they might not be deceived! This word (say I) is the rule of God's service and the way of welfare. Unto this service is man bound from his very creation, and it is the mark whereat he ought to shoot from his very birth. Will it not then be one good mark of this word, if it be ancienter than all other Laws and Rules, than all other words, than all inventions of man? And will it not be another good mark, if it tend to none other end, than the glorifying of God and the saving of mankind? If (say I) it withdraw man from all other things to lead him to God, and to turn him out of all bypaths? how great pleasure so ever there be in them, to lead him to salvation? Nay I say yet more, If we find things in the Scripture which no Creature could ever have foretold or spoken; things which could never have come into any man's mind; things not only above but also against our nature; Will any man be so wilful and so very an enemy to his own welfare, as not to yield and agree, when he seethe both the hand, the sign, and the Seal of God? In deed I undertake a matter beyond my ability; but yet the higher it is, the more will GOD aid me with his grace. And first of all, 
That the Byiss of more antiquity than all other writings.  forasmuch as the world was made for man, and man for God; and man could never be without true Religion, nor true Religion without the word of God: I demand of the great Nations and flourishing kingdoms that have given Laws to all the world, and among whom the liberal sciences, arts, and learning have been most renowned; whither any one of them is to be found that hath had a Law set down in writing, concerning the true Service of the true God? Yea or one word either right or wrong that hath been believed to proceed from him, I mean from the only one everlasting GOD the maker of Heaven and Earth? Also I demand of them whither among the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, a man shall find an History of Religion deduced from the first beginning of the world, and continued so on from time to time, and from age to age? And on the contrary part, whether there be any Heathen man which is not driven to confess, that the very latest writer of our Bible, is of more antiquity than the ancientest authors that are renowned among the Gentiles? And whether that little which the Gentiles have learned concerning God be not borrowed from other men; and finally whether in matters of religion, they have not walked by groping, without light and without any direction? This matter is handled at large by divers ancient writers. Nevertheless, for the ease of them which cannot read them all, I will gather them here together in few words.  
The Bible beginning at the creation of the world & of man, leadeth us from time to time, and from Father to Son, even unto Christ. It delivereth us a division of men into Gentiles and Israelites, into Idolaters and true worshippers of the sovereign God; and their coming together again into one after a certain time, and by a mean appointed everlastingly to that end by God. And the writers thereof are Moses, josua, the Chronicles of the judges and Kings, the Prophets every of them in his time, Daniel, Nehemias, and Esdras; of whom even these latest were about three thousand and sixehundred years after the creation, and yet were they afore any Chronicles of the world were in the residue of the world. I desire all the Antiquaries of this time, which make so great account of the antiquity of the Greeks and Romans, or of an old Coin, or of a whetherbeaten Pillar, or of a halfeaten epitaph, what find they like unto that? Esdras is the latest in the Canon of the Hebrew writers, and yet lived he afore the time that Socrates taught in Athens. And what rule of Religion was there among the Greeks of his time, who condemned him for speaking of the only one GOD? At the same time were Pythagoras, Thales, Xenophanes, and the seven Sages which have borne so great fame in Greece, who in their whole life time have said some good words concerning manners, and conversation among men, but as for God, they have spoken nothing of him but dreamingly, nor deemed of him, but overthwartly, nor known aught of him but that little which they learned of the egyptians. Thither went Orpheus, Homer, Lycurgus, Solon, Pythagoras, Plato, Heraclitus, Democrates, Thales, Oenopis, and the residue of them to school, as they themselves do highly boast in their Books. And what learned they there but Superstition, as I have showed afore? And what else then could they bring into Greece? And what might their ignorance be, seeing they were counted wise so good cheap? Of the same date are the laws of Solon in Athens, and (anon after) of the twelve Tables at Rome, which the Romans sent to seek in Greece by the advice of one Hermotimus an Ephesian. 
Cicero in his second book of the Ends of things.  As touching GOD and his service, which should be the ground of all good laws, scarce was there one word of very justice in deed, further than peculiar interest required, which was very little. But shall we seek the law of godliness at the hand of the Greeks and Romans, 
Aulus Gellius in his 20. book Cap. 1.  who a three thousand and six hundred years after the Creation of the world, knew not whither there were many Gods or but only one? 
Denis of Halycarnassus lib. 1. cap. 2.  Ne knew any further of Religion, than they had learned by their Traffic into AEgipt? 
Pliny lib. 34. cap. 5.  Who in respect of others are of so late time in the world, and (which worse is) had reigned three or four hundred years without enquiring after godliness and righteousness? 
Pomponius ff. of the original of Law.  Surely we must hold us to this point, that since the very first breeding of man in the world, there hath always been Religion in the world. For he was not bred in vain: neither could there be any Religion without revealing from God. For (as the Philosophers say of nature) God faileth not in things needful. And therefore where men have been so lateward, and GOD so smally known; there we shall not find them. For as for the Oracles, that is to say the sayings of the Devils that abused them; if they were of elder time than the people, they spoke not to them: and if they were bred after them, than were they new. And in very truth, even by their own Histories, the first original of the false Gods of Greece and of their miracles, took beginning about the wars of Troy, which befell about the time of the judges, towards the two thousand and eight hundred year after the Creation of the world. The great Kings of Assyria be of more antiquity than the Greeks; for they fell into the times of the Kings and Prophets of Israel, whereas there was not any notable thing in the Story of the Greeks afore the Captivity of Babylon. But how will they show us any law concerning the service of God, yea or how could they have any, seeing they forsook the true God and worshipped false Gods? Nay, as touching those false Gods, what memorial almost have we of them, but in the Bible, and that is of the victories which the true God had against them, and of his Conquests over them, which are spoken of from leaf to leaf, to their overthrow and utter confusion? Contrariwise, what be the Kings of Israel, but maintainers; and the Prophets but expounders of the law of Moses? These as publishers thereof from time to time, to the intent that folk should not forget it, which thing we see not in any other Nation; and the other as compellers of men to observe it, as whereunto even Kings themselves are bound. But if we go back from the time of the setting forth of the law of Moses; what have the Heathen of that time to set against it? I say not only in respect of Godliness, but also for justice, and well near for the common society of men? The Athenians will allege Cecrops the founder of their City; & the Thebans their King Ogyges. And of them they term all things of antiquity, Cecropian and Ogygian: And peradventure they will tell us, that at that time folk bred out of the earth in the Country about Athens; as though they spoke of Mussheromes and grasshoppers. And when they say so, what shall we look for at their hands concerning the service of God and heavenly things, sith they think them to have been bred of the earth? But yet they will not deny that this Cecrops was an Egyptian, who brought them certain laws for the ordering of Marriage; which is a sure proof that they were utterly ignorant of the law of God and man.. Long time after him came their Gods and Oracles; insomuch that all the Greekish History is (as ye would say) tungtyde for many hundred years after, like a brook that loseth himself within thirty paces of his first spring. Among the egyptians & Syrians there was more form of government; but as for Religion, they worshipped the Heavens, the Planets, and the Stars, which are (in very deed) made for man, and for man's use are put under certain laws by God, and therefore much less are those Gods able to make men subject unto them. And if there were any among them that knew more than others, it was the Birdgazers and the Bowelgazers, which are a kind of Witches that turned men away from God to the Creatures, and therefore in no wise directed them to Salvation. But what shall we find among the people of Israel at that time? A Moses that preacheth but the only one God, and teacheth from him how he will be served; and a Law that setteth the bounds both of Religion and Policy; and the duty of man both towards God and his neighbour; which every seventh day is read openly to all the people; which the Kings have before their eyes, the Priests bear about them, the Fathers teach to their Children, and the Masters to their Servants, and which the very walls and forefronts of their houses do show both to strangers and to their household folk. At the happiest time that ye can choose in Rome or Athens, (for I am willing to omit their barbarousness) what have we, (I say not of Religion, but of Order in justice and state of Government) that cometh any thing near to that? Contrariwise, what law was there ever set forth among them, which was not abolished again ere it was known to the people? Or who made account of it but the Lawyers? Or who broke not the law afore he knew it? To be short, where have we read that any whole Nation were all Lawyers, and all skilful in the Laws of God and men, but the people of Israel? And why was that, but because the same Law contained the rule of welfare, the which it was meet that all folk without exception should know and understand, because that naturally all men ought to tend unto their salvation? And as touching the antiquity of Moses the setter forth of that Law among that people; I will not have ye to believe me, but the gentiles themselves. The very ground of the antiquity of Greece (say Diodorus & Denis of Halycarnassus, 
Denis of Hal●carnassus. ) was Inachus, who lived twenty Generations (that is to say, about four hundred years) afore the wars of Troy. And Ptolemy of Mendese a Priest of AEgipt, (who gathered his History out of the holy Registers of the AEgiptians) said that Amosis King of AEgipt reigned the same time that Inachus reigned in Greece; 
Appion in the fourth book of his History against the jews.  and that in the time of the same Amosis, Moses went out of AEgipt with the people of Israel. The same thing is affirmed by Appion the Grammarian the great enemy of the jews; and also confirmed by Berosus the Babylonian, 
Eusebius li. 10. Cap. 3.  Polemon, Theodotus, Ipsicrates, and Moschus, writers of the Stories of the phoenicians, cited by Eusebius and Affricanus. Eupolemus in his book of the Kings of jewrie saith, that Moses taught letters to the jews; the jews to the phoenicians; and the phoenicians to the Greeks by Cadmus. And so by that reckoning, Moses should be, not only of most antiquity in their Histories, but also of more antiquity than all Histories. Numenius saith that Plato and Pythagoras had nothing but from the egyptians and Syrians, and namely from Moses; insomuch that he reciteth his history almost word for word as we have it in the Bible; saying that Moses was a great Divine, Lawmaker, and Prophet. Also Diodorus of Sicily saith, that he understood by the egyptians, (who notwithstanding were enemies to Moses and to all his race) that he was the first Lawgiver of all, and moreover a man of great courage, and of very commendable life; and that the jews esteemed him as a GOD, as well for the knowledge that he had of GOD, as for his authority and pre-eminence. And he (saith Diodorus) gave a Law unto the people of Israel, which he said he had received of jah, for so do they call the GOD whom they worship. And who is this GOD Strabo 
Strabo. lib. 15.  showeth us sufficiently where he saith, That Moses having rebuked the egyptians for their vanities and follies, and for resembling God (who is to be worshipped and served otherwise) by the Images of Beasts and Men; withdrew himself from among them that he might serve God. 
Porphirius li. 4 Eusebius in his book of preparation to the Gospel.  To be short, Porphirius in his fourth book against Christians, beareth this record of Moses, that he had written the history of the jews truly, which thing he had perceived by conferring it with Sachoniathon the Berutian, who rehearseth the very same circumstances; the which he had learned out of the Registers of one Hierobaal a Priest of the God of Levy, that is to say, of the God of Israel, and out of the Chronicles of the cities, & out of the holy books which were wont to be dedicated to temples. And this Sachoniathon (saith he) was somewhat after the time of Moses, about the time of Semiramis. Now, Porphirius giveth us here more than we ask. For we set Abraham in the time of Semiramis, & Moses came certain hundred years after: Now then, the books of Moses do lead us up from Son to Father unto Abraham, from Abraham to Noah; from Noah, to the first Man, and from the first man to God the Creator, beyond whom it is not possible to pass any further, as I have proved already: and in treating of the Creation we must always needs come back again. And through out all this discourse Moses telleth us of the things that GOD hath discovered unto men, and the laws which he hath given after manner of a covenant, to the intent they should be his people, and he should be their God: The which Covenant it had surely been both a shame & folly for him to have devised for that hardhearted & stubborn people, whom he burdeneth not with any other thing, but that which was notoriously known unto them, and thereby they were certified of their original nativity. Neither is it to be suspected that he wrote these things (as some list to say) to get authority to himself and his; for he brondeth his Grandfather Levy with an open mark of reproach expressed in these words of jacobs' Testament; Simeon and Levy are cruel instruments, 
Gene. 49. 5. 7.  in their vanquishing, etc. Cursed be their wrath, for it was shameful; I will divide them in jacob, and scatter them in Israel. etc. As who should say, he meant to disgrade Levy and all his race; to the saying whereof nothing compelled him. Also he reproveth Aaron's idolatry and Mary's murmuriug, notwithstanding that he was his Brother and she his Sister: and he repeateth oftentimes, that for his own fault, God had told him that he should see the land of Canaan, but not enter into it. To be short, he ordaineth and leaveth josua to be his Successor, whereas by reason of the authority which he had among that people, he might by all likelihood have set up his own sons. And yet we see that naturally we conceal the faults of our Parents, and corrupt their Pedigrees to make them the more virtuous, and ourselves the more commendable 〈…〉, and we be loath to acknowledge our own faults. 〈…〉 the homeliest men of us all) except it be among our 〈…〉 fréeds, and as late as we can. Much less can we find in our hearts to publish them to the knowledge of posterity. To be short, we be so desirous to leave honour and estimation to our children, that such as would not have been ambitious for themselves, cannot refrain from being ambitious for their posterity. Now then, what may we conclude thereof, but that he yielded the honour of his ancestors, and his own too, unto God's glory & the truth? And although we proceed not so far as to conclude absolutely, that he wrote at that time as from God, and not as from man: yet notwithstanding, forasmuch as in his writings he strippeth man's nature naked, ought we not at leastwise to conclude, that he which made less account of himself and his than of the truth, would not have preferred untruth before it for any respect? 
Object. o●●.  Some miserable kaytife that is quarrelous against his own welfare, will say here, Admit that Moses, josua, David, Esay and others were as ancient as ye list: yet how shall I be sure that those books also were as ancient, and of their writing? It were enough to answer him, How believest thou that such books or such were Plato's, Aristotle's and Cicero's. Marry (sayest thou) because they have been conveyed unto us from them from hand to hand? Use thou the like equity towards the others, which as great a number of men do assure thee to have come from them. But if that will not persuade them, yet want we not wherewith to enforce them. First and foremost I appeal to the conscience and judgement of all persons, which know what it is to indite, whether the style of the Scriptures be not such and so peculiar, as it cannot by any means be counterfeited or disguised. And if there be any that will needs doubt thereof, I pray him to make a trial thereof but in some one side of a leaf, be it in plainness of setting things down as they were done, or in ferventness of praying, or in pitthinesse of Prophesying: and he shall forthwith perceive, that as well in the matter itself as in the manner of inditing, there is a certain new taste in stead of the old, which is peculiar to all times, so as no man can attain to the same natural vain, the same zeal, and the same efficacy, unless he be led by the same hand, moved by the same spirit, and pricked with the same spur that Moses, David, and the Prophets were. To be short, if it be hard to father a book upon Plato, Herodotus, and Hipocrates, but that he which shall have read them advisedly, will by and by espy it even a far of; So is it as unpossible to father the other books upon those which have a style sofarre differing from other writings, unless a man will bear himself on hand, that such bastardbookes were made in the same ages or near about the same times that those Authors lived in. Let us see how it may be possible to have been done in the same ages. Moses' published the Law before all the people, and he curseth the party with death both of body and soul, which shall add, diminish or alter any thing. He bindeth the people household by household, to take fast hold thereof. His books are delivered to every Tribe, they be read openly every Saboth day, they be kept carefully in the Ark, and the Ark is kept as carefully by all the tribes. And that this was done, it appeareth not only by his book, but also by the effects that insewed thereof from time to time, and by the footsteps thereof which are evident even yet among the jews. If it be possible for a book to be preserved from falsifying and foisting, what book shall that be but the Bible? which was guarded by ten hundred thousand men, and copied out, not by some Scriveners only, but also by all the people? Afterward came josua, who renewed the same Covenant, proclaimed the Law, and yielded record unto Moses. Likewise the judges succeeded josua, Samuel succeeded the judges, the Kings and the Chronicles succeeded Samuel, and the Prophets succeeded them all. These books followed one another immediately and without interp●●●●tion: and every one that followed, presupposed the things to be an infallible truth which had been written by them that went afore; neither was there any that did cast any doubts or reprove any of the former histories, as is found to be done in other Histories; (as for example, Hellanicus reproveth Ephorus, Ephorus finds fault with Timeus, and consequently Timeus reprehendeth them that wrote afore him:) But josua gathereth a certain and unfallible consequence of Moses, the judges of josua, Samuel of the judges, David of them all, and so all the rest. And to speak of the Prophets, they be not like the books of our Astrologers, which reform one another's Calculations, and control one another's Prognostications: But as they shoot all at one mark: so they agree in one thing, notwithstanding that they wrote in sundry times and sundry places. Nay (which more is) we see that the people were so sure of that Law, that from age to age they chose rather to abide all extremities, than to give it over; insomuch that they defended it against the Chananites, the Philistines, the Assyrians, the babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Who then durst be so proud and bold as to voilate or imbace the thing that was held to be so holy, defended with so many lives, and confirmed with so many deaths? If ye say, the Heathen; Their intents was not to mar it, but to make it quite away. For what profit could have redounded unto them of that pain? to what end should they have done it? or how could they have corrupted it in the sight & in the knowledge of so many folk? Moreover, who knoweth not that the Scriptures were carried by the banished jews, into divers countries of the world afore they came into the hands of the Gentiles, as of the Greeks or Romans? As for the jews; their sheet-anchor and felicity consisted in the keeping of them, & the reward of corrupting them was death: and what could it then have benefited them to have corrupted them? Nay, yet further, which of them would have died afterward for a Law, which they knew to be corrupted or counterfeited? And sooth we see throughout their Histories, that there passed not so much as any one half hundred years without persecutions and wars for that Law.  
And whereas it might be said, that some suttleheaded fellow among the jews had done it to abuse the rest: how could that be again, seeing it was not in the hands of four or five priests only, as the Ceremonies of the etrurians and Latins were; but in the hands of the whole people, so as one syllable could not be changed, but it was to be espied even by young Children. Considering also that we read not of any king how wise so ever he were, that ever durst presume to add, diminish or alter any whit thereof; whereas notwithstanding, all other Laws of the world were made by piecemeal, and Kings and Senates have always reserved to themselves a prerogative to correct them and alter them at their pleasure, specially when they limited their authority, and served not for the maintenance of their possession. And if any man to bereave us of this argument, will stepfoorth and say, that our Scriptures are as an History gathered out of the Registers of many ages, by some one author; as we see Berosus hath done for the Chaldees, Duis for the phoenicians, Manetho for the Egyptians, and such others; let him tell us then (I heartily pray him,) in what age of the world that Author is likely to lived. If in the time of Moses, of josua, or of the judges; how cometh it to pass that he writeth of the reigns of the kings? If in the time of the first Kings; how writeth he of the last Kings? If in the time of the last Kings; how is it possible that the jews being afore that time carried away into divers places of the world, and scattered abroad everywhere like the members of Pentheus, should carry & keep with them the books of Moses, which (by these men's reckoning) were not yet made, according to which book both themselves did notwithstanding then live, and also taught other Nations? I mean the ten tribes by name, which by three former removings were scattered over the whole Earth, whereof the marks are to apparent to be denied. The first in the the time of Achaz King of juda, and of Placea King of Israel, by Thiglath Phalassar King of the Assyrians, who carried away Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasses: the second in the time of Ose by Salmanasar, who carried away Isachar, Zabulon and Nepthaly into Assiria: and the third anon after by the same Salmanasar, who conveyed away Ephraim and the other half of Manasses; as is witnessed both by the ancient Records of many Countries, and also by the Chronicles of the Hebrews. And at that time while Printing was notyet in use, what mean was there to disperse those books so soon and so far of? Nay, which more is, what will they say when they shall find the books of Moses to have been kept from father to son, even, in the utmost Coasts of Ethyopia, whither the Empires never came, which books they say they have had there ever since the time of Solomon, that they were brought thither by the Queen of the Province of Saba? Thus have I spoken enough of this matter, both for them that are contented to be satisfied with reason, (for if they do but read our scriptures, they have whereon to rest,) and also for those which are otherwise: for it is hard to show him aught, which by his will will see nought. But there are yet further which tell us that in the time of the Maccabees, Antiochus abolished the law of Israel, and all the books of the Bible: and they think themselves to have made a great speak, and hard to be resolved. I leave it to the consideration of all men of judgement, whither it be easy for a Prince though he use never so great diligece, utterly to abolish any manner of book whatsoever, seeing the nature of man is such, that the more that things are sought to be plucked from him, the more he straineth himself to keep them. But when a book is once believed and reverenced of a whole nation, not for delight of things done by men, therein contained, but for the salvation of man therein revealed; for the truth whereof men are not afraid to endure both death and torments, as was witnessed by many in the time of the same Antiochus: what diligence of man can suffice to abolish it? But let us put the case that it was abolished in jewrie: yea and that it was abolished throughout his whole Empire: what can yet ensue thereof, seeing that the ten tribes (over whom Antiochus could have no authority) had carried them and disperse them abroad to the uttermost bounds of the world? And seeing that the removing of the other two tribes, had made them rife among the Persians and Babylonians? And that the Ptolemy's cherished the jews right tenderly in Egypt, giving them open S●●agogs with franchises & liberty? And also that Ptolemy Ph●ladelph had caused all the Bible to be translated into the Greek tongue by the three score and ten interpreters, and had laid it up in his library as a jewel? And to be short, that the jews were at that very time so dispersed among the Greeks themselves, as there was scarcely any City which had not received them with their Synagogues?  
But although none of all these reasons were to be had; then, if the Bible was lost and abolished, how was it found again so suddenly in one instant? Who could (as ye would say) cas● it up whole out of his stomach at once? Or who hath ever red that the jews made any moan for the loss of it, or took any pain for the seeking of it out again? And to cut off superfluity of speech, whereof then cometh it, that of so many grammarians being of opinion that they should become wise men in one day, if they had Cicero's books of Comonweale to read; none of them all being more suttleheaded than the rest, hath undertaken to counterfeit them in his name? No no: let us rather say the Scriptures are of more antiquity than all other writing; and the more they be so, the more adversity have they endured: the rage of tyrants hath overflowed them; and yet they could nother drown them nor deface them: they have been condemned to the fire, and yet could not be consumed. Contrariwise, the books of the greatest men, how great authority so ever they had, have been lost, and for all the pain that hath been taken to preserve them, yet have they often come to nought. The Chronicles of Emperors (say I) be perished, when the Chronicles of the small Kings of jewrie, and of that poor outcast people, and I wot not what a sort of vanished shepherds despised of the world and despisers of the world, have continued to posterity in despite of the World. Therefore it must needs be say, that the Scriptures have been preserved by God's singular providence, both so long time and against so many injuries of time. And seeing they be the only writings which only he hath preserved from the creation of the world unto our days; surely they were for our behoof. And seeing they have been rejected of the world, and yetnotwithstanding do live and reign in despite of the world; surely they be from somewhere else than of man or of the world; that is to wéet Revelations from God to man, continued from time to time for his glory and our welfare. And so by this discourse we gain this point, that our Scriptures which are left us by Moses, josua, and the Prophets, are the ancientest of all writings, and utterly void of all likelihood of mingling or counterfeiting: and that sith that even from the beginning there hath been a Religion revealed from God, and we find none other than this to have continued from the very Creation unto us; we may infer, that the Scriptures wherein we read it, are of God, because that from line to line they contain his Revelations made unto mankind. But let us pass from this antiquity which is but the bark of the Scriptures, and let us come to the substance of them, which will give us assurance of the place from whence they come.  
Now then, let us read the books of men as well of old time as of our own time, and what is the scope, 
The Bible tendeth altogether to the glory of God.  the ground, the form, and discourse of them, furtherforth than they either expound or follow our Scriptures? Some writ to celebrate the Kings and great captains of their time: these be but vauntings of men, rumours of people, consultations to destroy one another, and subtle devices to disappoint or undo one another. Good men by reading them become malicious, and evil men become worse. And by the way there must be some pretty speech of Fortune, which swayeth the Battles. As for God who maketh Kings and unmaketh them again, who holdeth both the entrances and issewes of all things in his hand, there is not so much as one word in all a great volume. Who doubteth that these be books of men, which contain nothing but the passions, the subtleties, and the endeavours of men? Another sort write (as they themselves say) to make themselves immortal. They writ goodly discourses, to make themselves to be had in admiration. If they chance to stumble upon some good saying for manners or for the life of man; they turkin it a thousand ways to make it seem good for their purpose. They deliver their words by weight, they drive their clauses to fall alike, they eschew nicely the meeting together of vowelles: and what greater childishness can there be in grave matters, than that? Yet notwithstanding, they make books of the despising of vainglory, and their books themselves are full of ambition: of the bridling of affections; and their arguments are rank poison and contention. If they happen to speak of the serving of God; it is by Sacrifieing to devils, and to their own Lovers, and friends, as we read that Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle did. Who is he then which even by the first line or by the opening of the book, may not perceive that they which speak be men, yea and but very men in deed; considering that in all their books they speak but of man? Men (say I) that seek the glory of men and not of GOD; Preachers of vanity, and not of man's welfare?  
On the contrary side, we hear how the Scripture saith, In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth. What is meant by this entrance, but that the Reader should not in the rest of the discourse look for the follies of men, but for the wondrous works of the Creator? And what other author did ever begin his work so? Herodotus beginneth his History after this manner: Herodotus of Halycarnassus hath spoken these things. Though he had never said so, it would never have been surmised that he had spoken any thing but of man. For what is his whole book but vanity? Or what hath he which is not inferior to man? After the same manner doth Hypocrates begin his books concerning the nature of man; and likewise Timaeus of Locres his treatise of Nature and of the Creation of the world: which Authors I allege as ancientest of all others. But if we go through the whole Scripture from the one end to the other, we shall find nothing there but that which is promised at the first word; that is to wit lively letters, and unpossible to be falsified, of a book that proceedeth from God, namely his own glory and the welfare of man. As for the glory of the Everlasting, it leadeth us to the creation of the world, and of man; to the sin of Adam, and the corruption of Mankind; the Flood of Noah that followed thereupon, and the confusion of Tongues; the calling of Abraham and his seed, the plagues of Pharaoh, and the wonders of AEgipt. What is there in all these things, that savoureth of man, or of the vanity that possesseth him? What hath he there which maketh him not either to stoop unto God or to sink unto Hell? Again, on the other side, what else doth that whole discourse show us, but the highness of the Everlasting, his mercifulness towards the lowly, and his justice and judgements towards the proud, when we see all loftiness of the world cast down before him, and all the puissance of empires given over to Caterpillars and to the worms of the earth? afterward Moses cometh to the rehearsing of the law that God gave to that people. Whence came that extraordinary wisdom, and why rather in Israel than elsewhere, in the time when all other Nations were so rude? And what manner of law was it? Sooth a law comprehended in ten Sentences, and yet those ten Sentences contain whatsoever can belong to Godliness, Uprightness and justice, whither it be of service towards GOD, or of duty towards our neighbour: Insomuch that all the great volumes of laws whereof the world is full, without ground, without end, notwithstanding that they treat but only of justice, are referred all to that mark, and have not any thing more than is there. Again, all these ten sayings are unfolded in two words: namely, to love God with the whole heart, and a man's neighbour as himself. Let the Athenians show me the Laws of their Draco, and the Romans the Laws of their twelve Tables; if there be one word of true Godliness and justice in them? Let the Greeks and Romans show all that ever they wrote by the space of a thousand years; and see if ye shall find so much thereof, as is contained in those two sayings only. And as for our Philosophers, which make so great brags of the ten Predicaments of their Aristotle, which are but the seed of Sophistry and vain babbling; I ask them (at leastwise if they have any eyes) what account they ought to make of this Law, which hath conveyed in so few words, both the matters of the world which are infinite, and the matters of GOD, which are uncomprehensible to man, together. The Israelites come to take their journey into Chanaan under Moses; they be brought in thither by josua; and they be ruled and governed there by the judges and Kings: And in this discourse there fall out many human things, many enterprises, surprises, Sieges, battles, Uictories, & Conquests. Here it behoveth us to enter into ourselves, and by ourselves into the natural disposition of all men. When we go to give the onset, I mean the better sort of us; what say we? Lord, we set our Battles in array, but thou givest the victory? After that manner speak the Christians at this day. Nay: but if God prosper us, what will we say at our return? Marry, I won such a Hill, I broke the vanguard, the Enemy was discomfited by my counsel: and hereupon rise quarrels who shall have the honour of the victory. But as for God, we shall hear no more speaking of him, than if there were no GOD at all. The History writers which describe their Uictories, are curious in naming even the meanest captains, for offending any man; and moreover in describing of the advantages of the places, of the Sun, of the Wind, of the Dust, of him that led the Soldiers to handblows, & of the consultations of the captains: so as he balanceth the Battles after his own scoales; and as for men's sins which are the procurers thereof, he never once thinks of them. Seeing then that the Authors of our Bible are the ancientest of all others, whereof cometh this new kind of inditing, or whence have they learned it, that in all their Histories they give the glory of the Battles and of all feats of Arms alonely unto God, both afore and after? Or whence come these ordinary words, God giveth them into our hands, God is our victory, God is as strong in a small number as in a great? Whence also come the goodly Songs, which we shall not find in any of the Heathen Writers; but of this, that they wrote the wars of GOD and the victories of the Lord, yea and even in his behalf which was the doer of them? If they wrote on man's behalf, why wrote they not in man's usual order of inditing? diting? Why wrote not Moses and josua, (say I) as Polybius and Caesar wrote? Or who letted them to take to themselves the glory of their high enterprises? Or if they wrote for Kings and by commandment of Kings; why find we no commendations of josua, David, josaphat, and Ezechias; as well as of Themistocles, Miltiades, Alexander, and trajan? For what other commendation find we of them, than that they walked in the way of the Lord, that they destroyed the high places, that they overthrew the Idols, and such like, howbeit that we read of heroical & Martial deeds done in their times? And what ought we then to conclude, but that, as all other books which tend to the glory of men, and concern but themselves or some others, are the works of men: so these books, which tend alonely to the glory of God, yea even by the contempt of men, are the works of God, that is to say, inspired by GOD? As much is to be said of the Prophets, who when they speak of any succour that was to come to the people of Israel, or of any enemy that was to come suddenly upon them: they said not, your friends shall secure you, or your enemies shall run in upon you; but, the Lord will send Cyrus to deliver you, the Lord will arm the Babylonians to scourge you. vain are all your dealings if your trust be not in him: vain are the threatenings of your enemies, if you turn unto him: and all this is to assure you, that all things are subject unto him; insomuch that even they which think themselves to make war against him, do fight for him and by him. To be short, if we inquire of them concerning the state of the earthly Kingdoms; they answer us of the heavenvly. If a man be cumbered with this present life; they teach us the life to come. And oftentimes a man would think that they spoke nothing material to our demands, because they answer not directly to our demand, but to that which we ought to demand. Let us consider somewhat nearly of what mind the Soothsayers are, both by the Oracles of the devils, and by such as make profession of Soothsaying. The devils require Sacrifices for their answering to curious questions. The Astrologians are fain to seek out Princes. The foreteller of things to come by Palmistry, or by Physiognomy, or by the inwards of Beasts, or by the signs of the Sky, do the like. And ordinarily who be more vain and more puffed up with pride, than those kind of men? What jarring is there among them, what disagreement in their foresayings? Nay, which of them have we sée●●●; which is not a money man? or that would rather die than not declare God's wrath to a Prince? Or that hath not soothed a Prince in his sins, to suck gain out of him? Or that hath given the glory unto God and not to his own cunning & skill? Or refused the honour that was offered unto him, as a notable injury? Witnesses hereof may Apollonius, Apuleius, Maximus, and such others be; who by their foretelling never sought other thing than Images of themselves to be set up in halls of Cities, and Pensions in the Courts of the most vicious and detestable Princes. And what is to be said then of these folk, who go willingly to declare the overthrow of States, and the deaths of Princes? Which for sake their apparent ease, to go and show forth God's wrath? Who of all their wonderful knowledge yield none other reason but this, The Lord hath said it unto us, nor seek any other reward than the glory of GOD, yea matched oftentimes with their own death?  
Let us come to the Poetries of our Scriptures, and let the heathen set theirs against them, and who will doubt but that they shall blush for shame? To omit the art, the measure, and the antiquity of them, which are but the outsides of them, but yet more beautiful in ours than in the Poetries of the Greeks or Romans. For what are theirs but the vauntings of men, counterfeited praises, and discourses of Love Songs, not manly, but unmeet for men? One singeth me the rage of Achilles; another; the wanderings of AEnaeas, and a third the love of Paris and Helen: And so far hath this kind of dealing passed into custom, that it seems unpossible for man to be a Poet, a Divine, and an Historiographer all together. So far are our mirth and songs estranged naturally from God and from truth. What shall we say then to the Poetries, specially of David, considering that he was afore all the Poetries of the Heathen; but that those Poetries are not an imitation, but a simple affection? If we seek there for songs of victory, we have of them; but they concern the God of Hosts, If for Brydesongs, they be not wanting; but if they be of God and of them that fear him; If for hurning loves; there be songs of the very Love itself, howbeit kindled of God himself: If for shepherds songs, it is full of them, but they concern the Everlasting for the Shepherd, and Israel for the flock. The art of them is so excellent, that it is an excellency even to translate them. The affections so lively, that they quench & choke all others. If he had written in man's behalf, had he not as good a ground as Homer had? what were his combat with Golias, his victories over the Philistines, his love of Bersabee, and such others? Or think we that he was not subject to the same passions, or made of the same mould that we be? Or that he which wakeneth us so much, was drowsy himself? Or that he which speaketh of nothing but Love and Honour, was without them himself? No; but in very deed it was another manner of Pulse that did beat in his Veins, than beateth in ours, and another manner of fire that burned in his marrow. Which thing no man can deny that readeth his Psalms, so lively, so fervent, and so full of affections: howbeit that he directeth his love and his vehement desires to another mark, as one that beheld a far other beauty, coveted a far other honour, and tasted a far other pleasure than of the world. For all those books aim at none other mark than the honour of God, contrary to man's nature, which robbeth God of his honour as much as can be, to clothe itself therewith, and coveteth nothing so much as glory.  
But let us come to the other mark which followeth this successively, 
Man's welfare.  namely the welfare of man. Forasmuch as I have said, that the mark whereat man shooteth in this life, is his own welfare: If God have left him any word, or given him any revelation, to what end ought we to acknowledge the same to be done, but to light him in the way of welfare, and to turn him from all crossepathes and bywayes which might lead him from the end that he aimeth at. Now let us hardly read all the Books of the Heathen, and there is none of them which buzieth not our brains about Moonshine in the water, making us to spend night and day therein, as though we had none other resting place to seek? whereas none other book than the Bible doth put us in mind of our way? Our welfare is our sheet-anchor, and the welfare as well of one of us as of another, is to live immortally united unto God. How shall Aristotle put us in mind thereof, who leaveth us in doubt whether there be any immortality or no, and which setteth our sheet-anchor in I wot not what musings, peradventure upon Logic and natural Philosophy, as his own? Or how shall Plato do it, who suffereth himself to be carried away with the common error? Or Seneca 
Seneca in his exhortations.  (how high soever he sore with his Wings,) who will have the wiseman to play the fool, the harebrained, and the Lechor, and to give over himself to all manner of vices, for the bringing of his affairs to pass, yea even to his own harm, and to the blaspheming of God himself? But if we harken to the holy Scriptures, we shall perceive from time to time, that they be no untrusty guides of our ways, neither such as stand doubting at that first four wayléete, whither a man should take on the right hand or on the left, but they be sure guides, such as are able to draw us out of the mire, and to convey us through the wild Forests of the world, not only by leading us by the hand, but also by serving our turns both for a guide, and for a Cresset, and for a path all together. Therefore at the very first entrance they tell us that God having created the world, made man of the dust of the earth, and that he made him after his own Image and likeness, and gave him power over all the things that he had made here below. And what else is this, but a teaching of man at the first word, that he is indebted to God for all things, that his felicity consists in serving God, & that he is made to another end than other living wights; namely for God himself? From hence it leadeth us to our disobedience, & to the punishment that insewed thereupon; to wit, that by seeking our welfare elsewhere than in God, we fell into all mischief. As touching the immortality of our Souls, and the Providence of God, forasmuch as they be Schoolepoints to brawl upon, but undoubtedly grounds to as many as conceive that there is a GOD, (which thing all men do) and such as men ought not to doubt of or to be taught, but to practise and exercise all their life long, we see no disputing there as is among the Philosophers. Henoch therefore endured many hard things in that froward generation, for serving God; and by special privilege was soon taken out of this life. And to what intent, but to have a better. Abraham, Isaac, and jacob wayfared from place to place upon the earth. And did they so in that hope of the land of Chanaan? Nay, who would have endured so much hardness for his Posterities sake? Or for a promise that should not be performed till four hundred years after? Then was it because they grounded themselves upon a better inheritance: and that is the selfsame which God meant when he said to Abraham, I am thy great reward. Moses' came somewhat nearer this promise; for he saw the Land, howbeit but from the top of a high mountain. And wherefore languished he forty years in the wilderness among a thousand grudgings, at the point to be stoned every hour by his own countrymen, & yet was feign to die at the instant of obtaining his hope? Sooth he had seen another country nearer him, whereunto he aspired; & far better (which he was to possess in the life to come) than he forewent in this present life. The like is to be said of josua, of the judges, of Samuel, of David, & of the Prophets; whose whole life was not a schooledivinitie like unto the Philosophers, but a continual practice of this faith: namely, that man's shootanker is not in this world, nor our welfare to be sought here: but that it behoveth us to seek it in God, and to turn again to him that we may enjoy it. To that end tend these precepts which are given to men in the Law, Thou shalt love God with all thine heart, with all thy Soul, and with all thy strength. To what end? To be oppressed by Pharaoh, turmoiled up and down in the Desert, beaten by the Philistines, overthrown by the Assyrians, carried away by the Babylonians, and trodden under foot by all Nations? If the love of God bring us no better reward than so, what gain we by being his people? Nay, it is to show us, that our welfare dwelleth not here below; that these Hosts which welcome us into our Inn with smile countenance, do cut our throats in our beds; that the reward of such as serve God, is not the world nor any worldly thing, but the very maker both of man and of the world. Then followeth there another precept; namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. What would Carneades have said, or rather what would he not have said, if he had examined this Commandment? This Philosopher being sent Ambassador on a time from Athens to Rome, made an Oration of justice before Cato the Censor, whereof he spoke wonders. The next day he made another, wherein he proved that it was but folly and fondness; or that the Romans should be fain to come back again to their Cottages, and that all traffic and whatsoever else it be whereby Cities are made to flourish, would come to nought. What is to be said then of this law, which extendeth so far as to say, not only, do not that to others which you would not have done to yourselves; but also, do that for others which you would have done for yourselves? And surely if our welfare consist in this world, what goodlier law can there be, than for a man to love himself and his own, and to wrest all his neighbour's affairs to his own profit? And contrariwise what greater fondness, than to be another man's bailie, that is to say, to procure oftentimes a man's own loss? But the Philosopher was ignorant that godliness is the root of justice, and that Charity is nothing else but a rebounding back of the love which we own unto God, upon Mankind which is his Image. And the aiming point of this Commandment, which being restrained within one word spreadeth itself throughout the whole law of Israel, is none other than to show us that our chief dwelling place is elsewhere than here, and that whereas we love all things here for our own sakes, we ought to love other men as ourselves, and ourselves for God's sake, who is our sole and only welfare. Hereunto do all the Scriptures guide us, be it by authority of the law, or by example of holy persons, or by the exhortations of the Prophets: and there is not that line which twitcheth us not by the ear, to waken us out of the sleep of this world; and which plucketh us not from the stool and the table, and from the glueing vanities that stick so fast to us; to bring us back to glory and to the enjoying of God who is our welfare. Seeing then that naturally we think so little upon this glory of God; what a book is that, which speaketh of nothing else? Seeing we be plunged so deep in the world, and the world in us; what a book is that, which withdraweth us from it every hour? And what would become of man if he had not another spirit than the spirit of man and of the world, which biddeth battle both to man and to the world? Sooth we may well say therefore, that the Scriptures are verily of Gods inspiring, which have so express resemblances of him, and so contrary to the hand, stamp, print and writing of the whole world.   

The xxv. Chapter.  
That through out the whole process of the Bible, or old Testament, there are things which cannot proceed but from God.  
WE have learned heretofore by perusing the universal world, that all things tend too Gods glory; by the examining of man, that his only and whole welfare is to cleave unto GOD. Now therefore sith we see that the Scriptures preach unto us the same thing that we have read both in the world and in ourselves; ought it not to be a good proof to us, that he which made both the World and man, hath also made the Scriptures to rule them by? And that he which hath spoken to all Nations by his Creatures, hath also vouchsafed too show himself more nearly to them by his Scriptures? Again, seeing that the Scriptures command us to love God with all our hart, and that the Creatures have heretofore declared us to be bound thereto; so as the Creatures teach the selfsame thing which the Scriptures command: what can we say but that both those books have one selfsame author? Howbeit forasmuch as our eyes be so dazzled by our fall, that the Creatures were unto us as a clasped book, or as a thing written in Ciphers; God to apply himself to the weakness of our sight, hath given us his Scriptures: and that forasmuch as our wills are wholly turned from him, it behoved us to be commanded our own welfare, which (were we according to our first creation) we should covet and follow earnestly at the only sight of the first book. But forasmuch as it may still be said, that these books are rather the works of good men and of such as feared God, than of God himself: let us see if they have not in them some proper and peculiar marks of God's spirit. I mean such as no creature can be partaker of, but by inspiration from God. For like as in his doings there are certain miracles, wherein even the wickedest acknowledge the finger of God: So in his words or Scriptures, there may undoubtedly be some such thing, as cannot proceed but from God himself. Let us begin at the Style. 
The Style of the Scriptures.  In men's affairs we have two sorts of writing. The inferior sort and men of equality, endeavour to persuade folk by apparent reasons; for they know they have no authority to give them credit. But Princes will of their mere authority look to be believed whatsoever they say: for they think they have the world at their commandment, and that they may speak what they list: and they suppose it to be some derogation to them to allege any reason. Also in human Sciences the case is all one. For the Physician is believed of his Patient without alleging why: but of an other Physician he is not so. Likewise the Schoolmaster is believed of the Scholar, yea even in things which were disputable for him with one of his fellows. So much more therefore shall this rule take place in matters divine, which surmount both the understanding of the learner, and the skill of the Teacher himself. Again, we see how the Philosophers do mount up from things evidently known to things less known, and from Grounds and Principles, to Conclusions. And therefore Aristotle intending to prove that there is a God, made a whole score of books of it: and Plato speaking of things divine, will have the ancient Oracles to be believed, and not his own sayings: which argeweth that even by nature men know well, that they deserve not to be believed, further forth than they make proof, no not even in the least things; and therefore that they be worthy to be laughed at, if they think their sayings to be authority in matters divine. Now then, sith it is so that the Style is such both of all men in their common discourses, and of all the Philosophers in high matters: what shall the Author of our Bible be, whose will and meaning is to be believed upon his bare word, even in the things which exceed both the natural belief of such as hear them, and the understanding of all men which take upon them to speak of them? GOD created Heaven and Earth: Man is fallen from his original state by sin. If thou be'st a man that sayest it, who will believe thee unless thou prove it? And yet notwithstanding it appeareth that he wrote it to be believed: for he commandeth it to be believed. Therefore his speaking is of authority, and not by persuasion. Yet notwithstanding no body is believed upon his bare word, saving in things which lie in his own power and his own knowledge. Whosoever then in things surmounting man, (I mean in matters concerning GOD and man's salvation) will look to be believed of authority, only because he says it; yea and to be more believed without proof, than others upon proof; must needs be the Prince and Father of man and not a man. Now, who sees not this course kept throughout all the Scriptures; and yet where is there any one Syllogism or Demonstration in them? saving such as these which sooth be more firm than any Syllogism, and more needful than any Demonstration; namely, The Lord hath said it, and it is done; the Lord hath spoken it, and he will be beléeves. And what other book find we which proceedeth after that manner, howbeit that some deceivers have long time since presumed to imitate the same?  
Also we have many books of manners written by the Heathen. How proceed they against Vice? or how deal they with Virtue? They define, they distinguish, they dispute of the general and of the underkind, of the mean and of the extremes. It is spoken (say they) from one Countermatch to another. And if they offend the Laws of Logic, they be afraid of reproof. 
The laws and commandments in the Scripture.  The Laws of God speak a little more plainly: He that stealeth shall pay fowerfold: He that killeth shallbe punished with death, Which is as much to say, as that the authority of the one dependeth upon their power, & the authority of the other dependeth upon their proof. To be short, even our speech extendeth ordinarily no further than our power: and therefore the Teacher speaketh after another manner than the Learner, the Prince than the Subject, and the Senator than the Orator. What manner a book than I pray you is this, which speaketh to all men alike, to Kings as to Subjects, to Great as to small, to old as to young, to learned as to unlearned; saving that it surmounteth the capacity of the one as well as of the other? neither entreating nor persuading any man, but absolutely bidding or forbidding all men. Nother (which more is) doth it say to any man, Thou shalt live as a recluce within the precinct of thine own house all thy life long, or thou shalt lie in continual prison; but thou shalt live or die for ever without end. In what other book read we such commandments? Ye in what book read we such punishments & such rewards? And if every bodies speaking be according to the ability of his power; from whom is this speech which dareth pronounce or threaten everlasting things, but from the party himself that is everlasing? If it be a creature that speaketh it, either it is a good creature or an evil. If it be an evil creature, why forbiddeth he evil so rigorously? and commandeth good so expressly? or (to say better) how cometh it to pass, that the mark which he aimeth at is God's glory and our welfare? Or if it be a good Creature, how happeneth it that he challengeth to himself that which belongeth to GOD, and which cannot be imparted to any Creature, which is the very sin that overthrew both the Devil into Hell, and man into destruction? And if it be no Creature neither good nor bad; what remaineth then, but that it must needs be the Creator? Now what leaf is there in the whole Scripture, where we meet not with such matter? And herewithal we see that thing in the observers of that Law, which is not read of any others: namely that they have yielded their lives, and incurred the hatred & disdain of the whole world, rather than they would break or despise it. verily even in this respect and none other, that they were sure that they served such a lawgiver, as not only had power over the bark of man and over this present wretched life as other common Lawgivers have; but also was of power to give either everlasting life or endless death. The same appeareth yet more, in that the laws which are given to men in the Scriptures, are not enjoined alonely to the outward man; but do pierce even to the heart of man. In deed they require Sacrifices; but yet they prefer obedience. They enjoin fasting; but that is from sin. They enjoin Circumcision, but it is the Circumcision of the hart. To be short, for a Summary of all Sins, they forbidden lusting and covering; which thing (as I have said afore) is not to be found in any law of the Heathen. Who I pray you knoweth the very anatomy and secret conceits of our hearts, but he that made them? Or who can look into Man, but the maker of Man? And who is he either Man or Devil, that ever durst presume to enjoin a law to men's thoughts? But all these things come still to this point, that the party which speaketh so upon authority, threatening things that exceed man's ability, and making a law for the things whereunto we cannot come; must of necessity be of more power than we.  
Again, what a number of things have we taught us in the Scriptures, 
The doctrine of the Scriptures exceedeth the reach of man.  which cannot breed of man's brain, nor come from elsewhere than from about? And if they cannot breed in his mind, how can they come from his hand or from his mouth? We can well say there is one God; for if we enter into ourselves we find him there; and if we go never so little out of ourselves, we meet him every where. But that in one Essence there should be three persons, the Father, the word, and the Spirit; how can it breed in the imagination of man? Or who could ever have thought of it? Also, from the Creatures we come to the Creator; from moving to a rest; from novelties to a beginning: and there man's reasoning stays. But although the first man might know when he was created; yet how could he have known when the world was created? And although that by the new things therein, we deem it too be new: who ever durst to have limited the first day and the first hour thereof? Or how could that chimera have come in any man's mind? And yet in very deed we have divers Chimeras among the ancient writers, concerning the Creation of the world according to the diversities of opinions that were among the Philosophers, and the diversities of imaginations among the common people. But was there ever any afore this book of the Bible, that began his account of times or his history, at the first day of the world, thought he were of opinion that the world was created? And seeing that the intent of all writers of stories is to be believed; what else had this beginning of an history at that point been, but a cracking of his credit at his first entrance in, if the majesty of the Author had not served for a warrant? Likewise, that man, to attain to his appointed end, needed the handywoorke of God himself; It appears unto us by the weakness of our nature. But that for the appeasing of God's justice, God himself should be fain too come down and to take man's flesh unto him; who would say it but only God? and who could be believed in that case but only he? So is it also concerning the conception of the Virgin, concerning the promises that were not to come to pass until four hundred years after, concerning the coming of the Messiah, and such like things; which would never have come in a man's head to have written: so far of are they from man's wit, I mean as of itself and without imitation. And I dare boldly say, that whosoever readeth the Scriptures advisedly and with intent to mark them; shall in every book find many matters, which even by his own judgement had never come in man's mind, notwithstanding that they be spoken by wise men, who both believed them firmly, and meant to be believed in speaking them.  
What shall we say then to the Prophesyings 
Prophecies sowed throughout all the Bible.  or true foretellings which are sown everywhere in the Scriptures, that is to wit of God's spirit which is shed forth from the one end to the other; I say not in scattered leaves as the Prophecies of Sibyl were, but aiming all at one point, notwithstanding that they were uttered both at divers times, by divers persons, and in divers places? I omit the first prophesy concerning the woman's seed that should crush the Serpent's head, and such like pertaining to the redemption of man by the Messiah, because that that doctrine shall have his proper place hereafter; and I will allege none other things than such as are already proved and out of controversy. Unto Abraham was given this promise: 
Gene. 15.  They seed shall do service in a strange Land, and be hardly entreated there four hundred years; and then will I judge the Nation whom they shall have served; and in the fourth generation shall they come hither again. What Oracle did ever foretell a thing so precisely, so manifestly, and so long aforehand? And yet was that prophesy fulfilled at the appointed time: and it cannot be said to be a counterfeit; for Moses in leading the people of Israel through so many turnagains, grounded himself upon none other thing. And it stood him on hand to speak of a prophesy that was common among them, and delivered from hand to hand, considering that he taketh it for his theme and ankerhold, both to speak upon and to work upon. And sooth, as it was received by Abraham, so was it received by Moses, and put in execution by josua. jacob made his Testament in AEgipt; wherein there are as many Prophecies as words: not for his own Children only, but also for the tribes that should come of them. Nevertheless I will stand but upon one of them. Thou juda (saith he) thy brothers shall commend thee, 
Gene. 49.  & thy father's Children shall yield thee reverence. And the Sceptre shall not be taken from juda, nor the Law maker from between his feet, until Silo come. The effect hereof is, that the Sceptre shall remain with juda, and that he shall have sovereign jurisdiction, until the time of Messiah: and so do the Hebrews interpret it. Yet were Reuben, Simeon, and Levy the eldest brethren of jacobs' house; and therefore his doing was against the order of nature. And Moses who led the people of Israel out of AEgipt, was of the Tribe of Levy. josua who brought them into the Land of Canaan, was of Ephraim: The judges were raised up one while out of one Tribe and another while out of another: and Saul the first King chosen by the people, was of the Tribe of Benjamin, which was the youngest of all. These things therefore were a cursed shaking to the prophesy. In the mean while the Sceptre passed from Saul to David, from a King to a young Shepherd of juda, and there was settled for ever, notwithstanding the murmurings of the ten tribes against it, and the falling away of Israel, & the Captivity of Babylon. And whereas he saith, until Silo come, it sufficed until another time, that by the sapce of two thousand years, the house of juda reigned still in Israel, and had the eldership, together with a direct observed pedigree: which thing we read not of any other stock in the world. Here they will say, who shall assure us that jacob spoke those things? If I should ask them as much concerning their Histories, what know they more of them? And what should Moses have gained by the devising thereof, being himself of the Tribe of Levy, and giving over his charge to one of the Tribe of Ephraim, which had rather been an occasion to make juda (which was the strongest of all the tribes) to grudge against him, seeing that that Tribe had been authorised both by jacobs' last will and by answer from God? Or if he did it to greatefie juda, why was he not afraid to displease Reuben, Simeon, and Levy: or rather why made he not the prophesy to fall upon Levy to authorize himself? Nay, what gratefying of juda could it yet be, considering that juda was excluded from it at that time, and came not to it a thousand years after? Surely (the foresaid circumstances being well weighed) either there was never any prophesy uncorruptly reported, or if ever any were, this must needs be it. And as touching these good Philosophers, which will have prophesying to proceed of a conjunction of the understanding which they call Possible, with an understanding which they term Separated, by mean of imagination: & that old men cannot Prophesy by reason of the weakness of their imaginative power: what will they say here to jacob, who was an older man than any of their time, 
Rabbi Moses upon the book Abubacher.  & yet notwithstanding saw so clearly & so far of? For if their doctrine be commonly true, and yet notwithstanding, old jacob prophesied; doth it not follow that his prophesy is extraordinary, and cometh from a higher power than the said pretenced understanding; that is to wit from God? And if his prophesying was according to their rule; doth it not follow that their doctrine is false, that is to wit, that prophesying cometh not of the force of our imagination, nor of ourselves, considering that it weakeneth not with us, but that it cometh by inspiration from God? In the blessings that jacob gave to his posterity, the matter ought not to be passed over so lightly, where he speaketh of the parts that should be allotted to every of his Children in the Land of Canaan, as if he had made them himself, assigning to one the Seacoast, to another the Cornecountrie, and to another the vynegrounds, even after the same sort that they were divided unto them certain hundred years after by lot. For how could he come to the knowledge thereof, but by him that overruleth all Lots? And seeing that the foretellings of Astrology are a mean between necessity and casual as Ptolemy teacheth; and nothing is more casual than lots, what manner of Astrology is this, which judgeth of lots both so long aforehand and also so certainly? But when as in the chapter going next afore, we read that jacob in blessing the Children of joseph, preferred Ephraim the younger Son before Manasses who was the elder, and being warned thereof by their Father, answered again that he was not deceived, but that the younger brother should be the greater, and that his Seed should grow to a multitude of people: what art moved jacob to say it, or what profit moved Moses to contrive it? If ye say Phiznomie or judiciary, the good old man was blind. But what lineaments can foreshow for a whole race, or what Constellations can show what shall befall to whole Nations that are yet unborn? If it be said that Moses loved the one better than the other: The two of whom he speaketh were already dead at that time, and the people that were to come of them, were but then in coming. And yet was that prophesy fulfilled; for the Tribe of Ephraim was always mightier than the Tribe of Manasses, as appeareth throughout the whole process of their Histories, and in the end the kingdom of the Ten tribes was grounded chief upon that. And in confirmation of this word, as oft as Moses, josua, the books of Kings, or the Chronicles speak of those two Children, the youngest is ever named afore the eldest: which thing undoubtedly the Tribe of Manasses would never have endured without taking exceptio to it, if they had not thought themselves to have rested upon the will of GOD, and not upon the fancy of man. What shall we say of Moses? He speaketh to the people continually of the Conquest of Chanaan, according to that promise, and therefore it must needs he that it was a prophesy very commonly known among them. And in deed joseph picked out a long time for it afore his burial. Nay, moreover Moses divideth the Land unto them in mind; appointeth them arbitrators to make their partitions; giveth them Laws to settle themselves upon; appointeth them what orders they should keep there, setteth them down the platforms of their Cities, Suburbs, and houses; enjoineth them the tilling of their grounds, the resting of the se●●●th year, their Feasts and Solemnities, and appointest them their Cities of refuge for casual manslaughters. A man might say that his speaking of these things was as if a Father should dispose of his goods that he had gotten, and which he had already in his hand. What likelihood hereof was there, at such time as they burned Brick in AEgipt? or when they lingered in the wilderness? yea or at the return of the men that were sent to spy out the Land, when they reported nothing but hardness to the people? I pray you, if a man should at this day part Italy or Greece among us in his imagination, to every of us share and share like; would we not say accxsording to the proverb, that he parted his venison before he had caught it? And yet what a number of men have passed the Alps under the Standard? And sith it is so that Moses entered into that Land, and those which waited for it died in the way, and yet that at the time appointed, the Chananites gave place to that people: who seethe not that of necessity the same people were driven by some other than man to follow Moses, yea Moses himself to take upon him the leading of them through so many distresses; both of them being grounded (say I) not upon man's fancy, but upon express promise which they by unfallible records believed to be of God? But he proceedeth yet further. For as he foresaw them in Chanaan afore they came there: so foresaw he them there to offend God by serving Baal after they came there. I say he saw them forget GOD, and God mindful of them in his wrath: he saw them dispersed and scattered over the four quarters of the World, and trodden under the feet of Strangers: To be short, he saw the Gentiles called of God into his Church in their place; yea and he saw it so clearly, that he foretold it to them all in his Song, 
Deuter. 32.  which he willed them to preserve from hand to hand, as a witness against them & a discharge to himself. Though from the top of Mount Nebo he could behold the land of Chanaan to speak so fitly thereof: from what mountain could he see the things that were yet in the reins and hearts of men as then to come, yea which lay hidden yet many hundred years after; or in what book could he have seen them and read them; but in the book of life, that is to say in God himself? The word that was spoken by Moses was performed word for word by josua, without adding or diminishing any whit, contrary to the ambitious mind of man which liketh not to follow another man's lure; which thing was no small sign that josua did not so much obey Moses, as God speaking by Moses. And this curse that josua 
josua. 7.  pronounceth in his book, against the man that should build jericho again, is not to be forgotten: He shall lay the foundation thereof upon his firstborn (saith he) & set up the gates thereof upon his youngest son. That is to say, he shallbe punished with the sudden death of all his Children. 
1. King. 16. verse 34.  For about fivehundred years after, in the time of Achab, Hiel of Bethel builded up jericho, the which he founded upon Abiram his first Son, and hung up the gates of it with the death of Segus his youngest son, and the book of Kings saith there, it was according as the Lord had spoken by the mouth of josua the Son of Nun, to show that God's word is everlasting, and that it never overslippeth the tyme. And in very deed it lieth overthrown at this day, and was never repaired since that time, howbeit that the beautiful situation thereof might have alured every man, as we read in the ancient Geographers. In the books of josua and of the judges we see the things performed which were foretold by Moses, and the coming to pass both of the promises & of the threats that were made by him. For accordingly as the people of Israel did either turn away from God or return unto him; God raised up Tyrants in Chanaan to punish them, or deliverers in Israel to deliver them. And as for the books of Samuel, of the Kings, and of the Prophets; either they be prophecies of effects to come, or effects of prophecies forepast. To be short, in all the discourse of the Bible, there is not any season to be found without both Prophet and prophesy, as well in prosperity as in adversity: Whereby we might see both the heavenlines and the truth of them the more clearly, if we could set the places, persons, and state of that time before our eyes. But out of this continual prophesying, we will draw some peculiar points, so evident as cannot be gaynesaid, which will undoubtedly be of credit among all indifferent persons. 
1. King. 13.  At such time as jeroboam the son of Nebath made the ten tribes to fall away from Roboam the Son of Solomon; to the intent they should have no occasion to return again to their former state by resorting to Jerusalem to worship there: he réered an Altar in bethel contrary to the Law of God. Then came a man of God (sayeth the history) to Bethel by the commandment of the Lord, and said to jeroboam; Behold, a Son shallbe born of the house of David, whose name shallbe josias. He shall sacrifice upon thee the priests of the Hillalters which offer incense upon thee: And this shallbe the sign thereof, 
2. King. 22. verse. 15. 19  Thine altar shall rive asunder, and the ashes that are thereon shallbe powered down. This prophesy was fulfilled in all points by josias three hundred years after. And when josias (sayeth the history) had so done, he saw a certain tomb, and asked whose it was, intending to have burnt the bones of him that lay there, as he had done of the other priests in Bethel. But it was told him that it was the tumb of the man of God, which had foretold those things so long ago: whereupon he forbade any man to touch it. Now they that know how those books of the Kings were disposed, will not call the history in question. For the histories of the Kings were written by the priests and Prophets, according to the measure of the time that they reigned, and were holden so holy, that it was felony to touch them. Furthermore, seeing if this prophesy was written afore the coming of josias, it could not be falsified: for who could have hit upon his proper name? And if it were written after, and devised upon the event: how came the said Tumb to be made at the same instant? Or was there none other devise wherewith to have disguised it, without taking any further pain? Might it not have sufficed to have said, One josias shall come etc. without speaking either of the death of the man of God, or of his meeting with the Lion, or of the talk which he had with the Prophet of Samaria; but that he must take pain to be found a Liar by the Samaritans which knew the original of the Tumb, or could at leastwise have inquired it? But in very deed this prophesy which doth so set down the name, the place, and the circumstances in the doing; is such as cannot be fathered but upon God, as unto whom alone things absent or to come are present. And to show the uncorruptness of the Scripture the more clearly, it concealeth not that the same man of God by whose mouth God had uttered the said prophesy, was slain by a Lion for going back again to eat with the Prophet of Samaria contrary to the word of the Lord: which doth us to understand, that men are nothing of themselves, but only so farforth as they be God's tools and instruments. Now then by what conjecture can we deem that man to have been the deviser of a lie, who to tell the truth, sticked not to dishonour the remembrance of so great a Prophet, whose sincerity appeared by so many circumstances?  
Wonderful is Esay in the things that he foretelleth concerning the kingdom of the Messiah and the calling of the Gentiles for he seemeth rather an Evangelist than a Prophet. Also when he threateneth Jerusalem with the captivity of babylon, or cheereth them again with hope of their deliverance: his manner of inditing showeth, that he speaketh as one that saw them both; and in that respect also were the Prophets called Seërs. And in very truth, he saith not, the Lord will do, the Lord will call, the Lord will destroy, and so forth: but, he doth, he calleth, he destroyeth: Yea and oftentimes, he hath done, he hath called, he hath destroyed, and so forth; as though he spoke not of things that were but only near the execution or performance; but of things already come to pass. After that manner did he foretell things, in the time that the people prospered and trusted in the alliance of the Chaldees, and that all likelihods were to the contrary. But I ask of such as doubt of our Prophecies, 
Esay. 44. & 45.  by what spirit could Esay say; I am the Lord that doth things in deed, which do say unto Cyrus, Thou art my Shepherd, thou shalt fulfil all my will: and which sayeth unto Jerusalem, Thou shalt be builded again; & unto the Temple, Thou shalt be founded again. And again: Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus his anointed, whom I have tataken by the right hand to subdue the Nations before him, & to weaken the reins of Kings. I will go before thee, and level the crooked ways. I will break open the Brazen gates, & wring asunder the iron bars, and so forth, that thou mayst know how that I am the Lord the God of Israel which calleth thee by the name. For love of my servant jacob, and for Israel's sake have I named thee by thy name, and called thee though thou knewest me not, etc. How many wonders shall we find in these few words, if we list to examine them? At the same time that the people of Israel triumphed under their alliance with the Chaldees, Esay threatened them with destruction by the selfsame people. This is somewhat.  
But some will say that man's wisdom may reach as far as that. Yea, but he foretelleth, not only the captivity of that people, the sacking of the City, and the overthrow of the Temple: but also the destruction of the Chaldees by the Persians, and the building up of Jerusalem and the Temple by them again. Well may man's skill wade into Weeks and months; but considering the uncertainty of worldly matters, it can never wade into years, and much less into hundreds of years, and into the whole continuance of a mighty and long lasting Monarchy, as Esay doth there. In so much that he nameth Cyrus a hundred years afore he was borne. And afore his grandfathers were named in the world, he calleth him by name to deliver Israel. And in another place he summoneth the people of Cethim (that is to say of Macedon) to the destroying of the Persians. And in his eight Chapter he taketh Urias and Zacharias the sons of jebarachias by name to be witnesses of his prophesy, who were unborn a hundred years after. Let the greatest enemies of the truth enter into their own consciences, and tell me what human skill or cunning there could be in those things. They cannot say here, that these Prophecies were forged by some man upon the event. For by the removing of the jews unto Babylon, the Laws, Prophecies and Scriptures of Israel which were common among that people, were conveyed into divers places of the world; among the which they had this prophesy afore Cyrus was borne: and being in divers men's hands, it was unpossible to be falsified. And in good sooth, sith we see that the Kings of Persia being conquerors, caused the Temple to be builded again, it ought to be a mark unto us, that in the Idolatry out of which they came, they had seen wonders of the God of Israel, and that according to Esaies' saying, they perceived themselves to be called by him. The same is to be considered of us in Icremie and ezechiel, who being in places far one from another, the one in jerusalem and the other in captivity at Babylon, foretell the selfsame things, as sure Registers of one Court. But jeremy 
Jerem. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19 20. etc.  is the more wonderful in this behalf, in that he prophesieth expressly that the people which were carried away prisoners, should be brought home again at the end of threescore and ten years, contrary to all likelihood, and yet with such assuredness, as a man would verily have said, that he had led them home again by the hand into Jerusalem. And in very deed, at the threescore and tenth years end, the people were conveyed home again at the forenamed instant, as though Cyrus had been bend of set purpose to verify the prophesy, or as though he had been waged by the Prophet. And it appeareth by the ninth Chapter of Danyell, (where this prophesy is alleged,) that it was common among all the people. As for Danyell 
Daniel. 9  himself, who being borne under the first Monarchy, seemeth rather an Historiographer than a Prophet, as in respect of the Monarchies and things that insewed; (for he speaketh of the Persians, Greeks and Romans, of the tyranny of Antiochus, of the unhallowing of the Temple, and of other things that were done six hundred years after his time, as of things already come to pass): like as he closeth up the prophesy from the creation of the world to the coming of Christ; so ought he to stop all men's mouths that will speak against him. For if a man will not believe the jewish Chronicles, in that they report that the prophesy of Danyell was read unto Great Alexander at his coming to Jerusalem, to show him what was foretold of him: yet is it evident and cannot be denied, but that when Prolomie caused the Scriptures to be translated, the prophesy of Danyell was then extant, and was translated with the residue; which was long time afore the Tyranny of Antiochus, the which he describeth to the eye. And therefore if it could not be falsified in that behalf, as little could it be falsified in all the rest, considering that all of it doth equally and infinitely exceed the reach of all creatures, and cannot proceed from any more than one Spirit. Now then, let us look upon the things that are in this Prophet; and whence could he have them, 
Daniel. 5.  but from him that maketh and unmaketh Kings at his pleasure? He forewarned Balsasar the son of Nabugodonozor, that he should have a fall, because he had not taken example at the chastisement of his father, but had advanced himself against God. It will perhaps be said, that it is the saying of wise men, that when pride goes afore, shame cometh after. But when as Balsasar was slain that same night in the midst of his jollity; it was a marking of the thing more precisely, which had been foretold by the former Prophets also. 
Esay. 13. 2●. 47 jeremy. 50.  But in that which followeth there is no shift at all. Behold, Darius was but newly entered into the Monarchy, when even in the first year of his reign Danyell said unto him, Three Kings shall stand up yet in Persia, and the fourth shall be enriched with great riches above them all; and when he is so increased, 
Daniel. 15  he shall stir up every man against Greece. These four or five words contain the history of seven or eight score years. We have great learned men, which by reason of their long experience, have made (as it were) an Anatomy of our state: but which of them I pray you durst ever take upon him to tell how many Kings should come after, and much less to foretell what should be done by the fourth King that was to come as Danyell doth here, who maketh express mention of Darius' voyage against the Greeks? Let us hear him yet further. But a mighty King shall rise up (saith he) and reign with great authority, and do whatsoever he will. Who seethe not here how Alexander cometh out of Greece against Darius, and subdueth the Persians? And when he is in all his royalty (saith he) his kingdom shall be broken and divided to the four winds of the air, how beit not to his own race, but unto strangers; for his kingdom shallbe plucked up by the root. He could not have painted out Alexander's Monarchy more lively, which was but as a flash of lightning that passeth from the West into the East, and took end in itself, and was divided into many Kingdoms, as Macedon, Thrace, Syria, and AEgipt, among Princes that were not of his race. Whosoever would have made an Abridgement of the whole History of the Monarchy of Greece in few words; he could not lightly have done it in other than these. Nevertheless, it is a glancing overthwart through two Monarchies & two whole hundred years, whereas all the wisdom of the world put together, could not oversee so much as two years, no not even in the commonest affairs of a household. Now, the story of the Macedones was not the thing that he aimed at: but the chief thing that he sought into, was the state of the Church to come among the jews; and therefore he letteth the rest of the branches alone, and goeth on but only with the Kings of Syria and AEgipt. Therefore let us read the residue of the Chapter. There he painteth out the wars of Antiochus King of Syria against the jews, the resistance of the Maccabees, the oppression of the righteous, and the defile of all holy things, so lively and manifestly, that he which were not told of it afore he reads it, should not be able to say whether it were a prophesy or an History. 
Daniel. 7.  In his eight Chapter he describeth a battle between a Ram and a Goat. The Ram (saith he) that had two horns, is the King of Medes and Persians, because those two states went jointly together. The Goat is the King of Greece; & the great horn that he had between his eyes, is the greatest King, that is to wit the great Alexander: and yet none of them both lived six score years after. 
Daniel. 8.  In the seventh Chapter he describeth all the four Monarchies, but specially the Roman; which had (saith he) teeth of iron, wherewith it broke and devoured all the rest. And he purseweth it so far, that he declareth himself to have had a sight in his mind, both of the breeding, of the proceeding, and of the decaying thereof. If we consider what Rome was at that time, it was then scarce hatched: and a great while afterward, Alexander having but a small cut over the Sea that is betwixt that and Greece, 
Daniel. 9  knew it not. To be short, in the ninth Chapter he foretelleth that at the end of threescore and ten weeks, (accounting from the day that the word was uttered by jeremy for the building up of the Temple again,) Jerusalem should be destroyed by a prince of the people that was to come, that is to say, by an Emperor issewing from the Commonweal of Rome, which at that time was not in being: which thing I could show here to have come to pass at the instaut aforenamed, according to the prophesy. But forasmuch as this point pertaineth properly to the coming of the Messiah, whereunto we reserve many things that may confirm us more and more in the holy Scriptures, it shall be treated of in his peculiar place. Now then, we have here a continuance of wonderful Prophecies, from the creation of the world even unto Christ, uttered and set forth a long while afore hand, and come to pass just in their times; not general, but marked with their circumstances; not doubtful, but such as express the things and persons by their names. And therefore to knit up this matter withal, I demand unto what we may attribute them, but to the inspiration of GOD● Some in stead of holding themselves within their bounds, will needs overleap them, by denying al. But besides the reasons afore alleged, seeing that at the same time that the Israelites worshipped their God, the Nations about them had Oracles which answered unto all questions; and that man is so inquisitive of things to come, that if he cannot be certified at home, he seeketh everywhere abroad: I would have them to answer me, whether this people were of another nature than all other Nations, whom we know to be yet still at this day more given to prophesyings than any other Nation? And how being so given thereunto and not having aught at home wherewith to satisfy their curiosity, they could in the midst of so many miseries, hold themselves to the serving of the one GOD, who alone of all others did not speak, but alonely had kept silence to all their requests? For if it seem strange and miraculous unto us to have had Prophecies: much more strange and miraculous ought it to be, to have made more account of a God that gave no answers at all, specially in so many distresses and oppressions; than of the Gods of the Heathen which did nothing else.  
But forasmuch as none of the men of old time was so impudent as to deny them, 
Objections.  but all were enforced either to wonder at them, or to allege causes to diminish the estimation of them, Let us examine the reasons which they give them. One says that they were tied to the Stars, and yet they mocked at the divinations of the Chaldees every where. Now then, of so many Astrologers as were among the Gentiles, and have made books thereof, name me any one that hath foretold the doings, not of an Empire, but of some one man: not a hundred years aforehand, but a year aforehand, saving that the devil now and then by God's sufferance, hath executed the same evil which he himself foretold upon the party that asked counsel of him. But Ptolemy will say, the foretellings of the Astrologers are a mean between necessity and chance: for they foresee not the events or fallings out, but only the inclinations or dispositions of things, & as many as promise any further, do but abuse men. What think we then that this Ptolemy would have said, if he had read these prophecies, so particular, 
Ptolemy in book of the fruit.  that they seem rather stories of things past, than foretellings of things to come. Surely he would have said that they could not have proceeded but only from God, as he setteth down and deemeth very well in letter things: And that they which foretell particular things must needs be inspired of God: And again, that the judgements of such as gaze upon the Stars, are doubtful, howbeit that they which foretell the good part, approach nearer the truth, by reason of a certain power that beareth sway in their Soul, although that otherwile they have no skill at all in the art. And in very deed, the best Astronomers have rejected judicial Astrology, as in vain and without foundation, yea even after they have well tired themselves in it. But in Israel we read of a Neateheard called Amos, whose Prophecies were no less evident for the matters they treated of, than were the Prophecies of Daniel and Esay. Auerrhoes and his followers have a peculiar opinion of man's Soul, namely that we have a certain capacity of understanding, which they term an understanding in possibility, the which informeth and teacheth by the working of an universal mind, which by the particular imaginations of every man, cometh to be joined to the understanding in possibility that is common to all. 
The same thing doth Moses of Narbon say upon the book of Abubacher, & Auempare.  And therefore they say that Prophesying proceedeth properly of that Conjunction in men that have a strong and lively imagination. If it be so, I would have the disciples of Auerrhoes (who had so goodly an imagination,) to imagine this, to show me some prophesy of their Masters or of their own. Also let them answer me how it happeneth that our Prophets for the most part have commonly bend old men, seeing that (after their doctrine,) old men cannot Prophesy by reason of the feebleness of their imagination? But forasmuch as these men do preach unto us that the world is eternal; how happeneth it that Prophesying hath not been instilled into men by the said conjunction, everlastingly concerning time, and in all times, seeing that to become a Prophet, there needeth no more but to have a very strong imagination? forasmuch as the separated understandings are evermore ready and disposed to the said Conjunction? How happeneth it also that a man being come to that point, Prophesieth not of all things that he can imagine? But hereby we see manifestly that this Prophesying of theirs is not an habit, but a passion that fadeth a way like the sound of a Lute, when the player ceaseth to strike. Or if they say that a man must first get him both the active and the contemplative habits, 
Roger Bacon in his book of the Six sciences of experience, and in his abridgement of Divinity.  and then the said understanding matcheth itself with our imagination, as the form of a thing matcheth with the substance thereof, whereof cometh it that David being a Shepherd and Amos a Neteheard, did prophesy so wonderfully? Some will have it, that Prophesying is derived into man by the Stars, conditionally that he be disposed to receive it. Hereupon they prescribe him a certain diet; whereby he must make his body equal and evenly counterpoised by Alchemy; and afterward he must gather together the Beams of the Sky into a mirror, which they call Alchemusie, made according to the Rules of Catoptrik: and finally he must stellify by Astrology as well the man himself, as the food that he useth. And they say that Apollonius of Thianey prophesied after that manner. These are Toys to be laughed at, rather than worthy to be answered. And let every man consider, whether our Prophets being Shepherds, Neateheards and unlearned, were framed with such curiousness, to Prophesy according to diet. Nay when his wits be somewhat well wakened, he shall perceive that they were inspired with things which the Stars could neither do, nor betoken, nor know, forasmuch as they be still in the hand of the first cause, and are not come down so low as to be subject to the second causes.  
The Platonists therefore come somewhat nearer the truth, specially jamblichus and Porphyrius by name. For they say that the foretelling of things far of aforehand, cannot be done nother by art nor by nature, but only by inspiration from God. Howbeit forasmuch as they speak of many Gods, and took the devils for Angels it may be objected against us, that our Prophecies proceeded either from devils or from Angels. But if we call to mind the Oracles of devils, and compare them with our Prophecies, there will appear as much difference betwixt them, as is between the discretion of a wise man, and the tittlecattle of a fool. Therefore let us hear what they say. The Gods (sayeth Porphyrius) foretell natural things by the order of natural causes which they mark; and they foretell things that depend upon our own will, by conjectures taken of our doings. But forasmuch as they be swifter than we, they prevent us and outrun us, and that in such sort, that as natural things are deceivable, and men's cases are variable & uncertain; so they both, as wealth good as the bad, be subject to lying. What else is this to say but that they can foretell nothing of us furtherforth than they learn by our doings; nor of natural things furtherforth than they read them in nature, that is to say than they read them as in a book, howbeit with a sharper and swifter eyesight than we? But nother devil nor Angel can read that in the Stars which is not there: nor in men, that which men themselves know not, specially considering that the greatest learned men do hold opinion that they enter not so far. In the Stars they could not read the names of josias, Urias, or Cyrus: niether in the hearts of josias, Urias; and Cyrus themselves, (who were not at that time in the world) could they read the deeds which they were to do certain hundred years after. For only unto God are those times present which are to come; but as for to Angels and us there is no more of the roll of time known, than it pleaseth God of his gracious goodness to unfold unto us. It followeth then by the doctrine of these Philosophers, that our Prophecies being so clear, so particular, and so near to things a far of; could not be in spired from many Gods.  
Yet notwithstanding, all Prophesying (say they) proceeds either of art, or of nature, or of some Spirit, or of God himself. Of art, as by Astrology; of nature, as when man's nature is ready to receive the influences of the universal; and of some Spirit, as by some league or covenant made with him. But of none of all these three could the Prophecies of the Hebrews proceed, as I have showed evidently afore. It remaineth therefore that those Prophecies are of God; and consequently that their Scriptures are God's word; which is nothing else but either those Prophecies themselves, or the effects of those Prophecies. And to shut up this Chapter, it will not be amiss to rehearse this record of Porphyrins, that the Religious sect of the Essens among the jews, by reason of their occupying of themselves in those Prophecies, made a profession of Prophesying, and seldom times miss. For in deed there is great likelihood, that if we understood all the Prophecies of the Bible (which thing is unpossible for us because we cannot lay the states of all times together;) we should find there many things which are dark to us at this day, and yet were clear, well understood, and easy, even to the very common people, every one in his tyme.   

The xxuj. Chapter.  
That the things which seem most wonderful in our Scriptures, are confirmed by the Heathen themselves: and a solution of their chief Objections to the same.  
NOw that we know that it is God that speaketh in the Scriptures; there should remain no more for us to do, but to hearken unto him with silence. For seeing he hath made all things by his word; his word cannot have said any thing which he hath not been able to do. And if we crouch, and lay our hand upon our mouth at the sight of a King's Seal: surely it were more reason that we should dispose our minds to believe, and our wills to obey without scanning, wrangling or gainsaying, when we see the express signing and seal of God in his Scriptures. Howbeit, to the intent we may leave no cause of doubt to the Reader: forasmuch as some have presumed to object, I desire that I also may have leave to assoil their demands. Now therefore, let us see what is objected against us, as well by the Infidels of old time as of our days. 
An objection concerning the witness of the Greeks.  First of all, As great account (say they) as you make of your Scriptures; there is no record yielded unto them by any of our ancient Author's Greek or Latin, as Plato, Aristotle, Theophrast, and the rest of so many Philosophers, 
The Answer.  Historiographers, & Poets. This is even as much as if a man should ask witness of the men of Perow, concerning the Histories of France or Spain. For in the times whereof our Scriptures speak, what were the Greeks and Romans in respect of the jews, but silly savage people that fed upon Mast? Or sooth it is all one, as if a man should ask a child of the things that were done afore he was borne; considering that the latest Histories in our Bible, are of more antiquity than the Schools of Greece, or the use of reading was in Rome. Nay moreover, from the time that the Greeks knew there was an AEgipt, they went thither to School, and there had communication with the jews, (as I have proved already) at whose hands they reaped that little knowledge which they had concerning the true God, the creation of the world, and the fall of man.. Insomuch that Plato allegeth our Authors under these words; As the authors of old time report, or as it is reported in the ancient Oracles. And Numenius having espied that Plato could not get that skill from elsewhere than out of Moses, termeth him Moses speaking in the language of Athens, that is to say, translated into Greek. The Histories of Greece begin about the time of Cyrus. But (saith Aristobulus 
Aristobulus writing to Ptolemy Philo●netor. lib. 1. ) the law of Moses and the departing of the Israelites out of AEgipt, were translated into Greek afore the reign of Alexander, yea or of the Persians themselves. Which is as much to say, as that the Greeks even from their first upspring, or at leastwise from the first time that they began to know themselves, heard speaking of our Scriptures and were desirous to have them. And Hecataeus 
Hecateus concerning the jews.  the Abderite who attended upon Alexander in his Conquests, made a book purposely of the jews, which thing he did not of any of all the flourishing Nations which he had seen in his voyage. Also Herennius Philo 
Herennius Philo concerning the jews.  having read the said Philosopher, saw him so wonderful in the things that he had learned of the jews, that he believed him to have been become a jew, and to have been converted to their law. Anon after, when the time of the calling of the Gentiles approached, that it behoved the Prophecies to be made known to the whole world; to rid away all suspicion of contriving them upon the events; God did put into the heart of Ptolemy Philadelph King of AEgipt, to make a Library, in the which (by the counsel of Demetrius Phalareus a Disciple of Theophrastus) it was his will to have the Bible of the Hebrews, and therefore at his great charges caused it to be translated into Greek. The History of this translating is set out by one Aristaeas a Chamberlain of King Ptolemy's; who with another named Andrew, was sent to Eleazar the Highpriest of the jews to fetch the Bible and six men of every Tribe that were learned in both the Languages, to translate it. And he saith that Demetrius Phalareus made report unto the king, that these Scriptures were the only writings that were divine in deed; 
Aristaeas' concerning the translation of the Threescore and Ten Interpreters.  and that thereupon the King asked him in his presence, how it happened that he had not those books sooner, seeing he spared not for any cost, and that jewrie was so near hand? Whereunto Demetrius answered, that they were written in a peculiar language, and therefore that it behoved him to write to the Highpriest to have Interpreters: according to which advice, the King sent Ambassadors with letters and presents to Eleazar, (of which Ambassadors he himself was one): And that by the consent of all the people, 
Eusebius in his eight book of the preparation to the Gospel.  the threescore and twelve Interpreters were sent into into AEgipt. Yea and in this History (which is extant still at this day) ye may see the Copies of the letters that were written from Demetrius to Ptolemy, from Ptolemy to Eleazar, and from Eleazar to Ptolemy. And the said Aristaeas addeth, that when the Bible was once translated & perused in the presence of the chief Peers of his Realm, the King caused a solemn curse to be proclaimed with loud voice, against all such as should add any thing to it, take aught from it, or alter aught in it. And afterward (saith he) when the King upon further reading thereof, did marvel that of so many things and so worthy of remembrance, there was no mention made by the History-writers and Poets of Greece: Demetrius Phalareus answered him, that it was a divine law, given of God, which ought not to be touched but with clean hands, (as Hecataeus himself writeth) affirming moreover that Theopompus a Disciple of Aristotle's had done him to understand, that whereas some had gone about to disguise the Scriptures of the jews with Greek eloquence, they were stricken with amazedness for their labour, and upon prayer made unto God were warned in a Dream, that they should forbear to vnhallow or defile those heavenly matters, with the gloss of their own inventions. Yea and that Theodotus a Tragical Poet had told him, that because he intended to have intermingled some matters of the Scriptures with his Tragedies, that is to wéet, by drawing grounds of his Poetries out of the Bible, as other Poets had done with the wars of Thebes and Troy: he had suddenly foregone his sight, which was afterward restored again unto him upon continual prayer and long repentance. 
Origines in his fourth book against Celsus.  And this befell just in the same time that the Greeks and Romans did but begin to deal with Philosophy. Also Numenius the Pythagorist, whom many prefer before Plato, made so great account of the Scriptures, that his book of Welfare, of Number, and of Place, and his book entitled The Lapwing, were full of texts alleged out of Moses and the Prophets with great reverence: And he is the same Philosopher whom Plotin had in such estimation, that he vouchsafed to write a Commentary upon him. But I would that the Greeks should but show me the like record of their own writings and of their own laws, not in our books, but even in their own books; and I believe that no indifferent person would refuse that offer.  
Here followeth another objection: 
An Objection concerning the style.  Namely that the Scriptures have a simple, bare, and gross style: but if they were of God, they would speak far otherwise. 
The Solution.  I demand of them, whither men's styles ought not to be according to the persons that speak, and whither the grace of eloquence consist not in observing séemelynesse; as namely whither the eloquence of a Subject, ought not to differ from the eloquence of a King; the eloquence of a child, from the eloquence of a father; and the eloquence of an Advocate, from the eloquence of a judge; or whether by the Rules of Rhetoric, that which is eloquence in the one, shall not be foolishness in the other? Therefore if the Lawyer or Advocate will plead eloquently, he must move affections: to the intent he may move other men, he must first move himself. The judge must utter his words gravely, and he must also be unflexible and unentreatable, without moving and without affection. The King must simply and absolutely command; for he is both the voice of the Law, and the rule of the judge. But if either the King come to persuade, or the judge to debate cases; then must the one put on the state of an Advocate, and the other the state of a subject, and lay aside the state of a King and judge. What then I pray you shall become of the law of God the King of kings, who is infinitely further above the greatest monarch, than the greatest monarch are above their meanest Subjects; and who exceedeth alike both the judges and the parties that are to be judged? We would have him to use Inductions as Plato doth, or Syllogisms as Aristotle doth, or pretty sleights as Carneades doth, or outcries as Cicero doth, or fine conceits as Seneca doth. We would have him to utter his words by weight, that they might fall in just measure and sound; and to interlace some far sought words, some allegorical matters, and some strange devices wherewith common use is unacquainted. If we should see a King's Proclamations set forth in such a style, which of us would not by and by note it as smelling to much of the Inkhorn; and which of our Ears would not rather glow at it; than like of it? Surely then, the simpler that God's Law is, the better doth it beseem the Everlasting; considering that the simpler it is, the more it resembleth the voice of him that can do all things; yea and (which more is) the simpler it is, the better doth it fit all people. For the Law that is ordained for all men without exception, aught to be as an ordinary food, or rather as a common kind of bread applied to the taste and relish of all men. But what will you say if the Scriptures have in their lowliness more statelynes, in their simplicity more profoundness, in their homeliness more allurance, and in their grossness more lively force & sharpness, than are to be found any where else? We read in the first chapter of Genesis, God created heaven and earth; God spoke, and the waters were severed from the earth; He commanded, and the earth brought forth herbs. There is not so very an idiot or so simple a man, but he can understand these things, I mean so far as is requisite to his Salvation, yea and consent at the very hearing of them, that the things must needs be as it is said there. But if a man will wade deeper into the matter, as how God hath in all eternity chosen (as ye would say) one instant whereat to begin this work, without stuff or matter to work upon; and how he made it by his only bare word: they be such bottomless deeps, as will make even the stoutest afraid, and enforce the wisest to stoop to the skill of the lowly and little ones, so excellent is the simplicity of the Scripture, both to instruct the lowly, and to confound the proud both at once. In our Bible we have Histories, and in Histories what desire we? A truth: for that is the very substance of them. Now what greater proof of truth can there be, than simplicity? A style or manner of inditing that setteth down things passed before our eyes, as if they were presently in doing? What greater token would we have thereof, than (in our reading) to feel the very same affections which those felt of whom we read: Let the hardest hearted men, and the most untoward in the world go read the Histories of our Bible, as how Isaac was led to be sacrificed, how joseph became known again to his brethren, how jephthe was vexed with the meeting of his daughter, or how David was grieved at the death of Absalon: and (if they will say the truth) they shall feel a certain shuddering in their bodies, a certain yirning in their hearts, and a certain tender affection all at one instant, far greater than if all the Oracles of Rome or Athens, should preach the same matters whole days together. Let them read the same stories again in josephus, to whom the Emperor Titus caused an Image to be set up for the elegancy of his history, and they shall find that after his enriching of them with all the ornaments of Rhetoric, he shall leave them more cold and less moved, than he found them. And that is because that in very deed, true beauty desireth no peynting; but the more naked it is, the more it allureth; and (as jewellers and Lapidaries say) the fairer that any Precidus Stone is, the less doth it need both of Gold and of workmanship. And sooth to set up our Scriptures upon high words, is nothing else but to set up a well proportioned tall man upon a Scaffold, which diminisheth somewhat of his natural proportion, and yet addeth not any whit to his stature.  
Also in our Scriptures we have Prophecies, and in those Prophecies we have threatenings, exhortations, and vehement speeches. And it is in such matters, that the Orators are wont to thunder and to mount up into their lofty speeches, In this kind, the Latins make great account of Cicero. But I report me to all such as have read both of them with like judgement, what comparison there is between him and Esay? between his flattering insinuations with childish excuses of ignorance, and the entrances of Esay, lively, grave, and full of majesty? Between his long Periods too the which he harkeneth so devoutly; and the others cutting words which are as thounderstroks doubled, to daunt the stoutest stomach that is? But among all the Greeks, Cicero 
Ci●ero in his Tusculane Questions.  himself wondereth at AEschines against Demosthenes in a certeine place, where he layeth open his injuries, and passions against him, in deed more like a bedlam than a man in his right wits. And what eloquence, what force, or what piercing hath that place (I beseech the Readers with all my hart to read both the one and the other) in comparison of this beginning of esay's? hearken ye Heavens (sayeth he) and give ear thou Earth; for the Everlasting hath said, I have nourished Children and brought them up, and they have rebelled against me. The Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his masters crib: but Israel hath not known me, my people have no understanding; Ah sinful people, people laden with iniquity, too what purpose should ye be chastised any more, sith ye heap sin upon sin? The whole head is sick, and all the body is full of sores. From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head▪ there is not any sound part. What abundance of kindness, and eloquence, of humility and haultines, of reasons and affections, is there in these few words? And how much greater should we find them in their own Language and in their own accents? 
Osorius the Portugal.  Truly some great learned men of our time (which thing I think not to be any abatement of their commendation) have undertaken to make Paraphrases upon this Prophet and others, full of goodly sentences, and human eloquence, which have served fitly to give him the greater grace. And if our Rhethoritians fin● fault with those similitudes as over homely: I would have them to tell me to what use Similitudes serve, but to make things clear; and what is the mean to make matters clear, but by taking Similitudes from things best known? And what manner of ones were the Metaphors of the Romans, but at the first rude and homely, and afterward taken from wars, and in process of time taken from pleading and oratory, according as they grew to be more corrupted? And what else are the Similitudes of Cicero himself in his treatise of old age, but likenings taken from husbandry and Uynes, because he himself delighted in those things? To be short, when it cometh to the pursewing of a Similitude evidently, to the setting down of a Desolation lively, too the reproving of vices sharply, or to the promising of deliverance bravely: our Prophets do set foorth every thing so naturally, so presently, so forcibly, and so lively; as that it appeareth manifestly that they had the persons, the places, the times, and the things themselves whereof they spoke, all present before their eyes: yea and that manner of inditing is common to all our Prophets universally. Of all these things I require none other witnesses, than our very despisers of God themselves, whose contempt of our Scriptures, which they never had leisure to read, entereth for the most part under this colour, that some master of art which never read any more than his Cicero, ne can skill to discern what beseemeth either others or himself, hath scorned the things which he hath not the skill either to poise or to praise. From such people (say I) springeth the contempt of our Scriptures, specially in Italy; who being out of their Schools are not able to say one word to the purpose, no nor scarcely so much as simply to talk. Politian (saith vives) did altogether despise the reading of the Scriptures. Therefore let us see what he commended. He spent his whole life in scanning whether a man should pronounce Vergilius or Virgilius; Carthaginenses, or Carthaginienses; Primus, or Preimus: and if he had any further leisure, he spent it in making some Greek Epigram in the commendation of Lechery and Sodomy. A grave judgement sooth for us to set our minds upon. Another called Domitius Calderinus, turned young men from the reading of the Scriptures: but what goodly matter took he to occupy himself withal? Forsooth he passed his life in making a Comment upon Virgil's Priapus, a book which all men that have any piece of manhood in them are ashamed even too speak of. But what greater proof of the praise of our Scriptures would we have, than that such persons do despise them? Contrariwise, Marsilius Ficinus, and john Earl of Mirandula the honour of Italy and of his age for skill in all sciences, having read all the good authors in the world, came at length to rest themselves in our Scriptures, and were in the end out of liking with all others; but as for these they could never have their fill of them. If there were no more but the affirmation of the one, & the denial of the other; unto which of them I pray you ought we rather to yield? Nay, I dare say, and I will maintain it among all such as know what it is to speak to the purpose, & accordingly as may best beseem every man; that our scriptures are written in such wise, as may most fitly beseem both God the author of them, and the matters that they treat of, and the parties to whom they be spoken; and that a more seemly style than that cannot be imagined, either for God; (for he is our Prince; and it beseemeth not Princes to persuade): or for the matters; for they be holy and grave, and grave matters (as sayeth Aristotle) should not be painted: or for the parties to whom they be spoken; for they were folk of all sorts without exception; and like as all of them were bound to believe and observe them, so was it behoveful that all should understand them.  
But now enter they into the matter of them. The Scriptures 
Objections concerning the uncrediblenesse of things in the Scriptures.  (say they) do tell us things unpossible and uncredible, more like the fond fables of Poets, than the reports of sound Histories. I would have them tell me to whom they be unpossible, & to whom they be uncredible? seeing they father them not but upon God the maker of Heaven and Earth, to whom all things are alike easy? The Poets say that jupiter thundereth above, and that Neptune turmoileth the Seas, and rolleth up the Earth: and we know that both jupiter and Neptune were men as we be: and therefore we say justly that they report Fables; for they father things upon men which are above the ability of man to do, and which surmount the power of all Creatures. But when things that are unpossible to Creatures, are reported of GOD, whose power is infinite: although men doubt whether they were done or no; yet can they not deny but that he was able to do them. And if their suspecting of them be because they read the like things in their own Fables; I have proved already, that these things were written long time afore they had either writers of Histories, Poets, yea or any writing at all. And therefore they ought to think that their Fables were devised upon our Histories, and their Leasings upon our truths. For like as a man hath been afore his portraiture, good Coin afore counterfeit Coin, a true Seal afore a forged Seal, and a true Copy afore a forgery: so also was the true declaration of things afore Fables: according to this rule of the Philosophers, That evil hath not any being of itself, but in another thing, ne is properly a substance, but a corruption of a substance. Therefore we believe not the Fables of Homer, nor the Inventions of Euripides and Sophocles, made upon the battle of Troy; and yet we deny not but there was a War of Troy. As little also do we believe the Romans which vaunt of the twelve Peers of Charles the great the King of France; and yet we doubt not but there was a great Charles that did great things in his time, and had great store of Noble Parsonages in his service. To be short, had there never been any Dog, Horse, Bear, or Lion in the world; neither Poets had feigned, nor painters had painted us any Cerberus, Pegasus, or Chymere. Likewise, had there not been a truth of the things whereon the Poets made their Fables, we should not have had at this day any Fables in the World. 
The Creation of the world and of man..  Let us come to particularities. In all the whole Scripture there is not a more wonderful thing, than the Creation of the world and of man: And if we admit those two points, nothing ought to seem strange unto us in the residue of the Bible. For all the miracles which we wonder at, are but sparks of the infinite power which uttered itself at that time in the creating of all things. Now I have proved already both by lively reasons, and by witness of the ancient writers, that the world and all things therein were created, and that they were created by the only will of God, at such time as pleased him; and that it cannot be otherwise imagined. Upon this truth have the phoenicians and egyptians fashioned their Fables; saying that in the beginning there was a darkness, and a spiritual Air, and in an infinite Chaos; that this spirit covered the Chaos: and that of the conjunction of them twain, was bred a certain Moth, that is to say, a certain slime, whereof all living things were engendered. It can not be denied but that this was a mistaken Copy of the holy and native Copy written by Moyes.  
Concerning the creation of Man, the egyptians say he was created both Male and female. Hereupon Plato gathereth that he was a Manwoman or Herkinalson: and the Scripture had said that God had created them Male and female. So befalleth it properly to a Portraiture that is drawn by another. That which is taken at the lively image, loseth a little of his nature. That which is taken at the Pattern, loseth somewhat more; And so from one to another, they vary in the end so far from the very original, that a man can scarcely find any resemblance thereof. 
The fall of man..  The fall of man hath been proved of me by many reasons, and approved by all the Philosophers, and even by the very feeling of our corruption. All men are enforced to confess it. But Moses is the only man that setteth us down both the History and the cause thereof. Hereupon the Emperor julian quareleth, thinking it strange that a Serpent should speak, which is no more but that the devil spoke by the Serpent. And what is there herein, which befell not daily among the gentiles? devils, to deceive men, spoke to them from out of Images. The Fiend of Dodon spoke out of an Oak. Phylostratus saith that an Elm spoke to Apollonius of Thyaney: A River (sayeth Porphirius) saluted Pythagoras. Even julian himself & his Philosopher Maximus, heard the devil speak in divers voices & in divers manners: & in all this gear there is thought to be no strangeness at all. For seeing that the devil of himself is not visible to our eyes; must he not be feign to put on a borrowed shape? And if he borrow one, why should he rather take some other shape than the shape of a Serpent? And if he speak; why should he not speak as well by the mouth of a Serpent, as of another living wight? and as well of a living wight, as of a thing that hath no life? Nay further, this creature hath a manifest figure, in that it traileth upon the ground, and liveth of the dust: and in that we by our winding away from God to the base and Earthly things, are brought to the same point at this day.  
We read of the men of the first age, 
The egg of the first men.  that they lived seven, eight, or nine hundred years: which thing some thinking to be incredible, have imagined that those years were but months, notwithstanding that in the history of the universal Flood which insewed, the month is set down to be of eight and twenty days, and the year to be twelve months, and that otherwise we must be feign to admit, that they begat Children at less than ten years of the son. And yet is that one of the griefs which they conceive against our Scriptures; as who would say it were not as easy unto GOD to extend our lives unto ten thousand of years, as to a hundred, to God I say who hath made both the life itself, and the years, and the worlds of years. Yet notwithstanding, Manethon the Egyptian, Berosus the Chaldean, Moschus, Hestiaeus, and Hierom, who wrote the Stories of the phoenicians, do confirm the saying of Moses concerning the first men. Also Hesiodus, Hecataeus, Acusilaus, Hellanicus, and Ephorus agree thereunto: affirming that they were ordained to live so long time, as well for to study the Sciences, as to invent the handicrafts; and specially for the finding out of Astronomy, because (say they) if they had lived less than six hundred years, their observations had been in vain, because the great year continueth so long. To be short, the matter was so clear, & so common in all ancient Histories, that Varro passeth it not over as a light thing, but laboureth to yield a cause thereof.  
For the punishment of Mankind there flowed a general Flood. 
The general Flood.  What Nation hath not believed it, and what Author hath not spoken of it? Among the egyptians, phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans nothing was more common. And because they had heard that it befell in the primetime of the world, and were ignorant in the accounts of that times; every writer of Histories did set it down in the time which he thought to be of most antiquity: as for example, the Thebans referred it to the time of Ogyges, the Thessalyans to the time of Deucalion, and so forth of others. Moreover, in Brasilie, in the new Spain, and in the Florida, the belief thereof is common, and all of them impute it to man's sin, and to the wrath of the highest powered out upon mankind. But let us come yet to more particular points. God commanded Moses to make an Ark for the saving of himself and his household, and for the preserving of the seed of the world there. And he reckoneth up unto us all the whole length, breadth and depth thereof: which is a proof that he had the truth itself, whereof the residue had but the fame. Yet notwithstanding, Alexander Polyhistor, and Abydene do write, 
Alexander Polyhistor. Abydemus alleged by cyril in his first book against julian.  that Saturn foretold unto Xysuthrus the Flood ere it came; and that he made him an Ark, to save all kind of cattle with him: That he preserved his holy writings by engraving them in certain pillars at Heliopolis in AEgipt, and sailed in his Ark towards Armenia: that after certain days he sent forth certain Birds, which found no dry ground: that at the end of certain other days, he sent out certain other Birds: and that in the end perceiving dry land, he came down out of the Ark in Armenia, where (by their saying) the remnants of the Ark are diligently kept by the Inhabitants, who help themselves with it in many diseases. And their talking of Saturn is according to the manner of the Greeks, who surmised the jews to have worshipped Saturn, because they kept holy the seventh day. And it may be that Xysuthrus may in the Assyrian tongue betoken as much as Noah, who in divers places had divers names as we read. Nevertheless, this difference serveth us for a proof, because we see it is not a simple supposal, but a firm tradition from the Father to the Son. The same thing is reported by Berosus, 
josephus in his first book of his antiquities. chap. 3.  not the counterfeit Berosus, but the same Berosus whom the ancient writers allege; and by jerom the Egyptian, Mnaseas the Phenician, and others. Yea and they add further, that the place where Noah came down out of the Ark was called Saleh Noah, in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say noah's coming down; and that it was at a certain Mountain called Baris or Paropanisus, which (according to their language at that time) seemeth to come all to one. 
In his treatise that beasts are capable of reason.  Also Plutarch speaketh expressly of the Dove that Deucalion sent out of the Ark to seek dry land: and Phavorinus and Stephanus speak of the place where the Ark rested; which cannot be understood of any particular flood of Thessaly, which doubtless was contrived out of the other universal flood. Now therefore not knowing what to reply in this behalf, they pick a quarrel at the measure of the Ark, imagining it hard for God to do that which they themselves can not do. But besides that the Ark was a figure of the Church whereinto all Nations should one day be gathered and saved; Origen showeth to Celsus the Epicure by the Geometrical Cubit, that it was of a marvelous greatness and capacity. And Buteon a Mathematic declareth expressly in a book, what it contained foot by foot. To be short, sith we read that the Flood was universal, considering that that could not be but by God's appointment, who notwithstanding intended to save those that were his: the sight of such a miracle ought to make all the residue credible, without alleging of measures in a power which is without measure. For whereas some will needs impute that Flood to a certain great Conjunction of Planets which was at that time; I send them to the Earl of Mirandula, 
john Picus Earl of Mirandula against Astrologers.  who not only proveth that there was not then any great Conjunction at all, but also that although there had been one, yet they could not assign it to the named point; but rather that by their own rules the Conjunction was such at that time, that it betokened rather an universal burning than an universal drowning of the world.  
At the going away of this Flood, the Scripture telleth us of a Ham or Cham 
Cham.  which discovered the shame of Noah his father. The Chaldees say it was Zoroastres, who would with his Charms have made him barren. The Greeks after them feigned their jupiter Hammon to have gelded him. Thus turned they the History into a fable. Likewise japhet is none other than the japetus of the Poets, who took the renewing of the world after the Flood, for the very first creation thereof. Then followeth consequently the confusion of the tongues. 
The confusion of tongues or languages.  It is a very clear case that languages are to no use, but in respect of the diversity of them; insomuch that if there were no more but one in all the world, it were mere soundness to know any more than that. Therefore like as reason hath led us to one first man, so ought it also to lead us to one first language; which was but one alone, like as there was but one man alone with his wife. If the diversity of them consisted as now, but in propriety of phrases and form of words, it might be said that they had been altered by process of tyme. But it is well known that there are many Languages, whose very original words are far divers and utterly unlike one another, saving in some few words that have been brought out of other Countries by travelers and trade of Merchandise, which have every where retained still the same names they had in the place from whence they came. Ye will say then that men invented them when they conveyed Inhabiters abroad to people other Countries. But what a vanity had that been? What life of man could have sufficed to do it? What benefit could have insewed of it, either to the inventors themselves, or to their followers? Nay, who seethe not that it had been a public misery? not a knowledge, but an ignorance; not a pleasure, but a hell to posterity? certes, we say therefore that reason leadeth us to that which the Scripture saith; namely, that at the beginning there was but one language: That the dividing of Languages came not of men, but that the dividing of men came of the division of Languages: and that it was not a device of men (who at that time were sufficiently occupied in the needful knowledge of nature, and in the finding out of profitable Arts and Sciences) but a punishment cast of God upon mankind. Let us see how the ancient writers do further these reasons. The common opinion is (say Abydenus and Alexander 
Alexander Polyhistor. Abydenus. Sibylla. Euseb. lib. 9 cap. 4. de prepar. ) that men being bred of the earth, and trusting in their own strength, would needs in despite of the Gods go rear a Tower up to the Sun, in the same place where Babylon now is: and that when they had raised it very high, the Gods overthrew it and cast it down upon their heads with a great wind: and that at that time began the diversity of Languages: whereupon, the Hebrews called that place Babel. Of these things speaketh Sibyl also in her verses in the selfsame terms. And Hestiaeus and Eupolemus do add, that the Priests which scaped from thence, gate themselves with the mysteries of their jupiter (the same was either Nembrod or jupiter Bele) into the Plain of Sennaar, from the which place men departing by reason of the confusion of tongues, began to sever themselves abroad to people the rest of the world. Here it pleaseth julian to fall to scoffing. For (saith he) a great sort of such globes as the whole earth is, being heaped one upon an other, were not able to reach half way to the Sphere of the Moon. 
Genes. 11.  But the reason of this enterprise of theirs is evident; namely that their intent was to have had a refuge against the height of the waters, if any flood should come again, that is to say, to make a bank against God's wrath, which it had been better for them to have pacified by prayer. And this pride of theirs is not to be thought so strange a matter, considering how we read in the Histories of the Greeks, that one Xerxes sent letters of defiance to the Sea: and in the Histories of the Romans, that one Caligula undertook a quarrel against jupiter. And julian himself was not a whit wiser, when he would needs take upon him to impeach the kingdom of God, by prohibiting the Christians to read Poets. And whereas Celsus will needs bear himself on hand, that the said History was taken out of the fable of the Aloides: all men know that Homer was the first Author of that fable, who came a long time after Moses. And in good sooth, these particularities of the confounding of Tongues, of the dispersing of men abroad, of the place where it befell, of the naming of Phaleg who was borne at the very time of the division, and such other circumstances; do evidently show that Moses speaketh not at rovers: whereof there is also this further proof, that the Originals of Nations according to the dividing of households at that time, are not read of in any other Author.  
As vain also is this saying of theirs, that the burning up of Sodom is taken from the tale of Phaeton, 
Sodom. Galen in his book of simples. Pausanias' in his Eliaks. Solinus in his Polyhistor. Tacitus in his last book.  which is in deed as far from it as Heaven is from the earth. For even at this day there are yet still to be seen the remainders of God's wrath, noted by Strabo, Galen, Mela, and others: namely the bitter Lake wherein nothing can live; the banks thereof lived with Bitumen; the Stones stiuking and filthy; the trees bearing fruits fair to the eye, but falling to Cinder and smoke in the hand; which things we read not of to have been seen any where else, and yet in a valley most beautiful to behold, where stood at that time five Cities, or according to Strabo thirteen, which were all consumed with fire for sin against nature. And josephus sayeth that the Image or pillar of salt whereinto Lot's wife was turned, was to be seen there even in his days. These are the greatest wonders of the book of Genesis. The residue thereof consisteth in the history of Abraham and of his Children. As for the Princes of those days, we have nother Pedegrée nor history of them among the Heathen writers: and therefore it is the more to be wondered at, that they have spoken of our Shepherds. 
Eusebius. li. 9 de praepar. Cap. 4.  For Berosus sayeth that about a ten generations or descents from the universal Flood, there was among the Chaldees a great man that excelled in Astronomy. And that by him Berosus meant to betoken Abraham, Eupolemon 
Eupolemus in his book of the jews.  declareth: for he saith that in the said tenth generation, Abraham 
Abraham and his race.  was brone in Camerine a Town of Babylonie, otherwise called Vr or Chaldeans; who invented Astronomy among the Chaldees, and was in the favour of God, by whose commandment he removed into Phenice, where he taught the course of the Moon, of the Sun, and of the Planets, whereby he greatly pleased the King: notwithstanding that he saith he had received it from hand to hand from Enoch, whom the Greeks (sayeth he) called Atlas, unto whom the Angels had taught many things. Also he rehearseth the Battle that was made by Abraham for the recovery of Loath, the entertainment of Melchisedek, the overthwarts that Abraham endured for Sara his wife in AEgipt, and the Plague thot God did cast upon Pharaoh to make him to deliver her to Abraham again. And Artabanus 
Artabanus in his History of the jews.  in his story of the jews reporteth almost the selfsame things; adding, that of Abraham the jews were called Hebrews, wherein the nearness of the names deceived him. Melon 
Melon against the jews.  in his books against the jews, wrote that Abraham had two wives: and that by the one of them which was an Egyptian, he had twelve children, among whom Araby was parted, which even in his time had twelve Kings still: (Those were the twelve Sons of Ishmael the Son of Abraham by Agar the Egyptian, which are set down by name in Genesis,) And that by the other (which was a woman of the Country of Syria,) he had but only one Son named Isaac, who likewise had twelve Sons, of whom the youngest was called joseph, of whom Moses (saith he) descended. Also Alexander setteth forth Abraham's sacrifice at length, and the children that he had by Chetura. And in his history he allegeth one Cleodemus a Prophet, otherwise called Malchas, whom he affirmeth to agree with Moses in the History of the jews. again, Hecataeus the Abderite having been in jewry, did purposely make a book of Abraham's life, which thing he had not of his own master King Alexander. To be short, that which Orpheus sayeth of a certain Chaldee unto whom only God manifested himself, seemeth to be spoken of Abraham. For he had been conversant in AEgipt, where the renown of Abraham was so great, that even in their conjurings they made express mention of the God whom Abraham had worshipped. The same Alexander writeth the fleeing of jacob for fear of his brother Esawe; his abode in Mesopotamia; His seven years service; his marrying with two Sisters; the number of his Children; the ravishing of Dina; the slaughter of Sichem; and likewise the selling of joseph; his imprisonment, his deliverance for expounding of Dreams; His authority in AEgipt; His marrying with Askeneth the daughter of Pethefer the Highpriest; His two Sons by name which were borne of her; the coming of his brothers into AEgipt; the Feast that he made them; the five parts which he gave to Benjamin (whereof this Historiographer intendeth to yield a reason) the coming of jacob & of his whole household into AEgipt; of what age every of them was; and how many Children every of them had. And so he bringeth us down from Noah to the Flood, from the Flood to Abraham, from Abraham to Levy, and from Levy to Moses; howbeit ever among with faults in reporting the things done, with differences in accounting the years, and with some additions of small importance here and there; which serve to show that he had not those Histories immediately out of the Bible, but out of some other books which he had seen elsewhere. The selfsame things did Theodotus convey into his Poetry: and likewise Philo Biblius, Nicholas of Damascus, Aristaeus, and others. Of whom this latter made a peculiar description of the story of job, how he was tempted as well by the Devil as by his neighbours; affirming him to have been the Son of Esawe dwelling in the marches between Idumea and Araby, which thing he could not have red in the Scripture. To be short, the places which bear the name of Abraham both in Damascus, in Chaldee, and in the Land of Chanaan; and of joseph in Egypt, together with the well of wonderful antiquity near to Ascalon, do give us assurance both of their abode in Palestine, and of their removing into Egypt. And Manethon the Historioghapher of Egypt setteth us down their original, and their coming down into Egypt, terming them in his language Shepeheredkings, which was, because that as we read in the Scriptures, their wealth consisted in cattle. But of all these ancient writers we have but fragments, such as we could gather together out of ancient Authors.  
Now let us come to Moses. Alexander saith that he was the son of Amram the son of Elat, the son of Levy, the son of jacob, and so forth: that is to say, a natural Israelite and not an Egyptian. But let us hear Artabanus 
Artabanus concerning the jews.  concerning his first coming up, and the discourse of his whole life. He saith that Meris the son of Kenephris King of AEgipt, being unable to have children, adopted a child of the jews called Moses, and instructed him in the laws; who afterward gave letters to the egyptians, and was reputed of them as a God and named Mercury: That Kenephris being envious of his reputation, sent him into the wars against the Ethiopians, with an army of jews untrained, to the intent that both he and they might have perished together: And that Moses demeaned himself so wisely, that the Ethiopians being overcome, had him in such estimation, that they received Circumcision of him: That at his return, great countenance was made unto him, howbeit that he perceiving it to be done upon an evil mind, withdrew himself into Arabia, where he married the daughter of Raguel a King of that Country: In the which mean time, the King of AEgipt that had oppressed the jews with so many toils and (to the intent he might the more safely kill than) had appointed them a certain Livery; died very suddenly of a Leprosy. These things are not reported by Moses; for he wrote not any thing to the advancement of himself, but treated altogether of God's victories, and not of his own. But in the selfsame Author there followeth the calling of Moses. This Moses (saith he) was occupied in continual prayer to God for the deliverance of the people: And one day as he was earnest in praying, there issewed a fire out of the earth, where was not any fit matter to burn, and a voice told him that he should deliver the jews and bring them into their Country. Whereupon without raising of any force, he by the counsel of his wives father, declared the will of God to the King, who by and by committed him to prison. But the prisondoores were opened unto him by miracle, and he went to the King's bedside, and summoned him again to obey God. And when the King had asked him the name of the GOD, Moses told it him in his ear, whereat he fell into a swound, but Moses raised him up again by the hand, and the Priests that made a scoff at it died out of hand. He declareth afterward that the King required signs, and that Moses turned his Staff into a Serpent: That he smote the river of Nile and made it to overflow: That he strake it again, and it returned within his banks: That thereupon the Priests of Memphis were commanded to do the like matter upon pain of their life, and that they by Art Magic brought forth a Dragon, and changed the colour of the river: by means whereof the King became so proud, that he hardened his heart against the jews: That then Moses smote the earth with his Rod, and the earth brought forth first venomous Flies, next Frogs, than grasshoppers, and afterward other strange things: Whereupon (saith this Historiographer) there hath grown a custom of keeping and reverencing a Rod in their Temples ever since, because they hold opinion that Isis is the Earth, which being stricken with that Rod, brought forth those things. In the end there was (saith he) such an Earthquake over all AEgipt, that the King determined to let that people go. But in this point the Priests disagree. For the Priests of Memphis say that Moses' marking the tide passed the Sea at a low water. But the Priests of Heliople say, that the King's intent was to pursue the Israelites to recover the jewels which they carried away with them out of AEgipt, and that Moses being warned of God strake the Sea, which gave place to him and all his people, and that the egyptians were partly destroyed with thunder and lightning, and partly drowned in the same waters. When they were passed the Sea, they lived thirty years in the wilderness and were fed with a certain Snow, which God did rain down upon them from heaven. And this Moses was a man of a tall stature, brown, with long hear on his head and a long beard, and a countenance full of majesty; and when he did all this work of his, he was fourscore and nine years old. We read the same things written by Demetrius and Eupolemus Greek Historiographers, who do add many particularities more: and Manethon nameth the King Tethmosis under whom these things were done. Also Numenius the Pythagorist saith, that he had read the life of Moses in Histories worthy of credit: and he rehearseth how he was taken out of the water; how he was brought up in the Court; that afore he was Circumcised, he was called jehoiachim; 
Secundum Mystas.  howbeit that by report of such as professed the knowledge of Mysteries, he had a secret name in heaven, to wit Melchi; that he wrought great miracles before the King of AEgipt; and that certain Magicians called jannes' and Mambres would have done the like: which are things that are not set down in our Scriptures, but must needs be had of them out of the holy Registers of AEgipt. And in very deed, in the Conjurations of the egyptians, 
Origines against Celsus lib. 4.  they used these words to the Devils, The God of Israel, the God of the Hebrews, the God that drowned the egyptians with their King in the red Sea: which showeth evidently that the matter was commonly known and out of all doubt. And I remember not any Author that denieth Moses to have conveyed the people of Israel out of AEgipt with great miracles. For sooth it had been a miracle of all miracles, to have made them to suffer so many adversities without miracles. But yet some Authors have attributed those miracles to Magic, and othersome to natural reasons. There is (saith Pliny) a kind of Magic, which dependeth upon Moses 
Moysessis Miracles.  and the Cabal; but yet had Magic never so great scope (saith he) as under Nero, neither was it ever found to be more feeble and vain. And in truth, what likeness is there between the Illusions of a Magician, which vanish away in the twinkling of an eye, and the leading of a mighty great Nation through the Sea, and (which more is) the maintaining of them from hunger & thirst so long a time? But yet hath the Scripture provided against this slander. For no law else in the world doth so expressly forbidden Magic, as doth the law of Moses: and the Cabal whereof Pliny had heard speak, 
In stead of Cabala, Pliny hath jocabela.  is further of from such doings, than either Arithmetic or Grammar. And whereas others do report, that Moses marked the ebbing of the water that he might pass the red Sea: surely they make the counsel of the egyptians very grossewitted, in casting themselves away so rashly. Nay I say further, that if it had been so, the waters that drowned the one people would not have spared the other. But every man knows that the Gulf of Arabia is not subject to such tides as those are: and though it were, yet cannot the like cavil take place in all the residue of the miracles that are attributed unto him. As unmeet also to be admitted, is the slander of justine the Historiographer and others, That Moses was driven out of AEgipt because he was a Leper, and that he carried all the Lepers of the Realm away with him. For it is a clear case by record of all ancient writers, that the people whom he carried away, was a stranger in AEgipt: and when he himself rehearseth openly the benefits which that people had received at God's hand, You know (saith he) that there hath not been any sickness or disease among you, since the time you came out of AEgipt. And on the contrary part he menaseth them with the Plagues, biles, and Botches of AEgipt, if they offended God. Insomuch that whereas in any other ancient laws, there is no mention made of any order for them that are infected with the Leprosy: in this Law (as though GOD had meant to prevent that slander) they be separated from the company of men, their clothes are to be laid away, their houses to be scraped, and certain other things are to be done; which is a sufficient proof, that those which governed that people and had authority over them, were no Lepers.  
This people than went out of Egypt: 
Exod. 12.  and the Scripture sayeth that they were Sixhundred thousand men on foot, besides women and Children. 
The number of the children of Israel.  Hear again they krye out: They were but threescore and ten when they went into Egypt; and how then is it possible that they should be so many at their going out? I will not allege any miraculousnes, though the Scripture declare that that people increased very greatly; insomuch that it termeth them by the word Frye, as though it spoke of fishes. But I beseech them to make somewhat a nearer reckoning, not with the largest, but after the ordinary manner, what number might rise of threescore and ten persons in four hundred years or thereabouts, which was the time that they were in Egypt; and they shall find their full number afore they come to Twohundred and fifty years. After the same manner do we see that Threescore households of Arabians, passing into Africa in the time of the division under Calis, had peopled it throughout in less than thréehundred years: insomuch that even at this day, the Provinces bear the names of Beni Megher, Beni Guariten, Beni Fensecar and so forth; that is too say the Children of Megher, of Guariten, and of Fensecar. And there was not that Family which peopled not some one Shire or other. Also the West Indies which have not been known unto us above one hundred years, will within one hundred more be peopled with Spaniards. To be short, vives saith, he saw an honest man in Spain, which had peopled a village of a hundred houses with the issue of his own body, so as the names of kindred failed. And this present year there died a noble Lady in Germany, which had seen a hundred and threescore Children borne of herself and hers; and yet the one half of her Children died afore they were married; and those that are married are of age to have many more. Their saying therefore bewrayeth a manifest ignorance, like as theirs doth who being ignorant of progression in Arithemetik, will easily bargain for a horse or some other thing, to give every day double for it during a whole month, beginning with a penny: who by that time that they come but too the mids of the month, begin to perceive that which no reason could have beaten into their heads afore, namely that all the goods they have are not able too serve the turn.  
After Moses succeeded josua, 
josua.  who brought the people into the promised Land, so as the Chananytes did partly flee before him, and partly were made tributaries unto him. He that shall read the voyage of this people from journey to journey, and consider the bounds and coasts of their porcio●s; will by-and-by judge the truth of the story. But yet Procopius in his history of the Vandals, 
Procopius in his second book of the wars of the Vaudales.  leaveth us a notable mark thereof in these words. All the Country (saith he) which lieth from Sidon to Egypt, was in old time called Phenice; and they that wrote the History of the phoenicians, report that in old time it was all under one only King. In these costs dwelled the Gergesites, jebusites & other nations, who at such time as they saw the great army of josua coming towards them, removed into AEgipt. But within a while after, because that Country could not bear them, they passed into Africa, where they builded many Cities and peopled the whole Country even to the Pillars of Hercules, and their language is half Phenician. Also in Numidy (among other Cities) they builded Tingit, the seat whereof is very strong, where are two Pillars of white stone to be seen near unto a great Fountain, wherein are graven these words in the Phenician tongue: we be those that fled from the Robber josua the son of Nun. Such (sayeth he) is the original of those Nations, whom we call at this day Maurusians. And Eupolemus sayeth that josua Prophesied a hundred and ten years, and placed the Tabernacle in Silo. From thence he leapeth to Samuel, & form Samuel to Saul, whom he affirmeth to have been anointed at God's commandment; and so to David, whom (taking the one for the other) he calleth the son of Cis.  
But between josua and Saul, we have the time of the judges; in the story of whom some have marked, that the mighty deeds of Hercules are feigned out of the doings of Samson, and the vow of Agamemnon out of the vow of jephtha. David 
Saul. David.  (saith the same Author) subdued the Ammonites, Moabites, Itureans, Nabatheans and other nations that extend unto the River Euphrates, and made the King of tire and the phoenicians tributary to him. Afterward and Angel called Nathan showed him the place where the Temple should be builded, for the which he prepared workmen, and rigged forth Ships at the City of Melan in Araby. and sent them to an isle of the red sea called Vrphen, from whence he fetched great quantity of Gold, Copper, 
The Scripture of the Prophet.  Cedar wood and such other things. Notwithstanding (saith he) the Angel would not that he should build the Temple, because he had been stained with blood in the Wars; and so that work was reserved to Solomon his Son, who came to the Crown at the age of twelve years. And of how great riches David was, 
josephus libr. Antiquit: 15. Cap. 16. & lib. 16. cap. 11. & of the jewish wars. lib. 5. cap. 2.  it may appear by his tumb, wherein after the custom of those times, he did lay up great treasures. For about an eighthundred years after, Hircanus being assailed by Antiochus the godly, took three thousand Talents out of one vault to content him withal. And within a while after, Herod opened another vault and found as much there. What notable things read we of Solomon? 
Solomon.  First his building of the Temple, which is described (saith josephus) as well in the Chronicles of the Tyrians, the Competitors of the jews, as in ours. And in their Treasury are kept the Letters of Solomon to Hyram King of tire, and hiram's letters unto him; 
josephus in his antiquities. lib. 8. cap. 2. Euseb. lib. 9 cap. 4.  which make mention of the great number of Carpenters that Hiram sent unto him; of the order that Solomon took for the finding of them by imposts, and of the Contribution that every Province made to that end; which things are reported at length by Eupolemus also, and likewise by Alexander Polihistor, Hecataeus the Abderite, Dius a Phenician, and divers others, yea and that so particularly and with such care, as that there is not that measure, vessel, tool or instrument of the Temple, which they have not noted, which thing we read not that they have done in the behalf of any of their own Temples. Yea and the Tyrians do note the very year and the day thereof in their Chronicles; to wit, that it was a hundred forty and three years and eight moons afore their building of Carthage. Secondly the Scripture maketh great commendations of salomon's wisdom; insomuch that the Queen of Saba came from a far to see him. And we read in Plutarch, 
Plutarch in his feast of Seven Sages.  that it was a custom among the Kings of old time, to put questions one to another, to try the ability of their wits, and that a certain praise was appointed for him that won the victory. 
josephus li● cap. 2.  And Dius an Historiographer of the phoenicians, rehearseth the Riddles and Questions that Solomon sent to King Hiram, saying that it cost Hiram very much because he was not able to assoil them, until at length he found a young man of Tyrus named Abdemon, who deciphered unto him the most part of them. And as touching the Queen of Saba, who came from the isle of Meroe to see Solomon; the Chronicles of Aethiop report that her name was Makeda, 
The History of Ethiop. Makeda.  and that she had a son by Solomon, which was named first Meilirh, & afterward David, whom she made her Heir of that great Empire which we now adays do call Prester john's Land. Likewise it reporteth that she carried with her twelve thousand jews, of every Tribe a thousand. And because the noblest men of that Country, do vaunt themselves to be of the blood of Israel; although they have received the Gospel, yet do they retain Circumcision; not that they think it necessary to salvation (say they;) but to keep still the prerogative of their blood.  
What remaineth yet further? The Sailing of salomon's Ships; which lasted three years; and that seemeth unto them incredible. And so by that rule, let us always be at this point, never by our good wills to believe that which we understand not. But who is he at this day whom the Spaniards and Portugese's have not persuaded that? Specially the Portugese's, which are a year and eight moons a making their voyage, notwithstanding that they have both the use of the Compass, and better knowledge of the Seas, and more certain Harboroughs, and a shorter cut. And surely it is not to be passed over lightly, 
●. Chron. 3.  that the Gold that was brought home by the said Navigations, is called in Hebrew in the dual number Paruaim, as if a man would say, brought from the Perous, or from the Indies as well the East Indies as the West Indies, 
Gilbert Genebrand in his chronology.  as a certain learned man of our time hath noted. So is the wood brazil called by the name of the country of brasil from whence it is brought: and Machoachan the Drug, by the name of Machoachan the country, and so forth of other things. For as touching the Navigation to the Indies by the red Sea, it was over common, both to employ so much time about it, and also to make so great a matter of it.  
In the Histories of the Kings following, 
The removings of the ten tribes. 1. Kings. 15.  the chief things that are to be marked, are the three removings away of the ten Tribes of Israel, the first under Phacea the Son of Romelia and Oseas Kings of Israel, by Tigbath Phalassar and Salmanasar Kings of the Assyrians. The manner whereof was that the Israelites were carried away into far Countries, 
2. Kings. 17. 4. Esdras. 13.  (specially the best sort of them,) and other Nations were placed there in their stead. For the Israelites were conveyed thence into Media, and received the uninhabited Countries to dwell in, and of them came partly the Cholchians who in the time of Herodotus 
Herodotus li. 2.  caused themselves to be circumcised; and partly the Tartarians, who about the year of our Lord a thousand and two hundred, overwhelmed the earth like a waterflud under the leading of Cingi, and afterward did set up the Empire of the great Cham. And in very deed they were Circumcised afore they ever heard of Mahomet; and they yielded willingly to go to his Law, so much the rather because it seemed to hold of theirs. And the word Tartars or Totaras signifieth Remnants or leavings in the Syrian tongue. verily even among the Hordes of the Tartars, in the furthest part northward, there are which have retained still the names of Dan, Zabulon & Nepthaly; and therefore it is not to be wondered at, that there be so many jews in Russie, Sarmatia, and Lituania, and so the nearer to the Tartarians still the more. The same hath no less likelihood of truth concerning the Turks. For the word Turk in Hebrew, signifieth banished men, and is taken in way of reproach. And it is very likely, that Mahomet to eschew the offending of those so great Nations, which at that time began to awake, held still Circumcision, and the Cleansings, and the Ceremonies of Moses' Law.  
As touching the removing away to Babylon, which was peculiarly of the tribe of juda: Alexander Polihistor saith expressly, that in the time of joachim King of juda, jeremy was sent unto them from God, to foretell them of extreme calamity, because they worshipped an Idol called Baal; joachim commanded him to be burned quick; and that jeremy said further, that the King of Assyria should make them labour to dig a Channel to sail out of Euphrates into Tigris: 
The Deliverance by Cirus  and that upon that hope Nabuchodonozor putting himself in Arms with all his power, spoiled Samaria, took Jerusalem, and led away joachim prisoner. The same thing is witnessed by Diocles, and likewise namely by Berosus the Chaldean, who sayeth that the said captivity endured three score years and ten. Alpheus addeth that Megasthenes an ancient Author writeth, that Nabuchodonozor at his return home, was stricken with madness, and died crying incessantly to the Babylonians, that a great mischief was near them, which all the power of their Gods could not stay. For (quoth he) a Half-ass of Persia shall come and make us his thralls. The man that he spoke of was Cirus; 
josephus in his Antiquity. lib. 8. cap. 4.  who (as Alexander Polyhistor and Hecateus the Abderite do witness) builded up the Temple of Jerusalem again.  
As concerning Sesakes voyage against Roboam, Herodotus speaketh evidently enough, albeit that he name him not, declaring that he crept upon his belly to AEgipt, Syria, and Palestine. And the story of Sennacherib is there under that selfsame name, and how he was slain at his coming home, 
1. Kings. 14. Herodotus li. 2  and that an Image was set up unto him with this inscription, Learn by me to fear God, for a memorial of God's judgement against him. Moreover, Menander an Ephesian made mention in his Tyrian History, of the great Drought that was in the time of Achab, 
1. Kings. 18.  and of the abundance of rain that was obtained by the prayers of Helias: after the imitation whereof, the Greeks feigned the like of AEacus. And josephus witnesseth that he had read the story of jonas in many Commentaries; the which is rife in remembrance yet still among the Arabians of Africa. And as touching the greatness of Niniveh, it is described fully alike in Diodorus. 
Diodorus li. 3.   
The token that God gave to Ezechias by making the Sun to retire back certain degrees, was registered in the Chronicles of the Babylonians, and of the Wisemen of Persia; 
Esay 38. Denis in his Hierarchy.  the which token (some say, and not without some ground) was given so unto him, because he delighted in Astronomy, and had reform the Hebrew Calendar. But many ancient books are lost, which might tell us much more of these matters. Nevertheless, I would fain have these controllers of our Scriptures, to tell me if they have any History among the Heathen, that hath more witnesses of the trewnesse thereof, than the History of the jews. And whether any, even of the greatest empires of the world, be so confirmed by the Histories of friends, as the History of that little Nation is confirmed by his enemies.  
And whereas they object, that we see no such miracles in our days: I will prove unto them in another place, that the like have been seen since, which have proceeded from the same power. But it is enough for me at this time to put them in remembrance, that if true miracles had not been wrought in the world, we should not have had so many false miracles among the Heathen. Nay, I say more, we should not have so much as the very name of Miracle, which could not have been given at the first, but to things that exceed the ability of man, yea and of all other Creatures, as things rightly worthy of that name.  
Now remain the Absurdities which they will needs find, because they understand not the reason. 
Objections concrneing Absurdities.  That law of yours (say they) stands talking of Beasts, of Pastures, of Oxen that doss with their horns, and of such other things. These are too base things for the word that proceedeth from GOD. Why say they not likewise, that they were too base things for God to create? And wherefore are Laws made, but for the benefit of man? And although they might seem vile in respect of God; can they deny them to have been profitable in respect of men, at that time when men for the most part lived by grazing? But of these nice fellows I would know what the Laws of Plato were, and what the Laws of the twelve Tables were, at such time as the Romans were Tilmen and Grazyers? or what the Laws of Venice were, when they were but Fishers? Yet do we reverence those Laws for their antiquity; insomuch that if we find but some old fragment of them, we think we have a jewel: and the Emperors of Rome being in their chief glory, razed not out of their Digests the Laws that begin thus, If cattle: nor the Venetians their Statutes of Fisshing: nor the Frenchmen their ordinances of Hunting and Hawking; which might in many Countries seem matters to be laughed at in our days, and yet there were even than which carried them into other Countries, as necessary to appease strifes in their due time and place. To be short, as long as Rome was champyonground, it made Laws against the harms of cattle. But when it fell once to building, it made Laws for Gutters, Channels and sinks. When it began to seek the ruin of other men, it made Laws of Battle, of Warfare, and of the sacking of Cities. And when it listed to destroy itself, it made Laws of Rebellions, prescriptions and banishments. All the which were alike behoveful and necessary in their times: and the first Lawmakers were no less honoured than the latter: howbeit that the state of the Commonweal was worse and more corrupted in the latter time than in the other, because that whereas in the former times it had to do but with the repressing of Beasts, in the latter times it had to deal with the bridling of men worse than wild Beasts, or to speak more truly, men that were become wood beasts themselves.  
They add, God (say you) created all things: and yet notwithstanding Moses denounceth some beasts to be clean and some unclean. Whereto may these be good? They ought to consider, that oftentimes the things which of themselves are clean, become unclean by the abuse of them, like as the thing that is good and wholesome by nature, becometh evil and unwholesome by excess or surfeiting. And in that respect hath Wine been prohibited among many people, and there are few which have not abhorred some Beasts or others; after which manner we see that at Rome, such as had murdered their fathers or their mothers, were put into a Sack with an Ape, a Cock, and a viper, and cast into the water; a thing whereof it were uneasy to yield a reason. But the said law of Moses, not being unprofitable, ne tending any higher than this present life, did not without cause put a difference between brute things. 
Origen against Celsus lib. 4.  For if we look well to it, it denounceth all those brute things unclean, whereby the egyptians made their divinations or took their foretokens, as the Wolf, the Fox, the Dragon, the Hare, the sparrowhawk, the Kite, & so forth. And that was to make the people of Israel to abhor the vanities and abominations of AEgipt; like as if a man would keep his children from fire, he would prohibit them even the Chimney. And because those abuses were known among them; the end and aimingpoynt of that Law, was the redress of them. And therefore upon this point, I desire our despisers to suspend their judgement in the things they understand not. For as in that time no fault was found with this difference in the Law of Moses; so should no fault be found with many others at this day, if we could set before us the same time again. I omit concerning the things that lived upon prey, that over and beside that men took foretokens at them, they had this doctrine in them without much stepping aside from the letter, that men should not take away one another's goods. And as touching the Swine, it is well known that for the invention of Tillage which he showed to the egyptians by rooting up the ground with his groin; they worshipped him as a God; in consideration whereof he was declared to be abominable: besides the which thing, there appeared this evident allegory, that men should not bemyre themselves in the dirt and dung of this world.  
As for the Sacrifices, I have touched them heretofore, and will treat of them more at large hereafter, forasmuchas they did put men hourly in remembrance of death dew for sin, and of the necessity of a sacrifice to cleanse away the same, namely of the sacrifice of jesus Christ then to come, which should serve for the cleansing of all mankind. But admit that God to bring us to obedience, had listed to give us Laws whereof we could not conceive the reason? What is it more than many Princes and Lawemakers have done, as Plutark sayeth? Or than we ourselves do to our Children and Servants? And yet who will think it meet that they should ask us a reason why we do so? Surely I desire no more, but that they which come to our Scriptures, should yield at leastwise the like regard that they yield to Homer or Virgil. If they find in them any dark sentences; they say they will mark them with crosses and leave them too Grammarians too martyr themselves withal. Therefore let them not think it strange, that God hath left such things in his Scriptures, to humble the minds of divines withal. If in the Poet they meet any Solecisms, that is too say, incongruities of speech; by-and-by they be elegancies or figures. Let them consider in the Scriptures also, that the thing which they think doth disagree at the first sight, willbe found very fit of him that understandeth the figure. To be short if a Poet have spoken a word that seemeth needless or without reason; the Schoolmaster turneth it into all senses to find some sense in it: the Scholar is out of patience if his Master find none: and the Scholar will rather find fault with his Master, and the Master with his own ignorance, than confess any imperfection are oversight in the Poet. Now then if in these books confirmed with so many Miracles and proceeding from so great authority, we m●● offe●th things which to our fleshly wit seem unprofitable or absurd; it ●ere good reason that we should be the more diligent and heedful in searching them and in turning them into all senses. And if in the end of all this, we find not wherewith to satisfy us; let the hearer confess his dullness of understanding, and the teacher acknowledge his own ignorance; and let us pray God to vouchsafe to enlighten us with his Spirit.  
Now I think I have sufficiently showed, by the antiquity, the style and the matter, by the end also and by the particularities of our Scriptures; that they be of God, and that they cannot proceed from any other than him. By antiquity; for they be the first of all writings, and God hath been revealed in them ever since there were any men. By their style: for they instruct the lowly, and pull down the highminded, speaking with like authority to all men. By their matter: for their only treating is of God's doings and of his communicating of himself to men. By the mark whereat they aim: for they tend not to any other thing than God's glory and man's welfare. And by their singularnesse: for there are things without number, which cannot be bred in the mind either of man or Angel. The absurdness which we suppose to be there, is but a seeming so to our ignorance: and the impossibility which to our seeming is in them, is but in comparison of our disability. The truth of them is witnessed unto us in Histories, at leastwise if the case so stand that God's word have need of man's record. He that is the Child of God knoweth his father's voice: but yet it may be that for the better confirming of him, my writing hereof shall not be in vain. Who so refuseth that, no man can persuade him thereto: but yet shall this serve to convict him; and (by God's help) a great sort which as yet have had their ears so dulled with the noise of this world, that they have hitherto but overheard it, shall hereafter incline both their ears and their hearts thereunto. Now I beseech the almighty who spoke the word and the world was made, to speak effectually in our days, and that the world may believe him. And because the mark that belief shoots at, is the welfare of man: let us see what welfare we find in this word; which is our third mark of Religion, and shallbe the matter of the Chapter next following.   

The xxvij. Chapter.  
That the mean ordained of GOD for the welfare of mankind, hath been revealed always to the people of Israel; which is the third mark of Religion.  
_●Ow remaineth the third mark of true Religion to be examined: which is, that it teach the true and only way ordained of God for the salvation and recovery of mankind; without the which (as I have showed already) all Religion is unavailable and vain. Howbeit forasmuch as this Doctrine importeth the welfare of the world, and I have interlaced many things by the way, which may dim the remembrance thereof: Let us here call again to mind how needful this mark is in religion. And sooth it will be one further mark of the heavenlynes of our Scriptures, if we find that they teach us the necessity of that only mean, and also direct us to it from the beginning foorthon from time to tyme. 
The needefulnesse of this third mark.  We have read in the book of Nature, that Man is immortal: that his happiness is not here beneath, but in the endless life: that the blessedness of that endless life, is to enjoy God above: and that the mean to attain thereto, is to serve and honour him here beneath with all our heart. But the same book hath taught us also, that by sin we be fallen from our original: that we be fallen from God's favour into his wrath: that we be infinitely departed away both from serving him and from sticking to him: and consequently that we be gone a●tray from the happiness which we should seek & cannot find elsewhere than in him. What remaineth then for us, but utter despair? And whereto serveth the said endless life, but to be turned into endless death? And the everlasting happiness whereunto we were created, but to our everlasting grief? unless some Board be left us at hand to save us from our shipwreck: I mean unless God do make us some way, both to appease his wrath, and to come again into his favour. In this extremity therefore we meet with Religion, which directeth us to the true God. But what else is that, than a sending of an offender to his judge? or a laying of Straw to the fire? considering that God is infinitely good, that is to say, infinitely contrary to evil, and if contrary to evil, then also unto us, whose thoughts, sayings and doings are altogether evil. The same Religion hath set us down the Scriptures, wherein we read the will of our Creator: But what have we yet found there? That mankind is corrupt from his root, and as it were rotten at his Core: That all the imaginations of man's heart are always utterly evil: and yet notwithstanding, that God commandeth us to love him with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourself; behighting to them that do it everlasting life, and to them that do it not, everlasting death. Which of us feeleth not a striving in all his members against the will of God? And consequently who is he that ought not too feel a very Hell, when he entereth into himself and into the scriptures, to read his arraignment and Condemnation? And so, what is Religion but vanity, and what is the Scripture or God's word but a harthyting, if we find not there the Charters of grace and remission, which reconcile us to God, and knit us again unto him, and by that uniting do restore us the happiness whereunto we were created? So falleth it out, that God cannot be disappointed of his purpose, and that the Religion which he hath graved so deeply in man's heart, cannot be in vain. Needs then must it be, that in the true religion and in the Scriptures we must find our grace and the mean thereof, which is the third and chief mark that we seek.  
Let us express this Doctrine yet plainlier, for it is the very knot and form or inshape of all Religion. The happiness of man is to be united unto God, and the way to be united unto him, is to stick unto his will. The first man being created free and capable of good, disobeyed GOD, and by his disobedience became a bondslave to sin. So was he far removed from God and from his own welfare, and (had not grace stepped in) he had been in extreme misery, which we call Hell. Of this Rebel are we all borne, and his flesh hath begotten us both fleshly and bondslaves of sin as he was. By Nature than we can look for none other than the wages of sin, which is death; neither can we have any other inheritance than our Fathers, who hath left us nothing else to inherit but damnation. Now let us see what we ourselves have brought to this decayed succession. In stead of discharging our Obligation, we run on further in arrearages: and liking well thereof, we daily increase our debt. For none of us all dischargeth himself to godward, of the things which he requireth of us justly in his Law, and therefore we continue still behind hand. Nay, there is none of us which offendeth not the Lord infinite ways daily in thought, word and deed, by means whereof we plunge ourselves in ever deeper and deeper. Now then, though we found not our succession so decayed; yet do we ourselves make it such by our excessive debts and continual offences; which in effect is all that we can bring thereto. And against whom see we these offences? Even against God, against our father, against our maker; all which is a great aggravating of our fault: namely, that the Child should rebel against his father, or that a thing of nothing should turn away from his creator; yea and (which worse is) take wages of the Devil to fight against him. The crime is so out of all measure great, that it cannot nor ought not to be enhanced. But were there no further matter than this, that forasmuch as God is infinite, the offence is multiplied according to the person against whom it is committed: our offence against GOD cannot but be infinite, and consequently so must our punishment be too. Now therefore we poor wretches subject to infinite pains without number, which by our continual misdeeds do daily multiply the infiniteness of our punishments still even to the uttermost; have need of a remedy. And what shall that remedy be? God's mercy? Nay, mercy may not be contrary to his justice. What then? God's justice? No, we have need of mercy. By what mean may GOD execute his justice without disannulling his mercy; or exercise mercy without prejudice of his justice; so as both of them may be verified, as well that God is infinitely gracious, as that he infinitely hateth all evil, both together? If he show mercy absolutely to an infinite offence, where is his justice? Or where is his universal government, whereby he yieldeth good to the good and evil to the evil? Yea, and where is our own justice become, which is but a shadow of Gods? Again, if he execute mere justice, what shall become of Mankind after this life? Or rather, why hath he maintained him ever since his first fall, that his justice hath not devoured us of all this while, us I say in whom is not any thing which burneth not before his wrath? It remaineth then, that to appease his wrath and to make way to mercy, which wrath of his is nothing else but a just intent to punish, and which mercy of his is likewise but a just intent to forgive: there must come some satisfaction between God and Man, without the which there would be (as ye might term it) an utter Emptiness in the world, whereunto nature itself cannot agree. But what a depth is here yet still, considering that the fault is infinite, and the punishment must be proportionable to the fault, and the satisfaction likewise to the punishment, that is to say, that satisfaction infinitely infinite is required at our hands? Let man offer the whole world unto God; and what offereth he but that which he hath received of GOD, and that which he hath lost by his disobedience? And sith GOD hath created this world of nothing; how should a thing of nothing multiply so infinitely, as to satisfy for an infinite offence? Let Man offer himself; what offereth he but unthankfulness and disobedience, blasphemy and froward deeds? That is to say, what shall he else do but provoke God's wrath more and more against him? Nay, let the very Angels step in, the Creature to pacify the Creator; the thing that is finite in goodness to cover an infinite evil; the indebted in all respects, to discharge another more indebted: and what else will this be, than a covering that (as the Prophet saith) doth but half cover; and a plaster infinitely too little for the sore? 
One Mediator God & man..  Surely, let us say therefore that God himself must be fain to step in between his justice and his mercy, and as he created us at the first, so to create us new again; and as he created us then in his favour, so to acquit us now from his wrath; and as he uttered his wisdom then in creating us, so to employ the same now again in repairing us; and sooth so much the more (if more may be) because that in our creation nothing resisted the goodness of the Creator, whereas in our reparation our naughtiness withstandeth him as much as is possible. Out of one bottomless deep we go still into another: but God be praised, they be the deeps of his grace. Who then (say you) shall be this Mediator, God unto God, Infinite unto Infinite, and able both to discharge the bond, and to assuage the infinite punishment? Here let us bethink us again what hath been said afore in the fifth and sixth Chapters. I have declared there, both by reason and by record of all antiquity, that in God there are three persons or Inbeings in unity of one essence, and that the same are coeternal and coequal in all respects: The Father as the ground and wellspring; the Son, as the everlasting word and wisdom of the Father; and the holy Ghost as the bond of kindness and love, whereby the Father and the Son are linked together: and I pray the Reader that for the refreshing of his memory, he will vouchsafe to read over those Chapters again upon this point. Needs than I assure you must one of those three persons step in betwixt God's wrath and our infinite Fault. And sith it is so, which of them should rather do it than the wisdom, considering that the case standeth upon the new creating of us again, and that we were created by the same at the first? or than the Son, seeing we be to be adopted, that is to say, to be admitted to an inheritance? Nay moreover, it behoved this Mediator to step in for ever. For inasmuch as the world was created for man, and man is fallen away from God: neither the world nor man now after his fall, could have abidden before God one moment of an hour. Behold, in the manner of this mediation, there is again another incomprehensible Mystery, howbeit such a one, as when it is once revealed unto us, we deem it unpossible to have been otherwise. We have God infinitely just, and Man infinitely sinful. The infinite justice due to so infinite offence, could not be satisfied, but either by infinite punishment, or by an infinite reparation: and this infinite reparation could not proceed but from him that is infinite, that is to wit from God himself. It behoveth then that our Mediator be God, and of his gracious goodness such a one have we. But this infinite Godhead is not to recompense our disobedience otherwise than with obedience; nor our undesert, otherwise than with desert; not our stubbornness otherwise than with lowliness: neither again is he to purchase us grace, but by punishment; or life, but by death. And to the intent he may obey, he must abase himself; to deserve, he must serve; to become lowly, he must stoop down beneath himself; to suffer, he must become weak; and to die he must become mortal. certes we say therefore, that it is convenient and behoveful, that our Mediator should be both God and man.. Man, to be borne under the Law; God, to perform the Law: Man, to serve; God, to set free: Man, to humble himself to the uttermost; God, to exalt himself above all things: Man, to suffer, God to overcome: Man, to die; and God to triumph over death. Nay moreover, forasmuch as he submitteth himself willingly to such things, for our sakes say I, and not for his own: needs must his obedience become a discharge for the disobedience; his desert a discharge of the undesert, and his lowliness a satisfaction for the stubbornness of them that believe in him; yea and moreover, a purchase of obedience, desert, and lowliness unto them; so that look what is due to his obedience, that is to wit, love; to his desert, that is to wit, reward; to his humility, that is to wit, honour; to his sorrow, that is to wit, joy; to his death, that is to wit, life; and to his victory, that is to wit, Triumph; the same is purchased and given by him, and imputed and made due at God's hand to all such as honour that great benefit, and call upon the father in his name. From this point we may proceed afterward to other conditions and circumstances requisite in the Mediator God and Man, seeking him always as may be most convenient and agreeable, both to God's justice, & to the office & dignity of the Mediator. 
Man borne without Corruption.  It is necessary for our welfare say I, that the Mediator should be man to bear the punishments of men, & to reconcile Mankind. And if he were not a man; then like as we should have no part in him nor he in us: so should he not avail us any whit, neither in way of satisfaction, nor in way of desert. Meet it is therefore that he should be borne of our race, and that he should be flesh of our flesh & bone of our bone, to the intent that as in Adam we be all become bondservants to sin; so in him we may be delivered and set free from the reward of sin, which is death. again, forasmuch as he was to overcome sin, it behoved him to be without sin; and forasmuch as it was for him to make us clean, it behoved him to be without uncleanness. For we know that all of us are conceived in iniquity; and borne in uncleanness and corruption; and therefore it behoveth him to be such a man, as is conceived after an other manner than man is. And this after so many wonders ought not to be counted a wonder: for he that derived woman out of man without help of woman, can also derive man out of woman without help of man. To these particularities we shall come time enough hereafter, and if sufficeth at this time, that God's justice and man's offence have even by human reason directed us to a very necessity of a Mediator God and Man, able to discharge man of everlasting death against God, and to purchase him the sovereign felicity of life. And this is it that I meant in the beginning of the chapter; namely that this mark is so of the very substance and inshape of Religion, that Religion without that, should be utterly unavailable and vain. The Heathen seem to have perceived this necessity by many examples. They knew that man was created to live for ever, 
The opinion of the Heathen concerning the cleansing of Mankind.  and that he could not enjoy that benefit, but by turning again unto God. But in this they fell short, that they considered not that from us to God the way is unpossible to man, if God himself be not our way whereby to come thither. It may be that they have heard, that it behoved a man to die for the sins of the world. And thereupon the devil did put in their heads to sacrifice men, and so to lay the sins of a whole City or country upon the back of some one poor wretch. And look who was the greatest offender of all others, and whom they had vowed to the gallows for the multitude of his misdeeds; him did they put to the pacifying of God's wrath towards them. Such are the accustomed Apish toys of the Devil. But how shall he that is in God's displeasure, appease his displeasure? And what shall the worst do, if the best can do nothing? The Emperor julian could not tell how to rid his hands of this necessity in his disputations against the Christians. By reason whereof, perceiving that there must needs be a mean between God and man for the cleansing of men's Souls, he bore himself on hand, that Esculapius the Son of jupiter was manifested to the world by the lively engendering of the Son, and that he showed himself first in Epidaurus, and afterward in divers other places, to heal men's Bodies and to amend their Souls: Which is a proof, that the impossibility of the Incarnation of the Son of God, which is pretended by some, seemed not to him to be unpossible, forasmuch as the jucarnation of Esculapius the son of jupiter, God (in the opinion of julian,) and the son of God, seemed to him not only possible, but also come to pass. And in very deed, why should it seem strange that he which hath knit the Soul of man being a spiritual substance, unto his body being an earthly; should be able to unite himself unto man? But I have showed afore, that this Esculapius was a man; and that the spirit which abused his name, was a devil, and that both of them were wicked creatures. And moreover, who ever believed or set foorth this Fable of Esculapius, but only julian? Nay verily, Porphyrius hath outgone all antiquity in this behalf. 
Saint Austin concerning the City of God. lib. 20. Cap. 9 & 23. & 32.  For having laid this foundation, That the sovereign welfare of the Soul is to see God, That it cannot see him unless it be first cleansed from the silth thereof, and therefore that by God's providence there must be some mean procured to cleanse mankind: when he cometh to the seeking of it out, he saith, That the Arts and Sciences do well clear our wits in the knowledge of things, but they cannoth so cleanse us, that we may come unto God. And whereas many men deceived themselves in seeking this cleansing by Magik and Theurgy: he said that imagination and common sense might well be helped thereby in the perceiving of bodily things; but they attained not to the purging of the understanding of the Soul, neither could they make a man to see his GOD or the truth itself. Again, whereas some Philosophers sought this cleansing in the Mysteries of the Son, and of jupiter, that is to say, in communicating (as they surmised) not with Devils, but with such as were esteemed to be good Gods, he declareth that there was as small likelihood thereof in their Mysteries, as in the Mysteries of the rest: and moreover that those things extended but to very few men, whereas this cleansing aught to be universal to the benefit of all mankind. In the end, having rejected all other cleansings; his conclusion is, that the Beginnings only and none others, can work and be the mean to work this universal Cleansing. What he meaneth by the Beginnings, the Platonists can tell well enough: and I have declared it by many sentences of his in my fifth and sixth Chapters; that is to wit, the persons or proprieties that are in God, whom Porphyrius calleth expressly the Father, the understanding of the Father, and the Soul of the World. He could not almost have come any nearer us, unless he should have met jump with us: and surely he seemeth to have had this of the Chaldees, from whom he acknowledgeth himself to have received many divine Oracles concerning this matter. But it is enough for us that we have gained these points of him, That there must of necessity be some mean ordained of GOD for the cleansing and saving of mankind: That none can work that Cleanness, except it be some one of the Beginnings, that is to say, except it he God himself; and that he never met yet with any Sect in all Philosophy that setteth forth the mean thereof. Therefore it standeth us on hand to seek it; not in Philosophy, but in our Scriptures. For seeing they be of God, and are revealed for the welfare of Man, they ought to direct us to the only mean of the Salvation which we long for. And like as Religion was bred and borne as soon as Man, as I have said afore; so must it needs be, that the mean of Salvation was revealed as soon as Religion, and set forth in the holy Scriptures from time to tyme. And if we find it so; it will be an unfallible testimony; both of our Religion, and of our Scriptures together. 
The Mediator promised in the Scriptures, from the one end of them to the other.   
Let us then begin with the Creation of man. The Scripture sayeth that as soon as he was created, God gave him this Law: If thou eat of the tree of the skill of good and evil; thou shalt die the Death. That is to say, If thou turn away never so little from the obeying of me, thou shalt fall into my displeasure, and from my displeasure into endless death. Byandby after, man is seduced by the Serpent, that is to say by the devil, and breaketh the Law of his Creator; by mean whereof he is in his displeasure, and by sin is become subject to endless damnation. Now seeing that this man was alone; and that the world was made for him; what should have followed but the utter destruction of the world out of hand, and the burning of man everlastingly in God's wrath? But see how God's wisdom stepped in for the saving of man, and for the preserving of his own work; and sin was no sooner bred, but the scripture immediately showeth us the remedy thereof. I will set enmity (sayeth the Lord to the devil) between thy seed and the woman's seed. 
Gen. 3.  Her seed shall crush thy head, and thou shalt bite it by the heel. That is to say, I will cause one to be borne of the woman's seed, which shall subdue the devil: and the devil shall do his endeavour to trip up his heels by tempting him all manner of ways; but he shall tread the devil under his feet, and make him to yield up his weapons, that is to wit, Sin and death. Now, who seethe not that to overcome the devil, it behoveth him to be God; and that to be borne of a Woman, it behoveth him to be man, that is to say both God and man, as I have said afore? 
Christ is a spiritual King, contrary to the opinion of the jews of our tyme.  Here beginneth our controversy against the jews of these later times, who hold opinion that the Messiah or christ, whom we uphold to be the Mediator between God's justice and Man's sin; shallbe some great Emperor that shall deliver them from bodily oppression; whereunto I have answered at large heretofore. 
Let the reader bear in mind once for all, that the word Messiah in Hebrew, & the word Christ in Greek, signify both one thing, namely the Lords Anointed.  Howbeit, they cannot deny, but that by the death which God threateneth to Adam for his transgression, Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon understandeth a spiritual death, that is to wit, the death of the Soul wounded with sin and forsaken of her life which is God: and that by the venoume of the Serpent, he meaneth sin itself, which shall cease (sayeth he) under the Messiah; and that the same is also the Interpretation of the ancient Cabalists: and likewise that the synagogue of old time understood the said text to be meant of the Messiah, as the Interpretation of the threescore and ten Interpreters, and the ancient Translation of Jerusalem itself, 
The Thargunr of Jerusalem  do give us cause to believe. For (sayeth this Latter expressly) so long o Serpent as the woman's Children keep the Law, they kill thee: and when they cease to do so, thou stingest them in the Heel, and hast power to hurt them much. But whereas for their harm there is a sure remedy, to heal it, for thine there is none. For in the last days, they shall crush thee all to pieces with their Heels, by means of Christ their King. Now if the death be spiritual, and the enemy spiritual, and his weapons spiritnal: how can it be denied that the battle between him and the Messiah who is to vanquish him, is likewise spiritual, his power spiritual, and his Kingdom spiritual? Moreover, what were Adam, Henoch, Noah, and Abraham benefited by this promise; if it extend no further than to temporal things? Which of us would endure here a thousand miseries, under pretence that certain thousands of years hence, we should have an Emperor borne which should he redoubted everywhere? Now like as the scripture beginneth with the promise of the Messiah, that is to say of the deliverer of our Souls: so doth it show evidently, that it aimeth not at any other mark than that. For leaving the great States of the world, and the breeding of Kingdoms and Principalities, which are things whereon Histories stand so curiously; it leadeth us directly too the birth and offspring of Abraham, whereof the Messiah was to be borne. And unto the same Abraham doth God reap 〈…〉 promise often times; that in his seed all nations should be blessed; 〈◊〉 is to say, that one should be borne of his seed, by whom Salvation should be proffered to all nations of the Earth? And age in, that in Isaac the seed should be called unto him: which thing surely is not spoken of the Posterity of his Son Ishmael, notwithstanding that GOD told him that his fleshly posterity should be very flourishing. But this preface which the Lord maketh, shall I hide any thing from my servant Abraham etc. showeth evidently how it is a mystery that passeth all understanding of man, and whereunto Abraham had no less right than his seed. From Abraham this promise passed by hand to Isaac, from Isaac to jacob, and jacob left it by his last will too his children with these words; The Sceptre shall not be taken from juda, nor the lawgiver from between his feet, until Silo come; and unto him shall the Nations resort. Which words were spoken to juda by name, because the said holy seed was to come of his stock. And that the same saying was meant of the Messiah; the Thargum of Jerusalem and the Onkelos which are books of chief authority among the jews, do assure us. For they translate it thus, until christ or the Anointed come; whereunto is added this; to whom the Kingdom belongeth. And the school of Rabbi Sila being demanded in the Talmud, 
The Talmud in the Treatise entitled Sanhedrim, in the Chapter Melee.  what should be the name of the Messiah; answereth, Silo is his name: for (say they) it is said, until Silo come. Albeit now that the said kingdom be other than a temporal Dominion; yet is the text formal in that place. For the jews wait that the Messiah or Christ should come of the Tribe of juda, and that at the time of his coming the Sceptre and the Lawgiver should both be taken from juda. Surely the thing that Israel looked for as then, was not to subdue other Nations, seeing that Israel himself was not to reign at that tyme. And wretched had the hope of other Nations been, which looked for him also, according to this text, if his coming should have been but to spoil them and make havoc of them. But he was to reign, yea even over all Nations, yea and to the benefit of all Nations. His reigning then shallbe according to the first promise, namely over men's Souls, the which he shall deliver from the bondage of Sin and the tyranny of the Devil. In the Law of Moses, the Sacrifices and Ceremonies do represent unto us the satisfaction which Christ was to make for the sins of the people by the sacrificing of himself. But specially the Passover Lamb, the Sacrifice of the red Cow, the sending of the Scapegoate into the Wilderness, and the raising up of the brazen Serpent for the healing of diseases, were all of them Memorials for the people, to put them in mind both of the coming of the Messiah, and to what end he should come. For whereas we read that the doorepostes of the houses were besmeared with the blood of a Lamb, to the intent that the destroying Angel should not touch them: that the Ashes of a Cow without spot were kept for the sins of the Congregation: That the Highpriest laying his hand upon a goats head, acknowledged the sins of the people over him, and the Goat went away with them into a place uninhabitable, to the intent (as ye would say) he might never be heard of any more: and that as many as beheld the brazen Serpent, were healed incontineutly of the stinging of Serpents: seeing that the things which were employed to those purposes, could not of their own nature serve there unto: we must needs conclude, that they were signs; signs (say I) of spiritual and inward matters, like the Scripture itself, which is spiritual and serveth for the inward man: That is to wit, That the Devil hath no power over those which are reconciled to God by the Sacrifice of the Messiah who is charged with their Sins: and that those which have an eye unto him, are by and by healed of the Serpent's deadly sting. And whereas some think it strange that so great a thing, should be figured by so vile and base things: the figure is the more profitable, and the less dangerous in that it is so. For had so high things been figured 〈◊〉 foretokened by things approaching to their highness: men might have been deceived by them, and have taken the figures for the things themselves, and so have rested upon the gayness of the sheath, without looking into it. As for example, if in stead of the Goat, they should have Sacrificed the man of greatest reputation in the Congregation: Men, being given to yield too much unto man, would have mistaken him for the very Mediator himself. But when the figure of our reconcilement unto God, and of the forgiveness of our sins, is taken at a brute beast which hath nothing suitable thereto, saving that he is guiltless and capable of death: we be taught that it is but a figure, and that it behoveth us to ●ade into the thing itself: & that so much the more, because those Sacrifices are so solemnly and so expressly commanded to posterity, as things which for the welfare of mankind, aught to be always in remembrance, or rather present before men's eyes.  
But yet the Hebrews held opinion that Asar, 
Midrach Thehilim.  Elcana and Abiasaph the three sons of Chore mentioned in the sixth Chapter of Exodus, 
A tradition of the Hebrews.  were authors of divers of the Psalms that are gathered into the second book of David's Psalter, and so is Moses also of some one or two in the third book; whereby they comforted the Fathers in the wilderness, assuring them of the coming of Christ. Unto David (who was of the Tribe of juda) God himself const●●ieth the said promise, 
2. Sammuel. 7. 1. King. 5. 6. 1. Chron. 2v, Plal. 89.  telling him that the blessed seed should come of him. I will raise up (saith he) thy seed after thee, which 〈◊〉 come one of thy loins; his kingdom will I 'stablish for ever; I will be to him for a Father, and he shall be to me for a son, And although this may seem to be meant of Solomon David's son, who was in deed but a figure of Christ; yet notwithstanding the often repeating of these words eternally, everlastingly, and for ever, giveth us to understand, that it cannot be 〈◊〉 but of the thing figured, that is to wit, of the eternal or everlasting King. And in very deed David showeth well in his Psalms, that he hath looked further with the eyes of his mind, than to his son Solomon. 
Psalm. ●. & 45 & 47. & 67. & 72.  For in the second Psalm, Thou art my son (saith the Everlasting,) this day have I begotten thee. I will give thee the gentiles for thine inheritance, and the utmost coasts of the earth for thy possession. And in the five and fortieth Psalm, speaking of the marriage of this Son, with an extraordinary preface, Thy Throne o God (saith he) is from everlasting; and the Sceptre of thy kingdom is a Sceptre of righteousness. And in the seven and fortieth, The princes of the Nations are assembled together (saith he) to be the people of the God of Abraham. And in the threescore and seventh; Thou shalt judge folk righteously, Thy saving health shallbe known to all Nations, and thou sha●t direct the Nations of the earth. And this later clause is shut up with this word Selah, which the Hebrews are not wont to use, but in some profound mystery. To be short, in the threescore and twelfth Psalm, after he hath said. All Kings shall worship him, and all Nations shall serve him: He addeth, for he shall deliver the poor that cry unto him, and the distressed that hath no help. Yea and which more is, All Nations shall report themselves to be blessed in him, and they shall also bless him. David is full of such sentences, which show that he speaketh of a King, howbeit of another than Solomon his own son. For salomon's kingdom extended not much further than his fathers, neither did the Nations meet together under him; and as for his kingdom, it ended which his beath, and within day or twain after was rend in pieces. And therefore the ancient synagogue did always understand those texts to be meant of Christ, who was to be borne of the seed of David, as we may perceive by the Chaldee translation, which interpreteth them to be spoken concerning the same party. Howbeit sith it is not said in any of the Psalms, Rejoice thou Israel, for thou shalt reign over the Gentiles; but, Reioyceye gentiles, be glad ye Nations and Kings, for I will give you a King: surely it is evident that the joy which he reporteth to be so great, is not for that they should have a jew to be their king, for every Nation had lever to have one of their own country; or for that this King should have a sovereign Monarch above them all to control them, for every of them had lever to reign by himself alone: but rather because this King should be of a far other nature and quality than all other Kings, namely a King of souls, a deliverer of men from the bondage of sin, and a spiritual Monarch. Also the Song of Songs is an express poetry concerning the union of Christ & his Church, and hath been so understood of the jews, as it appeareth by the Chaldee Paraphrase thereof which we have. As for the Prophets, we find nothing else in them almost line by line, but foretellings of Christ to come, of the Nature of his Kingdom, of the calling of the Gentiles, of the stablithing again of godliness, and such other matters; as well to put the people then present in remembrance of them, as to prepare the aftercomers to receive them. Insomuch that if the Prophets speak of the return from Babylon, of the stablishing again of the kingdom, of the building again of the Temple, and such other things? by and by within two or three verses, ye shall see them carried away to the spiritual kingdom of Christ, and to the true Temple which is the Church: as though they had meant to say unto us, that we must not rest upon these temporal things which are but shadows; but remember that we be men, that is to say Souls; and that our welfare consists not in living, in governing, and in reigning here, but in serving God that we may be united unto him, & ruled by him, howbeit not so as we should reign in the world, but that God should reign in us by the Sceptre of his word, and by the power of his spirit, and be obeyed of us. It shall come to pass (saith Esay) 
Esay. 1. Micheas.  that in the latter days the hill of the Lords house shallbe set up upon the top of the mountains, and that all Nations shall come flocking to it, and many folk shall say, Come, let us go up to the Lords hill, and to the GOD of jacobs' house. This text is spoken manifestly of Christ and of his reign, and of the blessing that was to be shed out upon all Nations by him. But let us read further. He will teach us his ways (saith he) and we shall walk in his paths. The Law shall come from out of Zion, and the world of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge among the Heathen, and reprove the Nations. They shall turn their sword into coulters, & their Spears into Sythes. Here is no speaking of wars, of fight or of force; but the Law of God's word, and of teaching. And in the fourth Chapter, At that day (saith he) 
Esay. 4.  shall the Lords branch be m●ch made of, and glorious, and whosoever abideth in Jerusalem shall be called holy. If this glory were not expounded, some would thereby behight here a triumph. But at the same time (saith he) the Lord will wash away the filthiness of the daughters of Zion, and cleanse away the blood of Jerusalem from the mids thereof, by the spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning. It is then a glory, yea and a true glory, but yet a far other glory then the flesh understandeth. Now the jews understand this text of the Messiah: for whereas the Hebrew hath branch; the Chaldee Interpreter hath translated it the Lords Anointed or Christ. 
Esay. 9  In his ninth Chapter he saith that he shallbe called the Prince of peace; (and the Chaldee Paraphrast hath translated it the Christ or Anointed of peace) and that his kingdom shallbe increased, and that there shall be no end of his reign, and that he shall execute justice upon the throne of David for ever. If he shallbe a Prince of peace, where shall war become? 
Esay. 11.  And if there be no war, what shall this increase of his kingdom be? That doth he show us apparently in his eleventh Chapter. 
He had said a fore, that the high Cedars should be cast down, that is to say the great Princes. And against those Cedars he setteth expressly this little branch of the root of jesse, or Isay. This jesse or isaiah was David's father.  A blossom shall spring (saith he) out of the stock of isaiah, and a branch shall grow out of his root. The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge & of the fear of the Lord. He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, & kill the wicked with the breath of his lips. The Goat and the Lamb shall dwell together, and the Leopard with the Kid. The Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as with an overflowing of the Sea, and the Gentiles shall inquire after the root of isaiah, which shall be set up as a Standard for people to resort unto. The Conquests then of this Emperor shallbe of men's Souls; his tributes, their worshippings; his armour and weapons, the spirit of the Lord; his peace, the uniting of all folk together into one Church in the favour of their Maker. Also in the five and twenty he 〈…〉 shall destroy death for ever, and take away the 〈◊〉 at hideth the face of all people. 
Esay. 25. 35. 42 49.  And in the five and thirty, The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. And in the two and forty and the nine and forty: He shallbe no outcryer nor loud of speech; his voice shall not be heard in the streets. He shall set judgement on 〈…〉 and the Isles shall wait for him. He shall be a maker of leagues among people, and a light unto the Gentiles. Some shall come from the North, and some from the South; so as the land shall be to narrow for them. The Kings themselves shallbe fostered fathers to my people, and Queens shall be their Nurses. Which of all these things can be understood otherwise than of a spiritual kingdom? On the contrary part, let us see how the same Prophet speaketh of Cyrus the great Emperor, which was to deliver Israel by the force of arms out of the hands of the Chaldees. I have taken thee by the right hand (saith the Lord) to make Nations subject unto thee, and to weaken the reins of Kings; to set open the doors unto thee, and to unlock the gates against thee. I will break open the gates of brass, and burst asunder the bars of iron. I will give thee the hoardward treasures, and the things that lie hid in secret places. What likeness is there between this manner of speaking and the other, and consequently between the deliverances or the deliverers themselves? But in the two and fifty and three and fifty, 
Esay. 52. 53.  he taketh away all doubt. Behold (saith he) my servant shall behave himself happily, and be exalted and advanced very high. As how? He shall be despised of men (saith the Prophet) and thrust out of their company. A man full of sorrow and heaviness shall he be, and every body shall hide his face from him. He shall be wounded for our misdeeds, and smitten for our sins. The chastisement of our peace shall lie upon him, and by his stripes shall we be healed. And he saith afterward, Although there was not any unrightuosnesse in him, yet was it the Lords will to break him with sorrow. And because he shall give his life for sin, the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, and he shall see the labour of his Soul, and enjoy it. For by his knowledge he shall make many righteous, and he shall take their iniquities upon him. Now this text is interpreted expressly of the Messiah by the Chaldee Paraphrast. 
In the Talmud in the treatise entitled Sanhedrin in the Chapter Helec.  And in the Talmud, Rabbi jacob being asked the name of the Messiah, saith he shallbe called Leprous; and there he bringeth in this text to prove it. By which reckoning his life should be but languishing and pain, saving that he triumphed over the Devil and Death, and that we understand it spiritually. To be short, in the five and fifty he is called the Law giver of the Gentiles: 
Esay. 55. 59 61. 62.  and in the nine and fifty, The Redeemer: And in the threescore and one, The Physician of the helpless, and the Proclaimer of the acceptable year of the Lord: And in the threescore and two, The Saviour, & the League or Atonement which he bringeth to the people; not that he Lordeth it, but that he is holy; nor that he giveth laws to other Nations of the earth, but that he hath the word of GOD in his own mouth and in the mouths of his seed; saving that in the kingdom of his Christ, God will give a better place to strangers then to them.  
As for all the other Prophets, like as they shoot not at any other mark, so have they not any other voice. Nevertheless we will content ourselves with a few of their sayings, which shall give credit to all the rest; and so much the more, because their writing was commonly both at sundry times, and in sundry places. We have seen how the Messiah was promised to the issue of David and to David himself. 
●ere. 23. 30. 33.  Thus therefore doth jeremy speak thereof conformably to that which we have said heretofore. I will raise up a branch unto David (sayeth the Lord), and he shall reign as King, and prosper, and execute justice and judgement upon Earth. And if ye ask the Prophet what manner of prosperity this shallbe: It is (sayeth he) that in his days juda shallbe safe, and Israel shall dwell without fear, and the name whereby he shallbe called, shallbe the Everlasting, our righteousness; that is to say the justifier of us. For (sayeth he) the Lord hath said it. David shall never want a Successor sitting upon his Throne, neither shall there ever want a Priest of the Priests the Levites to offer sacrifice before me: Neither is it any more possible for you to break this covenant; than to break the covenant that I have made with day and night. Now, the jews cannot deny, but that even by the record of their own Paraphrast, this text is meant of Christ, and yet notwithstanding, that there hath not wanted a Successor both to David and to Levy; and that both the Kingdom and the Preesthod are come to an end; and therefore that he speaketh here of another Kingdom and of another Preesthod: Likewise sayeth ezechiel, 
Ezcehiel. 34. 17.  I will set a shepherd over my flock, which shall feed them, namely my Servant David. I will be their God, and he shallbe their Prince among them. I will enter into a Covenant of peace with them, and make noisome beasts to cease from the earth. I will raise them shortly a plant of Renown, and they shall no more be the iestingstock of the gentiles. And if we ask, how? They shall nomore be defiled (sayeth he) with their Idols, nor with their abominations, nor with their misdeeds: but I will save them from all their sins, and make them clean, and they shallbe my people, and I will be their God. And that this text also is meant of the Messiah, the jews cannot deny. For in their very Talmud 
Talmud in the treatise entitled, Sanhedrin, in the chapter Helec. Daniel. 2. 7. 9  they say that the Messiah is called David, because he was too be borne of David's race: and they allege this present text and others for the same purpose. Daniel in his second and seventh Chapters expounding Nabugodonozors' Dream, treateth of the four great Monarchies, which should rise up in the world every one in his time: the which are betokened there, under these four Metals, Gold, Silver, Brass, and iron. But when the Dream representeth us the stone hewn without hand, which striketh the Images iron feet and breaketh them apieces: it is as much as if it had told us, that the Kingdom of the Messiah shall seem to be of small stuff, without stay and without force of man; and yet that it shall endure for ever, because it is set up by God. And therefore whereas he addeth in another place, That all People, Nations and Tongues shall serve that Kingdom, it is to be understood of another kind of service than the ordinary. But in his fifth Chapter he showeth wherein the same peculiarly consisteth. It is (sayeth he) in bringing disobedience to an end, and in sealing up sin, to cleanse away iniquity, and to bring righteousness into the world; to close up prophesying and visions, and to anoint the holy of holies. Yea and it is so little ment that Jerusalem should be the seat of that kingdom, that it was to be destroyed anon after by the Romans. The number of the Children of Israel (sayeth Ose 
Osec. 1. 2. 3. ) shallbe as the sand. And where it hath been said, you be not my People; there it shallbe said, ye be the people of the living God: which is as much to say as that many people should become israelites. And this shallbe done (saith the Lord) not by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle: but because I will show mercy, and save them by their Lord God, and marry them to me of my compassion. jewry (saith joel) shallbe inhabited, everlastingly, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. Yet had they great overthrows afterward, yea even in the Prophet's own tyme. But yet he addeth, I will wipe away the blood from those whom I have not yet cleansed, that is to wit, the Gentiles, and the Lord shall dwell in Zion. Then speaketh he of another jewrie and of another Zion, that is to wit, of the spiritual one, which is the Church. To the same end tendeth Amos 
Amos. 9  when he saith, I will set up the Tabernacle of David again, and stop up the breaks thereof, and amend the decays, that he may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all other nations. And Micheas 
Micheas.  saith that many Nations shall come to the Lords Hill, and talk there one with another, saying as followeth; namely, that the name of the Lord shall be called upon over them, and that the Law shall come out of Zion and the word of the Lord out of Jerusalem, which shall teach them his ways. And to the intent we should not think, that whereas Micheas saith that the name of the Messiah shall shortly be magnified to the uttermost parts of the earth; Israel shall triumph after the manner of the world: The Assyrians (saith he) shall not cease to come into our Land, and to walk up and down in our Palaces. That is to say, the good and virtuous folk shall not cease to be persecuted for all that: but yet howsoever they far, Idolatry shallbe overthrown, as he saith afterward, and the Anointed shall reign through the power of the Lord, and he shall be our peace. And Sophonie 
Sophonie. 2.  foretelleth to the same effect, That God will starve all the Gods of the earth, so as every man shall worship in his own place throughout all the Isles of the Gentiles: that is to say, That Jerusalem shall not be the only place to worship in, but rather that God will have every place to be a Jerusalem. In Zacharie 
Zacharie. 3. 6. 9 13.  the Lord having said I will make my servant Branch to come; addeth immediately, and I will wipe away the wickedness of this land in one day. And having said, He shall reign upon his seat: He addeth forthwith, that the Highpriest also shall sit there with him, That is to say, that Christ shallbe both King and Priest. He saith in deed, Be glad thou daughter Zion and triumph; For thy King cometh: But see here with what furniture; A righteous Saviour & a lowly, sitting upon an Ass, even upon an Ass' colt, which is the Chariot of Ephraim and the Horse of Jerusalem, & the bow of war. He shall speak mildly to all Nations, and yet shall he be obeyed from the oneside of the earth to the other. If there be no greater triumph than this, what needeth so great joy? But he expoundeth himself in these words following. Thou shalt be saved by the blood of thy covenant, and I have let out thy prisoners from the waterless pit. Now, that this text is meant of Christ, 
In the treatise Sanhedrin: cap. Halec.  it appeareth by Rabbi Samuel and Rabbi joseph in the Talmud. And Rabbi Selmoh been jarchi (as great an enemy as he is to us,) expoundeth it not otherwise. Again, In that day (saith he) a Wellspring shallbe opened to the house of David, and to the Inhabiters of Jerusalem, to wash away their sin and their filth; & I will root out the names of the remembrance of idols from the earth saith the Lord of Hostes. All this is nothing else but the clearing of men from their sins, and the abolishing of Satan's reign. To be short, Malachi telleth us of Christ, That he shall bring us an Atonement between GOD and us. And of the Ambassador whom GOD meant to send afore him to prepare his ways, He saith that he shall turn the hearts of the Children to their Fathers, and the hearts of the Fathers to their children. By the preparation of the Ambassador, we judge of the Office of his Master: namely that his coming is properly to reign in our Souls, seeing his Ambassador prepareth them for him, exhorting us to turn away from our sins. Now of this long but yet needful discourse, we gather two things. The one against the gentiles, which is, that the mean of cleansing mankind hath been promised and preached even from the fall of Adam, and that the same promise is from time to time brought to our remembrance by our scriptures: to wit that it is done by Christ, who was to be borne of the woman's seed by Abraham, juda, David and others. The other is against the jews of our time, who look still for a Christ to come: which is, that the deliverance promised by him, is not meant of the tyranny of some earthly Prince over us; but of the Tyranny which the devil exerciseth in our Souls by the unrighteousness of sin, the reward whereof is everlasting death. The Gentiles of old time yielded unto these texts, when they had once embraced the spiritual kingdom of Christ: and it may be that if we had to do with the jews of elder time, the matter should soon be dispatched. 
The jews of old time looked for a spiritual King. Misdrach Has●im.  For all the forealleged Texts have been understood of the Messiah and of his reign, both by the ancient Rabbins and by the Chaldee Paraphrasts. Moreover it is very manifest, that the Cabalists who wrote long time afore the Talmudistes, and who (as they say) do pierce into the very Marrow of the Scriptures, whereas the Talmudists do but grate upon the bark of them: have understood that the cleansing away of sin and the heating of the contagious venom which the Serpent did shed into Adam, and by him into the whole offspring of man: was to be wrought by the Messiah. Yet for all this, notwithstanding all the forecasts of man's wit, we want not some even of the newer sort of Writers, which have understood it after the manner aforesaid. 
Ballet. Cap. 1. vers. 14. & cap. 4. vers. 4.  The exposition of salomon's Balett upon these words, A Grape of Copher, makes this allusion; Eschcol Haccopher, That unto the Church, Christ is a man of full atonement, who shall be borne of the Children of Abraham, and shall make satisfaction for sins, in such sort as he may say to the measure of judgement, It is enough: that is to say, he may stay God's wrath and punishment; and God (saith he) will lay him to gauge and deliver him for those that are his. And upon the fourth Chapter where it is written thus, A thousand sheelds hang there, that is to say, in the Tower of David, the said exposition hath these words: Often have I (saith the Lord) taken my people in in protection, for the dezert of one that was to come after a thousand generations, And I have made them to succeed one after another, to bring the Shield at the last unto him, which is the only desire of my Children, and shall defend them better than a thousand Sheelds. Also the Rabbins say, That the Creatures which are grown out of king by Adam's fall, shall be set in their perfect state again by the Son of Perets, and according to their accustomed fondness, for proof thereof they bring in a Text of Ruth and another of Genesis, 
Rabbi, Barachias in his Bereschith. Rab ba Misdrach. Exod. 21.  where this word Toledoth is written very plainly, that is to wit, with two Vaus. And as touching the said Son of Perets, every man knows among them that it is the Messiah, whom they looked for to come of juda by his son 
* We call him Phares.  Perets. Concerning the calling of the Gentiles, the Talmud maketh this comparison, That the Horse shallbe set in the stall of the halting Ox. Which words Rabbi jacob and Rabbi Selomoh expound thus; 
Thalmud in the treatise Sanhedrin, cap Helec.  namely that forasmuch as the jews shall have forsaken the Law, God will put the gentiles in their place, and yet not drive them away afterward, though the jews turn again unto him: which is a thing very far of from the Monarchy which they imagine as oft as there is any speaking of the calling of the Gentiles. To be short, the notablest of their Rabbins are ashamed of the feastings & extraordinary pastimes, which the jews behight themselves at the coming of the Messiah; and conclude with Rabbi Moses been Maimon, (of whom they report that since Moses himself until this Moses there was none so like unto Moses) that the felicities and pleasures of that time, aught to be understood according to this saying of esay's, 
Esay. 11.  That the earth shallbe as it were overflowed with the knowledge of the Lord, and that every man shallbe occupied in seeking and in knowing GOD. But Rabbi Hechadoseh saith yet more plainly, That the Messiah shall by his death save Adam's race, and deliver men's Souls from Hell; 
Reasons against the jews of our days.  and therefore shall be called Saviour.  
Let us yet further by reason overcome the wilful sort, if it be possible. 
It is the 13. article of the belief of the jews Rabbi Moses been Maimon.  They hold it for an Article of their faith, both by Scripture and by tradition, that there shallbe a Messiah. He that denies that (say they) denies the Law & the Prophets, and is condemned to Helfyre. And therefore (say they) he that denieth the coming of the Messiah, cannot be saved. If he which is to reign in Israel and to give them prosperity, be a temporal King: what skills it me greatly whether I know him and believe in him, or no? or what joy can it be to me, sith I cannot see him? Nay rather what a grief is it to me that I shall not see him, and what a pain is it to pine away in waiting for him? again, what goodness is it in GOD to have foretold us it: if by believing it we far never the better, & yet must die everlastingly for not believing it? In the Articles of their faith, they believe in the only one God. There is great reward in believing well. They believe a blessed life. As it is the Soul that believeth; so doth the reward redound unto her. And even so is it with all other things which are no Articles of faith, furtherforth than a man hath benefit by believing them. But as for this Article of the Messiah, what booted it Abraham, Moses, so many Kings, so many Prophets, & such a number of people; if there were no further secret in it? Why was it foretold so carefully by the Prophets? Why was it so oft repeated, no less in the prosperity than in the adversity of that people, and no less under the good Kings than under the Tyrants? Nay, which more is; why was it more, yea far more carefully repeated to those which were not at the time when he should come, than to those which were to be borne in his time; if the Messiah be not certainly more than simply a good King, and the prosperity another manner of prosperity than any is on earth, and the joy another manner a joy than is conceived by the senses? And yet for all that, unto a jew it is an Article of faith, and of the necessity of salvation. We say therefore, that the Messiah is not a King of temporal delights, but the King of Salvation and welfare.  
Again, they believe that the Scriptures are of God, and that they teach them the way to Salvation. Now the ordinary voice of them is against the Pomp, the bravery, and the vanity of the world: saying that God will turn them into sorrow, mourning and dung. Herewithal, the same Scriptures turn us away from all other delights, to talk of that, and from all honour and reputation, to the atteynement of that kingdom. Who seethe not therefore, that this joy which the Scriptures do so much commend, is of another kind, than the joy which they discommend, and that the kingdom which they make us to covet, is to be possessed in heaven and not on earth? Be glad O Daughter Zion (say the Prophets) rejoice thou Jerusalem, sing ye nations a●d peoples. And wherefore? For certain thousand years hence, there shall rise up a great King in Israel. What greater fondness can there be than this? He shall make a good peace say they: what pass I for that, if I myself be in War? He shall open the Prisons: what is that to me, if I in the mean while do rot there? He shall triumph over all the Nations in the word. What am I the better for that, if in the mean season other Nations trample me under their feet, and lead me in triumph over all the world with my hands bound behind me? The father [say they] rejoiceth for his sons welfare: yet is that but a light and flightful joy, and who is he that willbe moved for the afterspring of his children that are long hence to come? And who would not count him a fool for rejoicing thereat, and much more for believing it? Surely, then doth this joy extend farther, so as even the foretellers thereof do feel it themselves and are cheered therewith, and the hearers thereof do taste of it and find themselves comforted: and both of them in their Souls enjoy the franchises and Freedoms of that kingdom aforehand, ere the said King whom they look for he borne into this world. Let us put the case farther, that they which shall attend upon the Messiah, shallbe rewarded abundantly with all the pleasures of this life: what shall become of him in the end? He shall die (say they) and his generation with him, and thereupon they keep a sore contention how many years he shall live. How far of is this gear from that which the Prophets speak of, concerning a joy that shall never have end? What if they pass a hundred years in all joy? what is it but a long feast, which as soon as a man sleepeth is quite and clean forgotten? And if ye die altogether, what remaineth of it any more? And if ye live out of the world, what remaineth thereof but grief? And what reason have the Fathers to rejoice so much at that flash of Lightning, which passeth away in a moment? Sooth much less than for a Mariage-feast, at leastwise which is accompanied with the birth of some children. In very deed these things are toys to laugh at, but yet among the jews they be earnest matters, and they rest upon them at this day like silly souls as they be, as though there were none other life for man than this, or as though they should ever be babes still in this life. But some to shun this absurdity, have fallen into another, namely that all they which have hoped for the Messiah, shall come to life again as they were afore, yea and even the wicked sort too, that they may burst for spite and sorrow. They that be in the glory of God shall come back again to see the glory of that man. They that are free from this Prison of sin, shallbe shut up again in it to see this licentiousness. They that live everlastingly in all felicity above, shall come down to eat of fat beasts. What is this but a tittletattle of Children, which in their conferences can go no higher than Tarts and junkets, nor conceive any higher pleasures than those? And what else in effect is all this, than to rise from Bed to Board, and from Board to Bed again to sleep? But if all this must be done in Palestine, so as all that are spoken of afore shall come thither: How will Palestine or jewrie suffice to receive them, or what Leviathan 
The jews of our days say that this Leviathan is a Whale powdered for the feast of the Messiah.  will suffice to feed them? And if the Gentiles also shall be admitted thither, as they say: what manner a Temple shall there be? And if all men shall bring their Sacrifices thither, what shall Jerusalem be, but a continual slaughter-house of beasts, and all jewrie an universal stream of blood? Who seethe not then, that (as the Prophets declare unto us) the Gentiles shall not in very deed be gathered in Jerusalem, but Jerusalem shall be spread out among the gentiles? And that they shall not come running from a far to the Temple, but that they themselves shallbe the Temple, I mean their hearts, where God shallbe served and worshipped: And seeing that GOD so greatly refuseth our sheading of blood, our fat Muttons, and our perfumes: who can think that those shallbe the feast which he will prepare to cheer us withal.   

The xxviij. Chapter.  
That the Mediator or Messiah is promised in the Scriptures to be both God and Man, that is to wit, the everlasting Son of God taking man's flesh unto him.  
_●Ow then, let it stand for a point concluded, That the Christ our Messiah promised in the holy Scriptures is a Redeemer from spiritual bondage. But forasmuch as I have proved, that he ought not to fetch us out of prison without Ransom; nor could pay the Ransom being infinite, unless he were God and Man; Man to suffer, and God to overcome: it followeth that I must show, that God's word hath promised us that he shallbe such a one: and that shall serve as well against the gentiles, as against the jews. Now, if we had none other proof thereof than this, that Christ's office is to undo sin and death, and to appease God's wrath against mankind, as I have said; seeing that these things are such as no creature can do, nor aught to presume to do: as oft as we read that his office is such, we must needs conclude that the Messiah must needs then be God. For (as the Gymnosophist of India said unto Alexander) he is God in very deed, which doth that which no creature can do. But the Scripture 
That by the Scriptures, Christ the Mediator is both God and Man  intending to secure our infirmity, the elder the world waxeth, speaketh ever the more manifestly thereof unto us; and surely after such a sort, that the skilfullest among the jews of late time become most unskilful when they go about to darken it. First of all at the making of the promise in Genesis, it is said that this seed, that is to say this Christ, shall crush the Serpent's head: and this Serpent (as I have said afore) is the Devil; and his venom is sin: 
Gen. 3  and by means of sin we be all become thralls to the Devil, against whose power we know that no force of man can do any thing. It followeth then that this Christ must have another nature than man's, yea or than Angels: For the Angels and the Devils differ not in power, that is to wit, divine. Afterward where the promise is repeated to Abraham; of what man can it be verified, In thy seed shall all Nations be blessed? 
Deut. 21. ver. 8  Or who can bless so effectually but only God, who commandeth his blessing (saith he divers times) and then doth it shed itself out upon us and our works. But as the Prophets do preach the Messiah unto us, so also do they describe us his natures and qualities, so as we need not any other Commentary upon that promise, than the Prophets themselves. Unto David therefore it was renewed, and in his issue was it to be accomplished. See here how he speaketh of it in the 45. Psalm. 
Psalm. 45.  My heart (saith he) intendeth to utter good matter, and my work shallbe to speak of the King, (that is to wit of the Messiah, and so doth the Chaldee Paraphrast himself interpret it:) Thou art more perfect than the Children of men. This might be meant of a man: but let us read further: O God (saith he) thy Throne is from everlasting to everlasting, the Sceptre of thy Kingdom is the Sceptre of righteousness. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness: And therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. These so express words cannot be spoken, (specially among the Hebrews who were not so lavish of God's name as other people are) but of one that is very God and very man both together. In the hundred and tenth Psalm, 
Psalm. 110.  The Lord said unto my Lord (saith David) sit thou at my right hand, until I have made thine enemies thy footstool. And a little after, Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck. To sit at God's right hand, and to be a Priest for ever, cannot be attributed to a man. Nay (which more is) David who knew well that there is but one Lord, calleth him his Lord. And we read that with this selfsame text Christ stopped the mouths of the pharisees. Now, that the fathers of old time understood these things to be spoken of the Messiah, it appeareth by the translation of jonathas, cited in the book of Collections; for he translateth it, 
The Book sepher kibbutsim.  The Lord said unto his word: and it is alleged to prove, that the Messiah should sit on the right hand of God. Insomuch that the jews Commentary upon the second Psalm, 
Midrasch The hilim upon the second Psalm, verse. 7. Esay. 9  saith expressly that the Mysteries of the Messiah are rehearsed in the hundred and tenth Psalm. And Esay in his ninth Chapter saith thus: A Babe is borne unto us and a Son is given unto us, and his kingdom shallbe upon his shoulder. Ye see here the birth of a man. But he saith further, His name shallbe called, the wonderful, the Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Needs then must this selfsame man be also God. And whereas he is said to be the Prince of Peace; jonathas translateth it the Christ (or the anointed) of Peace. And Rabbi joses the Galilaean, saith upon the Lamentations, 
Lament. 1. ver. 16.  that the Messiah shallbe called the father of everlastingness, 
Bereschith Rabba upon Genes 55.  the Prince of peace and so forth: and for confirmation thereof, he allegeth this text, and so doth also the Commentary upon Genesis. And the holy Rabbi 
Rabbi He●adosch.  (as they term him) saith expressly, that the Messiah in that he should be both God and Man, should be called Emanuel; In that he was God, the wonderful and the Counsellor: In that he was mighty, Ghever, that is to say Strong: In that he was Everlasting, the Father of everlastingness; In respect that peace should be increased under him, The Prince of peace: In that he should deliver men's Souls from Hell, The deliverer out of bondage: and in that he should save men, jesus that is to say, The Saviour. For whereas Rabbi Selomon, to convey these titles to Ezechias, interpreteth them after this manner: And God, the wonderful, the Counsellor, & the everlasting father, hath called Ezechias the Prince of peace etc. Besides that the Hebrew Grammar and the phrase of that tongue are repugnant to that Construction: it is well enough seen that such things cannot be verified of King Ezechias, and that it is but a device of this late borne jew against the opinion of all antiquity to escape from this text which is so express. Esay 
Esay. 7.  in his seventh Chapter saith thus. Behold, a Virgin shall be with child and bring forth a Son. Here ye see that Christ shall be a man. And thou shalt call his name Emanuel, that is to say, God with us. Then shall he be both God and Man, 
Christ is called jehovah, that is to say, the everlasting God.  that is to wit, God dwelling among men as a man. But unto this and such like texts, they answer us that the El, that is to say GOD, is imparted to Princes and judges: And therefore let us hear further. In that day (saith Esay 
Esay. 18. & 28. &. 1. ) the Lord of Hosts jehovah tsebhoath, shallbe in stead of a crown of glory and of a Diadem of honour to the residue of his people. The Chaldee Paraphrast interpreteth this concerning the Messiah. And again; In that day shall the people that were harried away and rend a pieces, be brought for a present to the Lord of Hosts. 
Bereshith Ke●ana.  The Commentary upon Genesis understandeth this also to be spoken of the same person. This is another: I will wait for the Lord who hath hidden his face from the house of jacob, and I will attend upon him. The Disciples of Rabbi Hija apply this in the Talmud to the Messiah. And yet in all these places wheresoever is the word Lord, the Hebrew hath the word jehovah, that is to say the Bëeer or he that is, which is the unspeakable or unutterable name of the Creator, and in opinion of the Hebrews is not to be imparted to any Creature. 
In the treatise Sanhedrin. cap Dine Mammonoth.  Whereupon it ensueth, that the Messiah, to whom it is imparted, should be the very everlasting God; and that the ancient writers who attributed those sayings to him, looked that he should be such a one. In the three and twenty and in the three and thirty of jeremy we read thus: Behold, the days shall come, that unto David I will raise up a righteous branch, and he shall reign as King. These words belong to Christ's Manhood. But by and by after he saith, And in his days juda shall be saved; and behold, the name whereby he shallbe called, shallbe jehovah, the Everlasting, our righteousness. Hear again is the foresaid uncommunicable name of God, which the jews do so greatly reverence. Yet notwithstanding, the threescore and ten Interpreters, who were all jews, understood it so. And jonathas interpreteth it of Christ in both respects. As touching the latter Rabbins, who will needs correct the text, and in stead of ijkreo, do set down ijkra, to the intent that the sense might be, He that calleth him shall be the Everlasting: I report me to all their own Grammarians, whether it be not both a corrupting and a racking of the text. And truly in the three and thirty Chapter the Prophet saith the same thing in divers words: whereunto this forgery cannot be applied. 
Lament 1. vers. 16.  That is the cause why Rabbi Abba upon the Lamentations of jeremy demandeth what shallbe the name of the Messiah, and afterward answereth jehovah schemo, the Everlasting is his name. And to that purpose allegeth he the selfsame texts of Jeremy'S. And the Commentary upon the Psalms saith, 
Midrasch Tehilim upon the 23. Psal. vers. 1.  Seeing that none of the Subjects of a King of flesh and blood, that is to say of a temporal King, is called by his name (that is to say King): How happeneth it that God imparteth his own name to the Messiah? and what name is that? Sooth jehovah is his name according to this saying, The man of war, jehovah [that is to say the Everlasting] is his name. And Rabbi Moses Hadarsan 
R. Moses Hadarsan upon Genesis ca 4●.  expounding this saying of Sophonie, to call upon the name of the Everlasting; saith thus: Here jehovah is nothing else but the King, the Messiah, [or the anointed King.] And the same thing is repeated in the selfsame words in the Thalmud. And whereas some, to disappoint us of the consequence of these texts, do say that in Ezechiel, Jerusalem is called by that name, where it is said thus jehovah schammah, 
Thalmudi● the treatise Sanhedrin, Cap. Helec.  [that is to say] the Everlasting is there; that is to say, the Everlasting hath chosen his dwelling place in Jerusalem: They by changing the Hebrew vowels do make him to say jehovah schemo, [that is to say] the Everlasting is his name. But besides the consent of all Copies repugning to this unshamefastness; jonathas can assoil the case, who translateth it expressly, God hath placed his Godhead there. Now, besides the said texts, which show that the jews of old time waited for a Messiah that should be both God and Man: we have also great tokens thereof in those few writings of theirs which remain dispersed here & there, notwithstanding that the jews hide them from us or else corrupt them as much as they can. The Commentary upon the Psalms saith, 
Midrasch Tehilint, upon the fortieth Psalm.  Because the gentiles cease not to ask of us where is our God; the time shall come that God will sit among the Righteous, so as they shallbe able to point him out with their fingar. 
In the book entitled Siphrei upon the 26 of Leviticus.  And whereas it is so often said, I will walk among you, it is all one (say they) as if a King should go walk in his Gardyne with his Gardener, & his Gardener should always shrink behind him: and the King should say, shrink not back, for ●o, I am like thee: even so will GOD walk among us in his Gardyne of pleasure in time to come. 
The book Mechilia upon the 14. of Exo. The Ballet. 8. vers. 1.  And therefore another saith that the Everlasting shall one day be as a brother of jacob, that is to say in the time of the Messiah, according to this saying of the Ballet, I would fayne that thou wast to me as a brother. And the Commentary upon the Ballet saith in another place, That God himself who is the Husband of the Church, should come in his own person to marry her. 
levit. 25. vers. 25.  Upon the xxv. of Leviticus, where mention is made of one brother that redeemeth out another, in the year of jubilee; 
The book Tan human. Midraseh upon Leviticus. Rabbi Moses Hadarsan upon  many make an Allegory, that that brother is Christ. And the Commentary affirming the same, saith that Israel shallbe redeemed of God, who shall come in his own being, and that Israel shall no more be brought in bondage. And upon Genesis, 
Gen. 49.  Rabbi Moses Hadarsan alleging this saying of the Psalm, 
Psal. 49.  I will show him the Salvation of God; saith thus: This is one of the Texts of Scripture of greatest weight, that the Salvation of Israel is the Salvation of God. For God willbe the price and payment of Israel's ransom, like as if man having but a little Corn of the second Crop, 
Midrasch sir Hasirim cap. 1 Rabbi Eleazar unto Zohar.  should redeem the same. Hereof came this Tradition, that God left some portion unperfect on the Northside, to the intent that if any reported himself to be God, he should fill up that want, and that thereby his Godhead should be known. And all men know that ordinarily by the North, they meant the Evil, which should be remedied by the Messiah. But the Cabilists were far more spiritual in this behalf than the Thalmudists. And first of all Rabbi Simeon been johai 
The Cabilists. R. Simeon. B. johai upon Gene. 1. ver. 17. & cap. 17. ver. ●.  in his Commentaries upon Genesis in the language of Jerusalem, saith that the fear or mercy of the Lord should take a body in the Womb of a Woman, and be Crowned King the ancient of days for ever. And that it was decreed that a holy body and a woman should be incorporated together, 
In the book of Shamefastness.  and (for proof whereof he allegeth an ancient book whereof he took it) the same should be accomplished in the third age, that is to say, in the third Period of the Church; 
The same upon Genesis. ca 10.  and that then the higher world should by the said holy body be united to the inferior world: so as God should be sanctified beneath as well as above, and the holy Ghost should come as out of a sheath, that is to say, should be showed forth openly; and that all this is but one, namely the Everlasting himself. And to be short, that the Woman of whom the holy word should take his body, and out of whom the said faithful was to come; should be holy and blessed above all other women. Now it appeareth that hereby he meant the Incarnation of the Messiah. 
In the treatise Sanhedum. cap. Helec. jeremy. 16.  For in the Talmud, the School of Rabbi Hamina being demanded the name of the Messiah, answered Hamina, that is to say, Mercy is his name. And in the Prophets, they betoken the Messiah by the name of mercy. Another Cabilist saith, 
The book of Faith and Reconciliation.  That sin shallbe brought to end by the Messiah, who shallbe the power of God, even by the spirit of wisdom wherewith he shallbe filled. And another saith, that the mystery of Messiah the King, is that his operation consists wholly in he, vau, and iod, he, 
In the book Hecadma vau, He, jod, Herald  (which is the mystery of the seventh day) that is to say in calmness of mind, without force; and that his name whole together shallbe composed of these letters, to wit, jehovah, the Everlasting. But the holy Rabbi upon the 9 Chapter of Esay where Christ is called the everlasting father, 
In his book entitled the Gate of light.  playeth the Philosopher yet further upon the letters of that name. Like as the letter he (saith he) is made of dale and vau, 
Cap. 1.  (as appeareth by the shapes of those letters) so shall the Messiah be of the nature of Man, 
Rabbi Hecadosch.  and of the nature of God. And like as the double he consists of a double dale and two vaus: so be there two Sonships in the Messiah, that is to say, two sorts of being Son, the one in respect that he is the Son of GOD, the other in respect that he is the Son of a prophetess, as it is said in Esay 8. And as those shapes are distinct in one selfsame letter, and yet are both one letter: so shall the natures of Christ or the Messiah be distinct, and yet shall make but one Christ. I stand not upon the foundation which he taketh of the letters, which I make none account of: but the only thing which I mean to gather, both by this text and by the former texts, and by all others that may be gotten together, is that the expectation of the jews in old time, was of a Messiah that should be both God and Man: and that they have not been able to raze it out of their books to this day, for all the diligence that they could use in that behalf.  
And for as much as I have said that in God there be three persons in one substance, the Father the Sun and the holy Ghost: it followeth that we must see which of these three the Church of Israel waited that the Messiah should be. And as we have found it meet that he by whom God created us (to wit the son or the word) should be the mean to create us now again; 
That the Second Person took flesh.  so also shall we find by the Scripture, that the same second person is he that was promised. In Genesis the Messiah is called Silo, and promised to be of the stock of juda. Now the word Silo (sayeth Kimhi) 
Kimhi in his book of Rootewordes.  signifieth the Son of him, and is derived of a word which signifieth a woman's Afterbirth as they term it, which thing is not to be passed over lightly. And therefore David repeateth and expoundeth the same promise in these words; I willbe his Father (sayeth the Lord) and he shallbe my Son. And in the lxxxix. Psalm 
Psalm. 89.  he addeth, I will make him my firstbegotten, and sovereign of all the Kings of the earth: which word Rabbi Nathan expoundeth concerning the Messiah and thus doth David himself expound it in the second Psalm: 
Psalm. 2.  The Lord hath said unto me, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, Kiss the Son o ye Kings & Rulers of the Earth and happy be they which put their trust in him. Surely it appeareth that in all that text he speaketh of the Son of God, and not of the son of a man. For otherwise he that hath said unto us, Cu●sed be he that trusteth in man, and a fool is he that leaneth upon the Princes of the earth, would not say unto us, Blessed are they that put their trust in him. But yet further Rabbi Selomoh the son of jarchi, and Aben Esra (as much enemies as they be unto us) also do witness that the said Psalm was understood in old time to concern the Messiah; neither do they themselves expound it otherwise. Insomuch that Aben Esra sayeth expressly, that Bar signifieth a Son in that place as well as in the xxxj. Chapter of the proverbs. And the exposition of the jews upon that Psalm, 
Midrasch Thehilim upon the second Psalm.  is that there God resembleth a King that would destroy a ●oune in his anger, if he were not pacified by his son. In the lxxij Psalm, 
Psalm. 72. vers. 17.  where the reigning of the Messiah is manifestly describe, His name (sayeth he) shall continue for ever, his name shallbe everlasting as long as the Son endureth. Am the Hebrew word Ijnnon which he useth, cometh of the word Nin. Which signifieth a Son, as if a man would say Sonned or Sunnified. In the Commentary upon the fourscore and thirteenth Psalm, 
Psalm. 9 vers. 2.  these words Thy throne is from everlasting to everlasting, are expounded to concern the Messiah. 
In the treatise Sanhedrin. Cap. Helec.  And the paraphrast (which is reported to be Rabbi joseph the blind,) agreeth thereunto. And in the Talmud, the School of Rabbi janai being asked the name of the Messiah, answereth, Innon is his name; for it is said in the Psalm, before the Son was in the sky, Innon is his name. Esay, jeremy and Zacharie in the texts aforealledged, do call him Imp and in all those places the Caldee paraphrast translateth it the Lords Anointed: and josua the son of Levy sayeth that Imp is his name. But lest we should think that this Imp were but an Imp of David; 
Rabbi josua been Levi in his Echa Rabethi, Cap. 1. vers. 16.  he is called there, the Lords Imp the Imp of the Everlasting, and the Everlasting himself. Now there is not a nearer nor a properer metaphor than to term a son an Imp, or an Imp a son. This son we call moreover the word; wherein the jews descent not from us. In the xlv. of Esay 
isaiah. 45. ver. 17  it is said, Israel shallbe saved by jehovah (that is to say by the Everlasting) with endless, salvation: which saying jonathas translateth, by the word of the Lord. In Ose, 
Osee. 1. vers. 7.  I will save the house of Israel (sayeth the Lord) by the Lord their God: which saying the said jonathas translateth By the word of the Lord their God, and so forth ordinarily in all other like texts. And it is not to be doubted but that by the said word they meant the Messiah. For in the Hundred and tenth Psalm, 
Psalm. 110.  (which as they themselves affirm, containeth the mysteries of the Messiah) upon these words, the Lord said unto my Lord etc. jonathas saith, The Lord said unto his word, sit thou on my right hand. And Rabbi Isaac Arama upon Genesis, 
Gen. 47.  expounding this text of the Hundred and seven and fortieth Psalm, 
Psal. 147. vers. 18.  The Lord sent forth his word, and they were settled, or as others translate it, were healed; sayeth e●mes●● that this word is the Messiah. Yea and Rabbi Simeon the son of johai, the chief of the Cabalists, writing upon Genesis 
Gen. 10.  and by the way expounding there these words of job, 
job. 19 vers. 26.  yet notwithstanding I shall see my God in my flesh: sayeth that the mercy which proceedeth from the highest wisdom of God, shallbe crowned by the word, and take flesh of a woman. But let us hear Philo 
Philo the jew in his book of the banished.  the jew upon this point; Hardly can I say (sayeth he) what time is appointed for the return of the banished jews For men hold opinion that it shallbe at the death of a high priest, which as some think is at hand, and as othersome think is far hence ●●t my opinion is, that this high priest shallbe the word or spe●●h of God, clear from sin aswell willing as unwilling, who to his father hath GOD the father of all, and to his mother hath the wisdom whereby all things in the world were created. And therefore his head shall be anointed with Oil, his Majesty shall shed forth beams of light round about him, and he shallbe clothed with light as with a garment. For the ancient word of him that is, is clothed with the world, etc. Also in Malachi 
Malachy. 5. vers. 8.  where it is said, I will send mine Ambassador before my face; Rabbi Moses the son of Maimon expoundeth it, Before Christ the Anointed. And in Osee 
Osee. 6. ver. 2.  where it is written, We shall live before his face: Rabbi Moses Hadarsan saith it is Christ the King. And in the 17. Psalm 
Psal. 17. ver. vit.  where it is said, I shall behold thy countenance in righteousness, and be satisfied at the rising up of thy likeness: Rabbi Nehemias saith, I shall be satisfied with the sight of thy Messiah, who is thine Image. And to the same purpose might a great many more be alleged. The thing which they say is all one in effect with that which we say, namely that the Son or word of God is the image of God, and the brightness of his countenance. To be short, we say that the Son is light of light, and they say the same of the Messiah. 
In Echa Rabathi cap. 1. vers. 6.  For upon the Lamentations of jeremy, Rabbi Biba being asked the name of the Messiah, answereth in the end, that it is Nehira, that is to say Light, according to this saying in the second of Daniel, 
Dan. 2. ver. 22. Gen. 1.  Light is with him. And upon the place of Genesis where it is written, Let there be light Rabbi Moses Hadarsan saith that it is the Messiah, according to Rabbi Abba, and Rabbi johanan upon the 36. Psalm, 
Psal. 36. for, 9  where it is said, We shall see light in thy light. Oftentimes (say they) hath the light of Israel been quenched and kindled again, when they were one while subdued and another while delivered. But in the end he saith, it is not to be required that flem and blood (that is to say a mortal man) shall enlighten us, but God himself in his own substance will do it. According whereunto it is said in the 18. Psalm, 
Psalm. 18.  God hath been our light. And likewise in Esay, 
Esay. 45.  Israel shall be saved by the Everlasting. To be short, like as we say that the Son as in respect of the Father, is as a River in respect of the Spring, or as Reason is in respect of the Mind: so say the Cabalists that the light of the Soul of the Messiah, 
In the book entitled the Gate of light. cap. 2.  is in respect of the living God as Reason is in respect of the Mind; and that the living God, as in respect of the Messiah, is as a Fountain or Wellspring of living water, in respect of the stream or river of life that floweth out of it.  
Now then, we have in our Scriptures a Mediator that is both God and man.. But reason hath led us to two circumstances more: The one is that this Man must be of our race; and the other is that he must be borne after another manner than we be; the one for our behoof, 
And of a virgin.  the other for his own dignity; and therefore let us inquire yet further of the Rabbins concerning these points. As touching the first point, it is evident enough of itself, and needeth no long proof. For Christ is promised to come of the seed of Adam, Abraham, Isaac, jacob, juda, and David; and the jews have believed it so certainly, that even during the time of their Captivity at Babylon, they chose their Resch Caluta, that is to say, the chief captain of their Banished folk, out of the house of David, as from whence they looked for a deliverer. And as touching the second point, Behold (saith Esay) 
Esay. 11. 14.  a Virgin shall conceive & bear a Son, and call his name Emanuel; which is as much to say, as that the Messiah shallbe the son of a Virgin, and that he shall be begotten without fleshly copulation. The late writers of the jews say it is not written a Virgin or maiden, but a wench or young woman. I will not urge them that the Hebrew word Alma is taken ordinarily for a young Maiden or Virgin, as in the four and twenty of Genesis where. Rebecka is so called; and in the second of Exodus where it is spoken of the sister of Moses. And even in this place, the threescore & ten Interpreters translate it in Greek, idou he Parthenos, that is to say, Behold a Virgin etc. But I would have them to tell me what the token is that is given here to the house of David, and whether a token ought not to be some special and notable thing, and whether it be not a matter of earnest, sith it is God that giveth it, who saith expressly, Ask me a token, whether it be from beneath or from above? I beseech them what strange sign or token is there, in that a young woman beareth a Child? What thing is more ordinary in the world, and consequently more fond to be given or taken for a miracle? Nay, the ancient Rabbins have well waded even into the depth of this matter. And therefore Rabbi Moses Hadarsan writing upon the 85. Psalm, 
R. Moses Hadarsan upon the 85 psalm.  upon these words, Truth shall bud out of the earth, saith thus. Rabbi Ioden noteth here, how it is not said here, shallbe borne, but shall bud, because the begetting and birth of the Messiah shall not be after the manner of other worldly creatures, but he shall be bred without company or copulation. And it is certain that no man nameth his father, but he is concealed and kept secret, until he himself come and reveal him. And upon Genesis, 
Upon the 25. of Genesis.  You have said (saith the Lord) we be fatherless: and so shall the Redeemer be whom I will give unto you, according to that which is said in the 4. of Zachary, 
Zach. 4. vers. 7.  Lo, this is the man whose name is Branch; and according to this which is said in the 110. Psalm; 
Psal. 110.  Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech. Also he reporteth that Rabbi Berachia gathereth the like. But Rabbi Simeon been johai saith yet more expressly upon Genesis, 
Gen. 2.  That the spirit having been shut up in a [woman's] womb, should come forth with great force to be the highest Prince, which is Messiah the King. And the holy rabbin proceedeth so far, 
Hacadosch.  as to seek out by the proportion of their Cabalie, what should be the name of the Israelitish Virgin that should bear the Messiah. There remain many other things to be treated of concerning the time, the place, the life and the death of the Messiah, which are reserved for another place, peradventure more convenient for them. Let it suffice us for this time, That in the Religion of the Israelites, there was promised from time to time even from the beginning, the Mediator between God's justice: and Man's Sinfulness, the Saviour of men's Souls, and the Author of the selfsame cleansing which the very Heathen themselves deemed to be so needful; namely jesus Christ, God and Man, the everlasting Son of GOD, borne of woman in his due time, without sin, free from [desert of] God's wrath as in respect of himself, and able to appease it towards others, clean in his human nature, and sufficient through his divine nature to cleanse ours. And this is the third mark which I have showed to be so needful in Religion, and so peculiar thereunto, that wheresoever the same is found, there is Religion, that is to say, a way to Salvation; and wheresoever the same wanteth, there is no Religion at all.  
Sothen, in the Religion of Israel we have all the three marks of the true Religion, 
The conclusion of the three Marks of the true Religion in Israel.  namely, the true God, the Law of God, and the Mediator of Salvation. And I beseech all men to sook well about them and to see whether they can find them elsewhere in any other of the Religions that have been of old time. Nay, asfor in them, in stead of the true God, we shall find devils, men, and Stocks. In stead of God's word to enlighten us to soul-health, we shall find doubtful Oracles and answers of Idols, vain, fond, without ground, without end, which speak not a whit of God's glory nor of man's welfare. Instead of a sufficient Mediator, we shall find a sort of washings that pass no further than the skin; we shall find manslaughters, and sacrificing of wretched kaytifs condemned for their misdeeds. But how should there be any religion, where is no God? Or how should Religion be certain, where God speaketh not? Or how should it be a healthful one, where he himself is not the mean of atonement? certes therefore let us say, that only in Israel was the true Religion; and that Israel was as a School or University founded by God, wherein he himself vouchsafed to teach, that men might learn their own Salvation.  
But behold here is yet one objection against God. 
Objections.  How happeneth it (say they,) that this school was among this people only? why was it not in all Nations? Why was it not (at leastwise) in some other as well as in that? O man, it becometh man to hold his peace when God speaketh, and to yield to whatsoever he will have done. Thou art righteous but so far forth as thou dost righteous deeds: but as for God, it is far otherwise with him: for with him, things are not righteous furtherforth than he doth them. Nevertheless, I pray thee what canst thou say? That in Adam, God the Creator made all mankind: and in Adam all mankind is forlorn. But the wisdom of the Creator stepping in byandby, revealeth his word, and uttereth the promise of the mediator to all men. Here now thou seest no distinction of Nations or people. Of Adam's Children, some embraced the service of God and the promise; and some forsook it, and regarded i● not. Some (say I) took part with the Devil; and othersome stack to the gracious goodness of God. What hast thou too allege here against the righteousness of the Creator? After this followeth a general corruption of mankind; and God exhorteth them by Noah to repentance, threatening them with his wrath if they did otherwise. Still they refuse God's mercy, and for so doing are all drowned by his justice, saving only Noah and his household, who were saved in the Ark. Now were not all men hitherto only one people still? And so; were not God's word and the revealing of himself directed still to all men? again, ye see that in the Ark all mankind was gathered again into one Howsehold. At that time there was no difference of circumcised and uncircumcised, of jew or gentle. Anon they turned away unto Idols and forsook the Covenant that God had made with them. Who hath not cause here to honour the patientnes of God in bearing with them, and to wonder, not that he suffered men to take their own ways, but rather that he vouchsafed to reserve any men alive in the world? Yet notwithstanding, even at that time he chose Abraham out of the mids of Idolatry, manifested himself new again unto him, uttered his secrets unto him, delivered him his promises in pawn, and entered into covenant with him and his seed. All which things were not done alonely for him and his seed, but to bless all the Nations and kindreds of the earth in the party that was to be borne of his seed, and to renew his Covenant with them. Who then seethe not here, both that the covenant was offered to all Nations, howbeit that all of them had refused it; and that when God of his infinite mercy renewed it with Abraham, he renewed it in effect with all men? Thou desirest that God should be just; and yet wouldst thou also continue still. Were he just after that manner which thou wouldst have him just, thou hadst been undone in Adam; thou hadst, been swept away with the flood; thou hadst been destroyed in the overflowing of ungoddlines & Idolatry after the flood; thou hadst (say I) been either utterly fordone, or continued forlorn for ever. Thus desirest thou things both contrary in themselves, & contrary to thine own meaning. And therefore appeal not to God's justice, but cry unto him for mercy with both thy hands. And yet in thy desiring of this his mercy, or grace there is yet another error; in that thou wilt needs appoint him the manner & measure thereof; and thou wilt have him to do it at thy pleasure: whereas notwithstanding, if he should do it according to thy device, thou wouldst find fault with him for it; & if thou hadst liked well of it, another man would have misliked it. But what advice couldst thou have given him for the creating of thee, who as then wast not? Or what counsel wouldst thou give him for the recreating of thee, who art but the worse for that which thou hast already? Thou wouldst that God should have revealed himself alike to all men. He did that at the beginning. Well, such Revelations tend to a Mediator, and the same Mediator must be God and man: and to be man it behoveth him to be borne of some one stock or other. And thou seest that that privilege must needs befall to some one certain stock: for he that is to save all men cannot be borne of all men. If thou be a Roman, the gloriousenes of thy City will seem to deserve it: But yet will Babylon and Ninive stand in contention with thee for it, and Athens will think to be no less regarded for her learning's sake. How much speedier way were it for us, to cut of this strife by yielding unto God who sayeth, The case here standeth not upon merit, but upon mercy: and to the intent all men may perceive it to be so; I will have the welfare of all kingdoms too come of a Hillock that is hidden in the midst of the world, in the digging down whereof they have taken so much pains & pleasure. And less this same Hillok itself should grow proud, I will make it to spring, not out of the top, but out of the foot thereof; nor out of the head City, but out of a little village that is unregarded. Yea and moreover, (as we shall see hereafter) where it springeth up, there shall it be refused, and strangers shall set it on fire; 
Objections.  insomuch that where the foundations of the Kingdom thereof are laid, one stone shall not be left standing upon another. Let all the wise men of the world weigh these Circumstances, yea even according to their own wisdom; and seeing that Salvation is a reward of free favour, and not a recompense of desert; a thing that concerneth God's glory which is the final end of all things, and not man's vanity: let them tell me where the Mediator of man's Salvation could be borne, or where the Mysteries of his coming ought rather too be bestowed, than in Israel? Yet notwithstanding if we consider still all circumstances; the world shall still be found unexcusable. For the first Kingdoms were in Syria, Assiria, Persia, Arabia and Egypt: upon the borders of all which Kingdoms, Jerusalem stood as a Watchtower, for them to look at, or as a Lantern to give light to all those nations round about it. And as the Empires began to remove further of, into the Lesser Asia, Greece, and Italy; we see how God's providence did disperse the jews and their Synagogues into them throughout the whole world as Preachers of the true God, Schools of his service, and Heralds of the Mediator that was to come, to bring salvation to all mankind. Now forasmuch as the end of Religion is man's Salvation; and the end of our Scriptures is Christ the Mediator the bringer thereof: we must henceforth see how he hath been promised from time to time since the first beginning, and whether he have been exhibited to the world in the time aforelimited unto him. And that is the thing which we have to treat of in the Chapters next following.   

The xxjx. Chapter.  
That the time whereat the Mediator was promised to come is overpast, and that he must needs be come, as well according to the Scriptures, as according to the traditions of the jews.  
WE know already by our Scriptures, that there is a Mediator, we know his office, his Nature, and the intent of his coming: and we know these things, not only by our scriptures, but also by the Commentaries of the ancient jews. Now followeth that we see whether he be come into the world or no, which is the point wherein lieth the chief difference and disagreement between the jews and the Christians. 
The marks and tokens of Christ's coming Gen. 49.  The jews look for him still, and think long for his coming. The Christians believe he is come already, & put their trust in him: and both of them ground themselves upon the same precedents, yea and oftentimes upon the same clauses. 
In the Talmud. under the title San hedrin, the Cham Helec.  Let the Scriptures therefore be judges of this case, and let us see what time they behighted for his coming, and what tokens they give us of his coming. First of all, The Sceptre (saith jacob) shall not be taken from juda, nor the Lawgiver from between his feet, until Silo come. This text is expounded of the Messiah, by the Zohar 
The book called Zohar. Kimhi upon Genesis, and in his book of roots.  of the Cabalists, and by the Talmudistes in divers places, by the Chaldee Paraphrases, and by Rabbi David Kimhi himself. And the Sense is clear; namely that the sovereignty and chief authority of government, should continue in the Tribe of juda until the coming of Christ, 
The Kingdom is cessed Bereschith. Rabba.  as the Onkelos and the Commentary upon Genesis expound it. Whereupon Rabbi Hama the son of Havina saith in the Talmud, The son of David shall not come, so long as any sovereign authority be it never so small remaineth in Israel: 
The Talmud in the Chapter Chelek.  and to the confirmation thereof he allegeth a text out of the eightéenth Chapter of Esay. 
Esay. 18. vers. 5 and 7.  Also Rabbi Mili alleging Rabbi Eliezer the son of Rabbi Simeon, 
Esay. 1. vers. 25. and 26.  saith that Christ shall not come, until there be a clean riddance of all judges and all Magistrates in Israel. Which thing he will needs gather likewise upon the first Chapter of Esay. Therefore when they once saw that the sovereignty and all manner of jurisdiction ceased in Jerusalem; they should have taken it for a sure token, that the Messiah was at their doors. Now therefore let us see if this alteration be come to pass, and the very peculiar time when it came to pass. Saul (say some of their new Rabbins) was chosen King in Silo of the Tribe of Benjamin, and it may be that these things were spoken of him. Nay: for it is said, The Sceptre shall not departed from juda. And seeing that the Sceptre had not as then been in juda, nor was to come into that tribe, until David was afterward anointed King: the Scripture should rather have said, The Sceptre shall not be in juda, until it have been taken from Silo. Whereby it appeareth that the said text cannot be meant of Saul. 
1. Kings. 12.  Others say that jeroboam the Son of Nabath removed the state of Ephraim from the subjection of juda, by the Rebellion of the ten tribes, and was crowned in Silo. Yea say we; but the Sceptre remained still in juda, 
Sedar Olam▪ Zura.  and the chief Senate in Jerusalem; and the state of Ephraim was brought to ruin long time afore juda was carried away unto Babylon: 
Origen in his 4. book of Princes.  yea & jeroboam was crowned in Sichem, and not in Silo. Again, what manner of interpretation is this, until Silo come, 
The Talmud in the treatise Sanhedrin, Chapt. Dine Mammovoth. Rabbi Moses the Egyptian in the preface of the Maiemonims.  that is to say, until jeroboam come who is crowned in Silo? Some therefore by the word Silo, will needs understand Nabuchodonosor. For (say they) he took jerusalem, carried juda away to Babylon, and destroyed the Temple; and by that means they think to shift of the said prophesy. But even in the time of the captivity, the jews had a Reschgaluta, that is to say a chief or head governor of their Captivity, whom they chose of the Tribe of juda, and peculiarly of the house of David, as their own Histories do testify, wherein they set down the succession of their Princes very carefully from zorobabel forth. 
This Hillel was a great Doctor among them out of whose School issewed many great learned men in the Law.  And therefore the Talmud saith, that by the Sceptre, we must understand the heads of the Captivity; and by the Lawgiver, the Sons of Hillell, that is to say the disciples of Hillel; of whom the two chiefest were jonathas the son of Vziel the author of the Chaldee paraphrasis upon the Prophets, and Simeon the righteous of whom mention is made in S. Luke. To be short, the Machabies themselves who held both the sovereignty and the Priesthood in Israel, were (as they themselves report) of juda by the Moothers side, 
Rabbi David Kimhi upon Haggeus.  and of Levy by the Father's side (for those two Tribes were wont to go together by alliance) or rather (as othersome report) of juda by the Father's side, and of Levy by the Moothers side. And as for the Sanhedrins, that is to say, the threescore and ten judges, (who in the opinion of Rabbi Moses Hadarsan, 
Rabbi Moses Haddarsan upon Genesis. chap. 49.  were not to cease afore the coming of the Messiah) they continued still even under the captivity of Babylon, & under the Dominion of Machabies. Hitherto therefore the Messiah could not be come: and besides that, it were an utter wresting of the Text, to convey it any other way then to the coming of the Messiah, against the whole consent of all Israel. But (saith josephus 
josephus in his first book of the wars of the jews. cap. 5. & 25. lib. 15 cap. 9 & 10.  the jew) after the Wars between Aristobulus and Hircanus the last of the Machabies, the Romans being Lords of jewrie, did set up one Herod the son of Antipater an Edomite, that is to wit a mere Stranger) to be King there. Which Herod for the easier stablishing of his state, married the daughter of Hircanus then prisoner in Parthia. Afterward when he saw that Hircanus (who only remained of the stock of the Machabies, was returned home; fearing lest the jews, 
Sedar Olam.  who bore an affection to him, should set him up again in the kingdom: he killed both him and his daughter whom he had taken to wife, and also the Children whom he had begotten of her. And not contented with that outrage, he rooted out as many of the house of juda, as lived in any countenance or credit, defaced their styles and titles, and burned their Pedigrees. Also he made High Priests whom it pleased him, but not according to the Law, nor according to their tribes. Finally (as saith Phylo 
Philo in his book of Times.  the jew) he slew all the Sanhedrin, that is to wit the Threescore and twelve Senators of the house of juda, which were assistants to the king, and did put Proselytes and Strangers in their place; insomuch that having by his cruelty abolished both the Priesthood and the Senate, & utterly confounded the whole state; he brought to pass, that at length about the thirtieth year of his reign, he was accepted of all men for King, and ruled all things as he listed himself. This is the time (say I) wherein the sovereignty and jurisdiction of juda did cease; and that not like an Eclipse for a few hours, days or years, but for a continual tyme. Insomuch that from that time forth (which is now above fifteen hundred years ago) there hath not risen up any one man in all the world, being a jew borne, that hath any where had any authority great or small among the jews. Nay further, Vespasian, Titus, Domitian, Adrian, and divers other Emperors of Rome, have endeavoured to root out the whole house of juda; and they of the Tribe of juda have sought to conceal themselves, and manifestly to corrupt their own Pedigrees, to rid themselves from the rigorous inquisition that was made for them. Insomuch that at this day, there is not a jew (I report me to themselves whether I say not true) which can vaunt that he hath his pedigree certain, yea or which can show any likely conjecture that he is of the Tribe of juda, that is to say, of the blood Royal of the which Christ was promised. That which I have said appeareth sufficiently by the present state of the jews, which have so long time continued, and yet still be without King, without Governor, without Priest, without judge, without Genealogy, and without certain succession. But forasmuch as they refuse the witness of the whole world; let us hear their own. In the 17. Chapter of Deuteronomie 
Deut. 17.  where mention is made of the King, it is said thus: Thou shalt set him over thee to be thy King, whom the Lord thy God shall give thee from among thy brethren, and thou shalt not set a stranger over thee. And the custom was to deliver the Law to the King to read therein, 
Midrasch upon Deuteronomy  as is expressly commanded there. Now (saith the Commentary upon that place) when Herod's Agrippa who was a jew in Religion, came to the reading of that verse, he fell a weeping. Nevertheless, all the people bade him be of good courage, and told him that he was their brother, notwithstanding that he came of the stock of a bondwoman. And in another place it is reported, that at the time of this change, 
In Bavabathra cap. Hasutaphim.  there was heard a voice from heaven saying, Now shall the servant prosper without doubt, which steppeth up in Israel against his master: Whereby Herode the great, took courage to pretend title to the Kingdom: And that as touching the Sanhedrin, (that is to wit the Senate of Israel,) Herode the great slew them everichone save only one whose name was Bota, 
In the Talmud of Jerusalem in the chap. Sanhedrin.  who could not create any more Senators, because it could not be done without the laying on of the hands of more than one: And that a while afore, the Romans had driven them out of the Palace of Jerusalem, and that thereupon they took themselves to Sackcloth and Ashes, and cried out with passing great sorrow, 
Rabbi Ass & Rabbi Rahamon.  Woe unto us, for the Sceptre is taken away from juda, and the Lawgiver from between his feet; and yet for all that, the Son of David is not yet come. 
In the foresaid place of the Talmud.  Thus ye see that the time of Christ's coming fell out in the reign of Herode, in whom the Kingdom was conveyed to Strangers, 
Seder Olam.  and the jewish Senate was utterly rooted out, which thing had never happened at any time afore.  
Here followeth another mark of his coming. We know there had been in Jerusalem two Temples: 
The overthrow of thesecond Temple.  the first builded by Solomon & destroyed by Nabugodonozor; the second builded by Zorobabel under the protection of Cyrus and Darius Kings of Persia, and destroyed afterward by the Emperor Tytus. 
Haggeus. Cap. 2. vers. 4.  Now, of the second Temple thus speaketh the Prophet Haggeus who was one of the builders thereof; Who is left among you that saw this house in her first beauty? But what think you by it now? Is it not in your eyes as a thing of nothing? This doth us to understand that the second Temple was nothing comparable to the first in Majesty and stateliness. And in deed we read in Esdras, that the good old Fathers which had seen the first, could not forbear weeping when they beheld the second. Also the Rabbins 
Rabbi Samuel in the treatise Sanhedrin. In the Talmud of Jerusalem. R. Aha in his book of Days.  do report, that there wanted chief five things in the second which were in the first: namely, Fire from heaven that consumed the burnt-offerings, the glory of God among the Cherubins, the manifest breathing of the holy Ghost upon the Prophets, the presence of the Ark, and the urim and Thumim. And they affirm, that to the same end it is said in salomon's Ballet, We have a little Sister, etc. 
Midrasch on the Canticle. Cap. 8. vers. 8. Seder Olam.  which they say is meant of the Church under the second Temple, which in outward show should not match the Church that was under the first Temple. To be short, the Chronicle of the Hebrews beginning the History of the Church of Israel under the second Temple, saith these words: Hitherto the Prophets have spoken by the holy Ghost: but henceforth bow down thine ear, & hearken to the voice of wise men: which is as much to say, as that in all the time of this second Temple, we see not one Prophet rise up. Yet notwithstanding, the same Prophet saith thus also; 
Rab. Selomoh upon the first of Haggaeus, in the word ●eiccabhedah where he wanteth  The glory of the latter house shall be greater than the glory of the first. And therefore he exhorteth Zorobabel and josua the son of josedec and all the people to be of good cheer. It was meet then that under this second Temple, there should be some peculiar and extraordinary gift given of God, which should excel both the Ark, and the urim and Thumim, and the Prophesying, and whatsoever other glorious thing the former Temple had.  
Some say that of the new things the stuff was much richer than of the former. Admit that the first was of Silver and this latter of Gold. What is there herein that can match the gift of Prophesying? Another says, that the fashion and workmanship thereof was more curious. What is that to the presence of God, who showed himself so openly in the first? Some (because the text is flat against them) have accounted that the second Temple continued longer than the first by ten years, the second having stood four hundred and twenty years, whereas the first stood but four hundred and ten years. What can be more vain or more cold, or less beseeming, either for God to teach, or for a man that hath any wit, to hear? I say, for God before whom a thousand years are but as one day; or for Man, whom one day of adversity in his lifetime doth more grieve, than a thousand years continuance of his buildings can pleasure him after his death? Moreover, who knoweth not that this second Temple was oftentimes defiled, and spoiled by Antiochus, by Pompey, by Crassus, and by others? But the Prophet speaketh shirle enough to them that list to hear. As yet (saith he) there remaineth a little time saith the Lord, and then will I remove both Heaven and Earth; I will remove all Nations; and they shall come; the desire of all Nations shall come, and then will I fill this house with glory. 
Gen. 59  What is this desire of all Nations? We know it is Christ, of whom it is said in another place, that he is the hope of the Gentiles, & that they shall be blessed and happy in him. And the Chaldee Paraphrast hath transtated here, the Anointed. Also in the Talmud, Rabbi Akiba understandeth that text of Christ's coming, howbeit that he mistake his person. 
Malachi. 3. In the Talmud, in the treatise Sanhedrin, Chapt. Helec.  And the Prophet Malachi who prophesied at the same time, expoundeth it in these words. The Lord whom ye seek, and the Ambassador of the league which you desire, shall come incontinently into his Temple. The very meaning hereof is, that under this second Temple, the Church of Israel shall have the good fortune to see Christ the Lord whom they looked for so long tyme. Now at the same time that the kingdom of Israel failed, that is to wit in the reign of Herod, about a forty years afore the destruction of the Temple, 
The Talmud in the Treatise Pirkei avoth: and in the treatise jomach.  the little beauty that was in it did utterly cease. For the spirit of the great Synagogue (say that jews) which after a sort supplied the want of the Prophets, came to an end in Simeon surnamed the righteous (of whom mention is made in the first Chapter of Saint Luke.) And then also ceased all the special blessings of the second 
Tereph Becalpi.  Temple reckoned up in the Talmud. Yea and God showed visibly that he abhorred them, in that (say they) the ordinary appearing of an Angel at the entering in of the Sanctuary, was turned into an ugly and black Bug. And whereas aforetimes thirty men could scarce open the door of the Temple; now it opened of itself, whereat Rabbi johanan Ben Zaccai one of Hillels Disciples was very sore amazed. And in the end, the Temple was so destroyed, that one stone was not left standing upon another. And notwithstanding that the jews had leave to build it again, 
Ammianus Marcellinus, lib. 23.  specially under the Emperor julian the deadly enemy of Christians, who of his own purse gave greatly to the building thereof: yet could they never bring it to pass; but (as the very Heathen writers of that time do witness) fires issewed out of the earth, and thick Lightnings from the Sky, and burnt up the workmen and beat down the works which they had begun with so extreme pride and so excessive cost. Sooth we may well say therefore, and hardly can the jews geynsay it, that the second Temple is destroyed long ago, without hope of recovery; and that Christ was promised to come afore the destruction thereof. Therefore it must needs be that Christ is already come into the world. And that the hope of Israel was so, it appeareth yet further. For upon the last chapter of Esay 
Esay. 66. vers. 7.  where it is said, Afore her pangs came upon her, she brought forth a manchild: Rabbi Moses Hadarsan saith, The Redeemer of Israel shall be borne afore the birth of him that shall bring Israel in bondage. 
Rabbi Moses Hadarsan.  And jonathas the great Disciple of Hillell saith upon the same text, Israel shall be saved afore her extremity come, & the Anointed shallbe showed openly afore the throws of her Childbirth come. Also Rabbi Moses of tyrol, and Bioces, both according to this Text and by their own reckoning upon Daniel, do look for this thing towards the end of the second Temple. Likewise the book which they call Bereschith Rabba 
Bereschith Rabba.  maketh this Parable, As a certain jew was at plough, an Arabian passing by heard one of his Oxen low: and hereupon willed him to unyoke his Oxen, because the destruction of the Temple was at hand: 
In the treatise Barachoth. In the Talmud of Jerusalem.  and that by-and-by the other Ox lowed likewise: whereupon he bade him again unyoke out of hand; for the Messiah was already come. And Rabbi Abon having repeated the same in another place, saith thus: What need we to learn it of the Arabians, 
In Echa Rhabathi upon the lamentation of leremie.  seeing the text itself declareth it? Surely I pass not for their Parables, which have no very good grace with them, and oftentimes bewray that they wanted wit in very deed: but my intent is to gather of them, that it was a common opinion among them, that Christ or the Messiah should come into the world a little afore the destruction of the Temple.  
Let us hear what the Angel Gabriel saith to Daniel: 
daniel's weeks.  for he goes nearest of all to the matter. Threescore and ten weeks (saith he) are determined upon thy people, 
Daniel. 9  and upon thy holy City, to make an end of the disobedience, and to anoint the Holy of Holies. Know thou therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment for the building again of Jerusalem, unto Christ the Prince, there are seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks; and then shall the streets and the broken walls be repaired again in short tyme. And after threescore & two weeks, Christ shallbe slain and nothing shall remain unto him. And the people of a Prince that is to come, shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be as with an overflowing, and it shall be digged up with desolations to the end of the war. And he shall 'stablish his covenant with many in one week, and in the mids of the week shall he cause the Sacrifice and Oblation to cease, and for the spreading out of abomination he shall lay it waste, etc. This only one prophesy is enough to convince the jews, and therefore it behoveth us to examine it from point to point. First, that this text is meant of the Messiah, it is so evident and absolute, that it is a stark shame to deny it. And so is it applied by Rabbi Saadias upon Daniel, by Rabbi Nahman of Geround, and by Rabbi Hadarsan, who be the notablest among them. For as for Rabbi Selomoh, who understandeth it of Cyrus; or Aben Ezra, who applied it to Nehemias; or Rabbi Levi the son of Gerson, who understandeth it of josua the Highpriest: there is not that word in this text, which doth not disprove them; 
In the treatise Sanhedrin in the Talmud of Jerusalem,  besides that the Anointing which is spoken of here, must needs be a spiritual anointing, considering that there was not any more anointing at all under the second Temple. There are (saith he) threescore and ten weeks. Let us see what manner of weeks they be. The Scripture telleth us of weeks of days, and of weeks of years; and examples of them both are in Leviticus 
levit. 23. & 2●.  and in divers other places. The weeks of days serve for ordinary matters; and the weeks of years for matters of great weight and of long continuance. But Daniel 
Dan. 10.  may be his own expounder. For in the next Chapter he speaketh expressly of mourning three weeks of days; whereas here in a matter of estate, which passeth with slower steps and requireth larger measure; he speaketh of weeks simply without addition. And in very deed Jerusalem could not be builded again in seven weeks of days; but it was to be builded again in many weeks of years. After that manner are they taken by Rabbi Saadias, Rabbi Moses, and Rabbi Selomoh also, unto whom all the best of them consent: and there is not any one of them (to my knowledge) which taketh these weeks to be weeks of days. But as for the younger Rabbins, whensoever they be pressed, they say these weeks contain either ten years a piece, or fifty years, yea or a whole hundred years a piece; a thing without reason in this text, and without example in all the whole Scripture.  
It followeth, from the going forth of the Commandment for the building again of Jerusalem to the anointed Prince, are seven weeks and threescore and two weeks. That is to say, (as the Prophet himself expoundeth it) for the building up of the City of Jerusalem and the Temple, seven weeks, which make nine and forty years. And from the building again of Jerusalem unto Christ, threescore and two weeks, which make four hundred thirty and four years; all which together amount unto four hundred fourscore and three years. And in good sooth, if we begin (as the Prophet teacheth us) to account the weeks from the day wherein the word was spoken that Jerusalem should be builded again, that is to wit from the threescore and tenth year of the Captivity, 
jeremy. 29. ●, Esdr. 1.  or from the first year of King Cyrus when jeremy wrote to the prisoners at Babylon, assi●ring them of their deliverance, at which time Cyrus gave commandment for the building again of the Temple, unto the time of Herode King of the jews, or of Tiberius' the Emperor of Rome: we shall find that in that very time were fulfilled the four hundred fourscore and three years, yea and the very threescore and tenth week wherein Christ was to 'stablish the Covenant of God with men. And it seemeth that Daniel or rather the Angel meant in these threescore and ten weeks, to allude to the threescore and ten years spoken of by the Prophet jeremy; as if he should have said, At such time as ye were led away captive to Babylon, jeremy assured you that you should be delivered from that temporal Captivity within threescore and ten years, and ye see it is so come to pass. And now I tell you that within threescore and ten weeks of years, ye shall be delivered from the spiritual captivity, by God's covenant made unto you, whereof the Anointed shallbe the Mediator. I am not ignorant how some writers begin the account of these weeks at the first year of King Cyrus; and some at the second year of Artaxerxes; & othersome at the twenty year of the same Artaxerxes, because at that time there went out another Proclamation in favour of Nehemias, by reason that the building of the Temple had been stayed. But which way soever they go to work, 
2. Esdr. 2.  the end of these weeks falleth still upon the time of Herod and Tiberius, and meeteth jump with the prophecies that went afore. And it can not be denied but that they were accomplished according to the circumstances set down here by the Prophet. For the Prince of the people that was to come, destroyed the City; that is to wit, the Emperor of Rome did overthrow Jerusalem and beat down the Temple, and abolish their Sacrificings through the whole Land of jewrie, and bring upon them the extreme desolation that is spoken of here by the Prophet. And therefore some of the Rabbins being unable to shift of this text, have presumed to say that Daniel had said well in all the rest, but that he overshot himself in this account.  
The very traditions 
The traditions. Moses' of Geround.  of the jews themselves do bring us to this tymer At leastwise there is not any whose date is not out long ago. In the Talmud 
The Talmud in the treatise Sanhedrin, Chap. Helec, & everywhere else.  is this saying of the school of Elias so greatly renowned among them. The world shall endure Sixthousand years; Two thousand years empty, that is to say without Law; Two thousand years under the Law; And two thousand years under Christ. And Rabbi jacob saith hereupon, that the first two thousand years ended in the time of Abraham; the second about the destruction of the Temple (which thing he proveth by an account of the times) at the end of which latter two thousand he saith that Christ should come and deliver Israel from captivity. 
The Talmud in the treatise Auodazara.  Thus far he agreeth with us. But he addeth, for our sins sakes his coming is deferred. This gloss marreth the text. For in other places it is said flatly, that the time of the coming of the Messiah is passed now seven hundred and forty years ago, which thing they lament in both their Talmuds. And upon this verse of Esay, I will make haste to do it in his time, which is spoken expressly of Christ and of his Kingdom: 
Talmud in the treatise Sanhedrin. Chapt. Helee.  Rabbi josua the son of Levy apposeth these words, I will make haste, against these other words, in his tyme. I will make haste saith the Lord, at leastwise if they be worthy [addeth Rabbi josua] In his time, [saith the text] that is to say, even when they would not, [addeth Rabbi josua] which meaning of his he might have expressed much more fitly in saying, That God's grace geinstandeth our sins in such sort, as that all our iniquities cannot stop or stay the course thereof.  
We have another Tradition upon the ninth Chapter of Esay. 
Talmud in the book Sabbath, and in the treatise Sanhedrin.  where he setteth down this excellent prophesy concerning Christ, A Child is borne unto us, etc. In that place are written these words, lemarbeh hammisrah concerning the increasing of his kingdom, with the Hebrew Letter ● Mem closed in the mids of the word, notwithstanding that the said Letter which as our M, 
For so M is called with the Hebrews.  is not wont to be written so, but in the end of a word. Here therefore according to their custom, they fall to descating upon the letters, and because the ● Mem is here closed up, whereas it ought commonly to be written open thus, ●: they say there must needs be some great mystery hidden and shut up there: and that as Rabbi Tanhuma was seeking the reason thereof, a voice from heaven answered him, razi li razi li, that is to say, I have a secret: which by the consent of them all, concerned the Messiah. But some of them pass further, and say that this cyphred Letter importeth six hundred, that is to wit, six hundred years, which are to be reckoned from this prophesy unto the Messiah. And in very deed, from the fourth year of the reign of Achas, at which time the prophesy was uttered, we shall find by account that they fall not out long after the time of Herod. Another is read in the Talmud in these words: Rabbi Elias saith to Rabbi jehudas brother of Rabbi Sala the Essene, 
In the treatise Sanhedrin. Cap. Halec. Rambam in his Epistle to the jews in Africa.  The world cannot have any more than fourscore and five jubilees, that is to say, Four thousand two hundred and Fifty years, and in the last jubilee, shall the son of David come without doubt; but whether in the beginning thereof or in the end thereof I cannot tell. Rabbi Ass is of his opinion in the same case. To be short, R. Moses Ben Maimon saith in his Epistle to the jews of Africa, 
R. Moses of Geround upon the five books of Moses.  that there is an ancient Tradition that Christ should be borne in the year of the World four thousand four hundred seventy and four. The which according to their own account should be passed, now more than nine hundred years ago. 
In the chapter Halec, of the treatise Sanhedrin.  And Rabbi Moses of Geround and Levy the son of Gerson speak of another, which behighted it in the year of the world five thousand one hundred and eighteen: which by their own account is expired more than two hundred years since. Finally after much alteration and vain expectation to no purpose, the conclusion of the greatest Rabbins cometh to this point, That it is needless to calculate any more for the coming of Christ, That all the times limited by the Prophets are already past, and that there remaineth not any thing else than repentance and good works.  
Over and beside the time, they do also deliver us certain tokens of Christ's coming, in their traditions. 
R. johanan. R. juda, & R. Nehoray in the Chapter Halec.  When the Messiah cometh (say they) there shall be few wise men in Israel, and many Seducers, Enchanters and Wizards. The wisdom of the Scribes shall stink, and the Schools of Divinity shall become Brothelhouses. Good men in Israel shall be abhorred, and the countenances of the men of that age shallbe full of unshamefastness. Is not this a lively description of the manners of the jews, yea even of the pharisees themselves, in the time of Herod and of the destruction of the Temple? Let us hearken what josephus 
josephus in his Antiquities. lib. 20. cap. 6. & 8. & in his wars. lib. 6. cap. 15. & lib. 7. cap. 9  their own History writer speaketh of them. jewry was at that time (sathi he) a Den and Harbour of thieves, of Murderers, of Enchanters, and of Seducers of the people. And doubtless God was offended at their extreme ungodliness; insomuch that he abhorred both Jerusalem & the Temple, and brought in the Romans thither to purge them as it were with fire. Yea, and I believe (saith he) that if the Romans had stayed never so little to come to destroy them; either the earth would have swallowed them up, or some great waterflud must have drowned them, or else they had been burned up as Sodom was. For that generation was much worse than ever Sodom was. Thus then aswell the writings as also the notablest Traditions of the ancient jews, do point us to the time of Herod. And truly, Tacitus, Suetonius, 
Tacitus and Suetonius in the life of Vespasian.  and josephus himself (witnesses void of suspicion) report that in that age it was bruited every where, that out of jewrie should come a King that should reign over all the whole world; and that this saying was graven in a very open and renowned place of the Castle at Jerusalem; 
Ios●phus. lib. 7 Cap. 12.  which thing caused the jews to be so ready to rebel, and so loath to serve the Romans. 
Hegesippus. lib. 3.  And it appeareth by the whole History of that age, that all the people, yea and Herod himself had their eyes and ears ever open waiting and watching for the Messiah, the one to embrace him and the other to destroy him. For as in all the former times, we read not that any man took upon him to be the Messiah, 
False Christ's in that age.  & much less that any was received as he: so in this age there scarcely passed any one year, but some one or other stepped up to be he, verily because that (to their seeming) they had the disposition of the people, and the very time itself answerable to their intent. Herod therefore who perceived himself to have been but newly proclaimed King by the Romans, fearing to be dispossessed of his Crown, did what he could to destroy the blood royal of juda, defacing their Genealogies, and not sparing even his own sons. Yea and there stepped up certain Courtyerrabbins, which would needs make the world believe that Herod was the promised Messiah, whereof some will have the Herodians to proceed which are spoken of in the Gospel. And this sect was greatly furthered by the opinion of the fleshly sort, which by the Messiah looked for a restitution of their State; that is to wit, of Uineyards, of gorgeous buildings, of precious Stones, and of all things saving of themselves. Also about the same time stepped up one judas a Gawlonite, who called the people to liberty, and maintained with some assistance of the Pharasies, that they ought not to pay tribute to the Emperor. 
josephus in his Antiquities. lib. 18. cap. 1. & 2. &. lib. 17. cap. 8. lib. 20. chp. 2. & 6.  So also did another judas the son of one Ezechias, a captain of Cutthroats, and a certain Shepherd named Athrouges, whose pretence was no less than to be Kings, and to deliver their followers from the yoke of bondage. Likewise under the government of Faelix, and in the reign of Agrippa, a certain Egyptian taking upon him to be a Prophet, led certain people up to Mount Olivet, and made them believe that from thence they should see the walls of Jerusalem fall down, and then they should go in thither. Again, under the Precedent Cuspius Fadus, one Thewdas undertook the like enterprise. All which are signs that they took advantage of the time, and abused the hope of the people to the maintenance of their own ambition. But (which more is) we read in the Talmud, 
Talmud in the Treatise Sanhedrin Chapt. Halec.  that in the time of Agrippa one Barcozba (which name signifieth the Son of Lying) stepped up among the people, and pretending to be Christ, was taken so to be by the Rabbins themselves, and reigned thirty years and a half: 
R. Moses' been Maimon in his Sentences.  yea and that as Ramban reporteth in his sentences of Kings, they required not any sign of him; insomuch that the great rabbin Akiba the wisest of all the Talmudists, became his Harnesbearer, and applied unto him the second Chapter of the Prophet Haggeus expounded heretofore; until at length after long and pernicious abusing of them, when he could not deliver them from the yoke of the Romans, in the end they knocked him on the head. Yet notwithstanding, afterward again, about a forty years after the destruction of the Temple, another of the same name gathered into the City of Bitter all the jews 
Beresc●●itl● Raba. R. johanan.  that were thereabouts; and of him they report wonders, as that he should have a hundred thousand men about him, which upon trust of their invincible strength, did cut off one of their fingers; that going to battle he was wont to say, Help us not thou Lord of the world seeing thou hast forsaken us, etc. And that the Rabbins which had been deceived by the former, 
Talmud in the treatise Col. Israel.  (so greatly were they persuaded of the time) received this man nevertheless, and made him also to be received of others, applying unto him this text of the book of Numbers, A Star shall come out of jacob, because the Hebrew word Cocab signifieth a Star; and saying that in stead of Cocab it ought to be written Cozab or Cozba, which was his name. And this is written by their own Histories, and confirmed afterward by ours, and also by the very Heathen writers which wrote the life of the Emperor Adrian. Yet for all this, they were still the more wasted, and carried away into Spain, and Jerusalem was peopled with other Nations, and the whole Land of jewrie made utterly heathen. And as many as went about afterward to abuse the jews under that pretence, (as one did not long since in Italy) were by and by destroyed and well near wiped clean out of remembrance. Let us add yet further, that since that time (which is now above fifteen hundred years ago) they never had any Prophets, any comfort from GOD, any extraordinary gifts, no nor any knowledge of their Tribes: which is a most evident token, that the Prophecies which aimed chief at Christ, are fulfilled, and that in him the Church is comforted and endued with the gifts which it hoped for; and to be short, that he for whose sake the pedigrees were to be kept certain, is not now to be borne. And therefore we see how some of them do say with Rabbi Hillel, That the days of Ezechias have swallowed up the Messiah; that is to say, that he is not to be looked for any more; and that folk have made themselves unworthy of him: and that some others through extremity of despair, do pronounce them accursed which determine any certain time of the coming of the Messiah.  
Thus than we see now that the holy Scripture and the ancient interpretation thereof, do meet together in the time of Herod, to show us the Messiah there: and thereupon it is, that we see the people in the Gosphell so ready to run after john Bapthst and Christ; and to move these ordinary questions, Art thou he that should come? When wilt thou restore the Kingdom of Israel? Shall we wait for another yet still? and such other. But But let us see what startingholes stubbornness hath invented against the things aforesaid. 
The vain answers of the jews.  The Messiah (say the new Rabbins) was borne at the very same time, and in the very same day that the second Temple was destroyed, that this prophesy of Esay 
Esay. 66. ver. 8.  might be fulfilled, Before her throws or pangs came, she was delivered of a manchild: 
Berecs●hith Rabba upon Gen. cap. 30.  but he is kept secret for a tyme. For so do we read upon the thirty. Chapter of Genesis. And in the Talmud, 
The Talmud, treatise Sanhedrin. Ch. Helec The Children of Core were three brethren, which were Prophets at the same time that the Israelites were in the wilderness.  Rabbi josua the son of Levy saith, that it is a Revelation that was made unto Elias. I would feign then have them to show me what one Text in all the Scripture giveth any incling thereof. They add that he shallbe hidden sour hundred years in the great Sea, eight hundred years among the sons of Coree, and four score years at the gate of Rome. And Rabbi josua the son of Levy saith in the Talmud, that he himself saw him there lapping up his sores among the Lazermen. What are these things (even by none other witness then themselves) but tales contrived upon pleasure, of purpose to mock folk? Some say he shallbe set up in great honour next unto the Pope, and that in the end he shall say to the Pope as Moses did to Pharaoh, Let my people go that they may serve me, and so forth. If he be borne so long ago, and keep himself secret (as they say in their Talmud) but till he be called to deliver them; what cause is there why he should keep himself away still, seeing they have called him so much and so loud and so many hundred years, seeing also that the time is expired, yea and almost double expired, and finally, seeing that even according to their own exposition, it is said. I will hasten them in their time? They answer yet still, there remaineth but a good repentance. Tooto● miserable surely were we, if God should not prevent our repentance with his grace. For the very repentance of the best men, 
In the treatise Sanhed●in. ca Helec.  is but a sorriness that they cannot be sorry enough. But let us here a pretty Dialogue of two Rabbins disputing in their Talmud of this matter. It is written saith Rabbi Eliezer, Turn again ye stubborn Children, 
jeremy 4.  and I will heal you of your stybbornesse. 
Esay. 24.  Yea, but it is also written saith R. josua, Ye have been sold for nothing, and ye shall be redeemed with money: that is to say, ye have been sold for your idolatries, which are nothing, and ye shallbe redeemed without your repentance & good works. Yea but it is said saith R. Eliezer, Turn ye to me, and I will turn to you. 
Malachy. 4.  But let us also read saith R. josua, I have taken ye in marriage as a wife, and I will take you one of a City and two of a Household, and give you entrance into Zion. R. Eliezer replieth thus: It is said, ye shallbe saved in calmness and in rest. Nay saith R. josua, it is written in Esay, 
Esay. 2●.  thus saith the Lord the Redeemer of Israel to the despised Soul, and to the people that is abhorred; that is to say, that your wickedness shall not stop the course of God's decree. 
Daniel. 1●.  In the end, Eliezer saith, what meaneth jeremy then to say, If thou turn thee again o Israel: seeing it is a conditional manner of speaking? Nay saith Rabbi josua, what meant Daniel then by this Text, I heard the man that was clothed in linen and stood upon the Water of the River, and he lifted up his right hand and his left hand up to Heaven, and swore by him that liveth for ever, and it shallbe for a time and times, and half a time? And the Talmud saith that at this tert R. Eliezer was blanked and held his peace, which was as much to say as that he condescended to that which R. josua had said, namely that the offences of Israel should not stay the coming of Christ, but that God would prevent Israel with his holy grace. Again, if the want of a general Conversion do withhold the coming of the Messiah; then considering that the punishment which lieth upon that Nation is universal, and their banishment of so long continuance and so far from whom, In so much that their Temple, City & Country be destroyed, and they may not so much as once see them a far of; what is the crime that is so exceeding great, so universal, and so continual among them? I mean what is the fault peculiar to that Nation, and not common to them with all other Nations of the world? The first Temple (say they) was destroyed for Idolatry, for superfluity, and for shedding of guiltless blood, and specially the blood of Zacharie and Esay. Yet notwithstanding they wanted not Prophets in the time of their Captivity; nay they never had more than then; so mercifully did God measure his comforts to them according to their afflictions. What is too be said then, seeing ●●at now in so many hundred years they have not been comforted at all, no not even at this day when they be both less given to Idolatry, and (to all seeming) more constant in their Law; and in effect less given to Riot and less bloody than ever they were? Nay further, seeing that under the second Temple they showed so great zeal against the Romans, that they admitted not any Idolatry among them, but chose rather to die a thousand deaths, than only to receive either the emperors Image, or the Roman Standard painted with an Eagle; insomuch that they left the breach of the wall of the City ungarded, rather than they would break their Sabbath day: What might be the cause that God should withhold the open manifestation of the Messiah, whom they affirm to have been borne at that time, or multiply their miseries so extremely? Some say it was for their worshipping of the Golden Calf in the Wilderness, that is to say for a fault that was committed a two or three thousand years ago, when as (notwithstanding) the people were then presently punished for it out of hand, and many recoveries and overthrows had ensued since in the mean while. Others say it is for the selling of joseph by his brethren; and thereupon some of them bring up again the fleeting of Souls fathered upon Pythagoras. Why do they not rather acknowledge herein their own cold absurdities? 
The book Mechilta.  nay (says one of their books) it is for a fault which they know not, and therefore it is not foretold them when they shallbe delivered, as it was to the Captives of Babylon. If they know not the fault, then can they not acknowledge it; and if they cannot acknowledge it, in vain are all their Penances and Repentance. And yet in very deed they have from time to time (and that not long ago) done public and open penances, much more exactly to outward appearance, than ever they did; of purpose to hasten their Messiah, who notwithstanding (by the report of their Talmud 
Talmud in the treatise Sanhedrin. Ch. Helec. ) is so near and ready at hand, that (by their saying) he will not stay one day, if they turn unto God according to this saying of the psalm. 
Psalm. 90.  Tooday if ye hear my voice. But we say, that forasmuch as their punishment is so universal, so long, and so extreme; their fault must needs also be so too: And that seeing the former Idolatries and unrighteousness were pacified in the destruction of the first Temple, as they themselves say; It must needs be some greater matter, that continueth their punishment still after so many desolations. And thereupon I conclude, both that Christ is come at his foreappointed time, & also that they have refused him; so as God hath sent them salvation in the selfsame m●●er the he promised it them by his Prophets, & they have trampled it under their feet.   

The thirty. Chapter.  
That jesus the Son of Mary came at the time promised by the Scriptures, and that the same is Christ.  
NOw then, in the time of the first Herod, wherein both the Prophecies of the holy Scriptures and the ancient traditions of the jews do meet, let us examine who could have been the Messiah. For at that time (as I have declared afore) many pretended themselves to be he, of whom both the lives, the doctrines and (almost) the names also are now worn out of mind, notwithstanding that they were upheld by great multitudes of people, and authorized by the chief Doctors among them. Nevertheless, in the same time, and even in the selfsame year that Herod was accepted of the jews for their King, 
Philo in his book of times.  jesus the Son of Mary was borne, whose whole life was nothing else but a teaching of Salvation to that people; and whose end was to be crucified by the synagogue; and yet for all that, his doctrine and name continue still through the whole world. He it is whom we call Christ, and whom we affirm to be the Anointed. And therefore let us see first how all the prophecies are come to effect in him, and how he hath fully performed the office of the Messiah.  
Here let us call to mind the circumstances which we have noted heretofore. 
Esap 9  The Prophets have told us that he should be borne of a Virgin. 
jeremy. 34.  The Gospel affirmeth Mary his mother to have been such a one; and yet the jews which have come afterward, 
The Prophecies fulfilled i● jesus.  have written that she was taken in adultery. Well, seeing that in all their doings they show so great rage against her Son; forasmuch as they had to deal but against a silly woman that had no stay to stand unto, and their Law is so express and peremptory against advontryes': why did they not endite her of it, 
Born of a virgin.  which would have quashed the reputation of her son and of herself both together? Or why say they not rather that he was the son of joseph; but that joseph knew and said the contrary? And seeing that joseph disclaimed him for his son, had they not the more advantage to have made him party and playntif against her adultery? But she lived safely by them, both after her sons death, and without sifting in his lifetime. And what greater proof of her chastity desire we, than to see so many pharisees, and so many judges enraged against one silly woman, 
Suidas upon the word jesus.  and yet not daring to charge her with any crime? But the talk of one Theodosius a jew with a Christian Merchantman named Philip in the time of the Emperor justinian, is worthy to be noted in this behalf. In the Temple of Jerusalem (qd the jew) there were two and twenty ordinary priests; and as soon as any of them died, the residue chose another in his place. Now it happened that jesus for his singular Godliness and doctrine was chosen by them. And to the intent they might know the name of his father and mother, and inregister it according to their custom; they sent for them, & Mary came thither alone, because joseph was then dead. She being asked the name of the father of jesus, answered upon her oath that she had conceived him by the Holy Ghost, and reported to them the words of the Angel. Moreover she told them the names of the women that came to her labour unlooked for; upon due inquisition whereof, when all things were found to fall out true, they registered his name in the Register of the Priests in these words. JESUS THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD AND OF THE VIRGIN MARIE. And this Register (qd Theodosius) was saved at the sacking of Jerusalem, and afterward kept in the City Tiberias, where it is preserved in secret, and I have seen it as one of the chief among the jews, and as one from whom in respect of my degree, nothing was restrained. And I believe thereby that it is not ignorance that holdeth me in the jewish Religion, but the honour which I have among my Countrymen, the like whereof I could not have elsewhere. Now there is great likelihood that this should be true, considering that jesus (as we see) did preach in the Temple, and went sometimes up into the Pulpit, which thing the pride of the pharisees would hardly else have endured. And the holy rabbin 
R● Haeadoch, in the third Question.  also sayeth expressly that the mother of the Messiah should be a virgin, and that her name should be Marie; and he gathereth it after the art of the Cabalists, out of these words in the ninth of Esay, 
Esay. 9  Lemarbeh hammisrah. And Rabbi Hacanas the Son of Nehumia sayeth that this Marie was of Bethleem the Daughter of jehoiakin Eli, of the line of Zorobabel, of the tribe of juda, which was the tribe whereof the Messiah should come. And of a truth, we read not in the Gospel, that jesus was upbraided by his coming of the tribe of juda, or of the house of David; but rather that he was the son of a Carpenter; for the long continued adversities of that house of David, had brought some of his posterity to low degree. 
The Talmud, the treatise Sanhedrin: Chapt. Nigmar Hadin.  And Rabbi Vla saith that jesus of Nazareth by name, being of the blood royal (that is to say the son of David) was crucified the day afore the Passover. And seeing the Messiah was so precisely promised to be of that race; let us not doubt but that the Scribes would willingly have verified the contrary, if they had could, for than had the Goal been won on their side. To be short, to come back again to the virginity of Mary, she was not a woman of such kindred, alliance, and wealth, as might be bold to hope that her single word would be believed without trial: neither were the people to whom she spoke, besotted with the opinion of the Heathen, who forged tales of their Gods to make themselves to be the easilier believed: but the thing was so true, that the very truth thereof emboldened her. And in very deed, that is the very cause why Simon Magus (to the intent he might not seem any whit inferior to jesus) denied not the same point, 
Clemeus in his Recognitions.  but rather granting it to be true, was desirous to make his Disciples believe, that he himself also was the son of a Virgin. The Prophet Micheas 
Micheas, 5. vers. 2.  sayeth, And thou Bethleem Ephrata which art but little to be counted among the families of juda, out of thee shall come to me the party that shall reign over Israel, and his foorthcommings are from the beginning, and from the days of eternity. Here again we have two births of Christ; the one in time, the other everlastingly afore all tyme. And thereupon rise these far differing speeches of the people in the Gospel, saying one while; When Christ cometh, we shall not know whence he cometh; 
In Berhleem. john. 7. ver. 42.  and another while; Is it not written that Christ shall come of the seed of David, and of the town of Be●hleem where he dwelled? Now, that it was so understood by the Fathers of old time, the Chaldee Paraphrase giveth credit, 
jonathan been uxiel.  where it is translated thus: Out of thee shall Christ come which shall hold the sovereignty over Israel. And jonathas the author of the said Paraphrase, a principal Disciple of Hillels, was yet alive at the same time that jesus was borne: and the holy rabbin and Rabbi Selomoh consent thereunto. And that jesus was borne in Bethleem, even after such a fashion as was not looked for, I see not that any of them denieth it. Moreover, there was to be seen the Stable wherein Christ was borne, hewn out of a Rock; which place Origen 
Origen against Celsus.  reporteth to have been singularly reverenced of the Infidels in his tyme.  
The Gospel telleth us that jesus certain days after his birth, was carried to Jerusalem to be offered to the Lord according to the Law, and that there a man named Simoen, 
Simeon,  a man that was righteous and feared God, being certified by the holy Ghost that he should not die until he had first seen Christ the Lords Anointed; took him in his arms & praised God, saying; This day have I seen thy salvation, etc. 
Luke. 1,  Here I charge the jews before God, to bethink themselves well of the things which they both write and read of this Simeon: namely, how that the Disciples of Hillel should never fail till Christ were come: That this Simeon surnamed the righteous, and jonathan the son of Vziel were two of the chief of those Disciples: That in this Simeon the spirit of the great synagogue did utterly fail and cease: That God himself did then show by all signs, that he abhorred that synagogue and the Sanctuary, and that all should go awry, and that all things were full of darkness there. 
Talmud. treatise Pirker avouth. & in the treatise jomach. Chapt. Tereph Becalpi.  Whereof comes this change which they themselves do mark so advisedly, but of their contempt of Christ? And whereas they say further, that the Temple opened of itself, and that Rabbi jonathan Ben Zaccai fellow disciple with Simeon being astonished thereat, bethought him of this saying of the Prophet Zacharie, 
Zachary. 11.  Open thy doors thou Libanus, and let the fire consume thy Cedars: what is it but the same that Simeon foretold unto Mary, saying; Behold, this child is sent to be the overthrow and the raising up of many, and to be a sign that shallbe spoken against? This Child is named jesus, 
jesus.  that is to say Saviour: and the Gospel adding the cause thereof, saith; For he shall save his people from their sins. Who ruled and directed his birth, to be of a Virgin, in Bethleem, and unthought of, to make it meet just with the Prophecies going afore, and to make his name now to agree both with the Circumstances going afore, and with all the whole course of his life? For of so many men that had borne the name of jesus afore, as well in the time of the first Temple as of the second; in which of them shall we find all these things to concur as they do here? Neither is this naming of him so, in vain. For like as neither Abraham nor Moses did bring the Israelites into the land of Canaan, but jesus the son of Nun: so neither the law of Nature nor the law of Moses, could bring us into our true Canaan, that is to wit our spiritual inheritance, but only grace by the true jesus. And therefore the Saint Rabbi saith; 
R. Hacadoch.  That because Christ shall save folk, therefore he shall be called jesus; and because he shall be both God and Man, therefore he shall be called Emanuel, 
Esay. 9  [that is to say, God with us.] And in another place, The gentiles (saith he) shall call him jesus. 
Gen. 49.  And he draweth this name out of the nine and fortieth Chapter of Genesis by a certain rule of the Cabal which they term Notariak, by taking the first letters of the words jabho schilo velo, which make the word jeschu: 
Psalm. 72.  and likewise of these words in the 72. Psalm Ijnnur schemo veijthbarecu: and also of these in the 96. Psalm, 
Psalm. 96.  iagnaloz sadai vecol: all which are texts that are meant expressly of the Messiah. Although I force not of these their doings, yet have I alleged them against themselves, because it is their custom to show the cunning of the art of their Cabal. And after the same manner have the Machabies also their name, that is to wit, of the first Letters of the words of this their device, Mi camocha baelim jehovah; that is to say, Which of the Gods is like thee o jehovah? That the name jesus should be revealed unto them, it is no strange matter, considering that in the third & fourth books of Esdras, jesus Christ the son of God is named expressly and divers times, and the time of his coming precisely set down according to daniel's weeks. For although the jews account those books for Apocriphase, & the primative Church hath not granted the like authority to them, as to the other Canonical books: yet is it a clear case, that they were written afore the coming of jesus Christ, of whom nevertheless they speak by name.  
Now the Scripture promised also a forerunner, 
A Forerunner.  that should come afore the manifesting of the Messiah to the world. For Malachi 
Malachy. 3. vers. 1.  saith, Behold, I send my Ambassador to make way before him, and by and by after shall the Lord whom you seek, enter into his Temple. And in the next Chapter following, he is called Elias, by reason of the likeness of their offices; and this text (as I have showed afore) is understood by them concerning the Messiah. 
R. Moses Ben Maimon in his Sentences. Mark. 9 ver. 1●.  And sooth we have certain footestepes thereof in these words of the Gospel, The scribes say that Elias must first come. And in another place, Art thou Christ, or Elias, or one of the Prophets? A little afore that Christ disclosed himself, john the Baptist stood up in Israel, 
The Ghronicle of the Princes of Israel under the second Temple.  and was followed by such a multitude of people, that all the great ones grudged at him: and he is the same man whom by way of prerogative, the Chronicle of the jews calleth Rabbi johanan the great Priest. Concerning this john the Baptist, forasmuch as they suspect our Gospel, let them believe their own Storywriter. 
josepus. lib. 18 Cap 7.  There was (sayeth he) a very good Man that exhorted the jews to virtue, and specially to Godliness and upright dealing, inviting them to a cleanness both of body and mind by baptim. But when Herod perceived that great multitudes of people followed him, which (to his seeming) were at his commandment; to avoid insurrections he put him in prison, where anon after, he cut of his head. And therefore it was the common opinion, that when Herod's army was afterward overcome and utterly put to the sword, it was through God's iustiudgement for putting of john Baptist unjustly to death. By this witness of josephus, we see what his office was, namely to preach repentance and to Baptize, or (as Malachi saith) to turn the hearts of the Fathers to their Children, and the hearts of the Children to their Fathers. But the thing which we have chief to note here, is that having the people at commandment, yet when jesus came, he gave jesus place, and humbled himself to him, and yielded him the glory: the which thing man being led by affection of man would never have done. Insomuch that after that jesus had once showed himself, the Disciples of this great master showed not themselves as his disciples any more; and that was because his training and teaching of them was not for himself, but for jesus. And as touching the peculiar act of Baptizing, it seemeth that the Levites waited for some special thing upon it, in that they asked of john, How happeneth it that thou Baptizest, if thou be neither Christ, nor Elias the Prophet?  
But let us come now to treat of the life of jesus, not according to our Gospels, but according to such Histories as the jews themselves cannot deny: and what else is it than the very body of the shadows of the old testament, and the very pith and substance of the words that were spoken afore concerning the Messiah? Let us call to remembrance to what end he came, namely to save Mankind: and the nature of his Kingdom, 
The kingdom of jesus is spiritual.  how it is holy and spiritual. Whereof are all his Preachings, but of the forgiveness of sins, and of the Kingdom of Heaven? his Disciples were always importunate upon him in ask him, Lord when wilt thou set up the Kingdom of Israel again? In stead of contenting their fancies, he answereth them concerning the Kingdom of Heaven. They Imagined some Empire of Cyrus or Alexander: that their Nation might have been honoured of all other nations of the earth. One of them would needs have sit on his right hand and another on his left. What answereth he to this? Nay (saith he) whosoever will be greatest, let him be the left; and if I being your Master be as a Servant among you, what ought you to be? Ye shallbe brought before Magistrates: that is far from reigning. Ye shall be persecuted, imprisoned, tormented, and crucified: that is far of from triumphing. I will give you to understand how great things ye be to suffer for my name's sake: that is very far from parting of Countries. Yet notwithstanding, happy shall you be when you suffer these things, and he that holdeth out to the end shallbe saved. Who can imagine any temporal thing in this kingdom, whereof the first and last Lesson is, that a man to save his life must lose it? and to become happy must wed himself to wretchedness? The people follow him for the miracles which he worketh: and the jews deny not but he did very great ones. But let us see whereto they tended. He fed a great multitude of people in the wilderness, with a few Loaves. This miracle was matter enough for him to have held them with long talk; but he preacheth unto them of the heavenly bread which feedeth unto everlasting life. Also he healeth all sick and diseased folk that come unto him: howbeit, to show that that was but an appendent or rather an income to that for the which he came; Thy sins (saith he) be forgiven thee. To be short, from Abraham's Well, he directeth the Woman of Samaria to the Fountain of life. Being showed the goodly buildings of Jerusalem and of the Temple, he foretelleth the overthrow of them both. Being required a sittingplace at his right hand or at his left; he answereth of a Cup that such a petitioner is to drink. When men go about to make him King, he steals away from them. And whereas his Apostles look for some great triumph; his accomplishing of it is after the manner that the Prophet Zacharie speaks of, namely by riding upon a she Ass, even upon the Colt of an Ass. And yet nevertheless Herod the King trembleth at him in his throne, the whole Counsel of the Realm are in a perplexity, and all the people are astonished. And in his doings he maketh it to appear sufficiently, that he hath the hearts of all men in his hand, and that if he himself listed he should be obeyed both of the greatest persons and in the greatest matters. Surely then we may well say, that the mark which this jesus and the mark which the Messiah leveleth at, are both one; namely to draw men from the earth, and to make them to plant their whole hope by his means in heaven.  
It followeth that to this office which he did evidently take upon him, he brought the qualities requisite to the executing thereof, that is to wit, that he was both God and Man: I say, God as the Son of God, and Man 
God and Man  as borne of a woman, without sin, and such in all points as he was forepromised to be. Of this hope we have some footsteps in the Gospel. For some say, We have heard say that Christ endureth for ever. 
john. 12. vers. 34.  And Nathaneel himself saith, Sir, Art thou the Son of GOD and the King of Israel? That is to say, art thou the Son of GOD whom we look for to be the King of Israel? To the same purpose may we set his two natures here one against another. He himself was hungry; and yet he fed many thousands with a few Loaves. He suffered thirst; and yet he gave other men living Waters that overflowed. He was weary, and yet he said come unto me all ye that are weary. He paid tribute, but he commanded the Fish to pay the Tributemony for him. He was dumb as a Lamb, but yet was the very speech itself. He yielded up his spirit and died, but he told them he had power to take it to him again. To be short, he was condemned, but he justifieth: He was slain, but he saveth: He prayed; but his praying was for us, and he heareth our prayers. For these countermatching and the like do we read of in our Evangelists, in whom we have the doings of both natures distinguished, and yet notwithstanding joined together in one person. But if they will utterly deny our Gospels; then shall we in that point be more upright than they: for we will not deny all their writing. Now they agree with us that he was man; and for all their casting up of their Foam against him in their books, yet are they not able to charge him with any vice even in his private life: and therefore the chief thing that we have to stand upon, is the proof of his Godhead.  
jesus (saith our Gospel) wrought miracles. 
The Miracles of jesus.  He healed the sick, restored Limbs to the lame, gave sight to the blind, and raised the dead unto life: and that not in one or two places, but in many: nor in a corner, but in the open sight of the world: and there are many thousands of men which will rather die upon the Rack than deny him, yea or not preach him. I ask them upon their consciences, if they will deny that he wrought any miracles. If they deny it: then what a miracle is this, that so many people do follow a poor abject without miracles, and are contented to die for his sake, even when he himself is dead? And if these miracles of his (as namely the restoring both of sight and life, & such others) were not very great and far surmounting all nature of man; yet who would lose his life, but for a better? and how could he give the better, which could not give the other? And if it be a miracle to work upon a man by touching him, and much more without touching him, and most of all without seeing him: what a miracle is it to work in the hearts of whole Nations far of, without seeing them; and to touch them without coming at them; and to turn them to him without touching them? And if the bones of Elias be commended for prophesying in his tomb; what shall this jesus be for overcoming so many people, and for conquering so many Nations after his death, yea and (which is a greater matter) even by the death of his servants, who preached nothing but his death? But the Rabbins saw welly enough that the miracles of jesus could not be denied. And truly R. johanan saith in the Talmud, 
The Talmud of Jerusalem in the treatise Auodazara.  that a nephew of R. josua the son of Levy had taken poison, and that being adjured by the name of jesus, he was healed out of hand: and this is a verifying of that which jesus himself saith, 
Mark. 16.  namely that if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them: And Rabbi joses saith, that when a Serpent had bitten Eleazar the son of Duma, 
Midrasch Coheleth.  james the Disciple of jesus would have healed him, and Rabbi Samuel would not suffer him. 
joseph in his Antiquities. lib. 18. Cap. 4.  And josephus their own Storiwriter speaking of the miracles of jesus, findeth them so wonderful, that he cannot tell whether he ought to call him Man or God. And they ought not to think it strange that he should work miracles, considering that they believe the miracles of Moses, of Elias, of Eliseus, and divers others. 
In the Talmud, treatise Sanhedrin. chap. Dinei Mammonoth col: lib. 20. jap. 6.  But some of them did attribute his miracles to Magic, and some to the power of the name of God which they charged him to have usurped: in the examining of both which points, I beseech them to join with me without affection.  
As touching Magic, they say that their threescore and ten Senators whom they call Sanhedrin, were very skilful in it; and so saith R. Selomoh also, the better to convince the Enchanters. And we read in josephus, that Magic was never more frequented in jewrie then it was among the Doctors at this tyme. Now if their meaning was to convict jesus as an evil doer; why did they not put him to shame? why did they not use the rigour of the Law against him? How happeneth it that in their accusing of him, they charge him not with any Magic at all? Or if they meant to overcome him by the art; why did not some one of them work the like things or greater? Why did not their miracles swallow up his? Nay contrariwise, whereof cometh it that josephus calleth jesus a worker of miracles, and the other sort Magicians and deceitful Cowseners? And that his miracles work still even after his death, whereas theirs vanished away afore they were dead? But like as in the time of Moses, God suffered great Magicians to be in AEgipt, that he might make his own power the more evident in Moses: so at this time there was great store of them in jewrie, to the intent it might appear what difference is betwixt that which man can do by the devils abusing of him, and that which the fingar of God himself can do in man. And in good sooth I dare well say, there is not any art in the world, that doth more clearly verify the miracles of jesus, than Magic doth. For by Pliny's report, there were never more Magicians, than in the time of Nero, (which was the time that Christ's Disciples did spread his doctrine abroad) neither was the vanity of that Art ever more apparently known (as he witnesseth) than at that time. And even among the jews of our time, that science is more common at this day, than among all other people. For they make books thereof, specially in the Eastpartes of the world. But what are they else than casts of Legierdemayne or juggliugtrickes, and toys for Babes to play withal? And as for the Magicians which the Princes of Christendom maintain in their Courts, to the shame of us all and to their own confusion; what are the things which they do, but (to speak fitly) mere illusions that vanish away out of hand, as which consist in some nimble tricks in playing at Cards and Dice, or in slipper devices of slight and vain things? Of which kind of folks and dealings, I say not who would willingly die for them, but who would not be ashamed to live with them? As for jesus, we see it is far otherwise with him. He wrought very great miracles in the world: and although he was crucified, yet (saith josephus) his Disciples forsook him not: and therefore even after he was gone from them, they wrought miracles still: and what manner of Miracles? Surely even such as within the space of twenty years or thereabouts, filled all the world full of Christians: and that miracle continueth still unto this day. The Empires which had not heard any speaking of Christ, were converted to the Kingdom of Christ, and believed him for his doings afore they heard of his name. The Emperors under whom he had been crucified, and his Disciples diversly persecuted, are glad to do him honour, and to build Temples unto him. Let the jews tell me what Magician they ever heard of, that wrought such miracles after his death? If they say that Christ's Apostles and Disciples also were Magicians; then seeing that no man which is well advised, doth any thing but to some end; let them tell me what gain the Apostles could get by exercising this Magic, which procured them nothing but hatred, sorrow, imprisonment, torments, and cruel death? And seeing that Magicians do hide themselves and conceal their art when they be pursued for it: what kind of Magic is this, which will needs be known and exercised, even in despite of Princes, and of the world, yea and of death; that is to say, even in despite of the man himself (if I may so say) that doth practise it? If it be further replied that some extreme vainglory led them: how happeneth it that every of them did not cause himself to be worshipped alone? And that they did not their works in their own names, but referred all to jesus, yielding unto him the power, the honour, and the glory of all? If they say (as of force they needs must) that the power of the crucified Man wrought still in them and by them: Let them say also that the same man lived still even after his crucifying, yea and a far other life than all other men (considering that after this life he maketh men to be more than men) that is to wit, a life not only free from death, but also everlasting and divine in deed; and so is far of from the punishment appointed by them to Magicians, that is to wit from being in jail and under torture, or (as they themselves term it) in endless death. But as soon as they perceive themselves stopped on that side, by and by they seek to scape out another away.  
jesus (say they) wrought his miracles by virtue of the unutterable name of God, which he minded. And thereupon they fall to an account, which showeth (as many other in their Talmud do) that in God's matters they wanted not only the spirit of God, but also even the human wit and reason: and God knoweth I would be ashamed to rehearse it, but for their own welfare. Their saying then is, that in salomon's Temple there was a certain stone of very rare virtue, wherein Solomon by his singular wisdom had engraven the very true name of God, which it was lawful for every man to read, but not to cun by hart, nor to write out: And that at the Temple door were two Lions tied at two Chains, which roared terribly, that the fear of it made him to forget the name that had committed it to memory, and him to burst asunder in the mids that had put it in writing. But jesus the son of Mary (say they) regarding neither the curse annexed unto the prohibition, nor the roaring of the Lions; wrote it out in a bill, and went his way with it with great gladness: And lest he might be taken with the thing about him, he had a little opened the skin of his Leg and put it in there, and afterward wrought his miracles by the virtue of that name. Now ye must think that if I was ashamed to repeat this gear, I am much more ashamed to stand confuting of it. neverthelater, seeing that the sumptuousness of salomon's Temple is described so diligently unto us, and yet no mention is made either of that rare stone, or of those Lions that were so zealous of God's name: whence I pray them have they this so fair tale? And how cometh it to pass that josephus was ignorant thereof, who had so diligently perused their matters of remembrance; or how come they to the first knowledge thereof, so many hundred years after? again, where became those Lions at such times as the egyptians and Bahylonians spoiled Jerusalem and defiled the Temple? How found they them again in the second Temple? Or if they were immortal, where became they afterward? Nay further, how happeneth it that Solomon that great king who consecrated and engraved the said Stone, wrought not the like miracles himself, specially sith we read not that he wrought any miracle at all? And what godliness had it been for him, to have concealed and kept secret that name, which would have cured so many diseases of body and infirmities of mind? whereby folk might have been turned away from idolatry, and the whole world might have been won unto the law of God? But if I must needs answer fools further according to their folly; then if jesus be the servant of the living God, and use his name to his glory, why do they not believe him? Or if he served not GOD, how was it possible that the name of God should be waged by a mortal man, against the glory of God? And what a blasphemy is it to● uphold, that the power of God is so tied to his name, that his enemies may (whether he will or no) serve their own turns, both with his name and with his power, to the overthrow of his kingdom, and to the stablishing of theirs? Nay rather, let us say according to their own teaching, that jesus did great miracles, 
In the treatise Sanhedrin. ch. Helec.  both in the name of God and in the power of GOD, and that God gave power unto his name, and not the name unto God. jesus therefore was certainly the servant of God, and endued with such power from God.  
Now, whereas some deny that Christ should work miracles, when as notwithstanding, the Scripture saith the contrary, and the jews in the Gospel do continually exact signs and miracles at his hand, & their Talmud reporteth that Christ should discern good from evil by the only sent or savour, by the want of which property they say that Barcozba was bewrayed not to be the Messiah; and whereas they affirm that the wild beasts should lay away their woodness, and that Jerusalem should be hoist up three leagues into the air, and such other like: I confess in déed● that the chief end of Christ's coming, was not to work miracles, accordingly also as we see that his doing of them was but as by works and upon occasion; and I esteem more of those which do hear his word and keep it, than of those which remove Mountains. Nevertheless, Rabbi Hadarsan 
R. Hadarsan upon the Psalm. 74.  saith he had learned of Rabbi Natronai, that Christ should come with very great signs and miracles, and that the pharisees should attribute them to Art Magic, and to the names of unclean Spirits, according whereunto we read in the Gospel, that they said thus, He casteth out devils by the name of Beelzebub. And the Commentary upon the book of the Preacher saith, 
Midrasch Coheleth. Capt. 1. Talmud. treatise Baracoth. Chapt. Memathai korin.  that all the miracles which went afore, are nothing to the miracles of the Messiah. Also the Talmud in a certain place saith, That the miracles which shallbe wrought in the time of the Messiah in the kingdoms of the gentiles, compared with the miracles that were wrought in AEgipt, shallbe as the substance to the accident.  
Unto Miracles is joined Prophesying, 
The Prophesyings of jesus,  as a thing to be numbered among the chief miracles. That Christ should be a Prophet, they will not deny: for they take the text of Deuteronomie 
Deuter. 8. and 18.  where a Prophet is promised them, to be meant of Christ: & thereupon riseth this common demand in the Gospel, Art thou the Prophet? And whereas they say in their Talmud, that the Messiah shall judge of things by their only smell; it cannot be sound understood of any thing else, than of an excellent gift of Prophesying. To let pass a thousand particular Prophecies, and a thousand texts whereby we perceive that jesus read things in the hypocritish hearts of the Pharistes, and saw things in the hearts of his Disciples, which they themselves neither saw nor perceived: who will not wonder at these which we see so peremptorily come to pass, namely, Ye shallbe brought before the Princes and Magistrates of the earth; men shall think they do service unto God, when they murder you for my name's sake; that the glad tidings of his kingdom should be preached through the whole world, notwithstanding all impediments; That Jerusalem should be destroyed; That all things should be wasted and unhallowed there; That of the same Temple which they reverenced so much, one stone should not be left standing upon another; And that the time wherein these things should be done was then so near hand, that even those which led him to death, had cause to bewail themselves and their Children? For what I pray you could those poor Fishermen think, when he spoke to them of being led before Kings; and (which more is) when he told them that they should drive Nations like flocks of Sheep afore them at the hearing of the Gospel? What likelihood was there hereof in his own person or in theirs, considering the lowliness of his life, and the reprochfulnesse of his death? And as touching the destruction of Jerusalem which befell about a forty years after; sith we read expressly in their own Histories, that the Emperor Tytus offered them peace, sought the preservation of their Temple, granted them the free use of their Religion, and during his siege did seek as it were by entreatance to them being besieged, that he might save and preserve them; and yet notwithstanding (as josephus reporteth) they would needs perish whether he would or us, and wilfully cast themselves into the same extremities whereof jesus had forewarned them: who can say that he was ignorant of the unchangeable determination of God, notwithstanding that to the sight of Man, the matter was as likely to have fal●e out otherwise as ever any was, specially considering that the enemies themselves, on whom the whole case seemed to depend, laboured by all means to turn the destruction away from the besieged?  
Now, albeit that as well Prophesying as Miracles, have either of them their peculiar and uncommunicable marks of God's spirit and finger, 
The Doctrine of jesus.  whereby to discern the one from the other: Yet certes, doctrine is the touchstone of them both. 
Deut●ron: ●●.  For, if there rise up a Prophet (saith the Law) and give thee a sign or miracle, and thereupon he come and counsel thee to turn aside to strange Gods: thou shalt not hearken unto him. Therefore let us see what doctrine jesus matched with his signs and miracles. Let us read the Gospel from the one end to the other, and we shall see nothing there but to love God with all our heart, and our neighbour as ourself. Also he came not to abolish the Law, but to fulfil it; nor to destroy the Temple, but to purge it. The pharisees had extended the Law but to the outward man; he condemneth their hypocrisy, and bringeth it back again to the inward man. They said, hate your enemies: but he said, if ye love none but your friends, what are ye better than the Publicans? They said, Thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not kill: But he said, If thou look upon a woman to lust after her, thou hast broken the Law: and if thou say to thy brother, Racha; thou hast already killed him. To be short, a neighbour by their interpretation, was but in jericho or near thereabouts: but he told them that a neighbour was in Samaria, in idumea, & in all the corners of the world. Also if a case concern God, he taught men to forsake Goods, Preferments, Father, Mother, Wife, Children, and all that ever is, for love of his service. As for Salvation and Welfare, he taught men to hoard up treasure in Heaven, and to shake off the world in this life, that they may be clothed with glory in another. What is there in all this, I say not which turneth a man away, but which setteth him not in the right way, and which tendeth not in effect to the glory of the true God, to the doing of our duty towards our neighbours, and to every man's own salvation and welfare? By the way, this doctrine is not a declaiming, nor an exercise of Philosophers, who (as Seneca affirmeth) pretended slaves by their titles, and contained poison and venom in their boxes: but it is expressed in his life, and read in his Disciples, whom neither jew nor gentle have ever blamed, but for their simplicity and innocency: Insomuch that Philo 
Philo concerning the Contemplative life.  the jew made a book expressly thereof for a wonder. For whereas Celsus the Epicure objecteth, that jesus chose Publicans and men of wicked conversation to be his Disciples: even therein peculiarly hath he showed the effectualness of his doctrine in the curing of men's souls, as a Physician doth in healing those that are sorest sick and furthest past hope of recovery in a City. To be short, at his word the Nations that worshipped devils, Men, Planets, Stocks and Stones, turned to the only true God. The Devils that had abused them, hide themselves away, and their Oracles lost their voices, as shallbe said hereafter. But as for the law of God and the holy Scriptures, (I mean even those (ye jews) which you yourselves believe & reverence;) they come to be read, embraced, and expounded through all the world and in all Languages. If this doctrine then be of the Devil; by what mark shall we know the doctrine of God? And if to give authority to the Bible over all the world, be the destruction thereof; what shall we call the stablishing thereof? And if jesus have by his doctrine established the service of the true God, authorised the Law of Moses, and rooted up the service of the Devil by the bottom: how can it be said that the Devil hath either inspired him, or assisted him in his miracles and Prophesyings, both for the kingdom of God, and against the Devils own Tyranny?  
Yea (say you) but he professed himself to be the Son of God. 
An objection.  So much the rather (say I) ought you to embrace him, seeing that by the record of your ancestors, the Messiah ought so to be. And in reporting himself to be so, if you read your own Doctors well, ye shall find that he turneth you not away to divers Gods, nor yet to strange Gods. 
Look the 6. Chapter heretofore.  For according to your own Scriptures and Traditions, these three, namely the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost, are but one God. I would know but this one thing of you; whether you take him for a true Prophet, or for a false Prophet; for the servant of God, or for the servant of the Devil. You have said heretofore that he used the power of the name of God in his miracles, whereby ye have granted me very much: and I also have proved unto you, that such particular and special Prophecies as these, cannot proceed but from God himself. But what a servant is he to the Devil, which overthroweth his master? How is he not an overthrower of him, which saveth us? How is he a false accuser of us, which justifieth us? How is he a deadly enemy, which setteth us again in life? For what else hath the doctrine of jesus done throughout the whole world, but destroyed the Altars of the Devils, beaten down their Temples, broken their Images in pieces, abolished their gamings, their feasts, their Sacrifices; and moreover withdrawn the rest of men from Murder, Whoredom, Theft, & all other abominations wherein they were plunged, and from the vain services whereabouts they occupied themselves, and wherewith they deceived their own Consciences? If ye say he was the servant of GOD; the very Turks confess as much. Therefore proceed yet further, and grant that sith he is the Prophet and servant of God, he is to be believed. For God the Creator being altogether good and wise, would not lend him his spirit to deceive us. And if we ought to believe him, we ought also to hear him: and if we hear him, he telleth us that he is Christ the Anointed, that he is the truth, that he is the way, that he came from God his father, and that the father and he are but one. And in deed, one while to show that he was sent of his father, he prayeth unto him: and anotherwhile to show that he is equal with him, he commandeth absolutely and of himself. Surely therefore we may well say, that this Prophet jesus being assisted by God's spirit, both in his Prophesyings, and in his Miracles, and in his Doctrine; and being borne of a Virgin, in Bethleem, and at the time appointed afore hand by the Prophets; is Christ the Lord's anointed, GOD and Man, even such as he was declared and behighted us in the holy Scriptures, as I have showed already.  
But lo here the stumblingblock of the pharisees and the jews. 
The stumbling block of the jews.  What likelihood is there (say they) that our Christ by whom we look that Israel should be so renowned, should be so base and abject a person? Nay moreover, if he be both God and Man (as you Christians say he is) what can be imagined more against all reason, than that he should be buffeted, whipped, crucified, accounted among thieves, and in the end reproachfully killed, as your jesus was? Sooth, to folk that have imagined and reckoned upon a Monarchy of the whole world, and behighted themselves places among the chief in the same; it must needs be a great corsie and grief to be defeated of that hope. But had they well chewed and digested this text of Zacharie: 
Zacharie. 9 & 12.  Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, righteous, Saviourlike, and lowly, riding upon an Ass, even the Colt of an Ass: which text their Rabbins expound of the Messiah, and we read it to have been fulfilled in jesus at his coming into Jerusalem: they would not think it so strange that in the same person also should be performed this saying of the same Prophet in another place, I will power out the spirit of grace and mercy upon the house of David, and upon the inhabiters of Jerusalem; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced: which text likewise the Rabbins expound of the Messiah, as well as the other. Now I have showed heretofore, that the Messiah should reconcile us unto God, by the satisfaction and amends which he should make unto him for us: and also how agreeable the said amends was both to God's justice and mercy, which cannot be contrary one to another, and also to the order of dealing that is among men. For in as much as man would needs through his pride become equal with God, and by his disobedience be as God: it was meet that his Surety should be abased even beneath man, and yield perfect obedience, even to the most reproachful death that could be. Again, to turn man again and to restrain him from sin, nothing could be more effectual, than to make him know the horribleness of his sin, by the greatness of the penalty and satisfaction thereof: neither could any thing be more forcible to allure him to the love of God and of his neighbour, than to see God redeem him from wretched thraldom by the death of his own Son God and Man; and the same his own Son crucified and dying for the ransom, not of his brethren, but of his enemies whom he vouchsafeth to admit to be his brethren. But forasmuch as the jews believe the Scriptures, they will not refuse them in this point, and therefore let us examine them here together.  
As touching Christ's lowliness in abasing himself, I have treated thereof heretofore, and all the whole scripture teacheth it us sufficiently. At one word, in the place where it is said. The Sceptre shall not be taken from juda; it is added by-and-by, Tying his Assecolt to the vine, and the foal of his sheeasse to the hedge. Upon which text Rabbi Hadarsan sayeth thus; 
Gen. 49.  when christ cometh to Jerusalem, 
R. Moses Hadarsan upon the xl●x. of Genesis.  he shall gird his Ass with a girt, and enter into the city very poorly and lowelely, even after the same manner that is spoken of in the ninth of Zachary. But to avoid often repetitions, let us bear in mind what hath been said afore, that it may lead us the more gently to the passion of Christ, which is our only welfare and their utter stumbling block. We have in the Law a great number of Sacraments and Sacrifices, 
The passion of jesus foretold in the Scriptures.  as well solemn at set feasts as continual and ordinary, and among them, the easterlamb, the Sacrifice of the red Hekfar, the sending of the Scapegote into the Wilderness, and such other like: of all the which it is said, that their blood washeth and cleanseth away the sin of the congregation, and that the sprinkling thereof turneth away the Angel of destruction from their houses. Now forasmuch as this was done with so great solemnity, expressly commanded to be observed, and conveyed over from age to age and from father to son: I ask them upon their consciences, whether they be signs and figures of a sacrifice too come which should cleanse away sin; or whether those sacrifices themselves had that virtue. If they say the Sacrifices had that force in themselves: what virtue is there in the blood of a Lamb or of a Hekfar, against Sin? And wherefore sayeth God so often unto us, I will none of your sacrifices, I will none of the blood of your Bulls and Goats, all such things are but smoke and lothlynes in my sight? And at such time as they were prisoners at Babylon, or scattered abroad in the world, where they might not by their law offer any Sacrifice; was there then no forgiveness of their sins? Yes surely: and therefore they were signs and figures of Christ as then to come, who was to die for our sins: which signs do now cease and have ceased now these many hundred years through the whole world, eversince the coming of him that was betokened by them, namely of the Lamb of whom it is said in Esay: 
Esay. 53.  He was led to the slaughter as a Lamb and he held his peace without opening his mouth, as a sheep before the Shearer: which text the Rabbins also do interpret to be meant of the Messiah. And as concerning the red Heckefar, the Cabalists do make a Case of it, & ask why in the book of Numbers, 
Nomb. 19  the death of Marie is joined immediately to the Law of the red Cow: and thereout of they will needs draw the death of Christ to come. And in very deed jesus the true easterlamb was crucified on the very day of the Passover, as witnesseth Rabbi Vla in the Talmud. 
In the treatise Sanhedrin, Chap. Nigma● Hadin.  Also as Esay had said of the Lamb Christ, He is slain for the sin of the People: so john Baptist saith of jesus, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the Sins of the world. Again, as they were forbidden to break any bone of the easterlamb; so were Christ's legs left unbroken, when the legs of the thieves that were crusified with him were broken. To be short, as the red Cow accompanied with all the people, was conveyed out of the Host and burne● without the Camp; so also was jesus led out of the City accompanied by the people, and crucified without the City. 
Esay. 53.  But let us read the History of the life and death of jesus whole together out of Esay. There was neither favour (saith he) nor beauty in him, neither saw we any fairness in him that was to be desired. He was despised and thrust out from among men, a man full of infirmities & enured to sorrow by reason whereof we accounted him so vile, that we hide our faces from him. Yet in very deed he bore our infirmities, and was laden with our sorrows: but we thought him to be wounded and stricken of God, whereas he was wounded for our misdeeds, and smitten for our sins. The punishment of our peace was laid upon him, and by his stripes are we healed. Al of us went astray like sheep, and turned aside every man after his own way: and the Lord hath cast upon him the iniquities of us all. Being misintreated and smitten, he opened not his mouth. As a Lamb was he led to be slain, & yet held his peace as a Sheep before the shearer. He was lifted up from prison and judgement, and yet who is he that can reckon up his generation? He was plucked up from the living upon the earth, and covered with wounds for the sin of my people. His grave was given him with the wicked, & with the rich in his death, Although he never committed unryghtuousenes, nor any gwile was found in his mouth; yet was it the Lords will to break him with sorrow; that when he had given his life in sacrifice for sin, he might see a longlasting seed. Which device of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, and with the labour and travel of his Soul shall he get great Riches. My righteous servant (sayeth the Lord) shall with the knowledge of him make many men righteous, and take their sins upon himself. I will give him a portion among the great ones, and he shall divide the spoil with the mighty ones; because he yielded his Soul unto death, and did muster himself among the transgressers, and took upon him the sins of many, and prayed for the offenders. Who seethe not in this text, both the apprehension and the sorrows and the wounds, and the death of jesus? Yea and his meekness, Lowelynes, and innocency? His apprehension, turning to our deliverance; his sorrows, to our joy; his wounds, too our health; his death, to our life; his righteousness to our inrightuousing; and his punishment, to our obteynement of grace? And when we read, He was abhorred of men, and we made none account of him; do we not see men spitting in his face? Also when we read these words, We took him to be wounded of God; do we not here the jews saying to him, If thou be Christ the chosen of God, save thyself? again when he is outrageously dealt withal and yet he openeth not his mouth; do we not note his innocent holding of his peace? Finally, whereas he was numbered among the transgressors, and yet prayed for them, notwithstanding that he bore the sins of other men: what is it else but the crucifying of jesus between the two thieves, and the very speech of the repentant thief which said, As for us, we receive worthily according to our deeds; but as for this man, what evil hath he done? Yea & the very prayer which jesus made upon the Cross, saying, Lord forgive them, for they know not what they do? Now, that the said text was understood of Christ by the old Rabbins; the jews cannot deny. For jonathas the Chaldee Paraphrast the Son of Vziel, who lived about that time, 
R. Moses Hadarsan.  expoundeth it of Christ by name. 
Gen. 24.  And whereas it is said, In very deed he bore our infirmities, jonathas translateth it, He shallbe heard at God's hand for our faults, and for the love of him our sins shallbe forgiven. And upon these words, We hide our faces away from him: He saith thus; as though the countenance of the Godhead had been withdrawn from him, because he seemed so to our sight, and we considered not what he was in deed. Whereupon Rabbi Vla saith thus in the Talmud: 
Treatise Sanhedrin. Chap. Helec.  Let him come, but let not me see him: and his so saying was for the extreme pains which he knew that Christ should endure. 
Midrasch. Ruth.  And therefore they feign that he sits binding up of his sores at Romegate. 
Rabbi joses in the book Siphrei.  Also in a certain place where they inquire of the name of Christ, they say he shall be called White, as one covered with sores of Leprosy; and they add, according to this saying of Esay: In very deed he bore our infirmities and took our sins upon him. 
R. jacob & R● Hamina. Cham Helec.  And we took him as a Leper, and as one wounded and cast down of God. Nevertheless, that the jews (notwithstanding the evidentnesse of this prophesy) should not for all that believe; the Prophet himself doth prophesy in the same Chapter. For afore he enter into the matter of Christ's passion and death, he maketh this preface, saying: 
Esay. 53.  Who hath believed at the hearing of us? or to whom hath the Lords arm been discovered? And on the contrary part he saith to the gentiles: Many men shall wonder for the love of him, 
Esay. 52.  and Kings shall shut their mouths before him, They that have not been told of him shall see him, and they that have not heard of him shall think advisedly on him. Upon this so clear a text, let us hear the inventions of persons that have embattled themselves against their own Salvation. To turn this text from jesus, Rabbi Selomoh and David Kimhi (afore whom the said wilfulness of opinion was not among the jews 
The fond shifts of the jews, ) have turned away from all the writers of former time, whom (notwithstanding) they confess to have understood it of Christ; and they pass not what they say, so they may stand upon denial. This text (say they) is not meant of Christ, but of the jewish people afflicted by the Chaldees & the Romans. And this serveth well to show what odds is between the judgement of Reason and of Affection. For I presume so much upon their understanding, that if they had been borne in the time of jonathas the son of Vziel, or at leastwise at any time afore the coming of jesus, they would have been utterly of another mind. Then if the Prophet speak of the afflicted children of Israel when he saith, He was despised of men, and we hid our faces from him: Of whom I beseech them is that said which followeth without change of person, namely; In very deed he bore our infirmities, and we took him to have been wounded of God? That he was despised, is meant (say they) of the people of Israel. Then, that he bore our infirmities, must needs (say I) be meant of the people of Israel too. And what can be more fond, than to say that the people of Israel bore the infirmities of the people of Israel? specially sith it is said immediately, And by his stripes are we healed: which saying putteth and apparent difference between the Physician and the Patient, between the Sufferer and him that is eased by his suffering? Again, what People or what Nation was ever benefited by the sufferings of the Israelites? To what purpose serveth this outcry of the Prophet, Who hath believed our word, if he have no further meaning than that the Children of Israel bore their own pains? All of us (saith the Prophet forthwith) have gone astray like Sheep. Who ●ee these Sheep that have gone astray, but the Israelites, and among them the Prophet himself? And upon him (saith he) hath the Lord cast the sins of us all. If he cast them upon Israel, what cause of wonder is there in not believing it? For who doubteth but that every man is worthy to bear the blame of his own fault? But will any man gainsay the Prophet himself, who expoundeth his own meaning so plainly afterward? He was plucked up out of the land of the living (saith he) and covered with wounds for the sins of my people. For who seethe not here a manifest countermatching between the people that are healed, and the party that suffereth for the healing of them? between Israel whose sores are brought to a scar, and the party that beareth away his sores? The Prophet addeth, There was no unrighteousness in him, neither was any guile found in his mouth. Surely there is pride in men, yea and even in these men; and yet I can hardly believe, but that they would be ashamed to challenge the verifying of this text upon themselves. And as for the people of Israel that were afflicted by the Chaldees; the Rabbins affirm that their first Temple was destroyed for their Idolatry, Superfluity, and shedding of guiltless blood. And concerning the second Temple which was destroyed by the Romans, they say the cause thereof was the people's covetousness, their hating of their neighbours without cause, and their selling of the righteous person. And whereas they reply, That the people of Israel suffered so much affliction at one season, as sufficed to discharge their successors that lived afterward in another season: surely besides that it is contrary both to the justice and to the mercy of God; that gloze cannot be verified of any one line of the said text: but it appeareth by experience, that the afflictions which the people of Israel endured at the hands of the Chaldees, did not discharge them of Antiochus; nor the afflictions laid upon them by Antiochus● defend the jewish Church against the Romans; nor the extreme outrages of the Romans so satisfy for the sins of that people, but that they be more scattered, and more brought in bondage, as well of more sorts of masters as of more sorts of slavery at this day, than ever they were afore. Lo how one false and fond proposition procureth many fonder solutions.  
But let us here further, how this text is expounded by other of the Prophets. seventy weeks (saith Daniel 
Daniel. 9 vers. 14. and 16. ) are set down for the ending of disobedience, & for the Sealing up of sin, and for the cleansing away of iniquity and the bringing of righteousness for ever. As how? For unto the anointed Prince (saith he) shallbe seven weeks and threescore & two weeks; after which time the Anointed shallbe slain, and nothing shallbe left unto him, and the Prince of a People to come shall destroy the City. etc. Here ye see how Christ must die, & namely for sin, according to this saying of Esay, He hath given his life for sin. And (as I have showed already) jesus was put to death even the very same tyme. As touching the Circumstances of his death, 
Psalm. 22. vers. 17.  They pierced my feet and my hands (saith David) and parted my garments among them, and cast lots for my coat. We read not that David was served so, but rather jesus who was crucified (howbeit that that king of punishment was not used among the jews, but among the Romans) and lots were cast for his Coat: and the Evangelists alleged this Text to the same purpose, as who would say, it was so understood in their tyme. And whereas in stead of Caru, that is to say, they pierced, the jews will needs read Caari, that is to say, As a Lion: their Mass●reths, (who have made a Register of all the Letters of the Scriptures) do witness that in all good Copies it is written Caru they pierced. Also the therescore and twelve Interpreters have translated into Greek, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc. they pierced my hands, etc. And the old Chaldee translator, hath joined both those readings in one, thus They have pierced and thrust through my feet and my hands as a lion. They that understand the Traditions of the Indians & Etihopians, do witness the like: accordingly also as the jews themselves do know by their own readings, and are warned by their Mazaroths, that that sense is unperfect. For as for the Chaldee Paraphrase of R. joseph the blind, because he was about a three hundred and forty years after jesus, we admit him not for a judge: and besides that, he is double blinded with a blind mood which he bewrayeth everywhere against us.  
Also the Prophet Zacharie 
Zachary. 12.  saith, I will power out the spirit of grace and mercy upon the house of David & upon the Inhabiters of Jerusalem, and they shall look unto me whom they pierced. 
Bereschith Rabba upon. Gen. cap. 42. The book Succa: chapped. Hahechil.  He that poureth out this spirit is God; He that is pierced is man; and both the one and the other together is Christ God and man.. And they themselves expound this text in the same sense concerning the Messiah, that our Evangelists allege it of jesus that was stricken into the side with a Spear; which surely had been a fondness in them, 
john. 19 vers. 37.  (considering how few texts they allege (if they had not been commonly understood to concern the Messiah. 
The treat: Sanchedrin. Gap. Helec.  And it is all one with this which some of the Rabbins do say in the Talmud, namely That Christ should be distressed as a woman that laboureth of Child, according as jeremy 
jeremy. 30.  saith, that he had great anguishes to suffer, but that he should endure them willingly too deliver men from sin. And Rabbi Hadarsan 
Rabbi Hadarsan upon Goe 1. Echa rabeth. Chap. 3. Midrasch Ruth Cap. 2. vers. 14.  saith that Satan should be an adverfarie to him and his Disciples; and therefore he applieth unto him a part of the third chapter of the lamentations of jeremy. Also in the book of Ruth, where it is written, Eat thy bread and temper it with vinegar: This bread (saith the Commentary) is the bread of the Anointed King or Messiah, who shallbe broken for men's sins, and endure great torments as it is written in Esay. And the Saint Rabbi saith, that Christ should deliver men's Souls from hell by his death. Howbeit yet further, whereas it is said in Esay, 
Esay. 51.  we be healed by his death: the ancient Cabalists 
Cabalists.  understand it of Christ, and say that the Angels (who were the teachers of our forefathers, as Raziel of Adam, Metatron of Moses & so forth) had taught them that the cleansing away of sin should be done upon wood. And Rabbi Simeon Ben johai 
R. Simeon been johai Mirandulan in his Conclusions.  the first among them, writeth thus; woe worth the Murderers of Israel, for they shall kill Christ. God will send his son clothed in man's flesh to wash them, and they will kill him. Also Rabbi juda 
R. juda in his book of Hope.  saith, That after a long breathing time, God will deliver his name of twelve letters to jeremy in writing after this manner, jehovah elohim emeth, that is to say, The everlasting God is truth; and that he will wipe out the first Letter of the last word, so as there shall remain jehovah elohim meth, that is to say, The everlasting God is dead. And peradventure it is thereupon, that Rabbi josua the son of Levy said, 
Midrach T●hilim.  That Israel was not heard in the world, for want of knowing this name; that is to say, for want of praying unto God by the Mediator Christ who died for us. To be short, Philo the jew, 
Philo the jew in his book of the banished. Look afore in the 6. Chaptrel  a very renowned Author, handling this question, namely when the banished Israelites and jews should return home; saith it should be at the death of a Highpriest. Howbeit finding himself graveled at this, that some live longer than othersome; Surely I believe (saith he) that this Highpriest shall not be a Man, but the Word (the which he praiseth in infinite places) exempt from all sin both willing and unwilling, who to his father hath God; and to his mother, the wisdom that is without beginning and without end. Whereby it appeareth that he had heard of Christ a Highpréest, whom it behoved to be God the Son of God, that he might sanctify, and likewise man that he might die.  
As touching the startinghole which the new Rabbins seek, in that (contrary to the whole course, 
Objection.  both of their own ancient writers and of the Scripture) in stead of one Christ God and Man, they make two Christ's, the one the Son of David, the other the Son of joseph, saying that this latter (to whom they apply all the foresaid Texts) shallbe slain in battle, and afterward raised again by the Prayers of other: Surely let us tell them as R. Moses' 
R. Moses upon the judges.  doth, That none other than only the son of David, shall come with authority of Christ; howbeit that there are two comings of Christ, the one in lowliness as Zacharie 
Zachary. 9 ver. 4.  saith. Poor, Lowly, and Saviourlyke; and the other in majesty out of the Clouds of the air, as is described in Daniel: the one to Redeem, the other to judge, as they themselves say upon these words of Ecclesiastes, 
Daniel. 7. Midrasch Coheleth Cap. 1. vers. 9  What it is that hath been? The same that shallbe: whereupon they infer, The last Redeemer is revealed, and he that is hidden shall come yet once again. To be short, here ye see, how in the end the stumbling block is turned into glory. For as Christ died innocently, 
Talmud, treatise Sanhedrin Cap. Helec.  so shall he also rise again and reign for ever. Yea he shall rise again: for it is written in the Psalm, 
Psal. 16.  Thou wilt not suffer thy holy one to see corruption, which saying cannot be meant of David; for he is dead and rotten in his grave, yea and he shallbe raised again within the third day, for it is written, 
Ose the. 6.  He will quicken us after two days, and in the third day will he raise us up again. Also he shall go up into Heaven, to sit at the right hand of God; 
Psalm. 110.  for it is written, The Lord hath said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand. 
The book Mechiltha.  And all these Texts are so expounded by Rabbi Moses Hadarsan, 
R. Moses Hadarsan, upon Genesis. Cap 22. and 40.  by R. Hacadoseh, by R. jonathan the Son of Vziell and others: 
R Isaac upon Genesis.  and they be all accomplished in jesus. For their own writer josephus 
josephus in his Antiquity Lib. 18. cap. 4.  saith, In the time of Tiberius there was one jesus, a wise man (at leastwise if he was to be called a man) who was a worker of great miracles, and a teacher of such as love the truth, and had a great train as well of jews as of gentiles. 
The book of Collections.  Nevertheless, being accused unto Pilate by the chief of the jews, he was crucified. But yet for all that, those which had loved him from the beginning, ceased not to continue still. For he showed himself alive unto them a three days after his death, as the Prophets had foretold of him both this and divers other things. And even unto this day do those continue still which after his name are called Christians. certes then let us conclude as this jew doth in the selfsame place, and in his own words, This jesus was in very deed the Christ. For as for the goodly tale, That Christ's Disciples stole him out of his Grave, and that for fear they did cast him down in a Gardyne where he was found afterward: the fondness and fabulousenesse thereof appeareth in this, that whereas because he had said in his lifetime. Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up again; And also, There shall none other sign be given unto you but the sign of the Prophet jonas, and so forth; thereupon the jews caused pilate to set a sure guard about the Sepulchre: Yet notwithstanding, pilate writing afterward to the Emperor Claudius, advertised him of the resurrection of jesus, so as the greater and surer the guard was that pilate did set, the more and the stronger were the witnesses to prove the jews liars in that behalf. Also the high Priests being so enraged against jesus as they were, would not have sticked to have hanged up the said found Carcase openly in the Marketplace, whereby they might have abolished all the reputation of jesus out of hand. again on the other side, the Apostles were men so afraid of death, so weakeharted, so feeble in faith, and so utterly without credit; that there is not any lykelihod that they durst take the matter in hand. Nay (which more is) what benefit could they have had by his dead Carcase? what should it have booted them to have foregone their Children, their wives, yea and themselves too for such a one? Should they not rather have had cause to have been offended at his cowsmage, and thereupon been the readier to have condemned the remembrance of him themselves, and to have turned all men away from him? Contrariwise, they preach nothing but his resurrection; for that are they contented to die; for that do they teach other men to die; alonely by that do they hope too live and die most blessedly; and of all the whole number of them, there was not so much as one that could be brought to say otherwise: nay rather which could be made to conceal it, and not to speak of it, though they were let alone, yea or for any promise or threatening that the greatest personages in the world could make unto them. Surely therefore, if ever any deed were true, we must needs say that this is it.  
Finally Daniel 
Daniel. 9  saith; After that the Anointed is slain, The Prince of a people to come, 
Math. 24. vers. 15.  (that is to say, the Emperor of Rome) shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary, and his end shallbe in destruction, and unto the end of the war be desolations ordained. 
The destruction of Jerusalem.  But he shall 'stablish his covenant with many in one week, and in half a week shall he cause the Sacrificing and Offering to cease. And to the same effect jesus himself saith, Weep for yourselves and for your Children, and let them which are in jewrie flee into the Mountains. Abomination shall abide in the holy place, and of the Temple one stone shall not be left upon another. And yet nevertheless, this Gospel (saith he) shall be preached over all the world for a witness to all Nations. Who can say that this was not accomplished within a while after the death of jesus? And who seethe not yet still the remnants of this desolation upon Jerusalem, and upon all that people? Yea and moreover, that this their utter ruin and overthrow, is not to be fathered upon any other thing, than upon their putting of jesus to death? jesus was apprehended in Mount Olivet; 
josephus in his Antiq lib. 20. Cap. 6. 8.  and from Mount Olivet was Jerusalem besieged. He was crucified on the day of the Passover; and on that day was the City entered into. He was whipped in the Roman emperors Pavilion by Pylat; 
In the jewish Wars. lib. 5. Cap. 8. and lib. 6. Cap. 25. 27. 28. 47.  and in the emperors Pavilion were the jews whipped by the Romans for their pleasure. He was delivered by them into the hands of the gentiles; and they themselves were scattered abroad into the whole world, to be a scorning stock to all Nations. Of these things and many other like do the Rabbins complain in their Histories, and the more they speak of them, the more do they confess God's judgement upon themselves. For what else are all these things, but the execution of this their own sentence given upon themselves, his blood be upon us & upon our Children? 
Philo against Flaccus.  Insomuch that (as josephus reporteth) when Tytus saw the said extremities, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, 
The Talmud concerning the destruction of Jerusalem.  Lord thou knowest that my hands are clear from all this blood that is shed. And afterward when upon the taking of the City, he had considered the force and strength of the place and the people; he said, In very deed God hath fought on our side in the taking of this City, for otherwise what power could ever have won it? Also the Temple was burnt down, though he did what he could to have saved it, because (saith josephus) the uneschewable day of the destruction thereof was come. Likewise the City was razed, cast up upon heaps, and made level with the ground, 
josephus, in the Wars of the jews lib. 7. cap 9 12. 14. 16.  as if never man had dwelled there; and ten hundred thousand men were put to the sword within it; which thing we read not to have been done to any ot●er City taken by the Romans. To be short, the signs that went afore, and the voice that gave warning from heaven, & the opening of the Temple of it own accord, seemed to be forefeelings of God's wrath that was to light upon them. Again, the Fountain of Silo which was dried up afore, swelled up to give water to the Roman Host. Insomuch that their own Historywriter, beholding so many records of God's wrath, was in manner constrained to come somewhat nigh the cause thereof, which he affirmeth to be, that the Highpriest Ananus had unjustly and hastily caused james the brother of jesus to be stoned to death, and certain others with him, to the great grief of good men, and of such as loved the Law. To the which purpose also may this saying of the notablest of their Rabbins be applied, That the second Temple was destroyed for their selling of the righteous, and for hating him without cause; 
john. 16.  according to this saying of jesus concerning them, They have hated me without cause.  
And whereas some jews at this day do say, that they be punished because some of them received this jesus for the Christ: there is no likelihood of truth in it. For considering that God's manner is, to save a whole City for some ten good men's sakes, if they be found in it: he would much rather have saved his own people for so many men's sakes, being the chief and representing the state of the Realm of jewrie, which did put their hands to the accusing of jesus; and for so great a multitudes sake, which cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. And if God confirmed the Priesthood unto Phinees, for his zealousness in punishing a simple Israelite: what think you yourselves to have deserved, for crucifying (as you bear yourselves on hand) an enemy of God, one that named himself Christ the Lords Anointed, yea and which said he was very God himself? Yet notwithstanding in the mids of all these calamities, the City and Temple of this jesus were builded up, first in jewrie itself, and afterward in the whole world; and according to daniel's prophesy, the Covenant of Salvation was established among all Nations by the preaching of his Apostles; and the Sacrifices of the jews were then put down, and never anywhere revived again since that tyme. And within a while after, the very idolatries of the gentiles, which had possessed the whole world, were likewise dashed also, as we shall see hereafter. Whereof Rabbi Hadarsan 
R. Hadarsan upon Daniel.  writing upon Daniel seemeth to have given some incling, in that he saith, Half a week, that is to say, three years and a half, shall make an end of Sacrificing. And so doth R. johanan in that he saith, Three years and a half hath the presence of the Lord cried out upon Mount Olivet, saying, seek God while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near hand. And upon the Psalms it is said, 
Midrasch Thehilim.  That by the space of three years and a half, GOD would teach his Church in his own person. Now it is manifestly known, that jesus preached between three and four years about Jerusalem, and that his preaching was pursued and continued afterward by his Apostles.  
Sothen, we have in the Prophets a Christ the son of God, which was to be borne of a Virgin, in the end of the threescore and and ten weeks mention in Daniel, at Bethleem in jewrie; whom being foregone by an Elias, it behoved to preach the kingdom of God, to die a reproachful death to man's Salvation, and to rise again with glory; shortly whereupon should follow the destruction of Jerusalem and of the Temple. And at the very selfsame time, we have in our Gospels & in the stories of the jews themselves, one jesus the son of God, borne of the Virgin Marie, at Bethleem in jewrie, who being foregone by john the Baptist, preached the kingdom of Heaven both in word and deed, was crucified at Jerusalem, believed on by the Gentiles, and revenged by the overthrow and destruction of the Temple. And all these circumstances and marks are so peculiar unto him, that they can by no means agree to any other. Wherefore let us conclude, that this jesus is the very same Christ that was promised from time to time in the Scriptures, and exhibited in his due time according to our Gospel. For that is the thing which we had to prove in these last two Chapters.   

The xxxj. Chapter.  
An answer to the Objections which the jews allege against jesus, why they should not receive him for the Christ or Messiah.  
NOw let us examine the objections 
Objection, that he must have been known.  of the jews, and see what they can say against the Testimony of all the Prophets, which agreeth fitly to jesus, and can agree to none but him. First, If jesus (say they) were the Christ; who should have known and received him, rather than the great Synagogue which was at that time? This objection is very old; for in the Gospel the pharisees say, 
john. 7. ver. 4●.  Do any of the pharisees or chief Rulers believe in him, save only this rascal people which know not the Law, who be accursed? Here I might allege Simeon surnamed the righteous, a Disciple of Hillels, who had served forty years in the Sanctuary, 
Euke. ●●.  how he acknowledged jesus for the Saviour of Israel and the light of the Gentiles; in the which Simeon the jews themselves confess that Spirit of God to have sailed, which was wont to inspire the great Synagogue, and inspired him still during all his life. Also I could allege john the Baptist, whom they called the great Rabbi johanan, who acknowledging jesus to be the son of God, sent his Disciples unto him: And likewise Gamaliel, whom in the Acts 
Act. 5. 38.  of the Apostles we read to have said, If this Doctrine be of God, it will continue; if not, it will perish; and in Clement, to have been a Disciple of the Apostles; and in their own books, to have been the Disciple of the said Simeon: 
Talmud. treatise Pirke●● avoth.  And finally S. Paul himself, a disciple of the said Gamaliel, sooth a very great man, and of great favour and authority among them, of whom they cannot in any wise mistrust. To be short, josephus reporteth that this jesus was followed among that jews, of all such as loved the truth, and that as many as loved the Law, did greatly blame Ananus the highpréest, for causing the disciples of jesus to be put to death. Also R. Nehumia 
R. Nchum●●.  the son of Hacana having recounted the miracles of (jesus, within a little of whose time he was) saith expressly, I am one of those which have believed in him, and have been baptised, and have walked in the right way. Likewise the S. Rabbi seemeth to have held of jesus; and if he did not, then is it yet more wonderful than if he had known him, 
There were two Rabbis of the name of Hacadosch, both called Saints: the one living under Antiochus, and the other under the Emperor Antonine.  considering that he seemeth to describe this jesus by the selfsame circumstances that the very Christ is described by him. But without any standing upon that point, I say further to them, That whereas the Synagogue received not jesus for the Messiah, their so doing is a token that he was the very Messiah in deed; and that their receiving of Barcozba for the Messiah, was a sure proof that Barcozba was not the Messiah. For it is expressly said by the Prophets, that when the Messiah came unto them, they should be so blind as not too know him, and so unthankful as to despise him. The stone (saith David) which the builders refused, 
Psal. 11. ver. 22.  is become the chief corner stone, and that is a marvelous thing in our eyes. 
Esay. 28. ver. 16  And this saying doth jesus interpret concerning the kingdom of Heaven, 
Math. 21. vers. 42.  which should be taken from the jews for their refusing thereof. Also this text is applied to the Messiah by R. jonathan, yea and by R. Selomoh also (as great an enemy to Christ as he is) who writing upon Micheas 
Micheas. ●. 〈◊〉. 2.  saith that Christ (by exprese name) should be borne in Bethleem; and which way so ever they turn themselves, they can gather none other sense of that place. hereupon cometh it that the young babes cry out in the Gospel, Hosanna which cometh in the name of the Lord; which is the verse that followeth next after this place of Esay, 
Esay. 6. vers. 53.  Go tell this people, Hear and understand not, Look and see not. Harden the heart of this people, stop their ears, and close their eyes, lest they see with their eyes, & hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn again, and I heal them. How long? Even all their Cities be desolate without inhabitants (saith the Lord) and the houses without any man in them, and the land be a wilderness. Yet shall a Tithe remain and turn again, and be made bare as a Turpentine tree & an Oak, whose sap nevertheless shall continue in them. And if ye desire the interpretation hereof, behold, it is ready at hand in the same Prophet. For going about to describe with what humility and simplicity Christ should come to suffer for us, (whom these great Rabbins looked for too have come in triumph to content their pride and ambition) Who hath believed our preaching (saith he) or to whom is the Lords arm discovered? That is to say, of so great a number of jews which look for the Messiah, how few shall there be that will believe him, when they see him come after such fashion as I am to describe him unto them? But surely (saith he) Those to whom he had never been declared shall see him, and those that never heard of him shall consider him. This text (as I have declared often heretofore) is expounded by the jews themselves concerning the Messiah, Also Zacharie saith, I will power out the spirit of grace and mercy upon the house of David, and upon the inhabiters of Jerusalem, and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced. This Jerusalem (say I) and this house of David whereupon GOD will power out his grace and mercy, are the very same which shall pierce his Anointed and cruciste him after the same manner that they martyred Esay, jeremy, and Zacharie, and tormented all the rest of the Prophets, according whereunto our Lord jesus said unto them, It is not meet that any Prophet should die elsewhere than at Jerusalem. Now they must needs grant, that if they were to kill him, they were not to know him: for who durst be so presumptuous as to lay his hand wittingly upon the Lords Anointed? And those words also do they expound to concern the Messiah. 
Deut. 2●.  To be short, Moses saith; The stranger that is among thee shallbe thy head, and thou shalt be his tail; he shallbe advanced above thee, and thou shalt be his underling. And Esay saith, Because of the sin of juda, I will seek out those which have not sought for me, and I willbe found of them which have not inquired for me. I will give a better place in my Temple to the Geldedmen & Strangers, than to the Sons and daughters of Israel. And it is an ordinary matter among the Prophets, to use such speeches as this, Those which are my people, 
jeremy. 3. vers. 14.  shall no more be my people: & they which were not my people shallbe my people, & such other. And seldom do they speak any word of the calling of the Gentiles, but they match it immediately with the casting off of the jews for their refusing of Christ, like as ye cannot well make mention of the graffing of a tree with a strange Imp or sien, but ye must also speak of the eu●ting off of the boughs to make place for it. 
Talmud. treatise Sanhedrin. Cap. Helec.  To this same effect do R. Samai and R. Selomoh say, It is said in jeremy, I will take one out of a City, and two out of a Tribe, and make them to enter into Zion, because (add they) that as of sixe-hundred thousand Israelites, only two (that is to wit, josua & Caleb) entered into Chanaan; so shall it be also in the days of the Messiah. And the sons of Rabbi Hija affirm. 
Talmud. Trea: Sanhedrin, Ch. Dines Mammoneth.  That the Messiah shallbe a stone to stumble at unto the two houses of Israel, and a Snare to the Inhabiters of Jerusalem, and they deliver it for a great Secret. Also R. johanan and R. jacob, 
R. johanan & P. jacob. chap. Helec.  say that the Gentiles shallbe put in place of the jews that have refused the Lord, as the Horse is put in the place of an Ox that halteth. And whereas I have said that God's spirit should be withdrawn from the Synagogue for their Iniquities sake. Rabbi judas saith, that when the Son of David cometh, there shallbe few wise men in Israel, and the wisdom of the Scribes shall stink, and the Schools of Divinity shallbe become Brothelhouses: which accordeth with this saying of our Lord jesus, Of a house of prayer ye have made my house a den of thieves. And R. Nehoray saith that men's countenances shall at that time be past shame. And R. Nehemias writeth, that wickedness shallbe multiplied without measure, 
Talmud. Sanhedrin. Helec.  and there shall be nothing but untowardness & Heresy; 
R. Moses Hadarsan upon the 74 Psalm.  insomuch that (as saith R. Natronai.) They shall say that the miracles which the Mesias shall work, are done by Magic and by unclean Spirits. To be short, jeremy 
jeremy. 10. ver. 11. and 30. ver. ●.  saith, The Shepherds are become beasts, and have not sought the Lord. And in another place, They have made my sheep to go astray, & turned them away to the mountains. And the Rabbins to confirm the matter, say thus: If our predecessors were the Children of men, we be the children of Asses; and surely (saith R. Menahem,) the she Ass of R. Pinehas is wiser than we. But to come back again to the prophesy of Esay, The Ox (saith he) knoweth his owner, and the Ass knoweth his masters Crib, but my people know not me, they have no understanding. And in very deed whosoever doubteth yet still what spirit governed the Teachers of the jews from this time forth; let him read but only their Talmud, which is such a book, that God (say they) studieth in it every first four hours of the day: And when Jerusalem was destroyed, he left himself three cubits space whereon to sit and read in the Talmud, which yet notwithstanding was not then made. Besides this, they make God (in that book) to bewail the miseries of Israel, to be angry at the Comb of a Cook, to lie, and to commit sin and so forth; so that if a man might have looked into the consciences of those Rabbins, I believe he should have seen that they made not so good account of GOD as of themselves. As for the Scriptures, they expound not one text of them among a hundred to the purpose, no nor scarcely without blasphemy, saving where they follow or allege the Rabbins of old time. The residue are either toys, or oldwives' tales, or horrible blasphemies, or things either too fond for Children or to wicked for men, and such as even the Devil himself would be ashamed of. To be short, I can not tell how they that wrote that book could be jews; or how the reading of it now should not make them all become Christians.  
Yet they reply still and say: 
Esay. 1.  What likelihood is there that this jesus was the Messiah, 
An objection concerning the baseness of jesus.  coming so attired as he did? Or were not we (at least wise) worthy to be excused for not knowing him, coming disguised after that manner? Nay, I demand of you, after what other sort he could or should come, considering that he came to humble himself, and to be crucified for us? You looked to have had him princelike, and he was forepromised poor: a warrior, and it was told you he should be beaten and wounded: with a great train, and he is describe alone upon an Ass: with a company of wives, and there was no more spoken of but only one: with triumphing and feasting, and ye were informed aforehand that his bread should be steeped in vinegar, and his Cup be full of gall and bitterness. You imagine under him, either the Peace of Solomon, or the Conquests of great Alexander: peace to manure jewrie at your ease, and War to reap the riches of the gentiles. But he came to appease God's wrath, and to vanquish the Devil; and thenceforth to make jews and gentiles equal. Of these two comings, which is most meet, both for God's glory, and for his own? Admit he had the Empire of Cyrus and Alexander; admit he had all the power and riches of all the Kingdoms that ever were in the world; what were all this but a witness of his want, and an abate 〈◊〉 of his glory? As for example; Moses led Sixhundred thousand feyghting men out of Egypt, and with the stroke of his rod he passed the red Sea and drowned the Egyptians therein. Now in whether had God's glory more appeared, and the calling of Moses' been better warranted ● by his winning of a battle against the Egyptians with so great a number of men, or by overthrowing them with one stroke of a rod? In reducing the King to reason by force of arms, or in making him to seek mercy by an host of fleas and lice? Let us come now to Christ. He was to subdue the world under his obedience. Whether was it more to his glory and more correspondent to his Godhead, to have done it by investing himself in an Empire, or by ridding himself of all worldly means, by force of arms, or by his only word? By conquering men with show of pomp, or by winning them with suffering reproach at their hand? By triumphing over them, or by being crucified by them? By being alive, or even by being dead? By killing his enemies, or by yielding unto them? By overthrowing his foes; or by sending his servants to suffer whatsoever they would do unto them? For who seeth not, that in the victories of Princes, their men be partakers with them of their glory? And that in battles between men, the Horse and the spear have their part? And that oftentimes the harness and the very shadow of the Crests of their helmets (as ye would say) do step in for a share? Surely therefore, we may well say, that jesus could not have showed his Godhead better, than in coming like an abject & miserable man; nor his strength better, than in coming in feebleness; nor his might, than in infirmity; nor his glory, than in despisednes; nor his eternity, than in dying; nor his rising again, than in being buried; nor his whole presence, than 〈◊〉 his way hence; nor finally his quickening life, than in conquering the world by the death of his disciples. For had he come otherwise, man had had the glory thereof: the stronglier he had come, the less had been his victory; and the more pomp he had pretended outwardly, the less had he always uttered his Godhead, and the more excusable had both the jews and gentiles been in not receiving him. To be short, will ye see that he was the same son of God, which was present with God at the creating of the world? God created the world without matter or stuff whereof, and without help, by his only word: And jesus being destitute of all help and mean, hath conquered the world with his only word, even by his 〈◊〉 death, which seemeth to have been a clear dispatch of him? What greater majesty or greatness can we imagine than this?  
Yea but (say they) where be the signs promised by the Prophets? 
An objection that the signs promised by the Prophets are not come to pass.  and specially the everlasting peace which Christ was to bring unto the world, which should turn Swords into Mattocks and Spears into Coulters? To this we may answer, that jesus was borne under the Emperor Augustus, at which time the Histories tell us, that the Temple of jaws at Rome was shut vp● and all the world was at peace throughout, as who would saythat by that mean God meant to open a free way to the preaching of his Gospel. But let them first of all mark here their own contrariety of speech, in that they require of us here a general peace, and in other places speak of battles against Gog and Magog, and of the bathing of themselves in the blood of the gentiles, insomuch as they say that their second Messiah the Son of joseph, shallbe slain in battle. Nay, as he is a spiritual King, so be his wars and peace spiritual also. Esay 
Esay. ●.  calleth him a man of war: but of his wars he saith, They shall turn their sword into Coulters. On the contrary part he calleth him that Prince of peace: but of such peace whereof it is said; 
Esay. 9 &. 35.  The chastisement of our peace was laid upon him, and by his stripes are we healed: that is to wit, he was wounded for our misdeeds and torn for our iniquities. To be short, Micheas 
Micheas. 3. vers. 3.  saith, He himself shallbe the peace. Nevertheless, to the intent ye should not think he meaneth of your manuring of your grounds & of your dressing of your ●ine-yards; yet shall not the Assyrian (saith he) cease to come into our Land, and to march in our Palaces. And therefore doth jeremy well say, He shall break the yoke from thy neck, & burst asunder thy bonds: howbeit (as he expoundeth himself in another place, 
jeremy. 30. & 35. ) in such sort as thou shalt not serve strange Gods any more: that is to say, he will both win us victory and be our victory himself against the Devil, and also both purchase us peace and be our peace unto God, according to this which he saith another where: The Everlasting will be our righteousness. 
Talmud in the treatise Sab. bath.  And in truth, in the book of Sabbath where these texts are examined, Rabbi Eliezer saith plainly, That wars shall not cease at the first coming of the Messiah, but only at his second coming, that is to wit, when he cometh in glory to judge the world.  
Of the same stamp are the objections that follow. 
Zachary. 14. vers. 4.  It is written (say they) that Mount Olivet shall be split asunder in the mids, and the one half fall towards the East and the other half towards the West: which thing we see not yet come to pass. Well, they cannot deny but that this text speaketh plainly of the destruction of Jerusalem: and if they will needs follow the letter, they shall see in their own Histories, that when the Romans besieged the City, they made their trenches on that side. Again, it is said, 
R. johanan in the treat: Bava Bath●a. Midrasch, Psalm. 86.  That the Lords hill shallbe advanced above all hills; and thereupon they dream that Jerusalem shallbe hoist up three leagues into the air. But these people which otherwhiles delight so much in Allegories, aught to understand these, even by the text itself. For (saith the Prophet) folk shall say let us go up to Zion, and God will there teach us his ways: 
Zachary. 4. Esay. 2. and Michens. 4.  The Law shall come out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And I pray you when came they better out, than when the Apostles of jesus did spread them abroad from Jerusalem thorough the whole world? And therefore Rabbi Selomoh 
R. Selomoh & R. Abraham been Ezra upon Esay. 2. and Micheas. 4.  saith upon those texts, that the Lord should at that time be magnified in Jerusalem, by a greater signe● than he was in Sinai, Carmel, & Thabor, And Rabbi Abraham the son of Ezra saith, that this Advanced hill is the Messiah, who shallbe highly advanced among the gentiles. Also it is said in Esay; 
Esay. 11.  The Wolf shall feed with the Lamb: and in Malachi, 
Malachy. 3.  The Angel of the Lord shall make the ways plain: 
Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon upon Deut. in the Laws concerning Kings and Warns.  which things (say they) we see not yet performed, nor many other such like. But yet doth Rabbi Moses Ben Maimon their great teacher of righteousness say; Let it never come in thy head, that in the time of Christ the course of the world shall any whit be changed: but when thou readest in Esay, that the Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb, call to mind how jeremy 
leremy. 5.  saith, A Wolf of the wilderness hath wasted them, and a Leopard watcheth at their Cities, to snatch ●p them that come out. For the meaning thereof is, that both jews and Gentiles shallbe converted to the true doctrine, and not hurt one another, but feed both together at one Crib, according to this saying of Esay in the very same place, The Wolf shall eat Hay with the Ox. And after that manner (saith he) must we expound all such manner of speeches, which belong to the time of Christ: for they be parabolical and figurative. of the same sort also is the exposition of Rabbi David Kimhi, howbeit that ordinarily he followed the letter, & the translation of jonathan himself. And as touching the Angel or Ambassador that should level the ways mentioned in the text of Malachi: The meaning thereof (saith Ramban) is that a great Prince shall be sent afore the Messiah come, to prepare the hearts of the Israelites to the battle. But Malachi expoundeth himself more fitly in these words: He shall turn the hearts of the fathers to their Children: that is to say, he shall exhort Israel to repentance.  
The Objections 
An objection that Idolatry should cease.  that ensue hereafter have a little more weight in them. It is written, I will destroy all the Idols of the earth. Also, 
Esay. 2.  I will hungerstarve all the Gods of the gentiles. And again, 
Zach. 13.  They shall all serve me with one shoulder. Would God that the abuses which are crept into the Christians Church against Christ's ordinance, 
So phony. 3●  were not so great a Stumbling block to the jews. Nevertheless, let them consider the great number of Gods worshipped by the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, at what time every Country, every City, every Household, and every person had his peculiar God and his Idols by himself: and they shall find that within a little while after the Apostles had preached the doctrine of jesus to the world, they were all gone, and not so much as any remembrance of them had now remained, but that in publishing the glory of God, we had also declared their overthrow. Let them read the Histories of the Heathen and ask of them what is become of their Oracles, I mean the devils which held them in with their Lies and Dreams, and would not be pacified but with the Sacrificing of men, yea and even of their own Children: and of all those wickednesses, which had taken root all the world throughout, can they now show any print at all? Even in the time of Tiberius began men to ask these questions, namely what was the cause that Oracles spoke not any more; that Devils wrought not as they had done aforetimes; And that their Priests wanted living? And the Heathen themselves were driven to answer, that since the time that jesus had died, and his Disciples had preached abroad, Art Magic and the Devils had lost their power. So sudden, so universal, and so wonderful to our very enemies was the change in that time; and of so great force was the only name of jesus in the mouth of those poor men, against Kings and Emperors, against their Kingdoms and empires, and against the upholders and worshippers both of the devils and of their Idols.  
For briefness sake I omit this Objection 
An Objection against the Alteration of Religion made by Christ.  following and such other; as that all Nations have not followed jesus. For the Prophets have told us, that but a remnant shall be saved: and jesus himself saith that Many be called, and few chosen. And it sufficeth that the voice of the Gospel hath been heard over all the world, and that the gate of the Church is set open to all Nations. Again, to come to an issue, they know● that the word Col [that is to say All] betokeneth not that all men without exception shall follow him, but that all Nations without difference shall be his people. Again, the seed of Christ (say they) should be everlasting: but we see not the seed of jesus to be so. They say very well, in that by the word Seed, they mean Christ's Disciples; and in their own language they term them Sons or Children: & thanks be to the Lord, there are Disciples of his still, everywhere through the whole world.  
But the principal Objection remaineth yet behind, and that is this: If jesus be the Son of God, (say they) why changeth he the Law of God his father delivered by Moses, being (as hath been said already) both holy and inviolable, which who so doth, how can) he be received for the Messiah? Surely in this point where they charge jesus with the changing and abolishing of the Law; we be flat contrary to them; affirming that he did not change it or abolish it, but more plainly expounded it and fulfilled it. Nay say they, Circumcision was expressly commanded by God unto Abraham, and afterward to Moses: and why th●● hath jesus abolished it? In deed that is the thing which doth always deceive them; namely, that they take the sign for the thing signified, and the shadow for the substance and truth of the promises. But we say that Circumcision was a sign or seal of the Covenant, and not the Covenant itself, and the best of the jews deny it not themselves. 
Deut. 30. and 10.  And yet Moses saith: When the Lord shall have cast thee out to the uttermost parts of the earth, yet will he bring thee home again into the land which thy fathers possessed, and he will circumcise thy heart and the heart of thy Children, that thou mayst love the Lord thy God; with all thy heart and with all thy Soul, and that thou mayst live. And in another place he saith: Circumcise the foreskin of your hearts, and harden not your necks any more. And when the Prophets rebuke us, they call us not simply uncircumcised, but uncircumcised of heart or of lips. The which ought to advertise you that the sign is fleshly, 
jeremy. 4.  but the thing signified (that is to wit, the Covenant) is spiritual; 
The Cabal by the report of Picus Earl of Mirandula.  and that it would behove you to enter into the Marée of the Law, and not to bite about the bark of it. To be short, the Cabal itself giveth us to understand, that Christ shall cure the venom of the Serpent, make a new Covenant, and take away the necessity of Circumcision. As touching Sacrifices, I have declared already heretofore that they were signs. It is said that they shall cleanse away the sins of the Congregation. How may that be, if we go no further than to the blood of a Lamb, or to the sprinkling of the ashes of a Cow? And therefore. David saith: 
Psalm. 49. and 50.  Thou desirest not Sacrifice for sin, and therefore will I not give thee any. And God himself saith: I blame thee not for that thou hast given me no burntofferings. Also in Esay: 
Esay. 1. and 58. and 66.  Who required these things of you? As for these Sacrifices, these new Moons, these Sabbats, and these solemn Feasts, they loath me, they burden me, and I cannot well away with them. Moreover Micheas saith: If thou gavest thousands of thy Sheep, and Rivers of Oil, 
Micheas. 6.  yea & thine eldest son, even the son of thine own body begotten for thy sin: all this is nothing before the Lord. Nay, (saith Esay) the offering of an Ox is as the murdering of a man, and the offering up of a Sheep is as the snetching of a Dog, and the burning of Incense is as the blessing of an Idol. All which sayings do us to understand, that the Sacrifices were not the very things themselves, but only signs of things, that is to wit, partly of the lusts and affections which we feel in our hearts, and partly of the Salvation which we look for by the Messiah; and that if we pass no further than the bare Sacrifices, they be utterly unprofitable. But David saith; The Sacrifice of the Lord, is a broken and lowly heart. And Esay saith, Wash yourselves, scour away the naughtiness of your hearts, do right to the fatherless and the widow. Also Micheas saith, Deal uprightly, & show mercy. These be the Sacrifices which God requireth at every of our hands, and which were betokened in the particular Sacrifices, by the Bowels, Kidneys, Liver, and such other parts, which were wont to be burned upon the Altar. And as touching the general Sacrifices and such as were more solemn, they betokened that universal Sacrifice for the sin of Mankind which God had ordained everlastingly, that is to wit, the death of the Messiah. For that those Sacrifices should have an end, namely, the sign by the presence of the thing signified, the figure by the presence of the substance, and the shadow by the presence of the body, we perceive by these words of Daniel; 
Daniel. 12. verse. 11.  From the time that the continual Sacrifice is taken away, there shall be a thousand two hundred fourscore and ten days. And that it should be done by the death of Christ, it appeareth by this which he had said afore, 
Daniel 9  After threescore & two weeks Christ shallbe killed, and in half a week he shall cause the Sacrifice and Offering to cease; and for the outreaching of abominations, there shallbe desolation unto the end. And whereas Malachi 
Malachy. ●  having reproved Sacrifices very sharply, saith; From the Sunnerysing to the Sunnegoingdowne, my name shallbe great among the gentiles, and Incense and pure Oblations shall be offered everywhere in my name: it cannot be understood of the Sacrifices ordained by the jewish Law, but rather of the abolishing of them, and of all other signs, by the Messiah. For if the gentiles must Sacrifice unto him according to the law; then must they come to Jerusalem to the Temple there. And if it be so: what Court will be large enough to hold the Sacrifices? What shall all Jerusalem be but a very Slaughter-house and Butchery? Nay moreover, the Prophet saith that they shall offer everywhere; which thing bewrayeth an evident change: and a pure or clean Oblation, which putteth a difference between their Offerings, and the bloody Sacrifices of the Law. And after that the Prophet hath said, My name shall be great among the gentiles: He addeth immediately; But ye have unhallowed it. Which is as much to say, as that the gentiles shallbe these Priests every man in his own place, and they shall not need to co●●● to you jews for the matter. To be short, as touching the Sacrifices, some of the Rabbins say, 
Midrasch. Numbers. 13. Mark. 2.  They shall all cease, saving the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. And as touching the Sabbath; He that bringeth the Commandment from God, (say they) may also break it: whereunto our Lord jesus agreeing, saith, The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. And as touching the difference between Beasts clean and unclean, All Beasts (say they) which are counted unclean in this age, shall be counted clean by the virtue of God in the age to come, that is to wit under the Messiah, as they were to the Children of Noe. 
R Hadarsan upon Gen. 42. and 49.  And thereof they add this reason, That Gods enjoining thereof for a time, was but to try who they were that would obey his word. The same doth Rabbi Hadarsan affirm, saying; There is not a more express Law, than that which concerneth the monthly disease of women; and yet shall that cease in the reign of him: [that is to say, of the Messiah.] And it is not for them to allege here, that concerning the Circumcision, the Sabbath, the feast of Easter, and such others, it is said that thy shallbe legnolam: 
levit. ●. and 15.  that is to say by their interpretation, for ever. For we have learned of them, that the word legnolam, signifieth not for ever, 
Deut. 15.  but a long time; and a time of long continuance without intermission or breaking of, rather than a continuance of time without end. And in that sense do we read it said of Samuel; He shall abide in the presence of the Lord legnolam for ever: 
Midrasch.  Upon which place the Commentary saith, It is an age of the Levites or a levitical age, that is to say, the continuance of fifty years. Likewise, of the Servant whose ear his master bored through, it is said; He shallbe thy Servant legnolam for ever: in which place the Commentary saith, 
R. David Kimhi in his book of roots. Proverb. 22.  Until the year of jubil. And therefore their great Grammarian Rabbi Kimhi saith, that legnolam signifieth a long time, according to this saying in the proverbs, The old bound or buttel that hath continued of long time; where he useth the word legnolam. The words whereby the Hebrews use commonly to betoken a time without end, are these, gnad netsach, and selah, and legnolam vagned.  
But that God meant by the sending of his son Christ to make a new Covenant with his people, as far differing from the first Covenanat as the thing figured differeth from the figure, let us here jeremy 
jerem. 31. vers. 31. 22. 27.  in his one and thirtieth Chapter. Behold, the day shall come (sayeth the Lord) that I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel, and the House of David; not according to the Covenant that I made with their fathers, when I took them by the hand & led them out of the land of Egypt, which Covenant they have disannulled though I was married unto them: but the Covenant that I will make with them after those days (saith the Lord) is this; I will plant my Law within them and write it in their hearts, and I willbe their GOD and they shallbe my people. Every man shall not teach his neighbour any more, nor every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall know me from the greatest to the least. And I will forgive their unryghtuousenes, and their Sin will I remember no more. And that this was meant of the coming of the Messiah, it appeareth plain. For he had said afore, The Lord will create a new thing upon the Earth; a woman shall compass a man about. Also that by the House of Israel he meant all such as should be graffed into that house by the coming of Christ, it appeareth in this, that having spoken of the peopling of Israel, he said afore, I will sow the house of Israel and the house of juda with the seed of Man; and after that manner do the Rabbins themselves allege it. And therefore doth jonathan say upon Esay, 
Mechilta upon Exod. 12. Esay. 12.  Ye shall draw waters of gladness out of the wellsprings of Salvation, that is to say, you shall receive new doctrine of gladness by the chosen once of the righteous, that is to wit, of Christ; of whom the Prophet had said in the Chapter going last afore, God is my safety, I willbe bold and not be afraid. 
Midrasch Coheleth Chap. 11. 1.  And the comentary upon the book of the Preacher sayeth, The law that men learn in this age, is nothing in respect of the law of the Messiah; nor the miracles that are past, in comparison of his miracles. And in the book of Blessings it is said, the things that were done in Egypt are but tappilath that is to say, 
In the treatise Boracoth. Talmud of Jerusalem Chapter Meemathai Korin.  an Accident or Bywoorke; but the things that shallbe done in the time of the Messiah, shallbe gnikkar that is to say, the substance thereof. Yea and Rabbi johanan in the Talmud sayeth, Wherein soever a Prophet biddeth thee transgress the Law, obey him, saving in Idolatry. 
Talmud, trea. tyse Sanhedrin.  For all the rest are things that may be changed by a Prophet according to occasion and tyme.  
Yet they reply and say, is God then changeable, to give a law that shallbe changed after that fashion? 
A reply of the jews.  No, say we. For what changeableness is it to promise and perform, to say and to do, to represent and to bring to pass, to begin and to finish? Nay contrariwise, what greater constancy can there be, than to bring to pass in their times, and according to their circumstances, the things which he had promised to his people? He had said, circumcise me all your male Children. This was a sign. And he said also, He shall circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your posterity; and that is the very true signification of the sign. Now jesus himself was circumcised, and that was because he was borne under the Law. But yet hath he circumcised our hearts by regenerating us, which is as much to say as he performed the Law. And why should it be thought strange that Circumcision is not retained now that the gentiles are called. Verily because there is not now any peculiar people, nor consequently any peculiar mark to be coveted of any one People or Lineage, as a several mark of covenant between God and them. Also God hath said, Take a Cow for a Sin offering, And again, Take every of you a Lamb. But he hath said likewise, The sacrifice that I require is a broken and sorrowful hart. The sacrifice that I prepare for you is my Christ, who shallbe led as a Lamb to be slain for you, and upon him shall your sins be laid. Therefore the Mother of jesus carried her Sacrifice to the Temple, for her purification; but she carried her Son with her also according to this scripture. Every manchild that first openeth the womb, shallbe holy unto the Lord; because he was borne under the Law. But he was crucified for our sins, wherein he accomplished the only Sacrifice that had been betokened by so many Sacrifices in the Law, and therefore he made an end of all sacrificing and offering of oblations, as one that came to fulfil the Ceremonies of the Law, and to set us free and discharge us of them.  
On the contrary part, how dealt he with the Laws which were no signs but matters of substance in deed? It is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God. And jesus hath said, Thou shalt love God with all thy hart, and he hath given us an example thereof in himself. Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven Image saith the Law: and Christ hath overthrown all the Idols of the Heathen. The Law saith, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain: yea (saith jesus) and thou shalt not swear by any manner of thing, no not even by thine own head. The Law says, Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day: Howbeit not to restrain thee from going above two miles that day, as the pharisees taught; but to apply thyself all that day throughout, to the minding of the Law of thy God, and to the serving of thy Neighbour in his need. And to the Commandments of the second table he saith, Thou shalt honour thy Father and thy Mother; howbeit from thy heart, and not for fashion's sake, and thou shalt do the like to all thy Superiors. Thou shalt not kill: yea, and if thou hate, not thy neighbour only, but also even thine enemy; thou art a manslayer already. Thou shalt not steal: and if a man will have thy Coat from thee, thou shalt let him have thy Cloak too. Thou shalt not bear false witness: not only in word either false or hurtful, but also idle. Thou shalt not commit adultery: No, for if thou do but look upon a woman with a lust unto her, thou hast committed adultery already. Moreover, so little leave hast thou to covet any man's goods, that to succour him thou must dispossess thyself, and sell all that ever thou hast. Finally, Thy God is only one God, and no more: but thy neighbour is every man whom thou meetest, of what Country, state, condition, or calling soever he or thou be. To be short, worshippest thou God? do it with the knees of thy heart. Dost thou fast? When thou dost it, anoint thy face. Dost thou alms? Let not thy left hand know it; give of thy need, and not of thine abundance. I demand now whether the exhibiting of the substance and body of the Law, in stead of the counterfeit or Portraiture thereof, and the requiring of the mind in stead of the flesh; be an abolishing or defacing of the Law? whether the stablishing thereof, be the disannulling thereof? The clearing and enlightening thereof, be the quenching thereof? or the fulfilling thereof in himself, and the spreading thereof over all Nations of the Earth, be the breaking thereof? Nay moreover, the Law (say the Cabalists) was given to man for the sin of the Serpent; that is to say (according to our doctrine) not for us to accomplish, for we cannot attain thereto; but to show unto us how far the infection of that venom hath carried us away, from that duty which God and nature itself require of us. Which end of the Law is greatly enlightened unto us by the coming of our Lord jesus, in that he teacheth us that the Law is not satisfied with an outward and pharisaical obedience, that is to wit, (to speak fitly) by hypocrisy; but by the uncorrupt obedience of the Heart, yea even much more by an unfeigned acknowledgement of our disobedience, than by the greatest profession of obedience that a man can show?  
If they urge yet further, why then was not this lesson of yours given us at the beginning? I answer, that even from the beginning foorthon, Moses and the Prophets gave it you, in willing you to circumcise your hearts, to offer up the sacrifice of praise and obedience, 
Deu. 30. & 10. Esap. 56. and 5 ●.  to abstain from unhallowing the Saboth day with unrighteousness, and such otherthings. And in speaking to you of the land of Canaan, they have told you loud enough by all their doings, that it behoved you to have a further reach of mind, namely to the things which (as Esay saith) neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor heart of man conceived. The service then which God required of you is spiritual, and the reward which we ought to look for, is spiritual also. But you, like Children as ye be, thought not but (as the most part of you do still at this day) upon the body and the world; whereas GOD spoke to you concerning your Souls and the welfare of them, which lieth in him. Even so the Schoolmaster promiseth his young Scholar a Marchpaine or some other banqueting stuff to make him to learn; not that virtue shall not like the Child much better, and be a greater reward to him when he hath attained unto it; but because that if he should talk to him of virtue or of honour at that time, he can no skill of any of them both; and he would be the negligenter to his lesson, and the more unable to conceive a greater thing. And truly ye would have said unto Moses; Let not God speak unto us, but to thee; and yet was he fayne to cover his face, because ye could not abide it. To the same purpose doth Esay say, that ye were fain to have line after line, and precept after precept, and lisping Prophets to dally with you like new weaned children, that they might make you to understand. Also S. Paul saith in the same sense, that ye were trained up like babes under the discipline and tutorship of the law. To be short, all Mankind (after the manner of one only man) hath his birth, his Childhood, and his youth, and his spiritual nourishment proportionable to every age, as well as every of us hath by himself. Nature ought to be a Law unto us. And verily GOD meant to make us to feel how sore it is corrupted in us; and because that in those first ages we did transgress it and break it so many and so sundry ways, like young Scholars, which (to speak rightly) cannot write one right letter without a sample: therefore God gave us the Law written; and there remained at leastwise so much conscience in us all, as that none of us could say but it was most just. Nevertheless, it was God's will that we should try our strength for a time in the doing thereof; whereby we perceived in the end, that we could not attain thereto, like as the Child that endeavoureth to follow the Copy of a good Skrivener, and cannot attain to the fashioning of one letter aright, furtherforth than his master guideth his hand. At length came God's grace brought by jesus Christ, when our accusation (I mean the accusation of all Mankind and specially of the Church) was made and concluded both by Nature and by the Law the Interpreter of Nature, and that so apparently, as none of us can deny but that he deserveth very great punishment, nor any of us say that he deserveth any reward at the hand of the everlasting God, whose reward being proportionable (if I may so term it) to the giver, cannot be but everlasting. So then, Nature hath made man ready to receive the Law; the Law hath made him ready to embrace grace: and God (as seemed convenient to his wise providence) hath in this last age of the world, caused his grace to be brought and preached unto us by his Gospel, even unto us which were as folk standing on the Scaffold ready to be executed: to the intent that such as perish should acknowledge his justice, & such as are saved should acknowledge his only grace in jesus God and Man, the only Saviour and Redeemer of Mankind.  
Amen.   

The xxxij. Chapter.  
That jesus Christ was and is GOD, the Son of GOD, against the Heathen.  
NOw then, we have jesus Christ such a one as he was promised unto us in the Scriptures, namely God and Man, the Mediator of man's salvation, 
2. Tim. 3.  (as saith S. Paul) manifested in the flesh, crucified by the jews, preached to the gentiles, believed on in the world, and taken up into glory. And forasmuch as I have already proved the trewnesse and divineness of the Scriptures, and that according to them the Mediator was to be such a one as jesus was: here I might make an end of this work: for the conclusion followeth of itself. The Scriptures are of God; In them we have found jesus to be the Messiah, the Mediator, and the Redeemer of Mankind; therefore it followeth that we ought to receive him for such a one, and to embrace his doctrine with all our heart. Howbeit to take all cause of doubt from the Heathen, let us show them yet further, that jesus is God the son of God, without the testimony of the Scriptures. For it may be, that although they will not believe jesus to be very God by means of our Scriptures, yet they will believe our Scriptures to be of GOD in very deed, when they shall see that jesus is God, whose coming hath been declared so plainly and so long aforehand in our Scriptures. But to begin withal, let us call to mind this saying of Porphyrius, That God's providence hath not left mankind without an universal cleansing, and that the same cannot be done but by one of the beginnings, that is to wit, by one of the three persons or Inbeeings of God's essence. And likewise these points which I have proved already, namely, That man is created to live for ever: That by his corruption he is fallen from God's favour into his displeasure, and consequently excluded from that blessedness: That to bring him in favour again, a Mediator must step in, who must be man, that he may sustain the death which mankind hath deserved; and God, that he may triumph over death, and deck us with his desert. And such a one do we say the same jesus is which was crucified by the jews, and believed on among the gentiles of old time: And God of his grace grant in our time, to enlighten all those to whom he hath not as yet given grace to believe.  
Surely as the Mediator came for the gentiles 
Prophecies among the gentiles. Nomb. 22. and 23.  as well as for the jews, that is to say for all men: so it should seem that the Gentiles had some incling thereof revealed to them from GOD, that they might prepare themselves to receive him. 
Origen in his 13. Homily upon Genesis.  In the Scripture we read of a Prophet named Balaam, who prophesied plainly enough of Christ. And some ancient writers say that his prophesy, 
Chrisostom in his second Homily upon the viii. of Matthew.  and the prophesy of one other named Seth, were kept in the East parts of the world. And job who was an Edomite, saith, I am sure that my Redeemer liveth, and shall stand up last upon the earth. 
job. 19 25.  Also the Sibyls, and specially Sibyl of Erithra who is so famous above the rest, 
The Oracles of the Sibylls.  (at leastwise if the books which we have under their names be theirs) do tell us that he should be the son of God, 
Lactantius. lib. 4. Cap. 6.  be borne of a Virgin, be named jesus, work miracles, be crucified by the jews, be raised again to glory, come in the end to judge both the quick and the dead, and so forth; and that, (which is a greater matter) in such terms, and with such particularities, as it seemeth to be the very Gospel turned into verse, as though God had meant to utter his mysteries more manifestly by them to the Gentiles, than he had done to the jews, because the gentiles had not been enured to the heavenvly doctrine any long time aforehand, and namely to the hope of the Redeemer. And as for them which think those books to have been counterfeited in those Sibyls names, surely they may more easily say it than prove it; but I pass not greatly for that. For (as Suetonius 
Suetonius in the life of Augustus. cap. 31.  Tranquillus reporteth) the Emperor Augustus made them to be locked up in two Coffers of gold, at the foot of the Image of Apollo on mount Palatine in Rome, where it was hard for men to have falsified them. And in the time of Origen, of Clement of Alexandria, and of justine the Martyr, which was not long after the preaching of the Apostles; those books were abroad in the world, as appeareth by the discourses of Celsus the Epicure, who saith in deed that they were counterfeit, but he proveth it not. Also the Emperor Constantine in a certain Oration of his, witnesseth that he had seen and read them, and referred the Gentiles of his time to them. Well it cannot be denied but that there was at leastwise some such like thing. For Cicero in his books of Divination 
Cicero in his first book of Divination.  writeth these words, Let us observe the books of sybil. We must name us some King, if we will live in safety. And yet all men know how hateful a thing the name of King was, both to all the Romans and to Cicero himself. Also he maketh mention of Sibyls Acrostic, that is to say, of certain verses of hers whose first letters made the name of that King, of which sort we have some in the eighth book of the Sibyls; whereupon he concludeth, that they had a sound and well settled mind. Moreover, the Emperor Constantine affirmeth, that Cicero had translated the book sybil of Erithra, & that Antony would have had it abolished. In these books it was said, that as soon as the Romans had set the King of AEgipt again in his State, by and by should be borne the King of the whole world. And therefore Cicero writing to Lentulus 
Cicero in his first Epistle to Lentulus lib. 1. epist.  who sewed to have that charge; doth mention that Oracle unto him: and the Romans made a doubt whether they might restore the King of AEgipt or no, by reason of that matter, whereof the Sibyls do make some speech in their second book. 
In the second book of their Oracles.  Nevertheless when the Romans had well canvased the case, Gabinus conveyed home Ptolemy King of AEgipt into his Kingdom, and at the same time was jesus Christ borne. Virgil who by the favour of Augustus had access to those books, made an eclogue 
Virgil. Eglog 4  (which is but a translation of certain of the Verses of those Sibyls) concerning the happy state which sybil behighted by jesus Christ the son of God; saving that Virgil not looking deeply into the matter, applied it wholly to one Salonine, in favour of Augustus whom he meant to flatter: After which manner the Romans wrested this famous foresaying of Syria, to the Emperor Vespasian, That out of jewrie should come the sovereign of the whole world. But we read that one Secundian a notable man in the time of the Emperor Decian, 
Vincent. lib. 11. cap. 50.  and one Verian a Peinter, and one Marcelline an Orator, became Christians upon the only reading and conferring of those Oracles. And therefore the first writers among the Christians, as justine, Origen, Clement, 
justine in his Apology. Origen against Celsus. Clement in storm:  & such others, do summon the Heathen to the books of the Sibyls, because they would not with their good wills have believed ours; and also to a former prophesy of one Histaspes, which spoke plainly of the coming of the son of God into the world, and of the conspiring of all kingdoms against him and his. And therefore all those books were forbidden by the Heathen Emperors, upon pain of death. But God of his wonderful providence had provided for the Salvation of the gentiles, by scattering the jewish nations with their books and prophecies, into all the four quarters of the World; howbeit that we read not of any other Lineage or Nation to have been so scattered without losing their titles, their books, their name, and the very knowledge of their original; which prerogative the jews had, to the intent they should be Preachers of the coming of the Mediator, and witnesses of the antiquity, truth, and uncorruptness of the Prophestes, against the effect whereof nevertheless they set themselves with all their power. For what better witnesses I pray you could the gentiles have; than the jews themselves? namely in that they being the putters of jesus and of his disciples to death, were ready notwithstanding to die for the truth & soundness of the books wherein he was foreshowed, foretold, and forepromised unto them at all times? Furthermore, that this King promised by the Prophets and the Sibyls, should deliver the Law of good life to the whole world, Cicero seemeth to have had some understanding (howsoever he came by it) or else I cannot tell whereto I should apply this goodly sentence of his in his third book of his Commonweal. Sooth the very Law in deed (saith he) is right reason, shed into all men, constant, everlasting, which calleth all men to their duty by commanding, and frayeth them from fraud by forbidding; which yet notwithstanding neither biddeth nor forbiddeth, in vain to the good, nor by bidding or forbidding moveth the bad. From this law may nothing be taken, to it may nothing be put, neither may it be wholly abrogated. Neither Senate nor Pope can discharge us of this Law, 
Cicero in l●● third book of his Commonweal. in Lactantius lib. 6. cap. 8.  neither needeth there any interpreter or expounder thereof to make it plain. There shall not be one Law at Rome, and another at Athens; one tooday, and another toomorrowe: But one selfsame Law being both everlasting and unchangeable, shall contain all Nations and at all times; and there shall be but one common master and commander of all, even God. He is the deviser, the discusser, and the giver of this Law; which who will not obey, shall flee from himself as if he disdained to be a man; which doing of his must needs be a sore punishment unto him, though he were sure to scape all other punishments. Who seethe not here, that this Heathen man espied, that all Laws of man are but vanity, and that he looked that God himself should come openly into the sight of the world, to give a good law to Mankind? Now, jesus hath manifestly given this Law, causing it to be published by his Apostles, and their voice sounded to the uttermost bounds of the earth. And for proof hereof, what is more convenient and meet for man in the judgement of conscience, than to love God with all his heart and all his Soul; and his neighbour as himself? which yet notwithstanding doth more surmount our ability to perform, and more bewray our corruption, and more condemn whatsoever is in us of our own, than doth the Law itself universally in all mankind. On the contrary part▪ what find we in all the writings of the Heathen, but a Hireling virtue, and a teaching to cloak vice, that is to say Hypocrisy? But as this Law is verily of God, so let us see whether the bringer thereof be God. And I beseech all worldly wise men, not to hearken unto me by halves, nor to look upon things at a glance, (for I come not to daily with them:) but to yield me both their ears, and to look wistly, & to bend all their wits advisedly: for the nearer they look unto the matter, & the more deliberately they consider of it; the sooner will they yield to our doctrine, as to the undoubted truth, yea & as to very nature itself.  
jesus therefore is borne in the little Country of jewrie subdued by the Romans, 
The proceeding of the Kingdom of jesus beyond nature and against Nature.  of poor parents, in a sorry village, destitute of friends and of all worldly helps, and yet was he to be Emperor of the whole world, to give the Law to the whole world. Let us see the proceeding of this Emperor & of his Empire. Amend (saith he) and believe the Gospel: for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand. If we consider the majesty of the Roman Empire, the eloquence and learning of the great Clerks, and the pride of the Sophists and Orators of that time; what greater fondness could there be to all seeming, than to talk after that manner? Who would not have thought folly both in Christ and in his Apostles for their preaching so? But what addeth he? Whosoever will come into this kingdom, let him forsake goods, father, mother, wife, children, yea and himself too. And let him take up his Cross and follow me. Let him think himself happy that he may suffer a thousand miseries for me, and that in the end he may die for my name's sake. What manner of privileges are these I beseech you, to draw people into that kingdom? What a hope is it for them that serve him? What are these promises of his, but threatenings? and his persuasions, but dissuasions? What say we to a friend whom we turn from some other man, but thus; eschew that man's company, for ye shall have nothing with him but travel and trouble? And what worse could the veriest enemies of his doctrine say, than he himself said? Also what a saying of his was this to S. Paul a man of reputation among the pharisees, and greatly employed afore in following the world? I will show thee how great things thou hast to endure for my name's sake? And yet notwithstanding, what a sudden change insewed, from apprehending and imprisoning, to be apprehended and imprisoned? from being a judge, to be whipped and scourged? from stoning of others to death, to offer himself from City to City to be stoned for the name of jesus?  
Let us hear on the contrary part the voice of a worldly Conqueror. 
Plutark in the sayings of the Kings of old tyme.  Whosoever will follow me (saith Cyrus to the Lacedæmonians) if he be a footman, I will make him a Horseman: if he be a Horseman, I will give him a Chariot: if he have a Manor, I will give him a Town: if he have a Town, I will give him a City: if he have a City, I will give him a Country: and as for Gold, he shall have it by weight, and not by tale. What ●ddes is there between the speeches of these two monarch, and much more between their Conquests? And therefore what comparison can there be betwixt the conquerors themselves? This Cyrus as great an Emperor as he was, could not have the Lacedæmonians to serve him for all his great offers. But jesus being poor, abject, and unregarded, did by his rigorous threats, even after his own suffering of reproachful death and his menacing of the like to his followers, draw all people and Nations unto him, and not only Soldiers, but also Emperors; nor only Cities, but also whole empires. Cyrus' died in conquering; and jesus conquered by dying. The death of Cyrus decayed his own kingdom, as a body without a soul: But the death of jesus enlarged his kingdom even over the empires. And how could that have been, but that the death of jesus was the life of all empires and all Kingdoms? Who seethe not then, in the mightiness of the one, a humane weakness; and in the weakness of the other, a divine mightiness? We wonder at the Conquests of Alexander. And why? Because that being but a mean King of Macedon, he passed into Asia, and conquered it with forty thousand men and no more. Had he carried a hundred thousand with him, we would have had the less estimation of his deeds. But how much greater account would we have made of him, if he had done it with half his number? And had he done it with the tenth man, O how we would have wondered! And if we made a God of him for conquering so; what divine honour would we think sufficient for him now? At leastwise who would not have thought him, if not a God, yet (at the least) assisted with the power and might of GOD? But had these Soldiers overcome their enemies by being beaten at their hands; had they conquered by causing themselves to be killed; had they brought Kingdoms in obedience by submitting themselves to their Gibbets: had it not been a crime to have left them unwoorshipped for Gods? For if between the able man and the unable man, the skilful and the unskilful, the difference be that the unskilful can do nothing unless he have very well and abundantly wherewith: but the skilful can work much upon little, and by his cunning overcome the awknesse of his stuff: What is the difference between the skilfullest man and God, but that the man can of a little make somewhat, whereas God can of nothing and without help of any thing make great things, yea and even one contrary of another and by another? Which is as much to say, as that he is of infinite power, able to fill up the infinite distance that is between contraries, and specially between nothing and something. Now, let us see what jesus hath done; and let us bring with us the same eyes and the same reason, which we did to the judging and discerning of the History of Alexander. First, our Lord jesus was borne destitute of all worldly helps. From ten to tenthousand, and from tenthousand to ten millions, men do attain: but who can attain from nothing, to so huge a thing? He was accompanied by a few ignorant Fishermen of gross wit. And yet is it no small matter that he could cause them to give over their Trade to follow him. But what Instruments were they to make Preachers to the whole world, being rather clean contrary to such a purpose? And to encourage them, he says unto them: Blessed are ye when ye endure all manner of adversities for my name's sake. This had been enough to have driven them away, and yet they follow him. At length, he sendeth them of embassage to all Nations; And what was their message? He that taketh not up his Cross and followeth me, is not worthy of me. What is he that would at this day take such a charge upon him, no though he were well rewarded for his labour? They shall whip you in their synagogue saith he. Who would undertake to deal in such a case? Specially upon such a persuasion as this, He that will save his life shall lose it? In the end, he dieth. And how? Crucified between two thieves. Those few followers of his are at their wit's end. He leaveth neither Children nor kinsfolk behind him to uphold his silly kingdom. The kingdom of Heaven that he had talked of, seemeth to be buried in the earth. What worldly kingdom had not perished in this plight? How long did the throne of Alexander reign, notwithstanding that it was upheld with the hope of some Children, with the policy of great captains, with the force of victorious Armies, and with the very terror of his name? In the mean while, those silly Sheep of Christ came together, and went and preached to Jerusalem, and afterward to all the world. And what preached they? That jesus had been crucified, and that it behoved them to believe in him. If he was a man; what was more vain? If he was a God; what was more absurd? Yet notwithstanding, if they may have audience, they teach men to suffer for him: if they be shut out, they will rather die than forbear to speak of him: and if they be accused for it, they preach their crime before their judges. Malefactors are tormented to make them tell their fault, and these are tormented to make them to conceal it. Those hold their peace, to save themselves from death; and these die for speaking. Their persecutors cry out, what a misery is this, that we cannot overcome an old man, or a woman? what a shame is it for us, to be more weary of tormenting them, than they be of the torments? Yet notwithstanding, in less than forty years the world is filled full of this doctrine, and the Countries are conquered to jesus Christ by those few Disciples preaching his bloodshed and shedding their own, from Jerusalem to Spain, yea and from Jerusalem to the Indies. And look by what means this kingdom is founded, by the same also is it established, and from time to time increased and maintained. What man (if he know how far man can extend) can attribute these things unto man? He is God (saith a wise man) which doth that which no creature can do: And who ever did such things either afore jesus or after him? Also Aristotle saith, that of nothing can nothing be made: that in deed is a rule in nature. But what else are these doings of Christ, but a making not only of some thing, but also of that greatest things, of nothing? And who can violate or overcome the law of nature, but only he that created nature? Now God spoke the word, and it was done: this surpasseth nature. But when jesus saith, He that doth not take up his Cross and follow me, is not worthy of me: to our fleshly understanding it is as much as if he should say, Flee from me; and yet men follow him, and seek him. The word (say I) which were enough to drive us away, draweth us unto him: by dissuading, he persuadeth us: in turning us away, he turneth us to him: in throwing us down, he setteth us up: and in killing us, he maketh us everlasting. Who can draw one contrary out of another, as, the effects of water out of fire, and the effects of fire out of water; but he that made both fire and water? And who can draw persuasion out of dissuading; and converting out of diverting; but he that made both the heart of the man that hearkeneth, and the speech of the party that speaketh? And what is the conquering of the living by the dying of himself and his; but as ye would say a working of an effect by taking away the cause? What is this subduing of the world by disarming, tying, and delivering of himself; but a taking of a way contrary to his business, and a choosing of instruments most contrary to his working? And he that doth a thing by instruments contrary thereunto, nay rather by such instruments as are directly hurtful to it and can no way further it; doth he not show that he could do it by his only word, without other help? But let us see yet more. It is against nature to make something of nothing: Here the Philosophers must stoop. It is against nature to make a thing by speaking the contrary: Here the Orators are put to silence. What wilt thou say then, if besides all this, there be an extreme resistance in the thing itself: if thou be a Physician, in the Complexion: if thou be a captain, in the Conquest: if thou be an Orator, in the wills of men? Alexander did great things with few men. I grant. But if men had made head against him as they might have done, in what case had he been. Let us see contrariwise what resistance men made both generally and particularly to shut jesus out of the doors. If ye speak of force; he could scarcely preach without peril of death. His Apostles could not open their lips, but they were by and by whipped, stoned, racked, crucified or burned. The cruelest Emperors, as Caligula, Nero, Domitian, and such others, wrought upon them the chief deeds of their cruelties. If any of those Emperors chanced to be more mield, O what justice used he! Forsooth, If they be not seditious, (say they) let them not be sought. But come they once in Question, wherefore soever it be, let them not escape. I would fain learn what sect of Philosophers in all Greece, would not have ceased at the least commandment of a Magistrate. And of what truth do we find any monuments of Conquests over all the world; but of the truth of jesus Christ? If ye have an eye to policy; those that followed him were excluded from all promotions and offices: And what a hell is that to a man of an ambitious nature? Their Children were prohibited to go to School: and what was that but a cutting up of the tree by the root, if it had not grown by grace from Heaven? Also certain counterfeit dialogues, forged concerning pilate and Christ, full of wicked lies and blasphemies, were enjoined to be read in Schools, and to be conned of Children by hart, to stain the name of jesus, and to make it odious and loathsome to all men for ever. And what more pernicious policy could the Devil himself have devised?  
The jews worse than all others, (to whom notwithstanding he was promised) were false Traitors to him; and whereas they should have preached him, they did most eagerly accuse him; insomuch that there scarcely came any of his Disciples into any town, but that they made Hue and cry upon him to murder him. Nay (which more is) in every several person there was an inward encounter, and an extreme resistance against this word. Yea? [said men within themselves] shall I believe in jesus? An abject man? A crucified God? Shall I believe his Disciples, the offscourings of the World, and the outcasts of the jews? Shall I believe in him for a two or three days, to leave behind me a wretched wife, a reproachful remembrance of myself, and the report of a fool too my posterity? If the Emperors made so cruel war against this doctrine both by sword and by their Laws; we may well conjecture what War every man maintained against it in himself. And if we have known what persecution is, let us here bethink us of the battles between the flesh and the spirit; and of the lively and sharp arguments which a man in that case maketh against himself. Notwithstanding all this, in the end whole Nations yielded themselves to the word of those men, and even empires worshipped jesus Christ crucified. If weakness wrought this; why did not force get the upper hand? If folly; why did not wisdom triumph over them? If manhood; why did not multitude prevail? No surely, it was jesus the son of God, who repaired the world by his spirit as God had created it at the first by his word. Cicero could not wonder enough at Romulus, for that (sayeth he) in a time which was not rude, he had compassed so much as to be called a God. And certes I marvel at Cicero, that he showed himself so gross in that behalf. For if he were called a God, who ever believed him to be so? And what was Rome at that time, and a long time after, but a rout of ignorant and silly Shepherds? But thereby we may deem, what judgement he would have given upon jesus. Romulus was called a God; but the Senate believed it not. The Senate did put the people in fear, and by that means made them to say it. But all the whole Empire of Rome could not scare one Disciple from professing of jesus. What resemblance then is there between them two? The same may be said of Alexander as great an Emperor as he was, when he made men too worship him as God. For even then did his army fall to mutinies, he lost his estimation, he distained his victories, & his own howseholdseruants were contented too be beaten rather than they would kneel down to worship him. And asfor Caligula, Domitian, Heliogabalus, and others, they were Laughed to scorn as long as they lived; and they were not so soon dead, but their Godheads were dragged in the mire like dogs, and men vouchsafed them not so much as a Tumb to be buried in. But what say ye to jesus, who being despised all his lifetime, was worshipped as God after his death? Whose Godhead 〈◊〉 Disciples preach even upon the rack, and whom the very Emperors Tiberius, and Antoninus, and Alexander honoured in their hearts and worshipped as God in their privichambers? And in what time? Surely in the Learnedest time that ever was, and in the full flourishing state of knowledge in all arts, skills, and sciences: when Rhetoryk, Logic, and all Philosophy were at their pride; and at such time as Magik and all manner of curious seiences had their full scope and were at their highest pitch. If he be worshipped for his wisdom; what a number of grave Senators were there at that time? If for Learning and Doctrine; what a number of learned men? If for Riches and parentage; how would those great men have yielded to such an ofcast? If for his guiltless death, why not others also, of so many which preached him and followed him? And why was not Gabinius worshipped so to, being a Citisen of Rome, a man of honour, and unjustly crucified, in whose behalf Cicero uttered all the goodly eloquence that he had? Nay surely, they saw such a change in the World, so sudden, so great, and so universal; that they could not impute it to any other thing, than to the power and operation of him that ruleth the world, whose mighty power they perceived in jesus.  
That this so sudden turning of Nations to worship a man; 
Records of the wonderful proceeding of Christ's Kingdom.  of Emperors to reverence reproach, and of wise men to have folly (as sayeth S. Paul) in admiration, is very true: I will take none other witnesses than themselves. We read in Suetonius and Tacitus, that the name of Christ was known in Rome, and throughout all Italy: For they persecuted the Christians a fresh contrary to the custom of the Romans; insomuch that Nero 
Sueton. in Nero.  made them to be put to the slaughter, 
Tacitus lib. 5.  as if they had been the authors of the burning of Rome, which he himself had caused to be set on fire. And we read that in the same time, the Senate made certain decrees, whereby many thousands of Christians, infected with the jewish superstition, (for so did they term them because they had their original from the jews) were banished into divers Iles. Which thing the Senate would not have done, (considering their ordinary manner of proceeding in caces of Religion) if the hasty increase of that spiritual kingdom had not put them in fear. And within a while after, we see how all the Emperors were amazed at this flocking of people together unto them, for counsel how to extinguish that doctrine; and how fires were kindled against them on all sides; and yet how Nations nevertheless were shaken at the voice of the Apostles, and the very Courts of Princes with their Legions of Soldiers, were made to incline unto Christ. Sufficient witnesses whereof be the Laws of that age; wherein it was enacted that the swordgirdle of a Soldier should not be worn of any Christian: that they should not bear any office or have any charge in the Court, and such other. And Ulpian the Lawyer did himself write four books against the christians. And truly we read that a great many gave over their charges, rather than they would forsake the Christian faith. Moreover in the time of Marcus Aurelius, 
Xiphilus in the life of M: Aurelius.  there was a Legion that was called the Legion of Malta, which was altogether of Christians; of which Legion he witnesseth in a certain Epistle of his, 
The Epistie of M. Aurelius in the Apology of justine.  that being upon a time brought to utter distress by the Marcomanes, this Legion obtained by prayer beth Thunder from Heaven against the enemy, and Rain wherewith to refresh the whole army, whereupon that Legion was afterward called the Thunderer. And therefore saith Tertullian 
Tertulian in his Apology.  in his Apology, If as many of us as be Christians should get us away into some corner of the world; ye would wonder to see how few people ye should have remaining to you, & ye should be fain to seek other Cities to command; or rather you to flee away out of hand and too hide yourselves; for ye should have more enemies than Citizens left ye. We have filled now whole Cities, islands and Castles; Counsels, Palaces, and Courts; tribes, Legions, and Armies. What war were we not able enough to undertake, if we listed? And what is it that we might not bring to pass, dying so manfully and so willingly as we do? Nay, the Law of our war teacheth us to die, and not to kill. Now what kingdom ever had so great increase, in so short time? But (which is a greater matter) what a thing is it to vanquish by yielding, to be furthered by retiring, and to conquer by dying? We read of the Emperor Tiberius, that upon a letter written to him from Pilate reporting the miracles of jesus, 
Egesippus in his Auacephaleosis.  his guiltless death, and his rising again from the dead; he preferred a bill to the Senate with his assent unto it, to have had them proclaim jesus to be God; and that the Senate refused it, because they themselves were not the authors thereof; but that Tiberius' abode still in his opinion. And thereupon Tertullian saith, Go look upon your Registers and the Acts of your Senate: 
Euseb. Tertullian in his A●ologie.  Also Vespasian the scourge of the jews, forbore the Christians: and trajan moderate the persecution, upon the report of their innocency made unto him by Pliny. 
Pliny in his Epistles. julius Capitolimus in Adrian and Alexander.  Marcus Aurelius having felt the help of their prayers did the like. Likewise did Antonine, 
Antonine the Emperor in an Epistle of his to the cities of Asia.  but to another end: namely, because that (as he himself writeth in an epistle of his) persecution did 'stablish the Church of the Christians. To be short, Alexander 
Dion in the life of the Emperor Alexander.  the son of Mammea, did in his Chapel worship jesus surnamed Christ, of whom also he took his 
* The device was this, Do not to another that which thou wouldst not have done to thyself.  Poesy, and therefore the Antiochians called him the Archpriest of Syria. And it is reported that for Christ's sake, the Emperor Adrian builded many Temples without Images. Finally, the good Emperors of Rome, Vespasian, Adrian, trajan, Antonine the meek and such others, had Christ in estimation and allowed of the Christians. But how far? Surely as to acknowledge in their hearts that they were good and honest men, and that jesus had more in him than was of man.. But yet for all this, If they be accused, (say these good Emperors) let them be punished; if not, let them not be sought. This is a good proof and allowance of their innocency: but surely it is but a slender relief for them. Contrariwise, the wicked Emperors Nero, Domitian, Valerian, Commodus, Maximine, Decius, and such others, condemned them, and by their condemning of them did justify them. For what did they ever allow, but evil? But what manner of condemning is this? Kill all, burn all, yea whole Cities, have no respect of sex, of age, or of quality. Scarcely had the Christians any breathingtime, but a new counterbuff came upon them again▪ they were no sooner from the torture, but they must too it again. And yet God did so rule all things by his providence, to the intent the whole glory in this mystery should redound to himself, that the mield dealing of the good Emperors did in deed justify the truth, but yet durst they not advance or further it: whereas on the contrary part, the malice of the other sort condemned it and persecuted it to the uttermost, but yet could they not destroy it. To be short, in few years there passed ten horrible persecutions upon that poor Church; and yet in the end the Emperors themselves submitted themselves to the Cross of Christ, and their empires sought their welfare there. Therefore we may always come back to this point, That he, yea only he which first created the world of nothing, when there was not yet any thing to withstand him; is able to recover the world from Satan and to subdue it to himself, without the help of any thing, even by instruments repugnant to him, and in despite of the whole world bending itself against him.  
But what will ye say if he subdue, not only men, 
The abolishing of the False Gods & of their Oracles.  but also their Gods? not only the world, but also the Sovereynes of the world; I mean the Devils which at that time held the world under their tyranny? Let us read the Histories of the Greeks & Romans that were afore the coming of Christ; and what shall we find in them, but the Miracles and Oracles of Devils? What else have Varro, Cicero, Titus Livius and such others among the Romans; or Herodotus, Diodorus, Pausanias and the residue among the Greeks? On the contrary part we see, that even ever since Christ was borne and preached (the world hath changed his hew. jesus was borne under the Emperor Augustus, 
Suidas in the life of Augustus.  and see here what Apollo answereth unto him. 
An Hebrew Child which daunteth with his power  
The blessed Gods, 
Ni. ephorus. lib. 1. Cap. 17.  doth straightly me command  
To get me hence to Hell this present hour;  
Therefore of me no Counsel now demand.  Whereupon Augustus erected an Altar in the Capitol, with this inscription upon it; The Altar of the first begotten Son of God.  
And Cicero saith that the Oracles whose answers he had so diligently registered in his books, did cease in his time: And Juvenal 
Juvenal. Satyr. 3.  reporteth the same of the Oracle of Delphos by name, howbeit that he beareth us on hand, that Kings did put them to silence, who in deed were most inquisitive to have them speak. Likewise Strabo saith that the Priests of Delphos were brought to beggary by it. But Lucan gives this general report of all the Gods of the Romans. 
The Gods by whom this Empire stood, abandon everichone  
Their Temples, Shrines, and Sacrifice, and leave us now alone.  Also Celsus the Epicure saith, that the Oracles of Claros, Delphos, and Dodon were stricken dumb. And julian the Renegade writing against the Christians, confesseth and witnesseth the same of the Oracles of AEgipt. Yea and Porphirius himself (for I allege none here but the deadly enemies of Christ) rehearseth these verses of Apollo. 
Alas ye Trevets, mourn with me; Apollo now is gone,  
Gone quite & clean; the heavenly light compelles me to be gone.  
jove was, jove is, and jove shallbe; O jove, now wellaway;  
The light of all mine Oracles doth fail me now for ay.  And unto the Priest that asked him the last Oracle, he answered thus. 
Unhappy Priest, inquire no more of me  
The outermost and last, concerning the  
Divine Begetter, or the only decree  
Beloved Son of that most mighty King.  
Nor of his Spirit which upholdeth all  
Both Mountains, Earth, Brookes, Seas, Hell, air, & Fire  
Now woe is me: For sore against my will,  
That spirit drives me from this house of mine;  
So that this Chapel where I prophesy,  
Shall out of hand be left quite desolate.  Also being enforced by charms and Conjurations, he said again as it were for a solemn Farewell; 
Eusebius in his book of Preparation to the Gospel.  
The Pythonesse shall never now her voice henceforth recover.  
Long tract of time hath withered her: The sovereign power above her  
Hath lokt her under silence fast, so as she can no more  
Now utter any prophesy; which grieveth her full sore.  
But you according to your wont, such sacrifices still  
To Phoebus' offer, as are meet for men to God to kill.  To be short, Plutarch 
Plutark.  hath made a book of purpose, entitled why Oracles have ceased. But in the end he cometh to this point, That the spirits which had the managing of those Oracles, are mortal, and that by their deaths their Oracles ceased, whereas notwithstanding he commonly upholdeth that all spirits are immortal; but in deed he should have said that they were shut up as in a jail. Hereupon he rehearseth at length a notable story of one Epitherses, who sailing near the Vrchinyles, heard (and all those that were in the Ship with him) a certain voice coming from one of those Isles, which bade them declare that the great Pan was dead, And he telleth that after this voice followed an unspeakle sighing, and lamentations without number. Which story (saith he) was reported to Tiberius then Emperor; who being desirous to know the truth of the matter, inquired very earnestly the opinions of all the Philosophers, What that great Pan should be. Now let us mark that this was done in the reign of Tiberius, under whom Christ was crucified, and that this Pan was one of the chief Idols of the Heathen, as appeareth by this his Oracle in the books of Borphiryus. 
The Goldenhorned Pan which serves the grizzly Bacchus, stalks  
Among the Mountains clad with woods, & keeps his wont walks.  In deed Apollo andswered unto Diocletian, that The righteous made him dumb; and the Priest told Diocletian, that by the righteous he meant the Christians. Whereupon Diocletian fell to persecuting them. Also the same Apollo told julian (who would needs waken him up again by Conjurations) that he could say nothing till he had first removed the bones of Babylas a Martyr of Christ's away, which were an impediment to him; which is as much to say, as he could not open his mouth, but to pronounce the sentence of condemnation against himself. And therefore, It is no marvel (saith Porphyrius 
Porphyrius against the Christians. ) though our Cities be smitten with the plague, seeing that Esculapius & the rest of the Gods are put so far from them. For since the time that jesus hath been worshigped, we have taken no benefit by any of all our Gods. Then let this great Philosopher tell me, whether jesus be a Man, and they Gods or no? What manner of Gods are those, which shrink away at the presence of a Man? and what a man is he, that maketh Gods to hide their heads? Nay further, what a man is he whose Disciple commandeth their Masters, & whose servant commandeth their Gods? Will ye see how it is the name of jesus whereat they tremble, and which they shun? Lo herr the tryail whereto the Christians submit themselves before the gentiles. Let a man (saith Tertullian 
Tertullian in his Apology. ) that is possessed in deed with a Devil, be brought before your judgmentseate; and at the commandment of the meanest Christian, the Spirit shall speak, and confess himself to be an unclean Spirit. Let one of those folk be brought whom you think to be inspired of a God; be it the same God that promiseth you rain, or beeit Esculapius that playeth the Physician among you. If he dare lie before a Christian, or if he confess not himself to be a Devil; take the Christian to be presumptuous, and let him die for it out of hand. Now, none will speak his own shame, but rather that which may sound to his honour. Surely they will not tell ye that jesus is a deceiver, or of the common stamp of men, or that he was stolen out of his grave, as hath been reported unto you: but that he is the power, the wisdom, and the word of God; that he sitteth in heaven, and that he shall come to judge us; and on the contrary part, that themselves be devils damned for their naughtiness, and waiting for his dreadful doom; and that is because that being afraid of Christ in God, and of God in Christ, they yield to God and Christ, and to the servants of God and Christ. If Tertullians' saying be true, what else is this, but that jesus commandeth them as slaves, yea even by his servants? Or if it be false, how easy had it been for the Heathen to have given him the foil, by putting the matter in proof? And why did they not put the Christians to shame, in the open face of the world? Nay (saith Lactantius) when they offered sacrifice to their Gods, the presence of a Christian would have dashed their mysteries: and thereupon came up this speech which we read in Lucian: 
Lucian in his Alexander.  If there be any Christian here, let him get him hence. And when they asked any question of their Gods, their speech failed them: and it was as easy for a Christian to drive Apollo out of his Priest or Pythonesse, as to drive a Devil out of one that was possessed. And julian himself (as Zosimus dareth not deny) found by proof in his Magical works, how weak his Gods were, and how strong Christ is. Moreover, some curious Princes have by their Magicians caused jupiter, Neptune, Vulcan, Mercury, Apollo, and Saturn himself, that is to say, the devils that decked themselves with their names) to appear: which thing they could never cause Christ to do, with all the Conjurations that they had: and that is because all those Gods of theirs were devils, over whom good men have power by commanding them in the name of GOD, and evil men by pleasing them. But as for jesus Christ the very son of God, he stoopeth not to any creature, but is served by Angels and good men as by his Servants, and by Devils and wicked men as by his Slaves.  
Also at the same time that jesus came, there was scarcely any Country in the world, where these devils had not men offered ordinarily unto them in Sacrifice, as we understand by Porphyrius himself, and as I have declared heretofore. But in the reign of Tiberius, they were forbidden in Africa, and the Priests that Sacrificed them were hanged up in their hallowed Groves. And under the Emperor Adrian all Sacrifices and all Idols were abolished almost everywhere. And therefore saith S. Austin to the people of Medaure; See how your Temples are partly decayed for want of reparation, and partly shut up, and partly altered to another use. 
S. Austin in an Epistle to the people of Medaure.  To worship your Idols, you have put the Christians to death; & the Christians by their dying have cast your Idols down to the ground. And in another place he crieth out; where be your Gods, where be your Prophets, where be your Oracles, your Bowelgazing and your Sacrifices? And we read not of any that reproved him of untruth; notwithstanding that many (and among them one Zosimus) bewaileth the decay of them; and yet doth not any of them step forth for him, to show any remainder of them. And whereas julian saith, As our Oracles are ceased, so also be your Prophets: Let him first show upon what cause his Oracles are ceased, which many have sought and none yet found. As for ours, they had an eye to Christ, and aimed at him as their mark: and now that he is come, the office of the messenger ceaseth in the presence of the master, and the representing of salvation by Sacrifices ceaseth, because the Salvation itself is come.  
jesus therefore hath overcome both the world and the Prince of the world, 
Miracles which could not proceed but from God  by a force (in outward show) clean contrary to all victory, and by a way contrary to the end that he intended; that is to wit by his word, which to the sight of the world is folly & feebleness. Let us see now how in his works he passeth all the ability of all Creatures, according to this saying of his, The works which I do, do bear witness of me. And sooth it is a miracle that so many people have believed at the preaching of the Apostles: but a far more wonder that so few folk in these our days should regard it, though jesus Christ and his Apostles had never wrought other miracle than that, as I have often said afore. But that they wrought very great miracles beside, I see few of the Heathen that dare deny it; and against the jews I have sufficiently proved it already. We have a Letter of Pylats, wherein he witnesseth that jesus gave sight to the blind, cleansed Lepers, healed them that were diseased with the Palsy, delivered men from devils, overruled the waters, raised the dead, and rose again himself after he had been dead three days. Also our Divines of old time say unto the Heathen, Read your own Commentaries, and search your Registers, & you shall find there the miracles of jesus. And the Emperor julian speaking of him in scorn, saith thus; What hath this jesus done worthy of memory or of any account in all his life; saving that he cured a few blind and lame men, and delivered some from Devils that possessed them, in the Villages of Bethsaida and Bethania? To be short, as well the Turks as the jews confess and commend his miracles; and the Emperors would never have esteemed of him, if it had not been for his miracles. Apollo himself in his Oracles called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is to say, The wise in wonderful works. But let us take julian at his word, and his confession will be enough. Put the case that he had done no more but cured the blind, and that he had cured no more than one. Who is so blind, that in this healing of the blind, seethe not this singular power of God? Is not the eyesight one of the excellentest substances in the world? And what is the restoring of sight, but the restoring of a substance? and what is the restoring thereof, but a new creating thereof, even of nothing? And what can make a substance (how small soever it be) of nothing, but an infinite power? The which who can have, but the only one God? or who can be the instrument or disposer thereof, but only he that pleaseth God? To be brief, is he not without the bounds of nature, which can create a substance? And whence hath he then that power, but from the maker of nature, at leastwise if he be not the maker himself? But our Lord jesus wrought infinite miracles, as the jews that saw them have witnessed and do witness still; and not only he, but also his Apostles; 
Austin concerning the true Religion.  and not only his Apostles, but also their Disciples. And in deed they have contrived certain books under the name of jesus, as dedicated by him to Peter and Paul, containing an Art of working Miracles; by likelihood because they had seen them painted together, howbeit that Paul (as is well known) kept not company with Christ while he lived in the flesh, but persecuted his Disciples a good while after. And S. Paul saith expressly, that he himself came in signs and miracles: wherein if he lied, it was an easy matter to disprove him. Again, Christ wrought some such miracles, as julian being unable to deny, falleth to railing and reviling him, calling him the greatest Magician that ever was in the world. And of Saint Peter, they report that by his Magic he made the Christian Religion durable for the space of thréehundred threescore and five years, and that he did it without the privity and consent of jesus. Whence rise these great slanders, but of the greatness of the works of Christ and his Disciples? And if they had not done both great and manifest miracles; had not the shortest way been to have denied them? But let us consider of what spirit these contrarieties proceed. jesus (say they) did dedicate a book to Peter and Paul: and Paul was a persecuter at that time and long time after. Likewise, Peter (say they) established Religion without the privity and consent of jesus: and how then had he learned it of him? To be short, if there be any such books, why do they not show them? If they be good, why should they hide them? If they be evil, why esteem they him wise? Or if they be effectual, why do they not put them in practice? As touching this point, I have answered the jews already. But let us come to the matter again. Magic never flourished more in Prince's Courts, than in the time of the Apostles. Why did not some body step forth to vanquish them or to convict them? Denis and Origen were great Philosophers; and Origen was the Disciple of Ammonius, & fellowdisciple to Plotin, that is so greatly allowed & so highly commended among them. Were these men such as would suffer themselves to be led with illusions; or attribute that to God's special working, which depended upon nature? Specially Origen who had been trained up in Plato's Philosophy, and at that time professed Magic, as well the natural by the consent of dispositions in things, as the devilish which they call Theurgy by entering into fellowship and compact with Spirits? julian also, (who to confound the miracles of jesus, did what he could to revive Magic by the help of jamblichus and Maximus) did he ever cure a blind man, or make a lame man go? Nay, what got he by it, but ghastly fear, such as served not to heal men's diseases, but to drive himself out of his wits? As for those which attribute the Miracles wrought by the Christians, to a strong and forcible imagination so vehemently fixed and fast set in the belief that jesus is God, that it doth things wonderful to our mortal nature: therein they follow the opinion of Avicen, who attributeth unto fantasy or imagination, the operations that seem to exceed nature. 
In his sixth book of the nature of things.  If it be so, I would fain have these good Philosophers tell me, if of so many fantastical Arabians as have bend their whole force to imagination all their lives long, they can name me one that hath wrought any miracle? And of them all, who should rather have done it, than the author of this imagination? Also say they, whether of these hath the greater force? an ability that is bred in us, or a quality that doth but come into us? fire as it is in itself, or as it is in a thing that it hath heated? Now, these Philosopher's work (as they think) by imagination applied to natural things, which imagination is an ability bred in man by nature: But the Christians (say they) work by an imagination or persuasion that they have concerning Christ, which imagination is not natural, but cometh from without. Why then did not these Philosopher's work miracles in natural things, yea and more evident than the miracles of the Christians.  
As touching Prophesying, 
The Prophecies of Iesu●.  which holdeth a very high place among miracles; and is much less subject to the wrangling of Sophisters; Phlegon the Emperor Adrians' Freedman, confesseth in the thirteenth and fourteenth books of his Chronicles, (confounding nevertheless S. Peter with Christ) that things to come were known to jesus; and he witnesseth though with an ill will, that all the things which he had foretold were come to pass accordingly in every point. And this kind of miracles of his cannot be denied, specially at this day. For in our Gospels we read his foretellings, and in the Histories of the Heathen we read the fulfilling of them. What will rise then of all this? verily that jesus hath converted the World by the bare Preaching of his Apostles, and by his own only word; and that is, of nothing to make great things. This word considered in itself, could not but turn men away from him: and that is a drawing of an effect out of his contrary. The devils hid themselves away at the voice of his Servants: and that is a power surmounting the power of man and Angel. He not only made the Creatures obedient to his beck, but also created new substances of many sorts and at many times: And this could not be but by a power that was divine in deed.  
But now omitting that such things depend upon God alone; 
Phlegon as he is alleged by Eusebius, Lactantius, & Origen.  if the Lord jesus had wrought by the Prince of the devils, [as he was slanderously reported to have done,] would he have preached innocency and holiness of life, reverence towards God, charity towards our neighbour, yea and that both in word & deed? For who could ever find fault in his conversation? And seeing that the Gods of the heathen were devils (as I have proved afore); would he have overthrown their Idols, beaten down their Altars, abolished their sacrifices, shut up their Temples, and stopped the mouths of the devils themselves? Or if they were Gods, as the heathen reported them to be; were they not goodly Gods, that would flee away for the devil, and rank Traitors to the sovereign God, that would forsake their places, and cast away their armour and weapon so cowardly? Or if (as the suttlest and cankeredest sort of them do say) the devil thought himself more worshipped in jesus and more served by his alone against the glory of God, than by all the services that had gone afore; (wherein notwithstanding I appeal to their own consciences whether they speak as they think): would God (think you) have given his spirit, and committed his power to the devil or to the devils instrument, too procure obedience and service to the devil? Specially seeing that our Lord jesus did such things as surmounted the nature power & reach of all creatures, and which could not be done but by or from the Creator himself? Nay, seeing that God is altogether good; what a blasphemy were it? And seeing he is altogether wise, what an absurdity were it? And seeing he is our father, what a contrariety were it? And seeing he doth all things to his own glory, how should he further his enemy, specially an enemy that laboureth by all means he can to bereave him of his glory? Surely therefore the working of jesus was from God and for God's glory; insomuch that neither he nor any of his Disciples, did ever speak unto us of any other thing; and therefore God himself revenged his death, both upon Herod that had persecuted him, and upon the jews which had betrayed him (accordingly as he had foretold them) and also upon Pilate which had condemned him: and likewise upon the nero's, domitians, Valerians, Maximies, Diocletians and such others as had persecuted his Disciples; the end of all whom crieth and proclaimeth with open and loud voice, Take warning at us to deal justly and to fear God. Nay further, this jesus working manifestly by the power of God, telleth us plainly that he was the son of GOD, that the father was in him and he in the father, and that both of them were one. Also he did oftentimes of his own authority command nature as Lord thereof, and cause men too worship him as God, even among the jews who abhorred nothing more than a strange God. On the other side the Prophets of old time which Prophesied of him, wrought miracles also, howbeit by calling upon the name of God; and likewise the Apostles that preached him, howbeit in his name: and all they refused the honour that was offered them, and rend their garmenes when men honoured them, acknowledging themselves always to be but his servants and instruments of his glory. And had he not been the son of God; surely in so saying he had not been God's servant, but his enemy, and a rank rebel and Traitor and whatsoever worse is if any can be worse, and consequently under the extreme wrath of the creator, as a person puffed up with passing pride, which is the cause both of man's falling from his state, and of the devils condemnation at God's hand. Therefore let us say that jesus is the Son of God as he himself hath told us, and that we ought to hear him, to yield unto him, to follow him, and to worship him as God, I mean God and man, the only Mediator of mankind, who died for our sins and rose again to make us righteous; to whom be glory for ever and ever.  
Amen.   

The xxxiij. Chapter.  
A Solution of the Objections of the Heathen against jesus, the Son of God.  
SUrely by those few things which the Heathen of old time either listed or durst speak of jesus, even at such time as it was an offence not only too speak well, but also even not too speak evil of him; we see well that he did put all the Philosophers to their Clergy; so as they witted not which way to turn them. In his life they could find no ●lanie; 
The witness of the Infidels  of his doctrine they knew not what to say; and as for his power, they could not deny it for shame. All the shift they had, was but to say he was a great man, full of godliness and virtue, and wonderful to all men: but that his Disciples did him wrong to call him God, seeing that neither he nor his Apostles had ever affirmed him so to be. But let those that doubt hereof, read S. john, and they shall find in divers places, that no man hath told us more plainly that jesus was God, than jesus himself; God (say I) the everlasting son of God, sent down from Heaven, equal with the father, and all one with the father. Their so saying was to avoid the force of this argument of ours when we say, he could not do such things but from GOD; therefore he was not an enemy to God. 
S. Austin in his Epistles. Porphyrius in books of the praises of Philosophic.  But he had evidently been so, if he had conveyed God's glory to himself and called himself God not being so in déeed; Therefore it followeth that seeing he himself said he was God, he is so in deed; and that our worshipping of him, is a worshipping of the very true God. Hereupon it is that the Philosopher Longinian in an epistle of his to S. Austin sayeth, that he could not well tell what to deem of jesus. And asfor Plotine, he impugneth not so much the Christians, as the gnostics and manichees. And Porphyrius who fell away from Christ because he had been reproved by the Church, sayeth thus; It is a great matter that the Gods themselves should witness with jesus, that he was a man of singular godlgnes, and that for the same he is rewarded with blessed immortality: But in this the Christians overshoore themselves, that they call him God. And Apollo being asked of one how he might withdraw his wife from Christiani●te, answered; Thou mayst sooner fly in the air or wait in water, than draw her away from that. So strong was Christ in converting men too him, to have nothing but adversity in this life; and so far to weak were the Devils to turn them away from him, though they promised them all manner of good. And here we may not forget a subtle trick of the Devil, worthy to be noted in many of his Oracles alleged by Porphyrius. For commonly in the winding up of them, he ever commended the jews, as worshippers of the only GOD, and for that they continued deadly enemies to jesus Christ, against whose Godhead they made what resistance they could, howbeit altogether in vain.  
As touching the Turks, 
Alcoran, Azo. are, 1. 4. 11. 13.  Mahomet saith, That God's spirit was a help and a witness to jesus the Son of Marie: That the Soul of God was given unto him: That he is the messenger, the Spirit, and the word of GOD: That his doctrine is perfect: That it enlighteneth the old Testament: and that he came to confirm the same. But that he should be God, and specially the son of God, that he denieth: and yet it is not possible that he should be either the Spirit or the Word of God, but he must also be God, considering that in God there cannot be any thing imagined to be which is not GOD himself: and that in the same doctrine which Mahomet himself doth so greatly allow, our Lord jesus affirmeth himself to be God, and the Son of God. But let us hear further of the Objections which the Infidels make, why they should not receive Christ for God.  
What so great thing (saith julian 
julians' objections. ) hath your jesus done, that he may be compared with Socrates, Lycurgus, or Alexander? Nay surely may we say, and upon better ground, what have they all three done and put them together, that is comparable to the doings of an Apostle of jesus? Socrates (saith julian) was an Innocent: but yet an idolater. 
Porphyrius alleging Aristoxenus.  A teacher and pattern of Moral virtue: but yet (as his own Porphyry reporteth) lecherous and a lover of women; and so choleric in his anger, that he spared not to say any thing were it never so wrong. Yet died he for the truth of the only God: but he had served false Gods all his life long, and even at his death he made vows still unto them. And let not julian boast here, that his doctrine continued after his death. For the Athenians acquitted him and honoured him anon after: whereas open war was maintained against the Apostles & their doctrine, by the space of three hundred years together. And yet in as great reputation as Socrates was after his death, his Disciple Plato durst scarce be so bold as to speak against the Gods. Such therefore were their examples of good behaviour, as these be. One Cymon was an honest man, but yet given to Incest. Aristides was an uncorrupt man, but ● robber of the common treasure and ambitious. The Cato's were reformers of disorders in youths, but yet adulterers and murderers themselves. But as for jesus and his Apostles, what enemy of theirs was ever so past shame, as to carp their conversation? And if the forerehearsed men were so far of from common honesty, even by the record of them that had them in chief estimation: how much further of were they from being Gods, yea or from resembling them?  
In Lycurgus 
Lycurgus.  (to julians' seeming) there was some singularity. The people were so rude and headstrong that they put out one of his eyes as he was proclaiming his Laws: and yet notwithstanding those Laws bare sway in Lacedaemon many hundred years after. But julian must remember also, that the Phrasians being next neighbours to Lycurgus, and his confederates & companions in arms, would not admit them; and that the Lacedæmonians themselves corrected them while he was yet alive: upon the report whereof he died out of hand for pride, grief, & disdain. But what comparison is there between Sparta and the whole world? between dying for disdain to see his Laws corrected, and dying willingly to correct the Laws of all the world?  
What will he tell us now of Alexander? 
Alexander. ●  He had a great Host and power of men: so much the more weaker was he of himself. jesus was despised and full of infirmity: so much the greater is his mightiness and honour. Alexander vanquished the Persians in Battle: how much more commendable had it been, if he had done it with a blast of his mouth? If he had lived, he would have conquered the whole world: how much more honourable had it been, if he had triumphed over the world by dying? Alexander increased his kingdom by oppressing; and jesus by yielding. Alexander by killing, and jesus by dying. But Alexander's Empire decayed by his death; whereas the kingdom of jesus was both founded and established by the death of himself and his. The difference therefore betwixt them is as great, as is betwixt him that dieth and him that quickeneth; or between him that of all maketh a thing of nothing, and him which of nothing maketh all things. To be short, if ye look for virtue; A man that excelled in virtue, was in old time a wonder. The Philosopher's themselves (saith Cornelius Nepos) condemned themselves in their own teachings. But after the time that jesus was once preached, what a number of men, women, and even children, in Town and Country, yea and in Wildernesses, taught virtue to the world by their example? If ye require righteousness; what were the first Christians but teachers of equity, of uncorruptness, and of uprightness. Yea what enemy of theirs do we find, that once openeth his mouth to accuse them? If ye seek the despising of death; in deed they make a great a do of one Zeno an Eleate, for spitting out his Tongue at a Tyrant, lest he might confess what the Tyrant demanded: and likewise of one Leena a woman of Athens, that endured all manner of torments without uttering one word. If this be so great a matter; what a thing is it, that in one age, ye shall have whole millions of all fexes, of all ages, of all states degrees and conditions, go willingly and joyfully to death: insomuch that the Historiographer Arrianus, makes a general rule of it, That all Christians made in effect no account of death? not to conceal any fault of theirs, as those others did, who had lever to have suffered torments than to have died: but for professing the thing openly before all people, which they had learned of God, as folk that would have thought themselves unworthy to live, if they had held their peace. To be short, what Disciples, what Subjects, what Soldiers had Socrates, Lycurgus, or Alexander in all their life, that came any thing nigh this? these (I say) which were taught, ruled, and trained up by jesus even after he was departed hence, and by his Apostles which were rude, ignorant, and weak as long as he was conversant with them, yea and even at the very time of his death?  
Besides this notable alteration, 
The objections of the Astrology.  I said also that at that time the serving of Idols ceased in all places at once. Are they (think you) so void of wit as to say, that the ceasing thereof in so many places, in so notable manner, and in so great geynstriving; happened by chance? And must it not be that those Gods were made in great haste, which had perished by so sudden chance? No say they: it came to pass by a Constellation (that is to say, I wot not what a meeting together) of the Stars in the Sky. Let us examine this Astrology a little. They suppose, (and it is a common opinion) that according to the diversity of Images in the Sky, there are also divers Religions and divers Gods in divers Nations; and therefore they divide the world into seven Climates, and unto every Climate they allot a several Planet to have the rule of it. But how will they answer to Bardesanes the Syrian, who (as they themselves cannot deny) was the wisest of all the Chaldees? 
Bardesanes the Syrian. Euseb. prepar. lib. 6. cap. 18.  Ye part the world (saith he) into seven Climates, every Climate to be governed by a Planet, and what a number of Nations are under every Climate? In every Nation, what a number of Shires? In every Shire what a sort of Towns? All which do differ both in Laws, in Gods, and in Religions; and that, not only according to the number of the twelve Signs, or of the six and thirty faces only, but in infinite sorts. In India under one selfsame Climate some eat man's flesh, and some eat no flesh at all: some worship Idols, and othersome admit none at all. Again, this Magusians (carry them whether soever ye will) are given to Incest after the custom of their Moothercountry Persia from whence they descend: And the jews being dispersed over all the world, altar not their Religion nor their manner of life wheresoever ye bestow them. To be short, a Nation departing out of one Climate, carrieth new Gods and new Laws into another Climate, and yet the Climate neither troubleth nor hindereth the doing thereof. What virtue have the Climates or the Signs over Laws and Religions: the differences whereof are made by Forests, Rivers and Mountains, which are the bounds of jurisdictions; rather than by them? And which they are brought into again even in despite of them, by men, by custom, and by conquest? And in good sooth, whereof cometh it that in the Countries where Venus, Mercury, and Saturn were worshipped in old time; the Gods are now abolished quite and clean, & yet the signs are still in the same places where they were afore? And whereof cometh it that the jewish Law being banished and utterly rooted out of their own Country, continueth under all Climates still? How happeneth it that the Religion of Mahomet is now, where the Christian Religion was in time past? and the Christian is now, where sometime were the bloody Altars of Saturn and Mars, and in some places many and contrary Religions together?  
For the saluing of this absurdity, they run into another. Not the Climates in very deed (say they) do make the differences in Religion, but the great Conjunctions of the Planets: and yet even about this point they be at great odds among themselves. For some say that the great Conjunctions of jupiter and Saturn and none other, 
Albumazar. Roger Bacon.  do dispose of Religion. Others say that properly jupiter betokeneth Religion, and that after as he is accompanied, so bringeth he forth the diversities of them; as for example, accompanied with Saturn, the jewish; with Mars, the Chaldee; with the Sun, the Egyptian; with Venus, the Mahometan; with Mercury, the Christian; and with Luna, the Antichristian; and that there cannot be above six of them. If I should ask both of them a reason, or an experience of their saying, I doubt which of them would be most graveled. But because I will show myself more indifferent, I require first that they agree among themselves, to tell me which is a great Conjunction, which is a mean one, and which is a small one: for as yet they vary upon that point. And likewise whether the ninth house or the seventh house is the house of Religion. Herewithal I would have them to set me down the beginnings of the great Conjunctions, that they might jump with the original springings up of Religious and with the changes of them: which thing they have not hitherto done. Thirdly, if Religion depend upon the Conjunction of the Planets; let them tell me whither upon the ceasing of those Conjunctions, the Religions shall not cease also, or at leastwise anon after, as light faileth by the going away of the Sun: and whereupon it cometh then that the Christian, the jewish, and the Heathen Religions have continued so many hundred years, seeing there was never any ginger that once dreamt that a Conjunction should last so long? Fourthly, what great Conjunction bred the doctrine of jesus Christ, seeing there was never any change in Religion, so great, so universal, so speedy, nor so durable; and yet even by their own confession, there was not at that time nor near about that time, any Conjunction either great or small that could be perceived. To be short, if only jupiter & Saturn be the authors of such change; which of them maketh the difference in Religions? If jupiter make the diversities of them according as he is accompanied, how happeneth it that there be so many and so sundry sorts of Religions, seeing it was said afore that there can be no more than six? Again, what great Conjunction was there at the change of Religion made by Mahomet? Or at the change that was made afterward by the Arabians or Saracens in Africa? And when of two Countries, yea and even of two Cities that have but a River betwixt them, the one sticketh stoutly and wilfully to the old Religion, and the other embraceth the new: what Conjunction may be the cause of such disjunction?  
But too come too particulars, I ask of them concerning the change of Religion that was brought up in the time of jesus, whether they give their judgement thereof by the first uprising and original of Idolatry, which was to fail at that time as a Clew of yarn that is wound out too the end; or by the Original of the Christian Religion, which was to succeed and to smoulder the other, by the force and operation of some great Conjunction then fresh and lusty to thrust it forth? again as touching the original beginning or first uprising, be it of that Religion which came up, or of that which went down; whence do they take it? from the first publishing thereof, as they judge of a City by the laying of the first stone, or from the birth of the founder or injoiner thereof by law, as if a man should judge of the prosperity and luckynesse of a City or house by the nativity or birth of the Maistermason, or of the owner or founder that causeth it to be builded? But if Idolatry was to decay at that time, by reason that the force of the Conjunction that caused it was then outworn; did all sorts of Idolatry being so many in number, spring all of one selfsame Conjunction, and therefore must needs all fail not once? Who can tell when the force of a Conjunction shall vanish away, but he that knoweth the first instant of the beginning thereof? And where have they ever marked or found out, either the very instant or any time near the instant wherein Idolatry was first borne, which being so diversly shaped and of so sundry sorts, must needs (by their own opinion) depend upon many great Conjunctions? Or where have they cast the nativity of the first founder thereof▪ who certainly 〈◊〉 needs be more than one? Or if they judge it by the first uprising of the Christian Religion; if it depend upon a great Conjunction, let them show us one that time: or if it proceed from the nativity of the setter up thereof by Law; let them tell us where they have read it. For they will not denye● but that the birthtyme of jesus about the casting whereof so many. Astrologers have bewrayed their own folly, is uncertain and without ground. To be short, either the springing up of Religion is as upon some great Conjunction. and at that time there was none such too be marked; or else at the springing up thereof by the preaching of jesus, some great Conjunction matching there withal, did give force unto it; but none such was seen about that time neither: or finally both the uprising and the force thereof depended upon the birthtyme of jesus; and that is more uncertain and less known unto us than both the other. But that the birth of one man should overrule so many natures and so many Nations, what Astrology will permit; seeing that some one or other of every Nation, might be borne in the selfsame instant as well as he? And that such a nativity should overrule, not only the Nations, but also the Gods or rather devils of the Nations, what theology or what Astrology will grant; seeing that by the judgement of the best Astrologers, the Stars enforce not the mind of man, and much less the separated minds (as they term them,) that is to say Spirits; and that even by their own divinity, men ought to honour and obey the Gods? Finally, what order is this, that the Stars should have dominion over a man, and by the same man triumph over all the Gods? But the ●anitie of these contemplations or rather gasings, is plainly bewrayed by the effect thereof. For by their supposed Conjunctions they gave their judgement that the Christian Religion should not continue above three hundred and threescore years or thereabouts: and then did it manifest itself more and more to the overthrow of all manner of ungodliness and superstition. Albumazar extended it afterward to the thousand fourehundred and Sixtith year; and yet, GOD be thanked, it lifteth itself up again and shineth forth still more and more, On the otherside, Abraham a jew Prophesied that in the year of our Lord a thousand fowerhundred threescore and four, the jewish Religion should get the upper hand; the which was never more oppressed than at that tyme. This serveth to show that their judicial Astrology is so vain and fond that although ye granted them all their suppositions, (whereof in very deed they can make no proof) yet they would confute themselves by the course of the times, and also by their own consents. Nevertheless I would not have any man think, that my speaking hereof is because I have not matter where with to advantage myself in their Astrology: For I could allege here, how they say that jesus in his nativity, had for his ascendent, the sign of Virgo in her first face, as they term it, in which place of the Heaven, Albumazar the Arabian sayeth that the Indians and Egyptians have marked a virgin bearing two ears of Corn in her hand, and a Child sucking on her breast, whom a certain Nation (saith he) call jesus; and that the Star which the Greeks and Latins in their languages call an Ear of Corn, is called by the Arabians The sign of the food that sustaineth, as if ye would say, The substantial bread or food: And that upon the Star which the wise men saw in the East in the time of the Emperor Augustus; the Astrologers deliver matter enough: But in these earnest matters, I am loath to allege any thing which is not substantial, or which I take not to be so.  
After Astrology, Magik 
The Objections of the Magicians.  biddeth us battle. I said that jesus in his miracles, surmounted the ability of all Creatures. hereupon they set against us Simon the Sorcerer, Apollonius of Thyanie, Apuleus of Medaure, and such others: And sooth all these do yield us so much the greater record of the miracles of jesus, in that for to diminish the estimation of them, they have had recourse to false miracles, and given credit to such as were workers of them. Simon 
Simon Magus  therefore reported himself to be a GOD, to have given the Law to Moses upon Mount Sinai, to have appeared afterwärd in the person of Christ, and finally too have shed out the gifts of toongues upon the Apostles in the person of the holy Ghost: wherein he confesseth aforehand the myghtynesse of Christ's name, and that he would have men believe that he was Christ, and beautify himself with his works. To this end doth he apply the grounds of Magic, whereby he maketh the people to wonder at him. Now, jesus had been crucified; but unto this man the Romans did set up a standing Image upon the Bridge of Tibris, 
josephus in his 5. book of the jewish wars. cap. 1.  with this title, To Simon the holy God. The Disciples of jesus suffered, and taught men to suffer, and were extremely persecuted of all judges. Contrariwise, he and his followers were much made of among the greatest personages. But he did yet more: for he taught his Disciples that Idolatry is an indifferent thing, and that men should not need to suffer for his Doctrine; and what could be more delyghtfull and more enticing than this gear? Yet notwithstanding, in the end both he and his Lady Selene were quite shaken of at all men's hands, and all the cunning he had could not make him to take footing again in the world, neither hath the remembrance of him had any continuance here, but to the glory of the Lord jesus, and to his own shame. And what else doth this give us to understand, but that it is in vain for Princes to cherish a wicked w●ede, when Heaven is bend against it, and that they labour in vain to pluck up the good herb, which God intendeth to prosper?  
They make great brags of one Apollonius of Thyanie. 
Apollonius of Thyanie.  How few at leastwise among our learned men have not heard of him? This man did call up the Ghost of Achilles, 
Philostratus in the life of Apollonius.  that is to say, a devil. What a number of Sorcerers can do as much as that? He asketh him whether he had not a Tomb? Whether Polixena were killed for his sake or no? Whether the things which the Poet's report of him be true? What good hap should come unto the world; and what good fortune was to befall to the Necromancer himself? He took a Lucksigne at the sight of a Lioness; and what a Superstition was that? He wore Rings made by the constellations of Planets; and what a vanity was that? When a Plague was begun, he gave warning of it: and when it grew strong, he floonke away. He fetched a young wench to life again; but yet his counterfeit Evangelist Philostratus durst not avow that she was stark dead. What is there in all these, that is either good or great? But now come we to the point. jesus died for the salvation of the world; 
Dion in Aurelian.  and Apollonius to drive a certain disease out of a City, caused a stranger to be stoned to death as he passed by in the open Marketsted. The Disciples of jesus were slain in all Cities: and Apollonius had Images set up unto him, and was worshipped in many Temples for a God. The said Disciples did in the end overthrow both the Temples, the Idols and his Images too: Contrariwise, Apollonius lived till he saw himself bereft of all honour, and his Images consumed into smoke; neither did the fame of him overlive him three days; insomuch that even the book which he had written of his consultations with the Devils in the den of Trophonius, rotten and perished together with the Ceremonies of the same Cave. What are the Miracles of this Apollonius, but proofs of the Godhead of jesus? For seeing that having attained to the uttermost that man and nature could come unto, he vanished away so soon even of himself; and jesus even in despite of man, and of the world, and of nature, went through and gate the upper hand of him and of all others; how could this have come to pass, if the working of jesus had not been by a higher power than the power of the world, of man, and of nature?  
Apuleius 
Apuleius.  of Madaure hath showed sufficiently in his books, that he knew all the tricks of Magic: but what was he the better for them? He was of an honourable house; but did he ever attain to the least degree of dignity? Some will say perchance, that he made no reckoning of it: what shall we say then to his pleading against the men of Choa (from whence nevertheless he had married his wife) for that they would not receive an Image of him? But the Emperor Vespasian 
Vespasian. Tacitus. lib. 20  (sayest thou) cured a blind man at Alexandria; and those (saith Tacitus) do bear witness of it, which had no gain by saying it. And why then deléevelye not the miracles of jesus, witnessed by so many men which are content to forego all that ever they have, yea and their lives also, for saying it? And had Vespasian done so; who knoweth not the vaingloriousnes of the Romans? O how well would it have matched with this Oracle applied unto him by his flatterers: namely, That the Monarch of the whole world should come out of jewrie: and also with this other, That to be saved, it behoved them to have a King? And as small a miracle as it was, what a countenance would it have carried, being upheld by so many Legions, soothed by so many learned flatterers, maintained by the state of the Empire, and confirmed by so many hangers on? For as for Antinous 
Antinous.  the Emperor Adrians' Minion, whom the Emperor endowed with Temples and Sacrifices: to what purpose served he, but to show that it was not in the power of the great Emperor of the world, to make folk believe a man to be a God, what pain or cost soever he put himself unto?  
Yea (say they) but to believe the miracles of jesus, 
Objection.  we would see miracles still. The time hath been that they were seen, the time hath been that they were believed, and time hath altered the course of them: what a number of things do we believe which we see not? And what reason or what benefit should lead us to the believing of any other rather than of them? But we should be the more assured of them. As much might the former ages have said, and as much may the ages say that are to come; and so should it behove miracles to be wrought to all men and at all times. And were it once so, then should miracles be no miracles, forsomuch as in truth they have not that name, but of the rare and seldom sight of them. The Sun giveth light daily to the world: he maketh the day, the year, and the seasons of the year. Trees having borne flowers and fruit become bare, and afterward shoot out their buds and flourish again. The vine turneth the moisture of the Earth into Wine: the grain of Corn, turneth it into ears of Corn: and the Pipen or kernel of an Apple, into an appletree. And infinite men receive shape and birth every hour. All these are very great miracles, and God and none other is the doer of them; nature teacheth it thee, and thou canst not deny it. But forasmuch as thou seest them every day, thou regardest them not; and yet the leasf of them would make thee to wonder, if it were rare. To secure thine infirmity, the Sun foregoeth his light, a dry stick flourisheth, water is turned into wine, and the dead are raised to life: and all this is too show unto thee, that the same power which wrought in creating things at the beginning, worketh now still whensoever it listeth; and that if the effects live, the cause of them is not dead. And if thou shouldest see every day some miracle in the Sun, in Plants, and in man; surely in less than a hundred years miracles would be changed into nature with thee, and the helps of thine infirmity would turn thee to unbelief; and to make the world believe again, God should be feign to create a new world for the world. An example whereof may be the people of Israel, who having their meat, their drink, their training up, and their government altogether of miracle, did in less than forty years turn them all into nature; and like folk accustomed continually to physic, which turn their medicines into nourishment of their bodies; they abused the stays of their faith, by turning them into occasions of distrust and unbelief. Now, God created nature, and hath given it a Law, which Law he will have it to follow. Nevertheless, sometimes for our infirmities sake he interrupteth it, to the intent to make us to know that he is Lord of nature. But if he should do it at our appointment, then should we be the Lords both of nature and of him; and if he should do it in all caces, we would make a rule of it; and we would make books and calculations of it no less than of the Eclipses of the Sun or of the Moon, or rather than of the motions of the eight Sphere; and we would impute all those interruptions and changes, to the nature of nature itself. Therefore it is both more convenient for his glory and more behoveful to our salvation, that nature should still follow her nature, and that miracles should continue miracles still; that is to say, that they should be rare, as necessary helps to the infirmities of our nature, I mean not of one man, or of one age, but of all mankind, or at leastwise of all the Church together, which is but as one comonweale and one man.  
Yet remaineth Mahomet, 
Mahomet.  and he seemeth to be a jolly fellow: for he made a great part of the world to believe in him. He was an Arabian and took wages of the Emperor Heraclius, to serve him in his wars anon after the declining of the Empire; and in a mutiny among the Arabian Soldiers, he was chosen by them to be their commander, as we see divers times in the bands of the Spaniards. Whether he were a good man or no, let the people of Mecha (who worship him at this day) judge, which condemned him to death for his Robberies and murders. And he himself in his Alcoran confesseth himself to be a sinner, an Idolater, an adulterer, given to Lechery, and subject to women; and that in such words as I am ashamed to repeat. But he hath enlarged his Empire by his successors, and laid his Law upon many Nations. What marvel is that? For why? Auendge yourselves (sayeth he) with all your hearts; take as many wives as ye be able to keep; Spare not even nature itself. What is he (though he were the rankest varlet in the world) that might not levy men of that price, considering the corruption that is in mankind? He reigned as a Lord say they; but yet by worldly mean●●, yea and utterly unbeseeming a man. If ye inquire of his Doctrine, (say they) it is holy, conformable to the old and new Testament, and admitted of God. But as good as ye make it, yet may ye not examine it nor dispute of it upon pain of death. And what man of judgement would not have some suspicion of the person (though he were very honest,) which should say, Behold ye be paid, and in good monny; but ye may not look upon it by daylyght? If ye look for his miracles; In deed God sent Moses and Christ with miracles; but Mahomet comes with his naked sword to make men believe, and as for other miracle he works none. 
Alcoran, Azoar 2. 3. 6. etc.  And therefore all his Alcoran is nothing else but kill the Infidels, revenge yourselves, he that kills most shall have greatest share in paradise, and he that feyghteth lazily shallbe damned in hell. How far is this gear of from suffering, and both from conquering and continuing by sufferance? What wickedness might not be established by that way of his? Notwithstanding, to allure the jews he exalteth Moses, and retaineth Circumcision: and to the intent he might not estrange the Christians, he sayeth that Christ is the Spirit, Word and Power of God, and that Mahomet is Christ's servant, sent to serve him, and Prophesied of by him afore. again to please the Heretics called Nestorians, he affirmeth that yet for all this, Christ is not very God, nor the Son of God, but that he hath in deed the Soul of God. Thus do ignorance and violence in him encounter one another, the one to choke the truth, and the other to enforce the falsehood. What practises, what wiles, what countersaying, what enforcements, what armies, what cruelties useth he not too persuade men? And yet what hath he won by all this, but to be a Prophet without Prophesying, a lawmaker without miracles, and (even among his own Bishops) a man without God or Religion? What man of discretion would read his Alcoran twice, except it were for some great gain, or by manifest compulsion, considering the absurdities, toys, contrarieties, dreams, and frantic devices that are in it, besides the wicked things, whereof I will not speak? far of therefore is he from furnishing forth of a Martyr, that will die either for the Preaching thereof, or for not recanting it. To be short, Mahomet's miracle is, to waste and spoil the world by war; Christ's is to bring the world in order by his suffering for it. Mahomet was assisted by a sort of Cutthroats like himself; Christ was followed by infinite folk dying and suffering adversity for his sake. The works of Mahomet were such as every man can do; and doth daily: the works of Christ are such as never any man did, nor durst undertake to do but he himself. Surely therefore we may well conclude, without wearying the reader any longer about these vanities; That Mahomet was a man, and wrought but as man and by man, and therefore is to be examined as a man: and that jesus Christ wrought by GOD and was (as he hath told us) the son of God, and therefore let us here him and believe him as God.  
At this word, 
An objection against Christ's Incarnation.  behold, they step up again and say; a man to be God? What an absurdity is that? How is it possible? Nay rather seeing it is convenient and agreeable both to God's glory and to man's salvation, as I have proved afore: why should it be unpossible? God created man by his wisdom, which wisdom is his son. Now, what is more meet than he should repair man by him again? Also it was a man that sinned, and in that man and by that man did all his offspring sin likewise. Now what is more rightful, than to repair him by man? Man rebelled against his father: who could appease this offence but God himself? And who could better pacify the father, than his own well-beloved Son? Man (say I) rebelled through extreme pride, upon desire to be equal with God. Now what thing is there which ought too humble man so much, as to see his Creator submit himself beneath man for the fault of man? Or which ought somuch to make him to consider his sin and to be sorry for it, as to consider the infinite greatness of his Raunsum, the exceeding greatness of his sin, and of his punishment due for the same? And if thou urge me still, with how is it possible? I answer it is possible, because God lifteth it, and even in man's understanding it containeth no contrariety to say it. Also it is possible; for we see it is so; and so many Profess cannot be wiped away by a bare question. It seemeth possible enough to thee O julian when thou listest: for thou sayest that Esculapius the son of jupiter took human flesh to come down unto the earth: and thine own Philosopher Amelius doth under hand approve, that God's eternal word took flesh and clothed himself with the nature of man, alleging the very words of S. john for the matter. To be short, thou haste a spirit united to thy body; thou canst not deny it, and yet thou seest it not. And if thou wert less than man, thou wouldst also deny it to be in man: and yet for all that, what fellowship is there between a body and a spirit? And what may seem more against reason, than that a Spirit which occupieth no place, should not only be lodged, but also imprisoned in a place? But he which made both the one and the other of nothing, can do what he thinketh good with both of them. And seeing that to glorify man, he vouchsafed to take him up into heaven and to join him unto him, (Plotin says so, and therefore thou wilt willingly here it and allow of it:) why should he be less able too come down if he list, and too unite and join himself to man upon earth, if he list to humble himself?  
But why did God send his dear Son into the world rather in that time than in any other? 
Why jesus came at the same time that he did.  Why sent he him not soover or later? These are questions for masters to use to their Servants, and not for silly Creatures to use unto God, who by his only power made us to be borne, and by his only grace hath begotten us new again. But (as I have said afore to the jews,) man lived for a time without the Law, too make him too learn that he was not a law to himself: and a certain time under the law, to make him find by proof that he was not able to perform it, and afterward grace was offered unto him, as upon a scaffold where he saw nothing but death: and so the knowing of nature corrupted made man the more able to receive the Law; and the Law made him the more ready to embrace God's grace. Moreover it is a wonderful confirmation to us, when we consider that from the beginning of the World unto his coming, we have always had Prophets from time to time, agreeing in one mind and one voice, as Heralds and Trumpeters everichone of them, to publish and proclaim the majesty of this King, which was to come into the world. For had he come anon after the Creation of the World, this confirmation of ours had been greatly 〈◊〉, because they that were the first had been surprised by his coming unlookedfor, and those that have come after should have been in danger to forget it or to make the less account of it, as though his coming had not belonged to them; whereas now all of us are partakers both of joy and of God's admonitions; both afore the Law, for he was promised to them; and under the Law, for they likewise heard the Trumpets, and also in the time that he came, for he himself spoke to them; and finally in our time, for his return draweth nigh. Nevertheless, it was his will too come in the time when learning did most flourish, and when the greatest Empire was in the chiefest pride, to the end that all worldly wisdom should acknowledge itself to be foolishness, and all strength and power acknowledge itself to be weakness before him.  
Now, therefore let us all conclude, as well jews as gentiles, that jesus Christ is the eternal son of God, the Redeemer, and the Mediator of mankind. And let no question or objection withhold us from it. jews; for he is such a one as he was promised to them, borne in Bethelem of a virgin of the Tribe of juda, at such time as the kingdom was gone from the house of juda, humbled beneath all, exalted above all, put to reproachefull death for our sins, and raised again with glory to make us righteous. gentiles; for he did works which could not proceed but from God; he created things of nothing, drew one contrary out of another, surmounted the nature of man, and overcame the nature of Angels: his doing of which things (being not possible too be done but by God,) declared him to be very God. And both together; for all of us desire eternal life, all of us know the corruption of our nature, all of us perceive what Gods justice requireth, all of us find that we have need of his mercy, and all of us see that between his justice and his mercy, none can (by reason) step in to be the Mediator but GOD, and to be the Satisfier, but man, even jesus Christ, borne of the virgin, and the son of God. And seeing it hath pleased the father to give us his son, let us embrace him; and seeing he hath sent him too bring glad tidings too our Souls, let us here him. Finally let us hearken to the rule and doctrine which he hath left us, that we may endeavour to live unto him in all godliness, considering that he hath vouchsafed of his unspeakable Love, to suffer here beneath, and to die for us.   

The xxxiiij. Chapter.  
That the Gospel in very truth containeth the doctrine of jesus the Son of God.  
NOw, as for our Lord jesus Christ himself, (for I think I may now so call him without offence to the jews or scorn of the gentiles) he hath not left us any of his own life or doctrine written by himself. For sooth had he writ it himself, men would have conceived some suspicion thereof. Again, had he set down those high things in a high style; the common sort would not have understood them: and had he uttered them in a simple style, they would have concluded (for so far as they had understood,) that it had been but the word of a Man, and not the word of God himself; as we see it is a very common fondness in the world, to esteem more of the books that are dark by reason of their overhigh style, than of those which stoop as low as they can to the capacity of the readers, to instruct them. But his life and his doctrine be recorded by his Apostles and Disciples assisted by his spirit, 
The sincerity of the writers of the New Testament.  from whom we have the Gospels, the Acts, and the Epistles, all which together we call the new Covenant or the new Testament. And whether this Testament ought to be of authority among us or no; I report me to the judgement of all the world. For the writers thereof lived in the same time that the things were done, and saw the doing of them. And although that at the time of their writing, they were far asunder; yet agree they both in the History and in the Doctrine; and look what they wrote, the same did they preach and publish openly everywhere, even while those were alive which could witness thereof, yea even while their enemies lived which would have been very glad to have taken them with an untruth: and in the end they signed it with their blood, and sealed it with their death in all places of the earth: which thing we read not to have been done for any other writing or Testament whatsoever, though it came from never so great a State or Monarch, how authentical soever men laboured to make it. If we look upon the authors, their writing is not to flatter some Prince, as some do. For had jesus been but a Man, what could have been gained by flattering him when he was crucified? Again, they were none such as made their gain of writing. And such would Cornelius Tacitus have men to believe. Nay rather, they gave over the world, and gave their own lives for the things which they wrote. If ye have an eye to the style, it is native, simple, plain; preaching Christ's Godhead without concealing his infirmity, and confessing his infirmity without granting away his Godhead. The weakness, the curiousness, and the ambitiousness of the Apostles, that is to wit of the writers themselves, are registered diligently there. Of bragging, of boasting, of vanity, or of the praise of jesus himself, there is not one word. Peter stepped aside, and denied his Master three times: and Mark his Disciple (who wrote the Gospel under him) hath set it down in writing. john and james the Sons of Zebedie desired to sit, the one on the right hand and the other on the left hand of jesus in his Kingdom; and who urged them to tell such tales out of School, which might seem to abate their own credit and authority? Also jesus himself was weary, and thirsty, and wept: these are infirmities of man: yet do they preach him to be God and die upon it. Might they not have concealed these things without prejudice of the truth? yes to our seeming, and even with advancement thereof; at leastwise if they had not wirtten in the behalf of the truth itself, and that they had not been sure that his mightiness uttered itself in infirmity. To be short, they set down the particularities of time, place, and person, day, City, and house. The more particularly that they declare things, the more easy was it to have discovered their untruths, and to have convinced them. For they spoke not in jewrie of things done in the Indies, but at the gates of Jerusalem, in Bethanie, in Bethsaida, and in Jerusalem itself, in such a street, at such a gate, by such a pool and so forth. The witnesses were then alive, the blind saw, and the dead walked up and down among them. Had the Apostles lied, how easy had it been to have disproved them? What weapons gave they to their enemies to have overcome themselves withal? And yet for all this, how happened it that of so many pharisees enraged against them, which took exception so precisely to the healing of a man upon the Sabbath day, and to this saying of Christ's misunderstood, Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up again; and of so many men which were ready both to do evil and to say evil; none of them all stood up to geynsay them? Where was the zeal of God's house become at that time, than at the which there were never more zealous persons to be seen? At leastwise how happeneth it that in that huge heap of nine or ten volumes of the Talmud, they bring not forth their exceptions and geynsaying, ne set us down some Countergospell? Seeing then that Hatred picketh out proofs and testimonies where none are; and yet notwithstanding, the extreme hatred of the pharisees findeth none, no not even in the time and place where the things were done, and when their own authority was strongest and at the highest pitch: what may we conclude thereon, but the infallible truth of the History of the Gospel?  
Nevertheless, let us yet satisfy unbelievers, by proving the things unto them which they esteem to be most uncredible in the History of our Lord jesus Christ. When jesus was borne in Bethelem, a Star 
The Star that led the Wise men.  (saith the Gospel) was marked by the wise men in the East, the which they followed, and it gwyded them to the place where jesus was. Some perhaps will flatly deny this Star to have been. (Let any man judge, how little credit to himself and authority to Christ, the Evangelist could have purchased by beginning with a lie which all men could have disproved, specially seeing he taketh the scribes, and pharisees themselves to witness thereof. 
Pliny lib. 2. cap. 25.  But we read that the very same time, (Augustus having then the chief charge of the Games kept in the honour of his mother Venus) at Rome) there was seen a Blasingstarre or Comet (that is the name which they give too all extraordinary Stars) whereof the Priests of that College gave their judgement, that for the singular marks which it had, it betokened not war, plague, or famine, as other ordinary Comets do; but the salvation of mankind to be at hand. And unto this Comet (because of the rareness thereof) there was an Image set up in the City, And that only Comet (sayeth Pliny) is worshipped over all the World. Whereunto relieth this verse of Virgil in his fourth eclogue, made to flatter Augustus by applying unto him the appearing of that Star; Behold how noble Caesar's Star steps forth with stately pace. After which manner he wresteth unto Augustus, all the happiness with sybil promised by the birth of the Redeemer. Also Cheremon a Stoik Philosopher, 
Origen against Celsus.  judged the same Star to betoken welfare and happiness; and thereupon perceiving his Gods to be weakened, he traveled into jewry with certain Astrologers, to seek the true God. And Chatcidins the Platonist saith expressly, that the Chaldees had observed that it betokened the Honourable coming of God down unto us, to bring grace to mortal men. Here the Astrologers had matter whereupon to exercise their Contemplations. For this Star appeared in December, when the Sun was in Sagittarius, 
Marsilius Ficinus in his treatise of the Star that led the Wise men.  in which sign (say they) both jupiter, the Sun, and Venus were met altogether; all which three (by their principles) betoken a most righteous, a most mighty, and a most merciful King, but yet poor, by reason of the Sun which was come in betwixt them. How should he be mighty, if poor? Fruitful also, because of jupiter in the Angel of the ascendant; but yet barren and childless by reason of the Moon which was in the first face of Virgo. Of these their Contrarieties we might, according too their art, gather some profit. But I will let these curiosities alone too such as delight in them. But in very deed, this Star appearing in December without rays, and being healthful, was not an ordinary Comet, but a very Star in deed. The like whereof we have seen ourselves in the same season of the year, in the year of our Lord a thousand fivehundred threescore and twelve, the signification whereof God will reveal unto us when he sees tyme. How had the former Star been one of the ordinary Stars that are fixed in the firmament; what a miracle was it that it should leave his place and charge, not to reign over jesus, but to serve him? And if it were newly then created; by whom could it be created, but by the Creator; and for whom, but for himself? And whereas julian the Renegade not being able to deny the truth of the History, and the cunning of the Wise men by the gwyding thereof, would bear men on hand that it was the Star named Asaph, which the Egyptians have marked to be seen but once at every four hundred years: beside that we read not of any like to have been seen in all the former ages; it hath not been seen any more in these full fifteen hundred years which are passed since that tyme. Now by this inquiry of the wise men, Herod was moved to kill all the Children about Bethelem, which were two years old and under, meaning among them to have killed the Child whom the Star betokened: in doing whereof because a Son of his own was killed with the rest; we read in Macrobius, 
Macrobius in his Saturnals.  that the Emperor Augustus hearing thereof gave him this taunt, I had lever be Herod's Swine than his Son.  
Again, that Christ should be borne of a Virgin, they think it very strange. 
Born of a Virgin. Clement in his Recognitions. Petrus Comestor.  I have discussed this point already against the jews. GOD had foretold it; and what could then let him to bring it to pass? For who can doubt of his power, when he is sure of his will? But this was so true, that Simon Magus to the intent he might not seem inferior to Christ in any thing, Preached to his own Disciples, that he himself was the son of a Virgin, which thing jesus Christ never Preached of himself. And we read that the same day that Christ was borne, the Temple of Peace fell down at Rome; at the laying of the foundation whereof, apollo told the Romans it should stand till a Virgin did bear a Child; whereupon they thought it should have continued for ever. And as touching Simeon, who having jesus in his arms acknowledged him to be the Saviour of the world, I have declared what the jews say of him. 
josephus lib. 18. cap. 7.  And as for john the Baptist our Lord's foregoer, the History of his godly life and doctrine and of his death also, is set down after the same manner in josephus, that it is in our Evangelists. If we consider Christ's works, all the whole course of his life was nothing but miracles, the which I have proved true long ago. And this only point, namely that they be described & set forth with so many circumstances, whereunto never any man hath yet presumed to take exceptions, doth sufficiently give credit to the matter; and therefore let us pass unto his death.  
From the sixth hour (saith our Evangelist) unto the ninth hour there was darkness over all the Land: 
The Eclipse. Mark. 27. verse 45. Mark. 15. verse 33.  that is to say, at high noon and even in the chief of the day. If they doubt hereof, Phlegon Trallia the Emperor Adrians' Fréedman, the diligentest of all Chronaclers, 
Phlegon Trallian in the 13. book of his Chronicles. Origen against Celsus. Suidas.  noteth that in the fourth year of the two hundred and tenth olympiad, there was the greatest Eclipse of the Sun that ever was seen, and therewithal a very strange Earthquake. And that was the very 18. year of Tiberius, in the which year Christ suffered his passion. And Eusebius saith he had read the like in the Commentaries of the gentiles. Also Lucian a Priest of Antioch cried out to such as tormented him: Search your own Chronicles, and you shall find that in the time of pilate the light failed in the chief of the day, and the Sun was put to flight as long as Christ was a suffering. And Tertullian 
Tertullian in his Apology.  in his Apology doth summon them to the same books. Now, that it was no natural Eclipse, it appeareth plain: For the Sun was then so far of from Conjunction with the Moon, that it was even full against it, according to the Law of the Passover, which was to be kept the 14. day of the Moon. And if they take exceptions to the Epistles of Dennis of Areopagus, wherein he describeth the spectacle of this wonder at length; Esculus the Astrologian a man of small Religion saith, that at that time the Sun was in the first degree of Aries, and the Moon was newly entered into Libra. Others say, that the Moon was in Virgo and the Sun in Pisces, which cometh all to one in effect: and therefore that there could be no natural Eclipse by reason of this opposition. To be short, some say it was universal over all the world; and then was it a special work of God, for the order of Nature can do no such thing in the world. Othersome say it was peculiar to the only Land of jewrie; and then is God's special working yet more manifest: for it is (as ye would say) a pointing at the cause of the Eclipse with his finger; namely, the suffering of the Saviour of the world. And as little also could that Eclipse be by the order of Nature, as the other. For who but only God could dim the sight and light of the Sun in such sort without a Conjunction thereof with the Moon, that it should give light to all places saving only jewrie, as who would say, he sholed out jewrie from all the rest of the world? And as touching the Earthquake 
The Earthquake.  that accompanied it, the foresaid Phlegon speaketh thereof, joining it to the Eclipse as our Evangelists do. And these cases are so rare and unseen, not in some one age, but in the whole course of the world, that seeing they be reported to have been in one selfsame year, and both together; they cannot be understood of any other than those which our Evangelists and Authors speak of. To be short, the Ueyle or Curtain of the Temple did rend asunder. For the believing or discrediting of this point, there needed no more but to go to the place and see whether it were so or no. And josephus speaking of the foretokens of the destruction of the jews, reporteth the like thing.  
Behold, jesus is now dead: but the third day he riseth again, 
The Rising again of jesus from the dead.  as he himself had told aforehand. If he had said as Mahomet said, about an eight hundred years hence I will come see you again; he had taken a good term for trial of his lie. But when he said I will come again within these three days; his deceit (if he had meant any) would soon have been discovered. Here they cry out and cannot admit the story to be true. And yet notwithstanding when they read that one Erus an Armenian, that one Aristeus, or that one Thespesius rose again to life; they think no evil of Plato, Herodotus, or Plutarch for reporting it. How unindifferent are these people, which will needs both believe and be believed of all men without witness and unrequested; and yet no witness can suffice to make them believe their own salvation? Women saw Christ, men touched him, the unbelievers felt him with their fingers; he did eat and drink and was conversant among them, divers times and many days: and yet all this they stoutly deny. But pilate witnessed it; and the Apostles being erst astonished at it, did afterward preach it, publish it, & sign it with their blood. He whom the Chambermaid had made amazed, and who had denied him three times in one hour when he was alive; doth preach & publish him even in Jerusalem, before the Magistrates, and before the Priests; and no threats can make him hold his peace. If Christ rotted in his grave: what hope of benefit was to be had of his dead carcase? Nay if he lived not in Peter; who urged Peter to preach him? And if he spoke not in him; who would have believed him? Who (say I) would have believed it, at leastwise so far as to preach and publish it, and to sign and seal it with their blood, upon his report, and also after that he was gone? verily, the very slanderers themselves give light unto this truth. For thereupon it is that the jews have feigned, that his body was stolen away: for they found it not there: but pilate proveth them liars expressly. And thereupon also did some of the gentiles surmise, that they had crucified a Ghost or Sporne in stead of him: which thing the jews uphold to be very false, who took offence at his death, as which they knew to be a matter of truth, in respect whereof they call him still the Crucified. But he lived then, and liveth still for ever and ever. And therefore as he had promised his Disciples afore his death, 
The coming down of the holy Ghost.  Saint Luke saith that he sent them the holy Ghost in fiery Tongues within a few days after his rising again: whereby they received the gift of Tongues or Languages, yea and that in such wise, that the same gift came down upon many others by their laying of their hands upon them. This is one of the things which they will not believe, as who would say it were not as east for God to give one man the understanding of many Tongues, as it was to divide one language into so many when he was displeased. But if it be a brag, as they surmise: to what end was it? and what might have been more easily disproved? The Magistrate had them in his hand: why did he not examine them before the people? Jerusalem was as the Musteringplace of all the East: and where then might they have been disproved and made to recant it? Nay, the effect that followed upon it confirmed it. For the Apostles, being but fishers, and Publicans, and at the beginning ignorant persons, men which ordinarily knew no more than their own mother tongue, and that but grossly; did afterward write books, and travel over the whole world, preaching in all places. Consider what liking either the jews or the gentiles would have had of such folk, to have made them their spokesmen to the people. And yet the Disciples did it so effectually, that in less than forty years, the whole world that was inhabited, was replenished with the name and doctrine of jesus. How could that have been done, if they had not had an extraordinary skill of the Languages? Sooth the History thereof was so true and so commonly known, that Simon Magus to countenance himself withal, reported himself to be the same that came down upon the Apostles in fiery tongues, under pretence that by the help of the Devil, he counterfeited after a sort the gift of tongues.  
And as for some searchers and sisters of words, it is not for them to carp at the Hebrew phrases which they find in our Evangelists; seeing that in Horace or in Virgil they count Greek phrases for an elegancy. For to the intent they may perceive that it is done to express Christ's matters the more pithily, and to represent them the more nearly: let them read S. Paul. and there they shall find so fair a Greek tongue, so full of pithy words, so full of excellent and chosen phrases, and so peculiar to the Greek tongue itself, that the best learned do confess he had the very ground of it, and allege him for an example of eloquence. Let us come to the history of him. This S. Paul a Disciple of Gamalielles, was sent with Commission to persecute the Christians. In his way (saith Luke) a light shone about him, 
Acts. 9 & 22.  and being smitten to the ground, he heard this voice, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me. To be short, of a jew he became a Christian: and of a Persecuter, a Martyr. 
1. Cor. 15. 8. 2. Cor. 12. 2. The Conversion of S. Paul,  And if thou believest not S. Luke; S. Paul himself toucheth his own history in divers places. What hath unbelief to bring against this, save only peradventure a bare denial, according to common custom? If Peter saw it: he is but a Fissherman say they. If Paul heard it: he is an Orator. So then belike, if God offer thee his grace in an earthen vessel, thou mislykest of it: and if he offet it thee in a vessel of some value, thou suspectest it: either the one is beguiled, or the other beguileth thee, sayest thou. What wilt thou have God to do to make thee to believe him? Examine this case well. Paul in the way to grow great, he is in good reputation with the Magistrate & the Priests, and suddenly he changeth his Copy out of one extremity into an other, to be scorned, scourged, cudgeled, stoned, and put to death. Put the case that neither S. Luke nor S. Paul did tell thee the cause thereof. What mayst thou imagine, but that it was a very great and forcible cause, that was able to change a man's heart so suddenly and so strangely? Is it not daily s●ene (wilt thou say) that men are soon changed and upon light causes? Yes, fools are. But he debateth the matter, he urgeth his arguments, and he driveth his conclustons to an end. The best learned of his enemies find fault with his misapplying (as they term it) of his skill, and yet commend his writings. Yea, and he knoweth that unto thee his preaching will seem folly, and yet that (as much folly as it is) it is the very wisdom of God; and that by following it he shall have nothing but adversity, and yet for all that, he doth not give it over. How shall he be wise, that counteth himself a fool? or rather which of the wiser sort is not ravished at his sayings and doings? But if he be wise, learned, and weladuised as thou seest he is; what followeth but that his change proceedeth of some cause? And seeing the change was great, the cause must needs be great also: and seeing it was extreme and against 〈◊〉; surely it must needs proceed of a supernatural and sovereign cause. verily the reason that leadeth thee to this general conclusion, aught to lead thee to the special also: that is to wit, that it was a very great and supernatural cause that moved him: namely, the same which Saint Luke rehearseth, and which he himself confirmeth in many places, for the which he esteemeth himself right happy to ●ndure the misery which he caused and procured unto others, and in the end after a thousand hurts and a thousand deaths, he willingly spent his life.  
Also the death of Herod stricken by the Angel for not giving glory unto God, 
The death of Herodes Agrippa.  is reported unto us much more amply by josephus, than by S. Luke. 
Acts. 12.  Herod (saith he) made shows in Caesarea, and the second day of the solemnity, 
josephus in his antiquity lib. 19 cap ●.  he came into the Theatre being full, clad in rob or cloth of Silver, which by the striking of the sunbeams upon it, made it the more stately. Then began certain Clawback's to call him God, and to pray him to be gracious unto them. But forasmuch as he did not refuse that flattery, he saw an Owl sitting upon his head, and by and by he was taken with so strange torments, that within few days after he died, acknowledging God's judgement upon him, and preaching thereof to his flatterers. This History is set out more at large by josephus, which in effect is all one with that which is written by S. Luke, who sayeth that the people cried out, It is the voice of God, and not of a man: and that thereupon an Angel of God strake him, and he was eaten with worms, and so died. These be the things which they find scarce credible in the history of our Evangelists: which yet notwithstanding are confirmed by the histories of the jews and gentiles, who report the things with words full of admiration, which our Evangelists set down simply after their own manner. And seeing that in these things, which exceed nature, they be found true; what likelihood is there that they should not also deliver us Christ's doctrine truly; specially being (as I have showed afore) miraculously assisted with the power of his spirit according to his promises, and moreover having witnessed the sincerity of their writings, by suffering so many torments, and in the end death? Seeing then that the new Testament containeth the truth of the doctrine of jesus, and proceeded from the spirit of jesus, whom I have showed to be the Son of God; what remaineth for us, but to embrace the Scriptures as the word of life and soul-health, and as the will of the Father declared unto us by his Son, and to live thereafter, and to die for the same; considering that by the same we shall be raised one day to glory, and reign with him for ever?  
But forasmuch as we make mention of rising again from the dead; 
An objection against the rising again of the Dead.  that is yet one scruple more that remaineth. What likelihood is there of that (say they,) seeing that our bodies rot, Worms devour us, yea our bodies do turn into worms, and a number of other changes ●o pass over them? This is a continual stumbling always at one stone, namely to stand gazing at God's power who can do all things, when ye should rather rest upon his will. He will do it: for he hath knit the body and Soul together, to be partakers of good and evil together, and he hath given one Law on them both together, so as they must suffer together and joy together, yea and suffer one for another and one by another in this life: and what justice then were it to separate them in another life? He will do it: for he made the whole man; who if he were but Soul alone, were no man at all. He will do it: for to the intent to● save man, his Son hath taken the flesh of man unto him. Now to save the Soul, it had been enough for him too have taken but a Soul: but he that made the whole man, will also save the whole man. To be short; he will do it; for he hath said it: and he will do it; for he hath done it already. He hath said it by his Son, and he hath also done it in his Son, and his son adorneth us with his victory; and he will surely adorn us with his glory. Look upon the grain that is cast into the ground; if it rot not, it springeth not up; if it spring not up, it yieldeth no foison. Again, of one grain, come many Ears of Corn; of a kernel, a goodly Tree; of a thing of nothing (as ye would say) a perfect living Creature. Which of all these things resembleth the thing that cometh thereof, either in substance, or in shape, or in quantity, or in quality? To be short, what strangeness is there in this? Of a handful of Earth God made thee, and all the Earth of nothing, and of a handful will he make thee new again? This body of thine which in time past was not, is of his making; this body which one day shall cease to be, he will one day make new again. verily this doctrine was common to all true jews, and among all the Teachers of the Law, who had gathered it out of the old Testament, (as we read in josephus and in the Acts of the Apostles) for they agree fully with S. Paul in that behalf. And in the Talmud 
Talmud. cap. Helec. treatise. Sanhedrin.  there are infinite places thereof. Also the Alcorane (which is borrowed of their Rabbins) is full of this Doctrine. And as concerning the Heathen of old time, Zoroastres said, that one day there shall be a general rising again of all the dead. Theopompus a Disciple of Aristotle's doth the like; and noman in old time (sayeth AEnaeas of Gaza 
AEnaeas Gaza concerning Immortality. Seneca in his 75. Epistle, and in his books of Questions. lib. 3. cap. 26. 27. 28. etc. Ovid in his Metamorphosis lib. 1. ) did once geynsay them. The Stoics held opinion, that after a certain time there should be an universal burning of the World, (which we call Doomsday,) and that immediately after, all things should be set in their perfect state again, as they were at the first: and it was the opinion of Crysippus in his book of Providence translated by Lucan the Stoik, which new state Varro calleth Palingenesian, that is to say, a Regeneration, Rebegetting, or New birth Platosaith expressly that men's Souls shall return into their bodies. The Astrologers following Albumazar, 
Lucan the nephew of Seneca. lib. 1. Lucretius. li. 5. Lactantius out of Chrysippus lib. 7. cap. 22.  uphold that when the Stars come home again every one into his first place, all things shall be set again in their first original state, both men, Beasts, Trees and all other Creatures; which opinion even Arethmetick alone showeth to be absurd in Astrology, and the best learned men reject it. Nevertheless it bewrayeth our beastliness, 
Austin of the City of God. lib. 22. cap. 27. Haly upon the first Apotetesme of Prolomie.  which do attribute such power to the Stars, to defeat the maker of them thereof.  
As touching the judgement which the Son of God shall give after the said Resurrection; although the same were not foretold by the Prophets of old time, and by so many verses of the Sibyls, and finally by the mouth of jesus and his Apostles: surely Gods giving of his Law, not to the outward man but to the inward, 
Nicolaus Oresmus concerning Proportions. The Acrostiks of Sibill. Lactantius. lib. 7.  nor to our deeds only but also to our thoughts, showeth sufficiently without other proof, that there is another judge than the Magistrates of this world to judge us, and another judgement than their judgement to be lookedfor, as whose judgement here proceedeth but to the outward deed, and by proofs of witnesses, and therefore cannot in any wise pierce into the hart, to discern what is within. Neither would our own consciences sumon us so often as they do, if we were not to appear before other than men. For sith it is the Soul that chiefly receiveth the Commandment and chiefly breaketh it: it is the Soul that must come to examination and trial; which cannot be done in this world, wherein there is but a shadow of justice, and whose Laws and judges extend no further than the outer side. 
Midrasch. Psalm. 118. Esay. 45. Psalm. 149. etc.  And therefore we see that the ancient Rabines speak very often of this General judgement, and (which more is) do attribute it to the Messiah, saying; Fear not God for your judge; For your judge is your own fellow citizen, your own kinsman, and your own brother. All the ancient gentiles have spoken so of this judgement, which they say shall be given in another life, in the field of truth, whereupon shall follow either endless life or endless death as I have showed afore. Yea and it seemeth that by the lending of their ancient Oracles (which were a kind of Cabal) they passed yet further. For they called their great and sovereign God by the name of jupiter, and gave the judging of men's Souls to his Son Minos, the King and lawgiver, and not unto Apollo, Mercury or any other: as who should say, they meant that the judge of the World should be the Son of God, and yet there withal a righteous man, that is to say, the Mediator, God and man.  
I hope I have now showed the trueness and substantialness of the Christian Religion, 
The Conclusion of the whole Book.  and the vanity and wickedness of all other Religions. Of the which Christian Religion, the Primitive, Church, for a Badge and comfort to the Christians, hath made a Sum which we call the creed of the Apostles. For we believe in God the Father almighty maker of Heaven and Earth, etc. To believe in him, is to trust in him; to trust in him, is to hope for all good things at his hand; but vain were our hope, if it reached no further than to this present world. Now I have declared heretofore that there is but only one God: that the same God created the world for man, 
Chapt. 1. 2. 3. 4 7. 8. 9 10. 11. 12. 13.  and man for his own glory, and both of them of nothing: That he guideth them by his Providence, the one according to nature, which is a steady and suresettled Law prescribed by him to the World; and the other according to wit and will, which he hath given him, so that which way so ever man take, he frameth him always to his holy will, to such end as he hath appointed: That man is immortal and created to lead an endless life: 
Chapt. 14. and 15.  that in that life is the sovereign welfare or good, which alonely can content man's will, and satisfy, his wit; 
Chapt. 18. 19  and therefore that he must tend and endeavour thither with all his heart and bend all the powers of his wit to that end: And to be short, that the mean for man to attain thereunto, 
Chapt. 20.  is to serve the true God with all his hart, with all his Soul, and with all his strength; that is to say, to vow all his thoughts words and deeds to the glory of God. But I said also that man is fallen from his Original, 
Chapt. 16 17. 20.  through the pride and disobedience of the first man, whereupon hath followed frowardness in his will, and ignorance in his wit: Ignorance making him unable to discern his own welfare, and frowardness turning him away from it, yea even when it is showed him, and making him unworthy to attain to it, and finally causing him to abuse his abilities and powers to all evil, and so consequently plunging him in the gulf of all misery, both according to his own desert, and according to the justice of God; Whereupon it ensueth that man is forlorn in himself, unless God recover him by his mercy; blind, except God inlyghten him again; utterly Lame to the doing of any good, and to the atteynement of any good, until God's grace do relieve him. 
Chapt. 20.  And therefore I said, That he hath left us a Religion for a guide, A Religion that turneth us from all Creatures, as which are but vanity; and converteth us to him the only Creator of Heaven and Earth; and that the same is the Religion of the israelites; 
Chapt. 〈◊〉 23.  and that in all other places there was nothing but the service of Devils, and Idolatry. That the Religion of Israel had the keeping and custody of his word, his revelations, and his promises, giving us his Law for a Rule to live by, whereby it convicteth us of our naughtiness, and inviteth us to call to God for grace. 
Chapt. 24. 25. 26.  That the old Testament is the Law of Moses and the Prophets, which I have proved to have proceeded from God, and to have been inspired by him: that in the end having condemned us he offereth us his grace, and having given judgement upon us, he sendeth us pardon, and steadeth us of a Surety that is able to pay our depts: 
Chapt. 27. 28.  that this Surety is the Messiah promised to the jews for the salvation of the whole world, the Mediator of mankind, God and man, exhibited to the world in his due time, to be the saviour of the jews and the light of the gentiles, even jesus Christ the Son of God, 
Chapt. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.  in whom we believe according to this parcel of the creed, And in jesus Christ his Son our Lord, conceived by the Holy Ghost, borne of the Virgin Mary, crucified, Dead, and risen again, and so forth. All which points we have proved against both jews & gentiles; against the jews, by the Scriptures; and against the gentiles by reason, which they themselves say they take for their guide; and by their own Records. Our creed addeth, I believe in the Holy Ghost. And I also have showed how there be three Inbeings in one Essence or Being, 
Chap●  acknowledged by the jews and 〈◊〉 by the gentiles namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, which are termed by them, the One, the word, and the Love, in the name of whom we be baptized. And finally we believe, that God by the dese● of his son in the power of his holy Spirit, 
Chapt. 34.  maintaineth his Church spread over the whole world, knitteth us in one Communion of fellowship together, pardoneth our sins, and will one day raise us up again, to make us enjoy everlasting life. To that end hath the Father created us, the So●ne redeemed us, & the holy Ghost inspired us. And therefore let us look up with sighs, and with sighs travel up towards the Kingdom whose King is the Trinity, whose Law is Charity, and whose measure is eternity. And unto him, who hath granted me both to begin and to end this work (whom I beseech with all my heart to bless it to his glory, and to the salvation and welfare of those that are his) be honour, glory and praise for ever and ever.  
Amen.  
FINIS.    

Imprinted at London by George Robinson for Thomas Cadman, dwelling at the great North-door of S. Paul's Church at the sign of the Bible. 1587.