A CONFUTATION OF ATHEISM By john Dove Doctor of Divinity. The Contents are to be seen in the Page following.  Psalm. 68 God will arise, and his enemies shall be scattered: they also that hate him shall fly from him. 
AT LONDON Printed by Edward Allde for Henry Rockett, And are to be sold at the long shop under S. Mildred's Church in the Poultry. 1605.   

The Contents of this book.  

WHat Atheism is: Chapter, 1.  
The cause of Atheism. Chap. 2.  
How Atheism may be rooted out of all Christian lands. Chap. 3.  
That there is a God. Chap. 4.  
What God is. Chap. 5.  
That there is but one God. Chap. 6.  
The books of the Bible, are the word of God. Chap. 7.  
Of the will and sufferance of God. Chap. 8.  
The world had a beginning. Chap. 9  
The soul of man, what it is, whence it cometh, how it is infected with sin, and the immortality of it. Chap. 10.  
Of Noah his Ark, and the Deluge. Chap. 11.  
Of the destruction of Sodom. Chap. 12.  
Of Christ. Chap. 13.  
The world shall have an end. Chap. 14.  
There is hell fire. C 〈…〉    

TO THE MOST HIGH and Mighty Prince, james by the grace of God, King of Great Brittanye, France, and Ireland: Defender of the Faith.  
MOST dread Sovereign, your majesties gracious acceptance of my late Treatise against Recusancy, causeth me to present unto your Highness this poor Mite, which out of my penury I offer into the treasury of the Church: being no way comparable to the Talents which others out of their great plenty, 
Luc, 21, 2.  have cast into the offerings of God. Albeit the right worshipful Sr. George More knight, hath learnedly and religiously handled the same subject, yet may I tread the same winepress again, by the example of Saint Augustine, which confuted the Arrians whom Athanasius had confuted before him, and the learned of our age which daily write books, notwithstanding others before them have written books of the same argument. And as S. Augustine in his time, because there were many heretics, wished that all men which were able to write, would write against heresy: so because now 
Contrà menda: Chap, 6. Dè Trinitat: Lib. 1. Chap, 3.  〈◊〉 many Atheists, it is to be wished that many would write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheism.  
The state of religion dependeth upon the state of the Pastors and Ministers. And therefore S. john prophesying of the decay of it, first discovereth the defects of them, as the cause thereof: That he of Ephesus had left his former love: he of Pergamus had them which 
Apoc, 2, 4. & 14, 15. & 20.  maintained the doctrine of Balaam and the Nicholaitans: he of Thyatira suffered jezabel to make the people commit fornication, and eat meat sacrificed to Idols: he of Sardis had only a name that he lived, but was dead: he of Laodicia was neither hot nor cold, 
Apoc, 3, 1. 15, & 16.  but such a one as the Lord would spew out of his mouth, that he which took upon him a greater charge than all they, should have only horns like the lamb Christ jesus: but as for his doctrine, he should speak like the dragon Satan. And S. Paul prophesying of 
Apoc, 13. 17  that great Apostasy and revoliment from true religion through the world, showed the cause to be in him which took upon him to be the universal Pastor of the world, That he should be an adversaerie, exalting 
2, Thes, 2, 39  himself above all that is called God: that sitting in the Temple of God, he should not show himself as the minister of God, but as God. The holy Ghost derived the corruption of religion, and calamity of the Church of Israel, from the base condition of the Priests in the days of jeroboam, saying: that he made Priests of 
1, King, 12, 31  the lowest of the people. And it is a curse denounced against them from God by the Prophet Malachye, that their Priests should be 
Mal, 2. 9  despised and vile before the people.  
Your Highness under the Majesty of Almighty God, now sitteth in the seat of David, and upon the throne of Salomen: You have the same authority over us, which josias, josaphat, Ezechias. and the other Godly Kings had over juda. The Lord therefore of his infinite mercy toward you his anointed, and us your people, continue in your Princely heart this your zeal of his house, and great care of the advancement of the state of the ministery for the advancement of the Gospel, the increase of Godliness, the subversion of Atheism 
Act, 13, 22.  and all Impiety. The Lord make you such a King as David was, a man according to his own heart, that your Highness may reign over us religiously, peaceably & happily, to his glory, our comfort, and the salvation of your own soul. The Lord grant to our noble Queen that she may be an ancient Mother i● Is●●●●●… to Prince Henry a large heart as he did unto Solomon. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bless all your posterity, that they way continue in his▪ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world's end.  
Your majesties humble and obedient Subject: JOHN DOVE,   

A CONFUTATION of Atheism.  

Chapter 1.  
What Atheism is:  
SOmetimes under the name of Atheists are comprehended Pagans, Infidels and Idolaters, all such as are ignorant of the true God, albeit in their kind they be very devout, religious and godly. So saith the Apostle: Wherefore remember that ye, 
Ephe, 2.  being in times past Gentiles in the flesh, and called uncircumcision, of them which are called circumcision in the flesh made with hands, that ye were I say, at that time without Christ, aliens from the common wealth of Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise, and had no hope, & were without God in the world. But what it was to be without God in the world, he expresieth in an other place, saying: Even then when ye knew not God, ye 
Gal, 4. Rome, 1.  did se●●…ce unto them which by nature are not Gods. That is, they worship the Sun & Moon, and carved idols, the creature in steed of the Creator, which is blessed for evermore, Amen. These be not the Atheists which we are to treat of.  
Other Atheists there be, which have a knowledge of the true 〈◊〉 and how he is to be worshipped, and are in name Christians: 〈◊〉 a continual habit and custom of sin, have so hardened 〈◊〉 ●…durated themselves, that they have no sense or feeling of the judgement of that true God which they know and profess, and would be thought outwardly to serve. And therefore they are bold to commit sin against him, because they presume upon his mercy, or at the least his connivencye and negligence in punishing, as if they were persuaded God did not see them, or he would not punish them. Of such saith the Prophet: The fool 
Psalm, 14.  hath said in his heart there is no God. And of such fools he speaketh elsewhere more plainly, saying: Wickedness saith to the 
Psalm, 36.  wicked man, even in mine heart, that there is no fear of God before his eyes. And what it is to cast away all fear of God from before his eyes, he showeth more plainly, saying: He hath said in his heart: God hath forgotten, he hideth away his face, & will 
Psalm, 10.  never see. And this kind of Atheist is in state of damnation aswell as the other, but is not the subject of my Treatise.  
There are other sorts of men (or rather beasts) I mean such beasts as S. Paul strove with at Ephesus in the shape of men, far 
1. Cor. 15,  more abominable than the other two, of which so often I spoke: I may justly say with Eliphas, Fear cometh upon me & dread, which maketh all my bones to tremble, and a wind passeth before 
job, 4.  me, which causeth the hairs of my head to stand up, and (that I may use the words of the Lord to Samuel) such a wickedness as shall not be purged by sacrifice nor offering for ever. 
1. Sam. 3.  Such a slander to States & Kingdoms, so offensive to all chaste & religious ears, that whosoever shall hear of it, his ears shall tingle. These beasts hold there is no God, and they are of four sorts:  
The first saith in broad terms without blushing, Non est Deus, there is no God: of that brood, were not only the old Philosopher's Diagoras, Lucretius, Epicurus and others, but also since the Gospel was published to the world, many of them have been known, of whom Theodoret (an ancient Father) hath written, as also Prateolus, and other writers of later times, and especially Lilius Grigorius, Giraldus Ferrariensis maketh mention 
Libro dé cwatione Graecarum affectionum. Eleuch: alphabet: C, 1. Dè ●isto: pretarum, Dialo: 6.  of a whole Island lately inhabited by such as deny God. And I wish all Atheists were banished out of Christian States and Kingdoms, and sent into that Island, that other places might not be infected by them.  
The second, doth scoff at God and deride him, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his name, and make open profession of contempt against him and all Religion. Such an Atheist was Holophernes, which said unto Achior, Because thou hast prophesied amongst us to day, & hast 
judith. 6.  said that the people of Israel is able to sight, because their God will defend them: and who is God but Nabuchodonozor? he will send his power and destroy the face of the earth, and their God shall not deliver them. Such an Atheist was Pharaoh which said: Who is the Lord that I should hear his voice, and let the people 
Exod, 5.  go? I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go. And Senacherib who said by the mouth of Rabshakah: Let not Ezekias 
2 Reg, 18.  deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you out of my hand, neither let Ezechias make you to trust in the Lord, saying: The Lord will surely deliver us, & this Land shall not be given ever into the hand of the King of Ashur; Ezechias doth deceive you, saying: The Lord will deliver us. Who are they among all the Gods of the nations that have delivered their Land out of my hand, that the Lord should deliver jerusalem out of my hand? Such Atheists were Lucian, which in his writings, that he might 
Vide Suide Hist: Sozom. l. 6, c 7. et. 10. Tripartit, hist.  be thought to confess no God, mocked all Gods: julian the Apostata, which scoffed at religion: Olympus the Arrian, which as he was washing himself in his Bath, spoke blasphemy against the Trinity. Doletus which called Moses, Helias, and Christ, the three deceivers of the world. And such Atheists are the 
Theodore, l. 5. Hist. C. 25.  swaggerers of our age, which are not ashamed to call themselves The damned crew: Of the salvation of such there is no hope, whose God is their belly, whose glory is their shame, and whose end is 
Phil, 3.  damnation, as the Apostle speaketh: Their damnation sleepeth not, nay they are condemned already, because they speak blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. Of such as offend God upon weakness, there may be some hope that they will come to repentance, because their sin is against the Father, which is strength. 
1 Sam, 17.  Concerning them which offend him upon ignorance, there is also hope of their conversion, because they sin against God the Son, which is wisdom. But as for these, they mock God in 
Prou, 8.  〈◊〉 of him, they sin upon malice, & therefore their blas●●●●●… against the Holy Ghost, which is love and charity, 
1 john, 4.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no hope of their conversion, because our Saviour hath 
Math, 12.  already pronounced sentence of damnation against them, saying: Their sin shall never be for given, neither in this life, nor in the life to come.  
The third, profess the religion which is professed in the place where they dwell, so far as laws may not take hold of them, but otherwise are of all religions which may bring them profit, and are of no religion farther than to serve their turn. For example whereof, I cannot instance in any man better, then in William Rusus King of England, which professed himself to be a Christian 
Hollend shed in his Chronicle.  for fear of the Pope & the Ecclesiastical censure, because else he could not have held his Kingdom. Of him it is written, that the jews being many in England, one of them was converted to be a Christian, and the old jew his Father taking the matter grievously, desired the King to interpose his authority, and to command him to renounce his Christian faith again. The King upon consideration of 80. Marks of silver (before hand paid unto him) undertook the conversion of the young man to the jewish religion again: Whereupon the party was convented before the King, he gave him charge to renounce Christ, but he answered: Sir you profess Christ yourself, how then can you persuade me to be a jew? If you be a Christian in deed, you will not persuade me to renounce Christ, but if yourself professing Christ, will command me to deny Christ, you are not of any religion, but an Atheist; and if you be so, it is fit the Pope's holiness should understand so much. The King fearing the Pope's displeasure, dismissed the man, but said in great fury: Get thee out of my presence, else by S. Luke's face, I will scratch out thine eyes. The old jew his Father expostulated with the King, because the bargain was not performed, and required restitution of his money: But the King answered, hold ye contented Sir, here is half, I will have the other half for my endeavour, I did the best I could. Of such Atheists we have many.  
The fourth sort, are they which insinuate themselves into noblemen's houses, and Princes Courts, taking upon them to be the great Politicians of the world, and account all men fools besides themselves. They also make open profession of religion but for advantage: I mean them which have turn 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Machiavelli: Their Divinity is policy, their zeal is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their God is the devil. These English Italiana▪ and 〈◊〉 incarnate, do hold these damnable opinions: That there was no creation of the world, that there shall be no day of judgement, no resurrection, no immortality of the soul, no hell: they dispute against the Bible, reckon up genealogies more ancient than Adam, allege arguments, to prove that the story of Noah his Ark and the Deluge were fables: Finally, they hold that the Scriptures were devised by men, only for policy sake, to maintain peace in states and Kingdoms, to keep subjects in obedience to laws, and loyalty to Magistrates, by thus terrifying them from enormities when their consciences are possessed with an opinion of hell fire, and alluring them to subjection by hope of eternal life, that so Princes may enjoy outward peace & temporal prosperity. Examples of this last sort, we have Leo the tenth of that name Bishop of Rome, who when he had heard Bembus allege places out of the Scriptures concerning Christ, said unto him: Quid mihi narras illam de Christo fabulam? why dost thou tell me that fable of Christ? Again, in ostentation of his riches, said: Vide quantum mihi profuit illa de Christo fabula. See what treasure I have scraped together, by publishing to the people that same fable concerning Christ! An example also is Machiavelli, which holdeth these principles & grounds of policy: 
Machiavelli principis. C, 1.  Princeps qui sapientia est praeditus, debet ea promissa vitare quae suis commodis contraria fore videt. I am vero hominibus nunquam defuturae sunt causae, quibus in violatam fidem colorem inducant. A wise Prince must not regard his promise if he find it not for his profit, neither shall he at any time be destitute of such shifts and evasions whereby he may justify and make good the breach and falsifying of his oath. Qui sagatior fuerit, ut vulpinum ingenium melius exprimeret, ei faelicius omnia ceciderant. That he must learn to play the Fox, which will have his designs and projects to take effect. He proposeth unto Princes the example of Pope Alexander the sixth to imitate, of whom he saith: Is nihil quam mortalium impostorem egit, nihil quam ad omnem malitiam & fraudem (quo hominum genus falleret) mentem suam exercuit. In asseverando autem quis magis fuerit efficax, aut qui speciotius iuravit iusiurandum vicissimque, qui minus praestiterit, nemo unquam fuit. Nihilo secius doli nunquam ei non commode ceciderunt. That is, he plotted nothing more, than how he might be the cozener and deceiver of men: he set his mind upon nothing but malice and fraud, whereby men might be by him supplanted & overtaken, no man promised more largely, nor swore more deeply than he, and no man performed less than he, and yet notwithstanding, his falsehood & knavery, he never failed of his purpose. Proinde, non est quod Princeps omnes eas superius descriptas virtutes ostentet: sunt enim adversus tales dissimulandae saepe numero callidèque tegendae. And yet, for all that, falsehood prevaileth better than plain dealing, yet a Prince must not make a show of a large conscience, but he must dissemble, & carry himself cunningly before the eyes of the world. Quocirca, ad omnem fortunae & ventorum conversionem versatile ingenium Princeps habeat necesse est, & ab eo quod bonum est ne discedat: at, si necessitas urgeat, edoctus sit et malum avertere. Wherefore a Prince must frame himself for all times & seasons as occasions may serve: let him embrace truth and do justice, unless he see cause to the contrary, but if he do, let him be so wise that he do not disadvantage himself. Princeps acram curam & diligentiam adhibeat, ut pietatom, fidem, integritatem, humanitatem, religionem sanctè colere videatur, atqui nihil magis est quod prae se ferat quam illam virtutem: fere enim homines magis specie & colore rerum, quam rebus ipsis, permoventur, & judicant. Nemo non videt quid prae te feras, at paucissimi sunt, qui quid sis sensu percipiant. Vitam princeps tueatur, curetque imperium conseruare: quibus autem idsiat rationibus, ex modo honesti spaciem prae se ferant, nunquam non honore dignae, laudibusque existimabuntur. Let a Prince especially take heed to himself, that he seem godly, true, honest, courteous, and above all religious, because men for the most part are carried away with the outward show of religion, and do judge all things according to outward appearance. Every man can take notice of that which you seem to be, but few men can sound the bottom of your heart, and dive into your secret thoughts, so far as to discover what in deed you are, to conceive what your intent & meaning is. Let a Prince look especially to the defence of his own life and state, it maketh no matter by what means he do it, be they lawful or unlawful, so as they have an outward show and colour of honesty.   

Chapter 2.  
Of the causes of Atheism.  
THat I may speak somewhat of the causes of Atheism, They are many: Some men are become Atheists by building upon a false ground, by misconstruing and wresting that place of Tully 
De natura De orum. lib, 1.  to their own perdition: Sunt qui negant Deos habere procurationem rerum humanarum, quorum sententia falsa est, quia sic omnis religio inanis esset, religione autem sublata tolleretur hominum sides, & magna sequeretur vitae perturbatio & confusio. There are saith Tully, some men which deny that there is a God which taketh upon him the care of human affairs, whose opinion is evicted to be false, for as much as if it were so, all religion were in vain, and were it not for religion, there would be no fidelity or honesty among men, nothing but disorder & confusion through the whole world. I cannot deny but religion doth maintain civil government, and kingdoms are best governed where men have the greatest feeling of religion, because the fear of God having taken a deep root in men's hearts by the often preaching of the word, doth bind subjects to their Princes far more fast then human laws, & the fear of the Prince's displeasure. And I must needs confess that the King and the whole state of England are to ascribe this long peace which we have had, and yet do enjoy, as also this great increase of wealth, and loyalty of the subjects, more to the diligent preaching of the Ministers then to the sincere government of the Magistrates, to Divines then to Politicians, how little soever now Divines be regarded, and how highly soever Politicians be esteemed. Subjects are now more obedient to Laws and loyal to Princes then in times past they have been, because the Gospel is more preached among them than it was in former ages. So then, it is not for fear, but for conscience sake, not because they fear him that can kill the body, but because they fear him that is able to destroy both body and soul in hell 
Math, 10.  fire. And yet the Proverb in many hath been fulfilled, Filia devoravit matrem, that the daughter hath devoured her own mother, For religion is the mother of peace, and peace is the daughter of religion, because the preaching of Christian religion hath brought peace into the world. All godly Divines preach the doctrine of St. Paul: Si fieri potest, quantum in vobis est, cum omnibus 
Rome, 12,  pacem habetote, if it be possible and as much as lieth in you, have peace with all men. But this long peace which we have enjoyed hath increased our riches, & riches have made us to forget God, and so (like an unnatural daughter) peace hath devoured religion, which bred and maintained peace in the world. The Prophecy is verified: In these last days, since the mountain of 
Esay, 2.  the house of God hath been prepared in the top of the mountains, and hath been exalted above the hills, and all nations have flowed unto it, and many people have gone & said: Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of jacob, and he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths: our sword have been broken into mattocks, & our spears into scythes, nation hath not lifted up a sword against nation, neither have they learned to fight any more. The Lamb dwelling with the Wolf hath been in safety, the Kid with the Leopard, the Cow feeding with the Bear, the Calf with the Lion, the sucking Child hath played upon the hole of the Asp, the weaned Child hath put his hand into the hole of the Cockatrice 
Esay, 11,  without any hurt, and the reason is alleged by the Prophet: Because the earth was full of the knowledge of the Lord, even as the waters that cover the sea. This prophecy you see is fulfilled. But these sayings are by them mistaken. For Tully doth not argue in this manner: that we must hold there is a God, and maintain religion, that so civil government may be maintained, and men may live orderly in a common wealth. But his meaning is clean contrary: that we must perform all civil duties in a common wealth for religion sake, and we must be religious for God's sake, because there is a God which hath engraffed religion in our hearts, whereby civil states may be the better maintained, and which will punish all such as are not religious, that is, which have not a true feeling of religion. And it was not the meaning of the Prophet Esay, that after the knowledge of true religion had planted peace among us, and peace had brought prosperity, than we should cease to be religious, & so forget God, but rather increase our zeal, and having received such benefits at his hands whom we serve, continue faithful in his service.  
A second cause of Atheism may be the want of due & right hearing of the word preached, because faith cometh by hearing, and therefore where there is a want of hearing faith faileth, 
Rome, 10.  and, by a consequent, Pagisme and infidelity increaseth. For many of them do not hear, but absent themselves, or if they be present, they stand not for figures but for ciphers, they do not by the word preached as the virgin Mary did by the sayings of 
Luc, 2.  our Saviour Christ, which laid them up in her heart: or as Abraham 
Gen, 18.  did by the Angels, which received them into his house, or as the Sunamite woman did by Elizeus, or the widow by Elias, 
2 Reg, 4. 1 Reg, 17.  which entertained them with willingness. The word to them is not as the rain of heaven falling upon the earth, or the dew of 
Deut, 11. Psal, 133. Math, 7, & 15 Matb, 13. Math, 10.  Hermon upon mount Zion, but as the children's bread cast before whelps, or pearls cast before swine, seed sown by the high way side, & the peace of the Apostles bestowed upon unworthy houses, and therefore returneth back again. They stop their cares with the Adder, or sleep with Eutichus, or make love as the 
Act, 20. Ezech, 23.  Egyptians did to Aholah and Aholibah, clothed with blue silk and divers suits, pleasant young men, that they may set Aholah and Aholibah on fire, bruise the breasts of their virginity, and power out their adultery upon them, as the Prophet speaketh. Some hear the Preacher with great attention, but as the pharisees 
Math, 22.  did our Saviour to entrap him in his speech, to take exception against his words, as the Athenians did St. Paul to scoff at 
Act, 17.  his simplicity, they read the Bible but as Porphurye did, to find (as they profanely call them) absurdities and contradictions in the word of God, not as the Bee which gathereth honey, but as the Spider which sucketh poison out of wholesome flowers.  
A third cause of Atheism, proceedeth from the long suffering of God, which doth not presently punish Atheists. For he doth not only with patience suffer them to blaspheme his holy name, but also in his wisdom which no man can sound, & in his judgements whom no man can search, blesseth them with worldly blessings, as if he did reward their ungodliness. It is not my complaint alone, but it is the complaint of the Prophet David which 
Psalms, 10.  crieth out in this manner: Why standest thou so far off o Lord and hidest thee in due time, even in affliction? the wicked hath made boast of his own hearts desire, and the covetous blesseth himself, he contemneth the Lord, he is so proud that he seeketh not for God, he thinketh always there is no God, his ways always prosper, he saith in his heart: I shall never be moved, nor be in danger. Nay it may very well be said, as it was of job: that the Lord hath made an hedge about him & his house, and about 
job, 1,  all that he hath on every side, he hath blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the Land. The Lord suffered his own Ark to be taken by the Philistines his enemies, 
1, Sam, 4  and his own people the Iraenlites which fought his battle, to be overthrown in the battle. And this commendation is given of the godly King josias, that he read the law of the Lord before the people, he made a covenant with the Lord that the people should 
2, Reg. 23  walk after the Lord, and keep his commandments, his testimonies & statutes, with all their hearts, all their souls, & all the people stood to the covenant, he purged the Temple, and put down the Idols, he slew the idolatrous Priests, he kept such a passover in honour of God, as never the like was holden, from the days of the judges that judged Israel, nor in all the days of the Kings of Israel & the Kings of juda, he took away them which had familiar spirits and the soothsayers, and the Images, and the Idols, and all the abominations that were espied in the Land of juda and jerusalem, that like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart, all his soul, and all his might, according to all the law of Moses, neither after him arose there any like him. And yet, see how the Lord rewarded him. The very next thing which followeth in the same Text, is this: Pharaoh slew him at Megiddo. Thus you see how the Lord rewarded faithful josias which served him, & trusted in him, with death in this world, and overthrow in sighting of his own battle, and gave the victory to Pharaoh an heathen King, which put no trust nor confidence in him. Likewise Nabucodonozor burned God's 
2, Reg, 25  house, robbed his Temple in contempt of him and his service, & yet God prospered him as if he had rewarded him for so doing, Valerius Maximus citeth out of Tully the example of Dionysius the Tyrant, which did brag and boast of his sacrilege, that when he sailed to the Temple of Proserpina which was at Locris to 
Lib. 1. Cap. de neglect religione.  rob the same, the wind and weather did so much favour him, as if it had been a pleasing thing to that Goddess to do her violence, as if she had the rather prospered his navigation, & given success unto his business because he did rob & spoil her Temple. When the Turks and Hungarians join in battle, the Hungarians army crieth out aloud jesus, jesus, The Turks name their prophet Mahomet, but Mahomet prevaileth against jesus. The greatest part of the world are infidels, and they increase daily, but the number of Christians do decrease. And this is agreeable to that which Prateolus observeth, which all eageth 
De haeres. Lib. 1.  that among many causes of Atheism this is not the least, namely, eventus mirabiles quorum causas ignorant, & putant long aliter fore, si Deus existeret omnia cernens & curans, ut sunt faelicitas impiorum, infaelicitas piorum, & eius Dei longanimitas qui atrocissimos peccatores statim non punit. Strange events which continually fall out, contrary to the sense and reason of man, the causes whereof man understandeth not, but thinketh that it would be otherwise, if there were a God which did see and regard human affairs, as for example, the happiness of the ungodly, the unhappy estate of the godly, and the long suffering of God himself which suffereth grievous offenders so long to escape unpunished: whereas contrariwise, if God would be pleased to show present examples of his justice upon sinners, as he did when he turned Lot's wife into a pillar of Salt for looking back, destroyed 
Gen, 19 1, Reg, 13, 1, Sam, 4,  Sodom with fire & brimstone for pride, caused jeroboam his hand to wither for burning Incense, Eli to break his neck for suffering his Children to abuse the Priest's office: the earth to swallow up Core, Dathan & Abiram for their rebellion: the Bears 
Numb, 16,  to devour the Children for mocking Elisaeus, the dogs to eat 
2 Reg, 2 2 Reg, 9 Levit, 10 1, Sam, 15 Dan, 5 Luc, 1, Act. 8. Act. 5, 2. Reg: 5 Deut, 32  josabell for oppressing Naboth, the fire to burn up Nadah and Abihu for using profane fire upon the Altar, which took away Saul his Kingdom for disobeying Samuel, stroke Zachary with dumnes for unbelief, Elymas with blindness for hindering the course of the Gospel, Balthasar with death for profaning the holy vessels, Ananias and Saphira for telling a lie, Gehezi with Leprosy for taking bribes, and shut Moses out of the Land of Canaan for trespassing at the waters of Meriba: I say, if God would vouchsafe to dwell with us as he did with them, and show such examples among us as he did among them, punish whole lands as he did Egypt for not letting his people go, no doubt but 
Exod, 8  Atheism would cease, and ungodly men would confess that there is a God. It is a sign that our sins are great, and God doth not love us as he loved them.  
And yet the Atheists have but mistaken all this while, for these be arguments rather to prove unto them that there is a God. For this is the Lords long suffering to bring them to repentance as St. Peter teacheth saying: The Lord is not slack as some men 
2 Pet, 3.  account slackness, but is patient towards us, and would have no man to perish, but would have all men to come to repentance. And as St. Paul saith: Thou o man, despisest thou the riches of 
Rome, 2.  his bountifulness, and patience, and long suffering, not knowing that the bountifulness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but thou after thine hardness, and heart that cannot repent, heapest up as a treasure unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath & of the declaration of the just judgement of God. But therefore the Prophet David in the Psalm above rehearsed, where he 
Psal, 10.  saith: The wicked hath made boast of his hearts desire, his ways always prosper: he inserteth these words in the middle of the sentence: Thy judgements o Lord are far above his sight. And St. Augustine doth fully satisfy this point, where he saith: Divina miserecordia ad impios & ingratos pervenit. Primo quia Deus 
Dè Civi: Dei, Lib, 1. Chap, 8.  facit oriri Solem super bonos pariter & malos, & pluit super justos & iniustos. Secundo ut quidam ista cogitantes ab impietate se corrigant. Tertio, ut quidam divitias longanimitatis eius contemnentes sibi thesaurrizentiram. Quarto, patientia Dei ad poenitentiam invitat malos, sicut flagellum Dei ad patientiam erudit bonos. Quinto, quia placuit divinae providentiae praeparare imposterum bona justis quibus mali non fruentur, et mala impij quibus boni non cruciabuntur. Again, Si nunc omne peccatum plecteretur poenis temporalibus, nihil ultimo judicio reseruari putaretur, &, si nullum peccatum nunc puniretur, nulla Dei providentia esse crederetur. God's mercy is extended to the godless and unthankful men for these causes following: First, because he maketh his Sun to shine aswell upon the unjust as the just, and his rain to fall upon the godless aswell as the godly. Secondly, that some of them considering these things, might repent them of their sins. Thirdly, that othersome despising the riches of his longanimity might heap up wrath unto themselves. Fourthly, the patience of God doth invite and allure the wicked to repentance, even as the scourge of God doth instruct the godly unto patience. Fiftly, because thath seemed good to the providence of God to prepare in an other world joys for the righteous, whereof the unrighteous shall not be partakers, and punishments for the wicked which the godly shall not feel. And, last of all, if all offences were now punished with temporal punishments, it would be thought that nothing were reserved for the day of judgement, as contrariwise, if nothing were punished temporally in this world, men would make a doubt of God's providence.  
A fourth cause of Atheism is the malice of Satan, as the Apostle showeth us: If (saith he) our Gospel be yet hidden, it is 
2 COL 4.  hidden to them which are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds, that is, of the infidels that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ should not shine in them. Behold Satan his malice and cunning, from time to time. In the first two hundred years after the Passion of our Saviour Christ, he busied himself about the first Article of the Creed to overthrow that, and therefore stirred up the Marcionists, the Gnosties, the Manichees to teach that there was not one God the Father almighty maker of heaven and earth, but divers Gods. But finding not his success therein answerable to his malice, ceased there and went to an other Article, and so stirred up Praxeas, Noetus, Paulus Saniosatanus to overthrow the divinity of our Saviour Christ his Son, afterwad heretics to disprove his conception by the holy Ghost, his birth of the Virgin Mary, and the other Articles of faith which are to be believed concerning him. Being not able to prevail therein, he descended to the Article of the holy Ghost, and so stirred up Macedonius to deny the Godhead of the holy Ghost. Being not able to prevail therein he went to the Articles concerning the Church, and so in sundry ages hath gone from one Article to an other, until he hath gone over all the Articles of the Creed. Now, being disproved in them all, he doth not so rest, but returneth again to the first at which he began, not to prove a multiplicity of Gods as he did before endeavour, but to prove a nullity of any God, by disproving the Godhead either of the Father, or of the Son, or of the holy Ghost, of all three; But he goeth to work with greater violence, to chop off all faith, all religion at one blow, by proving that there is never a God, and to this purpose hath he armed his Politicians with arguments against the Bible. But to them may be applied the words of Policarpus to Marcian the haereticke, who being asked of him: Agnoscis me o Policarpe? Dost thou acknowledge me o Policarpus? answered him: Agnosco te esse primogenitum Satanae, I know thee very well, thou art the son and heir of the Devil.  
The last cause of Atheism is the lenity and over great mildness of Princes and Governors, which do suffer Atheists to escape unpunished. I may justly say it is their fault that there are Atheists that will suffer Atheists, For so saith the holy Ghost concerning Azariah the King of judah: He did uprightly in the 
2, Reg, 15  sight of the Lord, according to all that his Father Amaziah did: but the high places were not taken away, for the people yet offered, and burned Incense in the high places. And the Lord smote the King, & he was a leper unto the day of his death. The King himself you see is commanded to be a godly man, not he, but his subjects committed idolatry, yet God punisheth him for the idolatry of his subjects, But that could not stand with the justice of God to punish the King for his subjects offences unless it were the King's fault that the subjects offended. Where the Spanish Inquisition is, it is a very rare thing to hear of an Atheist, which I speak not to that end as if I did wish that Inquisition to be brought into any Christian Kingdom, but only to show that it is better to live where there is too much severity rather than too much looseness, and where nothing is lawful, rather than where all things are permitted as if they were lawful. The Lord of his mercy stir up the hearts of all his anointed Princes, & inflame their Zeal, that they may not only hate Atheism, as I hope they do, with a perfect hatred, but also banish such impiety, that hereafter not only the opinions but also the very name of Atheist may be as it were buried in hell, and no more heard of in their Kingdoms.   

Chapter 3.  
How Atheism may be rooted out of all Christian lands.  
AS prosperity causeth many men to forget God, and others to deny God: so adversity, sickness, imprisonment & such like chastisements of God for sin, will make wicked men not only to acknowledge & confess God, but also to stoop down before him, and to fly for succour unto him. When julian the apostata was deadly wounded by a dart from heaven, he could not be silent, but that plague extorted out of his mouth a confession of the power of jesus Christ whom before he had denied, & he cried out: Vicisti Galilaee, jesus of Galilee the conquest is thine. Though Pharaoh in his prosperity had said: who is the Lord? I 
Exod, 5.  know him not, I will not let the people go: yet when his land was plagued with Frogs, he called for Moses and Aaron and said: Pray ye for me unto the Lord, that he may take away the Frogs from me and from my people, and I will let the people 
Exod, 8.  go, that they may do sacrifice to the Lord, But as soon as God gave him a little rest, that the plague ceased, he was hardened again. When the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the men of Ashdod, and he destroyed them and smote them with Emeroides 
1 Sam, 5.  they removed the Ark out of the house of Dagon, and said: Let us send the Ark of God unto his own place, that he slay us not, and our people. When Nabuchodonozer was deprived of his 
Dan, 4.  Kingdom, and turned into an Ass to graze in the field for the space of seven years: then he began to be humble, to understand himself better, to lift up his eyes to heaven, to give thanks to the most high, to praise and honour him that liveth for ever, to confess that his power is an everlasting power, that his Kingdom endureth from generation to generation, that all the inhabitamnts of the earth are reputed as nothing, that according to his will he worketh in the army of heaven, and in the inhabitants of the earth, that none can stay his hand, nor say unto him, what dost thou? Then he could make both an humble & a large confession, and say: I Nabuchodonozer praise, and extol, and magnify the King of heaven, whose works are all truth, and his ways judgement, and those that walk in pride he is able to abase. But for as much as now such miracles do cease, and it belongeth to God's anointed Kings to be jealous of his glory, if they will abandon Atheism out of their Kingdoms: first of all they must withdraw their countenace from all ungodly livers. For so long as the Prince doth look cheerfully upon them, the eyes of the people will be defixed upon them also, they will admire them, and think their vices to be virtues. You know what Hamon said: 
Esther, 6.  Thus shall he be honoured whom the King doth honour: and again the argument must follow aswell on the contrary side: Thus, and thus, shall he be dishonoured whom the King doth dishonour, You are not ignorant of the saying of Solomon: Indignatio 
Pro, 19, & 20  Regis est nuncius mortis, The displeasure of the King is but a forerunner of death. If the King give countenance to Atheists, the people will respect them by his example, if he frown upon them, the people will trample over them. The King is like the mayor preposition in a syllogism, the people are like the conclusion. But it is a most certain rule in Logic: Conclusio sequitur deteriorem partem. If the mayor be negative or particular, the conclusion will be so, if any thing be worse than other in the King the people will be sure to follow that.  
Secondly, they must be assisting unto their Ministers. For God in the Primitive Church gave them the gift of working miracles to credit their office and calling whereby they did chastise God's enemies. So St. Paul stroke Elymas the sorcerer with blindness 
Act. 13.  for perverting and seducing the deputy from the faith. And St. Peter stroke Ananias and Saephira with present death for telling a 
Act, 5.  lie to the holy Ghost. And because miracles after a short time were to cease, our Saviour Christ left the sword of excommunication in his Church to be in place of miracles, and to continue unto the end of the world. And since the Church hath no other sword now, but the censure of excommunication, which is so greatly despised: if it would please God to put it the hearts of Princes to strengthen excommunication with their Princely authority, to add the sword of the Kingdom to the keys of the Church, not to suffer any person that is noted of impiety to dwell in the land, none that is tanquam Publicanus & Ethnicus, as an heathen or infidel to dwell among Christians, but to deliver them over to the hangman whom the Church hath delivered over to Suthan, unless they he heartily openitent, and speedily reform: no doubt but than God would be better known in juda, and his name in jerusalem would be greater. I say, if any man be an Atheist, let him not be honoured among the people, but let him have Micheas 
1 Reg. 21.  his entertainment, which was to be fed with the bread of affliction, and water of affliction, or let him be banished out of the land, not by Ostracism, as Arist●des was for his virtues, but as Ovid was for his vices, and that I may use the phrase of the holy Ghost, let his house be made a Takes. As Tully wished, that it 
Dan, 3.  were written in every man's forehead what he thought of the commonwealth of Rome, that so truehearted subjects might be known from Traitors: so, I wish it were written in all men's foreheads, what they think of God and of Christian religion. We can judge no farther of them then we hear by their blasphemy, and profane words which they utter, & see by their loose lives and conversations. But so far we may judge as we hear and see, and we find there are so many, that we have good cause to cry out with the Prophet David, and to say: Help Lord help, there 
Psal. 12.  is not a godly man left, for the faithful are failed from among the children of men, they speak deceitfully every one with his neighbour, flattering with their lips, and speak with a double heart, the Lord cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things. Thus much I am fare: there is no policy to religion, no wisdom to well doing, and most firm is the estate of that man, be he high or of low degree, which procureth God to be his friend.   

Chapter 4.  
That there is a God.  
THey which call themselves the damned Crew, yet do think there is no damnation, they swear continually by the name of God, and yet they think there is no God. See how they are overtaken unawares. As St. Paul might very well dispute with 
Act, 17.  the Athenians in the defence of that God whom he preached unto them; and say: There is a God besides all those Gods which you superstitiously do worship; and is yet unknown unto you, witness yourselves and your own Altar, Do not think it absurd that I preach unto you such a God for if there be not, why do you then erect an Altar unto him & write this superscription upon it? IGNOTO DEO, TO THE UNKNOWN God. So I dispute against them: if they be, as they confess their selves, a damned crew, how shall they think to escape damnation? If they swearo by the name of God, why do they deny God? for in swearing by him unawares they do confess him. They wear by the wounds and blood of Christ & yet deny the merits of the death of Christ. The man of God calleth such men fools, and such 
Psalms, 14.  fools may be rebuked even out of their own Book, entitled THE SHIP OF FOOLS.  

Preb scelus horrendum, blasphema tricuspide telo  
Gent humana petit genitum Patris Altitonautis,  
Atque illi exprobat quod nostros induit artus.  
Languoresque tulit nostros, miseratus abalto  
Casum insaelicen quo primus corruit Adam. 

What heinous sin, blasphemous mangainst Gods beloved Son  
Dost thou commit? up braiding him who did for us become?  
Our self-same: flesh: who bore our sin, & pitved from his Throne  
That most uhappy state of ours from whence Adam was thrown.     
To them I say no more than out of their own Book.  

Desine sacrilegis iterum crucifigere labris  
Virgineum partum, poenamque horresce propinquane. 

With such uncircumcised lips forbear (o wretch) again  
To crucify the Virgin's son, and fear eternal pain.     
They were thought worthy to be put into the Ship of Fools which are swearers, but much more do they show themselves to be fools which swear by God, and yet say there is no God But I will prove to the damned Atheist by these reasons, that there is a God.  
First they read every day in the book of nature that there is a God. I mean by the book of nature, the great frame of heaven & earth. For what is this whole visible world, but Epistola a Deo scripta ad humanum genus? A letter or Epistle written from God unto mankind? For, in it we may read of the invisible God in his works, and his name is engraven there in hierographical letters. Lactantius proveth it out of Tully (an heathen Philosopher) by the same argument, his words are these: Nemo est tamrudis, tam 
De falsae religione. L. 1. C. 2  seris moribus, quin oculos suos in coelum tollens, tametsi nesciat cuius Dei providentia regatur hoc omne quod cernitur, aliquam tamen esse intelligat ex ipsa rerum magnitudine, moles, dispositione, constantia, utilitate, pulchritudine, temperatione, nec possefieri, quis id quod mirabiliratione constat, consilio maiori aliquo sit instructum. No man is such a rustic, so brutish and void of common sense and reason, but as often as he looketh up to heaven, if he deny this, his own eyes shall witness against him, for although this be not sufficient to bring him to the perfect understanding of that God by whose providence he seeth the world is governed, yet what his eye hath seen, his tongue may tell. The very greatness of the frame of heaven, the constant motion of the stars, the wonderful temperature of the elements, doth show there is a God which guideth these things, and by a consequent there is a God which made these things. Mercurius Trismegistus doth 
Ad filium suum Tatium quod manifestus Deus manifestissimus est.  prove it. Singula haec astra non similem & aqualem cursum faciunt in coelo. Quis est qui evique modum & magnitudinem cursus terminavit? ursa haec quae circase voluitur, & universum mundum secum circumferens; quis est qui ei fabrifecit instrumentum? quis est qui mariterminum imposuit? quis est qui terram stabilivit? est enim aliquis o Tati, qui herum omnium factor est & Dominus. Impossibile enim est, vellocum, vel numerum, vel mensuram terminari absque factore. When we see the motion of the planets & fixed stars contrary one to an other, the celestial spheres in continual volubility, the multiplicity of their motions, their diurnal or daily course from the East to the West, their retrograde and violent motion from the West to the East, their trepidat motion from the South to the North. When we see the sea far higher than the earth, and a fluid or liquid body, yet confined within the banks that it cannot drown the earth, the earth solid and firm under our feet that we cannot sink, we must confess o son Tatius that there is one which is Lord & maker of these things, for it is impossible that every thing should continue in due place, number and meeasure, and so just a proportion should be observed without a maker, and who could make these things but God? therefore there is a God. To this book of nature agreeth the book of the Bible, who saith: The heavens 
Psalms, 19  declare the power of God, the firmament showeth the work of his hands, one day teacheth another, & one night giveth knowledge to another. Again, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven 
Rome, 1.  against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, which detain the truth of God in unrrighteousnes, for as much as that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed it unto them, for the invisible things of him, that is, his eternal power and Godhead are seen by the creation of the world, being considered in his works, to the intent that they should be without excuse. David saith: he covereth himself with light as with a garment, and spreadeth the heavens like a curtain, he 
Psal, 104.  layeth the beams of his chamber in the waters, maketh the clouds his chariots, and walketh upon the wings of the wind. In which words, I do not press them with the authority of the Scriptures, because the Scriptures are not of sufficient credit with them, but with the reasons which are used in the Scriptures, which if they cannot answer, they must yield unto, and confess that there is a God. And therefore I conclude against them in this manner: We see daily effects before our eyes in all the elements, continual motions in the heavens, but there can be no effect without a cause, there can be no motion without a mover, no action without an agent, no work without a workman: these be relatives, and therefore one could not be without the other. Mercurius Trismegistus could say: Statuam sive imaginem fieri sine statuario aut pictore nemo dicit. Hoc vero opificium fine opifice 
Ad filium Tatium  factum est? Ô multam cacitatem, o multam impietatem, o multam ignorantiam, nunquam o sili Tati privaueris opifice opificia. A picture cannot be made without a Painter; or a graven image without a Carver, And can such a piece of work be made without a work van? It is blindness, it is impiety, it is gross to entertain such a conceit. So then we take these for undoubted principles in natural Phiosophye that they may not be denied, to wit: Every effect hath his cause, every action his agent, every motion his mover. But, as there be many secondary causes, agents & movers, so there must needs be one principal and above the rest. There is ordo causarum, qui in rerum natura non procedit in infinitum, an order of causes sub-ordinate one to an other, and therefore there is no infinite ascension up in the subordination of causes, but at the length by ascending we must come to the highest, & we must in ea consistere, stay when we come there, because we can go no higher, and that is God. What natural body soever is moved, I say it is moved by some other which is higher than itself. For example: The sphere of the Moon which is the lowest of the heavens, is moved by the sphere of Merc. which is higher than it, Mer. is moved by Venus which is higher than it, Venus by the Sun, the Sun by Mars, Mars by jupiter, jupiter by Saturn, Saturn by the sphere of the fixed staries, and so we ascend until we can go no higher, that is unto the heaven which is called Primum mobile, that first & highest body which is subject to motion & volubility. That also is moved aswell as the rest, not of itself, because no natural body can move itself, therefore it hath motion from some other, not from any other body, because there can be no other body above the highest, therefore it must of necessity be moved by that which is a Spirit and not a body, not natural but metaphysical, 
Phisic: l, 2. c, 1  and that can be nothing else but God. In like manner, the Sun and a man do beget a man, the Sun & putrefaction do engender Flies, and these things being subject to outward senses are therefore natural bodies, and because they are natural bodies they have four causes, two inward which are matter and form, and two outward efficient and final, and there is nature which hath his secret motion, tell me therefore what is that? You will say peradventure that is nature which Aristotle defineth to be principium motus the beginning of motion: you say rightly, but that is inward, therefore you must beside this assign an outward cause of motion, and what is that? If you say the air, that is but a middle cause, and therefore you must ascend higher, for, if there be causa media, there is also prima, if there be a mid or subordinate cause, there is also a principal and first cause. And what is that, but only God, that is causa causarum the cause of all other causes, and from whence all other things have their being? Again, all agents do not work alike, for one thing worketh of necessity, and that is nature, an other thing worketh (in these outward and indifferent things) partly of will, and partly of necessity, & that is man, there you see medium participationis, a mean which participateth with the extremity, but there can be no mean without two extremes, and there can be no one extreme without the other, and therefore of necessity there must be a third agent which worketh freely as nature worketh of necessity, and man partly of will & partly of necessity. And that can be nothing else, but Deus liberrimum agens, even God which worketh freely that no power is able to withstand his work. Therefore I conclude this point with job: Ask the beasts and they will teach thee, the fowls of the heaven, and they will show 
job, 12.  thee: speak to the earth, and it will tell thee: the fishes of the sea, and they shall declare unto thee: who is ignorant of all these, but the hand of the Lord hath made all these?  
Secondly, to leave the workmanship of the whole world, and to come to man alone which is but one little part of the same. If man go no farther than himself, he shall see God most lively in himself three manner of ways: First in his conscience and understanding, Secondly in his natural inclination he hath to religion, Thirdly in the excellency of the workmanship both of his body and his soul. Concerning the first: I say there is in every man at some time or other an inward feeling of his conscience, which will he nill he, maketh him to confess there is a God. For, suppose a man for his wickedness to be a monster of men, a very slander and reproach to mankind, as Nero was that slew his Mother, his Master and himself: when he hath committed any heinous crime, he doth in his conscience see that God doth behold it, that God doth pursue him, that God will work revenge although there be no witness to accuse him, no human power above him to execute justice upon him. I will not dwell upon many examples, neither will I instance in Adam, which as soon as ever he had eaten the Apple hid himself from the presence of God 
Gen, 3.  in the thicket: in Herod which when he had beheaded john the Baptist wrongfully, did think 't he was haunted by john the Baptist 
Math, 14.  his ghost, saying of Christ: surely this is john risen from the dead, nor in Cain which but intending to murder his brother, 
Gen, 4.  watched a time when he was in the field out of the sight of his parents. I will not allege the authority of the Prophet which saith: Impius fugit, nemine persequente. The wicked man flieth 
Pro, 28.  when no man doth pursue him: And of the Apostle which saith, 
Rome, 2.  The Gentiles which have not the law written (meaning the Bible) yet have by nature the effect of the law of God written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts accusing or excusing one an other: because they think the Bible to be a partial judge, and no way competent between them & us, and therefore I will allege one or two examples out of indifferent Authors tending to the same purpose. Tully pleading for a 
Oratione pro. S. Roscio Amorine.  man which was accused as a Parecide, or one which had murdered his own father, allegeth this as an especial proof of his innocency, that in the whole course of his behaviour after his father was slain, nothing could be observed in him which did savour of a troubled conscience. And for the better cleared of Sextus Roscius whose cause was then in hand, he allegeth a former example of a father and his son, which in their travail took up their lodging, and after supper lay together in one bed: the morrow after, the master of the house coming by chance into the chamber, found the father strangled in his bed and the son sleeping by his side: when the matter was examined by the judges, the son was acquitted by the equity of the law as a man innocent, because it was then held and by them so adjudged to be a matter impossible, that he should in so short a time have slept if so be that he had committed murder. A man saith Tully which 
Pro, 15  hath slain his father, shall feel a thousand vexations and furies of hell tormenting his conscience, according to that saying of the 
Esay, 57  wise man: A good conscience is a continual feast, but non est pax impijs, no inward peace, no quietness of conscience with such men as are notoriously wicked. A man I say, that hath committed any crying sin, shall betray himself by the working of his own conscience, it will not suffer him to take his bodily rest, it will alter his very face and countenance, as the Poet saith:  

Heu quam difficile est crimen non prodere vult●? 
Ouidij metamorpho:    
Oh how hard a thing is it for a man to keep his countenance, & not to blush which hath committed an offence? The Lord said to Cain after he had committed murder: Why is thy countenance cast down? such a man feareth the wagging of every leaf, 
Gen, 4.  and the flying of every bird. An obnoxious man watching, is like to a frenzy man sleeping, for the one resteth not sleeping, and the other resteth not waking, he cannot sit still he cannot lie still, he cannot stand still, nor abide long in any place. Caligula the tyrant was afeard of every blast. Nero when he had massacred 
Suco●●●● Ca●gul: Cap, 15  the christians, put St. Paul to the sword, St. Peter to the gibbet, was so terrified by apparitions, as he thought, of St, Paul and St. Peter which appeared at his bedside in a dream: and after he had put his mother Agrippina to death, he was so terrified in his conscience, that he knew not where to bestow himself, at the end for very grief of mind, he ran into a privy, and there stabbed himself. 
●is in Nerone   
That I may come to religion. Tully saith: Sunt qui negant Deos procurationem habere rerum humanarum, quorum sententia 
De natura De●●●…, Lib, 1.  falsa est, quoniam sic omnis religio inanis esset. Religion showeth there is a God, for if there were no God, then could there be no religion. But every man's soul naturally hath sometimes a feeling of religion, although he despise God and religion never so much. This appeareth by the very heathens themselves, which, be they never so rude and barbarous, and deprived of the knowledge of God, yet do make unto themselves idols even of their own accord, as Mr. Calvin very well observeth: Dei conceptionis apud 
Institut: Lib, 1  Ethnicos, saith he, idolotria satis est argumenti, quum lapidem potius quam nullum deum colant, the mansown conceit doth naturally lead him to know there is a God, the very idolatry of the heathens is a sufficient proof, which chose rather to worship a stone, than no God at all. And as Statius saith: Primus in orb Deos fecit timor, as soon as men be in danger and extremity, be they never so ungodly, yet they erect Altars, carve Images, fly to them for succour, showing that in their own natural judgement which they have by the light and instinct of nature, there is one higher than themselves, one whose power is above the power of man to whom they ought to fly unto for help and delivery out of trouble, and who is that but God? Nay, witness in this point the Atheists themselves that there is a God, for in their extremity of grief they cry out o God. It is an old and true Proverb: Qui nescit orare transeat mare, if a man know not how to serve God, let him sail upon the sea, and it will make him to serve God. When the Lord sent a great wind that the Ship was like to be 
jovae, 1.  rend, the Mariners were afeard, & every one cried unto his God, they said unto jonas: Thou sleeper arise, and call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not, and (as the Text saith) Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and offered sacrifices unto him, and made vows. And for this cause namely, that men by the instinct of nature do incline to religion, and a man is as much distinguished from a beast by his feeling of religion as by his reasonable soul; After the flood, Mercurius Trismegistus and Menna prescribed laws and rules of religion to the Egyptians, Melissus to the Cratians, janus, to the Latins, Numa Pompilius to the Romans, Orpheus and Cadmus to the Grecians, aswell as Moses and Aaron to the Hebrues, the difference only this, that the Hebrues were in the right way, all the rest in the wrong. But yet all nations beside had their Priests, their Altars, their Gods, their rules and principles of the religion which they professed, which is an argument, that by nature they knew there was a God.  
And that I may descend unto the workmanship of man to show that there is a God, It is truly said, that hominis fabricatio est innumeris Dei testimonijs ornata, the very workmanship of man himself doth abundantly witness that there is a God. Let us therefore first of all look into the soul of man, and afterward into the state of his body. There is in it not only an infinite capacity, in so much that the more it knoweth, the more it is able to learn, It is able to conceive not only the whole world, but also two worlds, yea infinite worlds, It is of infinite desire 
Pro, 27. Dan, 9  which is never satisfied. I will not speak of Daniel which was called: vir multorum disideriorum a man of many desires, nor of Moses which in this transitory life desired to see the very face of 
Exod, 33.  God, but of Alexander the great, which when he thought he had subdued the whole world, yet was not therewith contented, but affected more worlds: and hearing a Philosopher say there were infinite worlds, wept for grief to think how great a labour it should be for him to subdue them all, as if he had hoped to conquer all. Man's appetite is never satisfied: give him a City, he desireth a Kingdom: give him a kingdom, he affecteth an Empire: give him an Empire, he desireth a world. If he could be made Lord of the whole world, and knew that beside that there were no more, yet would he not rest there, but desire somewhat which is greater than the world, And what can that be but only God? So then, forasmuch as man is not satisfied with knowledge and contemplation, but laboureth to know more (that still Aristotle's proposition shall be verified in him: Omnes homines naturaliter 
Metaphy: Lib, 1. Cap, 1.  scire desiderant, all men naturally are desirous of knowledge) neither yet with possession, but desireth to have more: what can that be but Dei maiestas in mente & voluntate tanquam in speculis reflexa et unita, even the Majesty of God in man's mind and in his will as it were in two glasses seen, and reflected back again? Again, forasmuch as the proper object of the mind is truth as Tully writeth, but the mind of man is infinite, 
Officiorun, si, 1.  as I have declared, the object must be correspondent unto the mind, therefore truth must be infinite, and there must be no end of the knowledge and apprehension of truth. And forasmuch as that truth which is in creatures dependeth upon uncertainties, therefore there is some other truth which is immutable and most certain, and that is God. Also, the substance of man's soul hath not his original or beginning from any material thing, because it is not of seed, as in due course I will prove unto you, neither yet is it mortal, as I will show when I come to speak of the soul, Therefore it is not of any natural cause, but is the effect of such a cause as is supernatural, and metaphysical, and that is God.  
But to leave the soul of man and come to his body. Mercurius Trismegistus writeth of it in this sort: Si vis opisicem etiam per mortalia intueri, cogita o fili, hominis in utero fabricam, & opificis 
〈◊〉 Tatium  exact artificium expend, & disce quisuam artifex pulchram hanc & divinam hominis imaginem cordat, quisnam sit qui oculos circumscribat, nares & aures perforauerit, os aperuerit, nertias extenderit & colligaverit, venas in canales efformauerit, ossa indurauerit, carni cutam circum diderit, digitos & articulos distiuxerit, pedibus basim dilatauerit, splenem extenderit, poros cauauerit, heper latum fecerit, pulmonem perforauerit, ventrem capac●●… fecerit, honorabilia palam figurauerit, turpia absconderit? vide quot artes in una materia quis haec omnia fecit? qua matter? quis pates? nisi solus immanifestus Deus? If thou (o man) wilt see the invisible workman, do but think upon man how he is framed in the womb: who made his eyes round, his ears and nostrils hollow, his mouth open? who stretched out his sinews, hardened his bones, skinned his flesh, parted his fingers? who made the passage from his veins? who widened the bottoms of his feet, dilated his spleen, who opened his pores & his lungs, dilated his liver, made his belly of such capacity, his honest parts to be open, and his secret parts to be hidden? who did all these things but only the invisible God?  
A third reason to prove there is a God, is the general consent, not only of the learned men of the world, but also of the world itself. And why should any few wicked men think themselves wiser than the world? The deniers of the God head have been these men of name: Diagoras, Theodotus, Cyrenaeus, Euemarus Tegeates, Callimachus, Podicus, Caeus, Plinius, Lucianus, Lucretius, Doletus, Epicurus: some of them denying that there was a God, others that he took the care of governing and guiding the world, and besides these, very few. But as for the famous and learned Philosophers of the world, they confessed there was a God. Empedooles said: Deus est cuius centrum est ubique, circumferentia autem nusquam, God his centre is every where, his circumference no where. Socrates' called him magnum judicem the great judge, as Tully witnesseth: Plato acknowledged 
Cicero in some: Stipes: Phisico: Lib, 7. Cap, 2. & 10. Phes L, 8 C 6, de coelo. l, 1, ●, 9 Lib, 2, Cap, 3. Metaphy: Lib, 11, Cap, 7.  him in all his works, Aristotle the greatest of all, which in deed was equivalent to all the Philosophers, I may justly say, there is almost no leaf in his works, but in it he inserteth the name of God (even as almost no page of the Bible but in it is understood the name of Christ) who is called by him: prima causa, causa causarum, ens entium, primus mortor, author omnium, lux aterna, simplicissimus actus, conditor mundi, infinitus, immensus, inaffabilis Deus, The first cause, the cause of causes, the essence of all things of whom all things have their being, the first mover, the author of all things, the eternal light, most pure act, maker of the world, infinite, unmeasurable, unspeakable God. Aristotle 
Laenrtius dé vita Aristot:  when he lived, was accused by Hiero the Priest, because, Contra patrios mores & ritus multitudine deorum unum solum & ●erum Deum agnovit, Contrary to the religion of his country where many Gods were worshipped, he acknowledged but one only true God. And when he died, the last words which he spoke were these: Ens entium miserere mei, God have mercy upon me. The like was acknowledged by Mercurius Trismegistus. Quid Deus? immutabile bonum. Mundus factus est propter hominem, & homo propter Deum. What is God? an immutable goodness, the world was made for man, and man for God. Ego filled, et humanitatis gratia et erga Deum pictatis haec scribo. 
De pietate et Philosophia. Paenander Sermo sacar  I write this tract (my son) in regard of my love towards man, and my duty towards God. Illud vero ex mente lucidum verbīs filius Det, that same pure word which is borne of God is the son of God. Natura divina principium entium, the divine nature is the beginning of all things. Deus et pater, & bonum eandem habent naturam, quid est Deus, pater, & bonum, quam omnium esse? 
Glavis.  God the Father, and Goodness, have the same nature, what is God, the Father, and Goodness, but the very essence, and being of all things? Here is a manifest acknowledgement of the Trinity. To leave particular men, what answer the Atheists to the judgement of the world? the consent of nations? Tully draweth his argument in this manner: Deus esse non est dubitandum, 
De natu: deo●●●…. L, 1.  quoniam corum notitiam omnium animis ipsa impressit natura, that there is a God, it is without question, because all nations do acknowledge and confess him by the instinct of nature. But in an other place saith he: Omnium consensus vox naturae est, the consent of all men is the voice of nature itself. I have showed how 
●●seuls quest: Lab. 1.  all nations embrace some religion or other, have their Altars, their Priests, their Gods: as the Hebrues from Moses, so the Egyptians from Mercury, the Cretians from Melissus, the Latins from janus, the Romans from Numa, the Greckes from Orpheus and Cadmus, and all nations from one or other. St. Augustin saith, concerning miracles: Non nunc necessaria sunt, ut olim, miracula, tum facta erant necessario priusquam crederet mundus, ad hoc ut crederet mundus, quisquis autem adhuc, ut credat prodigia requirit, magnum 
Civitatis Dei, L. 22, Cap. 8  est ipse prodigium, qui mundo credente, non credit. Now miracles are not so necessary as in times past they were, before they were necessary, that so the world might believe, but now he is a miracle his self that will not believe, because the world believeth. But say I, as he is a wonder that will not believe that which the world believeth: so he is a monster which will not confess that which the world confesseth.  
A fourth argument to prove there is a God, is the great multitude of miracles which have been manifested to the world, even such things as are far above the strength of nature, & therefore needs must proceed from some higher & supernatural cause, and who is that metaphysical cause but even Natura naturans, God himself. For example, slightly to pass over so many earthquakes, which have overthrown whole Cities, as Eutropius showeth how the year after St. Paul's death, the City of Colossus was swallowed up for despising St. Paul's doctrine. They are 
Vide Carcaum de meteoris.  not unacquainted with the Historiographers which show how by an earthquake the Island of Sicily was made an Island being before one main continent with Italy, how Europe and Africa were parted when Spain was divided from Barbary which before were one land? And that I may speak that which mine eyes have seen, Vienna the chief City of Austria is now more subject to earthquakes then other places in the world beside, in so much that there is scarce one house in the City which hath not one rent or other in the stone wall, which came only by earthquakes. And because that place hath been more subject to earthquakes then other places, one of the Bishops of that Sea heretofore devised a certain prayer continually to be said in the 
Charion in his Chronicles.  Churches of Vienna to this effect, that God would defend that City from earthquakes. Let the Atheist satisfy me by a natural reason concerning this point, else let him confess that there is a supernatural cause, which if they do, that is God. What can they say to so many strange Eclipses, to so many prodigious rains? as when it rained blood, flesh, stones, coals of fire, of which 
Plutarch in ●ita Fabii. Lwius. l. 4. Decad. 3. et L. 3. dec 1.  they may read at large in Livy, Plutarch and other authors? what say they to so many comets appearing in the air, after which still do ensue the death of so many Princes, as namely the Comet which appeared in the year 1506. after which ensued the death of Philip King of spain son and heir to Maximlian the Emperor, Philip Prince Elector of Rhine, Albert Duke of Bavaria, Pope july the second, john King of Suecia and Noruegia, Lewis king of France, Maximilian the Emperor, the Bish. of Spire, the Archbishops of Colen & Magdeburg, the venetian wars, the wars between the Turk and the Persian, the King of Denmark Christian driven out of his Kingdom, Hungary invaded and Rhodes taken by the Turk. Lewis King of Hungary slain, who can give a natural reason of this, and many other like unto this? But I will stand especially upon two things which have troubled the wise men of the world, let the Atheists yield natural reasons how these things could be, else let them confess there is a God which is above nature. First the Star which appeared at the birth of our Saviour being neither a fixed star, nor yet a Planet, for it was nothing 
Math. 2.  like unto either of them, if we do respect the motion of it, the place where, and the time when it appeared, and the use whereunto it served, For, it neither moved as the fixed stars from the Est to the West, nor as the Planets from the West to the Est, but from the Est to the South, the like never heard of before nor since. When the Sun shined it also shone, when the wise men came to Palestina it went before them, when they came to jerusalem it vanished away, when they went to Bethleem it went before them again, as if it were a creature endued with reason and understanding, it showed them the very house where the Child did lie, whereas a natural star by reason of the great distance between heaven & earth, could not discover unto them the place and situation of a great City, much less of a small house: when they went forward, it went forward, when they stood still, it stood still, And as St. Augustin saith: Quid erat illa stellanisi magnifica lingua coeli, quae nec unquam antea inter sidera apparuit, nec postea demonstranda perntansit? quid erat nisi magnifica lingua coeli, quae gloriam Dei narraret, quae inusitatum virginis partum inusitato fulgore clamaret, cui non postea apparenti evangelium toto orb succederet? What star was that which was never seen before nor since, but the wonderful voice of heaven which should declare the glory of God, and publish to the world, the unusual childbearing of a Virgin, by an unusual brightness, which should never afterward appear again, but in steed of it should be the glorious Gospel of jesus Christ? If you ask me what proof I have beside the Gospel that ever there appeared such a star: witness Ignatius which saw our Saviour in the flesh, Prudentius the Poet, Macrobius a professed enemy to 
Ignatius ad Ephes. Lib. 2. Sa●…turnal.  Christian religion, which testifieth the same. And it is not unworthy of observation, that not the Manichees. not Celsus, not Porphu●y, not julian in all their cavels against the story of the Gospel, did no way so much as in a word take exception against this story of the star● might elevate or extenuate the truth thereof. And therefore 
Ad Ephe.  concerning this, I may say with Ignatius, Hinc evanuir mundi sapientia, praestigiae factae sunt nugae, magia risus, omnes ritus malitiae aboliti, ignorantiae caligo fugata, quum Deus & homo apparuit, & homo ut Deus operabatur. In this the wisdom of the world was proved to be but folly, the wise in their wisdomeme it proved but a toy, their magic ridiculous, all their superstitious rites were abolished, the clouds of ignorance dispersed, when God appeared to the world as a man, and man as if he were God. And secondly what natural cause can they allege of that great Eclipse 
Math. 26.  of the Sun, which contrary to nature lasted from the sixth hour to the ninth, and darkened the face of the whole earth? For first of all the Astrologers knew well that all eclipses of the Sun which have been from the beginning of the world (that only excepted) have been according to the rules of Art and the nature of an eclipse, which johannes de sacrobusto desineth in this manner: Est interpositio Lunae inter aspectum nostrum & solare 
Libello de Sph●ra.  corpus, An interposition of the Moon between the body of the Sun and our sight, which, as he saith, cannot be; but quum Luna fuerit in capite vel cauda Draconis, vel prope, vel infra metas supradictas, & in coniunctione cum Sole. When the Moon is in the head or tail of the Dragon, or there about, and in conjunction with the Sun. And forasmuch therefore as the Eclipse of the Sun which was at the time of the passion of our Saviour Christ, was when it was plenilumium, a full Moon, not coniunctio sive novilunium, not a conjunction of the Sun with the Moon, or new Moon, he concludeth that it was no natural Eclipse, but clean contrary to the rules of astronomy and the course of nature. Again, he showeth that when the Sun is Eclipsed, all the earth is not darkened, but only one Climate, because of the difference of the aspects in divers Chmats, but this Eclipse darkened the whole earth, therefore it was supernatural, and to the astonishment of the world, insomuch that Dionysius the Arcepagi●e at the very time of the Eclipse, beholding of it, cried out on a sudden Aut Deus naturae paetitur, aut mundi machina dissoluitur. Either the God of nature doth this day suffer, or the frame of the world shall be dissolved. Again, darkness continued for the space of three hours which could not be, if it had been a natural Eclipse, therefore it was supernatural, and of it saith St. Chrisostom: Non 
Sermone de pasions.  poterat ferre creatura iniuriam creatoris, unde Sol detraxit radios suos, we videret impiorum facinora. The creature could not with pacienceindure the wrong done to the Creator, and therefore the Sun withdrew his beams because he would not behold so wicked a fact as that the Lord of glory should so ungraciouslye be put to death. But the Atheists will ask me, how I can make proof by any saving the Evangelist, that there was ever such an Eclipse? I answered forasmuch as at that time when the Eclipse was, darkness was not only in judea but through all the whole world, and therefore at that time not only Dionysius the Arcopagite, but also the inhabitants of the whole earth could witness, as St, Origen answered. But lest they should think we are utterly void 
Contra Celsum L, 2.  of the testimoney of heathen writers: Origen disputing against Celsus the Epicure, an enemy to the Christian faith, proveth it unto him, not by the the testimony of the Gospel, but of Phlegon a famous Chronicler, seruantto Adrian the emperor as Suidas 
Vide de ed Fusins apud Suidam.  reciteth Phlegon's words, Phlegon his self did give his own judgement of this Eclipse that it was prodigious. And Tertullian disputing with the Gentiles, proveth the same Eclipse out of their 
Apologiâ adversus gentes.  own Writers, saying: Et eum mundi casum relatum in archivis vestris habetis. Ye have the very same occurrent registered in your own records.  
A fift reason to prove there is a God, is the variety of punishments which have been inflicted upon the Atheists from time to time which have denied God: Holophernes which being so great a warrior, beheaded in the middle of his own Camp by 
judith. 11 Theodo: bist: L, 3. C. 23. Sabell: anae. 8. L. 2. C, 11 Fulgentius, lib, 7, & 6.  a silly woman, Lucian devoured with dogs, julian the Apostata strooken dead with a dart from heaven, Arrius who died with his belly breaking & his bowels gushing out as he sat upon the privy, Olympius washing himself in a bathe, and blaspheming the Trinity, while many men looked upon him, was consumed suddenly with three fiery darts, the points of all three meeting in one. Let the Atheists show how these things could otherwise be done, but by the extraordinary hand of Almighty God, or else if they cannot, let them confess the God which did these things.  
A sixth reason to prove there is a God, is the confession of the devils themselves. For what one devil confesseth, is the confession of them all, for regnum divisum non potest stare, the kingdom of Satan being divided within itself cannot stand. Neither will I for confirmation hereof allege the authority of St james which 
Mat. lac. 2.  saith, They believe and tremble, of St. Luke which writeth of the devils confession saying: Christ I know, and Paul I know: of 
Act. 19 Marci. 1. Ex. 7. Ex. 8. 1. Sam  St. Mark, where the devil saith to our Saviour: I know thee that thou art even that holy one of God, neither how Moses his rod devoured the serpents which was made by the sorcerers of Egypt, how they could not make lice, because their power was restrained by an higher power, the finger of God, how Dagon fell down before the Ark of God, & could not stand in the Chapel where it stood: because they snall not say I am partial. But what answer can they make to the general silence of all Oracles, 
Vide Ciceronem Lib. 2. de divinat. Arnobius adversus Gentil Lib. 3. Sueton in Octau. C. 94. C, 70 Chap, 29 Niceph. hist. L 1. C, 17. Susdas.  that so many Oracles speaking before the time of our Saviour Christ, all were by him put to silence? What answer can they make to that famous story of the Oracle of Apollo at Delphus, which when Augustus the Emperor offered sacrifice unto him, to know the reason of that unwonted silence unheard of in former times: gave this for the last answer, as being never to speak again.  

Me puer Hebraeus, divos deus ipse gubernans  
Cedere sede jubet, tristemque redire sub orcum.  
Aris ergo dehinc tacitus abcedito nostris. 

An Hebrus Child, his selsea God, which other Gods doth quell.  
Bids me be silent, leave my seat, and get me down to hell.  
From this same place depart therefore:  
This Oracle will speak no more.     
Which answer being given, Augustus erected an Altar in the Capitol of Rome, with this inscription engraven upon it: ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI. The Altar of the first begotten Son of God. Seeing therefore the devils have confessed God the Father and his Son Christ, such men as will not confess the same, are in that point worse than devils.  
Last of all, it standeth with good reason that it should be the safest opinion for the Atheists to hold that there is a God. For if so be that there were no God, there could come no hurt unto them for thinking so, because all men besides themselves holding the same, there were none that would punish them for their opinion. But if so be that there be a God, (as I have prcued unto them that there is) surely one day he will torment them in hell fire for their contempt, because they would not belceve in him, and confess his name. Therefore I conclude with the Apostle: Cord creditur ad justiciam, orefit confessio ad salutem, Let the heart believe to righteousness, and the tongue consesle unto salvation. At the 
Ro. 10.  name of jesus let every knee bow, both of things in heaven, and things in earth, & things under the earth, and let every tongue 
Phil. 2.  confess, that jesus Christ is the Lord, unto the glory of God the Father.  
Amen.   

Chapter 5.  
What God is?  
SAint Chrisostom saith: Ego omne quod intelligo, since Christo, & Spiritu Sancto, & Patre, nolo intelligere, nisienim intellexero in Trinitate quae me servabit, mihi dulceesse non potest quod intelligo. 
In Marcum 〈◊〉. 14.  I can understand no other God, when I hear the name of God mentioned, but the Father, the Son and the holy-Ghost. For unless I understandd it to be meant by the holy and undivided trinity, whereby I am saved, my understanding shall content me nothing. So then, according to S. August: God is a divine 
Meditat. Cap. 31.  nature, consisting of three persons, the Father, the Son, the holy Ghost, God, the Lord, the comforter, He which begetteth, which is begotten, he which regenerateth & new begetteth, Of one all things, In one all things, By one all things, Fron whence, By whom, & in whom are all things, Life which liveth, Life of him which liveth, the quickener of all things which are living, One of himself, One of an other, One of them both. The principles of human arts and liberal sciences are by themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to be proved by the same arts. An Arithmetician cannot prove by Arithmetic that Omnis numerus est par aut impar, every number is even or odd. The physician cannot prove by his own Art that two crotchets make a quaver, because these be principles of Arithmetic and Music. All principles, as Aristoile teacheth 
Poster Lib: 1 C. 3.  in his Demonstrations, if they be demonstrated, must be demonstrated by the Metaphysics which are of an higher nature, but that the principles of the Metaphysics cannot be demonstrated because there is no higher science. But forasmuch as divinity is the highest, it is enough for us to belceve the principles thereof without farther searching, and happy is the man which seeth not the reason how they should be so, and yet belecueth that they are so. No man hath seen God at any time, because he is invisible. Tully saith: Vtioculus, it a anima, sereliqua videns seipsum non videt, 
john. 3.  The eye seeth not itself, and the soul understandeth other things better than itself, And that this saying: Nosce teipsum, 
Tuscul: quast. Lib. 1.  know thyself, is meant in regard of the soul of man, because it is so hard to conceive what it is. But if so be that an eye cannot see itself, no marvel though it have not seen God, if a man cannot fully understand himself, how should he so perfectly conceive and define what God is, which is so infinitely above himself? That which is finite him which is infinite, the creature the 
Ro. 9  Creator, the pipkin the pipkin maker, he which is made of vile clay him that hath made all things of nothing? But as Moses when he was a mortal and sinful man was not able to behold 
Ex, 33.  the glory of God, and therefore saw but his back parts only as he passed by: So let us which have but shallow brains so far demonstrate faith by reason, as faith may be discerned by reason.  
The Philosophers, as S. Augustin saith, seeking after the nature 
Magister sentent. L. 1. dist. 3.  of God, found that he could not be a body, & therefore concluded that he was far more excellent than all bodies, and therefore a Spirit: that he could not be subject to change, and therefore that he was above all bodies and souls which are subject to alteration: that all mutable things have their beginning from that which is without all shadow of change or mutability, and that he which is not thus subject is simply of himself depending of nothing but all other things have their dependence on him.  
Again, they considered that all substances are other bodies or Spirits, and that a Spirit is more excellent than a body, but that to be most excellent which hath made both the body and the Spirit. They considered likewise, that the shape of the body is discerned by the outward senses, and the spirit is perceived by the understanding, but that which is only understood is better than that which is seen, and that there was something more excellent than both these, & by so many ways God is known. Therefore, for as much as God is one simple essence, not compounded of any parts, not consisting of any accidents, and yet subsisting, and the Apostle speaketh of him in the plural number saying: 
Ro. 1  the invisible things of him are seen by the creation of the world because the truth of God is known and perceived by many means through the things which he hath made: by the continuance of his creatures is understood his eternity, by the greatness of them his omnipotency, by the excellent order whereby he hath disposed them his wisdom, by his government and preservation of them in that comely and decent order, his goodness, and all these things do belong to the unity of his substance.  
Therefore not to speak of the authority of the holy Bible, where at the Baptism of our Saviour, the blessed Trinity did sensibly appear, the Father in a voice, the Son in a man, the holy 
Mat. 3,  Ghost in a dove, how in the beginning the Father made, the Son spoke, and the holy Ghost moved upon the waters, Bara elohins 
Gen, 3,  creavit dij, seu Deus Trinus, a verb of the singular number is joined to a nominative case of the plural to show that these three 
Gen, 18  are one, how when three Angels came to Abraham his house, he prostrated himself to them as unto God, which could not be 
Esay, 6.  without the crime of idolatry, unless they had been God: how sometimes he spoke to them in the plural number as unto three people, & sometimes in the singular as unto one God: how the Angels cry in heaven, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth, three times holy & once Lord to show that there were three persons & one God. But if I come only to show the back parts of God, so far as by earthly comparisons he may be made manifest unto sinful man: the Atheist doth ask how it can stand, with sense & reason that three should be one, and one should be three? First let the Atheist take example by Olympus the Arrian, which washing himself in the bath contemptuously asked how this might be? but was suddenly destroyed by three fiery darts sent 
Saballius Anoe ad, 8, L. C. 11,  from heaven, and the points of these three joining all in one, to teach others by his example, how it is necessary to believe, but no way safe to make a doubt of the principles of Divinity, and to call into question such deep mysteries of our faith, and yet to show that three might be one, and one three.  
Secondly, the number of three are one number, & yet three unities in Arithmetic, a triangle is three angles and one figure in Geometry, three gimballes compacted together are one ring, & yet three as they be disjoined, and concerning these things do doubt is made. So you see by familiar examples how one may be three, and these three notwithstanding one.  
Thirdly, in the Sun which shineth in the firmament, there are the body of the Sun, the brightness which proceedeth from the body, and the heat which proceedeth from them both. So in the Trinity, there is the Father from whom all things are, the Son which is the brightness of his Father's glory, and engraven form of his person, and the holy Ghost, which is the heat and 
Heb, 1  love of them both.  
Fourthly, in the fire there are light, flame, & heat, the fire cannot be divided, neither can the Trinity. 
Peter Lomb: dist: 3:   
Fiftly, there are three powers and faculties of the soul of man, the memory, the understanding, and the will, these three are several faculties, yet the soul is one. All these three do comprehend 
Aug: de Trinitate, Lib. 4  one another. For man remembreth that he hath memory, will, and understanding. The understanding likewise comprehendeth all three, for man understandeth that he hath understanding, will and memory. The will comprehendeth all three, for man is willing that he shall will, understand, and remember. So the Father comprehendeth himself, the Son & the holy Ghost, the Son comprehendeth himself, the Father and the holy Ghost, the holy Ghost comprehendeth himself, the Father & the Son.  
sixly, that which understandeth, & that which is understood, are all one, when the mind reflected upon itself understandeth itself. So, God the Father from everlasting understanding himself begat his Son coeternal with himself: as a uninitie is not of any other, but of itself, and yet begetteth a unity of itself: so God the Father which is of none, yet understanding of himself, alierum se, non aliud generat, begetteth of himself an other, not in nature, but in person from himself, which yet is all one with himself. Again that which understandeth and is understood is all one with that which is beloved, when the understanding doth love itself, and then it is one and the self same thing which loveth, and is beloved, and there is the holy Ghost, all one with the Father and the Son. And so, as it were in the glass of nature is represented a lively image of that essential love and understanding by which the Father, the Son, and the holy Ghost do love and understand each other from all eternity.  
Last of all, in every thing which is made and framed by the art of man, there be necessarily three things, and yet these three make one, matter, shape, and order: by the matter is represented the Father, by the shape the Son which is the Image of his Father, by order the holy Ghost, which ordereth and disposeth all things.  
I conclude with St. Augustin: Te patrem ingenitum, te filium unigenitum, te spiritum paracletum ab utrisg, procedentem, colimus & veneramur, we praise & worship thee o God the Father unbegotten, the Son only begotten, the holy Spirit the comforter proceeding from them both.   

Chapter. 6.  
That there is but one God.  
David saith that the God of Gods even the Lord hath spoken, and called the earth even from the rising of the Sun to the going down thereof. In which words notwithstanding, 
Psal, 50,  he doth not intimate that there be many Gods, but one, for he called the other Gods so, by a figure called Ironia, or Sarcasmus as. God did by Adam when he said: Behold Adam is like one of us, when he meant nothing less. Such Gods are but creatures as 
Gen, 3.  I have showed, & by nature they are not Gods. Such Gods were the Idols of the nations, of which S. Paul saith: they turned the 
Ephe, 2 Ro. 1,  truth of God into a lie, and worshipped the creature for the creator. Such Gods were Dagon, Remphan, Astoroth, the Gods of the Philistines, Moabites, Sidonians. But even as Aaron's rod devoured 
Exod, 7,  the Serpents of the sorcerers, so the God of the Philistines Dagon fell down before. Ark the of the covenant where the true God was present, to show that such Gods were but counterfaite Gods, and vain like them which put their trust in them. Of such 
1, Sam, 5.  Gods saith S. Augustin. Nec ideo Troiaperijt quia Mineruam perdidit, quid enim ipsa prius Mincrua perdidit ut periret? an forte, 
De eivitate Dei, Lib, 1, C: 2  custodes suos? hoc sane verum est, quip illis, coesis potuit auferri, neque homines a simulachro, at simulacrum ab hominibus sernabatur Quo modo ergo celebratur ut patriam custodiret et cives, quae suos non potuit custodire custodes? Troy was not therefore overthrown, because it lost the idol of the Goddess Minerva, but tell I pray you what the Idol did loose, first, that itself should be also lost? you will say she lost her keepers, and ye say the truth, for when the keepers of her Temple were slain, it was no mastery to steal the Goddess away, for it was not the idol that kept the man, but the man did keep the Idol. How absurd a thing therefore was it to worship such a Goddess as a defender and keeper of the City, which was not able to keep herself, nor the keepers of her Chapel? whereas Virgil saith: Victosque Deos, paruumque nepotem, 
Aenaad, Lib, 2  suosque tibi commendat Troia penates: Si autem Virgilius tales deos, & victos dicit, et ut vel victi quo quo modo evaderent, homini commendatos, que dementia est existimare his tutoribus Roman sapienter fuisse commissam, & nisi eos amisissat, non potuisse vastari? Imo, Deos victos tanquam defensores colere, quid aliud est quam non numina bona, sed daemonia mala? Non Roma perijsset si illi, perijssent; sed illi multo antea perijssent, nisi eos Roma seruasset. Hector in Virgil saith: his God was conquered, and he commendeth them to the tuition of Aenaeas. But what madness was it to imagine that Rome was wisely committed to the protection of such Gods as were conquered, and had need their selves of man's protection, and that Rome could not be sacked so long as these Gods were in safety? Nay to worship conquered Gods as patrons of the City, is not to serve blessed Gods but damned devils. Rome had not been sacked over the sooner because they, were taken, but they had been taken sooner, had they not been kept by the City. The Kingdom of the jews, saith St. Augustin, 
De civitate Dei. L. 4. Cap. 34.  was founded by one God, and not by a multitude of Gods, and was maintained by that one God so long as they served him. That one God multiplied the people in Egypt, but neither did their women use the help of Lucina in their childbirth, neither did the man use the help of Neptune when they passed over the Red Sea, neither of the Nymphs when they drank water out of the Rock, neither of Mars when they conquered Amalac, but they obtained more at the hands of their own God, then ever did the Romans at the hands of their multitude of Gods whom they served.  
Lactantius proposeth this question, whether the world is governed 
Defalsa religione. Lib. 1. C. 3  by one God or many? Not to stand upon his authority because he was a Christian, but to weigh his reasons, because I dispute against neathens and infidels, which, as I showed in the first Chapter are also comprehended under name of Atheists, although they do not deny God, because they serve, as the Apostle saith: the things which by nature are not Gods. What need saith Lactantius, hath the world of many Gods? Unless they 
Gal. 4.  suppose that one of himself is not sufficient to undergo so great a burden? which needs must be granted, if every God of himself be not able without the assistance and help of an other. If any of them of himself be not omnipotent, than he is not a God, if he be omnipotent thenhe needeth not any partner. If God of himself bomnipotent, there can be but one, for if the divine power be divided among many Gods then no one can be all sufficient of himself, but by how many more they are in number, by so much the weaker they must be in power. He concludeth: Quid quod summa illa & divina potestas, ne semel quidem dividi potest, quicquid enim capit divisionem, & interitum necesse est, si autem interitus, procul est a Deo. The divine power which belongeth unto God cannot be imparted unto many, for whatsoever is capable of division is also subject to corruption, them the which thing, nothing can be more repugnant to the nature of God. Therefore there is but one God. I say therefore with the Apostle: Now to the 
1. Tim, 1,  King everlasting, immortal, invisible, unto God only wise, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.   

Chapter. 7.  
That the Books of the Bible are the word of God.  
I Made mention before, of the Book of nature, which might worthily be called God's book, because as I said, it was a letter or Epistle wherein God did make himself known unto mankind, and did instruct us so far as to know and confess that there was a God. But because that knowledge was but bare and naked and no way sufficient to bring us to salvation, only it served to make us search and inquire farther, that by enquiring farther we might be saved: there is an other book which is more especially called God's book, I mean his holy Bible, wherein we are taught not only to know God in his vissible creatures, but also, in his Son jesus Christ whereby we are saved. And it stood verse much with his Divine wisdom so providing for every thing, as the several nature and quality of each creature doth require, to write such a book for man's instruction in his fear & true worship, because man consists of a body as well a of as soul, and conceiveth visible things easier than such things as are only spiritual and are not seen, and by such things as are subject to his outward senses, man is brought to understand. It pleased him therefore of his great mercy to instruct us by these visible Characters, and written Letters which daily we do read. And as S. Augustin saith: De illa civitate unde peregrinamur, hae literae 
In. Psal. 90.  nobis venerunt, ipsae sunt Scripturae quae nos hortantur ut bene vivaenius. These letters sent unto us from that City the heavenly jerusalem from whence yet we do wander, & they are the Scriptures which do exhort us to live well. And I cannot deny, but the writers themselves of these holy books, were so immediately instructed from God himself which is the fountain of all heavenly wisdom, that they needed no writings. But yet with us it is otherwise, they are the foundation, we are but the walls which are builded upon that foundation, we (saith the Apostle) are builded 
Ephes, 2,  upon the foundation of the Prophets and the Apostles. Because by their writings we are edified, but they by whose means we are edified & builded, do lean their selves immediately upon the chief corner stone which is jesus Christ. There are great odds between the high mountains and the little hillocks, and low valleys, they are lightened immediately upon the first rising of the Sun, but light & heat cometh by degrees from them to the lower parts. As also God foresaw in his wisdom, and we know by experience of the former ages from the beginning of the world unto Moses, when there was no written word, that there could not be veritatis et doctrinae puritatis salva custodia sine scripto, soundness of doctrine could not be preserved, but by committing of it to writing. And therefore it pleased God that these Volumes of the Bible should be written. And that these are the holy Scriptures given by inspiration of God, profitable to teach, to convince, to correct, and to instruct, that the man of God 
2. Tim. 3.  may be absolute to all good works: That the man of God which writ them, spoke inspired by the holy Ghost, that they were written for the salvation of men's souls, & not for the maintenance 
2 〈◊〉 et. 1  of civil government, I prove by these arguments following.  
The first is the truth of all the prophecies which have failed in nothing, which spoke of things long before they came to pass, so certainly as if they had been already fulfilled. And that I may make due proof thereof, certissimus & fidelissimus vaticiniorum interpres est eventus: the surest & faithful est interpreter of prophecies is the event of things: Now we see their predictions are already come to pass, we are eye witnesses that they are true, which truth argueth that they were written by the finger of God which is the holy Ghost, which only could not err in writing, and not by man, for as much as all men are liars, humanum est errare, it is the 
Ro. ●  nature and property of a man to e●●e▪ in so much that if he be without error, he is not a man. And therefore it is impossible but in so many predictions foretold so many years before the time & so connary to human reason, but they should have been deceived if men had been the authors of these books. I will instance for brevity sake in some one or two especial things which may best serve for this purpose. The Scriptures foretold long before the time that the world should be converted to Christian Religion, all Nations should believe and submit themselves to the obedience of the Faith, a thing in man's judgement not to be expected. For the Prophet said concerning the Kingdom of 
Psal, 2.  Christ, I mean his Kingdom of the Gospel or of Grace. The Heathens raged, & the people murmured against the Lord and his Christ, but in vain, the Kings of the earth stood up & banded themselves, and the Princes assembled themselves together. But he that sitteth in heaven shall laugh them to scorn, the Lord shall have them in derision. Even I have set my King upon Zion mine holy mountain, I will declare the decree: that is, the Lord hath said to me, thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, ask of me, and I shall give thue the Heathen for thine inheritance, and the ends of the earth for thy possession. There could not be a more unlikely thing foretold, and yet it was fulfilled long since, no Atheist can deny it. Tertullian to this purpose saith: who was able to govern the world, but only Christ 
Aduersus Indaeos. C. 7. 8  of whom it was foretold that his Kingdom should be extended over the whole world? The Kingdom of Solomon saith her was confined within the Land of judaea from Dan to Beersheba, and his territories did reach no farther. Darius' reigned over the Pabylonians and Persians, but no farther, Pharaoh over the Egyptians, and there his dominion ceased. Nabuchodonozer was a great Monarch, yet he reigned not over the whole world, but only from India unto Aethiopia: the like may be said of the greeks & the Romans, which were called the Lords of the world, and yet the whole world was not known unto them, much less subdued by them. But as for the Kingdom of Christ, it hath extended itself far and wide, the Gospel hath been preached in all 
Act. 2.  places, and received of all Nations of the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, the inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phnygia, Cappadocia, Egypt, Pamphilla, Asia, Africa, and the uttermost Indies. Of this assertion there be so many records, that it cannot be denied. As for some few things which are foretold in the Scriptures & not yet fulfilled, as namely, the conversion of the jews, and the destruction of Antichrist, the time is not yet come to pass that they should be fulfilled, for all things must be performed in that due time which God in his secret wisdom hath appointed. There are other things also foretold which must go immediately before the end of the world, which are not yet performed because as you see the end is not yet. But it is a sufficient argument to induce Infidels to believe that all these things shall come to pass, because they see all other things already performed in their time and order. For as he that sometimes lieth shall not be believed though he tell the truth so he which always hath told the truth, cannot without impiety be suspected of fallhood, God cannot deceive or be deceived. And which is not to be omitted: St. Peter did prophecy that at the latter end there should be such Atheists, which should deny these 
2, Pet, 3.  things, and the Prophecy is now verified, otherwise this my labour might have been spared, their impiety maketh it good which the Prophet hath foretold.  
Again there is in Daniel an ancient Prophecy concerning the death of our Saviour Christ, even the very time and computation 
Dan, 9  of years is defined when he should be put to death. seventy weeks, (saith he,) are determined upon thy people, and upon the holy City, to finish the wickedness, and seal up the sins, and reconcile the iniquity, and bring in everlasting righteousness, & to anoint the most holy. From the going forth of the commandment to bring again the people, and build jerusalem: to Messias the Prince shall be 69. weeks, and after he shall be slain, but so, that for one week he shall teach, but in the middle of the week he shall cause the Sacrifice and oblation to cease. But these weeks are annuae hebdomadae, every week is seven years and so reckoning weeks consisting of years, & not only of days, as for every day in the week should be reckoned a year, 70. of daniel's weeks make 490. years. But the Temple which was the first and chiefest thing reaedified in jerusalem began in the second year of Cyrus, the builders were hindered 42. years as it appeareth out of the Gospel, and in the 46. year it was finished, because the last 4. years they had quietness. 
john, 2.  Longimanus in the second year of his reign giving forth a new edict that they should build without molestation, and no man under pain of death should hinder the workmen, as in times past they had done. From the second year therefore of Longimanus the Emperor, to Alexander the great, were 145. years, from Alexander to the nativity of our Saviour 310. from his birth to his baptism 30. these being put together, make years 485. so the 69. weeks make 482. years, but at his baptism the whole 482. years that is 69, were fully complete and ended. In the next week or 7. years, our Saviour taught the people, and in the middle thereof, that is in the fourth year he was put to death: What jew or Atheist can except against the truth of this prophecy?  
A second proof that the books of the Bible are the word of God, is the general consent and agreement of so many writers, which writ at divers times, in divers places remote one from an other, in divers languages, and upon divers occasions, all writing of one and the self-same subject, all agreeing in Doctrine, none contradicting other, that they might not so fitly be termed divers writers as divers pens of the same writer. The books of Moses were written in the wilderness, of josua, judges, and the Kings in the land of Promise: of Daniel in Babylon: the works of St. Paul some at Rome, some in other places as Athens, Ephesus, Laodicea, Nicapolis: St. john's revelation in Pathmos, the Book of job no man knoweth by whom, when, nor where. The Books of Moses about 2554. years after the creation of the world: the Psalms, some of them 605. years after Moses, the books of Ezra after the return from Captivity about 605. years after David by whom many of the Psalms were made. Between David and the Captivity, Esay and Osee under King joathan, Achaz, and Ezechiaz: jeremy under josias, joachim, & Zedechias, Ezechiel, Abacuc & Daniel in Captivity, and the whole new Testament long after the old, yet all agree as the divers thunders which have one voice, four Beasts which sing one song, Vox tamen una manet, qualem decet esse sororum. 
Apoc, 4. De Fide. lib, 4.  Damascen compareth them to a Garden bedecked with variety of herbs of excellent virtue, which are to be gathered one by one, and yet to make one Garland: or divers precious stones in one breastplate of Aaron the Priest: and as Cyrillus speaketh, The King's daughter hath a Coat of divers colours, 
Psal, 45,  yet one garment Colligitis flores ad spirituales texandas coronas sed ex omni flore spiritus sancti spirat fragnantia. Whereas if man had written, not being guided by the holy Ghost; they would have differed as much one from the other, as a Mulberrye Tree doth from a Myrtle, as john the Baptist did from jeremy, and 
Dan, 13. Math. 16,  Christ from john the Baptist, as the judges of Susanna, or the witnesses which made report of our Saviour Christ.  
A third proof is the style, and manner of writing, the old Testament being written in Hebrew, because it was written to the jews, The new in Greek, because it was written to the Gentiles, to whom that language was most familiar, and best understood, although they were not Grecians that did write it. And yet the tongues in which the old and new Testament were written, so differing one from the other: the same idiotism and propriety of speech in both Testaments used, continual Hebraeismes aswell in the new as in the old, do show that they were written by one and the self-same spirit, that still God might speak like unto himself. The languages also being more fit for the word of God to be written in then other tongues, as more significant, more copious, and indeed, no other language being capable enough of that sacred story, as Benedictus Arias Montanus very learnedly hath observed. For, first, sayeth he, Eorum, qui 
Prafat in Biblea interlinear.  transferunt duplex est consilium, alij enim student perspicuitati, alij proprietati, quorum utrumque unà opera prestari non potest, quum tamen utrumque sit in archetypo eodem opera a spiritu sancto demandatum, suggestum, neutrum ullo modo praetermissum. These, saith he, which translate the Bible, some of them endeavour to be perspicuous, others to keep the propriety of the tongue, but neither can perform both, that is, to observe the propriety of the tongue, and yet be perspicuous, whereas the holy Ghost in the original hath observed both. Secondly, Ea the nata quae carent punctis vary legi possunt secundum varias Grammaticae regulas, quae autenpunctis distincta sunt, varias admittunt significationes, quae tamen Spiritue Dei exsua sapien ianobis ambigua tradidit, ut omnia quae varietas illa complectitur, intimis sensibus reponamus. Eadem autem vox quae in archetypo, ambigua est, non potest alia lingua reddi ambigua, si vero ambigua reddi non possit ut est in archetypo, fit ut illa sententia non reddatur integra sed manca, quam Spiritus sanctus de industria ambiguam tradidit, ut in utramque partem interpretaremur. Those Hebrew roots which are without pricks, may be read and constered divers ways according to the grammatical rules, they which are distinguished with pricks, are also ambiguous, which notwithstanding the holy Ghost, did upon set-purpose deliver thus ambiguous unto us, of his infinite wisdom, that we might understand and construe them divers ways. But the word which is thus ambiguous in the Hebruew or Greek, cannot be fitted by a word in latin or any other language which shall be answerable to it in ambiguity, and because it cannot be ambiguous in the interpreter as well as in the Original, it is delivered unto us maimed and as it were defective, which the holy Ghost would have to be more full and perfect, containing this variety of senses, by reason of the ambiguity. And therefore all tongues saving the Greek and Hebrew, in comparison of them, are unworthy of that great majesty of the holy Ghost. For example, the word Barac in the Hebrew tongue signifieth both to bless and to curse, the word is used in the story of jacob which 
Gen, 49, 28.  called his Children before him as he lay in his deathbed, & prophesied to them, in which Prophecy some he blessed and some he cursed. Now the translation hath: Benedixit, he blessed: thus their Father spoke unto them, every one of them blessed he with a several blessing. jeroms translation hath it in this manner: Haec locutus est eis pater suus, benedixitque siagulis benedictionibus proprijs. Now it cannot be a perfect translation, when it is thus translated: He blessed them al. For he cursed some. Neither yet had it been well translated in this manner: He cursed them all. For he blessed some. Because therefore there is no word answerable to Barac which signifieth both to bless and to curse, no tongue is so capable of this story as the Hebrew. As for Reuben, when he said unto him: Thou wast light as water, thou shalt not be excellent because thou goest unto thy Father's bed, than didst their defile my bed, thy dignity is gone; It was no blessing. And when he said unto Simeon and Levi, brethren in evil, the instruments of cruelty are in their habitations, into their secret let not my soul come, my glory be not thou joined with their assembly, for in their wrath they slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down a wall, cursed be their wrath, for it was fierce, & their rage, for it was cruel, I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel: These words were not such words as might import any blessing, Therefore saith he; Ideo visum est Deo scripturas hac potissimum lingua exaratas voluisse, qui simplici sua inimensaque sapientia omnia invenit, ut multa etiam consilij sui mysteria unica voce declararet. It pleased God, which by his single and infinite wisdom sound out and devised all things, to deliver the Scriptures in this tongue above others, that so in one simple word he might declare many mysteries unto us. The Greek tongue goeth before the Latin, because it is more copious & significant. For example: this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by some translated: incredulity, by others disobedience, and it signifieth both, But the translator could find no Latin word which may include both disobedience and incredulity. But as for the Hebrew, it goeth far beyond it, maiestate, pondere, numero, significatione, in majesty, weight, number, signification, witness the Son of Syrach in the very prologue before his book.  
Likewise, besides the two tongues Hebrew & Greek wherein the Bible is written, and the idiotism or propryetye of the Hebrew only in both, to show that the same spirit writ both, that God, whether he spoke Hebrew or Greek unto us, still he might speak after one manner, and so be like none but himself: the very simplicity of the style not favouring of human eloquence, and the very discretion which is used in every book concerning the style, still applied to the capacity of them who especially and above others were written unto, do argue that men could not be the authors of these books. If we do examine the words, the sentences, the arguments, the matter, form: we shall find many times that there is difficulty in the words, gravity in the sentences, acuteness in the arguments, rare invention and great choice in the matter, a scholarlike method observed in the form of writing, tropes, grammar figures, exornations of rhetoric, all things proved according to the rules of logic, and yet notwithstanding all these, a vulgar and familiar kind of speech is used. For God himself, the Angels, the Prophets speaking unto men, do accommodate themselves to our capacity, to the understanding of ploughmen, of shepherds, of women, of children, that the conversion of the world may not be ascribed unto man's wisdom, or human eloquence, or any other thing that is in man. The holy Ghost doth not write like Demosthenes, that it may be said: Where is the Scribe, the subtle disputer? etc. he hath made their wisdom foolishness. But St. Peter was able to persuade more with one Sermon, than all the nations of the 
1 Cor, 1.  world with their Orations, more in an hour than they in their life, more by his simple kind of style, them they by all their eloquence. Magnus Ciprianus Orator, sed maior Petrus Piscator. Ille misit sagenam in mare & piscatus est orbem. Non per oratorem Deus lucratus est piscatorem sed per piscatorem oratorem, Saith a learned Father, 
Aug. in john, chrysost. hom. 4. in Esaiae verba vide dominum stantem super thronum  St. Cyprian was a great Orator, but St. Peter a greater Fisher, He cast his net into the sea and caught the world, God did not convert the Fisherman by the Orator, but he converted the Orator by the Fisher. St. Paul when he writ to the Romans, writ learnedly and profoundly, because he writ to men that bore high minds, and did expect learning at his hands, he writ to the Corinthians after an other manner, as unto men not of so great capacity: when he writ to the Galathians he altered his style, unto the Hebrues which had a prejudice of his person, in such sort that they might not suspect the Epistle to come from him. St. john writing to a Lady, writ in a lowly manner, and in such sort as he might best befit a woman. There is the discretion and wisdom of the holy Ghost, which in men is never seen.  
The fourth proof that the Bible is the word of God, is even God his self, which never would suffer that book to be profaned. For Ptolomye marveling why no Poets nor Historiographers writ concerning these mysteries of Faith? answer was made unto him by Demetrius Phalerius, that it was the holy Scripture, 
josephus en Aristo. antic Lib. 12, C, 2. Euseb. Lib. 8. Peup even. C. 1.  & therefore that all profane writers which went about to write of the same, were presently plagued of God from heaven, and so caused to desist and relinquish their work which they took in hand: that Theopompus because he went about to illustrate some part of the Scripture in the Greek tongue, was so troubled in his mind, that he could proceed no farther. And that Theodorus a maker of Tragoedyes, because he endeavoured to insert some part of the Scriptures into his Tragoedye, was presently strooken blind, like Elymas the Sorcerer, of whom we read in the story of 
Act. 13.  the Gospel.  
Fiftly, the argument followeth well which Necodemus useth to confirm the doctrine of our Saviour Christ. Master saith he, I know thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do 
john. 3.  these things which thou dost unless God were with him. And, therefore our Saviour saith in an other place: Operibus credit Believe the works. And therefore against Alexander the great, and Domitian the Tyrant, which would have been accounted Gods, St Ambrose useth this arguement: Do these and these things, and then I will confess that ye are Gods. When Canutus the King of Danes had conquered England, and sitting in his Chair by the sea side, had boasted the like of himself that he was a God: It was said unto him, Sat in this place one hour longer, and I will confesle you are a God, but if you cannot sit until the full tide, and command the waters that they shall not carry you away, you are no God. But the Scriptures have been confirmed to be the word of God, by such miracles as no power of man or devil could effect. The birth of our Saviour Christ was confirmed by the appearing of a Star which troubled all the Star gazers of the world, The resurrection of our Saviour by an Eclipse which troubled the great Astrologians of the world, the 
Math. 2. Math 26. john. 9  healing of a blind man with clay made of dust and spittle troubled Galen the great Physician of the world: But as our Saviour confirmed his doctrine by miracles, as Moses confirmed his embassage to come from God by making Serpents: So the Apostles 
Ex, 4.  confirmed their Sermons which they Preached, and doctrine which they left behind them in writing, to be the word of God, by casting out devils, raising up the dead, healing diseases etc.  
Sixtly, the antquitye of the Bible proveth itself to be God's word, for as God is antiquus dierum, the ancient of days, because 
Dan. 7.  he was before all other, so the books of Moses are more ancient than all other bookes. josephus maketh mention of certain Pillars: in which some things were written by the sons of Seth 
Antiqu Lib. Vide Polidorun Virgil de muent  before the Flood, whereof one (he saith) remained to be seen in Syria in his own time. But be it so, these letters were but Hieroglyphical, like to the letters of the Egyptians, not Abedarye letters, but shapes and Images of beasts, not written in books, but engraven in stone. But as for the Abedarye letters, that is Grammatical letters, whereby we write words and sentences, they were not devised before Moses delivered them to the Hebrues, 
Vide Euseb: de temporibus et 10. de praepavat: evang et Lib 8.  from whence the Phaenicians learned them, and the greeks received them from the Phaenicians, and the Romans did learn to write of the Grecians. And Moses was more ancient than Cadmus which brought letters into Greece, or any other which brought them into other places, as Eusebius doth plainly prove.  
Now, forasmuch as no laws, no precepts of life, no Chronicles, no rules concerning the worship of God, no contract between man & man, no antiquity can be kept in memory but by writing: Therefore it was necessary for the true knowledge & worship of God, that such a book should be written wherein God might be known, and in what sort he would be worshipped. But there is no book of that nature besides the Bible which is of any antiquity, neither the Koran of the Turks, nor the Talmod of the jews: witness the Talmod and Koran themselves, nor any other book of religion, but they were written long since the Bible. Religion cannot be new, as God himself cannot be new, therefore that is only the true religion which is the ancientest of all, and it is impossible to know or judge of the antiquity of religion, but by the antiquity of the books and records wherein the precepts of Religion are delivered and set down, and again it is impossible to know what is religion, or how God is to be worshipped, but by books wherein are contained the rules of his worship. For as much therefore, as the books of Moses are more ancient than all other books, therefore that religion is the truest which is contained in them, and because there can be but one true Religion, the only truth is in them, therefore they are the word of God. And, as for the other books of the Bible which were written long since, they handle the same subject, they hold the same doctrine as the books of Moses, and are but all parts and members which make one body of the Bible, written by the same Spirit, and of the same nature, and therefore are also the word of God, and there is no other written book of God, but the Bible.  
In the seventh place, I could allege for witness that the Bible is God's word, the great multitudes of Martyrs, which have died in the defence of the Bible, and sealed the same with their own blood, both before, and in, and after the times of the ten bloody persecutions, to whom God gave the gift of patience to suffer death willingly for the testimony of the word. Neither could so many of them have suffered in such manner, unless God had strengthened them in so good a cause. But because this argument is not so forcible to persuade Atheists, as it is to exhort christians, I pass it over.  
Last of all, the testimony of the Gentiles proveth the Bible to be the word of God. For, because God the Father had eternally decreed to send his Son to take flesh for the salvation both of jews and Gentiles, and unless they believed in him, there could be no salvation purchased by his death, neither for jew nor Gentile: That he might be received by the consent of each people, it could not seem good unto his heavenly wisdom, unless he did long before our Saviour should come publish his coming both to the jews and Gentiles. And therefore Christ was published to the jews many ways, as the Apostle speaketh, by dreams, visions, Angels, but especially by their own Prophets, David, Esay, 
Heb, 1  jeremy, Moses, Daniel and the rest, which were jews, & in that respect called their own Prophets, that they might give the more credit unto them. To the Gentiles also he was made known by the heathen Prophets and Prophetesses, Baalam, Mercurius Trismegistus, Hidaspes, and especially the ten Virgins called Sibyls the heathenish Prophetesses, of which we may read at large in the works not only of the heathens, but also of the Fathers, and Ecclesiastical writers of the primitive Church. Now forasmuch as the Gentiles were unacquainted with Moses & the jewish Prophets, and not accustomed to read the Canonical writers, 
Lactant. Lib. 1 c. 6.  and destitute for the most part, of the Bible, and therefore would give no credit to the testimonies cited out of these books, and 
Hieron cont: Intuian: L, 1,  yet were to be converted to the Faith by virtue of the Commission given to the Apostles Math: 28. where our Saviour said: Go, Preach, and baptise all Nations: The Apostles and Disciples in the Primitive Church at their first Preaching to the Gentiles, 
Theophi: Atio chonus ad Auto. Lib: 2. Clem: A exstro: Lib 2. Contra Celsum. L. 5  proved the Bible by the testimony of heathen writers, the Sibyls, Hydaspes, Mercurius, as St. Origin and Lactantius declare at large. In such sort did St Paul deal with the Inhabitants of Crect, alleging for authority the verse of their own Poet Epimenides which Cicero and Lacrtius do report to have been a kind of Prophet or Diviner among them. And therefore St. Paul 
De divinat. Lib. 1. Tit. 1.  saith: a Prophet of their own said of them: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. The Cretians are always liars, foul beasts & slow bellies. Likewise, to the greeks he allegeth the testimony of a Greek Poet Menander. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Evil words 
1. Cor. 15. Menander in Thaide.  corrupt good manners. And to the Scholars at Athens, the testimony of the Poet Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. we are his generation, 
Act. 17.  meaning God. And, for this cause, the heathens called the Christians Sybillistes', because Christian religion was most of all proved out of the Sibyl's Oracles, which writ more plainly and plentifully, than all other heathen writers. And, as Clemens Alexandrinus writeth: S. Paul in one of his Sermons said unto the people: Libros 
Strom, Lib. 6  quoque Graecos sumite, agnoscite Sybillam, quo modo unum Deum significet, & ea quae sunt futura, take in hand your Greek authors, read Sibyl, see how she teacheth that there is one God, and foretelleth things to come. Hydaspen sumite, & legite, & invenietis De: filium multo clarius & apertius esse scriptum. Do but vouchsafe to read Hydaspes, & ye shall find in him a clear and evident testimony of the Son of God. And, because the Christians were so frequent in alleging of the Sibyl's Oracles for confirmation of Christian Faith unto the Gentiles, and converted so many unto Christ by these books, as justin Martyr writeth: 
In oratione ad Autonium P●um.  Proclamation was made, that upon pain of death no man should read them any longer, nor Hydaspes his writings, yet the people would not refrain from reading them. And again, God's providence did wonderfully appear in the perservation of the Sibyls verses for the behoof of the Gentiles, as of the Bible for the jews, in that they were very faithfully kept in the Capitol of Rome and that being once lost by a mischance when the Capitol was burned, yet by public edict of the Senate, diligent search 
Vide Dionisium helicar: hist. Rom. L. 4 Lactantius, L. 1, C, 6 Cornelius Tacitus annal. l. 〈◊〉  and inquiry was made for all copies that could be gotten, that so an other book was newly written and kept in record, being duly examined, corrected and purged of all faults that might else have escaped. And to that purpose commission was given to divers learned men fit to be employed in such a service, which was performed with all diligence, and the book was laid up in the capitol again, even as the books of Moses, were kept in the Ark of the covenant. So when the Christians laboured the conversion of the Romans, they were not only furnished with proofs of their Doctrine out of the Sibyl's, to convince the Romans and their idolatry, but also they were freed from suspicion of corrupting those books or any clause in them contained, because whatsoever was by them alleged, was consonant & agreeable to their own: Copy which they kept in their Tower, or Capitol, or treasure house, which was the chiefest place of their records. Now, for as much as nihil est iam dictum quod non fuit dictum prius, there can be no new or strange invention now 
Eccles. 1.  which hath not been thought of before, as the wise man speaketh: I cannot find any way to disprove the Atheists better than that which the Apostles used to disprove the infidels, that is, by the testimony and witness of heathen Authors. For, if they will neither stand to arguments drawn from reason, neither yet to authority, neither Divine nor human, than they reject all the Topics of Aristotle and places whereby they should be confuted, they renounce the laws of Schools and order of disputation & by a consequent, they show themselves meerily ignorant, and contra indoctos non est disputandum, disputations are not to be held and maintained against them which know not the laws of disputation. Therefore, that I may come to particulars, to show that the story of the Bible may be proved by profane authors:  
The first revealing to the Gentiles of the time and place when, and where our Saviour was borne, was by the conduct of a star, 
Math, 2.  What moved the Gentiles, I mean the wisemen which came from the East, to come to our Saviour Christ by the leading of that Star, and being with him to adore him as God? but even the Prophecy of Baalam their own Prophet? The Prophecy of Balaam which lived in the days of Moses is inserted into Moses his works. 
Numb. 24.  Orietur stella ex jaacob, a star shall arise out of the house of jacob. Concerning this Star saith Chalcidius a Philosopher: Est 
Chalesdiús' commentin Timaum Platon:  alia sanctior et venerabilior historia, quae perhibet de ortu stellae cuiusdam, non morbos mortesque denunciantis, sed dese ensum Dei venerabilis, ad humanae conversationis, rerumque mortalium gratiam: quam stellam, quum nocturno itinere conspexissent Chaldaeorum profecto sapientes viri, et consideratione rerum caelestium satis exercitati, quaesisse dicuntur recentem Dei ortum, repertaque illa maiestate puerili, veneratiesse, et vota tanto Deo convenicutia nuncupasse. There is an other more holy and venerable story which maketh mention of the rising of a certain Star, which did not portend sickness & death, but the descending of God down from heaven to converse among men after a human manner, which star when the wise men of Chalde had observed, as they travailed in the night, being skilful & exercised in the study of the motions of the stars, are said to have inquired out the very place where God was newly borne, and when they had found it out, to have worshipped him, & offered vows unto him. And therefore saith S. Origin: Si a Mose prophetiae Baalam sacris insertae sunt voluminibus, 
In numeros house: 13.  quanto magis ab his descriptae sunt qui inhabitant tunc Mesopotamiam apud quam magnificus habebatur Balaam, quosque artis eius constat fuisse discipulos? ex illo denique fertur Magorum genus et institutio in partibus orientis vigere, qui descripta apud se habent omnia quae prophetavit Balaam, etiam hoc habuerunt scriptum: Quod orietur stella ex Jaacob, & exurget homo ex Israel. Haec scripta habebant Magi apud scipsos, & ideo quando natus est jesus, agnoverunt stellam, & intellexerunt impleri prophetiam, magis ipsi quam populus Israel qui prophetarum sanctorum verba audire contempsit. Illi ergo ex his tantum quae Balaam scripta reliquerat, agnoscentes adesse tempus, venerunt, & requirentes eum, statim adorarunt. If Balaams' prophecy were by Moses himself in erted into the holy Scriptures, how much more was it kept of the inhabitants of Mesapotamia among whom Balaam was so famous, and which were Balaams' Disciples? The Magicians which flourish in the East part of the world, had their first beginning and institution derived from this Balaam, and they which had all Balaams prophecies recorded among them, could not be ignorant of this prophecy, to wit: That a Star should arise out of jaacob and a man out of Israel. The Wise men had this prophecy written in their own books, and therefore when jesus was borne, they acknowledged the Star, they understood that the prophecy was fulfilled, better than the people of Israel which contemned the writings of the holy Prophets & understood them not. They therefore, by that which they had learned out of Balaams' writings, acknowledging the time to be come, went and worshipped jesus Christ.  
Of the slaughter of the Infants at Bethleem by Herod, we have 
Mat. 2. Saturnal: L, 2. Cap. 4. Math, 26. john, 9  the testimony of Macrobius an heathen man: of the burning of Sodom we have the testimony of the place itself which yet remaineth and showeth itself: of the Eclipse which was at the time of the Passion of our Saviour, we have the testimony of Phlegon a profane writer but an excellent historian, as I have already showed: of Noah's flood, we have the testimony of Ovid a Poet: of the resurrection of our Saviour, we have the testimony 
Metamor: L, 1 Antiquit: L, 8 Cap, 4.  of josephus a jew and no Christian, where he saith: Eodem tempore fuit jesus vir sapiens, si tamen virum fas est dicere, erat enim mirabilium operum patrator, & Doctor eorum qui libenter vera suscipiunt, plurimosque tum de judaeis tum de Gentilibus sectatores habuit. Christus hic erat, quem accusatum a nostrae gentis principibns Pilatus quum addixisset Cruci, nihilominus non destiterunt illum diligere, qui ab initio caeperunt. Apparuit enim iis tertio die viws, ita, ut divinitus de eo vates hoc & alia multa miranda praedixerunt. At that time was jesus a wise man, if it may be lawful to call him a man, for he was a worker of miracles, and a teacher of such as were willing to embrace the truth, he had many Disciples both of jews and Gentiles. This was Christ, whom when Pilate had Crucified upon the accusation of our Princes, notwithstanding, they which loved him before, did love him still. But after the third day, he appeared unto them alive, according as the Prophets (being inspired from above) foretold this & many other wonderful things concerning him. That which the Apostle saith: that God made all things by his word, is also confirmed by Mercurius Trismegistus the wise man of Egypt, which saith 
Gen, 1, john, 1.  of him: Sanctus es, qui verbo constituisti entia omnia, Thou art holy which hast made all things by thy word. Likewise the incarnation of the word. Exilijt statim ex deorsum latis elementis 
Paemandus. Ibidem.  Dei verbum, in purum naturae opificium, et unitum est opifici menti. The word of God came out of the lowest element, and became the workmanship of nature, and is united to the mind. What is the lowest element but the Virgin's womb which is earth as all other flesh? he became the workmanship of nature, that is, he was made man, he is united to the mind, that is, God the father, which throughout his books is so called. Again, man made unto God's image. Omnium vero Pater, Mens quum esset vita & lux, parturijt hominem sibi similem, quem adamavit ut proprium partum, pulcher enim erat Patris imaginem habens, revera enim Deus dilexit propriam formam, eique tradidit omnia sua ipificia. But the Mind which is the Father of all things, when his self was life & light, brought forth man like to himself, loved him as his own offspring, for he was fair and beautiful, because he was after the Father's image, for God indeed loved his own likeness, & gave unto his use and service all his creatures. What are the chief points of religion contained in the Bible? but the creation of the world, of Adam and Eve, their placing in Paradise, their seduction by the Serpent, their expulsion, Noah a Preacher of righteousness before the Flood, the Deluge, the birth of Christ, his miracles, his death and resurrection, the virginity of Mary, the day of judgement: but all these things are set down in the first book of Sibyl's 
Centra Faustins Manichaeum: Lib, 3, Cap, 19  Oracles. I conclude this point with S. Augustin: Sibylla porro vel Orpheus et nescio quis Homerus, & si qui alij vates, vel theologi vel sapientes, vel philosophi gentilium de Filio Dei, aut Patre Deo vera praedixisse, seu dixisse perhibentur, valet quidem aliquid ad Paganorum vanitatem revincendam, non tamen ad istorum authoritatem amplectendam, quum illum Deum nos colere ostendimus, de quo nec illi tacere potuerunt, qui suos congentiles populos idola & demonia colentes partim docere ausi sunt, & partim prohibere ausi non sunt. If Sibyl, or Orpheus, or Homer, or any other Prophets, or Divines, or Wizards, or Philosophers of the Gentiles, are said to have either told or foretold true things concerning God, or the Son of God, that is available to refute the vanity of the Gentiles, although not to get sufficient credit to their works, that therefore whatsoever they write should be embraced, when we can show that we worship the same God, concerning whom they could not be silent their selves, when they took upon them to instruct their fellow Pagans, and idolaters, and worshippers of devils in the true knowledge and worship so far as they durst.  
You have heard it (I hope) sufficiently proved, that the books of the Bible are the word of God, and I am sure we have them among us very true & uncorrupted. If any jew or Atheist shall dare to say that they are not now so pure and free from errors and corruptions as from the beginning they were: I argue against them in this manner: If they had been corrupted before the time of our Saviour, or in his time, no doubt but when he commanded 
Ioh, 5.  us to search the Scriptures, he would have given us warning to take heed of such corruptions. And, that since his time they have not been corrupted we may be secure, because the testimonies which have been alleged in the new Testament out of the old, do all agree with the old, and the testimonies which are cited by the Fathers out of the new Testament, do also agree with the original out of which they are cited. To say that the jews have corrupted the old Testament it were madness, without proof or just cause of suspicion. I would that such men as suggest these things, would either certify ut eus bono? unto what end the jews should now in the latter end of the world corrupt the Hebrew, or else how it should be possible for them being so scattered, and dispersed in places so far distant and remote one from an other, corrupt their own books without notice of the whole world? much less than were they able to corrupt the books which were in the hands of Christians. But, for as much as our Hebrew Bibles and theirs do agree, and all new Testaments do likewise agree, it is manifest that neither the old nor the new Testament are corrupted. Wherefore we may conclude, that we have (praised be God) his word pure and entire without any corruption or diminution, as it was left us by the holy Ghost, which (as the Apostle writeth) is able to make us wise 
2 Tim. 3.  to salvation through the Faith which is in jesus Christ.   

Chapter, 8.  
Of the will and sufferance of God.  
THe Atheists do object as a reproach to divinity, that we know not the difference between the will of God and his sufferance, And because (say they) we cannot aptly distinguish these, therefore we cannot define what God is, & by a consequent, we are not sure that there is a God. This is all one as if they should say: because the professers of human arts and liberal sciences cannot assign to every species their essential differences & proper passions, therefore there are no such differences nor proper passions belonging unto them, and by a consequent there are no such things, and by an other consequent no such species: and again, that these things be not known unto nature, because they are not known unto us. So man's ignorance shall overthrow the certainty and undoubted truth of liberal sciences, & make the secrets of nature to be no secrets.  
But, it is no marvel if we cannot show the difference between the things which have no difference. In man I confess that will is one thing, and sufferance is an other, because man is not so powerful, but that his will is often withstood, and therefore he suffereth against his will. So Moses his will was, the people 
Numb. 16.  should have been obedient, but they were rebellious, and he did suffer their rebellion which he could not hinder. As also men do suffer oftentimes against their will, that which is in their power to hinder, but not without a greater mischief, and so Moses his will being they should keep their wives, yet did suffer them 
Dent. 24, Math. 19  by a bill of divorcement to put them away, but he did suffer them for the hardness of their hearts, because, had he not suffered them they would have slain their wives. But, God is omnipotent as the Apostle speaketh: why doth he yet complain? for who resisted his will? he will have mercy upon whom he will have 
Rome, 9  mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. And, as our Saviour 
Math, 11, Luc, 10,  saith: Thou hast hidden these things from the wise men of the world, because it was thy will and pleasure. So God suffereth so much as he is willing to have effected, and he willeth no more than he suffereth, and, if he had not this omnipotency, he were not God, and therefore with God to will and to suffer, are all one. But, idem respectu eiusdem non potest differre a seipso, the same thing in the same respect cannot differ from itself. These things be lippis & tonsoribus aeque nota, so common and obvious to every simple man's understanding, that I marvel how any man should be ignorant of them.  
But as for Gods revealed will, it is often contrary to his sufferance, in as much as it is contrary to his secret will which is all one with his sufferance. For example, in his revealed will he saith: Thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not commit adultery, murder, 
Exod, 20,  Idolatry, and yet, in his secret will he suffered the Chaldeans to steal, Aaron to commit idolatry, David to commit murder and 
job, 1, Exod. 33, 2, Sam, 16  adultery, for had it not stood with his will they could not have done these things, because he is omnipotent, and nothing can be done against his will. Neither can the Atheists scoff at this distinction of God's secret will and his revealed will, because th●y see it so plainly proved. For they find his revealed will revealed unto them in his written word, where he saith: Thou shalt not commit 
Exod, 20  adultery, and again they find his secret will to be contrary to that which he published and revealed in his word, because he suffered Daniel to commit adultery, unless they will blasphemously, and contrary to sense and reason, say that the power of God was so weak, that he was not able to hinder David's adultery, so indeed it might follow that there were never a God, for unless he be omnipotent he is no God. Now his revealed will is many times contrary to his sufferance, because he suffereth that which he hath willed and commanded to the contrary, as I have showed you in David and the rest. And this will and his sufferance do differ in these points, first, in respect of our knowledge, secondly in respect of the divers ends whereunto lie willeth and suffereth. Concerning our knowledge, we know his revealed will, ever since it was written and published in his word, but what he will suffer contrary to that his commandment, is hidden from us, and until it come to pass, and we see that he hath suffered it. As for diversity of ends which he purposeth in his will and his sufferance, I will show you by a familiar example. He willeth that no man shall steal, that so no thief may excuse himself by pleading ignorance, and yet he suffered the Chaldaeans to steal jobs cattle, that so he might make open trial of jobs patience. He willed that judas should not betray him, that if he did betray him he should not be excusable, yet secretly he willed 
Math, 26, Act, 1, Math, 7,  the contrary and suffered the contrary, that so might he wrought the work of our redemption. And that this distinction of wills may not seem impossible in God, we find it also in man, when a earthly Prince many times maketh a public Proclamation that this or that law shall be executed, and yet notwithstanding hath a secret meaning to hinder many particulars, contrary to that which he hath published and to dispense with his own Proclamation although the people take no notice thereof.  
Again these things are said to differ in this manner, only in regard of our understanding, as his will & his sufferance are diversly apprehended by us, but as they are in God himself, they cannot differ, because in him, power, wisdom, will, strength, sufferance, and all other things, are all one with himself. In God, and with God there are no accidents, his will is his self, his wisdom is his self, and his sufferance is his self, I prove there can be no accidents with God or in him, because he is not any universal or particular thing comprehended in the predicament of substance which is subject unto accidents. And because he is a transcendent, going above all the coordinations which are in the praedicamentall line, & actually infinite so that he cannot be included within the compass of any predicament, there can be no kind of differences either accidental or essential in him, he cannot generically, or numerically, or specifically differ from himself, or in himself. And so this question is easily answered, and whatsoever the Atheist can allege against us.   

Chapeer, 9  
That the World had a beginning.  
MOses writeth, that in the beginning God made heaven and 
Gen, 1.  earth. That is, in the first moment of time, or, when time first began, than God began his work of the creation of the world. Which time, forasmuch as it is defined to be Numerus or mensura motus, the measure of the motion of all natural bodies, and the subject of time is the very body of heaven which is first moved, and by which all other natural bodies are secondarily moved: time was not before nor after the heavens, but they were created both together: and, because after the end of the world motion shall cease: even as before the beginning, so after the ending there shall be no more time. So then, whereas it is said: in the beginning God made heaven and earth, it is all one as if he had said, that once he made them.  
By this making is meant creation, which is to make a thing of nothing, having no matter precedent out of which he should make it, and this must necessarily follow, because if there had been any matter before whereof he should have made the world, that matter had been in some place, so then, if there were place and matter, there was a world before the creation of the world, and the world could not be the first thing that was made. Creation is an action of God, not intentional but real, not inward but outward, not immanent but transient, by the which he giveth to things their being. For, although the will of God alone with reference to the things which are made, were sufficient, yet there is a kind of influence of God's power executing his will, which doth afterward follow in his work. It is an action both necessary and voluntary: necessary because he decreed, and yet voluntary because it was his will to create the world. And that it was no hard thing for him to create the world of nothing, neither absurd to say that God did create any thing of nothing, it is apparent, forasmuch as we see create on in the Angels, which are immaterial, and therefore cannot be of any precedent matter, as also the souls of men, which he then did, and now continually doth, create, which are a manifest argument to prove creation.  
Out of this doctrine also followeth an other conclusion, that God only is eternal and before time, because he did once create the heaven and the earth, and gave them their beginning, whereas before they were not, neither was there any thing besides himself.  
God before the world was made, was in himself, and unto himself instead of the world, and he was alone, because there was nothing but himself, and yet not so alone, but that he had all power, wisdom, and happiness in himself.  
He had no need of the world or any thing contained in it, for as much as he was eternally without it, and therefore could stand without it, and had not his dependence of it. He was infinitely happy in himself, and therefore the creation of it could add no happiness unto him, and if he had needed it, he could have made it before. Neither did he then make it because he was weary of being without it, or that it displeased him that he had not made it before, because he did not make that which he would not, but he would have that which he made, and that which he would he did make in order, and therefore he made it not rashly but deliberately, not casually but wisely, and in time he did all things, and in time, especially he made thee o thou Atheist, that whilst thou hast time to live, thou shouldst acknowledge and worship him.  
The manner how he made it, even as Kings do, by his commandment only. He said the word, and it was done. If you ask how God should speak? or who should hear his voice when there was nothing besides himself? he spoke, that is, he decreed with himself that it should be so. If you ask what moved him to create it, when he could be aswell without it? being delighted with the reflection of his own glory which he saw in himself, made creatures, because he would have some to be partakers also of that his happiness, as men and Angels, and for their sakes he made the world, that they might be contained in it, Angels in heaven, men upon the superficies of the earth, and all other creatures for the use of man, that so Angels and men seeing his goodness, whereof they were made partakers, should praise him.  
As for the Philosophers, and Poets, and great wise men of the world, although they enjoyed not the Bible, as were Mercurius Trismegistus, Homer, Hesiodus, Aristotle, Tully, Ovid, they all held that the world had a beginning, and that God was the maker of it. How then is it that now our Atheists deny the same? Surely they think themselves wise, and are become foolish, as the Apostle speaketh. For they think there may be an effect 
Rom. 1.  without a cause, a motion without a mover, a work without a workman. But because disputation is not to be held with them which are ignorant, but with the learned, and the learned will not prejudice their knowledge so much, as to be thought not able to yield a reason of their assertions: let us examine the reasons which they allege, why they should hold that the world w●●… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out beginning?  
Aristotle (say they) affirmeth, that there can be no motion without a mover, and there must be a due proportion inter motorem & id quod movetur, between that which is moved and that by whom it is moved: there is one Sphere which is called primum mobile, the first body which is moved, so there must be one first agent to move the same, but he did move from eternity, there was therefore some thing which from eternity was to be moved by him, and that is the highest Sphere. For (say they) if he did not from all eternity move this Sphere, but began the world, then non agens factum est agens, of no agent he was made an agent, which could not be without alteration, but that could not be because God is not subject to alteration, for than should he also be subject to corruption, and so should be no God. The argument I say, doth not follow, for, although that God is said to be primus motor ab aeterno, the first mover from eternity, yet he did not actu movere ab aterno, this motion of his was not in action eternally, and therefore it is not rightly inferred that there should before that cause any change in God. For God whatsoever in his eternal foreknowledge he intended to do, is said to do it in the same manner as he intended it, and that motion which was not in rerum natura subsistens, subsisting in the nature of things as they term it, yet in God was always subsisting, with whom all future things are present, which called the things that were not, by their names, as if they were. He ordained every thing that it should be, even before the foundation of the world was laid, the reason is, because that eternal and divine essence doth not acknowledge time, he seeth things past, present, and future, not successively, but all at once. Therefore they have not yet attained to the true understanding of Aristotle's meaning, which argue in this manner.  
Naturally I confess, motion is without beginning, because one motion cannot begin without an other precaedent motion, so likewise it cannot end without alteration, because in omni vere continuo physico, in every true natural thing whose parts have their coherence together, as this hath, there is a perpetual succession which may be divided into infinite parts of the same proportion. For even as in time, and every part thereof, there is one present moment or instant, which argueth that there is an other past, and an other future: so in every motion which is measured by time, there is one present mutation, which argueth one motion precedent, and an other subsequent, because every motion is a change, either of substance, or of quantity, or of quality, or ofplace. And therefore the first moment of time cannot be assigned, nor the first mutation which is in motion. The natural Philosophers could not discern by nature, whether was first the Hen or the egg, because one cannot be without the other, & therefore they supposed that eternally the generation of one was the corruption of an other, and so there should be an eternal revolution of things, which indeed naturally must be so, but metaphysically it is not so, because there is a God above nature by whom nature is overruled. Neither is it marvel though philosophy and Faith do not speak alike concerning the beginning of the world, when the Metaphysics and their principles differ so much from the Physics & their principles, and Aristotle dissenteth so much from Aristotle, one and the self same man from himself.  
It is one thing to affirm that the world simply had no beginning, and an other thing to say that nature did not make the world, and that by the power of nature it shall have no end, for, God and Nature are divers things. Aristotle confessed that the world began, and shall have an end, in respect of the divine and supernatural power, because he said that God as he is the first mover, so he is the first cause of motion, and actually infinite, a most free agent, not tied to any secondary causes, instruments, & means whereby he worketh. He which is eternal was before all motion, & can be without motion or time, because he made both motion and time. Aristotle denieth that any thing which is eternal can be measured by time, he denieth God to be in time, and by a consequent he denieth him to be tied unto motion which is measured by time.  
God moved eternally, but his motion was metaphysical, which was nothing else, but to will, to nill, and to understand. The world therefore is not without beginning in respect of the first cause which is God, but of the second cause which is nature, for then nature should be injurious unto herself, if she should do violence unto herself, and be a cause of her own destruction. And therefore, according to nature there is a reference and due proportion between him which moveth and that which is moved, and the motion itself, and so the eternity of the mover must argue the eternity of the thing which by him is moved, & of the motion, but God hath, & exerciseth his metaphysical power and authority over all things, whereby he counterchecketh, and over ruleth these things.  
The arguments therefore which the Philosophers produce to prove the eternity of the world, are reduced unto these. First, if there were any first motion, the mover and the moved body from whence this motion proceeded had their beginning, or they were without beginning, if they had a beginning they began by a precedent motion, because nothing can begin but by motion, and so that which is called the first motion could not be the first because another went before it. But if they were without beginning, it is a great absurdity to say that he which was an eternal mover, yet did not move, and that which was always moved, notwithstanding was without motion. Secondly, time is eternal, for it is in the definition of time, that there is always in it a present instant or moment, which joineth together that which is past and that which is future, and therefore the first instant of time cannot be assigned, and therefore motion is also eternal because there is a just proportion between the measure which is time, and the thing measured, with is motion. Thirdly, there must be a proportion between the cause and the effect, the mover and that which is moved, because there can be no comparison between that which is infinite and that which is finite, that which is eternal and that which is temporal. But this one answer is instead of David his sling to kill Goliath, of judeth her sword to cut of the 
1. Sam. 17. judith. 11. Exod. 7. judic. 16.  head of Holophernes, of Sampsons' jaw bone to slay all the Phillistins, and of Moses his rod to devour the Serpents of the Sorcerers of Egypt, to wit that these things hold only in natural movers which are tied unto instruments & means, but not in God which is a supernatural and free agent, these arguments hold in things that be finite not infinite, physical not metaphysical, which work of necessity and not of will, but otherwise they be no good consequence, they do not hold.  
Let this therefore be the state of the question. God had eternally the very shape and Idea of the world which he conceived in his mind, and he eternally decreed when and how it should be, even as when a workman determineth to frame a piece of work, he first frameth it in his mind, but doth not presently begin the same: so he decreed eternally, and before all time, when, and how the world should be in time. He which is the eternal fountain of goodness, which fountain notwithstanding did not eternally issue forth into streams, but in time, did not eternally communicate unto others, this his goodness, but was a Fountain of water, which for a long season lieth hidden in the earth before it doth gush out. But he was not as a Carpenter which maketh an house because he hath need of an house. Therefore he did not eternally create, not because he could not but because he would not, and he would not because he had eternally decreed that the world should be in time, and he so decreed, that so he might bring us to the knowledge of himself, for as much as when we know that the world was not always, we are forced to confess that there is a superior cause from whence it had his beginning, whereas if it had been created from eternity, and had had no beginning, we could not so easily have discerned how God should have been the creator of it. And therefore it cannot follow in this place, that there was in God any mutation or mutability, because before the world was made he was not willing that it should be made, and afterward when it was made he was willing. S. Augustine sayeth: Novit Deus agens quiescore, & 
DeCluit, Doi. Lib. 12. Ca 17  quiescens agere, potest ad actionem novam sempiternum adhibere consilium, idque sine mutatione sui, quoniam in infinitum non cadit mutatio. God knoweth how to be an agent doing nothing, and to do nothing being an agent, to bring his eternal decree to a new action without any alteration of himself, because that which is infinite is not subject to alteration. You cannot say properly that God made not the world sooner because he would not, because with God there is nothing sooner or later, for although God doth work in time, yet he cannot be apprehended by time, his actions are measured by time, not in respect of himself, but only in respect of us, that so his actions may be demonstrated, & made manifest unto us. Neither aught these things to seem strange unto us, because the very light of natural reason giveth us thus much to understand, that there is an order of causes, and that one being subordinate unto an other, we must still ascend up until we come to one which is above all the rest, which is of itself actually infinite, and that is God. And again, reason doth tell us that because God is of an infinite nature, his essence is simple, not tied to means by which he worketh (for according to the rules of Philosophy, that agent is most noble which needeth the fewest means), and being not tied to means he needeth no matter to work by. Also reason doth tell us that as every thing is, so it worketh, but God is of himself absolute and not depending of any, and therefore worketh in the same manner, that he is a free agent and therefore cannot be compelled, that he is omnipotent & therefore nothing can be held or difficult unto him, & because he is infinite, he is transcendent above all the bounds of nature. Out of all these principles I conclude. The world had a beginning, God which is everlasting made it in time, and he made it of nothing, that is, without any matter precedent or going before the creation of it.   

Chapter. 10.  
Of the Soul of man, what it is? whence it cometh? and the immortality of it.  
AN Atheist having heard a Preacher in his Sermon make mention of the soul: the Sermon being ended, asked him what the Soul was? and whether it were any thing or nothing? After disputation between them both, the Atheist said: I will show you what it is. So he caused a candle to be lighted and brought to the Table, he blew it out, and said: your soul is no more than the flame of that candle, you see an end of that, it is blown out, and so shall it be with your soul when you die. Peradventure, some cause of this ungodly assertion might be the ambiguity of the word. For S. Augustine in divers places calleth the Soul by no better name than Flatus which properly signifieth no more than a breath, or a blast, Deus fecit omnem flatum saith he, God made every blast, meaning every soul, and it is 
Adoptatum epist. 157. Gen 2  written that God breathed into Adam the breath of life. And in the Scriptures it is sometimes confounded with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a breath, and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, anima and spiritus, a Soul & a breath or a blast, in signification are all one. Therefore that I may distinguish the equivocation or ambiguity of the word, that nothing may be mistaken, it signifieth these things, 1. the life of any thing, anima mea est in manibus meis saith David, my soul is in mine hands, meaning his life. 2 a desire, so the soul of 
Psal. 18.  David was joined to the soul of jonathan. 3. the whole man 
1. Sam. 18. Gen, 40, 2. Sam. 1.  consisting of body and soul, so 76. souls descended with Jacob into Egypt. 4. a blast, or breath, Saul said to the Amelakite, I pray thee come upon me and slay me, for anguish is come upon me, anxietas apprehendit me, etiamsi anima mea adhuc in me est, because my Soul is yet within me. And it was said of Eutychus which fell down dead for sleeping at S. Paul's Sermon, anima eius est in ipso, his soul is yet in him, that is, there is yet breath in his body that he may be revived again. 5. It is also taken for nothing, so said the Prophet: we have conceived, and 
Act, 20.  been in Travel, and we have brought forth a soul, poperimus 
Esa. 26.  spiritum, that is nothing, because the soul or spirit although it be some thing, & a most excellent thing, yet because it is not visible, nor any sensible thing, he calleth it nothing. 6. It is taken for that which is regenerate by the spirit of God, so saith the Apostle: 
Gal. 5.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. the spirit lusteth against the flesh, that is, the spirit as it is guided by God, doth strive and wrestle with itself. 7. when the soul and the spirit do concur together in the same sentence, the soul signifieth man's will, and the spirit his understanding, so the Apostle saith: I pray God that your whole spirit and soul and 
1. Thes. 5  body may be kept blameless, etc. But last of all, and in this place it is that which is defined by Aristotle: Actus corporis organici in potentia vitam habentis, an act or perfection of the body which giveth unto the body life, sense, motion, vegetation, etc. And of this signification of the soul we are to dispute in this place.  
Concerning the original of the soul, which I proposed in the second place, it is agreed upon by the best Divines and Philosophers, that since the first Sabaoth, God ceased from creating any more visible things, but 't he doth Quotidie noves animas creare, create new souls query day & hour, & moment, for as much as every moment young Children are quickened in their mother's wombs, and that Anima hominis creando infunditur et infundendo creature, man's soul is in one moment infused by creation, and created by infusion of it into the body. But Optatur desireth to be resolved by S. Augustin concerning this doubt of the original 
August epist. 157  of the soul: utrum animae ut corpora, propagàtione nascantur, sintque ex illa una anima quae primo homini creata est, vel Deus sine ulla propagatione animas novas faciat singulis proprias? Whether every man's soul is made out of Adam's sovie, as every man's body is made out of Adam's body, that so, by propagation a soul should come out of a soul, as a body cometh out of a body? or whether God doth especially create to every man's body a new soul proper only to that body? He answereth: that in the same manner as God made Adam's soul of nothing, so he made all men's souls of nothing, and he proveth it thus. 1. When Adam 
Gen, 2,  saith of Eve: flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone, he doth not say, soul of my soul. 2. If any man hold that the soul of man cometh of man, he must show that as one light is kindled of an other, and one fire lighted of an other without diminishing of their former light and heat: so the soul must proceed out of an other soul, the same soul out of which it proceedeth being not diminished, which cannot be expressed how it might be by the wit of man. And beside, saith he, it is dangerous to hold so, lest ye fall into the error of Tertullian which deemed the soul to be a body and not a spirit, for so it must be borne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of seed, as the body is. If they speak of semen incorporeum a spiritual seed infused invisibly into the body at the time of man's conception: suppose that which is often seen, that that which is conceived doth prove an abortive and untimely fruit when it is Embryo, or non homo, not a perfect man, not fully shaped in the womb that spiritual seed must either return whence it came, which it cannot do, or perish with the body, and then will follow this absurdity, that an immortal soul is borne of corruptible & mortal seed. Tolet the jesuit showeth that man's soul cannot come axe traduce, by any Propagation, for these causes. 1. No natural 
De anima Lib 3  agent can produce and bring forth that which is above itself, but the soul of man is above nature, because it comprehendeth supernatural things. The mayor is plain because no natural agent can work, but it must work upon matter, the action must be a material action, whereas the soul is immaterial. 2. Every natural agent, as I have showed, doth work upon matter and the matter is capable of division, but the soul of man is indivisible. 3. God hath created souls in the same manner as he created Angels, but the Angels were created of nothing, therefore men's souls were created of nothing.  
And because I have entered into this discourse concerning the soul, that I may leave the Atheist for a little season, & handle one point for the instruction of the Divine. The question ariseth upon this discourse, how the soul cometh to be infected with sin? Pope Gregory the great disputeth in this manner: Si anima oriatur cum carne ex substantia Adae, cur non simul moritur 
Ad Secun linum epist. 53.  eum carne? si cum carne non nascitur, cur peccato obligatur? The soul is either borne together with the body of the substance of Adam, or else it is only infused from above: if it be borne with the body of the substance of Adam, then should it also die with the body: if it be infused of God, how can it being newly created, and immediately coming from God which is perfectly righteous, be originally and naturally sinful, as is the flesh which originally descendeth from a sinful man? Optatus desireth to be instructed how, when, and where, the soul which of itself is pure, beginneth to take infection? S. Augustin answereth that he is not able to give him full satisfaction therein. Pelagius objecteth against S. Augustin in this manner. If the flesh only descended from Adam, then is the flesh only polluted with sin, and not the soul, quia iniustum est ut hody nata anima non ex Adae massa tam antiquum peccatum portet alienum, quia nulla ratione conceditur ut Deus qui propria peccata dimittit unum imputet alienum, because it cannot stand with the justice of God, that the soul which is newly borne and not descended of Adam, and therefore having no sin of her own, should bear the sin of an other man, namely of Adam, which was committed so long before, For it is not to be thought that God which forgiveth us our own sins will impute an other man's sins unto us. The soul saith he, at the first creation is either pure or corrupted, impure it cannot be, because it cometh immediately from God, and being at the first clean, how cometh it to be unclean? how can a spirit be infected by a body? that which is immaterial be polluted by that which is material? But Mr. Calvin doth satisfy that doubt saying: 
justitut Lib. 1  that although corruption be inherent both in the soul and the body, yet the cause of that hereditary corruption is not in the substance either of the body or the soul, but only it was ordained of God that the imperfections of the first parents should be common to all the Children, even as according to the laws of earthly Princes such as are descended of parents attainted of high treason, are also stained in their blood, prejudiced in respect of their lands and honours by their father's offences committed before their time, and whereof they were ignorant, and it is but imitatio divinae justiciae, an imitation of that justice which is with God. So then we are borne of impure seed as the Psalmist teacheth, and not 
Psal. 50.  only the body, but also the soul is infected with sin, by reason of this our birth, although sin be more apparent in the body, then in the soul, and the only cause why the soul is thus infected is this our impure and unclean birth, and yet the soul is not of seed, or any material thing, but it cometh immediately from God. And it is a weak argument which Pelagius useth: that because believing parents do sanctify their Children, therefore 
1. Cor. 7.  Children cannot receive infection from their Parents which are regenerate. For the children do lineally descend from their parents by carnal generation, but not by spiritual regeneration, because regeneration is not from beneath, but from above, not from men, but from the holy Ghost. Sanctification is an especial blessing 
john. 3,  given in particular: but so, that the general course of all mankind may take hold of all men, for as much as they all are the Sons of men. Natus est homo natura, sanctificatus ex supernaturali gratia, that we are borne, it is the work of nature, that we are sanctified it is supernatural, & of the especial grace of God. But I return to the Atheist.  
The soul I say, as it appeareth by these premises, is of a more excellent and divine nature than that it should be subject to mortality and corruption. And therefore, that we may not complain with Theophrastus, who accused Nature because she gave to Ravens and Hearts a long life whom length of life did no way profit, but made man's life of that shortness, ut tum extingueretur qùum incaepisset sapere, that even then he was cut off and utterly extinguished when he did but begin to be wise: I will produce these arguments which are alleged by natural Philosophers to prove the immortality of the soul, that I may refute Theophrastus, and show plainly that we are not utterly extinguished by death, and that although we do but then begin to be wise when we are near our death, yet we do not then cease to be wise, but then we increase in wisdom when the soul is separated from the body. My reasons are these.  
The first is drawn from the understanding of man, for man's soul is of infinite capacity, the more it understandeth the more it is able to understand. It is able to comprehend not only the whole world, but infinite worlds. In numbering it can add and multiply so far, that of addition and multiplication there shall be no end. It is able to imagine infinite perfection. But, whatsoever is infinite in capacity, is also infinite in continuance, because, as the propriety of any thing is, so is the existence of the same. But, for as much as it is infinitely capable in this life, and cannot be satisfied in this life, therefore it must be satisfied in the life to come.  
2. The object of man's understanding is truth, as Tully speaketh, not in particular, but in general, which is the way whereby 
Officiorum lib. ●…  all things are known, And therefore it cannot be satisfied until it come unto that in which all truth consisteth, and that is God, which is truth itself according to his essence, for no accidents are in him. And for as much as this cannot be attained unto in this life, therefore it is reserved unto a better life.  
3. The object of man's understanding is ENS, every thing that is, but because there are some things material, and some spiritual, it must conceive them both, and as for the things which be immaterial and without bodies, it cannot distinctly conceive them in this frail body, therefore the conceiving of them belongeth to the soul when it is separated from the body.  
4. All men by nature desire knowledge as the Philosopher speaketh, but scire est rem per causas cognoscere, to know 
Metaphisicorum. L. 1. C. 1. Postereorum. Lib. 1. C, 2  a thing is to judge & discern of the causes of it. So then because it is natural to every man when he seeth any effect, to search out the causes of that effect: and again, when he hath found out the cause, to search farther, and examine what is the cause of that cause, and so to ascend higher until he come to the highest cause which is God. And that cannot be in this life, because the essence of God is not conceived by discoursing of him, but by perfectly seeing of him, and beholding of him face to face even as he is.  
My second reason is drawn from the will of man. That also is infinite, for he can love that which is good, not only in the first degree, but also in the second and third, neither can there be any end of his love, but still his loving and liking may increase, as St. Augustin saith in his Meditations: En amo te Domine, et si hoc non sufficit, amo teplus, et si hoc parum est amabo te validius, Behold Lord I love thee, if this be not enough, I will love thee more, and if that be not yet enough, I will still love thee more. Man may desire that which is infinitely good, & this infinite capacity of the will must be fulfilled, and because not in this life, therefore after death.  
2. The liberty also and freedom of man's will (I mean not in Divine but in civil and Domestical affairs) is of an infinite power, which is a sufficient argument to prove the immortality of the soul. For if man will not, no creature is able to force his will to love this thing or that, voluntas potest cogi, who can impose a necessity upon man to be willing or unwilling to do this or that? but only God which hath created both the will and understanding and is therefore above them both.  
3. The object of the will is that whatsoever is good, I mean all goodness in general, and therefore never resteth, but still willeth & desireth, until it come to the perfect fruition of God in whom all goodness is included, who is essentially good in himself.  
4. The will of man moveth itself to one thing and an other, and is not moved by any natural agent, and as the will is, so is the essence itself, and therefore not subject to corruption.  
A third reason, the very appetit of man is also infinite, it findeth no contentment among all the things which are under the Sun, it is never satisfied with the desire of happiness, knowledge, honour, glory, riches, and eternity, that it may live after death. But to whatsoever nature hath given this appetite, it hath also appointed how this appetite shall be satisfied, and that must be only after death.  
A fourth, the very operations of the soul itself without any reference unto the body. As for example, to believe, goeth far above sense, and is an act separated from it. To distinguish between a body and a spirit, to imagine those things which are but only imaginary, as vacuum, infinitum, in rerum natura, emptiness, infiniteness in worldly and natural things, mathematical lines, to make syllogisms, to define, divide, demonstrate. And these things it doth without the conditions and proprieties of the body, & it doth these things the better, the more it is abstracted from the body, and therefore doth then, best of all when it is altogether out of the body, and at full liberty, these things which do not depend upon the body neither can be accomplished by the Organs and Instruments of the body.  
A fifth, nothing can be destroyed by that wherein the perfection of it doth consist, but the very perfection of the soul doth consist it, the abstraction & separation of it from the body which appeareth by the judgement of all moral Philosophers which hold the very highest perfection of virtue to be then when man doth not follow the passions and perturbations of the body, but doth subdue them wholly to the mind and understanding.  
The sixth, There is a kind of reflection of the mind and all the faculties thereof, above itself the understanding understandeth that it doth understand, the will willeth that it shall be willing, the memory remembreth that it doth remember, so it understandeth that it willeth and doth remember, which no bodily nor mortal thing can perform, it is therefore spiritual and immortal.  
The seventh. Besides the usual manner of attaining to knowledge which is proper to itself, the soul hath also a more divine knowledge by the influence of an higher cause, which is by revelation and infusion. But when it hath such revelations it is abstracted from the body, and therefore it is in a more perfect estate when it is not at all in the body.  
The eight. The first original or beginning of the soul is not by any natural agent, because it is more perfect than the body, for no effect which is more perfect can proceed from a cause which is of less perfection. Therefore as it proceeded not from any natural cause, so it cannot be destroyed by any natural cause, and therefore it cannot die by separation of it from the body.  
The ninth. The soul subsisteth by itself, and therefore it cannot die by any accident: The antecedent I prove, because it hath operations proper to itself, as I have showed.  
The tenth. Every thing which is corrupted hath his bane & destruction either by that which is contrary to itself, as heat by cold, dryness by moisture, or by the absence of that whereby it is preserved and nourished, as the lamp goeth out for want of oil, or by the corruption of the subject in which it is, as the heat of the fire when the fire is extinguished, but nothing is contrary to the soul because it is a substance and not an accident, neither doth it depend upon any material cause, but only on God, neither hath it any subject because it is no accident.  
The eleventh. That which dieth with the body must also languish and decay with the body, and wax old when the body is old, as it appeareth by sense, motion and vegetation, which in old men do fail, but understanding doth increase in age.  
The twelve is the very convenience and agreement which the soul hath with God, and the Angels it argueth the immortality thereof, for why are they said to be immortal, but because they are as the soul is, spiritual, immaterial, simple, no way mixed or depending of the body?  
The thirteenth. What is more common in this life, than the prosperity of the wicked and the adversity of the godly? But it cannot stand with God's justice nor his providence, that there should be no reward for weldoers, and no punishment for ungodly men, therefore because it is not in this life, it must needs be in an other life with cannot be unless the souls of men be immortal.  
To conclude, It is incident to good men to hope well, to evil men to fear and be troubled in their minds because of their offences, there is Conscience. But there cannot be Conscience without immortality of the soul. Therefore I conclude, that the soul of man is immortal.   

Chapter, 11.  
Of Noah his Ark and the Deluge.  
THe Atheists dispute against the story of Noah his Ark, & the manner of the drowning of the world with water, saying: it was an impossibility that so many creatures should be preserved in so small a vessel, or that the world should be so destroyed. For the better satisfaction of such ungoldly men, concerning that story, I observe these things which follow.  
Concerning the multitude of Beasts which were in the Ark, of those which were clean were 7. of every sort, that is, 3, couples for increase, for meat when it should be permitted to eat flesh, for labour, and other uses of man, and the odd beast for Sacrifice. Of unclean beasts, 2. of every sort for increase. As for Fishes, they were in the Sea, and not destroyed, because they were farther separated from the sins of men, for they were in an other element, as also such other creatures as can live in the waters, as Otters, sea-wolves, Swans, water-soules etc. Agairie, from the kinds of beasts which were in the Ark were excluded such as bred not by generation, as Mules, such Serpents and creeping things as are engendered by the Sun out of putrefaction, such as being wholly perished might be restored again in other creatures which were preserved, as Mules which are engendered of an horse and a she Ass. Therefore these beasts which were in the Ark, were only such as lived upon the dry, and proceeded by generation. The number of beasts (according to pliny and Gesner) are not 
Naturalihist. Cap. 10. De Animalibus.  known to be above one hundredth and fifty kinds. And it is very likely that they which are not known, should be neither great, nor many. And of them which are great, there are not above forty kinds.  
As for the capacity of the Ark, it was 300. cubits in length, 50, in breadth, 30. in height: there were 3. chambers or floors in it, therefore there was room enough to receive all these beasts, and many more, and meat for them for a long time, that we need not for the defence of this story to fly to Geometrical cubits, saying: that Moses being learned in geometry and all the arts of the Egyptians, did understand Geometrical cubits, but plain 
Act, 7.  cubits. Such a cubit is the length of a man's arm from his elbow to the top of his middle finger. Though (no doubt) such cubits were longer than now they are, because men were of higher stature than now they are. But the length thereof being 300. cubits, showeth that it was 5. times the length of Salomon's Temple which 
1 Reg, 6.  was but 60. cubits long, the breadth of it being 50. it was twice & an half as broad as being but 20. cubits broad. But, the length of it being 300. cubits and the breadth 50. being joined together, do make of square measure, by the common rules of art 15. thousand cubits. Moreover, it contained in the height of it 3. stories as I have showed, one being above the other, in regard whereof, it was 3. times as capable of the creatures, containing 3. times the measure of the lowest room, excepting only the thickness of the boards which made the partition between the floors, that is in the whole 45. thousand cubits, and every several floor containing 10. cubits in height. The food of the beasts, whatsoever it was before, it might behaye, herbs and berries, for what food would not hunger cause them to eat?  
The workmanship, though it were above the knowledge of man to devise it, and contrive it in such sort, and above his cunning and strength to guide so great a vessel on the water, and to keep it from wracks: it was an hundred years in building, it needed not to be launched out into the water as Ships are, because the water of itself did bear it up when all the earth was overflown.  
From whence had God such great quantity of water to drown the world? There were two immediate causes, the Sea beneath, because the fountains of the deep were opened, and the heaven above, for the windows of the heaven were also open. Concerning the waters from beneath: The veins and pores of the earth were broken up to send forth more abundance of water, the waters which were before gathered together into certain places began to swell, and being rarefied over flowered the banks, that, as before, according to nature the water was to hide and cover the whole earth, yet, secundum naturae consilium, according to the counsel and dispensation of nature, for the preservation of these creatures the water and the earth made but one globe: so now again, for the destruction of these creatures, the waters did hide & cover the whole earth, as according to nature they ought to do. And we see by our own experience, though not in general, because God hath promised otherwise, yet in particular, how often 
Gen ●  the water goeth beyond the banks, & maketh breaches into the land. And it is in man's reason impossible how it should be otherwise, but that the water being a liquid and fluid substance, so far in quantity exceeding the earth, and in place higher than the earth, should presently drown the earth. But only God doth supernaturally govern it, & restrain it against the nature of the first creation. The windows of heaven were open, that is, as the Text doth expound it, it rained 40. days and 40. nights, all the clouds were melted and dissolved into rain, and whereas before God separated and divided the waters from the waters that some 
Gen, 1.  were beneath in the Sea and rivers, and part of the earth & some in the air frozen and congealed into clouds: now to make a deluge and general overflowing, he broke the partition, and let them be at liberty as they were before.  
I could for their better contentment stand upon such natural causes as are beside the Text, as some Divines & Philosophers have done, which by the windows of heaven understand Cancer Pisces, Heiades, Pleiades, and Orion among the stars, Mars, Venus and Luna among the planets. Also I could allege Mechlinus the scholar of Albertus Magnus in his Commentaries, which 
In magnas Albumasaris coniunctiones.  writeth that before the flood there was a Conjunction of jupiter & Saturn in the end of Cancer, contrary to the Ship called Argo, which represented the Ark, and that this Conjunction did portend an inundation, although I need not to stand upon these things, because the natural causes which I have alleged out of the Text are sufficient.  
But they object, that the waters covered the mountains 15. cubits upward, as it is in the Text, and they ask how that could be, seeing there were but two causes, the swelling of the waters beneath, and the rain from above. For some mountains are higher than the middle region of the air, and by a consequent 
Selius Polihist: Cap. 18. Herodian. Herodotise in Melpo●●●●●….  they are higher than the clouds, as namely Olympus in Thessaly, Artas in Barbary, the Alps &c: My answer is, that if any part of the earth is above the clouds, it is natural for the water also to be above that part of the earth, be it never so high, therefore it is not to be wondered at, much less is it impossible or absurd. Again, though the clouds are not above these few mountains, yet the firmament or middle region of the air itself is far above them, and although some of these mountains are found to be by the plum-lyne or perpendicular 15. surlonges ascending from the plain, and the clouds are commonly lifted up but 10. furlongs above us, yet sometimes they are lifted up 40. furlongs as Pliny showeth. Again, the very waters of the deep do stand 
Lib: 2 cap 23.  above the mountains. You ask how that may be? you say they are beneath the firmament, & that therefore they cannot be above the mountains, seeing these above the firmament are the clouds which are a great deal lower than the mountains, unless the waters which are beneath the firmament, should be above the waters which are above the firmament? To this I answer, that the mists which are in the valleys are reckoned among the waters which are above the firmament, and yet are sometimes dissolved into rain before they are drawn up so high as the mountains, for which cause they seem to them which be in the valleys, to be gathered together in the tops of the mountains, and do hide the mountains with darkness: in the tops of which mountains, yet Springs do arise, which are of the waters beneath the firmament.  
For an other cavil, they object, that the flood began the 17. day of the second month, that the rain continued 40. days, that the waters prevailed 150. days, whereupon they ask how it could be that the Ark rested upon the mount of Armenia the 7. day of the 7. month, which by this account was 4. days before the falling of the water? to them I answer: the waters prevailed on the earth 150. days, albeit they began to be diminished before the full end of 150. days. albeit they began to be diminished before the full end of 150. days. For nothing letteth but that they might well be said to prevail, that is to be strong and deep upon the earth, albeit they were in part diminished, and that the Ark might draw so deep of water, as the mount being high, to rest upon it. And where it is said after the Ark rested upon the mountain than the waters were abated, that is, it might then more plainly & sensibly be perceived and appear to the eyes of Noah.  
The heathen histories do mention this Deluge, although after a corrupt manner, which is not sufficient to strengthen the truth, 
Givitat: Dei. Lib. 18.  but yet serveth to convince the Atheist. And though S. Augustine saith: Dilwium gentium nec Latina nec Graeca novit historia, no heathenish writers do remember it, meaning, without corruption: yet josephus saith: Huius arstem dilwij & arcae meminerunt omnes Barbaricae historiae scriptores, that all Barbarian historiographers have mentioned this Deluge and Ark of Noah, 
Anti, Li: ca 4.  whereof he reckoneth these: namely Berosus the Chaldaean, Hicronimus the Egyptian, Phoenix Mnasseas, Nicholaus Damascenus. And Eusebius remembreth Greek writers, Alexandrum Polihistorem, 
Lib: 9 de preparat: Euang: Metam: Lib. 1.  Molonem, Empoleneum and others which have written of it under the name of Deucalion, as they have received it from others by report. Ovid maketh a lively description of this Deluge under the name of Deucalion. And justin Martyr saith: we Christians call him Noah whom the heathens call Deucalion. Plutarch saith, that the Dove which was sent out of Deucalion his Ark 
Apolog: 1, Lib: de industria Animalium, Lib, d: deâ Syria.  brought to him a token of the fall of the water. And Lucian an A theist yet saith: that this generation of man which now is, was not from the beginning, but that it wholly perished which then was, and that this progeny which now is, is an other which descended from Deucalion. And of the generation which perished, that they were cruel, wicked, perjured, they harboured not strangers, they were inexorable, for which cause they suffered great calamity, for suddenly the earth poured out great store of water, great quantity of rain fell from the sky, the rivers swelled, the Sea arose to such an height, that the world was drowned and all things perished. Of that multitude only Deucalion was left alive who was preserved by these means: He put himself with his wife and children in a great Ark which he had made, when he had embarked himself, there came unto him Swine, Horses, Lions, and all other Beasts which the earth nourished, two of every sort. So God left not himself without witness among the heathen, that thereby he might stir them up to search out the truth, which only remained in the Church of God.   

Chapter, 12.  
Of the destruction of Sodom.  
WHen Lot had entered into Zoar, the Lord rained upon Sodom fire & brimstone, & burned the City, & the plain, 
Gen, 19, Deut. 29. Esa. 13.  and all the inhabitants, and all that grew upon the earth. And Lot's wife behind him looked back, and she was turned into a Pillar of Salt. This is the slorie of the Bible, and what ground hath any Atheist to deny it? The Christian may easily confound the Atheist, because the relics of it do yet remain, and the place doth show itself. Concerning the time when it was done, it is set down in the Text, that it was burned in the days of Abraham, which arose early in the morning and beheld the smoke of it mounting up as the smoke of a Furnace. And by just computation it is well known to have been about 392. years after the 'slud. The place is well known to all Cosmographers, and is daily seen by many travailers: it is one of the three famous Lakes which are in the Land of Canaan, which are commonly by the figure catachresis called seas. For in that Land there are three such waters, the Sea of Galilee where Peter, Andrew, james, 
Math. 4.  and john, were about their nets, when our Saviour did call them to be Apostles. The Sea of the Gaderens, into which the heard of 
Math, 8,  swine did run headlong when the Devils had entered into them by the permission of our Saviour Christ being beyond Jorden towards Arabia, and the waters are at this time venomous, and as it is thought, polluted by those swine. The third is this which we are now to speak of and the subject of our discourse. A great part of it, which then was land is now all water, and is called Asphaltites of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth pitch, because great quantity 
Vide Garcaei meteora.  of pitch boileth out of it, and it is also called Mare mortuum the dead Sea, or mare mortuorum the sea of the dead, because no fish nor other creatures can live in it. The nature of it is such that if any boards be thrown into it, they will presently sink to the bottom, if any vessel be upon it which hath men in it, so long as the men live it will be above the water, but as soon as the men are dead being poisoned with the stink of it, the vessel will presently sink. In so much that when Vespasian the Emperor had caused certain men to have their hands tied behind them that they might not be able to shift for themselves, and so to be violently plunged into the bottom: they were presently driven up again with as great a violence unto the top, and so sloted upon the superficies of the water until they were dead. The quantity of this stinking lake is about 8. high Almaigne miles, with in the compass of it were situated these five Cities, Sodom, Gomorah, Adama, Seboim, and Segor, which were destroyed with fire and brimstone, of the which the chief and principal was Sodom. In this water standeth a Rock, which to them that behold it, representeth the image of a woman, that is Lot's wife. In the banks round about it, & all the ground which is near it, are some relics of these Cities yet remaining, for the earth doth look like ashes taken out of a furnace, there are great stones and pieces of rocks which look as if they had been in the fire, great heaps of salt, a smell of fire as if the place were still burning, a filthy savour of brimstone, such smokes & vapours continually rising out of the ground, that they do annoy the villages and inhabitants which are any way near that place. Some Trees do grow there, and bring fruit, but the fruits thereof never come to ripeness: if a man gather one of the Apples and cut it with his knife, they are full of nothing but sparkles of fire and noisome smokes. And therefore, for the confirmation of this story, besides the witness of the Scriptures, we need no more than the testimony of the place itself, which doth most plainly discover itself. And therefore, the best counsel that I can give the Atheist that readeth this story is this: that hereafter he do no more deny the truth of it, or make any question how it might be, but rather thus: Quotiescunque legit historiam timeas ne ipse flat historia, so often as he readeth the story, let him tremble at God's judgements, least he become also an actor of such a Tragedy, and the subject of the like story, that is, least he be turned into a stone as Lot's wife was, or consumed with fire and brimstone as Sodom was.   

Chapter. 13.  
Of Christ.  
I Have (I trust) sufficiently proved that there is a God, that the Atheists might be converted unto the true God. But, because this knowledge of God in his creatures, is only sufficient to give them occasion to seek further, and no way in itself able to save their souls, they must also know him in his Son, by whom only salvation cometh. When the fullness of time was 
Gal. 4.  come saith the Apostle, God sent his Son made of a woman etc. That I may therefore prove unto them God in his Son our Saviour Christ, by human authorities and reasons, because they will not stand to the authority of the Scriptures: I will not allege the testimony of the devils out of the Gospel, which said: jesus thou Son of God, what have we to do with thee? art thou come hither to torment us before the time? but out of profane 
Mat, 8.  histories, which said in effect the same thing. For, being silenced at his coming, that their Oracles could give no more answer, and being asked a reason of their silence, one of them answered, as in the 4. Chapter I have already showed unto you.  

Me puer Hebraeus divos Deus ipse gubernans  
Cedere sede jubet, tristemque redire sub orcum.  
Aris ergo dehinc tacitus abcedito nostris.   
Upon which answer by them given, Augustus the Emperor erected an Altar in the Capitol of Rome with this inscription: ARA PRIMOGENITI DEI, An Altar dedicated to the first begotten Son of God. I cannot see how any thing can be plainer than the devils confession by the Oracle of Apollo, wherein he is called: Puer Hebraeus, an Hebrew Child, & Deus a God. A child there is, his birth and human nature, like that of the Prophet Esay: Natus est nobis puer, a Child is borne unto 
Esay. 9 Heb. 2, Symbolum Athanasis.  us, and an Hebrew as the Apostle speaketh: He descended not of Angels, but of the seed of Abraham. And God, there is his Divine nature, God is become a child, there is Christ God and man.  
Our Saviour showed himself many ways to the Infidels to be God, & yet to be borne, but they understood him not. Tully citeth 
De divina Hone. L. 2.  the prophecy of Sibyl for proof that a King should be borne, and that none should be saved unless they did embrace him, & yet, neither he nor the rest of the Romans had the grace to apply it rightly. Tully his self did only allege it, but not believe it, for he thought it to be some invention of man tending to the alteration of the state of Rome. Lentulus applied it unto himself, hoping he should be that King, & therefore joined in conspiracy with Catiline. Virgil applied it to Solonius the Son of Pollio because he 
Lucius Florus. L, 4. C. 1. aglog. 4.  was his good Patron, & was desirous to; honour & magnify him above other men. And it is very likely that Virgil had heard something concerning this matter of the Hebrues themselves, because (as josephus writeth) when so ever Herod the King of judaea came to Rome he lodged at Pollio his house, unto which house Virgil often resorted. But afterward Constantine the great did expound 
Antiquit. Lib. 15. C. 13. Oratione ad sanctum caetum. Belts Indeici. L. 7. C. 12. In octan, Aug. C. 94.  that prophecy to be understood only of the incarnation of Christ. josephus writeth that there was an ancient prophecy among the Romans, that a King should come out of judaea, which should be the great man of the world. But they were so blind that they could not apply it unto Christ, of whom it was meant, but they understood it of Vespacian the Emperor because he conquered the jews. Swetonius maketh mention of a strange accident which fell out at Rome before the birth of Christ, by which it was publicly acknowledged that Nature did beeede a King which should reign over the people of Rome, & what that wonder was, Dio showeth: In the Capitol many images were overthrown 
Rom. hist. Lib 37  from heaven, writings in graven in Marble pillars were blotted out. But they had not somuch light as to understand that the Kingdom of Christ his Gospel should overthrow idolatry, and prescribe new Christian laws, whereby his Church should be governed. Great was the blindness of Augustus which could erect an altar to the Son of God, & yet could not acknowledge the Son of God when he was borne and published to the world, and being himself a type & figure of Christ, yet did not see christ in his self, of whom he was a figure. And, that it may not seem to any man absurd which I have said, that Augustus, was a type of Christ, we find the like in the Prophet Esay concerning Cyrus the King of Persia: I have likened thee to myself, though thou hast 
Esay, 45.  not known me. Cyrus was a type of Christ though he knew not Christ, in that he delivered God's people out of Captivity, by giving them leave to return to their country and to build the Temple. So was Augustus a type of Christ in his happy & peaceable government of the Empire, in that he was saluted first by that name of Augustus the sixth day of januarie, and the same day was Christ worshipped as a God & King by the wise men which came from the east: that under him were burnt the records and 
Mat, 2.  specialties of the debts with were due to the treasure house or chamber of the Empire; for so by our Saviour was canceled the hand-writing 
Col, 2, Orasius hist. L, 6, C, 20.  of ordinance which was against us, and it, was nailed on the Cross, when our Saviour was borne: great quantity of oil did miraculously issue out of the earth, what was that but the birth of the Lords anointed with was anointed with the oil of gladness above all his fellows? upon that miracle Augustus was so astonished 't he made proclamation, that after that time no man should 
Heb. 1.  call him Lord, & what was that but a manifest acknowledgement that a greater Lord was borne then Augustus was?  
To this also I may add the testimony of the starces and constellations in heaven, to show the Atheist the birth of the Son 
Mat. 2.  of God upon the earth. The wisemen, as I have showed before, sought out our Saviour Christ by the leading of a Star, which stair I have proved to be miraculous. And yet although the birth of the Son of God was not subject to constellations, but was far above the capacity of Astrologers and the course of the heavens: yet the very Astrological predictions, and Aspects of other natural Stars were enough to give occasion to the Gentiles to seek farther and so to come to the knowledge of the birth of Christ, for as much as they did yield benignos influxus et amica lumina, as the Astrologers call them; the best influences; and most favourable Aspects unto the nativity of him, of whom they received their influences, their lights, their Aspects, and all their heavenly virtues. The wise men which came from Persia to Bethleem, although they could not know Christ by the heavens, yet the heavens gave them two manner of ways to understand that a man should be borne, which in glory & honour, virtue and piety, should far exceed all other men. For first, the sixth year before our Saviour was borne, there was a conjunction of jupiter and Saturn in Cancer, which moved all the Astrologers then living, to say, that shortly after there should ensue a very great change and alteration of Religion. Secondly the constitution of the heaven which was at the time of our Saviour his birth in the 42. year of the Empire of Augustus the 24. of December a little before midnight did testify the same. For in it the 
Petrus Aliacus Card: quest in Gen. 30.  Horoscopus was the eight part of Virgo, which signifieth change of Religion, Saturn was in the highest part of the heaven, Sol in the lowest, which did show that such a Child was borne which might cause the world to wonder. And as Albertus Magnus citeth out of Albumasar the great ginger: ascendi in prema 
Inspeculo.  fancy illius signi virgo pulchra et honesta habens in manu sua duas spicas et nutrit puerum, et vocat ipsum puerum quaedam gens Ipsum, et ascendit cum eastella virgins; Non quod subiaceret stellarum motui qui creavit ipsas stellas, sed quia quum extenderet coelum sicut 
In maiori introdactorio, tractatis sexta.  pellem, formans librum universitatis, noluit literis eiusdem de esse ex his quae secundum prudentiam suam in libro aeternitatis sunt scriptae etiam elegantissimum illud a natura quod de virgine nasceretur, et per hoc innueretur homo carnalis et verus, qui non naturaliter nascebatur. There arose in the first aspect of the sign Virgo, a fair and chaste Virgin, having two ears of Corn in her hand, and a Child in her arms, which Child some nations do call jesus, not as if he that made the stars were any way subject to the motion of the Stars, but that he which stretcheth forth the heavens as a scroll of Parchment, when he writ the book of nature, might not want witness out of the book of nature, of that which before was contained in the book of eternity, which was his secret decree, that a Virgin should bring forth a Child, and so he should be described to us to be a natural man although not borne after a natural manner.  
Thus, have I proved the coming of Christ by many witnesses, of men, of devils, of stars & senseless creatures, cited out of profane stories, because the Atheist will not believe the testimony of God & Angels in the holy Bible. Yet for their better satisfaction concerning divers particulars, I will allege them reason so far as faith may be made manifest by reason, that if possibly it may be, they may be brought to the acknowledgement of the truth.  
They ask us what need there was that the Son of God should take our flesh? and whether God was not able to save us by other means? I answer, Man offended God, & therefore it behoved man to make satisfaction, but man alone was not able to satisfy, therefore God & man were joined together. I prove the minor, that man alone was not able to satisfy, because God would not be satisfied but by sacrifice, & no sacrifice unless it were infinite, could suffice. That an infinite sacrifice was requisite, I prove by these reasons: An infinite offence cannot be purged but by a sacrifice answerable to the offence, but man's offence was infinite in two respects, first, of the infinite Godhead with was offended, secondly of man himself with was the offender, which although he be finite, yet voluntate peccandi in infinitum rapitur, he hath an infinite will & desire to commit offences. And again, as man alone was not sufficient, so it was not for God alone to work this work of our redemption, because there was no sacrifice sufficient to pacify God but by death, &, as man without God could not overcome death, so God without man could not suffer death, & therefore it was required that the Saviour of the world should be God incarnate, and so God and man to make one Christ might be united together.  
They ask how it came to pass that man offended? For their satisfaction I answer: God made two especial creatures to his own Image, endued with understanding, Angels and men: he gave them two gifts whereby they might continue their happy estate, knowledge to distinguish between good and evil, & freedom of will to choose one & leave the other, so that they might choose whether they would fall or stand. The Angels first fell, the cause of their fall was pride, the object by which they were puffed up, the reflection of themselves upon their own selves beholding their own glory and that excellency whereunto they were created. For they could not be proud without an object, & there could be no other object to make than proud but themselves. For God was so far above them in glory, that the sight of him would make them rather to have a mean conceit of themselves and as for man he was far beneath them, that they took no such delight in looking so steadfastly upon him, as to compare him with themselves. And therefore they beheld themselves in themselves, and so being delighted with their own glory, many of them forgot their own selves how they were subordinate unto God, and so their service & duty towards God was interrupted, which did consist in perfect love, sincere adoration, and imitation of him. And for this cause they were cast down. After their fall they envied that man should stand, and moved him to disobedience, the outward object which alured him to disobedience being an Apple, they moved him to take the Apple by false suggestions; that so his estate should be advanced. Now both Angels & men had fallen, it pleased God to restore man again, but not Angels, for these two causes: First, the Angels being first in the prevarication seduced man, and were the cause of his fall. Secondly, the Angels being Spirits and not bodies were of greater perfection than man was, & therefore better able to withstand sin and all manner of temptations than man was, and therefore God was more highly displeased with the sin of Angels than he was with the sin of men. And therefore he sent his Son for the redemption of Man, but not of Angels.  
They ask why the Father took not flesh rather than the Son? why the Son being incarnate had his conception of the holy Ghost without begetting how he could be borne of a Virgin, and wherefore he was so borne? to which questions I answer as followeth:  
The incarnation of the Son was the work of the whole trinity, yet one person was incarnate, as if three sisters should make a Coat, and one put it on. Pater & Spiritus imple erunt carnem Christi maiestate, Filius tantum assumptione, The Father and the holy Ghost filled the flesh of Christ by their majesty, but the Son by assumption of it unto himself Quia congruum fuit, ut qui erat in deitate Filius Dei, esset in humanitate filius hominis, It was most fit that the Son only should be incarnate, and not the father, nor the holy Ghost, that he which in his divinity was the Son of God, might be in his humanity the Son of man.  
He could not have been man, had he not been conceived. And forasmuch as he came into the world to redeem mankind, which he could not do unless he were without sin, & he could not have been without sin, had he not been conceived only and not begotten, For if man had begotten him he had begotten him in sin, because omne simile generat sui simile, every thing which begetteth doth beget that which is like to itself, and therefore he was not begotten, but only conceived without the help of man, and he could not have been so conceived, but by the holy Ghost. He was therefore conceived by the holy Ghost, that he might be conceived without sin.  
As he was conceived by the holy Ghost that he might be conceived without sin, so he was borne of a Virgin that he might be borne without sin. But they ask how he could be borne of a Virgin? I could ask them how Eve could be borne of Adam without a mother? or Adam of the earth without father or mother? why could not Christ aswell be borne of a mother without a father, as Eve of a man without a woman, or Adam without man or woman? And because this doth not only concern the A theist, but also the jew and the Maniche, S. Augustin for confutation of them both saith: Ego tibi ostendam incredule judaee & detestande Manichaee, peperisse Virginem, I will prove to the unbelieving jew, and the cursed Maniche, how a Virgin may bring forth a Child. Against the jew he allegeth that twelve rods according to the number of the 12. Tribes were put into the Ark of the covenant, among the rest, Aaron's rod wanting 
Numb. 27.  moisture, and all the rights of nature, contrary to nature brought forth fruit. Quod virga potuit, virgo non potuit? virga potuit contra naturam Nuces producere, nunquid & Virgo non potuit contra naturam Dei filium generare? ostendas mihi quo modo virga Nuces pratulit, & ego tibi ostendam quo modo Virgo filium peperit. That which a rod could do, could not a Virgin do? a rod could contrary to nature bring forth Almonds, and could not a Virgin contrary to nature bring forth the Son of God? show me how the rod brought forth Almonds, and I will show thee how a Virgin brought forth a Child. Rubus sust●…uit ignem, & non amisit viriditatem, sic Virgo peperit Christum & non amisit virginitatem. The Bush burned and yet continued green, but as the Bush bore the heat of the fire without loss of viriditye, so the Virgin bore a Child wtthout loss of virginity. This may suffice 
Exod. 3.  to confute the jew which doth allow the authority of the books of Moses, but it will not serve for the confutation of the Atheist, for he will ask me how it may stand with human reason and with the rules of art how this may be? and how there may be penetratio corporum, that one body should penetrate an other? I will not therefore city the authorities & examples of the scriptures, how Christ arose out of his grave, the grave being shut up, & the stone not rolled away: how after his resurrection he went into the house where his Disciples were, the doors being locked: how at his ascension he pierced the heavens: how he is (as before I have 
Math, 28, Luc, 24, Marc, 16, Ioh, 20. & 21  showed) liberrimum agens, & medijs non alligatum, a free agent, and not tied to means whereby he worketh: how he hath metaphysicum imperium in singula, a supernatural power whereby he overruleth all creatures. But I will dispute by reason against the Atheist, as S. Augustin doth against the Maniche: Solis radius specular penetrate, & soliditatem illius insensibili soliditate pertransit, & talis videtur foris qualis intus, nec quum ingreditur violate, nec quum egreditur dissipat, quoniam ad ingressum & egressum specular integrum perseverat. Specular non rumpit solaris radius, neque igitur integritatem Virginis vitiare potuit ingressus aut egressus Deitatis. The Sunbeam pierceth through the glass, & the glasseiss not broken, how it passeth through so solid & hard a body, the eye or sense of man cannot perceive, it looketh alike both within and without: when it entereth in, the glass is not cracked by the entrance of it, when it goeth out again, the glass remaineth without blemish as it was before: and so it is with our Saviour Christ which passed through the Virgin's womb.  
He came in form of a servant that he might suffer, si enim cognovissent, Dominum gloriae non crucifixissent, for if he had been outwardly glorious, that the jews had known him to be the Lord of glory, they had never put him to so unglorious a death. And seeing that he came to die, it behoved him to die upon the Cross, & to choose that death above all other. Placuit Deo hominem reconciliasse eodem modo quo novit cecidisse: homo damnatus est in ligno, reconciliatus est in ligno, vixit in ligno vitae, mortuus est in ligno scientiae, revixit in ligno Crucis. Quia primus Adam deceptus est in ligno, secundus Adam passus est in ligno. It pleased God that man should rise by the same manner as he fell, but man's salvation came by the wood of the tree, & therefore his salvation came through the wood of the tree. Because the first Adam was deceived in the tree, the second Adam suffered in the tree. Man lived in the wood of life, man died in the wood of knowledge, man revived again in the wood of the cross. The difference being showed between creating & redeeming, & how hard it was for the Son to redeem, over that it was for the Father to create, as namely the Father did his work by speaking, the Son his work by doing, the Father commanding, the Son by obeying, the father in 6. days, the Son in no less time than 33. years, the father with ease, the Son with groaning, the Father as an agent, the Son as a patient, the Father with the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He, which is but an aspiration, the Son in the letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou, which representeth the gallows, or the Cross.  
After reproach, by due course did follow glory, after suffering death, victory and triumph over death, else he could not have delivered us from death. And because understanding creatures are in three places, devils and damned souls in hell, men upon earth, Angels and blessed souls in Heaven, due course required that he should descend into hell to triumph among the Devils & damned souls, arise from the dead to triumph before men, and ascend up into heaven to Triumph among the Angels, & blessed souls which are in heaven. It was no strange thing for him to descend into hell, because that descension was only in soul, & therefore an easy passage. Of his resurrection from the dead we see many resemblances, for out of the ashes of the dead Phoenix doth arise a live Phoenix, of the Corn buried and rotten in the earth, foringeth up Corn again in greater measure than it was sowed, all these things being as unlikely, and as impossible as the resurrection from the dead. In alchumistry they see that when gold is brought to powder there is a speedy reduction of that same powder into gold again, & so ofal other metals: the heavens yield no moisture to the earth, but they take it up again. And as for his ascension up into heaven it was most natural unto him, for where should a glorified body be, but in a place of glory, and where should God be but in heaven, which is his throne and dwelling place.   

Chapter, 14  
The end of the world.  
THe Atheist thinketh the world shall have no end, but he allegeth no reasons to prove his ungodly assertion, more than have been already answered by St. Peter. Our reasons to prove an end and consummation of all things are these. 1. Whatsoever had a beginning must also have an end. That the world had a beginning, I have already proved in the 8. Chapter, and the 
2, Pet, 3,  sequel followeth in natural Philosophy, that it must therefore have and end because it had a beginning. There must be resolutio in materiam primam, a resolution into that chaos whereof it was first made according to Aristotle the great Philosopher of the world. 2. Man is commonly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world, and for his sake the great world was partly made, for if he stretched forth 
Phis. L. 1.  his arms at length, from the ends of his two middle fingers, to his head & foot, may be drawn a circle, his head is as the North pole, his feet instead of the South, his arms as the expansion of heaven, his hands as the East and West, his Navel as the Centre. In him are cold, heat, moisture, dryness as the four Elements, his heart still moving representeth heaven which is in continual motion, his soul an immortal Spirit guiding & moving the body, resembleth God the guider of the world, But man which is the lesser world declineth, it followeth therefore as a good consequent, that the greater world also doth decline, and where there is declination there is also corruption, and death. That man declineth, it is manifest, for men are of lower stature, lesser bones and strength, and shorter life than their fore fathers were, but whatsoever is languishing, fainting & declining, doth grow to an end, & whence cometh this but from the declining estate of the greater world? The earth we see, with is the lower part of it, is not so fruitful as before it was, but beginneth to be barren, like the womb of Sara, the fruits which she doth bring forth yield not so much nutriment as before they did. And how cometh that to pass, but because the heaven also fainteth, the Planets wax old, and cannot afford so great virtue & influence to these lower bodies, as in times past they did? as I'liny and Aulus Gellius testify. But this is a manifest proof seeing less and weaker bodies are conceived every age in the womb of nature, that nature 
Natural hist, L, 7, C. 16. N●ct, At: L. 13, C, 1,  waxeth old and weary of conceiving, & cuiuscunque est senectus illius est mors, whatsoever waxeth old, that also dieth and hath an end. 3. If a man do but behold the face of heaven, the Moon looketh pale and wan, Mars less rubicund, Sol less orient, jupiter not of so amiable and favourable countenance, Venus more hypocritical, all the rest both of the wandering & fixed stars, more weak & suspicious than they did before. That mighty Giant 
Psal. 19  which was wont to run his unwearied race, now waxeth weary, as if he would stand still in heaven, as he did in the days of josue, shineth more dimly, appeareth more seldom then before, what is this but an argument that shortly the high Arch of heaven which is erected over our heads, will fall & dissolve itself? 4. What do so many irregular & threatening Eclipses portend, such unusual aspects of the stars, such fearful Coniunctious of Planets, such 
Ro. 8,  prodigious apparitions of Comets? but, that as the Apostle speaketh: The fervent desire of the creature waiteth when the sons of God shallbe revealed, every creature groaneth with us, and travaileth in pain together unto this present, that they may be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God? 5. Empires, and kingdoms, and all estates have their fatal periods. Daniel his exposition of Nabuchodozer his dream is now almost fulfilled, the head of gold, the shoulders of Silver, the belly of brass, are already worn out, nothing of that image is now left but the very stumps of clay, their dates are ended, their periods determined long since, & how is it possible that feet of clay should continue for ever, seeing gold, silver, brass, & iron, such strong metals are consumed? what now remaineth therefore, but the stone cut out of the rock without hands which bruiseth this image in pieces? The everlasting kingdom 
Dan. 2,  of jesus Christ in an other world, unto which all the temporal kingdoms in this world must give place, that all these being expired Christ in heavenly kingdom may rule for ever? what remaineth now but that we look daily & hourly for this kingdom, 
Gen, 28,  that now we begin to climb Jacob his Ladder, a peccato ad poenitentiam, a poenitentia ad opera, ab operibus ad judicium, a judicio ad miserccordiam, a misericordia ad gloriam, from sin to repentance, from repentance to good works, from works to judgement, from judgement to mercy, from mercy to glory? there is the glory of God standing upon the top of the Ladder. Last of all that the world shall have an end, & be consumed with fire, witness not only St. Peter the Apostle, but also Ovid the Poet, his 
2 Pet. 3,  words be these:  

Esse quoque infatis reminiscitur affore tempus, 
Metamor: Lib: 1.   
Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia coeli  
Ardeat, & mundi moles operosa laboret. 

And there he shows how't is ordained of old,  
that time shall come, when both the earth and sea,  
With heavens Arch, so glorious to behold,  
shall burn, and all shall turn unto decay.     
That the world shall have an end, witness Lucretius, his words are these:  

una dies dabit exitio, multosque per annos 
Lib: 5.   
Sustentata ruet moles, & machina mundi,  
Accidet exitium Coeli, terraeque futurum. 

The world which stood so many years  
Shall in one day destroyed be:  
Destruction likewise shall appear  
for heaven and earth most suddenly.     
To this also agreeth the Poet Lucan, his words be these:  

Inuida fatorum series, summisque negatum 
Bellicivilis Lib: 1.   
Stare diu, nimioque graves sub pondere lapsus,  
Nec se Roma ferens. Sic cum compage soluta  
Secula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora  
Antiquum repetens iterum Chaos, omnia mistis  
Sidera sideribus concurrent, igneapontum  
Astrapetent, tellus extendere littora nolet,  
Excutietque fretum. Fratri contraria Phoebe  
Ibit, & obliquum bigas agitare per orbem  
Indignata diem poscet sibi, totaque, discors  
Machina, diwlsi turbabit foedera mundi,   

The fates envy the states of mortal men,  
The highest seats do not continue long:  
Great is the fall under the greater burden,  
(and greatest things do to themselves great'st wrong)  
Rome was so great (whom all the world did fear)  
that Rome herself she could no longer bear.   

So when this well couched frame of world shall burn,  
And the last hour so many age's end:  
To former Chaos all things shall return,  
(the envious fates this issue do portend)  
Then all the Planets shall confusedly meet,  
And fires Celestial on the floods shall sleet.   

The earth shall grudge to make the sea a shore,  
And cast it off, and push the fload away:  
The Moon enraged shall cross her brother sore,  
And seek to alter course, to shine by day:  
Thus all at odds, in strife and out of frame,  
They shall disturb the world, & spoil the same.    

Chapter, 15.  
Of Hell fire.  
THus you have heard, how by the course of nature the world shall have an end. What then followeth? I say to the Atheist 
Rome, 2.  with S. Paul; And thinkest thou o man that thou shalt escape the judgement of God? shall men think there is no punishment for wicked men after this life? I wish that they would believe S. Ambros: Christus moriens in novissimo Testamento singula singulis, officia distribuebat, Patri spiritum, militibus vestimenta, corpus judaeis, pacem Discipulis, Crucem. Apostolis, latroni paraedisium, peccatoribus infernum. When Christ died in his last will & Testament, he bequeathed divers Legacies: To his Father he commended his soul, to the jews his body, to the Soldiers his garments, to his Disciples peace, to his Apostles the Cross, Paradise to the good. Thief which was crucified by him, but hell fire to ungodly men. But to persuade these unbelievers that there is an hell, my reasons are these:  
First, I have manifestly proved that there is a God, and it cannot stand with the nature of God, but that he must be just, and there can be no justice in God unless he punish offenders, they for the most part do escape punishment in this world, God's judgements do not over take them in this life therefore that God may be just, their judgement is reserved unto another world that they may be punished in an other place, and where is that, but in Hell-sire.  
Secondly whereas Tully a Philosopher, Claudius Claudianus 
Tuscul: quaest: Lib, 1.  a Poet, Seneca, and others being so many, in their description of Hell, make mention of Minos & Rhadamanthus, the judges there so cruel and inexorable, the furies, the fire, Tantalus his everlasting thirst, ●xion his wheel always rolling, Titius upon whose bowels the vultures are eternally feeding, what is this but the same description of hell, which is in the Scriptures, eternal fire prepared for the devil and his Angels, and as the Prophet Esay writeth: 
Mat. 25.  fire that shall never be quenched, and a worm of conscience gnawing always and never dying? 
Esa. 66.   
Thirdly, witness the Atheist that there is a hell for wicked men. For many times having committed heinous offences, though so secret that no man can detect them, & he so mighty that he feareth no man that should punish him, yet he is inwardly troubled & vexed in his Conscience: what is this his Conscience but a secret fear that God will punish him? he soeth that God doth not punish in this world according to the quality of such an offence, therefore he feareth punishment in an other world, then witness the Atheist his own Conscience there is a hell.  
Fourthly witness, the Atheist that there is an hell, all be it he denieth Hell. For he knoweth, and also very well considerreth, that in the time of his health he is subject to sickness, poverty, imprisonment, a whole sea of gall and bitterness, nay a world of discontentments, yet he would not die Nay when he is grievously sick, his pangs intolerable, his disease uncurable, he would give a great sum of money yet to prolong his pain upon earth, to live here continually though in continual sickness. And why is all this, but because he is loath to die? why is that, but because he feareth death? But if he thought his soul were extinguished by death, that after death there should be no judgement, no hell, no feeling of sorrow, then why should he fear death? Nay why should not an Atheist which is so worldly wise, and which loveth his own ease so much, desire to die, and so to be at rest rather than to live in continual sickness, if he thought that death were an end of sorrow? Therefore it followeth as a necessary consequent, that he feareth death, because he thinketh that a farther reckoning is to be made of the things which he did in this life, that greater pangs and torments shall ensue after death than could be incident unto him in this life, and that can be nothing else but Hell-fier.  
Fiftly, let the Atheist for his better satisfaction concerning this point, but travail into the Land of Canaan, to behold the lake Asphaltites, where Sodom stood, and he shall see the very Image and Idea of Hell before his eyes oven in this life. When he cometh thither these things shall present themselves unto him: Tetrus odor, aspectus horrendus, lacus fietidus, fumus venenosus, poma quae morsu tentata, in fumum et favillam or to fatiscente vanescunt. An ugly and loathsome smell of brimstone, horrible & dreadful prospect, a stinking lake poisoning smoke, Apples full of filthy vapours and sparks of fire, the things which he shall see with his eyes, smell with his Nostrils, and taste with his tongue, will make him to confess there is an hell.  
To them which ask whether hell be a material place or no? I answer, it must of necessity be so, because in it are to be tormented not only souls, but also bodies. It is no imaginary thing, because when they come there, it shallbe no imaginary punishment which they shall suffer. If they ask where hell is? surely it is in the lowest parts of the earth, because they are farthest from Heaven. But I wish them not to be so curious in disputing, and enquiring