RELIGIO MEDICI.

Sect. 1 FOr my Religion, though there be several Circumstances that might perswade the World I have none at all, as the gene­ral scandal of my Profession, the natural course of my Studies, the indifferency of my Behaviour and Discourse in matters of Religion, neither violently Defending one▪ nor with that common ardour and contention Opposing another; yet in despight hereof, I dare, without usurpation, assume the honourable Stile of a Christian. Not that I meerly owe this Title to the Font, my Education; or Clime wherein I was born, as being bred up either to confirm those Principles my Pa­rents instilled into my Understand­ing, or by a general consent pro­ceed [Page 2] in the Religion of my Coun­try: But having in my riper years and confirmed Judgment, seen and examined all, I find my self obliged by the Principles of Grace, and the Law of mine own Reason, to em­brace no other Name but this: Nei­ther doth herein my zeal so far make me forget the general Chari­ty I owe unto Humanity, as rather to hate than pity Turks, Infidels, and (what is worse) Jews; rather con­tenting my self to enjoy that happy Stile, than maligning those who re­fuse so glorious a Title.

Sect. 2 But because the Name of a Chri­stian is become too general to ex­press our Faith, there being a Geo­graphy of Religion as well as Lands, and every Clime distinguished; not only by their Laws and Limits, but circumscribed by their Doctrines and Rules of Faith; to be particular, I am of that Reformed new­cast Religion, wherein I dislike no­thing but the Name; of the same belief our Saviour taught, the Apo­stles disseminated, the Fathers au­thorized, [Page 3] and the Martyrs confirm­ed, but by the sinister ends of Prin­ces, the ambition and avarice of Prelates, and the fatal corruption of times, so decayed, impaired, and fallen from its native Beauty, that it required the careful and charita­ble hands of these times to restore it to its primitive Integrity. Now the accidental occasion whereupon, the slender means whereby the low and abject condition of the Person by whom so good a work was set on foot, which in our Adversaries beget contempt and scorn, fills me with wonder, and is the very same Objection the insolent Pagans first cast at Christ and his Disciples.

Sect. 3 Yet have I not so▪ haken hands with those desperate Resolutions, who had rather venture at large their decayed bottom, than bring her in to be new trimm'd in the Dock; who had rather promiscu­ously retain all, than abridge any, and obstinately be what they are, than what they have been, as to [Page 4] stand in Diameter and Swords point with them: We have reform­ed from them, not against them; for omitting those Improperations, and Terms of Scurrility betwixt us, which only difference our Af­fections, and not our Cause, there is between us one common Name and Appellation, one Faith and ne­cessary body of Principles common to us both; and therefore I am not scrupulous to converse and live with them. to enter their Churches in defect of ours, and either pray with them, or for them: I could ne­ver perceive any rational Conse­quence from those many Texts which prohibit the Children of Is­rael to pollute themselves with the Temples of the Heathens; we be­ing all Christians, and not divided by such detested impieties as might prophane our Prayers, or the place wherein we make them; or that a resolved Conscience may not adore her Creator any where, especially in places devoted to his Service; where if their Devotions offend [Page 5] him, mine may please him; if theirs prophane it, mine may hollow it: Holy-water and Crucifix (dange­rous to the common people) deceive not my judgment, nor abuse my devotion at all: I am, I confess, na­turally inclined to that, which mis­guided Zeal terms Superstition: my common conversation I do acknow­ledge austere, my behaviour full of rigour, sometimes not without mo­rosity; yet at my Devotion I love to use the civility of my knee, my hat, and hand, with all those outward and sensible motions which may express or promote my invisible Devotion. I should violate my own arm rather than a Church, nor wil­lingly deface the name of Saint or Martyr. At the fight of a Cross or Crucifix I can dispense with my hat, but scarce with the thought or memory of my Saviour: I cannot laugh at, but rather pity the fruit­less journeys of Pilgrims, or con­temn the miserable condition of Fryars; for though misplaced in Circumstances, there is something [Page 6] in it of Devotion. I could never hear theA Church Bell that tolls every day at six and twelve of the Clock; at the hear­ing where­of, every one in what place soever, either of House or Street, be­takes him­self to his prayer, which is commonly directed to the Virgin. Ave-Mary Bell without an elevation, or think it a sufficient warrant, because they erred in one circumstance, for me to err in all, that is, in silence and dumb con­tempt; whilst therefore they di­rect their Devotions to Her, I offer­ed mine to God, and rectifie the Errors of their Prayers, by rightly ordering mine own: At a solemn Procession I have wept abundantly, while my consorts blind with op­position and prejudice; have fallen into an excess of scorn and laugh­ter: There are questionless both in Greek, Roman, and African Chur­ches, Solemnities and Ceremonies, whereof the wiser Zeals do make a Christian use, and stand condemned by us, not as evil in themselves, but as allurements and baits of supersti­tion to those vulgar heads that look asquint on the face of Truth, and those unstable Judgments that can­not resist in the narrow point and centre of Virtue without a reel or stagger to the Circumference.

[Page 7] Sect. 4 As there were many Reformers, so likewise many Reformations; every Country proceeding in a par­ticular way and method, according as their national Interest, together with their Constitution and Clime inclined them; some angrily, and with extremity; others calmly, and with mediocrity, not rending but easily dividing the community, and leaving an honest possibility of a reconciliation; which though peaceable Spirits do desire, and may conceive that revolution of time and the mercies of God may effect, yet that judgment that shall consi­der the present antipathies between the two extreams, their contrarieties in condition, affection and opinion, may with the same hopes expect an union in the Poles of Heaven.

Sect. 5 But to difference my self nearer, and draw into a lesser Circle: There is no Church, whose every part so squares unto my Conscience; whose Articles, Constitutions, and Cu­stoms, seem so consonant unto rea­son, [Page 8] and as it were framed to my particular Devotion, as this where­of I hold my Belief, the Church of England, to whose Faith I am a sworn Subject; and therefore in a double Obligation subscribe unto her Articles, and endeavour to ob­serve her Constitutions; what so­ever is, beyond, as points indiffe­rent, I observe according to the rules of my private reason, or the humour and fashion of my Devoti­on; neither believing this, because Luther affirmed it, or disproving that, because Calvin hath disavouch­ed it. I condemn not all things in the Council of Trent, nor approve all in the Synod of Dort. In brief, where the Scripture is silent, the Church is my Text; where that speaks, 'tis but my Comment: where there is a joynt silence of both, I borrow not the rules of my Religion from Rome or Geneva, but the dictates of my own reason. It is an urjust scandal of our adversa­ries, and a gross errour in our selves, to compute the Narivity of our Re­ligion [Page 9] from Henry the Eighth, who though he rejected the Pope, re­fus'd not the faith of Rome, and ef­fected no more than what his own Predecessors desired and assayed in Ages past, and was conceived the State of Venice would have attempt­ed in our days. It is as uncharitable a point in us to fall upon those po­pular scurrilities and opprobrious scoffs of the Bishop of Rome, to whom as temporal Prince, we owe the duty of good language: I con­fess there is a cause of passion be­tween us; by his sentence I stand excommunicated, Heretick is the best language he affords me; yet can no ear witness, I ever returned him the name of Antichrist, Man of sin, or Whore of Babylon. It is the method of Charity to suffer without reaction: Those usual Sa­tyrs and invectives, of the Pulpit may perchance produce a good ef­fect on the vulgar, whose ears are opener to Rhetorick than Logick; yet do they in no wise confirm the faith of wiser Believers, who know [Page 10] that a good cause needs not to be pardon'd by passion, but can sustain it self upon a temperate dispute.

Sect. 6 I could never divide my self from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judge­ment for not agreeing with me in that, from which within a few days I should dissent my self. I have no Genius to disputes in Religion, and have often thought it wisdom to decline them, especially upon a dis­advantage, or when the cause of truth might suffer in the weakness of my patronage: Where we de­sire to be informed, 'tis good to contest with men above our selves; but to confirm and establish our opinions, 'tis best to argue with judgments below our own, that the frequent spoils and Victories over their reasons, may settle in our selves an esteem and confirmed Opinion of our own. Every man is not a proper Champion for Truth, nor fit to take up the Gauntlet in the cause of Verity: Many from the ignorance of these Maximes, and [Page 11] an inconsiderate Zeal unto Truth, have too rashly charged the Troops of Error, and remain as Trophies unto the enemies of Truth: A man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City, and yet be forced to surrender; 'tis therefore far better to enjoy her with peace, than to hazzard her on a battle: if there­fore there rise any doubts in my way, I do forget them, or at least defer them, till my better setled judgement, and more manly rea­son be able to resolve them, for I perceive every mans own reason is his best Oedipus, and will upon a reasonable truce, find a way to loose those bonds wherewith the subtle­ties of error have enchained our more flexible and tender judge­ments. In Philosophy, where Truth seems double fac'd, there is no man more Paradoxical than my self; but in Divinity I love to keep the Road; and though not in an, implicite, yet an humble faith, fol­low the great wheel of the Church, by which I move, not reserving [Page 12] any proper Poles or motion from the Epicycle of my own brain; by this means I have no gap for Heresie, Schismes, or Errors, of which at present I hope I shall not injure Truth to say I have no taint or tin­cture: I must confess my greener studies have been polluted with two or three, not any begotten in the latter Centuries, but old and obso­lete, such as could never have been revived, but by such extravagant and irregular heads as mine; for indeed Heresies perish not with their Authors, but like the River Arethu­sa, though they lose their currents in one place, they rise up again in another: One general Council is not able to extirpate one single He­resie; it may be cancell'd for the present, but revolution of time, and the like aspects from Heaven, will restore it, when it will flourish till it be condemned again. For as though there were Metempsuchosis, and the soul of one man passed into another; Opinions do find after certain Revolutions, men and minds [Page 13] like those that first begat them. To see our selves again, we need not look forA revolu­tion of cer­tain thou­sand years, when all things should re­turn unto theirformer estate, and he be teach­ing again in his School as when he de­livered this Opinion. Plato's year: every man is not only himself; there hath been many Diogenes, and as many Timons, though but few of that name; men are liv'd over again, the world is now as it was in Ages past; there was none then, but there hath been some one since that Parallels him, and as it were his revived self.

Now the first of mine was that of the Arabians, That the Souls of men perished with their Bodies, but should yet be raised again at the last day: not that I did absolutely con­ceive a mortality of the Soul; but if that were, which Faith, not Philo­sophy hath yet throughly disproved, and that both entred the grave to­gether, yet I held the same con­ceit thereof that we all do for the body, that it rile again. Surely it is but the merits of our unworthy Natures, if we sleep in darkness un­til the last Alarm. A serious reflex upon my own unworthiness did [Page 14] make me backward from challen­ging this prerogative of my Soul; so that I might enjoy my Saviour at the last, I could with patience be nothing almost unto Eternity. The second was that of Origen, That God would not persist in his venge­ance for ever, but after a definite time of his wrath, he would release the damned Souls from torture: which error I fell into upon a seri­ous contemplation of the great At­tribute of God, his Mercy; and did a little cherish it in my self, because I found therein no malice, and a rea­dy weight to sway me from the other extream of despair, where­unto Melancholy and Contempla­tive Natures are too easily disposed. A third there is which I did never positively maintain or practise, but have often wished it had been con­sonant to Truth, and not offensive to my Religion, and that is the Prayer for the dead; whereunto I was inclin'd from some charita­ble inducements, whereby I could scarce contain my Prayers for a [Page 15] friend at the ringing of a Bell, or behold his Corps without an Ori­son for his Corps: 'Twas a good way methought to be remembred by posterity, and far more noble than an History. These opinions I never maintained with pertinacy, or en­deavoured to enveagle any mans belief unto mine, nor so much as ever revealed or disputed them with my dearest friends; by which means I neither propagated them in others, nor confirmed them in my self; but suffering them to flame upon their own substance, without addition of new fuel, they went out insensibly of themselves. there­fore these Opinions, though con­demned by lawful Councels, were not Heresies in me, but bare Errors, and single Lapses of my understand­ing without a joynt depravity of my will: Those have not onely de­praved understandings, but disea­sed affections, which cannot enjoy a singularity without an Heresie, or be the Author of an Opinion with­out they be of a Sect also; this was [Page 16] the Villany of the first Schism of Lucifer, who was not content to err alone, but drew into his Facti­on many Legions, and upon this ex­perience he tempted only Eve, as well understanding the Communi­cable nature of Sin, and that to de­ceive but one, was tacitely and up­on consequence to delude them both.

Sect. 8 That Heresies should arise, we have the Prophesie of Christ; but that old ones should be abolished, we hold no prediction. That there must be Heresies, is true, not only in our Church, but also in any other: even in the doctrines heretical, there will be super-heresies; and Arians not only divided from their Church, but also among themselves: for heads that are disposed unto Schism and complexionably propense to innovation, are naturally disposed for a community; nor will be ever confined unto the order or oecono­my of one body; and therefore when they separate from others, they knit but loosely among them­selves, [Page 17] nor contented with a gene­ral breach or dichotomy with their Church, do subdivide and mince themselves almost into Atoms. 'Tis true, that men of singular parts and humours have not been free from singular opinions and conceits in all Ages; retaining something not only beside the opinion of his own Church or any other, but also any I particular Author; which notwith­standing a sober Judgment may do without offence or heresie; for there is yet, after all the Decrees of Councils, and the niceties of Schools, many things untouch'd, unimagin'd, wherein the liberty of an honest reason may play and ex­patiate with security, and far with­out the circle of an Heresie.

Sect. 9 As for those wingy Mysteries in Divinity, and airy subtleties in Re­ligion, which have unhing'd the brains of better heads, they never stretched the Pia Mater of mine; methinks there be not impossibi­lities enough in Religion, for an active faith; the deepest Mysteries [Page 18] ours contains, have not only been illustrated, but maintained by Sy­logism, and the rule of Reason: I love to lose my self in a mystery, to pursue my Reason to an O altitudo! 'Tis my solitary recreation to pose my apprehension with those invol­ved Aenigma's and riddles of the Trinity, with Incarnation and Re­surrection. I can answer all the Ob­jections of Satan and my rebellious reason, with that odd resolution I learned of Tertullian, Certum est quia impossible est. I desire to exercise my faith in the difficultest point; for to credit ordinary and visible ob­jects, is not faith, but perswasion. Some believe the better for seeing Christ's Sepulchre; and when they have seen the Red Sea, doubt not of the Miracle. Now contrarily, I bless my self, and am thankful that I li­ved not in the days of Miracles, that I never saw Christ nor his Disciples; I would not have been one of those Israelites that pass'd the Red Sea, nor one of Christ's patients on whom he wrought his wonders; [Page 19] then had my faith been thrust upon me; nor should I enjoy that greater blessing pronounced to all that be­lieve and saw not. 'Tis an easie and necessary belief, to credit what our eye and sense hath examined: I be­lieve he was dead and buried, and rose again; and desire to see him in his glory, rather than to contem­plate him in his Cenotaphe, or Se­pulchre. Nor is this much to be­lieve; as we have reason, we owe this faith unto History: they only had the advantage of a bold and no­ble Faith, who lived before his com­ing, who upon obscure prophesies and mystical Types could raise a be­lief, and expect apparent impossibi­lities.

Sect. 10'Tis true, there is an edge in all sirm belief, and with an easie Me­taphor we may say the Sword of Faith; but in these obscuri­ties I rather use it in the adjunct the Apostles gives it, a Buckler; under which I conceive a wary combatant may lye invulnerable. Since I was of understanding to [Page 20] know we knew nothing, my rea­son hath been more pliable to the will of Faith; I am now content to understand a mystery without a rigid definition, in an easie and Platonick description. ThatSphaera cujus cen­trum ubi­que, circum­ferentianul­libi. alle­gorical description of Hermes, plea­seth me beyond all the Metaphysical definitions of Divines; where I cannot satisfie my reason, I love to humour my fancy: I had as live you tell me that anima est angelus ho­minis, est Corpus Dei, as Entelechia; Lux est umbra Dei, as actus perspicui; where there is an obscurity too deep for our Reason, 'tis good to sit down with a description, periphra­sis, or adumbration; for by ac­quainting our reason how unable it is to display the visible and obvious effects of nature, it becomes more humble and submissive unto the subtleties of Faith; and thus I teach my haggard and unreclaimed rea­son to stoop unto the lure of Faith. I believe there was already a tree whose fruit our unhappy Parents tasted, though in the same Chapter [Page 21] when God forbids it, 'tis positively said, the plants of the fields were not yet grown; for God had not caus'd it to rain upon the earth. I believe that the Serpent (if we shall literal­ly understand it) from his proper form and figure made his motion on his belly before the curse. I find the tryal of the Pucellage and virgi­nity of Women, which God or­dained the Jews, is very fallible. Experience and History informs me, that not onely many particu­lar Women, bur likewise whole Nations have escaped the curse of Childbirth, which God seems to pronounce upon the whole Sex; yet do I believe that all this is true, which indeed my Reason would perswade me to be false; and this I think is no vulgar part of Faith, to believe a thing not only above, but contrary to Reason, and against the Arguments of our pro­per Senses.

Sect. 11 In my solitary and retired imagi­nation, (Neque enim cum porticus, aut me lectulus accepit desum mihi) I [Page 22] remember I am not alone, and there­fore forget not to contemplate him and his Attributes who is ever with me, especially those two mighty ones, his Wisdom and Eternity; with the one I recreate, with the o­ther I confound my understanding: for who can speak of Eternity with­out a soloecism, or think thereof without an Extasie? Time we may comprehend: 'tis but five days el­der then our selves, and hath the same Horoscope with the World; but to retire so far back as to appre­hend a beginning, to give such an infinite start forwards as to con­ceive an end in an essence that we affirm hath neither the one nor the other, it puts my Reason to St. Paul's Sanctuary: my Philosophy dares not say the Angels can do it; God hath not made a Creature that can comprehend him; 'tis a privi­ledge of his own nature: I am that I am, was his own definition unto Moses; and 'twas a short one, to confound mortality, that durst question God, or ask him what he [Page 23] was; indeed he onely is; all others have and shall be: but in Eternity there is no distinction of Tenses; and therefore that terrible term Predestination, which hath troubled so many weak heads to conceive, and the wisest to explain, is in re­spect to God no prescious determi­nation of our Estates to come, but a definitive blast of his Will already fulfilled, and at the instant that he first decreed it; for to his Eternity which is indivisible, and all toge­ther the last Trump is already sounded, the reprobates in the flame, and the blessed in Abraham's bosome. St. Peter speaks modestly, when he saith, a thousand years to God are but as one day: for to speak like a Philosopher, those con­tinued instances of time which flow into a thousand years, make not to him one moment; what to us is to come, to his Eternity is present, his whole duration being but one per­manent point, without Succession, Parts, Flux, or Division.

Sect. 12 There is no Attribute that adds [Page 24] more difficulty to the mystery of the Trinity, where, though in a relative way of Father and Son, we must deny a priority. I wonder how Aristotle could conceive the World-eternal, or how he could make good two Eternities: his similitude of a Triangle, compre­hended in a square, doth some­what illustrate the Trinity of our Souls, and that the Triple Unity of God; for there is in us not three, but a Trinity of Souls, because there is in us, if not three distinct Souls, yet differing faculties, that can, and do subsist apart in different Subjects, and yet in us are thus united as to make but one Soul and substance: if one Soul were so perfect as to in­form three distinct Bodies, that were a petty Trinity: conceive, the di­stinct number of three, not divided nor separated by the Intellect, but actually comprehended in its Uni­ty, and that is a perfect Trinity. I have often admired the mystical way of Pythagoras, and the secret Magick of numbers. Beware of [Page 25] Philosophy, is a precept not to be received in too large a sense; for in this Mass of Nature there is a set of things that carry in their Front, though not in Capital Letters, yet in Stenography, and short Cha­racters, something of Divinity, which to wiser Reasons serve as Luminaries in the Abyss of Know­ledge, and to judicious beliefs, as Scales and Roundles to mount the Pinacles and highest pieces of Divi­nity The severe Schools shall ne­ver laugh me out of the Philoso­phy of Hermes, that this visible World is but a Picture of the invi­sible, wherein as in a Pourtraict, things are not truely, but in equi­vocal shapes, and as they counterfeit some real substance in that invisible Fabrick.

Sect. 13 That other Attribute wherewith I recreate my devotion, is his Wis­dom, in which I am happy; and for the contemplation of this only, do not repent me that I was bred in the way of Study: The advan­tage I have of the vulgar, with the [Page 26] content and happiness I conceive therein, is an ample recompence for all my endeavours, in what part of knowledge soever. Wisdom is his most beauteous Attribute, no man can attain unto it, yet Solomon pleased God when he desired it. He is wise, because he knows all things; and he knoweth all things, because he made them all: but his greatest knowledge is in comprehending that he made not, that is, himself. And this is also the greatest know­ledge in man. For this do I honour my own profession, and embrace the Counsel even of the Devil him­self: had he read such a Lecture in Paradise, as he did at [...], Nosce teip­sum. Delphos, we had better known our selves; nor had we stood in fear to know him. I know he is wise in all, wonderful in what we conceive, but far more in what we comprehend not; for we behold him but asquint, upon reflex or shadow; our understand­ing is dimmer than Moses Eye; we are ignorant of the back-parts or lower side of his Divinity; there­fore [Page 27] to prie into the maze of his Counsels, is not only folly in man, but presumption even in Angels; like us, they are his Servants, not his Senators; he holds no Counsel, but that mystical one of the Tri­nity, wherein though there be three Persons, there is but one mind that decrees without Contradicti­on: nor needs he any; his actions are not begot with deliberation, his Wisdom naturally knows what's best; his intellect stands ready fraught with the Superlative and purest Idea's of goodness; consul­tation and election, which are two motions in us, make but one in him; his action springing from his pow­er, at the first touch of his will. These are Contemplations Meta­physical: my humble speculations have another Method, and are con­tent to trace and discover those ex­pressions he hath left in his Crea­tures, and▪ the obvious effects of Nature; there is no danger to pro­found these mysteries, no sanctum sanctorum in Philosophy: the World [Page 28] was made to be inhabited by Beasts; but studied and contemplated by Man: 'tis the Debt of our Reason we owe unto God, and the homage we pay for not being Beasts; with­out this, the World is still as though it had not been, or as it was before the sixth day, when as yet there was not a Creature that could conceive, or say there was a World. The wisdom of God receives small ho­nour from those vulgar Heads that rudely stare about, and with a gross rusticity admire his works; those highly magnifie him, whose judici­ous inquiry into his Acts, and de­liberate research into his Creatures, return the duty of a devout and learned admiration.

Therefore,

And this is almost all wherein an humble Creature may endeavour to requite, and some way to retri­bute unto his Creator: for if not he that saith, Lord, Lord, but he that doth the will of his Father, shall be sa­ved; certainly our wills must be our performances, and our intents make out our Actions; otherwise our pious labours shall find anxiety in our Graves, and our best en­deavours [Page 30] not hope, but fear a resur­rection.

Sect. 14 There is but our first cause, and four second causes of all things; some are without efficient, as God; others without matter, as Angels; some without form, as the first mat­ter: but every Essence created or uncreated, hath its final cause, and some positive end both of its Es­sence and Operation; this is the cause I grope after in the works of Nature; on this hangs the provi­dence of God: to raise so beauteous a structure, as the World and the Creatures thereof, was but his Art; but their sundry and divided opera­tions, with their predestinated ends, are from the Treasure of his wis­dom. In the causes, nature and af­fections of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon, there is most excellent speculation; but to profound far­ther, and to contemplate a reason why his providence hath so dispo­sed and ordered their motions in that vast circle, as to conjoyn and obscure each other, is a sweeter [Page 31] piece of Reason, and a diviner point of Philosophy; therefore some­times, and in some things, there ap­pears to me as much Divinity in Galen his Books De usu partium, as in Suarez Metaphysicks: Had Ari­stotle been as curious in the enquiry of this cause as he was of the other, he had not left behind him an im­perfect piece of Philosophy, but an absolute tract of Divinity.

Sect. 15 Natura nihil aget frustra, is the only indisputed Axiome in Philoso­phy; there are no Grotesques in na­ture; not any thing framed to fill up empty Cantons, and unnecessa­ry spaces: in the most imperfect Creatures, and such as were not preserved in the Ark, but having their Seeds and Principles in the womb of Nature, are every where, where the power of the Sun is; in these is the Wisdom of his hand dis­covered: Out of this rank Solomon chose the object of admiration; in­deed what reason may not go to School to the wisdom of Bees, Ants, and Spiders? what wise hand teach­eth [Page 32] them to do what reason cannot teach us? ruder heads stand ama­zed at those prodigious pieces of Nature, Whales, Elephants, Dro­midaries and Camels; these, I con­fess, are the Colossus and Majestick pieces of her hand: but in these narrow Engines there is more curi­ous Mathematicks; and the civili­ty of these little Citizens, more neatly sets forth the wisdom of their Maker. Who admires not Regio Montanus his Fly beyond his Eagle, or wonders not more at the opera­tion of two Souls in those little Bo­dies, than but one in the Trunk of a Cedar? I could never content my contemplation with those general pieces of wonder, the Flux and Re­flux of the Sea, the increase of Nile, the conversion of the Needle to the North; and have studied to match and parallel those in the more ob­vious and neglected pieces of Na­ture, which without further travel I can do in the Cosmography of my self; we carry with us the won­ders we seek without us: There is [Page 33] is all Africa and her prodigies in us; we are that bold and adventurous piece of nature, which he that stu­dies wisely learns in a compendium, what others labour at in a divided piece and endless volume.

Thus there are two Books from whence I collect my Divinity; be­sides that written one of God, ano­ther of his servant Nature, that uni­versal and publick Manuscript, that lies expans'd unto the Eyes of all, those that never saw him in the one, have discoveerd him in the o­ther: this was the Scripture and Theology of the Heathens; the natural motion of the Sun made them more admire him, than its su­pernatural station did the Children of Israel; the ordinary effects of nature wrought more admiration in them, than in the other all his Miracles; surely the Heathens knew better how to joyn and read these mystical Letters, than we Chiristians, who cast a more care­less Eye on these common Hiero­glyphicks, and disdain to suck Di­vinity [Page 34] from the flowers of Nature. Nor do I so forget God as to adore the name of Nature; which I define not with the Schools, to be the principle of motion and rest, but that streight and regular line, that settled and constant course the wis­dom of God hath ordained the actions of his creatures, according to their several kinds. To make a revolution every day, is the Na­ture of the Sun, because of that ne­cessary course which God hath or­dained it, from which it cannot swerve, by a faculty from that voice which first did give it motion. Now this course of Nature God seldome alters or perverts, but like an ex­cellent Artist hath so contrived his work, that with the self same in­strument, without a new creation, he may effect his obscurest designs. Thus he sweetneth the Water with a Word, preserveth the Creatures in the Ark, which the blast of his mouth might have as easily created; for God is like a skilful Geometri­cian who when more easily, and [Page 35] with one stroak of his Compass he I might describe or divide a right line, had yet rather do this in a cir­cle or longer way; according to the constituted and fore-laid princi­ples of his Art: yet this rule of his he doth sometimes pervert, to acquaint the World with his Prero­gative, lest the arrogancy of our reason should question his power, and conclude he could not: and thus I call the effects of Nature the works of God, whose hand and in­strument she only is; and therefore to ascribe his actions unto her, is to devolve the honour of the princi­pal agent, upon the instrument; which if with reason we may do, then let our hammers rise up and boast they have built our houses, and our pens receive the honour of our writing. I hold there is a ge­neral beauty in the works of God, and therefore no deformity in any kind of species of creature whatsoe­ver: I cannot tell by what Logick I we call a Toad, a Bear, or an Ele­phant ugly, they being created in [Page 36] those outward shapes and figures which best express those actions of their inward forms. And having past that general Visitation of God, who saw that all that he had made was good, that is, conformable to his Will, which abhors deformity, and is the rule of order and beauty; there is no deformity but in Mon­strosity, wherein notwithstanding there is a kind of Beauty. Nature so ingeniously contriving the irre­gular parts, as they become some­times more remarkable than the principal Fabrick. To speak yet more narrowly, there was never any thing ugly or mis-shapen, but the Chaos; wherein notwithstand­ing, to speak strictly, there was no deformity, because no form, nor was it yet impregnant by the voice of God; Now nature is not at vari­ance with Art, nor art with Nature; they being both servants of his pro­vidence: Art is the perfection of Nature: were the World now as it was the sixth day, there were yet, a Chaos: Nature hath made one [Page 37] World, and Art another. In brief, all things are artificial; for Nature is the Art of God.

This is the ordinary and open way of his providence, which Art and Industry have in a good part discovered, whose effects we may foretel without an Oracle: to fore­shew these, is not Prophesie, but Pognostication. There is another way full of Meanders and Laby­rinths, whereof the Devil and Spi­rits have no exact Ephimerides, and that is a more particular and obscure method of his providence, directing the operations of indivi­duals and single Essences: this we call Fortune, that serpentine and crooked line, whereby he draws those actions his wisdom intends in a more unknown and secret way: This cryptick and involved method of his providence have I ever ad­mired, nor can I relate the History of my life, the occurrences of my days, the escapes of dangers, and hits of chance, with a Bezo las Ma­nos to Fortune, or a bare Gramercy [Page 38] to my good Stars: Abraham might have thought the Ram in the thicket came thither by accident; humane reason would have said, that meer chance conveyed Moses in the Ark to the sight of Pharaoh's Daughter: What a Labyrinth is there in the story of Joseph, able to convert a Stoick? Surely there are in every man's Life certain rubs, doublings and wrenches, which pass a while under the effects of chance, but at the last well examined, prove the meer hand of God. 'Twas not dumb chance, that to discover the Fougade or Powder-plot, contrived a miscarriage in the Letter. I like the Victory of 88. the better for that one occurrence which our ene­mies imputed to our dishonour, and the partiality of Fortune, to wit, the tempests and contrariety of Winds, King Philip did not detract from the Nation, when he said, he sent his Armado to fight with men, and not to combate with the Winds. Where there is a manifest dispro­portion between the powers and [Page 39] forces of two several agents, upon a Maxime of reason we may promise the Victory to the Superiour; but when unexpected accidents slip in, and unthought of occurrences in­tervene, these must proceed from a power that owes no obedience to those Axioms: where, as in the writing upon the wall, we may be­hold the hand, but see not the spring that moves it. The success of that petty Province of Holland (of which the Grand Seignour proudly said, If they should trouble him as they did the Spaniard, he would send his men with shovels and pick axes, and throw it into the Sea) I cannot altogether ascribe to the ingenuity and industry of the people, but the mercy of God, that hath disposed them to such a thriving Genius; and to the will of his Providence, that disposeth her favour to each Country in their pre-ordinate sea­son. All cannot be happy at once; for because the glory of one State depends upon the ruine of another, there is a revolution and vicissitude [Page 40] of their greatness, and must obey the swing of that wheel, not mo­ved, by Intelligences, but by the hand of God, whereby all Estates arise to their Zenith and Vertical points, according to their predesti­nated periods. For the lives, not only of men, but of Common­wealths and the whole World, run not upon a Helix that still en­largeth; but on a Circle, where arriving to their Meridian, they decline in obscurity, and fall under the Horizon again.

Sect. 18 These must not therefore be na­med the effects of Fortune, but in a relative way, and as we term the works of Nature: it was the igno­rance of mans reason that begat this very name, and by a careless term miscalled the Providence of God: for there is no liberty for causes to operate in a loose and stragling way; nor any effect whatsoever, but hath its warrant from some uni­versal or superiour Cause. 'Tis not a ridiculous devotion to say a pray­er before a game at Tables; for [Page 41] even in sortiligies and matters of greatest uncertainty, there is a set­led and pre-ordered course of ef­fects. It is we that are blind, not Fortune: because our Eye is too dim to discover the mystery of her ef­fects, we foolishly paint her blind, and hoodwink the Providence of the Almighty. I cannot justifie that contemptible Proverb, That fools only are Fortunate; or that in­solent Paradox, That a wise man is cut of the reach of Fortune; much less those opprobrious Epithets of Poets, Whore, Bawd, and Strum­pet. 'Tis, I confess, the common fate of men of singular gifts of mind, to be destitute of those of Fortune; which doth not any way deject the Spirit of wiser judgements, who throughly understand the justice of this proceeding; and being inrich'd with higher donatives, cast a more careless eye on these vulgar parts of felicity. It is a most unjust ambiti­on to desire to engross the mercies of the Almighty, not to be content with the goods of mind, without [Page 42] a possession of those of body or For­tune: and it is an error worse than heresie, to adore these complemen­tal and circumstantial pieces of fe­licity, and undervalue those perfe­ctions and essential points of happi­ness, wherein we resemble our Maker. To wiser desires it is satis­faction enough to deserve, though not to enjoy the favours of Fortune; let Providence provide for Fools: 'tis not partiality, but equity in God, who deals with us but as our natural Parents; those that are able of Body and Mind, he leaves to their deserts; to those of weaker merits he imparts a larger portion, and pieces out the defect of one, by the access of the other. Thus have we no just quarrel with Nature, for leaving us naked; or to envy the Horns, Hoofs, Skins and Furs of other Creatures, being provided with Reason, that can supply them all. We need not labour with so many Arguments to confute Judici­al Astrology; for if there be a truth therein, it doth not injure Divinity: [Page 43] if to be born under Mercury dispo­seth us to be witty, under Jupiter to be wealthy; I do not owe a Knee unto these, but unto that merciful Hand that hath ordered my indiffe­rent and uncertain nativity unto such benevolous Aspects. Those that hold that all things are govern­ed by Fortune, had not erred, had they not persisted there: The Ro­mans that erected a Temple to For­tune, acknowledged therein, though in a blinder way, somewhat of Di­vinity; for in a wise supputation all things begin and end in the Al­mighty. There is a nearer way to Heaven than Homer's Chain; an easie Logick may conjoyn Heaven and Earth, in one Argument, and with less than a Sorites resolve all things into God. Far though we christen effects by their most sensible and nearest Causes, yet is God the true and infallible Cause of all, whose concourse though it be gene­ral, yet doth it subdivide it self into the particular Actions of every thing, and is that Spirit, by which [Page 44] each singular Essence not only sub­sists, but performs its operati­on.

Sect. 19 The bad construction, and per­verse comment on these pair of se­cond Causes, or visible hands of God, have perverted the Devotion of many unto Atheism; who for­getting the honest Advisoes of Faith, have listened unto the conspiracy of Passion and Reason. I have there­fore always endeavoured to com­pose those Feuds and angry Dissen­tions between Affection, Faith and Reason: For there is in our Soul a kind of Triumvirate, or triple Go­vernment of three Competitors, which distract the Peace of this our Common-wealth, not less than did that other the State of Rome.

As Reason is a Rebel unto Faith, so Passion unto Reason: As the Propositions of Faith seem absurd unto Reason, so the Theorems of Reason unto Passion, and both un­to Reason; yet a moderate and peaceable discretion may so state and order the matter, that they may [Page 45] be all Kings, and yet make but one Monarchy, every one exercising his Soveraignty and Prerogative in a due time and place, according to the restraint and limit of circum­stance, There is, as in Philosophy, so in Divinity, sturdy doubts, and boisterous Objections, wherewith the unhappiness of our knowledge too nearly acquainteth us. More of these no man hath known than my self, which I confess I conquer­ed, not in a martial posture, but on my Knees. For our endeavours are not only to combat with doubts, but always to dispute with the De­vil: the villany of that Spirit takes a hint of Infidelity from our Studies, and by demonstrating a naturality in one way, makes us mistrust a mi­racle in another. Thus having, per­used the Archidoxes, and read the secret Sympathies of things, he would disswade my belief from the miracle of the Brazen Serpent, make me conceit that Image worked by Sympathy, and was but an Aegyp­tian trick to cure their Diseases [Page 46] without a miracle. Again, having seen some experiments of Bitumen, and having read far more of Naph­tha, he whispered to my curiosity the fire of the Altar might be natu­ral: and bid me mistrust a miracle in Elias, when he entrenched the Altar round with Water: for that inflamable substance yields not ea­sily unto Water, but flames in the Arms of its Antagonist. And thus would he inveagle my belief to think the combustion of Sodom might be natural, and that there was an Asphaltick and Bituminous nature in that Lake before the Fire of Gomorrah. I know that Manna is now plentifully gathered in Cala­bria; and Josephus tells me, in his days it was as plentiful in Arabia; the Devil therefore made the quaere, Where was then the miracle in the days of Moses: the Israelite saw but that in his time, the Natives of those Countries behold in ours. Thus the Devil played at Chess with me, and yielding a Pawn, thought to gain a Queen of me, ta­king [Page 47] advantage of my honest endea­vours; and whilst I laboured to raise the structure of my Reason, he strived to undermine the edifice of my Faith.

Sect. 20 Neither had these or any other ever such advantage of me, as to in­cline me to any point of Infidelity or desperate positions of Atheism; for I have been these many years of opinion there was never any. Those that held Religion was the diffe­rence of Man from Beasts, have spo­ken probably, and proceed upon a principle as inductive as the other. That doctrine of Epicurus, that de­nied the Providence of God, was no Atheism, but a magnificent and high strained conceit of his Majesty, which he deemed too sublime to mind the trivial Actions of those in­feriour Creatures. That fatal ne­cessity of the Stoicks, is nothing but the immutable Law of his will. Those that heretofore denied the Divinity of the Holy Ghost, have been condemned, but as Hereticks; and those that now deny our Savi­our [Page 48] (though more than Hereticks) are not so much as Atheists: for though they deny two persons in the Trinity, they hold as we do, there is but one God.

That Villain and Secretary of Hell, that composed that miscreant piece of the three Impostors, though divided from all Religions, and was neither Jew, Turk nor Christian; was not a positive Atheist. I con­fess every Country hath its Machia­vel, every Age its Lciuan, whereof common Heads must not hear, nor more advanced Judgments too rash­ly venture on: It is the Rhetorick of Satan, and may pervert a loose or prejudicate belief.

Sect. 22 I confess I have perused them all, and can discover nothing that may startle a discreet belief; yet are their heads carried off with the Wind and breath of such motives. I remem­ber a Doctor in Physick of Italy, who could perfectly believe the im­mortality of the Soul, because Ga­len seemed to make a doubt thereof. With another I was familiarly ac­quainted [Page 49] in France, a Divine, and a man of singular parts, that on the same point was so plunged and gra­velled withPost Mor­tem nihil est, ipsaque Mors nihil. Mors indi­vidua est, noxia cor­pori, nec pa­tiens ani­mae—Toti morimur, nullaque pars manet nostri. three lines of Seneca, that all our Antidotes, drawn from both Scripture and Philosophy, could not expel the poyson of his errour. There are a set of Heads, that can credit the relations of Mariners, yet question the Testimonies of St. Paul; and peremptorily maintain the tra­ditions of Aelian or Pliny, yet in Histories of Scripture raise Queries and Objections, believing no more than they can parallel in humane Authors. I confess there are in Scripture Stories that do exceed the Fables of Poets, and to a captious Reader found like Garagantua or Bevis: Search all the Legends of times past, and the fabulous comn­ceits or these present, and 'twill be hard to find one that deserves to carry the Buckler unto Sampson; yet is all this of an easie possibility, if we conceive a divine concourse, or an influence from the little Finger of the Almighty. It is impossible [Page 50] that either in the discourse of man, or in the infallible Voice of God, to the weakness of our apprehensions, there should not appear irregulari­ties, contradictions, and antinomies: my self could shew a Catalogue of doubts, never yet imagined nor questioned, as I know, which are not resolved at the first hearing; not fantastick Queries or Objections of Air; for I cannot hear of Atoms in Divinity. I can read the History of the Pigeon that was sent out of the Ark, and returned no more, yet not question how she found out her Mate that was left behind: That Lazarus was raised from the dead, yet not demand where in the inte­rim his Soul awaited; or raise a Law-case, whether his Heir might lawfully detain his inheritance be­queathed unto him by his death, and he, though restored to life, have no Plea or Title unto his former possessions. Whether Eve was framed out of the left side of Adam, I dispute not; because I stand not yet assured which is the right side [Page 51] of a man; or whether there be any such distinction in Nature: that she Was edified out of the Rib of Adam, I believe, yet raise no que­stion who shall arise with that Rib at the Resurrection: Whether Adam was an Hermaphrodite, as the Rab­bins contend upon the Letter of the Text, because it is contrary to rea­son, there should be an Hermaphro­dite, before there was a Woman; or a composition of two Natures, before there was a second compo­sed. Likewise,* whether the World was created in Autumn, Summer, or the Spring] because it was created in them all; for whatsoever Sign the Sun possesseth, those four Seasons are actually exi­stent: It is the Nature of this Lu­minary to distinguish the several Seasons of the year, all which it makes at one time in the whole Earth, and successively in any part thereof. There are a bundle of cu­riosities, not only in Philosophy, but in Divinity, proposed and dis­cussed by men of most supposed [Page 52] abilities, which indeed are not wor­thy our vacant hours, much less our serious Studies. Pieces only fit to be placed in Pantagruel's Library, or bound up with Tartaretus de modo Cacandi. In Rabbe­lais.

Sect. 22 These are niceties that become not those that peruse so serious a Mystery: There are others more generally questioned and called to the Bar, yet methinks of an easie and possible truth.

'Tis ridiculous to put off, or down the general Flood of Noah, in that particular inundation of Deucalion:] that there was a De­luge once, seems not to me so great a Miracle, as that there is not one always. ‖ How all the kinds of Creatures, not only in their own bulks, but with a competency of food and sustenance, might be pre­served in one Ark, and within the extent of three hundred Cubits, to a reason that rightly examines, it will appear very feasible.] There is another secret not contained in the Scripture, which is more hard [Page 53] to comprehend, * and put the ho­nest Father to the refuge of a Mi­racle:] and that is, not only how the distinct pieces of the World, and divided Islands should be first planted by men, but inhabited by Tigers, Panthers, and Bears. How America abounded with Beasts of prey, and noxious Animals, yet contained not in it that necessary Creature, a Horse, is very strange. By what passage those, not only Birds, but dangerous and unwel­come Beasts came over: How there be Creatures there, (which are not found in this Triple Continent;) all which must needs be strange un­to us, that hold but one Ark, and that the Creatures began their pro­gress from the Mountains of Ara­rat: They who to salve this would make the Deluge particular, pro­ceed upon a principle that I can no way grant; not only upon the ne­gative of holy Scriptures, but of mine own Reason, whereby I can make it probable, that the World was as well peopled in the time of [Page 54] Noah, as in ours; * and fifteen hundred years to people the World, as full a time for them, as four thou­sand years since have been to us.] There are other assertions and com­mon Tenents drawn from Scrip­ture, and generally believed as Scripture, whereunto notwith­standing, I would never betray the liberty of my Reason. 'Tis a Para­dox to me, ‖ that Methusalem was the longest liv'd of all the Children of Adam] and no man will be able to prove it; when from the process of the Text, I can manifest it may be otherwise. * That Judas perish­ed by hanging himself, there is no certainty in Scripture: though in one place it seems to affirm it, and by a doubtful word hath given oc­casion to translate it; yet in ano­ther place, in a more punctual de­scription, it makes it improbable, and seems to overthrow it.] That our Fathers, after the Flood, erect­ed the Tower of Babel, to preserve th [...]mselves against a second Deluge, is generally opinioned and believed, [Page 55] yet is there another intention of theirs expressed in Scripture: Be­sides, it is improbable from the cir­cumstance of the place, that is, a plain in the Land of Shinar: These are no points of Faith, and there­fore may admit a free dispute. There are yet others, and those fa­miliarly conclude from the Text, wherein (under favour) I see no consequence: the Church of Rome, confidently proves the opinion of Tutelary Angels, from that An­swer when Peter knockt at the Door; 'Tis not he, but his Angel; that is, might some say, his Mes­senger, or some body from him; for so the Original signifies; and is as likely to be the doubtful Fami­lies meaning▪ This exposition I once suggested to a young Divine, that answered upon this point; to which I remember the Franciscan Opponent replyed no more; but That it was a new, and no authen­tick interpretation.

Sect. 23 These are but the conclusions and fallible discourses of man upon the [Page 56] Word of God, for such I do believe the holy Scriptures; yet were it of man, I could not chuse but say, it was the singularest, and superlative piece that hath been extant since the Creation: were I a Pagan, I should not refrain the Lecture of it; * and cannot but commend the judgment of Ptolomy,] that thought not his Library compleat without it. ‖ The Alcoran of the Turks (I speak without prejudice) is an ill composed Piece, containing in it vain and ridiculous Errors in Phi­losophy] impossibilities, fictions, and vanities beyond laughter, main­tained by evident and open So­phisms, the Policy of Ignorance, deposition of Universities, and ba­nishment of Learning; that hath gotten Foot by Arms and violence; This without a blow, hath disse­minated it self through the whole Earth. It is not unremarkable what Philo first observed, That the Law of Moses continued two thou­sand years without the least altera­tion; whereas, we see, the Laws [Page 57] of other Common-weals do alter with occasions; and even those, that pretended their Original from some Divinity, to have vanished without trace or memory.* I be­lieve besides Zoroaster, there were divers that writ before Moses] who, notwithstanding have suffer­ed the common fate of time. Mens Works have an age like themselves; and though they out live their Au­thors, yet have they a stint and pe­riod to their duration: This only is a work too hard for the teeth of time, and cannot perish but in the general Flames, when all things shall confess their Ashes.

Sect. 24 I have heard some with deep sighs lament the lost lines of Cicero; ‖ others with as many groans deplore the combustion of the Library of Alexandria: for my own part, I think there be too many in the World, and could with patience behold the urn and ashes of the Va­tican, could I, with a few others, recover the perished leaves of Solo­mon. * I would not omit a Copy [Page 58] of Enoch's Pillars, had they many nearer Authors than Josephus] or did not relish somewhat of the Fable. Some men have written more than others have spoken;Pineda in his Mo­narchica Ecclesiasti­ca quotes one thou­sand and forty Au­thors. Pineda quotes more Authors in one work, than are necessary in a whole World. ‖ Of those three great inventions in Ger­many, there are two which are not without their incommodities,] and 'tis disputable whether they exceed not their use and commodities. 'Tis not a melancholy Utinam of my own, but the desires of better beads, that there were a general Synod; not to unite the incompatible difference of Religion, but for the benefit of learn­ing, to reduce it as it lay at first, in a few, and solid Authors; and to con­demn to the fire those swarms & mil­lions of Rhapsodies begotten only to distract and abuse the weaker judge­ments of Scholars, and to maintain the trade and mystery of Typographers.

Sect. 25 I cannot but wonder with what exception the Samaritans could con­fine their belief to the Pentateuch, or five Books, of Moses. I am asha­med [Page 59] at the Rabbinical Interpretation of the Jews, upon the old Testament, as much as their defection from the New. And truly it is beyond wonder, how that contemptible and degene­rate issue of Jacob, once so devoted to Ethnick Superstition, and so easi­ly seduced to the Idolatry of their Neighbours, should now in such an obstinate and peremptory belief ad­here unto their own Doctrine expect impossibilities, and in the face and eye of the Church, persist without the least hope of Conversion. This is a vice in them, that were a vertue in us; for obstinacy in a bad Cause, is but constancy in a good. And herein I must accuse those of my own Religion; for there is not any of such a fugitive Faith, such an unstable belief, as a Christian; none that do so oft transform them­selves, not unto several shapes of Christianity and of the same Species, but unto more unnatural and con­trary Forms, of Jew and Mahome­tan; that from the name of Savi­our, can condescend to the bare [Page 60] term of Prophet; and from an old belief that he is come, fall to a new expectation of his coming. It is the promise of Christ to make us all one Flock; but how and when this Union shall be, is as obscure to me as the last day. Of those four Members of Religion we hold a slender proportion; there are, I confess, some new additions, yet small to those which accrew to our Adversaries, and those only drawn from the revolt of Pagans, men but of negative Impieties, and such as deny Christ, but because they never heard of him: but the Religi­on of the Jew is expresly against the Christian, and the Mahometan against both. For * the Turk, in the bulk he now stands, he is be­yond all hope of conversion:] if he fall asunder, there may be conceiv­ed hopes, but not without strong improbabilities. The Jew is obsti­nate in all fortunes; the persecuti­on of fifteen hundred years hath but confirmed them in their Er­rour: they have already endured [Page 61] whatsoever may be inflicted, and have suffered, in a bad cause, even to the condemnation of their ene­mies. Persecution is a bad and in­direct way to plant Religion; It hath been the unhappy method of angry Devotions, not only to con­firm honest Religion, but wicked Heresies, and extravagant Opini­ons. It was the first stone and Ba­sis of our Faith,* none can more justly boast of Persecutions, and glory in the number and valour of Martyrs;] For, to speak properly, those are true and almost only ex­amples of fortitude: Those that are fetch'd from the field, or drawn from the actions of the Camp, are not oft-times so truely precedents of valour as audacity, and at the best attain but to some bastard piece of fortitude: ‖ If we shall strictly examine the circumstances and re­quisites which Aristotle requires to true and perfect valour, we shall find the name only in his Master Alexander, and as little in that Ro­man Worthy, Julius Caesar;] and [Page 62] if any, in that easie and active way, have done so nobly as to deserve that name, yet in the passive and more terrible piece these have sur­passed, and in a more heroical way may claim the honour of that Title. 'Tis not in the power of every ho­nest Faith to proceed thus far, or pass to Heaven through the flames; every one hath it not in that full measure, nor in so audacious and re­solute a temper, as to endure those terrible tests and trials; who not­withstanding in a peaceable way do truely adore their Saviour, and have (no doubt) a Faith acceptable in the eyes of God.

Sect. 26 Now as all that dye in the War are not termed Souldiers; so nei­ther can I properly term all those that suffer in matters of Religion, Martyrs.* The Council of Con­stance condemns John Huss for an Heretick; the Stories of his own Party stile him a Martyr:] He must need offend the Divinity of both, that says he was neither the one nor the other: There are many [Page 63] (questionless) canonized on earth, that shall never be Saints in Hea­ven; and have their names in Hi­stories and Martyrologies, who in the eyes of God are not so perfect Martyrs, as was * that wise Heathen Socrates, that suffered on a funda­mental point of Religion, the Uni­ty of God.] * I have often pitied the miserable Bishop that suffered in the cause of Antipodes,] yet can­not chuse but accuse him of as much madness, for exposing his living on such a trifle; as those of ignorance and folly, that condemned him. I think my, conscience will not give me the lye, if I say there are not many extant that in a noble way fear the face of death less than my self; yet from the moral duty I owe to the Commandment of God, and the natural, respects that I ten­der unto the conservation of my es­sence and being, I would not perish upon a Ceremony, Politick points, or indifferency: nor is my belief of that untractible temper, as not to bow at their obstacles, or connive [Page 64] at matters wherein there are not ma­nifest impieties: The leaven there­fore and ferment of all, not only Ci­vil, but Religious actions, is Wisdom; without which, to commit our selves to the flames, is Homicide, and (I fear) but to pass through one fire into another.

Sect. 27 That Miracles are ceased, I can neither prove, nor absolutely deny, much less define the time and peri­od of their cessation: that they sur­vived Christ, is manifest upon the Record of Scripture: that they out-lived the Apostles also, and were revived at the Conversion of Nations, many years after, we can­not deny, if we shall not question those Writers whose testimonies we do not controvert, in points that make for our own opinions; there­fore that may have some truth in it that is reported by the Jesuites of their Miracles in the Indies; I could wish it were true, or had any other testimony than their own Pens. They may easily believe those Mi­racles abroad, who daily conceive a [Page 65] greater at home, the transmutation of those visible elements into the body and blood of our Saviour: for the conversion of Water into Wine, which he wrought in Cana, or what the Devil would have had him done in the Wilderness, of Stones into Bread, compared to this, will scarce deserve the name of a Miracle. Though indeed to speak properly, there is not one Miracle greater than another, they being the extra­ordinary effects of the Hand of God, to which all things are of an equal facility; and to create the World as easie as one single Creature. For this is also a Miracle, not onely to produce effects against, or above Nature, but before Nature; and to create Nature as great a Miracle, as to contradict or transcend her. We do too nar­rowly define the Power of God, re­straining it to our capacities.* I hold that God can do all things; how he should work contradictions I do not understand, yet dare not therefore deny. ‖ I cannot see why the Angel of God should question Esdras to recal the time past, if it [Page 66] were beyond his own power; or that God should pose mortality in that, which he was not able to per­form himself. I will not say God cannot, but he will not perform ma­ny things, which we plainly affirm he cannot: this I am sure is the man­nerliest proposition, wherein, not­withstanding, I hold no Paradox. For strictly his power is the same with his will, and they both with all the rest do make but one God.

Sect. 28 Therefore that Miracles have been, I do believe; that they may yet be wrought by the living, I do not de­ny: but have no confidence in those which are fathered on the dead; and this hath ever made me suspect the efficacy of reliques, to examine the bones, question the habits and appur­tenances of Saints, and even of Christ himself I cannot conceive why the Cross that Helena found, and where­on Christ himself. dyed, should have power to restore others unto life: * I excuse not Constantine from a fall off his Horse, or a mischief from his enemies, upon the wearing those nails] on his bridle, which our Savi­our [Page 67] bore upon the Cross in his hands. I compute among Piae fraudes, nor many degrees before consecrated Swords and Roses, that which Bald­wyn King of Jerusalem return'd the Genovese for their cost and pains in his War, to wit, the ashes of John the Baptist. Those that hold the sanctity of their souls doth leave be­hind a tincture and sacred faculty on their bodies, speak naturally of Miracles, and do not salve the doubt. Now one reason I tender so little Devotion unto Reliques is, I think, the slender and doubtful respect I have always held unto Antiquities: for that indeed which I admire is far before Antiquity, that is, Eternity; and that is God himself; who though he be styled the ancient of days, can­not receive the adjunct of Antiquity, who was before the World, and shall be after it, yet is not older than it; for in his years there is no Climacter; his duration is Eternity, and far more ve­nerable than Antiquity.

Sect. 29* But above all things I wonder how the curiosity of wiser heads coulds pass that great and indispu­table [Page 68] Miracle, the cessation of Ora­cles;] and in what swoun their Rea­sons lay, to content themselves, and sit down with such a far-fetch'd and ridiculous reason as Plutarch al­leadgeth for it. The Jews that can believe the supernatural Solstice of the Sun in the days of Joshua, have yet the impudence to deny the E­clipse, which every Pagan confessed, at his death: but for this, it is evi­dent beyond all contradiction,In his O­racle to Augustus. the Devil himself confessed it. Certainly it is not a warrantable curiosity, to examine the verity of Scripture by the concordance of humane history, or seek to confirm the Chronicle of Hester or Daniel, by the authority of Magasthenes or Herodotus, I confess I have had an unhappy curiosity this way,* till I laughed my self out of it with a piece of Justine, where he delivers that the Children of Israel for being scabbed were banished out of Egypt.] And truely since I have understood the occurrences of the World, and know in what counter­feit shapes, and deceitful vizards times present represent on the stage [Page 69] things past; I do believe them little more then things to come. Some have been of my opinion, and endea­voured to write the History of their own lives; wherein Moses hath out­gone them all, and left not onely the story of his life, but as some will have it, of his death also.

Sect. 30 It is a riddle to me, how this story of Oracles hath not worm'd out of the World that doubtful conceit of Spirits and Witches; how so many learned heads should so far forget their Metaphysicks, and destroy the ladder and scale of creatures, as to question the existence of Spirits: for my part,* I have ever believed, and do now know, that there are Wit­ches:] they that doubt of these do not onely deny them, but spirits; and are obliquely, and upon consequence a sort not of Infidels, but Atheists. Those that to confute their incredu­lity desire to see apparitions, shall questionless never behold any, ‖ nor have the power to be so much as Witches:] the Devil hath them al­ready in a heresie as capital as Witchcraft; and to appear to them, [Page 70] were but to convert them. Of all the delusions wherewith he deceives mortality, there is not any that puzleth me more than the Leger­demain of Changelings; I do not credit those transformations of rea­sonable creatures into beasts, or that the Devil hath a power to transpe­ciate a man into a Horse, who tempt­ed Christ (as a trial of his Divinity) to convert but stones into bread. I could believe that Spirits use with man the act of carnality, and that in both sexes; I conceive they may as­sume, steal, or contrive a body, wherein there may be action enough to content decrepit lust, or passion to satisfie more active veneries; yet in both, without a possibility of gene­ration: and therefore that opinion that Antichrist should be born of the Tribe of * Dan, by conjunction with the Divil,] is ridiculous, and a con­ceit fitter for a Rabbin than a Chri­stian. I hold that the Devil doth re­ally possess some men, the spirit of Melancholly others, the spirit of De­lusion others; that as the Devil is concealed and denyed by some. so [Page 71] God and good Angels are pretended by others whereof the late defection of the Maid of Germany hath left a pregnant example.

Sect. 31 Again, I believe that all that use sorceries, incantations, and spells, are not Witches, or as we term them, Magicians; I conceive there is a tra­ditional Magick, not learned imme­diately from the Devil, but at se­cond hand from his Scholars, who having once the secret betrayed, are able, and do emperically practise without his advice, they proceeding upon the principles of Nature; where actives aptly conjoyned to disposed passives, will under any Master pro­duce their effects. Thus I think at first a part of Philosophy was Witch­craft, which being afterward deri­ved to one another, proved but Philosophy, and was indeed no more but the honest effects of Nature: What invented by us is Philosophy, learned from him is Magick. We do surely owe the discovery of many secrets to the discovery of good and bad Angels. I could never pass that sentence of Paracelsus, without an [Page 72] asterisk, or annotation;Thereby is meant our good Angel ap­pointed us from our Nativity. Ascendens constellatum multa revelat, quaeren­tibus magnalia naturae, i. e. opera Dei. I do think that many mysteries ascribed to our own inventions, have been the courteous revelations of Spirits; for those noble essences in Heaven bear a friendly regard unto their fellow Nature on Earth; and therefore believe that those many prodigies and ominous prognosticks, which fore-run the ruines of States, Princes, and private persons, are the charitable premonitions of good An­gels, which more careless enquiries term but the effects of chance and nature.

Sect. 32 Now besides these particular and divided Spirits, there may be (for ought I know) an universal and common Spirit to the whole World. It was the opinion of Plato, and it is yet of the Hermetical Philosophers; if there be a common nature that unites and tyes the scattered and divided individuals into one species, why may there not be one that unites them all? However, I am sure there is a common Spirit that plays [Page 73] within us, yet makes no part in us; and that is the Spirit of God, the fire and fcintillation of that noble and mighty Essence, which is the life and radical heat of spirits, and those essences that know not the vertue of the Sun, a fire quite con­trary to the fire of Hell: This is that gentle heat that brooded on the waters, and in six days hatched the World; this is that irradiation that dispels the mists of Hell, the clouds of horrour, fear, sorrow, despair; and preserves the region of the mind in serenity: whatsoever feels not the warm gale, and gentle ventilation of this Spirit, (though I feel his pulse) I dare not say he lives; for truely without this, to me there is no heat under the Tropick; nor any light, though I dwelt in the body of the Sun.

Sect. 33 Therefore for Spirits, I am so far from denying their existence, that I could easily believe, that not onely whole Countries, but particular per­sons have their Tutelary and Guar­dian Angels: * It is not a new opi­nion of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pythagoras and Plato;] there is no heresie in it, and if not manifestly defin'd in Scripture, yet is an opinion of a good and whole­some use in the course and actions of a mans life, and would serve as an Hypothesis to salve many doubts, [Page 75] whereof common Philosophy afford­eth no solution. Now if you demand my opinion and Metaphysicks of their natures, I confess them very shallow, most of them in a negative way, like that of God; or in a com­parative, between our selves and fellow-creatures; for there is in this Universe a Stair, or manifest Scale of creatures, rising not disorderly, or in confusion, but with a comely me­thod and proportion. Between crea­tures of meer existence and things of life, there is a large disproportion of nature; between plants and animals of creatures of sense, a wider diffe­rence; between them and man, a far greater: and if the proportion hold one, between Man an Angels there should be yet a greater. We do not comprehend their natures, who re­tain the first definition of Porphyry, and distinguish them from our selves by immortality; for before his Fall, 'tis thought, Man also was Immortal; yet must we needs affirm that he had a different essence from the Angels; having therefore no certain knowledge of their Natures, 'tis no [Page 76] bad method of the Schools, whatso­ever perfection we find obscurely in our selves, in a more compleat and absolute way to ascribe unto them. I believe they have an extemporary knowledge, and upon the first moti­on of their reason do what we can­not without study or deliberation; that they know things by their forms, and define by specifical diffe­rence what we describe by accidents and properties; and therefore pro­babilities to us may be demonstra­tions unto them: that they have knowledge not onely of the speci­fical, but numerical forms of indivi­duals, and understand by what re­served difference each single Hypo­stasis, (besides the relation to its spe­cies) becomes its numerical self. That as the Soul hath a power to move the body it informs, so there's a faculty to move any, though inform none; ours upon restraint of time, place, and distance; but that invi­sible hand that conveyed Habakkuk to the Lyons Den, or Philip to Azo­tus, infringeth this rule, and hath a secret conveyance, wherewith mor­tality [Page 77] is not acquainted: if they have that intuitive knowledge, whereby as in reflexion they behold the thoughts of one another, I cannot peremptorily deny but they know a great part of ours. They that to refute the Invocation of Saints, have denied that they have any know­ledge of our affairs below, have pro­ceeded too far, and must pardon my opinion, till I can throughly answer that piece of Scripture, At the con­version of a sinner the Angels in Heaven rejoyce. * I cannot with those in that great Father securely interpret the work of the first day, Fiat lux, to the creation of Angels.] though (I confess there is not any creature that hath so neer a glympse of their nature, as light in the Sun and Elements. We stile it a bare ac­cident, but ‖ where it subsists alone, 'tis a spiritual Substance, and may be an Angel:] in brief, conceive light invisible, and that is a Spirit.

Sect. 34 These are certainly the Magisteri­al and master pieces of the Creator, the Flower or (as we may say) the best part of nothing, actually exist­ing, [Page 78] what we are but in hopes, and probability; we are onely that am­phibious piece between a corporal and spiritual Essence, that middle form that links those two together, and makes good the Method of God and Nature, that jumps not from extreams, but unites the incompa­tible distances by some middle and participating natures: that we are the breath and similitude of God, it is indisputable, and upon record of holy Scripture; but to call our selves a Microcosm, or little World, I thought it onely a pleasant trope of Rhetorick, till my neer judgement and second thoughts told me there was a real truth therein: for first we are a rude mass, and in the rank of creatures, which onely are, and have a dull kind of being not yet priviledged with life, or preferred to sense or reason; next we live the life of Plants, the life of Animals, the life of Men, and at last the life of Spirits, running on in one mysterious nature those five kinds of existences, which comprehend the creatures not onely of the World, but of the Uni­verse: [Page 89] thus is man that great and true Amphibium, whose nature is disposed to live not onely like other creatures in divers elements, but in divided and distinguished worlds: for though there be but one to sense, there are two to reason; the one visible, the other invisible, whereof Moses seems to have left description, and of the other so obscurely, that some parts thereof are yet in controversie. And truely for the first chapters of Gene­sis, I must confess a great deal of ob­scurity; though Divines have to the power of humane reason endeavour­ed to make all go in a literal mean­ing, yet those allegorical interpreta­tions are also probable, and perhaps the mystical method of Moses bred up in the Hieroglyphical Schools of the Egyptians.

Now for that immaterial world, methinks we need not wander so far as beyond the first moveable; for even in this material Fabrick the spirits walk as freely exempt from the affection of time, place, and motion, as beyond the extreamest circumference: do but extract from [Page 80] the corpulency of bodies, or resolve things beyond their first matter, and you discover the habitation of An­gels, which if I call the ubiquitary, and omnipresent essence of God, I hope I shall not offend Divinity: for before the Creation of the World, God was really all things. For the Angels he created no new World, or determinate mansion, and there­fore they are everywhere where is his Essence, and do live at a distance even in himself. That God made all things for man, is in some sense true, yet not so far as to subordinate the Creation of those purer Creatures unto ours, though as ministring Spi­rits they do, and are willing to ful­fil the will of God in these lower and sublunary affairs of man: God made all things for himself, and it is impossible he should make them for any other end than his own Glory; it is all he can receive, and all that is without himself: for honour be­ing an external adjunct, and in the honourer rather than in the person honoured, it was necessary to make a Creature, from whom he might [Page 81] receive his homage, and that is in the other world Angels, in this, Man; which when we neglect, we forget the very end of our Creation, and may justly provoke God, not onely to repent that he hath made the World, but that he hath sworn he would not destroy it. That there is but one World, is a conclusion of Faith. Aristotle with all his Philo­sophy hath not been able to prove it, and as weakly that the world was eternal; that dispute much troubled the Pen of the Philosophers, * but Moses decided that question, and all is salved with the new term of a Creation,] that is, a production of something out of nothing; and what is that? Whatsoever is opposite to something; or more exactly, that which is truely contrary unto God: for he onely is, all others have an existence with dependency, and are sometime but by a distinction; and herein is Divinity conformant unto Philosophy, and generation not onely founded on contrarieties, but also creation; God being all things, is contrary unto nothing, out of [Page 82] which were made all things, and so nothing became something, and Omniety informed Nullity into an Essence.

Sect. 36 The whole Creation is a Mystery, and particularly that of Man; at the blast of his mouth were the rest of the Creatures made, and at his bare word they started out of nothing: but in the frame of man (as the Text describes it) he played the sen­sible operator, and seemed not so much to create, as make him; when he had separated the materials of other creatures, there consequently resulted a form and soul; but having raised the walls of man, he has driven to a second and harder creation of a substance like himself, an incor­ruptible and immortal Soul. For these two affections we have the Philosophy and opinion of the Hea­thens, the flat affirmative of Plato, and not a negative from Aristotle: there is another scruple cast in by Divinity (concerning its production) much disputed in the Germane au­ditories, and with that indifferency and equality of arguments, as leave [Page 83] the controversie undetermined. I am not of Paracelsus mind, that boldly delivers a receipt to make a man without conjunction; yet cannot but wonder at the multitude of heads that do deny traduction, ha­ving no other argument to confirm their belief, then that Rhetorical sentence, and Antimetathesis of Au­gustine, Creando infunditur, infun­dendo creatur: either opinion will consist well enough with Religion; yet I should rather incline to this, did not one objection haunt me, not wrung from speculations and sub­tilties, but from common sense, and observation; not pickt from the leaves of any Author, but bred amongst the weeds and tares of mine own brain: And this is a conclusion from the equivocal and monstrous productions in the copulation of a Man with a Beast; for if the Soul of man be not transmitted, and trans­fused in the seed of the Parents, why are not those productions meer­ly beasts, but have also an impression and tincture of reason in as high a measure, as it can evidence it self [Page 84] in those improper Organs? Nor truely can I peremptorily deny, that the Soul in this her sublunary estate, is wholly, and in all acceptions inor­ganical, but that for the performance of her ordinary actions, there is re­quired not onely a symmetry and proper disposition of Organs, but a Crasis and temper correspondent to its operations. Yet is not this mass of flesh and visible structure the instru­ment and proper corps of the Soul, but rather of Sense, and that the hand of Reason. * In our study of Anatomy there is a mass of mysteri­ous Philosophy, and such as reduced the very Heathens to Divinity:] yet amongst all those rare discourses, and curious pieces I find in the Fa­brick of man, I do not so much con­tent my self, as in that I find not, there is no Organ or Instrument for the rational soul: for in the brain, which we term the seat of reason, there is not any thing of moment more than I can discover in the cra­ny of a beast: and this is a sensible and no inconsiderable argument of the inorganity of the Soul, at least in [Page 85] that sense we usually so conceive it. Thus we are men, and we know not how; there is something in us that can be without us, and will be after us, though it is strange that it hath no history, what it was before us, nor cannot tell how it entred in us.

Sect. 37 Now for these walls of flesh, wherein the Soul doth seem to be immured, before the Resurrection, it is nothing but an elemental compo­sition, and a Fabrick that must fall to ashes. All flesh is grass, is not onely metaphorically, but litterally true; for all those creatures we be­hold, are but the herbs of the field, digested into flesh in them, or more remotely carnified in our selves. Nay further, we are what we all ab­hor, Anthropophagi and Cannibals, devourers not onely of men, but of our selves; and that not in an al­legory, but a positive truth: for all this mass of flesh which we behold, came in at our mouths; this frame we look upon, hath been upon our trenchers; in brief, we have de­vour'd our selves. * I cannot be­lieve the wisdom of Pythagoras did [Page 86] ever positively, and in a literal sense affirm his Metempsycosis, or impossi­ble transmigration of the Souls of men into beasts: of all Metamor­phoses, or transmigrations, I believe only one, that is of Lots wife; for that of Nebuchodonosor proceeded not so far; in all others I conceive there is no further verity than is contained in their implicite sense and morality. I believe that the whole frame of a beast doth perish, and is left in the tame slate after death, as before it was materialled unto life; that the souls of men know neither contrary nor corruption; that they subsist beyond the body, and out­live death by the priviledge of their proper natures, and without a Mi­racle; that the Souls of the faithful, as they leave Earth, take possession of Heaven; that those apparitions and ghosts of departed persons are not the wandring souls of men, but the unquiet walks of Devils, prompting and suggesting us unto mischief, blood, and villany, instil­ling, and stealing into our hearts; that the blessed spirits are not at rest [Page 87] in their graves, but wander sollici­tous of the affairs of the World; but that those phantasms appear often, and do frequent Coemeteries, Char­nel-houses, and Churches, it is be­cause those are the dormitories of the dead, where the Devil like an inso­lent Champion beholds with pride the spoils and Trophies of his Victory over Adam.

Sect. 38 This is that dismal conquest we all deplore, that makes us so often cry (O) Adam quid fecisti? I thank God I have not those strait liga­ments, or narrow obligations to the World, as to dote on life, or be con­vulst and tremble at the name of death: Not that I am insensible of the dread and horrour thereof, or by raking into the bowels of the decea­sed, continual sight of Anatomies, Skeletons, or Cadaverous reliques, like Vespilloes, or Grave-makers, I am become stupid, or have forgot the apprehension of Mortality; but that marshalling all the horrours; and contemplating the extremities there­of, I find not any thing therein able to daunt the courage of a man, [Page 88] much less a well-resolved Christian. And therefore am not angry at the errour of our first Parents, or unwil­ling to bear a part of this common fate, and like the best of them to dye, that is, to cease to breathe, to take a farewel of the elements, to be a kind of nothing for a moment, to be with­in one instant of a spirit. When I take a full view and circle of my self, without this reasonable mode­rator, and equal piece of Justice, Death, I do conceive my self the miserablest person extant; were there not another life that I hope for, all the vanities of this World should not intreat a moments breath from me: could the Devil work my belief to imagine I could never dye, I would not outlive that very thought; I have so abject a conceit of this common way of existence, this retaining to the Sun and Ele­ments, I cannot think this is to be a man, or to live according to the dignity of humanity: in exspectati­on of a better, I can with patience embrace this life, yet in my best me­ditations do often defie death: I [Page 89] honour any man that contemns it, nor can I highly love any that is a­fraid of it: this makes me naturally love a Souldier, and honour those tattered and contemptible Regi­ments, that will dye at the command of a Sergeant. For a Pagan there may be some motives to be in love with life; but for a Christian to be amazed at death, I see not how he can escape this Dilemma, that he is too sensible of this life, or hopeless of the life to come.

Sect. 39 Some Divines count Adam 30 years old at his Creation, because they suppose him created in the per­fect age and stature of man. And surely we are all out of the compu­tation of our age, and every man is some months elder than he bethinks him; for we live, move, have a be­ing, and are subject to the actions of the elements, and the malice of dis­eases, in that other World, the truest Microcosm, the Womb of our Mo­ther. For besides that general and common existence we are conceived to hold in our Chaos, and whilst we sleep within the bosome of our [Page 90] causes, we enjoy a being and life in three distinct worlds, wherein we re­ceive most manifest graduations: In that obscure World and womb of our mother, our time is short, computed by the Moon; yet longer then the days of many creatures that behold the Sun, our selves being not yet without life, sense, and reason; though for the manifestation of its actions, it awaits the opportunity of objects, and seems to live there but in its root and soul of vegetation; entring afterwards upon the scene of the World, we arise up and become another creature, performing the rea­sonable actions of man, and obscurely manifesting that part of Divinity in us, but not in complement and per­fection till we have once more cast our secondine, that is, this slough of flesh, and are delivered into the last world, that is, that ineffable place of Paul, that proper ubi of spirits. The smattering I have of the Philo­sophers Stone (which is something more then the perfect exaltation of Gold) hath taught me a great deal of Divinity, and instructed my be­lief, [Page 91] how that immortal spirit, and incorruptible substance of my Soul may lye obscure, and sleep a while within this house of flesh. Those strange and mystical transmigrations that I have observed in Silk-worms, turned my Philosophy into Divinity. There is in these works of nature, which seem to puzzle reason, some­thing Divine, and hath more in it then the eye of a common spectator doth discover.

Sect. 40 I am naturally bashful, nor hath conversation, age or travel, been able to effront, or enharden me; yet I have one part of modesty, which I have seldom discovered in another, that is, (to speak truely) I am not so much afraid of death, as ashamed thereof; 'tis the very disgrace and ignominy of our natures, that in a moment can so disfigure us, that our nearest friends, Wife and Children stand afraid and start at us. The Birds and Beasts of the field, that be­fore in a natural fear obeyed us, for­getting all allegiance begin to prey upon us. This very conceit hath in a tempest disposed and left me wil­ling [Page 92] to be swallowed up in the abyss of waters; wherein I had perished unseen, unpityed, without wonder­ing eyes, tears of pity, Lectures of mortality, and none had said, Quan­tum mutatus ab illo! Not that I am ashamed of the Anatomy of my parts, or can accuse Nature for play­ing the bungler in any part of me, or my own vitious life for contracting any shameful disease upon me, whereby I might not call my self as, wholesome a morsel for the worms as any.

Sect. 41 Some upon the courage of a fruit­ful issue, wherein, as in the truest Chronicle, they seem to outlive themselves, can with greater pati­ence away with death. This conceit and counterfeit subsisting in our progenies, seems to be a meer fallacy, unworthy the desires of a man, that can but conceive a thought of the next World; who, in a nobler am­bition, should desire to live in his substance in Heaven, rather than his name and shadow in the earth. And therefore at my death I mean to take a total adieu of the world, not caring [Page 93] for a Monument, History, or Epi­taph, not so much as the memory of my name to be found any where, but in the universal Register of God. I am not yet so Cynical, as to approve theWho wil­led his friend not to bury him, but hang him up with a staff in his hand to fright a­way the Crows. Testament of Dioge­nes, nor do I altogether allow that Rodomontado of Lucan;

But commend in my calmer judge­ment, those ingenuous intentions that desire to sleep by the urns of theirs Fathers, and strive to go the neatest way unto corruption.* I do not envy the temper of Crows and Daws,] nor the numerous and weary days of our Fathers before the Flood. If there be any truth in Astro­logy, I may outlive a Jubilee; as yet I have not seen one revolution of Sa­turn, nor hath my pulse beat thirty years; and yet excepting one, have seen the Ashes, & left underground, all the Kings of Europe; have been contemporary to three Emperours, [Page 94] four Grand Signiours, and as many Popes: methinks I have outlived my self, and begin to be weary of the Sun; I have shaken hands with de­light: in my warm blood and Cani­cular days, I perceive I do antici­pate the vices of age; the World to me is but a dream or mock-show, and we all therein but Pantalones and Anticks, to my severer contem­plations.

Sect. 42 It is not, I confess, an unlawful Prayer to desire to surpass the days of our Saviour, or wish to outlive that age wherein he thought fittest to dye; yet if (as Divinity affirms) there shall be no gray hairs in Hea­ven, but all shall rise in the perfect state of men, we do but outlive those perfections in this World, to be re­called unto them by a greater Mi­racle in the next, and run on here but to be retrograde hereafter. Were there any hopes to outlive vice, or a point to be super-annuated from sin, it were worthy our knees to implore the days of Methuselah. But age doth not rectifie, but incur­vate our natures, turning bad dispo­sitions [Page 95] into worser habits, and (like diseases) brings on incurable vices; for every day as we grow weaker in age, we grow stronger in sin; and the number of our days doth but make our sins innumerable. The same vice committed at sixteen, is not the same, though it agrees in all other circumstances, as at forty, but swells and doubles from that circum­stance of our ages, wherein, besides the constant and inexcusable habit of transgressing, the maturity of our judgement cuts off pretence unto excuse or pardon: every sin the oft­ner it is committed, the more it ac­quireth in the quality of evil; as it succeeds in time, so it proceeds in degrees of badness; for as they pro­ceed they ever multiply, and like fi­gures in Arithmetick, the last stands for more than all that went before it. And though I think no man can live well once, but he that could live twice, yet for my own part I would not live over my hours past, or begin again the thred of my days:* not upon Cicero's ground, because I have lived them well, but for fear I should [Page 96] live them worse:] I find my growing Judgment daily instruct me how to be better, but my untamed affections and confirmed vitiosity makes me daily do worse; I find in my confirm­ed age the same sins I discovered in my youth; I committed many then because I was a Child, and because I commit them still, I am yet an infant. Therefore I perceive a man may be twice a Child before the days of do­tage, ‖ and stand in need of Aesons bath before threescore.]

Sect. 43 And truely there goes a great deal of providence to produce a mans life unto threescore; there is more required than an able temper for those years; though the radical hu­mour contain in it sufficient oyl for seventy, yet I perceive in some it gives no light past thirty: men assign not all the causes of long life, that write whole Books thereof. They that found themselves on the radi­cal balsome, or vital sulphur of the parts, determine not why Abel lived not so long as Adam. There is there­fore a secret glome or bottome of our days; 'twas his wisdom to deter­mine [Page 97] them, but his perpetual and waking providence that fulfils and accomplisheth them; wherein the spirits, our selves, and all the crea­tures of God in a secret and disputed way do execute his will. Let them not therefore complain of immatu­rity that dye about thirty; they fall but like the whole World, whose solid and well-composed substance must not expect the duration and period of its constitution: when all things are compleated in it, its age is accomplished; and the last and gene­ral fever may as naturally destroy it before six thousand, as me before forty; there is therefore some other hand that twines the thread of life than that of Nature: we are not onely ignorant in Antipathies and occult qualities; our ends are as ob­scure as our beginnings; the line of our days is drawn by night, and the various effects therein by a pensil that is invisible; wherein though we confess our ignorance, I am sure we do not err if we say it is the hand of God.

Sect. 44 I am much taken with two verses [Page 98] of Lucan, since I have been able not onely as we do at School, to con­strue, but understand.

There be many excellent strains in that Poet, wherewith his Stoical Ge­nius hath liberally supplied him; and truely there are singular pieces in the Philosophy of Zeno, and do­ctrine of the Stoicks, which I per­ceive, delivered in a Pulpit, pass for current Divinity: yet herein are they in extreams, that can allow a man to be his own Assassine, and so highly* extol the end and suicide of Cato:] this is indeed not to fear death, but yet to be afraid of life. It is a brave act of valour to con­temn death; but where life is more terrible than deathd, it is then the truest: valour to dare to live; and herein Religion hath taught us a [Page 99] noble example: For all the valiant acts of Curtius, Scevola, or Codrus, do not parallel or match that one of Job; and sure there is no torture to the rack of a disease; nor any Pony­ards in death it self, like those in the way or prologue to it.* Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihil curo;] I would not dye, but care not to be dead. Were I of Caesar's Religion, I should be of his desires, and wish ra­ther to go off at one blow, then to be sawed in pieces by the grating torture of a disease. Men that look no farther than their outsides, think health an appurtenance unto life, and quarrel with their constitutions for being sick; but I that have exa­mined the parts of man, and know upon what tender filaments that Fa­brick hangs, do wonder that we are not always so; and considering the thousand doors that lead to death, do thank my God that we can die but once. 'Tis not onely the mis­chief of diseases, and villany of poysons, that make an end of us; we vainly accuse the fury of Guns, and the new inventions of death; it [Page 100] is in the power of every hand to de­stroy us, and we are beholding unto every one we meet, he doth not kill us. There is therefore but one com­fort left, that though it be in the power of the weakest arm to take away life, it is not in the strongest to deprive us of death: God would not exempt himself from that, the misery of immortality in the flesh; he undertook not that was immor­tal. Certainly there is no happi­ness within this circle of flesh, nor is it in the Opticks of these eyes to behold felicity; the first day of our Jubilee is Death; the Devil hath therefore failed of his desires; we are happier with death than we should have been without it: there is no misery but in himself, where there is no end of misery; and so indeed in his own sense, the Stoick is in the right. He forgets that he can dye who complains of misery; we are in the power of no calamity while death is in our own.

Sect. 45 Now besides the literal and posi­tive kind of death, there are others whereof Divines makes mention and [Page 101] those I think, not meerly Metapho­rical, as mortification, dying unto sin and the World; therefore, I say, eve­ry man hath a double Horoscope, one of his humanity, his birth; ano­ther of his Christianity, his baptism, and from this do I compute or cal­culate my Nativity; not reckoning those Horae combustae and odd days, or esteeming my self any thing, be­fore I was my Saviours, and inrolled in the Register of Christ: Whoso­ever enjoys not this life, I count him but an apparition, though he wear about him the sensible affections of flesh. In these moral acceptions, the way to be immortal is to dye daily; nor can I think I have the true Theory of death, when I contem­plate a skull, or behold a Skeleton with those vulgar imaginations it casts upon us; I have therefore in­larged that common Memento mori, into a more Christian memorandum, Memento quatuor Novissima, those four inevitable points of us all, Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell. Neither did the contemplati­ons of the Heathens rest in their [Page 102] graves, without further thought of Rhadamanth or some judicial pro­ceeding after death, though in ano­ther way, and upon suggestion of their natural reasons. I cannot but marvail from what Sibyl or Oracle they stole the Prophesie of the worlds destruction by fire, or whence Lucan learned to, say,

I believe the World grows near its end, yet is neither old nor decayed, nor shall ever perish upon the ruines of its own Principles. As the work of Creation was above nature, so its adversary annihilation; without which the World hath not its end, but its mutation. Now what force should be able to consume it thus far, without the breath of God, which is the truest consuming flame, my Philosophy cannot inform me. Some believe there went not a mi­nute to the Worlds creation, nor shall [Page 103] there go to its destruction; those six days so punctually described, make not to them one moment, but rather seem to manifest the method and Idea of the great work of the intel­lect of God, than the manner how he proceeded in its operation. I cannot dream that there should be at the last day any such Judicial pro­ceeding, or calling to the Bar, as in­deed the Scripture seems to imply, and the literal Commentators do conceive: for unspeakable myste­ries in the Scriptures are often deli­vered in a vulgar and illustrative way; and being written unto man, are delivered, not as they truely are, but as they may be understood; wherein notwithstanding the diffe­rent interpretations according to different capacities may stand firm with our devotion, nor be any way prejudicial to each single edificati­on.

Sect. 46 Now to determine the day and year of this inevitable time, is not onely convincible and statute-mad­ness, but also manifest impiety: * How shall we interpret Elias [Page 104] 6000 years,] or imagine the secret communicated to a Rabbi, which God hath denyed unto his Angels? It had been an excellent Quaere to have posed the Devil of Delphos, and must needs have forced him to some strange amphibology; it hath not onely mocked the predictions of sundry Astrologers in Ages past, but the prophesies of many melancholy heads in these present, who neither understanding reasonably things past or present, pretend a knowledge of things to come; heads ordained onely to manifest the incredible effects of melancholy, and to fulfil old prophecies, rather than be the authors of new.In those days there shall come lyars and false pro­phets. [In those days there shall come Wars, and rumours of Wars,] to me seems no prophecy, but a constant truth, in all times ve­rified since it was pronounced: There shall be signs in the Moon and Stars; how comes he then like a Thief in the night, when he gives an item of his coming? That common sign drawn from the revelation of Anti­christ, is as obscure as any; in our common compute he hath been come [Page 105] these many years; but for my own part to speak freely, I am half of opi­nion that Anti-christ is the Philoso­phers stone in Divinity; for the disco­very and invention thereof, though there be prescribed rules, and pro­bable inductions, yet hath hardly any man attained the perfect disco­very thereof. That general opinion that the World grows neer its end, hath possessed all ages past as neerly as ours; I am afraid that the Souls that now depart, cannot escape that lingring expostulation of the Saints under the Altar, Quousqae Domine? How long, O Lord? and groan in the expectation of that great Jubilee.

Sect. 47 This is the day that must make good that great attribute of God, his Justice; that must reconcile those unanswerable doubts that torment the wisest understandings, and re­duce those seeming inequalities, and respective distributions in this world, to an equality and recompensive Ju­stice in the next. This is that one day, that shall include and compre­hend all that went before it; where­in, as in the last scene, all the Actors [Page 106] must enter, to compleat and make up the Catastrophe of this great piece. This is the day whose me­mory hath onely power to make us honest in the dark, and to be vertu­ous without a witness.* Ipsa sui pretium virtus sibi,] that Vertue is her own reward, is but a cold princi­ple, and not able to maintain our variable resolutions in a constant and setled way of goodness. I have pra­ctised ‖ that honest artifice of Sene­ca,] and in my retired and solitary imaginations, to detain me from the foulness of vice, have fancied to my self the presence of my dear and worthiest friends, before whom I should lose my head, rather then be vitious; yet herein I found that there was nought but moral honesty, and this was not to be vertuous for his sake who must reward us at the last.

* I have tryed if I could reach that great resolution of his, to be honest without a thought of Heaven or Hell;] and indeed I found upon a natural inclination, and inbred loy­alty unto virtue, that I could serve her without a livery; yet not in that [Page 107] resolved and venerable way, but that the frailty of my nature, upon easie temptation, might be induced to for­get her. The life therefore and spirit of all our actions, is the resurrection, and a stable apprehension that our ashes shall enjoy the fruit of our pi­ous endeavours; without this, all Religion is a Fallacy, and those im­pieties of Lucian, Euripides, and Ju­lian, are no blasphemies, but subtle verities,* and Atheists have been the onely Philosophers.]

Sect. 48 How shall the dead arise, is no que­stion of my Faith; to believe onely possibilities, is not Faith, but meer Philosophy. Many things are true in Divinity, which are neither indu­cible by reason, nor confirmable by sense; and many things in Philoso­phy confirmable by sense, yet not inducible by reason. Thus it is im­possible by any solid or demonstra­tive reasons to perswade a man to believe the conversion of the Needle to the North; though this be possi­ble and true, and easily credible, up­on a single experiment unto the sense. I believe that our estranged [Page 108] and divided ashes shall unite again; that our separated dust after so ma­ny Pilgrimages and transformations into the parts of Minerals, Plants, Animals, Elements, shall at the Voice of God return into their primitive shapes, and joyn again to make up their primary and predestinate forms. As at the Creation there was a separation of that confused mass into its pieces; so at the destruction thereof there shall be a separation into its distinct individuals. As at the Creation of the World, all the distinct species that we behold, lay involved in one mass, till the fruit­ful Voice of God separated this uni­ted multitude into its several spe­cies: so at the last day, when those corrupted reliques shall be scattered in the Wilderness of forms, and seem to have forgot their proper habits,* God by a powerful Voice shall command them back into their proper shapes,] and call them out by their single individuals: Then shall appear the fertility of Adam, and the magick of that sperm that hath dilated into so many millions. [Page 109] I have often beheld as a miracle, that artificial resurrection and revi­fication of Mercury, how being mortified into a thousand shapes, it assumes again its own, and returns into its numerical self. Let us speak naturally, and like Philosophers, the forms of alterable bodies in these sensible corruptions perish not; nor as we imagine, wholly quit their mansions, but retire and contract themselves into their secret and un­accessible parts, where they may best protect themselves from the action of their Antagonist. A plant or ve­getable consumed to ashes, by a con­templative and school-Philosopher seems utterly destroyed, and the form to have taken his leave for ever: But to a sensible Artist the forms are not perished, but with­drawn into their incombustible part, where they lie secure from the action of that devouring element. This is made good by experience, which can from the Ashes of a Plant revive the plant, and from its cinders recal it into its stalk and leaves again. What the Art of man can do in these [Page 110] inferiour pieces, what blasphemy is it to affirm the finger of God cannot do in these more perfect and sensible structures? This is that mystical Philosophy, from whence no true Scholar becomes an Atheist, but from the visible effects of nature grows up a real Divine; and beholds not in a dream, as Ezekiel, but in an ocular and visible object the types of his resurrection.

Sect. 49 Now, the necessary Mansions of our restored selves, are those two contrary and incompatible places we call Heaven and Hell; to define them, or strictly to determine what and where these are, surpasseth my Divinity. That elegant Apostle which seemed to have a glimpse of Heaven, hath left but a negative de­scription thereof; which neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, nor can enter into the heart of man: he was translated out of himself to behold it; but being returned into himself, could not express it. St. John's de­scription by Emerals, Chrysolites, and precious Stones, is too weak to express the material Heaven we [Page 111] behold. Briefly therefore, where the Soul hath the full measure, and complement of happiness; where the boundless appetite of that spirit remains compleatly satisfied, that it can neither desire addition nor alte­ration, that I think is truly Heaven: and this can onely be in the injoy­ment of that essence, whose infinite goodness is able to terminate the desires of it self, and the unsatiable wishes of ours; wherever God will thus manifest himself, there is Hea­ven though within the circle of this sensible world. Thus the Soul of man may be in Heaven any where, even within the limits of his own proper body; and when it ceaseth to live in the body, it may remain in its own soul, that is, its Creator. And thus we may say that St. Paul, whether in the body, or out of the body, was yet in Heaven. To place it in the Em­pyreal, or beyond the tenth sphear, is to forget, the worlds destruction; for when this sensible world shall be destroyed, all shall then be here as it is now there, an Empyreal Hea­ven, a quasi vacuity; when to ask [Page 112] where Heaven is, is to demand where the Presence of God is, or where we have the glory of that happy visi­on. Moses that was bred up in all the learning of the Egyptians, com­mitted a gross absurdity in Philoso­phy, when with these eyes of flesh he desired to see God, and petitioned his Maker, that is truth it self, to a contradiction. Those that imagine Heaven and Hell neighbours, and conceive a vicinity between those two extreams, upon consequence of the Parable, where Dives discoursed with Lazarus in Abraham's bosome, do too grosly conceive of those glo­rified creatures, whose eyes shall easily out-see the Sun, and behold without a perspective the extreamest distances? for if there shall be in our glorified eyes, the faculty of sight and reception of objects, I could think the visible species there to be in as unlimitable a way as now the intellectual. I grant that two bodies placed beyond the tenth sphear, of in a vacuity, according to Aristotle's Philosophy, could not behold each other, because there wants a body [Page 113] or Medium to hand and transport the visible rays of the object unto the sense; but when there shall be a general defect of either Medium to convey, or light to prepare and dispose that Medium, and yet a per­fect vision, we must suspend the rules of our Philosophy, and make all good by a more absolute piece of op­ticks.

I cannot tell how to say that fire is the essence of Hell; I know not what to make of Purgatory,* or conceive a flame that can either prey upon, or purifie the substance of a Soul:] those flames of sulphur mention'd in the Scriptures, I take not to be understood of this present Hell, but of that to come, where fire shall make up the complement of our tortures, and have a body or subject wherein to manifest its ty­ranny. Some who have had the ho­nour to be textuary in Divinity, are of opinion it shall be the same spe­cifical fire with ours. This is hard to conceive, yet can I make good how even that may prey upon our bodies, and yet not consume us: for [Page 114] in this material World, there are bo­dies that persist invincible in the powerfullest flames; and though by the action of fire they fall into igni­tion and liquation, yet will they ne­ver suffer a destruction. I would gladly know how Moses with an actual fire calcin'd, or burnt the Golden Calf unto powder: for that mystical metal of Gold, whose so­lary and celestial nature I admire, exposed unto the violence of fire, grows onely hot and liquifies, but consumaeth not: so when the consu­mble and volatile pieces of our bo­dies shall be refined into a more im­pregnable and fixed temper, like Gold, though they suffer from the actions of flames, they shall never perish, but lye immortal in the arms of fire. And surely if this frame must suffer onely by the action of this ele­ment, there will many bodies escape, and not onely Heaven, but Earth will not be at an end, but rather a begin­ning. For at present it is not earth, but a composition of fire, water, earth, and air; but at that time, spoil­ed of these ingredients, it shall ap­pear [Page 115] in a substance more like it self, its ashes. Philosophers that opini­oned the worlds destruction by fire, did never dream of annihilation, which is beyond the power of sub­lunary causes; for the last action of that element is but vitrification, or a reduction of a body into glass; and therefore some of our Chy­micks facetiously affirm, that at the last fire all shall be christallized and reverberated into glass, which is the utmost action of that element. Nor need we fear this term [annihi­lation] or wonder that God will de­stroy the works of his Creation: for man subsisting, who is, and will then truely appear a Microcosm, the world cannot be said to be destroy­ed. For the eyes of God, and per­haps also of our glorified selves▪ shall as really behold and contem­plate the World in its Epitome or contracted essence, as now it doth at large and in its dilated substance, in the seed of a Plant, to the eyes of God, and to the understanding of man, there exists, though in an invi­sible way, the perfect leaves, flowers [Page 116] and fruit thereof: (for things that are in posse to the sense, are actually existent to the understanding.) Thus God beholds all things, who con­templates as fully his works in their Epitome, as in their full volume; and beheld as amply the whole world in that little compendium of the sixth day, as in the scattered and dilated pieces of those five before.

Sect. 51 Men commonly set forth the tor­ments of Hell by fire, and the extre­mity of corporal afflictions, and describe Hell in the same method that Mahomet doth Heaven. This indeed makes a noise, and drums in popular ears: but if this be the ter­rible piece thereof, it is not worthy to stand in diameter with Heaven, whose happiness consists in that part that is best able to comprehend it, that immortal essence, that tran­slated divinity and colony of God, the Soul. Surely though we place Hell under Earth, the Devil's walk and purlue is about it: men speak too popularly who place it in those flaming mountains, which to grosser apprehensions represent Hell. The [Page 117] heart of man is the place the Devils dwell in; I feel sometimes a Hell within my self; Lucifer keeps his Court in my breast; Legion is revived in me:* There are as many Hells, as Anaxagoras conceited worlds:] there was more than one Hell in Magdalene, when there were seven Devils; for every Devil is an Hell unto himself; he holds enough of torture in his own ubi, and needs not the misery of circumference to afflict him. And thus a distracted Conscience here, is a sha­dow or introduction unto Hell here­after. Who can but pity the merciful intention of those hands that do de­stroy themselves? the Devil, were it in his power, would do the like; which being impossible, his miseries are endless, and he suffers most in that attribute wherein he is impas­sible, his immortality.

Sect. 52 I thank God that with joy I men­tion it, I was never afraid of Hell, nor never grew pale at the description of that place; I have so fixed my contemplations on Heaven, that I have almost forgot the Idea of Hell, and am afraid rather to lose the Joys [Page 118] of the one, than endure the misery of the other; to be deprived of them, is a perfect Hell, and needs methinks no addition to compleat our afflicti­ons; that terrible term hath never detained me from sin, nor do I owe any good action to the name there­of: I fear God, yet am not afraid of him; his Mercies make me a­shamed of my sins, before his Judge­ments afraid thereof: these are the forced and secondary method of his wisdom, which he useth but as the last remedy, and upon provocation; a course rather to deter the wicked, than incite the virtuous to his wor­ship. I can hardly think there was ever any scared into Heaven; they go the fairest way to Heaven, that would serve God without a Hell; other Mercenaries, that crouch unto him in fear of Hell, though they term themselves the servants, are indeed but the slaves of the Almighty.

Sect. 53 And to be true, and speak my soul, when I survey the occurrences of my life, and call into account the Finger of God, I can perceive nothing but an abyss and mass of mercies, either [Page 119] in general to mankind, or in parti­cular to my self: and whether out of the prejudice of my affection, or an inverting and partial conceit of his mercies, I know not; but those which others term crosses, afflictions, judge­ments, misfortunes, to me who in­quire farther into them then their vi­sible effects, they both appear, and in event have ever proved the secret and dissembled favours of his affecti­on. It is a singular piece of Wisdom to apprehend truly, and without pas­sion, the Works of God; and so well to distinguish his Justice from his Mercy, as not miscall those noble Attributes: yet it is likewise an ho­nest piece of Logick, so to dispute and argue the proceedings of God, as to distinguish even his judgments into mercies. For God is merciful un­to all, because better to the worst, than the best deserve; and to say he punisheth none in this World, though it be a Paradox, is no absurdity. To one that hath committed Murther, if the Judge should only ordain a Fine, it were a madness to call this a punish­ment, and to repine at the sentence, [Page 120] rather than admire the clemency of the Judge. Thus our offences being mortal, and deserving not onely Death, but Damnation; if the good­ness of God be content to traverse and pass them over with a loss, mis­fortune, or disease; what frensie were it to term this a punishment, rather than an extremity of mercy; and to groan under the rod of his Judgements, rather than admire the Scepter of his Mercies? There­fore to adore, honour, and admire him, is a debt of gratitude due from the obligation of our nature, states, and conditions; and with these thoughts, he that knows them best, will not deny that I adore him. That I obtain Heaven, and the bliss thereof, is accidental, and not the intended work of my devotion; it being a felicity I can neither think to deserve, nor scarce in modesty to expect. For those two ends of us all, either as rewards or punish­ments, are mercifully ordained and disproportionably disposed unto our actions; the one being so far be­yond our deserts, the other so [Page 121] infinitely below our demerits.

Sect. 54 There is no Salvation to those that believe not in Christ, that is, say some, since his Nativity, and as Divi­nity affirmeth, before also; which makes me much apprehend the ends of those honest Worthies and Philo­sophers which dyed before his In­carnation. * It is hard to place those Souls in Hell] whose worthy lives do teach us Virtue on Earth: me­thinks amongst those many subdi­visions of Hell, there might have been one Limbo left for these. What a strange vision will it be to see their Poetical fictions converted into Ve­rities, and their imagined and fanci­ed Furies, into real Devils? how strange to them will sound the Hi­story of Adam, when they shall suffer for him they never heard of? when they who derive their genealogy from the Gods, shall know they are the unhappy issue of sinful man? It is an insolent part of reason, to con­trovert the Works of God, or questi­on the Justice of his proceedings. Could Humility teach others, as it hath instructed me, to contemplate [Page 122] the infinite and incomprehensible di­stance betwixt the Creator and the Creature; or did we seriously per­pend that one simile of St. Paul, Shall the Vessel say to the Potter, Why hast thou made me thus? it would pre­vent these arrogant disputes of rea­son, nor would we argue the defini­tive sentence of God, either to Hea­ven or Hell. Men that live accord­ing to the right rule and law of rea­son, live but in their own kind, as beasts do in theirs; who justly obey the prescript of their natures, and therefore cannot reasonably demand a reward of their actions, as onely obeying the natural dictates of their reason. It will therefore, and must at last appear, that all salvation is through Christ; which verity I fear these great examples of virtue must confirm, and make it good, how the perfectest actions of earth have no title or claim unto Heaven.

Sect. 55 Nor truely do I think the lives of these or of any other were ever cor­respondent, or in all points confor­mable unto their doctrines. It is evi­dent that* Aristotle transgressed the [Page 123] rule of his own Ethicks:] the Stoicks that condemn passion, and command a man to laugh in Phalaris his Bull, could not endure without a groan a fit of the Stone or Colick. ‖ The Scep­ticks that affirmed they knew no­thing,] even in that opinion confute themselves, and thought they knew more than all the World beside. Diogenes I hold to be the most vain­glorious man of his time, and more ambitious in refusing all Honours, than Alexander in rejecting none. Vice and the Devil put a Fallacy upon our Reasons, and provoking us too hastily to run from it, entangle and profound us deeper in it.* The Duke of Venice, that weds himself unto the Sea, by a Ring of Gold] I will not argue of prodigality, be­cause it is a solemnity of good use and consequence in the State: ‖ But the Philosopher that threw his money into the Sea to avoid Avarice, was a notorious prodigal.] There is no road or ready way to virtue; it is not an easie point of art to disen­tangle our selves from this riddle, or web of Sin: To perfect virtue, as to [Page 124] Religion, there is required a Pano­plia, or compleat armour; that whilst we lye at close ward against one Vice, we lye not open to the venny of another. And indeed wiser dis­cretions that have the thred of rea­son to conduct them, offend with­out pardon; whereas, under-heads may stumble without dishonour.

* There go so many circumstances to piece up one good action, that it is a lesson to be good, and we are for­ced to be virtuous by the book.] Again, the Practice of men holds not an equal pace, yea, and often runs counter to their Theory; we naturally know what is good, but naturally pursue what is evil: the Rhetorick wherewith I perswade another, cannot perswade my self: there is a depraved appetite in us, that will with patience hear the learned instructions of Reason, but yet perform no farther than agrees to its own irregular humour. In brief, we all are monsters, that is, a compo­sition of Man and Beast; wherein we must endeavour to be as the Poets fancy that wise man Chiron, that is, [Page 125] to have the Region of Man above that of Beast, and Sense to sit but at the feet of Reason. Lastly, I do desire with God, that all, but yet affirm with men, that few shall know Salvation; that the bridge is narrow, the passage straight unto life: yet those who do confine the Church of God, either to particular Nations, Churches or Families, have made it far narrower then our Saviour ever meant it.

Sect. 56* The vulgarity of those judge­ments that wrap the Church of God in Strabo's cloak, and restrain it unto Europe,] seem to me as bad Geo­graphers as Alexander, who thought he had Conquer'd all the World, when he had not subdued the half of any part thereof. For we cannot deny the Church of God both in Asia and Africa, if we do not forget the Peregrinations of the Apostles, the deaths of the Martyrs, the Sessi­ons of many, and, even in our re­formed judgement, lawful Councils, held in those parts in the minority and nonage of ours. Nor must a few differences, more remarkable in the [Page 126] eyes of man, than perhaps in the judgement of God, excommunicate from Heaven one another, much less those Christians who are in a manner all Martyrs, maintaining their Faith, in the noble way of perfecution, and serving God in the Fire, whereas we honour him in the Sunshine. 'Tis true, we all hold there is a number of Elect, and many to be saved; yet take our Opinions together, and from the confusion thereof there will be no such thing as salvation, nor shall any one be saved. For first, the Church of Rome condemneth us, we likewise them; the Sub-reformists and Sectaries sentence the Doctrine of our Church as damnable; the Atomist, or Familist, reprobates all these; and all these, them again. Thus whilst the Mercies of God do pro­mise us Heaven, our conceits and opinions exclude us from that place. There must be therefore more than one St. Peter; particular Churches and Sects usurp the gates of Heaven, and turn the key against each other: and thus we go to Heaven against each others wills, conceits and opi­nions; [Page 127] and with as much uncharity as ignorance, do err I fear in points not only of our own, but one ano­thers salvation.

Sect. 57 I believe many are saved, who to man seem reprobated; and many are reprobated, who in the opinion and sentence of man stand elected: there will appear at the Last day, strange and unexpected examples, both of his Justice and his Mercy; and there­fore to define either, is folly in man, and insolency even in the Devils: those acute and subtil spirits in all their sagacity, can hardly divine who shall be saved; which if they could Prognostick, their labour were at an end; nor need they compass the earth seeking whom they may de­vour. * Those who upon a rigid ap­plication of the Law, sentence Solo­mon unto damnation,] condemn not onely him, but themselves, and the whole World; for by the Letter, and written Word of God, we are with­out exception in the state of Death; but there is a prerogative of God, and an arbitrary pleasure above the Letter of his own Law, by which [Page 128] alone we can pretend unto Salvation, and through which Solomon might be as easily saved as those who con­demn him.

Sect. 58 The number of those who pre­tend unto Salvation, and those infi­nite swarms who think to pass through the eye of this Needle, have much amazed me. That name and compellation of little Flock, doth not comfort, but deject my Devoti­on, especially when I reflect upon mine own unworthiness, wherein, according to my humble apprehen­sions, I am below them all. I believe there shall never be an Anarchy in Heaven, but as there are Hierarchies amongst the Angels, so shall there be degrees of priority amongst the Saints. Yet is it (I protest) beyond my ambition to aspire unto the first ranks; my desires onely are, and I shall be happy therein, to be but the last man, and bring up the Rere in Heaven.

Sect. 59 Again, I am confident, and fully perswaded, yet dare not take my oath of my Salvation: I am as it were sure, and do believe without all [Page 129] doubt, that there is such a City as Constantinople; yet for me to take my Oath thereon, were a kind of Perjury, because I hold no infallible warrant from my own sense to con­firm me in the certainty thereof: And truly, though many pretend an abso­lute certainty of their Salvation, yet when an humble Soul shall contem­plate our own unworthiness, she shall meet with many doubts, and sudden­ly find how little we stand in need of the Precept of St. Paul, Work out your salvation with fear and trem­bling. That which is the cause of my Election, I hold to be the cause of my Salvation, which was the mercy and beneplacit of God, before I was, or the foundation of the World. Before Abraham was, I am, is the saying of Christ; yet is it true in some sense, if I say it of my self; for I was not onely before my self, but Adam, that is, in the Idea of God, and the decree of that Synod held from all Eternity. And in this sense, I say, the World was before the Creation, and at an end before it had a beginning; and thus was I dead [Page 130] before I was alive; though my grave be England, my dying place was Pa­radise; and Eve miscarried of me, be­fore she conceiv'd of Cain.

Sect. 60 Insolent zeals that do decry good Works, and rely onely upon Faith, take not away merit: for depending upon the efficacy of their Faith, they enforce the condition of God, and in a more sophistical way do seem to challenge Heaven. It was decreed by God, that only those that lapt in the water like Dogs, should have the ho­nour to destroy the Midianites; yet could none of those justly challenge, or imagine he deserved that honour thereupon. I do not deny, but that true Faith, and such as God re­quires, is not onely a mark or token, but also a means of our Salvation; but where to find this, is as obscure to me, as my last end. And if our Saviour could object unto his own Disciples and Favourites, a Faith, that, to the quantity of a grain of Mustard-seed, is able to remove Mountains; surely that which we boast of, is not any thing, or at the most, but a remove from nothing. [Page 131] This is the Tenor of my belief; wherein, though there be many things singular, and to the humour of my irregular self; yet if they square not with maturer Judge­ments I disclaim them, and do no fur­ther favour them, than the learned and best judgements shall authorize them.

The Second Part.

Sect. 1 NOw for that other Virtue of Charity, without which Faith is a meer notion, and of no existence, I have ever endeavoured to nourish the merciful disposition and humane inclination I borrowed from my Pa­rents, and regulate it to the written and prescribed Laws of Charity; and if I hold the true Anatomy of my self, I am delineated and naturally framed to such a piece of virtue. For I am of a constitution so general, that it comforts and sympathizeth [Page 132] with all things; I have no antipathy, or rather Idio-syncrasie, in dyet, hu­mour, air, any thing: * I wonder not at the French for their dishes of Frogs, Snails,] and Toadstools; not at the Jews for Locusts and Grass­hoppers; but being amongst them, make them my common Viands; and I find they agree with my Stomach as well as theirs. I could digest a Sal­lad gathered in a Church-yard, as well as in a Garden. I cannot start at the presence of a Serpent, Scorpion, Lizard, or Salamander: at the sight of a Toad or Viper, I find in me no desire to take up a stone to destroy them. I feell not in my self those common Antipathies that I can dis­cover in others: Those National re­pugnances do not touch me, nor do I behold with prejudice the French, Italian, Spaniard and Dutch; but where I find their actions in bal­lance with my Country-men's, I ho­nour, love, and embrace them in some degree. I was born in the eighth Climate, but seem for to be framed and constellated unto all: I am no Plant that will not prosper out of a [Page 133] Garden: All places, all airs make un­to me one Countrey; I am in Eng­land, every where, and under any Meridian. I have been shipwrackt, yet am not enemy with the Sea or Winds; I can study, play, or sleep in a Tempest. In brief, I am averse from nothing; my Conscience would give me the lye if I should abso­lutely detest or hate any essence but the Devil; or so at least abhor any thing, but that we might come to composition. If there be any among those common objects of hatred I do contemn and laugh at, it is that great enemy of Reason, Virtue and Religion, the Multitude; that nume­rous piece of monstrosity, which ta­ken asunder seem men, and the rea­sonable creatures of God; but con­fused together, make but one great beast, and a monstrosity more prodi­gious then Hydra: it is no breach of Charity to call these Fools; it is the style all holy Writers have af­forded them, set down by Solomon in Canonical Scripture, and a point of our Faith to believe so. Neither in name of Multitude do I onely [Page 134] include the base and minor sort of people; there is a rabble even a­mongst the Gentry, a sort of Plebeian heads, whose fancy moves with the same wheel as these; men in the same Level with Mechanicks, though their fortunes do somewhat guild their infirmities, and their purses compound for their follies. But as in casting account, three or four men together come short in account of one man placed by himself below them: So neither are a troop of these ignorant Doradoes, of that true esteem and value, as many a for­lorn person, whose condition doth place them below their feet. Let us speak like Politicians, there is a No­bility without Heraldry, a natural dignity, whereby one man is ranked with another; another filed before him, according to the quality of his Desert, and preheminence of his good parts: Though the corruption of these times, and the byas of pre­sent practice wheel another way. Thus it was in the first and primitive Common-wealths, and is yet in the integrity and Cradle of well-order'd [Page 135] Polities, till corruption getteth ground, ruder desires labouring after that which wiser considerations con­temn; every one having a liberty to amass and heap up riches, and they a license or faculty to do or purchase any thing.

Sect. 2 This general and indifferent tem­per of mine, doth more neerly dispose me to this noble virtue. It is a happiness to be born and framed unto virtue, and to grow up from the seeds of nature. rather than the inoculation and forced graffs of education: yet if we are directed only by our particular Natures, and regulate our inclinations by no higher rule than that of our reasons, we are but Moralists; Divinity will still call us Heathens, Therefore this great work of charity, must have other motives, ends, and impulsions: I give no alms only to satisfie the hunger of my Brother, but to fulfil and accomplish the Will and Com­mand of my God; I draw not my purse for his sake that demands it, but his that enjoyned it; I relieve no man upon the Rhetorick of his [Page 136] miseries, nor to content mine own commiserating disposition: for this is still but moral charity, and an act that oweth more to passion than rea­son. He that relieves another upon the bare suggestion and bowels of pity, doth not this so much for his sake, as for his own: for by com­passion we make others misery our own; and so by relieving them, we relieve our selves also. It is as errone­ous a conceit to redress other Mens misfortunes upon the common con­siderations or merciful natures, that it may be one day our own case; for this is a sinister and politick kind of charity, whereby we seem to be­speak the pities of men in the like occasions: and truly I have obser­ved that those professed Eleemosy­naries, though in a croud or multi­tude, do yet direct and place their petitions on a few and selected per­sons: there is surely a Physiogno­my, which those experienced and Master-Mendicants observe; where­by they instantly discover a merciful aspect, and will single out a face, wherein they spy the signatures and [Page 137] marks of Mercy: for there are mysti­cally in our faces certain Characters which carry in them the motto of our Souls, wherein he that can read A. B. C. may read our natures. I hold moreover that there is a Phytogno­my, or Physiognomy, not only of Men; but of Plants and Vegetables; and in every one of them, some out­ward figures which hang as signs or bushes of their inward forms. The Finger of God hath left an Inscripti­on upon all his works, not graphical, or composed of Letters, but of their several forms, constitutions, parts, and operations; which aptly joyned together do make one word that doth express their natures. By these Letters God calls the Stars by their names; and by this Alphabet Adam assigned to every creature a name peculiar to its Nature. Now there are besides these Characters in our Faces, certain mystical figures in our Hands, which I dare not call meer dashes, strokes, a la volee, or at ran­dom, because delineated by a Pencil that never works in vain; and hereof I take more particular notice, be­cause [Page 138] I carry that in mine own hand, which I could never read of, nor dis­cover in another. Aristotle I confess, in his acute, and singular Book of Physiognomy, hath made no men­tion of Chiromancy; yet I believe the Egyptians, who were neerer ad­dicted to those abstruse and mystical sciences, had a knowledge therein; to which those vagabond and coun­terfeit Egyptians did after pretend, and perhaps retained a few corrupted principles, which sometimes might verifie their prognosticks.

It is the common wonder of all men, * how among so many millions of faces, there should be none alike:] Now contrary, I wonder as much how there should be any. He that shall consider how many thousand several words have been carelesly and without study composed out of 24 Letters; withal, how many hun­dred lines there are to be drawn in the Fabrick of one Man; shall easily find that this variety is necessary: And it will be very hard that they shall so concur, as to make one por­tract like another. Let a Painter [Page 139] carelesly limb out a million of Faces, and you shall find them all diffe­rent; yea let him have his Copy be­fore him, yet after all his art there will remain a sensible distinction; for the pattern or example of every thing is the perfectest in that kind, whereof we still come short, though we transcend or go beyond it, be­cause herein it is wide, and agrees not in all points unto the Copy. Nor doth the similitude of Creatures disparage the variety of Nature, nor any way confound the Works of God. For even in things alike there is diversity; and those that do seem to accord, do manifestly disagree. And thus is man like God; for in the same things that we resemble him, we are utterly different from him. There was never any thing so like another, as in all points to concur; there will ever some reserved diffe­rence slip in, to prevent the identity, without which, two several things would not be alike, but the same, which is impossible.

Sect. 3 But to return from Philosophy to Charity: I hold not so narrow a con­ceit [Page 140] of this virtue, as to conceive that to give Alms, is onely to be Charitable, or think a piece of Libe­rality can comprehend the Total of Charity. Divinity hath wisely divi­ded the acts thereof into many bran­ches, and hath taught us in this nar­row way, many paths unto goodness: as many ways as we may do good, so many ways we may be charitable: there are infirmities, not onely of Body, but of Soul and Fortunes, which do require the merciful hand of our abilities. I cannot contemn a man for ignorance, but behold him with as much pity as I do Lazarus. It is no greater Charity to cloath his body, than apparel the nakedness of his Soul. It is an honourable ob­ject to see the reasons of other men wear our Liveries, and their borrow­ed understandings do homage to the bounty of ours: It is the cheapest way of beneficence, and like the natural charity of the Sun, illumi­nates another without obscuring it self. To be reserved and caitiff in this part of goodness, is the sordidest piece of covetousness, and more [Page 141] contemptible than pecuniary Ava­rice. To this (as calling my self a Scholar) I am obliged by the duty of my condition: I make not there­fore my head a grave, but a treasure of knowledge; I intend no Mono­poly, but a community in learning; I study not for my own sake only, but for theirs that study not for themselves. I envy no man that knows more than my self, but pity them that know less. I instruct no man as an exercise of my know­ledge, or with an intent rather to nourish and keep it alive in mine own head, then beget and propa­gate it in his; and in the midst of all my endeavours, there is but one thought that dejects me, that my ac­quired parts must perish with my self, nor can be Legacied among my honoured Friends. I cannot fall out, or contemn a man for an errour, or conceive why a difference in Opini­on should divide an affection: For Controversies, Disputes, and Argu­mentations, both in Philosophy, and in Divinity, if they meet with dis­creet and peaceable natures, do not [Page 142] infringe the Laws of Charity: in all disputes, so much as there is of pas­sion, so much there is of nothing to the purpose; for then Reason, like a bad Hound, spends upon a false Scent, and forsakes the question first started. And this is one reason why Controversies are never determined; for though they be amply proposed, they are scarce at all handled, they do so swell with unnecessary Digres­sions; and the Parenthesis on the party, is often as large as the main discourse upon the subject. The Foundations of Religion are already established, and the Principles of Sal­vation subscribed unto by all; there remains not many controversies worth a Passion, and yet never any disputed without, not only in Divi­nity, but inferiour Arts: * What a [...] and hot skirmish is betwixt S. and T. in Lucian:] How do Grammarians hack and slash for the Genitive case in Jupiter? How do they break their own pates, to salve that of Priscian: Si foret in terris, rideret Democritus. Yea, even amongst wiser militants, how many [Page 143] wounds have been given, and credits slain, for the poor victory of an opi­nion, or beggerly conquest of a di­stinction? Scholars are men of Peace, they bear no Arms, ‖ but their tongues are sharper than Actus his razor;] their Pens carry farther, and give a lowder report tban Thunder: I had rather stand the shock of a Basilisco, than the fury of a merciless Pen. It is not meer Zeal to Learning, or Devotion to the Muses, that wiser Princes Patron the Arts, and carry an indulgent aspect unto Scholars; but a desire to have their names eternized by the memory of their writings, and a fear of the revengeful Pen of suc­ceeding ages: for these are the men, that when they have played their parts, and had their exits, must step out and give the moral of their Scenes, and deliver unto Posterity an Inventory of their Virtues and Vices. And surely there goes a great deal of Conscience to the compiling of an History: there is no reproach to the scandal of a Story; it is such an authentick kind of falshood, that with authority belies our good [Page 144] names to all Nations and Posterity.

Sect. 4 There is another offence unto Cha­rity, which no Author hath ever written of, and few take notice of; and that's the reproach, not of whole professions, mysteries and conditi­ons, but of whole Nations; wherein by opprobrious Epithets we miscal each other, and by an uncharitable Logick, from a disposition in a few, conclude a habit in all.

* St. Paul, that calls the Cretians lyars, doth it but indirectly, and upon quotation of their own Poet.] ‖ It is as bloody a thought in one way, as Nero's was in another. For by a word we wound a thousand,] and at one blow assassine the honour of a Nation. It is as compleat a piece of madness to miscal and rave a­gainst the times; or think to recal men to reason, by a fit of passion: Democritus, that thought to laugh the times into goodness, seems to me [Page 145] as deeply Hypochondriack, as Hera­clitus that bewailed them. It moves not my spleen to behold the multi­tude in their proper humours, that is, in their fits of folly and madness, as well understanding that wisdom is not prophan'd unto the World, and 'tis the priviledge of a few to be Ver­tuous. They that endeavour to abo­lish Vice, destroy also Virtue, for contraries, though they destroy one another; are yet in life of one ano­ther. Thus Virtue (abolish vice) is an Idea: again, the community of sin doth not disparage goodness; for when Vice gains upon the major part, Virtue, in whom it remains, becomes more excellent; and being lost in some, multiplies its goodness in others, which remain untouched, and persist intire in the general in­undation. I can therefore behold Vice without a Satyr, content only with an admonition, or instructive reprehension,, for Noble Natures, and such as are capable of goodness, are railed into vice, that might as easily be admonished into virtue; and we should be all so far the Ora­tors [Page 146] of goodness, as to protract her from the power of Vice, and main­tain the cause of injured truth. No man can justly censure or condemn another, because indeed no man truly knows another. This I per­ceive in my self; for I am in the dark to all the world, and my nearest friends behold me but in a cloud: those that know me but superfici­ally, think less of me than I do of my self; those of my neer acquain­tance think more: God, who truly knows me, knows that I am nothing; for he only beholds me, and all the world; who looks not on us through a derived ray, or a trajection of a sensible species, but beholds the sub­stance without the helps of accidents, and the forms of things, as we their operations. Further, no man can judge another, because no man knows himself; for we censure others but as they disagree from that hu­mour which we fancy laudible in our selves, and commend others but for that wherein they seem to qua­drate and consent with us. So that in conclusion, all is but that we all [Page 147] condem, Self-love. 'Tis the gene­ral complaint of these times, and perhaps of those past, that charity grows cold; which I perceive most verified in those which most do manifest the fires and flames of zeal; for it is a virtue that best agrees with coldest natures, and such as are complexioned for humility. But how shall we expect Charity towards others, when we are un­charitable to our selves? Charity begins at home, is the voice of the World; yet is every man his great­est enemy, and as it were, his own Executioner. Non occides, is the Commandment of God, yet scarce observed by any man; for I perceive every man is his own Atropos, and lends a hand to cut the thred of his own days. Cain was not therefore the first Murtherer, but Adam, who brought in death; whereof he be­held the practice and example in his own son Abel, and saw that verified in the experience of another, which faith could not perswade him in the Theory of himself.

Sect. 5 There is, I think, no man that ap­prehends [Page 148] his own miseries less than my self, and no man that so neerly apprehends anothers. I could lose an arm without a tear, and with few groans, methinks, be quartered into pieces; yet can I weep most seriously at a Play, and receive with true passion, the counterfeit grief of those known and professed Impo­stures. It is a barbarous part of in­humanity to add unto any afflicted parties misery, or indeavour to mul­tiply in any man, a passion, whose single nature is already above his patience: this was the greatest affli­ction of Job; and those oblique ex­postulations of his Friends, a deeper injury than the down-right blows of the Devil. It is not the tears of our own eyes only, but of our friends also, that do exhaust the current of our sorrows; which falling into many streams, runs more peaceably, and is contented with a narrower channel. It is an act within the power of charity, to translate a passion out of one brest into ano­ther, and to divide a sorrow almost out of it self; for an affliction, like a [Page 149] dimension, may be so divided, as if not indivisible, at least to become insensible. Now with my friend I desire not to share or participate, but to engross his sorrows, that by making them mine own, I may more easily discuss them; for in mine own reason, and within my self, I can command that, which I cannot in­treat without my self, and within the circle of another. I have often thought those noble pairs and exam­ples of friendship not so truly Histo­ries of what had been, as fictions of what should be; but I now perceive nothing in them but possibilities, nor any thing in the Heroick exam­ples of Damon and Pythias, Achilles and Patroclus, which methinks upon some grounds I could not perform within the narrow compass of my self. That a man should lay down his life for his Friend, seems strange to vulgar affections, and such as confine themselves within that Worldly principle, Charity begins at home. For my own part, I could never remember the relations that I held unto my self, nor the respect [Page 150] that I owe unto my own nature, in the cause of God, my Country, and my Friends. Next to these three I do embrace my self: I confess I do not observe that order that the Schools ordain our affections, to love our Parents, Wives, Children, and then our Friends; for excepting the in­junctions of Religior, I do not find in my self such a necessary and in­dissoluble Sympathy to all those of my blood. I hope I do not break the fifth Commandment, if I conceive I may love my friend before the nearest of my blood, even those to whom I owe the principles of life: I never yet cast a true affection on a woman, but I have loved my friend as I do virtue, my soul, my God. From hence me thinks I do conceive how God loves man, what happiness there is in the love of God. Omitting all other, there are three most mystical unions; two natures in one person; three persons in one nature; one soul in two bodies. For though indeed they be really divi­ded, yet are they so united, as they seem but one, and make rather a [Page 151] duality than two distinct souls.

Sect. 6 There are wonders in true affecti­on; it is a body of Enigma 's, my­steries and riddles; wherein two so become one, as they both become two: I love my friend before my self, and yet methinks I do not love him enough: some few months hence, my multiplied affection will make me believe I have not loved him at all: when I am from him, I am dead till I be with him; when I am with him, I am not satisfied, but would still be nearer him. United souls are not satisfied with imbraces, but desire to be truly each other; which being impossible, their desires are infinite, and proceed without a possibility of satisfaction. Another misery there is in affection, that whom we truly love like our own, we forget their looks, nor can our memory retain the Idea of their faces; and it is no wonder: for they are our selves, and our affection makes their looks our own. This noble affection falls not on vulgar and common constitutions, but on such as are mark'd for virtue: he [Page 152] that can love his friend with this noble ardour, will in a competent degree effect all. Now if we can bring our affections to look beyond the body, and cast an eye upon the soul, we have found out the true object, not only of friendship, but Cha­rity; and the greatest happiness that we can bequeath the soul, is that wherein we all do place our last fe­licity, Salvation; which though it be not in our power to bestow, it is in our charity, and pious invocati­ons to desire, if not procure and further. I cannot contentedly frame a prayer for my self in particular, without a catalogue for my friends; nor request a happiness wherein my sociable disposition doth not desire the fellowship of my neighbour. I never hear the Toll of a passing Bell, though in my mirth, without my prayers and best wishes for the departing spirit: I cannot go to cure the body of my patient, but I for­get my profession, and call unto God for his soul: I cannot see one say his prayers, but in stead of imi­tating him, I fall into a supplication [Page 153] for him, who perhaps is no more to me than a common nature: and if God hath vouchsafed an ear to my supplications, there are surely many happy that never saw me, and enjoy the blessing of mine unknown de­votions. To pray for Enemies, that is, for their salvation, is no harsh precept, but the practice of our dai­ly and ordinary devotions.* I cannot believe the story of the Italian;] our bad wishes and uncharitable de­sires proceed no further than this life; it is the Devil, and the unchari­table votes of Hell, that desire our misery in the World to come.

Sect. 7 To do no injury, nor take none, was a principle, which to my former years, and impatient affections, seemed to contain enough of Mora­lity; but my more setled years, and Christian constitution, have fallen upon severer resolutions. I can hold there is no such thing as injury; that if there be, there is no such injury as revenge, and no such revenge as the contempt of an injury; that to hate another, is to malign himself; that the truest way to love another, is to [Page 154] despise our selves. I were unjust unto mine own Conscience, if I should say I am at variance with any thing like my self. I find there are many pieces in this one fabrick of man; this frame is raised upon a mass of Antipathies: I am one me­thinks, but as the World; wherein notwithstanding there are a swarm of distinct essences, and in them another World of contrarieties; we carry private and domestick ene­mies within, publick and more ho­stile adversaries without. The Devil, that did but buffet St. Paul, plays methinks at sharp with me. Let me be nothing, if within the compass of my self, I do not find the battail of Lepanto, Passion against Reason, Reason against Faith, Faith against the Devil, and my Conscience against all. There is another man within me, that's angry with me, rebukes, commands, and dastards me. I have no Conscience of Marble, to resist the hammer of more heavy offences; nor yet too soft and waxen, as to take the impression of each single peccadillo or scape of infirmity: I [Page 155] am of a strange belief, that it is as easie to be forgiven some sins, as to commit some others. Eor my Original sin, I hold it to be washed away in my Baptism; for my actual transgressions, I compute and reckon with God, but from my last repen­tance, Sacrament, or general absolu­tion; and therefore am not terrified with the sins or madness of my youth. I thank the goodness of God,* I have no sins that want a name,] I am not singular in offences; my transgressions are Epidemical, and from the common breath of our cor­ruption. For there are certain tem­pers of body, which matcht with an humorous depravity of mind, do hatch and produce vitiosities, whose newness and monstrosity of nature admits no name; ‖ this was the tem­per of that Lecher that carnal'd with a Statua,]* and constitution of Nero in his Spintrian recreations.] For the Heavens are not only fruitful in new and unheard-of stars, the Earth in plants and animals; but mens minds also in villany and vices: now the dulness of my reason, and [Page 156] the vulgarity of my disposition, ne­ver prompted my invention, nor sollicited my affection unto any of those; yet even those common and quotidian infirmities that so neces­sarily attend me, and do seem to be my very nature, have so dejected me, so broken the estimation that I should have otherwise of my self, that I repute my self the most ab­jectest piece of mortality. Divines prescribe a fit of sorrow to repen­tance; there goes indignation, an­ger, sorrow, hatred, into mine; pas­sions of a contrary nature, which neither seem to sute with this action, nor my proper constitution. It is no breach of charity to our selves, to be at variance with our Vices; nor to abhor that part of us, which is an enemy to the ground of charity, our God; wherein we do but imitate our great selves the world, whose divided Antipathies and contrary faces do yet carry a charitable re­gard unto the whole by their par­ticular discords, preserving the com­mon harmony, and keeping in fet­ters those powers, whose rebellions [Page 157] once Masters, might be the ruine of all.

Sect. 8 I thank God, amongst those mil­lions of Vices I do inherit and hold from Adam, I have escaped one, and that a mortal enemy to Charity, the first and farther-sin, not onely of man, but of the devil, Pride; a vice whose name is comprehended in a Monosyllable, but in its nature not circumscribed with a World. I have escaped it in a condition that can hardly avoid it. Those petty ac­quisitions and reputed perfections that advance and elevate the con­ceits of other men, add no feathers unto mine.* I have seen a Gramma­rian towr and plume himself over a single line in Horace,] and shew more pride in the construction of one Ode, than the Author in the com­posure of the whole book. For my own part, besides the Jargon and Patois of several Provinces, I under­stand no less than six Languages; yet I protest I have no higher con­ceit of my self, than had our Fathers before the consusion of Babel, when there was but one Language in the [Page 158] World, and none to boast himself either Linguist or Critick. I have not onely seen several Countries, beheld the nature of their Climes, the Chorography of their Provin­ces, Topography of their Cities, but understood their several Laws, Cu­stoms and Policies; yet cannot all this perswade the dulness of my spi­rit unto such an opinion of my self, as I behold in nimbler and conceited heads, that never looked a degree beyond their Nests. I know the names, and somewhat more, of all the constellations in my Horizon; yet I have seen a prating Mariner, that could onely name the pointers and the North Star, out-talk me, and conceit himself a whole Sphere above me. I know most of the Plants of my Countrey, and of those about me; yet methinks I do not know so many as when I did but know a hundred, and had scarcely ever Sim­pled further than Cheap-side. For indeed, heads of capacity, and such as are not full with a handful, or easie measure of knowledge, think they know nothing, till they know all; [Page 159] which being impossible, they fall up­on the opinion of Socrates, and only know they know not any thing.* I cannot think that Homer pin'd away upon the riddle of the fisherman,] or ‖ that Aristotle, who understood the uncertainty of knowledge, and confessed so often the reason of man too weak for the works of na­ture, did ever drown himself upon the flux and reflux of Euripus.] We do but learn to day, what our better advanced judgements will unteach to morrow: and ‖ Aristotle doth not instruct us, as Plato did him; that is, to confute himself.] I have run through all sorts, yet find no rest in any: though our first stu­dies and junior endeavours may style us Peripateticks, Stoicks, or Acade­micks, yet I perceive the wisest heads prove, at last, almost all Scep­ticks, and stand like Janus in the field of knowledge. I have therefore one common and authentick Philo­sophy I learned in the Schools, where­by I discourse and satisfie the reason of other men; another more reser­ved, and drawn from experience, [Page 160] whereby I content mine own. Solo­mon, that complained of ignorance in the height of knowledge, hath not only humbled my conceits, but dis­couraged my endeavours. There is yet another conceit that hath some­times made me shut my books, which tells me it is a vanity to waste our days in the blind pursuit of know­ledge; it is but attending a little longer, and we shall enjoy that by instinct and infusion, which we en­deavour at hereby labour and inqui­sition. It is better to sit down in a modest ignorance; and rest content­ed with the natural blessing of our own reasons, than buy the uncer­tain knowledge of this life, with sweat and vexation, which Death gives every fool gratis, and is an ac­cessary of our glorification.

Sect. 9 I was never yet once, and commend their resolutions who never marry twice: not that I dissallow of second marriage; as neither in all cases of Polygamy, which considering some times, and the unequal number of both sexes, may be also necessary. The whole World was made for [Page 161] man, but the twelfth part of man for woman: Man is the whole World, and the Breath of God; Woman the Rib, and crooked piece of man. *I could be content that we might procreate like trees] without con­junction, or that there were any way to perpetuate the World with­out this trivial and vulgar way of coition; it is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life, nor is there any thing that will more deject his cool'd imagination, when he shall consider what an odd and unworthy piece of folly he hath committed. I speak not in prejudice, nor am averse from that sweet Sex, but natural­ly amorous of all that is beautiful; I can look a whole day with delight upon a handsome Picture, though it be but of an Horse. It is my temper, and I like it the better, to affect all harmony; and sure there is musick even in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument. For there is a musick where ever there is a harmony, order or proportion; [Page 162] and thus far we may maintain the musick of the Sphears: for those well-ordered motions, and regular paces, though they give no sound unto the ear, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony. Whosoever is harmonically compo­sed, delights in harmony; which makes me much distrust the symme­try of those heads which declaim against all Church-Musick. For my self, not only from my obedience, but my particular Genius, I do em­brace it: for even that vulgar and Tavern-Musick, which makes one man merry, another mad, strikes in me a deep fit of devotion, and a profound contemplation of the first Composer. There is something in it of Divinity more than the ear disco­vers: it is an Hieroglyphical and shadowed lesson of the whole World, and creatures of God; such a melo­dy to the ear, as the whole World well understood, would afford the understanding. In brief, it is a sensi­ble fit of that harmony, which intel­lectually sounds in the ears of God. [Page 163] I will not say with Plato, the soul is an harmony, but harmonical, and hath its nearest sympathy unto Mu­sick: thus some whose temper of body agrees, and humours the con­stitution of their souls, are born Poets, though indeed all are natu­rally inclined unto Rhythme.Urbem Romam in principio Reges ha­buere. This made Tacitus in the very first line of his Story, fall upon a verse, and Ci­cero the worst of Poets, butPro Ar­chia Poe­ta. de­claiming for a Poet, falls in the very first sentence upon a perfect Hexa­meter.In qua me non inficior mediocri­ter esse. I feel not in me those sordid and unchristian desires of my profes­sion; I do not secretly implore and wish for Plagues, rejoyce at Fa­mines, revolve Ephemerides and Almanacks, in expectation of malig­nant Aspects, fatal Conjunctions and Eclipses: I rejoyce not at un­wholesome Springs, nor unseasonable Winters; my Prayer goes with the Husbandman's; I desire every thing in its proper season, that neither men nor the times be put out of temper. Let me be sick my self, if sometimes the malady of my pati­ent [Page 164] be not a disease unto me; I desire rather to cure his infirmities than my own necessities: where I do him no good, methinks it is scarce honest gain; though I confess 'tis but the worthy salary of our well-intended endeavours. I am not only ashamed, but heartily sorry, that besides death, there are diseases incurable; yet not for my own sake, or that they be beyond my Art, but for the gene­ral cause and sake of humanity, whose common cause I apprehend as mine own. And to speak more ge­nerally, those three Noble Professi­ons which all civil Common-wealths do honour, are raised upon the fall of Adam, and are not exempt from their infirmities; there are not on­ly diseases incurable in Physick, but cases indissolvable in Laws, Vices incorrigible in Divinity: if gene­ral Councils may err, I do not see why particular Courts should be in­fallible; their perfectest rules are raised upon the erroneous reasons of Man; and, the Laws of one, do but condemn the rules of another; [Page 165] as Aristotle oft-times the opinions of his Predecessours, because,, though agreeable to reason, yet were not consonant to his own rules, and Logick of his proper Principles. Again, to speak nothing of the Sin against the Holy Ghost, whose cure not onely, but whose nature is un­known; I can cure the Gout or Stone in some, sooner than Divinity Pride or Avarice in others. I can cure Vices by Physick, when they remain incu­rable by Divinity; and shall obey my Pills, when they contemn their precepts. I boast nothing, but plainly say, we all labour against our own cure; for death is the cure of all diseases. There is no Catholicon or universal remedy I know but this, which though nauseous to queasie stomacks, yet to prepared appetites is Nectar, and a pleasant potion of immortality.

Sect. 10 For my Conversation, it is like the Sun's, with all men, and with a friendly aspect to good and bad. Methinks there is no man bad, and the worst, best; that is, while they [Page 166] are kept within the circle of those qualities, wherein they are good; there is no mans mind of such dis­cordant and jarring a temper, to which a tunable disposition may not strike a harmony. Magnae virtutes, nec minora vitia; it is the posie of the best natures,* and may be in­verted on the worst;] there are in the most depraved and venemous dispositions, certain pieces that re­main untoucht, which by an Anti­peristasis become more excellent, or by the excellency of their antipathies are able to preserve themselves from the contagion of their enemy vices, and persist intire beyond the general corruption. For it is also thus in nature. The greatest Balsomes do lie enveloped in the bodies of most powerful Corrosives; I say more­over, and I ground upon experience, * that poisons contain within them­selves their own Antidote,] and that which preserves them from the ve­nome of themselves, without which they were not deleterious to others onely, but to themselves also. But it [Page 167] is the corruption that I fear within me, not the contagion of commerce without me. 'Tis that unruly regi­ment within me, that will destroy me; 'tis I that do infect my self, ‖ the man without a Navel yet lives in me;] I feel that original canker corrode and devour me; and there­fore Defenda me Dios de me, Lord deliver me from my self, is a part of my Letany, and the first voice of my retired imaginations. There is no man alone, because every man is a Microcosm, and carries the whole World about him; Nunquam mi­nus solus quàm cum solus,/ though it be the Apothegme of a wise man, is yet true in the mouth of a fool; indeed, though in a Wilderness, a man is never alone, not only because he is with himself, and his own thoughts, but because he is with the Devil; who ever con­sorts with our solitude, and is that unruly rebel that musters up those disordered motions which accompa­ny our sequestred imaginations. And to speak more narrowly, there is no [Page 168] such thing as solitude, nor any thing that can be said to be alone, and by it self, but God, who is his own circle, and can subsist by himself; all others, besides their dissimilary and Hetero­geneous parts, which in a manner multiply their natures, cannot subsist without the concourse of God, and the society of that hand which doth uphold their natures. In brief, there can be nothing truly alone, and by its self, which is not truly one; and such is only God: All others do transcend an unity, and so by conse­quence are many.

Sect. 11 Now for my life, it is a miracle of thirty years, which to relate, were not a History, but a piece of Poe­try, and would sound to common ears like a Fable; for the World, I count it not an Inn, but an Hospital; and a place, not to live, but to dye in. The world that I regard is my self; it is the Microcosm of my own frame that I cast mine eye on; for the other, I use it but like my Globe, and turn it round sometimes for my recreation. Men that look upon my [Page 169] outside, perusing only my condition and Fortunes, do err in my Altitude, for I am above Atlas his shoulders. The earth is a point not only in re­spect of the Heavens above us, but of that heavenly and celestial part within us: that mass of Flesh that circumscribes me, limits not my mind: that surface that tells the Heavens it hath an end, cannot per­swade me I have any: I take my circle to be above three hundred and sixty; though the number of the Ark do measure my body, it com­prehendeth not my mind: whilst I study to find how I am a Microcosm or little World, I find my self some­thing more than the great. There is surely a piece of Divinity in us, something that was before the Ele­ments, and owes no homage unto the Sun. Nature tells me I am the Image of God, as well as Scripture: he that understands not thus much, hath not his introduction or first lesson, and is yet to begin the Alphabet of man. Let me not injure the felicity of o­thers, if I say I am as happy as any; [Page 170] Ruat coelum, Fiat voluntas tua, sal­veth all; so that whatsoever hap­pens, it is but what our daily pray­ers desire. In brief, I am content, and what should providence add more? Surely this is it we call Hap­piness, and this do I enjoy; with this I am happy in a dream, and as con­tent to enjoy a happiness in a fancy, as others in a more apparent truth and realty. There is surely a neerer apprehension of any thing that de­lights us in our dreams, than in our waked senses; without this I were unhappy: for my awaked judgment discontents me, ever whispering unto me, that I am from my friend; but my friendly dreams in night re­quite me, and make me think I am within his arms. I thank God for my happy dreams, as I do for my good rest, for there is a satisfaction unto reasonable desires, and such as can be content with a fit of happi­ness. And surely it is not a melan­choly conceit to think we are all a­sleep in this World, and that the con­ceits of this, life are as meer dreams [Page 171] to those of the next, as the Phan­tasms of the night, to the conceits of the day. There is an equal delusion in both, and the one doth but seem to be the embleme or picture of the o­ther; we are somewhat more than our selves in our sleeps, and the slumber of the body seems to be but the waking of the soul. It is the ligation of sense, but the liberty of reason, and our waking concep­tions do not match the Fancies of our sleeps. At my Nativity, my Ascendant was the watery sign of Scorpius; I was born in the Plane­tary hour of Saturn, and I think I have a piece of that Leaden Planet in me. I am no way facetious, nor disposed for the mirth and gal­liardize of company; yet in one dream I can compose a whole Come­dy, behold the action, apprehend the justs, and laugh my self awake at the conceits thereof: were my me­mory as faithful as my reason is then fruitful, I would never study but in my dreams; and this time also would I chuse for my devotions: but [Page 172] * our grosser memories have then so little hold of our abstracted under­standings, that they forget the sto­ry,] and can only relate to our a­waked souls, a confused and broken tale of that that hath passed. Ari­stotle, who hath written a singular Tract of Sleep, hath not methinks throughly defined it; nor yet Galen, though he seem to have corrected it: for those Noctambuloes / and night­walkers, though in their sleep, do yet injoy the action of their senses: we must therefore say that there is something in us that is not in the jurisdiction of Morpheus; and that those abstracted and ecstatick souls do walk about in their own corps, as spirits with the bodies they assume; wherein they seem to hear, and feel, though indeed the Organs are destitute of sense, and their natures of those faculties that should inform them. Thus it is ob­served, that men sometimes upon the hour of their departure, do speak and reason above themselves, For then the soul beginning to be [Page 173] freed from the ligaments of the bo­dy, begins to reason like her self, and to discourse in a strain above morta­lity.

Sect. 12 We tearm sleep a death, and yet it is waking that kills us, and destroys those spirits that are the house of life. 'Tis indeed a part of life that best expresseth death; for every man truely lives, so long as he acts his nature, or some way makes good the faculties of himself: Themistocles therefore that slew his Soldier in his sleep, was a merciful Executio­ner; 'tis a kind of punishment the mildness of no laws hath invented; *I wonder the fancy of Lucan and Seneca did not discover it.] It is that death by which we may be literally said to dye daily; a death which A­dam dyed before his mortality; a death whereby we live a middle and moderating point between life and death; in fine, so like death, I dare not trust it without my prayers, and an half adieu unto the World, and take my farewel in a Colloquy with God.

[Page 175] This is the Dormative I take to bed­ward; I need no other Laudanum than this to make me sleep; after which, I close mine eyes in security, content to take my leave of the Sun, and sleep unto the resurrection.

Sect. 13 The method I should use in distri­butive Justice, I often observe in commutative; and keep a Geome­trical proportion in both; whereby becoming equable to others, I become unjust to my self, and supererogate in that common principle, Do unto others as then wouldst he done unto thy self, I was not born unto riches, neither is it I think my Star to be wealthy; or if it were, the free­dom of my mind, and frankness of my disposition, were able to con­tradict and cross my fates. For to me avarice seems not so much a vice, as a deplorable piece of madness; * to conceive our selves Urinals, or be perswaded that we are dead, is not so ridiculous,] nor so many de­grees beyond the power of Helle­bore, as this. The opinion of Theory, and positions of men, are [Page 176] not so void of reason, as their pra­ctised conclusions: some have held that Snow is black, that the earth moves, that the Soul is air, fire, wa­ter; but all this is Philosophy, and there is no delirium, if we do but speculate the folly and indisputable dotage of avarice, to that subterra­neous Idol, and God of the Earth. I do confess I am an Atheist; I cannot perswade my self to honour that the World adores; whatsoever ver­tue its prepared substance may have within my body, it hath no influence nor operation without: I would not entertain a base design, or an action that should call me villain, for the Indies; and for this only do I love and honour my own soul, and have methinks two arms too few to embrace my self. Ari­stotle is too severe, that will not allow us to be truely liberal with­out wealth, and the bountiful hand of Fortune; if this be true, I must confess I am charitable only in my liberal intentions, and boun­tiful well-wishes. But if the ex­ample [Page 177] of the Mite be not only an act of wonder, but an example of the noblest Charity, surely poor men may also build Hospitals, and the rich alone have not erected Ca­thedrals. I have a private method which others observe not; I take the opportunity of my self to do good; I borrow occasion of Charity from mine own necessities, and sup­ply the wants of others, when I am in most need my self; for it is an honest stratagem to make advan­tage of our selves, and so to hus­band the acts of vertue, that where they were defective in one circum­stance, they may repay their want, and multiply their goodness in ano­ther. I have not Peru in my desires, but a competence, and ability to perform those good works, to which he hath inclined my nature. He is rich, who hath enough to be chari­table; and it is hard to be so poor, that a noble mind may not find a way to this piece of goodness. He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to the Lord; there is more Rhetorick in that one sentence, than in a Library [Page 178] of Sermons; and indeed if those Sentences were understood by the Reader, with the same Emphasis as they are delivered by the Author, we needed not those Volumes of instructions, but might be honest by an Epitome. Upon this motive on­ly I cannot behold a Beggar without relieving his Necessities with my Purse, or his Soul with my Prayers; these scenical and accidental diffe­rences between us, cannot make me forget that common and untoucht part of us both; there is under these Cantoes and miserable outsides, these mutilate and semi bodies, a soul of the same alloy with our own, whose Genealogy is Gods as well as ours, and is as fair a way to Salvation as our selves. Statists that labour to contrive a Common-wealth without our poverty, take away the object of charity, not understanding only the Common wealth of Christian, but forgetting the prophecie of Christ.

Sect. 14 Now therre is another part of cha­rity, which is the Basis and Pillar of this, and that is the love of God, for whom we love our neighbour; [Page 179] for this I think charity, to love God for himself, and our neighbour for God. All that is truly amiable is God, or as it were a divided piece of him, that retains a reflex or sha­dow of himself. Nor is it strange that we should place affection on that which is invisible; all that we truly love is thus; what we adore under affection of our senses, deserves not the honour of so pure a title. Thus we adore virtue, though to the eyes of sense she be invisible: Thus that part of our noble friends that we love, is not that part that we im­brace, but that insensible part that our arms cannot embrace. God be­ing all goodness, can love nothing but himself, and the traduciton of his holy Spirit. Let us call to assize the loves of our parents, the affecti­on of our wives and children, and they are all dumb shows and dreams, without reality, truth or constancy: for first, there is a strong bond of affection between us and our Pa­rents; yet how easily dissolved? We betake our selves to a woman, forget our mother in a wife, and the [Page 180] womb that bare us, in that that shall bear our Image: this woman bles­sing us with children, our affection leaves the level it held before, and sinks from our bed unto our issue and picture of Posterity, where af­fection holds no steady mansion. They, growing up in years, desire our ends; or applying themselves to a woman, take a lawful way to love another better than our selves. Thus I perceive a man may be buri­ed alive, and behold his grave in his own issue.

Sect. 15 I conclude therefore and say, there is no happiness under (or as Coper­nicus will have it, above) the Sun, nor any Crambe in that repeated ve­rity and burthen of all the wisdom of Solomon, All is vanity and vexa­tion of Spirit. There is no felicity in that the World adores: Aristotle whilst he labours to resute the Idea's of Plato, falls upon one himself: for his summum bonum is a Chimaera, and there is no such thing as his Felicity. That wherein God himself is happy, the holy Angels are happy, in whose defect the Devils are unhappy; that [Page 181] dare I call happiness: whatsoever conduceth unto this, may with an easie Metaphor deserve that name; whatsoever else the World terms Happiness, is to me a story out of Pliny, a tale of Boccace or Maliz­spini; an apparition or neat delusion, wherein there is no more of Happiness, than the name. Bless me in this life with but peace of my Consci­ence, command of my affections, the love of thy self and my dearest friends, and I shall be happy enough to pity Caesar. These are, O Lord, the humble desires of my most rea­sonable ambition, and all I dare call happiness on earth; wherein I set no rule or limit to thy Hand of Pro­vidence; dispose of me according to the wisdom of thy pleasure.* Thy will be done, though in my own undoing.]

The First PART.

Sect. 1 Pag. 1 THe general scandal of my Pro­fession.] Physitians (of the number whereof it appears by seve­ral passages in this Book the Author is one) do commonly hear ill in this behalf. It is a common speech (but onely amongst the unlearned sort) Vbi tres Medici, duo Athei. The rea­sons why those of that profession (I declare my self that I am none, but Causarum Actor mediocris, to use Horace his phrase) may be thought to deserve that censure, the Author rendreth, Sect. 19.

The natural course of my studies.] The vulgar lay not the imputati­on of Atheism onely upon Physi­tians, but upon Philosophers in general, who for that they give themselves to understand the ope­rations of Nature, they calumniate them, as though they rested in the second causes without any respect [Page 184] to the first. Hereupon it was, that in the tenth Age Pope Silvester the second pass'd for a Magician, be­cause he understood Geometry and natural Philosophy. Baron. An­nal. 990. And Apuleius long before him laboured of the same suspicion upon no better ground; he was ac­cus'd, and made a learned Apology for himself, and in that hath laid down what the ground is of such ac­cusations, in these words: Haec fermè communi quodam errore imperitorum Philosophis objectantur, ut partem eo­rum qui corporum causas meras & simplices rimantur, irreligiosas pu­tant, eoque aiunt Deos abnuere, ut Anaxagoram, & Lucippum, & Demo­critum, & Epicurum, caeteros (que) rerum naturae Patronos. Apul. in Apolog. And it is possible that those that look upon the second causes scattered, may rest in them and go no further, as my Lord Bacon in one of his Es­sayes observeth; but our Author tells us there is a true Philosophy, from which no man becomes an Atheist. Sect. 46.

The indifference of my behaviour [Page 185] and Discourse in matters of Religion.] Bigot's are so oversway'd by a pre­posterous zeal, that they hate all mo­deration in discourse of Religion; they are the men forsooth—qui solos credant habendo [...] esse Deos quos ipsi colunt.—Erasmus upon this ac­compt makes a great complaint to Sir Tho. More in an Epistle of his touching one Dorpius a Divine of Lovain, who because, upon occasion of discourse betwixt them, Eras­mus would not promise him to write against Luther, told Erasmus, that he was a Lutheran, and afterwards pub­lished him for such; and yet as Eras­mus was reputed no very good Ca­tholick, so for certain he was no Pro­testant.

Not that I meerly owe this Title to the Font] as most do, taking up their Religion according to the way of their Ancestors; this is to be blamed amongst all Persons: It was practi­sed as well amongst Heathens as Christians.

Per caput hoc juro, per quod Pater antè solebat, saith Ascanius in Virgil: and Apuleius notes it for an absur­dity. [Page 186] Vtrum Philosopho put as turpe scire ista, an nescire? negligere, an curare? nosse quanta sit etiam in istis providentiae ratio, an de diis immor­talibus Matri & Patri cedere? saith he in Apolog. and so doth Minutius: Vnusquisque vestrum non cogitat prius se debere deum nosse quàm colere, dum inconsultè gestiuntur patentibus obe­dire, dum fieri malunt alieni erroris accessio, quam sibi credere. Minut. in Octav.

But having in my riper years exa­mined, &c.] according to the Aposto­lical Precept, Omnia probate, quod bo­num est tenete.

Sect. 2 Pag. 2 There being a Geography of Reli­gions] i. e. of Christian Religion, which you may see described in Mr. Brerewood's Enquiries: he means not of the Protestant Religion; for though there be a difference in Di­scipline, yet the Anglican, Scotic, Bel­gic, Gallican, and Helvetic Churches differ not in any essential matter of the Doctrine, as by the Harmony of Confessions appears, 5 Epist. Theod. Bezae Edmundo Grindallo Ep. Londi­nens.

[Page 187] Wherein I dislike nothing but the Name] that is, Lutheran, Calvinist, Zuinglian, &c.

Now the accidental occasion where­in, &c.] This is graphically descri­bed by Thuanus in his History: but because his words are too large for this purpose, I shall give it you some­what more briefly, according to the relation of the Author of the History of the Council of Trent. The occasion was the necessity of Pope Leo Tenth, who by his profu­sion had so exhausted the Treasure of the Church, that he was constrained to have recourse to the publishing of Indulgences to raise monies: some of which he had destined to his own Treasury, and other part to his Al­lyes, and particularly to his Sister he gave all the money that should be raised in Saxony; and she, that she might make the best profit of the donation, commits it to one A­remboldus, a Bishop, to appoint Trea­surers for these Indulgences. Now the custome was, that whensoever these Indulgences were sent into Saxony, they were to be divulged [Page 188] by the Fryars Eremites (of which Order Luther then was) but Arem­boldus his agents thinking with them­selves, that the Fryars Eremites were so well acquainted with the trade, that if the business should be left to them, they should neither be able to give so good an account of their Ne­gotiation, nor yet get so much them­selves by it as they might do in case the business were committed to another Order; they thereupon re­commend it to (and the business is undertaken by) the Dominican Fry­ars, who performed it so ill, that the scandal arising both from thence, and from the ill lives of those that set them on work, stirred up Luther to write against the abuses of these Indulgences; which was all he did at first; but then, not long after, being provoked by some Sermons and small Discourses that had been published against what he had writ­ten, he rips up the business from the beginning, and publishes xcv Theses against it at Wittenberg. Against these, Tekel a Dominican writes; then Luther adds an explication to his [Page 189] Eckius and Prierius Dominicans, thereupon take the controversie a­gainst him: and now Luther begins to be hot; and because his adversa­ries could not found the matter of Indulgences upon other foundations then the Pope's power and infallibili­ty, that begets a disputation betwixt them concerning the Pope's power, which Luther insists upon as inferiour to that of a general Council; and so by degrees he came on to oppose the Popish Doctrine of Remission of Sins, Penances, and Purgatory; and by reason of Cardinal Cajetans im­prudent management of the confe­rence he had with him, it came to pass that he rejected the whole body of Popish Doctrine. So that by this we may see what was the accidental occasion, wherein the slender means whereby, and the abject condition of the person by whom, the work of Reformation of Religion was set on foot.

Sect. 3 Pag. 3 Yet I have not shaken hands with those desperate Resolutions, (Resol­vers it should be, without doubt) who had rather venture at large their de­decayed [Page 190] Bottom, than bring her in to be new trimm'd in the Dock; who had rather promiscuously retain all, than abridge any; and obstinately be what they are, than what they have been, as to stand in a diameter and at swords points with them: we have reformed from them, not against them, &c.] These words by Mr. Merryweather are thus rendred, sc. Nee tamen in vecordem illum pertinacium hominum gregem memet adjungo, qui labe­factatum navigium malunt fortunaoe committere quàm in navale de inte­gro resarciendum deducere, qui ma­lunt omnia promiscuè retinere quàm quicquam inde diminuere, & perti­nacitèr esse qui sunt quàm qui olim fuerunt, ita uti isdem ex diametro repugnent: ab illis, non contra illos, reformationem instituimus, &c. And the Latine Annotator sits down very well satisfied with it, and hath be­stowed some Notes upon it; but under the favour both of him and the Translator, this Translation is so far different from the sense of the Author, that it hath no sense in it; or if there be any construction of [Page 191] sense in it, it is quite besides the Au­thor's meaning; which will appear if we consider the context, by that we shall find that the Author in gi­ving an account of his Religion, tells us first, that he is a Christian, and farther, that he is of the reform'd Religion; but yet he saith, in this place, he is not so rigid a Protestant, nor at defiance with Papists so far, but that in many things he can com­ply with them, (the particulars he afterwards mentions in this Section) for, saith he, we have reform'd from them, not against them; that is, as the Archbishop of Canterbury against the Jesuit discourseth well, We have made no new Religion nor Schism from the old; but in calling for the old, and desiring that which was novel and crept in might be re­jected, and the Church of Rome re­fusing it, we have reform'd from those upstart novel Doctrines, but against none of the old: and other sense the place cannot bear; there­fore how the Latine Annotator can apply it as though in this place the Author intended to note the Ana­baptists, [Page 192] baptist I see not, unless it were in respect of the expression, Vecordem pertinacium hominum gregem, which truly is a description well befitting them, though not intended to them in this place: howsoever, I see not any ground from hence to conclude the Author to be any whit inclining to the Bulk of Popery (but have great reason from many passages in this Book to believe the contrary,) as he that prefix'd a Preface to the Parisian Edition of this Book hath unwar­rantably done.

But for the mistake of the Tran­slator, it is very obvious from whence that arose. I doubt not but it was from the mistake of the sense of the English Phrase, Shaken hands, which he hath rendred by these words, Memet adjungo, wherein he hath too much play'd the Scholar, and shew'd himself to be more skilful in forraign and ancient customs, then in the ver­nacular practise and usage of the language of his own Country; for although amongst the Latines pro­tension of the Hand were a Symbole and sign of Peace and Concord, [Page 193] (as Alex. ab Alexandro; Manum ve­rò protendere, pacem peti significabant, (saith he) Gen. Dier. lib. 4. cap. [...] which also is confirmed by Cicero pro Dejotaro; and Caesar, l. 2. de Bello Gallico) and was used in their first meetings, as appears by the Phrase, Jungere hospitio Dextras; and by that of Virgil, ‘Oremus pacem, & Dextras tenda­mus inermes.’

And many like passages that occur in the Poets, to which I believe the Translator had respect: vet in mo­dern practise, especially with us in England, that ceremony is used as much in our Adieu's as in the first Congress; and so the Author meant in this place, by saying he had not shaken hands; that is, that he had not so deserted, or bid farewel to the Romanists, as to stand at swords point with them: and then he gives his reasons at those words, For omit­ting those improperations, &c. So that instead of memet adjungo, the Translator should have used some [Page 194] word or Phrase of a clean contrary signification; and instead of ex dia­metro repugnent, it should be repug­nem.

Sect. 5 Pag. 8 Henry the Eighth, though he re­jected the Pope, refused not the faith of Rome.] So much Buchanan in his own life written by himself testifieth, who speaking of his com­ing into England about the latter end of that King's time, saith, Sed ibitum omnia adeo erant incerta, ut eodem die, ac eodem igne (Very strange!) utriusque factionis homines cremaren­tur, Henrico 8. jam seniore suae magnis securitati quàm Religionis puritati in­tento. And for confirmation of this assertion of the Author, vide Stat. 31 H. 8. cap. 14.

And was conceived the State of Ve­nice would have attempted in our days.] This expectation was in the time of Pope Paul the Fifth, who by excommunicating that Republique, gave occasion to the Senate to ba­nish all such of the Clergy as would not by reason of the Popes command administer the Sacraments; and upon that account the Jesuites were cast [Page 195] out, and never since receiv'd into that State.

Sect. 6 Pag. 9 Or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in that, from which perhaps within a few dayes I should dissent my self.] I cannot think but in this expression the Au­thor had respect to that of that excellent French Writer, Monsieur Mountaign (in whom I often trace him.) Combien diversement jugeons nous de choses? Combien de fois chan­geons nous nos fantasies? Ce que je tien àujourdhuy, ce que je croy, je le tien & le croy de toute ma Creance, mais ne m'est il pas advenu non une fois mais cent, mais mille & tous les jours d'avoir embrasse quelque autre chose? Mountaign. lib. 2. Des Essais. Chap. 12.

Every man is not a proper Cham­pion for truth, &c. A good cause is never betray'd more then when it is prosecuted with much eagerness, and but little sufficiency, and therefore Zuinglius, though he were of Caro­listadius his opinion in the point of the Sacrament of the Eucharist a­gainst Luther, yet he blamed him [Page 196] for undertaking the defence of that cause against Luther, not judging him able enough for the encounter: Non satis habet humerorum, saith he of Carolostad, alluding to that of Ho­race, Sumite materiam vestris qui scri­bitis aequam Viribus, & versate diu quid ferre recusent Quid valeant hume­ri.— So Minutius Foelix; Plerum (que) pro disserentium viribus, & eloquentiae potestate, etiam perspicuae veritatis conditio mutetur. Minut. in Octav. And Lactantius saith, this truth is ve­rified in Minutius himself: for Him, Tertullian and Cyprian; he spares not to blame (all of them) as if they had not with dexterity enough de­fended the Christian Cause against the Ethniques. Lactant. de justitia, cap. 1. I could wish that those that succeeded him had not as much cause of complaint against him: surely he is noted to have had many errors contra fidem.

In Philosophy—there is no man more Paradoxical than my self, but in Divinity I love to keep the Road, &c.] Appositely to the mind of the Author, saith the Publisher of Mr. Pembel's [Page 197] Book de origine formarum, Certe (saith he) in locis Theologicis ne quid detrimenti capiat vel Pax, vel Veritas Christi—â novarum opi­niorum pruritu prorsus abstinendum puto us (que) adeo ut ad certam requlam etiam loqui debeamus, quod pie & pru­denter monet Augustinus (de Civ. Dei, l.16. cap. 23.) [ne verborum li­centia impia vi gignat opinionem,] at in pulvere Scholastico ubi in nullius ver­ba juramus, & in utramvis partem sine dispendio vel pacis, vel salutis ire liceat, major conceditur cum sentiendi tum loquendi libertas, &c. Capet, in Ep. Dedicat. Pembel. de origine form. praef.

Heresies perish not with their Au­thors, but like the River Arethusa, though they lose their Currents in one place, they rise again in ano­ther.] Who would not think that this expression were taken from Mr. Mountaigne, l. 2. des Ess. cap. 12. Where he hath these words, Nature enserre dans les termes de son progress ordinaire comme toutes autres choses aussi les creances les judgements & opi­nions des hommes elles ont leur re­volutions; [Page 198] and that Mountaigne took his from Tully. Non enim ho­minum interitu sententiae quoque oc­cidunt. Tull. de nat. deorum. l. 1. &c. Of the River Arethusa thus Seneca. Videbis celebratissimum car­minibus fontem Arethusam limpidissi­mi ac perlucidissimi ad imum stagni gelidissimas aquas profundentem, sive illas primum nascentes invenit, sive flumen integrum subter tot maria, & à confusione pejoris undae servatum red­didit. Senec. de consolat. ad Mar­tiam.

Sect. 7 Pag. 12 Now the first of mine was that of the Arabians.] For this Heresie, the Au­thor here sheweth what it was; they are called Arabians from the place where it was fostered; and because the Heresiarch was not known, Euseb. St. Aug. and Nicephorus do all write of it: the reason of this Heresie was so specious, that it drew Pope John 22 to be of the same perswasi­on. Where then was his infallibility? Why, Bellarmine tells you he was nevertheless infallible for that: for, saith he, he maintained this opinion when he might do it without peril [Page 199] of Heresie, for that no definition of the Church whereby 'twas made Heresie, had preceded when he held that opinion. Bellar. l. 4. de Pontif. Roman. cap. 4. Now this definition was first made ('tis true) by Pope Banedict in the 14 Age: but then I would ask another question, that is, If 'till that time there were nothing defined in the Church touching the beatitude of Saints, what certainty was there touching the sanctity of any man? and upon what ground were those Canonizations or Saints had, that were before the 14 Age?

The second was that of Origen.] Besides St. Augustine, Epiphanius, and also S. Hierom do relate that Ori­gen held, that not onely the souls of men, but the Devils themselves should be discharged from torture after a certain time: but Genebrard endeavours to clear him of this. Vid. Coquaeum, in 21 lib. Aug. de Civ. Dei, cap. 17.

These opinions, though condemned by lawful Councils, were not Heresie in me, &c.] For to make an Here­tique, there must be not only Error [Page 200] in intellectu, but pertinacia in vo­luntate. So St. Aug. Qui sententi­am suam quamvis falsam atque perver­sam nulla pertinaci animositate defen­dunt, quaerunt autem cauta solicitudi­ne veritatem, corrigi parati cum in­venerint, nequaquam sunt inter Haere­ticos deputandi. Aug. cont. Manich. 24. qu. 3.

Sect. 9 Pag. 16 The deepest mysteries that ours con­tains, have not only been illustrated, but maintained by Syllogism and the Rule of Reason] and since this Book was written, by Mr. White in his Institutiones Sacrae.

And when they have seen the Red Sea, doubt not of the Miracle.] Those that have seen it, have been better informed than Sir Henry Blount was▪ for he tells us, That he desired to view the passage of Moses into the Red Sea (not being above three days journey off,) but the Jews told him the precise place was not known within less than the space of a days journey along the shore; wherefore (saith he) I left that as too uncertain for any Observation. In his Voyage into the Levant.

[Page 201] Sect. 10 Pag. 19 I had as lieve you tell me, that A­nima est Angelus hominis, est corpus Dei, as Entelechia; Lux est umbra Dei, as actus perspoicui.] Great va­riety of opinion there hath been amongst the Ancient Philosophers touching the definition of the Soul. Thales, his was, that it is a Nature without Repose. Asclepiades, that it is an Exercitation of Sense. Hesiod, that it is a thing composed of Earth and Water; Parmenides holds, of Earth and Fire; Galen that it is Heat; Hippocrates, that it is a spirit dif­fused through the body. Some others have held it to be Light; Plato saith, 'tis a Substance moving it self; and after him cometh Aristotle (whom the Author here reproveth) and goeth a degree farther, and saith it is Entelechia, that is, that which na­turally makes the body to move. But this definition is as rigid as any of the other; for this tells us not what the essence, origine or nature of the soul is, hut only marks an effect of it, and therefore signifieth no more than if he had said (as the Author's Phrase is) that it is An­gelus [Page 202] hominis, or an Intelligence that moveth man, as he supposed those other to do the Heavens.

Now to come to the definition of Light, in which the Author is also unsatisfied with the School of Ari­stotle, he saith, It satisfieth him no more to tell him that Lux est actus perspicui, than if you should tell him that it is umbra Dei. The ground of this definition given by the Peri­pateticks, is taken from a passage in Aristot. de anima, l. 2. cap. 7. where Aristtotle saith, That the co­lour of the thing seen doth move that which is perspicuum actu (i.e. illustratam naturam quae sit in aere aliove corpore transparente) and that that, in regard of its continuation to the eye, moveth the eye, and by its help the internal sensorium; and that so vision is perform'd. Now as it is true that the Sectators of Ari­stotle are too blame, by fastening up on­him by occasion of this passage, that he meant that those things that made this impress upon the Organs are meer accidents, and have nothing of substance; which is more than [Page 203] ever he meant, and cannot be main­tained without violence to Reason and his own Principles; so for A­ristotle himself, no man is beholden to him for any Science acquir'd by this definition; for what is any man the near for his telling him that Co­lour (admitting it to be a body, as indeed it is, and in that place he doth not deny) doth move actu per­spicuum, when as the perspicuity is in relation to the eye; and he doth not say how it comes to be perspicuous, which is the thing enquired after, but gives it that denomination be­fore the eye hath perform'd its of­fice; so that if he had said it had been umbra Dei, it would have been as in­telligible, as what he hath said. He that would be satisfied how Vision is perform'd, let him see Mr. Hobbs in Tract. de nat. human. cap. 2.

For God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth.] St. Aug. de Genes. ad literam cap. 5. 6. salves that expres­sion from any inconvenience; but the Author in Pseudodox. Epidemic. l. 7. cap. 1. shews that we have no reason to be confident that this fruit was an Apple.

[Page 204] I believe that the Serpent (if we shall literally understand it) from his proper form and figure made his mo­tion on his belly before the curse,] Yet the Author himself sheweth in Pseudodox. Epidemic. lib. 7.cap. 1. that the form or kind of this Ser­pent is not agreed on: yet Comestor affirm'd it was a Dragon, Eugubinus a Basilisk, Delrio a Viper, and others a common Snake: but of what kind soever it was, he sheweth in the same Volume, lib. 5. c. 4. that there was no inconvenience, that the Temptation should be perform'd in his proper shape.

I find the tryal of the Pucelage and virginity of Women, which God or­dained the Jews, is very fallible.] Lo­cus extat. Deut. c. 22. the same is af­firm'd by Laurentius in his Anatom.

Whole Nations have escaped the curse of Child-birth, which God seems to pronounce upon the whole sex.] This is attested by Mr. Mon­taign, Les doleurs de l'enfantiment par les medicines, & pardein mosme estimles grandes, & quae nous pasons avec tant de Cetemonies, ily a des [Page 205] notions entieres qui ne'n fuit mul conte. l. 1. des Ess. c. 14.

Sect. 11 Pag. 21 Who can speak of Eternity without a Soloecism, or think thereof without an Extasie? Time we may compre­hend, &c.] Touching the difference betwixt Eternity and Time, there have been great disputes amongst Philosophers; some affirming it to be no more than duration perpetual consisting of parts; and others (to which opinion, it appears by what follows in this Section, the Author adheres) affirmed (to use the Au­thor's phrase) that it hath no distin­ction of Tenses, but is according to Boetius (lib. 5. consol. pros. 6.) his definition, interminabilis vitae tota simul & perfecta possessio. For me, Non nostrum est tantas componere lites. I shall only observe what each of them hath to say against the other. Say those of the first opinion against those that follow Boetius his defini­tion, That definition was taken by Boetius out of Plato's Timaeus, and is otherwise applyed, though hot by Boetius, yet by those that follow him, than ever Plato intended it; for [Page 206] he did not take it in the Abstract, but in the Concrete, for an eternal thing, a Divine substance by which he meant God, or his Anima mundi: and this he did, to the intent to esta­blish this truth, That no mutation can befal the Divine Majesty, as it doth to things subject to generation and corruption; and that Plato there intended not to define or describe any species of duration: and they say that it is impossible to under­stand any such species of duration that is (according to the Author's expression) but one permanent point.

Now that which those that follow Boetius, urge against the other defini­tion is, they say it doth not at all dif­ference Eternity from the nature of Time; for they say if it be composed of many Nunc's, or many instants, by the addition of one more, it is still en­creased; and by that means Infinity or Eternity is not included, nor ought more than Time. For this, see Mr. White, de dial. mundo, Dial. 3. Nod. 4.

Indeed he only is &c.] This the Author infers from the words of God to Moses, I am that I am; and [Page 207] this to distinguish him from all o­thers, who (he saith) have and shall be: but those that are learned in the Hebrew, affirm that the words in that place (Exod. 3.) do not sig­nifie, Ego sum qui sum, & qui est, &c. but Ero qui ero, & qui erit, &c. vid. Gassend. in animad. Epicur. Phy­siolog.

I wonder how Aristotle could con­ceive the World Eternal, or how he could make two Eternities:] (that is, that God and the World both, were eternal.) I wonder more at either the ignorance or incogitancy of the Conimbricenses, who in their Com­ment upon the eighth Book of Ari­stotle's Physicks treating of the matter of Creation, when they had first said that it was possible to know it, and that actually it was known, (for Aristotle knew it) yet for all this they afterwards affirm, That considering onely the light of Nature, there is nothing can be brought to demon­strate Creation: and yet farther, when they had defined Creation to be the production of a thing ex ni­hhilo, and had proved that the world [Page 208] was so created in time, and refused the arguments of the Philosophers to the contrary, they added this, That the World might be created ab aeterno: for having propos'd this question [Num aliquid à Deo ex Ae­ternitate procreari potuit▪] they de­fend the affirmative, and assert, That not onely incorporeal substances, as Angels; or permanent, as the celestial Bodies; or corruptible, as Men, &c. might be produced and made ab ae­terno, and be conserved by an infinite time, ex utra (que) parte; and that this is neither repugnant to God the Creator, the things created, nor to the nature of Creation; for proof whereof, they bring instances of the Sun, which if it had been eternal, had illuminated eternally, (and the virtue of God is not less than the virtue of the Sun.) Another instance they bring of the divine Word, which was produc'd ab aeterno: in which discourse, and in the instances brought to maintain it, it is hard to say whether the madness or impiety be greater; and certainly if Christi­ans thus argue, we have the more [Page 209] reason to pardon the poor Heathen Aristotle.

There is not three but a Trinity of Souls.] The Peripatetiques held that men had three distinct Souls; whom the Hereticks, the Anomaei, and the Jacobites, followed. There arose a great dispute about this mat­ter in Oxford, in the year 1276; and it was then determined against Ari­stotle. Daneus Christ. Eth. l. 1. c. 4. and Suarez in his Treatise de causa formali, Quaest. An dentur plures formae in uno composito, affirmeth there was a Synod that did anathe­matize all that held with Aristotle in this point.

Sect. 14 Pag. 18 There is but one first, and four se­cond Causes in all things.] In that he saith there is but one first cause, he speaketh in opposition to the Mani­chees, who held there were Duo principia; one from whom came all good, and the other from whom came all evil: the reason of Prota­goras did it seems impose upon their understandings; he was wont to say, Si Deus non est, unde igitur bona? Si autem est, unde mala? In that [Page 210] that he saith, there are but four se­cond causes, he opposeth Plato, who to the four causes, material, efficient, formal, and final, adds for a fifth exemplar or Idaea, sc. Id ad quod re­spiciens artifex, id quod destinabat, efficit: according to whose mind Boetius speaks, lib. 3. mot. 9. de conf. Philosoph.

And St. Augustine, l. 83. quaest. 46▪ where (amongst other) he hath these words, Restat ergo ut omnia Ration sint condita, nec eadem ratione ho [...] qua equus; hoc enim absurdum est existimare: singula autem propriis sunt creata rationibus. But these ideae Plato's Scholar Aristotle would not allow to make or constitute a [Page 211] different sort of cause from the for­mal or efficient; to which purpose he disputes l. 7. Metaphysic. but he and his Sectators, and the Romists also, agree (as the Author) that there are but the four remembred causes: so that the Author in affirm­ing there are but four, hath no ad­versary but the Platonists; but yet in asserting there are four (as his words imply) there are that oppose him, and the Schools of Aristot. and Ramus. I shall bring for instance Mr. Nat. Carpenter, who in his Phi­losophia libera affirmeth, there is no such cause as that which they call the Final cause: he argueth thus; Every cause hath an influence upon its effect, but so has not the End, therefore it is not a Cause. The ma­jor Proposition (he saith) is evident, because the influence of a cause up­on its effect, is either the causality it self, or something that is necessa­rily conjoyned to it: and the minor as plain; for either the End hath an influence upon the effect imme­diately, or mediately, by stirring up the Efficient to operate; not imme­diately, [Page 212] because so it should enter either the constitution, or production, or conservation of the things; but the constitution it cannot enter, be­cause the constitution is onely of matter and form; nor the: Producti­on, for so it should concur to the production, either as it is simply the end, or as an exciter of the Efficient; but not simply as the end, because the end as end doth not go before, but followeth the thing produced, and therefore doth not concur to its production: if they say it doth so far concur, as it is desired of the agent or efficient cause, it should not so have an immediate influence upon the effect, but should onely first move the efficient. Lastly, saith he, it doth not enter the conservation of a thing, because a thing is often conserved, when it is frustrate of its due end, as when its converted to a new use and end. Divers other ar­guments he hath to prove there is no such cause as the final cause, Nat. Carpenter Philosop. liber. Decad. 3. Exercitat. 5. But for all this, the Author and he differ not in sub­stance: [Page 213] for 'tis not the Author's in­tention to assert that the end is in na­ture praeexistent to the effect, but on­ly that whatsoever God has made, he hath made to some end or other; which he doth to oppose the Secta­tors of Epicurus, who maintain the contrary, as is to be seen by this of Lucretius which follows.

[Page 214] Sect. 15 Pag. 29 There are no Grotesques in nature, &c.] So Monsr. Montaign. Il ny' a rien d'mutil en nature, non pas l' in­utilitè mesmes, Rien ne s' est jugere en cet Vnivers que n'y tienne place oppor­tun. Ess. l. 3. c. 1.

Who admires not Regiomontanus his Fly beyond his Eagle?] Of these Du Bartas.

Thus Englished by Sylvester.

Or wonder not more at the operation of two souls in those little bodies, than but one in the Trunk of a Cedar?] That is, the vegetative, which, ac­cording to the common opinion, is supposed to be in Trees, though the Epetures and Stoiques would not allow any Soul in Plants, but Empedocles and Plato allowed them not onely a vegetative Soul, but affirm'd them to be Animals. The Manichees went farther, and attributed so much of the ratio­nal soul to them, that they accounted [Page 216] it Homicide to gather either their flowers or fruit, as St. Aug. reports.

We carry with us the wonders we seek without us.] So St. Aug l. 10. de civ. c. 3. Omni miraculo quod sit, per hominem majus miraculum est homo.

Sect. 14 Pag. 31 Another of his servant Nature, that publique and universal Manuscript, that lies expansed, &c.] So is the description of Du Bartas 7. jour de la sepm.

Oyes ce Docteur meut est udie en ce livre Qui nuict & jour on vert t' apprendra de bien vivre.

All things are artificial, for Na­ture is the Art of God.] So Mr. Hobbs in his Leviathan (in initio) Nature is the Art whereby God governs the World.

Sect. 17 Pag. 34 Directing the operations of single and individual Essences,&c.] Things singular, or individuals, are in the o­pinion of Philosophers not to be known but by the way of sense, or by that which knows by its Essence, and that is onely God. The Devils have no such knowledge, because whatsoever knows so, is either [Page 217] the cause or effect of the thing known; thereupon Averroes con­cluded that God was the cause of all things, because he understands all things by his Essence; and Al­bertus Magnus concluded, That the inferiour Intelligence understands the superiour, because it is an effect of the superiour: but neither of these can be said of the Devil; for it ap­pears he is not the effect of any of these inferiour things, much less is he the cause, for the power of Creation onely belongs to God.

All cannot he happy at once, because the Glory of one State depends upon the ruine of another.] This Theme is ingeniously handled by Mr. Mon­taigne livr. 1. des Ess. cap. 22. the Title whereof is, Le profit de l' un est dommage de l' autre.

Sect. 18 Pag. 39'Tis the common fate of men of sin­gular gifts of Mind, to be destitute of those of Fortune.] So Petron. Ar­biter. Amor ingenii neminem unquam divitem fecit, in Satyric. And Apu­leius in Apolog. Idem mihi etiam, (saith he) paupertatem opprobravit acceptum Philosopho crimen & ultro [Page 218] profitendum; and then a little af­terwards, he sheweth that it was the common fate of those that had sin­gular gifts of mind: Eadem enim est paupertas apud Graecos in Aristide ju­sta, in Phocyone benigna, in Epami­nonde strenua, in Socrate sapiens, in Homero diserta.

We need not labour with so many arguments to confute judicial Astro­logy.] There is nothing in judicial Astrology that may render it impious; but the exception against it is, That it is vain and fallible; of which any man will be convinced, that has read Tully de Divinat. and St. Aug. 5 bo [...] de Civ. Dei.

Sect. 19 Pag. 41 There is in our Soul a kind of Triumvirate—that distracts the peace of our Commonwealth, not less than did that other the State of Rome.] There were two Triumvi­rates, by which the peace of Rom [...] was distracted; that of Crassus, Caesar and Pompey, of which Lucan, l. 1.

[Page 219] and that other of Augustus, Antonius, and Lepidus, by whom saith Florus, Respublica convulsa est laceratáque, which comes somewhat near the Au­thor's words, and therefore I take it that he means this last Triumvirate.

Would disswade my belief from the miracle of the brazen Serpent.] Vid. Coqueum in l. 10. Aug. de Civ. Dei, c. 8.

And bid me mistrust a miracle in Elias, &c.] The history is 18. 1 Reg. it should be Elijah. The Author in 15. cap. 7. lib, Pseudodox, sheweth it was not perform'd naturally; he was (as he saith) a perfect miracle.

To think the combustion of Sodom might be natural,] Of that opinion was Strabo, whereupon he is repre­hended by Genebrard in these words: Strabo falsus est—dum eversionem addicit sulphuri & bitu­mini è terra erumpentibus, quae erat as­signanda Coelo, i. e. Deo irato. Tacitus reports it according to the Bible, ful­minis ictu arsisse.

Sect. 20 Pag. 43 Those that held Religion was the difference of Man from Beasts, &c.] Lactantius was one of those: Reli­gioni ergo serviendum est, quam qui [Page 220] non suscipit, ipse se prosternit in ter­ram, & vitam pecudum secutus hu­manitate se abdicat. Lactant. de fals. Sapieatia, cap. 10.

The Doctrine of Epicurus that de­nied the Providence of God, was no Atheism, but &c.] I doubt not but he means that delivered in his Epi­stle to Menecaeus, and recorded by Diogenes Laertius, lib. 10. Quod bea­tum aeternumque est, id nec habet ip­sum negotii quicquam, nec exhibet alteri, itaque neqae ira, neque gratia tenetur, quod quae talia sunt imbecil­lia sunt omnia; which the Epicurean Poet hath delivered almost in the same words.

* That Villain and Secretary of Hell, that composed that miscreant piece of the three Impostors.] It was Ochinus that composed this piece; [Page 221] but there was no less a man than the Emperour Frederick the Second, that was as lavish of his Tongue, as the other of his Pen; Cui saepe in ore, Tres fuisse insignes Impostores, qui genus humanum seduxerunt, Moysem, Christum, Mahumitem. Lips. monit. & exempl. Politic. cap. 4. And a greater than he, Pope Leo the Tenth, was as little favourable to our Saviour, when he us'd that Speech which is reported of him, Quantas nobis divitias comparavit ista de Christo fabula!

Sect. 21 Pag. 46 There are in Scriptures stories that do exceed the Fables of Poets.] So the Author of Relig. Laici. Certè mira admodum in S. S. plus quàm in reliquis omnibus Historiis traduntur; (and then he concludes with the Au­thor) sed quae non retundunt intelle­ctum, sed exercent.

Yet raise no question who shall rise with that rib at the Resurrection.] The Author cap. 2. l. 7. Pseudodox. sheweth that it appears in Anatomy, that the ribs of Men and Woman are equal.

Whether the World were created in [Page 222] Autumn, Summer, or the Spring, &c.] In this matter there is a consent be­twixt two learned Poets, Lucretius and Virgil, that it begins in Spring.

Which he would have to be under­stood of Autumn, because that re­sembles old age rather than Infancy. He speaks expresly of the Fowls.

Then for Virgil.

But there is great difference about it betwixt Church-Doctors, some a­greeing with these Poets, and others affirming the time to be Autumn: but truly, in strict speaking, it was not created in any one, but all of the [Page 223] seasons, as the Author saith here, and hath shewed at large, Pseudodox. Epi­demic. lib. 6. cap. 2.

Sect. 22 Pag. 49'Tis ridiculous to put off or drown the general floud of Noah in that particular inundation of Deucalion,] as the Heathen some of them some­times did: Confuderunt igitur saepe Ethnici particularia illa diluvia, quae longè post secuta sunt, cum illo uni­versali quod praecessit, ut ex fabulis in Diluvio Deucalionaeo sparsis colli­gere licet; non tamen semper nec ubi­que. Author. Observat. in Mytholog. Nat. Com. Then amongst those that confound them, he reckons Ovid and Plutarch.

How all the kinds of Creatures, not onely in their own bulks, but with a competency of food and sustenance, might be preserved in one Ark, and within the extent of 300 Cubits, to a reason that rightly examines it will appear very feasible.] Yet Apelles, the Disciple of Mercion, took upon him to deride the History of Moses in this particular, alledging that it must needs be a fable, for that it was impossible so many creatures should [Page 224] be contain'd in so small a space. O­rigen and St. Aug. to answer this pretended difficulty, alleadge, that Moses in this place speaks of Geome­trical (and not vulgar) cubits, of which every one was as much as six vulgar ones, and so no difficulty. But Perer. l. 10. com. in Genes. quaest. 5. de arca, rejects this opinion of Origen, as being both against reason and Scripture: 1. Because that sort of Cubit was never in use amongst any people, and therefore absurd to think Moses should intend it in this place. 2. If Moses should not speak of the same Cubits here, that he mentions in other places, there would be great aequivocation in Scri­pture: now in another place, i. e. Exod. 27. he saith God commanded him to make an Altar three Cubits high; which if it should be intended of Geometrical Cubits, it will con­tain 18 vulgar Cubits; which would not only render it useless, but would be contrary to the command which he saith God gave him, Exod. 20. Thou shalt not go up by steps to my Altar. For without steps what man [Page 225] could reach it? it must therefore be meant of ordinary Cubits; but that being so it was very feasible. I can more easily believe than under­stand it.

And put the honest Father to the Refuge of a Miracle.] This honest Father was St. Aug. who delivers his opinion, that it might be mira­culously done, lib. 16. de Civ. Dei, cap. 7. where having propos'd the question how it might be done, he answers, Quod si homines eas captas se­cum adduxerunt, & eo modo ubi habi­tabant earum genera instituerunt, ve­nandi studio fieri potuisse incredibile non est, quam jussu Dei sive permissu etiam opera Angelorum negandum non sit potuisse transferri; but St. Aug. saith not, that it could not be done without a miracle.

And 1500 years to people the World, as full a time, &c.]

That Methusalem was the longest liv'd of all the children of Adam, &c.] See both these points cleared by the Author, in Pseudodox. Epidemic. the first, lib. 6. cap. 6. the other l. 7. cap. 3.

[Page 226] That Judas perished by hanging himself, there is no certainty in Scripture, though in one place it seems to affirm it, and by a doubtful word hath given occasion to translate it; yet in another place, in a more punctu­al description it makes it improbable, and seems to overthrow it.] These two places that seem to contradict one another, are Matthew 27. 5. and Acts 1. 8. The doubtful word he speaks of is in the place of Matthew; it is [...], which signifieth suffo­cation as well as hanging ( [...] which may signifie literal­ly, after he went out he was choak'd) but Erasmus translates it, abiens la­queo se suspendit: the words in the Acts are, When he had thrown down himself headlong, he burst in the mid'st, and all his bowels gushed out, which seems to differ much from the expression of Matthew; yet the an­cient Writers, and Fathers of the Church do unanimously agree that he was hanged; some I shall cite. Anastas. Sinaita. l. 7. Auagog. Con­templ. Vnus latro ingratus cum esset typus Diaboli, & Serpentis, & Judae [Page 227] qui se in ligno suffocavit. Gaudenti­us Brixiens. tract. 13. de natal. Dom. Mortem debitam laqueo sibimet intulit praeparato, &c. Drogottoshen. de sacram. dominic. pass. Jamdiu e­rat quidem quòd Christo recesserat, & avaritiae laqueo se suspenderat, sed quod fecerat in occulto, palam omni­bus innotuit. S. Martialis in Ep. ad Tholosanos. Non sustinuit poenitenti­am, donec laqueo mortis seipsum consumpsit. Ignat. ad Philippens. Diabolus laqueum ei ostendit, & suspendium docuit. Leo. Serm. 3. de Passion.—ut quia facimus omnem mensuram ultionis excesserat, te ha­beret impietas tua judicem, te pate­retur sua paena Carnificem. Theodo­ret. lib. 1. haretic. fabul. Ille proti­uus strangulatus est, quae fuit merces ejus proditionis. Chrysostom. Hom. 3. de proditore. Pependit Coelum Ter­ramque intermedius vago funere suf­focatus, & cum flagitio fuo tumefacta, viscera crepuerunt, &c. Bernard. se­rm. 8. in Psalm. 9. Judas in aere cre­puit medius.

There are those that are so parti­cular that they acquaint us with the [Page 228] manner, as that it was done with a Cord. Antiochus Laurensis. Spem om­nem à se cùm abjecisset insiliente in eum inimico (sc. Diabolo) funicülo sibi praefocavit gulam Oecumen. in Act. fracto funiculo quo erat suffo­catus decidit in terram praecipitio, 2. That it was done on a Fig-tree, Beda. Portam David egredientibus fons occurrit in Austrum per vallem directus, ad cujus medietatem ab oc­casu Judas se suspendisse narratur. Nam & ficus magna ibi & vetustissi­ma stat.

3. Some acquaint us with the time when it was done, viz. the next day after he had given the kiss. So Chrysostom. Homil. 1. de proditor. & mysterio Caoen. Dominic. Guttur pro­phanum quod hodie Christo extendis ad osculum, crastinò es illud exten­surus ad laqueum. But there are two, that is, Euthymius and Oecume­nius, that tells us, that the hanging [Page 229] did not kill him; but that either the rope broke, or that he was cut down, and afterwards cast himself down headlong, as it is related in the before-mentioned place of the Acts: Agnitus à quibusdam deposi­tus est ne praefocaretur, denique post­quam in secreto quodam loco modico vixisset tempore praeceps factus sive praecipitatus, inflatus, diruptus, ac diffisus est medius, & effusa sunt omnia viscera ejus; ut in Actis. Eu­thym. cap. 67. in Matth. Judas suspen­dio è vita non discessit, sed supervix­it, dejectus est enim priusquam prae­focaretur, idque Apostolorum Acta in­dicant quod pronus crepuit medius. Oecumen. in Act. And this may serve to reconcile these two seemingly disagreeing Scriptures.

That our Fathers after the Flood erected the Tower of Babel.] For this see what the Author saith in his Pseu­dodox. Epidemic. l. 7. cap. 6.

Sect. 23 Pag. 52 And cannot but commend the judgment of Ptolemy.] He means of Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, who founded the Library of Alexan­dria, which he speaks of in the [Page 230] next Section, he was King of Egypt; and having built and furnish'd that Library with all the choicest book he could get from any part of the World; and having good correspon­dence with Eleazar the High Priest of the Jews, by reason that he had re­leased the Jews from Captivity, wh [...] were taken by his Predecessor Pu­lemaeus Lagi; he did by the advice of Demetrius Phalereus the Athenian whom he had made his Library keeper, write to Eleazer, desiring him that he would cause the Book of the Jews, which contained their Laws, to be translated for him into Greek, that he might have them to put into his Library: to which the Priest consents; and for the King's better satisfaction, sends to him Co­pies of the Books, and with the same 72 Interpreters skilled both in the Greek and Hebrew Language, to translate them for him into Greek; which afterwards they performed This is for certain; but whether they translated onely the Pentateuch, a St. Jerome would have it, or toge­ther with that the books of the Pro­phets [Page 231] also, as Leo de Castro and Ba­ronius contend, I undertake not to determine: but as to that part of the story, that these Interpreters were put into so many several Cells, whilst they were about the work of translation; and notwithstanding they were thus severed, that they all translated it totidem verbis; it is but reason to think with St. Jerome (notwithstanding the great current of Authority against him) that it is no better than a fable.

The Alcoran of the Turks (I speak without prejudice) is an ill composed piece, containing in it vain and ridi­culous errors in Philosophy, &c:] It is now in every man's hand, having been lately translated into English; I shall therefore observe but these few particulars in it, in regard the Book it self is so common; and in­deed they are not mine own, but Lipsius his observations. He begins, O nugas, O deliria! primum (saith he) commentus est, Deum unum soli­dum (que) ( [...] Graeci exprimunt) eundem (que) incorporeum esse. Christum non Deum, sed magnum vatem & [Page 232] prophetam, se tamen majorem, & proxime à Deo missum; praemia qui ipsum audient Paradisum, qui post aliquot annorum millia reserabitur, ibi quatuor flumina lacte, vino, melle, aqua fluere, ibi palatia & aedificia gemmata atque aurata esse, carnes a­vium suavissimarum, furctus omne genus quos sparsi jacentesque sub um­bra arborum edent: sed caput foeli­citatis, viros foeminasque majores so­lito magnis Genitalibus, assidua libi­dine, & ejus usu sine taedio aut fati­gatione. These and some others that are in the Alcoran he reckons up. Sed & Physica quoque mirando (saith he) nam facit Solem & Lunam in equis vehi, illum autem in aquam calidam vespere mergi, & bene lotu [...] ascendere atque oriri, Stellas in aere è catenis aureis pendere: terram in bovini cornu cuspide stabilitum, & agitente se bove ac succutiente fieri terrae motum; hominem autem ex­hirudine aut sanguisuga nasci, &c. Just. Lisp. Monit. & exempl. Politic. cap. 3.

I believe besides Zoroaster, there were divers others that wrote before [Page 233] Moses.] Zoroaster was long before Moses, and of great name; he was the Father of Ninus, Justin. l. 1. Si quamlibet modicum emolumentum pro­baveritis, ego ille sim Carinondas, vet Damigeron, vel is Moses, vel Jannes, vel Appollonius, vel ipse Dar­danus, vel quicun (que) alius post Zoro­asterm & Hostanem inter Magos ce­lebratus est. Apuleius in Apol.

Others with as many groans de­plore the combustion of the Library of Alexandria.] This was that Li­brary before spoken of, set up by Ptolomeus Philadelphus; in which 'tis reproted by Ammianus Marcelli­nus, there were 700000 volumes; it was burnt by Jul. Caesar's means, whose Navy being environed before Alexandria, he had no means to keep off the Enemy, but by flinging of fire, which at length caught the Library and consumed it, as Plutarch has it in Vita Caesaris: but notwith­standing we have no reason to be­lieve it was quite consumed, because Sueton. in Claudius, tells us, that that Emperor added another to it; and there must be somewhat before, if [Page 234] it were an addition; but true it is, too many of the Books perished: to repair which loss, care was taken by Domitian the Emperour, as the same Sueton. and Aurel. Victor do relate.

I would not omit a copy of Enoch's Pillars, had they many nearer Authors than Josephus, &c.] For this the Story is, that Enoch, or his father Seth, having been inform'd by Adam, that the World was to perish once by water, and a second time by fire, did cause two Pillars to be e­rected, the one of Stone against the water, and another of Brick against the fire; and that upon those Pillars was engraven all such learning as had been delivered to, or invented by mankind; and that thence it came that all knowledge and learn­ing was not lost by means of the Floud, by reason that one of the Pil­lars (though the other perished) did remain after the Floud; and Jose­phus witnesseth, till his time, lib. 1. Antiq. Judaic, cap. 3.

Of those three great inventions of Germany, there are two which are not without their incommodities] those [Page 235] two he means are Printing and Gun­powder, which are commonly taken to be German Inventions; but Artil­lery was in China above 1500 years since, and Printing long before it was in Germany, if we may believe Juan Concales Mendosa in his Hist. of China, lib. 3. cap. 15, 16. The in­commodities of these two inventi­ons, are well described by Sam. Da­niel, l. 6. of the Civil Wars.

See Bellermontan. in his Dissertat. politic. dissert. 29. and 30.

For the other Invention, the La­tine Annotator doubts whether the [Page 238] Author means Church-Organs, or Clocks? I suppose he means Clocks, because I find that Invention rec­kon'd by a German, with the other two, as a remarkable one. It is by Busbequius, speaking of the Turks, who hath these words: Testes ma­jores minoresque bombardae, multaque alia quae ex nostris excogitata ipsi ad se avertunt; ut libros tamen ty­pis excuderunt, horologia in publice haberent, nondum adduci potuerunt. Epist. Legat. Turcic. I suppose if he had known any Invention which next to the other two had been great­er than this, he would not have na­med this; and this being the next considerable, we have no cause to doubt but the Author meant it.

To maintain the Trade and Mystery of Typographers.] Of this, Cunaeus in his Satyre Sardi voenales. Qui bis in anno nomen suum ad Germanorum nundinas non transmittit, eruditio­nem suam in ordinem coactam credit, ita (que) nunquam tot fungi una pluvia nascuntur, quot nunc libri uno die.

Sect. 44 Pag. 94 The Turk in the bulk he now stands, is beyond all hope of conversion.] That [Page 239] is, in respect of his great strength, against which it is not probable the Christians will prevail, as it is obser­ved by Monsieur de Silhon. La Race des Ottomans (saith he) quae oste à Dieu la Religion qu'ila revelee, & aux hommes la liberte que le droit des Gens leur laisse à fait tant de pro­gres depuis trois Cens & quelques an­nees qu'il semble qu'elle n'ait plus rien a craindre de dehorse, & que son empire ne puisse perir que par la corrup­tion de dedans, & par la dissolution de parties qui composent un corps si vaste. Mr. de Silhon en son Minist. d' Estat. l. 1. c.

None can more justly boast of per­secutions, and glory in the number and valour of martyrs.] Of the fortitude of the Christians in this particular, Minutius Felix, in the person of the Ethnique, hath these words: Permi­ra stultitia & incredibili audacia spernunt tormenta proaesentia, dum incerta metuunt & futura; & dum mori post mortem timent, interim mori non timent. And afterwards, when he speaks in the person of the Christian, he saith, that Christian-women [Page 240] and children have in this surpassed Scaevola and Regulus: Vi­ros (saith he) cum Mutio vel cum Ati­lio Regulo comparo: pueri & mulier­culae nostrae cruces & Tormenta, feras & omnes suppliciorum terriculas in­spirata patientia dolor is illudunt. Mi­nut, in Octav. vide Aug. de Civ. Dei, l. 1. c. 23, 24.

If we shall strictly examine the cir­cumstances and requisites which Ari­stotle requires to true and perfect va­lour, we shall find the name onely in his Master Alexander, (that is, no more than the name) and as little in that Roman Worthy Julius Caesar.] Aristot. 3. Ethic. cap. 6. amongst o­ther requisites, requires to valour, that it keep a mediocrity betwixt au­dacity and fear; that we thrust not our selves into danger when we need not; that we spare not to shew our valour when occasion requires: He requires for its proper object, Death; and to any death, he prefers death in war, because thereby a man profits his Country and Friends; and that he calls mors honesta, an honest or honourable death: and there­thereupon [Page 241] he defines a valiant man to be, Is qui, morte honesta proposi­ta, iisque omnibus quae cum sint re­pentina mortem adfuerunt metu va­cat. So that by the Author's saying, there was onely the name in Alex­ander, he means onely that which is rendred in the two last words, metu vacans, and not the rest that goes to make up the definition of a valiant man, which is very truely affirmed of Alexander, who exposed himself to hazzard many times when there was no cause for it: As you may read in Curtius, he did, in the Siege of Tyrus, and many other ways. Cet­tuy-cy semble recercher & courir a force les dangiers comme un impe­teux torrent, qui choque & attaque sans discretion, & sans chois tout ce qu'l rencontre, saith Montaign, speaking of Alexander, l. 2. des Ess. cap. 34. And for Caesar, it cannot be denied, but in his Wars he was many times (though not so generally as Alexander) more adventurous than reason military could warrant to him; and therefore Lucan gives him no better character than

To instance in some particulars: with what an inconsiderable strength did he enterprize the Conquest of Egypt, and afterwards went to at­taque the Forces of Scipio and Juba, which were ten times more than his own? after the Battle of Pharsalia, having sent his Army before into Asia, and crossing the Hellespont with one single vessel, he there meets Lucius Cassius with ten men of War, he makes up to him, summons him to render, and he does it. In the famous and furious siege of Alexia; where he had 80000 men to make defence against him, and an Army of one hundred and nine thousand horse, and two hundred and forty thousand foot, all marching towards him, to raise his siege; yet for all that, he would not quit the siege, but first fought with those without, and ob­tain'd a great Victory over them, and soon afterwards brought the be­sieged to his mercy.

[Page 243] Sect. 26 Pag. 58 The Council of Constance condemns John Husse for an Heretick; the Stories of his own Party style him a Martyr.] John Husse did agree with the Papists against us, in the point of Invocation of Saints, Prayers and Sa­crifice for the Dead, free Will, good Works, confession of Sins, seven Sa­craments, &c. Gordon. Hunt. l. contr. 3. de Sacr. Euch. cap. 17. Yet was he condemned for maintaining cer­tain Articles said by that Council to be heretical and seditious, and was burnt for Heresie. Now as I will not take upon me to say he was an Here­tick, so can I not maintain that he was a Martyr, if it be but for this one Article, which in the 15 Sess. of that Council was objected against him, which he did acknowledge, but would not recal, i. e. Nullus est Dominus civilis, dum est in pec­cato mortali. If that Doctrine should be believed, we shall have little obedience to Civil Magi­strates; and without that, how miserable is humane condition? That which begat compassion to­wards Husse in those of his own [Page 244] Party was, that he had a safe conduct from the Emperour Sigismund; and therefore it was, say they, a violati­on of publick faith in the Council and Emperour in putting him to death.

That wise Heathen Socrates that suffered on a fundamental point of Religion, the Vnity of God.] That Socrates suffered on this point, di­vers Christian Writers do object to the Ethniques, as Justin Martyr, Apol. 2. Euseb. l. 5. de praeparat. E­vangelic. c. 14. Tertul. in Apolog. cap. 14. and Lactant. de justitia, cap. 15. whose words are these: Plato quidem multa de uno Deo locutus est, à quo ait constitutum esse mundum, sed nihil de Religione; somniaverat enim Deum, non cognoverat. Quod si justitiae defensionem vel ipse vel quilibet alius implere voluisset, im­primis Deorum Religiones evertere debuit, quia contrariae pietati. Quod quidem Socrates quia facere tentavit in carcerem conjectus est, ut jam tunc appareret quid esset futurum iis ho­minibus qui justitiam veram defen­dere, Deoque singulari servire coepissent.

[Page 245] I have often pitied the miserable Bishop that suffered in the cause of Antipodes.] The suffering was, that he lost his Bishoprick for denying the Antipodes. Vid. Aventin. in Hist. Boio. Besides him, there were other Church men of great note, that de­nied Antipodes, as Lactantius, Au­gustin; and Bede.

Sect. 27 Pag. I hold that God can do all things: How he should work contradictions, I do not understand, yet dare not there­fore deny.] Who would not think the Author had taken this from Mr, Montaign, whose words are, Ilm'a tous jours semble qu' a un homme Chri­stien, cette sorte de parter est plein d' indiscretion & d'irreverence [Dieu ne se peut disdire,] [Dieu ne peuit faire cecy ou cela.] je ne trouve pas bon d'enfermer ainsi la puissance di­vine sous les loix de nostre parole. Et l'apparence qui s' offre à nous en ses pro­positions, il la faudroit representer plus reverement, & plus Religieuse­ment. Liv. 2. des Ess. c. 12.

I cannot see why the Angel of God should question Esdras to recal the time past, if it were beyond his own [Page 246] power, or that God should pose morta­lity in that which he was not able to perform himself.] Sir K. Digby in his Notes upon this place saith, There is no contradiction in this, because he saith it was but putting all things that had motion into the same state they were in at that moment, unto which time was to be reduced back, and from thence letting it travel on again by the same motions, (&c. which God could do. But under fa­vour, the contradiction remains, if this were done that he mentions; for Time depends not at all upon motion, but has a being altogether independent of it, and therefore the same revolution would not bring back the same time, for that was efflux'd before; as in the time of Joshua, when the Sun stood still, we cannot but conceive though there were no motion of the Sun, but that there was an efflux of Time, other­wise, how could the Text have it, That there was not any day, before or after, that was so long as that? for the length of it must be under­stood in respect of the flux of time. [Page 247] The reasoning of Sir Kenelme is founded upon the opinion of Aristot. who will needs have it, that Time, cannot be without mutation; he gives this for a reason, because when we have slept, and cannot perceive any mutation to have been, we do therefore use to connect the time of our sleeping and of our awaking together, and make but one of it: to which it may be answered, although some mutation be necessary, that we may mark the flux of time, it doth not therefore follow that the muta­tion is necessary to the flux it self.

Sect. 28 Pag. 62 I excuse not Constantine from a fall off his Horse, or a mischief from his enemies, upon the wearing those nails, &c.] Hac de re videatur P. Diac. hist. miscell.

Sect. 29 Pag. 63 I wonder how the curiosity of wi­ser heads could pass that great and indisputable miracle, the cessation of Oracles. [There are three opinions touching the manner how the pre­dictions of these Oracles were per­form'd: Some say by vapour, some by the intelligences, or influ­ences of the Heavens, and others [Page 248] say by the assistance of the Devils. Now the indisputable miracle the Author speaks of, is, that they ceas'd upon the coming of Christ; and it is generally so believed; and the Oracle of Delphos delivered to Augustus, mentioned by the Author in this Section, is brought to prove it, which is this:

But yet it is so far from being true that their cessation was miraculous, that the truth is, there never were any predictions given by those Ora­cles at all.

That their cessation was not upon the coming of Christ, we have lucu­lent testimony out of Tully, in his 2. lib. de Divinat. which he writ many years before Christ was born; who tells us that they were silent (and indeed he never thought they were otherwise) long before that time, in­somuch that they were come into contempt: Cur isto modo jam oracula Delphis non eduntur, non modò no­stra [Page 249] aetate, sed jamdiù jam ut nihil possit esse contemptius. So that for that of Delphos, which was the most famous of them all, we see we have no reason to impute the cessation of it to Christ; Why therefore should we do so for any of the rest?

2. For their predictions, let us consider the three several ways be­fore mentioned, whereby they are supposed to operate; and from thence see whether it be probable that any such Oracles ever were.

The first Opinion is, that it was by exhalation or vapour drawn up from the earth; and gives this for a reason of their being, that they were for a time nourished by those exha­lations; and when those ceased, and were exhausted, the Oracles famish'd and died for want of their accu­stom'd sustenance: this is the far­fetcht reason given by Plutarch for their defect; but 'twas not devised by him, but long before, as appears, in that Tully scoffs at it, lib. de divi­nat. De vino aut salsamento putes lo­qui (saith he) quae evanescunt vetu­state. This seem'd absurd to others, [Page 250] who do therefore say this was not to be attributed to any power of the Earth, but to the power of the Hea­vens, or Intelligences Coelestial; to certain aspects, whereof, they say, the Statua's of those Oracles were so a­dapted, that they might divine and foretel future events. But yet to o­thers, this way seemeth as absurd as the others; for, say they, admitting that there were an efficacy in the Heavens, more than in the Earth; yet how can it be that men should come by the skill to fit the Statua's to the Aspects or influences of the Heavens? or if at any time they had such skill, why should not the same continue the rather, be­cause men are more skilled in the mo­tions of the Heavens, of later than in the former time? Again, they do not see how it should be that the cause should be of less excellency than the effect; for if a man (say they) can by his industry make such Oracles, why can he not produce the same effect in another man? for if you affirm that the Heavens influence is requisite, they will tell [Page 251] you that Influence may happen as well to a man, as to a Statue of wood or stone. Therefore the third sort being unsatisfied, which either of the former ways conclude, that this was perform'd by the Devil; but for that it will appear as con­trary to Reason and Philosophy, as either of the former; for Philoso­phy teacheth that things singular, or individual, are to be known only by sense, or by such an Intellect, as doth know by its Essence; and Theology teacheth that God only knoweth the heart, and that the Devil doth not know by sense, nor by essence; and since 'tis admitted by all, that most of the answers that were pretended to be given by those Oracles, were de rebus singu­laribus, or individuis; it is evident that these predictions were not per­form'd by Devils. How then? why those predictions which the igno­rant Heathen took to come from Heaven, and some Christians (not less ignorant) from the Devil, was nothing but the jugling and impo­stures of the Priests, who from with­in [Page 252] the Statua's gave the answers; which Princes connived at, that they might upon occasion serve their turns upon the ignorance of the peo­ple; and the learned men, for fear of their Princes, durst not speak a­gainst it. Lucian hath noted it, and so a more authentic Author, Minut. Felix, in Octav. Authoritatem quasi praesentis numinis consequuntur dum inspirantur interim vatibus. But in process of time, the people grew less credulous of their Priests, and so the Oracles became to be silent: Cum jam (saith he) Apollo versus facere desiisset, cujus tunc cautum il­lud & ambiguum defecit oraculum: Cum & politiores homines & minùs creduli esse coeperunt. Sir H. Blount in his Levantine voyage, saith he saw the Statua of Memnon so famous of old; he saith it was hollow at top, and that he was told by the Egyptians and Jews there with him, that they had seen some enter there, and come out at the Pyramid, two Bows shoot off; then (saith he) I soon believ'd the Oracle, and believe all the rest to have been such; which indeed, [Page 253] is much easier to imagine than that it was perform'd by any of the three ways before mentioned: St. Aug. hath composed a Book, where he handleth this point at large, and con­cludeth that the Devils can no more foretel things to come, than they are able to discern the thoughts that are within us. Aug. lib. de Scientia Dae­mon.

Till I laughed my self out of it with a piece of Justin, where he delivers that the Children of Israel for being scabbed were banished out of Egypt.] These words of Justin are, Sed cum scabiem Aegyptii & pruriginem pate­rentur, responso moniti, eum (sc. Moy­sen) cum aegris, we pestis ad plures ser­peret, terminis Aegypti pellunt. l. 36. But he is not singular in this, for Ta­citus tells us, Hist. lib. 5. Plurimi au­thores consentiunt orta per Aegyptum tabe quae corpora foedaret, Regem (O­chirum) (he means Pharoah) adito Hammonis oraculo remediam petentem purgare Regnum & id genus hominum—alias in terras avertere jussum. Et paulo inferius, Quod ipsos scabies quondam turpaverat.

[Page 254] Sect. 30 Pag. 65 I have ever believed, and do now know that there are Witches.] What sort of Witches they were that the Author knew to be such, I cannot tell; for those which he mentions in the next Section, which proceed upon the principles of Nature, none have denyed that such there are; against such it was, that the Lex Julia de veneficiis was made, that is, those, Qui noxio poculo ant impuris medicaminibus aliquem fuerint in­fectati. Al. ab Alex. Gen. Dier. l. 3. c. 1. But for the opinion that there are Witches which co-operate with the Devil, there are Divines of great note, and far from any suspition of being irreligious, that do oppose it. Certainly there is no ground to maintain their being from the story of Oracles, as may be seen from what hath been said on the precedent Section.

Nor have they power to be so much as Witches.] Pliny saith, so it fared with Nero, who was so hot in pur­suit of the Magick Arts, that he did dedicate himself wholly to it, and [Page 255] yet could never satisfie himself in that kind, though he got all the cunning men he could from the East, for that purpose, Plin. l. 3. Nat. Hist. c. 1.

By conjunction with the Devil.] Though, as the Author saith, it be without a possibility of Generation, yet there are great men that hold, that such carnality is performed; as August. in Levit. Aquin. l▪ 2. de qu. 73. art. ad 2. and Justin Martyr. Apol. 1.

Sect. 33 Pag. 70 It is no new opinion of the Church of Rome, but an old one of Pytha­goras and Plato.] This appears by Apuleius a Platonist, in his Book de Deo Socratis, and elsewhere. See Mede's Apostasie of the latter times, where out of this and other Authors, you shall see collected all the learn­ing de Geniis.

I cannot with those in that great Father securely interpret the work of the first day, Fiat lux, to the creati­on of Angels.] This great Father is S. Chrysost. Homil. in Genes. but yet 'tis his opinion, as also of Atha­nasius and Theodoret, that there is [Page 256] express mention of the creation of Angels, so that they need not rest upon this place, which they admit to be somewhat obscure. The place which they take to be express, is that of the 130 Psalm, where Da­vid begins to speak of the Majesty of God, in this manner: Confessionem sive majestatem & decorem induisti, amictus lumine sicut vestimento: Next he speaks of the Heavens, say­ing, Thou hast stretched them out o­ver us like a Tent. Then he speaks of the Angels, Qui facis Angelos tuos spiritus. Now if it shall be ob­jected, that this expression is onely of the time present, and without relation to the Creation: Answer is given by Divines, that the Hebrews have but three Tenses in their Verbs, the Preterperfect, Present, and Future Tense; and have not the use of the Preterimperfect, and Pre­terpulperfect, as the Greeks and La­tines have; whence it ariseth, that the Present Tense with the Hebrews, may, as the sentence will bear it, be translated by the Preterimperfect, as also by the Preterperfect and Pre­terpluperfect [Page 257] Tense; and this (they say) is practised in this very passage, where the Phrase, as it is in Hebrew, may be rendred as well qui faciebas, as qui facis Angelos, &c. Vid. Hie­ronym. in Ep. ad Titum, & Thom. Aqu. 1. p. qu. 61. art. 3. The Latine Annotator saith, the Father meant by the Author, is St. Aug. and quotes him, l. 11. de Civ. Dei, cap. 9. which place I have perused, and find the expression there used by St. Aug. is but hypothetical; for these are his words: Cum enim dixit Fiat lux & facta est lux, si rectè in hac luce creatio intelligitur Angelo­rum, &c. Where you see 'tis but with a Si, and therefore I conceive the Author intends not him, but Chrysostom.

Where it subsists alone, 'tis a Spi­ritual Substance, and may ne an An­gel,] Epicurus was of this opinion, and St. Aug. in Enchirid. ad Lauren­tium.

Moses decided that Question, and all is salved with the new term of Creation.] That is it which Aristotle could not understand; he had learned [Page 258] that ex nihilo nihil fit, and there­fore when he found those that dis­puted that the World had a begin­ning, did maintain that it was ge­nerated, and he could not under­stand any generation, but out of matter prae-existent in infinitum, therefore he took their opinion to be absurd, and upon that ground principally, concluded the World to be eternal: whereas, if he had un­derstood that there may be such a thing as Creation, he had not done it, for that solves his processus in in­finitum. Take from Plato, that the World had a beginning, and from Aristot. that it was not generated, and you have the (true) Christian opinion.

Sect. 36 Pag. 80 In our study of Anatomy, there is a mass of mysterious Philosophy, and such as reduced the very Heathens to Divinity.] So it did Galen, who considering the order, use, and dis­position of the parts of the body, brake forth into these words: Com­pono hic profecto Canticum in crea­toris nostri laudem, quod ultra res suas ornare voluit meliùs quàm ulla [Page 259] arte possent. Galen. 3. de usu partium.

Sect. 37 Pag. 81 I cannot believe the wisdom of Pythagoras did ever positively, and in a literal sense, affirm his Metem­psychosis.] In this the opinion of Grotius is contrary to the Author, who saith this opinion was begotten by occasion of the opinion of other Philosophers, who in their discourses of the life that is to be after this, brought such arguments, Quae non magis de homine quam de bestiis procedunt. And therefore, saith he, mirandum non est, si transitum animarum de hominibus in bestias, de bestiis in homines alii commenti sunt. Lib. 2. de ver. Relig. Christ. (vide etiam Annotat. ejusd.) But yet there is a shrewd objection against the o­pinion of Pythagoras, if he did mean it literally, which is cast in by the Sectators of Democritus and Epicu­rus, which Lucretius remembers in these Verses:

This Argument, 'tis true, is pro falso contra falsum, but yet holds ad hominem so far, that it is not like­ly (as the Author saith) but Pytha­goras would observe an absurdity in the consequence of his Metem­psychosis; and therefore did not mean it literally, but desired only to express the Soul to be immortal, which he, and the other Philosophers that were of that opinion, who had not heard of Creation, could not conceive, unless it must be taken for truth, that the soul were before the body; so saith Lactantius of them. Non putaverunt aliter fieri posse ut supersint animae post corpora, nisi vi­dentur fuisse ante corpora. De fals. Sap. c. 18.

Sect. 41 Pag. 89 I do not envy the temper of Crows or Daws.] As Theophrastus did, who dying, accused Nature for giving them, to whom it could not be of any concernment, so large a life; and to man, whom it much concern'd, [Page 261] so short a one. Cic. Tusc. quaest. l. 3. How long Daws live, see in Not. ad Sect. 41.

Sect. 42 Pag. 91 Not upon Cicero's ground, because I have liv'd them well.] I suppose he alludes to an expression in an E­pistle of Cicero, written in his Exile, to his wife and children, where he hath these words to his wife: Quod reliquum est, te sustenta mea Terentia ut potes, honestissime viximus, florui­mus. Non vitium nostrum sed virtus nos afflixit, peccatum est nullum nisi quod non unà animum cum ornamentis amisimus, l. 24. Ep. 4.

And stand in need of Eson's Bath before threescore.] Eson was the Father of Jason, and, at his request, was by Medea, by the means of this Bath, restored to his youth. Ingre­dients that went into it, and the de­scription of Medea's performance Ovid gives you, l. 7. Metam.

Sect. 44 Pag. 94 Extol the Suicide of Cato.] As doth Seneca in several places; but Lactantius saith, he cast away his [Page 263] life, to get the reputation of a Plato­nick Philosopher, and not for fear of Caesar; and 'tis very probable he was in no great fear of death, when he slept so securely the night before his death, as the story reports of him.

Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihil curo. Were I of Caesar's Religi­on.] I doubt not but here is a fault of the Press, and that instead of Caesar it should be Cicero. I meet not with a­ny such saying imputed to Caesar, nor any thing like it, but that he preferr'd a sudden death, (in which he had his option) to any other; but I meet with such a saying in Cicero, quoted out of Epicharmus [Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum nihili aestimo.] Where Cicero sustaineth the part of the Epicure, that there is no hurt in being dead, since there remaineth nothing after it. Cic. 1. Thusc. qu. non procul ab initio.

Sect. 45 Pag. 98 Or whence Lucan learn'd to say,Communis mundo superest rogus, &c.] Why, Lucan was a Stoique, and 'twas an opinion among them almost ge­nerally, that the World should perish by fire; therefore without doubt [Page 263] from them he learned it. Coelum quoque cum omnibus quae in coelo con­tinentur, ita ut coepisset desinere, fontium dulci aqua marisve nutriri in vim ignis abiturum. Stoicis con­stans opinio est, quod consumpto hu­more mundus hic omnis ignescat. Minutius in Octav. But Minutius should have excepted Boetius, Possi­donius, Diogenes Babylonius, and Zeno Sidonius, who were Stoiques, and yet did not think the World should be destroyed by fire; nor yet by any other means.

Sect. 46 Pag. 99 How shall we interpret Elias 6000 years, &c.] Lanctant. is very positive that the World should last but 6000 years; but his reason for it is some­what strange; thus it is, Quoniam sex diebus cuncta Dei opera perfecta sunt, per secula sex, i. e. annorum sex millia manere in hoc statu mun­dum necesse est. De Divino praemio, cap. 14.

Sect. 47 Pag. 101 Ipsa sui pretium virtus sibi, is but a cold principle.] It is a Stoical princi­ple. Quaeris enim aliquid supra sum­mum, interrogas quid petam extra virtutem ipsam. Nihil enim habet [Page 264] melius pretium sui est. Senec. de vit. beat. c. 9.

That honest artifice of Seneca.] What that artifice was, is to be seen in Senec. l. 1. Ep. Ep. 11. Aliquis vir bonus nobis eligendus est, & semper ante oculos habendus, ut sic tanquam illo spectante vivamus & omnia tan­quam illo vidente faciamus. Et Paulo post; Elige ita (que) Catonem; si hic vi­detur tibi nimis rigidus, elige remis­sioris animi virum Loelium, &c. which though, as the Author saith, it be an honest Artifice, yet cannot I but commend the party, and prefer the direction of him (who ever he were) who in the Margin of my Seneca, over against those words, wrote these: Quin Deo potius qui sem­per omnibus omnia agentibus non tan­quam sed reipsa adest, & videt; ac etiam ut Testis, vindex & punitor est malè agentis.

I have tryed, if I could reach that great Resolution of his (that is of Se­neca) to be honest without a thought of Heaven or Hell.]Tho. A­quin. in com. in Bo­et. de Con­solat prope [...]inam. Seneca brags he could do this, in these words: Si s [...]irem deos peccata ignoscituros, & [Page 266] homines ignoraturos adhuc propter vi­litatem peccati peccare erubescerem. Credat Judaeus appella; non ego.—

And Atheists have been the onely Philosophers.] That is, if nothing re­main after this life. St. Aug. was of this opinion. Disputabam—Epicu­rum accepturum fuisse palmam in animo meo, nisi ego credidissem post mortem restare animae vitam, &c. Aug. l. 6. conf. cap. 16.

Sect. 48 Pag. 104 God by a powerful voice shall com­mand them back into their proper shapes.] So Minutius. Caeterum quis tam stultus est aut brutus, ut audeat repugnare hominem à Deo ut primum potuit fingi, ita posse denuo refor­mari, nihil esse post obitum, & an­te ortum nihil fuisse; sicut de nihilo nasci licuit, ita de nihilo licere re­parari. Porro difficilius est id quod sit incipere, quod quam id quod fuerit iterare. Tu perire Deo credis, si quid nostris oculis hebetibus subtrahitur. Corpus omne sive arescit in pulverem sive in humorem solvitur, vel in cine­rem comprimitur, vel in nidorem te­nuatur, subducitur nobis, sed Deo elementorum in custodi inseruntur▪ [Page 267] in Octav. Vide Grot. de veritate Re­lig. Christian. ubi (lib. 2.) solvit obje­ctionem, quod dissoluta corpora restitui nequeunt.

Sect. 50 Pag. 109 Or conceive a flame that can either prey upon, or purifie the substance of a soul.] Upon this ground Psellus lib. 1. de energia Daemonum, c. 7. holds, That Angels have bodies, (though he grants them to be as pure, or more pure than Air is) o­therwise he could not apprehend how they should be tormented in Hell; and it may be upon this ground it was, that the Author fell into the error of the Arabians, mentioned by him, Sect. 7.

Sect. 51 Pag. 112 There are as many Hells as Anax agoras conceited Worlds.] I assure my self that this is false printed, and that instead of Anaxagoras it should be Anaxarchus; for Anaxagoras is reckon'd amongst those Philoso­phers that maintain'd a Unity of the World, but Anaxarchus (accord­ing to the opinion of Epicurus) held there were infinite Worlds. This is he that caus'd Alexander to weep by telling him there were infinite [Page 268] Worlds, whereby Alexander it seems was brought out of opinion of his Geography, who before that time thought there remained nothing, or not much beyond his Conquests.

Sect. 54 Pag. 11 It is hard to place those Souls in Hell.] Lactantius is alike charita­bly disposed towards those. Non sum equidem tam iniquus ut eos pu­tem divinare debuisse, ut veritatem per seipsos invenirent (quod fieri ego non posse confiteor) sed hoc ab eis exi­go, quod ratione ipsa praestare potue­runt. Lactant. de orig. error. c. 3. which is the very same with Sir K. Digbie's expression in his Observati­ons on this place. I make no doubt at all (saith he) but if any follow'd in the whole tenour of their lives the dictaments of right reason, but that their journey was secure to Heaven.

Sect. 55 Pag. 118 Aristotle transgress'd the Rule of his own Ethicks.] And so they did all, as Lactantius hath observed at large. Aristotle is said to have been guilty of great vanity in his Clothes, of Incontinency, of Unfaithfulness to his Master Alexander, &c. But 'tis to wonder in him, if our great Se­neca [Page 269] be also guilty, whom truely notwithstanding St. Jerome would have him inserted into the Cata­logue of Saints, yet I think he as lit­tle deserv'd it, as many of the Hea­thens who did not say so well as he did, for I do not think any of them lived worse: to trace him a little. In the time of the Emperour Clau­dius we find he was banish'd for su­spicion of incontinency with Julia the daughter of Germanicus. If it be said that this proceeded meerly from the spight of Messalina, (and that Lipsius did not complement with him in that kind Apostrophe, Non expetit in te haec culpa, O Roma­ni nominis & sapientiae magnae Sol. Not. in Tacit.) why then did she not cause him to be put to death, as well as she did the other, who was her Husband's Niece? This for certain, whatever his life were, he had pagi­nam lascivam, as may appear by what he hath written, de Speculorum usu, l. 1. Nat. Qu. cap. 16. Which (ad­mitting it may in a Poet, yet) how it should be excus'd in a Philoso­pher I know not. To look upon him [Page 270] in his exile, we find that then he wrote his Epistle De Consolat. to Polybius, Claudius his creature (as honest a man as Pallas or Narcissus) and therein he extols him and the Emperour to the Skies; in which he did grosly prevaricate, and lost much of his reputation, by seeking a discharge of his Exile by so sordid a means. Upon Claudius his mar­riage with Agrippina, he was re­call'd from Banishment by her means and made Praetor; then he forgets the Emperour, having no need of him, labours all he can to depress him, and the hopeful Britannicus, and procured his Pupil Nero to be adopted and design'd Successor, and the Emperour's own Son to be dis­inherited; and against the Empe­rour whom he so much praised when he had need of him, after his death he writes a scurrillous Libel. In Nero's Court, how ungratefully doth he behave himself towards Agrippina! who although she were a wicked wo­man, yet she deserv'd well of him, and of her Son too, who yet never was at rest till he had taken away her [Page 271] life, and upon suspicion cast in a­gainst her by this man. Afterwards not to mention that he made great haste to grow rich, which should not be the business of a Philosopher, towards Nero himself, how well did it become his Philosophy to play the Traitor against him, and to become a complice in the Conspiracy of Piso? And then as good a Tragedi­an as he was, me thinks he doth in extremo actu deficere, when he must needs perswade Paulina, that excel­lent Lady his wife, to die with him: what should move him to desire it? it could in his opinion be no advan­tage to her, for he believ'd nothing of the immortality of the Soul; I am not satisfied with the reason of Tacitus, Ne sibi unicê dilectam ad in­jurias relinqueret, because he discre­dits it himself in almost the next words, where he saith, Nero bore her no ill will at all, (and would not suf­fer her to die) it must surely be then, because he thought he had not liv'd long enough (being not above 114 years old, so much he was) and had not the fortitude to die, unless [Page 272] he might receive some confirmation in it by her example. Now let any man Judg what a precious Legacy it is that he bequeaths by his nun­cupative Will to his friends in Taci­tus. Conversus ad amicos (saith he) quando meritis eorum referre grati­am prohiberetur, quod unum jam ta­men & pulcherrimum habebat, ima­ginem vitae suae relinquere testatur. It cannot be denyed of him, that he hath said very well; but yet it must as well be affirmed, that his Practice hath run counter to his Theory, to use the Author's phrase.

The Scepticks that affirmed they knew nothing.] The ancient Philo­sophers are divided into three sorts, Dogmatici, Academici, Sceptici; the first were those that delivered their opinions positively; the second left a liberty of disputing pro & contra; the third declared that there was no knowledg of any thing, no not of this very proposition, that there is no knowledge, according to that,

[Page 273] The Duke of Venice that weds himself to the Sea by a Ring of Gold, &c.] The Duke and Senate yearly on Ascension day use to go in their best attire to the Haven at Lio, and there by throwing a Ring into the water, do take the Sea as their spouse. Vid. Hist. Ital. by Will. Thomas Cam­bro brit. Busbequius reports, that there is a custom among the Turks, which they took from the Greek Priests, not much unlike unto this. Cum Graecorum Sacer dotibus mos sit certo veris tempore aquas consecrando mare clausum veluti reserare, ante quod tempus non facile se committunt flucti­bus; ab ea ceremonia nec Turcae absunt. Busb. Ep. 3. legat. Tursic.

But the Philosopher that threw his money into the Sea to avoid Avarice, &c.] This was Apollonius Thyaneus, who threw a great quantity of Gold into the Sea with these words, Pes­sundo divitias, ne pessundare ab illis. Polycrates the Tyrant of Samos cast the best Jewel he had into the Sea, that thereby he might learn to com­pose himself against the vicissitude of Fortune.

[Page 274] There go so many circumstances to piece up one good action.] To make an action to be good, all the causes that concur must be good; but one bad amongst many good ones, is e­nough to make it vitious, according to the rule, Bonum ex causa integra, malum ex partiali.

Sect. 56 Pag. 121 The vulgarity of those Judgments that wrap the Church of God in Stra­bo's Cloak, and restrain it unto Eu­rope.] 'Tis Strabonis Tunica in the Translation, but Chlamydi would do better, which is the proper expres­sion of the word that Strabo useth: it is not Europe, but the known part of the World that Strabo resembleth to a Cloak, and that is it the Author here alludeth to; but we have no reason to think that the resemblance of Strabo is very proper. Vid. Sir Hen. Savil in not. ad Tac. in vita Agricolae.

Sect. 57 Pag. 123 Those who upon a rigid application of the Law, sentence Solomon unto damnation, &c. [St. Aug. upon Psal. 126. and in many other places, holds that Solomon is damned; Of the same opinion is Lyra, in 2 Reg. c. 7. & Bellarm. 1. Tom. lib. 1. Controv. c. 5.

THE SECOND PART.

Sect. 2 Pag. 127 I Wonder not at the French for their Frogs, Snails, and Toad-stools.] Toad-stools are not peculiar to the French; they were a great delicacy among the Romans, as appears every where in Martial. It was conceived the Emperour Claudius received his death by Poyson, which he took in a Mushroom. Suet. and Tac.

Sect. 1 Pag. 130 How among so many millions of faces, there should be none alike.] It is reported, there have been some so much alike, that they could not be distinguished; as King Antiochus, and one Antemon, a Plebeian of Sy­ria, were so much alike, that Lao­dice, the King's Widow, by pretend­ing this man was the King, dissem­bled the death of the King so long, [Page 276] till according to her own mind a Successor was chosen. Cn. Pompeius, and one Vibius the Orator; C. Plan­cus, and Rubrius the Stage-player; Cassius Severus the Orator, and one Mirmello; M. Messala Censorius, and one Menogenes, were so much alike, that unless it were by their habit, they could not be distinguish­ed: but this you must take upon the faith of Pliny, (lib. 7. c. 12.) and Solinus, (cap. 6.) who as this Author tells elsewhere, are Authors not very infallible.

Sect. 3 Pag. 138 What a [...] and hot skirmish is between S. and T. in Lu­cian,] In his Dialogue, judicium vocalium, where there is a large Oration made to the Vowels, being Judges, by Sigma against Tau, com­plaining that Tau has bereaved him of many words which should begin with Sigma.

Their Tongues are sharper than Actius his Razor.] Actius Navius was chief Augur, who (as the Story saith) admonishing Tarqu. Priscus that he should not undertake any action of moment, without first [Page 277] consulting the Augur, the King (shewing that he had little faith in his skill) demanded of him whether by the rules of his skill, what he had conceived in his mind might be done: to whom when Actius had answered it might be done, he bid him take a Whetstone which he had in his hand, and cut it in two with a Razor, which accordingly the Augur did. Livy. And therefore we must conceive it was very sharp. Here the Adage was cross'd, [...], i. e. novacula in cotem. Vid. Erasm. Chiliad.

It is not meer Zeal to Learning, or devotion to the Muses, that wiser Princes patronize the Arts, &c. but a desire to have their names eter­niz'd by the memory of their Wri­tings.] There is a great Scholar, who took the boldness to tell a Prince so much. Est enim bonorum principum cum viris eruditis tacita quaedam naturalisque Societas, ut alteri ab alteris illustrentur, ac dum sibi mutuò suffragantur, & gloria principibus, & doctis authoritas con­cilietur. Politian. Ep. Ludovic. [Page 278] Sfort. quae extat▪ lib. 11. Ep. ep. 1. And to this Opinion astipulates a Countryman of our own, whose words are these: Ignotius esset Lu­cilius, nisi eum Epistolae Senecae illu­strarent. Laudibus Caesareis plus Vir­gilius & Varus Lucanusque adjece­runt, quam immensum illud aerarium quo Vrbem & Orbem spoliavit. Ne­mo prudentiam Ithaci aut Pelidae vi­res agnosceret, nisi eas Homerus di­vino publicasset ingenio: unde nihil mihi videtur consultius viro ad glo­riam properanti fidelium favore Scrip­torum. Joan. Sarisb. Polycrat. l. 8. c. 14. And that Princes are as much beholding to the Poets pens as their own Swords, Horace tells Censorinus with great confidence. Od. 8. l. 4. Non incisa notis &c.

Sect. 4 Pag. 140 St. Paul that calls the Cretians Lyars, doth it but indirectly, and upon quotation of one of their own Poets.] That is, Epimenides; the place is, Tit. 1. v. 12. where Paul useth this verse, taken out of Epi­menides.

[...] .

[Page 279] It is as bloody a thought in one way, as Nero's was in another. For by a word we wound a thousand.] I suppose he alludes to that passage in Sueton. in the life of Nero, where he re­lates that a certain person upon a time, spoke in his hearing these words.

[...]. i. e. When I am dead let Earth be mingled with Fire. Whereupon the Emperour uttered these words, [...], i. e. Yea whilst I live: there by one word, he express'd a cruel thought, which I think is the thing he meant; this is more cruel than the wish of Caligula, that the people of Rome had but one Neck, that he might destroy them all at a blow.

Sect. 6 Pag. 147 I cannot believe the story of the Italian, &c.] It is reported that a certain Italian having met with one that had highly provoked him, put a Ponyard to his breast, and unless he would blaspheme God, told him he would kill him; which the other doing to save his life, the Italian presently kill'd him, to the intent [Page 280] he might be damned, having no time of Repentance.

I have no sins that want a Name.] The Author in cap. ult. lib. ult. Pseu­dodox. speaking of the Act of carna­lity exercised by the Egyptian Pol­linctors with the dead carcasses, saith we want a name for this, wherein neither Petronius nor Mar­tial can relieve us; therefore I con­ceive the Author here means a vene­real sin.

This was the Temper of that Lea­cher that carnal'd with a Statua.) The Latine Annotator upon this hath these words; Romae refertur de Hispano quodam. But certainly the Author means the Statue of Ve­nus Gnidia made by Praxiteles, of which a certain young man became so enamoured, that Pliny relates, Ferunt amore captum cum delituisset noctu simulachro cohaesisse, ejusque cupi­ditatis esse indicem maculum. Lucian also has the story in his Dialog. [Amores.]

And the constitution of Nero in his Spintrian recreations.] The Au­thor doth not mean the last Nero, [Page 281] but Tiberius the Emperour, whose name was Nero too; of whom Sueton. Secessu verò Capreensi etiam sellariam excogitavit sedem arcanarum libidi­num, in quam undique conquisiti puel­larum & exoletorum greges monstrosi­que concubitus repertores, quos spintri­as appellabat, triplici serie connexi invicem incestarent se coram ipso, ut adspectu deficientes libidines excita­ret. Suet. in Tib. 43.

Sect. 8 Pag. 151 I have seen a Grammarian toure and plume himself over a single line in Horace, and shew more pride, &c. Movent mihi stomachum Gramma­tistae quidam, qui cum duas tenuerint vocabulorum origines ita se osten­tant ita venditant, ita circumfe­runt jactabundi, ut prae ipsis pro nihilo habendos Philosophos arbitren­tur. Picus Mirand. in Ep. ad Hermol­Barb, quae extat lib. onon Epist. Politian.

[Page 282] I cannot think that Homer pin'd away upon the Riddle of the Fisher­men.] The History out of Plutarch is thus: Sailing from Thebes to the Island Ion, being landed and set down upon the shore, there happen'd certain Fishermen to pass by him, and he asking them what they had taken, they made him this Enigma­tical answer, That what they had taken, they had left behind them; and what they had not taken, they had with them: meaning, that be­cause they could take no Fish, they went to loose themselves; and that all which they had taken, they had killed, and left behind them; and all which they had not taken, they had with them in their clothes: and that Homer being struck with a deep sadness because he could not inter­pret this, pin'd away, and at last dy­ed. Pliny alludes to this Riddle, in his Ep. to his Friend Fuscus, where giving an account of spending his time in the Country, he tells him, Venor aliquando, sed non sine pugillari­bus, ut quamvis nihil ceperim, non ni­hil referam. Plin. Ep. lib. 9. Ep. 36.

[Page 283] Or that Aristot.—did ever drown himself upon the flux or re­flux of Euripus.] Laertius reports that Aristotle dyed of a disease at 63—years of age. For this and the last, see the Author in Pseudo­dox.

Aristotle doth but instruct us as Pla­to did him, to confute himself.] In the matter of Idea's, Eternity of the World, &c.

Sect. 9 Pag. 154 I could be content that we might procreate like trees without conjun­ction, or that there were any way to perpetuate the World without this trivial and vulgar way of Coition: It is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life.] There was a Physitian long before the Author, that was of the same opinion, Hip­pocrates; for which vide Agel. l. 19. Noct. Attic. c. 2. And so of late time was Paracelsus, who did un­dertake to prescribe a way for the generation of a man without coiti­on. Vide Campanel de sensu rerum, in Append. ad cap. 19. l. 4. Monsieur Montaignes words on this subject, are [Page 284] worth the reading; these they are Je trouve apres tout, que l'amour n'st autre chose que la faim de cette jouyssance, & considerant maintes­fois ridicule titillation de se plaiser par cu il nous tient, les absurdes mo­vements, escervelez & estourdis de­quoy il agit Zenon & Cratippus, ceste rage indiscrete, ce visage in­flammè de fureur & de cruante au plus doux effect de l'amour, & puis cette morgue grave severe & extati­que en une action si folle, & que la supreme volupte aye du trainsy & du plaintiff commer la doleur, je croye qu'au se joue de nous, & que c'est par industrie que nature nous a laisse la plus trouble de nos actions les plus communes pour nous esgaller par la & apparier les fols & les sages: & nous & les bestes, le plus contemplatif & prudent homme quand je l'imagin en cette assiette je le tien pour un affronteur, de faire le prudent & le contemplatiff, ce sont les pieds du paon qui abbatent son or­gueil, nous mangeous bien & bea­vous comme les bestes, mais ce ne sont [Page 285] pas actions, qui empeschent les ope­rations de nostro ame, en celles-la nous gradous nostre advantage sur elles: cettecy met tout autre pensee sans le joug abrutist & abesiit par­son imperieuse authoritè taute la Theology & Philosophy, qui est en Platon & si il ne sen plaint pas, par tout ailleurs vous pouvez garder quelque decence toutes autres opera­tions souffrent des Regles d' honestete cettecy ne se peut seulement imaginer que vitieuse ou ridicule trouvezy pourvoir un proceder sage & discret. Alexander disoit qu'il se cognossoit principalement mortel par cette acti­on & par le dormir: le sommeil suffoque & supprime les facultez de nostre ame, la besoigne les absorbe & dissipe de mesme. Certes c'est une marque non seulement de nostre cor­ruption originelle, mais ausi de nostre vanite & disformite. D'um coste nature nous y pousse ayant attache a ce desire la plus noble, utile & plaisante de toutes ses operations, & la nous laisse d▪ autre part accusar & fuyr romme insolent & [Page 286] dishoneste, en rougir & cecommander l' abstinence, &c. Montaign liv. 3. chapit. 5.

Sect. 10 Pag. 159 And may be inverted on the worst.] That is, that there are none so abandoned to vice, but they have some sprinklings of vertue. There are scarce any so vitious, but com­mend virtue in those that are endued with it, and do some things lauda­ble themselves, as Plin. saith in Pane­gyric. Machiavel upon Livy, lib. 1. cap. 27. sets down the ensuing rela­tion as a notable confirmation of this truth. Julius Pontifex, ejus nominis secundus, anno salutis 1505. Bononiam exercitus duxit, ut Ben­tivolorum familiam, quae ejus urbis imperium centum jam annos tenu­erat, loco moveret. Eademque in expeditione etiam Johannem Pago­lum, Bagloneum tyrannum Perusi­num sua sede expellere decreverat, ut caeteros item, qui urbes Ecclesiae per vim tenerent. Ejus rei causa cùm ad Perusinam urbem accessisset, & notum jam omnibus esset quid in animo haberet: tamen impa­tiens [Page 287] morae, noluit exercitus ex­pectare, sed inermis quasi urbem ingressus est, in quam Johannes Pagolus defendendi sui causa, non exiguas copias contraxerat. Is au­tem eodem furore, quo res suas administrare solebat, unà cum milite, cui custodiam sui corporis demandarat, sese in pontificis po­testatem dededit; à quo abductus est relictusque alius, qui Ecclesiae nomine urbem gubernaret. Hac ipsa in re magnopere admirati sunt viri sapientes, qui Pontificem comitaban­tur, cum Pontificis ipsius temerita­tem, cum adjectum vilemque Jo­hannis Pagoli animum: nec cau­sam intelligebant, ob quam per­motus idem Pagolus, hostem suum inermem (quod illi cum perpetua nominis sui memoria facere licebat) non subitò oppresserit, & tam pre­tiosa spolia diripuerit; cum Pontifex urbem ingressus fuisset, Cardinalibus tantum suis stipatus, qui pretiosis­simas quasque suarum rerum secum ha­bebant. Neque enim credebatur Pago­lus a tanto facinore vel sua bonitate, [Page 288] vel animi conscientia abstinuisse: quod in hominem sceleratum, qui & propria sorore utebatur, & conso­brinos nepotesque dominandi causa è medio sustulerat hujusmodi pii af­fectus cadere non viderentur. Cum igitur hac de re variae essent sapi­entum virorum sententiae; conclu [...]e­runt tandem id ei accidisse, quod ita comparatum sit, ut homines neque plane pravi esse queant, neque per­fecte boni. Pravi perfecte esse ne­queant, propterea quòd, ubi tale quod­dam scelus est, in quo aliquid mag­nifici ac generosi insit, id patrare non audeant. Nam cum Pagolus neque incestum priùs horruisset, neque patricidio abstinuisset: tamen cum oblata esset occasio, pravi quidem sed memorabilis, atque aeternae memoriae facinoris patrandi, id attentare non ausus fuit, cum id sine infamia prestare licuisset, quod rei magnitudo omnia priora scelera obtegere potu­isset, & à periculo conservare. Qui­bus accedit, quod illi gratulati fuissent etiam quam plurimi, si primis ausus esset Pontificibus monstrare [Page 289] rationem dominandi; totiusque hu­manae vitae usum ab illis nimis parvi pendi.

Poysons contain within themselves their own Antidote.] The Poyson of a Scorpion is not Poyson to it self, nor the Poyson of a Toad is not Poyson to it self; so that the sucking out of Poyson from persons infected by Psylls, (who are conti­nually nourished with venemous aliment) without any prejudice to themselves, is the less to be wondred at.

The man without a Navil yet lives in me.] The Latine Annotator hath explicated this by Homo non perfectus, by which it seems he did not comprehend the Author's mean­ing; for the Author means Adam, and by a Metonymie original sin; for the Navil being onely of use to attract the aliment in utero materno, and Adam having no mother, he had no use of a Navil, and therefore it is not to be conceived he had any; and upon that ground the Author calls him the man without a Navil.

[Page 290] Sect. 11 Pag. 125 Our grosser memories have then so little hold of our abstracted under­standings, that they forget the story, and can onely relate to our awaked senses a confused and broken tale of that that hath pass'd.] For the most part it is so. In regard of the Au­thor's expression of forgetting the story, though otherwise it be not very pertinent to this place, I shall set down a relation given by an English Gentleman, of two dreams that he had, wherein he did not for­get the story, but (what is more strange) found his dreams verified. This it is.

Whilst I lived at Prague, and one night had sit up very late drink­ing at a feast, early in the morning the Sun beams glancing on my face, as I lay in my bed, I dreamed that a shadow passing by told me that my Father was dead; at which awaking all in a sweat, and affected with this dream, I rose and wrote the day and hour, and all circumstances thereof in a Paper book, which book with many other things I put into [Page 291] a Barrel, and sent it from Prague to Stode, thence to be conveyed into England. And now being at Nu­renburgh, a Merchant of a noble Family well acquainted with me and my friends, arrived there, who told me my Father dyed some two months ago. I list not to write any lyes, but that which I write, is as true as strange. When I returned into England some four years after, I would not open the Barrel I sent from Prague, nor look into the Pa­per book in which I had written this dream, till I had called my Sisters and some friends to be witnesses, where my self and they were asto­nished to see my written dream answer the very day of my Father's death.

I may lawfully swear that which my Kinsman hath heard witnessed by my brother Henry whilst he lived, that in my youth at Cambridge, I had the like dream of my Mother's death, where my brother Henry li­ving with me, early in the morning I dreamed that my Mother passed [Page 292] by with a sad countenance, and told me that she could not come to my Commencement: I being within five months to proceed Master of Arts, and she having promised at that time to come to Cambridge. And when I related this dream to my brother, both of us awaking toge­ther in a sweat, he protested to me that he had dreamed the very same: and when we had not the least knowledge of our Mothers sickness, neither in our youthful affections were any whit affected with the strangeness of this dream, yet the next Carrier brought us word of our Mothers death. Mr. Fiennes Mori­son in his Itinerary. I am not over credulous of such relations, but me thinks the circumstance of publishing it at such a time, when there were those living that might have dis­prov'd it, if it had been false, is a great argument of the truth of it.

Sect. 12 Pag. 166 I wonder the fancy of Lucan and Seneca did not discover it.] Eor they had both power from Nero to chuse their deaths.

[Page 293] Sect. 13 Pag. 169 To conceive our selves Vrinals is not so ridiculous.] Reperti sunt Galeno & Avicenna testibus qui se vasa ficti­lia crederent, & idcirco hominum at­tactum ne confringerentur solicite fu­gerent. Pontan. in Attic. bellar. (Hist. 22.) Which proceeds from extremi­ty of melancholy.

Aristot. is too severe, that will not allow us to be truely liberal without wealth,] Aristot. l. 1. Ethic. c. 8.

Sect. 15 Pag. 174 Thy will be done though in mine own undoing.]] This should be the wish of every man, and is of the most wise and knowing. Le Christien plus humble & plus sage & meux re­cognoissant que c'est que de lay se rap­porte a son createur de choisir & or­donner ce qu'el luy faqt. Il ne le sup­plie dautre chose que sa volunte sort faite. Montaign.