Concerning the Truth of Christian Religion, Chapter 7
The vij. Chapter.
That the World had a beginning.
LEt vsus now retyre backe againe from this bottomlesse gulfe; for the thing that is vnpossible to be sounded is vnpossible to be knowen. And séeing that our eysight cānot abyde the brightnesse of so great a light; let it content vsus to beholde it in the shadowe. Now, this sensible world wherein we dwell, is (as the Platonists terme it) the shadow of the world that is subiect to vnderstanding: for certesse it cannot be called an Image thereof, no more than the buylding of a Maystermason is the Image of his mynd. And yet for all the greatnesse, beautie, and light which wee see therein, I cannot tell whether the woord shadowe doe throughly fit it or no, considering that shadowes hauehave some measure in respect of their bodies, but betwéene finite and infinite is no proportionable resemblance at all. We that are héere in the world, doe woonder at it, and we would thinke wee did amisse if we should beléeue that any thing is better or more beautifull than that. For our flesh and complexions are proportioned after the Elements thereof, and to the things which it bringeth foorth, as our eyes vntounto the light thereof, and all our sences too the sensible nature thereof: and those which are of the world seeke but onelyonly to content the sensualitie that is in them. But as we hauehave a Mynd, so also let vsus beléeue that the same is not without his obiect or matter to rest vponupon. And as the sencelesse things serue the things that hauehave sence; so let vsus make the sensible things to serue the Mynd, and the Mynd it selfe to serue him by whom it is and vnderstandeth. My meaning is, that wee should not wonder at the world for the worlds sake it selfe, but rather at the woorkemaister and author of the world. For it were too manifest a childishnes to woonder at a portraiture made by a Peinter, and not to woonder much more at the Peynter himselfe.
Now the first consideration that offereth it selfe to the beholder of this woorke, is whether it hath had a beginning or no: a question which were perchaunce vnnecessarie in this behalfe, if eueryevery man would consult with his owne Reason, whereunto nothing is more repuguant, than to thinke an eternitie to bee in things which wee not onelyonly perceiue with our sences, but also doe sée to perish. Howbeit forasmuch as the world speaketh (sayth the Psalmist) both in all Languages and to all Nations: let vsus examine it, both whole together, and according to the seuerall parts thereof.The world it selfe telleth vsus that it had a beginning. For it may be that the worldlings (if they distrust their owne record) will at leastwise admit that which the world it selfe shall depose thereof. Let vsus then examine the Elements all together: they passe from one into another; the Earth into Water, the Water into Ayre, and Ayre into Water againe, and so foorth. Now this intercourse cannot be made but in tyme, and tyme is a measuring of mouing, and where measure is, there can be no eternitie. Let vsus examine thē seuerally: The Earth hath his seasons, after Springtime commeth Sommer, after Sommer succeedeth Haruest, and after Haruest followeth Winter. The Sea hath his continuall ebbing and flowing, which goeth increasing and decreasing by certeyne measures. Diuers Riuers, and especially Nyle, hauehave their increasings at certeyne seasons, and to a certeyne measure of Cubits. The Ayre also hath his Windes, which doe one while cléere it and another while trubble it: and the same Windes doe reigne by turnes, blowing sometime from the East, and sometime from the West; sometime from the North and sometime from the South. And vppon them dependeth Rayne and faire wether, Stormes and Calmes. These interchaunges which are wrought by turnes cannot bee without beginning. For where order is, there is a formernesse and an afternesse, and all chaunge is a kind of mouing, insomuch that the alterations which are made successiuely one after another, must of necessitie hauehave had a beginning at some poynt or other; on the Land, by some one of the Seasons; on the Sea, by ebbing and flowing; and in the Ayre, by North or by South; and so foorth. For if they began not at any one poynt, then could they not hold out vntounto an other poynt. The Land then by his Seasons, the Ayre by his chaunges, and the Sea by his Tydes, ceasse not to crye out and to preach vntounto all that hauehave eares to heare, that there is no euerlastingnesse in them, but that they hauehave had a beginning all of them. Againe, when we consider that the Earth receyueth his Seasons from the Sunne, the Sea his Tydes from the Moone, & the Ayre his Windes from an outward power that is vnseene: ought wée not to seeke the beginning thereof aboue and not beneath, without them and not within them, seeing that nothing héere belowe hath mouing of it selfe? And if the Elements which are accounted for the very grounds and beginnings of things, acknowledge a beginning of their mouings; ought we not to acknowledge ye same in all other things? Again, if we consider how this Moone which maketh the Tydes in the Sea, hath no light but from the Sunne which maketh the Seasons on the Earth; doe we not conclude by and by, that the Seasons of the Earth, and the Tydes of the Sea, and the continnall chaunges, mouings, and (as ye would say) backebreathings of the Elements, hauehave one commō beginning? But it may bee that these mouings hauehave place but onelyonly vnderunder the Moone, and not in that fifth Quintessence of the Heauen, the substantialnesse and eternitie whereof Aristotle doth so highly commend. Nay, what if the higher wee mount vp, they proclayme their beginning still the lowder? What if the thing which we most chiefly wonder at in the Heauen, be most repugnant to eternitie? The Sunne maketh there his naturall course in the Zodiacke betwéene the two Tropicks or Turnepoynts, so as the Zodiacke is as it were his race, and the Tropicks are his vtmost listes, both the which are so distinguished by degrées and minutes, that hee cannot passe one hearebredth beyond them. The poynts of his two stops are his vtmost bounds, the which so soone as he commeth at, by and by he turneth head back againe. Must he not thē néedes hauehave had a place to set out from, seeing he hath a place whereat to stop? EueryEvery fower and twentie howers hee is caryed from East to West by the mouing of the Skye: and like as by his natural mouing he maketh the Sommer and the Winter; so by this violent moouing he maketh Day and Night. Can such succession of tymes and Seasons be made otherwise than in tyme, or rather be any other thing than tyme? The Moone likewise finisheth her course eueryevery MonethMonth: we see how she chaungeth, groweth, becommeth full, and waneth. EueryEvery Planet hath his prefixed tyme and his ordinary course. To be short, men see the rising and the going downe of the Starres, and likewise their appearing and their tarying out of sight: and the very Heauen it selfe which with himselfe caryeth all the rest about, doth it not but by moouing. Now whatsoeuer is moued, is moued in tyme; and all goings or whéelings about, must néeds begin at some one poynt; like as in the drawing of a Circle, the one shanke. of the Compasses is set fast in some place, and the other shanke is caryed round about. What followeth the…, but that the mouing of the Heauen and of al the things which the Heauen beareth and caryeth about, hath had a beginning? Then let vsus not wonder at the brightnesse and light thereof as Aristotle did; for that bewrayeth the matter so much the more apparantly, in that it hath not that light but by distribution of mouing; nor at his perpetuall mouing, for that sheweth the more his streyt seruice whereto he is subiect; nor at his Constancie, for that is necessitie; nor at his huge greatnesse, for he is so much the more hugely bowed downe. Surely the Skye is as the great whéele of a Clocke, which sheweth the Planets, the Signes, the howers, and the Tydes, eueryevery one in their tyme, and that which seemeth to be his chiefe wonder, proueth him to bee subiect to tyme, yea and to bee the very instrument of tyme. Now, seeing he is an instrument, there is a Worker that putteth him to vse, a Clockkéeper that ruleth him, a Mynd that was the first procurer of his mouing. For eueryevery instrument, how mouable so euer it be, is but a dead thing so farre foorth as it is but an instrument, if it hauehave not life and mouing from some other thing than it it selfe.An obiection. Yea, but (will some man say) the Heauen goeth about continually; and in so many worlds and ages as hauehave bin, we perceiue no alteration at all. Wretched man that thou art! Thy Hart and thy Lights also hauehave a continuall mouing, and neuer lye still; and thou, with all the witte thou hast, canst neither increase it nor restreine it. The Phisitions themselues feele it, but can find no cause of it. The Philosophers ouertyre themselues in seeking it, and yet canst thou not tell the ende and the beginning thereof. Doest not thou things thy selfe which men as thou art doe déeme to be without end, as straunge Milles and Trindles, and such other kind of selfmouings, of whose beginnings not euen Children are ignorant? And yet vnderunder colour that the great whéele of Heauen hath now of long tyme turned about without ceasing, wilt thou be so childish or so bli…d, as to beléeue that it hath turned so from euerlasting? O man, the same workmayster which hath set vp the Clock of thy hart for halfe a score yeares, hath also set vp this huge engine of the Skyes for certeyne thousands of yeares. Great are his Circuits and small are thyne; and yet when thou hast accounted them throughly, they come both to one.
Let vsus come to the things that hauehave lyfe and fe…ce. The Plāts shoote foorth into branches, and beare both bud and fruite: but yet either the plant springeth of the kernell, or the kernell of the plant, and both of thē procéede of a maker. Of liuing wights, some bring foorth their yong ones alyue, and some lay Egges, and we knowe which is ingendred of which: but whether the Egge come of the Hen, or the Hen of the Egge; it must néedes bée confessed that the one of them had a beginning. But I will leaue this vayne disputing whether of them was the first; which question the holy scripture will discusse in one word. Yea and nature it selfe also will discusse it, which requireth to hauehave the first things brought foorth in their perfect being. For it is enough for our purpose, that they may find themselues conuicted of a beginning throughout all things. And I pray you, if they cannot tell whether the mouing of their Heart or of their Loongs, began first with shutting or with opening, at the thrusting of the breth foorth, or at the drawing of it in; (whereof notwithstanding they cannot but knowe that there was a beginning:) ought they to be admitted to deny that things had a beginning, because it might be douted at which poynt they began?
Now if the Dumb and spéechelesse things …ry out so lowd, and the things that are voyd of reason conclude so reasonably; shall only man whom God hath indued both with spéech and reason,Man had a beginning. be either so vnhonest as to hold his peace, or so shamelesse as to resist? Soothly as touching our bodyes, we know the beginning of them; and our so curious searching out of Pedegrees, maketh vsus too confesse it whether wée will or no. And if any thing in the worlde might hauehave any true pretence or lykelyhod to boast of an eternitie; our Soules might doe it, which without mouing themselues doe doe cause a thousand things to remoue. They moūt vp vntounto Heauen, and go downe to the déepe, without shifting their place. They hoord vp the whole world in the storehouse of their memorie, without combering of any roome there. They packe vp all tymes past present and to come together, without passing from one too another. To be short, they conceyue and conteyne all things, and after a sort euen themselues also. And yet shall we be so bold as too say they be eternal without beginning? Nay, how can that be, sith we sée that they profit and learne, yea and oftentimes also appayre and forget, from age to age, and from day to day? How (I say) can that be, sith we sée that they passe frō ignorance to knowledge, from darkenesse to light, from gladnesse to sadnesse, and from hope to despayre; and that not by yeeres, but euen in minutes and moments? And (which more is) wee sée them receyue great trouble and alteration by and for the things that are mutable and transitorie, which florish in the morning, and are withered and parched as in an Ouen at night. Now, to be altered and chaunged, importeth a mouing, and he that graunteth a mouing, graunteth also a beginning; and to be moued by things mutable, sheweth an ouer great inconstancie of nature, which is a thing tootoo contrarie vntounto eternitie. To be short, how can yt thing be eternall or euerlasting, which cannot so much as by any imagination resemble aught that this word eternitie betokeneth? And yet this soule of ours is the thing which in man ioyneth Heauen and Earth togither, marketh the chaunges in things aboue, and for the most part worketh them in the things beneath, carying vp a handfull of dust aboue the skyes, and after a sort bringing downe Heauen vntounto the Earth. Much more reason then is it that neither in the Heauen, nor in the Earth, nor in all the Harmonie of the whole world which wee so greatly wonder at, there should not be any approching at al vntounto eternitie.
Some man perchaunce will say vntounto mee,An obiection. that in the partes of the World there is no eternitie, but yet there may be in the whole. Nay, how can a Whole bee eternall, which is composed of brittle and temporall parts? And what call they the Whole, but the huge frame of Heauen, whose mouing proueth that it had a beginning? Againe, some other will perhaps say, there is a beginning of moouing in the world, as well in the whole as in the parts thereof; but yet it doth not therefore followe, that it had beginning of béeing. Nay, if the being thereof was euerlastingly afore the mouing therof; how could it be called in Latine Mundus & in Gréeke Cosmos, that is to say, A goodly or beautifull order, seeing that for the most part, Order dependeth vppon moouing? For, take from the Heauens their turning about, and from the Sunne his course, and set them fast in some place where you list; and you shall make the one halfe of the Earth blynd, and the whole Earth eyther scorched with his continuall presence, or desert and vninhabitable by his absence: and ye shall make the Sea for the most part vnsayleable, and the Ayre vnfruitfull or vntemperate. Therefore it will followe at the least, that the World hath not bin inhabited euerlastingly, nor the Plants thereof bin eternall, nor the liuing Creatures (no not euen Mankynd) bin without beginning. Surely I wote not what eyes these Philosophers had, who had leuer to eternise ye Stones, Rocks, and Mountaines, than themselues for whom those things were made. And againe, to what purpose serued the Sunne and the Moone at that tyme? Wherefore serued Ayre, wherefore serued Sea, when nothing did yet liue, see, and breathe? It remayneth then that afore mouing, it was but a confused heape, masse or lump of things without shape, and that in processe of tyme (as some say) a certeyne Soule wound it selfe into it, and gaue shape to that bodie, and afterward life, mouing and fence to the partes thereof, according as he had made eueryevery of them capable to receiue: insomuch that the world is nothing els but that confused heape now orderly disposed, indewed with soule and life, so as of that soule and confused lumpe together, there is now made one perfect liuing wight. A proper imagination surely, and méete for a very Beast, to father his so orderly essence vppon the shapelessenesse of a Chaos, that is to say, of confusednesse remoued away; rather than vponupon the wisedome & power of a quickning Spirit. But seeing that this Chaos could not receyue eyther shape or order, but by the sayd Soule; if they be both eternall, how met they together in one poynt, being of so contrary natures, the one to shape and the other to be shaped? If it were by aduenture, how did yt Soule by aduenture so set things in order, and how happeneth it that it hath not since that tyme put them out of order againe? Or if it were by aduise; of whom should that aduise be but of a Superiour? And who is that Superiour, but God? Againe, eyther this Soule was tyed really and in very déede to this bodie of the world from all eternitie; or els it did but onelyonly pearce through it by his power, as seemed best of the owne freewill. If it were tyed, specially to such a confused masse; by whō but by force of a higher power? And then what els could that confused Chaos be to him, but an euerlasting graue? And what els also were that to say, than that the sayd Chaos was as a shapelesse Child yet newly begotten and scarce set together in the moothers wombe, which within a few daies after, by the infusion of a Soule beginneth to hauehave shape, mouing, and sence; and afterward in his due tyme is borne, and being growne vp decayeth agayne, and so endeth, as our bodies doe? Or if a Soule pearced into it and went through it by a freewil and power; (let vsus not striue about termes; for a Soule is so named in respect of a bodie whereto it is tyed) the same is the liuing GOD, who at his pleasure gaue it both shape, life, and mouing. But I will shew hereafter, that he not only gaue the Worlde his shape, but also created the very matter stuffe and substance thereof. But it suffiseth mée at this tyme to wrest from them, that he is the maker and shaper thereof.
Let vsus yet more clearely set forth the originall of the World. I aske what the world is of it selfe? If it moue not, it forgoeth both his order and his beautie, as I sayd afore. And if it moue, it sheweth it selfe vncapable of eternitie.The linking of things togither. But there is yet more. These lower spaces of the world are the harbrough of liuing creatures, and specially of man, who knoweth how to take benefite thereof. The temperatenesse of the aire serueth for him; and yet the aire can not bee tempered nor the Earth lighted, without the Sonne and the Moone: Neither can the Sunne and the Moone giuegive light and temperatnesse without mouing. The Moone hath no light but of the Sunne; neither can the Sunne yéeld it either to the Moone or too the Earth, but by the mouing of the Heauen: and the great Compasse of the Heauen going about, is the very thing which wée call the World, not estéeming these lower parts (as in respect of their matter) otherwise than as the dregges of the whole. And whereas the Elements serue man, and the Planets serue the Elements, yea and the Planets them selues serue one another: doe they not shew that they be one for another? And if they be one for another; is not one of them in consideration afore another; as the ende afore the things that tend vntounto the end, according to this common rule, that the Mynd The inwoorking of the Mynd beginneth at the end.beginneth his work at the end thereof? Now then, if the turning about of the Heauen serue to shewe the Planets, and they to yéeld light to the Earth and to all things thereon: doth it not serue for the Earth? And if it serue the Earth; I pray you is that done by appoyntment of the Earth, or rather by appoyntment of some one that commaundeth both Heauen and Earth? Againe, seeing that the ende is in consideration afore the things that tend thereto: shall this consideration be in the things themselues, or rather in some Spirite that ordereth them? Soothly, in the things themselues it cannot be: for if they hauehave vnderstanding, they hauehave also will; and the will intendeth rather to commaund than to obey, and vntounto fréedome rather than bondage: and if they hauehave no vnderstanding, then knowe they neither end nor beginning. Moreouer, forasmuch as they bee diuers, and of contrary natures; they should ame at diuers ends, whereas now they ame all at one end. Nay, which more is, how should the Sunne and the Moone, the Heauen and the Earth hauehave met euerlastingly in matching their dealings so iumpe together, the one in giuing light, and the other in taking it? In what poynt, by what couenant, and vnderunder what date was this done, seeing it dependeth altogether vppon mouing, which is not to be done but in tyme? It remayneth then, that the sayd consideration was done by a Spirit that commaundeth al things alike, and that he putteth them in subiection one to another as seemeth best to himselfe, forsomuch as he is mightie to kéepe them in obedience, and wise to guyde them to their peculiar ends, and all their ends vntounto his owne ende; and he that thinketh otherwise thinketh that a Lute is in tune of it owne accord. Or if he say that this Spirit is a Soule inclosed in the whole, he doth fondly incorporate the Spirit of the Luteplayer in the Lute it selfe, and likewise the buylder in the buylding. In effect it is all one as if a Child that is borne and brought vp in a house, should thinke the house to be eternall or els made of it selfe, because he had not seene it made: or as if a man that had bin cast out newly borne in a desert Iland, and there nursed vp by a Wolfe as Romulus was; should imagine himself to be bred out of the Earth in one night like a Mushrom. For, to beléeue that the World is eternall, and that the race of Mankinde is bred of it selfe without a maker, is all one thing, and spring both of one error. Doe not the two Sexes of Male and Female in all liuing things ouerthrowe the sayd eternitie? For how should they bee euerlastingly the one for the other, seeing they be so diuers? Againe, hauehave they bin euerlastingly but two, or euerlastingly mo than two? If but two, where are those two become, seeing that eternitie importeth immortalitie, and a beginninglesse forebeing from euerlasting inferreth an endlesse afterbeing or cōtinuance to euerlasting? And if they were many: see ye not still the selfesame absurdities? And if ye say they be made euerlasting by succession of tyme; what (I pray you is death) but a token that they were borne? What is life (I speake of this our life) but a continuance of death? and what is succession, but a prolonging of time? Thus then ye see how that aswell by the parts of the World, and by the whole World it self, as also by the agréement of the whole with his parts, and of the parts among themselues; we be euidently taught that the fraine of the World had both a workmayster and a beginning. But now some man wil aske vsus when it began? And that is the poynt which we hauehave to treate of next.