Sermons on Jonah, Lecture 5
THE V. LECTVRE.
The chiefe points. 2 Many questions import egernesse to know. 4.6. In doing iustice due examination should go before. 5 Mens hard hearts to strangers. 7 Some trades vsed are odious to God. 8 As vsurie. 10 It is not fit to come in all places. 11 Some people are not acceptable to God. 12 Confession of a fault. 14 What is meant by fearing. 15 Two sorts of feare. 16 The horror of sin. 17.22. The power and being of God shewed against the Atheist. 19 Authorities of heathen men, and reasons prouing the creation. 23 Foure questions to the Atheist.
IONAH. 1.8.9.
Then sayd they vntounto him: Tell vsus for whose cause this euill is vponupon vsus? what is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? which is thy countrey? and of what people art thou? And he answered them, I am an Hebrew, and I feare the Lord God of heauen, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
BEcause our Ionas hath a great deale more minde, to go to Tarshish by sea, then to Niniue by land, rather about his owne pleasure, then the businesse of his maister, he is so well preferred, as of a Prophet to become a prisoner, first arrested by a tempest, then discouered by a lot, to be a malefactour; in what place or cause, it doth not yet appeare, but allow time onelyonly, and that shall be reuealed. In this my text he is brought to his examination, not in a court of magistrates: but a companie of mariners, must be his Inquisitours. Being arraigned he is conuicted, and by his owne mouth condemned, but by them afterward he is brought to execution. I am here to looke into the manner of inquirie which is made vponupon him; and that is layed downe vntounto vsus in the former verse; and in the next place to handle his personall answer, which is in the latter verse; both of them yeelding to vsus verie good instruction, if I be not deceiued, as may appeare in order.
2 Saint Hierome doth obserue the maner of the words,Hieron. in Ion. 1.8. Notanda breuitas quā admirari in Virgilio solebamus that there should be within so small a compasse, so many questions, and those so significant and effectuall. And as he was a miracle of the world for learning, and that for humanitie, as well as Diuinitie, so it putteth him to remember, the excellent concisenesse of the Poet Virgil, who in a maner right compendious, is accustomed to inclose many questions in verie fewe words. He citeth that one place,
—Iuuenes quae causa subegitVirgilius Aeneid. 8.
Ignot as tentare vias? quo tendit is inquit?
Qui genus? vnde domo? pacémne huc fertis an arma?
Young men, what cause hath brought you into these vnknowne wayes? whither go you? of what kindred are you? vvhere do you dvvell? bring you hither vvarre or peace? But the matter of the wordes, is rather the ground whereon we are to stand, euerie question including some thing of importance, to this present purpose. These mariners being followed with so strange a tempest, as made them quake for daunger of their liues, and crie with importunitie to their heathen Gods, and disburden their ship of such wares as were in it, and cast lots for their liues, who should die for all his fellowes; may iustly be supposed to be in such a fright, that if anie thing extraordinarie should appeare vntounto them, what might be the reason of their daunger, or how they were to be eased, and put away from their …eare, he by whom or in whom it might be coniectured to be, should be plucked, and tugged, and haled, by one and by another, as a Beare that were to be bayted, to know what was the reason of this terrible daunger, or what secret he could open. What art thou? whither wilt thou? whence comest thou? what doest thou? how cometh all this about?
3 For men in such extremities can not satisfie them selues, but either in strange newes, or any mightie perill, will so runne question vponupon question, that it is scant in mans wit to make a readie answer. When the Romanes had sustained that deadly ouerthrow at Cannae,Liuius lib. 22. Quae fortuna cōsulum atque exercituum sit, siquid Dij immortales, miseri imperij reliquum Romano nomini fecerint, vbicae copiae sint: quò se Hannibal post praelium contulerit, quid paret, quid agat, acturúsque sit. Luc. 16.27. by Hannibal the Carthaginian, and their Citie was growne into that perplexitie, as it neuer was in almost before, that wise Fabius Maximus, causeth scoutes to be sent foorth, with demaunds vponupon demaunds, to such as they should meete; in what case the armies were; in what estate were the Consuls? what the Gods had left remaining to the Romanes? where the remnant of their armie did abide? whither Hanniball was now gone? what he intended? what he did? what he purposed to attempt? Thus daunger affrighteth the wisest, and maketh the simpler sort oftentimes, to runne toung before the wit. In the sixteenth of Luke, the rich mā is brought in, making request to Abraham, that he would send Lazarus to his fathers house, to giuegive warning to his fiue brethrē, that they by the wickednesse & retchlesnesse of their liues, came not into those torments, which he then with much paine endured. If that should hauehave bene in deede, which is there but in a parable described, and he who had come from the dead, should hauehave had but some few houres allotted him to stay, imagine you (for this is but a supposall) among a multitude, what preassing there would hauehave bene about him; what plucking by one elbow, and holding by another, what doubled interrogations: how doth such a one, or such a one? my father or my friend? is he in heauen or hell? in lesser or greater ioy? in more or milder torment? Ionas comming from vnderunder the hatches, (where he slept but a little before) like Lazarus from his graue, is beset among these mariners, with a multitude of such questions. What is the cause that this storme is in this sort vponupon vsus? felow, whence doest thou come? what countreyman art thou sirra? what is thine occupation?
4 Thus the place must be vnderstood, if we respect the egernesse of men in such perplexitie, or the hast which daunger breedeth, or the manners of common mariners. But in verie deede I see more in it. Here may be noted to vsus a proceeding much more sober, and iudgement with discretion. That which goeth before will well beare it, that which foloweth, will more enforce it. The fearefulnesse whereunto they were growne, by hazard of a shipwracke, was of force to allay their heate: it made them amated with it: their deuotion to their Gods, did put them from their choler: the maister is supposed to be a man wise and careful, as not long since you hauehave heard: the casting of their lots doth intend a slaking stay: their milde intreating of Ionas, when the crime appeared to them: their referring of all to him: the desire which they had to saue him: the griefe which they had to drowne him, are presumptiōs of much sobrietie. These circūstances import a iust kind of inquirie, which was vsed vponupon the Prophet, so to wring out by cōiectures, or by plaine declaratiō, what was this grieuous crime, which plucked such a tempest downe from heauen, how Gods wrath was to be satisfied, what punishment should be taken, if punishment must be taken. It were much to be suspected, that if this case which is here among these Gentiles, should come to triall among many Christians, the man should find hard iustice. For now vponupon how light occasions, are many inflamed to wrath? what bitternesse? what reuiling? what blasphemie euen to God, with swearing and with tearing, if for anothers sake mens liues should be indaungered? if they should be inforced, as these were here, to throw their wealth and substaunce, with their owne hands into the sea? Call to minde, that if any negligence hauehave raised a fire in a towne, and harme be done to their building, how little it is remembed, that it is a crosse from God, sent on them for their sinnes, or to teach them patience, or to make trial of their faith; but the next immediate cause, that presently is looked too, seethe villanie of this boy, see the cursednesse of this wenche; see the diuellishnesse of this felow, that should hauehave taken care of this fire, if he had his desert, how oft should he dye for it?
5 But if it were a straunger, an outlandish man as Ionas was, who brought this scathe vponupon them, how many Crucifiges should he hauehave tumbling on him? A French man as I take it, (although some other men be of another opinion) euen greeuing in his soule at the vnkindnesse of our nation, I meane in the cōmon sort,Anno. 1572. Euseb. Philadelphus Dialogo 2. hath by occasion of the hādling of their last great Massacre, noted it to posteritie, that by a most inhospitall kinde of phrase, our Englishmen vse to terme them, no better then French dogs, that fled hither for Religion, and their conscience sake. VntoUnto this ioyne the many conspiracies, which by some of the meaner people, in one Citie of our land, hauehave bene oftentimes intended against outlandish folkes: & the disposition of men in this point, will well appeare. Those which are wise and godly, make vse of those aliaunts as of brethren, considering their distresses, with a liuely felow-feeling, holding it an vnspeakable blessednesse, that this little Iland of ours should not onelyonly be a tēple, to serue God in for our selues, but an harbour for the weather-beaten, a sanctuarie to the straunger, wherein he may honour the true Lord: remembring the precise charge which God gaue to the Israelites, to deale well with all straungers,Leuit. 19.33. because the time once was, when themselues were straungers in that cruell land of Egypt: not forgetting that other nations to their immortall praise, were a refuge to the English, in their last bloudie persecution in Queene Maries dayes: and in briefe recounting, that by a mutuall vicissitude of Gods chastisements, their case may be our case: which day the Lord long keepe from vsus. These mariners with that humanitie which beseemeth all men of reason, reproch it not to the Prophet, that he an outlandish aliaunt, should bring such trouble on them, should put them to such losse, or thrust them into such daunger, but in verie good course of iustice, they desire to be informed, and take notice of his cause. The presentnesse of the perill, or the hast which they had to be satisfied, could not stay them from doing iustice: they will attend his aunswere.
6 Such persons as through whose hands the liues of others passe, be they Iudges or be they iusticers, yea be they but common Iurours, may hearken to these heathen, and the maner of their proceeding, and learne so much; as that they shall not dare, rashly to destroy, or take away the life of their Christian brother. Life is a most precious thing: it cannot be made by men, but it may be marred in a moment. And if it be once marred, there is no benefite on earth, whereby it may be requited; as Alexander once told his owne mother Olympias,Ammi. Marcellin. lib. 14. when she desired him to execute an innocent harmelesse man; and that she might the more preuaile with him, remembred him that her selfe for the space of nine monethes, had caried him in her wombe, and for that reason he must not say her nay. Aske saith he my good mother, Aliam paren… optima posce mercedē ▪ hominis enim salus nulio beneficio pensatur.some other gift of me, for the life of a man can be recompenced, by no good turne that can be done. Before that death be inflicted, let truth appeare if it may be. Stay the asking of many questions, and the scanning out of all doubts, ere the last sentence come. Certainely God knew the wickednesse of Sodome and Gomorrha, as he sat aboue in heauen;Gene. 18.21. yet meaning to destroy them, he saith, I vvill go downe now, and see vvhether they hauehave done altogether according to that crie, vvhichwhich is come vntounto me, and if not, that I may knovv: thereby teaching all gouernours, that they passe not otherwise to the death of any, but with verie mature aduisement. It is a wise law in the meane time,Mūster Cosmograph. lib. 4. which Munster reporteth to be put in practise, in a towne called Clagea belonging to Carinthia; where if any be taken suspicious of theft, he is by and by hanged vp, and some two or three dayes afterward, enquirie is made vponupon him, wherein if he be found giltie, he is let to hang till he rot away peece-meale, but if he be found innocent, then he is taken downe, and buried with some solemnitie. This is contrarie to the common rules of humanitie, but much more repugnant to diuinitie. In cases of lesse importaunce then life and death, all Magistrats ought to affoord that measure to their people, which these mariners did to Ionas, that is, to sift out the whole truth by demaunds, before that they giuegive any iudgement. Moses could say of himselfe to the Israelites, I charged your Iudges the same time saying, Deut. 1.16.Heare betweene your brethren, and iudge righteously betweene euerie man and his brother, and the straunger that is with him. First heare and then iudge.Iob. 29.16. Iob professeth thus of himselfe, I vvas a father vntounto the poore, and vvhen I knew not the cause, I sought it out diligently. The speech of Nicodemus to the Pharisies was good, Doth our law iudge a man before it heare him, Iohn. 7.51.and know what he hath done? Act. 24 23.So Felix could tell Saint Paule, that he would not iudge his cause,Ammi. Marcell. lib. 18. Ecquis innocēs esse poterit, si accusasse sufficiet? before that he had heard it perfectly. Otherwise, the accused person should hauehave a hard bargaine by it: for as Iulian the Apostata once aunswered verie wittily, If it be sufficient to accuse, shall any man be an innocent? The Poet therefore said well,
Seneca in Medea.Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera,
Aequum licet statuerit, hand aquus fuit.
He who determineth any thing not hauing heard both the parties speake, although he hauehave decreed the right, yet himselfe hath not bene iust, that is, he hath done it wrongfully, because he should heare both. And this is the generall doctrine, which may be deriued here, from the examination of these mariners ouer Ionas. Let vsus gather a little nearer to the particular wordes.
Tell vsus for whose cause this euill is vponupon vsus? what is thine occupation? whence commest thou?
Vers. 7.7 I hauehave in part before touched, that these men imagined, that some sinne plucked this wrath vponupon them. But when the lot fell vponupon Ionas, they gessed him to be the sinner. Now to know the particulars, they asked him of his trade, for, good men, they little dreamed of a Prophet: they demaunde of him for his countrey, and the place from whence he came. For both Rhetorike and experience,Natio, educatio, fortuna, studia, in personis sunt quaerenda. Omphalius in Nomologia. and diuinitie most of all, do shew that good coniectures, and presumptions for any thing in question, may be drawne from the life which in former time hath bene led, from the companie and familiaritie which hath bene entertained, from the countrey and habitation where any hath abode. Then what is thine occupation? and the course of life which thou vsest? wherein doest thou spend thy time? If thou be a robber or a rouer, no maruell if some straunge punishment do pursue thee at the heeles. If a sorcerer or a necromancer, the same may be thy doome.Horat. Epist. 1.15. Scurra vagus non qui certum praesepe teneret. Impransus non qui ciuem dignosceret hoste. Quaelibet in quemuis opprobria fingere sae…us. If a stewes-maister or a broaker for vncleannesse of the bodie, it is verie likely that wrath may follow thee. If a flattering hungrie iester, who waytest vponupon a trencher, and makest no kinde of conscience, to taunte any man that displeaseth thee, vengeance may droppe vponupon thee. So these simple men did perceiue, that there was some kinde of life vnlawfull and vngodly, which because it was contrarie and aduerse, either vntounto pietie, or humane charitie, it might well offende that power which ruleth all mortall creatures.
8 I maruell what the vsurer could hauehave aunswered in this case, who liueth on the sweat of others, and maketh a gayne of their losses.Gen. 47.3. It was no shame for Iacobs sonnes, to tell the king of Egypt, that their father and his children were shepheardes. Neither was it any disgrace to Amos,Amos. 7.14. to say that he was a heardman, and a gatherer of wild figges: but to say I am an vsurer, one who liue vponupon my money; is but a blushing speech. Dauid asketh a question and aunswereth himselfe,Psal. 15.1.5. Lord vvho shall dwell in thy Tabernacle? who shall rest in thy holie mountaine? He that giueth not his money vntounto vsurie. Ye in some places of this land, (for I must not imagine, that any interest is to be found in Oxford: we hauehave scant money for our necessities) such as hauehave their hands polluted, with extortion in this kinde, will come into the tabernacle, and sit them downe in the Temple, be at Church as soone as any, and be as intent and earnest vponupon the preacher, as if there were no such matter. If speech be of the inheritaunce which is on Gods holie hill, they will vrge as farre as the farthest. How can this hang together? the breaking of Gods commaundements in a wilfull professed sort, and the true feare of the Lord? But this were a greater wo, if it should be found in the Leuites, and the Priests, euen such as serue in the Tabernacle.Rom. 2.21. Thou that preachest a man should not steale, doest thou steale? saith Saint Paule, doest thou spoyle? It was the speech of Apollonius in Eusebius, against the Montanist Prophets,Euseb. Eccl. Histor. lib. 5▪ 17. doth a Prophet colour his haire? or annoynt his eyes vvith stibium? doth a Prophet put money to vsurie? If it be thy portion which was giuen thee by thy father, or some money which thou hast gotten, or a stocke left in thy trust, for the widow or for the fatherlesse, which thou art loth should be idle, this or that, or whatsoeuer, doubtlesse it is not well, since no carnall pretence …an serue to violate the euerlasting law of God, and men should hauehave tender consciences, fearing to exercise that, which by so many places of Scripture, the iudgement of all the auncient fathers, the Canon and ciuill lawes, the constitutions of most good common-wealthes, the reasons of heathen Philosophers, the consent of the schoolemen, and opinion of the greatest part of our late Diuines, is condemned as an vncharitable, and most vnchristian practise. All those things which may be obiected, that thy case is not common; that there be many sortes of interest, a biting and not biting vsurie: that learned men of great fame in some causes do permit it: that the lawes of our land winke at it: that now it is much frequented, and many good men do vse it, great gentlemen in the countrey, as well as Citizens and marchants: that thou mayst do good to another, and he shall gaine by it as much as thou: nay a thousand excuses more, cannot aunswere that one place,Deut. 23.19. Thou shall not giuegive to vsurie to thy brother, as vsurie of money, vsury of meate, vsury of any thing that is put to vsurie. And whereas thou wouldst shrowd thy factes, vnderunder the skirts of some few reuerend mens writings, if thou louelove them, and the Religion which they professed, then couer that their ouersight, proceeding from humane infirmity,Gen. 9.22. & do not as wicked Cham, discouer the nakednesse of those, who were fathers in the faith, to many in this last age. Do not wrastle against thy conscience. With Mathew leaue to be a Publican;Matth. 9.9. Luc. 19.2. with Zacheus to gather tribute: it is not for a Christian to be of this occupation: relinquish it to the Iewes.
9 If I be not deceiued, this question for the trade of life, insinuating that some artes are not pleasing to the Lord, should stumble a great many men. If in the lawfulnesse of a calling, Gods immediate glorie, and the benefite of his Church, or at least the good & seruice of the cōmon wealth, in humane societie, be euermore to be respected, what comfort can such persons, who indeede are but a burthen to a land, or the Citie where they dwell, take to go on forward to their graues in in that, which to speake of it most moderately, is but doubtfull? I can hardly be perswaded, that the consciences of such men, do alwayes contēt and satisfie themselu…. I am sure, that according to the proportion of their calling with his, they are not able to say as the Apostle Paule sayd a little before his death,2. Tim. 4.7. foreign. Certamen illud praeclarum certani. Beza. I hauehave fought a good fight, or as Beza readeth it, I hauehave fought that excellent fight, I hauehave finished my course, and so take ioy in their calling. Such men who make a life of playing vponupon a stage, may bethinke themselues in this reckening. If you will, put vntounto these our common dauncing-maisters, and others of like sort. Mistake me not in these wordes, as if I did condemne all honest recreation. I dare not to do so. I know the priuilege and prerogatiue is great, which men aboue all the creatures of God hauehave, if we do not abuse our libertie; but it is one thing for one man, after his honest labour in that trade wherein the Lord hath placed him, to vse fit and moderate recreation; and other thing for another, to hauehave no other kinde of life, but to make of such exercises an occupation. Many kindes of businesse, are warranted both by the lawes of God and men apparantly, but these at least may come vnderunder question.
10 The next demaunde here made to our Prophet, is from what place he did come? presuming that a mā may draw frō some places such a staine, as cānot be washed off but with vēgeance. He that toucheth pitch, Syrac. 13.1. Genes. 42.15shall be defiled vvith it. Holy Ioseph being among the Aegyptians, had learned new deuised oathes: he could sweare by the life of Pharao.Cap. 19.26. Lots wife did so well like the companie which she had in Sodome, that she longed to be there againe, although for her labour, it cost her the turning into a pillar of salt.Apoc. 18 4. Some places are hatefull to God: his people must out of Babylon. The companions of the wicked, are supposed to be wicked. It may well be feared, that the young man was a sinner,Prou. 7.6.9. of whom Salomon telleth, that he went to the house of the harlot, entring in thither at the twilight, and comming out perhaps at the midnight.Surius in commentar. Anno. 1566. Meretricis coactae sūt discedere: interim tamē nonnullae in vicis ignobilibus ob peiora vitanda relictae sunt. Meretricibus quas in vnum vrbis angulum reiecit seueriter praecepit ne per vrbem vagentur. It could be no great credit for Demosthenes, to be seene to come from the house of Lais. It is a case well knowne, that there be at Rome whole streetes of Curtisans. OnelyOnly Surius to extenuate the filthinesse of the matter, saith they be but the baser streets, and lanes of lesse account, where these honest folkes do inhabite. And he holdeth it for a great praise to Pope Pius the fifth, that hee brought it to that passe. This multitude must hauehave money, to maintaine thē in their abuses, whereby it may be collected, that many and that frequently resort vntounto them. Now if Christ should aske of those who returne from those places, whence come you? where hauehave you beene? they might right well quake with Ionas & feare his heauie iudgemēt. But if it be but his holinesse, the Vicar or vicegerent of Christ vponupon earth, the successour of Saint Peter, as he merily termeth himselfe,Si meretrices ab vrbe excluderentur, magnum id Reip. annui quaestus dispendium allaturum. Apoc. 17.1. Henric. Stephanus, in Apologia pro Herodoto, Gallicè edita. cap. 12. there needeth no great dread for the matter. From a knowne place of your Citie: from that which yeeldeth you money: which you permit for tribute. Rome, how rightly wast thou termed by the name of the vvhore of Babylon, which sufferest such abuses in open professed sort, and therby giuest incouragement to some, to embrace that sinne? For whereas in the dayes of our old forefathers, the ignorant did account it a crime to keepe a concubine, now when they see that euen at Rome, in the verie eye of his holinesse, in the chiefe Citie of residence for Christes Vicar, such matters be maintained, they may thinke that now to keepe two or three, is a worke meritorious, & the more, the more meritorious. But to leaue them to their filthinesse, if it do so much touch our Prophet, to be asked from whence he came, those of the yonger sort, who come to this place for learning, for vertue and good instruction, may reuolue this ouer and ouer. If any day in the euening, when they should be at home in their beddes, or else quiet in their studies, or if vponupon the Sabaoth in seruice time, or while other are at the sermon, a tauerne should be their rest, (which doth not well agree with a long gowne) how farre should they be forgetfull, or blush to heare that question, whence come you? where hauehave you bin?Genes. 3 9. or as God spake to our forefather in the bushes, where art thou Adam? If there should be any such (as God be praised, that custome is well left) how will they hereafter lament, that those good houres, which should and might by the Lordes good blessing, be well imployed, are ill and fruitlessely spent? that idlenesse and vnthriftinesse, yea peraduenture drunkennesse also, should be that whereunto they bend their studie, when in the meane while, knowledge and precious learning might adorne them? Time foolishly wasted can neuer be recalled: and it is hard to call backe our selues, when we are once growne to a custome of any euill.
11 The ship-maister and his fellowes, yet hauehave not inough of Ionas: some more questions for their money. They aske him of his countrey, and from what people he did come. God sometimes is angry with a whole lād, for the wickednesse of the inhabitants. The goodly fields of Sodome do find that vntounto this day. This also is witnessed vntounto vsus by the barrennesse of Palestina, which was sometimes the holie land, somtimes the happie land flowing with milke and hony, which now answereth in no measure, to the fertilitie of auncient time. When sinne hath ouergrown a countrey, each inhabitant feeleth a wo; euen the good in temporall punishments do smart as well as the wicked. For the iniquitie of their nation,Dan. 1.3. both Daniel and the three children, together with the rest of their countrimen, were led into captiuitie. Some kind of people, euen almost in generall, are displeasing to the Lord.Deut. 23.3. Exod. 17.14. The Ammonites and the Moabites, were litle accepted of him. But Amelechs name was so cursed, that the Lord would hauehave the remembrance of them to be rooted out from vnderunder the heauen.Matth. 27.25. Aboue all the people who liue vponupon the earth, the Iewes do demonstrate this doctrine to vsus, whose children and childrens children, hauehave for many ages bene blinded, with the grosse and grieuous sinne of their fathers, who put Christ cruelly to death. Other nations had their faults, and so might be hatefull to men who bordered neare vponupon them, and they might also prouoke wrath from God. S. Paule did obserue out of the Poet Epimenides,Tit. 1.12. foreign. that the Cretians were great lyers. Now least some such generall sinne, of parentage or countrey, should hang vponupon the Prophet, his company asketh him, from what nation he did come? of what people he was borne? By these & the like interrogatories, they desired to know the truth, that the fault might lye on him who had deserued it, and that they might be freed from the daunger of suffering shipwracke. And thus hauehave you the first verse, the demaunds which were made to Ionas. Now let vsus come to his answer.
And he answered them, I am an Hebrew, and I feare
Iehouah the God of heauen.
12 When the whip of God, and the rod of his iustice, had ouertaken Ionas so, that now he seeth heauen and earth to be against him, down cometh his proud hart: the sleeper now awaketh; the run-away crieth peccaui; contrition & confession come now tumbling vponupon him, yea to make vp his full penance, there shalbe satisfaction,Psal. 32.6. if his life can make amends. Now with Dauid he will confesse his sinnes against him selfe, in ingenuous manner no concealing, no excusing, no pleading for himselfe. It is I, who by my follie, hauehave wrought you all this danger. Wreake your anger vponupon me.
Virgil. Aeneid. 9.Me, me, adsum qui feci, in me conuertite ferrum
O Rutuli, mea fraus omnis.
It is I, it is I, here I am vvho did it, turne your swordes against me: all the fault is mine, as Nisus saith in Virgil, to saue his friend Eurialus. To display my transgression, and condemne my self the more, I will tell you the whole matter. I should be a man of some skill in Gods seruice, I should be able to know good frō euill, and practise it accordingly, for I am an Hebrew, (he speaketh that with an Emphasis) no idolater, no infidell, no ignorant person, but an Hebrew, trained vp in vnderstanding and pietie: therefore my fall is most filthie; I am ashamed of my selfe. The name Hebrew was giuen to the people of God,Genes. 11.14 (which thē was the onelyonly sanctified seede) of Heber who descended from Sem the sonne of Noe, from whom by succession those came, who were at that time the sole sonnes of adoption, called Hebrewes of Heber, as the Iewes afterward tooke their name of Iudah,Genes. 32.28. one of the twelue Patriarkes, and the Israelites of Iacob, whom the Angell after his wrestling called Israell. This I thinke to be the true deriuation of that name.
13 These Hebrewes instructed their children in the seruice of the highest, euen as Moses & Dauid commanded vntounto them, that they should teach their sonnes Gods miracles,Deut. 6.20. Psal. 78.4. Deut. 11.10. & their children his preceptes. The wals of their houses, and the postes of their doores, could remember them of his statutes. The most vnlearned persons among them, euen their children, could as well rehearse the lawes giuen downe by Moses, as they could recite their owne names.Ioseph. cōtra Apionē. lib. 2 For Iosephus against Apion, doth giuegive that testimonie of them: wherein I suppose that he meaneth the ten commaundements, and not the whole law. Then for a man & a Prophet,Nostrorū quē libet si quis leges interroget, faciliùs quàm nomen suū recitat. to forget that which a child or any vnlearned one, could not chuse but thinke of, to wit, his precise duetie, doth argue a great fault, and he who acknowledgeth this, doth not spare himselfe at all. He addeth this more, in his wordes to them, that he feareth the Lord Iehouah, the God of heauen: he belongeth to his seruice, and therefore should be expert in each thing that is good. Iehouah, is that name, wherein the Lord appeared only to the Israelites; and not to all them neither, not to Abraham, nor to Isaac,Exod. 6.3. nor to Iacob, and the old Patriarkes, but first of all to Moses. This was that name, which the Iewes reputed to be his dreadfull name, the ineffable name of God, the vnspeakeable name of the Lord, which they dared not so much as to vtter: that appellation, by which he was distinguished from all other heathen Idols,Psal. 82.1. foreign from Princes and from Magistrates, to whom the name of God in some sence is permitted. But Ionas to make him knowne,Iohn. 10.34. doth giuegive him another title; Iehouah the Lord of heauen, who alone doth rule the skie, who alone possesseth the firmament: not many as you do suppose (but he alone ruleth the heauen. No doubt but this God had some one time or other, bene specified to these mariners;Ionah. 1.3. they vsed to go to Iapho a hauen towne neare Palestina: and verie likely it is, that there about they had heard of the miracles, which this God had done before in Egypt, what worke he made in Canaan. His name was a name of fame, ouer all the world. And perhaps the word Iehouah was not wholy vnknowne to them. …he Romanes which were also heathen men, and liued much farther of, as I thinke did take some notice of that word, when they called their great God Iupiter, in some cases, Iouis, & Iouem, which might roaue at the name Iehouah. But this is but a coniecture, and it was some yeares afterward.
14 But to let this go, he feareth the Lord God of heauen, that is, either he dreadeth his iudgement, for the grieuousnesse of his sinne, or else, he belongeth vntounto him as a seruaunt, he reuerenceth him,Psal. 111.10. Prou. 1.7. and oweth duetie to him. For oftentimes in the Scripture, the feare of the Lord importeth his honour or his seruice, and so Saint Hierome doth expound it, writing vponupon this place.August. de Ciuitate Dei lib. 1.19. Si adultera Lucretia, cur laudata, si pudita cur occisa? But as Saint Austen saith of Lucretia, if she were an adulteresse, why is she commended by those that write the storie of her, and by common report, if chast, why was she slayne, why did she kill her selfe? So might not I say to Ionas, if thou serue the Lord Iehouah, why then doest thou flie from him? or if thou runne from him, how doest thou serue him? Ionas thou shouldst hauehave serued him, but thou didst not, and that was thy heauy fault. Indeed it was his fault, as you hauehave heard oft before, and himselfe doth now confesse it. For he who giueth true honour to him that is his maker, should be obsequious to his will, and obseruant of his word, in all things great and small, much more in things important, as Niniue was to the Prophet. He that should withdraw from thee,Ioseph. de bello Iud. lib. 7.4. that daily foode which thou puttest into thy belly, should be reputed of thee for an enemy: and can the Lord, thinkest thou, take it well, that thou shouldst withdraw from him, that obedience which thou owest vntounto him?Cyprian. contra Demetrianum. Homo hominē obedire tibi & parere compellis: & cum sit nobis eadem. sors nascendi conditio vna moriendi, corporum materia consimilis. That speech which Saint Cyprian hath, is very excellent to this purpose: Thou requirest a duty of thy seruant, and whereas thou art but a man, thou forcest another man to be obedient to thee. Yea whereas there is betweene thee and him but one sort of being borne, one condition and quality of dying, one substance of your bodies, yet thou beatest him with the vvhip, thou correctest him with the rod. And when thou wilt thus exercise dominion ouer another, vvilt thou not acknowledge one, to be a Lord ouer thee, and do thy best seruice to him? God doth expect this at thy hands: for saith he, if I be a father, vvhere is mine honour? if I be a maister where is my feare? If Ionas were now his seruant, it was but in name onelyonly: he did in truth litle regard his maister. At this time then, he hath much more occasion, to stand in awe of his punishment, and in that sence he might well say,Ionah. 2.4. that he feared the God of heauen. He who looketh on the next Chapter, shall see this to be most likely.
15 The horrour of sinne is such, euen in the hearts of the best of Gods children, that if faith do sleepe but a little, and the resolued assurance of mercy in the Sauiour, be eclipsed but for a moment, it maketh their soules to tremble in such sort, as if diffidence and despaire should swallow them vp by and by. How was Dauid dismaied,Psal. 51.11. when he cried out, Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thine holy Spirit from me? What did Iob imagine of his owne desert,Iob. 42.6. when he thus professed, I abhorre my selfe, and repent in dust and ashes? In what an horrible anguish was Peter,Matth. 26.75. when he went out and wept bitterly? But our Prophet of all other, fearing the dreadfull burthen of sinne vponupon his shoulders, and gessing at the strange punishment, which should follow him immediatly, with some measure of seruile feare doth tremble at his Lord. His feare should hauehave bene before that he had not runne wilfully into sinne, for as it is noted in one of those Epistles,Ambros. lib. 10. Epistolar. Ep. 84. Aliud est timere quia peccaueris, aliud timere ne pecces. Timor filialis & seruilis. August. in Psal. 119 & Epistol. 120. Illa dicet Timeo virum ne veniet. Ista Timeo virum ne discedet. Illa, timeo virum ne damnet. Ista timeo virum, ne deserat. Pone haec in animo, & inuenies timorem, quem foras mittit charitas, & alium timorem castum permanentem in secula seculi. which are in the workes of Ambrose, although not thought to be his: It is one thing to feare, because thou hast offended; another thing to feare least that thou shouldest offend. In the one is a dread of punishment, in the other is a carefulnesse that thou mayst obtaine the reward. Saint Austen doth describe this slauish quaking feare in one, and childes feare in another (as the schoolemen do call it) by a comparison drawne from a good wife, and a harlot. The adulterous wife, and the chast wife, sayth he, do both feare, if the husband be away. The one feareth and the other, but aske the reason of both, and you shall see an apparant difference. The bad vvife standeth in feare of her husband, least he should come to her, The good vvife is in feare, least her husband should go from her. This feareth least he should condemne her, because she hath deserued it, That feareth least he should forsake her, because she loueth him dearely. Remember these things, sayth Austen, and so thou shalt find a bad feare, whom charity driueth foorth, and another chast feare, vvhichwhich abideth for euer and euer.
16 Ionas who was accustomed, in his cogitations of God, to ioyne a louelove with his reuerence, as toward a father, now thinketh on him no otherwise, then as of a Lord, ready to take strong vengeance, vponupon him as on a prisoner deputed to death. This is the best fruite of vngratefulnesse, and of negligence in our duties; to come as vntounto a iudge, astonished and amased, and trembling to see his face, or almost to remember his name; whereas we might come as to a father, or as to a brother; with confidence and boldnesse, as to the throne of grace. Fye filthy sinne, that for thy sake we should thus disable our selues, we should so disgrace our soules, that when we might liue, euen in this world, with a dayly deaw of sweete influence, distilling vponupon our hearts, from the holy Spirit of God, to reuiue vsus and refresh vsus; and whereas Paradise could not yeeld greater comfort to our eye, then the presence of the Trinitie,Apoc. 3.20. dwelling & supping with vsus would do vntounto our minds; and wheras we might dye in rest, as hauing that ioy of consciēce, that perfect peace of God, which passeth all vnderstanding, resigning vp with gladnesse, our spirites vntounto our maker; yea that whereas either liuing or dying, we may rest our selues on that rocke, that euermore we are the Lordes, belonging to his election, and sealed vp with his adoption; to that end, that we may enioy sinne for a season, and the wantonnesse of this flesh, the vanities of this earth, and the foolerie of this world, which are scant worth the naming, to a man that hath heard of wisedome; which leaue vsus and liue not with vsus, we should plunge our selues into that horrour, which wayteth vponupon the reprobates, and be perplexed in our thoughtes, in our vnderstanding dazeled, discouraged in our life, discomforted in our end, thinking of hell and iudgement, and wrath and fearefull vengeance, which maketh men liue in miserie, with sobs and many a sigh, and dye without hope of merciemercy. Let vsus raise vp our selues at length, and with sober meditation contemplate vponupon this matter. Let our soule be dearer to vsus, euen that soule, which Christ hath bought with his bloud, with his precious heart bloud, then sinne with his tayle of a scorpion, who departeth not without stinging. Better to louelove God as Ionas should, then to quake at God as Ionas did.
The God of heauen who made the sea and the drie land.
17 But here I must not forget the last wordes of my text, because they yeeld a speciall doctrine, most fit for these present times. In this speech, Ionas doth entitle his maister to all the world: he is first the God of the heauen; and then he did create the sea, and the drie land. Heauen oftentimes by a generall name, containeth all things aboue vsus, be they elements, or be they other bodies: so then God did make this whole frame. The heauen is as his seate: the earth he made from which, the sea he made to which the Prophet did here flie. Be it wet, or be it dry, be it passable, be it nauigable, be it aboue or below, this maker did create it.Nehem. 9.6. So Nehemiah witnesseth: Thou art Lord alone: thou hast made heauē and the heauen of all heauens with all their host, the earth and all things that are therein, the seas and all that are in them, and thou preseruest them all, and the host of the heauen vvorshippeth thee. Iob. 26.7. Psal. 33.6. In symbolo Apostolorū.So Iob speaketh, so Dauid testifieth. So the Articles of our faith do teach vsus to beleeue on the maker of heauen and earth. Whereby it is plaine, that he doth renounce the groundes of Christianitie, who doth deny this doctrine. Yet the world hath hatched such monsters, euen of the seed of Christiās, as who make no bones therof. But young ones abash not at it, nor abash not at it old ones, for it is no more thē we looke for. S. Peter long ago foretold it,2. Pet. 3.1. that in the last dayes there should come such deriders, as should laugh at the speech of Christes coming, and at the day of iudgement, maintaining that there shall be an eternall continuance, of all things in such sort, as now they are. Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers dyed, all things continue alike from the beginning of the creation. These will not beleeue, that euer the heauen & earth were not, but they receiue it, that they hauehave stood from all eternitie, and shall so continue. They see no reason for the contrarie, and they will not beleeue the Scripture.
18 Lodouicus Viues hath well obserued,Viues de veritate fidei. lib. 1. Ne attingatis vitrū, tenuissimum, falsum, inane, leuissimo contacti… statim friatur. Nostra religio intus est quam extra formosior, solidior, firmior. Gen. 1.1. that Iudaisme and Mahometisme…, and all other whatsoeuer superstitions or deuotions, are, but like to the glasse; but on the other side the Christian faith, by vsus may be compared to the gold. The glasse is bright, but brittle: it cannot endure the hammer. The gold is another kinde of mettall; do you melt it, or do you rubbe it, or do you beate it, and it shineth still the more orient. So it is with our faith: so it is with this doctrine, of the creation of the world. It doth not feare the touchstone. We are taught in the very first words of Genesis, that in the beginning God made the heauen & the earth, that all before was as nothing, vnfigured & vnformed. This is affirmed by Moses, & it may be a Machiauel doth deny this. Now whether of these two shall we beleeue? Either Machiauel an Italian, and therefore by the abundance of his wit, most fit for euill, if God do withdraw his grace; a Secretary to the state of Florence, a professed politician, whose preceptes closely couched, hauehave filled the world with the deuill; who made no kinde of conscience of any thing which he taught, who liued in this present age, within one hundred yeares: or Moses, who is of the standing of three thousand, and in all that time hath bene famous, among both Iewes and Gentiles: of whom Iustine giueth testimony,Iustin Hist. lib. 36. Iuuenalis Saryr. 14. although it be obscured with some heathen minglings, and Iuuenal the Poet when he sayth of the Iewes,
Romanas autem soliti contemnere leges,
Iudaicum ediscunt …c seruant ac metuunt ius,
Tradidit arcano quodcunque volumine Moses.
They being accustomed to neglect the Romane lawes, do learne and keepe the Iewish, and stand in feare of that law which Moses hath deliuered downe in his secret bookes. Iustin. Martyr. in coho…atione ad Graecos.And Iustinus Martyr nameth many Ethnicke mens workes, which being extant in his time, did mention both that Moses, and the bringing of the children of Israel out of Egypt by him, as was to be seene in the writings of Polemon, and of Apion the sonne of Possidonius, of Ptolomoeus Mendesius, of Hellanicus and Philochorus, who wrote the Athenien story, as also of Castor and Thallus, and Alexander Polyhistor,Ioseph. Antiquit. lib. 12.2. besides the two renoumed Iewes, Iosephus and Philo. This Moses was he, whose bookes were so accompted of by Ptolomee, the great king of Egypt, a man of so much antiquity, a man of such louelove to learning, who to his mighty charges, did cause those volumes to be translated, by seauenty and two of the Israelites, into the Greeke, and layd vp in his famous library. This was he whose sacrifices to the true Lord, were the sole and onelyonly foreign,foreign exemplar ex quo simili facimus. that is, first patterne to all the seruices of the heathen, toward their idoll Gods, whose books hauehave bene preserued, through so many generatiōs; whose writings are brought to vsus, not by our friends, but by our enemies, the Iewes who do detest vsus. To compare these two together, this Moses and that Machiauel, will seeme to men that be indifferent,Hominibus contra Deum credunt, qui contra …omines Deo non credunt. Cypr. serm. de Lapsis. a very vnequall match. But what equality or equity should we looke for, of such men as these be, who are so farre from all reason, that as Cyprian writeth of the like, they vvill beleeue men against God, vvho vvill not beleeue God against men, so they would hauehave vsus to beleeue them speaking against the Lord, but we must not beleeue the Lord, though with such power and euidence of the spirit, he demonstrate against them. But let vsus come to the issue.
19 Set aside the Hebrew stories, and the writers of holie Scripture, and what reason can they assigne (for these men do all by reason) sauing that euermore,2. Esd. 4.35. the truth shall, and must, and will preuaile, that such as knew not God, were haters of the Iewes, and neuer heard of the Christians, yet by an vniforme consent, and by a good conspiracie, should acknowledge the creation of the world?Hesiodus in Theogonia. Ouid. Metamorph. 1. How is it that Hesiodus, so ancient a Poet doth lay it so plainly downe? Looke on the beginning of Ouids Metamorphosis where he hath the very wordes, Primáque ab origine mundi, from the first beginning of the vvorld, and see whether that his chaos, (which I thinke he boroweth from Hesiode) be not like to that in Genesis: his forging vntounto Gods framing. They do agree in substance. Yet remember that those are Poets, and that the drift of their booke, is but a friuolous fable. Plato was a Philosopher, and therefore of more iudgement: and he in a tale describeth the making of mankind. Lucretius is accounted both a Philosopher and a Poet, yet a Philosopher of the Epicures, and therefore so much the worse, and yet he impugneth the perpetuity of the world, giuing this reason of his opinion,
Praetereá si nulla fuit generalis origoPlato in Protagora. Lucretius lib 5.
Terrarum & caeli, sempérque aeterna fuere,
Cur supra bellum Thebanum & funera Troia
Non alias alij quo queres cecinere Poetae?
If there were no generall beginning of the earth and heauen, but that they hauehave bene from euerlasting, why then hauehave not the Poets mentioned any thing more ancient, then the warre of Thebes, and the sacking of Troye? The world did begin in time, because nothing is recorded in the writings of any authors, but for a litle time.Macrob. in Somn. Scip. lib. 2.10. Quis non hinc existimet mū dum quandoque caepisse, nec longam retrò eius aetatem. The same argument is vsed by Macrobius, a graue heathen man, who speaketh in this sort, who may not hereupon thinke, that the world once did begin, & that the antiquity of it is not very great, since there is no story in the Greeke, of the admirable memory of things beyond two thousand yeares. For beyond Ninus, of whō some thinke that Semiramis vvas borne, there is no exellent thing set downe in writing. And as these hauehave aimed at the beginning of the world, so there hauehave bene other, who hauehave spoken of the end. One of the Sibyls (for I take the words to be hers) doth foretell the dissolution of all things, and that they shall perish with the fire; both heauen and earth and all; which while Ouide in the middle of his ignorance, did not truly vnderstand, he applieth it to the fire of Phaeton.Ouid. Metamorph. 1.
Esse quoque in fat is reminiscitur affore tempus,
Quo mare, quo tellus, conuexáque regia caeli
Ardeat, & mundi moles operosa laboret.
He remembreth that by destiny it is appointed, that there shall come a time, wherein both sea and earth and heauen shall burne, and the whole frame of the vvorld shall be indangered. The Poet Lucane did more then gesse at this,Lucanus lib. 7. when speaking of those, whom Caesar left vnburied, at the battell of Pharsalia, he bringeth in this,
—Placido Natura receptat
Cuncta sinu, finémque sui sibi corpora debent.
Hos Caesar populos si nunc non vsserit ignis,
Vret cum terris, vret cum gurgite ponti.
Communis mundo superest rogus, ossibus astra
Nisturus.
Nature receiueth all things into her owne lap, and bodies do owe to themselues the end of themselues. O Caesar, if fire do not novv consume these slaine men, yet it shall hereafter burne them vp, together with the earth and the sea. For there remaineth to come, one bone-fire which shall be common to all the vvorld, and shall mingle the starres in heauen, with their bones on earth. Ouer and aboue these men of learning, Peru the South part of America, doth yeeld to vsus an ignorant people,Surius in commentar. Anno. 1558. who by the light of nature, and by a generall apprehension (for God knoweth they had nothing else) do beleeue that the world shall end, and that there shall be then a reward, for the good and for the euill, according to their desert. An end doth suppose a beginning, as the learned do well know. A marring intendeth a making. He who drowned the earth by water, can dissolue the heauen by fire. But the deluge of Deucaliō,Ouid. Metamorphos. 1. so much song of by the Poets, doth witnesse that there was such a floud, in the dayes of Noe, and that all things were spilled by the water; which could not hauehave bene, but by him who made both the earth and the water. Thus the Poets do roaue at that, in their fables, which Moses teacheth vsus, in our most sacred Bible.
20 Adde some reasons to authority. If the world were not created, & man had not once a beginning, how cōmeth it about that all things, which make vsus liue like men, appeare to hauehave their originall, in time and place, we know where an when, and that but as yesterday to eternity?Genes. 4.20. I must not here speake of Moses, which telleth vsus who first made tents, who made the Harpe and the Organ, who first did worke in brasse; because he is now in question.Polydor. Virgil. de Inuentoribus rerum. But I bid you rather looke on Polidore Virgil, who hath written a large tract, of purpose to shew by whom, the most matters which be of excellencie were inuented. There is no greater grace to a man, then knowledge and the artes of learning. But Mercurie as some say,August. de Doctr. christiana. lib. 2. Vide Polyd. Virgil. de Inuentor. lib. 1.6. Euseb. de Praepar. Euangelica. 2.1. as some other, the Phaenicians are reported by the Gentiles to hauehave inuented the first letters, and others are sayd afterward to hauehave added to them. But we know that the Hebrew letters were before their time, euen in the dayes of Moses, who as Eusebius saith, in that admirable worke of his, De praeparatione Euāgelica, was more ancient thē the Gods of the Greekes, for that they began but after the daies of Cadmus, who came much short of Moses. Notwithstanding allow it to the Gentiles, that there men were the authors of letters: it must follow thereupon, that before the birth of those persons, there was no kind of Grammer.Pol. Virg. lib. 1.16. How are we beholding to Zeno, and Socrates and Aristotle for the vse of Logicke? We know well when these liued. Aristotle was schoolemaister to Alexander, and Plato vntounto Aristotle, and Socrates vntounto Plato, some 400 yeares before Christ. Zeno was litle beyond thē. For Philosophy, Phythagoras is thought to be one of the most ancient. Yet he came into Italy,Liuius lib. 1. Lib. 44. after that Rome was built. Astronomy should be supposed to be as old as any. Yet how lately were the Eclipses of the Moone, which are things so well knowne in nature, most feareful to the armies of the Graecians, and the Romanes, as in the war against Perseus? Was not the yeare brought to the orderly course of the Sun,Plutarch. in vita Caesaris▪ by Iulius Caesar? How long hauehave kings bene on earth,Gen. 10.8. when Nimrod as Moses calleth him, or Ninus as other terme him (for these two are thought to be one) was one of the first among all nations? What lawes were among the Greekes, before the dayes of Lycurgus?Ioseph. cōtra Apionē. lib. 2 Iosephus against Apion writeth, that in the time of Homere, the name of law was not so much as knowne, and that in all the workes of Homere, there is not, the word foreign, but that they were thē ruled, by the speech & commaundement of Princes. Nay what do I speake of these things, when the very foode of men, in any ciuill sort, had his beginning but of late? for among the Ethnicks is not Bacchus sayd, first to hauehave found out the vine,Gen. 9 20. (we know that Noe was the man) & of the vine cometh the wine. How cometh it about, that Ceres is canonized among them for a Goddesse, but for shewing their forefathers the first vse of corne? All these and a thousand more imply, that as things with vsus are in good perfection, so not long since they were rude, and not long before that they were nothing, because all things were nothing. For the world had his beginning: and these in the world their beginning.
21 My text speaketh of the sea. I would know of this proud disputes, what reason he can assigne, that the sea in diuerse places, should be higher then the land, and yet not ouerflow the bankes?Basil. in Hexaemero. Homil. 4. Saint Sasile in his Hexaemeron, doth excellently shew it, and confirmeth it to be so. This may be founde to be thus, by instruments Geometricall, or otherwise by the eye,Leuius in nauigatione in Bresiliā. ca. 2. as Leuius hath obserued, and that of his owne knowledge, sensibly discerning it in the Atlantike sea, neare the coast of Mauritania. Nature can yeelde no reason for this: their best is but a cauill. But diuinitie endeth this doubt. God hath tyed it within his limites, as a Lyon fastened in a chayne. Thou saith Dauid speaking of the waters in the sea,Psal. …04.9. hast set them a bound which they shall not passe: they shall not returne to couer the earth. So God saith to Iob:Iob. 38.8. Who hath shut vp the sea with dores, whē it issued and came forth as out of the wombe, when I made the clouds as a couering thereof, and darknesse in the swadling bandes thereof. When I stablished my commaundement vponupon it, and set barres and dores, and said hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther, and here shall it stay thy proude waues. My text speaketh of the land, and that hath so great alterations, as in time will bring a ruine. Heare the iudgement of a Gentile vponupon this.Aelian. Hist. lib. 8.11. Aetnam aiūt ij qui mare nauigant, multó minori parte videri, quā antea conspici solita sit. Idē etiā in Parnasso & Olympo accidere. Itēque qui se totius vniuersi naturā tenere profitētur, aiunt mundum etiā ipsum periturum. Aelian in the eighth booke of his historie telleth vsus, that not onelyonly the mountaine in Sicilia Aetna, (for thereof may be giuen some reason, because of the wasting and consuming of it by fire) but Parnassus and Olympus, did appeare to be lesse and lesse, to such as sayled at sea, the height thereof sinking as it seemed. Whereupon he doth giuegive that note, that men most skilfull in the secrets of nature did say, that the world it selfe should perish, and hauehave an end. I know to whom I do speake, that is, to men of great vnderstanding: As therefore I name but a few things, so you see, I dwell not on them.
22 To that position of those who oppugne this doctrine, of the creating and continuing of all by God, by saying that it is Nature, who produceth eueryevery thing, I might answere that there is no such matter as Nature, taking it in that sense which they foolishly do imagine: but onelyonly it is a course, proportioned out by the will of God, to runne and hold on, in the creatures. And so much can a naturall man informe vntounto them,Seneca de beneficijs. l. 4 Natura inquis haec mihi praestat. Non intelligis te cum haec dicis, mistare nomen Deo? quid enim aliud est natura quàm Deus & diuina ratio toti mundo & partibus eius inserta? Iohn. 4.24. I meane Seneca, who with a better spirite speaketh on this manner. Thou sayest, Nature doth yeeld these things vntounto me. Vnderstandest thou not, that when thou speakest this, thou doest but chaunge the name of God? for what other thing is Nature then God, and an order from his Godhead, inserted into the vvorld, and all the parts of the same? Now that there is such a Godhead, although they do not see it, I may answere them in this manner. His substance is inuisible; his nature is insensible, because he is a spirite. And yet we see him and feele him, & know him by his effects. If we looke on the heauen aboue vsus, or behold the earth below vsus, the standing fast of the one, the running round of the other, the concord of things in discord, their orderly interruption, & interrupted order, eueryevery creature doth cry & proclaime that there is a God.Athanas. oratione contra idola. That worthy mā Athanasius doth very well vrge this argumēt: As if thou shouldst see a citie consisting of many & seuerall men, great & small, & rich & poore, & old & young, & male and female, to be gouerned with good order & straight discipline, and those who liue there, although they be differēt amōg theselues, yet to agree in minde, so that neither the richer do bend against the poore, nor the great against the small: nor the yong against the old, but all of them do maintaine peace with an equality of right: If we should see these things it cannot be but we must imagine that by the presence of the Prince there, this concord is cherished, although he do not come abroad to be seene, because disorderlinesse is a signe that the common vvealth is vvithout an head, but order on the other side doth shew the care and gouernement of the Prince. And as vvhen vve see in the bodie an agreement of the members among themselues, and that the eyes do not vvrangle vvith the eares, nor the handes make a mutinie against the feete, but euerie one doth his owne businesse vvithout brawling, vve do immediatly thereupon conceiue, that there is a soule in that bodie, vvhichwhich doth so direct and dispose all things, although that soule be not visible to the eye. So in this order and harmonie of the vvhole vvorld, it must needes be that vve consider that there is a God, vvho is the Prince and gouernour of all, and that but one God and no more. Now if thou be such a one, as that this do not suffice thee, by reason of the stubburnesse of thy heart, but thou must be like Saint Thomas,Iohn. 20.25. August. in Psal. 73. Animam tuam quis videt? cum ergo corpus tuū solum videaetur, quare non sepeliris? that is, see or else thou wilt not beleeue, then let me aske of thee as Austē doth of one. Hast thou a soule or no? and by a consequent art thou aliue? Canst thou see thy soule, or feele it? If not, thē by thine own reason thou hast no soule, & therefore thou art dead; & I pray thee why art thou not buried? If because thou wouldst not be buried, thou wilt say, that by signes & tokens thou conceiuest, that there is a soule in thee, because thou seest & speakest, and mouest vp & downe, which a dead corps cannot do; then hast thou answered for me: for so it is with thy Creator:Psal. 19.1. the heauens declare his glorie, the firmament sheweth his worke: thou seest him in his creatures. Many arguments might be drawne, from the bowels of very reasō, to shew this point in question: as that eueryevery thing which moueth must hauehave something to moue it, which is verus primus motor, but the heauen is euer in motion: as that lesser things hauehave a gouernour, the bees and heards of cattaile, and fishes in the sea, therefore there must much more be a gouernour, to this mighty frame of the world. But who so doubteth of these things, or of any such matter now in question, let him either reade Saint Austen De ciuitate Dei,D. Georgius Morus, in Demonstratione Dei ex operibus eius. R. Personius in 2. editione Resolutionis. or Lodouicus Viues de veritate fidei, or Philip Mornay that noble Frenchman discussing those points largely. And vntounto those may be added, the workes of some of our owne countreymen, who also are not to be defrauded of their due commendation.
23 If I should farther say any thing, it should be in this briefe manner. If now any do rule all things, it intendeth that he is Almightie: if Almightie then a Creator. But many things are so done, as whereof no reason can be giuen, saue onelyonly the prouidence of a God, Almightie, and our maker. For first I would demaund, what reason can be assigned, that vponupon so weake a foundation, as it seemeth to flesh and bloud, Christianitie is so growne, that all the coastes of the earth, hauehave heard the fame of that doctrine? If honour or wealth or pleasure, had by the Sauiour bene promised, to those which should be his followers, it might hauehave allured men after him, yea if he had bene but a deceiuer, although perhaps this would hauehave held but for a while. But the lesson that he teacheth is,Matth. 16.24. 2. Tim. 3.12. If any man will folow me, let him forsake himselfe, and take vp his crosse, and folow me. And, all that will liue godly in Christ Iesus, shall suffer persecution. In this case what reason can be giuen, why men of great vnderstanding, not blockes and fooles,Viues de veritate fidei. lib. 1. like the Saracens and Turkes, who hauehave no learning, and may not so much as dispute of any point of their Religion, and so do beleeue on their Mahomet, most grossely and stupidiously, but Philosophers and rare scholers, men completed with all good knowledge, should put their trust in one who was crucified, yea should dye for him, who was before dead, and put into a graue? Secondly what reason is there, that Luther no great man, helped onelyonly with the bare countenance of the Saxon, should in the time of deepe ignoraunce, be able by preaching alone and writing, to reuiue againe the Gospell, in despite of Priestes and Princes, and so to set it on foote, as that all Christendome now ringeth of it. Thirdly I would demaunde, what naturall reason there is, that our most gracious Queene, whom God euermore preserue, a woman, in a small countrey, at her first comming to the crowne, should dare to reforme Religion, and professe so farre for the truth, things being as they then were, when she came first to her scepter: verie little sound at home: verie much amisse abroad; in the knowne hate of the Pope, in the secret hate of the Spaniard: in the neutralitie of the French, to speake most mildly of it: in the ticklenesse of the Scot, in the …icklenesse of the Irish. Yet that still she should go forward, and maintaine her Church and estate, in great pompe and high maiestie, verie louely to her friends, verie dreadfull to her foes. I might vrge her perpetuall happinesse, and those many daungers, which by Gods blessing she hath escaped. Fourthly what may be the reason, that whereas within the yeare,Anno. 1593. each seuennight cut off a thousand, yea sometimes a great many more,Anno. 1594. in one Citie of our land, by the infection of the plague; since that time the note hath returned not one, or so few that it is as if it were nothing? Remember that the spring was verie vnkinde, by meanes of the abundance of rayne which fell: our Iulie hath bene like to a Februarie, our Iune euen as an Aprill, so that the ayre must needes be corrupted: God amend it in his merciemercy, and stay this plague of waters. But yet the pestilence is now ceased. I hold it a thing impossible, out of the groundes of Machiauell, to aunswere to these questions in simplicitie and synceritie, as beseemeth reasonable men, and not with cauilling and quarrelling, which is for boyes and brabblers. But out of the groundes of true diuinitie, these and a thousand more are aunswered in one word,Psal. 118.23. This was the Lordes doing, and it is maruellous in our eyes. He who (as Ionas saith) is God of heauen aboue, and made the sea and the dry land, he decreeth it, he continueth it. Then let vsus carie this minde toward him, what we know in him, to louelove: what we know not, to admire, as men amased with his Maiestie: rather to thinke our selues most weake and bas… in vnderstanding, then once to suspect his power in creating, or his prouidence in gouerning. To him be praise and honour, and maiestie now and euer.