it is the mind only that giveth ability, life, and motion to all these his instruments and organs; so God worketh by angels, by the sun, by the stars, by nature or infused properties, and by men as by several organs, several effects; all second causes whatsoever being but instruments, conduits, and pipes, which carry and disperse what they have received from the head and fountain of the universal. For as it is God's infinite power and every-where-presence (compassing, embracing, and piercing all things) that giveth to the sun power to draw up vapours, to vapours to be made clouds; clouds to contain rain, and rain to fall: so all second and instrumental causes, together with nature itself, without that operative faculty which God gave them, would become altogether silent, virtueless, and dead: of all which excellently yOrpheus, Per te virescunt omnia; "All things by "thee spring forth in youthful green." I enforce not these things, thereby to annihilate those variable virtues which God hath given to his creatures, animate and inanimate, to heavenly and earthly bodies, &c. for all his works in their virtues praise him: but of the manner how God worketh in them, or they in or with each other, which the heathen philosophers, and those that follow them, have taken on them to teach; I say, there is not any one among them, nor any one among us, that could ever yet conceive it or express it; ever enrich his own understanding with any certain truth, or ever edify others (not foolish by self-flattery) therein. For, (saith Lactantius, speaking of the wisdom of the philosophers,) Si facultas inveniendæ veritatis huic studio subjaceret, aliquando esset inventa; cum vero tot temporibus, tot ingeniis in ejus inquisitione contritis, non sit comprehensa, apparet nullam ibi esse sapientiam; "If in this "study," saith he, "were means to find out the truth, it "had ere this been found out: but seeing it is not yet comprehended, after that so much time, and so many wits "have been worn out in the inquiry of it, it appeareth, that

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y Natura enim, remota providentia et potestate diviua, prorsus nihil est.

Lact. de falsa Sapientia, 1. 3. c. 28.

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"there is no wisdom there to be had." z Nam si de una re præcisa scientia haberetur, omnium rerum scientia necessario haberetur; "If the precise knowledge of any one thing were to be had, it should necessarily follow, that the knowledge of all things were to be had." And as the philosophers were ignorant in nature, and the ways of her working; so were they more curious than knowing, in their first matter and physical form. For if their first matter had any being, it were not then the first matter: for, as it is the first matter, it hath only a power of being, which it altogether leaveth when it doth subsist. And seeing it is neither a substance perfect, nor a substance inchoate, or in the way of perfection, how any other substance should thence take concrescence it hath not been taught, neither are these forms, saith a learned author, any thing; Si ex ea exprimatur potentia, quæ nihil est. Again; how this first matter should be subjectum formarum, and passive, which is understood to precede the form, it is hard to conceive: for to make form, which is the cause, to be subsequent to the thing caused, (to wit, to the first matter,) is contrary to all reason, divine and human: only it may be said, that originally there is no other difference between matter and form than between heat and fire, of which the one cannot subsist without the other, but in a kind of rational consideration. Leaving therefore these riddles to their lovers, who by certain scholastical distinctions wrest and pervert the truth of all things, and by which Aristotle hath laboured to prove a false eternity of the world, I think it far safer to affirm with St. Augustine," that all species "and kinds are from God, from whom whatsoever is na"tural proceedeth, of what kind or estimation soever; from "whence are the seeds of all forms, and the forms of all "seeds, and their motions;" A quo est omnis species, a quo est quicquid naturaliter est, cujuscunque generis est, cujuscunque æstimationis est; a quo sunt semina formarum, formæ seminum, motus seminum atque formarum. And thus much Averroes is forced to confess: "For all forms," Cypr. de mente, 1. 3.

Z

saith he, “ are in primo motore;" which is also the opinion of a Aristotle in the 12th of his Metaph., and of Albertus upon Dionysius.

SECT. XI.

of fate; and that the stars have great influence: and that their operations may diversly be prevented or furthered.

AND, as of nature, such is the dispute and contention concerning fate or destiny; of which the opinions of those learned men that have written thereof may be safely received, had they not thereunto annexed and fastened an inevitable necessity, and made it more general, and universally powerful than it is, by giving it dominion over the mind of man, and over his will; of which Ovid and Juvenal:

b Ratio fatum vincere nulla valet.

Servis regna dabunt, captivis fata triumphos.

'Gainst fate no counsel can prevail.
Kingdoms to slaves by destiny,

To captives triumphs given be.

An error of the Chaldeans, and after them of the Stoics, the Pharisees, Priscillianists, the Bardisanists, and others, as c Basil, Augustine, and Thomas have observed : but that fate is an obedience of second causes to the first, was well conceived of Hermes, and Apuleius the Platonist. d Plotinus out of the astronomers calleth it a disposition from the acts of celestial orbs, unchangeably working in inferior bodies, the same being also true enough, in respect of all those things which a rational mind doth not order nor direct. Ptolemy, Seneca, Democritus, Epicurus, Chrysippus, Empedocles, and the Stoics, some of them more largely, others more strictly, ascribe to fate a binding and inevitable necessity; and that it is the same which is spoken and determined by God, (quod de unoquoque nostrum fatus est Deus,)

a 12th Metaph.

b Juven. Sat. 7. 201.

Basil. Esa. 4. Aug. de Hæres. 70.

c. 35. Tho. cont. Gent. 3. c. 83.

d Ficin. in 12. de leg.

e Cic. de Fat.

and the definite lot of all living. And certainly it cannot be doubted, but the stars are instruments of far greater use, than to give an obscure light, and for men to gaze on after sunset; it being manifest, that the diversity of seasons, the winters, and summers, more hot and cold, are not so uncertained by the sun and moon alone, who always keep one and the same course, but that the stars have also their working therein.

And if we cannot deny, but that God hath given virtues to springs and fountains, to cold earth, to plants and stones, minerals, and to the excremental parts of the basest living creatures, why should we rob the beautiful stars of their working powers? for seeing they are many in number, and of eminent beauty and magnitude, we may not think, that in the treasury of his wisdom, who is infinite, there can be wanting (even for every star) a peculiar virtue and operation; as every herb, plant, fruit, and flower adorning the face of the earth hath the like. For as these were not.created to beautify the earth alone, and to cover and shadow her dusty face, but otherwise for the use of man and beast, to feed them and cure them; so were not those uncountable glorious bodies set in the firmament, to no other end than to adorn it; but for instruments and organs of his divine providence, so far as it hath pleased his just will to determine. Origen upon this place of f Genesis, Let there be light in the firmament, &c. affirmeth, that the stars are not causes, (meaning perchance binding causes;) but are as open books, wherein are contained and set down all things whatsoever to come; but not to be read by the eyes of human wisdom: which latter part I believe well, and this saying of 8 Siracides withal: That there are hid yet greater things than these be, and we have seen but a few of his works. And though, for the capacity of men, we know somewhat, yet in the true and uttermost virtues of herbs and plants, which ourselves sow and set, and which grow under our feet, we are in effect ignorant; much more in the powers

and working of celestial bodies. For hardly (saith h Solomon) can we discern the things that are upon the earth, and with great labour find we out those things that are before us: who can then investigate the things that are in heaven? i Multum est de rebus cœlestibus aliquid cognoscere: "It is much to know a little of heavenly things." But in this question of fate, the middle course is to be followed; that as with the heathen we do not bind God to his creatures, in this supposed necessity of destiny; so on the contrary, we do not rob those beautiful creatures of their powers and offices. For had any of these second causes despoiled God of his prerogative, or had God himself constrained the mind and will of man to impious acts by any celestial enforcements, then sure the impious excuse of some were justifiable; of whom St. Augustine, Impia perversitate in malis factis rectissime reprehendendis ingerunt accusandum potius auctorem syderum, quam commissorem scelerum; "Where we reprehend them of evil deeds, they again with wicked perverseness urge, that rather the au"thor and creator of the stars, than the doer of the evil, is 66 to be accused."

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But that the stars and other celestial bodies incline the will by mediation of the sensitive appetite, which is also stirred by the constitution and complexion, it cannot be doubted. Corpora cœlestia, saith Damascene, constituunt in nobis habitus, complexiones, et dispositiones; "The heavenly bodies,” saith he, "make in us habits, complexions, and dispositions;" for the body (though Galen enforce it further) hath undoubtedly a kind of drawing after it the affections of the mind, especially bodies strong in humour, and minds weak in virtues; for those of choleric complexion are subject to anger, and the furious effects thereof; by which they suffer themselves to be transported, where the mind hath not reason to remember, that passions ought to be her vassals, not her masters. And that they wholly direct the reasonless mind, I am resolved: for all those which were

h Wisd. ix. 16.

i Aristotle.

Aug. 20. super Gen. ad lit. 1 Gal. 1. mor. an. seq. temp.