of the vniuersall: to whom he giueth also the attributes of Mens, natura, actus, neces∣sitas, finis, & renouatio. And wherein hee truely, with S. Paul, casteth vpon God all power; confessing also, that the world was made by Gods almighty word, and not by hands: verbo, non manibus fabricatus est mundus. ZOROASTER (whom Heraclitus followed in opinion) tooke the word Fire, to expresse God by (as in Deuterono∣mie, and in S. Paul it is vsed) Omnia ex vno igne genita sunt; All things (saith be) are caused, or produced out of one fire.
So did Orpheus plainely teach, that the world had beginning in time, from the will of the most High God; whose remarkeable words are thus conuerted: Cùm abscon∣disset [unspec 10] omnia IVPITER summus, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 in lumen gratum emisit, ex sacro corde operans cogitata & mirabilia: Of which I conceiue this sense; When great IVPITER had hidden all things in himselfe; working out of the loue of his sacred heart, he sent thence, or brought forth into gratefull light, the admirable workes which he had fore-thought.
Pindarus the Poet, and one of the wisest, acknowledged also one God, the most High, to bee the Father and Creator of all things; Vnus Deus Pater Creator summus. Plato calleth God the cause and originall, the nature and reason of the 〈◊〉〈◊〉; to∣tius rerum natura, causa, & origo Deus. But heereof more at large heereafter.
Now, although the curiositie of some men haue found it superfluous, to remem∣ber the opinions of Philosophers, in matters of Diuinity: (it being true, that the [unspec 20] Scripture hath not want of any forraine testimony) yet as the Fathers, with others excellently learned, are my examples heerein; so S. Paul himselfe did not despise, but thought it lawfull, & profitable, to remember whatsoeuer he found agreeable to the word of God, among the Heathen, that he might thereby take from them all escape, by way of ignorance, God rendring vengeance to them that know him not: as in his Epistle to Titus, he citeth Epimenides against the Cretians, and to the Corinthians, Me∣nander, and in the seuenteenth of the Acts, Aratus &c. for Truth (saith S. Ambrose) by whomsoeuer vttered, is of the holy Ghost; Veritas à quocun{que} dicatur, à Spirita sancto est: and lastly, let those kinde of men learne this rule; Quae sacris 〈◊〉〈◊〉, pro∣phana non sunt; Nothing is prophane that serueth to the vse of holy things. [unspec 30]