St. Augustine, Of the citie of God vvith the learned comments of Io. Lod. Viues. Englished by I.H.

Of Ioues power, and Ianus his compared together. CHAP. 9.

BVt let them tell vs now whom they meane by Ioue (a) or Iupiter. He is a God (quoth they) that rules the causes of all effects in the world. This is a great charge. Aske (b) Virgils excellent verse else.

Foelix qui potuit rerum cognoscer•…•… causas. O blessed he, and excellent▪ that kens the cause of each euent.

But why then is Ianus preferred before him? let the great absolute scholler speake. Because saith he, Ianus rules the first things, and Ioue the greatest. Why then Ioue is still worthy of the superioritie: the greatest things controule the first: and excell them in dignity though they be short of them in time. If the beginnings, and the excellencies of all actes be compared together this is true: To goe is the beginning of an acte; but to finish the iourney is the perfection. To begin to learne, is another, but the habite of learning is the excellence, and so in all things, the beginning▪ is the first, and the end the best. But the cause of Ianus & Terminus is already heard. But the causes that Ioue swayeth are not effects, but efficients: nor can the facts begun or ended be before them, for the agent is alwayes before the acte. Wherefore let Ianus haue sway in beginnings of acts, Ioue yet hath do∣minion in things before his. For nothing is either ended or begun without a precedent efficient cause Now as for this great natures maister, and cause-dispo∣sing God, if the vulgar call him Ioue, and adore him with such horrible imputa∣tions of villanie as they doe, they had better and with lesse sacriledge, beleeue no God at all. They had better call any one Ioue that were worthy of these horred and hatefull horrors, or set a stocke before them and call it Ioue, with intent to blaspheme him (as Saturne had a stone laide him, to deuoure in his sonnes stead) then to call him both thunderer, and letcher, the worlds ruler, and the womens raui∣sher, the giuer of all good causes to nature, and the receiuer of all bad in himselfe. Againe if Ia•…•…s bee the world, I aske where Ioues seate is is? our author hath said that the true Gods are but parts of the worlds soule, and the soule it selfe: well then hee that is not such, is no true God. How then? Is Ioue the worlds soule, and Ianus the body, this visible world? If it be so, Ianus is no god, for the worlds body is none: but the soule and his parts onely, witnesse them-selues. So Varro saith plainly, hee holds that God is the worlds soule, and this soule is god. But as a wise man hath body and soule, and yet his name of [•…•…ise] is onely in respect of his soule. So the world hath soule and body, yet is called God onely in reference to the soule. So then the worlds body alone is no god: but the soule, either sepe∣rate or combined with the body, yet so that the god-head rest onely in it selfe: if I•…•… then be the world and a god; how can Ioue be a part of Ianus onely, and yet so great a god? for they giue more to Ioue then Ianus, Iouis omnia plena; all is full of Io•…•…e, say they. Therefore if Ioue be a god, & the king of gods, they cannot make any but him to bee the world, because hee must reigne ouer the rest, as ouer his

owne parts. To this purpose Varro in his booke of the worship of the gods which he published seuerall from these other, set downe a distich of Valerius (c) Sor•…•…∣nus his making: it is this;

Iupiter omnipotens regum, rex ipse deusque, Progenitor, genitrix{que} deum, deus v•…•…us & omnis.

High Ioue, Kings King, and Parent Generall, To all the gods: God onely, and God all.

These verses Varro exp•…•…undeth, and calling the giuer of seed, the male, and the receiuer the female, accounted Ioue the world, that both giueth all seed it selfe, and receiueth it into it selfe. And therefore Soranus (saith hee) called Ioue, Proge∣nitor, genitrix{que}, father and mother, Full Parent generall, to all &c. and by the same reason is it that he was called, one and the same, all: for the (f) world is one, and all things are in that one.

L. VIVES.

IOue (a) or Iupiter] For they are both declinable nominatiues: Genetiuo, Iouis and Iup•…•…ris: though wee vse the nominatiue onely of the later, and the other cases of the first, as the Greekes doe 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (b) Uirgils] Georgic. 2. calling the inuestigators of causes hap∣py, as the Philosophers did, of the Peripatetiques and Academikes, Arist. Ethic. 10. Cicero de finib. 5. (c) Soranus] Mentioned by Cicero, de Oratore. 1. Plin. lib. 3. Solin. Polihist. Plut. Probl. Macrob. Saturn. Seru. in Georg. 1. Hee was a learned Latine, counted the best schol∣ler of the Gowned professors. Cic. de orat. 1. Varro was so held also but Soranus before him, as Ennius the best Poet before Uirgill. Hee had honors at Rome, and the tribuneship for one: and because hee spoake the secret name of Rome which no man might vtter, hee lost his life. Pli•…•…. Solin. Macrob. and Plutarch, though in Pompeyes life Plutarch saith that Q. Valeri•…•… the Philosopher (which most vnderstood to be Soranus) was put to death by Pompey. But this is but at the second hand (saith he) from Oppius: let vs beware how wee trust a friend to Caesar in a stori•…•… of Pompey. Some say hee died suddenly: Others, that hee was crucified. Seru. (d) Iupiter] The old copies read Iupiter omnipotens, regum rerum{que}, deum{que}, for the first verse. (e) G•…•…∣uer of seede] Orph. Hymn.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. God as a man begets, as woman, breedes.

(f) World is] So held all the best Philosophers against Anaximander, Anaximenes, Aristar∣chus, Xenophan•…•…s, Diogenes, Leucippus, Democritus and Epicurus, all which held many worlds.