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

L. VIVES.

PRophet (a) Hieremy] Hee went with the two Tribes Beniamin and Iuda into Egipt, and * 1.1 was there stoned at Tanis: there the inhabitants honour him, for the present helpe his tombe giues thē against the stinging of serpents. b) Else-where] De Doctr. xpian. 2. Euseb•…•… saith Hieremy began to prophecy the 36. Olympiade: and Plato was borne the 88. of the Sep∣tuagines hereafter. (c) Unlesse (as he was] Iustin Martyr. in Paracl. ad gent Euseb. de pr•…•…p. Theodor. de Graec. affect. all affi•…•…me that Plato had much doctrine from the Hebrew bookes. Herevpon Numenius the Philosopher said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉? what is Plato but Moy∣fes made Athenian? And Aristobulus the Iewe writting to Philometo•…•…, saith, as Eusebius cit∣eth * 1.2 it: Plato did follow our law in many things, for his diuers allegations haue prooued him an ob∣seruer of it in particular things, and that in many. For the Pentate•…•…ch was translated before A∣lexanders time, yea before the Persian Monarchy, whence hee and Pythagoras had both very much. (d) Timaeus] So because Timaeus the Locrian is induced as disputing of the wor•…•…d, h•…•… had Plato heard in Italy, and he wrote of the world in the dorike tongue, out of which booke Plato hath much of his doctrine. (e) Ioyned the earth] The words are tra•…•…slated by Tully thus: Corporeum & aspectabilem item{que} tractabilem esse, necessarium est: nihil porrò igni vacuum vide∣ri, aut tangi, quod careat solido. Solidum autem nihil, quod terrae sit expers: quamobrem mund•…•… efficere moliens deus, terram primam, ignem{que} iungebat. The same is Tymaeus his opinion in his work De Mundo & anima. (f) He meaneth] Plato said heauen was of fire, the stars of the •…•…oure * 1.3 elements, because they seem•…•…d more solid. But he held not heauen of the nature of our fire, for he held fires of diuers nature. (g) Two meanes] Water and fire must needs haue a meane of cohe∣rence. But solid bodies are hardly reconciled by one meane but must haue two, which may of thēselues & their accidents, compose a conuenient third, such is water & ayre, between fire & earth: for water to earth, & ayre to fire, beare the same proportion, and so doth water and ayre betweene themselues which combination rules so in the elements, that in the ascending and descending innumerable and imperceptible variations of nature all seemes but one body, ei∣ther rarified vnto fire, or condensate vnto earth. (h) Ayre is a spirit] But not of God: of this hereafter. (i) I am] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, this 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is a perticiple: as one should say, I am he that is. For wee can not transtate it by one word, as Seneca affirmeth Epist. lib. 8. But wee may call it Ens, of s•…•… (as Caesar did,) being, of, to bee, as potent, of possum So did Sergius. Quintil. GOD meaneth, th•…•… hee hath beeing: whereas as nothing else hath properly any beeing: but are as Isayas saith: of nothing: and Iob hath it often, GOD onely hath beeing, the rest haue not their existenc•…•… (saith Seneca) because they are eternall themselues, but because their maker guardeth them, and should hee disist, they would all vanish into nothing. Plato also sayth that corporal things neuer haue true beeing, but spirituall haue. In Timeo & Sophista. And there, and i•…•… his Parmenides hee saith that GOD is one, and Ens, of whom all things depend: that •…•…ature hath not a fitte expressiue name for his Excellence, nor can hee bee defined, 〈◊〉〈◊〉 ascribed, nor knowne, nor comprehended, that hee begotte all these lesser go•…•…

whom in his Tymaeus he saith are immortall only by their fathers wil, not by their own power Him hee calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which is: as he saith of a true Philosopher in his Phaedon 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 he conceiueth him which is: and a little after: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 pertake of them which is, and in his Timaeus 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the eternall beeing, vnbegotten. And all the Pla∣tonists agree that the title of his Parmenides, De ente & vno rerum prinoipio, and of his Sophista 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 are both ment of GOD, which is the true being, and the beginning of all things: and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 being a perticile is of the presentence, s•…•…gnifying that GOD hath no time past nor to come, but with him all is present, and so his beeing is. That he saith in his Tymeus. Time hath par•…•…es, past, present and to come: and these times of our diuiding are by our error falsely ascribed to the diuine essence, and vnmeetely. For wee vse to say, hee was, is and wilbe: but ind•…•…ed he onely is, properly and truely; was and wilbe belong to things that arise and proceede accor∣ding to the times and with them. For they are two motions: but the onely Lord of etern•…•…ty hath no motion, nor is elder, nor hath beene younger, nor hath not beene hitherto, or shall not bee hereafter, nor feeleth any affect of a corporall bodie, but those partes, past and to come are belonging to time that followeth eternity, and are species of that which mooueth it selfe * 1.4 according to number and space. Thus much out of Timaeus: hee that will reade the author, let him looke till hee finde these words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. there this sentence be∣ginneth. Gregory vsed part of it in his Sermon of the birth of Christ, and handled it largely in that place. GOD was alwaies, and is, and shalbe (saith he) nay rather God is alwaies: was, and shalbe are parts of our time, and defects in nature. But hee is eternally beeing: and so he told Moyses when hee asked him his name. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. Then hee beginnes to mount, and with diuine eloquence to spread the lustre of GODS eternity and inmutability: but this worthy man is faine to yeeld vnder so huge a burden, and shut his eyes, dazeled wi•…•…h so fiery a splendor. Plutarch tells that on one poste of the Temples dore at Delphos was written 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, know thy selfe, and on the other 〈◊〉〈◊〉, thou art: the first hauing reference to our preparation in matters of diuinity, and the later vnto GODS nature, which is alwaies sixt and firme, whereas ours is fluxe and mutable. Wherefore, it may well bee said of him whose nature is not subiect to any alteration of time, but al•…•…aies fixed and vnalterable. thou art. Thou art, may also bee referred vnto the vnmoueable eternity, without any respect of the time, as Plato saith in his Parmenides, who will not haue the time present made an at∣tribute of GOD, because it is a time, nor will haue him called an essence, but rather some∣what inexplicable aboue all essence, to know what it is not, is easie, but what it is, impossible. Some thinke that Parmenides himselfe in his Philosophicall poeme, meaneth of GOD there where hee saith, all things are but one: and so thought Symplicius: for it is vnlike that so sharpe a wit as Parmenides, found not the difference and multitude of things which hee setteth plainely downe in his poemes. For hauing spoken largely of that onely Ens, hee concludeth thus: Thus much of the true high things, now concerning the confused and mortall thing in which is much error. Aristotle through desire to reprehend e•…•…roniously traduceth his opinion in his Physikes, which Themistius toucheth at: Parmenides (saith he) did not thinke an accident, that hath existence but from another, to bee the Ens hee meant of, but hee spoke of the Ens which is properly, especially and truely so, which is indeed no other but Plato his very Ens. Nay what say you to Aristotle, that saith himselfe that Parmenides ment of that one Ens which was the originall of all: The other Platonists opinions I haue already related: Now as for that sentence (so common against them) that the things intelligible onely, not the sensible, haue existence: Alcymus in his worke to Amynthas declar•…•…th that Plato had both it, and * 1.5 that of the Idea's, out of Epicharmus his bookes, and alledgeth the words of Epicharmus him∣selfe, who was a Philosopher of Coos, a Phythagorean, who held that learning made a man as farre more excellent then others, as the su•…•…ne excells the starres and all other light, and the sea the riuers. Plato himselfe in his Sophista auerreth the antiquity of that opinion that affirmed the essence of intelligibilities onely, and that therevpon arose a great contention with those th•…•… held the world to consist of onely bodies: Tymaeus also the Locrian in his booke de mun∣do, wrote of these Idea's. But Plato refined all these things, and brought in a more polite, ele∣g•…•…t forme, adding besides altitude and diuinity of doctrine, admirable and excellent. I make no question that Pythagoras did learne those misteries out of the Scriptures in Egipt. And it i•…•… more likely that he talked with Hieremy there, then that Plato did.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Hi•…•…emy.
• * 1.2

  Plato an Attike Moyses.
• * 1.3

  Plato held heauen, fire.
• * 1.4

  One God.
• * 1.5

  Epichar∣mus.