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

L. VIVES.

ALL (a) weight] These are Gods admirable workes, and it is the merit of our faith that we owe vnto God to beleeue them. I wonder the schoolemen will inquire of these things, & define them by the rules of nature. (b) If the Angells] To omit the schooles, and naturall rea∣sons, herein is the power of an Angell seene, that in one night God smote: 80000 men of the Assyrians campe by the hand of an Angel 4. Kings 19. Now let Man go brag of his weaknesse. (c) The world big. Here is no need of predicamentall distinctions: hee vseth big, for the ma•…•… weight, not for the quantity. (d) The whole earth] It hangs not in nothing for it hangs in the ayre: yet would ayre giue it way, but that it hath gotten the middlemost place of the world, and keepes there in the owne nature, immoueable. The Philosophers maruelled that the earth fell not, seeing it hung in the ayre: but that which they thought a fall, should then bee no fall but an ascending, for which way soeuer earth should goe, it should goe towards the heauen: and as it is no maruell that our Hemisphere ascendeth not, no more is it of any else, for the mo∣tion should be all one, aboue and beneath beeing all alike in a globe. But is a thing to bee

admired and adored, that the earth should hang so in the ayre, beeing so huge a masse, as Ouid •…•…ith.

Terra pila similis nullo fulcimine nixa, Aëre suspenso, tam graue pendet onus.

Earths massy globe in figure of a ball, Hangs in the ayre; vpheld by nought at all.

(•…•…) With the eye] Plato in his Timaeus, speaking of mans fabrick saith, that the eyes were endow∣•…•… •…•…th part of that light that shines & burnes not: meaning the suns: for the Gods commanded 〈◊〉〈◊〉 •…•…re fire (brother to that of heauen) to flow from forth the apple of the eye: and there∣•…•… when that, and the daies light do meete, the coniunction of those two so well acquainted 〈◊〉〈◊〉, produceth sight: And least that the sight should seeme effected by any other thing 〈◊〉〈◊〉 •…•…re in the same worke, hee defineth collours to bee nothing but fulgores e corporibus ma∣•…•…s: fulgors, flowing out of the bodies wherein they are. The question whether one seeth * 1.1 〈◊〉〈◊〉 •…•…ission, or reception, that is whether the eye send any beame to the obiect, or receiue a∣•…•… •…•…om it, is not heere to bee argued. Plato holds the first. Aristotle confuteth him in his 〈◊〉〈◊〉 De sensoriis, and yet seemes to approue him, in his Problemes. The Stoickes held the first 〈◊〉〈◊〉 whom Augustine (De Trinitate) and many of the Peripatetiques, follow. Aphrodiseus held 〈◊〉〈◊〉 the eye sends forth spirits: Pliny saith it receiueth them. Haly the Arabian maketh the 〈◊〉〈◊〉 to goe from the eye and returne suddainely, all in a moment: the later Peripatetiques •…•…ing Occam, and Durandus, admit no Species on either side. But of this in another place. 〈◊〉〈◊〉 both would haue the eye send some-thing forth, and receiue some-thing in.

Notes

• * 1.1

  How man seeth.