The COMMENTARY.
This eighth Chapter treateth of the materiall Lords or Princes, which he calleth Gods: The Lord of Heaven he calleth Jupiter; the Lord of the Sun, the Light: he reckons 34 Horoscopes, or markers of the hours of childrens nativity in the same place of the fixed Plan∣ets, and the chief of these he calleth Pantomorphos, and the Lords of the seven wandering Spheres, or Planets, he maketh Fortune, and Fate: also he appointeth a Lord of the air: but these seem to be the fictions of Devils, and certain va∣nities smelling of the errours of the Gentiles, and which cause those which trust in them, rather to pe∣rish, than to be in any safety. From hence he returneth to the contem∣plation of the most high and inef∣fable Page 68 God, or which is to be na∣med by all names, being full of fruitfulnesse, whereby all things have that which makes them al∣together fruitfull: From hence is that love of procreation, and that great work of Nature, which hath nothing deformed or unseemly in it, whiles that the thoughts, speech, and actions be modest and religious; for that is given and permitted for the imitation of di∣vine fruitfulnesse. But because the greatest part of men is ignorant of these mysteries, they profane these divine Laws, and after the manner of bruit beasts, unreve∣rently, unseemly, and outragiously use these things; therefore we dare not speak of such things, even for modesties sake, because those in∣ordinate and irreverent thoughts and gestures are apt to thrust themselves into the minds of men, and not that seemly, holy, and un∣defiled Page 69 Ordinance of God: and be∣cause few have pure and good affe∣ctions, I suppose that we should neither think, or speak much of this matter. Then he addeth, that God hath bestowed onely upon men reason and understanding, whereby that immortall, and divine part of him, might shun vices, which other∣wise, by the admixture of his earthly substance, he might easily run into: for by reason of this body and dissoluble part, men must needs fall into lusts, and other temptati∣ons of the mind.
