THE THEATER OF the little World.
Of God. GOD is called in the holy Scriptures by these names; Elohim, Elohah, El, Eli, Elion, Iehouah, Iah, Adonai, Shaddai, Zebaoth, which signifie his name, essence, power, & omnipotencie.
Of Wit & Memory. A good wit hath three degrees, of hope, of practising, of perfection; the first is in chyldren, the second in young men, in beeing perceiued 3. wayes, by desire to learne, by quicke conceit, by a good memory; The third of perfection, is in the elder sort, when they quickly conceiue, faithful∣ly remember, and fruitfully put in practise those things which they haue learned.
Of Loue. All the Arts and Sciences of the worlde, may in time be learned, except the Art of Loue, the which neither Salomon had skill to write, nor Asclepias to paynt, nor Ouid to teach, Helen to report, or Cleopatra learne, beeing a continuall Schoolemaister in the hart; whose diuine furies are Propheticall, misticall, poeticall, amatorial; consecrated to Apollo, Bacchus, the Muses, and Venus.
Of Pleasure. How so euer by the Latines, Pleasure is inter∣preted in the worser sence, by the name of Vo∣luptas, the Greekes are indifferent, terming it Hedone, whose deriuation is from sweetnes or
pleasantnes; it is accompanied with delectation, recreation, oblectation, insultation, ill will, &c.
Of Sorrow. This vexation of mind, and sicknes of the bo∣die, is a perturbation altogether contrarie to pleasure; from whence doth spring repentance, sadnesse, freating, lamentation, carefulnes, af∣fliction, mourning, and desperation; this is the last of the perturbations of the minde, beeing in number foure.
Of Opinion. Among the Philosophers, some were Stoicks, some Academicks, some Peripatetickes, some E∣picures; of Lawyers, some Cassians, some Sabi∣ans, some Proculeians; among Phisitions, some affect Gallen, some Hippocrates, some Paracel∣sus; the Iewes had their Esses, Saduces, & Pha∣rises; In the Vniuersities, some are Libertines, some Germaines, some Alexandrians, some Ci∣licians; in the Church, some Protestants, some Papists, some Puritans, &c.
Of Gods & Goddesses. The Auntients deuided their fayned Deities into three powers, of heauen, earth, and water, the first were the disposers and directors of mens actions, some ruled the ayrie Regions, others raigned in hell, and punished offendours, and some were Gods of the mountaines, some of shep∣heards, some of husbandry, and some of woods; the last sort were Gods of the Sea, some of floods, others of riuers, and some of springs and foun∣taines.
Of Prophecies, Visions, &c. Sundry Philosophers by speculatiue Astrology, haue foretold many things, that should fall out, following the rules and signes which haue beene accustomed to proceed, and when experience an∣swereth to the cause; otherwise they are not able to foretell ought without lying, & ayding them
selues with Art, long experience, & reuelation of the deuill, to whom they haue wholy abandoned themselues.
Of Felicity. Of all the Phylosophers who contended aboue chiefest felicity, the Peripatetikes iudgement to be allowed aboue the rest, who said, that it nsisted in the goods of nature, fortune, and the ind; of the first are health, beauty, strength, ersonage; of the second, riches, loue, nobility, , &c; of the third, vertue, who is deuided to the foure cardinals. For the gifts of the ody, looke in the head of beauty.
Of Pouerty. This burden, whether it come by birth or some sinister chaunce, is, or ought to bee a meanes to bring man to a ready knowledge of himselfe, an by this, to a more neere knowledge of God, who sometime sendeth it as a tryall, other-while as punishment, to the godly first, the burden is light▪ to the repining punished, intollerable, who loose the benefit thereof by their impatience and mur∣muring.
Of the Deuill. The deuill hath diuers names, he is called Di∣abolus, Daemō, (& of Plato Cacodaemō) Sathan, Lucifer, Leuiathan, Mammon, Asmodeus, Beel∣zebub, Baal, Berith, Belphegor, & Astaroth.
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