CHAP. I. § 13.-Of Providence.

Now Providence, which the Greeks call Pronoia, is an intellectual knowledge, both fore-seeing, caring for, and ordering all things, and doth not only behold all past, all present, and all to come, but is the cause of their so being, which prescience, simply taken, is not: and therefore Providence by the Philosophers, saith St. Augustine, is divided into memory, knowledge, and care memory of the past, knowledge of the present, and care of the future: And we ourselves account such a man for provident, as remembering things past, and observing things present, can by judgment, and comparing the one with the other, provide for the future and times succeeding. That such a thing there is as Providence, the Scriptures every where teach us; Moses in many places, the Prophets in their predictions, Christ himself and his Apostles assure us hereof; and besides the Scriptures, Hermes, Orpheus, Euripides, Pythagoras, Plato, Plotinus, and, in effect, all learned men acknowledge the Providence of God; yea, the Turks themselves are so confident therein, as they refuse not to accompany and visit each other in the most pestilent diseases, nor shun any peril whatsoever, though death therein do manifestly present itself.

The places of Scripture proving Providence are so many, both in general and particular, as I shall need to repeat but a few of them in this place; "Sing unto God," saith David, "which covereth the Heavens with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth, and maketh the grass to grow upon the mountains; which giveth the beasts their food, and feedeth the young raven that cries: All these wait upon thee, that thou mayest give them food in due season:" "And thou shalt drink of the river Cherith," saith God to Eliah, "and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.” "Behold the fowls of the air, they sow not, your heavenly father feedeth them." two sparrows sold for a farthing? shall not fall on the ground without your Father: Yea, all the hairs of your head are numbered." And St.

nor reap, and yet Again, "Are not And one of them

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Peter, Cast all your care on him, for he careth for you." "And his judgments are written," saith David. God therefore, who is every where present, "who filleth the heavens and the earth, whose eyes are upon the righteous, and his countenance against them that do evil," was therefore, by Orpheus, called oculus infinitus, an infinite eye, beholding all things; and cannot therefore be esteemed as an idle looker on, as if he had transferred his power to any other; for it is contrary tó his own word, Gloriam meam alteri non dabo; I will not give my glory to another. No man commandeth in the King's presence, but by the King's direction; but God is every where present, and King of Kings. The example of God's universal providence is seen in his creatures. The father provideth for his children; beasts and birds, and all livings, for their young ones. If Providence be found in second fathers, much more in the first and universal: and if there be a natural loving care in men and beasts, much more in God, who hath formed this nature, and whose divine love was the beginning, and is the bond of the universal: Amor divinus rerum omnium est principium & vinculum universi, saith Plato: Amor dei est nodus perpetuus, Mundi copula, partiumque ejus immobile sustentaculum, ac universæ machinæ fundamentum; The love of God is the perpetual knot, and link, or chain of the world, and the immoveable pillar of every part thereof, and the basis and foundation of the universal. God therefore who could only be the cause of all, can only provide for all, and sustain all; so, as to absolute power, to every-where presence, to perfect goodness, to pure and divine love, this attribute transcendent ability of Providence is only proper and belonging.

CHAP. II. § 2.

It is not therefore, as aforesaid, by reason of immortality, nor in reason, nor in dominion, nor in any one of these by itself, nor in all these joined, by any of which, or by all which we resemble, or may be called

the Shadow of God, though by reason and understanding, with the other faculties of the soul, we are made capable of this print; but chiefly, in respect of the habit of original righteousness, most perfectly infused by God into the mind and soul of man in his first creation. For it is not by nature, nor by her liberality, that we are printed with the seal of God's image, though reason may be said to be of her gift, which, joined to the soul, is a part of the essential constitution of our proper species, but from the bountiful grace of the Lord of all goodness, who breathed life into earth, and contrived within the trunk of dust and clay the inimitable ability of his own piety and righteousness.

For

So long therefore, for that resemblance which dominion hath, do those that are powerful retain the image of God, as according to his commandments they exercise the office or magistracy to which they are called, and sincerely walk in the ways of God, which in the Scriptures is called "walking with God ;" and all other men so long retain this image, as they fear, love, and serve God truly, that is for the love of God alone, and do not bruise and deface his seal by the weight of manifold and voluntary offences, and obstinate sins. the unjust mind cannot be after the image of God, seeing God is justice itself; the blood-thirsty hath it not, for God is charity and mercy itself; falsehood, cunning practice, and ambition, are properties of Satan, and therefore cannot dwell in one soul together with God: And, to be short, there is no likelihood between pure light and black darkness, between beauty and deformity, or between righteousness and reprobation. And though nature, according to common understanding, have made us capable by the power of reason, and apt enough to receive this image of God's goodness, which the sensual souls of beasts cannot perceive; yet were that aptitude natural more inclinable to follow and embrace the false and dureless pleasures of this stage-play world, than to become the shadow of God, by walking after him, had not the exceeding workmanship of God's wisdom, and the liberality of his mercy, formed eyes to our souls as to our bodies; which

piercing through the impurity of our flesh, behold the highest heavens, and thence bring knowledge and object to the mind and soul, to contemplate the ever-during glory, and termless joy, prepared for those which retain the image and similitude of their creator, preserving undefiled and unrent the garment of the new man, which, after the image of God, is created in righteousness and holiness, as saith St. Paul. Now whereas it is thought by some of the fathers, as by St. Augustine, with whom St. Ambrose joineth, That by sin the perfection of the image is lost, and not the image itself: both opinions by this distinction may be well reconciled, to wit, that the image of God, in man, may be taken two ways; for, either it is considered according to natural gifts, and consisteth therein, namely, to have a reasonable and understanding nature, &c.; and in this sense, the image of God is no more lost by sin, than the very reasonable or understanding nature, &c., is lost, for sin doth not abolish and take away these natural gifts or, the image of God is considered, according to supernatural gifts, namely, of divine grace and heavenly glory, which is indeed the perfection and accomplishment of the natural image; and this manner of similitude and image of God is wholly blotted out, and destroyed by sin.

BOOK III. CHAP XII. § 7.

The great Battle of Mantinea, and Death of Epaminondas.

Epaminondas, considering that his commission was almost now expired, and that his attempts of surprising Sparta and Mantinea having failed, the impression of terror which his name had wrought in the Peloponnesians would soon vanish, unless by some notable act he should abate their courage in their first growth, and leave some memorable character of his expedition, resolved to give them battle, whereby he reasonably hoped both to settle the doubtful affections of his own associates, and to leave the Spartans as weak in spiric

and ability as he found them, if not wholly to bring them into subjection. Having therefore warned his men to prepare for that battle, wherein victory shouldbe rewarded with Lordship of all Greece; and finding the alacrity of his soldiers to be such as promised the accomplishment of his own desire; he made shew of declining the enemy, and entrenching himself in a place of more advantage, that so by taking from them all expectation of fighting that day, he might allay the heat of their valour, and afterward strike their senses with amazement, when he should come upon them unexpected. This opinion deceived him not. For with very much tumult, as in so great and sudden a danger, the enemy ran to arms, necessity enforcing their resolution, and the consequence of that day's service, urging them to do as well as they might. The Theban army consisted of thirty thousand foot, and three thousand horse; the Lacedæmonians and their friends were short of this number, both in horse and in foot, by a third part. The Mantineans, because the war was in their country, stood in the right wing, and with them the Lacedæmonians; the Athenians had the left wing; the Achæans, Eleans, and others of less account filled the body of the army. The Thebans stood in the left wing of their own battle, opposite to the Lacedæmonians, having by them the Arcadians, the Euboeans, Locrians, Sicyonians, Messenians, and Thessalians, with others, compounding the main battle; the Argives held the right wing, the horsemen on each part were placed in the flanks, only a troop of the Eleans were in the rear. Before the footmen could join, the encounter of the horse on both sides was very rough, wherein finally the Thebans prevailed, notwithstanding the valiant resistance of the Athenians: who not yielding to the enemy either in courage or skill, were overlaid with numbers, and so beaten upon by Thessalian slings, that they were driven to forsake the place, and leave their infantry naked. But this retreat was the less disgraceful, because they kept themselves together, and did not fall back upon their own footmen; but finding the Theban horse to have given them over, and