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THE SECOND BOOKE 265
as he is no lesse in small things.' Our arrogancie
setteth ever before us this blasphemous equality,
because our occupations charge us. Strato hath
presented the Gods with all immunitie of offices, as
are their Priests. He maketh nature to produce
and preserve all things, and by her weights and
motions to compact all parts of the world, discharging
humane nature from the feare of divine judgments.
Quod beatum ceternumque sit, id nee habere, negotii
quicquam, nee exhibere alteri:¹ ' That which is blessed
and eternall, nor is troubled it selfe, nor troubleth
others.' Nature willeth that in all things alike there
be also like relation. Then the infinite number of
mortall men concludeth a like number of immortall:
The infinite things that kill and destroy presuppose
as many that preserve and profit. As the soules of
the Gods, sanse tongues, sanse eyes, and sanse eares,
have each one, in themselves a feeling of that which
the other feel, and judge of our thoughts; so mens
soules, when they are free and severed from the body,
either by slcepe or any distraction, divine, prognosticate
and see things, which being conjoyned to their bodies,
they could not see. Men, saith Saint Paul, 2 when
they professed themselves to be wise, they became
fooles, for they turned the glory of the incorruptible
God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible
man. Marke, I pray you, a little the jugling of
ancient Deifications. After the great, solemne and
prowd pompe of funerals, when the fire began to burae
the top of the Pyramis, and to take hold of the bed or
hearce wherein the dead corps lay, even at that instant
they let fly an Eagle, which taking her flight aloft
upward, signified that the soule went directly to
Paradise. We have yet a thousand medailes and
monuments, namely, of that honest woman Faustina,
wherein that Eagle is represented carrying a cockehorse
up towards heaven those deified soules. It is
pity we should so deceive our selves with our owne
foolish devises and apish inventions,
1 CIC. Nat, Deor. 1. i. ² Rom i. 22, 23.