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Show The Preface. ThePreface, waters ofavanninyriner dofncce/Suely parfueeach otherfro the firstfountaines, oThisimuch fay it is, that Reafonitfelfehath taayheds «andthis is the begin. Latthyog. ing ofKnowledgeSapientia precedit,Religio fequitur:quia prius eft Deum sae {cire; confequenss colere ; Sapiencegoes before; Relivion followes': becanfeitis fafta knowGodsand then to wor{hip him. This Sapience Plato calleth abfoluti WYaacde defn, bonifcientiam, The /cience of the abfolucevod : and another {cientiam rerum primarum)fempicernarum, perpetuatumsFor Faith(Jaith Ifidore)is not exrorted by violence; but byreafon.and examples perfivaded : fides nequaquam vi extorquetirs(ed ratione &exemplisfuadetur. [confe/fe it,That to enquire furcher,as ofthe effence ofGod,ofbis power,ofhis Artex by what medne Ele created the world:Or ofhisfecret iudgement,¢> the caufesis not an effect of Reafon: Sedctim ratione infaniune,but theyZrowmad with reafon,that inquire afterit: For as it is nafhamenor difhonour(‘faith a French Authorde faire'arreft au but qu'on nafceu furpafler,For amanto re/t himfelf therewhere he finds‘it'impofsie ble topaffe onfurther : fo what/oeueris beyond,and out ofthe reachoftrie redjon it acknowledgethitto befo,as vnderftanding it felfnot to be infinitesbut docordin ; ouod ping. tOthe'Name and Natureit hath;tobea Teacher, that beft knowes the eid fhe 0WnArt.Forfeeing both Reafon ex Nece/sity reach vs(‘Reafon whichis pars difrowning, swamtermiUi {piritus in corpus humanum merfi ) thatthe world bas made by a power comin infinite; andyet Low it was made,it cannot teach vs: andJeeing thefame R eafon pieinit, and Nece/Sity make vs know , that chefame infinite power is euery wherein world ; andyet ‘how enery where , it cannot informe vs: otir beleeue hereof the is not weaknedbutgreatlyftrengthened,by our ignorance; becaufe it is thefame Reafor ; to b . all conthat : tels vs, Thatfuch a Nature cann ot beJe{aid . God, that can be in ceined by man, Thane beenalready ouer-lon12, to make any large difcourfe-either ofthe-parts of thefollowing Story; or in mine owneexcufe: efpec paffage; feeing the whole is exceeding weak and de ially inthe excufe ofthis or that fo Hj | vnfutable dinsfion of: the bookes i uid Id not not k know how fmai to ex ee n per I a e b won divetted g to inlargethe ve the buildin buildging ig after a afte the foundation was laid Deb td,a ndith the epp firft part ivefifhed All men Know that there is nogreat Art in the dinidine an tes ie tk ga are (ubie i meneét tonumber i and meaf afure ure., wel enou gh t well toh ,wreatniccea -Ae, which{pe For the reft, itfuutes ake too much, and yetfay lel ucimur.We i igh ew a n high Jettmake arefall 2 hereo is ourrowne. But that ow all price ing a comen aiwayfrom f, thou gh alate our gvodfelue Writs er R ah Hee it ny hold on mee, becaufe I belecie a hee doth. that who oe ‘hebeh Ife the wife/t man, is but apoore'and miferabl eionorant Thofe alwaiés t iepbi eab fu etiobe allf ft thethemf vetelues " nn te andfool er:iesofthe ad e WorId,do g oo Suar dso again : to defe nd themfrom them- one, felfe eftimation, and Selfe on ace Siea crning the order ofthe workesI opini bane onely taken coun[ailef " ) rer y : rom thelh aeb ; Nee tnntw ohiart nir whic be is Vine fir/t in down o ac Babe l of eA i h afe l take vp ; i ofth er Worl d;-fal there camel ittl e to the Sead oper prifes,greater infamie thanfaith,of Ninus and Tewaas the frory s the [tory ofthe Hebrew tBeconfi iminglifeafesf time, an ny Mt Pi the Olim : piads, that overcame sand preferued it felfe,from the very cradle and beginning ginning to this day: andyet notfo entire, but that the large difcourfes thereof(to which in many Scriptures we arereferred)are nowherefound. The Fragments of other Stories,with the'actions ofthofe Kings and Princes which fhot up here o> there in the fame time, Lam driuentorelate by way ofdigrefsion: of which wee mayfay With Virgil: Apparentrari nantes in gurgite vafto; They appeare here and there floting in the great gulfe oftime. To thefamefirft Ages doe belong the report ofmany Inuentions thereinfound, andfrom themderined to vs ; though moft ofthe Authors Names haveperifhed in folongaNauigation. For thofe Ages had their Lawes ; they had diuer[ity of Gouernment; they had Kingly rule; Nobility,Pollicy in war;Nanigation,andall, or the moft ofneedfull Trades.Topeak therfore ofthefe(feeing in ageneral Fiiftory wefhould baue left a.great deale ofNakedneffe,by their omi/Sian)it cannotproper ly be called a digre/sion.Trueit is that Ihaue madealfo many others:which ifthey hall be laid to my charge, Imujt caft thefault into the reat heape of humaneerror. Forfeeing we digreffe in all the waies of our lines : yea,feeing the life ofman is nothing elfe but digre/sion; Imay the better be excufed,in writing their lines aétions, Lamnot altogether ignorantin the Lawesof Fiiftory, andof the Kindes. Thefame hathbeen taught by many, but by no manbetterand withgreater breuity, than by that excellent learned Gentleman Sir Francis Bacon. (hriftian Lawes are alfotaught vs by the Prophets and Apoftles; and eneryday preacht yntows. But wee flill make large digre/Sions : yea, the teachers themfelues doenot (in all)keepe the path whichthey point out to others. For the reft, after fuch time as the Perfians had wrefted the Empire fromthe Chaldzans, and had raifed agreat Monarchy,producing Aétions ofmore importance than were elfewhereto befound: it was agrecable tothe Order of Story, to attend this Empire;whilft itfoflourifhedthat the affaires ofthe nations adsoyning hadreference thereunto. Thelike obferuance was to be vfed towardsthefortunes of Greece, when they againe began toget ground yponthe Perfians, as alfo towards the affairs ofRome,when the Romansgrew more mighty tha the Greeks. Asfor the Medes;the Macedonians, the Sicilianis,the Carthaginians,and 0ther Nations who refi/ted the beginnings ofthe former Empiresand afterwards becamebut parts oftheir compofition and enlargement:itfeemed best to remember what was knownof thems fromtheirfenerall beginnings, in[uch times andplaces as they in their flourifhing eftates oppofed thofe Monarchies whichin the endfwallowed them vp. Andherein I hauefollowed the be/t Geographers: who feldome gine names to thofe {mall brookes,whereof many joynedtogether, makegreat Riuers ;tillfuch time as they become vnited, and runin maineStreameto the Ocean Seaslfthe Phrafe be weak,eo the Stile not euery-wherelike it felf; thefirft fhews their legitimation and trueParent, the fecond will excufe itfelfvponthe Variety ofMatter. For Virgil, who wrotehis Eclogues,gracili auena, fedftronger pipes, when he foundedthe wars of AEncas. It may alfo be laid to my charge, that I vfe diners Hebrevy words in my fir[t booke,and elfewhere : in which language others maythinke,.and I my felfe acknowledgeit, that lam altogether ignorant: but it is trae that fome ofthem Ifind in Montanus,othersin latine(araéker in S, Senenfis; and of the re/t [haue borrowedthe interpretation offome of myfriends. Butfay [hadbin beholding to neitheryet were it not to be wondredatbaning had a |