The Epistle
his Hexameron, etiam in Brutis quidam futuri sensus est, ut nos presenti vitæ non addicti, sed de futuro fæculo omne studium habeamus.
For this cause there were of beasts in holy scripture three holy uses, one for sacrifice, another in vision, and a third for reproofe and instruction. In Sacrifices were the cleane beasts, which men were bound first to knowe, and then to offer; for it is unreasonable that those things should be sacred at the Lordes altar, which are refuted worthily at private mens Tables. Now although we have no use of sacrificing of Beasts, Nam ficut bruta pro peccatis immolabantur, ita iam vitia pro corporibus. Yet we have use of cleane Beasts for foode and nourishment, and therefore for the inriching of the minds and Tables of men, it is necesary to know not onely the liberty that we have to eat, but also the quality and nutriment of the Beast we eat, not for any Religion, but for health and corporall necessity. This point is also opened in this story, and the other of Sacrifice, wherein I have not omitted to speak of the Divine use of every Beast, both among the Jewes, and among the prophane Gentiles. Now for the second holy use of Beasts in visions, the Prophet Daniels visions, and Exekiels, and S. Johns in the Revelation doe testifie of them, whereby the most Devines have obscured how great Princes and kingdomes after they have shaken off the practise of Justice and piety, turn Tyrants and ravening Beasts, For so man being in honor understandeth not, but becometh like the Beasts that perish, and so, as Dionisius saith by visions of beasts, Infima reducuntur per media in suprema. Now there were as S. Augistine saith, three kinds of visions, Sensibiles, intellectuales, & imaginariæ: the first were most pregnat, because to the understanding and conceiving, a man never lost his sences, and therefore God did sodainely create savage beats both of naturall and extraordinary shapes, whereby he shewed to his servants the Prophets, the ruine or uprising of beastly states and kingdomes. And not onely thus, but also in heaven (as Saint John saith) there are foure Beasts full of eyes before the throne of God: both which must needs magnifie the knowledge that we may have of these Quadrupedes; for seeing God hath used them as Sacraments or Mysteries to containe his will, (not onely in monstrous treble-headed, or seven-horned shapes) but also inpure, ordinary, natural lims & mebers: how shal we be able to gesse at the meaning in the secret, that do not understand the revealed? And what use can we make of the invisible part of that Sacrament, where we know not the meaning of the visible? Doth the Lord compare the Divell to a Lyon; evill Judges to Beares; false prophets to Wolves, secret and crafty persecutors to Foxes; open enemies in hostility to wilde Boares; Heretickes and false Preachers to Scoprions; good men to the Fowles of Heaven, and Martyrs to Sheep, and yet we have no knowledge of the nature of Lyons, Wolves, Beares, Foxes, Wilde-Bores, or Scorpions. Surely when Salomon saith to the sluggard go to the Pismire, he willeth him to learne the nature of the Pismire, and then according therefore to reforme his manners: And so all the world are bid to learne the natures of all Beasts, for there is alway something to be learned in them, according to this saying of Saint Basil. A dea nihil non providium in naturæ rebus est, neque quicquam pertinentis, ad se curæ experts, & si ipsas animalium partes consideraveris, invenies quod neque superfluum quid conditor apposuit, neque necessaria detraxit. Then it being cleare that every beast is a natural vision, which we ought to see and understand, for the more cleare apprehension of the invisible Majesty of God, I will conclude that I have not omitted this part of the use of Beasts, but have collected, expressed, and declared, what the writers of all ages have herein observed.
Now the third and last holy use that is made of Beasts in Scripture, is for reproofe and instruction; so the Lord in Job. Ch, 38, & 39. mentioneth the Lyon, the Raven, the Wilde-Goats, the Hindes, the Hinde-Calves, the Wilde-Asses, the Unicorn, the Ostriche, the Stork, the Puissant-Horse, the Hawke, the Eagle, the Vulture, the Whale, and the Dragon, that is, the Fowles, Fishes, Serpents, and Four-footed Beasts. Al which he reckoneth as known things to Job, and discovreth of as strange things in their natures as any we have inserted for truth in our History, as may appeare to any man whatsoever, that wil looke studiously into them.
Shall I adde heereunto how Moses, and all the Prophets, Saint John Baptist, our most
