Ceres as gouerneresse of the arth, and to sondry other for other sondry
considerations. Neyther staied that darkenesse of iniquitie in Egipte
alone, but where so euer the progeny of Cham stepte in from the begynnyng,
there fell true godlines, all oute of minde and abondage to the deuell
entred his place. And there neuer was countrie, mother of moe swarmes of
people, then that part of Arabia, that he, and his, chase to be theirs. So
greate a mischief did the vntymely banishemente of one manne, bring to the
whole. Contrarily the progenie of Iapheth, and Sem, brought vp to full
yeres vndre their elders, and rightly enstructed: contentyng them selues
with a litle circuite, straied not so wide as this brother had doen.
Whereby it chaunced that the zeale of the truthe, (I meane of good liuyng
and true worshippe of one onely God) remained as hidden in one onely
people, vntill the tyme of Messias.


¶ The seconde Chapitre.

¶ The false opinion of the Philosophre concernyng the begynnyng of man.

But the aunciente Philosophers, whiche without knowledge of God, and his
truthe, many yeres ago, wrate vpon the natures of thinges, and thistories
of times had another opinion of the originall of man. For certain of them,
belieued the worlde euer to haue been, and that euer it should be, and man
together with it to haue had no beginnyng. Certaine did holde that it had a
beginnyng, and an ende it should haue, and a time to haue been, when man
was not. For saie thei, the begynner of thynges visible, wrapped vp bothe
heauen and earth at one instant, togither in one paterne, and so a
distinction growing on betwixte these meynte bodies, the worlde to haue
begon in suche ordre as we see. The aire by nature to be continually
mouyng, and the moste firie parte of thesame, for the lightenesse thereof,