nd hate. Thus Peripatetics and astrologians held in
former times, and to this effect of old in Rome, saith Dionysius
Halicarnassus, _lib. 7_, when those meteors and prodigies appeared in the
air, after the banishment of Coriolanus, [6656] "Men were diversely
affected: some said they were God's just judgments for the execution of
that good man, some referred all to natural causes, some to stars, some
thought they came by chance, some by necessity" decreed _ab initio_, and
could not be altered. The two last opinions of necessity and chance were,
it seems, of greater note than the rest.

[6657] "Sunt qui in Fortunae jam casibus omnia ponunt,
Et mundum credunt nullo rectore moveri,
Natura, volvente vices," &c.

For the first of chance, as [6658]Sallust likewise informeth us, those old
Romans generally received; "They supposed fortune alone gave kingdoms and
empires, wealth, honours, offices: and that for two causes; first, because
every wicked base unworthy wretch was preferred, rich, potent, &c.;
secondly, because of their uncertainty, though never so good, scarce any
one enjoyed them long: but after, they began upon better advice to think
otherwise, that every man made his own fortune." The last of Necessity was
Seneca's tenet, that God was _alligatus causis secundis_, so tied to second
causes, to that inexorable Necessity, that he could alter nothing of that
which was once decreed; _sic erat in fatis_, it cannot be altered, _semel
jussit, semper paret Deus, nulla vis rumpit, nullae preces, nec ipsum
fulmen_, God hath once said it, and it must for ever stand good, no
prayers, no threats, nor power, nor thunder itself can alter it. Zeno,
Chrysippus, and those other Stoics, as you may read in Tully _2. de
divinatione_, Gellius, _lib. 6. cap. 2._ &c., maintained as much. In all
ages, there have been such, that either deny God in all, or in part; some
deride him, they could have made a better world, and ruled it more orderly
themselves, blaspheme him, derogate at their pleasure from him. 'Twas so in
[6659]Plato's time, "Some say there be no gods, others that they care not
for men, a middle sort grant both." _Si non sit Deus, unde mala? si sit
Deus, unde mala_? So Cotta argues in Tully, why made he not all good, or at
least tenders not the welfare of such as are good? As the woman told
Alexander, if he be not at leisure to hear causes, and redress them, why
doth he reign? [6660]Sextus Empericus hath many such a