Some again, curious fantastics, will know more than this, and inquire with [3137]Epicurus, what God did before the world was made? was he idle?  Where did he bide?  What did he make the world of? why did he then make it, and not before?  If he made it new, or to have an end, how is he unchangeable, infinite, &c.  Some will dispute, cavil, and object, as Julian did of old, whom Cyril confutes, as Simon Magus is feigned to do, in that [3138]dialogue betwixt him and Peter:  and Ammonius the philosopher, in that dialogical disputation with Zacharias the Christian.  If God be infinitely and only good, why should he alter or destroy the world? if he confound that which is good, how shall himself continue good?  If he pull it down because evil, how shall he be free from the evil that made it evil? &c., with many such absurd and brain-sick questions, intricacies, froth of human wit, and excrements of curiosity, &c., which, as our Saviour told his inquisitive disciples, are not fit for them to know.  But hoo!  I am now gone quite out of sight, I am almost giddy with roving about:  I could have ranged farther yet; but I am an infant, and not [3139]able to dive into these profundities, or sound these depths; not able to understand, much less to discuss.  I leave the contemplation of these things to stronger wits, that have better ability, and happier leisure to wade into such philosophical mysteries; for put case I were as able as willing, yet what can one man do?  I will conclude with [3140]Scaliger, Nequaquam nos homines sumus, sed partes hominis, ex omnibus aliquid fieri potest, idque non magnum; ex singulis fere nihil.  Besides (as Nazianzen hath it) Deus latere nos multa voluit; and with Seneca, cap. 35. de Cometis, Quid miramur tam rara mundi spectacula non teneri certis legibus, nondum intelligi? multae sunt gentes quae tantum de facie sciunt coelum, veniet, tempus fortasse, quo ista quae, nunc latent in lucem dies extrahat longioris aevi diligentia, una aetas non sufficit, posteri, &c., when God sees his time, he will reveal these mysteries to mortal men, and show that to some few at last, which he hath concealed so long.  For I am of [3141]his mind, that Columbus did not find out America by chance, but God directed him at that time to discover it:  it was contingent to him, but necessary to God; he reveals and conceals to whom and when he will.  And which [3142]one said of history and records of former times, “God in his providence, to check our presumptuous inquisition, wraps up all things in uncertainty, bars us from long antiquity, and bounds our search within the compass of some few ages:”  many good things are lost, which our predecessors made use of, as Pancirola will better inform you; many new things are daily invented, to the public good; so kingdoms, men, and knowledge ebb and flow, are hid and revealed, and when you have all done, as the Preacher concluded, Nihil est sub sole novum (nothing new under the sun.) But my melancholy spaniel’s quest, my game is sprung, and I must suddenly come down and follow.