extinguish flames very readily as also by a multiply'd reflection of light to sparkle and flame as it were when 't is stirr'd 6. The same too is no little cause of Sea-sicknesse besides the very tossing which of it self is a cause as appears in those who are sick with riding in a Coach for the stomack being offended with the saltnesse strives to cast it up as appears by that salt humour we oft are sensible of in colds 7. Hence too comes it that the sea is not frozen the mixture of salt hindring the freezing wind 's entrance For where the sea is congeal'd 't is not the sea-water but the snow falling on it which makes the sea seem frozen as our Countrey-men that go Northern voyages witnesse Yet others report that near the shoars a sharp wind will freez the sea in some ev'n hotter Countreys 8. But when vast Rivers flow into narrow Bayes they must needs overflow into larger seas whence of necessity there must needs be a kind of perpetuall flux of some seas into others as of the Euxine into the Propontis of this into the Mediterranean of the Mediterranean into the Ocean The reason is because the lesser sea with the same quantity of water is more swell'd and consequently has a higher levell of water Again the power of the sun drinks more out of a larger sea then out of a narrower whence 't is more easily sunk low to receive the adventitious waters 9. Out of the sea the sun like fire out of a boyling pot extracts continuall vapours which either in Rains or Winds it disperses over all the Earth for all those Winds which we feel cool from the Ocean in the Summer though we perceive it not yet both their extraction makes us confesse they are moist and their density and softnesse savouring a similitude of and derivation from Water 10. The Earth therefore heated by the Sun being sprinkled with these whether in Rain or Wind for the Earth being once hot a great while retains it dissolves it self into Vapours and so by little and little they are rais'd to the higher parts of the Earth where if they feel the cold of the Aire without or by any other cause are coagulated into bigger parts they become Water and by degrees break themselves a passage through and flow down upon the lower grounds LESSON V. Of Fountains Rivers and Lakes 1. ANd because the causes of evaporations are continuall Fountains too continually flow which joyning together make Brooks and Rivers and when they have watered the whole surface of the Earth restore to the Sea the superfluous moisture to repair again the Earth with a new distillation 2. Let him that thinks not the Rain-water sufficient for this imagine the Mountains out of their innate heat are more pory then the rest of the Earth and hollow as we have said wherein there may be receptacles of water out of which the heat that is every where mingled often draws vapours which it transmits to the top of Mountains covered with Rocks whence afterwards water starts as it were out of bare Rocks 3. That this is the generation of Fountains the stones and earth at a Fountain-head all deaw'd like the cover of a boiling pot are an argument also the thinnesse subtilty of the vapours so rais'd through the Earth certain herbs too nourisht by such like vapours by observing all which the Water-finders search for Well-springs 4. Of Fountains the famousest are Baths that is hot ones The Authour of the Demonstrative Physick ripping up some fountains both learnt himself and convinc'd others by the very course of nature and by experiments Masterly made that cold Water full of a salt which he calls hermeticall with a mixture of Sulphur will grow hot 5. The same may be seen in watred lime and in Tartar with the spirit of Vitriol infus'd in it The cause of all these is the same viz. The fiery parts fetter'd as it were in dry bodies being set at liberty by the mixture of a liquid body dissipate into vapours that liquour it consisting of parts easily dissolvable 6. Hence it appears why cold fountains sometimes of the same favour are next neighbours to hot ones viz. because they passe not through the same salt 7. Why some are more some lesse hot viz. either through the abundance of this salt or through its nearnesse to the mouth of the Fountain 8. The same Authour evidenc'd the constant lastingnesse of the heat to proceed from the naturall reparation and recruit of the same salt when extracting the salt he found the remaining mud season'd again within three dayes not by the raining of salt down out of the Aire as that Authour thinks but by the nature of the Earth's being such that mixt with Aire it turn'd into salt or salt was made of the moist Aire and that Mud. 9. It appears again why some Fountains have wonderful vertues either in benefit or prejudice of our bodies why others convert Iron into Copper others petrifie sticks and whatever is thrown into them why some yield gold others silver 10. Namely because flowing through severall sorts of Earth they rub off along with them little particles and dust so minute sometimes that they are not discernable from the very body of the water and then the water is reputed to have such a vertue sometimes they are visible and then the water is said to carry some such thing in it 11. Of Fountains flowing out Brooks and Rivers are made whose running they say requires the declivity of one foot in a Mile Their reason is because a line touching the Earth at a Miles end is rais'd nine inches Artificers therefore adde three inches more that it may conveniently run whence the fountains of Nilus should be almost a mile and half higher then the Port of Alexandria but erroneously for when ever the water running behind is so encreased that it be able to raise it self above the water before this rule of declivity changes 12. Among Rivers 't is strange one should swim upon and as it were run over another as Titaresus upon Peneus Boristhenes upon Hypanis The reason is the gravity of the one and the lightnesse of the other or they will not mix out of some other cause as if one of them be oily 13. The overflowing of Rivers in Summer proceeds either from the melting of Snow shut up in Vallies or from an abundance of Rain falling in a far-distant Climate and therefore not suspected by us as is evident in Nilus Niger and some others of no name and scarce any better then Brooks 14. Fountains if they emerge into a hollow place of the Earth beget a Lake and if this cavity happen in any elevated Superficies of the Earth whether in a Mountain or a high Plain it comes to passe that sometimes great Rivers flow out of Lakes And sometimes vast eruptions of waters without any appearing cause when a Lake emprison'd in the bowells of a Mountain suddenly overflows
and opens it self a way LESSON VI. Of the Aire those things vvhich are done in it near the Earth 1. THe Aire is evidently divided into two parts that which is habitable by Animals and that above this last has no limits we can know of that first is contain'd in the Sphear of Vapours which ascend with a sensible heat out of the Earth that is as much as the Sun cherishes with its heat and renders fit for the life of Animals This therefore is comparatively hot the rest comparatively cold which the Snows and cold winds about the highest Mountains testifie A third which they use to call the Middle Region there 's none since the place of Meteors is very uncertain some residing near the Earth others above the Moon 2. Out of the Globe of Earth and Sea by the power of the Sun little bodies are rais'd up of the minutest bulk which the Sun deserting them sometimes fall down upon the Earth like drops and are call'd Deaw some drop from hard by others from a great height for all night long vapours descend and the higher more slowly both because they are higher and because every drop is lesse Hence 't is that Chymists rather chuse the Deaw that falls last as also the summer Deaw these being the purest and subtilest 3. From this Deaw 't is that the night grows cooler towards day-break though the first Drops breaking and diffusing themselves intends the same cold by the expiration of their cold parts 4. The drops of Deaw especially the least are perfectly round the cause whereof is because the water of Deaw is very tender and encompass'd in and bound together with a skin as it were by the more viscous Aire about it 5. As we see therefore Bladders blown-up become round because in that figure they are capable of most Aire so every fluid body when 't is straightned must of necessity mould it self into a round form And this seems the cause why Quicksilver so easily runs into little sphears for since the least fire will vapour it away the least cold too must needs compresse it 6. Some Deaws are sweeter then the rest especially in the hotter Regions whence a kind of Hony may be lick'd from the leafs of Trees and the Bees are believ'd to make their hony out of Deaw also the Manna in Calabria and Arabia and other hot Regions is a kind of Deaw Cloves too and Nutmeggs are thought to derive their sweetnesse from a kind of Deaw which falls in the Molucco Islands Now sweetnesse proceeds from a concocting and digestion of Moysture into a certain oily softnesse and equability of parts 7. Frost is congealed Deaw A Fogg or Mist properly is the expiration of the Earth or Water out of a certain Vent made by their native heat For we sensibly perceive Foggs rising out of moist Valleys Lakes Rivers and the Sea they presently fill all our Horizon then for the most part they rise either in the Morning or Evening seldome when the Sun shines hot they rise too in great abundance out of some certain place All which agree not to Vapours extracted by the Sun 8. And because they expire out of putrid water they stink and beget a Cough But that which uses to rest upon Mountains and in Woods especially when it rains is another thing for those are really Clouds not Fogs which either fall or are sustain'd by the leafs of Trees whence in certain Islands we read there 's no other water then what is so gather'd and distill'd from Trees Some Mists are purely watry others have a kind of slimy muddynesse withall deriv'd out of the quality of that body whence they are sublimated 9. The Nets we see in trees hedges as also those thrids that fly up down sometimes are made by the parts of the Fog growing together or of little bodies too rais'd up by the Sun minutest humid bodies gluing together other minutest dry ones that we may learn out of these rude principles how Silk-worms and Spiders Webs and even Flesh it self is woven LESSON VII Of Clouds Rain Snovv and Hail 1. HItherto we have kept near the Earth But if the Sun drives the vapours higher they are gather'd into Clouds Now a Cloud is a swarm or heap of minutest bodies elevated by the Sun of such a crassitude thickness that like a solid body it either reflects or deads the Light 2. That 't is no solid body is plain both from the tops of high Mountains upon which it appears like a Mist and does not much wet those that goe into it as also from its generation and rising up in minutest bodies 3. And the reason is plain why they hang above namely because of the littlenesse of their parts as we see Dust thrown up staies a great while in the Aire Besides the motion of the Aire hinders their descending wherefore in a high wind we fear not the Rain which as soon as the wind is down presently falls 4. Now that which makes it fall is the forcing those little bodies into a straight place and therefore wind brings Rain because it thrusts the little drops one against another and makes them bigger 5. Besides the wind it self is often incorporated with the Vapour and by sticking to them makes those particles which before were too little now to be big enough and fit for descending as when a warm wind rushes against a cold vapour or contrariwise and therefore cold winds in the Summer and warm ones in the Winter chiefly bring Rain 6. But because those things that are rais'd out of the Earth ascend not onely from the Superficies but out of its very Bowells too through the pores nay they are expell'd and thrust out from the bottome of the Sea and the Earth under it the Sea-water forcing whatever is dissolved in the bottome lighter then it self to ascend And because there is a perpetuall vicissitude of Vapours bandy'd from the Poles to the Aequator and from the Aequator back again to the Poles these Consequents follow 7. That little particles are drawn up into the Aire and Clouds of all kinds of Earth clayey stony nitrous bituminous metallick whatever other sorts there are again of all sorts of Plants Trees Roots Animals all which being hurry'd up and down in the Clouds from one part to another are scattered and if any where they come to find a convenient receptacle and nourishment there such things or creatures are produc'd 8. But because some are apt to be form'd suddenly as Froggs easily grow out of Mud and 't is told by a man of credit that a certain Chymist in a quarter of an hour brought certain seeds to grow it happens sometimes such as these too rain out of the Clouds 9. So it rain'd Wheat some yeares since in the West of England or rather something like Wheat and the same I believe those other miraculous rains are to be accounted viz. that it rain'd not bloud but a red water something
descends upon the rest of the Members as also the Cold of the Night which proceeds from Vapours that having been rais'd up high by the Sun and refrigerated by its departure descend is a cause of sleep in both respects therefore 't is more aptly express'd He made fall then He cast 2. Moreover both Sopor and the primitive word expresse a deep sleep and like to a Lethargy the Septuagint interprets it an Ecstasy which so binds up the Senses that the ecstatick person cannot feel any under the intensest pain 3. Now 't is easie to observe that this sleep at least in part proceeded from the former great contention and travail of his Mind to discern the natures of all Animals and from his pensivenesse that he found not his comfort or satisfaction in them all 4. Adam lay down therefore on his right side for Aristotle teaches that this posture is the aptest for sleeping And what did God He took says the holy Writ one of his ribs and fill'd up Flesh for it In the Hebrew the Letter is more obscure but thus with propriety 't is express'd and He took one of his sides and shut up flesh under it and built the side which He had taken from the Man into a Woman The word which we have express'd by He took is very large and includes whatever manner of taking for example to lay hold on and the word which we have interpreted He shut up is taken largely too for He compass'd about The very Letter therefore in fine yields this sense God took to him one of Adam's sides and encompass'd it with flesh and built that is fram'd or erected it into a Woman So that the sense may be that God multiply'd the flesh about one of his sides and the flesh or side already swollen He by little and little distributed and fashion'd into a Woman so that the Woman may seem to have proceeded out of the Man as a Bough out of the Trunk 5. For as the Sun drawing up the moisture of the Earth into the Trunk fix'd in the Earth by percolation through the substance of the Trunk makes the moisture assume the nature of the Tree and increase the Trunk rise up and be distributed into parts befitting the intire Plant So God straining that sleepy humour through the side of Adam first made the side swell out with a great deal of flesh then be distributed into all the similary parts and lastly into the dissimilary 6. And besides that this Sense is very apt to the words nothing is more agreeable to the nature of things For to the three degrees of Man the triple procreation corresponds Adam as a Mixtum was form'd Eve as a Plant grew out of Adam Abel as an Animal was born of Animals Besides reason requires that since in Adam there was the next immediate matter of the Woman she should not be made out of any other then that but like is made out of like by accretion according to Nature Moreover She is produc'd out of his Side because ther 's both flesh and bone and through the nearnesse of the Bowells especially of the Heart to the left side it necessarily participates more of the Vegetative Vertue then any other member of the exteriour Cataphragm Bringing to here is clearly to be interpreted not for a translation from place to place but for an Oblation or exhibition It follows in the Divine History This now is bone of my bones and for now the Hebrews read this time The force of both terms is the same viz. that God otherwhiles offered him incongruous things but now something agreeable and naturall 8. Under the name of Bone and Flesh the whole Body is understood that is the rest of the similary parts whereof a Man is compacted 9. She shall be call'd c. Since what Adam call'd every living Soul that is its name the term given the Woman must signify the proper notion of Woman which is desum'd not from her Matter but from her Form and End how comes therefore this name which Adam impos'd even himself being witnesse to be taken from the Matter It must be said that those words because she is taken out of Man do not signifie because she is made of Man which is common with her to Lice and Fleas but because she is of the same nature with Man And 't is to be observ'd that the Hebrew word signifies prince or chief or fundamentall or subsistent so that the sense may be Because she is of the nature of Man to excell the Animals as He himself 11. Adam says farther that they should be two in one flesh or as the primitive reading has it into one flesh viz. three manner of ways in the Issue which proceeds from both in the Woman since Physicians affirm that the Seed of the Man disappears being transum'd into the flesh of the Woman and lastly by Consent for Copulation for since that is perfect which is apt to make its like neither the Man nor the Woman without one another is perfect both therefore as they combine to the production of their like integrate one Physically-perfect Animal 11. Whence 't is understood why God neither said let Woman be made nor let us make Woman but I will make for so the truth of the holy language has it namely because the mixtion of the Elements into Flesh which was the proper action of the Angels was already done in the forming of Adam and the augmentation of that exceeded not the power of Adam's nature the rest therefore was only the concreation of a Soul which belong'd to God alone CHAP. XI An explication of Genesis concerning PARADISE 1. THus Man was entirely perfected what misfortunes afterward befell him let 's enquire out of the mysticall Book It says therefore And the Lord God had planted a Paradise of Pleasure from the beginning wherein he put the Man whom he had formed The Hebrews read a Garden which says the same thing but what is signifi'd by these names must be sought out of the description First of all therefore we are taught that out of the ground there was born in it every Tree fair to sight and sweet to eat which from the description of the Third day 't is clear agrees to the whole Earth 2. The next is that the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Science of Good and evil as Eve witnesses were in the middle of Paradise now 't is an Hebrew propriety to say in the middle for that which is among or within The letter has it thus And God made to spring out of the Earth every Tree fair to sight and sweet to eat the Tree also of Life in the middle of Paradise and the Tree of the Science of Good and evil that is All kind of Trees pleasant to sight and tast among which were good Trees and conducing to life and some which were apt to make a Man experience evil things as well as good 3. 'T is added that
up in Barns the herbs of the field to eat because sometimes the Earth should yield none 10. Moreover those words 'till thou returnest into the Earth out of which thou art taken c. clearly shew that he should have been immortall that is have liv'd a long time and afterwards not be devested but cloathed-over as the Apostle speaks 11. It follows how he was cast out of Paradise and 't is said that Adam being cast out God plac'd before the Paradise of Pleasure a Cherubim a flaming and turning sword to keep the way of the Tree of life To understand which we must reflect upon the universall cause of the Corruption of all things especially of Living Creatures And because Animals are cold in death 't is plain that Cold is the cause of Death whence we see that Winter is as it were the old Age of the Year The years therefore had continu'd in one state of heat and cold in Paradise and to introduce Winter is to make life shorter to have brought Death nearer 12 The cause therefore of the variety of the year is the cause of Death and this Astronomers teach happens because the Earth keeps not still it s same parts to the Sun or in that it conforms not its Axis to the Axis of the Ecliptick but alwaies turns it from the Poles of the Ecliptick to the Poles of the Aequator this Naturalists teach us happens through that motion by which the Flux of the Sea turns the Earth and the Flux of the Sea from a Wind which the Sun under the Aequator raises 13. Let 's see what the sacred monuments expresse concerning this First therefore They say that which was to be done was therefore done least perhaps he should reach out his hand and take of the Tree of Life and eat and live a full age or a thousand years whence 't is evident that the vertue of the Tree of Life was not wholy to exempt from Death but to deferre it and make to live in seculum that is a long time which vertue ther 's no doubt is taken away by the empairing of the Fruits 14. Then that which our translation saies before Paradise others render from the East to Paradise If therefore as we have said the whole Earth was Paradise and the motion of the Earth proceeds from the Sun the cause of the conversion of the Earth is from the East and to be from the East is to be before the Earth and Paradise Moreover that which ours renders a Cherubim and a flaming and turning sword in the originall is a Cherubim the edge of a sword turning it self The one Phrase shews that the force of Death proceeded from a Cherubim by flames and fire and the other by turning Now that the Sun's motion proceeds from a Cherubim or an Angel Metaphysicks demonstrate If therefore that winding of the terrestriall Axis to the Poles of the Aequator be deriv'd from the Sun and from that the nature of Death by the variation of light and heat is it not evident if a sword may signifie a killing power how a Cherubim with a flaming and turning sword keeps the way to the Tree of life least Man should live by it a full age 15. And he that thinks this interpretation of a sword for a killing power too hard let him remember the Angel in the threshing floor of Ornam holding a drawn sword to bring the Plague upon Jerusalem Let him consider also if the name of Sword be taken materially how disagreeable the narration will be for the Angel should have been plac'd not from the East or before Paradise but round about nor would there be any need of a turning sword but of a sharp one for the Angel could have turn'd it as he pleas'd 16. Lastly the cloathing of Adam and his wife with Coats made of skins manifestly insinuates that the Cold grew upon them the Year as it were now inclining towards Winter whence it seems 't was Autumn in that Region where Adam was created Yet 't is not necessary that God must have given them those Coats of skins immediately upon the malediction but after some time when having done Penance they had sacrific'd Beasts to God with whose skins God cover'd them not so much for their nakcdnesse sake which was cover'd with Aprons as for the Colds and therefore they were made of skins with which Beasts are kept warm CHAP. XIV Of the Evils deriv'd to posterity out of the same 1. NOne doubts nor can according to what we have said but this state of infelicity and Death is deriv'd to us the Posterity of Adam from his Sin but what evil or corruption we derive as to the Mind 't is to be consider'd And first 't is evident that the Understanding of Adam was most happy which so easily attain'd the knowledge of things that at first sight he could impose significant names upon every one 2. Which is not so to be understood that he perfectly saw through all things for from the deceipt of Eve and both their hiding themselves from the face of God 't is clear their discourse was short and imperfect at that time Nor is it believ'd that they lost their naturall force wherefore by nature their understanding was so hinderable by Passion as to bring them to such Inconsideration 3. But we read too that they were naked and blusht not before their Sin but afterwards whence we understand there were before no inordinate Motions in them since in lust the most vehement kind they had none 4. Now for Man to have no inordinate Motions in him may happen two waies One that we should assert there were indeed such Motions but as it were rooted out by a long use and exercise of Vertues another way that we should imagine his nature so temperate and equally ballanc'd between Passions that it should submit it self intirely to Reason out of its own equability and not out of an acquir'd dominion of Reason 5. And since God might have created Man in the perfection of either of these if we consider the circumstance of the newnesse of nature we shall rather assent to the later description for the former state is of one already proceeded from power to act but this later is a certain species of potentiality or of Man as to his Soul existing in power that the state of Man grown good of evil that he was this of Man not yet knowing good and evil or untaught by experience To that Man 't is now hard to Sin and certain that he will not be separated from the love of Christ to this 't is easie not-to-sin but Sin is rather unknown to him then hard and consequently his entrance to good or evil is doubtfull That state is more establisht in the Brain through the exercise of Reason this more in the Body through the goodnesse of its Temperature whence this is more propagable to his Issue though that be so too in some degree 6. Since