Signes in the sicke wherby to know whether he shall liue or die * Vndoubted tokens either of death or of extreme sicknes or of life and recouerie in the diseased according to the rules of Hippocrates * From whence strange sights monstrous shapes c. haue their generation and being * The more strange sights and appearances the more strange significations and meanings * Wonders haue beene seene euen since the very beginning of the world in a manner * For the heart cannot safely consist without the ministerie and due seruice of the inferiour meÌ„bers though it selfe be the principall * The stare of y â— worlde comparable to the state of Aegypt for what reasons and considerations * The chaunge of this worlde set downe by contemplation of other countries * A worke so intituled and named and of this Authors owne writing * The alteration change of this world declared vnto vs by particular circumstances * Men must hold fast now a daies many times more than their owne such is the iniquitie of these times * Workes of his own compiling and so named as is declared before * They are coÌ„futed and put to silence which by coÌ„putation of yeares gather the certeine end of the world * All y e knowledge of y e end of this world quite cut off in man by the testimonie of Scripture * An argument or reason drawne from the lesser to the greater * An allusion made to the example which Christ himselfe vseth in the Gospell * The shamelesnes of some which vpoÌ„ no sure ground will warrant y e certeintie of things most vncerteine Lactantius and others of his opinion reproued for their precise computations * A notable speach wherby all Calculators Reckoners of yeares therby to come to y e knowledge of the worldes end are controlled * For the Lord as the Scripture testifieth hath reserued this to his own counsell and secret knowledge * Search the Scriptures and be answered * Workes and treatises of his owne penning and intituled by the name of Centuries * The mutuall seruice duties required of vs and thought most conuenient for vs to prosecute in these latter daies of the worlde * Herein appereth how iust and vnparciall a iudge God is in the execution of his punishments * Examples of Gods iudgemeÌ„ts powred vpoÌ„ vnrepen * A supposed or imagined speach * The danger of this cogitation is set forth in a parable of the Gospell by our Sauiour himselfe to shew what a shrewd sinne securitie is * The furniture which S. Paul setteth downe by parcels in the 6. chapter to y e Ephesians is necessarie for euerie Christian in this case * Whole some admonitions if we haue the grace to followe them which y â— Lord God grant vnto vs. * Manifest proofes of y e latter day to be at hand neerer than we think The Lorde God amend vs that we be not ouerwhelmed in our wickednesse and sinne vppon the sudden * Very children in comparison can say no lesse the iniquitie of these our dayes are so spred through out all places * The Authors conclusion of this necessarie treatise written for the benefite of vs in this age God giue vs grace well to vse it * The determination and purpose of the Translator in this 12. Chapter being the conclusion * Examples represent vnto vs the good or bad estate of our forefathers * This is not the first time that God hath spoken vnto vs by Earthquakes * Many houses swallowed vp and sunke in Cheapside by a gaping of the earth * A generall Earthquake ouer y e whole realme of England * A particular Earthquake and yet supernaturall the reason may be read in the rehearsall of the historie * The craftiest man accounted the wisest as the worlde goeth nowe a daies * These examples may be loking glasses for vs if we had any grace * The second general Earth quake that I reade to haue happened in England * A breefe note giuen of our Earthquake 1580. by way of digression * A viewe of wonders in Warwikshire elsewhere * An Earthquake at Bath and Welles in the West countrie * An Earthquake at S. Albons the quarters there aboutes also terrible thunder lightenings vpon Christmas day c. * An Earthquake with other strange and fearefull sightes to the astonishment of people * also a third generall Earthquake ouer all England * An Earthquake Waterquake both at one instant * The great plague wherwith this citie of London was lamentably visited * A particular Erthquake in the reigne of our gratious Queene Elizabeth * A leape from London to other places of this realme where y e Earthquake was forceable * We wonder no longer at Gods workeâ— than whiles we see them present * Our vnreadinesse if God had come to iudgement at that instant when he fraid vs with an Earthquake * The Isle of Elie shaken notwithstanding y c rounde compasse of waters about it * Some crieng sinnes of England named by them to iudge the abhomination of the residue * This praier is necessarie for euerie priuate housholdeâ— â—o vse with his familie * We cannot excuse the least sinne y r we haue committed * For the reward of sinne as S. Paule saith is death and except that Gods mercie set in foote eternall damnation * Here would be reckoned vp all such sinnes as our owne consciences cast before vs. with a set purpose to amend * The names of the idolatrous Gods whome the superstitious Gentiles worshipped * This confession must be made with a zeale and fernencie of spirit * The mercie of God hath shewed it self by sundrie signes to all ages * It is the mercie of God his long sufferance that we haue not been destroied in our sinnes * Our offences and misdeedes are more than the haires of our heades * God must be heartily praied vnto for in him it resteth onely to reforme all disorders in vs who of our selues are able to do nothing that is good * The meanes and waies to be reconciled vnto God out of whose fauour and loue we are fallen * For the word of God beside temporall blessinges whith it bringeth to them that follow it in life conuersation is the sauour of life vnto life c. * For in these two pointes consisteth the summe of the lawe and so by sequele the fruition and enioieng of euerlasting life
subiect and foretold them by certeine signes and tokens as namely by their water and other excrements For Physicians as we our selues haue also prooued by obseruation of Starres and Planets can attaine vnto the foreknowledge of diseases in the bodies of men be they either present or be they to come and that without superstition they can also prognosticate and foretell by the inclination of complexions and dispositions of bodies by the set seasons and foure quarters of the yeare they can I say foretell of health and sicknesse For séeing the condition and qualitie of the aire which compasseth our bodies rounde about is verie much altered and changed by the Sunne drawing néere or going farre from vs by the increasing and diminishing of light in the Moone it commeth to passe that hauing rule ouer our bodies there may be coniectures made of many thinges which shall happen vnto vs and which they by their influences together with the aire may worke in these our bodies Herevpon they giue counsell to open the veines and let bloud when the Moone increaseth at which times our naturall abilities are more strong and liuelie and the state of our bodies replenished with more good moisture and iuice they forbid boxing least because it violently draweth and sucketh the humors of the bodie abounding and spreading throughout all partes at the beginnings of Monethes more matter may be voided than behooueth c. And thus I say may Physicians foretell something to come not to any maner of person but to such as haue not their perfect health but are euill affected and apt to fall into one or other strange infirmitie and sickenesse Euen so by Ephemerides or calculations manie things are foretold concerning the qualities of seasons touching the Eclipses of the Sunne and Moone howbeit none otherwise than when such causes woorke their force in the aire wherewith we are incompassed and according to the inclination whereof be it good be it bad be it wholesome be it noysome will we nill we we are ruled and ordered Many prognostications of Physicians both of Arabia and Graecia may be reduced and brought for the proofe of these causes and not a fewe notes out of Aristotles Problemes By the state conditions or qualities of mens bodies also may tokens of life and death bée gathered all which or the greater part of them agrée in this point that looke what they sée in the sicke lieng in his bed that maketh a deade corps hideous ghastly it is a signe of death drawing on Contrariwise if they perceiue in the diseased such séemelinesses as set foorth the state of a sounde man they are coniectures of recouerie and health The like we may read in the particular prognostications of Hippocrates and in the seconde booke of Cornelius Celsus intreating of Physicke For Hippocrates to make the Physician cunning in foreknowing and also foretelling of such issues in the sicke counselleth them to marke diligently the face and countenance For if their eyes bée hollow their eares colde and shroonke together their foreheade drie and withered their colour gréene leaden or blacke their courage calme and consumed their spittle abounding heir knées and limmes fainte and féeble their heate more feruent vehement than was woont to bée their sléepes heauie their dreames troublesome and vnquiet they shall bée signes that the patient will either be extreme sicke and so escape verie narrowly or else that there is no way with him but one euen death To applie this to our purpose when wée sée such wonders in the worlde as are strange and fearefull when we sée them often in such maner as hath not béene in former times it is an vndoubted token that the worlde is not well but infected with certein sore sicknesses and like shortly to die or else to fall into great daunger so much the rather because signes and wonders monstrous appearances and strange sightes haue their generation herehence either because particular nature faileth or through the default of the matter it selfe which resisteth or else by reason of the weaknesse of the agent or worker Which is thought to be a token that the worlde is sicke after the maner of a man who is therefore called a little worlde Herevnto may be also added that woonders of this sort specially such as appeare frō heauen or to speake plainer that are meteors and impressions doe happen when nature is somewhat disordered as when the generation of cattell the fructifieng of trées the coniunctions and moouings of starres come to passe but not altogether at their due and ordinarie times neither doe these impressions kéepe alwaies one and the selfe same place nor yet holde one proportion still in respect of the patient as I may say the matter wherof they are made happening to and fro By that therefore which we haue already declared it is doubtlesse that such signes and wonders as we haue last named doe prooue vnto vs that straunger and rarer sightes appearing haue their significations namely the sicknes of this world and the néerenesse thereof to death and to be tokens so much the rather of these things by how much more often they happen As truly we sée in these times of oures which in the Scriptures are therefore called The last daies wherin shall be the end of this worlde foretold by signes and wonders to be at hand by the deadly diseases which they denounce to the worlde as meanes to bring vpon it the last consummation finall end For it cannot be denied that such signes haue béen séene euer since the creation of the world almost in sundrie countries nations of diuerse people either to the destruction of some or to the ouerthrowe of all euen as many as viewed them with their eies In time the whole world by reason of the partes thereof crasie and ill at ease began day by day to be sicker and sicker because of the miserable maladies and pittifull issues which followed after the sight of such straunge wonders so that by litle and litle it is like to faile to decay and the whole bodie thereof in short space to perish séeing that there are but a fewe members or partes thereof beside the heart but haue both felt and séene the calamities and ruines which haue come to passe after the appearing of certeine straunge signes and wonders in all places not onely in our forefathers daies but also within the compasse of our memorie The case standing thus we must néedes graunt this when all the members of the bodie are smitten with sicknes that the heart being the principall parte is like to be in daunger which when it once faileth the whole bodie sinketh downe and consequently the vniuersall worlde the destruction whereof to be nie these so many and horrible wonders chancing in our age doe certeinly foreshew For the truth it selfe by a foreknowledge of things to come speaketh of these and the like signes prophesieng
firmament of the Heauen and the Spheres of fire and aire The Scripture in déede affirmeth that * The stars of heauen were appointed to be signes for the difference discerning of seasons times daies and yeares Which to be true and credible we finde by vse and custome For we sée that by them the husbandman doth giue a ghesse what shall follow and by the set seasons of the yeare vnderstandeth what hée should do by day and what by night learning in like manner at what time it is best plowing sowing and reaping which benefit he hath chéefly by being cunning in the changeable and wandering course compasse of the Sunne and Moone By the Sphere of fire also of the aire by reason of the néerenesse each to other it is giuen vnto them of the countrie to coniecture this and that whiles as we know flames of fire in the aire lightnings and thunders windes and raine haile and other tempestes haue their issue from thence the foreknowledge of which things is greatly in vse among husbandmen shepherds and mariners These signes and appearances as they are naturall and their causes naturall so their effects being naturall may be forknowne of certentie For the knowledge of the one is the knowledge of the other But to come to wonders supernaturall of which kinde are all such wonders as are to be counted very wonders in déede the matter peraduenture goeth farre otherwise because that as the causes of such wonders are aboue our reach euen so the effects and operations much more Againe all wonders though supernaturall are not like but diuerse this also ouerthroweth the knowledge of man For the more difference the more doubtfulnes If this be so who will not confesse that the effects and operations of such wonders are vncerteine both at what time and in what place they shall come to passe Concerning which matter because some effects happen sooner and some later no certeintie able to be knowne there can be no infallible and perfect rule giuen But to touch some signes wonders appearing in the Heauens this is a flat truth that such were séene the very same yeare that Ierusalem was destroied the effects whereof were prolonged a yeares space So in Genua at what time a spring there very straungly bubbled bloud the citie it selfe was assaulted of the Sarracens taken and wonderfully afflicted In Lucania what time it rained iron the very next yeare following the Souldiers of that countrie were all slaine with their Captaine Crassus in Parthia and not one mothers sonne left aliue So a litle before the time that C. Caesar was murthered it was founde true by proofe that his horses would eate no prouender but pining themselues there fell teares from their eies so plentifully that it was wonderfull to behold So after the sightes and visions which Daniel saw in the heauen and told the meaning of them there followed an ouerthrowe of the Persian Empire and the famous victorie of Alexander By all which examples as also by certeine wonders appearing at Vienna in Austria not many yeares past we are taught that there can no vndoubted doctrine be set downe touching the time when the place where the effectes of such wonders should come to passe although the busie heads of the Heathen no lesse vainely than superstitiously haue dealt in that matter Which fashion of theirs we vtterly forsaking refer all things as wée haue oftentimes said vnto the prouidence of almightie God ¶ Why more straunge wonders appeare in these latter daies than haue done in other former times Chap. 9. ALthough the wonders which haue béene séene in former times are many as Chronicles and faithfull recordes verifie yet notwithstanding as most men hold opinion there neuer chanced more nor oftener than in these our latter daies as we may manifestly perceiue by examples alreadie rehearsed Howbeit we haue gathered but a fewe out of many and neither the commonest but the chiefe principall In which collection we haue not béene so precise superstitious as to be affraid to make mention of any but onely such as had in them an euident apperance and shew of strange wonders nor againe so rashe vnaduised that what sightes so euer happened and had any likenes of a wonder by and by to catch it by the end put it into our reckoning for then we might be cast in the téeth and not vndeseruedly that whatsoeuer we coulde hit vpon had it neuer so litle strangenesse we tooke it for a wonder as Midas thought euery thing that hée touched to be streight wayes turned into golde And hereof it is that we are certeinly assured many wonders heretofore to haue happened wherof we are ignorant and better knowne vnto others than vnto vs which although wée had béene able vppon knowledge to report yet for tediousnesse sake it were néedelesse to repeate them in this place For they may be so many peraduenture that it would prooue an easier péece of worke to finde where to begin than where to make an end we haue had more regard in the rehersall of examples to kéepe a measure than to séeke after plentie and store in this behalfe Now there be some that hearing me speake as I doe put out this question why in these our dayes rather than in former times more wonders haue béene séene in euery place of the world Is not this thing of it self a wonder I make answer that it is wonderfull inough and not without some monstrous meaning For so many and so great wonders happening in these our dayes do certeinly foretell that the ende of this world is at hand and that this age wherein we liue weareth away and séeth as an eye witnesse by the wonders and signes which continually appeare that Death draweth nighe yea standeth watching at the entrie doore For séeing that this world in all respectes is compared vnto a man and man also him selfe contrariwise likened vnto the worlde he béeing called and named Microcosmus A little world reason concludeth that as it fareth with man so it fareth with the worlde Now man being a little world is subiect to decay diseases may attach him misfortunes may fall vpon him one infirmitie or other hanging vpon him may consume him though not his whole bodie at once yet the partes thereof though not suddenly and at an instant yet by degrées of times wherby in the ende the disease waxing stronger and he weaker that fearcer and he fainter he may fall sick euery where and at the last giue vp the ghost Now there are diseases incident to the worlde as we thinke and what are they but such effects as are denounced by signes and wonders to happen vnto the worlde namely Earthquakes ouerflowings of waters fieres in the element famines pestilences and any other of this sort which are none otherwise foreshewed either presently to happen or hereafter to come to passe than the sicknesses wherevnto men are
of the end of this world and saieng There shall be signes in the Sunne and in the Moone c. For séeing that this worlde may well be compared vnto Aegypt in sundrie considerations and manifolde cases it commeth to passe that as in old time there were sights and wonders séene whereby the ouerthrowe of Aegypt was threatened should come so in this last end of the world signes tokens are strangely séene in the foure elementes which giue vnderstanding to all the inhabitants of the earth that the end is at hand Now for that we sée in these our daies such signes and tokens multiplied how can we doubt that the end of the world is nie Specially because we sée things that haue increased diminish and things that flourished vanish and at length die and come to an ende Which alteration of the world and the diminishing thereof we shall perceiue to be come if we thinke vpon the daies of old and consider with our selues how many countries nations and Islands in so few yeares haue perished and come to naught how all the elements are growne out of course quite contrarie to their first nature and being meruelously chaunged in themselues kéepe not their accustomed condition and qualitie in due time and season as at the first that the earth hath lost much of her wonted fruitfulnes how painfully so euer it be plowed as wée haue plentifully declared in our Catholikes dedicated to the right renowmed Charles the fift and Ferdinand which to repeate againe in this place were labour superfluous It must therfore be confessed that these so sundrie straunge wonders happening in our daies foretell vs that the end of the world approcheth and prophesieth against it some lamentable destruction as certeine tokens appearing in the bodie of man foreshew the daunger either of sickenes or death ¶ At what day and houre the end of this world shall certeinly be as some hold opinion Chap. 10. THat the end of this world is at hand there is none that can iustly denie because that beside the reasons specified in the last Chapter we sée nothing but it foretelleth vs that the same is like very shortly to be For we may behold according to the prophesies of Christ our Sauiour that there is an alteration and chaunge of the state of all things in a manner that the worlde waxeth worsse and worsse and that with the preuailing of wickednesse it is like to be ouerturned that in these daies of ours iniquitie sinne is growen to the highest degrée that equitie is rare vngodlinesse couetousnes concupiscence and lust common the good a praie spoile to the wicked euery where molested troubled that euill men are rich and wealthie vertuous men in pouertie contempt all iudgement confounded lawes ouerthrowne and that which a man hath be it litle or be it much it must be gotten and also kepte by maine strength that boldnesse and violence haue possession of all thinges that there is no faith no trueth no conscience no honestie among men no peace no méekenesse no shame no rule in themselues nor rest from mischéefe that the whole earth is in an vprore and tumult that warres doe rage in all places that all nations are in armour and assault each other and that Cities nie adioining are at strife betwéene themselues If this be so that these as the Lord himselfe beareth witnesse are forewarnings that the worlde is at an end what remaineth but that we beléeue and looke when it shalbe Now because I thinke there is not a man so shamelesse that will gainesay this it néedeth not that I vse many words in this matter considering that we haue discoursed at large hereof in our Centuries and Catholikes It resteth therefore that we make answere in this place to the obiection of some which demand the question not so necessarily as curiously At what day and houre the end of this world shalbe whereof the scriptures of God haue so profoundly spoken Although I make answere that it is not vnknowne to me that some there are which haue taken in hande to tell by account of yeares when the end of this world shalbe of which sort some haue said that foure hundred yeares some that fiue hundred yéeres some that a thousand yeares should passe and runne out betwéene the ascension of the Lord and his last comming to iudgment before the world should be at an end yet notwithstanding I denie that there is any man able to know or to shewe either the houre or the day of the end of this world as also I hold opinion and certainly beléeue that there is not a man liuing that knoweth the ende of his owne life as the scripture testifieth vnles he be instructed and taught from aboue by some singular reuelation And therefore vpon this certeine beléefe I boldly affirme that the end of this worlde hath alwaies béene euer shalbe altogether vncerteine and that it is not for mortall men as the Lord saith to knowe the times and the seasons which the Lord hath put in his owne will power yea that man cannot comprehende the same by any naturall knowledge as the trueth it selfe prooueth saieng Of that daie or houre no man knoweth no not the Angels of heauen nor the Sonne but the Father because the day of the Lorde as the Apostle saith shall come like a theefe in the night For when they shall say peace and quietnes then shall sudden destruction come vpon them as the sorrowe of a woman in trauell and they shall not escape By which words we are warned that the last ruine and ende of this worlde shall come so suddenly vpon men that when the state of thinges séemeth to be amended and growne from worsse to better famine turned into plentie warre into peace pestilence into securitie then euen then in the twinkling of an eie it shall be consumed with fire Beholde a spectacle in Sodom And this is the reason as I take it why the Lord doth exhort vs euerie where to watch because that as no man is certeine of the ende of his owne life so much more ignorant and doubtfull of the ende of the whole worlde Take heed saith our Sauiour watch and pray because ye know not when the time shall be For you knowe not when the Lord will come in the euening or at midnight or at the cockcrowing or in the morning least when he commeth suddenly he finde you sleeping It is Gods will that as well the ende of our owne life as also the end of the world should be hidden from vs that we might euermore be carefull thereof and setting our mindes vpon it be readie at his comming For the suspicion which the Goodman of the house hath of the comming of the théefe is very profitable though it kéepe him waking when peraduenture otherwise he woulde fall asléepe And surely if it were good for vs to knowe this