that falls and the most ignorant then perceive the harshnesse of his note He feedes all the world with large promises of some rare worke to proceed from him ere long and thereby hee so long feedes and drinkes till both he and it and his name doe all die and none to sing his requiem Now being loath to resuscitate so peccant a humour I leave him too without an Epitaph in hope never to heare of his succession or his ghost wandring after this For the ignorant Reader hee hath such a qualitie to make himselfe appeare wittie that he will commend every thing that he doth not understand and so I am sure of his approbation but Landâ—â—iab indocto vituperari est Wherefore I leave him to admire and wish for better proficiencie Lastly to the view of all in generall I expose this booke into the world upon this confidence that if the most discreet and Iudicious give it but that auspicious approbation that many worthy and learned gave it before it sufferd the Presse for the rest my care is taken yet shall I to all but in a different manner ever be A Well-wisher D. P. The Authors Friend to the Booke GOe ventrous booke thy selfe expose To learned men and none but those For this carping age of ours Snuffes at all but choycest flowers Cul'd from out the curious knots Of quaint writers garden plots These they smell at these they savor Yet not free from feare nor favour But if thou wert smel'd a right By a nose not stuft with spight Thou to all that learning love Might'st a fragrant nosegay prove So content thee till due time Blazethy worth throughout this Clime To the curious Reader THough in the former leaves you may descry The Sum of all this Book drawne to your eye In succinct perspective yet if you trace A little farther and survey each place As it in all dimensions colours Art Is measured out O! then it would impart That true content that every man enjoyes Betwixt things Reall and fine painted toyes Most Sciences Epitomized heere Are as the Noone dayes light set down most cleere With other rarities to yeeld delight If thou but daigne to reade the same aright How er'e thou think or speake my comfort 's this They 'le speak themselves wel though thou speak amisse ERRATA What Errors have Escapt in this booke either in the Quotations Omission of Words transplacing or the like let them be imputed to the Transcriber And shall be mended Godwilling PErcurri librum hunc cui inscriptio est Varieties c. nihilque in eo contra Catholicam fidem aut bonos more 's inveni THOMAS WEEKES R. P. D. Epo. Lond. Ã Sacris The first Booke of Varieties CONTAINING A DISCOVRSE AND DISCOVERIE OF some of the Rarest and most Profitable secrets of naturall things whether in Heaven Aire Sea or Earth As of The Heavens Sunne Moone and Starres their Matter Nature and Effects c. The Ayres Regions and their effects c. The Seas saltnesse deepenesse and motion The Earths circumference and distance from the Heavens by way of Question and Answer The Preface to the following questions wherein is set downe the Praise Effects Vses Ends and Parts of Philosophy SEEING Philosophy which is the love of Wisdome and of the knowledge of divine and humane things by auncient Philosophers and Wise men in their severall ages was accounted not an invention of mortall men but a precious Iewell and an inestimable propine sent downe from the Gods above Thereby in a manner to make men partakers of their divine knowledge which made the Poets feigne Minerva the patronesse and president of wisdome to have issued from Iupiter's braine and the Muses nurses of learning to be his daughters it is no wonder that Plato in his Timaeo and M. T. Cicero do so highly extoll the knowledge of it giving to it the Attributes of the Searcher of vertue the Expeller and chaser away of vice the Directer and guider of our lives the Builder of Cities Assembler of men for before that knowledge they strayed through Wildernesses like bruit Beasts the Inventer of Lawes Orderer of manners Promover of discipline Instructer of morall good living and the meane to attaine a peaceable and quiet death Finally seeing by it we arrive at the perfect understanding at least so farre as humane wit can reach of all the secrets that Mother Nature containeth within her imbraces whether in the Heavens Aire Seas Earth and of all things comprehended within or upon them What time can we better spend here on Earth than that which we imploy in the search of her most delightfull instructions for thereby every sort of men whether Moralist or Christian may have his knowledge bettered which made Saint Paul and before him Aristotle confesse that by the knowledge of these visible things we might be brought to the knowledg admiration and adoration of our great and powerfull GOD the Maker of Nature for the knowledge of naturall things and of their causes leadeth us as it were by the hand to the search of their Author and Maker This the Poet points at when he sang Praesentemque refert quaelibet herba Deum There is nothing so meane in Nature which doth not represent unto us the Image and Power of the Maker and argue that none but He could have been their Former And it is this sort of Knowledge which properly we call Philosophy or Physick which in this Treatise I intend most to handle and by which as by one of the principall parts of Philosophy the reader may have an insight in the Cabals and secrets of Nature The Philosophers and Learned sort reserved in a manner to themselves the other parts of Philosophy as not being so absolutely necessary for all to understand except a very few and these pregnant wits only For Logicke the first and lowest of all is but as an Instrument necessary for the other parts wherewith to serve themselves by subministring grounds and wayes of reasoning thereby to inforce conclusions of the precedents which they propounded Metaphysicks againe contrary to the Physicks medleth with things transcendent and supernaturall wherto every reader is not called and wherof al alike are not capable neither are the Mathematicks befitting every spirit giving hard essayes even to the most pregnant wits all not being alike capable of the dimensions and mensurations of bodily substances no more than all are for the Military precepts and Architecture Printing Navigation Structure of Machins and the like which are things consisting in Mechanick and Reall doings neither are all alike able for Musick Arithmetick Astronomy Geometry c. whereas all men as fellow-inhabitants of one World and the workmanship of one Hand by an inbred propensenes w th a willing desire are carried to the search of things meerely Naturall though as in a Citie Common-wealth or Principality all in-dwellers are not alike neither in honour dignity nor charge If in the
wishes nor fulfill our wills they are not common nor permanent Vigour strength and beauty are but blossomes of youth which decay with age As for the Philosophers looke how many sects and diverse orders they had so different were their opinions Aristotle in his Ethicks alleadgeth two sorts of happinesse the one civill and Politicke which consisteth in the prudency of our actions the other private and domesticke which may be thought contemplation but both these leadeth us not to the end we hunt after nor yet are they the end themselves Plato indeed in his Phaedon commeth nearer the truth when he saith that beauty health strength wit doe corrupt and make us worse so they cannot bee our chiefe good unlesse conjoyned with the Gods goodnesse whereunto Aristotle both in his first booke De coelo and in his worke De mundo agreeth But I list not hereto fill this short Treatise with long and tedious allegations of authorities St. Aug. in the 19th booke of the City of God in the 1. chap. reports out of Varro that there was in his dayes 288. different opinions upon that matter but few or none that hit aright For as in Mathematicks a little errour in the beginning becommeth great in the end as the mistaking of one in a million in the beginning falsifies the whole account in the end so fared it with them the further they went the further they strayed Socrates indeed came neere by the Oracle of Delphos thought to be the wisest amongst them all in respect he confessed he knew nothing because he knew not himselfe when he saith that if any man may be termed happy it must be he who hath a cleere and undefiled conscience whose tranquill and secure ignorance is not perturbed with the worlds cares but being void of coveting and feare which molested others neither needeth nor craveth any more Solon thinketh that no man can be happy before his death seeing the end crowneth all considering belike that as a Ship which hath sailed the vast and spacious Seas when to appearance all danger is past may peradventure make shipwrack in the haven so might a man whose life had beene past in pleasures and security make a tragicall end as monuments of all ages can beare record and the particular example of Croesus King of Lydia who in his dying houre called on the name of Solon attesting this saying of him to be true and this same Solon hit the marke a great deale neerer than Epicurus who placeth our felicity in the pleasure of the body whom the Stoicks deride saying that there was no rose without its prickle and so they setled it in the peaceable governement of morall vertues From these againe the Perpateticks and Academick Philosophers doe differ amongst whom divine Plato hath come neerest the foresaid marke Sect. 7. The later Philosophers have aimed neerer the definition of true felicity than the more ancient and their opinions specified The finall and true scope of mans felicity is illustrated with an exhortatory conclusion to all men for endeavouring to attaine unto it THE later Philosophers doe cleare this matter more fully wherefore more worthy of citation as Seneca Cicero Plutarch Iamblicque and Porphyre all which have not onely refuted most wittily the Epicures and Stoicks touching their opinions but have shewen that they and all the others were onely disputable opinions and have concluded that the beatitude of man consisteth in the knowledge and union of us with God but little knew they that the first knot of our union with this God was united and therefore the question is harder now how we are to be reunited againe To cast up here the opinion of Aristippus who placed our happinesse in Venery or of Diodorus in the Privation of paine of Calypso and Dinomachus in Pleasure and honesty together of Herullus in the knowledge of Sciences esteeming that thereby we might live both contentedly and prudently of Zeno in living according to nature and so forth in the rest might bee enough to try the readers patience seeing of these things which they esteemed happinesse some were common to us with the Beasts others were not common to all and so they failed in the rules of our felicity This being so let us now at least finde it out and so in a word conclude Briefly as all happinesse at first consisted in the union of man with God so our happinesse renewed consisteth in the reunion of us with the same God from whom we have fallen by which reuniting we shall both contemplate his face and love him in whom we shall have our joy accomplished wherewith the heart of man can never here be satiated beyond which we shall crave no farther this felicity is not peculiar to the great ones of this world above the meaner but equally obtainable of all who in humility of heart and uprightnesse of conversation doe imbrace IESVS the Sonne of GOD by whom onely we may be reunited since he is the onely and soveraigne Mediator blessed from all eternity The conscience which hath its assurance grounded upon this foundation and rock of verity may call it selfe truly happy because it hath the earnest in this life of that great felicity which is to come whereby it possesseth it selfe in peace which passeth all naturall understanding one of the surest tokens of this happinesse neither perturbed with the terrors of the superstitious nor yet with the carelessenesse and lulled security of the Atheist but in a sweet harmony betwixt the two extremes it retaineth the golden mediocrity This is that soveraigne felicity to my judgement whereby a man liveth contentedly here whatsoever befalleth him and dyeth in peaceable assurance of that happinesse which is to come which soveraigne felicity we shall attaine unto if by a lively faith wee embrace the Sonne and live according to his will and so put in ure and practise that great Canon of Religion to live and beleeve well espousing by that meanes our will and understanding together THE CONSONANCIE AND agreement of the ancient Philosophers with our Christian Professours Section 1. The difference betwixt the Physiologer and Physician compared to that betwixt the Metaphysician and divine Some of Plato's opinions not farre dissonant from our Christian The multiplicity of Heathenish gods That Plato came neere the definition of the Trinity AS where the Physiologer leaveth to contemplate there the Physitian beginneth so where the Metaphysitians end there the Divines commence their study not to follow forth their doings but to refine their grosser rudiments like cunning Painters by the subtiltie of their Art giving life breathing and in a manner moving unto a picture which a more grosse Painter had but rudely delineated It was of old held for a truth Platonicos paâ—cis mutatis fieri posse Christianos That with the change but of a very point the Platonicke Philosophers might be brought to be Christians from whence Plato was called Divine Who so shall revolve the
Foure formes of drawing up of armies used by the Romans Description of the battell of Cannas The defeates of Cannas and Trasimenes rather by the Romans unskilfulnesse then prowesse of their foes A maxime of military discipline Pompey his oversight at the battell of Pharsalia The neerer our owne timâ—s writers are more spaâ—ing to write without sure warcâ—nds More battels of â—ate amongst the French than all countries â—eâ—ide Few fights abroad to their commendation The Spaniard more slow and mature in their doings than the French Emulation betwixt the house of Gwyse and Bourbon and not religion the cause of warres of France France most subject to Duels â—ombats authorised Lotharius tryall of his wifes Chastitie Champions in Duell to cleere Queenes Honours That Ladyes have fought combats Combats of Church-men Combats of Iudges and Counsellors aâ— Law Combats whereof Kings have been spectators Combats rewarded by Kings S. Almachius slaine for speaking against combats Six score men killed in combats in one voyage of K. Lewis of Fran. The quarrell a Commander on the Kings side * A principall man in the Dukes party and brother to him The challenge The combat Comparison of the French and Spaniard Venetian and Florentine A duel betwixt two Spaniards granted by the authority and fought in the presence of the Emperour Charâ—es the 5. The occasion and quarrell Occasion moving the challenger to petition a publike combate Conditions granted by the Emperour whereupon they should fight Ceremonies observed in this combate The event of â—heir fight What way combats permissible if they should be at all suffered The Canon Law gaine-saâ—eth their permission and Why Example where in a Duâ—ll the innocent was killed We should rather referre to God the punishment of a misdeed which by no legall meanes can be cleared rather then to a fight David his fight with Goliah should not serve for example and Why Cardinall Cajetan his permission where â—nd how Solution of certaine Obâ—â—ctions It is not a good consequence seeing I refuse Duells therefore Batteils too No more is it a good consequence if wars and Battels be lawfull therefore Combats 〈◊〉 A Notable Combat of 3. Brethren Romans against so many Albans Their fight Some Grecian Roman Hunnish Danish Kings have combated with others for saving much bloud Challenge but no meeting nor fight betwixt the Prince of Aragon and Charles of Anjou Challenge betwixt Charles the 5. and the French King Francis The occasion of the quarrell Combate of 13 French knights against so many Italians The quarrell and challenge The conditions agreed upon Observation upon this combat A memorable combat betwixt two powerfull Clan parties of our own nation dâ—bated of Pearth The conditions accepted and agreed upon An Exemplary Combat betwixt two French Barons All things we see serves to refresh our memories of death and mortality The documents of all the old Philosophers tendeth to this chiefly not to feare death Burials and tombs in most conspicuous places erected for that cause Iulius Caesar his death which hee wished not to be allowed of by a Christian. S. Augustine reputeth it a token rather of pusillanimity to put hand on our selves than of courage My usuall prayer The ancients for all their good injunctions yet feared it Not to be afraid of death and why All things except man keepe their constant course If change be in things a token of Gods wrath The Antiquity of interring the dead The Old Roman Emperoâ—s respect had thereunto Alexander of Macedon daunced about Achilles tombe Sylla his cruelty against burialls remarked in Histories The memory they carry to the dead in Vraba and the way how they use the Corps The manner of burialls observed in Find-land and Lapland That same sort observed of old in this same Country and yet in certaine parts of our Highlandâ— The Aegyptian burials and their Momies most remarkable Two sorts of interring the dead most remarkable The Romans burned consumed theirs to ashes The Indians againe did eat their dead as thinking their bellies a honorable sepulchre for them The dumbe silent obsequies of our burialls condemned A History of a Gentlewoman who for not being interred in the Church-yard molested her family by her ghost while she was disinterred and according as shee desired was buried Bartol and Vlpian admit deceit to bee used with the circumventer and no faith to be kept to particular enemies The Emperour Augustus kept faith although to a rogue Of mentall reservation what it is Cleomenes although packt up a truce with his enemy for some-dayes yet in the night surprised them Alexander the great could honourably say Malo me fortunae peâ—iteat quà m victoriae pudeat The Romane offended with their Legat L. Marcius because that in their warres under him with Perseus King of Macedon he used subtilties and circumventions The manner observed by the ancients in making their truces peace or other pactions The termes and words of their covenants The Grecians branded with that to be called Not keepers of their oathes Pope Alexander and his nephew Borgia both remarked dishonest in their deeds and words Other Popes guilty of that same fault Exhortation to his Countrey-people not to doe so The integrity of ancient Romans Of keeping no faith to enemies A fault ' committed by our Duke Aubigny at the siege of Capua or rather by the insolent French under him A Cruelty committed at Genoa against the French within by the Spanyard without Little good followeth commonly excesse of mirth and laughter Examples of Nebuchadonozor Baliasar and the rich glutton to this purpose Examples of such who in the middest of all their felicities have been taken away Wisely was it ordained that the Paschall Lambe should be eaten with foure hearbes Our Saviour did never laugh Foure famous and renowned Warriors have shed teares The Emperor Adrian even amidst all his triumphs remembring the frailty of nature The Prophet David when he did heare of Absoloms death Iulius Caesar at Pompeys head Vespasian seeing the temple of Salomon on fire Xerxes seeing all his numerous Army before him We reade of Horses which have wept The Teare which is in the Abby Church of Vandome what it can be Weeping for the dead allowable provided it be not immoderate The matter 〈◊〉 our teares We laugh and weepe diveâ—sly for the selfe-same causes Neither they commendable who laugh alwayes nor they who mourne Difference betwixt factions and seditions Vproare of the Commons at Rome against the Patricians appeased by Menenius Agrippa Emulation and ambition in well doing is allowable Curiosity the Mother of mischief Our Schooles and Learned men not exempt from it What peace hath the most curious questions brought unto the Church but rather hath divided us all In Metaphysick we crossed to know if there be in nature any other production besides Creation and Generation Whether accidents be create or concreat If God may sustayne accidents without their substances to subsist in The actions of Gods will tend unto and
Plato Aristotle and other Philosophers confirming God onely to be the Creator of all things 234 Sect. 4. Opinions of Plato Aristotle and some Hebrewes concerning the worlds eternity the consonancie of opinions betwixt some ancient Philosophers and Moses about the worlds creation 236 Sect. 5. Ancient Philosophers attributed the framing and continuance of all sublunary Creatures as we Christians doe unto God with a recapitulation of severall consonancies betwixt us and them 238 Sect. 6. Severall other opinions wherein the ancient Heathnicks agreed with us Christians confirmed by the testimonies of their Poets 240 Sect. 7. Of good and bad spirits and wherein the opinions of the Heathnicks agree with ours concerning good spirits 242 Sect. 8. How neere the Ancients agree with us concerning bad spirits and in what orders they were divided of old 243 OF SLEEPE AND DREAMES Sect. 1. THat nothing can subsist without sleepe or rest exemplified in the death of Perseus King of Macedon The primary and secondary causes of sleepe that a sound coâ—science is a great motive to sound sleepe proved in the example of Thirois and his two Sonnes 245 Sect. 2. Examples of Kings and great Commanders that upon the thoughtfulnesse of some great exploit or encounter have beene extraordinarily surprized with unusuall sleepe and the reasons thereof agitated 248 Sect. 3. Alexander the great his sound sleeping when he should have encountred Darius in battell here excused Cato's sleeping before his death whereupon is inferred a discourse against selfe-murther 249 Sect. 4. Of Dreames both Naturall Accidentall Divine and Diabolicall Apollodorus dreame Abrahams Iosephs Pharaohs Nebuchadnezzars c. 251 Sect. 5. The Emperour Severus his dreame of Pertinax which he caused to be molded in Brasse An admirable dreame of the Emperour Henry the fifth Cicero's of Octavianus That beasts dreame but hard labouring men seldome and the reason thereof c. 254 A Table of the fifth Booke Wherein the READER must conceive that the Page begins anew and doth not follow the former computation OF THE NVMBERS THREE and SEVEN Sect. 1. Treating briefly of Numbers in generall 1 Sect. 2. Conteining variety of memorable things comprehended within the Number of Three as of Heaven and Hell and of Poeticall fictions and some observations amongst the Romans 2 Sect. 3. Conteining some Theologicall and Morall precepts and observations redacted under the number of three 5 Sect. 4. Of Politicke Government Of living Creatures and of duties belonging to men of severall professions as Physicians Iudges and Lawyers c. with some Physicall observations all Tripartite 7 Sect. 5. Memorable observations comprehended within the Number of Seven as of the age of the World and mans generation 9 Sect. 6. How the seven Planets are sayd to rule severally over the seven ages in the life of man 11 Sect. 7. The opinions of some Fathers of the Church and some Philosophers concerning the number of Seven what attributes they gave with some of Hypocrates observations thereon 13 Sect. 8. Of the Seven Wonders of the world 14 Sect. 9. A continuation of observations on the number of seven taken out of holy Scripture 15 Sect. 10. Of the seven great Potentates of the world of criticall dayes and climacterick yeeres with other observations 16 Sect. 11. Of the Worlds Continuance and Ending 19 A TREATISE OF Prodigies and Miracles Sect. 1. The definition of Miracles with their distinction In what time they were requisite in what not c. 21 Sect. 2. Of Prodigies and in what veneration they were amongst the ancient Romans 23 Sect. 3. A continuation of prodigies which happened in the time of the second Punick Warre with many others that were seene under the times of severall Consuls of Rome 26 Sect. 4. Of Prodigies that happened during the civill warres betwixt Marius and Sylla of some in Iulius Caesars time as at his passing the River of Rubicone the Pharsalian warres and at his death c. 28 Sect. 5. Of Prodigies before the death of Galba before the destruction of Ierusalem and at the end of the Valeriâ—n persecution 29 Sect. 6. A continuation of other Prodigies with a conclusion of this Treatise 31 SALAMANDRA OR The Philosophers Stone Sect. 1. THe History of the life and death of Antonio Bragadino 33 Sect. 2. The reason that moved the Author to handle this matter the different blessings betwixt the Indians and Christians the definition of the Philosophicall Stone the generall way and matter whereof it is made 35 Sect. 3. The Authors proposition the reason of its denomination opinion of most approved Authors touching it and of the possibility and factibility of it 37 Sect. 4. That the making of the Philosophers Stone is lesse expensive and laborious than many things we both use and weare why the makers of it enrich not themselves and others 39 Sect. 5. A generall relation of the matters and materials requisite to this Worke and in what time it may bee perfected 41 Sect. 6. Of the five degrees whereby the Worke is perfectioned and first how to bring it to Solution 43 Sect. 7. How from Solution to make Coagulation 44 Sect. 8. How from Coagulation to produce Fermentation 45 Sect. 9. The way to bring the Worke to Fixation 46 Sect. 10. From all the former how to perfectionate Multiplication 47 Sect. 11. A short recitall of some other wayes of perfecting it used by some Filii artis and why it is called Salamandra 47 OF THE WORLD Sect. 1. OF the various distractions of Philosophers in their opinions concerning their Gods and upon how ill grounds they were setled 94 Sect. 2. Of the severall sorts of Gods amongst the Heathen that they imagined them to bee authors of evils that they were but mortall men And some opinions of Philosophers concerning the nature beeing and power of their Gods 51 Sect. 3. Pythagoras opinion concerning the transmigration of soules rejected of the coupling of the soule and body together with severall opinions of the ancient learned men concerning the substance of the soule 54 Sect. 4. The former Heathnick opinions confuted by our Christian Beliefe that they differed concerning the time of the soules continuance and place of its abode how they thought soules after the separation from the body to bee rewarded for good or ill c. 56 Sect. 5. Philosophicall tenents of plurality of Words confuted of Gods Creation of male and femall of all living Creatures 58 Sect. 6. Severall opinions of severall Philosophers concerning the Worlds Eternity their naturall reasons for approving of it and what the Egyptians thought concerning the antiquity of the World 60 Sect. 8. The most approved opinion of all Philosophers concerning the Worlds beginning and matter the infallible truth of it and a checke of Augustines against over-curious inquisitors after those and the like mysteries 64 Sect. 9. How Philosophers differ from Christians in the wayes whereby God is knowne the parts whereof the world is composed the division of the celestiall Spheares wherein severall varieties may be
and then are perceived to flutter about Horse-meines and feet or amongst people gone astray in darke nights And these our Meteorologians call Ignes fatui ignes lambentes wilde-fires Sect. 6. That the earth and waters make but one globe which must be the Center of the world Of the Seas saltnesse deepnesse flux and reflux why the mediterranean Indian Seas have none Of Magellanes strait what maketh so violent tyde there seeing there is none in the Indian Sea from whence it floweth Of the Southerne Sea or Mare del Zur THus then leaving the Aire I betake me unto the third and fourth elements which are the earth and waters for these two I conjoyne in the Chapter of the world and that after the opinion of the most renowned Cosmographers howbeit Plinius Lib. 2. Naturalis Histor cap. 66. and with him Strabo lib. 1. distinguish them so as they would have the waters to compasse the earth about the middle as though the one halfe of it were under the waters and the other above like a bowle or Apple swimming in a vessell for indeede Ptolomee his opinion is more true that the earth and waters mutually and linkingly embrace one another and make up one Globe whose center should be the' center of the world But here now I aske seeing the frame of the universe is such that the heaven circularly encompasseth the low spheares each one of them another these the fire it the Aire the aire againe encompasseth the waters what way shall the water be reputed an element if it observe not the same elementarie course which the rest doe which is to compasse the earth also which should be its elementarie place Answer True it is that the nature of the element is such but GOD the Creator hath disposed them other wayes and that for the Well of his Creatures upon earth Who as he is above nature and at times can worke beyond and above it for other wayes the earth should have beene made improfitable either for the production or entertainement of living and vegetable Creatures if all had beene swallowed up and covered with waters both which now by their mutuall embracing they do hence necessarily it followeth that the Sea is not the element of water seeing all elements are simple and unmixt creatures whereas the Seas are both salt and some way terrestriall also How deepe hold you the Sea to be Answ. Proportionably shallow or deepe as the earth is either stretched forth in valleys or swelling in mountaines and like enough it is that where the mouth of a large valley endeth at the Sea that shooting as it were it selfe forth into the said Sea that there it should bee more shallow then where a tract of mountaines end or shall I say that probably it is thought that the Sea is as deepe or shallow below as commonly the earth is high in mountaines and proportionably either deepe or shallow as the earth is either high in mountaines or low and streacht forth in vallies But what reason can you render for the Seas saltnesse Answer If we trust Aristotle in his 2 booke of Meteors and 3. as he imputeth the ebbing and flowing of the Sea to the Moone so he ascribeth the cause of its saltnesse to the Sunne by whose beames the thinnest and sweetest purer parts of it are extenuated and elevated in vapors whilest the thicker and more terrestriall parts which are left behind by that same heate being adust become bitter and salt which the same Author confirmeth in that same place before cited by this that the Southerne Seas are salter and that more in Summer then the others are and inforceth it by a comparison in our bodies where our urine by him is alleadged to be salt in respect that the thinner and purer part of that moistnesse by our inborne warmenesse is conveyed and carryed from our stomack wherein by our meate and drinke it was engendred thorough the rest of the parts of our body Neither leaveth he it so but in his Problems Sect 23. 30. for corroboration hereof he maintaineth that the lower or deeper the Sea-water is it is so much the fresher and that because the force of the Suns heat pierces and reaches no further then the Winter Cold extendeth its force for freezing of waters unto the uppermost superfice only and no further If it bee true then that the Seas are salt wherefore are not lakes and rivers by that same reason salt also Answer Because that the perpetuall running and streames of rivers in flouds hindreth that so that the sun beames can catch no hold to make their operation upon them and as for lakes because they are ever infreshed with streames of fresh springs which flow and run into them they cannot be salt at all the same reason almost may serve to those who asâ—â— what makes some springs savour of salt some vitrioâ—â—â—â—e of brimstone some of brasse and the like To which nothing can be more pertinently answered then that the diversity of mineralls through which they run giveth them those severall tastes What have you to say concerning the cause of the flowing and ebbing of the Sea Answ. To that all I can say is this that Aristotle himselfe for all his cunning was so perplexed in following that doubt that he died for griefe because he could not understand it aright if it be truth which Coelius Rhodiginus lib. 29. antiquarum lectionum cap. 8. writeth of him it is true indeede yea and more probable that many ascribe the cause of his death to have beene a deepe melancholy contracted for not conceaving the cause aright of the often flowing and ebbing of Euripus a day rather than to the not knowing the true cause of the Seas ebbing and flowing chiefly seeing Meteor 2 3. he ascribeth it to the Moone the mother and nurse of all moist things which is the most receaved opinion and warranted with the authoritie of Ptolomee and Plinius both as depending upon her magnetick power being of all Planets the lowest and so the neerer to the Sea which all doe acknowledge to bee the mistris of moisture and so no question but to it it must be referred which may bee fortified with this reason That at all full Moones and changes the Seas flowing and swelling is higher then at other times and that all high streams and tydes are observed to bee so seeing the Moone doth shine alike upon all Seas what is the cause that the Mediterranean Sea together with the West Indian-Seas all along Hispaniola and Cuba and the Coasts washing along the firme Land of America to a world of extent hath no ebbing nor flowing but a certain swelling not comparable to our Seas ebbing and flowing Answ. Gonsalus Ferdinando Oviedes observation in his History of the West-Indian-Seas shall solve you of that doubt and this it is He compareth the great Ocean to the body of a man lying upon his back reaching
two Swallowes make not the spring of the yeare But yet if so be the earth be so solid and massie as you say it is and that it admitteth no vacuitie How and whence proceede these terrible earth-quakes tremblings palpitations to the overwhelming of Cities shaking of Towers and steeples c. Answ. No question but as these are commonly prodigies and fore-runners of Gods wrath to bee inflicted upon the Land where they happen as may be seene in the second booke of the Kings chap. 22. Commota est contremuit terra quoniamiratus est Dominus So some way lacke not their owne naturall causes and they be chiefly comprehended in one for all and this is it that the earth is not unfitly compared unto a living mans body the rocks and stones whereof are his bones the brookes and rivers serpenting thorough it the veynes and sinewes conveying moistnesse from their fountaines unto all the members the hollow of our bowells and of the trunke of our bodies to the vast and spacious cavernes and caves within the body of this earth and yet these not hindering the massinesse of the earth for where earth is it is massie indeed within the which hollow of our bodyes our vitious windes are enclosed which if they have no vent presently they beget in us Iliak passions collicks c. whereby our whole body is cast into a distemper and disturbed even as the windes enclosed in these cavernes and hollow subterranean places preassing to have vent and not finding any making way to themselves do then beget these earth-quakes And of this opinion is Aristotle lib. 2. Meteor cap. 7. Sect. 8. Of time whether it bee the Producer or Consumer of things of the wisedome and Sagacity of some Horses and Dogges How the Adamant is Mollified of the needle in the Sea compas and the reason of its turning alwayes to the North. SEeing there is nothing more properly ours than time and seeing it is the eldest daughter of nature How is this that you Philosophers bereave us of our best inheritance saying that there no time at all in respect say you the time past is gone the future and time to come is not yet and the time present is ever glyding and running away yea and your Aristotle calleth it but a number of motions seeing then it consisteth but of parts not having a permanent being it cannot be said to be at all say you Answ. Our true Philosophers reason not so it is but our Sophists who by their insnaring captions doe cavil thus therfore take heed of the subdolousnesse of their proposition which is not universally true for admit that maxime might hold concerning the standing and not standing of a thing in its parts in subjects materiall essentiall and permanent yet it must not evert things of a fluid and successanean nature such as time is and whereas they say that the parts of time are not they mistake in so farre as time is to be measured by now which the Greekes doe terme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which ever existeth and by which indeed time is said properly to have existence Quest. What things hold you to be in Time or whether is Time the consumer or the producer of things Answ. To the first with Aristotle I understand onely such things to be in Time as are subiect to mutations changes risings and fallings such as are all naturall things below the Sphere of the Moone by which meanes things sempiternall wanting both beginning and ending whose diuturnity cannot be measured by time cannot fall under it 2. Ans. To the second whether Time be the producer or consumer of things I answer that as in the contravertible points of Philosophy our learned disagree amongst themselves so herein they agree not aright indeed Aristotle whom customably we all follow in his 8. Cap. lib. 4. Physicâ—â—n will have Time rather to be the cause of the ruine and decay of all things and that by vertue of its motion by which sublunary bodies are altered and corrupted rather than of their rising increase or growing And with him many of our Poets Tempus edax rerum tuque invidiosa vetust as Omnia conteritis and againe Omnia fert aetas animum quoque c. Tempora labuntur tacitisque senescimus annis Et fugiunt fraeno non remorante dies To which opinion of Aristotle Cardan adhereth calling Time the Author of life and death but as Iulius Scaliger hath refuted divers of his opinions in his exercitation 352. not without reason hath he confuted this also making Time to bee an accidentall cause of the decay of things for beside Time there must be causa agens which is the Law of Nature ingrafted in all things living moving creeping vegetating by which they tend to ruine as sinne in Man besides his naturall corruption is and must bee thought the Author of his death Now seeing your Philosophy admitteth no other difference betwixt Men and Beasts but the use of reason wherewith we are endued above them how wil you tearme those many reasonable things performed by Beasts wherof our Histories are full as that of Bucephalus of Alexander the Great who would suffer none to back him but his Master though never so artificially disguised in his apparell Iulius Caesar his Horse likewise who at his death was observed to fast so long is remarkeable and that of Nicomedes who because his Lord was killed in the field choosed rather to dye starving for hunger than to survive him Stories of the sagacity of Dogs bookes are fully replenished w th the example of one only shall suffice This Dog being with his Master when a Robber killed him for his purse and had flung him into a River that he might not be found againe did first leape into the River after his dead Master and then upon his shoulders bore up his head so long as any breath was remaining within him thereafter discerning him to be dead straight followes the rogue by his sent to the Citie finds him and incessantly barketh at him whithersoever he went while at length his Master being missed and the Rogue under suspicion of robbery and the Dogs violent pursuing the fellow drew the people into a jealousie of the murther whereupon the robber being called before a Iudge after due examination confessed the murther was condemned died for the fact Now I demand if these and the like doings of Beasts be not founded upon reason whereof we men brag as of a greater prerogative above them Answ. No wayes for we must distinguish betwixt actions of true reason such as ours are and these which are done by a naturall instinct or sensitive faculty of sagacity use and custome but most especially from that which is a neere tying bond even amongst the cruellest of Beasts a perpetuall resenting of a good turne received as is manifest in the example of the Lion who not onely saved the life of that
should Comets they being neerer to it than the first Region Now albeit the Heaven Fire and Ayre move in a circular motion yet they move not all alike for by certaine degrees the course of the one is swifter than the other so that the Ayre as neerest to the Earth is flower than the other two By this subdeficiency then the Ayre and they within it seemes but to goe about froÌ„ Occident to Orient of its own proper motion having regard to the swiftnesse and velocity of the superior course And whereas I say that they move high and low to and fro that is to be understood in so far that every thing perfectible striveth to attaine to its owne perfection which consisteth in the approximation and neere attaining and touching of the generant which chiefly beareth rule in the place whereat they aime or tend whether that thing engendred bee a Star or any other celestiall vertue whereunto this subdeficient striveth to attaine Now the reason wherefore most commonly Comets doe reach either to the South or North is to be attributed to the speciall influence of some other Star drawing them thitherward as the Loadstone maketh Iron turne towards it and whereas sometimes they appeare low and neere the Earth at other times farther remote from it that must be appropriated either to the inflamation of the Comets matter either at the neerer or farther end or else to the height or lownesse of the Region above which it is elevated for none of the three Regions but have in them their owne degrees and stations some parts in them being higher than others are The place of their appearing is most frequently in the Northerne Climates and that most often under Via lactea which is that white coloured draught called the milkey way in the firmament which may be perceived by night reaching in a manner from East to West The time of their abode againe is but at shortest seven or eight dayes albeit I reade of some that blazed halfe a yeare but such have seldome happened neverthelesse the shortnesse or length of their abode is to bee imputed imputed to the bignesse or scantnesse of their matter Now rests to know whether or not these Comets may portend or prognosticate bad or infortunate events of things here below and whether over particular persons or Countries in generall To this the Philosophers who will have all things either above or below to be and exist by naturall reasons and admit no prodigies or things beyond nature make answer that Comets are but meere naturall things no way fore shewing evils to come Because say they when Iupiter fals to bee in the signe of Pisces or in the signe of Cancer if then the Comets appeare it foretokeneth aboundance and wealth as in the dayes of Iulius Caesar there was one seene which neverthelesse had no evill ensuing upon it as it may bee seene in Albertus his Commentary upon Aristotles Text in the Meteors latinized Ejus autem quod est Besides this say they when Comets are seene then these evils which follow them and which they portend should fall forth through all or very many parts of the Earth seeing they are seene by all or most the contrary whereof is knowne Besides that burning Lances or Speares which now and then also are seene in the Ayre and other fiery impressions which are of that same matter with these Comets should foretell evils to happen as well as they which are not But above all seeing it is oftenest thought that Comets either foretoken great winds or raines none of which can be say they not winds because the matter whereof the winds behoveth to be which are dry exhalations are converted towards the framing of the same Comets themselves Not raine for no one thing can be a signe of two opposite contrarieties Thus seeing Comets portend drouth they cannot likewise preaugurate inundations and overflowings finally much lesse the death of Princes and Monarchs no more than of other private men seeing the same constellation and ascendent may be equall and have regard to meane men as well as to them in a like distance Which reasons with diverse moe albeit at first view they may seeme forcible yet being better considered their insufficiency will soone appeare for none of the naturall Philosophers but doe acknowledge their Prognostications for some one thing or other albeit the Astrologicall Philosopher particularizeth them more punctually And thus they say that a Comet circumbeamed about with that which they call long hayre to say so invironing it as we see about the Sunne Moone and Starres before a storme and great tempest doth signifie and portend great debording of waters whereas if it bee but radiant in one side that is a sure signe of terrible and destructive drougth and consequently of famine and scarcity because without humidity and warmenesse corne and fruits cannot grow Now as high winds move and stirre the Seas with other waters so from that commotion ariseth raine and boisterous showers so that appeare how they will yet they ever portend some one evill or other As for death of Princes and change of estates foreâ—howne by them experience of former Ages can qualifie and by late miserable proofe it may be understood by that blazing Star which appeared in the yeare 1618. I being at that time in Florence where an Italian Astronomer upon the third Bridge drawing in his Table-bookes the height and aspect of it was overheard by us who gazed on him to cry although with a low voice Vae Germaniae Woe unto Germany and who so is but never so little acquainted with the histories of diverse Nations shall soone perceive in them what lamentable accidents have ensued after extraordinary deluges and overflowings of waters and intollerable droughts but more especially after the appearing of Comets what dreadfull effects according to their affections so we require that those Recusants would with the Philosopher who denied that the fire was hot but put their finger into it to try the truth of his assertion Neither do our Astronomicall Philosophers want their owne grounds wherein they settle the warrant of change of estates after the apparitions of these Comets and this for one That the exhalations of hot and dry vapours from the Earth whereof these Comets are made betoken a bilious and wrathfull sudden and irefull disposition of the in-dwellers of these Countries for the same ayre which they attract and emit doth someway affect them and this ayre is filled with these exhalations resolved by the heat of the incumbing Sun so no question but this same way it moveth their bodies and minds to feare fiery and sudden revolts fightings seditions and uproares Comets appeared in England before their Countrey was conquered by the Normans and thereafter another when they subdued France What more remarkable one then that which appeared above Hierusalem before its sacking and captivity And againe what desolation befell all
be allowed who as he should not wish a death unforeseene neither yet be unprepared at the sudden aproach of it so should he not by any meanes either accelerate or wish it thereby to bee rid out of any incomberances that may befall Nec metuit mortem bene conscia vita Nec optat For as Saint Augustine reason well against such Autocides and selfe murtherers it is rather a token of pusillanimity and lacke of courage in them than otherwayes a marke of true resolution to doe so seeing they had not the daring to abide the dint of adversities which threatned them Let us all remember to implore in our daily prayers our Makers assistance from above to aide us in that last houre for my owne part I thinke it one of the best fruits of my studies or travels to be ever arming my selfe against it and as in my morning and evening prayers I call for peace of conscience in the assurance of my reconciliation with my God and for peace on Earth for his blessing upon my children his favour upon my King and Countrey so more specially for the favourable assistance of the Holy Ghost the comforter to assist me then that neither the terror of a present death may affright me nor my trust and confidence breed in mee presumption nor my feare despaire but there being a sweet harmony betwixt my soule and my God I may lay downe my life in hope to re-assume it againe for ever Section 2. That Christians ought not to feare death as the Ethnicks did All things save man keepe their constant course The uncertainty of mans life IT is true that the consideration of death which of all terrible things is most terrible as being the partition of the soule and body and so the destruction of this structure was the cause why divers of the Ancients fearing almost even to name it were wont to say in stead of he is dead he sleepes he hath left off to be hee is gone downe to the lower parts of the earth hunc ferreus urget Somnus in aeternam clauduntur lumina noctem Or desiit esse or transiit ad manes and so forth the reason being that few or none of them had the full knowledge much lesse the assurance of the enjoying these pleasures after this life past which we Christians being taught at a better schoole have wherefore as well learned disciples of so worthy a master let us learne not only to name it but sted fastly to abide the approch the frowne and dint of it In me si lapsus labtur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae Remembring our selves that howsoever soule and body be severed for a season and that the body lye companion with them that sleep in the dust yet that they shal conjoyne againe in the glorious resurrection to possesse those joyes unknowne to many of the Ancients which our Lord and Master hath purchased to us by his death remembring that howsoever wee should live to the fulnesse of yeares that wee shall see no more even unto the last date of our dayes than a boy of ten or fifteene yeeres For the seasons of the Yeare the Dayes and Nights the Seas Sun Moone and Starres Plants Herbes yea Beasts themselves c. keepe a constant course which in a perpetuall revolution were set and if so be that in these any change be then bee sure it is a foretoken of Gods kindled wrath against us For the Heathen Astronomer when the Sunne did eclipse at the time of our Lords passion could well say That either the God of Nature was suffering or else the frame of the world was to dissolve the eye of all things suffering such a deliquie now if the elder see any thing other than the younger be sure it is not in the nature and course of things above spoken which in perpetuall revolution do observe the course prescribed unto them by their Maker But in the persons of men which pointeth out unto us the frailty of their estates and even of them also if we remarke well we shall finde more who have died within thirty or thirty five yeeres of Age than past it But death being the common subject of our preachers especially in their funerall Sermons I passe it over as their peculiar Theme and according to my first purpose doe hasten to the divers sorts of Burialls Sect. 3. In what reverence the interring of the dead was amongst the Ancients of Alexander Of Sylla How the People of Vraba did use their dead Customes of Finland Lapland Greece and other places concerning burialls AND first for the Antiquity of interring of the dead as Writers doe abound in their testimonyes that even amongst enemies in the hottest of their hostility and Wars Truces were granted for burying of the dead so particularly in the Word of God we have warrant out of the Macchabees that although there were not positive lawes of Nations and Countries for this effect Nature seemes to have ingraued it in the hearts of all thus Palinurus case in Virgill is regrated that he wanted the honour of buriall for having made ship-wracke thus the Poet deploreth his losse Heu numium Coelo Pelago confise serenâ— Nudus in ignota Palinure jacebis arena What reverence and regard the Roman Emperors have had unto it in their lawes and statutes in Iustinians workes may be seene plentifully and especially in one Title expressed by it selfe De non violando Sepulchro Alexander the great having discovered Achilles Tombe in Greece overgrowne with brambles and briers so honoured it that being crowned with a Garland of Lawrell and Cyprus he carowsed so many full bowles of Wine to his memory untill he had almost lost his owne So did Tullius Cicero for the time Questor send into Cicilie to readorne Archimedes Tombe it being almost obscured with thornes and brambles Contrariwise to this Sylla his cruelty and inhumane barbarity against the dead bodyes of his enemys is yet registred in the records of his Country for that he to be avenged upon his enemies being dead whom alive he could not come at caused to disinterr the halfe putrified carcases whereon he trampled with his Horses and being Iealous of being so served after his death ordained his body to bee cast into Tyber and caused to divert the Rivers course so to disappoint all who should search after it The like I find done by a certaine Pope who caused to carry about with him the Corps of some Cardinalls in Sheletons upon Mules ever before him to be avenged of them for that either they had crossed his election or had conspired against him whereupon the Author Septem praelati Papa iubente praelati c. Even the most barbarous Nations who otherwayes wanted all sort of humanity and civility have had respect to this For I finde in Peter Martyrs decads touching the Historie of the West Indies in Vraba and other parts thereabout how
people was plagued Iulius Caesar in his imperiall Throne having by the overthrow of his enemies attained that verticall point of earthly honour was even then and there murdered King Henry the second of France was amidst the triumphs and tiltings of his Sisters wedding solemnities killed King Henry the third at the rendering up of his rebellious Citie of Paris to him was murthered by the trayterous stroake of a blacke Frier his predecessors both shortly taken away But more miserably his great and valorous successor Henry 4th in the middest of that glorious City and of the pompous shewes at his Queenes coronation was murdered Our hopefull Prince Henry taken away about the time of his sisters mirthfull Nuptialls And I read of a Prince in an Historian whose torch dedicated and lighted to Hymen in his nuptialls served to kindle his funerall pile Not to speake a word of Philip of Macedon killed in the middest of his Army while he is assisting the sacrifice to the Gods Nor of his Son Alexander the great cut off in the floure of his yeares Ioyes and glorious great victories with a thousand of this same kinde Section 3. Stories of severall worthy and brave men that upon occasions have shed teares of the sensible greefe of some Horses Dogges and Hawkes upon the losse of their Masters WHich being so we may see that the Lord ordained wisely the Pascall Lambe to be eaten with bitter hearbes And providently the old heathen enjoyned us to mingle cares amidst our joyes Laeta tibi austeris varientur festa profestis From holy Scripture we have warrant that it is better to be in the house of mourning and weeping then in that of laughing And blessed are they that weepe for they shall bee comforted and their teares washt from their eyes our Saviour is said to have wept and never to have laughed we reade of St. Peters teares of the royall Prophets of the Prophet Ieremy his complaints of the groanings howlings and lamentings of the best servants of GOD of none or little of their rejoycing except it had beene under the Crosse or at least in the Lord finally with teares wee come into this world with care wee abide in it and with paine we remove from it Yea even of those who are most enured and hardened with fights bloudsheds alarmes and consequently who should seeme most averse from teares pitie and compassion some I marke to have solemnly wept and are signalized more peradventure in consideration of humane frailty as measuring things by themselves then otherwise for any great matter or reason they had to shedd teares for the time seeing they had obtained the thing they so eagerly desired Nam cum praeda sternitur alter Praemia solliciti certa laboris habet The good Emperor Adrian at his triumphant entrie into Rome after a remarkable victorie seeing the innumerable spoyles of his enemies before his Imperiall chayre and the Captives themselves manicled and fettered with chaines doing homage unto him It is recorded of him that though he rejoyced in publike yet in private hee wept and in a manner expressed by all likelihood no lesse than our famous Buchanan in this distich Tuquoque crudelis Babylon dabis improba paenas Et rerum instabiles experiêre vices King David shed teares at the sight or hearing of his sonne Absoloms death Iulius Caesar at the sight of Pompeys head Vespasian seeing the holy and magnificent Sanctum Sanctorum on fire Xerxes the insolent Persian King yet seeing a number of hundred thousands in a plaine wept considering the frailty of nature for that of so many as hee saw there they might bee all dead in few houres dayes or yeeres To these I may subjoyne Bajazet successor to Mahomet Emperour of the Turks Anno 1481. his teares after his brother Zizimus had surrendered himselfe to the great Master of Malta in name of all the Christian Princes whom neverthelesse he drove to that extremity As for Heraclitus his perpetuall weeping for the misery of this world I thinke it as worthy of blame as Democritus his continuall laughing at the folly of it seeing with Salomon there are times to laugh and times to weepe also Nam res humana fatiscit Laeta nisi austeris varientur festa profestis And if we trust Sabellicus not onely Men but also Horses and Dogs have beene seene to weepe for the losse of their Masters he instanceth particularly that those Horses which Iulius Caesar vowed to Mars at his passage over Rubicon were observed before his murther to stray carelessely up and downe prognosticating as it were their masters death by their unaccustomed drooping dejectednesse and shedding of teares Du Bartas Hawke which hee relateth to have cast it selfe after some other signes of sorrow into the grave with the corps of its dead Master may be mentioned as rare and memorable Section 4. Risus Sardonicus what and how to be taken Of the holy teare kept in the Abby Church at Vandesme in France NOw for laughing that which we call Risus Sardonicus is a perfect modell and patterne of our humane laughing for as they who have eaten of the hearb Sardis do all the perfect gestures of one tickled with joy or mirth as dimpling their cheeks and other like gestures yet it is onely the contracting power of that venomous herbe that procureth that convulsive gesture in them the Crocodiles teares may be compared oftentimes to our weeping as being either delusive treacherous or revengefull and too many I feare doe like Iudas kisse onely to deceive But what shall be said to the Teare which is conserved in a Violl and kept in a little Chappell on the North-side of the Abbey-Church at Vandome in France which they give forth to be a teare which fell from our Lords eyes and was kept since in that Violl by some holy Saint living in those dayes which in an overpious beleefe they say hath continued since without diminution by them called La Sainte larme The holy teare this at solemne festivall dayes they shew and exhibite to the superstitiously credulous people that repaire thither from the remotest parts of that kingdome who with great and submissive prostration and kneeling kisse it to the great and gainefull profit of the keeper truly for my owne part I am not so universally catholick though I have seene it as to beleeve that no more than their religious paradoxes of the transportation of our Lady De Loretta her chamber from so many diverse places and countries to the place where now it is neither finde I any motion to pray God for helpe in my unbeliefe of this and other such fained miracles of theirs being so meerely and palpably grosse inventions of men Sect. 5. Of weeping for the dead how to be moderated The matter of teares of laughing and weeping for one and the same thing moderation in both commended ALthough Tertullian in his booke De patientia did forbid the people in his
no nature of it selfe left unto it's owne Tutory able to attaine well being for so I interprete Salutem without his assistance or helpe wherefore his opinion is that God holdeth the beginning middle and end of all things So Theophrast saith that all things have a divine beginning by which they are and doe subsist Dionysius likewise in his booke De divinis nominibus avoucheth that nothing hath subsistance but by the omnipotent power of God with whom Theodoret that the governour of nature is the Creator of it neither will he forgoe that Ship which hee hath built Hence GOD is said by the ancients to bee divided through all natures as if all were full of God because his divine power spreadeth it selfe over and is seene in all his workes how be it one way in the heavens another way againe in the inferiour creatures for in them also his power manifesteth it selfe Inde hominum pecudumque genus vitaeque volantum Et quae marmoreo fert monstra sub aequore pontus Igneus est â—llis vigor coelestis origo Seminibus Section 6. Severall other opinions wherein the Ancient Heathnicks agreed with us Christians Confirmed by the Testimonyes of their Poets GOD then as he created all things maintaineth and governeth them both according to these Philosophers opinions and ours so they jumpe with us in this that to procure his greater favour and to shun his greater curse we should adore invoke and sacrifice unto him not only the calves of our lippes but reall sacrifices as in those dayes under the law was done by Aaron and his successors under the Old Testament and as they who were appointed to attend upon the Altar were sequestrated from amongst the rest of the people so was it amongst them The Poets are full of the testimony of both these Now as particularly Processions were used for the good successe of their cornes as yet in the Roman Church is observed so had they particular dayes which they esteemed more sacred then others Tibullus in the first Elegie of his second booke perfectly particularizeth it Dii Patrii purgamus agros purgamus agrestes Vos mala de nostris pellite limitibus Neu seges eludat messem c. Vina diem celebrent non festâ luce madere Est rubor errantes malè ferre pedes And as yet in the said Church there is invocation of certaine Saints for such or such diseases and for raine whose relicts in such processions they carry about so the same Poet in the same Elegie acknowledgeth some Gods to be appropriated as I may say to this or that use and place Huc ades aspiraque mihi dum carmine nostro Redditur agricolis gratia Coelitibus Ruracano rurisque Deos. Lastly as in the new Roman profession there is almost in every family the Statue of some Saint so finde I amongst the ancient to have beene the like Sed patrii servate lares aluistis iidem cursarem vestros cùm tener antepedes Nec pudeat prisco vos esse è stirpite factos Sic veteris sedes incoluistis avi Tunc melius tenuere fidem cùm paupere cultu Stabat in exigua ligneus aede Deus That they acknowledged nothing to happen unto men by chance but by the dispensation of the supreme powers In that also they agreed with us Finally I may say that as these Philosophers acknowledged punishments for sins to be inflicted upon men both in their life and after their death so had they confidence of joyes to be reaped in the world to come for their good deeds as Socrates in his Apologie for himselfe at length declareth Sect. 7. Of good and bad Spirits and wherein the opinions of the Heathnicks agree with ours concerning good Spirits AS for their opinion concerning good or bad spirits I reade Plato and Aristotle come so neere ours that you would beleeve that they had collected their sayings out of the holy Scriptures yet they doe startle my beliefe when they say that the continuall rolling of the celestiall orbes and their spirits doe make that harmony they speak of in the heavens I could much easier have trusted them if they had spoken any thing of Musicke within the heavens by those spirits where wee have warrant indeed that the blessed Spirits there assisting the presence of him that sitteth upon the Throne doe sing Allelujas glory to God on high Which good Spirits as I finde them distributed in 9. severall Quires or orders by Dionysius so in Plato finde I 9. distinct orders of good daemones Yea the story of the evill spirits is no cleerer set downe by our owne Writers then they have it expressed in theirs The blessed spirits as I was saying are divided by Dionysius in these Quyres Seraphins Cherubins Thrones Dominations Vertues Powers Principalities Arch-angels and Angels subdivided in two rankes The first of them assisting the presence of the Almighty The second is called inferior because as it obeyeth the commandement of the first as Dionysius in the tenth Chap. of his booke touching the heavenly hierarchie witnesseth so their imployment is much in the world as the Lord his servants excuting his wil appointed either for whole countries or particular persons Apparent accinctae aurae flammaeque ministrae ut jussa accipiant Sect. 8. How neere the Ancients agree with us concerning bad spirits and in what orders they were divided of old AS for the bâ—d spirits who were banished heaven the first and best mansion for their pride they invaded the principality of this world and so bewitched it by their craft that there was no nation almost that they did not draw to their obedience under the name of God and that so strangely that every where after a like manner they were worshipped and adored as Gods both amongst the French Druides and the remotest Gymnosophists of the Indies in shapes of Idols how soever since the comming of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ both they and the old Sybillas have ceassed for a great part although yet in many places their sacrifices doe continue And that same Lucifer goeth about yet as a roaring Lion seeking whom he may devoure So Plato by severall arguments proveth not onely that they are but setteth down their division and power over the world both generally and particularly But leaving all both Deos majorum and minorum gentium The gods as they termed them of greater or lesser Nations their Gods Patrii and Penates ordained for the custodie of provinces or families their Dii Lares which were propitious ones or Larvae the badder sort with their Genii good or bad Angels ordained as they thought for the guarde and attendance of every particular person and so forth I conclude this Treatise OF SLEEPE AND DREAMES Section 1. That nothing can subsist without sleepe or rest Exemplified in the death of Perseus King of Macedon The Primary and secondary causes of sleepe That a sound conscience is a great motive to sound sleepe Proved in the example
afrighted with a supposed approach of the Enemy ranne out of the Citie in their Armes In the Temples of Ptolemais Organs and other Instruments were heard to play before Caesars death And those horses which at the passage of Rubicon he had consecrated to Mars the day before his massacre were observed and seene to weepe and to forsake their foode and stray about Shortly after his death too about the proscription of Lepidus and Antonius an Oxe being led out to plough uttered these words to his Master Why urge you mee to worke wee shall lacke no corne but men and a new borne childe did speake SECT 5. Of Prodigies before the death of Galba before the destruction of Ierusalem and at the end of the Valerian persecution THere were such fearefull Earth-quakes before the death of the Emperour Galba that at the renting asunder of the Farth most hideous noyses were heard not unlike to the lowing of Oxen But of all the Prodigies and Miracles that I read of those which went before the destruction of Ierusalem were the most terrible whereof Iosephus maketh mention at length yet my Author recounteth others no lesse memorable which were these The Comet in the shape of a Sword that appeared and as it were did hang directly over the Citie before the destruction An Oxe leading to the Altar to be there sacrificed in the middle of the Temple did bring forth a calfe to the amazement and astonishment of all beholders of it One night about midnight it grew as light within the Temple as at noone-day Hoasts of armed men and Chariots appeared in the ayre and the Priests heard a voyce within the Sanctuary expresse these words Let us remove from hence About the end of the Valerian persecution before the death of Galenus the Emperour in whose dayes the Empire began mightily to decline there was darkenesse for some dayes over all that tract of Earth in and about Rome There were most dreadfull thunders heard with most frightfull noyses as roaring and fearefull lowings in the ayre and bowels of the Earth whereupon followed so terrible Earthquakes and openings of the Earth that whole Villages and Townes were thereby destroyed Lastly through the dread and terrour of these frightfull noyses and by the sight of these Prodigies and portentuous wonders many both men and beasts were strucken dead SECT 6. A continuation of other Prodigies with a conclution of this Treatise ABout the end of the Goths and Vandals wars against the Romanes there were seene in the ayre Armies flaming as all on fire from which there rained drops of blood and thereafter followed extraordinary overflowing and deboarding of Rivers but chiefly of Tyber which of all other Rivers is observed to deboard both most excessively and most often and these ever goe before some evill to happen to the City But of all her deluges none more memorable than that which happened under the Pontificy of Pelagius which overswelled the walles of the City destroyed all the Corne in the lower Countries and procured such a famine and Pestilence that thereby many thousands perished amongst whom the Pope himselfe after whom Gregory the most worthy Pope of that name succeeded In the time of Sabianus successor to him a terrible and Portentuous blazing starre was seene and the sea cast up many Monsters with visages like men These and many the like were seene before the dayes of Bonifacius the third in whose time the Romane Church obtained of Phocas then Emperour the title of Mother and supreame Church for till then the Greeke Church claimed the superiority In the dayes of Adrian the second Pope of that name it rained blood three dayes A little before the death of Sergius the first Pope that began to change his Proper-name terrible fiery torches and fleakes were seene in the ayre with great noyse and thundring In the Pontificy of Iohn the eleaventh sonne to Sergius a fountaine in Genoa ranne blood in great aboundance About the time that Iohn the twelfth was for his flagitiousnesse and abomination deposed by the Emperour Otho a great stone fell from heaven In Naples likewise within this hundreth yeares there fell a brownish coloured one of an extraordinary bignesse In France likewise upon a St. Iohns day there fell a great peece of Ice in a showre of raine many feete long In the yeare of our Lord 1012. when Ierusalem was taken by Anmrath the great Turke there were terrible earthquakes and fiery impressions seene over all the firmament and the Moone appeared bloody But to recount all Prodigies and Miracles which in latter ages have appeared in severall Countries and to set downe the severall Reasons that are given for them with the events observed to ensue after every of them would take up a greater Volume than I intend this whole booke to be therefore I will here put an end to this discourse SALAMANDRA OR A short Treatise of the PHILOSOPHERS STONE SECT 1. The Historie of the life and death of Antonio Bragadino THe History of one Antonio Bragadino a Cyprian Gentleman which in my time I did reade in Villamont a French Barones travels and voyages hath occasioned mee to undertake this taske This man saith he for the good services done to the Venetians in the time of their Warres upon that Isle being retired to Venice and there become their stipendiarie or rather pensioner having fallen at variance with some clarissimo whereupon ensued blood not being able to keepe their citie any longer for feare of his life withdrew himselfe to the countrey where being in necessity through reason of his pension which he wanted bethinking himselfe how he might live by his wits in the end retiring to a desert he rancountred with an Hermite who tooke him to his cell and having imparted to him his distresse got this comfortable answer back againe that if hee would be partner with him of the taske which sundry yeares agone he had undertaken that he would not onely releeve him of his present necessity but likewise if the event deluded not his intention would make him one of the richest and wealthiest men in the world To which discourse having listned and perceiving it was nothing but the blowing of the coale hee meaned being allured thereto by his present want the hope and expectation of future gaine the venerablenesse and gravity of the person the religious silence of so solitary a place he embraced the offer and in the end became so expert in the calling that by his white powders for as yet hee had not come to that perfection to make red he redeemed himselfe from his exile by presenting the Senate of the Citie with Ingots to the value of fiftie thousand Crownes with certificate if that it should please them to restore him to his wonted liberty for thither was his affection carried beyond all the parts of the world in regard his Mistresse was there hee should enrich
of Thirois and his two Sonnes ALL motion tendeth to and endeth in rest except that of the Heavens Which in a perennall rotation wheeleth ever about Wherefore men beasts Fowle Fishes after the dayes travell doe covet and betake themselves to rest as it is in the Poet. Nox erat placidum carpebant fessa soporem Corpora per terras syluaeque saua quierunt Aequora cum medio volvuntur sider a lapsu Cum tacet omnis ager pecudes pictaeque volucres Et corda oblita laborum c. Captabant placidi tranquilla oblivia somni This sleepe is so necessary to the life of man that for want of it many have dyed as Perseus King of Macedon who being prisoner in Rome and for torture being kept from sleepe there dyed Causes of sleep are two fold Primary and secondary The true Primary Philosophicall and immediate cause of sleepe may be said to be this the heart the fountaine and seat of life having much adoe to furnish every part of the body with the streames of vitall spirits hath most adoe to furnish the braines which are the greatest wasters of them in regard of the many and ample employments it hath for them as for Pensing Projecting consulting reasoning hearing seeing and so forth which functions of the braine doe so exhaust the animall spirits sent up thither per venas carotides through the veines organs after by circulation in that admirable Rete or net of the braine they are there setled that of all necessity either our life in the heart behooveth to cease or it must betake it selfe to rest againe for the recollection and drawing backe of her spent vitall spirits to refurnish the braines with a new recrew of them Secondary causes of sleepe are divers as excessive labour agitation of the body repletion as by excesse of meates or drinkes inanition as by Copulation and many more of this kinde which doe so waste the spirits that of necessity there behooveth a cessation to be for a time that new spirits may be recollected for refreshing of it Ausonius wittily chiding his servants lasie drowsinesse imputes it to excesse of meate and drinke Dormiunt glires hiemem Perennem At cibo parcunt tibi causa somni est Multa quod potes nimiaque tendas Mole saginam Adde to these causes the tranquillity of a sound Conscience Whereupon it was that the two Sons of Thirois mentioned by Quintilian upon most reasonable judgement were quitted from the murther of their Father who was found in that same Chamber with them alone and they both in a sound sleepe the murtherer perchance having fled away for it was reasoned no men guilty of so heynous a crime as Patricide could sleepe so soundly as they were found to doe by the discoverers of their murdered Father But leaving examples of this or the former causes whereof every where are plenty I proceed Section 2. Examples of Kings and great Commanders that upon the thoughtfulnesse of some great exploite or encounter have beene extraordinarily surprized with unusuall sleepe and the resons thereof agitated VVE reade that great men and Commanders upon the most important poynt of their exploytes and affaires have sometime fallen in so deepe sleepes that their servants and followers have had much adoe to get them to awake the like formerly being never perceaved in them Iustinus and Quintus Curtius in the life of Alexander the great relate of him That in the morning of that day appoynted for that memorable battell betwixt him and Darius he fell in so deepe a sleepe and slept so long that on the very shock of the battell very hardly could his favorite Parmenio after two or three tryalls get him to awake It is agreed upon that hotter constitutions are least subject to sleepe and all his actions and proceedings marke him out to be such an one so it could not be his constitution that brought that sleepinesse on him but he being then in hazard either to loose or conquer a field whereby both his Crowne Countrey and reputation lay at the stake motives to keep a man awake had so no question toyled his minde and body in the right preparing and ordering of all things befitting a man of his place for the encounter that being at a resolution he gave himselfe to sleepe which his former thoughtfulnesse and paines did augment upon him and not as some would have it the terror of his enemies forces as Marcus Anthonius objected to Augustus in that Navall combat against Pompey in Sicilie that he had not courage enough to behold the order of the battell for indeed he fell asleepe and slept so long till the Victory was his which he knew not of till Agrippa with much adoe had awaked him But indeed I construe both their courages rather to have beene so great as their former and succeeding actions may witnesse that they disdayned that the appâ—â—hension of such hazards or accidents as might ensue so great encounters should any way startle them from giving way to their owne inclinations whether to sleepe or wake or doe or not doe this or that Section 3. Alexander the great his sound sleeping when hee should have encountred Darius in battell heere excused Catoes sleeping before his death whereupon is inferred a discourse against selfe-Murder BVt laying all these excuses aside I cannot much marvell at this sleeping of Alexander he being so young in the flower of his age and so more subject to sleepe besides being so puffed up with the fortunate successes of his affaires which made him have so high a conceit of himselfe as to whom sayth one fortune gave up townes captive and to whose pillow whilest he slept victories were brought as I must admire that strange sleepe of Cato who after Caesars Conquest of the field at Pharsalia despairing of the liberty of his enslaved Countrey resolved to kill himselfe rather then behold the ensuing alteration which Caesars government would bring with it He then I say having put all his domestick affaires in order expecting newes of the departure of his Colleagues from the Port of Vtica fell in so sound a sleepe that his servants in the next roome overheard him to snort extreamly yet after that sleepe which as it should seeme would have opened the eyes of any mans reason and understanding so farre as not onely to abhorre his first so ill-sett resolution but totally to extirpate a future thought of so damned an intention he awaked so strongly confirmed in his former intent that forthwith he stabbed himselfe And sleepe is sayd to mollifie and mitigate fury or rage in any mans minde Praeter Catonis invictum animum Now though this man whom his many other excellent vertues had made famous and many other worthy men amongst the ancients did imagine for the like deathes to be highly commended for courage yet Saint Augustine and with him every good Christian reputeth it rather to be an infallible
marke of Pusillanimity and want of firme and constant resolution to behold and withstand dangers and inciteth us rather to awaite death which is the worst that can befall us then to prevent the sufferance of triviall crosses by unnaturally Boutchering our selves To which purpose Cicero in presence of this same Cato saith That since we are placed here by our generall the GOD Almighty as Souldiers in a garrison that it behooveth us not basely to forgoe our station till it be his good pleasure to call us off So much for sleepe now to dreames which are the companions of sleepe Section 4. Of Dreames both Naturall Accidentall Divine and Diabolicall Apollodorus dreame Abrahams Iosephs Pharaohs Nebuchadnezzars c. MAny more things might have beene brought in in the former Sections as of those that walke or talke in their sleepe with the reasons thereof and illustrations to that purpose but so many having handled those theames and I studying so much as I can brevity and to shun tautologies I remit the Reader to them and will now by the way touch upon dreames And they are either Naturall Accidentall Divine or Diabolicall Naturall are caused either by the Predominant matter humor or affections in us As the Cholericke who dreameth of fire debates skirmishes and the like The Sanguine of love-sports and all joviall things The Melancholicke on death dangers solitudes c. where the flegmaticke dreameth of Waters Seas drowning and the rest These dreames which proceed from our Naturall or predominant affections are either of love jealousie feare avarice envy c. by the first we may Presage and judge of the sickenesses which may ensue upon the superaboundance of such and such humors because they being the effects of the redundancy of these humors have a connexion in Nature with them as all other effects have in their causes By the latter dreams we may presage and judge of the affections and passions of the mind and so consequently of the vices consisting in their extreames So the avaricious dreameth of gold the lover of his Mistris the Iealous of his corrivall c. and if not ever yet for the most part this happeneth true or at least in part Accidentall dreames are caused either by dyet by feare or joy conceaved in the day time or the propense desire to have such or such a thing to come to passe and the like Thus oft times a vicious soule will figure to it selfe in dreames the terrors that it feareth As Apollodorus who dreaming that the Scythians were fleaing off his skinne thought that his owne heart murmured this unto him Wretched man that thou art I am the occasion of all these thy evills which thou endurest Divine dreames are those whereby it pleaseth God to give either a warning or insight of things to come such the Lord sent on Abraham the fifteenth of Genesis and on Ioseph in the first of Saint Mathew that too of Pharaoh Genesis forty one Of Pharaohs Butler and Baker Genesis forty of Nebuchadnezzar c. Diabolicall dreames cannot fore-shew any thing unto any man they may give a shaddow or representation of things past unto us but not otherwise Then seeing there is little connexion of things past and to come therefore can there be no foresight by them for although the Divell knoweth many things and at some times even speaketh the truth of things to come thereby to inveigle our credulity when in effect he only lyeth to deceave us yet unto them we ought to give no regard or faith Now how Naturall or accidentall dreames can portend or foreshew future things it is doubted indeed Cardan setteth downe the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how but not the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 why any wayes cleerely enough to my understanding For the dreames that GOD sendeth upon a man I understand to be mysticall and portending somthing touching his service Our spirits it cannot well bee for when we are awake we cannot foreshew any thing to come at least without praemeditation not by any Philosophicall ground whatsoever Neither can they be moved by the divel for he is a deceaver and all his workes impostures It must be then some other spirit that infuseth these accidentall dreames whereof we will instance examples heereafter to my mind it must be rather some peculiar extraordinary inspiration in the dreamer for the time than Anima Mundi or spiritus universitatis although many learned men ascrybe such dreames to it particularly An example of this kind I read in Herodian where it is reported that the Emperor Severus dreamed he saw Pertinax mounted upon his richly Caparassoned Horse and receaved as Emperor by the Pretorian Souldiers but that the Horse straight wayes flung Pertinax off his backe and came stooping to Severus who reaching the Horse by the mayne forthwith mounted him and was by the same Souldiers receaved and admitted Emperor which indeed came so to passe Section 5. The Emperor Severus his dreame of Pertinax which he caused to be molded in Brasse An admirable dreame of the Emperor Henry the fifth Cicero's of Octavianus That beasts dreame but hard labouring men seldome and the reason thereof c. WHereon hee caused the whole drift as it happened to be cast in brasse of which at length in Sabellicus Aenead 7. lib. 5. To which I may subjoyne that dreame of the Emperor Henry the fifth who being grievously pained with the stone dreamt that Saint Barnabas had cut him and gave him the stone in his hand which when he awaked to his great Ioy he found to be true if we may be beleeve Cuspinian Likewise that Dreame of Cicero may bee ranked amongst these He dreamt that there appeared a Boy before him who once should be Emperor and Master over Rome the next day after his accustomed manner passing through the publicke market place and espying Octavianus Augustus a little boy playing the part of a Commander over the rest of his companions he called to minde the feature and stature of the boy who the night before had appeared to him in his sleepe and finding that in every lineament he assimilated Octavianus took him by the hand brought him before all the people that were there assembled presented him and told them that one day that boy should command over them which thereafter came to passe Now dreaming is not proper to men only when they sleep but to beasts also for War Horses accustomed to allarmes and skirmishes are observed to start as afrighted and sometime to neigh Spaniels Hounds and other hunting Doggs are knowne with their voyces to hunt in their sleepe Iam Iamque teneri Credit extento stringit vestigia Rostro But sleeping men doe not at all times dreame wearyed and labour-toyled bodyes doe never finde them Dulce sopor fessis in gramine Againe Sopor virorum dulcis agrestium Because nature hath enough to doe to disburden and disgest the drowsinesse wherewith their