and operatiue bodies and seated in the most eminent roome LIB II. Of the pretended decay of the Heauens and Elements and Elementary Bodies Man onely excepted CAP. 1. Touching the pretended decay of the Heauenly Bodies SECT 1. First of their working vpon this inferiour World SUch and so great is the wisdome the bounty and the power which Almighty God hath expressed in the frame of the Heauens that the Psalmist might justly say The Heauens declare the glory of God the Sun the Moone the Stars serving as so many silver golden Characters embroidered vpon azure for the daylie preaching and publishing thereof to the World And surely if he haue made the floore of this great House of the World so beautifull and garnished it with such wonderfull variety of beasts of trees of hearbes of flowres we neede wonder the lesse at the magnificence of the roofe which is the highest part of the World and the neerest to the Mansion House of Saints and Angels Now as the excellencie of these Bodies appeares in their situation their matter their magnitudes and their Sphericall or Circular figure so specially in their great vse and efficacy not onely that they are for signes and seasons and for dayes yeares but in that by their motion their light their warmth influence they guide and gouerne nay cherish and maintaine nay breed beget these inferiour bodies euen of man himselfe for whose sake the Heauens were made It is truly said by the Prince of Philosophers Sol homo generant hominem the Sunne and man beget man man concurring in the generation of man as an immediate and the Sunne as a remote cause And in another place he doubts not to affirme of this inferiour World in generall Necesse est mundum inferiorem superioribus lationibus continuari ut omnis inde virtus derivetur it is requisite that these inferiour parts of the World should bee conjoyned to the motions of the higher Bodies that so all their vertue and vigour from thence might be derived There is no question but that the Heauens haue a marvailous great stroake vpon the aire the water the earth the plants the mettalls the beasts nay vpon Man himselfe at leastwise in regard of his body and naturall faculties so that if there can be found any decay in the Heauens it will in the course of Nature and discourse of reason consequently follow that there must of necessity ensue a decay in all those which depend vpon the Heauens as likewise on the other side if there be found no decay in the Heauens the presumption will be strong that there is no such decay as is supposed in these Subcaelestiall Bodies because of the great sympathy and correspondence which is knowne to be betweene them by many and notable experiments For to let passe the quailing and withering of all things by the recesse and their reviving and resurrection as it were by the reaccesse of the Sunne I am of opinion that the sap in trees so precisely followes the motion of the Sunne that it neuer rests but is in continuall agitation as the Sun it selfe which no sooner arriues at the Tropick but he instantly returnes and euen at that very instant as I conceiue and I thinke it may be demonstrated by experimentall conclusions the sappe which by degrees descended with the declination of the Sun begins to remount at the approach thereof by the same steps that it descended and as the approach of the Sunne is scarce sensible at his first returne but afterward the day increases more in one weeke then before in two in like manner also fares it with the sap in plants which at first ascends insensibly and slowly but within a while much more swiftly and apparantly It is certaine that the Tulypp Marigold and Sun-flowre open with the rising and shut with the setting of the Sunne So that though the Sunne appeare not a man may more infallibly know when it is high noone by their full spreading then by the Index of a Clock or Watch. The hop in its growing winding it selfe about the pole alwayes followes the course of the Sunne from East to West and can by no meanes bee drawne to the contrary choosing rather to breake then yeeld It is obserued by those that sayle betweene the Tropicks that there is a constant set winde blowing from the East to the West saylers call it the Breeze which rises and falls with the Sunne and is alwayes highest at noone and is commonly so strong partly by its owne blowing and partly by ouer-ruling the Currant that they who saile to Peru cannot well returne home the same way they came forth And generally Marriners obserue that caeter is paribus they sayle with more speed from the East to the West then backe againe from the West to the East in the same compasse of time All which should argue a wheeling about of the aire and waters by the diurnall motion of the Heauens and specially by the motion of the Sunne Whereunto may be added that the high Seasprings of the yeare are alwayes neere about the two Aequinoctials and Solstices and the Cock as a trusty Watchman both at midnight and breake of day giues notice of the Sunnes approach These be the strange and secret effects of the Sunne vpon the inferiour Bodies whence by the Gentiles hee was held the visible God of the World and tearmed the Eye thereof which alone saw all things in the World and by which the World saw all things in it selfe Omma qui videt per quem videt omnia mundus And most notablely is he described by the Psalmist in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun which is as a bridegroome comming out of his chamber rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race His going forth is from the end of the Heauen and his circuite vnto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof Now as the effects of the Sun the head-spring of light and warmth are vpon these inferiour Bodies more actiue so those of the Moone as being Vltima coelo Citima terris neerer the Earth and holding a greater resemblance therewith are no lesse manifest And therefore the husbandman in sowing setting graffing and planting lopping of trees felling of timber and the like vpon good reason obserues the waxing waning of the Moone which the learned Zanchius well allows of commending Hesiod for his rules therein Quod Hesiodus ex Lune decrementis incrementis totius agricolationis signa notet quis improbet who can mislike it that Hesiod sets downe the signes in the whole course of husbandry from the waxing and waning of the Moone The tydes and ebbes of the Sea follow the course of it so exactly as the Sea-man will tell you the age of the Moone onely vpon the sight of the tide as certainly as if he saw it in the water It is the observation of Aristotle
waues to shoreward roll And againe Omnia ventorum concurrere praelia vidi I saw the windes all combating together Such a winde it seemes was that which smote at once all the foure corners of the house of Iobs eldest sonne Let any who is desirous to inquire into and compare things of this nature but reade what is recorded in the Turkish history of two wonderfull great stormes the one by land in Sultania set downe in the entrance of Solymans life the other at Algiers not farre from the mi'dst of the same life at Charles the 5th his comming thither as also at his parting from thence and I presume hee will admire nothing in this kinde that hath falne out in these latter times Vidi ego saith Bellarmine quòd nisi vidissem non crederem à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem eamque delatam super pagum quendam vt fovea altissima conspiceretur vnde terra eruta fuerat pagus totus coopertus quasi sepultus manserit ad quem terra illa deuenerat I my selfe haue seene which if I had not seene I should not haue beleeued a very great quantity of earth digged out and taken vp by the force of a strong winde and carried vpon a village thereby so that there remained to be seene a great empty hollownes in the place from whence it was lifted and the village vpon which it lighted was in a manner all couered ouer buried in it This example I confessâ—… could not be long since since Bellarmine professes that himselfe saw it Yet it might well be some skores of yeares before our last great windes which notwithstanding by some for want of reading and experience are thought to bee vnmatchable And I know not whether that outragious winde which happened in London in the yeare 1096. during the reigne of William Rufus might not well bee thought to paralell at least this recorded by Bellarmine It bore downe in that City alone six hundred houses blew off the roofe of Bow Church which with the beames were borne into the aire a great heigth six whereof being 27 foote long with their fall were driuen 23 foote deepe into the ground the streetes of the citty lying then vnpaued And in the fourth yeare of the same King so vehement a lightning which as hath beene said is of the same matter with the winde pierced the steeple of the Abbay of Winscomb in Glostershire that it rent the beames of the roofe cast downe the Crucisixe brake off his right legge and withall ouerthrew the image of our Lady standing hard by leauing such a stench in the Church that neither incense holy-water nor the singing of the Monkes could allay it But it is now more then time I should descend a steppe lower from the aire to the water CAP. 8. Touching the pretended decay of the waters and the fish the inhabiters thereof SECT 1. That the sea and riuers and bathes are the same at this present as they were for many ages past or what they loose in one place or time they recouer in another THough the Psalmist tell vs that the Lord hath founded the earth vpon the Seas and established it vpon the flouds because for the more commodious liuing of man and beasts hee hath made a part of it higher then the seas or at least-wise restrained them from incursion vpon it so as now they make but one intire Globe yet because the waters in the first Creation couered the face of the earth I will first begin with them The mother of waters the great deepe hath vndoubtedly lost nothing of her ancient bounds or depth but what is impaired in one place is againe restored to her in another The riuers which the Earth sucked from her by secret veines it renders backe againe with full mouth the vapours which the Sunne drawes vp empty themselues againe into her bosome The purest humour in the Sea the Sun Exhales in th' Aire which there resolu'd anon Returnes to water descends againe By sundry wayes into his mother maine Her motions of ebbing flowing of high springs and dead Neapes are still as certaine constant as the changes of the Moone and course of the Sunne Her natiue saltnes by reason thereof her strength for the better supporting of navigable vessells is still the same And as the Sea the mother of waters so likewise the rivers the daughters thereof â—…ither hold on their wonted courses and currents or what they haue diminished in one age or place they haue againe recompenced and repayed in another as Srâ—…bo hath well expressed it both of the sea and rivers Quoniam omnia moventur transmutantur aliter talia ac tanta administrari non possent existimandum est nec terram ita semper permanere vt semper tanta sit nec quicquam sibi addatur aut adimatur sed nec aquam nec candem sedem semper ab istis obtineri presertim cum transmutatio ejus cognata sit ac naruralis quiniâ—…ò terrae multum in aquam convertitur aquae multum in terram transmutatur Quare minime mirandum est si eas terrae partes quae nunc habitantur olim mare occupabat quae pelagus sunt prius habitabantur Quemadmodum de fontibus alios deficere contingit alios relaxari item flumina lacus Because thnigs moue and are changed without which such and so great matters could not well be disposed we are to thinke that the earth doth not remaine alwayes in the same state without addition or diminution neither yet the water as if they were alwayes bounded within the same lists specially seeing their mutuall chang is naturall kindly but rather that much earth is turned into water coÌ„trarywise no lesse water in to earth it is not theÌ„ to be wondered at if that part of the earth which is now habitable was formerly overflowed with water and that againe which now is sea was sometimes habitable as among fountaines some are dried vp and some spring forth afresh which may also be verified of rivers and lakes wherewith accordes that of the Poet. Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago Chonchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis Quodque fuit campus vallem decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis Quaeque sitim tulerant stagnata paludibus hument Hic fontes natura nouos emisit et illic Clausit antiquis tam multa tremoribus orbis Flumina prosiliunt aut exsiccata residunt What was firme land sometimes that haue I seen Made sea and what was sea made land againe On mountaine tops old anchours found haue been And sea fish shells to lie farre from the maine Plaines turne to vales by
defluat amnis at iste Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum The Clowne waites till the foord be slidden all away But still it slides and will for euer and a day SECT 3. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in regard of their qualities THere is no feare then of the naturall decay of the Elements in regard of their quantity and dimensions all the controversie is in regard of their quality whether the aire and water be so pure and wholsome and the earth so fertile and fruitfull as it was some hundreths or thousands of yeares since Touching the former I thinke I shall make it appeare that the World in former ages hath beene plagued with more droughts excessiue raines windes frosts snowes hailes famines earthquakes pestilences and other contagious diseases then in latter times all which should argue a greater distemper in the Elements and for the fruitfulnesse of the earth I will not compare the present with that before the fall or before the floud I know and beleeue that the one drew on a curse vpon it though some great Divines hold that curse was rather in regard of mans ensuing labour in dressing it then of the Earths ensuing barrennesse and the other by washing away the surface and fatnesse thereof and by incorporating the salt waters into it much abated the natiue and originall fertility thereof and consequently the vigour and vertue of plants as well in regard of nourishment as medicine Upon which occasion it seemes after the Floud man had leaue giuen him to feede vpon the flesh of beasts and fowles and fishes which before the floud was not lawfull Neither can it be denied that Gods extraordinary fauour or curse vpon a land beside the course of Nature makes it either fruitfull or barren A fruitfull land maketh hee barren saith the Psalmist for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein And on the other side he turneth the wildernes into a standing water and dry ground into water springs And for grounds which are continually rent wounded with the plowshare worne and wasted with tillage it is not to be wondered if they answere not the fertility of former ages But for such as haue time and rest giuen to recouer their strength and renew their decayed forces or such as yet retaine their virginity without any force offered vnto them I doubt not but experience and tryall will make it good that they haue lost nothing of their primitiue goodnesse at leastwise since the floud and consequently that there is in the earth it selfe by long-lasting no such perpetuall and vniversall decay in regard of the fruitfullnesse thereof as is commonly imagined And if not in the earth it selfe then surely not in the trees and hearbs and plants and flowers which suck their nourishment from thence as so many infants from their mothers breast Let any one kind of them that ever was in any part of the world since the Creation be named that is vtterly lost no God and Nature haue so well provided against this that one seede sometimes multiplies in one yeare many thousands of the same kind Let it be proued by comparing their present qualities with those which are recorded in ancient writers that in the revolution of so many ages they haue lost any thing of their wonted colour their smell their tast their vertue their proportion their duration And if there be no such decay as is supposed to be found in the severall kindes of vegetables what reason haue wee to beleeue it in beasts specially those that make vegetables their food If Aristotle were now aliue should he need to compose some new treatise De historia Animalium in those things where he wrote vpon certaine groundes and experimentall observations haue the beasts of which he wrote any thing altered their dispositions Are the wild become tame or the strong feeble no certainely It was true in all ages both before and since which the Poet hath Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Virtus nec imbellem feroces Progenerant aquilae Columbam From nobles noble spirits proceed Steeres Horses like their Sires do proue The Eagle feirce doth never breed A timerous and fearefull Doue Hath the Lyon forgotten his Majestie or the Elephant his sagacity or the Tyger his fiercenesse or the Stagge his swiftnesse or the Dogge his fidelitie or the Foxe his wilinesse were the Oxen then of the same Countrey stronger for labour the horses better featured or more serviceable then now doubtlesse these lessons as their Mistresse cannot but teach them so these schollers cannot but learne them neither is it in their power to forget them SECT 4. Touching the pretended decay of mankind in regard of manners and the arts WIth man it is otherwise for he hauing a free will at leastwise in morall and naturall actions by reason of that liberty varieth both from his kind and from himselfe more then any other creature besides And hence is it other circumstances concurring that in the same countrey men are sometimes generally addicted to vertue sometimes to vice sometimes to one vice sometimes to another sometimes to civillity sometimes to barbarisme sometimes to studiousnesse learning sometimes to ease and ignorance sometimes they are taller of stature sometimes lower lastly sometimes longer sometimes shorter liued ct this I say ariseth partly from the Libertie of mans will partly from Gods providence ouerruling disposing all things according to the secret counsell of his owne vnsearchable wisdome Signat tempora proprijs Aptans officijs Deus Nec quas ipse coercuit Misceri patitur vices To proper offices God hath each season bounded And will not that the courses He sets them be confounded Haec omnia mutantur saith S. Augustine nec mutatur divinae providentiae ratio qua fit Vt ista mutentur All these things are changed and yet the reason of the Divine Providence by which they are changed changeth not To affirme then that humane affaires remaine allwaies in the same estate continually drawne out as by an even thread without variation is vntrue and on the other side to say that they allwayes degenerate and grow worse and worse is as vnsound For surely had it beene so since the Creation or the fall of man civill society nay the world itself could not haue subsisted but would long since haue beene brought to vtter ruine and desolation Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit vice was at highest and neere its downefall stood And as Bodin hath both rightly observed and learnedly expressed Quod si res humanae in deterius prolaberentur jampridem in extremo vitiorum ac improbitatis gradu constitissemus quo quidem antea peruentum esse opinor Sed cum flagitiosi homines nec vlterius progredi nec eodem loco stare diutius possent sensim regredi necesse habuerunt vel cogente pudore qui hominibus inest à natura
statutes Doe they not publickely vse all other wayes whereby the life of man is held in and kept in compasse all according to the orders and customes of the countrey in their severall nations These things therefore being so and that no noveltie hath broken in to interrupt the perpetuall tenor of things by severing and discontinuing them What is it that they say Confusion is brought vpon the world since Christian religion entred into it and discovered the misteries of hidden verity But the Gods say they exasperated with your injuries and offences bring vpon vs pestilen◅es droughts scarcity of corne lo◅usts mice haile and other hurtfull things assaulting the affaires of men Were it not follie longer to insist vpon things evident and needing no defence I would soone by vnfolding former times demonstrate that the evills yee speake of are neither vnknown nor sudden nor that these confusions brake in nor that mortall businesses began to be infested with such varietie of dangers since our Societie obtained the happines of this name to be bestowed vpon them For if we be the cause and for our demerits these p◅gues were invented whence knew antiquity these names of miseries whence gaue it signification to wars With what knowledge could it name the Pestilence ◅nd Haile or assume them into the number of thosewords wherewith they vttered their speech For if these evills be new and drawe their causes from late offences how could it be that it should forme words to those things whereof it selfe neither had experience nor had learnt that they were in any time done Scarcitie of corne and extreame dearth distresseth vs. What were the ancient and eldest ages at any time free from the like necessity Doe not the v◅ry names by which th◅se evills are called testifie and crie that never any mortall man was priviledged frō it Which were it a matter so hard to beleeue I could produce the testimonies of Authours what n◅tions how great how often haue felt horrible famine and haue beene destroted with a great desolation But stormes of Haile fall very often and light on all things And doe wee not see it registred and recorded in ancient writings that countries haue osten beene battered with showers of stones Want of raine kils vp the corne and makes the earth vnfruitfull And was antiquitie free from these evills especially seeing wee know that huge rivers haue beene dried vp to the very bottome The contagion of Pestilence vexeth Mankind Runne over the Annals written in severall tongues and yee shall learne that whole countries haue oftentimes beene made desolate and emptied of inhabitants All kind of graines are destroied and devoured by locusts by mice Passe through forraine histories they will informe you how often former times haue bin troubled with these plagues and brought to the miseries of povertie Citties shaken with mighty earthquakes totter even vnto ruine What Haue not former times seen Citties together with the Inhabitants swallowed vp in huge gaping clefts of the earth Or haue they had their e◅ate free from these casualties when was mankind destroyed with deluges of waters not before vs when was the world burnt dissolued into embers ashes not before vs whē were mightie cities overwhelmed by the seas inundation not before vs when did they make war with wild beasts and encounter with Lyons not before vs when were people plagued with ven◅mous serpents not before vs For that yee vse to object vnto vs the causes os so often warres the laying wast of Citties the irruption of Germans and Scythians I will by your good leaue and patience be bold to say that yee are so transported with desire to slander that yee know not what it is yee say That vpward of tenthousand yeares agoe a huge swarme of men should breake out of that Iland of Neptune which is called Atlantick as Plato declares and vtterly destroy and consume innumerable nations were we the cause That the Assyrians and Bactrians sometimes vnder the leading of Ninus and Zoroastres should warre one against the other not only with sword and strength but also by the hidden artes of Magick and the Chaldeans was it our envie That Helena by the direction and impulsion of the Gods was ravished and became a fatall calamitie both to her owne and future times was it attributed to the crime of our religion That the great and mighty Xerxes brought in the sea vpon the land and past over the seas on foot was it done through the injury of our name That a yong man rising out of the borders of Macedon brought the kingdome and people of the East vnder the yoke of captivity and bondage did wee procure and cause it That now the Romans should like a violent streame drowne and overwhelme all nations did wee forsooth thrust the Gods into the fury Now if no man dare to impute to our times the things that were done long since how can we be the causes of the present miseries seing there is no new thing falne out but all are ancient and not vnheard of in any antiquitie although it be not hard to proue that the warres which yee say are raised through the envie of our religion are not only not increased since Christ was heard off in the world but also for the greater part by repressing mans furiousnesse lessened For seing wee so great a multitude of men haue learned by his instructions lawes that we are not to requite evill fo◅ evill that it is farre better to suffer then to do wrong rather to shed a mans owne then to pollute his hands and conscience with the bloud of another the vngratesull world hath ere while receiued this benefit from Christ by whome the fiercenesse and wildnesse of nature is tamed and they haue begun to refra◅ne their hostile hands from the bloud of the creature Kinne vnto thē Certainely if all who know that to be men stands not in the shape of bodies but in the power of reason would listen a while vnto his wholesome and peaceable decrees and not puffed vp with arrogance and selfeconceit rather beleeue their owne opinions then his admonitions the whole world long agoe turning the vse of iron vnto milder workes should haue liued in most qu◅et tranquillity and haue met together in a firme and indissoluble league of most safe cōcord But if say they through you the state of man suffereth no disadvantage whence are t◅ese evils wherewith now a long time miserable mortality is afflicted and oppressed You aske my opinion in a matter not necessary to this businesse For the present disputation now in hand was not vndertaken by mee to this end to shew or proue vpon what causes or reasons each thing was done but to manifest that the reproch of so great a crime as wee are charged with is farre from vs which if I performe and by deeds and evident remonstrances vnfold the truth of the matter whence these evils are or out of what fountaines or principles
that some old houses heretofore fairely built be now almost buried vnder ground and their windowes heretofore set at a reasonable height now growen euen with the pauement So some write of the triumphall Arch of Septimius at the foote of the Capitol mountaine in Rome now almost couered with earth in somuch as they are inforced to descend downe into it by as many staires as formerly they were vsed to ascend whereas contrariwise the Romane Capitoll it selfe seated on the mountaine which hanges ouer it as witnesseth George Agricola discouers its foundation plainely aboue ground which without question were at the first laying thereof deepe rooted in the earth whereby it apppeares that what the mountaine looseth the valley gaines and consequently that in the whole globe of the earth nothing is lost but onely remoued from one place to another so that in processe of time the highest mountaines may be humbled into valleyes and againe the lowest valleyes exalted into mountaines If ought to nought did fall All that is felt or seene within this all Still loosing somewhat of it selfe at length Would come to nothing if death's fatall strength Could altogether substances destroy Things then should vanish euen as soone as die In time the mighty mountaines tops be bated But with their fall the neighbour vales are fatted And what when Trent or Avon overflow They reaue one field they on the next bestow And whereas another Poet tels vs that Eluviemons est diductus in aequor The mountaine by washings oft into the sea is brought It is most certaine and by experience found to be true that as the rivers daily carrie much earth with them into the sea so the sea sends backe againe much slime and sand to the earth which in some places and namely in the North part of Deuonshire is found to bee a marveilous great commoditie for the inriching of the soyle Now as the Earth is nothing diminished in regard of the dimensions the measure thereof from the Surface to the Center being the same as it was at the first Creation So neither is the fatnes fruitfulnes thereof at least-wise since the flood or in regard of duration alone any whit impaired though it haue yeelded such store of increase by the space of so many reuolutions of ages yet hee that made it continually reneweth the face thereof as the Psalmist speakes by turning all things which spring from it into it againe Saith one Cuncta suos ortus repetunt matremque requirunt And another E terris orta terra rursus accipit And a third joynes both together Quapropter merito maternum nomen adepta est Cedit enim retro de terra quod fuit ante In terras And altogether they may thus not vnfitly be rendred All things returne to their originall And seeke their mother what from earth doth spring The same againe into the earth doth fall Neither doe they heerein dissent from Syracides with all manner of liuing things hath hee couered the face of the earth and they shall returne into it againe And that doome which passed vpon the first man after the fall is as it were ingraven on the foreheads not onely of his posterity but of all earthly Creatures made for their sakes Dust thou art and vnto dust shalt thou returne As the Ocean is mainetained by the returne of the rivers which are drayned deriued from it So is the earth by the dissolution and reuersion of those bodies which from it receiue their growth and nourishment The grasse to feede the beasts the corne to strengthen and the wine to cheere the heart of man either are or might bee both in regard of the Earth Heauens as good and plentifull as euer That decree of the Almighty is like the Law of the Medes Persians irreuocable They shall bee for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares And againe Heereafter seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease so long as the Earth remaineth And were there not a certainety in these reuolutions so that In se sua per vestigia voluitur annus The yeare in its owne steps into in selfe returnes It could not well be that the Storke and the Turtle the Crane and the Swallow and other fowles should obserue so precisely as they doe the appointed times of their comming and going And whereas it is commonly thought and beleeued that the times of the yeare are now more vnseasonable then heeretofore and thereby the fruites of the Earth neither so faire nor kindely as they haue beene To the first I answere that the same complaint hath beene euer since Salomons time Hee that observeth the winde shall not sow and he that regardeth the clowdes shall not reape By which it seemes the weather was euen then as vncertaine as now and so was likewise the vncertaine and vnkindely riping of fruites as may appeare by the words following in the same place In the morning sow thy seede and in the euening let not thy hand rest for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether both shall bee alike good And if sometimes wee haue vnseasonable yeares by reason of excessiue wet and cold they are againe paid home by immoderate drought and heate if not with vs yet in our neighbour countries and with vs. I thinke no man will bee so vnwise or partiall as to affirme that there is a constant and perpetuall declination but that the vnseasonablenes of some yeares is recompensed by the seasonablenes of others It is true that the erroneous computation of the yeare wee now vse may cause some seeming alteration in the seasons thereof in processe of time must needes cause a greater if it bee not rectified but let that errour be reformed and I am perswaded that communibus annis we shall finde no difference from the seasons of former ages at leastwise in regard of the ordinary course of nature For of Gods extraordinary judgements we now dispute not who sometimes for our sinnes emptieth the botles of heaven incessantly vpon vs and againe at other times makes the heavens as brasse ouer our heads and the earth as yron vnder our feete SECT 2. Another obiectiòn to uching the decay of the fruitfulnes of the holy land fully answered WHen I consider the narrow bounds of the land of Canaan it being by S. Hieromes account who liued long there but 160 miles in length from Dan to Bersheba and in bredth but 40 from Ioppa to Bethleem and withall the multitude incredible were it not recorded in holy Scripture both of men cattell which it fedde there meeting in one battle betweene Iudah Israel twelue hundred thousand chosen men Nay the very sword-men beside the Levites and Benjamites were vpon strict inquirie found to be fifteene hundred and seuentie thousand whereof the youngest was twenty yeares old there being none
better cheape might be had from France then could be made heere and I make no doubt but as tillage with vs so the planting of Vineyards is increased with them and for this reason together with the Causes before alleadged it seemes to be that the French wines are better with vs at this present then they were in the raigne of Edward the second as shall by Gods helpe bee fully manifested in the next Section And that which hath beene spoken of the making of wines may likewise be vnderstood of the making of Bay sale in this kingdome in former ages for which as I am credibly informed records are likewise to be seene for to ascribe either the one or the other to the Sunnes going more Southerly from vs in Summer is in my judgement both vnwarrantable and improbable vnwarrantable as hath already beene shewed in this very booke Cap. 4. Sect 4. improbable for that if this plant should decay for this reason all other plants trees hearbes flowres should consequently partake of the like decay at leastwise in some proportion which our best Physitians and Herbalists haue not yet found to be so nay the contrary is by them avouched and as our wines are in a manner vtterly decayed here so their strength in France in Spaine in Italy in Hungary in Germany should vpon the same supposition be much abated which notwithstanding I haue no-where found to be observed SECT 4. An argument drawne from the present state of husbandmen and another for the many miserable dearths in former ages together with an obiection taken from the high prizes of victuals answered BVt that which farther perswadeth me that neither the goodnes of the soyle nor the seasonablenesse of the weather nor the industry of the husbandman is now inferiour to that of former ages is this that both this fyne and rent being raised his apparell and education of his children more chargeable the rates of publique payments more burdensome yet he fares better and layes vp more money in his purse then vsually in those times he did Besides it is certaine that if we compare time with time the famines of former ages were more grievous then ours I omit those of Ierusalem and Samaria because occasioned by the sieges of those Cities as also those which either Civill warres or forraine invasions hath drawne on Of the rest that of Lypsius is vndoubtedly true Iam de fame nihil profectò nos aut aetas nostra vidimus si videmus antiqua Now touching famine verily we and our age haue seene nothing if wee behold ancient records Vnder the Emperour Honorius so great was the scarcity dearth of victuals in Rome it selfe that in the open market-place this voice was heard Pone pretium humanae carni set a price to mans flesh And long before euen when L. Minutius was made the first over-seer of the graine Livy reports multos è plebe ne diutinâ fame cruciarentur capitibus obvolutis sese in Tyberim praecipitasse That many of the Commons least they should bee tortured with long famine covering their faces cast themselues headlong into Tyber What a miserable dearth was that in Egypt held by the Ancients for abundance of Corne the Granary of the world when for want of bread their greatest Nobles were forced to sell not only their lands but themselues and become bond-slaues to Pharaoh How vniversall was that fore-told by Agabus which also came to passe vnder Claudius Caesar as both Dion and Suetonius beare witnesse to S. Luke But to come nearer home few histories I thinke exceed our owne in this point About the yeare 514 during the raigne of Cissa king of the South-Saxons in his countrey raigned such an extreame famine that both men and women in great flockes and companies cast themselues from rhe rocks into the Sea in the yeare 1314 about the beginning of the reigne of Edward the second the dearth was generally such ouer the land that purposely for the moderation of the prices of victuals a Parliamēt was assembled at London but it increased so vehemently that vpon S. Lawrence Eue there was scarcely bread to be gotten for the sustentation of the Kings owne family And the yeare following it grew so terrible that horses dogges yea men and children were stollen for food and which is horrible to thinke the theeues newly brought into the gaoles were torne in peeces and presently eaten halfe aliue by such as had beene longer there In London it was proclaimed that no Corne should be converted to Brewers vses which Act the King moued with compassion towards his Nation imitating caused to be executed through all the kingdome otherwise saith Walsingham the greater part of the people had perished with penury of bread And againe to conclude this sad discourse in the yeare 1317 in the tenth yeare of the same King there was such a murraine of all kinde of cattell together with a generall fayling of all fruits of the Earth by excessiue raines and vnseasonable weather as provision could not be had for the Kings house nor meanes for other great men to maintaine their Tables Inasmuch as they put away their servants in great numbers who hauing beene daintily bred and now not able to worke skorning to beg fell to robbery and spoyle which added much to the misery of the Kingdome It will be said if the plenty of corne and victuals be as great as in former ages how comes it to passe that their prices are somuch inhanced But if wee compare our prices with those of the ancient Romanes wee shall finde that theirs farre exceeded ours The Romane penny by the consent of the learned and the judgement of our last Translatours in diverse parts of their Marginall notes was the eight part of an ounce accounting fiue shillings to the ounce so that it was worth of our money seven pence halfe penny Now by the testimony of Varro and Macrobius their Peacocks egges which are now of no reckoning with vs were sold with them for fiue Roman pence a peece and the Peacocks themselues for fifty Thrushes and Ousells or blackebirds were commonly sold for three pence a peece Nay Varro mentions one L. Axius a Romane Knight who would not let goe a paire of doues minoris quadringentis denarijs for lesse then foure hundred pence But these insana pretia as Macrobius calls them mad and vnreasonable prices wee shall haue fitter occasion to speake of when wee come to treate of the luxury of the Ancients In the meane time it shall not be amisse to remember what our Saviour tells vs in the Gospell that two Sparrowes or passerculi as Beza renders it were then sold for a farthing thereby implying their great cheapenes Yet for the same money it beeing the tenth part of a Romane penny and answering in value to halfe penny farthing of our coyne more may bee had at this day with vs But
an oxe or a horse or a sheepe in their times is now likewise thought to be but competent And the same proportions of body which the Ancient Painters Caruers allowed to horses and dogges is now likewise by the skilfullest in those Arts found to be most convenient Indeede in the first booke of Macchabes sixth chapter is somewhat a strange relation made of Elephants which are there described to be so bigge that each of them carryed a wooden towre on his backe out of which fought thirty two armed men besides the Indian which ruled the beast Whence some haue conceited that the Elephants of those times were farre greater then those of the present age But doubtles the Authour of that booke speakes of the Indian race which are farre beyond the Ethiopian as Iunius in his annotations on that place hath observed out of Pliny And there are of them saith Aelian nine cubits high which is thirteene foote and an halfe And those which haue beeene in the great Mogulls countrey assure vs that at this day they are there farre more vast and huge then any that wee haue seene in these parts of the world But leaving the Vegetables and beasts springing and walking vpon the face of the earth let vs a little search into the bowels thereof and take a view of the mettalls and mineralls therein bredde Of the nature causes and groweth whereof Georgius Agricola hath written most exactly but neither he nor any man else I thinke euer yet obserued that by continuance of time theirveines are wasted impaired one treatise he hath expresly composed de veteribus novis metallis wherein he shewes that as the old are exhausted new are discouered It is true indeede which Pliny hath observed that wee descend into the entrailes of the earth wee goe downe as farre as to the seat and habitation of the infernall spirits and all to meete with rich treasure as if shee were not fruitfull enough beneficiall vnto vs in the vpper face thereof where shee permitteth vs to walke and tread vpon her Yet notwithstanding by the couetousnesse and toyle of men can her mines neuer be drawn dry nor her store emptied The Earth not onely on her backe doth beare Abundant treasures gliftring every where But inwardly shee 's no lesse fraught with riches Nay rather more which more our foules bewitches Within the deepe folds of her fruitfull lappe So bound-lesse mines of treasure doth shee wrappe That th' hungry hands of humane avarice Cannot exhaust with labour or device For they be more then there be starres in heav'n Or stormy billowes in the Ocean driv'n Or eares of corne in Autumne on the fields Or savage beasts vpon a thousand hils Or fishes diving in the silver floods Or scattred leaues in winter in the woods I will not dispute it whether all mineralls were made at the first creation or haue since receiued increase by tract of time which latter I confesse I rather with Quercetan incline vnto they being somewhat of the nature of stones which vndoubtedly grow though not by augmentation or accretion yet by affimilation or apposition turning the neighbour earth into their substance Yet thus much may wee confidently affirme that the minerals themselues wast not in the ordinary course but by the insatiable desire of mankind Nay such is the divine providence that even there where they are most vexed and wrought vpon yet are they not worne out or wasted in the whole Of late within these few yeares Mendip hills yeelded I thinke more lead then ever at this day I doe not heare that the Iron mines in Sussex or the Tinne workes in Cornewall are any whit abated which I confesse to be somewhat strange considering that little corner furnishes in a manner all the Christian world with that mettall for mines of gold silver though by some it be thought that they faile in the East Indies in regard of former ages Yet most certaine it is that in the West Indies that supposed defect is abundantly recompensed SECT 6. An obiection taken from the Eclipses of the Planets answered BEfore we conclude this Chapter there remaines yet one rubbe to be remoued touching the Eclypses of the Sunne and Moone For as some haue beene of opinion that the bodies of those Planets suffered by them so many haue thought that these inferiour bodies suffered from them consequently that the more Eclypses there are which by tract of time must needes increase in number the more do all things depending vpon those planets decay and degenerate in their vertues operations But as the former of these opinions is already proued to be certainely false so is this latter altogether vncertaine What effects Eclypses produce I cannot punctually define Strange accidents I graunt aswell in the course of Nature as in the Ciuill affaires haue often followed vpon them as appeares in Cyprianus Leouicius who hath purposely composed a Tract of them And Mr Camden obserues that the towne of Shrewesbery suffered twice most grievous losse by fire within the compasse of fiftie yeares vpon two severall Eclypses of the Sunne in Aries but whether those Accidents were to be ascribed to the precedent Eclypses I cannot certainely affirme Once wee are sure that the moone is Eclypsed by the interposition of the Earth as is the Sun by the moone Since then the night is nothing else but the interposition of the Earth betweene vs and the Sunne I see no reason but wee should daily feare as dangerous effects from every night or thicke cloud as from any Eclypse But I verily beleeue that the ground of this errour as also of the former sprang frō the ignorance of the Causes of Eclypses Sulpitius Gallus being the first amongst the Romanes and amongst the Greekes Thales Milesius who finding their nature did prognosticate and forshew them After them Hipparchus compiled his Ephimerides containing the course and aspects of both these Planets for six hundred yeares ensuing and that no lesse assuredly then if hee had beene privy to Natures counsailes Great persons and excellent doubtles were these saith Pliny who aboue the reach of all humane capacity found out the reason of the course of so mighty starres and diuine powers And whereas the weake minde of man was before to seeke fearing in these Eclypses of the starres some great wrong or violence or death of the Planets secured them in that behalfe In which dreadfull feare stood Stesicorus and Pyndarus the Poets notwithstanding their lofty stile and namely at the Eclypse of the Sunce as may appeare by their Poemes In this fearefull fit also of an Eclypse Nicias the generall of the Athenians as a man ignorant of the cause thereof feared to set saile with his fleet out of the haven and so greatly indangered distressed the state of his countrey But on the contrary the forenamed Sulpitius being a Colonell in the field the day before that King Perseus was vanquished by
duration of his continuance here vpon the earth was much shortned yet certaine it is that many of the Ancient Patriarches before the floud liued aboue nine hundred and some to allmost a thousand yeares Neither ought this to seeme incredible though Plyny mentioning some who were reported to haue liued fiue sixe or eight hundred yeares at length concludes that all these strange reports arise from the ignorance of times past and for want of knowledg how they made their account For some saith he reckoned the Summer for one yeare and the Winter for another There were also that reckoned every quarter for a yeare as the Arcadians whose yeare was but three moneths and some againe you haue as namely the Egyptians who count every chaunge or New moone for a yeare and therefore no marvell if some of them are reported to haue liued a thousand yeares Thus Pliny But Iosephus to justifie the trueth of Moses his history touching the age of the first Patriarches vouches the authority of Manathon the writer of the Egyptian story Berosus of the Chaldean Moschus and Esthieus of the Phenician as also Hesiodus Hecataeus Elamius Acuselaus Ephorus and others all affirming that those of the first age liued to a thousand yeares but how they made their computation Iosephus doth not expresse Wherevpon some haue beene so bold as to tell vs that the yeares Moses there speakes of are not to be computed as ours but were somewhat aboue the monethly yeare contayning in them thirty six dayes which is a number quadrat being made vp of six times six So that one of our yeares containes tenne of them and those yeares being divided into twelue moneths there could not aboue three dayes bee attributed to each of them But this opinion for I will not spare it though it make for mee how not onely false it is but manifestly repugnant to the sacred Scriptures any man may of himselfe easily discerne For if we embrace this computation it will from thence follow that Caynan and Enoch begat children when they were but six yeares old and an halfe or seaven at most for the Scripture tells vs that the one begat them when he was but sixty fiue yeares old and the other at seventie so that if tenne of their yeares made but one of ours it would consequently follow that they begat children when they were yet but seven yeares of age Besides since none of those Ancient Patriarches attained to a thousand yeares if their yeares were so to be accounted as these men would haue it none of them should haue arrived to ninety seaven yeares and yet many we know are now found to passe an hundred Againe the Scripture testifies that Abraham died in a good old age full of dayes being one hundred seaventy fiue yeares old which number according to their computation makes but seaventeene yeares and an halfe a ridiculous old age Lastly in the seaventh and eight of Genesis in that one yeare alone in which the flood lasted mention is made of the first second and tenth moneth least any should imagine that those moneths lasted onely three dayes wee haue there named the seaventeenth day of the second and the twenty seaventh of the seaventh moneth To take it then as graunted that Moses his computation of the yeare was the same with ours and that those first Patriarches liued much longer then any of latter times yet from thence cannot any sufficient proofe be brought that there hath beene still continues a constant and perpetuall decrease in mans age since for speciall Reasons and by speciall priviledge Almighty God graunted that to them which to their successours was denyed which I will rather choose to expresse in Iosephus his words then in mine owne Where hauing assigned some other causes thereof peculiar to those times persons at length he concludes Deinde propter virtutes gloriosas vtilitates quas iugiter perscrutabantur id est astrologiam Geometriam Deus ijs ampliora viuendi spatia condonauit quae non ediscere potuissent nisi sexcentis viuerent annis per tot enim an norum curricula magnus annus impletur Againe in regard of the excellent and profitable vse of Astronomy and Geometry which they daily searched into Almighty God graunted them a longer space of life in as much as they could not well finde out the depth of those Arts vnlesse they liued six hundred yeares for in that reuolution of time the great yeare comes about Where what hee meanes by the great yeare since the most learned make a great doubt I for my part will not vndertake positiuely to determine But to this reason of losephus may well be added another principall one which is that God spared them of this first age the longer for the multiplying of the race of mankind and replenishing the Earth with Inhabitants And as hee graunted them for these reasons a longer space of life by speciall priuiledge so likewise he fitted their foode their bodies and all other necessaries proportionable therevnto as extraordinary carefulnes and skilfulnes in the moderation and choice of their diet together with a singular knowledge in the vertues of plants and stones and mineralls and the like as well for the preservation of their health as the curing of all kinde of diseases which well agrees with that of Roger Bacon speaking of the Patriarches in his booke de scientia experimentali Quum fuerunt magna sapientia praediti excogitaverunt omne regimen sanitatis medicinas secretas quibus senectus retardabatur quibus cum venit potuit mitigari filij eorum hoc regimen habebant experimenta contra senectutem nam Deus illustravit in omni sapientia ergo diu vivere potuerunt They being indued with singular wisedome found out the whole course of the regiment of health and secret medicines whereby the pace of old age was slackned and when it arived the rigour of it was abated and from them their sonnes as by a tradition derived this skill and these experiments against old age for God enlightned them with all kinde of wisedome and from hence it came to passe that they lived long Yet euen among them before the floud wee finde that the first man who in case of a decrease should in reason haue liued longest was notwithstanding in number of yeares exceeded not onely by Methusalath and Iered before but by Noah after the flood except wee will adde vnto Adams age threescore yeares as some diuines doe vpon a supposition that hee was created in the flower of mans age agreeablely to those times SECT 3. That since Moses his time the length of mans age is nothing abated as appeares by the testimony of Moses himselfe and other graue authours compared with the experience of these times HOwsoever it fared with the Patriarches sure we are that since Moses his time who was borne in the yeare of the world 2434 or thereabout aboue three
in Heauen as all things vnder the cope of heauen vary and change so doth the militant heere on earth it hath its times and turnes sometimes flowing and againe ebbing with the sea sometimes waxing and againe waning with the Moone which great light it seemes the Almighty therefore set the lowest in the heavens and nearest the Earth that it might dayly put vs in minde of the constancy of the one and inconstancy of the other her selfe in some sort partaking of both though in a different manner of the one in her substance of the other in her visage And if the Moone thus change and all things vnder the Moone why should we wonder at the chaunge of Monarchies and Kingdomes much lesse petty states and private families they rise and fall and rise again and fall againe that no man might either too confidently presume because they are subject to continuall alteration or cast away all hope and fall to despaire because they haue their seasons and appointed times of returning againe Nemo confidat nimium secundis Nemo desperet meliora lapsus Miscet haec illis prohibetque Clotho Stare fortunam Let him that stands take heed lest that he fall Let him that 's falne hope he may rise againe The providence divine that mixeth all Chaines joy to griefe by turnes losse to gaine I must confesse that sometimes looking stedfastly vpon the present face of things both at home and abroad I haue beene often put to a stand and staggered in mine opinion whither I were in the right or no and perchaunce the state of my body and present condition in regard of those faire hopes I sometimes had served as false perspectiue glasses to looke through but when againe I abstracted and raised my thoughts to an higher pitch and as from a vantage ground tooke a larger view comparing time with time and thing with thing and place with place and considered my selfe as a member of the Vniverse and a Citizen of the World I found that what was lost to one part was gained to another and what was lost in one time was to the same part recouered in another and so the ballance by the divine providence over-ruling all kept vpright But comonly it fares with men in this case as with one who lookes onely vpon some libbet or end of a peece of Arras he happily conceiues an hand or head which he sees to be very vnartificially made but vnfolding the whole soone findes that it carries a due and just proportion to the body so qui de pauca respâ—…cit de facili pronuntiat saith Aristotle he that is so narrow eyed as he lockes onely to his owne person or family to his owne corporation or nation or the age wherein himselfe liues will peradventure quickly conceiue and as some pronounce that all things decay and goe backward which makes men murmure and repine against Ged vnder the names of Fortune and Destinie whereas he that as a part of mankinde in generall takes a view of the vniversall compares person with person family with family corporation with corporation nation with nation age with age suspends his judgement and vpon examination clearely findes that all things worke together for the best to them that loue God and that though some members suffer yet the whole is no way thereby indammaged at any time and at other times those same members are againe relieued as the Sunne when it sets to vs it rises to our Antipodes and when it remooues from the Northerne parts of the world it cherishes the Southerne yet stayes not there but returnes againe with his comfortable beames to those very parts which for a time it seemed to haue forsaken O that men would therefore praise the Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he hath done for the children of men or at leastwise cry out in admiration with the Apostle O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of our God how vnsearchable are his pathes and his wayes past finding out Yet the next way in some measure to finde them out so farre as is possible for vs poore wormes heere crawling in a mist vpon the face of the Earth is next the sacred Oracles of supernatutall and revealed Truth to study the great Volume of the Creature and the Histories not onely of our owne but of forraigne Countreyes and those not onely of the present but more auncient times Enquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thy selfe to the search of their Fathers for wee are but of yesterday and know nothing because our dayes vpon earth are but a shadow If then to make my party good and to waite vpon Divinity I haue called in subsidiary aydes from Philosophers Historiographers Mathematitians Grammarians Logicians Poets Oratours Souldiers Travellers Lawyers Physitians and if I haue in imitation of Tertullian Cyprian Eusebius Augustine Lactantius Arnobius Minutius endeavoured to cut the throates of the Paynims with their owne swords and pierced them with their owne quills I hope no learned man or louer of Learning will censure me for this Philosophie and the Arts I must account a part of mine owne profession and for Physicke and the Lawes I haue therein consulted the chiefe as well in this Vniversity as out of it of mine owne acquaintance nay in History the Mathematiques and Divinity it selfe I haue not onely had the approbation of the publique professours therein for the maine points in my booke which concerne their severall professions but some peeces I must acknowledge as receiued from them which I haue made bold to insert into the body of my discourse let no man think then that I maintaine a paradoxe for ostentation of wit or haue written out of spleene to gall any man in particular nor yet to humour the present times the times themselues mine indisposition that way and resolution to sit downe content with my present fortunes if they serue not to giue others satisfaction therein yet doe they fully to cleare mee to my selfe from any such aspersion yet thus much I hope I safely may say without suspition of flattery that by the goodnesse of GOD and our gratious Soveraigne vnder GOD wee yet enjoy many great blessings which former ages did not and were wee thankfull for these as we ought and truely penitent for our excesse in all kinde of monstrous sinnes which aboue all threatens our ruine I nothing doubt but vpon our returne to our God by humiliation and newnesse of life he would soone dissolue the cloud which hangs ouer vs and returne vnto vs with the comfortable beames of his favour and make vs to returne each to other with mutuall imbracements of affection and duety and our Armies and Fleetes to returne with spoyle and victory and reduce againe as golden and happy times as euer wee or our fore-fathers saw but if we still goe on with an high hand and a stiffe necke in our prophanesse our pride
Aristotle Theophrastus and others curious searchers into all kinds of learning never so much as once mention either their names or their writings nor any of these mysteries While the Church of Christ was yet in her infancie many such kind of bookes were forged therby to make the doctrine of the Gospell more passible among the Gentiles and no marvell then that these of the Sybils passed for current among the rest That Saint George was a holy Martyr and that he conquered the dragon whereas Dr. Reynolds proues him to haue beene both a wicked man and an Arrian by the testimonie of Epiphanius Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzen And Baronius himselfe in plaine tearmes affirmes apparet totam illam de actis Georgij fabulam fuisse commentum Arrianorum It appeares that the whole story of George is nothing else but a forgery of the Arrians yet was he receiued as we know as a Canonized Saint through Christendome to be the Patron both of our nation and of the most honorable order of Knighthood in the world That the wise men which came out of the East to worship our Saviour were Kings and from hence their bodies being translated to Cullen they are at this day commonly called the three Kings of Cullen and the day consecrated to their memory is by the French tearmed Le jour de trois Rois the day of the three Kings yet Mantuan a Munke feares not to declare his opinion to the contrary and giues his reason for it Nec reges vt opinor erant neque enim tacuissent Historiae sacrae Authores Genus illud honoris Inter mortales quo non sublimius ullum Adde quod Herodes ut magnificentia Regum Postulat hospitibus tantis regale dedisset Hospitium secumque lares duxisset in amplos Had they beene Kings nor holy History Would haue conceal'd their so great Majesty Higher then which on Earth none can be named Herods magnificence would eke haue framed Some entertainment fitting their estates And harbour'd them within his Royall gates SECT 4. In History Ciuill IN History Ciuill or Nationall it is commonly receiued that there were foure and but foure Monarchies succeeding one the other the Assyrian the Persian the Grecian and the Roman Yet Iohn Bodin a man of singular learning specially in matter of History dares thus to begin the seuenth Chapter of his Method Inveteratus error de quatuor Imperijs ac magnorum Virorum opinione pervulgatus tam altè radices egit ut vix evelli posse videatur that inveterate errour of foure Empires made famous thorow the opinion of great men hath now taken such deepe roots as it seemes it can hardly be pluckt vp thorow a great part of that Chapter labours he the Confutation of those who maintaine that opinion That the Saxons called the Remainder of the Brittaines Welch as being strangers vnto them whereas that word signifies not a strangers either in the high or low Dutch as Verstigan a man skilfull in those Languages hath obserued that the Saxons gaue them the name of Welch after themselues came into Brittaine is altogether vnlikely For that inhabiting so neere them as they did to wit but ouer against them on the other side of the Sea they could not want a more particular and proper name for them then to call them strangers It seemes then more likely that the Brittaines being originally descended from the Gaules the Saxons according to their manner of speech by turning the G into W insteed of Gallish termed them Wallish and by abbreviation Walch or Welch as the French at this day call the Prince of Wales Prince de Galles That Brute a Troian by Nation and great grand-childe to Aeneas arriued in this Iland gaue it the name of Brittaine from himselfe here raigned and left the gouernment thereof diuided among his three sonnes England to Loegrius Scotland to Albanak and Wales to Camber Yet our great Antiquary beating as he professeth his braines and bending the force of his wits to maintaine that opinion hee found no warrantable ground for it Nay by forcible arguments produced as in the person of others disputing against himselfe he strongly proues it in my judgment altogether vnsound and vnwarrantable Boccace Vives Adryanus Iunius Polydorus Buchanan Vignier Genebrard Molinaeus Bodine and other Writers of great account are all of opinion there was no such man as this supposed Brute And among our owne ancient Chronicles Iohn of Wethamsted Abbot of S. Albon holdeth the whole narration of Brute to haue beene rather Poëticall then Historicall which me thinkes is agreable to reason since Caesar Tacitus Gildas Ninius Bede William of Malmesbery and as many others as haue written any thing touching our Countrey before the yeare 1160 make no mention at all of him nor seeme euer so much as to haue heard of him The first that euer broached it was Geffry of Monmoth about foure hundred yeares agoe during the raigne of Henry the second who publishing the Brittish story in Latine pretended to haue taken it out of ancient monuments written in the Brittish tongue but this Booke assoone as it peeped forth into the light was sharply censured both by Giraldus Cambrensis and William of Newberry who liued at the same time the former tearming it no better then Fabulosam historiam a fabulous history and the latter ridicula figmenta ridiculous fictions and it now stands branded with a blacke cole among the bookes prohibited by the Church of Rome That the Pigmies are a Nation of people not aboue two or three foot high and that they solemnely set themselues in battle array to fight against the Cranes their greatest enemies of these notwithstanding witnesseth Cassanion Fabulosa illa omnia sunt quae de illis vel Poetae vel alij Scriptores tradiderunt all those things are fabulous which touching them either the Poëts or other writers haue deliuered And with him fully accordeth Cardan in his eight Booke De rerum varietate Apparet ergò Pigmeiorum historiam esse fabulosam quod Strabo sentit nostra aetas cùm omnia nunc firmè orbis mirabilia innotuerint declarat It appeares then that the Historie of the Pigmies is but a fiction as both Strabo thought and our age which hath now discouered all the wonders of the world fully declares Gellius also Rhodogin referre these Pigmies if any such there be to a kinde of Apes SECT 5. In History Naturall IN Naturall History it is commonly receiued that the Phaenix liues fiue hundred or six hundred yeares that there is of that kinde but one at a time in the World that being to die he makes his nest of sweet spices and by the clapping of his wings sets it on fire and so burnes himselfe and lastly that out of the ashes arises a worme and from that worme another new Phaenix Neither am I ignorant that sundry of the Fathers haue brought this narration to confirme the
wōderfull either to beget in vs an abilitie for the doing of that which we apprehēd we cā do or a disability for the not doing of that which we cōceiue we cānot do which was the reasō that the Wisards and Oracles of the Gentiles being cōsulted they ever returned either an hopefull answer or an ambiguous such as by a favourable cōstructiō might either include or at leastwise not vtterly exclude hope Agesilaus as I remēber clapping his hāds vpon the Al tar taking it off againe by a cūning divice shewed to his souldiers victory stāped vpon it whereby they were so encouraged and grew so cōfident that beyong all expectation they indeed effected that wherof by this sleight they were formerly assured Prognostications and Prophesies often helpe to further that which they foretell and to make men such as they beare thē in hand they shall be nay by an vnavoydable destinie must bee Francis Marquesse of Saluzze yeeldes vs a memorable example in this kind who being Lieuetenant Generall to Francis the first King of France over all his forces which hee then had beyond the mountaines in Italy a man highly favoured in all the Court and infinitly obliged to the King for his Marquesite which his brother had forfeited suffered himselfe to be so farr afrighted and deluded as it hath since been manifestly proued by Prognostications which then throughout all Europe were giuen out to the advantage of the Emperour Charles the fifth and to the prejudice of the French that hauing no occasiō offered yea his owne affections contradicting the same hee first began in secret to complaine to his private friends of the inevitable miseries which he foresaw prepared by the Fates against the Crowne of France And within a while after this impression still working into him he most vnkindly revolted from his Master and became a turne-coate to the Emperours side to the astonishment of all men his owne greate disgrace ond the no lesse disadvātage to the French enterprize on the other side I doubt not but that the prophesies of Sauanarola as much assisted Charles the eight to the conquest of Naples which he performed so speedily and happily as he seemed rather with chalke to marke out his lodgings then with his sword to winne them To like purpose was that Custome among the Heathen of deriving the pedegree of valiant men from the Gods as Varro the most learned of the Romanes hath well observed Ego huiusmodi à Dis repetitas origines vtiles esse lubens agnosco vt viri fortes etiamsi falsum sit se ex Dis genitos credant vt eo modo animus humanus veluti diuinae stirpis fiduciam gerens res magnas aggrediendas presumat audaciùs agat vehementiù ob haec impleat ipsa securitate foeliciùs I for my part sayth he judge those pedegrees drawne from the Gods not to be vnprofitable that valiant men though in truth it be not so beleeving themselues to be extracted from divine races might vpon the confidence thereof vndertake high attemps the more boldly intend them the more earnestly and accomplish them the more securely and successiuely And of the Druides Caesar hath noted that among other doctrines they taught the soules immortality by propagation because they taught hoc maximè ad virtutem excitari homines metu mortis neglecto that by meanes of this apprehension men were notablely spurred forward and whetted on to the adventuring and enterprising of commendable actions through the contempt of death Which same thing Lucan hath likewise remarked Vobis authoribus vmbrae Non tacitas Erebi sedes ditisque profundi Pallida regna petunt regit idem spiritus artus Orbe alio longae conitis si cognita vitae Mors media est certè populi quos despicit Arctos foelices errore suo quos ille timorum Maximus haud vrget Lethi metus inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris animaeque capaces Mortis et ignavum est rediturae parcere vitae Your doctrine is Our ghost's goe not to those pale realmes of Stygian Dis And silent Erebus the selfe same soules doth sway Bodyes else-where and death if certaine trueth you say Is but the mid'st of life Thrice happy in your error Yee Northerne wights whom Death the greatest Prince of terror Nothing affrights Hence are your Martiall hearts inclind To rush on point of sword hence that vndanted mind So capable of Death hence seemes it base and vaine To spare that life which will eft soones returne againe By all which wee see the admirable efficacy of the imagination either for the elevating or depressing of the mind for the making of it more abject and base or more actiue and generous and from thence infer that the doctrine of Natures necessary decay rather tends to make men worse then better rather cowardly then couragious rather to draw them downe to that they must be then to lift them vp to that they should and may bee rather to breed sloath then to quicken industry I will giue one instance for all and that home-bredde the reason why we haue at this day no Vineyards planted nor wine growne in England as heretofore is commonly ascribed to the decay of Nature either in regard of the heavens or Earth or both and men possessed with this opinion sit downe and try not what may be done whereas our great Antiquary imputes it to the Lazines of the Inhabitants rather then to any defect or distemper in the Climat and withall professes that he is no way of the mind of those grudging sloathfull husbandmen whom Columella censures who thinke that the earth is growne weary and barren with the excessiue plenty of former ages I haue somewhere read of a people so brutish and barbarous that they must first be taught and perswaded that they were not beasts but men and capable of reason before any serviceable or profitable vse could be made of them And surely there is no hope that ever wee shall attaine the heigth of the worthy acts and exploits of our Predecessours except first we be resolved that Gods Grace and our own endeavours concurring there is a possibility wee should rise to the same degree of worth Si hanc cogitationem homines habuissent vt nemo se meliorem fore eo qui optimus fuisset arbitraretur ij ipsi qui sunt optimi non fuissent if men had alwayes thus conceaved with themselues that no man could be better then he that then was best those that now are esteemed best had not so beene They be the words of Quintilian and therevpon hee inferres as doth the Apostle 1. Corinth 12. at the last verse Nitamur semper ad optima quod facientes aut evademus in summum aut certe multos infra nos videbimus Let vs covet earnestly the best gifts and propose to our selues the matching at least if not the passing of the most excellent patterns by which meanes we
ingenia despicio neque enim quasi lassa aut effaeta natura vt nihil jam laudabile pariat I am one of the number of those who admire the ancients yet not as some doe I despise the wits of our times as if Nature were tired and barren and brought forth nothing now that were praise-worthy To which passage of Pliny Viues seemes to allude male de natura censet quicunque vno illam aut altero partu effaetam arbitratur hee that so thinkes or sayes is doubtles injurious and ingratefull both to God and nature And qui non est gratus datis non est dignus dandis hee that doth not acknowledge the peculiar and singular blessings of God bestowed vpon this present age in some things beyond the former is so farre from meriting the increase of more as hee deserues not to enjoy these And commonly it falls out that there the course and descent of the graces of God ceases and the spring is dried vp where there is not a corespondent recourse and tide of our thankfullnes Let then men suspend their rash judgoments nec perseverent suspicere preteritos despicere presentes onely to admire the ancients and despise those of the present times Let them rather imitate Lampridius the Oratour of whom witnesseth the same Sydonius that he read good Authours of all kindes cum reverentia antiquos sine invidia recentes the old with reverence the new without envy I will conclude this point and this chapter with that of Solomon Hee hath made every thing beautifull in his time answereable wherevnto is that of the sonne of Syrach which may well serue as a Commentary vpon those workes of Solomon All the workes of the Lord are good and hee will giue every needfull thing in due season so that a man cannot say this is worse then that therefore prayse ye◅ the Lord with the whole heart and mouth and blesse the name of the Lord. CAP. 3. The Controversy touching the worlds decay stated and the methode held thorow this ensuing Treatise proposed SECT 1. Touching the pretended decay of the mixt bodies LEast I should seeme on the one side to sight with shaddowes and men of straw made by my selfe or on the other to maintaine paradoxes which daily experience refutes it shall not bee amisse in this Chapter to vnbowell the state of the question touching the Worlds decay and therewithall to vnfold and lay open the severall knots and joynts thereof that so it may appeare wherein the adverse party agrees and wherein the poynt controverted consists where they joyne issue and where the difference rests It is then agreed on all hands that all subcoelestiall bodies indiuidualls I meane vnder the circle of the moone are subiect not onely to alteration but to diminution and decay some I confesse last long as the Eagle and Rauen among birds the Elephant and Stagge among beasts the Oake among Vegetables stones and mettalls among those treasures which Nature hath laid vp in the bosome of the earth yet they all haue a time of groweth and increase of ripenesse and perfection and then of declination and decrease which brings them at last to a finall and totall dissolution Beasts are subject to diseases or at least to the spending of those naturall spirits wherewith their life and being as the Lampe with oile is mainetai ned Vegetables to rottennesse stones to mouldering and mettalls to rust and canker though I doubt not but some haue layen in the bowells of the earth vntainted since the worlds Creation and may continue in the same case till the Consummation thereof Which neede not seeme strange since some of the Aegyptian Pyramides stones drawne from their naturall beds and fortresses and exposed to the invasion of the aire and violence of the weather haue stood already well nigh three thousand yeares and might for ought wee know stand yet as long againe And I make no question but glasse and gold and christall and pearle and pretious stones might so be vsed that they should last many thousand yeares if the world should last so long For that which Poets faine of time that it eates out and devoures all things is in truth but a poeticall fiction since time is a branch of Quantity it being the measure of motion and Quantity in it selfe isno way actiue but meerely passiue as being an accident flowing from the matter It is then either some inward conflict or outward assault which is wrought in time that eates them out Time it selfe without these is toothlesse and can neuer doe it Nay euen among Vegetables it is reported by M. Camden that whole trees lying vnder the Earth haue beene and daylie are digged vp in Cheshire Lancheshire Cumberland which are thought to haue layen there since Noahs floud And Verstigan reports the like of finre trees digged vp in the Netherlands which are not knowne to grow any where in that Countrey neither is the soyle apt by nature to produce them they growing in cold hillie places or vpon high mountaines so that it is most likely they might from those places during the deluge by the rage of the waters be driuen thither Yet all these consisting of the Elements as they doe I make no doubt but without any outward violence in the course of nature by the very inward conflict of their principles whereof they are bred would by degrees though perchance for a long time insensibly yet at last feele corruption For a Body so equally tempered or euenly ballanced by the Elements that there should be no praedominancie no struggling or wrastling in it may be imagined but surely I thinke was neuer really subsisting in Nature nor well can be SECT 2. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in regard of their quantity and dimensions I Come then in the next place from the mixt Bodies to the Elements themselues wbereof they are mixed Of these it is certaine that they decay in their parts but so as by a reciprocall compensation they both loose and gaine sometime loosing what they had gotten and then again getting what they had formerly lost Egregia quaedam est in elementis quaternarum virium compensatio aequalibus iustisque regulis ac terminis vices suas dispensantium saith Philo in his book de Mundi incorruptibilitate there is in the Elements a singular retribution of that foure-fold force that is in them dispensing it selfe by euen bounds and just rules The Element of the fire I make no doubt but by condensation it sometimes looses to the aire the aire againe by rarefaction to it Again the aire by condensation looses to the water the water by rarefaction to it The earth by secret conveyances sucks in steales away the waters of the Sea but returns them againe with full mouth And these two incroach likewise make inrodes interchangeably each vpō other The ordinary depth of the sea is cōmonly answerable to the ordinary hight of the
the times are more Civill and men more given to luxury and ease which passe and returne by turnes Succession it selfe effects nothing therein alone in case it did the first man in reason should haue lived longest and the son should still come short of his fathers age so that whereas Moses tells vs that the dayes of mans age in his time were threescore yeares and tenne by this reckoning they might well enough by this time be brought to tenne or twenty or thirty at most It cannot be denied but that in the first ages of the world both before and after the floud men vsually lived longer then wee finde they haue done in latter ages But that I should rather choose to ascribe to some extraordinary priviledge then to the ordinary course of nature The world was then to be replenished with inhabitants which could not so speedily be done but by an extraordinary multiplication of mankinde neither could that be done but by the long liues of men And againe Arts and sciences were then to be planted for the better effecting whereof it was requisite that the same men should haue the experience and observation of many ages For as many Sensations breed an experiment so doe many experiments a Science Per varios vsus artem experimentia fecit Exemplo monstrante viam Through much experience Arts invented were Example shewing way Specially it was requisite men should liue long for the perfecting of Astronomy and the finding out of the severall motions of the heavenly bodies whereof some are so slow that they aske a long time precisely to obserue their periods and reuolutions It was the complaint of Hippocrates Ars longa vita brevis And therefore Almighty God in his wisedome then proportioned mens liues to the length of Arts and as God gaue them this speciall priviledge to liue long so in likelihood hee gaue them withall a temper constitution of body answereable therevnto As also the foode wherewith they were nourished specially before the floud may well bee thought to haue beene more wholesome and nutritiue and the plants more medicinall And happily the influence of the heavens was at that time in that clymate where the Patriarches liued more favourable and gratious Now such a revolution as there is in the manners wits and ages of men the like may well bee presumed in their strength and stature Videtur similis esse ratio in magnitudine corporum siue statura quae nec ipsa per successionem propaginis defluit There seemeth to be the like reason in the groweth bignesse of mens bodies which decreaseth not by succession of ofspring but men are sometimes in the same nation taller sometimes of a shorter stature sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker as the times wherein they liue are more temperate or luxurious more given to labour or exercise or to ease and idlenesse And for those narrations which are made of the Gyantlike statures of men in former ages many of them were doubtles merely poeticall and fabulous I deny not but such men haue beene who for their strength and stature haue beene the miracles of nature the worlds wonders whom God would therefore haue to bee saith S. Austine that hee might shew that as well the bignesse as the beautie of the body are not to be ranged in the number of things good in themselues as being common both to good and badde Yet may wee justly suspect that which Suetonius hath not spared to write that the bones of huge beasts or sea-monsters both haue and still doe passe currant for the bones of Gyants A very notable story to this purpose haue wee recorded by Camerarius who reports that Francis the first king of France who reigned about an hundred yeares since being desirous to know the truth of those things which were commonly spread touching the strength and stature of Rou'land nephew to Charlelamaine caused his sepulchre to be opened wherein his bones and bow were found rotten but his armour sound though couered with rust which the king commaunding to bee scoured off and putting it vpon his owne body found it so fit for him as thereby it appeared that Rouland exceeded him little in bignesse and stature of bodie though himselfe were not excessiue tall or bigge SECT 6. The precedents of this chapt summarily recollected and the methode observed in the ensuing treatise proposed NOw briefely and summarily to recollect and as it were to winde vp into one clue or bottome what hath more largely beene discoursed thorow this chapter I hold first that the heavenly bodies are not at all either in regard of their substance motion light warmth or influence in the course of nature at all impaired or subject to any impairing or decay Secondly that all individuals vnder the Cope of heaven mixed of the elements are subject to a naturall declination and dissolution Thirdly that the quantity of the Elements themselues is subject to impairing in regard of their parts though not of their intire bodies Fourthly that the ayre and earth and water and diverse seasons diversely affected sometime for the better sometime for the worse and that either by some speciall favour or judgement of God or by some cause in nature secret or apparent Fiftly that the severall kindes of beasts of plantes of fishes of birds of stones of mettalls are as many in number as at the Creation every way in Nature as vigorous as at any time since the floud Sixtly and lastly that the manners the wits the health the age the strength and stature of men daily vary but so as by a vicissitude and reuolution they returne againe to their former points from which they declined againe decline and againe returne by alternatiue and interchangeable courses Erit hic rerum in se remeantium orbis quamdiù erit ipse orbis This circle and ring of things returning alwayes to their principles will neuer cease as long as the world lasts Repetunt proprios cuncta recursus Redituque suo singula gaudent Nec manet vlli traditus ordo Nisi quod fini iunxerit ortum Stabilemque sui fecerit orbem To their first spring all things are backeward bound And every thing in its returne delighteth Th' order once setled can in nought be found But what the end vnto the birth vniteth And of its selfe doth make a constant round And consequently there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the frame of the Creatures as is commonly imagined and by some strongly maintained The methode which I propose is first to treate heereof in generall that so a cleerer way and easier passage may be opened to the particulars then of the Heavens as being the highest in situation and the noblest in outward glory and duration as also in their efficacie and vniversality of operation and therefore doth the Prophet rightly place them next God himselfe in the order of Causes it shall come to passe in that day saith
with life doe in that regard come a step neerer to the Deity then the formes of the heavenly bodies which are without life yet if wee regard their purity their beauty their efficacy their indeficiencie in moving their Vniversallity and independencie in working there is no question but the heavens may in that respect bee preferred euen before man himselfe for whose sake they were made Man being indeed immortall in regard of his soule but the heavens in regard of their bodies as being made of an incorruptible stuffe Which cannot well stand with their opinion who held them to bee composed of fire or that the waters which in the first of Genesis are said to bee aboue the firmament and in the hundred fortie eight Psalme aboue the heavens are aboue the heavens wee now treate of for the tempering and qualifying of their heat as did S. Ambrose and S. Augustine and many others venerable for their antiquity learning and piety Touching the former of which opinions wee shall haue fitter oportunity to discusse it at large when we come to treate of the warmth caused by the heavens But touching the second it seemes to haue beene grounded vpon a mistake of the word Firmament which by the Ancients was commonly appropriated to the eight sphere in which are seated the fixed starres whereas the originall Hebrew which properly signifies Extention or Expansion is in the first of Genesis not onely applied to the spheres in which the Sunne and Moone are planted but to the lowest region of the aire in which the birds flie and so doe I with Pareus Pererius take it to bee vnderstood in this controversie This region of the aire being as S. Augustine somewhere speakes Terminus intransgressibilis a firme and immoveable wall of separation betwixt the waters that are bred in the bowels of the earth and those of the Cloudes and for the word heaven which is vsed in the hundred forty and eight Psalme it is likewise applyed to the middle region of the aire by the Prophet Ieremy which may serue for a Glosse vpon that text alleaged out of the Psalme When hee vttereth his voice there is a noise of waters in the heavens and hee causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth Now the Schoolemen finding that the placing of waters aboue the starry heavens was both vnnaturall and vnvsefull and yet being not well acquainted with the propriety of the Hebrew word to salue the matter tell vs of a Christalline or glassie heaven aboue the eight sphere which say they is vndoubtedly the waters aboue the firmament mentioned by Moses which exposition of theirs though it doe not inferre a decay in the heavenly bodies yet doth it crosse the course of Moses his historicall narration his purpose being as it seemes only to write the history of things which were visible and sensible as appeares in part by his omitting the Creation of Angells whereas the Christalline heaven they speake of is not only invisible and insensible but was not at all discouered to be till the dayes of Hipparchus or Ptolomy Since then the heavens in regard of their substance are altogether free for any thing yet appeares from any mixture or tincture of the Elements being made of an incorruptible and inalterable quintessence which neither hath any conflict in it selfe nor with any other thing without it from thence may wee safely collect that it neither is nor can be subiect to any such decay as is imagined SECT 3. An objection drawne from Iob answered HOwbeit the deserved curse of God deprived the earth of her fertility in bringing forth without the sweat of Adam and his ofspring yet I finde not that it stretched to the Starres or that any thing aboue the Moone was altered or changed in respect of Adams fault from their first perfection True indeed it is which Eliphaz teacheth that the heavens Bildad that the starres are not cleane in Gods sight it may bee because of the fall of Angels the inhabitants of heaven whom therefore he charged with folly Which exposition Iunius so farre favours as insteed of Coelum hee puts Coelites into the very body of the text But in my judgement it would better haue sorted with the Margin in as much as by Coelites wee may vnderstand either Saints or Angells both Citizens of heaven either in actuall possession or in certaine hope and expectation in possession as Angels and Saints departed in expectation as the Saints heere in warfaire on the earth And of these doth Gregory in his Moralls on Iob expound the place hoc coelorum nomine repetijt quod Sanctorum prius appellatione signavit saith hee Iob repeates that by the name of heaven which before hee expressed vnder the name of Saints And thus both hee and S. Augustine expound that of the nineteene Psalme The heavens declare the glory of God And with them most of the Ancients that petition of the Lords Prayer Thy will bee done on earth as it is in heaven But what neede wee flie to allegories figuratiue senses when the letter of the text will well enough stand with the analogie of faith the texts of other Scriptures and the rule of sound reason The very materiall heavens then may not vntruly or vnproperly bee said to bee vncleane in Gods sight First Quia habent aliquid potentialitatis admixtum as Lyra speakes they haue some kinde of potentiality I know not how otherwise to render his word mixed with them hee meanes in regard of their motion and the illumination of the moone and starres from the Sunne But chiefely as I take it they are said to be vncleane not considered in themselues but in comparison of the Creator who is Actus purissimus simplicissimus all Act and that most pure not only from staine and pollution but all kinde of impotency imperfection or Composition whatsoever And in this sense the very blessed glorious Angels themselues which are of a substance farre purer then the Sunne it selfe may bee said to be vncleane in his sight in which regard the very Seraphins are said to couer their faces and feete with their winges But to grant that the heavens are become vncleane either by the fall of man or Angells yet doth it not follow as I conceiue that this vncleannes doth daily increase vpon them or which is in trueth the point in controversie that they feele any impairing by reason of this vncleannes it being rather imputatiue as I may earne it then reall and inherent Nonne vides coelum hoc saith Chrysostome vt pulchrum vt ingens vt astrorum choreis varium quantum temporis viguit quinque aut plus annorum millia processerunt haec annorum multitudo ei non adduxit senium Sed vt corpus novum ac vegetum floridae virentisque juventae viget aetate Sic coelum quam habuit à principio pulchritâ—…dinem semper eadem permansit nec quicquam
his modesty in this second change as I found it wanting in his first coniecture and I am of opinion that S. Augustine never purchased more true honour by any booke that ever hee writ then that of his Retractations the shame is not so much to erre as to persevere in it being discouered Specially if it be an errour taken vp entertained by following those whom for their great gifts wee highly esteeme and admire as it seemes Du Moulin tooke his errour at leastwise touching the moueablenes of the Poles of the Equatour from Ioseph Scaliger But the motion of the heavens puts mee in minde of passing from it to the light thereof CAP. 3. Touching the pretended decay in the light of the heavenly bodies SECT 1. The first reason that it decayes not taken from the nature of that light and those things wherevnto it is resembled AS the waters were first spread over the face of the earth so was the light dispersed thorow the firmament and as the waters were gathered into one heape so was the light knit vp and vnited into one body As the gathering of the waters was called the Sea so that of the light was called the Sunne As the rivers come from the sea so is all the light of the starres derived from the Sun And lastly as the Sea is no whit leassened though it furnish the Earth with abundance of fresh rivers So though the Sunne haue since the Creation both furnished garnished the world with light neither is the store of it thereby diminished nor the beauty of it any way stayned What the light is whether a substance or an Accident whether of a Corporall or incorporall nature it is not easy to determine Philosophers dispute it but cannot well resolue it Such is our ignorance that euen that by which wee see all things we cannot discerne what it selfe is But whatsoeuer it bee wee are sure that of all visible Creatures it was the first that was made and comes neerest the nature of a Spirit in as much as it moues in an instant from the East to the West and piercing thorow all transparent bodies still remaines in it selfe vnmixed and vndivided it chaseth away sadde and mellancholy thoughts which the darkenesse both begets and mainetaines it lifts vp our mindes in meditation to him who is the true light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world himselfe dwelling in light vnaccessible and cloathing himselfe with light as with a garment And if wee may behold in any Creature any one sparke of that eternall fire or any farre off dawning of Gods glorious brightnes the same in the beauty motion and vertue of this light may best be discerned Quid pulchrius luce saith Hugo de sancto Victore quae cum in se colorem non habeat omnium tamen rerum colores ipsa quodammodo colorat What is more beautifull then the light which hauing no colour in it selfe yet sets a luster vpon all colours And S. Ambrose vnde vox Dei in Scriptura debuit inch oare nisi à lumine Vnde mundi ornatus nisi à luce exordium sumere frustra enim esset si non â—…ideretur From whence should the voice of God in holy Scripture begin but from the light From whence should the ornament of the world begin but likewise from the same light For in vaine it were were it not seene O Father of the light of wisedome fountaine Out of the bulke of that confused mountaine What should what could issue before the light Without which Beauty were no Beauty hight SECT 2. The second for that it hath nothing contrary vnto it and heere Pareus and Mollerus are censured for holding that the light of heaven is impaired S. Augustine in diverse places of his workes is of opinion that by the first created light were vnderstood the Angells and heerein is hee followed by Beda Eucherius Rupertus diverse others Which opinion of his though it bee questionlesse vnsound in as much as wee are taught that that light sprang out of darkenesse which of the Angells can in no sort bee verified yet it shewes the lightsome nature of Angells so likewise the Angelicall nature of light still flourishing in youth no more subject to decay or old age then the Angells are Since then in the properties thereof it comes so neere the nature of Spirits of Angels of God mee thinkes they who dare accuse the heavens as being guilty of decay and corruption in other respects should yet haue spared the light thereof The more I wonder that men reverenced for their learning reputed lights of the Church should by their writings goe about to quench or blemish this light Videntur haud parum elanguisse minusque nitidi esse quam fuerant initio saith one speaking of the heavenly bodies They seeme to hame suffered not a little defect and to haue lost of that brightnes in which they were at first created And another Non est nunc illa claritas luminis nec sunt illae stellarum vires quae fuerunt There is not now that brightnes of the light nor those vertues of the starres that haue beene Venturous assertions and such I beleeue as would haue pusled the Authours of them to haue made them good specially considering that as there is nothing contrary to the Quintessentiall matter and circular figure of the Heavens So neither is there to the light thereof Fire may bee quenched with water but there is nothing able to quench the light of Heauen saue the power of him that made it Againe fire may bee extinguished by withdrawing or withholding the fewell vpon which it feedes But the light of heaven hauing no matter by which it is nourished there is no feare of the failing thereof thorow any such defect for the matter of the Coelestiall spheres and starres in which it is planted it hath already sufficiently appeared that it neither is nor in the course of Nature can be subject to any impairing alteration And so much Pareus himselfe hath vpon the matter confessed in two severall places in his Commentaries vpon the first of Genesis whereof the first is this speakeing of the firmament and the Epithetes of iron and brasse given it in holy Scriptures and by prophane Authours Haec Epitheta saith hee Metaphoricè notant Coeli firmitatem quia tot millibus annorum immutabili lege circumvoluitur nec tamen atteritur motu aut absumitur quia à Deo sic est firmatum initio These Epithetes metaphorically signifie the firmenes stablenes of heaven because by an vnchangeable law it hath now wheeled about so many thousand yeares and yet is it not wasted or worne by the motion thereof because it is established by God And againe within a while after hee vseth almost the same wordes firmamentum non dicitur de duritie aut soliditate impermeabili sed de firmitate quâ perpetuo motu circumactum coelum non atteritur nec
in workes of heate but the sunne burneth the mountaines three tymes more breathing out fiery vapours Neither were there wanting some among the ancient Philosophers who maintained the same opinion as Plato and Plyny and generally the whole sect of Stoicks who held that the Sunne and Starres were fed with watery vapours which they drew vp for their nourishment and that when these vapours should cease and faile the whole world should be in daunger of combustion and many things are alleaged by Balbus in Ciceroes second booke of the nature of the Gods in favour of this opinion of the Stoicks But that the Sunne and Starres are not in truth and in their owne nature fieric and hot appeares by the ground already layd touching the matter of the heavens that it is of a nature incorruptible which cannot bee if it were fiery inasmuch as thereby it should become lyable to alteration and corruption by an opposite and professed enimie Besides all fiery bodies by a naturall inclination mount vpwards so that if the starres were the cause of heat as being hot in themselues it would consequently follow that their circular motion should not bee Naturall but violent Wherevnto I may adde that the noted starres being so many in number namely one thousand twenty and two besides the Planets and in magnitude so greate that every one of those which appeare fixed in the firmament are sayd to bee much bigger then the whole Globe of the water and earth and the Sunne againe so much to exceede both that globe and the biggest of them as it may iustly bee stiled by the sonne of Syrach instrumentum admirabile a wonderfull instrument which being so were they of fyre they would doubtlesse long ere this haue turned the world into ashes there being so infinite a disproportion betweene their flame and the little quantity of matter supposed to bee prepared for their Fewell That therefore they should bee fed with vapours Aristotle deservedly laughs at it as a childish and ridiculous device in as much as the vapours ascend no higher then the middle region of the ayre and from thence distill againe vpon the water and earth from whence they were drawne vp and those vapours being vncertaine the flames likewise feeding vpon them must needes be vncertaine and dayly vary from themselues both in quantity and figure according to the proportion of their fewell SECT 2. That the heate they breed springes from their light and consequently their light being not decayed neither is the warmth arising there from THe absurdity then of this opinion beeing so foule and grosse it remaines that the Sunne and Starres infuse a warmth into these Subcaelestiall bodies not as being hot in themlselues but only as beeing ordeined by God to breed heate in matter capable thereof as they impart life to some creatures and yet themselues remaine voyd of life like the braine which imparts Sense to every member of the body and yet is it selfe vtterly voyd of all Sense But here againe some there are which attribute this effect to the motion others to the light of these glorious bodies And true indeed it is that motion causes heat by the attenuation rarefaction of the ayre But by this reason should the Moone which is neerer the Earth warme more then the Sunne which is many thousand miles farther distant the higher Regions of the Aire should be alway hotter then the lower which notwithstanding if wee compare the second with with the lowest is vndoubtedly false Moreouer the motion of the coelestiall bodies being vniforme so should the heat deriued from them in reason likewise be the motion ceasing the heat should likewise cease yet I shall neuer beleeue that when the Sun stood still at the prayer of Iosua it then ceased to warme these inferiour Bodies And we find by experience that the Sun works more powerfully vpon a body which stands still then when it moues the reason seemes to be the same in the rest or motion of a body warming or warmed that receiueth or imparteth heat The motion being thus excluded from being the cause of this effect the light must of necessitie step in and challenge it to it selfe the light then it is which is vndoubtedly the cause of coelestiall heate in part by a direct beame but more vehemently by a reflexed for which very reason it is that the middle Region of the aire is alwaies colder then the lowest and the lowest hotter in Summer then in Winter and at noone then in the morning and evening the beames being then more perpendicular and consequently in their reflexion more narrowly vnited by which reflexion and vnion they grow sometimes to that fervencie of heate that fire springs out from them as wee see in burning glasses and by this artificiall device it was that Archimedes as Galen reports it in his third booke de Temperamentis set on fire the Enemies Gallyes and Proclus a famous Mathematician practised the like at Constantinople as witnesseth Zonaras in the life of Anastasius the Emperour And very reasonable me thinkes it is that light the most Divine affection of the Coelelestiall Bodies should be the cause of warmth the most noble actiue and excellent quality of the Subcoelestiall These two like Hippocrates twinnes simul oriuntur moriuntur they are borne and dye together they increase and decrease both together the greater the light is the greater the heate and therefore the Sun as much exceedes the other starres in heate as it doth in light To driue the argument home then to our present purpose since the light of the Sun is no way diminished and the heate depends vpon the light the consequence to me seemes marvailous faire and strong which is that neither the heate arising from the light should haue suffered any decay or diminution at all SECT 3. Two obiections answered the one drawne from the present habitablenes of the Torrid Zone the other from a supposed approach of the Sun neerer the earth then in former ages NOtwithstanding the evidence of which trueth some haue not doubted to attribute the present habitablenesse of the Torride Zone to the weaknesse and old age of the Heauens in regard of former ages But they might haue remembred that the Cold Zones should thereby haue become more inhabitable by cold as also that holding as they doe an vniversall decay in all the parts of Nature men according to their opinion decaying in strength as well as the Heauens they should now in reason be as ill able to indure the present heate as the men of former ages were to indure that of the same times wherein they liued the proportion being alike betweene the weaknes as between the strength of the one and the other But this I onely touch in passing hauing a fitter occasion to consider more fully of it hereafter when we come to compare the wits and inventions of the Ancients with those of the present times That which touches
neerer to the quick strikes indeed at the very throat of the cause is an opinion of very many and those very learned men that the Body of the Sunne is drawne nearer the Earth by many degrees then it was in former ages that it daylie makes descents approaches towards it which some ascribe to a deficiencie of strength in the Earth others in the Sun most in both Bodin out of Copernicus Reinoldus Stadius great Mathematicians tell vs that since Ptolomies time who liued about an hundred forty yeeres after Christ the Sunne by cleare demonstrations is found to haue come neerer vs by one hundred thirty semidiameters of the earth which make twenty six thousand six hundred and sixty German miles which are double to the French as the French are to the Italian and ours This wonderfull change Philip Melancthon saith he ad coelestium terrestriumque corporum tabescentem naturam referendum putavit thought fit to impute to the declining estate of the coelestiall terrestriall Bodies But if the terrestriall depend vpon the coelestiall as hath already beene prooued is the common opinion of all both Divines and Philosophers then what is wanting in the wonted vigour of the coelestiall being supplied by the approach thereof the terrestrial should still without any decay remaine vnimpaired in their condition The force of which reason serues also strongly against them who maintaine an habitablenesse vnder the Torride Zone through the weaknesse of the Sun and yet withall hold a supply of that weakenesse by the neerer approach thereof But consulting in this point with both the learned Professours in the Mathematickes at Oxford they both jointly agree that this assertion of the Sunnes continuall declination or neerer approach to the Earth is rather an idle dreame then a sound position grounded rather vpon the difference among Astronomers arising from the difficulty of their observations then vpon any certaine infallible conclusions Ptolomy who liued about the yeare of Christ one hundred forty makes the distance of the Sun from the Earth to be one thousand two hundred ten semidiameters of the Earth Albategnius about the yeare eighr hundred eighty makes it one thousand one hundred forty sixe Copernicus about the yeare one thousand fiue hundred and twenty makes it one thousand one hundred seventy nine Tychobrahe about the yeare one thousand six hundred makes it one thousand one hundred eighty two Now I would demaund whether the Sun were more remote in Ptolomies time neerer in the time of Albategnius then againe more remote in the latter ages of Copernicus Tycho which if it were so then one of these two must needs follow that either their observations were notgrounded vpon so certaine principles as they pretend or that the declination of the Sunne is vncertaine variable not constant perpetuall as is pretended But what would Bodin say if hee liued to heare Lansbergius Kepler other famous Astronomers of the present age teaching that the Sun is now remote aboue two thousand and eight hundred nay three thousand semidiameters from the Earth affirming that Copernicus and Tycho neglected to allow for refractions which as the Opticks will demonstrate doe much alter the case I will close vp this point with â—…he censure of Scaliger vpon the Patrons of this fancy Quae vero nonnulli prodere ausi sunt solis corpus longè propius nos esse quà m quantum ab Antiquis scriptum sit ita vt in ipsa deferentis corpulentia locum mutasse videatur vel ipsa scripta spongijs vel ipsi Authores scuticis sunt castigandi In as much as some haue dared to broach that the Body of the Sun is nearer the Earth then by the Ancients it was obserued to be so that it might seeme to haue changed place in the very bulke of the Spheare either the Authors themselues of this opinion deserue to be chastned with stripes or surely their writings to be razed with sponges SECT 4. A third objection answered taken from a supposed removall of the Sun more Southerly from vs then in formâ—…r ages AS some haue inferred a diminution in the Heauenly warmth from a supposed neerer approach of the Sunne to the Earth so haue others at leastwise in regard of the Earth from the removall thereof more Southerly then in former ages But crauing in this point likewise the opinion of my worthy friend Master Doctour Bainbridge Professour in Astronomie at Oxford hee returned mee this answere It is the generall opinion of Moderne Astronomers that the Sun in our time goeth not so far Southernly from vs in Winter as it did in the time of Ptolomy and Hipparchus neither in Summer commeth so much Northernly towards vs as then For Ptolemy aboue ann Christ. 140 observed the greatest declination of the Sunne from the Aequinoctiall towards either Pole 23. 51. 20. agreeable to the observations of Hipparchus 130 yeares before Christ and of Eratosthenes before Hipparchus Wherevpon Ptolemy thought the Sunnes greatest declination immutable But succeeding Ages haue observed a difference for about Anno Christi 830. many learned Arabians obserued the greatest declination of the Sunne to bee 23. 35. to whom agreeth Albategnius a Syrian about an Christ. 880. Yet did not Albategnius from hence conclude any mutation in the greatest declination of the Sunne for so small a difference might well happen by errour of observations Afterwards about ann Christ. 1070. Arzachel a Moore of Spaine observed the greatest declination of the Sunne 23. 33. 30. who to salue these different observations invented a new Hypothesis which yet was not received by Astronomers of after times who for many ages followed the greatest declination of Arzachel without any alteration till the times of Regiomontanus and Copernicus for Copernicus by his observations some yeares before and after ann Christi 1520. affirmed the greatest declination of the Sunne to bee no more then 23. 28. 24. agreeable to the observations of Regiomontanus and Peurbachius some yeares before him Copernicus collating his observations with those of former ages renewed the Hypothesis of Arzachel that the Sunnes greatest declination was mutable yet so that it was never greater then 23. 52. nor lesse then 23. 28. The difference being only 24. And that in 1717 yeares it decreaseth from the former to the latter and in other 1717 yeares encreaseth from this to that againe According to which Hypothesis of Copernicus aboue 65 yeares before Christ the greatest declination of the Sunne was 23. 52. From which time accounting backewards it was lesse and lesse so that about 1782 yeares before Christ the greatest declination of the Sunne was but 23. 28. from which time accounting still backewards it was more and more till about 3499 yeares before Christ it was againe 23. 52. So after Christ about the yeare 1652 the greatest declination of the Sunne by this Hypothesis shall bee but 23. 28. and from thence againe encrease till it become 23. 52.
Spirat florifer annus odores Aestas Cererem fervida siccat Remeat pomis gravis autumnus Hyemem defluus irrigat imber Haec temperies alit profert Quicquid vitam spirat in orbe Eadem rapiens condit aufert Obitu meâ—…gens orta supremo The concord tempers equally Contrary Elements That moist things yeeld vnto the dry And heat with cold consents Hence fire to highest place doth flie And Earth doth downward bend And flowrie Spring perpetually Sweet odours forth doth send Hote Summer harvest giues and store Of fruit Autumnus yeelds And showres which down from Heau'n doe powre Each Winter drowne the fields What euer in the world doth breath This temper forth hath brought And nourished the same by death Againe it brings to nought Among the subcoelestiall bodies following Natures methode I will first begin with the consideration of the Elements the most simple and vniversall of them all as being the Ingredients of all mixt bodies either in whole or in part and into which the mixt are finally resolued again are again by turnes remade of them the common matter of them all still abiding the same Heere 's nothing constant nothing still doth stay For birth and death haue still successiue sway Here one thing springs not till another dye Onely the matter liues immortally Th'Almightie's table body of this All Of changefull chances common Arcenall All like it selfe all in it selfe contained Which by times flight hath neither lost nor gained Changelesse in essence changeable in face Much more then Proteus or the subtill race Of roving Polypes who to rob the more Transforme them hourely on the wauing shore Much like the French or like our selues their apes Who with strange habit doe disguise their shapes Who louing novels full of affectation Receiue the manners of each other Nation By consent of Antiquity they are in number foure the Fire the Aire the Water and the Earth Quatuor aeternus genitalia corpora mundus Continet ex illis duo sunt onerosa suoque Pondere in inferius tellus atque vnda feruntur Et totidem gravitate carent nulloque premente Alta petunt aer atque aere purior ignis Quae quamquam spatio distant tamen omnia fiunt Et ipsis in ipsa cadunt Foure bodies primitiue the world still containes Of which two downeward bend the earth and watery plaines As many weight doe want and nothing forcing higher They mount th' aire and purer streames of fire Which though they distant bee yet all things from them take Their birth and into them their last returnes doe make Three of them shew themselues manifestly in mixt the butter beeing the Aieriall part thereof the whey the watery and the cheese the earthly but all foure in the burning of greene wood the flame being fire the smoke the aire the liquor distilling at the ends the water and the ashes the earth Philosophy likewise by reason teaches and proues the same from their motion vpward and downeward from their second qualities of lightnes and heauines and from their first qualities either actiue as heat and cold or passiue as dry and moist For as their motion proceeds from their second qualities so doe their second from the first their first from the heauenly bodies next to which as being the noblest of them all as well in puritie as activity is seated the Element of the fire though many of the Ancients and some latter writers as namely Cardane among the rest seeme to make a doubt of it Ignis ad aethereas volucer se sustulit aur as Summaque complexus stellantis culmina Coeli Flammarum vallo naturae moenia fecit The fire eftsoones vp towards heaven did stie And compassing the starrie world advanced A wall of flames to safeguard nature by Next the fire is seated the aire divided into three regions next the aire the water and next the water the earth Who so sometime hath seene rich Ingots tride When forc't by fire their treasure they devide How faire and softly gold to gold doth passe Silver seekes silver brasse consorts with brasse And the whole lumpe of parts vnequall severs It selfe apart in white red yellow rivers May vnderstand how when the mouth divine Op'ned to each his proper place t'assigne Fire flew to fire water to water slid Aire clung to aire and earth with earth abid The vaile both of the Tabernacle and Temple were made of blew and purple and scarlet or crimson and fine twisted linnen by which foure as Iosephus noteth were represented the foure elements his wordes are these Velum hoc erat Babylonium variegatum ex hyaâ—…intho bysso coccoque purpura mirabiliter elaboratum non indignam contemplatione materiae commistionem habens sed velut omnium imaginem praeferens Cocco enim videbatur ignem imitari bysso terram hyacintho aerem ac mare purpura partim quidem coloribus bysso autem purpura origine bysso quidem quia de terra mare autem purpuram gignit The vaile was Babylonish worke most artificially imbrodered with blue and fine linnen and scarlet and purple hauing in it a mixture of things not vnworthy our consideration but carrying a kinde of resemblance of the Vniversall for by the scarlet seemed the fire to be represented by the linnen the earth by the blew the aire and by the purple the sea partly by reason of the colours of scarlet and blue and partly by reason of the originall of linnen and purple the one comming from the earth the other from the sea And S. Hierome in his epistle to Fabiola hath the very same conceite borrowed as it seemes from Iosephus or from Philo who hath much to like purpose in his third booke of the life of Moses or it may be from that in the eighteenth of the booke of Wisedome In the long robe was the whole world As not only the vulgar lattin and Arias Montanus but out of them and the Greeke originall our last English Translation reades it The fire is dry and hot the aire hot and moist the water moist and cold the earth cold and dry thus are they linked and thus embrace they one another with their symbolizing qualities the earth being linked to the water by coldnes the water to the aire by moistnes the aire to the fire by warmth the fire to the earth by drought which are all the combinations of the qualities that possiblely can bee hot cold as also dry and moist in the highest degrees beeing altogether incompatible in the same subject And though the earth the fire bee most opposite in distance in substance in activity yet they agree in one quality the two middle being therein directly contrary to the two extreames aire to earth and water to fire Water as arm'd with moisture and with cold The cold-dry earth with her one hand doth hold With th' other th' aire The aire as moist and warme Holds fire
with one water with th' other arme As countrie-maidens in the moneth of May Merrily sporting on a holy-day And lusty dancing of a liuely round About the May-pole by the Bag-pipes sound Hold hand in hand so that the first is fast By meanes of those betweene vnto the last But all the linkes of th' holy chaine which tethers The many members of the world togethers Are such as none but onely hee can breake them Who at the first did of meere nothing make them SECT 2. That the Elements still hold the same proportions each to other and by mutuall exchange the same dimensions in themselues THese foure then as they were from the beginning so still they remaine the radicall and fundamentall principles of all subcoelestiall bodies distinguished by their severall and ancient Situations properties actions and effects and howsoeuer after their old wont they fight and combate together beeing single yet in composition they still accord marueilous well Tu numeris elementa ligas vt frigora flammis Arida conveniant liquidis ne purior ignis Euolet aut mersas deducant pondera terras To numbers thou the elements doest tie That cold with heat may symbolize and drie With moist least purer fire should sore too high And earth through too much weight too low should lie The Creator of them hath bound them as it were to their good behaviour and made them in euery mixt body to stoope and obey one pre-dominant whose sway and conduct they willingly follow The aire being predominant in some as in oyle which alwaies swimmes on the toppe of all other liquors and the earth in others which alwaies gather as neere the Center as possiblely they can And as in these they vary not a jot from their natiue and wonted properties so neither doe they in their other conditions It is still true of them that nec gravitant nec levitant in suis locis there is no sense of their weight or lightnes in their proper places as appeares by this that a man lying in the bottome of the deepest Ocean he feeles no burden from the weight thereof The fire still serues to warme vs as it did the aire to maintaine our breathing the water to clense and refresh vs the earth to feede and support vs and which of them is most necessary for our vse is hard to determine Likewise they still hold the same proportion one toward another as formerly they haue done For howbeit the Peripatetikes pretending heerein the Authority of their Mr Aristotle tell vs that as they rise one aboue another in situation so they exceede one another proportione decupla by a tenne-fold proportion yet is this doubtles a foule errour or at least-wise a grosse mistake whether wee regard their entire bodies or their parts If their entire bodies it is certaine that the earth exceedes both the water and the aire by many degrees The depth of the waters not exceeding two or three miles for the most part not aboue halfe a mile as Marriners finde by their line and plummet whereas the diameter of the earth as Mathematicians demonstrate exceedes seven thousand miles And for the aire taking the height of it from the place of the ordinary Comets it containes by estimation about fiftie two miles as Nonius Vitellio and Allhazen shew by Geometricall proofes Whence it plainly appeares that there cannot be that proportion betwixt the intire Bodies of the Elements which is ptetended nor at any time was since their Creation And for their parts 't is as cleare by experience that out of a few drops of water may be made so much aire as shall exceed them fiuehundred or a thousand times atleast But whatsoeuer their proportion be it is certain that notwithstanding their continuall transmutation or transelementation as I may so call it of one into another yet by a mutuall retribution it still remaines the same that in former ages it hath beene as I haue already shewed more at large in a former Chapter Philo most elegantly expresseth Egregia quidem est in elementis quaternarum virium compensatio aequalibus justisque regulis ac terminis vices suas dispensantium sicut enim anni circulus quaternis vicibus distinguitur alijs partibus post alias succedentibus per ambitus eosdem vsque recurrente tempore pari modo elementa mundi vicissim sibi succedentia mutantur quod diceres incridibile dum mori videntur redduntur immortalia iterum atque iterum metiendo idem stadium sursum atque deorsum per eandem viam cursitando continuè à terra enim acclivis via incipit quae liquescens in aquam mutatur aquaporrò evaperat in aerem aer in ignem extenuatur ac declivis altera deorsum tendit à Capite igne per extinctionem subsidente in aerem aere verò in aquam se densante aquae verò liquore in terram crassescente There is in the Elements a notable compensation of their fourefold qualities dispencing themselues by euen turnes and just measures For as the circle of the yeare is distinguished by foure quarters one succeeding another the time running about by equall distances in like manner the foure Elements of the World by a reciprocall vicissitude succeed one another which a man would thinke incredible while they seeme to dye they become immortall running the same race and incessantly travailing vp and downe by the same path From the Earth the way riseth vpward it dissolving into water the water vapors forth into aire the aire is rarified into fire again they descēd down ward the same way the fire by quēching being turnedinto aire the aire thickned into water the water into earth Hitherto Philo wherein after his vsuall wont he Platonizes the same being in effect to be found in Platoes Timaeus as also in Aristotles booke de Mundo if it be his in Damascene and Gregory Nyssen And most elegantly the wittiest of Poets resolutaque tellus In liquidas rarescit aquas tenuatur in auras Aeraque humor habet dempto quoque pondere rursus In superos aer tenuissimus emicat ignes Inde retrò redeunt idemque retexitur ordo Ignis enim densum spissatus in aera transit Hinc in aquas tellus glomeratâ cogitur vndâ The Earth resolu'd is turned into streames Water to aire the purer aire to flames From thence they back returne the fiery flakes Are turn'd to aire the aire thickned takes The liquid forme of water that earth makes The foure Elements herein resembling an instrument of Musicke with foure strings which may bee tuned diverse wayes and yet the harmony still remaines sweet and so are they compared in the booke of Wisdome The Elements agreed among themselues in this change as when one tune is changed vpon an instrument of Musick and the melody still remaineth Sith then the knot of sacred marriage Which joynes the Elements from age to age Brings forth
the worlds babes sith their enmities With fel divorce kill whatsoeuer dies And sith but changing their degree and place They frame the various formes wherewith the face Of this faire world is so imbellished As six sweet notes curiously varied In skilfull musick make a hundred kindes Of heau'nly sounds that ravish hardest mindes And with division of a choice device The Hearers soules out at their eares entice Or as of twice-twelue letters thus transpos'd This world of words is variously compos'd And of these words in diverse order sowen This sacred volume that you read is growen Who so hath seene how one warme lump of waxe Without increasing or decreasing takes A hundred figures well may judge of all Th' incessant changes of this neather ball Yet thinke not that this changing oft remises Ought into nought it but the forme disguises In hundred fashions and the substances Inly or outly neither win nor leese For all that 's made is made of the first matter Which in th' old nothing made the All-Creator All that dissolues resolues into the same Since first the Lord of nothing made this frame Nought's made of nought and nothing turnes to nothing Things birth or death change but their formall clothing Their formes doe vanish but their bodies bide Now thick now thin now round now short now side Vtque novis facilis signatur Cera figuris Nec manet vt fuerat nec formam servat eandem Sed tamen ipsa eadem est They be the verses of Ovid in the 15 of the Met. but may well be rendred by those of Bartas touching seuerall prints stamped vpon the same lumpe of waxe SECT 3. An objection drawne from the continuall mixture of the Elements each with other answered THus then we see that the Elements are stil the same no way impaired in regard of their portions or proportions neither doe I find any objection against this of any moment or worthy our notice Let vs now examine whether or no they be impaired in their qualities for which I haue often heard it alleadged that their frequent interchange their continuall blending and mixing together now for the space of so many thousand yeares cannot in reason but much haue altered their inbred vigour and originall constitution as Ilanders in them specially their maritine parts are thought by Aristotle cōmonly by experience are found to be most tainted in their manners by reason that lying open to trade they draw on the commerce intercourse of sundry forraine Nations who by long conversation debauch them in regard of their Customes their language their habite naturall disposition But this allegation is in truth a bare and naked supposition For though it bee true that such a continuall traffique and inter-change there is betwixt the Elements yet doth it not therefore follow that their qualities should thereby degenerate or become more impure inasmuch as that impurity which by intercourse they haue contracted by perpetuall agitation they purge out againe and by continuall generation each out of other renew their parts and so by degrees returne to their former estate and purity Againe for the fire if we consider it in it's own spheare though as the rest of the Elements it be indeed subject to a successiue generation corruption in regard of the parts thereof yet is it alwaies most pure which is the reason that it neither can be seene as fiery Meteors are neither can any creature either breed or liue in it And as for the Aire Water and Earth if they were pure it is certaine they could not be so serviceable as they are If the Aire were pure neither men nor birds nor beasts could breath in it as S. Augustin reports of the hill Olympus Perhibetur in Olympi vertice aer esse tam tenuis vt neque sustentare alites possit neque ipsos qui fortè ascenderint homines crassioris aurae spiritu alere sicut in isto aere consueverunt It is said that vpon the top of the hill Olympus the aire is so thin pure that it can neither beare vp the birds that offer to flye in it nor be vsefull for the breathing of men if any come thither being vsed to thicker ayre Neither could any Meteors did it still continue pure be bred in it as raine snow dewes and frosts and the like which notwithstanding are many wayes commodious and profitable for the vse of all liuing creatures so as they could not liue without them And for the water if it were pure it could neither feed the fishes nor beare vp vessels of burden As likewise if the earth were pure it would be altogether Barren and fruitlesse like sand or ashes not able to nourish the plants that hang vpon the breasts of it The Elements then being ordeined for the ornament of the world but cheifely to serue the mixt bodies there is nothing lost but much gained to the whole by the losse of their purity nay the restitution and recovery thereof if so they were created would vndoubtedly proue the vtter vndoing of the whole as the vntainted virginity of either sexe would of the race of mankind yet for farther satisfaction it shall not be amisse to consider these three asunder in reference to the mixt bodies the ayer I meane the water and the earth that so it may appeare whether the ayre be decayed in it's temper the water in it's goodnesse and vertue the earth in it's fatnesse and fruitfullnesse CAP. 7. Touching the pretended decay of the ayre in regard of the temper thereof SECT 1. Of excessiue drought and cold in former ages and that in forraine Countreyes THat the ayre is not distempered more then in former ages will as I conceiue appeare by this that vnseasonable weather for excessiue heate and cold or immoderate drought and raine thunder and lightning frost and snow haile windes yea contagious sicknesses pestilentiall Epidemicall diseases arising from the infection of the ayre by noysome mistes and vapoures to which we may adde earthquakes burning in the bowels of the earth blazing Comets the like were as frequent if not more in former ages then in latter times as will easily appeare to such who please to looke either into the Generall history of the world at large or the severall Cronicles of particular nations Such burning like that of Phaeton such floods like that of Ogyges and Deucalion recorded by Orosius Pliny S. Augustine Varro the world hath not felt or knowne since those times To like purpose I remember Iustus Lypsius a man rather partiall for Antiquity then for the present age hath written an Epistle vpon occasion of a great drought which happened in the yeare one thousand six hundred and one and lasted by the space of aboue foure moneths to which he makes his entrance Non tamen nimis insolens aut nova et si nobis sic visa It is no new or vnusall thing though to vs so it seeme wherevpon he
fundoque exaestuatimo Aetna here thunders with a horride noise Sometimes black clouds evaporeth to skies Fuming with pitchie curles and sparkling fires Tosseth vp globes of flames to starres aspires Now belching rocks the mountaines entrals torne And groaning hurles out liquid stones there borne Thorow the aire in showres But rightly did another Poet diuine of this mountaine and the burnings therein Nec quae sulphurijs ardet fornacibus Aetna Ignea semper erit neque enim fuit ignea semper Aetna which flames of sulphure now doth raise Shall not still burne nor hath it burnt alwayes The like may be said of Vesuvius in the kingdome of Naples it flamed with the greatest horrour in the first or as some say in the third yeere of the Emperour Titus where besides beasts fishes and fowle it destroyed two adjoyning Citties Herculanum and Pompeios with the people sitting in the Theater Pliny the naturall Historian then Admirall of the Romane Navy desirous to discover the reason was suffocated with the smoake thereof as witnesseth his Nephew in an epistle of his to Cornelius Tacitus Sensit procul Africa tellus Tunc expuluerijs geminata incendia nimbis Sensit et Aegyptus Memphisque Nilus atrocem Tempestatem illam Campano è littore missam Nec caruisse ferunt Asiam Syriamque tremenda Peste nec exstantes Neptunj è fluctibus arces Cyprumque Cretamque Cycladas ordine nullo Per pontum sparsas nec doctam Palladis vrbem Tantus inexhaustis erupit faucibus ardor Ac vapor They be the verses of Hieronymus Borgius touching the horrible roaring and thundring of this mountaine and may thus be englished Then remote Africke suffer'd the direfull heate Of twofold rage with showers of dust repleate Scorcht Egipt memphis Nilus felt amaz'd The woofull tempest in Campania rais'd Not Asia Syria nor the towers that stand In Neptunes surges Cyprus Creet Ioues land The scattered Cyclades nor the Muses seate Minervaes towne that vast plague scapt such heate Such vapours brake forth from full jawes Marcellinus farther obserues that the ashes thereof transported in the ayre obscured all Europe and that the Constantinopolitanes being wonderfully affrighted therewith in so much as the Emperour Leo forsooke the Citty in memoriall of the same did yearely celebrate the twelfth of November Who in these latter ages hath euer heard or read of such a fire issuing out of the earth as Tacitus in the 13 of his Annals and almost the last words describes The citty of the Inhonians in Germanie confederate with vs sayth he was afflicted with a sudden disaster for fires issuing out of the earth burned towns feilds villages every where and spred even to the wals of a colony newly built and could not be extinguished neither by raine nor river water nor any other liquor that could be imployed vntill for want of remedie and anger of such a destruction certaine pesants cast stones a farre of into it then the flame somewhat â—…laking drawing neare they put it out with blowes of clubs and otherlike as if it had been a wild beast last of all they threw in clothes from their backes which the more worne and fowler the berrer they quenched the fires But the most memorable both Earthquake and burning is that which Mr. George Sands in the forth booke of his Travels reports to haue hapeÌ„ed neare Puttzoll in the kingdome of Naples likewise in the yeare of our Lord 1538 and on the 29th of September when for certaine daies foregoing the countrey thereabout was so vexed with perpetuall Earthquakes as no one house was left so intire as not to expect an immediate ruine after that the sea had retired two hundred pases from the shore leauing abundance of fresh water rising in the bottome there visiblely ascended a mountaine about the second hower of the night with hideous roaring horriblely vomiting stones and such store of Cinders as overwhelmed all the buildings therabout and the salubrious Bathes of Tripergula for so many ages celebrated consumed the vines to ashes killing birds and beastes the fearefull inhabitants of Puttzoll flying through the darke with their wiues and children naked defiled crying out and detesting their Calamities manifold mischiefes had they suffered yet none like this which nature inflicted yet was not this the first Iland that thus by the force of Earthquakes haue risen out of the sea the like is reported both of Delos and Rhodos and some others SECT 6. Of the nature of Comets and the vncertaintie of praedictions from them as also that the number of those which haue appeared of late yeares is lesse then hath vsually beene observed in former ages and of other fiery and watry prodigious meteors IT remaines that in the next place I should speake somewhat of Comets or Blazing starres whether in latter times more haue appeared or more disastrous effectes haue followed vpon their appearance then in former ages Some tooke the Comet to haue beene a starre ordained and created from the first beginning of the world but appearing only by times and by turnes of this mind was Seneca Cardan likewise in latter times harps much if not vpon the same yet the like string But Aristotle whose weighty reasons and deepe judgment I much reverence conceiueth the matter of the Comet to be a passing hot and dry exhalation which being lifted vp by the force vertue of the Sun into the highest region of the ayre is there inflamed partly by the Element of fire vpon which it bordereth and partly by the motion of the heavens which hurleth it about so as there is the same matter of an Earthquake the wind the lightning and a Comet if it be imprisoned in the bowels of the earth it causeth an Earthquake if it ascend to the middle region of the ayre and be from thence beating back wind if it enter that region and be there invironed with a thick cloud lightning if it passe that region a Comet or some other fiery Meteor in case the matter be not sufficiently capable thereof The common opinion hath beene that Comets either as Signes or causes or both haue allwayes prognosticated some dreadfull mishaps to the world as outragious windes extraordonary drougth dearth pestilence warres death of Princes and the like Nunquam futilibus excanduit ignibus aether Ne're did the Heavens with idle blazes flame But the late Lord Privy Seale Earle of Northampton in his Defensatiue against the poyson of supposed prophesies hath so strongly incountred this opinion that for mine owne part I must professe he hath perswaded mee there is no certainty in those praedictions in asmuch as Comets doe not alwayes forerunne such euents neither doe such euents alwayes follow vpon the appearing of Comets Some instances he produceth of Comets which brought with them such abundance of all things abated their prises to so low an ebbe as stories haue recorded it for monuments and miracles to posterity And the like saith hee could I say of others
water falls the downe By overflowes is chang'd to champaine land Dry ground erewhile now moorish fen doth drowne And fens againe are turn'd to thirsty sand Here fountaines new hath nature opened There shut vp springs which earst did flow amaine By earthquakes rivers oft haue issued Or dryed vp they haue sunke downe againe The Poet there bringes instances in both these And to like purpose is that of Pontanus Sed nec perpetuae sedes sunt fontibus vllae Aeterni aut manant cursus mutantur in aeuum Singula inceptum alternat natura tenorem Quodque dies antiqua tulit post auferet ipsa Fountaines spring not eternally Nor in one place perpetually do tary All things in every age for evermore do vary And nature changeth still the course she once begun And will herselfe vndoe what she of old hath done which though it be true in many yet those great ones as Indus and Ganges and Danubius and the Rhene Nilus are little or nothing varied from the same courses and currents which they held thousands of yeares since as appeares in their descriptions by the ancient Geographers But aboue all meethinkes the constant rising of Nilus continued for so many ages is one of the greatest wonders in the world which is so precise in regard of time that if you take of the earth adjoyning to the river and preserue it carefully that it come neither to be wet nor wasted and weigh it dayly you shall finde it neither more nor lesse heavy till the seventeenth of Iune at which day it begineth to groweth more ponderous and augmenteth with the augmentation of the river whereby they haue an infallible knowledge of the state of the deluge Now for the Medicinall properties of Fountaine or Bathes no man I thinke makes any doubt but that they are both as many and as efficacious as ever some it may be haue lost their vertue and are growne out of vse but others againe haue in stead thereof beene discovered in other places of no lesse vse and vertue as both Baccius Blanchellus in their bookes de Thermis haue observed And for those hot ones at the citty of Bath I make no question but Nechams verses may as justly be verified of their goodnesse at this present as they were fower hundred yeares since about which time he is sayd to haue written them Bathoniae Tharmas vix prefero Virgilianas Confecto prosunt Balnea nostra seni Prosunt attritis collisis invalidisque Et quorum morbis frigida causa subest Our Baines at Bath with Virgills to compare For their effects I dare almost be bold For feeble folke and crazie good they are For brus'd consum'd farre spent and very old For those likewise whose sicknesse comes of cold SECT 2. That the fishes are not decayed in regard of there store dimensions or duration BUt it is sayd that though the waters decay not yet the fish the inhabitants thereof at leastwise in regard of their number are much decayed so as wee may take vp that of the Poet. Omne peractum est Et iam defecit nostrum mare All our Seas at length are spent and faile The Seas being growne fruitlesse and barren as is pretended in regard of former ages that so it appeares vpon record in our Hauen townes But if such a thing be which I can neither affirme nor deny hauing not searched into it my selfe themselues who make the objection shape a sufficient answere therevnto by telling vs that it may so be by an extraordinary judgment of God as he dealt with the Egyptians in the death of our fish for the abuse of our flesh-pots or by the intrusion of the Hollander who carries from our coast such store as we might much better loade our selues with and if we should a little enlarge our view cast our eyes abroad comparing one part of the world with another we shall easily discerne that though our Coast faile in that abundance which formerly it had by ouer-laying it yet others still abound in a most plentifull manner as is by experience found vpon the Coast of Virginia at this present And no doubt but were our Coasts spared for some space of yeares it would againe afford as great plenty as euer Finally if the store of fish should decay by reason of the decay of the world it must of necessity follow that likewise the store of plants of beasts of birds and of men should dayly decay by vertue of the same reason Nay rather since the curse lighting vpon man extended to plants and beasts but not to fishes for any thing I finde expressely registred in holy Scripture As neither did the vniversall Deluge hurt but rather helpe them by which the rest perished There are still no doubt euen at this day as at the first Creation in the Sea to be found As many fishes of so many features That in the waters one may see all Creatures And all that in this All is to be found As if the World within the deepes were drown'd Now as the store of fishes is no way diminished so neither are they decayed either in their greatnes or goodnes I will instance in the whale the King of fishes or as Iob termes him the King ouer the children of pride That which S. Basil in his Hexameron reports namely that the whales are in bignes equall to the greatest mountaines and their backes when they shew aboue water are like vnto Ilands is by a late learned Writer not vndeservedly censured as intollerably hyperbolicall Pliny in the ninth booke and third Chap. of his Naturall history tels vs that in the Indian Seas some haue beene taken vp to the length of foure acres that is nine hundred and sixty feete whereas notwithstanding Arrianus in his discourse de rebus Indicis assures vs that Nearchus measuring one cast vpon that shore found him to be but fifty cubits The same Pliny in the first Chapter of his 32 booke sets downe a relation of King Iubaes out of those bookes which he wrote to C. Caesar son to Augustus the Emperour touching the History of Arabia where he affirmes that in the bay of Arabia Whales haue beene knowne to be 600 foot long and 360 foote thick and yet as it is well known by the soundings of Navigatours that Sea is not by a great deale 360 foot deep But to let goe these fancies and fables and to come to that which is more probable The dimensions of the Whale saith Aelian is fiue times beyond the largest Elephants but for the ordinary saith Rondeletius hee seldome exceedes 36 cubits in length and 8 in heighth Dion a graue Writer reports it as a wonder that in the reigne of Augustus a Whale lept to land out of the German Ocean full 20 foot in bredth and 60 in length This I confesse was much yet to match it with lattet times Gesner in his Epistle to Polidor Virgill avoucheth it as
which the first founder of the world blessed with perpetuall fruitfullnesse is affected with barrennesse as a kind of disease neither is it the part of a wise man to think that the Earth which being indued with a divine and aeternall youth is deservedly tearmed the Common Parent of all things inasmuch as it both doth and hereafter shall bring all things forth is now waxen old like a man so as that which hath befalne vs I should rather impute it to our owne default then to the vnseasonablenesse of the weather inasmuch as wee commit the charg of our husbandry to the basest of our slaues as it were to a publique executioner whereas the very best of our ancestours with most happy successe vnderwent that charge themselues and performed that worke with their owne hands Now Sylvinus to whom he dedicated his workes having received and read this resolute assertion by reason he knew it to be against the common tenet and specially of one Tremellius vpon whose judgment it seemed he much relyed made a Quaere thereof sent it to Columella to which in the very first chapter of his second booke he returnes answer with this title title prefixed Terram nec senescere nec fatigari si stercoretur That the earth is neither wearied nor waxeth old if it be made And then thus goes on Queris à me Publi Sylvine quod ego sine cunctatione non recuso docere cur priori libro veterem opinionem fere omnium qui de cultu agrorum loquuti sunt à principio confestim repulerim falsamque sententiam repudiaverim censentium longo aevi situ longique jam temporis exercitatione fatigatam effoetam humum consenuisse You demaund a question of mee Sylvinus which I will endevour to answer without delay which is why in my former booke presently in the very entrance I haue rejected the ancient opiniō almost of all who haue written of husbandry haue cast of their imagination as false who conceiue that the earth by long tracte of time and much vsage is growne old and fruitles where he is so farre from recalling his assertion or making any doubt of the certaine truth thereof that hee labours farther to strengthen it with new supplies of reasons and at length concludes Non igitur fatigatione quemadmodum plurimi crediderunt nec senio sed nosta scilicet inertia minus benignè nobis arva respondent licet enim maiorem fructum percipere si frequenti tempestiva modica stercoratione terra refoveatur It is not through the tirednesse or age of the earth as many haue beleeued but through our owne negligence that it hath not satisfied vs so bountifully as it hath done For we might receiue more profit from it if it were cherished with frequent and moderate and seasonable dressing And with Columella agrees Pliny in the eighteenth booke of his Naturall History third Chapter where discoursing of the great abundance and plenty in fore-going ages and demaunding the reason thereof he therevnto shapes this reply Surely saith he the cause was this and nothing else Great Lords and Generals of the field as it should seeme tilled themselues their grounds with their own hands And the Earth again for her part taking no small pleasure as it were to be aired and broken vp Laureato vomere triumphali aratore with ploughs laureat ploughmē triumphant strained her self to yeeld increase to the vttermost Like it is also that these braue men and worthy Personages were as curious in sowing a ground with corne as in setting a battle in aray as diligent in disposing and ordering of their lands as in pitching a field And commonly euery thing that commeth vnder good hands the more neat cleane that the vsage thereof is and the greater paines that is taken about it the better it thriueth and prospereth afterwards And hauing instanced in Attilius Serranus and Quintius Cincinnatus he goes on in this maner But now see how the times be changed they that doe this businesse in the field what are they but bond-slaues fettered condemned malefactors and in a word noted persons such as are branded and marked in their visage with an hot yron yet we forsooth marvaile that the labour of these contemptible slaues and abject villaines doth not render the like profit as that trauell in former ages of great Captaines and Generals of Armies By which it appeares that Columella and Pliny imputed the barrennes of the Earth in regard of former ages if any such were not to any deficiency in the Earth it selfe but to the vnskilfulnes or negligence of such as manured it To which purpose Aelian reports a pretty story of one Mises who presented the Great King Artaxerxes as hee rode through Persia with a Pomegranate of wonderfull bignesse which the King admiring demaunded out of what Paradise he had gotten it who answered that he gathered it from his owne garden the King seemed therewith to bee marvailous well content gracing him with royall gifts swore by the Sunne this man with like diligence and care might aswell in my judgment of a little City make a great one Videtur autem hic sermo innuere saith the Author omnes res curâ continuâ sollicitudine indefesso labore meliores praestantiores quà m Natura producat effici posse It seemes by this that all things by labour and industry may bee made better then Nature produces them And it is certaine that God so ordained it that the industry of man should in all things concurre with the workes of Nature both for the bringing of them to their perfection and for the keeping of them therein being brought vnto it As the Poet speaking of the degenerating of seedes hath truly expressed it Vidi lecta diu multo spectata labore Degenerare tamen ni vis humana quotannis Maxima quaeque manu legeret Oft haue I seene choice seedes and with much labour tryed Eftsoones degenerate vnlesse mans industry Yearely by hand did lease the greatest carefully And this I take to bee the true reason as before hath beene touched why neither so good nor so great store of wine is at this day made in this kingdome as by records seemes to haue beene in former ages the neglect I meane of planting dressing our vines as they might be and at this present are in forraine countreyes and with vs formerly haue beene this neglect hath perchance arisen from hence that we the French being often and long at defiance all friendly commerce ceasing betwixt vs partly to crosse them in the venting of their commodities partly to inrich themselues men were either by publique authority set on worke or they set themselues on worke to try the vtmost of their endeavour in the making of wines but since peace and trade hath beene setled betwixt both kingdomes that practise hath by degrees growne out of vse for that men found by experience that both better wines
Paulus was brought forth by the Generall into open audience before the whole host to foretell the Eclipe that should happen the next morrow whereby he delivered the army from all pensiuenesse and feare which might haue troubled them in the time of battaile and within a while after he compiled also a booke thereof Thus far Plyny touching the harmlesse and innocent nature of Eclipses himselfe in the next chapter reducing their certaine revolutions and returnes to the space of two hundred twenty two moneths I will shut vp all with a memorable story to this purpose taken out of Iohn de Royas in his Epistle to Charles the fifth prefixed to his Commentaries vpō the plaine Sphere Colonus the leader of King Ferdinands army at the Iland of Iamaica being in great distresse for want of victuals which he could by no meanes attaine of the Inhabitants by his skill foreseeing an Eclips of the Moone shortly to ensue tooke order that it should be declared to the Governours of the Iland that vnlesse they supplyed him and his with necessaries imminent danger hanged over their heads in witnesse wherof they should shortly see the Moone Eclypsed The Barbarians at first refused his demaunds and contemned his threatning but when at the set time they indeed beheld the Moone by degrees to faile in her light and vnderstood not the cause thereof they first gaue credit to his words and then supply of victuals to his army casting themselues to his feete and craving pardon for their offence Finally to the present objection if any harmefull malignant effect be for the present or afterward produced by the Eclips in those parts where it is seene yet no man I thinke will deny it but to be repairable by by the tract and revolution of time or if irrepairable yet this decay in the Creatures ariseth not from any deficiencie in themselues from any waxing old or removall from their first originals which is the very poynt in question but from an adventitious and externall cause And so I passe from the other Creatures to the Consideration of Man the Commaunder and Compendium of all the rest for whose sake both they were first made and this discourse was first vndertaken LIB III. Of the pretended decay of mankind in regard of age and duration of strength and stature of arts and witts CAP. I. Touching the pretended decay of men in regard of their age and first by way of comparison betweene the ages of the Ancients and those of latter times SECT 1. Of the short life of man in regard of the duration of many other Creatures and that he was Created Mortall but had he not falne should haue beene preserued to immortality SInce vpon exammination wee haue found that there is no such perpetuall and vniversall decay as is pretended in the Hea◅ens in the Earth in the Ayre in the Water the fishes the plants the Beastes the Mineralls I see no reason but that from thence wee might safely and sufficiently conclude that neither is there any such decay in man But because this discourse was principally vndertaken and intended for the sake of mankind I will consider and compare them of former ages with those of latter first in regard of age secondly in regard of Strength and stature thirdly in regard of wits and inventions fourthly and lastly in regard of manners and conditions And if vpon due consideration and comparison it shall appeare that there is no such decay in any of these as is supposed the Question I trust touch-the worlds decay in generall will soone be at at end The ordinary age of man being compared with that of the heavens the stones the mettalls some beasts trees is very short but the longest being cōpared with God and Eternity is but as a span a shadow a dreame of a shadow nay meere nothing which the Romane Oratour hath both truly observed and eligantly expressed Apud Hypanim fluuium qui ab Europae parte in pontum influit Aristoteles ait bestiolas quasdam nasci quae vnum diem viuant ex ijs igitur hora octaua quae mortua est provecta aetate mortua est quae vero occidente sole decrepita eo magis si etiam Solstitiali die Confer nostram longissimam aetatem cum aeternitate in eadem propemodum brevitate qua istae bestiolae reperiemur Aristole writes that by the river Hypanis which on the side of Europe fals into Pontus certaine little animals are bred which liue but a day at most Amongst them then such as dye the eight houre dy old such as dye at sun set dye in their decrepit age specially if it be vpon the day of the Sūmer Solstice Now cōpare our age with eternity and we shall be found in regard of duration almost in the same state of shortnesse that those Creatures are The body of man even before the fall was doubtlesse in it selfe by reaof contrary Elements contrary humours and members of contrary temper whereof it was composed dissoluble and morrall As also by reason of outward accidents the dayly wasting of his natiue heate and the disproportionable supply of his radicall moisture But these defects his Creator supplyed arming him against outward accidents by divine providence the guard of Angels and his owne excellent wisedome against the contrarieties fighting in his body by the harmony of his soule against the wasting of his natiue heat and radicall moysture by that supernaturall vertue efficacy which he gaue to the fruit of the tree of life He was then Naturally Mortall for otherwise even after his fall should he haue continued immortall as the Apostate Angells did but by speciall priviledge and dispensation immortall mortalis erat saith S. Augustine conditione corporis animalis immortalis autem beneficio-conditoris He was mortall in respect of his naturall body but immortall by the favour of his Creator Yet doubtles had he not sinned he had not still liued here vpon earth though in likelihood his age might be extended to some thousands of yeares but should haue beene at length translated from hence to heaven where he could neither haue sinned nor dyed◅ Sic est immortalis conditus Sayth Gregory vt tamen si peccaret mori possit sic mortalis est conditus vt si non peccaret etiam non mori possit atque ex merito liberi arbitrij beatitudinem illius regionis attingeret in qua vel peccare vel mori non possit He was so created immortall that if he sinned he might dye and againe so was he created mortall that he could not dye But by the merit of his freewill should haue beene translated to that place of blisse where he could neither sinne nor dye SECT 2. Of the long liues of the Patriarchs and of the manner of Computing there yeares and that Almighty God drew out the lines of their liues to that length for reasons proper to those first times THough vpon the fall of man the
nostri quos celebramus laudibus quibus dissimiles querimur nos esse spe ducti montes ceciderunt supra lucrum sub ruina steterunt This I read with marveilous great content for thereby I vnderstood that our age was not burdened with new vices but such as were anciently practised nor that Auarice now first searched into the veines of the earth stones seeking out those things which Nature hath buried in darkenes Euen those our Ancestours whom we so highly extoll to whom we complaine that our selues are vnlike in hope of lucre cut thorow mountains and vnder danger of ruine stood vpon their gaine It cannot be denyed but that a wicked Gouernour hath many times a good successour and a gracelesse father a godly and vertuous sonne Egregia est soboles scelerato nata parente A worthles sire begets a worthy sonne Thus Constantine succeeded to Dioclesian Iouinian to Iulian Alexander Seuerus to Heliogabalus Hezekias to Ahaz Iosias to Ammon And doubtles were the son alwayes worse then the faher the successour then the predecessour and succeeding ages then the proceeding villny had long ere this stretched it selfe to the vtmost period that complaint which the satyrist vttered by way of Poeticall aggrauation had long before this time beene verified in truth and in deede Non habet vlterius quod nostris moribus addat Posteritas Nought hath posterity Which to our manners may yet further added be SECT 2. The extreame follie of the ancients in adoring invocating images IN this comparison of manners I will first begin with the Religion of the Ancients which ouer-spread almost the whole world because from their foule errours in matters of the first Table we shall easily guesse at their grosse irregularities in those of the second the duties of the latter depending vpon the obseruation of the former And besides in the very choice exercise of their Religion will appeare much inhumanitie brutish stupiditie Their Idols of gold siluer stone and wood were to the inspired pen-men of holy writ so ridiculous that euery where they inveigh against them as most sottish vaniâ—…es and the worshippers of them as men voide of common Reason shewing themselues more blockish then the very blockes they adored in that being themselues made according to Gods image they worshipped images made with their owne hands and bestowed vpon their owne workes the Deitie of him from whom they receiued breath and being Their Idols are silver and gold saith the Prophet Dauid euen the workes of mens hands they haue a mouth and speake not eyes haue they and see not they haue eares and heare not noses haue they and smell not they haue hands and touch not feete haue they and walke not they that make them are like vnto 〈◊〉 and so are all they that put their trust in them And the Prophet Esay hauing shewed how a man plants a tree when it is grown vp cuts it downe with part thereof he baketh his bread with part he rosteth his meate warmeth himselfe and with the residue thereof he maketh his god euen his Idoll The Carpenter stretcheth out a line he fashioneth it with a red thread he planeth and he pourtraieth it with the compasse and maketh it after the figure of a man and according to the beauty of a man that it may remaine in an house then boweth he and worshippeth and prayeth vnto it and saith Deliuer me for thou art my God And therevpon inferres they haue not knowen nor vnderstood for God hath shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot vnderstand And the Prophet Ierimy much to like purpose one cutteth a tree out of the Forrest with an axe and another decketh it with siluer and with gold they fasten it with nayles and hammers that it fall not the Idoles stand vp as a palme tree but they speake not They are borne because they cannot goe and then concludes They dote and are foolish for the stock is a doctrine of vanity But most liuely elegantly yet with scorne and derision haue we this blockish vanity described in the booke of Wisedome Miserable are they and among the dead is their hope that call them Gods which are the workes of mens hands gold siluer and the thing that is invented by Art the similitude of beasts or any vaine stone that hath beene made by the hand of antiquity Or as when a Carpenter cutteth downe a tree meete for the worke and pareth off all the barke thereof cunningly by Art maketh a vessell profitable for the vse of life and the things that are cut off from his worke he bestoweth to dresse his meat to fill himselfe that which is left of these things which is profitable for nothing for it is a crooked peece of wood full of knobs he carueth it diligently at his leisure according as hee is expert in cunning he giueth it a proportion fashioneth it after the similitude of a man or maketh it like some vile beast and straketh it ouer with vermilion painteth and couereth euery spot that is in it And when he hath made a convenient Tabernacle for it he setteth it in a wall maketh it fast with iron providing so for it lest it fall for hee knoweth that it cannot helpe it selfe because it is an image that hath need of helpe Then he prayeth for his goods for his marriage and for his children hee is not ashamed to speake vnto it that hath no life hee calleth on him that is weake for health he prayeth vnto him that is dead for life he requireth helpe of him that hath no experience at all for his journey him that is not able to goe and for gaine and successe in his affaires asketh ability to doe of him that is most vnable to doe any thing This childish foppery the Primitiue Christians also scoffed laughed at Quae amentia est aut ea fingere quae ipsi postmodum timeant aut timere quae finxerunt saith Lactantius What a madnesse is it either to make things which themselues feare or to feare those things which themselues haue made Nec intelligunt homines ineptissimi quod si sentire simulacra movere possent vltrò adoratura homines fuissent à quibus sunt expolita Neither doe these foolish men vnderstand that the images they adore had they but sense motion would adore them who framed formed them Sed haeo nemo considerat ac mentes eorum penitus succum stultitiae perbiberunt adorant ergo insensibilia qui sentiunt irrationalia qui sapiunt exanima qui vivunt terrena qui oriuntur è coelo Iuvat ergo velut in aliqua sublimi specula constitutum vnde vniversi exaudire possint Persianum illud proclamare O cur as hominum ô quantum est in rebus inane O curvae in terris animae coelestium inanes But these things none considereth
Odijs neque fusus acerbis Cruor horrida tinxerat arma Vtinam modo nostra redirent In mores tempora priscos Thrice happy former age well pleas'd With faithfull fields from riot free Whose hunger readily was eas'd With akornes gathered from the tree They skill'd not with Lyaeus juice The liquid honey to compound Nor knew that twice the Serian fleece In Tyrian die was to be drown'd Alarmes of warre were silent then And horrid arms all smear'd with blood Through malice shed of cruell men Were yet vnseene O would to God These times so much degenerate Might turne againe to th' ancient state But that all this adoe about the golden age is but an empty rattle frivolous conceipt like Apuleius his tale of a golden asse Bodin is so confident that he breakes forth into this assertion Aetas illa quam auream vocant si ad hanc nostram conferatur ferrea videri possit That which they call the Golden age being compared with ours may well seeme but iron And in truth he may boldly affirme it if that be true which Cicero writes of it Fuit quoddam tempus cùm in agris homines passim bestiarum more vagabantur sibi victu ferino vitam propagabant nec ratione animi quicquam sed pleraque viribus corporis administrabant Nondum divinae religionis non humani officij ratio colebatur nemo legitimas viderat nuptias non certos quisquam inspexerat liberos non jus aequabile quid vtilitatis haberet acceperant Time was when men like beasts wandered in the fields and maintained their life by the food of beasts neither did they administer their affaires by justice but by bodily strength There was no heed given either to Religion or Reason no man enjoyed lawfull marriage nor with assurance beheld his owne issue neither were they acquainted with the commodity which vpright Lawes bring with them During this golden age flourished Camesis Saturne there is no doubt but by Camesis is vnderstood Cham the son of Noah by Saturne Nimrod whose son Iupiter Belus famous for the deposition of his father incest with his sister many other villanies saw the last of this age Now how vertuous these men times were appeares by the story of Moses C ham like a most vngratious childe discovers and derides the nakednesse of his aged worthy Father was therefore deservedly accursed to be a seruant of servants Nimrod grandchilde to Cham as his name signifies was a notorious Rebell Robustus venator coram Domino a great Oppressour a Robber as Aristotle numbers robberiâ—… among the severall kindes of hunting And besides he is thought to haue beene the ring-leader in that out-ragious attempt of building the towre of Babel And such kinde of men are those Gyants supposed to haue beene who before this are called Mighty men men of renowne In as much as Moses presently adds And God saw that the wickednesse of man was great in the earth and that euery imagination of the thoughts of his heart was onely euill continually And it repented tbe Lord that he had made man on the earth and it grieued him at his heart Quibus verbis intelligit saith Cassanion tantas ea-tempestate fuisse morum corruptelas vt omne vitiositatis nequitiaeque genus vbique regnaret Cùm autem ex robore potentia qua isti pollebant nominis celebritatem adepti sint in eo animadvertere licet qualis fuerit prima mundi nobilitas aestimata non quae pietatis justitiae aliusve cujusdam virtutis specie pulchritudine illustris appareret sed quae solius potentiae fortitudinisue titulo sese venditabat Nam qui tum caeteris valentiores robustioresque erant ij vim aliis audacter inferentes nobiliores praestantioresque censebantur Vnde fortassis illud invaluit ut gentilitia quorundam insignia non nisi crudelium belluarum rapaciumque ferarum volucrium habeant imaginem By which words he vnderstands that such and so great was the vniversall corruption of manners in those times as all kinde of vice and wickednesse euery-where raigned And in that the men of that age are said to haue gotten renown by meanes of their exceeding great might from thence we may gather how the first Nobility of the world was valued not such as was coÌ„spicuous by the beauty Iustre of piety justice or any other vertue but such only as gloried contented it self with the title of streÌ„gth power For those who then were more mighty and powerfull then others and were thereby imboldened to oppresse others were commonly held the most noble and worthy And happily from hence it was that some families carry in their Scutchions the representation of wilde beasts or birds of prey Howsoeuer we are sure that vpon this vniversall invndation of sinne followed the vniversall deluge of water washing and cleansing the earth from that abominable filthinesse which had generally infected and polluted it And as about this time sinne was ripened so in the very infancy of the world it grew vp so fast that the second man in the world wilfully murthered the third being then his only brother And another of the same race soone after was the founder of Polygamie and a while after it is added Then men began to call vpon the name of the Lord as if till then they had not done it at least-wise in publique assemblies And in that Enoch not long after this is said to haue walked with God Iunius giues this note vpon it id est non est sequutus malitiam sui seculi that is he followed not the wicked courses of the age wherein he liued and therefore was he translated least wickednes should alter his vnder standing or deceipt beguile his mind Haec est illa aurea aetas quae talia moÌ„stra nobis educavit this is forsooth that goodly goldeÌ„ age which hath brought into the world bred such foul moÌ„sters After this the world was pestered with a nuÌ„ber of intollerable Tyrants whom Hercules subdued and yet was himselfe accounted by many a Captaine of Pyrats And certaine it is he was most foule and yet I know not whether more foule or strong in matter of lust and both Theseus and Periâ—…hous whom he admitted into his society were of a straine much alike But because these things happily may seeme fabulous let vs listen to Thucidides one of the ancientest truest fathers of history He then hath left vpon record that a little before his time in Greece it selfe so great was the wildnes and barbarousnes thereof that both by sea and land robberies were commonly practised and that without any touch of disgrace it was vsually demaunded of passengers whether they were Theeues or Pyrats And Caesar in a manner reports the same of the Germans Latrocinia nullam habent apud Germanos infamiam quae extra fines cuiusque civitatis fiunt atque ea iuventutis
meanes and instruments which they diuised and practised for their dispatch or torture doth more euidently proue it Quae autem per totum orbem singuli gesserint enarrare impossibile est Quis enim voluminum numerus capiet tam infinita tam varia genera crudelitatis saith Lactantius Those things which in this kinde thorow the world were euery where acted to recount were impossible For what number of volumes can containe so infinite and diverse kindes of cruelty And againe dici non potest huiusmodi iudices quanta quam gravia tormentorum genera excogitaverint vt ad effectum propositi sui pervenirent It cannot be expressed how many and how greivous kindes of torments those Iudges divised that they might attaine the end of their purpose And Gregory to like purpose Quae poenarum genera novimus quae non tum vires Martyrum exercuisse gaudemus What kinde of punishment can we conceiue which we reioyce not then to haue exercised the strength of the Martyrs They were burned in furnaces they were put into vessels of boyling oyle they were pricked vnder the nayles with sharpe needles their breasts were seared their eyes boored their tongues cut out they were rosted at a soft fire with vineger salt powred vpon them they were throwne headlong downe the mountaines rocks vpon sharpe stakes their braines were beaten out with malles their bodies were scraped with sharpe shels and the tallents of wild beasts they were fryed in iron chaires and vpon grid-irons their entrals were torne out and cast before their faces they were crucified with their heads downeward they were hanged by the middles by the haire by the feete their bones were broken with bats they were torne a sunder with the boughes of trees and drawne in peeces with wilde horses they were tossed vpon buls hornes and throwne to Libards Lyons they were couered vnder hogs-meate and so cast to swine they were stabbed with penknifes they were dragged thorow the streets they were fleyd aliue they were couered in the skins of wild beasts and torne in peeces with dogges as witnesseth Tacitus they were set to combate with wild beasts as witnesseth the Apostle of himselfe Non mihi si centum linguae sint oraque centum Ferrea vox omnes scelerum comprendere formas Omnia paenarum percurrere nomina possem An hundred tongues an hundred mouths an yron voice had I I could not all those torments name nor kindes of villany SECT 5. Of their extreame cruelty towards others their very Religion leading them thereunto as witnesseth Lactantius ANd least we should thinke that this cruelty of the Romanes towards the Iewes Câ—…ristians was onely in regard of their Religion their owne Histories informe vs of the like vpon other Nations nay their owne very Religion was it seemes their strongest motiue greatest inducement to cruelty Nec vllam aliam ad immortalitatem viam arbitrantur quam exercitus ducere aliena vastare delere vrbes oppida exsâ—…indere liberos populos aut trucidare aut subijâ—…ere servituti saith Lactantius They conceiue there is no other way to immortality but by leading Armies laying waste other mens Dominions razing cities sacking townes rooting out or bringing vnder the yoke of slauery free-borne people Si quis unum hominem jugulaverit pro contaminato nefario habetur nec ad terrenum hoc domicilium Deorum admitti eum fas putant ille autem qui infinita hominum millia trucidaverit cruore campos inundaverit flumina infecerit non modo in templum sed etiam in coelum admittitur apud Ennium sic loquitur Africanus Si fâ—…s caedendo coelestia scandere cuiquam est Mi soli coeli maxima porta patet Scilicet quia magnam partem generis humani extinxit ac perdidit O quantis in tenebris Africane versatus es vel potius Ô Poeta qui per caedes sanguineÌ„ patere hominibus asoensum in coelum putaveris Cui vanitati Cicero assensit Est vero inquit Africane nam Herculi eadem ipsa porta patuit tanquam ipse planè cum id fieret janitor fuerit in coelo Equidem statuere non possum dolendumne an ridendum putem cum videam graves doctos ut sibi videntur sapientes viros in tam miserandis errorum fluctibus volutari Si haec est virtus quae nos immortales facit mori equidem malim quà m exitio esse quamplurimis If a man kill but one he is held for a villaine neither is thought fit to admit him to the houses of the Gods heere vpon earth but he who murthers infinite thousands waters the fields dies the rivers with blood is not onely admitted into the Temple but into Heauen Thus in Ennius speakes Africanus If man by murdering may climbe Heauen assuredly The widest gate of Heauen is open laid for me Forsooth because he had extinguished and made away a great part of mankinde O with how great darknesse art thou compassed Africanus or rather thou Poet who thoughtest that by slaughter blood an entrance was opened for men into Heauen yet to this vanity euen Cicero himselfe assents It is euen so Africanus saith he for the same gate was open vnto Hercules as if himselfe had then beene a Porter in Heaven when that was done Truly I cannot well determine whether I should rather grieue or laugh when I see graue learned as to theÌ„selues it seemes wise men so miserably tossed vp and downe in the waues of Errour if this be the vertue which makes vs immortall for mine owne part I professe I would rather die then bee the death of so many Yet had this doctrine as it seemes generally taken such deep roote in the mindes of the Romanes that hee who shed most blood was held the worthiest the holiest man that is most like the Gods and fittest for their hahitation which is the chiefe reason as I conceiue that we reade of such wonderfull slaughters committed by them euen to the astonishment of such as haue beene acquainted but with the principles of Christian Religion Within the space of seuenteene yeares their warres only in Italy Spaine Sicily consumed aboue fifteene hundred thousand men Quaesivi enim curiosè saith Lypsius I haue diligently searched into it One Caius Caesar ô pestem perniciemque generis humani O plague mischiefe of mankinde professeth of himselfe and boasteth in it that hee had slaine in the warres eleuen hundred ninety two thousand yet so as the slaughter of his Ciuill warres came not into that account but onely during his commaund a few yeares in Spaine and France Quintus Fabius slew of the French one hundred ten thousand Cajus Marius of the Cimbri two hundred thousand Aetius one hundred sixty two thousand of the Hunnes Polybius writeth that Scipio at the taking of Carthage gaue charge that all should be put to the sword without sparing any And then addes
that of Iuvenall Vberior nunquam vitiorum copia nunquam Maior avaritiae patuit sinus Was never yet more plenteous store of vice Nor deeper gulfe lay ope of avarice And Manilius Nullo votorum fine beati Victuros agimus semper nec viuimus vnquam Never contented with our present state W' are still about to liue but liue not till too late Every man sayth he wishing for that he hath not but making no reckoning of that he hath Nec quod habet numerat tantum quod non habet optat For particulars Pliny tells vs that when Asinius Gallus Martius Censorinus were Consuls died Cecilius Claudius who signified by his last will testament that albeit he had sustained exceeding great losse during the troubles of the civill warres yet he should leaue behind him at the thoure of his death of slaues belonging to his retinew foure thousand one hundred sixteene in oxen three thousand and six hundred yoke of other cattell two hundred fifty seaven thousand and in ready coine three score millions of sesterces besides a very great summe he set out for defraying his funerall charges And for Marcus Crassus the same Authour in the same chapter affirmes that he was wont to say that no man was to be accounted rich and worthy of that title vnlesse he were able to despend by the yeare asmuch in revenew as would maintaine a legion of souldiers And verily saith Pliny his owne lands were esteemed worth two hundred millions of Sesterces and yet such was his avarice that he could not content himselfe with that wealthy estate but vpon an hungry desire to haue all the gold of the Parthians would needs vndertake a voyage against them in which expedition hee was taken prisoner by Surinas Lieutenant Generall for the King of Parthia who stroke off his head and powred gold melted into his mouth to satisfie his hunger after it But I most wonder at Seneca the Philosopher who every where in his writings bitterly inveighs against these co vetous desires yet within foure yeares space gathered he three thousand times three hundred thousand Sesterces which amounts in our coyne to 2343750 pounds and in casting vp this summe both the Translatour of Tacitus his Annales and Master Brerewood precisely accords And whatsoever faire pretence he make in his bookes of mortification and contempt of the world yet certaine it is that beside this masse of treasure he had goodly farmes in the countrey as appeares by his owne Epistles and in the citty spacious gardens princely sumptuous palaces the one mentioned by Iuvenall Sat. 10. Senecae praedivitis hortos The gardens of Seneca the rich The other by Martiall lib 4. Epigram 40 Et docti Senecae ter numeranda domus Three houses of Seneca the learn'd SECT 2. Of their wonderfull greedinesse of gold manifested by their great toyle and danger in working their mines fully and liuely described by Pliny BVt that which much more aggravates this vice of the Romanes is that commonly they gathered their riches either by violent rapine extortion oppression or by cunning slights base practises or lastly by the infinite toyle of such as therein they imployed not without the indangering of the liues of many thousands I will begin with the last and that I may the more cleerely and effectually expresse it I will deliver it in the words of Pliny where he thus speakes of the earth torne and rent in sunder for rich mettals and pretious stones The misvsages saith he which she abideth aboue and in her outward skin may seeme in some sort tollerable but we not satisfied therewith pierce deeper and enter into her very bowells wee search into the veines of gold silver we mine digge for copper lead mettals and for to seeke out gemmes some little stones we strike pits deepe within the ground Thus we plucke the very heart-strings out of her and all to weare on our finger one gemme or pretious stone To fulfill our pleasure desire how many handes are worne with digging delving that one â—…oynt of our finger might shine againe Surely if there were any Devils beneath ere this time verily these mines for to feede covetousnes riot would haue brought them vp aboue ground And againe in his proeme to his 33 booke we descend saith he into her entralls we goe downe as farre as to the seate habitation of infernall spirits and all to meete with rich treasure as if the earth were not fruitefull enough beneficiall vnto vs in the vpper face thereof where she permitteth vs to walke and tread vpon her Now the infinite toyle the fearefull and continuall danger of these workes he notably describeth in the fourth chapter of the same booke The third manner of searching of this mettall is saith he so painefull and toylesome that it surpasseth the wonderfull worke of the Gyants in old time For necessary it is in this enterprice and businesse to vndermine a great way by candle light and to make hollow vautes vnder the mountaines in which labour the Pioners worke by turnes successiuely after the manner of a releife in a set watch keeping every man his houres in just measure and in many a moneths space they never see the sunne nor day-light This kinde of worke mines they call Arrugiae wherein it falleth out many times that the earth aboue head chinketh and all at once without giving any warning setleth falleth so as the poore Pioners are overwhelmed buried quicke yet say they worke safe enough and be not in jeopardy of their liues by the fall of the earth yet be their other difficulties which impeach their worke For other whiles they meete with rockes of flint and ragges which they are driven to cleaue pierce thorow with fire vineger yet for feare of being stifled with the vapour arising from thence they are forced to giue ouer such fire-workes betake themselues oftentimes to great mattockes pickaxes yea and to other engines of iron weighing one hundred fiftie pound a peece where with they hew such rockes in peeces so sinke deeper make way before them The earth and stones which with somuch adoe they haue thus loosed they are faine to carry from vnder their feete in scuttles and baskets vpon their shoulders which passe from hand to hand evermore to the next fellow Thus they moyle in the darke both day night in these infernall dungeons and none of them see the light of the day but those that are last next vnto the pits mouth or entry of the caue Howbeit be the rocke as ragged as it will they count not that their hardest worke For there is a certaine earth resembling a kind of tough clay which they call white Lome this being intermingled with gravell or gritty sand is so hard baked together that there is no dealing with it it so scorneth and checketh all their ordinary tooles
from hence I beleeue hath chiefely growen in the world so great an admiration of them in many things beyond all succeeding ages and their deserts But certaine it is that never any people vnder the Sunne more daringly chalenged to themselues the toppe of all perfection Nulla vnquam Respub nec maior nec sanctior nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit sayth Livie Never was there any common-wealth more ample or holy or rich in good examples Gentiuâ—… in toto orbe praestantissima vna in omni virtute haud dubie Romana exstitit saith Pliny The Romane Nation hath beene doubtlesse of all others in all kinde of vertue the most excellent Nulla Gens est quae non aut ita subacta sit vt vix exstet aut ita domita vt quiescat aut ita pacata vt victoria nostra imperioque laetatur sayth Tully There is no Nation which either is not so vtterly vanquished as it is extinguished or so mastered as it is quieted or so pacified that it rejoyceth in our victorie and Empire and Claudian Haec est exiguis quae finibus orta tetendit In geminos axes parvaque à sede profecta Dispersit cum sole manus Small were her confines when she first begun Now stretcheth to both poles small her first seat Yet now her hands shee spreadeth with the Sunne This seemed not enough vnto Caecilius against whom Arnobius writes for he sayth that the Romans did Imperiuâ—… suum vltra solis vias prapagare They inlarged their dominion beyond the course of the Sun And Ovid he commeth not a steppe behind them in this their exaggerated amplification For he sayth that if God should looke downe from heaven vpon the earth he could see nothing there without the power of the Romanes Iupiter arce sua totum cum spectet in orbem Nil nisi Romanum quod tueatur habet Yea and as Egesippus recordeth there were many that thought the Romane Empire so great and so largely diffused over the face of the whole earth that they called orbem terrarum orbem Romanum the globe of the earth the globe of the Romanes the whole world the Romane world Hyperbolicall speeches which though Lypsius put off with an animosèmagis quam superbè dicta as arguing rather magnanimitie then ostentation yet Dyonisius Halicarnassaeus somewhat more warily limits them thus Romana vrbs imperat toti terrae quae quidem inaccessa non sit the citty of Rome commaunds the whole earth where it is not inaccessible But Lypsius himselfe more truly quicquid oportunum aut dignum vinci videbatur vicit it overcame whatsoeuer it could well overcome or thought worthy the ouercomming And Macrobius though himselfe a Roman ingenuously acknowledgeth Gangem transnare aut Caucasum transcendere Romà ni nominis fama non valuit The fame of the Romans as great as it was yet was neuer so great as to be able to swimme ouer the Riuer Ganges or climbe ouer the mountaine Caucasus so that euen their fame came short of their swelling amplifications vsed by their Orators and Poets but their Dominion came much shorter as is expressely affirmed by the same Author Totius terrae quae ad coelum puncti locum obtinet minima quaedam particula à nostri generis hominibus possidetur Though the whole Earth compared with the Heauens bee no bigger then a Center in the midst of a Circle yet scarce the least parcell of this little earth did euer come into the hands of the Romans Yet how could a man well devise to say more then Propertius hath said of that City Omnia Romanae cedant miracula terrae Natura hic posuit quicquid vbique fuit All miracles to Rome must yeeld for heere Nature hath treasur'd all what 's euery-where Except Martial perchaunce out-vy him Terrarum Dea gentiumque Roma Cui par est nihil nihil secundum Of Lands and Nations Goddesse Rome and Queene To whom novght peere nought second yet hath beene Which Frontinus seemes to borrow from him but with some addition of his owne Romana vrbs indiges terrarumque Dea cui par est nihil nihil secundum Now saith Crinitus alleaging those words of Frontinus Eos dicimus ferè indigetes qui nullius rei egeant id enim est tantum Deorum wee vsually call those indigites which want nothing for that is proper to the Gods Hubertus Golzius in his treasure of Antiquity hath effigiated two peeces of coine the one with a Greeke Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other with this in Latin ROMA DEA the meaning of both being that Rome was a Goddesse neither was this figuratiuely but properly vnderstood she hauing advanced her selfe into the number of the Gods as witnesseth Dion in Augustus nay erected Temples and addressed sacrifices to her selfe as testifie Victor and Onuphrius in their descriptions of Rome which Prudentius a Christian Poet both glances at and deservedly derides Colitur nam sanguine ipsa More Deae nomenque loci seâ—… numen hà betur Atque Vrbis Venerisque pari se culmine tollunt Templa simul geminis adolentur thure deabus Shee Goddesse-like is worshipped with blood A places name is hallowed for a god As high as Venus Cities Church doth rise And joint to both they incense sacrifice And Lucan as to a Goddesse directs his prayer solemnely vnto her summique ô numinis instar Roma saue câ—…ptis And thou as greatest power divine Favour O Rome this enterprise of mine Her Temple was situate vpon mount Palatine as appeares by that of Claudian bringing in the Provinces as suppliants to visite the Goddesse Conveniunt ad tecta Deae quae candida lucent Monte Palatino They meet at th'Goddesse Temple which doth shine So white and glorious on mount Palatine But this was in truth such a mad drunkennesse with pride and self-loue that Lypsius himselfe cannot hold from crying out O insaniam aedificijs inanimato corpori non vitam solùm attribuere sed numen O strange madnesse to ascribe vnto houses and stones and a dead body not life onely but a deity And being now a Goddesse shee might well take to her selfe that of old Babylon a type of her pride I sit as a Queene and am no widdow shall see no sorrow and challenge to her selfe aeternity as most blasphemously she did as is to be seene in the coine of the Emperour Probus in which we haue Rome set forth sitting in her Temple in a victorious triumphant manner hauing on the one side this inscription Conserv vrbis suae and on the other Romae aeternae and so is it expressely named both by Symmachus and Ammianus Marcellinus And Suetonius testifies in the life of Nero cap. 11 that of all their seuerall kindes of playes pro aeternitate imperij susceptos appellari maximos voluit those which were exhibited for the aeternity of the Empire should bee had in greatest
all To Chaos backe returne then all the starres shall be Blended together then those burning lights on high In sea shall drench earth then her shores will not extend But to the waues giue way the moone her course shall bend Crosse to her brothers and disdaining still to driue Her chariot wheels athward the heavenly orbe shall striue To rule the day this frame to discord wholy bent The worlds peace shall disturbe and all in sunder rent SECT 3. That the world shall haue an end by fire proved likewise by the testimony of the Gentiles ANd as they held that the world should haue an end so likewise that this end should come to passe by fire Exustionis hujus odor quidam etiam ad Gentes manauit sayth Ludovicus Vives speaking of the generall combustion of the world some sent of this burning hath spread it selfe even to the Gentiles And Saint Hierome in his comment on the 51 of I say Quae quidem Philosophorum mundi opinio est omnia quae cernimus igni peretura which is also the opinion of the Philosophers of this world that all which we behold shall perish by fire Eusebius is more particular affirming it to be the doctrine of the Stoicks and namely of Zeno Cleanthes Chrysippus the most ancient among them Certaine it is that Seneca a principall Scholler or rather Master of that sect both thought it taught it Et Sydera Syderibus incurrent omni flagrante materia vnâ—… igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet ardebit The starres shall make inrodes one vpon another and all the whole world being in a flame whatsoever now shines in comely and decent order shall burne together in one fire Panaetius likewise the Stoick feared as witnesseth Cicero ne ad extremum mundus ignesceret least the world at last should be burnt vp with fire And with the Stoicks heerein Pliny agrees Consumente vbertatem seminum exustione in cujus vices nunc vergat aevum the heate burning vp the plentifull moisture of all seedes to which the world is now hastening Numeâ—…us also saith good soules continue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vntill the dissolution of all things by fire And with the Philosophers their Poets accord Lucan as hee held that the world should haue an end so in speciall by fire where speaking of those whom Caesar left vnburned at the battle of Pharsalia hee thus goes on Hos Caesar populos si nunc non vsserit ignis Vret cum terris vret cum gurgite ponti Communis mundo superest rogus ossibus astra Misturus If fire may not these corpes to ashes turne O Caesar now when earth and seas shall burne It shall a common fire the world shall end And with these bones those heau'nly bodies blend As for Ovia he deduces it from their propheticall records Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus Quo mare quo tellus convexaque regia coeli Ardeat mundi moles operosa laborat Besides he calls to minde how by decree Of fates a time shall come when earth and sea And Heavens high Throne shall faint and the whole frame Of this great world shall be consum'd in flame Which he borrowed saith Ludovicus Vives ex fatis indubiè Sybillinis vndoubtedly from the Oracles of Sybilla And indeed verses there are which goe vnder the name of Sybilla to the very same purpose Tunc ardens fluvius coelo manabit ab alto Igneus atque locos consumâ—…t funditus omnes Terramque Oceanumque ingentem caerula ponti Stagnaque tum fluvios fontes ditemque Severum Coelestemque polum coeli quoque lumina in unum Fluxa ruent formâ deletâ prorsus eorum Astra cadent etenim de coelo cuncta revulsa Then shall a burning floud flow from the Heavens on high And with its fiery streames all places vtterly Destroy earth ocean lakes rivers fountaines hell And heavenly poles the Lights in firmament that dwell Loosing their beauteous forme shall be obscur'd and all Raught from their places down from heaven to earth shall fall He that yet desires farther satisfaction in this point may reade Eugubinus his tenth booke de Perenni Philosophia Magius de exustione Mundi And so I passe to my third and last point proposed in the beginning of this Chapter which is that the whole world by fire shall totally and intirely be consumed SECT 4. That the world shall be by fire totally and finally dissolved and annihilated prooved by Scripture I Am not ignorant that the opinions of Divines touching the manner of the Consummation of the world haue beene as different as the greatest part of them are strange and improbable some imagining that all the Creatures which by Almighty God were made at the first beginning shall againe be restored to that perfection which they injoyed before the fall of man Others that the Heauens and Elements shall onely be so restored others that the Heauens and onely two of the Elements the Aire and the Earth others againe that the old world shall be wholly abolished and a new created in steed thereof and lastly others which I must confesse to me seemes the most likely opinion and most agreeable to scripture and reason that the whole world with all the parts and workes thereof onely men and Angels and Divels and the third Heauens the mansion-house of the Saints and blessed Angels and the place and instruments appointed for the tormenting of the damned excepted shall be totally and finally dissolued and annihilated As they were made out of nothing so into nothing shall they returne againe In the prooving whereof I will first produce mine owne arguments and then shew the weakenes of the adverse Man lieth downe and riseth not saith Iob till the heauens be no more Of old hast thou laide the foundation of the earth and the heauens are the worke of thy hands They shall perish but thou shalt endure saith the Psalmist which the Apostle in the first to the Hebrewes and the 10. and the 11. repeates almost in the same words Lift vp your eyes to the heauens and looke vpon the earth beneath for the heauens shall vanish away like smoake and the earth shall waxe old as doth a garment saith the Prophet Esay and in another place all the host of heauen shal be dissolved the heauen shal be rolled together as a scroll all their host shall fall downe as the leafe falleth off from the vine and as a falling fig from the figge tree To the former of which wordes S. Iohn seemes to allude And the heauen departed as a scroll which is rolled together Heauen earth shall passe away but my word shall not passe away saith our Saviour The day of the Lord will come as a theefe in the night in the which the Heauens shall passe away with a great noise and the Elements shall melt with fervent heate The earth
also the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp saith S. Peter And I saw a great white throne him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heauen fled away and there was found no place for them saith S. Iohn Now I would demaund whether being no more as Iob perishing as David vanishing away like smoake dissolving rolling together falling downe as a withered leafe or a dry fig from the tree as Esay passing away as our Saviour passing away with a great noise melting with feruent heate burning vp as S. Peter or lastly flying away so as their place be found no more as S. Iohn doe not include an vtter abolition or at leastwise exclude a restitution to a perfecter estate once Beza I am sure is so evidently convinced by the alleadged words of S. Peter that he plainly confesses the dissolution the Apostle there speakes of to be a kinde of annihilation And both Tilenus Meisnerus are confident that those who hold a restitution will neuer be able to reconcile their opinion with the alleadged Scriptures If we looke back to higher times before S. Hierome we shall not easily finde any who maintained it And certaine it is that Clement in his Recognitions or whosoeuer were the Author of that worke brings in S. Peter reasoning with Simon Magus teaching that there were two Heauens the one Superius invisibile aeternum quod Spiritus beati incolunt the highest invisible and eternall which bl◅ssed spirits inhabite the other inferius visibile varijs distinctum syderibus corruptibile in consummatione saeculi dissolvendum prorsus abolendum lower visible distinguished with diverse starres corruptible and at the worlds end to be dissolued and vtterly abolished Now though that worke were not Clements yet was it doubtlesse very ancient being quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen and remembred by S. Hierome in his Commentaries vpon Esay and is of sufficient authority against those who receiue it for my selfe I stand not vpon his authority but the rock of Scripture and reason drawne from thence and the force of naturall discourse SECT 5. The same farther prooved by reason THE first then and as I conceiue the most weighty argument is taken from the End of the Worlds creation which was partly and chiefely the glory of the Creator and partly the vse of man the Lord Deputy as it were or Viceroy thereof Now for the glory of the Creator it being by the admirable frame of the World manifested vnto man man being remoued out of the world and no Creature being capable of such a manifestation besides him wee cannot imagine to what purpose the frame it selfe should bee left and restored to a more perfect estate The other end being for mans vse either to supply his necessity in matter of diet of Physick of building of apparell or for his instruction direction recreation comfort and delight or lastly that therein as in a looking-glasse he might contemplate the wisdome the power and the goodnesse of God when he shall attaine that blessed estate as he shall haue no farther use of any of these enjoying perfect happinesse and seeing God as he is face to face the second or subordinate end of the Worlds being must needs be likewise frustrate And what other end can bee giuen or conceiued for the remaining or restoring thereof for mine owne part I must professe I cannot conceiue And to affirme that it shal be restored withal to assigne no end wherefore is ridiculous and vnreasonable An house being built for an inhabitant as the World was for man If it bee decreed that it shall no more be inhabited it were but vanity to repaire much more to adorne and beautifie it farther And therefore when mankinde shall bee dislodged and remoue from hence therevpon shall instantly ensue the Consummation or End not the reparation or restitution but the End of the world So the Scriptures call it in plaine tearmes and so I beleeue it And in truth some Divines considering that of necessity some end must bee assigned haue falne vpon ends so absurd and vnwarrantable that the very naming of them were sufficient to make a man beleeue there was no such matter indeed Some then and that of our owne Church and that in published bookes for the clearing of this objection haue fancied to themselues an intercourse of the Saints after the resurrection betwixt heauen and earth and that full Dominion ouer the Creatures which by the fall of Adam was lost Others are of opinion that the Earth after the day of judgement being renewed with fire and more pleasantly apparelled shall be the mansion of such as neither by their merits haue deserued heauen nor hell by their demerits And lastly others that such as haue died in their infancy without circumcision or Baptisme might possesse it Now what meere dreames these are of idle braines if I should but endeavour to demonstrate I feare I should shew my selfe more vaine in vouchsafing them a confutation then they in publishing them to the World And yet they are the best wee see that Learned men by the strength of their wits can finde out My second reason shall be drawne from the nature of the world and the quality of the parts thereof which are supposed shall bee restored to their originall integrity and so in that state euerlastingly remaine I will begin with the vegetables and Creatures endued with sense concerning them would willingly learne whether they shall bee all restored or some onely namely such as shall be found in being at the day of Iudgment if all where shall we finde stowage for them Surely we may in this case properly apply that which the Evangelist in another case vses figuratiuely if they should all be restored euē the world it self could not cōtain the things which should be restored if some only thē would I gladly know why those some should be vouchsafed this great honour not all or how these creatures without a miracle shal be restrained frō propagating multiplying that infinitly their kinds by a perpetuall generatiō Or lastly how the several individuals of these kinds shall cōtrary to their primitiue natures liue dure immortally But to make a good sound answere to these demaunds is a point of that difficulty that the greatest part of Divines rather choose to leaue out the mixt bodies preferre only the heavens the elements to this pretended dignity of restitution though about the number of the Elements to be restored they all agree not But heere againe I would demaund whether the world without the mixt bodies can truly be sayd to be more perfect and beautifull then before whether the inbred and inseparable qualities of the Elements as thickenesse and thinnesse weight lightnesse heate cold moisture drynesse shall remaine if they shall not how shall they remaine Elements if they shall how without
whom they derided and vilified or what greater comfort and content to the other then to be justified and rewarded in the view of them who were their professed enemies Lastly as our blessed Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ who shall then appeare as Iudge at his first comming into this world was contemptible in the eye of wordlings and dishonoured publiquely both in his life and death So was it convenient that once in this world hee should shew his power and Majesty and that in the sight of all his Creatures but specially of his wicked enimies who after that day are never to see or behold him more To these reasons may be added the testimonie of the very Gentiles of Hydaspes Hermes Sybilla whereof the first having described the iniquity of the last age sayes that the godly and righteous men being severed from the vntighteous shall with teares and groanes lift vp their hands to heaven imploring the helpe of Iupiter and that therevpon Iupiter shall regard the earth heare their prayers and destroy the wicked Quae omnia vera sunt praeter vnum quod Iovem dixit illa facturum quae Deus faciet saith Lactantius all which things are true saue one which is that he ascribes that to Iupiter which God shall doe And besides sayth he it was not without the cunning suggestion of Sathan left out that then the Sonne of God shall be sent from the father who destroying the wicked shall set the righteous at liberty Which Hermes notwithstan ding dissembled not Part of Sybilla's verses alleadged by Lactantius in Greeke may thus be rendred in Latine English Huic luci finem imponent cum fata supremum Iudicium aethereus Pater exercebit in omnes Iudicium humano generi imperiumque verendum When God shall to this world its fatall period send Th' immortall mortall men in judgment shall arraigne Great shall his judgment be his Kingdome without end And againe Tartareumque chaos tellure hiscente patebit Regesque aetherij sistentur judicis omnes Ante thronum Tartarean Chaos then Earth opening wide shall show And then all kings before Gods judgment seat shall bow And in another place Coelum ego convolvens penetralia caeca recludam Telluris functique fati lege soluti Et mortis stimulo exurgent cunctosque tribunal Ante meum Iudex statuam reprobosque probosque Rolling vp Heauen I will Earths secret vaults disclose Deaths sting also and bonds of fate will I vnloose Then shall the dead arise and all both small and great Both good and bad shall stand before my judgment seat Ouer and aboue these Prophets and men of learning Peru the South part of America doth yeeld to vs an ignorant people who by the light of Nature and a generall apprehension for God knoweth they haue nothing else doe beleeue that the World shall end and that there shall be then a reward for the good and for the euill according to their desert SECT 2. The consideration of this day may first serue for terrour to the wicked whether they regard the dreadfulnesse of the day it selfe or the quality of the Iudge by whom they are to be tryed THe certainty then of this vniversall Iudgment at the last day being thus cleerely prooued not only by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament but by the light of Reason and the testimonies of the Gentiles the consideratiō thereof may justly serue for terrour to the wicked it being to them a day of wrath and vengeance for Comfort to the Godly it being to them a day of refreshing and full redemption and lastly for admonition instruction to both First then it may justly serue for matter of extreame terrour to the wicked whether they regard the dreadfulnes of the day in which they shall be tryed or the quality of the Iudge by whom they are to be tryed or the nature number of their accusers that shall bring in evidence against them or the presence of such an assembly of men and Angels before whom they shall be arraigned or their owne guiltinesse and astonishment or lastly the sharpnesse and severity of the sentence that shall passe vpon them The very face and countenance of that day shall be hideous and dismall to looke to it shal be apparelled with horrour and affrightment on euery side That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and heavinesse a day of destruction and desolation a day of gloominesse and darknesse a day of clouds stormes and blacknesse a day of the trumpet and alarme against the strong cities and against the high towres Then shall the Sun be darkned and the Moone shall be turned into bloud and the starres shall fall from heauen as it were withered leaues from their trees and the powers of heauen shall be shaken and the graues shall vomit vp their dead bodies the heauens shall passe away with a noise and shriuel together like scorched parchment the elements shall melt dissolue with heat the sea flouds shall roare the Earth with the works that are therein shall be burnt vp there shall be horrible clapps of thunder flashes of lightning voyces earthquakes such as neuer were since men dwelt vpon the earth such howling such lamentations such skriches shall be heard in euery corner that the hearts of men shall tremble wither for very feare and expectation of those things which at that day shall befall them And now tell me what mortall heart can choose but ake and quake at the remembrance of these vnspeakable incomprehensible terrours The Law was giuen with thunder lightnings and a thick cloud vpon the mount with an exceeding lowde and shrill sound of the trumpet so that all the people were afrayde yea so terrible was the sight that Moses said I feare and quake Now if Moses the servant of the Lord quaked to heare the first trumpet at the giuing of the Law how shall the wicked condemned in their owne Conscience tremble and quake to heare the second at the execution thereof Specially being arraigned at the barre of such a Iudge apparelled with Robes of Majesty attended with millions of Angels A Iudge so soueraigne as there lyes no appeale from him so wise as nothing can escape his knowledge so mighty as nothing can resist his power so vpright as nothing can pervert his justice who neither can bee deceiued with sophistry nor blinded with gifts nor terrified with threats They shall looke vpon him whom they haue wounded and gored with the speare of their blasphemies with the nailes of their cursings and cursed oathes whō they haue buffeted spit vpon with their impiety prophanesse whō they haue again crucified to themselues by their divelish damnable actions trampling his pretious Bloud vnder foot by their impenitencie putting him to open shame by their infidelity making a mock of him by their obstinacy and turning his grace into wantonnes by their presumption Holy Augustine
considering that with thee is the well of life in thy presence is the fulnes of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore By parting from thee then wee part from the blisfull vision of the face of God from the fruition of the happy fellowship of the holy Angels and society of Saints and consequently from happinesse it selfe What remaines then but that parting from happinesse wee should indeede become most miserable and accursed Caitifs Depart from me yee Cursed Men sometimes curse where God blesses and blesse where God curses They can only pronounce a man cursed they cannot make him so but heere it is otherwise for with this powerfull and righteous Iudge to pronounce is to make when he cursed the figge tree it instantly withered And as these impenitent Sinners loved cursing so shall it come vnto them and as they loved not blessing so shall it be farre from them As they cloathed themselues with cursing like a rayment so shall it come into their bowels like water and like oyle into their bones it shall be vnto them as a garment to cover them and for a girdle wherewith they shall be alway girded Cursed shall be the day of their conception cursed the day of their birth Cursed they shall be in their soules and cursed in their bodies Cursed in their thoughts and cursed in their desires cursed in their speeches and cursed in their actions Cursed in the haynousnes of their sinne and cursed in the grievousnesse of their punishment cursed in their punishment of losse for their aversion from the Creator Depart from me and cursed in their punishment of sense for their conversion to the Creature Depart from me into everlasting Fire Of all the Creatures appointed by Almighty God to be instruments for the execution of his vengeance water and fire are noted to haue the least mercy And therefore with fire brimstone consumed he the filthy Sodomites a type of this hellish fire as Sodome was of hell it selfe If creating an element heere for our comfort I meane the fire he made the same so insufferable as it is in such sort as a man would not hold his onely hand therein one day to gaine a kingdome what a fire thinke you hath he provided for hell which is not created for comfort but only for torment Our fire hath many differences from that and therefore is truly sayd of the holy Fathers to be but as a painted or fained fire in respect of that For first our fire was made to comfort as I haue sayd and that only to afflict and torment Our fire hath need to be fed continually with wood and fewell or else it goeth out that burneth eternally without feeding and is vnquenchable for that the breath of the Lords owne mouth doth blowe and nourish it Our fire worketh only vpon the body immediatly vpon the soule being a spirit it cannot worke that worketh vpon the soule separated from the bodie as it likewise doth vpon the Apostate Angells and vpon both soule and bodie rejoyned Our fire giveth light which of it selfe is comfortable that admitteth none but is full of dismall darkenesse Our fire may be extinguished or the rage of it abated with water that cannot Ours breedeth weeping that not only weeping but gnashing of teeth the ordinary effect of cold Such a strange and incredible fire it is that it implies contraries and so terrible is this Iudge to his enimies that he hath devised a wonderfull way how to torment them with burning heate and chilling cold both at once Lastly our fire consumeth the food that is cast into it and thereby in short space dispatcheth the paines whereas that afflicteth tormenteth but consumeth not to the end the paines may be Everlasting as is the fire O deadly life O immortall death what shall I tearme thee Life and wherefore then dost thou kill Death and wherefore then dost thou endure There is neither Life nor Death but hath something good in it For in life there is some ease and in death an end but thou hast neither ease nor end What shall I tearme thee even the bitternesse of both For of death thou hast torment without any end and of life the continuance without any ease so long as God shall liue so long shall the damned die and when he shall cease to be happy then shall they also cease to be miserable A starre which is farre greater then the earth appeareth to be a small spot in comparison of the heavens much lesse shall the age of man seeme yea much lesse the age and continuance of the whole world in regard of this perpetuity of paines The least moment of time if it be compared with tenne thousand millions of yeares because both tearmes are finite and the one a part of the other beareth although a very small yet some proportion but this or any other number of yeares in respect of endlesse eternity is nothing lesse then just nothing For all things that are finite may bee compared together but betweene that which is finite and that which is infinite there standeth no comparison O sayth one holy Father in a godly meditation if a sinner damned in hell did know that hee had to suffer those torments no more thousand yeares then there be sands in the sea or grasse leaues on the ground or no more thousand millions of ages then there be Creatures in heaven hell and in earth he would greatly rejoyce for that he would comfort himselfe at the leastwise with this cogitation that once yet the matter would haue an end But now sayth this good man this word never breaketh his heart considering that after an hundred thousand millions of worlds if there might be so many he hath as farre to his journeyes end as hee had the first day of his entrance into those torments And surely if a man that is sharpely pinched with the goute or the stone or but with thetoothach and that they hold him but by fits giving him some respite betweene-whiles notwithstanding doe thinke one night exceeding long although he lie in a soft bed well applied cared for how tedious doe wee thinke eternity will seeme to those that shall be vniuersally in all their parts continually without intermission perpetually without end or hope of end schorched in those hellish flames which besides that they are everlasting haue this likewise added that they are prepared for the Devill and his Angells Prepared by whom surely by the Iudge himselfe who giues the sentence Now if but mortall Iudges should set and search their wits to devise prepare a punishment for some notorious malefactour what grievous tortures doe they often finde out able to make a man tremble at the very mentioning of them what kinde of punishment then shall wee conceiue this to be which this immortall King of Heauen Earth this Iudge both of the quick dead hath prepared Surely his invention this way is as farre beyond the reach
the other commaunding the one out of thy presence with an Ite Goe and inviting the other to approach neere with a Venite Come Come come my deare hearts now is the time that you must rest from your labours that your teares must be wip'd off that your long expectatiō longing hope must be turned into fruitiō your race is at an end you must now receiue the prize your wrestling at an end you must now receiue the garland your combating at an end you must now receiue the Crowne Come yee Blessed of my Father Blessed in your liues and blessed in your deaths blessed in your election blessed in your vocation blessed in your adoption blessed in your justification blessed in your sanctification and now for accomplishment of all most blessed in your glorification And the fountaine of all this your blessednes is none other then the very Father of blessings my Father and your Father mine by nature yours by grace mine by eternall generation and yours by spirituall regeneration And whom the Father blesses the Son cannot but most lovingly and tenderly imbrace Come yee blessed of my Father what to doe to inherit a Kingdome Least my words should seeme to be but winde least my promises should seeme to be vaine and your patience and beleeving vaine Come receiue that which I haue promised and you haue beleeved Come and take actuall possession of it yet not as a purchase of your owne but as an inheritance not as wages but as a reward not as bought by the value of your merits but conferred vpon you by the vertue of my sufferings and the benediction of my Father as the cause and your sonne-shippe and obedience as the condition Your title is good your evidence faire so as no exception can be taken to your right nothing so much as pretended or pleaded to disinherit you Come on then chearefully make hast and enter vpon it my selfe will leade you the way follow me But what may it bee gracious Lord that wee shall possesse surely no lesse then a Kingdome This reward is sometimes set forth vnto vs vnder the name of a pleasant garden or Paradise of delight sometime of a stately magnificent palace sometime of a large and beautifull Cittie but here of a Kingdome a glorious a spacious a secure a durable Kingdome whose King is the Trinity whose Law is Divinitie whose measure aternity as farre beyond all the kingdomes of this world and all the guilded pompe the glittering power and riches of them as the greatest earthly Monarch is beyond the King in a play Earthly Monarches haue their secret pressures and pinches they haue their feares and cares and griefes and envy and anger and sickenes mixed with their joyes and contents or at least by turnes succeeding them Somewhat is ever wanting to their desires and full of doubtes and jealousies they are that their dominions may be either impaired or invaded And if they were free from the possibility of all those yet may they in a moment and that by a thousand wayes be arrested by death and then all their honour lies in the dust all their thoughts perish But now with them that inherit this heavenly Kingdome it is not so they haue joy and content at full without the least intermission or diminutiō without the least mixture of any feare or care or griefe or envy or anger or any other troublesome passion whatsoever They are out of all doubt jealousie of loosing that which they possesse either in whole or in part they are confident and secure that neither this Kingdome can be taken from them by rebellion or invasion nor they from it by death or deposition And herein againe doth this Kingdome excell all other kingdomes that it is of Gods speciall preparing And such happinesse he hath prepared in it for them that shall possesse it as eye hath not seene eare hath not heard tongue cannot vtter neither hath at any time entred into the heart of man Such as his imagination cannot apprehend nor his vnderstanding possiblely conceiue O my Lord if thou for this vile body of ours hast given vs so great and innumerable benefits from the firmament from the aire from the earth from the sea by light by darkenesse by heate by shadow by dewes by showers by windes by raines by fishes by beasts by birds by multitude of hearbes and variety of plants and by the ministery of all thy Creatures O sweete Lord what manner of things how great how good and how innumerable are those which thou hast prepared for vs in our heavenly Kingdome where we shall see thee face to face and raigne with thee eternally If thou doe so great things for vs in our prison what wilt thou giue vs in our palace If thou givest so many things in this world to good and evill men together what hast thou layd vp for only good men in the world to come If thine enemies and friends together are so well provided for in this life what shall thy only friends receiue in the life to come If there be so great solaces in these dayes of teares what joy shall there be in that day of marriage If our jayle and prison containe so great matters what shall our Kingdome doe O my Lord and God thou art a great God great is the multitude of thy magnificence sweetnes and as there is none end of thy greatnes nor number of thy mercies nor bottome of thy wisedome nor measure of thy beauty So is there no end number or measure of thy rewards to them that loue serue thee SECT 7. Thirdly the consideration of this day may serue for admonition to all SEing then that all these things must be dossolved what manner persons ought we to be in holy conversation and godlines looking for and hasting vnto the comming of that day in which we all shall appeare before the judgement seate of Christ that every man may receiue according to that hee hath done in his body whether it be good or evill Truly I know not sayth S. Chrysostome what others doe thinke of it for my selfe it makes mee often tremble when I consider it And holy Hierome whatsoever I am doing saith he whether I be eating or drinking or sleeping or waking or alone or in company or reading or writing me thinkes I ever heare the shrill sound of the Archangels trumpet summoning all flesh to appeare and crying aloud Surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise yee dead and come away to judgement The remembrance hereof is like a bitter pill to purge out the malignitie of many wanton and vaine humours or like a strainer all our thoughts and speeches and actions which passe thorow it are thereby cleansed and purified As the bird guideth her bodie with her traine and the shippe is steered with the rudder so the course of a mans life is best directed with a continuall recourse vnto his last end It is hard for a man to thinke of
their minds being thoroughly drenched with the liquor of foolishnes They which haue sence adore things without sence which haue life things without life which are from heauen things earthly It were good then from some high tower that all might heare it to proclaime alowd that of Persius O cares of men O world all fraught With vanities O mindes inclined Towards earth all voide of heau'nly thought And Sedulius an ancient Christian Poet by Nation a Scot hath excellently described this palpable folly Heu miseri qui vana colunt qui corde sinistro Religiosa sibi sculpunt simulacra suumque Factorem fugiunt quae fecêre verentur Quis furor est quae tanta animos dementia ludit Vt volucrem turpemque bovem torvumque draconem Semihominemque canem supplex homo pronus adoret Ah wretched they that worship vanities And consecrate dumbe Idols in their hearts Who their owne Maker God on high despise And feare the worke of their owne hands and Art What fury what great madnesse doth beguile Mens mindes that man should vgly shâ—…pes adore Of birds or buls or dragons or the vile Halfe dog halfe man on knees for aide implore To these vgly shapes doth Seneca allude Nuâ—…ina vocant quae si accepto spiritu occurrerent monstra haberentur Divine powers they call those which if they should meete hauing life put into them would be held monsters And one of their owne Poets seemes to â—…est at their grossenesse herein Olim truncus eram ficulnus invtile lignum Quem Faber incertus scamnum facereâ—…ne Priapum Maluit esse deum Euen now I was the stocke of an old figge tree Thâ—… workeman doubting what I then should bee A bench or god at last a god made mee It is indeed true that the Romanes for a time were altogether without images for any religious vse but afterward they receiued into their City those of all other Nations by them conquered so as they who were Lords of the whole world became slaues to the Idoles of all the World Which bables as witnesseth S. Augustine that learned Varro both bewailed vtterly condemned in expresse words Qui primi simulacra Deorum populis posuerunt ij civitatibus suis timorem ademerunt errorem addiderunt They who first erected Idols for the peoples vse thereby both abolished all feare of the Deitie and introduced errour But the wise Seneca thus derides them Simulacra Deorum venerantur illis supplicant genu posito illa adorant cum haec suspiciant fabros qui illa fecere contemnunt the Images of the Gods they worship those they pray vnto with bended knees those they adore and while they so greatly admire them they contemne the Artificer that made them SECT 3. Their grosse and ridiculous blockishnesse in the infinite multitude of their gods THeir strange infatuation will yet appeare farther vnto vs if wee rise a little higher from the Images to the Gods which they represented and surely whether their practice about their images or their opinion touching their Gods were more grosse and ridiculous it is hard to define Whether we regard their number or their condition or their manner of service For their number he that reades Boccace his books de Genealogia Deorum will easily finde them almost numberlesse so as the Apostle might well say There be Gods many and Lords many Crinitus out of Hesiodus makes them thirty thousand strong the Iuppiters alone out of Varro no lesse then three hundred There were Dij majorum gentium which were worshipped generally throughout the greatest part of the world Dij Tutelares gods of seuerall Nations Provinces chosen to be their patrons guardions which may be gathered by those high places which Solomon built for his Idolatrous wiues wherein they worshipped the seuerall Gods of their seuerall Nations Ashtoreth the Goddesse of the Sidonians and Milcom the God of the Ammorites Cbemosh the God of the Moabites Molech the God of the Ammonites so likewise for all the rest of his outlandish wiues which burnt incense offered vnto their Gods whereby it appeareth that euery Nation had a God of his owne yet farther may it be seene by the practice of those Nations which Salmanezer transplanted into the Samaritan Cities of whom it is recorded that though they feared the Lord yet they worshipped euery one his owne peculiar God of whom there is a Catalogue in the same place set downe The Babylonians Succoth Benoth the Cuthites Nergall the Hammathites Ashima the Avites Nibhaz Tartak the Sepharvites Adramelech Anamelek And as seuerall Nations Provinces chose to themselues their Gods so did likewise the Cities as we may partly see by that rabble of them mustered vp by Rabshaketh in his Oration to King Hezekiah where is the God of Hamah and Arpad where is the God of Sepher-vaim Hevah Iuah in imitation of the Gentiles did the men of Iudah multiply their gods according to the number of their Cities Neither did Nations Provinces Cities onely affect to haue euery one vnto themselues their owne peculiar and seuerall Gods as their Patrons and defenders but the same was likewise followed by all their seuerall families who still had their Lares Deos Penates that is their houshold Gods as the Protectours of their families whom because they adored in the secret inward parts of their houses the Poets vse to call Deos Penetrales Yea and as Pliny reporteth not only seuerall families had their seuerall Gods but also euery seuerall person would adopt a seuerall God of his owne insomuch that hee thought the number of Gods to bee multiplied aboue the number of men Major Coeliâ—…um populus etiam quâ—…m hominum intelligi potest cùm singuli quoque ex semetipsis singulos Deos faciant Iâ—…nones Geniosque adoptando sibi We may well conceiue greater multitudes of Gods then of men seeing euery man adopâ—…eth as he pleaseth both greater smallâ—…r gods to himselfe All which considered otiosum est per omnia Deorum nomina perâ—…urrere qui colerentur à veteribus saith Terâ—…ullian It were an idle thing to attempt to runne through the names of all the Gods which the Ancients worshipped they had so many old Gods new Gods hee Gods shee Gods citty Gods countrey God coâ—…mon Gods proper Gods land Gods sea Gods And with Tertullâ—…an heerein accords S. Augustine Quando autem possins vno loco libri hâ—…us â—…morari omnia nomina Deorum aut Dearum quae illi grandibus volumâ—…bus vix comprehendere potuerunt singulis rebus propria dispertieâ—…tes officia Numinum How can all the names of their Gods and Goddesses bee recounted in one chapter of this booke which themselues could not range within the compasse of many great volumes appointing a pâ—…rticular God to waite on euery particular thing nay for some thing saith he they had many Gods as namely for corne
they had Segetia for the sowing of it while it lay vnder the earth Tutelina when it sprang vp Proserpina Nodotus when it shut into a blade when it spired Volutiâ—…a when the eare opened Patilena when it brake forth Hostâ—…lina when it blosomed Flora when it kerned Lacturtia when it grew ripe Maâ—…uta when it was reaped 〈◊〉 His conclusion is which also shall be mine for this point Ne omnia commemoro quia me piget quod illos non 〈◊〉 neither doe I name all for that it grieueth me to wriâ—…e what they were not ashamed to act SECT 4. The most shamefull and base condition of their gods THe quality condition of their gods was doubtles much more shamefull thâ—…n their multitude The common opinion touching their great god Iupiter was that he was intombed in Creete and his monument was there to be seene Wherevpon Lactantius wit ily demaunds Quomodo potest Deus esse alibi vivus alibi mortuus alibi habere templum alibi sepulchrum Tell me I beseech you how can the same god be aliue in one place and dead in another haue a temple dedicated to him in one place and a tomb erected in another Nay Callimachus himselfe in his hymne on Iupiter calleth the Cretians lyars in this very respects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. which part of his hymne is thus translated into Latine by Bonaventura Vulcanius At certe mendax est Creta sepulchrum Quae posuit tibi qui haud moreris nam semper es idem The Cretians alwayes lyars are who rais'd vnto thy name A sepulâ—…her that neuer diest but euer art the same Moreouer they gaue diuine honour to notorious common strumpets as vnto Goddesses to Venus to Faula to Lupa the nurse of Romulus so called among the sheepheards for the common prostitution of her body and to Flora who hauing gained much by her meretricious trade she made by her will the people of Rome her hâ—…ire and left a sum of money by the vse whereof her birth-day was yearely to be celebrated with the setting forth of games which in memorie of her they called Floralia Nay their great Goddesse Iuno they make both the wife and the sister of Iupiter and Iupiter himselfe with the other gods no better then Adulterers Sodomites murtherers theeues Neither were these things concealed or whispered in priuate but published to the world they were liuely described by their Painters in their tables by their Poets in their verses and acted by their Players vpon their stages Quanta maiestas putanda est Quae adoratur in templis illuditur in theatris what great maiestie call yee me that which is adored in the temples prophaned in the Theatres And so farre were the worshippers of these goodly gods from punishing or censuring them therein that they were highly applauded and approued by the people and rewarded by the state Neither were these things written or spoken by Lucian or such as scoffed at Religion but by those who professedly vndertooke the prayse of their Gods Non enim ista Lucilius narrat aut Lucianus qui Dijs hominibus non pepercit sed hi potissimum qui Deorum laudes canebant quibus credemus si fidem laudantibus non habemus These things are not reported by Lucilius or Lucianus who spared neither God nor man but specially by them who sung the prayses of the Gods and to whom I pray you in such cases should we giue credit if not to them who purposely seeke to commend Besides they worshipped ridiculous gods as Fortunam Fornacem Mutam the passions of the mind and the diseases of the body Timorem Pallorem Febrem nay Vices Priapum Cupidinem non nomina colendorum sed crimina colentium not names fit for Diuine powers to be worshipped being nothing else but the vices of the worshippers Heerevnto may be added their silthy gods Crepitus ventris Cloacina sterquilinium well deseruing that reproach which is cast vpon them by Aristophanes that they were Dij Merdiuori so Moses calleth theÌ„ in expresse tearmes dirty dung-hill gods as the originall is rendred by Iunius Tremelius Foure whole dayes saith Tacitus Cremona ministred matter to sacke to burne and all things beside both holy prophane being consumed into ashes the temple of Mephitis without the wals remained vntouched either because it stood out of the way or by reason of some diuine vertue of the goddesse Now would you know what this goodly Lady was surely none other then the Goddesse of ill sauours and these kinde of Gods and Goddesses Lactantius deseruedly wisheth to be euer present with their worshippers Yet not content with this they worshipped the Devills themselues they sacrificed vnto diuels not vnto God saith Moses And I say saith the Apostle that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devills and not to God What should I speake of the Thebans worshipping a wezell the Trotans a mouse the Egyptians an onion or a leeke and such like contemptible things which notorious folly Iuvenall who liued a while amongst them thus wittily derides Porrum caepe nefas violare frangere morsu O sanctas Gentes quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina A leeke an onyon ô'tis wickednesse These once to violate to eate no lesse Sweete Saints they are holy ones I trow To whom their gods doe in their gardens grow And diuerse such absurd Gods they worshipped which would make a modest man euen blush to name as Sybilla hath truly noted Haec adoratis Et multa alia vana quae sane turpe fuerit praedicare Sunt enim Dij hominum deceptores stultorum These foolish Gods and many more Like vaine they worship and adore Which filthy were to name in Schooles Such filthy gods deceiue but fooles SEC 5. Their barbarous and most vnnaturall cruelty in sacrificing their children to their Gods NOw if from the multitude and quality of their Gods we proceede yet a little farther to search into the manner of their service wee shall easily finde that more frentike vnreasonable then either of the two former Which madnes of theirs is well set forth by Seneca Si intueri vacet quae faciunt quaeque patiuntur superstitiosi inveniet tam indecora honestis tam indigna liberis tam dissimilia sanis vt nemo fuerit dubitaturus furere eos si cum paucioribus furerent nunc sanitatis patrocinium est insanientium turba If a man had but the leasure to looke into those things which men led with superstition both doe suffer he shall find them so vnbefitting honest so vnworthy of ingenuous so vnlike sound sober mindes as no man would doubt but they were starke madde were but the number of them fewer that thus goe a madding whereas now the only plea for themselues that they are in their right wits is the number of mad men Alexander ab Alexandro hath of set purpose composed