Prophet is haec didicisset Whence saith he had Plato learned that Jupiter rid in a flying Chariot but out of the Histories of the Prophets which he had over-lookt for out of the Books of the Prophets he understood all those things that were thus written concerning the Cherubims and the glory of the Lord went out of the house and came to the Cherubims The Cherubims took their feathers and they hung together in circles and the Glory of the Lord of Israel did abide upon them in Heaven Hence Plato descending cries out these words Iupiter great in the Heavens driving his flying Chariot Otherwise from whom should he else have learned these things but from the Prophets And so Clem. Alexand. lib. 1. Strom. orat ad Gent. speaking as it were to Plato Leges quaecunque verae sunt tibi ab Hebrais suppeditatae sunt What ever true Laws thou hast set down are supplied thee by the Hebrews To this I answer That it is very improbable that Plato should have collected his Divinity out of Moses or the Prophets their writings being in his time not yet translated out of the Hebrew I should rather believe with others that he had sifted his divine Notions out of Hermes Trismegistus an AEgyptian who according to Suidas flourished before Pharho and was called Trismegistus because he had through a divine inspiration written of the Trinity And Sugul saith that he was called Ter optimus maximus the thrice best and greatest because of his greatest wit or according to others because he was a Priest King and a Prophet 'T is not only thought of Plato that he had gathered some riddles of God from the AEgyptans but also of Theodorus Anaxagoras and Pythagoras But I continue Plato's sentences The body being compounded is dissolved by death the soul being simple passeth into another life and is uncapable of corruption The souls of men are divine to whom when they goe out of the body the way of their return to Heaven is open for whom to be best and most just is most expedient The souls of the good after death are in a happy state united to God in a blessed inaccessible place the wicked in convenient places suffer condign punishment But to define what those places are is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whence being demanded what things were in the other world he answered Neither was I ever there or ever did speak with any that came from thence VIII We must not forget Aristotle who lib. 3. de anim c. 3. closes with Homer in these Verses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Homer agreed in the same That the minds of mortal men were such as the Father of Gods and men did daily infuse into them Moreover lib. 1. de anim cap. 3. t. 65 66. he calleth our understanding Divine and asserts it to be without danger of perishing And lib. 2. de gener cap. 3. delivers his sense thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore it remains that the mind alone doth advene from without and that she alone is Divine for the action of the body hath not at all any communication with her action IX Virgil 4. Georg. wittily sets down God's ubiquity Deum namque ire per omnes Et terras tractusque Maris Coelumque profundum Hinc pecudes armenta viros genus omne ferarum Quemque sibitenues nascentem arcessere vitas Et 6. AEneid Principio Coelum ac terras composque liquentes Lucentemque Globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spirit us intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet That is For God doth go through all the earth the tracts of the Sea and the deep of the Heavens Hence do beasts and men and what ever is born draw their thin breath And in the sixth Book of his AEneids In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth and the melting fields and the shining Globe of the Moon together with the Titanian Star A spirit doth nourish it within speaking of the world and a mind being infused through its members doth move its mole and mingles its self with that great body X. The admirable Poesie of that Divine Orpheus lib. de Mundo is worth our observation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter is the first Jupiter is the last Jupiter is the head Jupiter is the middle God made all things Jupiter is the foundation of the earth and of the starry heavens Jupiter is a male Jupiter is an immortall Nymph Jupiter is the spirit of all things Jupiter is the mover of the unruly fite Jupiter is the root of the Sea Jupiter is the Sun and the Moon Jupiter is a King Jupiter is the sulminating Prince of all for he covereth all he is a lighr to all the earth out of his breast he doth wonderfull things XI Trismegistus lib. 1. Pimandr renders himself very divinely The mind of the divine power did in the beginning change its shape and suddenly revealed all things and I saw that all things were changed into a very sweet and pleasant light And below in another place A certain shadow fell underneath through a thwart revolution And Serm. 3. Pimandr The shadow was infinite in the deep but the water and the thin spirit were in the chaos and there slourished a holy splendour which impelled the Elements under the sand and the moist nature and the weighty bodies being submerst under the darkness did abide under the moist sand Empedocles defined God a sphere whose center is every where and circumference no where Vincent in spec hist. l. 4. c. 44. Pythagoras described God to be a mind diffused throughout the universal parts of the world and the whole nature out of which all living creatures that are born do draw their life In another place he cals him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The soul of the universe Heraclitus being at a certain time of the winter crept into a Cottage for to warm himself and being enquired for by some who were ashamed to come into so mean a place called to them to come near for said he the gods are also to be found here Athenagoras an Athenian Philosopher expresseth himself very profoundly God saith he hath given man a judgement of reason and understanding for to know intelligible things the Goodnesse of God his Wisdom and Justice ERRATA PAg. 4. lin 6. read of their l. 31 wisdom it self p. 6. l. 8. r. with those p. 8. l. 17. r. those l. 25. r. into good p 13. l. 19. r. wherein p. 15. l. 12. r. into that l. 28. r. according to p. 17. l. 29. r. those of the. l. 35. r. these causes p. 22. l 33. r. a man doth p. 25. l. 32.
at an immediate contact are absolutely disagreeing but mediately accompanying other Elements prove good friends the same Law is between Earth and Ayr. Observe although I have explained their forms by more words then one yet apprehend that in their sense they move a single concept Levity with Rarity is really distinct from Levity with Tenuity their operations and manner of operating being also different for Levity with Rarity is more penetrating vibrating and of a stronger force and therefore Fire exceeds the Ayr in Levity The like is to be understood of the Earth and Water to wit that the former is more weighty then the latter These concur equally to the constitution of one another of the world and of its parts the one contributeth as much as the other and therefore they are of an equal dignity and time CHAP. IX Of the Beginning of the World 1. Whence the world had its beginning What the Chaos is That the Chaos had a Form A Scripture Objection Answered That the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters did informate the Chaos 2. That the Chaos consisted of the four Elements is proved by Scripture The Etymology of Heaven What Moses meant by Waters above the Waters The Derivation of the Firmament That the Ayr is comprehended under the Notion of waters in Gen. 3. That the Elements were exactly mixt in the Chaos That all the Elements consist of an equal number of Minima's 4. That none but God alone can be rationally thought to be the Efficient of the Chaos How this Action is expressed in Scripture 5. What Creation is Thom. Aq. his Definition of Creation disproved Austins Observations of the Creation 6. That God is the Authour of the Creation proved by the Testimonies of Scripture of Holy men and of Philosophers 7. An Explanation of the Definition of Creation Whether Creation is an emanant or transient Action Creation is either mediate or immediate Scotus his Errour upon this point The Difference between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherein mediate Creation differs from Generation 8. Of the Place Magnitude tangible Qualities Colour Temperament Time Figure Extent in Figure Duration Quantity and Number of the Chaos THus much shall suffice concerning the Matter and Form of the Elements as they are considered supposedly separated from each other but notwithstanding are the Particulars last insisted upon really in them primatio per se. Now let us proceed Since these Elements are perfections and as it were forms to each other the one being constituted doth suppose them all to be constituted and but one of them being abolisht they are all abolisht Wherefore it is a simple question to demand which of the Elements we could best miss or which of them is most necessary for the preservation of life they being all of an equal necessity I. The first formation of the world took its Original from the creation of a Chaos which that it did hath been demonstrated in one of the precedent Chapters The Chaos is a great and vast natural body consisting of an exact mixture of all the four Elements It is generally explained to be a Confusion of all the Elements Hereby confusion is not meant an imperfect mixtion but it is called a confusion because it is an universal mixtion of all the Elements The Chaos was a natural body because it was constituted by the natural Matter and Form of all the Elements That it had matter is little doubted of by any all derived natural substances being thereout materiated But a form is not so universally allowed to it Moses telling us in the first Chapt. of Gen. That the Earth was without form For the reconciling of this you must know that a form is not alwaies taken in the same sense A Form is somtimes taken for the compleat and last perfection of a thing so we say that the confusion of genitures in matrico is rude and hath no form that is it hath not that compleat further and last perfection and shape which is intended in it 2ly Form is more commonly taken for that which giveth specification and distinction to Matter or that whereby a thing is that which it is so as in this acception the Chaos of the Microcosmus is termed not to be without a form neither is the Chaos of the Macrocosmus void of form although in the former sense it is I prove it The Chaos was either a thing or nothing It was not nothing for the Text mentions it consisted of Heaven and Earth Was it a thing ergo it must have had a form to be that thing which it was or to be distinguisht from nothing It was not only distinguisht from nothing but also from an infinitum and from a single essence it consisting of Heaven and Earth which constituted both a finitum and a compositum But all distinction derives from a form ergo it ha◠form Further the Scripture doth reveal to us that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and what was the Spirit of God here but the form of the Chaos Again the Spirit of God moving upon the waters doth evidently confirm my former Assertion namely that the form of the Elements is nothing else but a local moving vertue impressed by Nature that is God upon their Matter II. That the whole Clot of each Element contributed to the Matter and Form of this first created body the same Scripture makes clear to us in enumerating them distinctly viz. Chap. 1. 1. In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth And the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters First you see here is Heaven comprehending fire and air for as I proved before ayr cannot exist without fire nor fire without air Secondly Both these being near companions and relations the Text comprehends them in one for if you observe the Scripture doth all along in this Chapter enumerate the Elements by paires as it were under one name because of their near affinity So by the deep is meant Earth and Water strictly or properly so called and by waters the two fluid Elements which are those that before are explained to be continuous Elements That this is the genuine Interpretation of the said divine Text the ensuing words do clearly make it out for in v. 6. God saith Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters Here the water and ayr being both alike in fluidity and confused together are both called water The ayr then being light and the water weighty God expanding them the ayr through its lightness heaved up from the water and thence constituted a part of Heaven as the Text hath it in v. 8. The water through its weight descended under the ayr and thence it is called in v. 9. the waters under the heaven This must
consequently it is nothing Notwithstanding Aristotle recollects himself in his Physicks where we have the forementioned Definition set down The first matter saith he is the first subject of everything Ergo every thing is generated out of the first matter How can that be Then it followeth that every natural being when it is dissolved is dissolved in its first matter or how can the next being be generated out of it else This most of his Followers do deny affirming the contrary viz. That a natural being through its corruption is not dissolved into the first matter This they prove by Aristotle his own Dictates the corruption of one being is the generation of another Generation saith Aristotle is in an instant that is assoon as one form goeth out at the same instant another enters 2. If a being in its dissolution is dissolved into the first matter then it must be deprived from all its Accidents but we observe the contrary for when a beast dieth there still remain Accidents in that body Ergo a being is not dissolved into the first matter This moved Aristotle to assert the forementioned Theoremes to wit That Generation is in an instant and that the corruption of one being is the generation of another because there are Accidents remaining at the same instant when the precedent form is expelled which Accidents remaining do necessarily suppose a form from which they are depending All which infers that every thing is generated out of the second matter and not out of the first How then can Materiaprima be said the first subject of every thing The other part of the Definition is out of which a being is produced this is no less strange then the other How can a being be produced and yet the first matter be remaining For assoon as a being is produced the first matter is not remaining but it is now become a second matter with Accidents which were not in the first V. It is more then probable that naturally and really there is no such first matter 1. Because all natural beings are generated out of a pre-existent Matter this our sense doth testifie as for Aristotles first matter that hath no Existence but an imaginary Essence only 2. All that which doth really exist is a compounded being If there is any such single matter how do you know it Sense never perceived it how can you then tell it Whatever doth exist or did ever exist it hath or had a Form You may say that the Chaos existed without a Form because a Form doth distinguish a being from all others and giveth it unity Now when the Chaos existed there was no other being and it was rude and without form To this I Answer Although there was no other being yet this did not hinder but that the Chaos had its numerical and positive unity existence determination goodness truth c. all which Accidents could not be without a Form 'T is said that the Chaos had no form that is not its formaultima for which it was intended notwithstanding it had its Forma prima It remaineth then that the materia prima is neither an objective being nor much less a real being It is no Objective being because we cannot frame an object of it or like to it For what can we think of it it is confessed it hath neither Essence or Quantity c. The greatest Absurdity is that they give it no limitation and consequently must affirm it to be infinite which of all absurdities is the most absurd for nothing is infinite but God alone Then again to maintain that it is ingenerable and incorruptible is impious for God only is ingenerable and incorruptible VI. There is a first matter which was produced at first and out of which all second matters were and are generated This first matter had also a first Form comproduced with it A Second matter is which is produced out of the first The first matter is the matter of the Elements which are four in number You are to note here that by the first matter is not meant a matter formally different from the second matter but accidentally only in respect of time It is called first because it was first produced VII It doth not as I hinted before appertain to Physicks to explain abstractly what the first matter is that being proper to Metaphysicks Wherefore Arist. 8 Books of Phys. Auscult deserve rather the name of Metaphysicks That which is requisite in this place is to unfold the nature of the first matter as it is a Concrete to natural Substances contracted to Inferiours In Metaphysicks it is treated of as a more universal here as a less for Matter and Form constitute the Elements as more Universals constitute the lesser Again Matter and Form derive their Essence from the Elements for these being abolisht they perish likewise with them So that without or beyond the Elements there is neither Matter or Material Form VIII The first Form of a natural being is the form of the Elements how they further constitute the matter and form of every body shall be demonstrated as we go on The Elements being produced all at once and at the same time it followeth that there never was any Peripatetick first matter existent without a Form for their form and matter were both created together but the alledging some Principles of the Mosaick Philosophy will soon make this case plain 1. God created Heaven and Earth But how not separately or distinctly at several times but united into one and confused at once by one act of his Almighty Power Moses sets down Heaven and Earth disjunctly not because they were constituted as distinct bodies but because Heaven and Earth were next formed out of that confused matter as the Text doth afterwards clearly explain We call one part of that body which ascended that is expanded or moved from the Center to the Circumference heaven because it was heaved up from the other remaining part which was named Earth or as it were Tearth from Terre in French which again is derived from Terra a Terendo quia Partes suo pondere sese invicem terant So Coelum a cernendo quod homines intuitu coelum versus cernant This rude Substance was hit upon doubtless by guess by the ancient Poets calling it Chaos which although rude in regard to the more express Form which it was to receive afterwards yet it was a perfect being consisting of Matter and Form through which it had a positive Unity whereby it was one in it self and distinct from nothing It was a true being in that it was conformable to the Divine Idea It was no less perfect because God created it It was good for it was convenient and apt to have other beings produced out of it So that having all the Attributes of a being it must necessarily be a perfect being consisting of matter and form if then the first created being out of which all other being were afterwards created was a
moisture as may force them through their intumescence to raise a womb where they meet where being arrived they are immediately cherished and further actuated united and condensed by the close and cold temperature of the womb This actuation conceives a flame because through it the fire happens to be united and thence dilated by the incrassated air whose immediate effect is a flame now being come to a flame they attract nutriment out from their matrix in the same manner as was set down before The spiritous parts of this advening nutriment is united to the central parts of the flame which it doth increase it s other parts that are more humorous and less defecated are concreased by the lesser heat of the extreme parts or a heat lessened through the greater force of the extrinsick cold That which is worthy of inquiry here is Why the heat or vital flame strives to maintain the central parts moreover this seems to thwart what I have inserted before viz. That it is the nature of fire to be diffused from the center 2. Whence it is occasioned that the weighty parts as the dense and humoral ones are expelled to the Circumference For solution of the first you are to call to mind that the Elements in that stare wherein they are at present do war one against the other for the Center which if each did possess this motion would cease in them the fire then being now in possession of the Center contracts it self and strives to maintain its place nevertheless it doth not forbear diffusing its parts circularly to the circumference because through its natural rarity it is obliged to extend it self to a certain sphere The reason of the second is Because the igneous and ayry parts being united into a flame and into a greater force do over-power the other Elements and impell them to the Periphery where they being strengthned by the ambient coldness of the Matrix are stayed and do concrease into a thick skin by this also the internal flame is prevented from dissipating its life and the better fitted to elaborate its design which is to work it self into shapes of small bodies of several Figures and of various Properties and in those shapes to diffuse each within a proportion of other Elements likewise variously tempered And so you have in brief a perfect delineation of the Earths conception and formation of Seeds whose spirits being now beset with thick dense parts are catochizated that is the flame is maintained in such a posture which it had when it had just accomplisht the plasis of the internal organical parts or in some the flame may be extinguisht through the near oppression by heavy parts which afterwards being stirred and fortified by an extrinsick heat relaxing its parts returns to a flame Whence it happens that seeds may be kept several months yea years without protruding their parts but being committed to the ground especially where the mild heat of the heavens doth penetrate perfused also with a moderate moysture do soon after come to a germination The same may be effected by any other mild heat like we see that many seeds are perduced to a growth before the spring of the year in warm chests or in dunged ground Eggs are frequently harched by the heat of an Athanor or by being placed between two Cushions stuft with hot dungs Silk-worms Eggs are likewise brought to life by childrens heat being carried for two or three weeks between their shirts and wascoats all which instances testifie that the heat of the Sun is no more then Elementary since other Elementary heats agree with it in its noblest efficience which is of actuating and exciting life within the genitures of living bodies possibly it may somewhat exceed them as being more universal equal less opposed and consequently more vigorous and subtil The time when the Earth is most marked with Matrices is in the Spring and Fall because the astral heat is then so tempered that it doth gently attract great quantity of exhalations and humours neither is it long after before they conceive the influences of the Stars being then pregnant in subtilizing and raising seminal matter The cause of the variety of Seeds and Plants thence resulting I have set down above and withall why it is that Non omnis fert omnia tellus every kind of Earth doth not produce all kinds of herbs but why herbs of the hottest nature are sometime conceived within the body of water might be further examined In order to the solution of this Probleme you must note that the seeds of such herbs as do bud forth out of the water were not first conceived within the water as water but where it was somewhat condensed by Earth as usually it is towards the sides where those Plants do most shew themselves for water in other places where it is fluid is uncapable of receiving the impression of a womb excepting only where it is rendred tenacious and consistent through its qualification with glutinous or clayish earth And this shall serve for a reason to shew that herbs germinate out of water although they are not conceived within it The ground why the hottest herbs as Brooklime Watercresses Water crowfoot c. are generated in the water is in that the spirits informating those Plants are subtil and rare easily escaping their detention by any terrestrial matrix as not being close enough by reason of its contiguity of parts but water be the spirits never so subtil or rare is sufficient to retain stay congregate and impell them to a more dense union whence it is that such substances prove very acre and igneous to the pallat by reason of its continuous weight Next let us enumerate the properties of a vegetable Seed 1. Is to be an abridgment of a greater body or in a small quantity to comprehend the rudiments of a greater substance so that there is no similar or organical part of a germinated plant but which was rudimentally contained within its seed 2. To be included within one or more pellicles 3. To lye as it were dead for a certain time 4. To need an efficient for the kindling of its life whence it is that the Earth was uncapable of protruding any plants before the Heavens were separated from the Earth through whose efficiency to wit their heat living substances were produced 5. To need an internal matrix for its production and germination which is not alwaies necessary for the seeds of animals as appears in the Eggs of Fowl and Silk-worms 6. Only to be qualified with a nutritive accretive and propagative vertue 7. To consist intrinsecally of a farinaceous matter VII The germination of a plant is its motion out of the Seed to the same compleat constitution of a Being or Essence which it hath at its perfection Motion in this definition comprehends the same kinds of motion which Accretion was said to do and withall is specified by its terminus a quo the seed and a
Essential or Modal Material or Formal c. CHAP. III. Of the Nature of Power according to the Author 1. The Analogal Concept of Power as it is common to all its Analogata 2. Whether there be Real Powers 3. Certain Conclusions touching Powers 4. That all Substances act immediately through themselves 5. That a Peripatetick Power is a Non Ens Physicum 6. That all Powers are really Identificated with their Subject 7. That Powers are distinguisht modally from their Subject 8. How Powers are taken in the Abstract 9. The Manner of the Remission and Intension of Powers 10. The Number of the Formal Acts caused by a Singular Substance 11. The Number of the Formal Acts caused by an Organical Substance 12. The Solutions of several Doubts touching Powers 13. That all Creatures have an absolute power secundum quid of acting 14. In what sense Hippocrates and Galen apprehended powers 1. TO make a safe Inroad into this large Channel of Acceptions of Power without being misled through its Ambiguities it is adviseable to pitch upon a single Mark which we shall do in stating a single Concept of Power common to all these Power as it is opposite to an Act is whereby a being can be that either in its Essence or Accidents which it is not This is the first Imposition and immediate signification of Power from which all the others are deduced and are so called so far as they have a resemblance to this single and immediate Concept of Power A Being is pronounced to be in power in that it can be that which it is not so active power is conceived to be a Power because it can act that which it doth not act c. I said Essence whereby I denote a substantial power by Accidents I intend a power befalling either to Quantity Quality Relation c. For in all these there may a Like power be discovered II. The first Doubt which we must sound into is whether there is really or ab extra and a parte rei such a power as was before-mentioned This is a Scruple which possibly at first sight may seem ridiculous especially to them who take it for a piece of Learning to receive with an undoubted assent whatever is proposed by their Master This supposed piece of Learning to me rather seemeth a piece of Ignorance for never to doubt is never to know knowing is but a discerning truth from falshood and how can this be performed without doubting Doubting exposeth truth and falshood equally to our view Since then it is so let no doubt seem ridiculous for fear we become ridiculous through not doubting But to the matter in hand we must repeat some of our Principles 1. That that is only real which moveth the understanding from without 2. That nothing moveth the understanding from without but what is either an Essence or Mode of an Essence If then a power whether of an Essence or Accident moveth the understanding from without it is to be accounted real if otherwise it is to be thought a non ens reale This premised I conclude 1. A Power is not a Real Being because a power doth not move the understanding from without I confirm the Argument Imagine your self to be alone it is possible that a Ghost may appear unto you in your Solitude This Possibility is the power of the Ghost its Existence or apearance to you Now I demand from you whether the power of a Ghost's Existence moveth your understanding before it doth actually exist You will Answer me Yes for you know that a Ghost can exist before it doth exist To the contrary you cannot imagine or know that a particular Ghost can exist before you have seen its shape figures modes or accidents but after it hath once appeared then you may imagine or know that a Ghost can exist in the same form and shape as it did heretofore and that but dubiously neither Now what followeth hence First That a power doth consecute a real being for before you had seen that particular Ghost you could not imagine or know that it could exist This makes against the received Opinions of Philosophers who say that a Power doth precede all Acts. Here you may reply that although you did not know the power of a being before you did perceive its actual existence through your sense yet this doth not infer but that when you do apprehend a beings actuation you can think that that being which you perceive to be actuated had a power of being actuated or how could it otherwise be actuated So that your knowing or not knowing doth not cut off the real power which doth precede its Act and so you deny my supposition to wit that a being is real through its cognoscibility from without To rectifie your Judgements in this Particular you are to observe that it is not your particular knowing or not knowing of a thing makes it real but it is the cognoscibility from without makes a thing real that is its being in a capacity of moving mans understanding in general That body which is existent without the world is it a real body or not Probably you say it is I ask you then what kind of body it is You tell me it is an imaginary body or that you do not know what body it is If then it is an imaginary body ergo it is no real body Again it is not an imaginary body for you say it is an unknown body How can you then imagine it But supposing you imagine Aristotle to be existent without the last Heaven Aristotle although existing there really is but an Ens Rationis or imaginary being as to you because he is not cognoscible to you from without but only from within 2. He is cognoscible to be like to an actual real being ergo he is no more then an Ens Rationis In the same manner why should an Ens in potentia be accounted to be more real then Aristotle actually and really existing without the world Wherefore a being in power is no more then an Ens Rationis and in no wise real If a being in power were real real beings would be infinite because beings in power are indeterminated and consequently must be infinite Lastly I would willingly know wherein a being in power is distinguisht from a Non Ens or nothing A being in power hath no Essence neither is it definible unless considered as an actual real and cognoscible being A poor man is a rich man in Potentia that is he may be rich but to may be rich doth include a Non Ens to wit Poverty or no Riches Besides all beings act but a being in potentia doth not act Power denoting an actual Vertue and Principle of acting is proper and adhering to all beings A Power in this sense is Synonimous to actual Strength Force or is an actual disposition through which a being doth operate and produce effects It is the same with the first Acception of Zabarel In this
are causes of the constitution of others All things saith he are idle empty and dead without a vital principle Judge his absurdity What are all idle empty and dead things without a life but a materia prima Aristotelica For he himself affirms that there are but two principles Matter and a vital Principle yea those very words idle empty and dead square with these of Arist. Materia prima est nec quid nec quale nec quantum He allots only two causes Matter and her internal efficient to the generation of a being First as I have proved it is impossible for this internal efficient to be reduced in actum unless an extrinsick efficient be it the Sun or some other particular efficient excite it by contributing some of its own virtue to it Secondly Would not all Philosophers deride him for saying an intrinsick efficient since that all have consented to term an efficient extrinsick in contradistinction to intrinsick or internal which is ever a part of the being constituted by it whereas an efficient is named extrinsick because it doth not constitute a part of that being to whose production it was concurring Thirdly Wherein is his Archeus or internal efficient different from a form which he doth so much detest Is not this Archeus an effect also of its preceding cause Doth he not affirm that this internal efficient giveth life to its matter and what is a form but which giveth life or a being distinction and specification to its matter Here again he saith that Matter is a Co-agent and before he stated that she was idle and dead certainly idle and dead things do not use to act or to be agents or co-agents That matter is not a subject he asserts and before and afterwards he granted that she contained the Archeus What is a subject but that which doth contain a thing Here again he addes a Note of distinction to his Archeus which is to be per quod and is not this also an inseparable Attribute of a Form Dist. 23. Here again he delivers a new Foolosophy in stating water to be the sole material Principle although below he adjoynes earth to it the ferment to be the remote efficient and the semen to be the immediate efficient so then now there are three Principles yea four Water Earth and a double Archeus whereas before there were but two Besides here he vaunts out with a threefold matter a materia prima which is a co-agent with the fermentum or first Archeus a materia media a subject of the semen or second Archeus and a materia ultima quickned through life it self So now he is got beyond the number of the Peripateticks three distinct matters and three internal efficients make up just six Principles Surely the old man was climed up into one of his Raptures Well let us go on in making disquisition upon the 24 h. Dist. The Ferment is a created formal being Just now there were no forms and now the ferment or the prime Archeus is metamorphosed into a form Where was his Memory It is not a Substance or Accident saith he but neither in the manner of Light Fire c. How neither a Substance or Accident neither Spirit or Body neither quid quale or quantum Ergo it is nothing but a merum figmentum If it be in the manner of light or fire it is in the manner of a quality or substance Now I think I may let him run on in telling out his Tale. IV. Cartesius a great Proficient in the Mathematicks laboured much to reduce all Philosophical conclusions to demonstrations depending from certain Hypotheses but wherein they excelled the ordinary or Peripatetick ones either in truth certainty or evidence I have hitherto not yet learned If they may be comprehended within the limits of Demonstrations they must be a posteriori concluding only the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things or their effects by improper and affinged Causes so that the causes remaining still under a cloud we cannot be satisfied in any such Science 'T is true did those forementioned suppositions appear to us as Phaenomena appearances like unto others in Astronomy there might thence some ground be afforded but they being mera figmenta and entiae rationis must necessarily prove very sandy for to build real truths thereon Neither do his suppositions cohere in all places he admitting many supposita non supponenda yea contradicentia to their number Besides to frame think or imagine that God like unto a Potter turning his Wheel round with a staffe and grinding the Clay thereon into many pieces figures and whirles should grind the materia prima into several pieces whirles figures and shapes is no small absurdity especially when Scripture doth so positively teach us the contrary Would a mans mind be carried forth to such Chimaera's furer and evidenter Principles might be proposed by the means of Numbers But tell me what satisfaction can any one expect from such Conclusions as long as their Premises are not granted but thought figments and falsities For it is not the effects we enquire into but into their real and adequate causes Doth he make any thing more plain or doth he thereby escape all falsities Certainly no for many of those Assertions that are thence deduced do manifestly partake of falsities and Errours as 1. That the nature of a body doth not consist in weight hardness colour or the like but alone in extension 2. He speakes a word or two only of rarefaction and condensation and so away I conceive the rest did surpass his Mathematical demonstrations 3. That a corporeal substance when it is distinguisht from its quantity is confusedly conceived as if it were incorporeal 4. He disproves a vacuum by an idem per idem thus there is no vacuum because the extension of all bodies is equal to their internal and external places The question is the same still viz. Whether all external places are filled up with extensions of internal places of bodies 5. He denies real Atomes 6. That motion taken properly is only to be referred to the contiguous bodies of that which is moved neither is it to be referred but to those contiguous bodies which seem to lie still A fundamental errour 7. That matter is infinite or divisible into infinite parts 8. That the world is of an indefinite quantity 9. That the second matter of Heaven and Earth is one and the same 10. That all matter is really single and obtaineth its diversity of Forms from local motion 11. That in one body innumerable motions are possible 12. That the Moon and the other Planets borrow their Light from the Sun 13. That the Earth is in nothing different from a Planet and consequently that the other Planets are inhabitable 14. That the Moon is illuminated by the Earth 15. He assumes most of the erroneous Opinions of Copernicus 16. That all the parts of the earth are light 17. That Water is convertible into Ayr. Neither are his Definitions
makes all bodies therein contained shew greater Besides water containing much air in her body suffereth also an obtension of that whereby bodies must necessarily appear bigger then they are The reason why a piece of Money in a Bason with water appears bigger then it is is because the water through impregnation with peregrine air proper thickness and continuity doth reflect and admit much obtended air or light which being altered by the colour of the money doth appear much bigger then if seen through thin air alone Light is diminisht because the air is condensed so that whatever doth condense the air must diminish its light and obduction Whatever body light appulses against it is thereby darkned because the body which it strikes against condenses the air According to this degree of condensation the light is gradually diminisht and darkned if it be terminated in a most dense earthy body then it appears black if against a body that hath less earth or density it appears brown that is to say at the point of reflection against an Object and so gradually in all other This change being wrought upon the terminating obtension by an objected body it is repercussed to a certain distance namely as far as the repercutient action of that object can reach which is as far as until the Air doth recover its proper station If we are far off from an Object it appears less then it is because its action doth diminish gradually like unto the streams of water which about the center of action are greater but the more remote they are the less they grow A Flame is called a Light Lux because it begets light The light begot in the Air is called Lumen an Illumination Wherefore these lights are not really distinguisht but ratione Neither is a flame to be called a light unless when it doth obduct the Air neither is the Air to be termed a light or illumination unless when it is obducted by a flame Radius a Beam is a diducted line of a flame tending directly from the Center to the Circumference A Splendor is the intention of light by a reflection or refraction upon a thick continuous smooth body The Lights begot by the Stars and other flames are not distinguisht specie because they depend upon the same causes namely upon Fire and Air. Their difference consists in consistency purity bigness c. The Coelum Empyreum or Heavens of the Angels are said to be lucid which may be understood tropically or properly If properly possibly it hath a vertue of obducting the air like unto a flame If tropically lucid is equipollent to glorious The Bodies of the risen Saints shall appear glorious and splendid possibly because they shall be more ayry and fiery that is flammy CHAP. XXII Of Colours 1. The Authors Definition of a Colour That Light is a Colour Aristotles Definition of colour examined 2. Scaligers Absurdities touching Colours and Light 3. What colour Light is of and why termed a single Colour That Light doth not efficienter render an Object visible How a mixt Colour worketh upon the sight and how it is conveyed to it 4. The Causes of the variations of Mercury in its colour through each several preparation 5. That Colours are formally relations only to our sight That a mixt colour is not an intentional quality That besides the relation of colours there is an absolute foundation in their original Subjects How the same fundamental colours act 6. That there are no apparent colours but all are true 7. The Differences of colours What colour focal fire is of The fundamental colours of mixt bodies 8. What reflection of light is What refraction of colours is Aristotles Definition of colour rejected The Effects of a double reflection The Reasons of the variations of Colour in Apples held over the water and Looking-glasses The variation of Illumination by various Glasses 9. The Division of Glasses The cause of the variation of colour in a Prism 10. The Nature of Refraction Why colours are not refracted in the Eye I. COlour is a Mode or Quality of a mixt being through which it moves the sight if so then certainly Light is a Colour For 1. It proceeds from a mixt body 2. It moves the sight primarly immediately and per se. I prove it We do distinguish light from darkness and a light body from a dark one by our sight ergo it moves the sight Probably you may deny my Definition of colour wherefore I shall for your further satisfaction compare it with that of Aristotle and prove it to be consentaneous to it differing only in Precision ours being less universal and nearer to sense then his Lumen which is equipollent to colour est actus perspicui quatenus perspicui Light or rather Illumination is the act of a perspicuous body quatenus perspicui is redundant By actus is implied an actuation or motion 2. By perspicuous is intended a body that is capable of receiving or rather of reflecting light And is not the sight capable of receiving or reflecting light and of being actuated by it Or if you will take colour for a quality following the temperament and mistion of the Elements the difference is not great this being a Definition of colour as it is considered in it-self a priori the other described a posteriori relatively and accidentally for it is per accidens to it to move the sight I cannot but reflect at Scaligers boldness who pretending to exceed Cardan in subtility so as he seemed to reprehend and correct him in every Distinction but with more absurdity then he supposed Cardan to be less subtil and particularly about Colours and light Exercit. CCCXXV d. 2. Here he infers a real and formal difference between an Accident and its Subject the contrary hath so plainly been demonstrated 2. That an Accident is constituted out of a Power and Act. The falsity of which is detected in my Disp. of Pow. These Assertions are not exempted from Absurdities 1. An Accident and a Substance being really and formally different and owing their production to one substantial efficient it follows that a Substance produceth effects differing from it self in specie 2. That a Substance is an efficient of a Power and Act. Power and Act being two positive contraries one substancial efficient is inferred to be an efficient secundum idem ad idem of two positive contraries for a power according to Aristotle is not a privation for then it were a non ens reale but a positive 3. Neither is Power or Substance the true matter of colour Not the power for that is like to the matter not the substance that being the sole whole substance Wherefore if neither power or substance be the true matter it cannot be any real thing because whatever is real consists of Matter and Form Wherefore saith he we should say that it hath a substance for its subject wherein it is inherent but in it self it hath a power and act out
substantia agens acting substance which if so then an accident is not really distinguisht from a substance and a substance must be conceived to act immediately through her self Aristotle lib. de respir. describes life to be the permansion or abiding of the vegetable foul with the heat From which that of Scaliger exercit 202. sect 5. is little different Life is the union of the soul with the body Here the Philosopher appears only to describe life to be a duration which is but an accident neither doth Scaliger's union signifie any thing more 2. They distinguish the soul really from the heat and body which in the same sense are identificated The matter and form of life of a living substance or a Plant are originally the matter and form of the Elements That the matter of living substances is Elementary there are few or none among the wandring Philosophers but will assert it with me yet as for their form their great Master hath obliged them to deny it to be Elementary and to state it to be of no baser a rice than Coelestial Give me leave here to make inquiry what it is they imply for a form Is it the vegetable soul which Aristotle makes mention of in his definition of life Or is it the soul together with the heat wherein it is detained which is accounted of an extract equally noble with her Be it how it will the soul is really distinguisht by them from the matter and from the Celestial heat here they take heat in a sense common with Physicians for Calidum innatum that is heat residing it the radical moisture its subject and acknowledged for a form So likewise the heat Calidum innatum is diversified from the matter and from the soul wherefore it is neither matter or form What then Their confession owns it to be a body Celestial and therefore no Elementary matter Were I tied to defend their tenents I should answer that there was a twofold matter to be conceived in every living body the one Celestial and the other Elementary But then again one might justly reply That beings are not to be multiplied beyond necessity They do answer for themselves That it is to be imagined a tye vinculum whereby the soul is tied to the body So then according to this Doctrine of theirs I should understand the vegetable soul to be immaterial and of the same nature in respect to its rice and immortality with the rational soul for even that is in like manner tied to the body by means of the Calidum innatum and are both apprehended by Aristotle to be Celestial of no mixt body and really differing from their matter If so the vegetable soul must be received for immortal as being subject to no corruption or dissolution because it is Celestial and consequently a single Essence without any composition and to which no sublunary agent can be contrary But again how can it be a single essence since it is divisible and therefore consisteth of a quantitative extension and is a totum integrale Such is their Philosophy full of contradictions and errours In the next place I would willingly know how this innate heat together with its primogenial moisture may properly be termed Celestial since it is not freed from corruption and dissolution whereas all Celestial bodies are exempted from dissolution and therefore the Philosopher takes them for eternal Are not coldness and dryness as much necessary per se for life as heat and moisture Are heat and moisture sole agents without coldness or dryness or are fire and water sufficient principles for actuating life In no wise for as you have read they are uncapable of existing in one subject unless accompanied by air and earth II. Wherefore I say That the form of life is spirits or subtilities of the Elements united in mixtion and a just temperament Spirits are derived from the word spiro I breathe as being bodies no less subtil than a breath Their constitution is out of the best concocted temperated and nearest united parts of the Elements in which parts the Elements embracing one another so arctly minutely and intimately do of a necessity separate themselves from the courser parts of the mixture and so become moveable through the said course parts they acquire withal a great force through the predominancy of fire condensed by earthy minim's and glued together by incrassated air The force and agility in motion of the influent Spirits depends upon the compression of the weighty parts of the body depressing the said spirits out of their places because they hinder the weighty parts from their center which being through their incrassated air naturally gendred glib and slippery do the easier yield to slip out and in from one place to another The efficient of spirits is the universal external heat viz. The Celestial heat mainly proceeding from the greater mixt bodies contained within the heavens For although the peregrin Element's contained within the earth are capable enough of uniting themselves and constituting a mixt body through their proper form yet they remain unable of uniting themselves so arctly as thereby to become spiritous and constitute a living substance wherefore they do stand in need of the external efficiency of the Celestial bodies which through their subtil heat do accelerate their most intimate union in uniting the internal heat before dispersed through the parts of a body to a center whereunto they could not reach without the arct and firm adherence of some incrassated aerial and terrestrial parts which here are yet more closely united into one and refined from their grosser parts Hence it is that Vegetables are no where generated but where a sufficient influence may arrive from the Celestial bodies and for this reason the earth at a certain depth doth not harbour any living Creature as any Vermine or Plants but only near to its Surface The qualification or gradual distinction of this heat partially effects the difference of living bodies for to such a Vegetable only such a degree and qualification of Celestial heat is requisite and to another another and withal observe that this efficient heat doth not become formal neither doth it unite it self to the intrinsick heat of a Plant but exhales after the execution of its office The reason is because it is in many particulars unlike to the internal spirit of a Vegetable and therefore being unfit to be united to it must consequently after the performance of its function expire The spirits predominating in fire reside in an incrassated air the which being continuated throughout the whole matter is the immediate subject whereby the spirits are likewise extended throughout the same body and are although mediately rendred continuous III. The properties of a vegetative form are to be moveable forcible actually warm mollifying attractive recentive concocting expulsive nutritive accretive and plastick The two former I have touched just before Touching the third I say those spirits are actually warm but not sensible to our
extended bodies wherein many knobs seem to be unequally coagulated through the unequal proportion of the mixture of the vapours even so are these evaporations coagulated into long large bodies within which again other coagulations are effected of unequal proportions rising like so many knobs of various magnitudes which constitute the fixed Stars well deserving the Epithete of being fixed or fastned in those vast igneous clouds We diduct hence 1. That the fixed Stars are smaller than the Planets because their matter is the overplus of the Planets 2. That they were formed after the Planets because their matter must be arrived to the first Region before the subtiler parts could appel to the second Region for the matter of others 3. That the difference between the loose and fixed Stars is no other than that these latter consist of a more compact flame than the others and thence we may also collect them to be more durable V. But to make pursuit of the manner of ventilation of the Stars The fiery minims striking down vehemently upon them because they are screwed up more and more by the continual access of new coagulations impelled into the said Stars must necessarily be intended in their force upon them for to recover their place and continuation These then striking from all sides through those Celestial mixt bodies do expell shake down and effuse continually great showers of those torrid minims consisting of condensed fire which are accelerated likewise in their descent through the depression of the air These as they pass do heat the air especially in the lower Region because of the density of the clouds and air staying their beams And 2. Because of their reflection from the earth These fiery showers do scarce reach any farther than the temperate Zones Where they rain down perpendicularly there they leave marks of their heat where obliquely there of warmth only but the air within the Polars is not sensible of so much as their warmth These showers do fall down sometimes in a greater confluence than others whence they cast a greater heat which happens through their meeting and being united with more aerial matter or igneous clouds or else through want of shelter under dense clouds in the air or thirdly by uniting their showers with those of other Planets Hence we may observe That the Sun is the hottest body in the Heavens and therefore the loosest and the softest 2. That the Moon and the other Stars consist of a less soft consistency 3. That the fixed Stars as they do heat but little so they dissolve but little and therefore must be of a yet less soft consistency 4. That the fiery clouds being supposed globous and therefore profound do harbour many invisible lights whereof some do happen sometimes to be detruded out of their seat downwards that is towards the earth through the continuated and exuperant force of the superiour parts of the Element of fire This is seldom observed but in the lower Region of the fire because that Element doth use its greatest force there as being near to the place of strife for its Center and most pincht there by the obtruded igneous clouds These new appearing Lights do sometimes keep within sight for eight or ten Months some longer others shorter and afterwards disappear again whence they come under the notion of Comets agreeing in nothing with them except in their disappearing after a certain times lustre The cause of their disappearance I impute to the bearing up of the air upwards by the inferiour fiery rayes and carrying those dislocated Stars out of sight again where they are included within a dense igneous cloud 5. New Stars are oft generated within the bulk of the foresaid clouds whose smalness and close inclusion doth render them invisible Others again are dissolved through being over-powered by the force of the fiery Element 6. The Galaxia or milky-way is nothing but a great number of small dusky lights or inequalities coagulated out of the grosser part of the peregrin Elements of the lower igneous Region VI. Lastly Like as you see that the Element of water which naturally consisteth of the greatest thickness is reduced to that tenuity through such a great proportion of air and that the air is from the greatest tenuity incrassated through such a quantity of water and earth into clouds throughout its whole body even the same we must imagine of fire viz. that it is reduced from the greatest rarity to a condensation and attenuation into large igneous clouds throughout its body through the vast admixture of air somewhat incrassated and condensed These clouds in the lower Region are diducted and separated into many thick and profound ones in the second Region into those of a great tenuity but more cohering Thus we have briefly exposed to your view the commerce of fire with the other Elements and for your better understanding have caused this Scheme to be inserted where you have the universal flames striking downwards for a Center whereas after the first knock it flamed upwards in the Chaos because it moved from its own Center The proportions of fire and air to both the other Elements although not very exactly cut according to my Copy yet comes near to it The Stars are there represented according to their several Regions wherein they are seated The motion of the heavens is likewise there exhibited as we have demonstrated it in the preceding Paragraphs All which with many others insisted upon in this and the subsequent Chapter you have here plainly proposed CHAP. XXII Of the Motion of the Element of fire 1. Where the Poles of the Heavens are 2. The Opinions of Ptolomy and Tycho rejected 3. That the Planets move freely and loosely and why the fixed Stars are moved so uniformly 4. The Suns retrograde motion unfolded and the cause of it 5. How the Ecliptick AEquator and the Zodiack were first found out 6. The manner of the fiery Heavens their ventilation 7. Whence it is that the Sun moves swifter through the Austrinal Mediety and slower through the Boreal How the Sun happens to measure a larger fiery Tract at some seasons in the same time than at others 8. Whence the difference of the Suns greatest declination in the time of Hipparchus Ptolomy and of this our age happens 9. An undoubted and exact way of Calculating the natural end of the World The manner of the Worlds dissolution The same proved also by the holy Scriptures The prevention of a Calumny I. I have formerly discoursed upon the motion of the Heavens from East to West assigning the violent detention from their Center for the cause of it I shall repeat nothing more of it than put you in mind that nothing can move circularly except upon two immoveable points which are therefore named the Poles from sustaining their body The immobility which we observe in this our Hemisphere near the Bear Stars perswades us to take it for the North or Arctick Pole to which the South
or Antartick Pole is opposite visible only in the other Hemisphere Between these the Heavens move from East to West and where they measure most space there they mark out the AEquinoctial Line a greater Circle imagined or described by us to be in the Heavens equidistant from each Pole that is elevated above either of them 90 degrees II. Touching the motion of the Stars let us enquire whether according to Ptolomy they are affixed to Orbs and move along with them or whether they move free and loose like Fish in the water as Tycho Brahe conceived It is strange to consider how the Ancients oft assumed false suppositions builded for many Ages upon them and retained them as Oracles All this doubtless befell them through neglect of making further search and triall into their realities What stupid fixions did they harbour touching the solidity of the Orbs excusing the defect of their noise by their remoteness imagining their harmony to be most pleasant to any Ear that could hear it Their variety were they not excused by being imaginary only would exceed all probability of belief Some they imagine to be Concentrical or Excentrical which latter are either greater Excentrical or lesser excentrical alias Epicycles Some again are both Concentrical Excentrical and others are Concentrical within a Concentrical Some are deferring others equalizing and what not for to drive away their time In summa they were at least 80 in number Certainly no natural Philosopher can be adduced to believe these kinds of Fictions knowing those bodies assigned for Orbs to be soft and therefore unfit to cohere in so many Sections But Brahe's dream is much more disagreeing since it is impossible that such loose bodies could move in such an exact and equal order as the fixed Stars do for otherwise were they loose as Planets are they would move as variously and disorderly as they III. Wherefore I conclude 1. That the Planets particularly the Sun and Moon do move freely and loose being included within great fiery clouds because their motions are very different one from the other which otherwise could not be supposing they were affixed to Orbs. 2. The fixed Stars cohere in large igneous clouds linked together out of whose bodies they are constituted and with them they are also moved This their equal and regular motion makes clear to us But I will take the pains to explain their motion to you more particularly and begin with the Sun IV. The Sun we observe appears once in 24 hours to all the Inhabitants of the torfid and temperate Zones being moved from East to West I suppose you to remember and assume that maxime so oft repeated viz. That no body whether mixt or single hath a power of moving it self locally to an external place although from an external place it may so long as it obtaineth an internal Center Whence I conclude That the Sun doth not move through himself from East to West but is carried along with the fiery Heavens as a cloud with the air or Ship with the flowing Ocean and so they both happen to measure almost an equal space in an equal time saving in one degree of time and space every day of a Tropical year consisting of 360 Solar daies which depends upon some resistency or renitency the Sun hath to external Local Motion or vection like we observe in a Ship driving with the stream yet not so fast as the stream because there is some resistance in the Ship whence it is apparent that the Sun is moved forward every natural day only 359 degrees which occasioneth the Suns staying back one degree every day whereby in 360 daies it must necessarily stay back the Circumference of the whole fiery Heavens and hence it is that the Sun doth appear to us every day one degree sooner or latter as you may apprehend it This staying back or retrograde motion Astronomers are pleased to call the proper motion of the Sun whereby he moves through himself through the succession of the Signs or against the motion of the Primum mobile which is absurd for then he must needs be an Animal because only Animals can move to an external place through themselves This Retrogradation of the Sun is naturally directed from West towards East but through the unequal access of cloudy fire dayly driven up from one of the Poles spouting out strong showers of condensed fire is shoven and driven every day somewhat to the side viz. Northerly when the said fiery clouds are impelled from the South side which lasteth as long as untill that tract hath vented its burden and cast it down towards the other side and impelled the Sun to his greatest Northern declination and by that time the Northern Hemisphere is so much filled with fiery clouds that it is necessitated to vent it self through casting its condensed fire towards the South whereby the Sun is impelled again to the other side The way described through the Suns being thus shoven from one side to the other and yet gradually staying back from West to East is called the Ecliptick whose greatest declination towards either side North or South is distant from the AEquator 23½ degrees V. The Ancients observing the daily and monthly staying back of the Sun in that he appeared now in such a declination or amplitude a month after 30 degrees further and the next month as many further and so on untill they had found out the Romb of the Sun viz. The Ecliptick phansied another Line much broader than this directly above among the stars of the Firmament apprehending them all along that road to wit through the Septentrional and Meridional declination so many as would constitute a twelfth part of the Ecliptick to be like to some living creature or other that so they might know them again Hence they imagined one twelfth part of those Stars to be situated in such a position as to be like unto a Ram wherefore they did all agree to name it Aries the Stars next following this twelfth part to be like a Bull whence they called that Taurus and so on with the rest Afterwards this whole Road was called by the name of Zodiack from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living creature as if they would have termed it a circle of living Creatures that is like to them So you see they did not pass through any great difficulty to make these observations and describe all the Circles of the heavens for after they had once found out one Pole they must needs have concluded there must be another Then they cold not but observe the firmament moving between these Poles next that the middle must be the greatest course and therefore a rule and measure of all other Phanomena's which for that reason they called the AEquator or Equinoctial Now having found out these three great marks for their guide namely the Pole Equinoctial and the Zodiack the other circles and observations of the motions of the Planets were easily made This by