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
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
the day it selfe or the quality of the Iudge by whom they are to be tryed p. 456. Sect. 3 Or the nature and number of their accusers p. 459. Sect. 4 Or lastly the dreadfulnes of the sentence which shall then be pronounced vpon them p. 461. Sect. 5 Secondly the consideration of this day may serue for a speciall comfort to the godly whether they meditate vpon the name and nature of t'c day it selfe in regard of them or the assurance of Gods loue and favour towards them and the gracious promises made vnto them p. 464. Sect. 6 Or the quality condition of the Iudge in respect of them by whom they are to be tryed or lastly the sweetnes of the sentence which shall then be pronounced on their behalfe p. 467. Sect. 7 Thirdly the consideration of this day may serue for admonition to all p. 470. Sect. 8 As likewise for instruction p. 471 OF THE VALVE OF THE ROMAN SESTERCE Compared with our English coyne now in vse BEcause in the fourth and last booke of this ensuing treatise in discovering of the Romane luxuâ—…ie frequent mention is made of their excessiue expences and the ordinary computation of their Authors whose testimonies I vse is by Sesterces I held it requisite for the better vnderstanding of those summes by such who are not acquainted with the Romane coynes in this table to expresse the value of the Sesterce and withall to reduce some of their most noted summes to our sterling that so the Reader desirous to know any particular summe may either finde it expressed in this Table or easily find it out by proportioning the summe he desires to know with the neerest vnto it either aboue or vnder The Sestertius was among the Romans a coyne so common that nummus and Sestertius came at length to be vsed promiscuously the one for the other so called it was quasi Semistertius because of three asses it wanted halfe a one and is thus commonly expressed â—…S or thus HS by which is vnderstood two asses and an halfe For the value os it ten asses make a denarius or Roman pennie so tearmed because it contained denaaera which were the same with their asses so as the Sesterce containing two asses and an halfe must oâ—… necessity be founâ—… in the denarius foure times now the denarius being the eighâ—… part of an ounce and an ounce of silver being now with vs valued at fiue shillings it followes from thence that the value of the denarius is seaven pence halfepenny consequently of the Sesterce being the fourth part thereof pennie halfe pennie farthing halfe farthing Touching their manner of counting by Sesterces a controversie there is betwixt Budaeus and Agricola whether Sestertius in the masculine and Sestertium in the neuter be to bee valued alike which Agricola affirmes Budaeus vpon better reason in my iudgement denies and to him I incline holding with him that Sestertium in the neuter containes a thousand Sestertios But heere two things are specially to be noted first that if the numerall or word that denoteth the number being an adictinâ—… and of a different caâ—…e be joyned with Sestertiûm by an abbreviatioÌ„ put for Sestertiorum in the genitiue case plurall then doth it note so many thousand Sesterty for example decem Sestertiûm signifieth decem millia tenne thousand Sesterces Secondly if the numerall joyned with Sestertiûm be an adverb then it designeth so many hundred thousand ex grâ—… decies Sestertiûm signifies decies contena millia ten hundred thousand or a million of Sesterces and sometimes the substantiue Sestertiûm is omitted but necessarily vnderstood the adjectiue then or adverbe set alone being of the same value as if the substantiue were expressed as thuâ—… decem standing by it selfe is fully as much as decem Sestertium decies in like case as if it were decies Sestertiûm which I haue premised that the reason of my rendring the Latin summes might the better be conceived now to the table Sesterces Are worth In English monies Twenty 0l-3 -3s-1 -1d-0b A hundred 0-15-7-0b Fiue hundred 3-18-1-0b A thousand 7-16-3-0 Fiue thousand 39-1-3-0 Ten thousand 78 2 6-0 Twenty thousand 156-5-0-0 Fiftie thousand 390-12-6-0 A hundred thousand 781-5-0-0 Fiue hundred thousand 3906-5-0-0 A Million 7812-10 0-0 Fiue Millions 39062-10-0-0 Ten Millions 78125-0-0-0 Twenty Millions 156250-0-0-0 Fiftie Millions 390625-0-0-0 A hundred Millions 781250-0-0-0 Two hundred Millions 1562500-0-0-0 Fiue hundred Millions 3906250-0-0-0 A thousand Millions 7812500-0-0-0 A Talent is 750 ounces of silver which after fiue shillings the ounce is 187 pounds Boethius Lib. 3. Metro 9. O Qui perpetua mundâ—…m ratione gubernas Terrarum Coelique Sator qui tempus ab aevo Ire jubes stabilisque manens das cuncta moveri Da Pater augustam menti conscendere sedem Da fontem lustrare boni da luce reperta In te conspicuos animae defigere visus Disijce terrenae nebulas pondera molis Atque tuo splendore mica Ta namque serenum Tu requies tranquilla pijs Te cernere finis Principium vector dux semita terminus idem THou that madest heaven earth whose wisedome still doth guide The world by whose commaund time euermore doth slide Thou that vnmov'd thy selfe causest all things to moue Graunt Father I may climbe these sacred seates aboue Graunt I of good may view the spring that finding light My minde perpetually on thee may fixe her sight Dispell these cloudes discharge this loade of lumpish clay And spread thy beames for thou to Saints the clearest day The calmest quiet art and thee to comtemplate Port passage leader way beginning is and date AN APOLOGIE OF THE POWER AND PROVIDENCE OF GOD IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD OR An Examination and Censure of the common errour touching Natures perpetuall and vniversall decay LIB I. Which treates of this pretended decay in generall together with some preparatiues thereunto CAP. I. Of diuerse other opinions justly suspected if not rejected though commonly receiued SECT I. In Divinitie THE opinion of the Worlds decay is so generally receiued not onely among the Vulgar but of the Learned both Diuines and others that the very commonnes of it makes it currant with many without any further examination That which is held not onely by the multitude but by the Learned passing smoothly for the most part without any checke or controle Nec alius pronior fidei lapsus quà m ubi rei falsae gravis author extitit saith Pliny Men doe not any-where more easily erre then where they follow a guide whom they presume they may safely trust They cannot quickly be perswaded that he who is in reputation for knowledge and wisdome and whose doctrine is admired in weighty matters should mistake in points of laesser consequence and the greatest part of the World is rather led with the names of their Masters and with the reverend respect they beare their persons or memories then with the soundnesse and truth of the things they
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
onely discernable by one sense as colours by seeing and sounds by hearing motion is discernable by both nay and by feeling too which is a third sense really distinguished from them both That there is in the heavenly bodies no motion of Generation or Corruption of augmentation or diminution or of alteration I haue already shewed There are also who by reason of the incredible swiftnes of the first Mouer and some other such reasons dare deny that there is in them any Lation or Locall motion heerein flatly opposing in my judgement both Scripture and Reason Sense But to take it as graunted without any dispute that a Locall motion there is which is the measure of time as time againe is the measure of motion the line of motion and the threed of time beeing both spun out together Some doubt there is touching the moouer of these heavenly bodies what or who it should bee some ascribing it to their matter some to their forme some to their figure and many to the Angells or Intelligences as they call them which they suppose to bee set over them For mine owne part I should thinke that all these and euery of them might not vnjustly challenge a part in that motion The matter as beeing neither light nor heavy the forme aswell agreeing with such a matter the figure as being Sphericall or Circular the Intelligence as an assistant In the matter is a disposition For whereas light bodies naturally moue vpward and heavy downeward that which is neither light nor heavy is rather disposed to a Circular motion which is neither vpward nor downeward In the figure is an inclination to that motion as in a wheele to bee carried round from the forme an inchoation or onsett and lastly from the Intelligence a continuance or perpetuation thereof as a great Divine of our owne both age and Nation hath well expressed it Gods owne aeternity saith hee is the hand which leadeth Angells in the course of their perpetuity their perpetuity the hand that draweth out Celestiall motion that as the Elementary substances are governed by the heavenly so might the heauenly by the Angellicall As the corruptible by the incorruptible so the materiall by the immateriall and all finits by one infinite It is the joynt consent of the Platoniks Peripatetiks and Stoikes and of all the noted sects of Philosophers who acknowledged the Divine Providence with whom agree the greatest part of our most learned Christian Doctors that the Heavens are moued by Angells neither is there in truth any sufficient meanes beside it to discover the beeing of such Creatures by discourse of Reason Which to mee is a strong argument that the Heauens can by no meanes erre or faile in their motions beeing managed by the subordinate ministery of such indefatigable and vnerring guides whose power is euery way proportionable to their knowledge and their constancy to both SECT 2. The Second reason taken from the Certainty of demonstrations vpon the Coelestiall globe The Third from a particular view of the proper motions of the Planets which are observed to bee the same at this day as in former ages without any variation The Fourth from the infallible and exact praediction of their Oppositions Conjunctions and Eclypses for many ages to come The Fifth from the testimony of sundry graue Authours auerring perpetuall Constancy and immutability of their motions THe most signall motions of the heavens beside their retrogradations trepidations librations and I know not what which Astronomers haue devised to reconcile the diversitie of their observations are the diurnall motion of all the fixed starres and Planets and all the Coelestiall spheres from East to West in the compasse of every foure and twenty houres and the proper motion of them all from the West to the East againe These motions whether they performe by themselues without the helpe of orbes as fishes in the water or birds in the aire or fastned to their spheres as a gemme in a ring or a nayle or knot in a Cart-wheele I cannot easily determine howbeit I confesse wee cannot well imagine how one and the same body should bee carried with opposite motions but by the helpe of somewhat in which it is carried As the Marriner may be carried by the motion of his shippe from the East to the West and yet himselfe may walke from the West to the East in the same ship Or a flie may be carried from the North to the South vpon a Cart-wheele and yet may goe from the South to the North vpon the same wheele But howsoever it bee it is evident that their motions are most even and regular without the least jarre or discord variation or vncertainety languishing or defect that may bee Which were it not so there could bee no certaine demonstrations made vpon the Globe or materiall Sphere Which notwithstanding by the testimony of Claudian are most infallible as appeares by those his elegant verses vpon Archymedes admirable invention thereof Iuppiter in parvo cum cerneret aether a vitro Risit ad superos talia dicta dedit Huccine mortalis progressa potentia curae Iam meus infragili luditur orbe labor Iura poli rerumque fidem legesque Deorum Ecce Syracusius transtulit arte senex Inclusus varijs famulatur Spiritus astris Et vivum certis motibus vrget opus Percurrit proprium mentirus signifer annum Et simulata nouo Cynthia mense redit Iamque suum volvens audax industria Mundum Gaudet humana sydera mense regit When Ioue within a little glasse survaid The Heavens hee smil'd and to the Gods thus sayd Can strength of Mortall wit proceed thus farre Loe in a fraile orbe my workes mated are Hither the Syracusians art translates Heavens forme the course of things and humane fates Th' included spirit serving the star-deck signes The liuing worke in constant motions windes Th' adulterate Zodiaque runnes a naturall yeare And Cynthiaes forg'd hornes monthly new light beare Viewing her owne world now bold industry Triumphes and rules with humane power the skye The Gentiles sayth Iulian as S. Cyrill in his third booke against him reports it videntes nihil eorū quae circa Coelū minui vel augeri neque vlla sustinere deordinatam affectionē sed congruam illius motionem ac bene op◅atū ordinem definitas quoque leges Lunae definitos ortus occasus Solis statutis semper temporibus merito Deum Dei solium suspicabantur seeing no part of heaven to deminished or decreased to suffer no irregular affection but the motion thereof to be as duly and orderly performed as could be desired the waxing and waning of the moone the rising and setting of thee sunne to bee setled and constant at fixed and certaine times they deseruedly admired it as God or as the throne of God The order and regularitie of which motions wee shall easily perceiue by taking a particular view of them I will touch only those of the
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
a miracle shall they be suspended from a mutuall intercourse of working one vpon another and a production of Meteors mixt bodies And how shall the Earth disvested of the vegetables which apparelled her and appearing with her naked and dustie face be sayd to be more amiable then before Finally if the heavens according to their Essence shall remaine how shall they naturally without a miracle stand still being now naturally inclined to a circular motion Or how without a miracle shall the light be increased and yet the warmth springing from thence be abated nay wholy abolished Or if the warmth shall remaine how can it choose but burne vp those parts of the Earth vpon which it never ceases to dart perpendicular beames Or how can the Sunne stand still and yet inlighten both the Hemespheres or the starres of that Hemesphere which it inlightens at all appeare To these demaunds Pererius makes a short answere and in my judgement a very strange one and vnworthy the penne of so great a Clarke that some of these things God hath already done that we might be induced the more readily to beleeue that they both may and shall be done againe And for instance he alleageth the standing still of the Sunne Moone at the prayer of Iosuah the restrayning of the burning force of the fire in the Babylonian furnace but withall foreseing that those were miracles for satisfaction therevnto he concludes Non agere autem inter se qualitates elementorum nec lu em Syderum calefacere quamvis nunc ingens esset miraculum tunc tamen posita semel mundi renovatione non erunt miracula It were now a great miracle that the qualities of the Elements should not mutually worke each vpon other or that the light of the starres should not produce warmth but then the world being renewed they shall be no miracles Indeed if the world were so to be renewed as the former essence of it were to be destroyed or the former qualities to be entinguished then should I happily allow of his reason as probable passable but now granting that the same Identicall forme and matter shal still continue that the former qualities shall not be abandoned but perfected not altered in kinde but only in degree I cannot see how it should be held tearmed a great miracle heeretofore which shall not be so heereafter And whereas it is said that the bodies of the Saints shall then naturally liue without meate which now without a miracle they cannot doe we must consider that though the substance of their bodies shall remaine yet the qualities of them shall be intirely changed so farre as the Apostle is bold to call it a spirituall bodie And besides we may be bold to challenge a speciall priviledge vnto the bodies of the Saints the temples of the holy Ghost which without speciall warrant cannot be yeelded to any other Corporeall substance And withall we must remember that for the resurrection of the bodie wee haue an Article in our Creede most cleere proofes from Scripture but for the restitution of the Creatures no one such sufficient proofe as the mind of a Christian desirous to be truly informed can rest fully satisfied therein Such as they are I will not conceale them These places then are to that purpose commonly alleaged SECT 6. The arguments commonly alleadged from the Scriptures for the renovation of the world answered WHom the heavens must containe till the times of the Restitution of all things He layed the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever sayth David And Solomon one generation passeth and another commeth but the earth abideth for ever Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind To which words of the Prophet S. Iohn seemes to allude And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there was no more Sea And for the increase of the light of the Planets and other starres that passage of the same Prophet is vsually alleadged The light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne seaven fold But the pretended proofes most stood vpon are drawne from S. Paules Epistles The fashion of this world passeth away the fashion not the substance And againe The Creature it selfe also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God And lastly heerevnto they adde the words of the Psalmist Thou shalt change them and they shall be changed not abolished but chaunged Which words are againe by the Apostle taken vp and repeated Heb. 1. 12. These are I am sure the strongest if not all the pretented proofes that are commonly drawne from the holy Scripture and pressed for the maintenance of the adverse opinion the strength of which I thinke I shall so put backe as it shall appeare to any indifferent Iudge that it is in truth but forced and wrested The passages I will consider in order as they are alleaged severally examine their validitie to the purpose they are vrged First then whereas wee out of the Greeke reade the Restitution of all things the Syriake Interpreter hath it vsque ad Complementum temporum omnium to the end of all times whereby none other thing can be vnderstood then the finall consummation of the world but to take the words as we finde them The times of restitution are vndoubtedly the same which Saint Peter in the next verse saue one going before had tearmed times of refreshing and by them is meant the actuall fulnesse and perfection of our redemption quoniam restitutio illa adhuc in cursu est adeoque redemptio quando adhuc sub onere servitutis gemimus sayth Calvin because our restitution and consequently our redemption as yet is but imperfect whiles we groane vnder the burden of servitude To the second it may be sayd that in the course of nature the earth should remaine for ever without decay or diminution had not the Creator of it decreed by his almighty power to abolish it But I rather chuse to answere with Iunius who vpon the first place taken out of the Psalme giues this note tantisper dum saeculum duraturum est as long as time shall endure and vpon the second this hominis vani comparatione in comparison of the vanishing estate of man The earth then is sayd to remaine for ever as Circumcision and the Leviticall Law are sayed to be perpetuall not absolutely but comparatiuely Now for the new heavens and the new earth it should seeme by the places alleaged that if it be litterally to be vnderstood of the materiall heavens they shall not be renewed as the common opinion is but new Created creation being a production of some new thing out of nothing So as it shall not be a restitution of the
old but a substitution of new in asmuch as the Prophet Esay addes the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde And Saint Iohn the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there was no more Sea And Saint Peter The heavens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp And of this opinion Beza in one place seemes to haue beene Promittuntur novi Coeli ac nova terra non priorum restitutio sive in eundem sive in meliorem statum nec ijs possum assentiri qui hanc dissolutionem ad solas qualitates referendam censent There are promised new heavens and a new earth not the restitution of the old either vnto their former or a better state neither can I assent vnto them who referre this dissolution to the qualities alone But seing belike the singularity and absurditie of this opinion he recalls himselfe in his annotations vpon the very next verse But the truth is that by new heavens and a new earth is to be vnderstood in the Prophet Esay the state of the Church during the kingdome of Christ and in Saint Peter and S. Iohn the state of the Saints in the heavenly Ierusalem For the Prophet that which I affirme will easily appeare to any vnderstanding Reader that pleaseth to pervse that Chapter specially if therevnto we adde the latter part of the next touching the same point For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remaine before me sayth the Lord so shall your seed and your name continue and from moneth to moneth and from sabbaoth to sabbaoth shall all flesh come to worship before me saith the Lord. Vpon the alleaged passage of the former chapter Iunius Tremelius giue this note Omnia instauraturus sum in Christo I will restore all things in Christ Referring vs for the farther illustration thereof to that of the same Prophet in his 25 chapter at the 8 verse And for the exposition of the latter passage in the 66 chapter referres vs to that in the 65 going before So that aswell by the drift and coherence of the text as by the judgement of sound Interpreters materiall heavens and earth are not there vnderstood Which some of our English Translatours well perceiving haue to the first passage affixed this note I will so alter and change the state of the Church that it shall seeme to dwell in a new world And to the second this Heereby he signifieth the kingdome of Christ wherein his Church shall be renewed Yet I will not deny but that the Prophet may in those words likewise allude to the state of the Saints in the heavenly Ierusalem To which purpose S. Peter seemes to apply them according to his promise sayth he we looke for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth Righteousnes that is by the consent of the best expositours righteous and just men who after the day of judgement shall dwell no longer vpon the Earth but in the heavenly Ierusalem Which Saint Iohn more liuely describes in the 21 of the Revelation for having sayd in the first verse And I saw a new heaven and a new earth he presently addes in the second as it were by way of Exposition of the former And I Iohn saw the holy Citty new Ierusalem comming downe from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband and by the sequele of that Chapter and the latter part of the precedent it cleerely appeares whatsoever Bright-man dreame to the contrary that he there describes the state of the Saints after the day of judgement and the glory of that place which they are eternally to inhabite being such that it had no need of the Sunne nor of the Moone to shine in it the glory of God inlightning it and the Lambe being the light thereof And Iunius thus begins his Annotations on that chapter Nunc sequitur historiae propheticae pars secunda de statu futuro Ecclesiae coelestis post Iudicium vltimum Now followes the second part of this propheticall history of the future state of the Church triumphant after the day of Iudgement And with him therein accord the greatest part of the soundest and most judicious Interpreters The other passage alleaged of the Prophet Esay touching the increase of light in the Sunne and Moone is likewise vndoubtedly to be vnderstood of the restauration of his Church according to the tenour of the chapter and the annotation of Iunius annexed therevnto Illustrissima erunt gloriosissima omnia in restitutione Ecclesiae all things shall then be more beautifulll and glorious in the restitution of the Church And with him fully accord our English notes when the Church shall be restored the glory thereof shall passe seaven times the brightnesse of the Sunne For by the Sunne and Moone which are two excellent Creatures he sheweth what shall bee the glory of the Children of God in the kingdome of Christ. Now for the words of the Apostle The fashion of this world passeth away what other thing intends he but that in these wordly things there is nothing durable and solide elegantly thereby expressing the vanitie of them in which exposition both Iunius Calvin agree That of the same Apostle in the 8 to the Romans touching the delivering of the Creature from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God is I confesse in appearance more pressing But this passage the great wit of Saint Augustine found to be very obscure and perplexed in somuch as not a few vnderstand those words of Saint Peter of this particular that in Saint Paules Epistles some things are hard to be vnderstood It were then in my judgement no small presumption vpon a place so intricate and difficult peremptorily to build so vncertaine a doctrine But because it is so hotly vrged as a testimony vnanswereable let vs a little examine the parts and sense thereof First then it is cleere that the Creature may be delivered from the bondage of corruption and yet not restored to a more perfect and beautifull estate in asmuch as being annihilated it is thereby freed from that abuse of wicked and vngratefull men which heere it is of necessity still subject vnto But all the doubt is how the Creature shall be made partaker of the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God I hope no man will dare to affirme that they shall be with them Coheires of eternall blessednes as the words seem to import how then are they made partakers of this glorious liberty But in asmuch as when the sonnes of God shall be made partakers thereof the Creature shall be altogether freed from the bondage of corruption So as that into the liberty of the sonnes of God is no more then together with the liberty of the Sons of God or by reason of
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
they moue and so I conceiue it to haue beene mâ—…nt by Aristotle but in naturall motions as the moving of a stone downeward and such is rather Naturâ—…s motion in the course of the world the contrary is vndoubtedly truâ—… Cresâ—…â—…undo the farther it moues the more strength it gathers and fortiâ—…ies it selfe in going Besides if the strength of the hand could goe along with the dart or if the bow with the arrow as the hand and power of God leades and preserues Nature in her course keeping â—…t a wâ—…king as the spring doth the wheels in a watch or Clocke thâ—…e is no question but their motions would proue as quicke and forcible in the end as at the beginning and not cease at all before the strength of the hand or bow which carry them forward were removed from them Finally if this axiome were not to be limited it should equally extend to the Angells and the soules of men and the first matter and the heavens as well as to the sublunary mixt bodies but the same power which vpholds and maintaines them in their originall state supports likewise the whole body of this inferiour world together withall the severall speâ—…ies or kindes thereof and did it not so doe all the absurdities already touched as impotency in that spirit which animates the world to support it anâ—…ihilation in the course of Nature defect and swarving in the Creaâ—… without the sin of man foreknowledge of the worlds end the end of it long before this time would infalliblely follow therevpon SECT 2. The second generall obiection answered which is that the seuerall parts of the World decaying it should argue a consumption in the whole ANother argument drawne from reason for the worlds decay is that all the parts of it decay and by degrees grow to dissolution which should likewise argue a wasting and lingring consumption in the whole since there seemes to be the same reason of the whole which is of all the parts where of it consists But the answere hereunto will easily appeare out of that which hath already beene deliuered and by taking a review of the seuerall parts of the Vniversall First then for the heauens vndoubtedly they feele no such decay either in substance quantity motion light warmth or influence as I hope I shall make it manifest in the next Chapter and for the Elements what they loose in regard of their quantity is againe made vp by equivalence or compensation and that in respect of their quality they decay not either by being of lesse efficacie or more malignant dispositions then in former ages remaines to be shewed in their proper place and lastly for the bodies mixed and tempered of the Elements though it be graunted that all individuals or particulars in time decay or perish yet doth it not follow that the same condition should likewise bee annexed to the species or kinde which is still preserued by a new supply and successiue propagation of particulars not alwayes inferiour to their predecessours which this argument presumes but sometimes excelling and commonly equalling them in goodnes as hath alwayes beene touched in part and shall hereafter by Gods helpe bee more fully and distinctly prooued SECTIO 3. The third generall obiection answered taken from the authority of S. Cyprian THe arguments drawne from authority are either humane or divine testimonies Among humane that of S. Cyprian is most famous as wel in regard of his great piety and learning as his approach to the pure and primitiue times of the Church of Christ. This holy Martyr then and venerable Bishop greeuing that the Christian Religion should be charged with these lamentable accidents wherewith the World at that time was pressed and shaken shapes this reply to Demetrianus their accuser Illud primo loco scire debes senuisse iam mundum non illis viribus stare quibus prius steterat nec vigore robore eo praevalere quo antea praevalebat hoc enim nobis tacentibus nulla de Scripturis sanctis praedicationibusque divinis documenta promentibus mundus ipse iam loquitur occasum sui rerum labentium probatione testatur Non hyeme nutriendis seminibus tanta imbrium copia est non frugibus aestate torrendis solis tanta flagrantia est nec sic verna de temperie sua laeta sata sunt nec adeò arbores foetibus autumno foecundae sunt minus de effossis fatigatis montibus eruuntur marmorum crustae minus argenti auri opes suggerunt exhausta iam metalla pauperes venae tenuantur in dies singulos decrescunt deficit in agris agricola in amicitijs concordia in artibus peritia in moribus disciplina Putasne tu posse tantam substantiam rei senescentis existere quantumprius potuit novella adhuc vegeta iuventute pollere Minuatur necesse est quicquid fine iam proximo in occidua extrema divergit sic sol in occasu suo radios minus claro igneo splendore iaculatur sic declinante iam cursu exoletis cornubus Luna tenuatur arbor quae fuerat ante viridis fertilis are scentibus ramis fit postmodum sterili senectute deformis fons qui exundantibus prius venis largiter profluebat vix modico sudore distillat Haec sententia mundo data est haec Dei lex est ut omnia orta occidant aucta senescant infirmentur fortia magna minuantur cùm infirmata diminuta fuerint fiâ—…iantur You ought first to haue knowne this that the World is now waxen old that it hath not those forces which formerly it had neither is endued with that vigour and strength wherewith it formerly was thus much though we held our peace and brought no proofe thereof from holy Scripture and divine Oracles the World it selfe proclaimes and testifies its declination by the experience of all things declining in it Wee haue not now so great store of showres for the nourishing of our seedes in Winter nor in Summer so much warmth of the Sunne for the ripening of our corne In the Spring our fields are not so fresh and pleasant nor in Autumne our trees so loaden with fruites lesse peeces of marble are hewed out of the exhausted and tired mountaines and the emptied Mines yeeld lesse quantity of gold and siluer theit veines daylie diminishing and decreasing The husbandman is defectiue in manuring the Earth concord failes in friendship skill in Arts and discipline in manners Can you imagine that the state of a thing waxing old should be so firme sound as when it flourished in its youth That must needes bee weakened which the finall period of it approaching hastens to the last end so the Sunne when it is setting darts not forth so fiery and cleare beames So the Moon drawing toward the end of her race drawes in her horns and growes lesse and the tree which formerly was greene and fruitfull her boughes withering becomes deformed by barren
therin he alludes to the opinion of the ancient Philosophers Poets perchance thereby intending Lucretius the great admirer and sectary of Epicurus who of all the Poets I haue met with hath written the most fully in this argument I am que adeo effa ta est aetas effoetaque tellus Vix animalia parva creat quae cuncta creavit Soecla deditque ferarum ingentia corpora partu Haud vt opinor enim mortalia soecla superne Aurea de coelo demisit funis in arva Nec marc nec fluctus plangentes saxa crearunt Sed genuit tellus eadem quae nunc alit ex se. Praeterea nâ—…idas fruges vinetaque laeta Sponte suà primum mortalibus ipsa creavit Ipsa dedit dulces foetus pabula laeta Quae nunc vix nostro grandescunt aucta labore Conterimusque boves vires agricolarum Conficimus ferrum vix arvis suppeditati Vsque adeò parcunt faetus augentque labores Iamque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator Crebrius in cassum magnum cecidisse laborem Et cum tempora temporibus praesentia confert Praeteritis laudat fortunas saepe parentis Et crepat antiquum genus vt pietate repletum Perfacile angnstis tolerârit finibus aevum Cum minor esset agri multo modus ante viritim Nec tenet omnia paulatim tabescere ire Adscopulum spaâ—…io aetatis defessa vetusto The world with age is broke the earth out worne And shee of whome what ever liues was borne And once brought forth huge bodied beasts with paine A small race now begets No golden chaine These mortalls downe from heaven to earth did let As I suppose nor sea nor waues that beat The rockes did they create t' was earth did breed All of herselfe which now all things doth feed The chearefull vine shee of her owne accord Shee corne to mortall wights did first afford Sweete fruites beside and food did she bestow Which now with labour great great hardly grow The plough-swanes strength wee spend our oxen weare When we our feildes haue sowne no crop they beare So wax our toyles so waneth our reliefe The husband shakes his head and sighs for griefe That all his travels frustrate are at last And when times present he compares with past Hee his Sires fortune raises to the skie And much doth talke of th' ancient pietie And how though every man lesse ground possest Yet better liu'd with greater plentie blest Nor markes how all things by degrees decay And tir'd with age towards the rocke make way But herein Lucretius likewise contradicted himselfe in other places of the same booke and had the world beene indeede so neare its last breathing as it were and giueing vp of the Ghost as Cyprian would make it in his time much more as Lucretius in his vndoubtedly it could never haue held out by the space of allmost fourteene hundred yeares since the one aboue sixtee ne hundred since the other how long it is yet to last he only knowes who hath put the times and seasons in his owne power SECT 4. The same authority of Cyprian farther answered by opposing against it the authority of Arnobius supported with ponderous and pressing reasons NOw because this authority of Cyprian is it which prevailes so much with so many it shall not bee amisse to oppose therevnto that of Arnobius not naked and standing vpon bare affirmation as doth that of Cyprian but backt with weighty forcible arguments a very renowned both Oratour and Philosopher he was the master of Lactantius and diverse other very notable and famous men and being pressed by the Gentiles of his time with the same objection against Christian religion as was Cyprian by Demetrianus hee shapes vnto it an answere cleane contrary by shewing that all the fundamentall and primordiall parts of the world as the heavens elements remained still entire since the profession of Christian religion as before they were for other calamities of famine and warres and pestilence and the like the common scourges of the world they had beene as great or greater in former ages and that before the name of Christianity was heard of in the world then at that time they were His Latine because the allegation is long and in some places it savours of the Affrican harshnes I will spare and onely set downe the English And first of all in faire and familiar speech this we demaund of these men since the name of Christian religion began to be in the world what vncouth what vnvsuall things what against the Lawes instituted at the beginning hath Nature as they terme call her either felt or suffered Those first Element whereof it is agreed that all things are compounded are they changed into contrary qualities Is the frame of this engine and fabricke which covereth and incloseth vs all in any part loosed or dissolved Hath this wheeling about of Heaven swarving from the rule of its primitiue motion either begun to creepe more slowly or to be carried with headlong volubilitie Doe the Stars begin to raise themselues vp in the West and the Signes to inâ—…line towards the East 〈◊〉 The Prinâ—…e of Stars the Sun whose light clotheth and heat quickneth all things doth hee cease to be hot is he waxen cooler and hath he corrupted the temper of his wonted moderation into contrary Habits Hath the Moone left off to repaire her selfe and by continuall restoring of new to transforme herselfe into her old shapes Are colds are heats are temperate warmths betweene them both by confusion of vnequall times gone Doth Winter beginne to haue long dayes and Summer nights to call backe the slowest lights Haue the winds breathed forth their spirits as having spent their blasts Is not the aire straitned into clowds and doth not the field being moistned with showres wax fruitfull Doth the Earth refuse to receiue the seeds cast into her Will not trees budde forth Haue fruites appointed for food by the burning vp of their moisture changed their tast Doe they presse gore bloud out of oliues Are lights quenched for want of supplie The Creatures enured to the land and that liue in waters doe they not gender and conceiue The young ones conceived in their wombs do they not after their owne manner and order conserue To conclude Men themselues whom their first and beginning nativitie dispersed through the vnhabited coasts of the Earth doe they not with solemne nuptiall rights couple themselues in wedlocke Doe they not beget most sweete ofsprings of children Doe they not manage publicke private and domesticall businesses Doe they not every one as he pleaseth by divers sorts of arts and disciplines direct their wits and studiouslie repay the vse of their nativitie Doe they not reigne do they not commaund to whom it is allotted Doe they not every day more increase in the like dignities and power Doe they not sit in iudgement to heare causes Do they not interpret lawes and
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
tempus eam debilitavit Dost not thou see the heavens how faire how spacious they are how bee-spangled with diverse constellations how long now haue they lasted fiue thousand yeares or more are past and yet this long duration of time hath brought no old age vpon them But as a body new and fresh flourisheth in youth So the heavens still retaine their beauty which at first they had neither hath time any thing abated it Some errour or mistake doubtlesse there is in Chrisostomes computation in as much as he lived aboue 1200 yeares since yet tels vs that the world had then lasted aboue 5000 yeares but for the trueth of the matter he is therein seconded by all the schoole divines and among those of the reformed churches none hath written in this point more clearely and fully then Alstedius in his preface to his naturall divinity Tanta est hujus palatij diuturnitas atque firmitas vt ad hodiernum vsque diem supra annos quinquies mille sexcentos ita perstet vt in eo nihil immutatum diminâ—…tum aut vetustate diuturnitate temporis vitiatum conspiciamus Such saith hee and so lasting is the duration and immoveable stability of this palace that being created aboue 5600 yeares agoe yet it so continues to this day that wee can espie nothing in it changed or wasted or disordered by age and tract of time SECT 4. Another obiection taken from Psalme the 102 answered ANother text is commmonly and hotly vrged by the Adverse part to like purpose as the former and is in truth the onely argument of weight drawne from Scripture in this present question touching the heavens decay in regard of their Substance In which consideration wee shall bee inforced to examine it somewhat the more fully Taken it is from the hundred and second Psalme and the wordes of the Prophet are these Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth the heavens are the worke of thine handes They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall waxe old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall haue no end To which very place vndoubtedly the Apostle alludes in the first to the Hebrewes where he thus renders it Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the workes of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them vp and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall not faile In which passages the words which are most stood vpon and pressed are those of the growing old of the heavens like a garment which by degrees growes bare till it bee torne in peeces and brought to ragges S. Augustine in his Enarration vpon this Psame according to his wont betakes him to an Allegoricall Exposition interpreting the heavens to bee the Saints and their bodies to bee their garments wherewith the soule is cloathed And these garments of theirs saith hee waxe old and perish but shall be changed in the resurrection and made comformable to the glorious body of Iesus Christ. Which exposition of his is pious I confesse but surely not proper since the Prophet speakes of the heavens which had their beginning together with the earth and were both principall peeces in the great worke of the Creation Neither can the regions of the aire be here well vnderstood though in some other places they bee stiled by the name of the heavens since they are subiect to continuall variation and change and our Prophets meaning was as it should seeme to compare the Almighties vnchangeable eternity with that which of all the visible Creatures was most stable and stedfast And besides though the aire bee indeed the worke of Gods hands as are all the other Creatures yet that phrase is in a speciall manner applied to the starry heavens as being indeed the most exquisite and excellent peece of workemanship that ever his hands fram'd It remaines then that by heavens heere wee vnderstand the lights of heaven thought by Philosophers to bee the thicker parts of the spheres together with the spheres themselues in which those lights are fixed and wheeled about For that such spheres and orbes there are I take it as granted neither will I dispute it though I am not ignorant that some latter writers thinke otherwise and those neither few in number nor for their knowledge vnlearned But for the true sense of the place alleadged wee are to know that the word there vsed to wax old both in Hebrew Greeke Latin doth not necessarily imply a decay or impairing in the subject so waxing old but somtimes doth only signifie a farther step accesse to a finall period in regard of duration Wee haue read of some who being well striken in yeares haue renewed their teeth and changed the white colour of their haire and so growne yong againe Of such it might truly be sayd that they grew elder in regard of their neerer approch to the determinate end of their race though they were yonger in regard of their constitution and state of their bodies And thus do I take the Apostle to be vnderstood that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away where hee speakes of the Ceremoniall law which did not grow old by degrees at least before the incarnation of Christ but stood in its full force and vigour vntill it was by him abrogated and disanulled To which purpose Aquinas hath not vnfitly observed vpon the place Quod dicitur vetus significat quod sit prope cessationem the tearming of a thing old implies that it hastens to an end This then as I take it may truly be affirmed of the signification of the word in generall and at large and may justly seeme to haue been the Prophets meaning in as much as he addeth But thou art the same and thine yeares shall haue no end From whence may be collected that as God cannot grow old because his yeares shall haue no end so the heavens because they shall haue an end may be therefore sayd to grow old But whereas it is added not only by the Psalmist but by the Apostle in precise tearmes They shall wax old as doth a garment and againe as a Vesture shalt thou change them the doubt still remaines whether by that addition the sense of the word bee not restrained to a graduall and sensible decay I know it may be sayd that a garment waxing old not only looses his freshnesse but part of his quantitie and weight it is not only soyled but wasted either in lying or wearing so in continuance of time becomes vtterly vnserviceable which no man I think will ascribe to the heavens I meane that their quantity is any way diminished All agree then that the Similitude may be strained too
aspect in all places of Christendome to runne the same course to keepe the same proportion distance and situation euery-where in euery point with the fixed starres by the space of two whole yeares but this I take to haue beene not the effect of Nature but the supernaturall miraculous worke of Almighty God the first Author and free disposer of Nature and the like may be said of all such Comets which haue at any time evidently appeared if any such evidence may be giuen to be aboue the Globe of the Moone from whence it can no more be inferred that the heauens are composed of a matter corruptible naturally subject to impairing and fading then that their motion is irregular or that it is in the power of mortall man to dispose of the course of those immortall Creatures because by a speciall priviledge at the prayer of Iosuah both the Sun and Moone were stayed in their wonted courses and the shadow went backe ten degrees in the Dyall of Ahaz for the assurance of the truth of the Prophet Isaiahs message sent to King Hezekiah The same answere may not be vnfitly shaped to that wonder which S. Augustine reports out of Varroes booke intituled de Gente Populi Romani and he out of Castor touching the Planet Venus which to adde the greater weight and credit to the relation being somewhat strange and rare I will set it downe in the very words of Varro as I finde them quoted by S. Augustine In coelo mirabile extitit portentum nam in stella Vener is nobilissima quam Plautus Vesperruginem Homerus Hesperon appellat pulcherrimam dicens Castor scribit tantum portentum extitisse ut mutaret colorem magnitudinem figuram cursum quod factum ita neque antea neque postea sit hoc factum Ogyge Rege dicebant Adrastus Cyzicenus Dyon Neapolites Mathematici nobiles In Heauen saith he appeared a maruailous great wonder the most noted starre called Venus which Plautus tearmes Vesperrugo and Homer Hesperus the faire as Castor hath left it vpon record changed both colour and bignes and figure and motion which accident was neuer seene before nor since that time the renowned Mathematicians Adrastus and Dyon averring that this fell out during the raigne of King Ogyges Which wonder neither Varro nor Augustine ascribe to the changeable matter of the Heauens but to the vnchangeable will of the Creator And therefore the one cals it as we see Mirabile portentum and the other makes this Comment vpon it that it hapned quia ille voluit qui summo regit imperio ac potestate quod condidit because he would haue it so who gouernes all things that he hath made with a Soueraigne and independing power So that two speciall reasons may be yeelded for these extraordinary vnvsuall apparitions in heauen the one that they may declare to the world that they haue a Creator Commander who can alter or destroy their natures restraine or suspend their operations at his pleasure which should keepe men from worshipping them as Gods since they cannot keepe themselues from alteration The other to portend and foreshew his Iudgements as did that new starre in Cassiopoea a most vnnaturall inundation of blood in France and this change in Venus such a deluge in Achaia as it ouerflowed and so wasted the whole Countrey that for the space of two hundred yeares following it was not inhabited SECT 6. The last obiection drawne from the Eclipses of the Sunne and Moone answered THe last doubt touching the passibility of the matter of the Heauens is drawne from the Eclipses of the Sun and Moone in which they are commonly thought to suffer and to bee as it were in travell during that time Which if it were so it must of necessity by degrees consume the vigour and beauty of those glorious bodies and finally the bodies themselues To this purpose is alleadged that of the Poet where he cals these Eclypses Defectus Solis varios Lunaeque labores Defects and trauels of the Sunne and Moone As also the manner of the ancient Romans while such Eclypses lasted to lift vp many burning torches toward Heauen and withall to beate pans of brasse and basons as we doe in following a swarme of bees Commovet Gentes publicus error Lassantque crebris pulsibus aera A common errour through the World doth passe And many a stroake they lay on pans of brasse Saith Boetius and Manilius speaking of the appearance of the Moones Eclipse by degrees in diverse parts of the Earth Seraque in extremis quatiuntur gentibus aera Th' vtmost coasts doe beat their brasse pans last And the Satyrist wittily describing a tatling Gossip Vna laboranti poterit succurrere Lunae Shee onely were enough to helpe The labours of the Moone They thought thereby they did the Moone great ease and helped her in her labour as Plutarch in the life of Aemilius obserueth Nay Aemilius himselfe a wise man as the same Author there witnesseth congratulated the Moones deliuery from an Eclipse with a solemne sacrifice assoone as shee shone out bright againe which action of his that prudent Philosopher and sage Historian not relateth only but approoueth commendeth as a signe of godlinesse and devotion yea this Heathenish and sottish custome of releeuing the Moone in this case by noise outcries the Christians it seemes borrowed from the Gentiles as appeares by S. Ambrose in his eighty and third Sermon where he most sharply checks his Auditors for their rude and vncivill nay prophane and irreligious carriage in this very point And because his discourse there is not only smart and piercing but marvailous punctuall and pertinent in regard of the question in hand I hope it will not be thought time or paper mis-spent if I set it downe as there I find it Who would not grieue at it that you should so far forget your soules health as you should not blush to call Heauen as a witnesse to your sinne For when I lately preached vnto you touching your covetousnesse euen the same day at Evening there was so great a shouting of the people that your prophanenesse pierced the Heauens I inquired what the meaning of that noise might bee it was told me that with your out-cryes you relieued the Moone being then in travell and succoured her faintings with your shouting which when I heard in truth I could not choose but laugh and wonder at your vanity that like devoute Christians you thought to bring aide to God for it seemes you cryed least by meanes of your silence hee might perchance loose one of his noblest Creatures or as if being weake and impotent he could not maintaine those lights himselfe had created but by the assistance of your voyces And surely ye doe very well in that you succour the Deity that by your helpe he may gouerne heauen But would ye doe it to purpose indeed then must ye watch euery night all night For how
often trow ye is the moon eclypsed while you sleep yet she falls not from heaven Or is shee alwayes eclypsed in the night not likewise in the day time But then only it seemes is the moone eclypsed with you when your bellies are well stuffed with a full supper your braines steeled with full pots then only the Moone labours in heaven when the wine labours in your heads then is her circle troubled with charmes when your sight is dazled with over much quaâ—…ing How canst thou then discerne what befals the Moone in heaven when thou canst not discerne what is done neere thee on earth heerein is that plainely verified which holy Solomon foretold a foole chaâ—…geth as the Moone Thou changest like the Moone when beeing ignorant of the motion thereof thou who werst a Christian before now beginnest to be sacrilegious for sacrilege thou committest against thy Creator when thou imputest such impotency to the Creature Thou then changest like the moone when thou who before shinedst in the devotion of faith now fallest away thorow the weakenes of vnbeleefe thou changest like the moone when thy braine is as voide of wit as the moone is of light and I could wish thou diddest indeed change as the moone for shee quickely returnes againe to her fulnes but thou by leasure to the vse of thy wits shee soone recovers her light but thou slowly the faith which thou hast denyed Thy change then is worse then that of the moone shee suffers an Eclipse of her light but thou of thy soules health But willsome man say is not the moone in labour then yes indeed shee labours it cannot bee denyed but shee labours with the other creaturess as the Apostle speakes wee know that the whole Creature groaneth and travelleth in paine vntill now and againe the Creature it selfe shall also bee deliuered from the bondage of Corruption It shall bee freed from bondage You see then that the moone doth not labour with charmes but with dutifull observances not with dangers but with vsefull offices not to perish but to serue For the Creature is made subiect to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subiected the same So that the Moone is not willingly changed from her condition but thou wittingly and willingly robbest thy selfe of thine owne reason Shee by the condition of her nature suffers an Eclipse thou by consent of thine owne will art drawne into mischiefe Bee not then as the moone when shee is eclypsed but as when shee fils her circle with light For of the righteous man it is written Hee shall bee established for ever as the moone as the faithfull witnesse in heaven By which witty discourse of S. Ambrose it plainely appeares that in his judgement the moone suffered nothing by her Eclypse which opinion of his is confirmed not only by the testimony of Aristotle in the eight of the Metaphysickes but by the evidence of reason it being caused by the shadow of the earth interposed betweene the Sunne and the Moone as in exchange or revenge thereof as Pliny speaketh the Eclypse of the Sun is caused by the interposition of the moone betwixt the earth and it The moone so depriuing the earth and againe the earth the moone of the beames of the Sunne Which is the true cause that in the course of nature the Moone is never eclypsed but when shee is full the Sunne and shee being then in opposition nor the Sunne but when it is new-moone those two Planets being then in conjunction I say in the course of Nature for the Eclypse at our Sauiours passion was vndoubtedly supernaturall Quam Solis obscurationem non ex canonico Syderum cursu accidisse satis ostenditur quod tunc erat Pascha Iudaeorum Nam plena Luna solenniter agitur saith S. Augustine It is evident that that Eclipse of the Sunne happened not by the ordinary orderly course of the stars it being then the Passover of the Iewes which was solemnized at the full moone And this was it that gaue occasion as is commonly belecued to that memorable exclamation of Dennys the Areopagite being then in Egypt Aut Deus Naturae patitur aut machina mundi dissolvetur either the God of Nature suffers or the frame of Nature will bee dissolved And heerevpon too as it is thought by some was erected that Altar at Athens Ignoto Deo To the vnknowne God Though others thinke that Eclypse was confined within the borders of Iudea howsoever it cannot be denyed but that it was certainely beside and aboue the course of Nature Neither ought it seeme strange that the Sunne in the firmament of heaven should appeare to suffer when the Sunne of Righteousnes indeed suffered vpon earth But for other Eclypses though their Causes bee now commonly knowne yet the ignorance of them was it which caused so much superstition in former ages and left that impression in mens mindes as euen at this day wise men can hardly bee perswaded but that those Planets suffer in their Eclypses which in the Sunne is most childish and ridiculous to imagine since in it selfe it is not so much as depriued of any light nor in trueth can bee it being the fountaine of light from which all the other starres borrow their light but pay nothing backe againe to it by way of retribution Which was well expressed by Pericles as Plutarch in his life reports it For there happening an Eclypse of the Sun at the very instant when his Navy was now ready to lanch forth himselfe was imbarked his followers began to bee much apald at it but specially the Master of his owne gally which Pericles perceiuing takes his cloake with it hoodwinkes the Masters eyes then demaunds of him what danger was in that hee answering none neither saith Pericles is there in this Eclypse there being no difference betwixt my cloake and that Vaile with which the Sun is covered but only in bignes And the truth is that the Sun then suffered no more by the intervening of the Moone then from Pericles his cloake or daily doth from the cloudes in the aire which hinder the sight of it or by the interposition of the Planet Mercury which hath sometimes appeared as a spot in it But whether these Eclypses either cause or presage any change in these inferiour bodies I shall haue fitter occasion to examine heareafter and so passe from the consideration of the substance to the motion of the heavenly bodies CAP. 2. Touching the pretended decay of the heavenly bodies in regard of their motions SECT 1. The first reason that there is no decay in the motions of the heavenly bodies drawne from the causes thereof MOtion is so vniversall and innate a property and so proper an affection to all naturall bodies that the Great Philosopher knew not better how to define Nature then by making her the Enginer and Principle of Motion And therefore as other obiects are
Starres are not Gods as the Gentiles commonly imagined the other that they are governed by God which the Epicurians denyed for the former of those saith he argumentum illud quo colligunt vniversa coelestia Deos esse in contrarium valet Nam si Deos esse idcircò opinantur quia certos rationabiles cursus habent errant Ex hoc enim apparet Deos non esse quod exorbitare illis apraestitutis itineribus non licet caeterùm si Dij essent huc atque illuc passim sine vlla necessitate ferrentur sicut animantes in terra quorum quia liberae sunt voluntates huc atque illuc vagantur vt libet quocunque mens duxerit eo feruntur That argument from whence the Heathen doe collect that the Starres must needes be Gods doth most plainly prooue the contrary For if they take them to be Gods because of the certainty of their courses they be therein much deceiued for this plainely prooveth that indeed they be no Gods because they be not able to depart from their set courses Whereas if they were Gods they would mooue both this way and that way in the Heauens as freely as liuing Creatures doe vpon the earth who because they haue the liberty and freedome of their will they wander vp and downe whither they themselues please And for the latter tanta rerum magnitudo saith hee tanta dispositio tanta in servandis ordinibus temporibusque constantia non potuit aut olim sine provido Artifice oriri aut constare tot seculis sine incola potente aut in perpetuū gubernari sine perito sciente rectore quod ratio ipsa declarat Such a greatnes in their creation such a comelinesse in their order such a constancie in observing both their courses and their seasons could neuer either at first haue beene framed without a cunning hand or so long haue beene preserued without a powerfull inhabitant or so wisely haue beene governed without a skilfull Regent as euen reason it selfe maketh it plaine and evident And Plurarch affirmeth generally of all men that the very first motiue that lead them vnto God was that orderly motion whereby the starres are carried Homines caeperunt Deum agnoscere cùm viderent stellas tantam concinnitatem efficere ac dies noctesque aetate ac hyeme suos servare statos ortus atque obitus Men beganne first to acknowledge a God when they considered the starres to maintaine such a comelinesse and both day and night in summer and winter to obserue their designed risings and settings SECT 4. An objection of Du Moulins touching the motion of the Polar Starre answered ANd thus I hope the Heauens are sufficiently discharged from any imputation of Decay in regard of their motion the constant regularity whereof we finde to haue beene obserued and admired by the most learned of all ages It remaines now that I should proceede to the examination of the other qualities thereof which before I attempt it shall not be amisse to remoue a rub cast in our way by Du Moulin a famous French Divine in his Booke intituled The accomplishment of Divine Prophesies touching the motion of the Polar starre his words are these or to this purpose Astrologie also doth lend vs some light in this matter For in the yeare of the World three thousand six hundred sixty fiue Ptolomaeus Philadelphus raigning in Egypt some foure hundred sixty nine yeares after the building of Rome there lived one Hipparchus a famous Astrologer who reports that in his time the starre commonly called the Polar starre which is in the taile of the lesser Beare was 12 degrees two fifths distant from the Pole of the Aequator This star from age to age hath insensibly still crept neerer to the Pole so that at this present it is not past three degrees distant from the Pole of the Aequator When this star then shall come to touch the Pole there being no farther space left for it to goe forward which may well enough come to passe within fiue or six hundredth yeares it is likely that then there shall be a great change of things and that this time is the period which God hath presixed to Nature A bold coniecture of a man so well versed in holy Scriptures and in other matters so modest as if God had written in the Heavens the period of times or had so written it as any mortall eye could discerne it his beloued Son professing that it is not for vs to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his owne power And as the Conjecture is bold so is it built vpon as sandy a foundation which is that the Pole-star shall draw so neere the Pole as to touch it or shall euer be brought to those straits as it shall finde no passage to goe forward whereas it is certaine it shall euer remaine in some certaine distance from the Pole twenty sixe or twenty seuen minutes at the least True indeed it is that about fiue hundred yeares hence if the World last so long it shall then approach the nearest but then shall it with-draw it selfe again by degrees to as remote a distance as it euer was before As it heretofore hath beene the most Southerly star in that Asterisme and is now become the most Northerly so in processe of time it may become the most Southerly againe But from hence to inferre that the Poles of the Aequator are moueable is inconsequent and incompatible with the most receiued and best approued grounds of Astronomy Besides other fixed stars haue their times of accesse and recesse to and frōthe Pole aswell as this so that the motion of this can no more point out the period of Nature then of those All which Du Moulin himselfe either by his owne observation or advertisement from others well perceiuing in a latter Edition of that booke printed at Sedane in the yeare one thousand six hundred thenty one hath well mended the matter by changing some words For insteed of this in the first edition From hence it appeareth that the Poles of the Equatour are moueable in the second he hath thus changed it It being certaine and observed by long experience that the fixed stars moue from the West to the East in a motion paralell to the Eclyptique In his first edition he sayes When this starre shall come to touch the Pole there beeing no further space left for it to goe forward but in his second hee changeth it thus when this starre shall approach the Pole as neere as it can Againe in his first thus which may well come to passe within these fiue or six hundred yeares in his second thus which may well come to passe within siue hundred yeares Lastly in his first thus it seemes that this time is the period which God hath prefixed to Nature in his second thus it seemes that some notable period shall then expire And surely I cannot but as much commend
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
absumitur sed manet quale à Deo initio fuit firmatum Nay a little before that last passage diuiding the whole firmament or Expansum containing all the Coelestiall Spheres and regions of the aire into two parts The higher saith hee thereby intending the heavenly bodies is purissima incorruptibilis inalterabilis most pure incorruptible and inalterable Now if it should bee demaunded how the Heaveus may bee said to languish and to haue lost of their natiue brightnes and yet still to remaine incorruptible inalterable for mine owne part I must professe I cannot vnderstand it nor know which way to reconcile it A number of the like passages may bee observed in the writings of our latter Diuines but I sparetheir names for the reverence I beare their gifts and places and persons and so proceed SECT 3. Heerevnto some other reasons are added and the testimonie of Eugubinus vouched I Remember Mr. Camden reports that at the demolition of our Monasteries there was found in the supposed monument of Constantius Chlorus father to the Great Constantine a burning Lampe which was thought to haue burnt there euer since his buriall about three hundredth yeares after Christ and withall hee addes out of Lazius that the ancient Romans vsed in that manner to preserue lights in their Sepulchres a long time by the oylelinesse of Gold resolved by Art into a liquid substance Which if it bee so how much more easie is it for the Father of lights to preserue those naturall lights of Heaven which himselfe hath made without any diminution In artificiall lights wee see that if a thousand Candles bee all lighted from one yet the light of the first is not thereby any whit abated and why should wee then conceiue that the Sun by imparting his light so many thousand yeares should loose any part thereof They who mainetaine that the soule of man is derived ex traduce hold withall that the Father in begetting the sonnes soule looses none of his owne it being tanquam lumen de lumine as one light from another nay more then so it is the very resemblance that the Nicene Fathers thought not vnmeete to expresse the vnexpressable generation of the second person in Trinity from the first who is therefore tearmed by the Apostle the brighnes of his glory As then the Father by communicating his substance to his sonne looses none of his owne so the Sunne by communicating his light to the world looses no part nor degree thereof Some things there are of that nature as they may bee both given and kept as knowledge and vertue and happinesse and light which in holy Scripture is figuratiuely taken for them all whether the same individuall light bee still resident in the body of the sunne which was planted in it at the first Creation or whether it continually empty and spend it selfe and so like a riuer bee continually repaired with fresh supplies for mine owne part I cannot certainely affirme though I must confesse I rather incline to the former But this I verily beleeue that as the body of the Sunne is no whit lessened in extention So neither is the light thereof in intention Men being now no more able to fixe their eyes vpon it when it shines forth in its full strength then they were at the first Creation thereof I will conclude this chapter with that of Eugubinus in his tenth booke de Perenni Philosophia Futuri interitus ac senescentiae aliqua jam indicia praecessissent non constaret idem Sol non eadem fulgoris esset plenitudo idem radiorum vigor haec igitur Senectus nusquam est Had there beene in the heavens any such decay or waxing old as is supposed wee should haue seene some fore-running tokens thereof The Sunne would not haue beene like himselfe hee would not haue retained the same fullnesse of brightnes nor the same vigour in his beames This old age then is no where to bee found Where hee takes it as graunted that none would bee so vnreasonable as to affirme that the strength and cleerenes of the light of heaven is any way abated Now what hath beene spoken of the light may no lesse truely bee verified of the warmth and influence thereof which spring therefrom and now succeed in their order to bee examined CAP. 4. Touching the pretended decay in the warmth of the heavenly bodies SECT 1. That the starres are not of a fiery nature or hot in themselues THe light of Heaven whereof wee haue spoken is not more comfortable vsefull then is the warmth therof with a masculine vertue it quickens all kind of seeds it makes them vegetate blossome and fructifie and brings their fruite to perfection for the vse of man beast and the perpetuating of their owne kinds nay it wonderfully refresheth and cheares vp the spirits of men and beasts and birds and creeping things not only impartsthe life of vegetation but of sense motion to many thousand creatures and like a tender parent forsters and cherisheth it being imparted Some there are that liue without the light of heauen searching into and working vpon those bodies which the light cannot pierce but none without the warmth it being in a manner the vniversall instrument of Nature which made the Psalmist say that there is nothing hid from the heate of the sunne Few things are hid from the light but from the heate thereof nothing Our life withthe ligh of heaven would be tedious and vncomfortable but without the warmth impossible Since then such is the continuall and necessary vse of the Coelstiall warmth aswell in regard of the generation as the preseruation of these inferiour bodies accomodating it selfe to their severall tempers and vses in severall manners and degrees it may easily be conceiued to be a matter of marveilous greate importance in deciding the maine question touching Natures decay to inquire thorowly into the state and condition of it vpon which so many and great workes of Nature wholy depend whether it be decayed or no or whether it still abide in the fullnesse of that strength and activitie in which it was created For the better cleering of which doubt it will be very requisite first to inquire into the efficient cause thereof which being once discovered it will soone appeare whether in the course of nature it be capable of any such diminution or no. I am not ignorant that S. Augustine S. Basill S. Ambrose and generally as many Divines as held that there were waters properly so tearmed aboue the starry firmament held with all that the Sunne and Starres caused heate as being of a fiery Nature those waters being set there in their opinion for cooling of that heate which opinion of theirs seemes to be favoured by Syracides in the forty third of Ecclesiasticus where he thus seakes of the Sunne At noone it parcheth the countrey and who can abide the burning heate there of A man blowing a furnace is
about the yeare 3369 after Christ. This opinion of Copernicus is received by most of this time some following him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others somewhat varying in the difference of the greatest declination making it when it is least as in our time not lesse then 23 30 and in the Periodicall restitution thereof But to speake freely I cannot so easily bee drawne into this opinion but rather thinke the greatest declination of the Sunne to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 immutable and for ever the same For the little difference of a few minutes betwixt vs and Ptolomy may very well arise as I formerly said from the errour of observations by the Ancients The greatest declination of the Sunne from the Aequinoctiall towards either Pole being alwaies the same the Sunne cannot goe more Southernely from vs nor come more Northernly towards vs in this then in former ages But supposing a mutability in the Sunnes greatest declination according to the former Periods it followeth that as the Sunne about 65 yeares before the Epoche of Christ went from our verticall point more Southernly then now it doth So many Ages before Christ it went no more Southernly then now it doth and that many ages after our time it shall goe as farre Southernly as at the Epoche of Christ. Secondly when the greatest declination was most As then in Winter the Sun went more Southernly from vs then now so in Summer it came more Northernly and neerer vs then now Againe when the greatest declination is least as in our Age it goeth not so farre Southernly from vs in Winter as formerly neither in Summer comes so farre Northernly From which answere it may as I conceiue bee fitly and safely inferred first that either there is no such remoueall at all of the Sunne as is supposed or if there bee as wee who are situate more Northernly feele perchance the effects of the defects of the warmth thereof in the vnkindly ripening of our fruites and the like so likewise by the rule of proportion must it needs follow that they who lie in the same distance from the South-Pole as wee from the North should enjoy the benefite of the neerer approach thereof And they who dwell in the hottest Climates interiacent of the abating of the immoderate fervency of their heate and consequently that to the Vniversall nothing is lost by this exchange And as in this case it may happily fall out so vndoubtedly doth it in many other from whence the worlds supposed decay is concluded Wee vnderstand not or at least-wise wee consider not how that which hurts vs helpes another nation wee complaine as was before truely observed out of Arnobius as if the world were made and the government thereof administred for vs alone heereby it comes to passe that as hee who lookes onely vpon some libbat or end of a peece of Arras conceiues perhaps an hand or head which he sees to bee very vnartificially made but vnfolding the whole soone findes that it carries a due and iust proportion to the body So qui ad pauca respicit de facili pronuntiat saith Aristotle hee that is so narrow eyed as hee lookes onely to his own person or family to his owne corporation or nation will paradventure quickely conceiue and as soone pronounce that all things decay and goe backewarde whereas hee that as a Citizen of the world and a part of mankinde in generall takes a view of the Vniversall and compares person with person familie with familie nation with nation suspends his judgement or vpon examination cleerely findes that though some members suffer yet the whole is thereby no way indammaged at any time and at other times those same members are againe relieued And from hence my second inference is that supposing a mutability in the Sunnes greatest declination looke what dammage wee suffer by his farther remoueall from vs in Summer is at least-wise in part recompensed by his neerer approach in Winter and by his Periodicall Revolutions fully restored And so I passe from the consideration of the warmth to those hidden and secret qualities of the heavens which to Astronomers and Philosophers are knowne by the name of Influences CAP. 5. Touching the pretended decay of the heavenly bodies in regard of their Iufluences SECT 1. Of the first kinde of influence from the highest immoueable Heaven called by Divines Coelum Empyraeum HOwbeit Aristotle thorow those workes of his which are come to our hands to my remembrance hath not once vouchafed so much as to take notice of such qualities which wee call Influenences and though among the Ancients Auerroes and Auicenne and among those of fresher date Picus Mirandula and Georgius Agricola seeke to disproue them Yet both Scripture and Reason and the weighty authority of many great schollers aswell Christians as Ethnickes haue fully resolved mee that such there are They are by Philosophers distinguished into two rankes the first is that influence which is derived from the Empyreall immoueable heaven the pallace and Mansion house of Glorified Saints and Angells which is gathered from the diversity of Effects aswell in regard of Plants as beasts and other commodities vnder the same Climate within the same Tract and latitude equally distant from both the Poles which wee cannot well referre originally to the inbred nature of the soile since the Authour of Nature hath so ordained that the temper of the inferiour bodies should ordinarily depēd vpon the superiour nor yet to the Aspect of the moueable spheres and stars since every part of the same Climate successiuely but equally injoyes the same aspect It remaines then that these effects bee finally reduced to some superiour immoueable cause which can be none other then that Empyreall heaven neither can it produce these effects by meanes of the light alone which is vniformely dispersed thorow the whole But by some secret quality which is diversified according to the diverse parts thereof and without this wee should not onely finde wanting that connexion and vnity of order in the parts of the world which make it so comely but withall should bee forced to make one of the worthiest peeces thereof voyde of action the chiefe end of euery created being Neither can this action misbeseeme the worthinesse of so glorious a peece since both the Creator thereof is still busied in the workes of Providence and the Inhabitants in the workes of ministration SECT 2. Of the second kind derived from the Planets and fixed starres THe other kind is that which is derived from the starres the aspect of severall constellations the opposition and conjunction of the Planets the like These wee haue warranted by the mouth of God himselfe in the thirty eight of Iob according to our last and most exact Translation Canst thou binde the sweete influences of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion Canst thou bring forth Mazzoreth in his season Or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sonnes Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven
light and warmth they are no whit impaired why should wee make any doubt but that their influence is now likewise as sweet as God in his conference with Iob teameth it as benigne as gratious as favorable as ever in regard of the Elements thee Plants the beasts and man himselfe and why should we not beleeue that education reason and eeligion are now as powerfull as ever to correct and qualifie their vnlucky and maligne aspects that the hand of God is no way shartned but that he is now as able as ever to controle and check his creatures and make them worke together for the best to them that loue him As he did sometime in this very case for his chosen people they fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera Hee that set the Sun and Moone at a stand in their walks and commanded the shadow to retire in the dyall of Ahaz he that made a dry path through the red sea musled the mouthes of thee Lyons and restrained the violence of the fire so as for a season it could not burne hath he bound himselfe to the influetce of a Starre that he cannot bind it vp or divert it or alter it at his pleasure and vpon the humble supplication of his servants no no Sanctus dominabitur astris if according to Ptolomy the great Master of Iudiciary Astrology wisedome and fore-sight ouer-rule the starres then surely much more devotion and piety If the Saints by their prayers commaund the Divels and both shut and open Heauen for raine and drought as did Elias then may they aswell by vertue of the same prayer stoppe the influences of the starres the instrumentall causes of drought raine Bee not dismaide then at the signes of heauen for the Heathen be dismaide at them And surely they in whom corrupt Nature swayes raignes haue much more reason to be dismaide at them then others in whom Grace and the sence of Godlines prevailes And whiles they feare many times they know not what by meanes of their very feare they fall into that which they stand in feare of feare being the betrayer of those succours which reason affords Much noise there is at this present touching the late great Conjunction of Saturne Iupiter many ominous conjectures are cast abroad vpon it which if perchance they proue true I should rather ascribe it to our sinnes then the starres wee need not search the cause so far off in the Booke of Heauen we may find it written neerer at home in our own bosomes And for the starres I may say as our Saviour in the Gospell doth of the Sabboth the stars were made for men and not men for the starres they were not created to governe but to serue him if he serue be governed by his Creator and if God be on our side and we on his Iupiter Saturne shal neuer hurt vs But whatsoeuer the force of the starrs be vpon the persons of private men or the states of weale-publiques I should rather advise a modest ignorance therein then a curious inquisition thereinto following the witty pithy counsel of Phavorinus the Philosopher in Gellius where he thus speakes Aut adversa eventura dicunt aut prospera si dicunt prospera fallunt miser fies frustrà expectando si adversa dicunt mentiuntur miser fies frustrà timendo si vera respondent eaque sunt non prospera jam indè ex animo miser fies antequam è fato fias si falicia promittunt eaque eventura sunt tum planè duo erunt incommoea expectatio te spe suspensum fatigabit futurum gaudij fructum spes tibi defloraverit Either they portend then bad or good luck if good they deceiue thou wilt become miserable by a vaine expectation if bad they lye thou wilt be miserable by a vaine feare if they tell thee true but vnfortunate events thou wilt be miserable in mind before thou art by destiny if they promise fortunate successe which shall indeed come to passe these two inconveniences will follow therevpon both expectation by hope will hold thee in suspence hope will deflowre devoure the fruit of thy Content His conclusion is which is also mine both for this point and this Chapter this discourse touching the Heavenly Bodies Nullo igitur pacto vtendum est istiusmodi hominibus res futuras praesagientibus we ought in no case to haue recourse to those kinde of men which vndertake the fore-telling of casuall events And so I passe from the consideration of the coelestiall bodies to the subcoelestial which by Gods ordinance depend vpon them and are made subordinate vnto them touching which the coelestiall bodies both together comparing each with other the Divine Bartas thus sweetly and truly sings Things that consist of th' Elements vniting Are euer tost with an intestiue fighting Whence springs in time their life and their deceasing Their diverse change their waxing and decreasing So that of all that is or may be seene With mortall eyes vnder Nights horned Queene Nothing reteineth the same forme and face Hardly the halfe of halfe an houres space But the Heau'ns feele not fates impartiall rigour Yeares adde not to their stature nor their vigour Vse weares them not but their greene-euer age Is all in all still like their pupillage CAP. 6. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in generall SECT 1. That the Elements are still in number foure and still retaine the ancient places and properties HAuing thus prooued at large in the former Chapters touching the Heauens that there neither is nor in the course of Nature can be any decay either in regard of their matter their motion their light their warmth or influence but that they all continue as they were euen to this day by Gods ordinance it remaines that I now proceed to the consideration of the sublunary bodies that is such as God Nature hath placed vnder the Moone Now the state of these inferiour being guided and governed by the superiour if the superiour be vnimpaireable as hath beene shewed it is a strong presumption that the inferiour are likewise vnimpaired For as in the wheeles of a Watch or clock if the first be out of order so are the second third the rest that are moued by it so if the higher bodies were impaired it cannot bee but the lower depending vpon them should tast thereof as on the other side the one being not impaired it is more then probable that the other partake with them in the same condition Which dependance is well expressed by Boeshius where hauing spoken of the constant regularity of the heauenly bodies he thus goes on Haec concordia temperat aequis Elementa modis vt pugnantia Vicibus cedant humida siccis Iungantque fidem frigora flammis Pendulus ignis surgat in altum Terraeque graves pondere sidant Iisdem causis vere tepenti
verse was that of Tullies owne making touching the good government of the state during his Consulship O fortunatam natam me Consule Romam O happy Rome fortunate Through me and through my Consulate But their Emperours went farther Dioclesian calling himselfe the brother of the Sunne Moone and in salutations not admitting any to farther familiarity then the kissing of his toe Nay Augustus somuch magnified by them made a supper in which Suetonius witnesseth Deorum Dearumque habitu discubuisse convivas ipsum pro Apolline ornatum that his guests sate downe in the habite of Gods and Goddesses and himselfe attired like Apollo But this was but a play though such as Augustus himselfe blushed to heare of Domitian as before hath beene touched went to it in good earnest sending out his writes with this forme Dominus Deus noster sic fieri jubet Our Lord God so commaunds it to be vnde institutum posthac vt ne scripto quidem ac sermone cujusquam appellaretur aliter from thence forth it was ordained that he should neither by the writing nor speech of any man be otherwise named Yet these were but words Caligula proceeded to deedes Divûmque sibi poscebat honores Assuming and challenging to himselfe not the name only but the honours due to the Gods Hee caused the statues of the Gods among which was that of Iupiter Olympicus to be brought out of Greece and taking off their heads commaunded his owne to be set on insteed thereof and standing betweene Castor and Pollux exhibited himselfe to bee worshipped of such as resorted thither Templum etiam numini suo proprium Sacerdotes excogitatissimas hostias instituit he farther erected a Temple and instituted both Priests most exquisite sacrifices to the service of himselfe In his temple stood his image of gold taken to life which every day was clad with the same attire as was himselfe his sacri fices were phaenicopters peacockes bustards turkeyes pheasants all these were daily offered and at nights in case the moone shined out full and bright he invited her to imbracements to lie with him but the day he would spend in private conference with Iupiter Capitolinus sometimes whispering and laying his eare close to him and sometimes againe talking aloud as if he had beene chiding Nay being angry with heaven because his interludes were hindred by claps of thunder and his banquetting by flashes of lightning ad pugnam provocavit Iovem he challenged Iupiter to fight with him quidem sine intermissione Homericum illum exclamans versum and without ceasing roared out that verse of Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 None is ô Iupiter more mischievous then thou Insteed of which verse of Homer some copies haue this Hemistichium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dispatch thou me Or I will thee Wherevpon Seneca inferres as well he might Quanta dementia fuit putavit aut sibi noceri ne à Iove quidem posse aut se nocere etiam Iovi posse what extreame madnesse was that to thinke that either Iupiter could not hurt him or that himselfe could hurt Iupiter Good God who would imagine that pride selfe-loue should so farre intoxicateand infatuate a man captivated to sinne and sensuality as to make him vtterly to forget himselfe to be a man and commaund others to worshippe him as a God or which is more aboue God! But surely heerein I must confesse they be somewhat the more to be pittied and the rather to be pardoned for that the Gods whom they worshipped had not only bin men but like themselues too notoriously wicked And withall I am perswaded the grosse flattery of their subjects but specially the Poets drew them on to the acting of that which perchaunce of themselues they were inclinable enough vnto SECT 2. Of their grosse and base flattery specially toward their Emperours both living and dead HOw notable doth Martiall play the Parasite with Domitian telling him that if the Gods should sell all they had they would not be able to satisfie their debt to him but would be forced to turne bancke-rupts Grandis in Aetherio licet auctio fiat Olympo Coganturque Dei vendere quicquid habent Conturbabit Atlas c. And againe Exspectes sustineas Auguste necesse est Nam tibi quod reddat non habet arca Iovis But this in Martiall a professed flatterer is more tollerable then in Virgill Lucan who carry the name of graue and sad Poets yet the one divides the Empire betweene Iupiter Augustus Divisum imperium cum Iove Caesar habet 'Twixt Ioue Caesar th' Empire shared is And the other professes that all the outrages committed in their civill warres were nothing displeasing vnto them but rather acceptable and advantagious in regard they holpt to prepare a way for Nero's comming to the Empire His Caesar Perusina fames mutinaeque labores Accedant fatis aut si quid durius istis Multum Roma tamen debet civilibus armis Quod tibi res acta est Adde Caesar to these fates Modena broiles Perusin famine or else harder toiles Yet Rome to civill arms thou art in debt Since all this worketh to thy benefit And againe Quod si non aliam venturo fata Neroni Invenêre viam Iam nihil ô Superi querimur scelera ista nefasque Hac mercede placent If other way the fates could not invent For Nero's comming then we rest content This villanie ô Gods this foule offence Mislikes vs not with so great recompence And when Domitian challenged to himselfe divine worship how ready were they to sooth him in it Magisteria Sacerdotij ditissimus quisque ambitione licitatione maxima vicibus comparabant Every one as he was richest by great sutes and bribes got him a turne in the Magistracie of the Priest-hood nay quidam eum latialem Iovem consalutârunt there wanted not some among them who saluted him by the name of Iupiter Latialis But this I must acknowledge as it was foule in the highest degree so was it vnvsuall For though as noteth Prosper in their petitions to their Princes they vsually stiled them Numini vestro Perennitati vestrae to your divine power to your eternity Quae vanitas non veritas tradidit atque execrabilia sunt which vanity not verity hath found out and are indeed abominable Nay the Emperours themselues in their Rescripts shamed not to write Perennitas nostra aeternitas nostra numen nostrum c. And we sometimes reade oracula Augusti for Edicta Yet Deorum honor Principi non ante habetur quam agere inter homines desierat saith Tacitus We doe not commonly giue the honour of the Gods to our Princes as long as they liue thereby implying that assoone as they were deceased they did it Though Augustus while he was yet living was worshipped as a God not in Rome perchaunce and Italy for that he refused yet abroad in the
before in his former Epistle and 4 chapt he had called the Latter times and that word which in the last of S. Marke our former Translations rendred Finally our last hath turned Afterward nay whereas wee reade in the Prophet Ioel It shall come to passe afterward S. Peter by divine inspiration no doubt hath rendred it It shall come to passe in the last dayes But very remarkeable are the words of old Iacob to this purpose when hee lay a dying and by the spirit of Prophesie foretold what should become of his sonnes I will tell you saith he that which shall befall you in the last dayes in which prediction of his though it be true that some things cōcerne the Kingdome of Christ as that touching Iudah the Scepter shall not depart from Iuda nor a Lawgiuer from betweene his feet vntill Shiloh come yet is it as true that many things in that Prophesie both concerning Iudah and the other Patriarches and Tribes descending from them were fulfilled long before the incarnation of CHRIST and not long after the death of Iacob In like manner the same word is vsed by Daniel in the Interpretation of Nebuchadnezzars dreame There is a God in heauen that revealeth secrets and maketh knowne to the King what shall be in the latter dayes or last dayes Which same speech in the 45 v. following hee againe repeates in these tearmes The great God hath made knowne to the King what shall come to passe hereafter And though it be most certaine that some of those things there fore-shewed were none otherwise fulfilled then in the kingdome of Christ as namely that in the 44. v. in the dayes of these Kings shall the God of Heauen set vp a Kingdome which shall neuer be destroyed yet withall it may not it cannot be denyed but the greatest part of them were accomplished before our Saviours apparelling himselfe with our flesh and some of them to wit the setting vp of the Persian Monarchy but 63 yeares after Nebuchadnezzars dreame or vision and Daniels prediction And hence it is that Iunius and Tremelius render the Hebrew word in both those passages of Genesis and Daniel with Sequentibus or Consequentibus temporibus which implies nothing else but times following and ensuing Those Prophesies then of S. Peter and S. Paul touching the great wickednesse of the latter or last times may well bee vnderstood either of the Kingdome of Christ as hath beene said or of times following theirs and not necessarily neere approaching the end of all time SEC 3. The passages of Scripture alleadged to that purpose particularly and distinctly answered NOW for the particular passages That prophesie of S. Paul touching Apostates forbidding to marry and commanding to abstaine from meates was accomplished in Eustathius the Encratits or Tatians the Marcionists the Manichaeans the Cathari the Cataphrygians or Montanists who all vented their heresies in those two points within lesse then two or three hundred yeares of the Apostles And if wee should with some latter Writers referre that whole prophesie to the defection of the Roman Church I thinke we should therein doe her no wrong Howsoeuer it is fully agreed vpon both by them and vs that the prophesie was long since fulfilled The same in effect may be said of his other prophesie in his second Epistle Neque enim aetatem suam cum nostra comparat sed potius qualis futura sit regni Christi conditio docet sayth judicious Calvin in his Commentaries vpon that place Hee doth not compare his owne age with ours but rather teaches what the Condition of Christs Kingdome was to be And that which the Apostle addes of Euill men and Seducers that they shall waxe worse and worse deceiuing and being deceiued is not sufficient to evince a perpetuall and vniversall declination For though some euill men grow worse yet others may and by Gods grace doe grow from bad to good and from good to better and euen of the same men doth the same Apostle tell vs in the same place They shall proceede no farther but their folly shall be manifest vnto all men As for S Peter and his prophesie touching the last dayes it is cleere that it was accomplished when S. Iude wrote his Epistle in as much as he points in a manner with his finger to that passage of S. Peter not only vsing the same words but putting vs in mind that he had them expressely from the Apostles of the Lord Iesus the onely difference betwixt S. Peter and S. Iude is this that the one foretells it and the other shewes how it was euen then fulfilled But I passe from the Schollers to the Master from the Apostles to our Saviour himselfe and his prophesies touching this point recorded by the Evangelists whereof the first is in Mat. 24. Because iniquity shall abound the loue of many shall waxe cold For the exposition of which words we are to know that our Sauiour in that chapter speaketh of the signes fore-running aswell the destruction of Ierusalem as the consummation of the World and so twisteth as it were or weaueth them one within another that it is hard to distinguish them yet by the consent of the best expositours the former of these is to bee referred to the first part of the chapter and so consequently this prophesie was long since accomplisned the meaning of it to be this that such and so cruell shall bee the persecution of Christian Religion that many who otherwise had a good minde to embrace it shall forsake both it and the Professours thereof leauing them to the malice of their Persequutors And to this purpose doe both Maldonate and Aretius bring the Example and words of S. Paul At my first answere no man stood with me but all men forsooke mee I pray God it be not laid to their charge Our Saviours second prophesie to this purpose is recorded in the 18 of S. Luke When the Sonne of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth Which words both Calvin and Iansenius referre not precisely to the time of Christs comming to judgment but extend them to the generall state of men euen from his Ascension to his second Comming Disertè Christus à suo in Coelum ascensu vsque ad reditum homines passim incredulos fore praedicit saith Calvin Christ expressely teacheth that from his ascension euen till his returue many vnbeleevers shall euery-where be found But Iansenius somewhat more cleerely and fully Non tantum significat defectum paucitatem fidei in hominibus qui vivi reperientur in novissimo die sed etiam in hominibus cuiuslibet temporis He doth not onely intimate the defect and scantnesse of faith which shall be found in men at the last day but in those of all ages To these passages may be added that in the 12 of the Revelation Woe to the Inhabitants of the earth and of the sea for the divell is come downe vnto you hauing great wrath
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
forceably consequently hath a greater power of making men not outwardly formally but really inwardly vertuous And if we should look back into Histories compare time with time we shall easily finde that where this Profession spred it selfe men haue generally beene more accomplished in all kind of morall civill vertues then before it took place It is true indeed that in processe of time thorow the ambition covetousnes luxury idlenesse ignorance of them who should haue bin lights in the Church it too much degenerated from its Originall purity therevpon manners being formed by it were generally tainted this corruption like a leprosie diffusing it selfe from the head into all the body But together with the reviving of the Arts Languages which for sundry ages lay buried in barbarisme the rust of superstition was likewise in many places scowred off from Religion which by degrees had crept vpon it fretted deepe into the face of it and the Arts being thus refined Religion restored to its primitiue brightnes manners were likewise reformed euen among them at least in part in shew who as yet admit not a full reformation in matter of Religion A foule shame then it were for vs who professe a thorow reformation in matter of doctrine to be thought to grow worse in matter of manners GOD forbid it should be so I hope it is not so I am sure it should not be so That grace of God which hath appeared more clearely to vs then to our fore-fathers teaching vs to adorne our profession with a gracious and vertuous conversation to deny vngodlinesse and worldly lusts and to liue soberly and righteously and godly in this present world soberly in regard of our selues righteously in regard of others and godly in regard of religious exercises If then we come short of our Auncestors in knowledge let vs not cast it vpon the deficiencie of our wits in regard of the Worlds decay but vpon our own sloth if we come short of them in vertue let vs not impute it to the declination of the World but to the malice and faintnesse of our owne wills if we feele the scourges of God vpon our Land by mortality famine vnseasonable weather or the like let vs not teach the people that they are occasioned by the Worlds old age and thereby call into question the prouidence or power or wisedome or iustice or goodnes of the Maker thereof but by their and our sins which is doubtles both the truer more profitable doctrine withall more consonant to the Sermons of Christ his Apostles the Prophets of God in like cases And withall let vs freely acknowledge that Almighty God hath bestowed many blessings vpon these latter ages which to the former he denyed as in sending vs vertuous and gracious Princes and by them the maintenance of piety peace plenty the like Lest thorow our ingratitude he vvithdraw them from vs and make vs know their worth by wanting them which by injoying them wee vnderstood not But I will not presume to advise where I should learne only I will vnfainedly wish and heartily pray that at leastwise your practise may still make good mine opinion maintained in this Booke refute the contrary common errour opposed therein that you may still grow in knowledge and grace and that your vertues may alwaies rise increase together with your buildings These latter without the former being but as a body without a soule Yours to doe you service to the vtmost of his poore abilitie G. H. THE PREFACE TRuth it is that this ensuing Treatise was long since in my younger yeares begunne by me for mine owne private exercise and satisfaction but afterward considering not onely the rarity of the subject and variety of the matter but withall that it made for the redeeming of a captivated truth the vindicating of Gods glory the advancement of learning the honour of the Christian reformed Religion by the advise and with the approbation and incouragement of such speciall friends whose piety learning and wisedome I well know and much reverence I resolved permissu superiorum and none otherwise to make it publique for the publique good and the encountring of a publique errour which may in some sort be equalled if not preferred before the quelling of some great monster Neither doe I take it to lye out of my profession the principall marke which I ayme at throughout the whole body of the Discourse being an Apologeticall defence of the power providence of God his wisedome his truth his justice his goodnes mercy and besides a great part of the booke it selfe is spent in pressing Theologicall reasons in clearing doubts arising from thence in producing frequent testimonies from Scriptures Fathers Schoolemen and moderne Divines in proving that Antichrist is already come from the writings of the Romanists themselues in confirming the article of our faith touching the Worlds future and totall consummation by fire and a day of finall judgement from discourse of reason and the writings of the Gentiles and lastly by concluding the whole worke with a pious meditation touching the vses which we may and should make of the consideration thereof seruing for a terrour to some for comfort to others for admonition to all And how other men may stand affected in reading I know not sure I am that in writing it often lifted vp my soule in admiring and praysing the infinite wisedome and bounty of the Crator in maintaining and managing his owne worke in the gouernment and preservation of the Vniverse which in truth is nothing else but as the Schooles speake continuata productio a continuated production often did it call to my mind those holy raptures of the Psalmist O Lord our governour how excellent is thy Name in all the world Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy workes I will reioyce in giuing praise for the operations of thy hands O Lord how glorious are thy workes thy thoughts are very deepe An vnwise man doth not well consider this a foole doth not well vnderstand it And againe The workes of the Lord are great sought out of all them that haue pleasure therein His worke is worthy to be praised had in honour his righteousnes endureth for euer And though whiles I haue laboured to free the world from old age I feele it creeping vpon my selfe yet if it shall so please the same great and gratious Lord I intend by his assistance spating mee life health hereafter to write Another Apologie of his power providence in the government of his Church which perchaunce by some may be thought both more proper for mee and for these times more necessary though he that shall narrowly obserue the prints of the Almighties footsteppes traced throughout this ensuing discourse may not vnjustly from thence collect both comfort and assurance that as the Heauens remaine vnchangeable so doth the Church triumphant
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
the Lord that I will heare the heavens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the oile and they shall heare Israell From that we may descend to the foure Elements which as a musicall instrument of foure strings is both tuned and touched by the hand of heaven And in the next place those bodies which are mixed and tempered of these Elements offer themselues to our consideration whether they bee without life as stones and mettalls or haue the life of vegetation only as Plants or both of vegetation and sense as beasts and birds and fishes and in the last place man presents himselfe vpon this Theater as being created last though first intended the master of the whole family chiefe Commaunder in this great house nay the master-peece the abridgment the mappe and modell of the Vniuerse And in him wee will examine this pretended decay first in regard of age and length of yeares secondly in regard of strength and stature thirdly in regard of wits and Arts and fourthly and lastly in regard of manners and conditions to which all that is in man is or should bee finally referred as all that is in the world is vnder God finally referred to man And because it is not sufficient to possesse our owne fort without the dismantling and demolishing of our enimies a principall care shall bee had throughout the whole worke to answere if not all at least the principall of those obiections which I haue found to weigh most with the adverse part And in the last place least I should any way bee suspected to shake or vndermine the ground of our Christian religion or to weaken the article of our beliefe touching the consummation of the world by teaching that it decayes not to wipe off that aspertion I will endeavour to prooue the certainety thereof not so much by Scripture which no Christian can be ignorant of as by force of Reason and the testimony of Heathen writers and finally I will conclude with an exhortation grounded therevpon for the stirring of men vp to a preparation of themselues against that day which shall not only end the world but iudge their actions and dispose of the everlasting estate of their persons CAP. 4. Touching the worlds decay in generall SECT 1. The three first generall reasons that it decayes not THe same Almighty hand which created the worlds massie frame and gaue it a being out of nothing doth still support and maintaine it in that being which at first it gaue and should it with draw himselfe but for a moment the whole frame would instantly returne into that nothing which before the Creation it was as Gregorie hath righly observed Deus suo presentiali esse dat omnibus rebus esse ita quod si se rebus subtraheret sicut de nihilo facta sunt omnia sic in nihilum diffluerent vniversa God by his presentiall Essence giues vnto all things an Essence so that if hee should withdraw himselfe from them as out of nothing they were first made so into nothing they would be againe resolved In the preservation then of the Creature wee are not so much to consider the impotencie and weakenesse thereof as the goodnesse wisedome and power of the Creator in whom and by whom and for whom they liue and moue and haue their being The spirit of the Lord filleth the world saith the Authour of the wisedome of Solomon and the secret working of the spirit which thus pierceth through all things hath the Poet excellently exprest Principio caelum ac terr as camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet The heauen the earth and all the liquide maine The Moones bright globe and starres Titanian A spirit within maintaines and their whole masse A minde which through each part infus'd doth passe Fashions and workes and wholly doth transpierce All this great Body of the Vniverse This Spirit the Platonists call the Soule of the World by it it is in some sort quickned and formaliz'd as the body of man is by its reasonable Soule There is no question then but this Soule of the World if wee may so speake being in truth none other then the immortall Spirit of the Creator is able to make the body of the World immortall and to preserue it from disolution as he doth the Angels and the spirits of men and were it not that he had determined to dissolue it by the same supernaturall and extraordinary power which at first gaue it existence I see not but by the ordinary concurrence of this spirit it might euerlastingly endure and that consequently to driue it home to our present purpose there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the course of Nature as is imagined and this I take to be the meaning of Philo in that booke which he hath composed De Mundi incorruptibilitate of the Worlds incorruptibility there being some who haue made the World eternall without any beginning or ending as Aristotle and the Peripateticks others giue it a beginning but without ending as Plato and the Academicks whom Philo seemes to follow and lastly others both beginning ending as Christians and other Sects of Philosophers whom Aristotle therefore flouts at saying that he formerly feared his house might fall downe about his eares but that now he had a greater matter to feare which was the dissolution of the world But had this pretended vniversall perpetuall decay of the World beene so apparant as some would make it his flout had easily beene returned vpon himselfe his opinion by dayly sensible experience as easily confuted which wee may well wonder none of those Philosophers who disputed against him if they acknowledged and beleeued the trueth thereof should any where presse in defence of their owne opinions it being indeed the most vnanswerable and binding argument that possibly could be enforced against him were there that evident certaintie in it as is commonly imagined whereas he in the sharpnesse of his wit seeing the weakenesse thereof would not so much as vouchsafe it a serious answere but puts it off with a jeast For mine owne part I constantly beleeue that it had a beginning and shall haue an ending and hold him not worthy the name of a Christian who holds not as much yet so as I beleeue both to bee matter of faith through faith we vnderstand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God and through the same faith we likewise vnderstand that they shall be againe vnframed by the same word Reason may grope at this truth in the darke howbeit it can neuer cleerely apprehend it but inlightned by the beame of faith I deny not but probable though not demonstratiue and convincing arguments may be drawn from discourse of reason to proue either the one or the other