Yet it is not so farre forth to be understood as that in their substances they shall be quite burnt up but rather that they shall be purified in their vicious qualities which the vanitie of sinne hath laid upon the model of the whole world And this S. Paul points at when he saith that the creature it self shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God For we know saith he that the whole creation groneth and travaileth in pain together untill now And again in the hundred and second Psalme where the Prophet saith that the heavens and the earth shall perish and wax old he sheweth that their perishing shall onely be a changing For as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed Whatsoever therefore is spoken of their consuming passing away and perishing is meant onely in respect of their corruptible qualities the substance still abiding and so shall the fire at the last day serve for a purging not for an utter consuming There shall indeed be nothing unchanged because all things shall be renewed and each thing brought into a perfect state Acts 3. 21. A new heaven and a new earth 2. Pet. 3. 21. Not new by creation but by commutation Non per interitum pristinorum sed commutationem in melius as saith S. Hierome Not by a destruction of the old but by a change into a better Which thing is yet further seen even in the little world Man who is the Epitome of the greater world it self For he in the substance of his bodie shall not be destroyed but changed and in stead of corruption shall put on incorruption as saith S. Paul beholding at the last day his Redeemer not with other saith Job but with these same eyes In like manner the greater world in stead of corruption shall I verily think put on incorruption and being purged by the fire shall be delivered into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God It shall not be delivered onely in the libertie of the sonnes of God that is when they are delivered but it shall be delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into their libertie as it is Rom. 8. 21. If it were onely in their libertie or when they are delivered then in stead of a changing there might be a consuming which is in some sort a deliverie because although quite taken away there is then no longer a subjection unto vanitie but seeing it is into the libertie of the sonnes of God it shall like mans glorified bodie put on incorruption and so suo modo in its kinde be partaker of an incorruptible state But in this changing I think we may fitly exempt all such creatures which now serve onely for the necessitie of mans life as those which be for food clothing and the like because then at the end of the world I mean there shall be an end likewise of all such needs Yet there are those who comprehend the brute beasts also and other creatures having sense and life within the limits of this libertie but they do somewhat qualifie their meanings as thus They shall not be partakers of the glorie of the sonnes of God yet in their kinde they shall be fellows with them in that glorious state like as once they were in Paradise before man had fallen But whether I may embrace this opinion I know not and that in regard of the foresaid reason unto which others also assent saying Istas naturas rerum non mansuras in extremo die nisi aliquid opus habiturae sint Wherefore we may rather relie upon this without any such speciall respect unto those creatures namely that the worlds fabrick consisting of heaven and earth shall not be destroyed but renewed according to the qualities by the purging fire For the moon shall shine as the sunne and the light of the sunne shall be sevenfold as saith the Prophet Esay chap. 30. 26. which S. Hierome expoundeth thus viz. that the sunne and moon shall receive that admired augmentation of light as a reward of their labours Yea and Zachary also witnesseth that there shall be but one perpetuall day for there shall be so great light that there shall be no difference between day and night as some observe from thence Neither is it a marvel saith Chrysostome that the creatures should at that time be illustrated with so great splendour and light for kings upon the day when they inaugurate their sonnes are wont to provide not onely that they may come forth with all singular pomp and appearance but also that their servants may be well adorned Much more therefore may we think when Christ shall sit in glorious majestie upon his throne and the just who are the sonnes of God shall be admitted to their paternall heritage and kingdome that then God Almighty shall cause that all his creatures be decked with an extraordinary brightnesse beautie and lustre For although it be said that the moon and the sunne shall shine no more but rather that the Lord himself will be for an eternall light yet it meaneth not that those starres should perish but that the uncreated light shall be more glorious So that as now the greater light obscures the lesse in like manner it shall be then when we come into that citie which wanteth not the sunne or moon It is not said Solem lunam non habebit sed Non indigebit ut luceant in ea that the citie shall have no sunne and moon but that it shall not want them to shine in it silently declaring that then indeed shall be those luminaries yet they shall not then perform as now the same uses of light being subject to motion and an incessant wheeling up and down to cause a rising and setting yea and to distinguish one time and day from another For time is but as a space borrowed and set apart from eternitie which must at the last return to eternitie again This for the heavens And as for the earth our Saviour promiseth amongst other blessings a blessing to the meek saying that they shall inherit the earth which promise of his saith one we see is not performed in this world and therefore to be then expected when there is a new heaven and a new earth for the saints of God and when the whole creation which now groneth shall be delivered into the glorious libertie of the sonnes of God Thus some But in this new heaven and earth we must not expect any terrene pleasures as the carnall Jews do dream as the Turks beleeve or as that Heretick Cerinthus held and after him the Millenaries or Chiliasts because such pleasures are fading and corruptible joyes farre unfit for saints whose very bodies have put on incorruption We look therefore for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse as saith S. Peter 2 Pet. 3. 13. and spirituall delight unto eternitie as
omnipotence in not working all at once but sheweth that he worketh all things according to the counsell of his will which in this work of creation prosecuted both by an order of time and degrees is so farre from eclipsing his power that it rather doth demonstrate both his power and wisdome to be infinite and that he hath so done his marvellous works that they ought alwayes to be had in remembrance Psal. 111. 4. For in wisdome he hath made them all And why not all at once was because the counsell of his will was otherwise But may we not yet enquire a further reason why it pleased the Almighty thus to will such a space and would not rather produce this All perfect at once This perhaps may be thought a question too curious to be determined because Gods will is a sufficient reason in all his actions and therefore it is better left then looked into Which surely might well be so if the reasons urged prove too eagle-eyed and unprofitable not bettering us in our dulnesse or want of knowledge But otherwise if they instruct man in any thing pertinent to his present condition and inform him so as he may be somewhat reformed by them then they may be urged without the brand of nicenesse or imputation of curiositie First therefore we may joyn with them who say that perhaps it pleased Gods infinite perfection to take this leisure because if the creatures had been made all at once they might be thought to be increate and not made at all nor yet to have the like sense of their infirmitie as now they have one seeing another made before them Secondly seeing the world was thus perfected by degrees before man was who being made was the chief inhabitant of it me thinks so orderly to raise such a sumptuous palace for mankinde whilest yet mankinde was not what was it but the declaration of a greater kindnesse and a demonstration proving how kinde how carefull and how gracious God would be to us ever after being made and therefore now we must not distrust him but in all our wayes acknowledge him and he shall direct our paths Prov. 3. 5 6. For so he hath promised and so he doth perform to all that love and fear him causing every thing to work together for their good nay for their best as the Apostle speaketh Or as the Psalmist hath it No good thing shall he withhold from them who live a godly life Psal. 84. 12. Thirdly by this example mankinde may reade a lecture against himself if heedlesly or hastily he behave himself in any work and shall not rather proceed soberly and by degrees making haste as it is said by leisure For true it is that with us a soft pace goes farre Which made one fix this contemplation upon the works of creation saying How should we deliberate in our actions which are so subject to imperfection seeing it pleased Gods infinite perfection not out of need to take leisure Upon thought of which let us Make sober speed for 't is observ'd by proof That what is well done is done soon enough Festina lenté Nam sat citò si sat bene Thus having as it were considered the first part of the first dayes work we may now come more nearely to that which is the beauty of it I mean the Light which some call Gods eldest daughter or the first distinguished creature wherewith the Lord decked the world as with a garment Sect. 2. The creation of the Light ANd now concerning this bright creature no sooner did God say Let it be but lo it was He commanded that it should shine out of darknesse as speaks the Apostle and that being separated and set apart from the darknesse the first of dayes might be and Gods good works appeare beginning with the Lights proceeding to shew forth his exceeding glory But of this resplendent creature without which the beauty of the rest could not be seen there are no few opinions 1. Some would have it a spirituall Light and so under it they comprehend the creation of Angels But surely in my judgement their opinion is the founder who make it a naturall and materiall Light onely such as now is in the Sunne the Index of time and the worlds bright eye For as the office of the Sunnes light is now to distinguish between the Day and the Night so was the office of this Light being commanded to shine out of darknesse before the Sunne was made which being made was the subject ever after to retain it If it were otherwise or any other light where is it now shall we say that it is either extinguished or applied to some other use surely I think not because God who made all by the power of his word needed no instrument or help in the work of his creation And therefore that Light which at the first made his works appeare is no spirituall Light but such and the same that now is in the Sunne And yet perhaps as Aquinas thinketh it was but Lumen informe quod quarto die formatum est An informed Light which on the fourth day had its perfect form And as for the creation of Angels it is not like that they were made this first day but on the fourth day For it is very probable that there was the like order observed in making of the invisible world which was in the visible and that on the second day not onely the visible but also the invisible heavens were created yet so as both of them remained as it were unpolished or unfinished untill the fourth day For then as the outward heavens were garnished with Starres so might the inward and highest heavens be beautified with Angels This me thinks is not obscurely pointed at in Job chap. 38. vers 7. Where wert thou saith the Lord to Job when the starres praised me or sang together and all the sonnes of men shouted for joy it being here evident that when the Starres were made the Angels also had then their being rejoyced before God which was but upon the fourth day of the creation All this I say might well be thus although Moses doth not directly mention it which was because he applied himself to the simple capacitie of the people describing the creation onely of sensible things being that which at the first he intended and did in plain tearms testifie in the beginning of his historie when he said These Heavens and this Earth of which I spoke before And further were the creation of Angels comprehended under the creation of the heavens and light what were this but to leave the literall sense which is to be followed in the historie of the creation and to cleave unto Allegories But secondly concerning this Light others think that the element of fire was signified by it whose effect is light and whose act and qualitie is to enlighten which made one therefore say that The uncreated Light
out of some experiment very busie in tempering brimstone sulphureous powder of dried earth and certain other ingredients in a mortar which he covered with a stone and growing dark he took a tinder-box to light him a candle into which whilest he assayed to strike some fire a spark by chance flew into the mortar where catching hold of the brimstone and salt-peter it fired with a sudden flash and violently blew up the stone The cunning Chymist guessing which of his ingredients it was that produced this effect never left till he found it out then taking an iron pipe he crammed it full of the said ingredient together with some stones and putting fire to it he saw that with great furie and noise it discharged it self Soon after he communicated this his invention to the Venetians who having been often vanquished by the Genowaies did by help of these bombards or gunnes give them a notable discomfiture which was in the yearâ—… of our Lord 1380 as Bucholcerus writeth in his chronologie saying Hoc tempore BOMBARD Ae ad hominum perniciem inventae sunt excogitatâ—… à Bertholdo Nigro Chymista ut quidam volunt Monacho Germano Wherein we see that he calls them bombards invented for the ruine of men For by these saith he it comes to passe that now in a manner all the force of the footmen all the splendour of the horse and all right warlike power doth shamefully cease lie dead faint and dull Polydore also saith that of all other instruments which ever were devised to the destruction of man the gunnes be most devilish In which regard sith he was not well instructed concerning the Almains name that invented them he addeth yet thus much more saying For the invention he received this benefit that his name was never known lest he might for this abominable device be cursed and evill spoken of as long as the world remaineth And in the continuation of Carions chronicle by Caspar Peucer it is also said that about the beginning of Wanceslaus his reigne That raging kinde of engine and tormenting torture which from the sound we call a bombard was found out by a Monk the devil being the chiefest enginer or master-workman For it was their care that seeing the authoritie of idle superstitions should decline and fade by little and little which through these authors had bewitched the mindes of mortalls and cast them into eternall destruction this might therefore succeed by them the same authours as another kinde of mischief which should rage against their bodies as that other had done against their souls To this purpose Peucer And indeed an experiment of his speech we then beheld when the upholders of that tottering kingdome would have traiterously tried to have sent at once even all the peers of this our land piece-meal into the aire But he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep The Lord himself was our keeper so that their sulphureous fire could neither burn us by day nor sâ—…are us by night although Faux were taken the night before among the barrells and wished that then sith he had done so much and could do no more his match with fire had toucht the powder Oh never let the mem'rie of that day Flie from our hearts or dully slide away God thought on us that we remembring this Might think on him whose hand defendeth his But whither am I transported now These foure although they be the principall kindes of salt digged from the ground yet there be other also amongst which those Spanish mountains would be remembred where there is a salt cut out and drawn as stones are out of a quarrie in which place it afterwards increaseth and filleth up the gap with more salt again Du Bartas calls this the brine-quar-hill in Arragon And as for Salt digged out of waters or watrie places or not digged from under ground it is thus caused namely by the heat of the sunne percocting those waters which are extreamly salt For when salt waters are throughly concocted by the sunne they are so dried congealed and thickened that in their shores by their banks and often upon their very surfaces or superficies they render liberally good store of Salt Thus in the summer time is the Tarentine lake of which Plinie speaketh turned into â—…alt the salt being in the surface of the waters to the depth of a mans knee So also in Sicilie in the lake Coranicus And in some rivers the water is known to runne underneath in its ordinary course whilest the uppermost part is turned into salt as about the Caspian straits which are called the rivers of salt and also neare the Mardi and Armenians whose countreys are in Asia But leaving these I come to the second kinde of Salt which is artificiall and made or boiled salt For although the matter be naturall yet the making is by art From whence it comes to passe that of one and the same salt water this man will boil better Salt then that man and he then another Yea some out of water lesse salt will boil and make better Salt then others out of fountains more salt Many be the places where they make Salt after this manner by boiling of salt water neither is this kingdome of ours destitute of such fountains or wells For at the towns called the Witches in Cheshire there is a brinie water which by boiling is turned into white Salt And the same water is said to be as good to powder any kinde of flesh as brine for within 24 houres it will powder beef sufficiently A great blessing of God to raise up such springs for our use so farre within the land as also an evident argument that the Sea is made salt by the substance of the ground of which I have spoken my minde already And here unto all this I could adde the necessitie of Salt which is such that we cannot well live without it and therefore it is the first thing that is set on the table and ought to be the last taken away according as one translateth out of Schola Salerni saying Salt should be last remov'd and first set down At table of a Knight or countrey clown This I confesse as pertinent might be added but it is now high time to put a period to the discourse of this dayes work Take the rest therefore all in one word and then it is thus The eve and morn conclude the third of dayes And God gives to his work deserved praise CHAP. VII Concerning the fourth day together with such things as are pertinent to the work done in it Sect. 1. Being as it were a kinde of entrance into this dayes work which treateth of the starres and lights THe structure of the earth being adorned with herbs trees and plants in the third or former day Moses now returns to shew both how when God beautified the heavens bedecking that vaulted roof with shining lights and beauteous
starres which like glittering saphires or golden spangles in a well wrought canopie do shew the admired work of the worlds brave palace And seeing this was not done before the sprouting of the earth it may well be granted that they are but foolish naturalists who will presume to binde Gods mighty hand in natures bands and tie him so to second causes as if he were no free or voluntarie agent but must be alwayes bound to work by means And again the Text declareth that the sun moon and starres were all unmade before this present day and yet it saith there was light before But it was then a dispersed shining and now united to these bright lamps of heaven that that riding and they running like fierie chariots might not onely rule the day and night but also distinguish the better and more harmoniously the dayes from nights seasons weeks moneths and yeares and not onely so but be also for signes of something else Also God made them saith the Text. See then the folly of those who make them gods and vainly do adore them For let it be observed that although the sunne and moon be called the greatest lights yet if they be worshipped they are abused to the greatest darknesse and they that deifie them may damnifie themselves by being as blinde as the heathen Gentiles and as superstitiously addicted as some of old amongst the Jews whose answer to the Prophet Jeremie was that they would not do according to his teaching but follow rather the desperate bent of their own bows in worshipping the moon as Queen of heaven As for the word that thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hearken unto thee But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth cut of our own mouth to burn incense to the Queen of heaven and to poure out drink-offerings unto her as we have done we and our fathers our kings and our princes in the cities of Iudah and in the streets of Ierusalem Of which they give this reason For then say they we had plentie of victuals and were well and saw no evil Jer. 44. 16 17. By which last words it well appeareth that it was fear as much as any thing else which made them thus advance this practise And truely fear is an effect proceeding from the nature of superstition and so farre prevailing that it will there make gods where it doubteth most of danger as the Egyptians did in making fortune a goddesse For they kept an annuall feast in honour of her deitie giving thanks for the yeare which was past and earnestly imploring her favour for the yeare to come It was Pluâ—…archs observation that the superstitious alwayes think the gods readie to do hurt By means whereof he accounteth them in worse case then malefactours or fugitives who if they once recover the Altar are there secured from fear where neverthelesse the superstitious are in greatest thraldome And from hence arose that ancient saying Primus in orbe deos fecit timor And hence it also was that the heathen in institution of their sacrifices did offer as well to all their gods that they should not hurt them as for any help they expected from them An example whereof we have again among the poore silly Indians who sacrifice their children unto the devil at this very day because they be mainly afraid of him And of old as it is storied we have the example of Alexander Magnus who sacrificed to the sunne moon and earth that thereby he might divert the evil luck which as he feared was portended by an Eclipse but a little before And the Jews did not onely burn incense to the Queen of heaven but offer up cakes unto her also as in Jer. 7. 18. From which kinde of idolatrie Job did thus acquit himself saying If I have beheld the sunne when it shined or the moon when it walked in brightnesse or if my heart hath secretly enticed my mouth to kisse my hand unto it or by way of worshipping it then this were iniquitie that ought to be punished chap. 31. verse 26. It ought indeed to be punished because God Almightie had forbidden it as in Deut. 4. 19. Beware lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven and when thou seest the sunne and the moon and the starres even all the host of heaven shouldest be driven to worship and serve them which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven And in Jerem. chap. 10. vers 2. Learn not the way of the heathen and be not dismaid at the signes of heaven for the heathen are dismaid at them Which is as if it should be said The way of the heathen is to worship their gods with a servile fear and attribute divine honour to the creature But you which are my people do not you so for God willeth not that the works of his hands should be worshipped Or thus He there teacheth them to have their trust so firmly fixed on him that what disaster soever the heavens in the course of nature should threaten unto them they ought not to fear it For Astra regunt homines sed Deus astra regit And again Moses in the text calls the sunne and moon two great lights the greatest of which even the sunne it self seemeth to our eyes but little and yet by rules of art is found farre greater then the earth that thereby we may learn not to trust our senses too much in heavenly things Last of all let me prevent a question The moon is lesse then any starre For Tycho makes Mercury but 19 times lesse then the earth whereas the moon is lesse by 42 times how then can the moon be called a great light seeing her bodie is no bigger Take this answer The sunne and moon are called great lights partly from their nature effects because they give more light then other starres The sunne appeareth alone in the day not because he is alone but because through his exceeding brightnesse the other starres cannot be seen The moon also in her brightnesse obscureth many starres and being more beautifull then any other hath worthily the chief preheminence in ruling the night as the Scripture speaketh Or thus They be called great lights say some according to the custome of the Scripture speaking according to the capacitie of the simple for in outward appearance they are the greatest And yet as great as the greatest is if one should go about to perswade the vulgar that the earth is of a farre lesse circuit they would scarce beleeve it making the sunne of the bignesse of some wheel and the moon as much in compasse as the breadth of a bushel howbeit S. Ambrose gives sensible and apparent reasons of greatnesse in the sunne and moon even by daily experience For first they appeare of like quantitie to all the world whereas herds of cattel being espied farre off seem as ants and a ship discerned farre in
the seas seemeth no bigger then a flying dove They shew of the same greatnesse in India in England They enlighten all parts of the earth alike and appeare the same indifferently to all and therefore must needs be of an extraordinarie bignesse And secondly as soon as the sunne ariseth all the starres are hid which shews his greatnesse And further if the sunne were not of such greatnesse as Artists give unto it how could all the world be enlightned by it Sect. 2. Of the Matter Place and Motion of the Starres with other like things which are also pertinent Artic. 1. That they consist most of a fierie matter and are cherished by the waters above the heavens BY Heaven and Earth which Moses saith were created in the beginning we are to understand all and every part of the whole Universe whose matter was created at once and made as it were the store-house for all things else as alreadie in the first dayes work I have declared Howbeit some contend that the starres and lights of heaven were not made out of any matter either of the earth or the waters or of heaven or any thing beside but immediately out of nothing Which certainly is scarce agreeable to the whole scope of creation For in the beginning the matter of all was made And perhaps as it was proper to the earth to bring forth herbs grasse and trees at the command of God in the third dayes work so also perhaps it was as proper to the heavens in some sort to afford the matter of the luminaries and otherstarres as soon as God said Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven And herein those Philosophers were not much amisse who defined the starres to be the thicker part of their orbs Yet neverthelesse not so to be followed as if the heavens afforded any solid orbs unto which as the knots in a tree or the nails in a wheel or the gemme in a ring the starres are joyned For besides that which I have alreadie spoken of the whole space within the concavitle of the firmament viz. that it is but aire yet purer and purer the higher we climbe which I proved in the second day both by opticall demonstration height consumption and motion of Comets with the like besides that I say there be other reasons also to declare it For not onely certain Poets have confessed as much calling the Skie Spirabile coeli numen as we reade in Virgil or a Liquid heaven as Ovid tells us saying Et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aëre coelum nor yet is it confirmed by the testimonie of Plinie alone who followed herein the opinion of ancient Philosophers but even reason also and exquisite modern observations have made it plain For suppose there were solid orbs or that this concave were not filled with liquid aire would it not follow that there should be as it were penetratio corporum or that one Sphere should cut another in sunder Questionlesse it would For the Planets move so up and down that they often enterfeir and cut one anothers orbs now higher and then lower as Mars amongst the rest which sometimes as Kepler confirms by his own and Tycho's accurate observations comes nearer the earth then the Sunne and is again eftsoons aloft in Iupiters sphere And doth not Tycho's Hypothesis and Systema of the world make it also plain that the sphere of the Sunne must be interfected by the orbs of Venus Mars and Mercury which could not be if the heavens were impenetrable or differed toto genere from this soft aire wherein we live and move And now see this figure framed according to Tycho's demonstration Thus Tycho describeth the wayes and situations of the Planets The starres therefore move in the heavens as birds in the aire or fishes in the sea and the like yet so as their bounds are set which with great regularitie to the admiration of their Maker they constantly come unto depart away from in their appointed times and determined orders and therefore said to be set in the firmament of heaven vers 17. those of the fixed ones being as equally distant one from another now and at this very day as at the first when God Almightie made them and those of the wandring ones as constant in their courses as ever yet from the first time they began to move Whereupon saith Tycho Semper judicavi naturalem motûs scientiam singulis Planetis congenitam vel potiùs à Deo inditam esse quâ in liquidissimo tenuissimo â—…there cursûs sui normam regularissimè constantissimè observare coguntur Yet neverthelesse we may not think that therefore they are living creatures animated with a soul and endued with life and reason but rather and in very deed as even now I said let this be an argument to shew and declare the admired wisdome of their Makeâ—… according to that of David in the 19 Psalme Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei The heavens declare the glorie of God and the firmament sheweth his handie work For The sunne cometh forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoycath as a giant to runne his course And yet again it is a thing very probable that those amongst the Iews who made cakes for the Queen of heaven who burnt incense to the Sunne Moon Planets and host of heaven who dedicated horses and chariots to the Sunne did not onely do it because they worshipped them as gods but also because like some amongst the Philosophers and others amongst the Fathers they thought them to be living creatures Sure we are that Moses puts them not into his catalogue amongst such creatures as he reckoneth to have life and therefore who will say they live They may move and yet be inanimate as fire which is of power to move waste and consume aire inclosed is able to shake the earth water carrieth ships boats and barges flows this way and that way yet is no living creature hath no soul minde or reason Also it may be granted that they are daily nourished by vapourie humours and are as it were fed by such kinde of food yet no living creatures For no man will denie a transmutation of the elements but rather easily grant that they one nourish another for conservation of the Universe And in such a kinde or not farre differing it is that the stars may be nourished by watrie humours and have their beams made wholesome to the world although they be no living creatures All which may be seen more largely proved in Lydiats Praelectio Astronomica where having discoursed of the matter of the heavens and starres as also of the portions and transmutation of the elements he proveth that there is such a penurie of water here below that it cannot be supplied ad mundi non dicit aeternitatem sed diuturnitatem propter inaequales elementorum transmutationes not supplied without the consumption of the aire were not the waters divided The one
parts of the same IF I should expound the words of Moses so nicely as some have done the starres must then either signifie nothing in the course of nature or else be for signes onely of seasons as Spring Summer Autumne Winter and of dayes and yeares Which exposition doth certainly tie up the sense in too strait bands For it is plain enough that Moses very positively setteth down as a distinct office by it self that they were made for signes And then he proceedeth adding therewithall And let them be for seasons and for dayes and for yeares In consideration whereof the sentence certainly must be divided And first let us observe out of it that the starres by a divine ordination were set in the heavens to be for signes of future events wherefore it is said Let them be for signes Secondly they were appointed to be as it were heavenly clocks and remarkable measures by their motions defining and discerning Time and the parts thereof as dayes weeks moneths and yeares And therefore it is also added And let them be for seasons and for dayes and for yeares Of which two offices I purpose to discourse a while beginning with the first as being most pertinent to this Paragraph And lest it may be thought that Moses his meaning is here mistaken by me besides other things that I purpose to remember I would have him compared with the Prophet Jeremie in the 10 chap. at the 2 vers where when the Prophet commands the people that they should not learn the way of the Heathen he calleth the starres like unto Moses in this very text The signes of heaven From whence Melancthon gathereth that the Prophet doth not onely name them signes but also sheweth that they were set to be signes of portending something For Non ait Ieremias nihil esse signa coeli sed A signis nolite timere Imò cùm nominat signa portendi aliquid affirmat And Luther also affirmeth in his commentarie upon the words of Moses Simpliciter lunam cum sole stellis in firmamento coeli Moses dicit positas ut essent signa futurorum eventuum sicut experientia de Eclipsibus magnis conjunctionibus aliis quibusdam Meteoris docet Which is Moses plainly saith that the moon with the sunne and starres were placed in the firmament of heaven that they should be for signes of future events as experience teacheth us in Eclipses great conjunctions Meteors and the like To which may be also joyned the testimonie of learned Philo alledged by Sr Christapher Heidon in his defence of Judiciall Astrologie This man saith he was familiar with Peter the Apostle and with Mark and in divers places but specially in his book De Mundi fabricatione in his exposition of that in the 1 of Genesis viz. LET THEM BE FOR SIGNES he thus speaketh saying They were created not onely that they might fill the world with their light but also that they might be for signes of future things For by their rising setting defections apparitions occultations and other differences of motion they teach men to conjecture of the event of things as of plentie and dearth of the growing up or decay of creatures animate of cleare weather and storms of calms and windes of overflowings and of droughts of the quiet motion of the sea and the boisterous times of waves of the anniversarie changes of times either when the Summer shall be tossed with tempests or the Winter scorched with heat or when the Spring shall be clothed with the nature of Autumne or Autumne imitate the Spring Yea saith he by these some have foreshewed when there should be a shaking or trembling of the earth with infinite other things which have certainly come to passe insomuch that it may be truely said The starres were appointed for signes and seasons Thus farre Philo then which what can be plainer Neither are we to take them as bare naked and simple signes onely but as causes also of worldly events which whilest some have denied what do they but runne mad with reason and plainly oppose themselves to more then common sense For it is certain that the same thing may be both a signe and a cause a cause as it worketh to an effect and a signe as being presented to the sense it leadeth us to the knowledge of the effect And therefore when the starres are called signes their causalitie is not excluded Howbeit in some things when they work upon a subject not immediately but by accident they be then occasions rather then causes But let me enlarge my self upon this discourse a little more and because some have denied that the starres have any vertue at all or that we ought to attribute no more power to them then to the signes at an Inne-keepers post or tradesmans shop I purpose to shew the vanitie of that errour as plainly as I can both by Scripture and also by daily experience And first for Scripture Those oracles tell us that great is the force and dominion which the starres have heaven being the admired instrument of the glorious God whereby he governeth the frame of this corruptible world For had the heavens and starres no force at all the Scriptures would never distinguish between the sweet influences of the Pleiades and the binding vertues of Orion but the Scripture makes such a distinction therefore the starres have their power The minor is proved out of the book of Job chap. 38. 31. where the words are these Canst thou binde the sweet influences of Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion by which speech the Almighty doth not onely shew that the starres have their vertues but also declare that their power and vertue is such as no man on earth is able to restrain unloose or binde it and here S. Austin also teacheth us that God comprehendeth all the rest of the starres by the figure Synechdoche putting the part for the whole which is an intimation that the rest have their severall vertues as well as these For further proof whereof see concerning some of the other in Deuteronomie chap. 33. 14. Of Ioseph he said Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven for the dew and for the deep that coucheth beneath and for the precious things brought forth by the sunne and for the precious things put forth by the moon where we see that the sunne and moon have power to thrust forth the fruits of the earth And again I will heare the heavens and the heavens shall heare the earth where see last of all that the vegetation of the fruits of the earth dependeth not upon one or two constellations but upon the whole heavens Also were the starres and lights without power the Scriptures would never tell us of their dominion over the earth but the Scripture speaketh of their dominion therefore they be not destitute of power and vertue The minor is proved in Genesis chap. 2. 1. and in the second book
dayes of weekly labour and that the seventh age shall begin at the resurrection as was figured in Henoch the seventh from Adam who died not as did the six before him but was taken up into heaven Unto this I assent as probable But that each age should have a thousand yeares is still denied and as in setting them down according to Scripture will be manifest The first is from the creation to the floud and this by S. Peter is called the old world 2. Pet. 2. 5. The second is from the floud to Abraham Matth. chap. 1. The third from Abraham to David Matth. chap. 1. The fourth from David to the captivitie Matth. chap. 1. The fifth from the captivitie to Christ. Matth. chap. 1. The sixt is the time after Christ called in many places the last age and the last of times as in Hebrews chap. 1. 1. God saith the Apostle who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken to us by his Sonne And again S. Peter calls this the last of times 1. Pet. 1. 20. S. John also saith Little children it is the last time 1. John 2. 18. These I grant to be the six ages of the world but who is so mad as to say or think that there were just thousands of yeares betwixt each or any of them The Septuagints make more then thousands between some of them and the Hebrews they make lesse excepting the first age Yet if you will know their lengths according to that which is none of the worst accounts take them thus and this account I may afterwards prove in another work The first hath 1656 yeares The second if we end it at the beginning of Abrahams peregrination and giving of the promise hath the just number of 423 yeares The third if we end it at the death of Saul and beginning of Davids kingdome after him containeth the number of 866 yeares The fourth if we begin the captivitie in the first yeare of Nebuchadnezzar hath 448 yeares The fifth containeth the length both of the Chaldean Persian and Grecian Monarchies together with so much of the Roman greatnesse as was past before Christ came into the world amounting in all to the summe of 605 yeares or there abouts although we reckon no further then the birth of Christ. But go rather to his baptisme and then this age is 634 c. The sixth and last hath so many yeares as are from the time of mans redemption untill now for hitherto this age hath continued and shall not be ended untill the last trumpet be blown and Surgite mortui venite ad judicium Arise you dead and come to judgement be sounded in our eares To which purpose divine Du Bartas that noble Poet brings in our father Adam speaking of these ages thus setting them down as if the speech had been uttered by him to his sonne saying The First begins with me the Seconds morn Is the first Ship-wright who doth first adorn The hills with vines that Shepherd is the Third Who after God through strange lands leads his herd And past mans reason crediting Gods word His onely sonne slayes with a willing sword The Fourth 's another valiant Shepherdling That for a cannon takes his silly sling And to a scepter turns his shepherds staff Great Prince great Prophet Poet Psalmograph The Fifth begins from that sad Princes night Who sâ—…es his children murdred in his sight Or from poore Iudahs dolefull heavinesse Led captives on the banks of Euphrates Hoped Messias shineth in the Sixt Who mockt beat banisht buried crucifixt For our foul sinnes still selfly-innocent Must fully bear the hatefull punishment The Last shall be the very resting-resting-day Aire shall be mute the waters works shall stay The earth her store the starres shall leave their measures The sunne his shine and in eternall pleasures We plung'd in heaven shall aye solemnize all Th' eternall sabbaths endlesse festivall Thus farre Du Bartas But from hence I proceed and on the sudden I have met some other sorts of calculatours For so various are mens searching heads that these things have not onely been boulstered out by Rabbinicall traditions sabbaticall symboles and the like but also by sundry other fancies Some have pretended revelations and thereby deluded many Amongst whom learned Gerard makes mention of a certain woman of Suevia in Germanie who was called Thoda she in the yeare of Christ 848 prophesied that by the apparition of an Angel it was revealed unto her that the world should end that very yeare After whom there were others as true prophets as her self namely in the yeares 1062 1258 1345 1526 1530 c. He in the yeare 1526 ran up and down the streets in the citie of S. Gallus in Helvetia crying with horrid gestures that the day of the Lord was come that it was present And he in the yeare 1530 did so strongly prevail with some that he perswaded them the last yeare of the world was come whereupon they grew prodigall of their goods and substance fearing that they should scarcely spend them in so short a time as the world was to continue But this surely was an Anabaptisticall trick and a chip of that block which maketh all things common boasting of visions and dreams in an abundant manner Others have pitched upon certain Mathematicall revolutions and thereby constituted a time amongst whom Ioannes Regiomontanus is said to be one who partly thought that the yeare 1588 should adde an end to the world because at that time was a great conjunction of Saturn Jupiter Mars Upon which occasion I remember these verses Post mille expletos à partu Virginis annos Et post quingentos rursus ab orbe datos Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus Ingruet is secum tristia multa trahet Si non hoc anno totus malus occidet orbis Si non in nihilum terra fretúmque ruent Cuncta tamen mundi sursum ibunt atque deorsum Imperia luctus undique grandis erit That is When from the Virgins birth a thousand yeares With full five hundred be compleat and told The Eightie Eighth a famous yeare appeares Which brings distresse more fatall then of old If not in this yeare all the wicked world Do fall and land with sea to nothing come Yet Empires must be topsie turvie hurl'd And extream grief shall be the common summe Which what it was the event hath shewed Others again dream of secrets in Cabalisticall conclusions Some subscribe to Analogies taken from Jubilees or from the yeares of Christs age and the like Yea and to omit many sundry others have their tricks and devices in Arithmeticall numbers whereby they can directly calculate the time and make the superstitious multitude admire them and lend a more then greedie eare to their feared predictions Such a one was he who out of these words MUNDI
and all the hosts of them spiritu oris by the spirit of his mouth Psal. 33. 6. All which considered and found to be done in the beginning must needs be then when there was no pre-existent matter to work upon For as it is witnessed the Hebrew word Reshith which is englished the beginning doth not signifie any substance neither doth the other word Bara to create signifie any way to create but of nothing and thereby it is distinguished from the word Iatzar to form and Gnasha to make And therefore though now we behold a glorious something wherein appeares in every part more then much matter of wonder yet at the first saith noble Bartas Nothing but nothing had the Lord Almightie Whereof wherewith whereby to build this citie That Axiome therefore in philosophie Ex nihilo nihil fit must needs stand aloof off when we speak of creation For although it be true that according to the course of nature and ordinary custome of things nothing can be made unlesse out of some former matter yet when we descend ad inquirendam primarum rerum conditionem to enquire after the first condition of the first things then we shall finde that God is above nature because he is the Lord of nature And he whose sufficiencie and efficiencie is altogether absolute must needs be able supernaturali quadam ratione by a certain supernaturall means to produce all things out of nothing Of which nothing that I may say something my best and onely way is to look at Moses and as neare as I can explain his meaning In the beginning saith he God created the heavens and the earth In which words he laboureth not so much to deliver a generall proposition of the works of creation or of the two distinct parts of the world or of the matter of heaven and earth as if the one word did insinuate all the superiour parts of the world the other all the inferiour parts beside or as if taking both together he meant by them joyntly totius mundi semen the seed of the whole world mentioning it under these two words of Heaven and Earth as a Chaos This he meaneth not because that which concerns the Chaos is mentioned afterwards in the second verse And what were it but a plain tautologie to say that in the beginning God created a Chaos and that Chaos was a Chaos Wherefore in those first words he intendeth nothing more then to shew that the world which now is called according to its parts Heaven and Earth was not from everlasting but took beginning and so without controversie the right reading of his words doth also witnesse For in their originall as it is witnessed by expositours thus they sound In the beginning God created these heavens and this earth as if it should be said These very heavens and this very earth which now we see in being were not alwayes but began Then afterwards he proceedeth to shew how and in what time God created them speaking first how all was like a disordered and deformed Chaos the earth and the heavens not distinguished but lying as it were in a confused heap all together And this is manifest For on the second day when the heavens were made it seemeth that their matter was from amongst that masse or unfashioned lump which was said to be void and without form and not able to be kept together had not the Spirit of God cherished it for the Spirit of God moving upon the waters did as it were sit upon it and nourish it as a fowl doth her eggs with heat and life yea their matter I say was from among the waters which by the power of Gods word were extended and stretched like a canopie round about the earth as now we see them In which regard S. Austines words are also pertinent saying concerning this All of which we now speak Materies adhuc erat corporearum rerum informis sine ordine sine luce It was yet an informed matter of corporall things without order without light Or as that Nightingale of France hath sung it This was not then the world 't was but the matter The nurserie whence it should issue after Or rather th' Embryon that within a week Was to be born for that huge lump was like The shapelesse burden in the mothers wombe Which doth in time into good fashion come Thus and in this manner I cannot but think of these things not doubting that Moses in his description of the sensible world meaneth otherwise but sheweth that that heaven and earth which now we see were in the beginning or first degree of being an earth or as an earth or one lump without form and void a darkened depth and waters a matter of no matter and a form without form as one speaketh a rude and indigested Chaos or confusion of matters rather to be beleeved then comprehended of us And this saith he is the second naturall beginning For after the expressing of the matter followeth that which Philosophers call a second naturall principle Privation the want of that form of which this matter was capable which is accidentally a naturall principle required in regard of generation not of constitution here described by that part next us earth which was without form as is said and void This was the internall constitution The externall was darknesse upon the face of the deep Which deep compriseth both the earth before mentioned and the visible heavens also called a depth as to our capacitie infinite and pliant to the Almighty hand of the Creatour called also waters not because it was perfect waters which was yet confused but because of a certain resemblance not onely in the uniformitie thereof but also of that want of stabilitie whereby it could not abide together but as the Spirit of God moved upon these waters to sustain them c. Here therefore is the third beginning or principle in nature that form which the said Spirit by that action framed it unto The Hebrews call the whole masse as it is comprehended under the names of Heaven and Earth Tohu Vabohu Tohu without order bohu without varietie But it was not long that it continued in this imperfect state for in one week it was as I may say both begotten and born and brought from a confused Chaos to a well ordered and variously adorned Universe Or as one saith Materiam Deus ipse creat comitque creatam Whose meaning may be taken thus The matter first God out of nothing drew And then addes beautie to that matter new Which was not because he was unable to make all the world perfect in an instant but because he would not Whereupon an holy Father said Voluntas Dei est causa coeli terrae ideo major est voluntas Dei quà m coelum terra The will of God is the cause of heaven and earth and therefore it is greater then either of them God therefore doth not disable his
viz. God commanded this elementarie light to be that so the thinner and higher element severed from the aire might by his enlightning operation effect a light some shining and the aire according to the nature thereof receive it which to the fire was an essentiall propertie to the aire an accidentall qualitie approved of God as good both to himself and the future creatures Thus some But others except against it affirming that this light was moveable by the presence of it making day and by its absence making night which could not have been had it been the element of fire unlesse it be more or lesse in one place then in another and not equally dispersed Or as Pareus answereth it could not be the element of fire because that is above the clouds according to the common rules of Philosophie and therefore in his judgement the fierie element was not untill the second day being created with the Expansum or stretching out of the aire But unto these exceptions I think an answer may be framed as I perhaps shall afterwards shew you Thirdly if as some have done we should think that this was the very light of the sunne and then in the sunne or in such a cloud or subject as was the matter of the sunne the text would be objected against it which affirmeth that the sunne was not untill the fourth day for the creation of that was but then although the light was before Fourthly Aquinas saith Lux primo die fuit producta secundum communem lucis naturam quarto autem die attributa est luminaribus determinata virtus ad determinatos effectus secundum quod videmus alios effectus habere radium solis alios radium lunae sic de aliis Whereupon he concludeth that howsoever it was it was but an informed light untill the fourth day Now therefore amongst a multitude of opinions which are besides these already mentioned I for mine own part cannot but preferre this as the best namely that the light for three dayes space wanted a subject such as now it hath and yet it did perform the same office which now it doth being fastened to a subject or to the bodie of the Sunne which is Vehiculum lucis A Chariot for the light For we may easily perceive that in the works of creation there is such an harmonious order observed as that there may be an union and reduction of all things of one kinde to their own heads and centre As for example the upper waters must be severed by the out-spread firmament and the lower must repair all to one sea as their naturall subject and as for heavie substances they hasten downwards and the light ones they fly upwards In like manner that light which at the first was dispersed and fixed to no subject doth presently as soon as the sunne was unite it self unto that body as now it is This of all other seemeth to me the best opinion to pitch upon and the most probable in this kinde which may well be as an Embleme how God will one day gather his elect from all coasts of heaven to the participation of one glorie S. Paul applieth it to our regeneration thus God who commanded the light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts c. that we who were once darknesse are now light in the Lord. And in this consideration I think we need not much dissent from them who would have the element of fire signified by it which opinion was before mentioned for howsoever it be that that element be now dispersed or wheresoever placed yet it might be that the first light shined from it thus I say it might be because we may not reason à facto ad fieri or from the order of the constitution of things in which they now are to the principles of their institution whilest yet they were in making And for further proof of this I do easily assent to them who have probably affirmed that the starres and lights of heaven contain the greatest part of this fire as afterwards in the fourth dayes work shall be more plainly shewed This I have said as seeming to me the best and most probable tenent although perfectly to affirm what this light was must be by our enlightning from him who commanded that it should shine out of darknesse Of which shining and darknesse seeing the Sunne was not yet made which by his course and turning about makes it day and night at the same time in divers places it may be said that it was day and night at the same instant now over the face of the whole earth which made one therefore say that the first darknesses were not loco divisae sed planè depulsae à luce ut nusquam essent yet so as that they should either return or depart according to the contraction or expansion of this first light caused by a divine dispensation Thus Pareus And now of thee oh bright-shining creature it may be said that hadst thou never been the beautie of the world had been as nothing For thou art the beautie of all the beauties else as saith Du Bartas Gods eldest daughter Oh how thou art full Of grace and goodnesse Oh how beautifull Quest. But if God made the Light was he not before in darknesse Answ. No For he needs not any created light who is himself a Light uncreated no corporall light who is a spirituall one God is light and in him is no darknesse at all 1. Joh. 1. 5. He made this light for our mortall journey on earth himself is the Light of our immortall abode in heaven neither did he more dwell in this light that he made then the waters were the habitation of the Spirit when it was said that the Spirit moved upon the waters But see there was Night Light and Day before the Sunne yet now without it there is neither which sheweth that we must allow God to be the Lord of his own works and not limit his power to means And surely as it was before man was made so shall it be after he is dissolved For then as the Prophet speaketh The Sunne shall no more be thy light by day neither shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory Lastly unto this amongst many things let me adde but one thing more God made light on the first day so Christ arose from death on the same day being the first of the week And he is the true light which lighteth every one that cometh into the world Of which light if we have no portion then of all creatures man is the most miserable Sect. 3. Of the intercourse between day and night WHat now remaineth God called the light Day and the darknesse Night 'T is true Th' All 's Architect alternately decreed That Night the Day the Day should Night succeed Of both which we have more then
Comets be burnt consumed and wasted in the starrie heavens it seemeth that there is no great difference between them and things here below for if there were it might be thought that they would not suffer such earthly matter to ascend up their territories such I say as doth either wholly or in part compose them Wholly or in part I adde because perhaps even the heavens themselves may afford some matter towards the generation of them especially if they be new starres such as Aristotle never saw wherefore he writes that a Comet consisteth altogether of an hot drie and a kinde of oylie exhalation drawn from the earth and questionlesse in such as are utterly below the moon it is even so but if they â—…e higher and continue longer they as well as new starres may have some help from such matter as the heavens afford towards the generation of strange appearances which though they have yet that they have no earthly matter is not excluded because next under God the efficient cause of these things is attributed to the starres and their operation for when they are aptly and conveniently placed and aspected then by their power working upon things here below they draw up hot drie and oylie exhalations and these exhalations afford unto Comets that matter whereof they consist Ptolomie attributeth much in this kinde to Mars and Mercurie and so do many others else beside him and why the yearely aspects of these starres do not alwayes produce such effects is because they are not alwayes aspected in the same manner but sometimes in one part of the heavens sometimes in another and cannot therefore produce their intended effects without either the meeting or avoiding of apt or inconvenient occurrences But I conclude and do yet affirm that the nature of the heavens is certainly such that the waters above the heavens might passe or issue through them in the time of the Floud and yet the heavens not be dissolved nor suffer damage by their falling damage neither in corrupting them nor yet in leaving a vacant place by coming all away of which in the fourth dayes work when I come to speak of the starres I shall adde yet something more CHAP. V. How to understand the word Heavens and of the severall Regions of the aire together with a consideration of such appearances as we use to see there Sect. 1. ANd now to go on with the residue of this dayes work God saith Moses called the firmament Heavens c. By heavens in this place Moses meaneth onely the visible heavens because he speaketh onely of the visible part of the world And yet the same word which is here used is sometimes put for the aire wherein windes clouds and fowls do flie sometimes for the upper Firmament where the sunne moon and starres are set and sometimes for the high places where Angels dwell And hereupon it was that S. Paul mentioned the third heavens wherein he saw things unspeakable The first of these is like to the outward court of Solomons temple and is the most open to us The second is like his inward court lesse open and abounding with starrie lights or lamps never going out And the next is as the Sanctum Sanctorum whither he is entred once for all who is a Priest for ever and maketh intercession for us In the two lowest is no felicitie for neither the fowls nor starres are happie It is the third of these alone where the blessed Trinitie enjoyeth it self and the glorified spirits enjoy it And questionlesse in this highest part must needs be more then exceeding glorie seeing the other two within the concave of the Firmament are so full of wonder But of the one of them I shall need to speak little in this dayes work yet of the other under it as being more pertinent something must be added Sect. 2. Parag. 1. Of the Aire and the severall Regions in it VVE may therefore now if you please look into the Aire and here following the common path and separating it from the starrie heaven I must say that it is divided into three stages or Regions although I verily think as afterwards shall be shewed when I come to speak of the starres that all this space even from the earth to the eighth sphere is nothing else but aire The highest Region is said to be exceeding hot and also drie by reason of the neighbourhood that it hath with the fierie element as is said and with the starres by the force of whose beams it receiveth heat which is also much increased by following the motion of the heavens The lowest Region is somewhat contrary for it is said to be hot and moist hot chiefly by the reflection of the sunne-beams meeting with the earth and moist by reason of the proper nature of the aire and also by reason of the vapours exhaled out of the earth and water This is the qualitie which commonly is attributed to this Region But I think that we may rather say it is variable now hot now cold and sometimes temperate differing according to the times and seasons of the yeare In which regard Du Bartas writeth thus Warm-temper'd show'rs do wash it in the Spring And so in Autumne but more varying In Winter time 't is wet and cold and chill In Summer season hot and soultry still For then the fields scorched with flames reflect The sparkling rayes of thousand starres aspect The chief is Phoebus to whose arrows bright Our Globie Grandam serves for But and White Neither is it altogether variable in regard of time but also by reason of the diversitie of place some climates being more hot and drie some more cold and moist then others which cometh to passe according to their distance from the Equinoctiall towards either of the Poles Thus for these two Regions But now concerning the middle Region it is alwayes cold yet surely in its own nature it would be warmer then the Region which is here below were it not cooled by a cold occasioned by the reflection of the Sunne-beams For they reflecting upon the earth drive up above the beams of their reflection much cold from below which being daily supplied is kept as a continuall prisoner between the heat above and the heat beneath Or if you will take it thus namely that it is cold but not extreamly cold yet cold I say it is in respect of the two other Regions which are hotter then it And this coldnesse happeneth partly through the causes before expressed and partly by reason of the Aire in it which cannot follow the motion of the heavens seeing it is hindred by the tops of the mountains And hereupon it is that the Philosophers make this a rule saying that the farrenesse from a circular motion gives quietnesse coldnesse and heavinesse even as the nearnesse gives motion heat and lightnesse Which in this thing concerning the middle Region is found to be true the
propinquitas dat motum calorem et levitatem and thereupon it comes to passe that we have coldnesse in the middle Region the cause first beginning it being in respect of the hills which hinder the aire from following the motion of the heavens as in two severall places of the second dayes work I have declared Sixthly I would also know why an arrow being shot upright should fall neare upon the same place where the shooter standeth and not rather fall beyond him seeing the earth must needs carry him farre away whilest the arrow flyeth up and falleth down again or why should a stone being perpendicularly let fall on the West side of a tower fall just at the foot of it or on the East side fall at all and not rather be forced to knock against it We see that a man in a ship at sea throwing a stone upright is carried away before the stone falleth and if it be mounted up in any reasonable height not onely he which cast it but the ship also is gone Now why it should be otherwise in the motion of the earth I do not well perceive If you say that the earth equally carries the shooter aire arrow tower and stone then methinks you are plainly convinced by the former instance of the ship or if not by that then by the various flying of clouds and of birds nay of the smallest grashopper flie flea or gnat whose motion is not tied to any one quarter of the world but thither onely whither their own strength shall carry them some flying one way some another way at one and the same time We see that the winde sometimes hindereth the flight of those prettie creatures but we could never yet perceive that they were hindered by the aire which must needs hinder them if it were carried alwayes one way by the motion of the earth for from that effect of the earths motion this effect must needs also be produced Arm'd with these reasons 't were superfluous To joyn our forces with Copernicus But perhaps you will say it is a thing impossible for so vast a bodie as the heavens to move dayly about the earth and be no longer then 24 houres before one revolution be accomplished for if the compasse were no more then such a distance would make as is from hence to Saturns sphere the motion must extend in one first scruple or minute of time to 55804 miles and in a moment to 930 miles which is a thing impossible for any Physicall bodie to perform Unto which I must first answer that in these mensurations we must not think to come so neare the truth as in those things which are subject to sense and under our hands For we oft times fail yea even in them much more therefore in those which are remote and as it were quite absent by reason of their manifold distance Secondly I also answer that the wonder is not more in the swiftnesse of the motion then in the largenesse of the circumference for that which is but a slow motion in a little circuit although it be one and the same motion still must needs be an extraordinary motion in a greater circle and so I say the wonder is not more in the motion then in the largenesse of the circumference Wherefore he that was able by the power of his word to make such a large-compassed bodie was also able so to make it that it should endure to undergo the swiftest motion that the quickest thought can keep pace with or possibly be forged in imagination For his works are wonderfull and in wisdome he hath made them all Besides do but go on a while and adhere a little to the sect of Copernicus and then you shall finde so large a space between the convexitie of Saturns sphere and the concavitie of the eighth sphere being more then 20 times the distance of Saturn from us and yet void of bodies and serving to no other purpose but to salve the annuall motion of the earth so great a distance I say that thereby that proportion is quite taken away which God the Creatour hath observed in all other things making them all in number weight and measure in an excellent portion and harmonie Last of all let me demand how the earths motion and heavens rest can agree with holy Scripture It is true indeed as they alledge that the grounds of Astronomie are not taught us in Gods book yet when I heare the voice of the everlasting and sacred Spirit say thus Sun stand thou still and thou Moon in the valley of Ajalon I cannot be perswaded either to think teach or write that the earth stood still but the sunne stood and the moon stayed untill the people had avenged themselves on their enemies Neither do I think after this that it was the earth which went back but the sunne upon Ahaz his diall in the dayes of Ezekias For when God had made the earth what said he did he bid it move round about the heavens that thereby dayes weeks moneths and yeares might be produced No. What then This was its office and this that which it should do namely bud and bring forth fruit for the use of man And for motion it was absolutely and directly bestowed upon the heavens and starres witnesse those very words appointing to the sunne and moon their courses setting them in the heavens so as they should never rest but be for signes and for seasons for dayes and for yeares And so also the wise Siracides understood it saying Did not the sunne go back by his means and was not one day as long as two I conclude therefore and concluding cannot forget that sweet meditation of a religious and learned Prelate saying Heaven ever moves yet is that the place of our rest Earth ever rests yet is that the place of our travell and unrest And now laying all together if the cause be taken away the effect perisheth My meaning is no more but thus that seeing the earth is void of motion the ebbing and flowing of the sea cannot be caused by it but dependeth upon some other thing Or again were it so that the earth had such a motion I should scarce beleeve that this ebbing and flowing depended on it For as I said before if this were the cause it could never be that the course of ebbs and flouds should keep such a regular alteration as they do day by day Neither could it produce a cause why the tides should be more at one time of the moneth then at another Nor yet as some suppose could the waters be suffered to flow back again but alwayes must be going on as fast as they can toward the Eastern part of the world But I leave this and come to another It was a mad fancie of him who attributed the cause to an Angel which should stand in a certain place of the world and sometimes heave up the earth above the waters
part whereof is circa mundi medium from whence may be had in readinesse alwayes that which is sufficient to water and fructifie the earth and leave a place for habitation The other circa mundi extremum as in a great treasure and plentifull store-house from whence per mediam aëris naturam both the starres are cherished their beams made wholesome to the world and also the expense of these lower waters salved in what is needfull for the earth as a bad debter either sends back none or little of that which it borrowed not being easily turned into any other element From whence saith he we may answer that question amongst the ancient Ethnick Philosophers mentioned by Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Unde nutriatur mundus And indeed for mine own part I also think that the starres are of such a nature or substance that in their kinde they stand in need of daily sustentation like a lamp which can burn no longer then the oyl lasteth which ever feeds it For the heavens are subject to change and alteration neither is there any necessitie compelling us to attribute a quintessence to either of them especially seeing we are certain that the world is not eternall but that we may as well and as probably grant them to be of the same nature with the elements as formerly I have related Which being granted I suppose them to be chiefly of a fierie nature and this perhaps they took from the highest part of the aire in the supream height of heaven which reacheth to the utmost extent of the out-spread firmament For there is that which we call the Elementarie fire there I say and not in a lower place although Aristotle would have it in concavo lunae or next under the orb of the moon of which see more in the second dayes work And herein I do willingly also embrace the opinion of Plato that the starres for the most part are fierie yet so as they in some sort participate also of the other elements that thereby their bodies may be as it were glewed together and firmly concreted into a durable lump differing no otherwise from a Comet then ice doth from crystall or a cleare solid gemme from bright brittle glasse An experiment whereof we have in that new starre of Cassiopea's chair which because it was of a more solid composition then ordinarie comets and of a nearer nature to the matter of the continuing starres did therefore appeare like one of them lasted a long while with them before it was extinguished for had it not been exalted to a great perfection and solid composition of the parts it had been gone extinct and vanished a long while sooner And in granting to them something of every element although their greatest portion especially in the sunne be fierie it comes to passe that they have differing qualities of which see more afterwards in the Astrologicall part of this dayes work Neither shall I need to stand upon it as a thing necessary for me to prove whether they make warm the aire and us by any heat which is formally in them or by the attrition made with their beams Onely know that it is hotter in summer then in winter because when the beams of the sunne come nearest to a perpendicular trajection their heat is the greater because their reflexion is the stronger But leaving this give me leave to proceed and to prosecute more fully the matter in hand that thereby I may shew my meaning now more clearely concerning the daily nourishment of these bright heavenly lamps For as hath been said seeing their chiefest matter is of that nature of which it appeareth to be they must of necessitie be nourished out of some store-house or other otherwise the world comes to decay impavidum ferient ruinae and the very ruines will strike him who fears it not For satisfaction therefore in this it cannot be amisse to remember the opinion amongst sundry of the ancient Philosophers who said the truth and yet erred in declaring it as Cleanthes who allowed the matter of the sunne to be fierie and that it was nourished by humours attracted from the ocean Also Anaximander and Diogenes after whom Epicurus and the Stoicks thought in like manner that the sunne was nourished by waters and lest it should perish through any defect of aliment they fondly supposed that the oblique motion which it had from one Tropick to another was to finde out moist humours that thereby it might live perpetually Now these things very worthily were held by Aristotle to be ridiculous and absurd as in the second book of his Meteors at the second chapter is apparent Yet neverthelesse succeeding times did in a manner pitch still upon the same tenents and would not onely have the sunne and rest of the Planets but even all the other starres nourished by vapours and watrie humours as well as they For amongst others it was Cicero's opinion in his second book De natura deorum making the sea and waters of the earth their daily store-house See also Seneca in his 6 book and 16 chapter of Naturall questions and Plutarch in libello de Iside and Plinie in his Naturall historie lib 2. cap. 9. whose words are these Sydera verò haud dubiè humore terreno pasci c. These indeed spake the truth but as I said before they erred in declaring it For it is nothing probable neither may it be granted that all the seas or waters in the world are able to afford moisture enough for such a purpose And therefore smile I at those fable-forgers Whose busie-idle style so stiffly urges The heav'ns bright Saphires to be living creatures Ranging for food and hungry fodder-eaters Still sucking up in their eternall motion The earth for meat and for their drink the ocean Nor can I see how th' earth and sea should feed So many starres whose greatnesse doth exceed So many times if starre-divines say troth The greatnesse of the earth and ocean both For here our cattell in a moneth will eat Sev'n times the bulk of their own bulk in meat Wherefore be pleased to call to minde what was formerly mentioned in the second day concerning the waters above the heavens set apart from these below by the out-spread Firmament but how it is that there they are and that the out-spread Firmament is able to uphold them let the alledged reasons in the foresaid day be again remembred And then observe that these waters were certainly separated for some purpose for Deus Natura nihil faciunt frustra God and Nature make nothing in vain He made all things in number weight and measure saith Solomon so that there is nothing which was not made for something I do therefore consent again to those who suppose that these waters do daily nourish and cherish the starres thereby also so tempering and ordering their beams that they may remain wholesome to the world turning also and attenuating those drops with
eyes can see Sect. 3. Of the offices given to the Sunne Moon and Starres in the day of their creation Paragr 1. Shewing that their first office is to shine upon the earth to rule over the day and night c. Artic. 1. Of light what it is and whether the Sunne be the onely fountain of light THe former part of my discourse hitherto in this dayes work was chiefly founded upon these words Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven and upon these And God made the starres also But now I come to speak of their offices The first whereof is that exquisite one above the rest I mean their bright and radiant shining by which the dismall clouds of foggie darknesse are daintily devoured and the sweet comelinesse of the worlds ornament made apparent For without light all things would appeare like the face of hell or horrour and each parcell of the worlds fabrick lie buried in black obscuritie dismall squalour Whereupon one speaketh worthily saying that amongst those qualities subject to sense there is none more fit to shew the due decorum and comely beauty of the worlds brave structure none more fit then light For where it spreads it self either above us or below us all things are then encompast with such a splendour as if a golden garment were dilated over them or curiously put upon them Let it not then be ashamed to shine shew it self to the praise of him who made it For Praise him sun and moon praise him oh ye stars and light was Davids song But to proceed Authours make a difference between Lux and Lumen It is called Lux as it is in the fountain that is in a bodie which is lucid of it self as in the sunne so saith Zanchius But it is Lumen as it is in some Medium that is in corpore diaphano as is the aire or water Lumen enim nihil aliud est quà m lux lucisve imago in corpore diaphano From whence may be gathered that that primarie light which we comprehend under the name of Lux is no other thing then the more noble part of that essence which is either in the sunne moon or starres and so far as a corporeall substance may be given to fire it may be also attributed to that which is properly called light being in and of those lamps of heaven which were made ex primava luce chiefly and so came to appeare of a fiery colour Whereupon Patricius writing against the Peripateticks saith Lux est essentia stellarum Nihil enim aliud flamma quà m lumen densius lumen non aliud quà m flamma rarior Calor quoque non aliud quà m ignis rarefactus atque diffusus ignis non aliud quà m calor densatus sive lux compacta Take therefore my meaning rightly lest I be supposed to be much mistaken And again concerning Radius which is a Beam or Ray it is no primarie light neither but rather as Patricius also writeth it is Fulgor à Luce exiliens in rectam acutam figuram seu in modum Pyramidis Coni promicans To which Scaliger is affirming saying Lux est alia in corpore lucido ab eo non exiens alia à corpore lucis exiens ut Lumen Radius And Zaharel also saith Lux alia est propriè dicta in astris ipsis alia à luce producta in perspicuo Whereupon I cannot but be perswaded that light in it self properly primarily taken must be an essentiall propertie as formerly I have related but to the aire or other things enlightned by it it is an accidentall quality approved of God as good both to himself the future creatures For although it be commonly said of compound things that they are such as we may distinguish of them in ipsam essentiam susceptricem in eam quae ipsi accidit qualitatem yet here the case proves otherwise because the sunne and starres have susceptam semel secúmque immixtam lucem And again as saith Theodoret Lucem quidem condidit ut voluit Quemadmodum verò firmamento aquas divisit ità lucem illam dividens ut voluit luminaria magna ac parva in coelo collocavit And as touching the brightnesse of the starres the sunne may well be called Oculus mundi The eye of the world For he is indeed the chief fountain from whence the whole world receiveth lustre shining alone and enlightning our whole hemisphere when all the other starres are hid From whence some Philosophers and Astronomers have been of opinion that the fixed starres shine not but with a borrowed light from the sunne Plutarch in his 2 book and 17 chap. of the opinions of Philosophers saith that Metrodorus and his disciples the Epicures have been of this minde But according to the mindes of the best authours and nearest equipage to truth the starres are called lights as well as the sunne and moon although there be a difference between them either of more or lesse For Paul distinguisheth between the starres and sunne non privatione lucis sed tantùm gradu And when God said Let there be lights in the firmament of heaven he made not the sunne alone but the sunne moon and starres the light in the starres being in very deed darkened by that in the sunne which doth but differ in degree from that in them Whereupon it is that the starres shew themselves by night onely when the sunne is hid or in some deep pit whither the sunne-beams cannot pierce If therefore we cannot see them Id non solis non stellarum culpâ fit sed oculorum nostrorum hic est defectus ob solaris enim luminis copiam ac vigorem debilitantur Also some adde their influences as that of the Little dogge the Plâ—…iadas and others being plain testimonies of their native light For if they had not their proper and pâ—…culiar light being fo farre distant from the inferiour bodies it is thought they could not alter them in such sort as they sometimes do and evermore the further they be from the sunne the better and brighter we see them And as for the diversitie of their influence the differing qualitie of the subject causeth this diversitie So that though this light for the first three dayes was but one in qualitie it came to have divers effects as soon as it was taken and bestowed upon the starres and lights And perhaps as there is in them the more of this fire the â—…otter is their qualitie but little fire and more water the moister and cooler and so also the more earthy substance the darker Neither do I think that we may altogether exempt the moon from her native light For although she shineth to us with a borrowed light yet it is no consequence to say she hath therefore no own proper light There is saith Goclenius a double light of the moon Proper and Strange The Proper is that which is Homogeneall to it self or
it should be exceeding the exactest measure which can be had by the quantitie of eleven minutes or there abouts causing thereby by little and little to be an apparent anticipation of the Equinoctiall and Solstitiall points insomuch that the Vernall equinox whose place at the first Councel of Nice was upon the 21 day of March is now come to be upon the 10 day of March The reformation of which errour hath been wished for by divers learned men and in some sort performed by Pope Gregorie the 13 using likewise in it the help of Christopher Clavius and some others who in the yeare 1582 brought back the Equinoctiall day to the same place it was at the said Nicene Councel by cutting off 10 dayes in the moneth of October writing in the Calender next after the fourth day the fifteenth day by means whereof all their moneths begin ten dayes sooner then ours as do also all those feasts whose place is fixed and not moveable Now in this reformation it was likewise ordered that the yeare should consist of 365 dayes 5 houres and 49 minutes And that the Equinox might not be subject any more to anticipation in 400 yeares they thought it fit to omit three Leap-yeares The first whereof will fall into the yeare of Christ 1715 the second into the yeare 1848 and the third into the yeare 1982 if God suffer the frame of the world to stand so long Howbeit in thus doing although the alteration will be very little yet the reformation is not exactly true because there is an inequalitie of anticipation in the Equinoctiall as the great Masters in Astronomie teach us being as they say in some ages more and in some lesse But seeing as I said the alteration will be very little if it ever come to that it is fit the Leap-year be then omitted And thus am I come now to the end likewise of this fourth dayes work wherein after my plain manner I have discoursed upon every such thing as is pertinent to the work done in it Let me therefore concluding say with Moses The Eve and Morn confine the fourth of dayes And God gives to his work deserved praise CHAP. VIII Concerning the creatures created in the Fifth day of the world and they were Fishes and Fowls Sect. 1. Of Fishes their kindes properties c. NOw follow the works of the Fifth day which when I consider I cannot but admire the harmonious order which the Almightie observeth in the whole progresse of his creating For as yet the world was but like an emptie house without inhabitants a stately structure having no moving creature with life and sense to be living in it not so much as a poore flie a fish or a bird to taste the goodnesse of things created and made But in this and the next day the building thus framed and cheer provided he brought as it were his guests to participate of his delicates alwayes provided that things inferiour should serve things superiour making his best work last namely Man unto whom the other works were put in subordination to shew me thinks that the end is the perfection of every thing And now see the first day was for the matter The second brought it into a better form stretched out the heavens and lifted up the waters which are above them The third did not onely shew the face of the earth by the gathering together of those waters under heaven but also adorned it with herbs trees and plants The fourth beautifies the vaulted roof of the sparkling firmament with funne moon and starres In the fifth and sixth he makes all kindes of living creatures furnishing first of all the waters and aire with their inhabitants and last of all the earth And for those many creatures in the waters and aire their creation was effected in this fifth dayes work so that every kinde of fish and all kinde of birds were now produced God onely said it and it was done as by viewing the text of Moses will appeare For in all his works he spake the word and they were made he commanded and they were created But to proceed We need divide the whole of this day into no more then two parts The one of Fishes the other of Birds That of fishes is the formost and therefore the varietie of those creatures would be first admired And see how Moses ushers them The greater ones are placed in the forefront For God saith he made great whales And then he proceedeth to adde something concerning the other species of smaller creatures living and moving in the water saying And every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth abundantly after their kinde Pareus and other Expositours also by the word which is commonly translated great whales understand the biggest kinde of sea-beasts and monstrous fishes of the largest greatnesse And indeed the epithet great is not added to the whale without cause For the word tannin signifieth a serpent dragon or a great fish and the whale or great fish is the greatest of all living creatures as in Job 41. 33. In the earth there is none like him His jaws are likened to doores vers 14. his scales to shields vers 15. Out of his nostrills goeth smoke as out of a seething pot or caldron vers 20. he maketh the sea to boil like a pot vers 31. Munster writeth that neare unto Iseland there be great whales whose bignesse equalizeth the hills and mightie mountains which are sometimes openly seen and these saith he will drown and overthrow ships except they be affrighted with the sound of trumpets and drummes or except some round and emptie vessels be cast unto them wherewith they may play and sport them because they are much delighted with such things But above all this he affirmeth to be a good remedie against such dangerous whales to wit that which the Apothecaries call Castoreum tempered with water and cast into the sea for by this as by a poyson they are utterly driven and banished to the bottome Other authours mention farre greater whales then these And Olaus Magnus writeth that there are many kindes of whales For some he affirmeth to be rough-skinned and bristled and these contain in length 240 feet and in breadth 120. others are smooth and plain and these are lesse being taken in the North and Western ocean Some again have jaws with long and terrible teeth of 12 or 14 feet in length and the two dog-teeth are farre longer then the rest like unto horns or the tusks of a boar or elephant This kinde of whale hath eyes so ample and large that sometimes 15 20 or more men may sit in the compasse of one eye and about either eye there be 250 horns ad rigidam vel placidam anteriorem vel posteriorem motionem ventilationem serving also to defend the eyes either in a tempestuous season or when this fish is assaulted by any other sea-beast Physeter or the Whirl-pool-whale hath a
are bred and to whom they are dangerous meat 388 Ebone described 276. The smoke of it is good for the eyes ibid. Elecampane or Enula-campana together with the vertues of it 264 Elephant The Sea-Elephant and how he is taken 370. The Land-Elephant and how to catch him 429. The Mouse an enemie to the Elephant 432. And so are the Dragon and Rhinoceros ibid. The manner of their fight 432 433. The Elephant teacheth two very good lessons the one for married folks the other for great men 433 434. As also a third concerning those who fall in striving to overcome others ibid. Elias the Rabbin he was much deceived in his computation of 6000 yeares for the time of the Worlds continuance 11 12 Elk and his properties he cannot live but in a cold countrey pag. 478 Emerald and the vertues of it 296 Enemy A man may sometimes make use of an Enemie 461 Envie shadowed forth 410. The Peacock a pattern of Envy ibid. So also is the Lynx 451 452. Some hurt themselves because they cannot hurt others shewed by an embleme taken from the wilde Bulls of Prussia 478 Ermin described 462 Ethnicks and of their most ancient stories 2 Euripus ebbes and flowes seven times in a day 210. Aristotle was drowned there ibid. Exhalations and their kindes 87. Earthie Exhalations may sometimes climbe into the Starrie heaven 115 116 117. 121 Eyes 498. A water good for the eyes 249. Another medicine for the same purpose 248. A smoke good for the eyes 276. A stone good for the same 298. 263. F FAce To make the face fair 250. Another for the same 253. Another 255. Another 257 Falling sicknesse A medicine to cure it 259 260. Fall of man in Autumne 35 36 Farmers An excellent herb for farmers to cure the dugs of their cattell 252 Fasting How fasting is good and commendable 491. 467 Fennel 249 Ferret 459 Feverfew 260 261 Finch 402 Fire What place the element of fire possesseth 118. Fire-drakes 93. The heavens seemed to burn 9â—… 93. Firmament The making of the Firmament 60 61 64. Waters above the Firmament See Waters Fishes their kindes c. 365 366 Fishes rained and how 147 Flashing Streams or Darts a burning Meteor 91 Flatterers c. 385. 401. 443. 451. 455 456. 494. Flea-bane is an herb good to drive away gnats and fleas 252 Flesh rained and how 148 Floud of Noah in what yeare of the world it came 20 21. The first Age from the creation to the Floud 16 17. How farre this Floud was naturall and how farre supernaturall 73 74 Flux How to stop fluxes 268 269 270. How to provoke fluxes 271 Flying sparks a Meteor 91. Flying launces 92 Foolish fire or Ignis fatuus commonly called Will with a wisp 93 94 Fountains of oyl 225. Of the fountain Dodone 226. The originall of fountains and rivers 204. Fox and his subtilties 448. How the Fox catcheth fleas 450. A cunning trick of a tame Fox 451. The Sea-fox 380 Freckles A medicine to cure them 257 Friendship Friends must not be left in danger by an example taken from the Gilt-head 386 387. False friends like to the Cuckoe 404 405. Like to the Fox 451. Like to the Hyacinth 293 Fret Good against the fret in children 267 Frogs rained and how 147 Frost 159 Fullers earth 301 Fumes and their natures 87 G GAlactites a stone sweating out a liquour like milk 298 Galaxia no Meteor 128. It yeeldeth a part of that matter which is in New starres 121. What the Galaxia is 129 Gardeners A note for those who weed gardens 249 Garlands From whence came the first use of willow garlands 274. Garlands made of myrtle 275 Garlick and the properties 263 Goat and his nature 482. Dancing Goats a Meteor 91 Ginger and how it groweth 277 Gluttonie and drunkennesse made odious by that beastly practise of the Jerf or Gulon 48â—… 467 God How God speaketh to men without the tongues of men 102 How his providence worketh in the course of nature 350 Gogion a daintie fish 388 Gold the purest of metals where it grows and how 285 Gorgon a terrible beast 486 Government An embleme concerning good government 412. Another concerning bad government 489. The bees have a common-wealth and admirable government 421 422 Gout Good against Choler and the Gout 256. Eels hurtfull for those who are subject to the Gout 388 Groning of creatures to be delivered 5 Great Why great men die for the most part sooner then other men 103. A pattern for great men 434 Green sicknesse and what will help it 254 Groundsell and the vertues of it 267 Griffon what kinde of creature it is 393 Gilt-head a prettie fish 386 Gunnes and gunpowder when and by whom invented 306. How some have censured the use and invention of gunnes ibid. 307 Gurnard a good wholesome fish 387 H HAil what it is 162 163. Winter hail how and where it is made ibid. The sundry fashions of hailstones 164. Harm by hail ibid. How the heathens used to secure their fields from hail 165 Hand 499 Hare and his properties 457 Harm watch harm catch as is shewed by a certain example taken from that bird which watcheth to catch the flying fish 382 Hawks and their kindes 400 401 Head 498. The head a seat for all the senses excepting one ibid. Hearing A man should heare more then he speaketh 498 Heart The heart is the seat of the passions 497. It liveth first and dieth last 498 Heavens and their derivation 76 77. Not of a quint-essence 77 sequent Heavens work upon man and how 341. 104. How to understand the words Heaven and Earth mentioned in the first of Genesis pag. 48. 83. The heavens are not to be consumed according to their substance in the latter day 5. We look for new heavens and a new earth at the worlds end and how 6 7 Heaven and the wayes thither described as also the wayes to hell 458. They which preferre earth before heaven are like to the Camel which chooseth muddie water rather then cleare 444. An embleme concerning those who sorrow to part with earth although they may gain heaven 481 Heavinesse There is an herb which first taketh a man with an heavinesse then with sleeping and last of all with death 272 Hedge-hog and his properties 455. A deceitfull man like to the Hedge-hog ibid. Other emblemes taken from the Hedge-hog 456. The Porcupine or mountain Hedge-hog ibid. 457 Helena Castor and Pollux with what the Poets write of them 95 96 Hemerois a kinde of serpent which procureth unstanchable bleeding 489 Hemlock and the properties thereof 272 Herbs of more then ordinary qualities 271 Heron described together with the nature of his dung how it infesteth the Hawk c. 399 Herring and his properties 387. The red herrings and red sprats have little wholesomenesse in them 387 388 Hills High hills 68. Hills before the Floud 71. 73 Hippurin an herb which is admirable in stanching of bloud 271 Hoga a fish with
the time of the worlds creation with a confutation of the first Sect. 2. Their reasons shewed who suppose the time to be in the Spring Sect. 3. That the world began in Autumne with an answer to their first reason who endeavour to prove it was in the Spring Sect. 4. An answer to their second reason Sect. 5. An answer to their third reason Sect. 6. An answer to their fourth reason Sect. 7. Concluding the time to be Autumne CHAP. III. THe third Chapter concerneth the first day of the world and is divided into three Sections Sect. 1. Of God the Architect of all and of the first part of the first dayes work Sect. 2. Of the creation of Light Sect. 3. Of the intercourse between day and night CHAP. IIII. THe fourth and fifth Chapters concern the second day with such things as are pertinent to the work done in it and are divided into these following Sections Paragraphs and Articles Sect. 1. Of the Expansum or stretching out of the heavens called the Firmament Sect. 2. Of the waters above the heavens Sect. 3. Of the matter of the heavens c. CHAP. V. THe fifth Chapter beginneth with the second part of the second dayes work and hath two Sections Sect. 1. How to understand the word Heavens Sect. 2. Of the Aire together with such appearances as we use to see there This Section hath seven Paragraphs Parag. 1. Of the division and qualitie of the Regions in the Aire Parag. 2. Of Meteors first in generall then how they be divided in particular Parag. 3. Of Fierie Meteors such as are said to be pure and not mixt This Paragraph hath thirteen Articles 1. Of burning Torches 2. Of burning Beams 3. Of round Pillars 4. Of Pyramidall Pillars 5. Of burning Spears Streams or Darts 6. Of dancing or leaping Goats 7. Of flying Sparks 8. Of shooting Starres 9. Of flying Launces 10. Of Fires in the Aire two kindes 11. Of Flying Dragons or Fire-Drakes 12. Of Wandring Lights 13. Of Licking Lights Sect. 2. of the fifth Chapter still continued Parag. 4. of the second Section It concerneth Fiery Meteors impurely mixt This Paragraph hath three Articles 1. Of Comets c. 2. Of New stars their matter and significations 3. Of Thunder and Lightning Parag. 5. Of such Meteors as are Fiery onely in appearance This hath seven Articles 1. Of the Galaxia that it is no Meteor 2. Of Colours in the Clouds 3. Of many Sunnes and Moons 4. Of Beams or Streams of Light 5. Of Circles or Crowns 6. Of the Rain-bow 7. Of Openings or Chaps in the skie Parag. 6. Of Watery Meteros and of their severall kindes This Paragraph hath eight Articles 1. Of Clouds and their matter 2. Of Rain 3. Of Dew 4. Of Frosts 5. Of Snow 6. Of Hail 7. Of Mists and their kindes 8. Of the Cobweb-like Meteor Parag. 7. Of Aiery Meteors This hath five Articles 1. Of divers opinions concerning Winde 2. Of Winde what it is c. 3. Of the division of Windes c. 4. Of the qualitie and nature of Windes 5. Of Whirl-windes Storm-windes c. CHAP. VI. THe sixth Chapter treateth of the third day together with such things as are pertinent to the work done in it Here befoure Sections and two Appendices Sect. 1. Shewing into how many main parts the businesse of this day may be distinguished Sect. 2. Concerning the first thing done viz. The gathering together of the Waters which God Almighty calleth Seas This Section disputeth seven Questions 1. How the Waters were gathered together 2. How they could be gathered but to one place seeing there be many Seas Lakes Rivers and Fountains farre asunder 3. Whether they be higher then the Earth 4. Whether there be more Water then Earth 5. Whether the Earth be founded upon the Waters 6. The originall of Rivers as also why the Seas be salt and Rivers fresh 7. Of the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea Unto which Section an Appendix is joyned and it concerns strange properties in certain Wells Waters and Fountains Sect. 3. Of the Drie-land appearing after the Waters were gathered wherein the cause of Earth-quakes together with the compasse and circuit of the Earth is shewed Sect. 4. Of the Sprouting Springing and Fructification of the Earth wherein the varietie and vertues of sundry Herbs and Trees is largely discovered according to the best Authours Unto which two last Sections an Appendix is joyned concerning all kinde of Metals as Gold Silver Stones of all sorts and such like things as are under ground CHAP. VII THe seventh Chapter concerneth the fourth day together with such things as are pertinent to the work done in it namely the Matter Names Natures Motions and Offices of the Starres It hath three Sections Sect. 1. An entrance towards the discourse of the Stars and Lights Sect. 2. Of the Matter Place Motion and Height of the Starres c. This Section hath two Articles 1. That the Starres consist most of a Fiery matter and are cherished by the Waters above the Heavens as was mentioned Chap. 4. 2. Of their Order and Place in the Skie and why one is higher then another Sect. 3. Of those offices given to the Starres when they were created This third Section hath three Paragraphs Parag. 1. Shewing that their first office is to shine upon the Earth to rule the Day and Night c. Here we have two Articles 1. Of Light what it is and whether the Sunne be the onely fountain of Light 2. Of the Starres twinkling and Sunnes dancing Parag. 2. Of that other office viz. that the Starres should be for Signes c. This Paragraph hath three Articles 1. That the Starres work upon the inferiour world and are signes of future events 2. Whether it be not a derogation from the perfection of things created to grant that the Starres may give an inclination to Man in his actions 3. Of Predictions or understanding the Signes Parag. 3. Of that other office wherein the Starres were made as it were heavenly clocks This hath three Articles 1. Of Seasons as Spring Summer c. 2. Of Dayes and their kindes c. 3. Of Yeares and their kindes c. CHAP. VIII THe eighth Chapter concerneth the creatures made in the fifth day of the world viz. Fish and Fowl This Chapter hath two Sections Sect. 1. Of Fishes their names kindes properties together with sundry emblemes drawn from them Sect. 2. Of the names kindes and properties of Fowls with many and sundry emblemes drawn from most of them CHAP. IX THe ninth Chapter concerneth the creatures made in the sixth and last day being such creatures as live neither in the Aire or Water but upon the Earth This Chapter hath likewise two Sections Sect. 1. Of Beasts their properties names kindes c. together with sundry emblemes drawn from many of them Sect. 2. The creation of Man being created male and female and made according to the image of God together with the institution of Marriage and blessing
given to that estate CHAP. I. Wherein is shewed that the world neither was from eternitie nor yet shall be extended to eternitie but that it had both a beginning and shall also have an ending wherein also is considerable how that ending shall be as also the time when is largely examined Sect. 1. That the world began and must also end THe Philosophers of ancient times were diversly transported in the stream of their own opinions both concerning the worlds originall and continuance some determining that it once began others imagining that it was without beginning and that the circled orbs should spin out a thread as long as is eternitie before it found an ending Plato could say that it was Dei Patris ad genus humanum epistola an epistle of God the Father unto mankinde and that God was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Creatour Maker and Father of the whole universe But Aristotle sticked not to affirm that the world neither began nor yet shall end Yet this his opinion himself being witnesse was nothing else but a Paradox and as without wrong to him may be affirmed he maintained it rather by way of contradicting others then for any desire of truth calling it Problema topicum as in the first book of his Topicks chap. 9. is manifest and as in that book written in his old age to king Alexander the Great he also confesseth This therefore made one say that it was not so much a logicall question as a thesis or position which Aristotle held and maintained whose reasons some have called vain sophistications to obscure the truth having more with then matter in them and may again be answered by more solid arguments then he alledgeth For that the world had both a beginning and must also have an ending even reason it self although there were no Scripture for it is sufficient As first if the world were eternall then there would be some memorie given us of the generations of men more ancient then that which Moses mentioneth but there is none given us for all other histories are but late in respect of the sacred storie which is an evident argument not onely against the eternitie of the world but also against the fables of the Egyptians Scythians and Grecians concerning their ancientnesse and the ancientnesse of their acts and deeds of fame For indeed omitting their palpable fictions when Ethnick writers tell us of any ancient thing it is either concerning the Thebane or Trojane warre of Cecrops of Inachus of Ogyges Deucalion or Ianus of Ninus or his father Belus or of the warre of the giants striving to heap mountain upon mountain that they might pull the gods out of heaven Now all these were either about the dayes of the Judges Moses Abraham or Noah at the furthest For to whom did they allude by their Ianus with two faces but to Noah who saw the times both before and after the floud Or whom did they point at by their Gigantomachia when Pelion forsooth must be set upon Ossa's back and all thrown down with a thunder-crack whom I say did they point at but Nimrod and his company or those who built the tower of Babel and had their languages confounded for it That of the Poet is therefore pertinent Si nulla fuit genitalis origo Terrarum coeli sempérque aeterna fuâ—…re Cur supra bellum Thebanum funera Trojae Non alias alii quoque res cecinêre Poetae Quò tot facta virûm toties cecidêre nec usquam Aeternis famae monimentis insita florent If that the heavens and earth did not begin Had no creation but remain'd from aye Why did not other Poets something sing Before the Thebane warre or fall of Troy What are become of great mens many deeds They could not die But would remain unto posteritie Secondly thus it may be also proved All things which are to us conspicuous consisting of matter and form are of themselves frail and fading having such a nature that they either are or may be subject to corruption but such is the world and therefore as in respect of its essence it is finite so likewise in respect of time it cannot be infinite but have both a beginning and an ending For first that is properly eternall which is altogether incommunicable or which is without beginning mutation succession and end and such onely is God and not the world Secondly it cannot be denied but that there is the same reason of the whole which is of the parts so that if the parts of the world be subject to corruption then must likewise the whole world also but the parts are as we daily see and therefore the whole But leaving reason we have a rule beyond it which is the rule of faith whos 's first assertion makes it plain that the world began and that Time by which we measure dayes weeks moneths and yeares hath not been for ever For In the beginning saith Moses God created the heavens and the earth and why is it said In the beginning he created but that it might be known especially to his Church that the world 〈◊〉 from everlasting Divinely therefore did Du Bartas sing as in the sound of Silvester we have it Cleare fire for ever hath not ayre embrac't Nor ayre for aye environ'd waters vast Nor waters alwayes wrapt the earth therein But all this ALL did once of nought begin Th' immutable divine decree which shall Cause the worlds end caus'd his originall Which whosoever shall deny he doth but betray his misery either because he wants Gods holy word to be his rule or else because he disdaineth to be ruled by it How great a priviledge then is that which even the poorest Christian hath above the greatest and most wise Philosopher And as for the scoffing Atheist whose peevish and perverse opinion leads him up and down in an affected cloud of ignorance disdaining to have faith because he scoffeth at the rule of faith it is no more then thus with him he kicks against the pricks and cannot therefore escape away unhurt For Sequitur injustas ultor à tergo Deus God as a revenger follows at the heels of a sinner Which many thousands now can witnesse well Whose faults with woe recanted are in hell Sect. 2. BUt concerning the worlds ending here fitly may arise this question viz. Whether it shall be destroyed according to the substance or according to the qualities 1. If it be destroyed according to the substance then it must be so destroyed as that nothing of it be remaining 2. If it be destroyed according to the qualities then it shall onely be purged the substance still abiding Now of both these opinions there can be but one truth which I verily think to be in the latter of them For although it be said in S. Peter that the heavens shall passe away with a noise the elements shall melt away with heat c.
in Psal. 16. 12. And further seeing it is said that righteousnesse shall dwell in the new earth as well as in the new heaven it may from thence be gathered that both the heaven and the earth shall be the seat of the blessed and that the saints shall follow the Lambe whithersoever he goeth and that there shall be an intercourse between the said heaven and earth which is as Jacob in his vision saw when the angels were some of them ascending some descending that ladder which reached from heaven to earth or as Moses and Elias were seen talking with Christ upon the Mount But herein let us not be too bold for in this we may soon wade too farre namely if we should nicely determine how the saints shall then be disposed of whether some alwayes to the heaven some alwayes to the earth or such like things which to us are unrevealed Let it therefore suffice that although the manner of this change be secret and not known in every point yet the change it self is most certain and therefore hold we most certainly this truth for our stay that the world shall end and leave we the manner thereof to be exactly and particularly revealed by him who will very quickly perform it But of the time when in the following Section Sect. 3. ANd thus much concerning the manner of the worlds ending Now follows the time when But here I purpose not to meddle with any thing which shall tend to the precise scanning of it I will leave that to them who out of a desire they have to lanch into the deep have pried too farre I fear into the secrets of the Thunderer for oftentimes we see that they do but wisely tell us foolish tales and smoothly bring long lies unto an end because they say more then they have warrant for To whom Du Bartas by our famous Silvester thus sendeth greeting You have mis-cast in your Arithmetick Mis-laid your counters gropingly ye seek In nights black darknesse for the secret things Seal'd in the Casket of the King of kings 'T is He that keeps th' eternall clock of Time He holds the weights of that appointed chime And in his hand the sacred Book doth bear Of that close-clasped finall CALENDER Where in Red letters not with us frequented The certain Date of that Great Day is printed That Dreadfull Day which doth so swiftly post That 't will be seen before foreseen of most Yet such is the folly and curiositie of many that they will needs undertake to tell us when this time shall be which if they could then it seems it should not come as a snare upon the world nor yet steal upon us as a thief in the night But so it shall do For of that day and houre knoweth no man saith our Saviour and we may take his word because himself by his humanitie could not know it although in his humanitie by reason of his Godhead he was not ignorant of it Had he not therefore been God as well as man and of a divine as well as humane nature he must have remained ignorant in both with men and angels Mar. 13. 32. And furthermore concerning us that we be not too bold the same lesson which he taught his disciples is also ours not to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power as it is Act. 1. 7. From whence we may learn that whilest we exercise our selves in things that be too high for us we shall sooner betray our own curiositie then deliver a truth For Maxima pars eorum quae scimus est minima pars eorum quae nescimus The greatest part of those things which we know is the least part of what we know not Whereupon I cannot but think that the predictions of men in this kinde especially seeing they are so various must needs be as true as those amongst the brood of presumptuous Astrologers concerning the end of Christian Religion which as Du Plessie observeth from them should have been some hundreds of yeares before this time nay it should then have ended when indeed it began most of all to flourish And so I doubt not but am certain that the world also should have had many endings before this time according to the doting froth of some mens idle fancies which if need were I could relate But as time was little beholding to them for cutting it off so short in like manner they were as little beholding to time for discovering their lies so plainly I will therefore before I meddle further with such approved liars leave them unto their best friends to gain if they can their credit for the time past and addresse my self to examine those who talk of a time yet to come Amongst whom the Jews have a tradition which although they fetch from the school or house of Elias yet we are not bound to credit it For it was not Elias the Prophet but a Rabbin of the same name as the learned know and who more fabulous or more full of vain fancies then those their greatest Doctours Six thousand yeares saith he the world shall stand and then it shall be consumed by fire Two thousand yeares shal be void or without Law two thousand yeares shall be under the Law and the last two thousand shall be the dayes of Messiah or Christ. Thus farre Elias And that this opinion hath been favoured by some of old and is also favoured now by some of our time I am not ignorant which chiefly they do for this reason namely because the six dayes of weekly labour do bear the Symbole of 6000 yeares wherein mankinde should endure the cares and troubles and travels of this world and then shall come that Sabbath of Sabbaths in the heaven of heavens when they are to rest from their labours Or as God was six daies in creating the world before there was a Sabbath so he shall be 6000 yeares in governing it and then the seventh begins an eternall rest in heaven Now this they ground upon the words of S. Peter who speaking of the day of judgement noteth that a thousand yeares in Gods sight are but as one day and one day as a thousand yeares 2. Pet. 3. 8. So that in this regard for six dayes of weekly labour they would have 6000 yeares of worldly trouble and the like before it endeth But if this weaknesse be the greatest strength for maintaining their assertion then I do not doubt to see their cause fainting upon the ground as not being able to subsist or stand upright For first concerning the Rabbin had he been a Prophet he would certainly have been a better Seer This I am sure of that he was much deceived in the particular division of his time in making three periods all of 2000 yeares apiece For although the yeares of the world have been diversly accounted by sundry authours yet you shall not finde the Rabbins just number of 2000
yeares from the Creation to the Law in any of them Sealiger Calvisius Helvicus Funccius Bucholcerus and others who reckon the fewest yeares do account 453 above two thousand and yet they reckon not so many as they should by almost 60 yeares some say altogether 60 as may be seen by Calvin Iunius Pareus Ainsworth or Dr. Willet on Genesis besides many excellent Chronologers especially Sr. W. Ralegh that learned Knight who in his historie of the world makes it plain And not onely doth this Elias fail in his first division but in his second also For from the Law to the death of Christ are not 2000 yeares there be wanting well neare 500 to make them up As for example take a view again of Scaliger Calvisius Helvicus or our countrey-man Mr. Thom. Lydiat or Bucholcerus or Petavius or Funccius and see if it be not even so Bucholcerus I think wanteth the fewest and yet it is manifest that he falleth short of 2000. Whereupon it may be seen that in his first division which is for the time before the Law he overshoots And in his second division for the time under the Law he is too short imitating a bad archer who tries but cannot hit the mark If then for the time past the Rabbin is found to be faulty why should we be so mad as to give credit to him for the time which is yet to come Questionlesse as he hath deceived us in the one so likewise he will deceive us in the other and therefore he is to beslighted and nothing credited at all Yea saith one Dictum Eliae non est authenticum Valet quidem adversus Iudaeos qui vaticinium illud admittunt ad probandum venisse Messiam cùm jam elapsi sint anni quinquies mille 560 sed ad finem seculi demonstrandum nihil valet That is The saying of Elias is not authentick It maketh indeed against the Jews who entertain that prophecie to prove that the Messias or Christ is come seeing there are 5560 yeares of the 6000 alreadie runne out but it prevaileth nothing to shew the end of the world for which cause it was chiefly intended But come we now to the examination of that forenamed place in Peter which is brought as an help to uphold the Jews opinion because a day taken for a thousand yeares and applied to the weekly dayes seemeth to point out six thousand yeares so some imagine But without doubt the Apostle meant no such thing nor yet had in his minde to set down any strict manner of accounting times peculiar to the court of heaven For mark but the circumstances of the place and view well the occasion given him to speak so as he did of the Lords coming to judgement and then you shall soon finde that it was to comfort the godly against the cavils and reproaches of the wicked who because the time seemed long to them did thereupon mock at the promise of his coming taking it as if he would not come at all For Where is say they the promise of his coming since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they did from the beginning c. Which is as if they should say Is it not a great while since the world began and yet what alteration can we see in it yesterday was as is this day men are born and die as orderly as they ever did nature keeps her course and the like Wherefore if the Judge had meant to come or shew himself at all he would not surely that his coming should be thus long deferred but would rather have shewed himself before thus many yeares could possibly be born Thus or after this manner such mockers reasoned and cavilled with S. Peter which cavill of theirs is agreeable to that of S. Paul where he mentions such as did not beleeve the Resurrection but were like minded with these who mocked at the slacknesse of Christs coming to judgement Saint Peter therefore that he might comfort the weak and confute the wicked sheweth how to answer this their faithlesse objection namely thus That although the time be long in respect of us yet to God with whom there is no time either long or short it is not so A day compared with an houre to us may seem long But a thousand yeares compared with a day to God they seem but short for what is time to eternitie And therefore although that day to the faithlesse seems so to be taken away or deferred rather as if it were not or would not come because it quickly came not yet know that it is not quite taken away For as the same Apostle speaketh at the 9 verse God is not slack in his promises as some account slacknesse but is long-suffering to us-ward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance And this questionlesse was the Apostles meaning farre differing from their fancies who from hence would fain gather that for one day God useth to account a thousand yeares and a thousand yeares for one day Hic sermo saith one est de aestimatione hominum qui non aequè aestimant tempus longum breve This speech is according to the estimation of men who do not equally esteem of times long and short Which also doth yet further appeare by that in the 90 Psal. at the 4 vers Where as there is a comparison likewise between 1000 yeares and one day so also in respect of God a thousand yeares are compared to that which is lesse then a day namely to a watch in the night For saith the Prophet God turneth man to destruction and then he saith Turn again ye children of men For a thousand yeares in thy sight are but as yesterday and they are gone as a watch in the night To which purpose S. Hierome speaketh also fitly saying Aeternitati comparatum omne tempus est breve that is All time compared with eternitie is but short time yea indeed as no time And again did not Zanchius worthily finde fault with Ireneus and Lactantius concerning these things Undoubtedly he did affirming that their opinion was contrary to the word of God For our Lord himself saith that none can know c. Whereas saith he if this sentence of the 6000 yeares were true then the time might be known Let therefore they who will embrace this fancie of six thousand yeares for the whole time of the worlds continuance I cannot For sure I am that the tradition of Elias hath greatly failed for the time that is past if therefore it should be true for the time which is yet to come it were more then an unheard of wonder and as for the argument taken from S. Peter to uphold it how his meaning hath been thereby forced is declared Yet neverthelesse I will not deny but that the world may stand six ages before it endeth and so the ages although not the yeares may be compared to the six
CONFLAGRATIO which signifie The burning of the world hath set down the time when the world must end namely in the yeare of our Lord 1657 and that for two reasons First because as the yeare of the world 1657 was a fatall yeare in regard of the universall â—…loud which them came and drowned all the world In like manner the yeare of Christ 1657 shall also be a fatall yeare in regard that then shall be the end of the world by fire for is it not said in Matthew As it was in the dayes of Noah so shall also the coming of the Sonne of man be Matth. 24. 37. Secondly take these two words namely MUNDI CONFLAGRATIO which signifie in English The burning of the world and you shall finde in them so many numerall letters as will make 1657 if they be all added together as in the margent may be plainly seen For in the first word MUNDI there are M V D and I which are all numerall letters and in the other word namely CONFLAGRATIO C L and I are likewise letters of number and how much every one of them doth signifie is easily known amounting in the whole summe to 1657. Thus upon these two fancies is this prediction grounded which that it is altogether idle may easily appeare For first concerning the universall floud which they urge that yeare was indeed a fatall yeare to the world when it came but that it came in the yeare of the world 1657 is denied for it came not when Noah was 600 yeares compleat but when he was in the six hundredth yeare current of his age and so the yeare of the world was not 1657 but 1656. As for example Seth was born to Adam when he was 130. Gen. 5. 3. Enos to Seth when he was 105. Gen. 5. 6. Kenan to Enos when he was 90. Gen. 5. 9. Mahalaleel to Kenan when he was 70. Gen. 5. 12. Iared to Mahalaleel when he was 65. Gen. 5. 15. Henoch to Iared when Iared was 162. Gen. 5. 18. Mathuselah to Henoch when Hen. was 65. Gen. 5. 21. Lamech to Mathuselah when Ma. was 187. Gen. 5. 25. Noah to Lamech when Lamech was 182. Gen. 5. 29. Then came the floud in the yeare of Noah 600. Gen. 7. 11 All which do make being added together 1656 and not 1657 as they imagine because that which is said of Noah in Gen. chap. 7. verse 6. viz. that he was 600. yeares old when the floud of waters was upon the earth is expounded in two severall places after it that it must be understood of his 600 yeare current and not compleat The places are Gen. 7. 11. and Gen. 8. 13 the one expressing the beginning the other the ending of the floud and so also the most and best chronologers hitherto have observed although some do not Which as it is agreeable to the truth of computation so also that I may answer one fancie by another it is more congruous to the nature of the number of the yeare wherein it came For Six is no number of rest witnesse the six dayes of creation the six dayes of our weekly labour and the six ages of the world But Seven is for rest witnesse the sabbaticall dayes the sabbaticall yeares and that eternall sabbath in the heaven of heavens when the six ages of the world shall be ended Wherefore in the yeare of the world 1656 the Ark was without rest and tossed upon the waters but in the yeare 1657 it found rest the waters were dried up and gone and Noah then came out and offered sacrifice And further admit it be said that As it was in the dayes of Noah so shall also the coming of the Sonne of man be Doth this point out any thing concerning the time of his coming Verily no. It shews indeed the great securitie that shall then be in the world amongst the wicked so that as the floud came upon the old world when they feared nothing in like manner shall the coming of the Sonne of man be But what is this to the time Our Saviour doth not compute the time but compares the manners of the times together as may be very plainly seen by that which he hath elsewhere published saying that the coming of the Sonne of man shall be not onely As it was in the dayes of Noah but also As it was in the dayes of Lot Luke 17. 28. For conclusion therefore seeing the floud came before that yeare which they have computed it may easily appeare that their Mundi conflagratio for the end of the world in the yeare of Christ 1657 is but an idle fancie And as for the time which they referre to the dayes of Noah we see that it is likewise referred to the dayes of Lot the intent onely being to compare the times and not compute them But secondly for their Mundi conflagratìo admit it were so that the floud did not come untill the yeare of the world 1657 as they would have it yet why should it be that these numerall letters must be picked out of two Latine words rather then out of words in some other language In Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of which words you may gather 1830 at the least Surely in this we may say that as in the making of anagrams upon a name if one language will not help us we may then write the name in some other tongue rather then want letters for our purpose so the same libertie belike he took who was the first authour of this fancie for the worlds ending wherefore we may well conclude that it is but idle and not worth regarding Another much like to this is that which others have also hatched whereby in the yeare of Christ 1645 should be the end of the world Now this they gather out of these words ADVENTVS DOMINI which signifie The coming of the Lord for in them they have so many numerall letters as will make 2012 out of which they subtract so much as they gather out of these words DIES ABBREVIABVNTVR The dayes shall be shortened namely 517 and then the remainder of 2012 is 1495 unto which they adde so many as these words will afford viz. PROPTER ELECTOS which signifie For the elects sake wherein is a number of 150 and so the whole summe amounteth to 1645 being as they fondly imagine the last yeare of the world But if such or the like fancies could hold then questionlesse the world should have had many endings since it first began and must either have had a new creation or else no world had been till now As for example either in the yeare 1532 or in the yeare 1533 or in the yeare 1578 or in the yeare 1588 or in the yeare 1623 the judgement day upon these grounds was foretold to come For first in the yeare 1532 they had two wayes to prove it either out of these words VIDEBVNT INQVEMPVPVGERVNT or out of these words VIDEBVNT IN
manifold use and benefit The night easeth the burden of the day the day driveth away the terrour of the night The night burieth our cares and doth what she can to drown all our griefs in a silent sleep the day serveth for our needfull labours is the wicked mans just terrour the mother of truth and true beauties onely glasse wherein she may both see her self and be also seen The night serveth to temper the dayes exceeding drought and to cool its heat for by moistning the aire it makes the earth to fructifie the day again warmeth the coolnesse of the night melting the white hoarie haires of winters beard and with a reviving cherishing and nourishing of things as well sensible as vegetative addes life afresh into the dying universe serving as I said before for the need full labours of man For as the Psalmist hath it The sunne ariseth and then man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour untill the evening Psal. 104. 22. And so also for the night it is destinated or appointed for quiet and sleep wherein the wearied bodies of living creatures are refreshed and their strengths repaired the noisome beasts now come forth and feed lest coming in the day they might be a terrour unto men For as the Psalmist again recordeth Thou makest darknesse that it may be night wherein all the beasts of the forrest do move as the lions roaring after their prey and the like vers 20. But of this enough And now last of all when this dayes work was done or brought to an end God is said to view it and behold there was nothing amisse That is Moses speaking according to our capacities telleth us that God doth approve and ratifie that work now done which before he purposed to make So Eve and Morn conclude the first of dayes And God gives to his work deserved praise CHAP. IIII. Of the second day and of such things as are pertinent to the work done in it Sect. 1. Of the Expansum or stretching out of the Heavens COncerning this dayes work what it was we finde it thus expressed And God said Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament and it was so And God called the firmament Heaven and the evening and the morning were the second day Gen. 1. 6 7 8. This is the narration of what was done And here let us consider first of the Firmament then of the waters which it separateth and lastly of the severall Heavens together with the regions of the aire and of such appearances as we use to see there unto which if any thing else be met withall pertinent to this dayes work it shall be added The word Rakiah translated Firmament signifieth Expansum or expansionem which is a stretching out not onely from the earth but about the earth so that the world being mans house the Firmament is as the vaulted roof of it Or as Hyperius observeth it is tanquam theca quaedam omnia quae Deo ipso inferiora sunt inclusa continens as a certain husk shell or box inclusively containing all things without the Heaven of heavens or which are below that place where God doth manifest his glorie Which also is further to be seen in the hundred and fourth Psalme at the second verse where it is said that God hath stretched out the heavens as a canopie or extendisse incurvando coelos tanquam conopeum as some reade it by which comparison it seemeth that the Firmament is not so much expansum ratione extensionis à centro quà m circa centrum not so much a thing stretched out by reason of its distance from the centre as about the centre And again we call it the Firmament because in the stretching out it was not weakened but made strong In which regard expositours do well observe the difference which is between Rakiah and Karah For the word which is here used they reade it Rakiah and say that it doth properly signifie a thing made strong by stretching out being therefore contrary to the word Karah which is to break in stretching And the Greeks likewise that they may give a full expression according to the proprietie of the word do translate it and call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to make strong or firm and thus also the ancient Greek Philosophers observed calling the whole compasse of the heavens 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning the very utmost bound of them which is not so weak that it should be broken in the stretching but strong and farre more free from a fluid nature then is that aire which the concave of it keepeth and holdeth The Latines also call it Firmamentum and we in our speech the Firmament which in respect of its extension is the whole compasse of heaven on all sides being as it were the case of the visible world and all things in it as hath been shewed Sect. 2. Of the waters above the Heavens BUt from the concavitie of this firmament we may passe to the convexitie of it And now if it be considered as it is convex then we shall come to the examination of that which God assigned as proper to it most especially viz. that it separate the waters from the waters For this out-spread firmament is by its office to separate and to be not above the waters but between them and therefore those waters which it separateth cannot be such waters as are in the clouds but rather above the concave of the firmament If they be such as are in the clouds then are they rather in the middle of the firmament then the firmament in middle or between them And this made one argue thus saying Expansio in nubium regione aut finitur aut ulteriùs extenditur si ibi finitur stellas infra nubes constitutas esse oportet Sin ulteriùs extenditur supercoelestes aquâ—…s ab inferioribus expansio non sejungit sed nubes potiùs unam expansionis partem ab altera dispescunt Atqui utrumque horum à Mosis narratione absonum Tutissimè igitur aquas coelestes supra sidera esse constitutas totúmque illud quod à globo terrae aquae sursum expanditur coeli velaëris nomine contineri sentiemus That is The out-spread firmament either is ended in the cloudie region or is further extended If it be ended there then the starres must needs be under the clouds because they are within the firmament Gen. 1. 6. But if it be further extended then the supercelestiall waters are not separated by the firmament but rather the clouds sever one part of the firmament from the other both which are against Moses his narration Therefore we may safely think that the celestiall waters are above the starres c. In which regard it
the Firmament that is appointed to this separating office but the whole Firmament as any one may see if he do but observe the words of God producing and assigning it Neither do we finde that the Firmament is any more then one To divide it into parts so as they imagine is not to divide it into parts but rather to make so many Firmaments as they imagine parts like as every scale of an onyon is a severall and differing scale and not one the part of another And besides neither is there the same reason between the parts of water and these supposed parts of the Firmament for then when God made the Sunne Moon and Starres he would not have said Let them be in the Firmament but above the Firmament for they are farre higher then the clouds yet I say they being higher then the clouds he is said to place them but in the Firmament and they being no more but in it how improperly do we affirm those things to be above it whose places are lower then either Sunne Moon or Starres And secondly admit Job tells us that there are waters bound up in thick clouds doth not Jeremie also tell us that they are drawn up in vapours from the earth which as hath been shewed cannot at all times be but then when there is a naturall concourse of causes to effect it whereas the out-spread Firmament is to be alwayes between them separating them not at times but continually And as for the rain proceeding from those waters which we call the clouds it stayeth not long in the aire but forthwith falleth down again shewing that of right their proper place is here below and therefore we make not three kindes of waters as if we would be contrary to Moses in saying that there are other waters above the concave of the Firmament which on this second day of the worlds creation were separated from all other waters Wherefore observe but this they being separated on this second day how could they be such as the aire affordeth for the middle Region of the aire which is the place for the clouds was not untill the third day Not untill the third day I say because it is found by experience and from sufficient witnesse proved true that the tops of the highest mountains do reach up unto that place which we call the middle Region of the aire being some of them more loftie then the clouds As for example in Iapan there is a mountain called Figeniana which is some certain leagues higher then the clouds And in Ternate among the Philippine Islands there is a mountain which as Mr. Purchas in his pilgrimage relateth is even angry with nature because it is fastened to the earth and doth therefore not onely lift up his head above the middle Region of the aire but endeavoureth also to conjoyn it self with the fierie Element And of the mountain Athos between Macedon and Thrace it is said to be so high that it casteth shade more then thirtie and seven miles Also the mount of Olympus in Thessalie is said to be of that height as neither the windes clouds or rain do overtop it And although I omit sundry others of exceeding height it is also written of another mount so high above the clouds that some who have seen it do witnesse that they have been on the top of it and have had both a cleare skie over their heads and also clouds below them pouring down rain and breaking forth with thunder and lightnings at which those below have been terrified but on the top of the hill there was no such matter This surely was that mountain which Mr. Lydiat meant when he said that etiam aestivis diebus even in the summer time when the clouds are at the highest those on the top of the mountains have had fair weather and withall perceived that there was plentie of rain about the middle height of the same hills Thus we see that there are lofty mountains And indeed their loftines is the cause of a middle Region for the hils hindering the aire from following the motion of the heavens do make it about their tops a fit convenient place to thicken these vapours into clouds which by the attractive power of the heavenly bodies are drawn up thither Wherefore that I may conclude the place of the middle Region being both caused and also overtopped by sundry high mountains it will appeare that there was no middle Region of the aire untill the third day because the waters were all over the earth and standing above the hills untill that very day For then and not before God gathered them together unto one place and made the drie land to appeare which before was covered with waters as with a garment Psalm 104. Rarior aqua saith one velut nebula terras tegebat quae congregatione densata est The thinne water like a mist or wet cloud covered the earth which by gathering together was made thick In which regard it may be said saith Aquinas that it was as naturall for the water to be every where about the earth as for the aire to be about both water and earth yet neverthelesse propter necessitatem finis saith he for the necessitie of the end namely that plants and living creatures should be upon the earth it was meet that the earth should be so uncovered and the waters so gathered that the drie land appeare Now this was a work pertinent unto the third day and before this work done there could be no middle Region and the middle Region being on this day and not before how can the waters in the clouds be those waters which were separated by the out-spread Firmament on the second day Neither do I here argue à facto ad fieri because in the very creation of this Firmament God then said Let it be between the waters that is even then beginning its office and art of separating them Which that it is even so we see he speaketh next concerning the lower waters and makes no more mention at all of those upper ones because he had already done with them and left them in their place unto which he had appointed them But furthermore this tenent is not a little helped by a consideration of the cataracts or windows of heaven which in the dayes of Noah were opened and poured down rain by the space of fourty dayes For me thinks the clouds could not be those windows of heaven because it rained fourty dayes and before it left raining the waters were higher then the hills being when fourty dayes were ended fifteen cubits above the highest mountains as in the historie of the Floud is manifest And hereupon it was that one once by the same reason concluded and said that either it did not rain fourty dayes which assertion we are sure is false or else it rained from some other where then from the middle Region For seeing the middle Region it self was
drowned before it ceased to rain it cannot but be that the rain descended from some higher place 1. Object But perhaps some may think that the clouds mounted higher and higher as the waters increased insomuch that as the waters by little and little gat above the mountains so did the clouds Answ. This cannot be because that which makes us distinguish the aire so as it may have a middle Region is nothing else but the differing temper that it hath both from the upper and lower Region and this differing temper is caused by the hills which hindering the aire from following the motion of the heavens do make it a fit place to thicken those vapours into clouds which by the attractive power of the starres and planets are drawn up thither as already hath been shewed and as afterwards shall be touched when I come again to speak of the severall Regions and their tempers shewing you that it is an Axiome undeniable that the farnesse from a circular motion gives quietnesse coldnesse and heavinesse even as the nearenesse to it gives motion heat and lightnesse 2. Object Or secondly perhaps some may think that the hills and mountains were not before the Floud but made by the violence of the waters and that Moses when he would describe how high the waters were doth but shew us that they were higher by fifteen cubits then the highest mountain that was then in his time which he might well say and make such a comparison although there were no hills before the floud Answ. That which hath been said in the former answer concerning the cause of the middle Region doth sufficiently stop this last objection unlesse it be granted that there were no clouds untill the Floud had made the hills And indeed if any such thing be granted then all is granted and the controversie quite ended concerning these waters above the Heavens But besides that answer I hope to make it appeare that mountains valleys and plains were created in the beginning and were before the Floud in the dayes of Noah For first if hills were caused by the Floud then it must be that the waters suffered an extream violent motion but the waters being over the whole face of the earth had nothing to hinder them from their own free motion nor any thing to compell them to a violent motion such I mean as should make them work such wonders as are supposed Had they been overtopped by any thing then indeed running from one place to another there might have been a repercussion and by such contention more strange accidents then were might have been produced as the making of hills and the like Or secondly if there were such a violent motion as questionles the waters moved untill all places were filled alike with no small violence yet the violence was not so great as to be the parent of the hills and mountains for then without doubt it would have been so forcible also as to have turned rivers and changed them from one place to another cast down all manner of buildings and structures rooted up all trees and the like so that after the Floud nothing should have had the same name bounds and description which before it had neither would the memories of the former ages have been but buried from all succeeding time which we know is otherwise for if it were not it is likely that Moses speaking of the site of Paradise and setting down all the rivers of it exactly would have specified it in his historie that thereby after-ages looking for those places might not mistake or suspect the truth of his relation Neither have we just cause to think that all buildings and ancient monuments of the Fathers before the floud were extinguished in the floud For it is reported by Pomponius Mela and Plinie concerning the citie Ioppa that it was built before the floud and that Cepha or Cepheus reigned there which is witnessed by certain ancient altars bearing titles of him and his brother Phineus together with a memoriall of the grounds and principles of their religion And of the citie Henoch there is a much like relation But what need I mention more seeing Iosephus a writer of good credit affirmeth that he himself saw one of those pillars which was set up by Seth the sonne of Adam and this for the truth of it was never questioned but warranted by all antiquitie Moreover seeing the dove was twice sent out of the ark and returned with an olive branch at her last return and not at her first it is not without reason that we think the trees were not torn up by their roots but remained still fixed in the ground even as they had done before for if the trees had been swimming or floating upon the waters as some may think then the poore dove might have found one branch or other as well at the first as second time Besides when she did bring any thing Noah took it not as a token what havock the floud had made but as a signe that the waters were decreased she therefore plucked it off from some tree growing on the earth and not floating on the waters And last of all although I say nothing of the delectation and profit of the mountains which do thereby even amplifie the goodnesse of God in his works creating and not occasioning them I shall need to point you no further then to the plain text it self which doth most plainly tell us not that the waters were as high as the highest mountains which are now or were then when Moses wrote his historie but that even from the beginning there were hills and mountains whose loftie tops in the universall floud were covered with waters for thus stand the words And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills which were under the whole heaven were covered Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail and the mountains were covered Whereupon as I remember one writeth thus saying that this judgement was admirable seeing there are mountains as Atlas Olympus Caucasus Athos and other such that are so high as their tops are above the clouds and windes as Historiographers do report it and yet see all these are covered and these being covered the middle Region must needs be drowned and that being drowned how could the clouds be those windows of heaven which poured down rain for fourtie dayes And those not being the windows of heaven it cannot but be that the waters above the heavens are in a more remote and higher place even above the concave of the out-spread Firmament 3. Object But perhaps you may think that I now pitch too much upon reason concerning this of the Floud seeing it was caused not by naturall and ordinary means but by the extraordinary power of God Answ. To which it is answered that this floud was partly naturall partly supernaturall and to shew how farre nature had a hand in this admirable effect we may distinguish with
such a nature as that the rain falling through them should dissolve or corrupt them Those indeed who follow Aristotle make them of a Quint-essence altogether differing from things compounded of the Elements But for mine own part more easily should I be perswaded to think that there is no such fifth essence in them but rather that they are of a like nature with the Elements or not much differing For first although Aristotle deny any change or alteration to have been observed or seen in the heavens since the beginning of the world yet he was deceived For Hipparchus who had better skill in Astronomie then ever Aristotle had he as Plinie witnesseth telleth us out of his own diligent and frequent observations that the heavens have had changes in them for there was in his dayes a new starre like unto that which was once in Cassiopea And that which is beyond the authoritie of the greatest philosopher doth also witnesse as much I mean the sacred voice of the everlasting Spirit affirming that the two parts of this universe the heavens as well as the earth do both of them wax old even as doth a garment which is as if it should be said that by little and little they are changed tending so long to corruption till at last shall come the time of their dissolution What great difference then can there be between the heavens and things here below seeing in their own natures both of them do tend to corruption and are subject to mutation Besides as it is with Man who is the little world so certainly it is with Macrocosme who is the greater world but man changeth and declineth daily not being now as heretofore he hath been and so also as a good consequence it must follow that the greater world doth also suffer change and by declining alteration That man declineth saith one is a thing most manifest For men are of lower stature lesser bones and strength and of shorter lives then their forefathers were Now from whence cometh this but from the declining estate of the greater world The earth we see which is the lower part of it is not so fruitfull as before but beginneth to be barren like the wombe of Sarah neither do the fruits which she bringeth forth yeeld so much nutriment as heretofore they have done And how cometh that to passe but because the heaven also fainteth For the Planets wax old and cannot afford so great vertue and influence to these lower bodies as in times past they did which Plinie and Aulus Gellius testifie And indeed this must needs be a manifest proof seeing lesse and weaker bodies are conceived every Age in the wombe of nature that nature therefore waxeth old and weary of conceiving Also saith he if a man do but behold the face of heaven the Moon looketh pale and wan Mars lesse rubicund Sol lesse orient Iupiter not of so amiable and favourable countenance Venus more hypocriticall and all the rest both of the wandring and fixed starres more weak and suspicious then they did before That mighty Giant which was wont to runne his unwearied course now waxeth wearie as if he would stand still in heaven as he did in the dayes of Joshua for he shineth more dimmely and appeareth more seldome then before being much nearer to the earth then of ancient times For if we may give credit to the calculations of the chief masters in Astronomie the Sunne quoth Copernicus and after him also Stofler is nearer to the earth then it was in the dayes of Ptolomie by the space of twenty six thousand six hundred and sixtie miles or as Philip Melanchthon saith nine thousand nine hundred seventie and six miles to whom saith Diâ—…tericus assenteth that famous mathematician of our age David Origanus in his Prognostication for the yeare of our Lord 1604. All these are proofs and although we do not greatly contend concerning this last allegation of the sunnes approach so neare us yet neverthelesse the assertion in generall is true enough that the heavens as well as the earth as they grow older and older do suffer change and in that regard their natures cannot but be much alike Unto which adde this namely that these visible heavens of which we now speak were taken from that masse or lump which lay here below and that the whole lump was created at once in which regard it cannot be denied that they differ toto genere or altogether but that they are of a much like nature with inferiour bodies or things here below And as for Aristotle he never would so earnestly have defended the contrary had he not known that it was an excellent means to colour that which he also held concerning the worlds eternitie But besides all this the observations of our best and modern Astronomers make much against him for they have modestly and manifestly proved that not onely new starres but comets also have been farre above the moon As for example that strange starre which once was at the back of Cassiopea's chair was of an extraordinarie height above it for it shined without any difference of Aspect Parallax or diversitie of sight even untill all the matter whereof it consisted was consumed having alwayes as the observers thereof do witnesse one and the same station to every of the starres both in all climates and also in all parts of the heaven no diversitie of sight at all observed all which in the lowermost Planets is otherwise and perceived most of all in the moon because the Semidiameter of the earth according to which quantitie we dwell from the centre hath a sensible bignesse unto the distance of the moons sphere from us Had therefore that New starre Comet or what you please to call it been lower then the moon and not in the starrie heaven then like the inferiour Planets it would have suffered a Parallax or diversitie of sight and never have kept such a regular motion as it did contending not to be overcome of the starrie heaven in its motion but to keep as it were an equall pace with it thereby shewing that it was even in the Ethereall heaven it self For this is a rule that by how much a starre is higher then the earth by so much it imitateth the highest heavens in their daily motion Neither was it this starre alone but others also after it even Comets themselves whose places were found to be above the moon for observing more diligently and exactly then in former times the observers could easily demonstrate this truth also thinking thereupon that many of those Comets which have been seen in former ages were burnt out even in the starrie heaven it self and not so many of them below the moon as generally without serious observation have been supposed Longomontanus proveth this both in that last Comet which was seen in the yeare 1618 and also in other Comets before it And now what of all this Nothing but onely thus viz. If
Exhalation hot and drie as all Exhalations are which are apt to be fired and also heavie in regard of the glutinous matter whereof it consisteth in which regard the cold of the night beats it back again when it striveth to ascend through which strife and tossing it is fired for in this encounter it suffereth an Antiperistasis and being fired it goeth to and fro according to the motion of the Aire in the silent night by gentle gales not going alwayes directly upon one point unlesse the winde be more then such a gale as is commonly called Aura And note that if the winde be any thing big or blowing then this Meteor cannot appeare at all because the winde will disperse the matter of the Exhalation not suffering it to be conjoyned Moreover some think that it may be kindled of it self although it be not so moved as before and this is performed by the active moving of the heat which is within it as is seen in an heap of moist hay which will set it self on fire These kindes of lights are often seen in Fennes and Moores because there is alwayes great store of unctuous matter fit for such purposes as also where bloudie battells have been fought and in church-yards or places of common buriall because the carcases have both fatted and fitted the place for such kinde of oyly Exhalations Wherefore the much terrified ignorant and superstitious people may see their own errours in that they have deemed these lights to be walking spirits or as the silly ones amongst the Papists beleeve they can be nothing else but the souls of such as go to Purgatorie and the like In all which they are much deluded For souls departed cannot appeare again I shall go to him saith David but he shall not return to me And saith Job He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more Or as it is in the Psalmist Before I go hence and be no more seen So that if they walk sure it is invisible for saith the Scripture They shall be no more seen But what need I urge that For we see that they cannot at all return but are ignorant of all things done under the sunne and as it was with Dives and Lazarus so it is with every other Wherefore we may well say thus 1. If after death souls can appeare Why then did Dives crave That one his brethren word might bear What pains the damned have 2. Or if there be another room Which is not Heav'n or Hell How scap't the begger from the doom Of Purgatories cell 3. What shall become of Christs deare bloud If after death there be A way to make our own works good And place the soul in glee Quest. But if these lights be not walking spirits why is it that they leade men out of their way Answ. They are no spirits and yet leade out of the way because those who see them are amazed and look so earnestly after them that they forget their way and then being once out they wander to and fro not knowing whither sometimes to waters pits and other dangerous places whereupon the next day they will undoubtedly tell you strange tales as one saith how they were led up and down by a light which in their judgement was nothing else but some devil or spirit in the likenesse of fire which fain would have hurt them But of this enough and know last of all that if one be something neare these lights and the night calm then going from them they will follow us because there being no winde to hinder we draw the Aire after us or going towards them they go from us because we by our motion drive the Aire before us Moreover when the like matter chanceth to be fired in some such part of the Aire as is over the Sea then these lights appeare to marriners and are called Castor and Pollux if there be two at once otherwise Helena if there be but one The reason of which names was this Helena was the daughter of Iupiter and Leda and by the heathens she was taken for a goddesse but not for a goddesse of good fortune for this Helena was the cause of Troyes destruction as thus She was stollen away by Paris the sonne of Priamus K. of the Trojans stollen I say out of Greece whereupon her two brothers Castor and Pollux sayl to seek her but they were never heard of more or seen after which losse of these brethren made it be supposed that they were translated into the number of those gods who use to give good successe to marriners for they were lost at sea which is as if they were translated from thence Now then the Seamen having seen by often experience that one light was to them a signe of some tempest and that two lights were a signe of fair weather they called the one light Helena and the two lights they called Castor and Pollux Quest. But why should it be may some demand that they should thus appearing shew either fair or foul weather can any reason be shewn for it Answ. It is answered that one flame alone may be a signe of tempest or foul weather because that as that matter which burneth is so compact into one that it cannot be dissolved into two so in like manner the matter of tempest being exhaled by the like cause is kept from being dissipated and is so close together that before any long time it must needs work And again when two lights appeare why then it should be fair it is because there is not the like working in nature which was before but rather the contrary for as this Exhalation of the lights is divided so the matter which otherwise might be fit for tempest is not thickened but by the like cause is also divided scattered and easily dissolved insomuch that it cannot work so as at other times when there is a working to compact and not to dissipate 13. Ignis lambens is a cleaving and licking fire or light and is so called because it useth to cleave and stick to the hairs of men or beasts not hurting them but rather as it were gently licking them These flames may be caused two wayes as the learned write First when clammie Exhalations are scattered abroad in the aire in small parts and in the night are set on fire by an Antiperistasis so that when any shall either ride or walk in such places as are apt to breed them it is no wonder that they stick either on their horses or on themselves Secondly they may be caused another way viz. when the bodies of men or beasts being chafed do send out a fat and clammie sweat which according to the working of nature in things of this kinde is kindled and appeareth like a flame Virgil makes mention of such a fire as this upon the head of Iulus the sonne of Aeneas Ecce levis summo de
vertice visus Iuli Fundere lumen apex tactúque innoxia molli Lambere flamma comas circum tempora pasci Behold the lively crown Of soft Iulus head With light was circled round A flame his temples fed But toucht not having hurt nor feeling harm The licking fire his hairs would scarcely warm Livie also maketh mention of two others upon whom the like Meteor appeared For Servius Tullius when he was a childe even as he lay sleeping had his hair on his head as if it were all on a fire And upon the head of Marius that worthy Romane was the like appearance even whilest he was making an oration to his souldiers And I my self do also know one who hath often protested to me that as he lay in his bed one night his head was all on a flame which hurt him not although it greatly scared his wife and him as I have heard them both confesse Moreover others testifie how they have been scared in their beds by a kinde of light sticking to their coverings like dew upon the nap of a frieze coat which must needs be this Ignis Lambens caused by some kinde of clammie sweat proceeding from among them For that a clammie sweat will cause these things is manifest in the nimble currying of a foggie horse visible sparks appearing and coming from him if it be done in the dark But of these kindes of fierie Meteors enough Sect. 2. Parag. 4. Of such fierie Meteors as are impurely mixt Article 1. Of Comets NOw follow those which are Ignita mixta and lesse pure coming so to passe when the Exhalation through the admixtion of some vapour is more slimie grosse and impure For those Meteors already described were meerly Fumes without the admixture of Vapours unlesse it might be some little in one of a glutinous nature or composition Now these Ignita mixta are usually divided into two sorts for they are either such as continue long or else such as are but for a little while Those that continue long are Comets or blazing starres And a Comet is a fierie Meteor whose matter is an Exhalation hot and drie fat and clammie drawn by vertue of the heavenly bodies into the highest part of the aire and sometimes into the starrie Region where it is closely conglutinated into a great lump by reason of supply that it hath from below so long as there is a working to exhale it and being thus compacted and exhaled it is set on fire in convenient time by the excessive heat of the place where it resteth Sometimes it continues burning long sometimes but a little while seven dayes is the least time whereas some have been seen six moneths all which cometh to passe by reason either of the paucitie or plentie of the matter whereof it consisteth That last Comet which was seen of us viz. Anno Domini 1618 was perspicuous by the space of one moneth namely from the 18 day of November untill the 16 day of December next following and was farre above the highest Region of the aire overlooking even the moon her self as Longomontanus proveth in a book of his where he treateth of new starres and such appearances as have been seen in the heavens since the yeare of our Lord God 1572. But in a Comet two things especially are considerable the one the colour the other the fashion both which arise out of the diverse disposing of the matter Their colours are principally three 1. If the matter be thin then the colour is white 2. If meanly thick then the colour is ruddie looking like fire 3. If very thick then their colour is like the burning of brimstone or of a blew appearance Yet know that they are not alwayes exactly of these three colours without any difference but as neare them as the disposing of their matter will suffer as in stead of white we sometimes have them of a yellowish colour in stead of blew of a watchet or greenish colour and the like Concerning their fashions if we stand upon a curious examination of them they may be manifold and yet as Aristotle accounteth they are principally but two all their other shapes being dependant on these two For first either they seem round having beams round about them which cometh to passe when the matter is thin on the edgeâ—… and thick every where else or secondly they seem as it were with a beard or tail which cometh to passe when it is but meanly thick towards some one side or other and rather long then round But some would have these two fashions to be three because the tail sometimes hangs downward as well as sidelong and so there is by this means stella crinita stella caudata and stella barbata concerning which I am not much solicitous That therefore which in these things I do much more wonder at is the strange and admired multitude of effects which are produced by them as not onely change of aire but change of heirs also proceeding from the disturbance of states translation of kingdomes bloudy warres and death of Potentates Histories have carefully recorded these things and left them to the consideration of after-times First therefore let it be observed that when the kingdome of the Macedonians came to an end in the last yeare of Perseus which was about the yeare 584 or 585 of the building of Rome a Comet appeared as if it came to point out the last period of that kingdome Secondly when the Emperour Iovian attained to the empire succeeding the Apostata Iulian under whom the Church suffered much persecution when I say the said Iovian was Emperour and that under him both Church and Commonwealth were like to have had a flourishing time had he not been taken away by sudden death then also appeared a Comet shewing that further trouble was yet to be expected Thirdly also when a certain captain of the Goths an Arian named Cajan had raised sedition against the Emperour Arcadius God shewed by manifest wonders that both Arcadius and his citie should be well protected but before this tumult saith Carion a strange Comet was seen great and terrible casting flames down to the very earth the like whereunto no man had ever seen before 4 And again other authours make mention of a strange Comet seen in the yeare of Christ 410 being like unto a two-edged sword which portended many mischiefs For Rome was taken about the same time by Alaricus King of the Goths Sundry calamities happened both in the East and West and so great slaughters of men were about those dayes as no age ever afforded the like All Europe was in a manner undone no small part of Asia was affrighted and Africa also was not void of those evils Warre Famine Drought and Pestilence all of them strove as it were to trouble the whole world 5. Also in these yeares viz. 1400 1401 1402 1403 Comets appeared and great calamities followed sundry and unheard-of
then the other and yet in a manner as subtill swift and pure otherwise it would not blast but burn 3. The third kinde is Fulmen Urens and this is magis igneum quà m flammeum more fiery then flamie being of a grosse and earthy substance having much slimie matter in it which makes it therefore set such things on fire as are combustible whensoever it meeteth with them And yet there are some things which as it is said the lightning hurteth not As for example The Eagle Joves bird is free The laurell is not hurt neither can the earth be wounded any more then 5 foot deep Such places also as are covered with the skins of Seals or Sea-calves are secure wherefore of old time the tents of the Emperours were covered with them for their better safetie Suetonius telleth us a storie of the Emperour Caligula how he was scared with Thunder who although he bragged and boasted of himself that he was a god and threatned warre with Iupiter for a shower of rain that fell against his minde was neverthelesse by and by so terrified with thunder and lightning that he thereupon runnes and hides his head under a bed Moreover it is said that if lightning kill one in his sleep it openeth his eyes if it kill one whilest he is awake it shutteth them The reason being because it waketh him that sleepeth and killeth him before he can shut his eyes again and him that waketh it so amazeth that winking he dieth before he can open those eyes of his which the sudden flash of the lightning caused him to close And know that it is not good to stand gazing upon the lightning at any time for when it doth no other hurt if it be any thing neare us it may dry up or so waste the crystalline humour of the eyes that it perish the sight or it may swell the face making it to break out with scabbes or leprosie caused by a kinde of poyson in the Exhalation which the pores of the face and eyes admit and receive For this is certain that the matter of lightning seeing it cometh from sulfurous and other poysonous metallick substances is much infected and therefore hurteth where it entreth Sect. 2. Parag. 5 Of such Meteors as are fiery onely in appearance Artic. 1. The Galaxia is no Meteor ANd thus have I done with all those kinde of Meteors which are fiery in very deed whether pure or mixt Now it followeth that I speak of such as are fiery onely in appearance not being such as they seem to be but rather seeming more then they are Some account eight of them and make the Galaxia or milkie way to be one But that last may rather be left out For although Aristotle would have the Galaxia to be a Meteor yet his opinion is worthily misliked of most men and that not without good reason For if it were a Meteor and of the nature of the Elements as Exhalations are it would be at the length consumed like to other Meteors but this circle never corrupteth nor decreaseth and therefore it is no sublunarie concretion attracted and formed out of the starres which are above it and placed by their power in the highest part of the aire Moreover if this his tenent were true why hath it continued the Galaxia I mean in the same form place and magnitude alwayes from the beginning of the world untill now And besides other starres might also attain to the like luminous concretion as well as those which he imagineth to be over it And moreover this milkie way of Aristotle would admit of a Parallax were it so as he perswadeth and according to the opticall consideration saith noble Tycho by the shining of the fixed starres through it it would beget a strange refraction differing farre from that which is occasioned by the vapours that are seen about the Horizon For they seldome rise to the twentieth degree of altitude whereas this proceeding from the Via lactea would reach to the greatest height Wherefore we may say that it is rather of the nature of the heaven or a certain heavenly substance but somewhat thicker then the other parts of heaven or if you will much like to the matter of the starres or to the substance of the moon but diffused and spread abroad and not conglobated into one bodie as the starres are For although all be filled with aire from the earth to the fixed starres yet there the matter may begin to be more thick firm and solid and so the waters above the heavens are the better upheld For conclusion therefore not reckoning this amongst any of these Meteors fierie onely in appearance I may account them in number seven As thus 1. The colours of clouds 2. Many Sunnes 3. Many Moons 4. Beams of light 5. Crowns or circles about the Sunne or Moon 6. The Rain-bow 7. Chaps or openings in the skie Concerning all which in generall although they seem to burn yet they do not but are caused by refraction and reflexion of light either from the Sunne or Moon or brightest Planets Artic. 2. Of colours in the clouds ANd particularly for the appearance of colour in the clouds it ariseth not from the mixture of the foure qualities as it doth in bodies perfectly mixt as herbs stones c. but onely from the falling of light upon shadow or darknesse the light being in stead of white and the shadow or darknesse in stead of black Not that they are alwayes perfectly white and black for they differ according to the qualitie and composure of the cloud wherefore some be very white and that is when the vapour whereof the cloud consisteth is very subtil and thin some yellowish when the vapour is thicker some ruddie and duskish when it is meanly thick some black when it is very thick and some greenish when it is more waterie then ordinary being best discerned when it is farre from the Zenith and obvious by an oblique aspect The red and ruddie colours are seen onely in the morning and evening when the light of the sunne is not in his full force for at other times his light is too vehement cleare strong and piercing And by a diligent observation of these colours I think a man may as easily judge of fair or foul weather and the like as a physician may of the temperature of the bodie by inspection of the urine But of colours you may see more afterwards Artic. 3. Of many Sunnes and Moons ANd now concerning many Sunnes they are called Parahelii from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is as if one should say apud solem because they are as it were with the sunne in place as also not absent from him in splendour and fashion Their generation is after this manner viz. when a smooth waterie cloud which is of equall thicknesse quiet and still is placed on the side of the sunne not under the sunne
and land with many a tempestuous blast and unwished breathings Moreover this also may be observed that the long continuance of the windes in any of these quarters produceth these and the like effects As first the East winde breedeth in cholerick bodies sharp fevers raging madnesse and perilous apostumations Secondly the South winde breedeth corrupt humours and in hot bodies cramps giddinesse in the head or the falling sicknesse pestilence and cruel fevers viz. when they blow long in the winter This is held to be the most unwholesome winde Thirdly the West winde breedeth phlegme in moist bodies it procureth sleep causeth apoplexies and the like and is never so churlish as when winter begins to approach And last of all the North winde is good against the pestilence and yet in cold bodies it breedeth plurifies coughs gouts and in some squincies and sore throats but yet of all windes it is held to be the wholesomest although it be sharp in our winter moneths And this also note that a continuall still summer is a signe of plague or earthquake for a standing aire putrifieth and an enclosed winde shaketh the ground Artic. 5. Of whirlwindes storm-windes and fired whirlwindes A Whirlwinde is a winde breaking out of a cloud rowling or winding round about which may be caused two manner of wayes First when two or more contrary windes blowing from divers places meet together Secondly when the matter of winde being an hot and drie exhalation breaketh out of a cloud in divers parts of it coming through the said holes with more then an ordinary violence Or rather thus Imagine a windie exhalation bursting out of a cloud to be so driven that by the way it happeneth to be pent between two clouds on either side of it against which beating it self and finding a repercussion it is forced to turn and whirl about even as we see in the streets of cities when the winde is beaten from two walls and meeteth in the middest of the street for then there is made a little whirl-puffe which whisking round about taketh up the dust or straws and bloweth them about as doth the great and fearfull whirlwinde it self which hath brought not onely amazement and terrour to mortalls but also much harm and mischief Plinie is perswaded that vineger thrown into one of these blasts will break it because vineger is of a cold qualitie and the exhalation hot and therefore the one is as it were quelled and quenched by the other The Greeks call a whirlwinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latinists turbo or vortex Also a sudden storm-winde is called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Latines procella and this happeneth either when a windie exhalation is thrown down and encompassed in a thin course of clouds newly overcast or else when a windie exhalation is come to an extraordinary thicknesse and violently moved out of a cloud to the darkening of the aire without inflammation or burning for when it burneth they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incendo to burn or set on fire And this last is that which we call a fired whirlwinde being an exhaled blast set on fire either by an Antiperistasis by repercussion or violent detrusion from the cloud wherein it was enclosed for it is made apt to be fired in regard that it consisteth of an exhalation which hath more fattie substance in it then other windes which burn not And know that it differeth from lightning chiefly in these respects first because lightning consisteth of a more subtil and thin matter for although a fired whirlwinde have a more thin spirit or blast then a whirlwinde or a stormie winde yet it is not so tenuous as the spirit of fulmen or lightning Secondly because lightning is more flamie and lesse breathie the one having more windie spirits in it then the other The conclusion of this dayes work ANd thus at the last I have let you take a view with me of what is pertinent to this dayes work We have seen good reader the framing of the out-spread Firmament with the lifting up of the waters over it we have examined the nature of the heavens and scarce found them of a quint-essence we have searched what heavens they were which Moses meant when he said God called the firmament Heavens From thence we proceeded to the severall regions of the aire examining their temperatures and qualities and thereupon we fell into an ample consideration of such appearances as are usually seen in any of those Regions discoursing at large both of fierie waterie and aierie Meteors And this being all which this day affordeth I may here make and end and say That eve and morn conclude the second day And in his work God findeth no decay CHAP. VI. Wherein is contained a survey of the third dayes work together with such things as are pertinent to it Sect. 1. Shewing into how many main parts the businesse of this day may be distinguished BEing come from the second to the third dayes work I cannot say with Virgil now Ille ego qui quondam gracili modulatus avenâ But rather on the contrary Ille ego qui superis volitabam nuper in oris Nunc humilis sequor arva soli nunc tenuia presso Ore loquor Because in the former day the work belonging to it compelled my winged pen to soar aloft not suffering her to come unto the ground till now For she was to walk above the Firmament and view the out-spread buildings laid in the flowing waters then through the Regions of the liquid aire she was to trace a path which finished she must be content to frame her self unto a lower pitch before any leave be granted to ascend again And indeed I think it is what both she and I desired for we were long detained there And now having both of us obtained our wishes we finde that Gods inspired pen-man holy Moses so setteth down the admired work of his Almighty maker done on this third day of the world that into three main parts it may be severed for by viewing the words which he hath written of it the same will be apparent And God saith he said Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place and let the drie-land appeare and it was so And God called the drie-land Earth and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas and God saw that it was good And God said Let the earth bring forth grasse the herb yeelding seed and the fruit-tree yeelding fruit after his kinde whose seed is in it self upon the earth and it was so And the earth brought forth grasse and herb yeelding seed after his kinde and the tree yeelding fruit whose seed was in it self after his kinde and God saw that it was good And the evening and the morning were the third day This is the summe of all which as before was said consisteth of
from certain straits creeks bayes or such like places ought to be referred to accidentall hinderances as to the unaptnesse of the places rocks qualities of the regions differing nature of the waters or other secret and unknown impediments such as manifest themselves in Cambaia For it is reported that there although the tides keep their course with the moon yet it is contrary to the course they hold in these parts for they are said to increase not with the full of the moon but with the wane and so the sea-crabs do likewise amongst other things the nature of the water and qualitie of the region may much avail to this if it be true And in the island of Socotora saith Mr Purchas Don John of Castro observed many dayes and found contrary both to the Indian and our wont that when the moon riseth it is full sea and as the moon ascends the tide descends and ebbeth being dead low water when the moon is in the meridian These things are thus reported and if they should be true yet we must know that they are but in particular seas as I said before where a generall and universall cause may be much hindered and in a manner seem as if it were altered They that descend the brinie waves Of liquid Thetis flouds And in their ships of brittle staves Trade to augment their goods These men behold and in the deeps they see How great Gods wonders of the waters be I conclude therefore and cannot but say that this is as great a secret to be in every point discussed and unfolded as any nature can afford Arcanum enim naturae magnum est It is a great secret of nature and gives us therefore principall occasion to magnifie the power of God whose name onely is excellent and whose power above heaven and earth Last of all this is the finall cause of the seas motion God hath ordained it for the purging and preserving of the waters For as the aire is purged by windes and as it were renewed by moving to and fro so this motion keeps the waters of the sea from putrefaction An Appendix to the former Section wherein the properties and vertues of certain strange rivers wells and fountains are declared I Do not well know how to end this discourse of waters before I have spoken something of the strange properties that are in certain rivers wells and fountains Some are hot because they are generated and flow out of veins of brimstone or receive heat from those places where subterranean fires are nourished For this is a generall rule that all waters differ according to the qualitie of the place from whence they arise Some again are sowre or sharp like vineger and these runne through veins of allome copperas or such mineralls Some may be bitter that flow out of such earth as is bitter by adustion or otherwise Some may be salt whose current is through a salt vein And some may be sweet these are such that be well strained through good earth or runne through such mineralls as be of a sweet taste Our baths in the West countrey and S. Anne of Buckstones well in the North part of England and many other elsewhere are hot Aristotle writeth of a well in Sicilie whose water the inhabitants used for vineger and in divers places of Germanie be springs which harbour much sharpnesse In Bohemia neare to the citie called Bilen is a well saith Dr Fulk that the people use to drink of in the morning in stead of burnt wine And some saith he have the taste of wine as in Paphlagonia is a well that maketh men drunk which drink of it now this is because that water receiveth the fumositie of brimstone and other minerals through which it runneth and retaining their vertue it filleth and entoxicateth the brain as wine doth For it is possible that fountains may draw such efficacie from the mines of brimstone that they may fill their brains with fume that drink thereof who also become drunk therewith To which purpose Ovid speaketh thus Quam quicunque parùm moderato gutture traxit Haud aliter titubat quà m si mer a vina bibisset Which whoso draws with an immoderate throat Trips as his brains in meer good wine did float And Du Bartas also Salonian fountain and thou Andrian spring Out of what cellars do you daily bring The oyl and wine that you abound with so O earth do these within thine entralls grow What be there vines and orchards under ground Is Bacchus trade and Pallas art there found Ortelius in his Theatre of the world makes mention of a fountain in Ireland whose water killeth all those beasts that drink thereof but not the people although they use it ordinarily It is also reported that neare to the isle Ormus there is a great fountain found the water whereof is as green as the field in spring-time and salt as the sea He which drinketh but a little of it is incontinently taken with a violent scowring and he that drinketh very much thereof dieth without remedie Aelianus makes mention of a fountain in Boeotia neare to Thebes which causeth horses to runne mad if they drink of it Plinie speaketh of a water in Sclavonia which is extreamly cold yet if a man cast his cloth cloak upon it it is incontinently set on fire Ortelius again speaketh of a boyling fountain which will presently seethe all kinde of meat put into it it will also bake paste into bread as in an oven well heated This is said to be in the isle of Grontland The river Hypanis in Scythia every day brings forth little bladders out of which come certain flies They are bred in the morning fledge at noon and dead at night wherein mankinde is also like them For his birth is as his morning his strongest time or his middle time be his time long or short is as his noon and his night is that when he takes leave of the world and is laid in the grave to sleep with his fathers For this hath been the state of every one since first the world had any one The day breaking the Sunne ariseth the Sunne arising continues moving the Sunne moving noontime maketh noontime made the Sunne declines the Sunne declining threatens setting the Sunne setting night cometh and night coming our life is ended Thus runnes away our time If he that made the heavens Sunne hath set our lives Sunne but a small circumference it will the sooner climbe into the noon the sooner fall into the night The morning noon and evening as to those flies these three conclude our living Clitumnus saith Propertius lib. 3. is a river or spring in Italie which maketh oxen that drink of it white Dr. Fulk yeeldeth this reason namely because the qualitie of the water is very flegmatick Fulk Met. lib. 4. Plinie speaketh of the river Melas in Boeotia which maketh sheep black But Cephisus another stream which
lux congenita a light begotten together with the moon and essentiall to it although it be but weak The other is that which it borroweth from the sunne as is seen in eclipses monethly revolutions For she is one while full another while hid one while horned another while half lightened which is but in respect of us who cannot see what light she borroweth but as she approacheth from the sunne for otherwise she is half lightened alwayes Or if you please consider it thus that as a well polished Mirrour transporteth the light of the fire or the sunne against a wall or a floore so the moon receiveth her light from the sunne and reflecteth it in the night upon the earth for the sunne being then absent gives an abundant and free leave to see it And again as in a Mirrour which hath behinde it his foil of lead scratched and torn a man may perceive certain spots So in the moon because her bodie is in some places rare and transparent and in other places massie thick and solid there appeare certain Maculae or blemishes for those places and parts are not of a fit temper to reflect the light of the sunne But if it be so in the moon why may not the other starres shine likewise with a borrowed light as well as she I answer Because we have not the like reasons to declare it Neither is it like saith Patricius that that unmeasurable companie of fixed starres in the highest part of heaven which is so much more noble then the place of the sunne by how much it comes nearer to the Heaven of heavens should shine but by the light of the sunne For neither in them nor in any other of the Planets doth any man see a waxing and waning of light nor yet are they ever eclipsed but shew alwayes of one and the same brightnesse and therefore it is not the same reason between the moon and them Perhaps if their bodies were composed in the same manner with the bodie of the moon or had the like proportions and temperaments that she hath it might be so but her lownesse shews her gravitie and her gravitie her soliditie and her soliditie shews not onely her own light to be weak through a want of that fierie matter or lux primaeva which is in the other starres in a differing degree but also her aptnesse for reflexion is declared to be such as she may well shine by a borrowed light Howbeit I do also think that the starres have aliquid lucis alienae which they receive from the sunne To which Patricius also assenteth as he is mentioned by Casman in the first part of his Astrologie saying Tribuit quidem omnibus sed lucere nequaquam facit Nam ipsa flammae sunt suâ essentiâ lux sunt non minùs suis viribus lucere possunt lucent Sed lumen suum eis sol addit lucémque eorum reddit lucidiorem Lucem ergò eis non indit sed insitam adauget meaning that the sunnes light inereaseth the light of the starres making it the brighter and the clearer which must be understood of them so long as they are at a convenient distance from the sunne For if they be too neare either the lesser light is obscured by the greater as is seen in the Planets being often hid by the beams of the sunne or else such a dark starre as Mercurie will with the losse of his light shew us his dark bodie which sometimes happeneth being then seen as a spot in the sunne For if you take Mercurie in his best hue he hath but a cloudie countenance and a leaden look which therefore argueth that he hath a thick bodie and little light of which I shall need to say no more Artic. 2. Of the twinkling of starres or vibration of their light THe twinkling of the starres is the vibration or trembling of their light Or rather thus It is when the light of any starre seemeth to tremble For indeed to speak properly the starres themselves do not twinkle as we think they do but either from the trembling of the eye or motion of the aire this appearance proceedeth For when the eye looks long at a sensible object whose brightnesse excelleth the sense it then beginneth to faint and being weak and wearie is possessed with a kinde of trembling and thereupon we think that the starre it self twinkleth Also the Optick Masters confesse and prove that the forms of the starres are comprehended of the sight reflectly and not rightly that is a right line drawn from the eye falleth not into the centre of the starre but into the form of it reflected and refracted in the aire to the sight Now it is manifest that as the aire hath one motion proper to it which is upwards so hath it another motion improper caused by the revolution of the heavens every 24 houres which draweth all the airie region about therewith by which means the apparent form of the starres is distracted seeming to cast forth sparkles called twinkling For if the bodie move wherein the form of the starre appeareth it must be so which we may well prove by a piece of silver in the bottome of a swift running brook or by the reflexion of the starres seen in the same for by the running of the water the reflected form is distracted and as it were broken and so it is likewise in the aire with the starres But may not this twinkling be seen in the Planets as well as in the other starres I answer that not alwayes yet sometimes it may and this is but when a watrie vapour is neare unto them which is carried and tossed of the windes with a various motion for then the forms of the Planets also being refracted in the said vapour appeare to the sight as if they twinkled Now this is most of all perceived in the East at the time of their rising whereupon it comes to passe that the common people have supposed they have sometimes seen the sunne dance and as it were hop up and down which why some have attributed it to such and such dayes is fabulous For this may be upon any day when the sunne meets with a fit portion of vapours at the time of his rising and the other Planets may also in some sort sometimes shew it when they have climbed to an indifferent height above the Horizon which because it is not ordinarie some have falsely supposed that the Planets twinkle not at all And again let this be remembred that if there be fit vapours rightly placed Mars and Venus twinkle more then Saturn Jupiter and Mercury but otherwise this appearance is neither in Mars nor Venus nor any of the rest Parag. 2. Of that other office which was given to the starres viz. that they should be for signes c. Artic. 1. That the starres are signes of future events and that by their naturall qualities they work upon the inferiour world and all the
of Kings chap. 17. 16. and chap. 21. 3. and chap. 23. 5. and in Jeremie chap. 19. 13. and in Zeph. chap. 1. 5. and in the Acts chap. 7 42. For in all these places the holy Ghost calleth the starres the host and armies of heaven thereby amplifying the divine power of God by the force and power of these glorious creatures and this also is further confirmed by that in the song of Deborah Judg. 5. 20. where it is expressely testified that The starres fought from heaven the starres in their courses fought against Sisera Thus farre Scripture And now let experience also speak that thereby they who will not frame their understandings to be taught by the one but will seek for strange expositions may be forced to yeeld and acknowledge the truth by compulsion of this other in the front whereof I cannot but remember the noble Poets saying Senselesse is he who without blush denies What to sound senses most apparent lies And ' gainst experience he that spits fallacians Is to be hist from learned disputations And such is he that doth affirm the starres To have no force on these inferiours 1. As for example when the sunne shifts his habitation how diversly are the seasons differing insomuch that although the frostie beard of winter makes us tremble and shiver through extremitie of cold the warm lustre of the summers raies causeth us on the contrary to sweat and as it were pant through heat 2. Also the terrible accidents that succeed eclipses may not be forgotten nor vilipended for these testifie that the sunne by his heat and light quickeneth after an admirable fashion all earthly creatures being as it were the sourse and conserver of vitall heat and that the moon also hath a great power over inferiour bodies For if it were otherwise such lights coming to be hidden from the earth where there is a continuall revolution of generation and corruption could not cause after their eclipses the nature of inferiour things to be so altered and weakened as they are both in the elements and also in bodies composed of them 3. And furthermore who seeth not how orderly the tides keep their course with the moon of which I have spoken in the third dayes work 4. Also it is an observation that seldome faileth viz. that we have thunder and lightning in the summer time at the meeting of Mars with Jupiter Sol or Mercurie and for the most part great windes when Sol and Jupiter or Jupiter and Mercurie or Mercurie and Sol are in conjunction 5. And again the increase and decrease of bodies or of marrow bloud and humours in the bodie according to the increase and decrease of the moon doth speak for that horned queen and signifie that her vertue is not little For as she fills with light the marrow abounds in bones the bloud in veins the sap in trees the meat and moisture in the oister crab and creafish 6. Moreover experience also teacheth that all such wood as is cut for timber if it be not cut after the full moon will soon be rotten 7. Also those pease which are sown in the increase never leave blooming And as some report the pomegranate will bear no fruit any longer then just so many yeares as the moon was dayes old when it was first set and planted The Heliotropium with certain other flowers and plants we likewise see that they keep their course with the sunne And Plinie reports in his 37 book at the 10 chapter that the Selenite is a stone which hath the image of the moon in it increasing and decreasing according to her course in the heavens And doth not Cardan also report for certain as Sir Christopher Heydon it may be affirmed that the heavens in some sort do work upon mens mindes and dispositions And hereupon it comes to passe that Mars doth sometimes sow the seeds of warre by his working upon adult choler and the like Or the aire being greatly out of tune causeth not onely many sicknesses but strange disorders of the minde and they breaking out into act do many times disturb states translate kingdomes work unluckie disasters and the like of which I spake before in the second dayes work And now know that if the operation of the heavens in this be but so farre forth as the soul depends upon the bodily instruments all that is done to the soul is but an inclination for there can be no compulsion where the cause is so remote And therefore let it be observed that it is one thing to cause another thing to occasion or one thing to inferre a necessitie another thing to give an inclination The former we cannot averre to be in the power of the starres forasmuch as mans will which is the commandresse of his actions is absolutely free from any compulsion and not at all subject to any naturall necessitie or externall coaction Howbeit we cannot deny a certain inclination because the soul of man is too much indulgent to the body by whose motion as one worthily observeth it is rather perswaded then commanded There is therefore no Chaldean fate to be feared nor any necessitie to be imposed upon the wills of men but onely an inclination and this inclination is not caused by an immediate working of the starres on the intellectuall part or minde of man but occasioned rather mediately or so farre forth as the soul depends on the temperaments and materiall organs of the bodie In which regard I hope never to be afraid of the signes of heaven neither is there cause why I should ever curse my starres seeing I know in this the utmost of their power And as it was said to that Apostle My grace is sufficient for thee so may every one take it for granted that there is a second birth which overswayes the first To which purpose one makes this an observation Iustè age Sapiens dominabitur astris Et manibus summi stant elementa Dei Do godly deeds so shalt thou rule the starres For then God holds the elements from warres Or as another not unfitly also speaketh Qui sapit ille animum fortunae praeparat omni Praevisumque potest arte levare malum The wise for ev'ry chance doth fit his minde And by his art makes coming evils kinde And in a word that pithie saying of Ioannes de Indagine shall close this Article Quaeris a me quantum in nobis operantur actra dico c. Dost thou demand of me how farre the starres work upon us I say they do but incline and that so gently that if we will be ruled by reason they have no power over us but if we follow our own nature and be led by sense they do as much in us as in brute beasts and we are no better For agunt non cogunt is all that may be said Artic. 2. Whether it be not a derogation from the perfection of things created to grant that the starres have any kinde of power
and superstitious vain inventions with this their lawfull skill And for us experience hath travelled in the manifestation of the severall qualities belonging to the lamps of heaven For as we know the fire to be hot the water moist this herb to be cold that to be drie so also by observation it doth manifestly appeare that the sunne gives heat and cherisheth the moon moisteneth Mars drieth and so of the rest Or thus ♄ Saturn is cold and drie stirres up and increaseth melancholy ♃ Jupiter is temperately hot and moist works most upon sanguine complexions stirring up and increasing that humour ♂ Mars through his heat and immoderate drinesse stirres up and increaseth choler and so often proves an accidentall cause of brawlings fightings warres and the like beside such sicknesses as may come by the superabundancie of that humour ☉ Sol is moderately hot and drie greatly cherishing all kinde of creatures ♀ Venus is cold and moist but it is in a temperate manner and as for her operation it is seen most in flegmatick complexions ☿ Mercurie is said to be drie in respect of his own nature but joyned to any of the other Planets he puts upon him their natures and works as they work Then followeth the Moon and she is well known to be the mistris of moisture Neither can you truely say that it is impossible to finde their natures to be either thus or thus for it is but 30 yeares that the longest of these did ever spend in his periodicall revolution and but 72 yeares as Tycho teacheth can runne about whilest the fixed starres alter one degree in their longitude Insomuch that Saturn whose period is but 30 yeares cometh twice to the same point of heaven before the eighth sphere is moved one degree and Jupiter whose revolution is 12 yeares cometh 6 times to the same place and Mars who accomplisheth his period in little lesse then 2 yeares meets 36 times with the same starres in the same place and as for the Sunne Venus Mercurie and the Moon their meetings with them be oftner Also it is certain that the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is once every 20 yeares and Mars and Saturn visit each other in lesse then every two yeares by means whereof it is no hard thing or as a thing impossible to finde out the simple natures either of the Planets or fixed starres And from these natures thus known and their mixtures and places observed it is that the effect is foreseen and the judgement given which if it be modestly carefully deeply and deliberately done by one well versed or conversant in these things doth for the most part happen as is foretold for the most part I say and not alwayes For as the Physician knoweth that the same portion of either single or mixed simples will not work upon all bodies alike so neither can the like portion and power of qualities stirre up or work alwayes ad idem but may sometimes receive either intention or remission according to the indisposed aptnesse of the subject the elements or elementary bodies not alwayes admitting of their powers alike or when they be overswayed by more potent and prevailing operations For universall and particular causes do many times differ and then the one hinders the operation of the other As for example particular causes as the conjunction of Venus and the Moon or some such like meeting may promise rain snow or sleet when universall causes which are not so easily seen do often turn it into more fair and warm weather And so also particular influences may seem to work upon such or such humours and thereupon make the bodie subject to this or that sicknesse and the minde enclined to this or that kinde of action with many such other like things howbeit it may so happen that nature may be at this time so abstrusely shut up that what we see not may overpower and work beyond what we see A man had need therefore have Argus his eyes to pierce throughly into these causes and examine without rashnesse either what may help or what may hinder otherwise his judgement may fail him even in things wrought by the course of nature for of other things he ought not to judge And indeed when there is a divers mixture of qualities all in a manner of equall portions as it may sometimes be how hard a thing is it then to finde out without a sound judgement the true event for there be many difficulties proceeding from the weaknesse of our judgements And for that again which I said before of natures abstruse kinde of working although I be no Stoick to tie Gods mightie hand to second causes yet I verily suppose that all things are not beyond the course of nature which seem to be extraordinarie but even many strange seeming things are wrought by the power of nature as sometimes in unwonted storms tempests droughts strange appearances or other like accidents And this again I also think that one man may see the cause when another cannot whereupon it comes to passe that there is such diversitie of judgements and thwarting of opinions many times about one and the same thing Also I might adde something which one or other will be readie to object concerning the devils permission in raising unwonted windes storms and such like Or I might speak not onely of Gods power but of his providence likewise in disposing his creatures to manifest their operation rather in one place then in another which is an act proceeding from his secret purpose and divine wisdome as when the clouds according to his decree do disburden themselves of their wearie drops rather here then there or there then here For saith he in the 4 chap. of Amos at the 7 vers I have caused it to rain upon one citie and it hath not rained upon another and the citie where it hath not rained was barren But I shall not need to meddle further For notwithstanding these difficulties it is manifest enough that the signes of heaven may be both sought into and also in some ample measure understood For it is true that God Almightie having both set and foreseen the course of nature long before doth now uphold it by his providence instrumentally to perform his will Neither every day doth he make the windows of heaven to stand open or the fountains of the great deep to be broken up nor yet doth he every day make the sunne or moon to stand still or the shadow to go back or an Eclipse to be at a quite contrarie time or the moon again to arise before her usuall course but hath undoubtedly left his works to be sought out of all those who take pleasure therein and according to that portion of sound judgement which he hath given to every one they may understand either more or lesse of these signes For as one starre differeth from another in lustre and beautie so one mans knowledge and better judgement transcends not seldome
above the rest Neither can the devil every day have it in his commission to go and blow down houses upon the heads of Jobs children Nay saith one if these significations are not to be considered why are they so divinely written and painted in the heavens Surely it were impietie altogether to pluck or draw away our mindes from the observation of these things For if the heavens as they do declare the glorie of God or the firmament shew forth his handie work we may well beleeve that they expresse what God effecteth by them for otherwise every thing which God created doth declare his handie work as well as they Eclipses conjunctions prodigious sights flashings comets new starres what are they but the Oracles of God by which changes alterations and sundrie calamities are threatned to the world And these if any one contemne them what doth he but despise the admonitions of God Also how much these observations have profited the Commonwealth let Thales teach us For they that have Thales his skill may by these signes judge of cheapnesse and plentie of dearth and deernesse with other like things whose knowledge cannot but be profitable to the life of man Onely beware that more be not attributed to the heavens then to him that made the heavens not more to the servants then to the Master as they did who made them gods or they who trust and rely upon them not daring to take a journey or begin a work or speak with a friend about any businesse without a needlesse consultation Also know that the observing of these signes must not be mixed with magicall spells as charmers do when in stead of using they come to abusing of herbs For as the herbs on the ground were not made to be abused in such damned and forbidden practises no more were the starres in the skie Neither ought the observing of these signes to be mixed with charactericall practises diabolicall or superstitious divinations making of images under such or such a constellation dangerous elections of times either to procure good or bring down ill from heaven as they did who blasphemously maintained that men are long-lived and their souls go to heaven when Saturn is in Leo or they who have not quaked to affirm that when the Moon is joyned with Jupiter in the head of the Dragon whatsoever a man then asketh at the hands of God he shall receive Neither ought we to flie unto them for finding of things lost for where you cannot argue from the cause to the effect their use is unlawfull Nor may we use them in the contingencie of things when the cause is unknown or indeterminate Nor were they made to decide horarie questions or sortilegious demands Nor yet may we erect figures thereby to answer to certain questions as to know whether a man shall have the thing he hopeth or looketh for to know what shall become of a mans secret enemies to know of the speedie or slack return of him that taketh in hand any journey and of such things as shall happen in the journey or to know by the eighth house whether a man shall enjoy the goods and dowrie of his wife or by the seventh whether a man shall obtain that woman in marriage which he desireth or by the sixth to know whether a man shall keep or leave his servant with other the like questions of which can be given or known no cause why the starres should ever be thought to effect them in somuch that it is a kinde of wonder to think how it should come to passe that ever any one could forge out such inquiries to be answered from the signes of heaven For the starres were not made to justifie the dangerous practises of wicked impostours nor to give answer to the causelesse curiosities of superstitious demanders but made to be both signes and causes of such things as already I have mentioned for when the state of the question is come beyond the course of the foure principall qualities of cold heat moisture and drinesse it will finde succour neither in sound philosophie nor in the holy Word of written veritie Last of all let this one thing be remembred that the constellations as is well known and apparently perceived of Astronomers by reason of a slow motion which the fixed starres hath sliding from the equinoctiall point about one degree in 72 yeares are now removed into other signes of the divided Zodiack causing those signes by the qualitie of the starres which are now in them to be of another nature as Aries which was hot and drie in the dayes of Ptolomie is by reason that the starres of Pisces are moved thither cold and moist and Taurus which was cold and drie is now of the nature of the starres of Aries that is hot and drie and so of all the residue of the fixed starres they are removed into new houses or other mansions Which if it be not proportionably considered let any mean capacitie judge how grosse an errour may heedlessely be produced by an unskilfull artist Parag. 3. Of that other office given to the starres viz. that they were appointed to be heavenly clocks and remarkable measurers of time and the parts thereof This office is laid down in these words And let them be for seasons and for dayes and yeares Artic. 1. Of Seasons IF we take seasons dayes and yeares together it is no hard thing to see how the whole and parts are joyned For Tempus is the whole and Annus is pars temporis and Dies is pars anni Not that these are the onely parts of time but because the other do chiefly consist of these Howbeit seeing they be laid down severally it is fit they be explained sunderly And first of Seasons We need not with the Jews understand here their feasts onely and anniversarie dayes of solemnitie for then this distinction of seasons had not been in use till after the coming out of Egypt neither is it enough to applie them to the monethly revolution of the moon or to the sunnes changing into a new signe or partition of the Zodiack But by the name of Seasons we ought rather to be led unto those Quatuor anni Cardines or foure Quarters of the yeare when the reviving sunne crosseth the Equinoctiall and again toucheth upon either solstice which last is as it were solis statio because the dayes seem to stand at a stay and the two other have their names from equall day and night because the dayes and nights are then of equall length Sol cheerfully riding in his gold-like fierie chariot just in the middest between the Artick and Antartick Poles For these were those seasons which God again established for ever when he renewed that face upon the decayed world which by the impartiall Floud was blemished saying as it is in Gen. chap 8. 22. While the earth remaineth seed-time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter shall not cease And as for us we commonly
equall houres in which space of time the sunne is carried by the motion of the Primum Mobile from any one part of heaven untill it comes to the same point again This kinde of day amongst divers nations hath divers beginnings England the 17 Provinces some part of Germanie the Mysians and the Romanes account from midnight untill midnight because at that time as is supposed our Lord was born and from hence as Verstegan thinketh came the word Seanight being a week of dayes and nights or a Sennight The Babylonians Persians Norimbergians c. begin at sunne-rising and so do our lawyers in England ending again at sunne-setting for he who hath a summe of money to pay on a set day by bond neither before nor after sunne need tender his money These I say begin at one sunne-rising accounting untill the next according to that of Plinie Babylonii saith he inter duos solis exortus And as for the Umbrians Arabians and Astronomers they reckon from noon untill noon again But the Athenians Jews Silesians Italians Bohemians c. account alwayes from the evening or setting of the sun beginning their day when the night approacheth and the sunne departeth being as it were gone to his bed or western rest 1. They who begin from midnight may seem to have this warrant viz. that the sunne is then again returning towards our Hemisphere and as I said before midnight is that time when the sunne of righteousnesse arose to the world For it is supposed that Christ was born about the middle of the night whilest the shepherds were keeping watch over their flocks The day therefore beginneth from midnight 2. Again they who account from the time of sunne-rising have this plea saying that the day is fitly to take beginning when the cause thereof viz. the sunne doth first appeare and shew himself to the inhabitants of the world calling them out unto their daily labours and summoning them by his beauteous light to arise and leave their sleepie beds Therefore when the sunne ariseth the day beginneth 3. Also they who reckon from noon suppose that they ought to account from that time when the sunne is in the most eminent place of heaven and hath the greatest number of eyes enlightned by it And as for Astronomicall calculations this also is the fittest time because it falleth alwayes at one and the same certaintie The day therefore beginneth from noon 4. Last of all they who begin from the setting of the sunne have the truest and strongest plea. For this beginning is agreeable to the whole progresse of the worlds creation and best fitteth the divine institution of naturall dayes being in very deed a true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of night and day as of right it ought to be For darknesse was before the diurnall light and God saith the Apostle commanded that light should shine out of darknesse And so the evening as well as the morning was pertinent to one and the same day of which see more in the first dayes work Artic. 3. Of Yeares A Yeare being the chief and most usuall part of time whereby the ages of men of the world and other things are principally measured is the periodicall revolution of the sunne through Mazzaroth or the twelve signes of the Zodiack Job 38. 32. For by the sunnes uncessant motion a set number of dayes are as it were wheeled about to terminate one yeare and to give each season his due period of time And in a true measured yeare there is not alwayes a set or certain equalitie For there is either the great or the lesser quantitie In the greatest quantitie a yeare hath 365 dayes 5 houres 56 minutes and 53 seconds And in the least quantitie 365 dayes 5 houres 44 minutes and 38 seconds But if we reckon according to the course of the moon then a yeare is that space of time wherein the moon after some conjunctions with the sunne is again in conjunction with him not farre from that place where she first met him Or if we reckon by the other starres it is then that space of time which the sunne spendeth after his departure from any starre untill he returneth to the said starre again And in all these the sunne hath the chiefest preheminence is the only guide and most remarkable measurer Whereupon I may not omit what I finde observed by Expositours viz. that a yeare hath the name in Hebrew from Shanah signifying a changing or iteration which is in regard of the sunnes returning after a yeares end to the same point of heaven where it began And as for the circuit of the moon which we commonly tearm a moneth it is derived from another word signifying to ronew because in that space the moon is again renewed neither is it found in any place of Scripture that these names are perverted or the one of them taken to signifie the other but by the one say they is meant a yeare and by the other a moneth See Gib on Gen. chap. 5. quest 2. and Ainsworth on Gen. 1. 14. In Latine the yeare is called Annus because we may say of it revolvitur ut annulus For as in a ring the parts touch one another circularly joyning each to other so also the yeare rolleth it self back again by the same steps that it ever went whereupon it came to passe that the Egyptians amongst other their hieroglyphicks used to paint out the yeare like a snake winding her self as round as a ring holding her tail in her mouth Et sic sua per vestigia volvitur annus The name likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it hath from the Greek is agreeable to the foresaid derivation And all this concerning naturall yeares But as for Politicall yeares they be those which are diversly used by divers nations in their accounting of times and they differ in lengths according as the computatours fail in skill to regulate them to the motion of the heavens That which we now use is the Julian yeare instituted by Iulius Cesar who by the help of Sosigines an Egyptian an expert Mathematician amended the old Romane yeare and brought it to that form in which we now have it making it to consist of 365 dayes and 6 houres which 6 houres are not reckoned every yeare but once every fourth yeare being then increased to the just length of a day which is alwayes inserted or put in the next before the 6 Calends of March causing the said Calends to be twice repeated from whence that yeare is called Bissextile of bis and sex twice six or Leap-yeare because by this adding of a day from thenceforth the fixed holydayes and the like do as it were skip or leap one day further into the week then they were the former yeare Now the mean length of the Tropicall yeare being defined to have no more then 365 dayes 5 houres and 49 minutes sheweth that this Julian yeare is somewhat greater then
indeed may well be neare their feet for they prize the trash we trample on farre above the joyes of heaven else would they never work their fond purposes by deceitfull means and damage others to help themselves Amongst the severall sorts of shell-fishes the glistering Pearl-fish deserves remembrance not onely in respect of her self but also in regard of the Prawn another fish and her companion for between these two there is a most firm league of friendship much kindenesse and such familiaritie as cannot but breed admiration in the reader They have a subtill kinde of hunting which being ended they divide their prey in loving manner for seeing they one help the other in the getting of it they likewise joyn in the equall sharing And in few words thus it is of which ye may reade in Plinie Plutarch Elian c. When the Pearl-fish gapeth wide she hath a curious glistering within her shell by which she allureth the small fry to come swimming into her which when her companion the Prawn perceiveth he gives her a secret touch with one of his prickles whereupon she shuts her gaping shell and so incloseth her wished prey then as I said they equally share them out and feed themselves And thus day by day they get their livings like a combined knot of cheaters who have no other trade then the cunning deceit of quaint cousenage hooking in the simpler sort with such subtill tricks that be their purses stuft with either more or lesse they know a way to sound the bottome and send them lighter home lighter in purse though heavier in heart The foresaid authours make mention of the Gilthead or Golden-eye which helpeth the one the other out of a snare or from off an hook for if the insnared fish cannot help himself by loosing the snare with his tail then will his companion put to his mouth and set him free Or if the one see the other hanged on a hook it may be easily observed how his free mate will skip at the line and never leave till he have broke it off Which may serve well to teach us that we ought not to leave our friends in danger but do the best and utmost that we can to set them free For a friend is never known till such an occasion shall discover him at other times we have friends enow The Plaice if it be well grown and something thick is said to be a passing good fish It takes the name from Placeo to please because it pleaseth the palate That fish which we call the Sole is a very wholesome fish And so is the Whiting often entertained in the court I have heard the Gurnard likewise much commended But the Conger is hard of substance and therefore not easie to be digested And so also is the Salmon hard of digestion although it be a pleasant fish and very sweet especially the belly Whereupon it comes to passe that we do not eat it hot or presently after it is boyled The Ray or Thornback is scarce so wholesome as other fish for Physicians write that it makes men subject to the falling evil by reason that it is a fish full of superfluous juice Howbeit the pricks which grow without upon the skinne if they be pulled up by the roots dried made into powder and given fasting in White or Rhenish wine is an excellent medicine to avoid gravell and to break the stone Herring is a fish common and cheap very dangerous if they be not moderately eaten fresh for we often see that want of care in the eating of them casteth many into fevers And as for Red Herrings and Red Sprats they must needs have little wholesomenesse or nourishment in them for if we may beleeve the learned they give as good nourishment to the bodie as rustie Bacon We reade that in the river Ganges are Eeles of an extraordinarie bignesse and length This fish is never better moved from his nest then in a thunder They be not bred out of spawn as other fishes but from the slime and dirt of the earth as the common opinion goeth and of all fishes which are tooth some these are the least wholesome They breed agues stop and hurt the voice procure the stone by reason of their great sliminesse and do also dispose a man to the gowt by breeding such matter as brings pain in the joynts But know that after Eeles and Eâ—…mpreys we should drink good strong wine and indeed generally with all kindes of fish wine is very wholesome The Shad is never is season but in the spring for at other times it is full of bones And in the choice of fish this is a rule that such as have seales and â—…innes are best for many scales and â—…innes betoken the purenesse of their substance as the physicians tell us The Gogion is a daintie fish and found aswell in the sea as in fresh waters of which there be sundry sorts but the best live in sandie places and about rocks The Tench is commonly called the Physician of other fishes for when they be hurt they heal themselves again by touching the Tench finding the slime of his body to be as a soveraigne salve The Perch useth to wound others with his sharp fins whereupon the Pike or Pickerell dares not devoure him Both these give the body pure nourishment by reason of their firm and hard substance The Rock Dace Chevine Bream Smelt and Carp are good But the Trout is admirable for this is so sound in nourishment that when we would speak of one who is sound indeed we say that he is as sound as a Trout This is in some kinde a foolish fish and an embleme of one who loves to be flattered for when he is once in his hold you may take him with your hands by tickling rubbing or clawing him under the bellie I will not say who else is like this fish for fear I should offend some squeamish dame but let not her anger shew her wantonnesse and so we are both charmed to hold our peace she to salve her own credit and I to end this present section wherein I do confesse I might have spoken of sundry other fishes but I had rather send my reader to Gesner and such other ample authours then tire him with my relations Sect. 2. Containing the second part of this fifth day which is of Birds or Fowl flying in the open firmament of heaven FRom fishes I must come to birds from the water to the aire and teach my pen to flie a while with the feathered fowls as before it was swimming with the fearfull silent fish And now why God hath joyned the creation of fish and fowl together may without curiositie be observed to wit because he would in every work and part thereof continue an harmonious order Great is the likenesse between fish and fowl whether it be that we consider the
beasts and fowls and for his eye-sight it is very sharp so that in the mountains he seeth his prey afarre off He is bred most commonly in India and Ethiopia his greatest poyson being in his tongue and gall wherefore the Ethiopians cut away the tongue and eat the flesh Munst. Cosm. Plinie saith that through the strength of poison in his tongue it is alwayes lift up and sometimes through the heat of the said poison lurking there his breath is so hot as if he breathed fire by which contagious blast he sometimes so tainteth the aire that the pestilence proceedeth thereof His wings will carrie him to seek his prey when and where occasion serveth The Dipsas is another kinde of serpent and those whom he stingeth die with thirst But those whom the Hypnale stingeth die with sleep Such as are stung by the Prester die with swelling And the wounds of the Haemorrhois procure unstanchable bleeding The Dart taketh name from his swift darting or leaping upon a man to wound and kill him His use and custome is to get up into trees and hedges and suddenly to dart from thence The Amphisbena or Double-head goeth both wayes or moveth circularly with crooked windings because he hath two heads and no tail having a head at both ends which saith one is a fit embleme of popular sedition for where the people will rule their Prince needs must their motion be crooked and where there be two heads it is as if there were no head at all Africa aboundeth with these and sundry the other serpents Cerastes is a serpent bred also in Africa having two horns on his head in manner of a snail and from thence it is that he taketh his name being called by the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say horned He is about a cubit in length and of a sable colour His biting for the most part is incurable and with his horns he can fashion out as it were a little coronet whereby he allureth the birds unto him and then lying hidden in the sands all but the head he cunningly devoureth them Solinus and some others say he hath not onely two but foure horns as may be seen in Plinie lib. 8. cap. 23. The Viper hath a bodie long and slender like an eele or snake a broad head red and flaming eyes and as for his teeth they be inclosed as it were in a little bladder in which he carrieth his poison from thence infusing it into the wound which he hath bitten Some authours write that when the Vipers engender the male putteth his head into the females mouth which she being overcome with the pleasure of copulation biteth off affirming moreover that their young use to gnaw themselves out of their dammes bellies there being thereby an end both of male and female the one in the time of conception the other in the time of birth and are therefore called Vipers viz. à vi pariendo but others alledge the testimonie of one Iames Grevin who in the 7 chapter of his 1 book of venimes produceth the witnesse of * Aristotle saying that the Viper putteth forth her young ones infolded in a membrane which breaketh about the third day and also that sometimes those which are within the bellie issue forth having gnawn asunder the foresaid membrane The Slow-worm hath dark eyes and dull eares and can heare or see but little His skinne is thick his colour is of a pale blew intermixed on the sides with some few blackish spots he seldome hurteth unlesse by chance he be provoked As for the Snake Adder and such like they be common amongst us and so is that other already mentioned viz. the Slow-worm Howbeit we finde that the Adder is a craftie and a subtil creature biting suddenly the passers by whereupon Jacob said that his sonne Dan should be Coluber in via Gen. 49. This and other serpents who change their coats when they cast off their skinnes do first of all by fasting make their flesh low and abated and then by sliding through a narrow passage they slip them off Which may be a fit embleme of those who when they go about to cast off their old and former sinnes know that an humbling of themselves before God in abstinence and fasting is very good and a great help to fit them for repentance for it is certain that if our bellie be our god then gula doth not onely make way for Galen and Bacchus for Aesculapius but even for Tophet also Whereupon we finde that Dives in hell was not upbraided onely because he fared deliciously but because it was every day And how hard a thing it is for a man to serve any other god then his bellie who is continually used to stuffe his paunch the common practises of carelesse livers make apparent for whilest they sleep and eat and play they never think of heaven nor can be fitted to slip off their old sinnes but on the contrary a retired humblenesse will make them both fearfull and carefull how they walk Blame not Paul then if this be part of his bâ—…asting that he could out-fast or out-watch the rest of the Apostles for saith S. Hierome Ardentes diaboli sagittae jejuniorum vigiliarum frigore restinguendae sunt Mr Purchas writeth that they have Snakes and Adders in Africa whereof some are called Imbumas five and twentie spans long living in land and water not venimous but ravenous whose custome is to lurk in trees waiting there for their prey and having taken it they devoure horns hoofs and all although it be a Hart and then swollen with this so huge a meal they be as it were drunk and sleepie and altogether unweldie for the space of five or six dayes Moreover he affirmeth that the Pagan Negroes rost and eat them as great dainties Aulus Gellius sheweth how Attilius Regulus the Romane Consul in the first Punick warre encountered with a huge serpent at the river Bagrada being forced to plant his engines and artillerie against him and killing him his skinne was sent to Rome for a monument being no lesse then 120 foot in length In the kingdome of Congo be certain great Dragons with wings in bignesse like to rammes having long tails and in their chaps divers jawes of teeth of blew and green colour they have two feet and feed on flesh The Pagan Negroes pray to them as gods for which cause the great lords of the countrey keep them that thereby they may make a gain of the peoples devotion when they offer their gifts and oblations The Scorpion is a venimous insect somewhat fashioned like a crab lobster or creyfish they have many legs and carrie their stings in their tails sometimes they eat their young ones and are of divers colours the female is the biggest and hath the sharpest sting And note that of the Scorpion is made an oyl
benumming fish 383 Tortoise 374 Tragelaphus 481 Treacherie Treacherous persons like to the Polypus 385. Like to the Ape 401. Like to the Hawk ibid. Trees and their properties 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282. Trinitie 46 47. The Trinitie shewed in making of Man 496 Trouble One patient in trouble what he is like 299 Trout The Trout commended 388. The Trout like one that loves to be flattered 389. Wanton Wenches like to the Trout ibid. Troy and the ruines thereof lamented 240 Turcois a precious stone good for weak eyes it will also shew whether he that weareth it be well in health 296 Turnep 263 Turtle 408 Tyger and his properties 441 V VAliant He is truely valiant that can overcome himself 441 Vapours their nature and why they be warm 87 Veins and Arteries how they differ 497 Vermilion 300. The Romanes used to paint their gods with Vermilion ibid. Vertigo How to cure it 261 Violets and their vertues 269 Viper 490 Virginia Dogs 447 Vitriol 304 Unicorn of the sea 370 Unicorn of the land 435. That there is such a beast 436. A description of the Unicorns horn ibid. How to catch the Unicorns 437 Urine Dill is good to provoke Urine 249 Use of things is often times turned into an abuse 265. We ought to make the best uses of the strangest things 227 131 132 W WArts and their cure 244. 263 Wasps 423 Watery Meteors 142 Water-cresses and their vertues 253 Waters Waters above the heavens 62 63 64 65 sequent Their use and profit 322 323. The Waters gathered together 190. How they were gathered together 191. How to one place seeing there be many Seas Lakes and Rivers 192. Whether they be higher then the earth 194. Whether there be more Water then earth 199. The benefit and use of Waters 207. Why fresh Waters do not ebbe and flow 218 Water used in stead of Vineger 220. Water used in stead of burnt wine ibid. Water making drunk ibid. A Water deadly to beasts and not to men 221. A killing and a purging Water ibid. A Water making horses mâ—…d ibid. A cold Water setting cloth on fire ibid. A Water which is hot enough either to boil rost â—…r bake ibid. A Water which maketh oxen white 222. A Water which changeth the colours either of sheep or horses ibid. A Water cold in the day and hot in the night 223. A Water which turueth wood into stone 224. Poysoâ—…ing Waters ibid. A Water which makes cattell give black milk 224. A Water which makes men mad 225. A Water which spoils the memorie ibid. A Water procuring lust ibid. A Water causing barrennesse ibid. Weasell and his properties 460 461 Well A strange wâ—…ll in Idumea 224 West-windeâ—… qualitie 183 Whale 366. Their kindes 367 c Wheat rained 147 Whirle-windes Storm-windes and fired Whirle-windes 185 186 Willow and Willow-garlands 274 Willow-wort and his properties it is of a contrary nature to the herb Betonie 270 Winde in the bodie how to expell it 249 Winde Divers opinions concerning Winde 168 169. Wâ—…nde is more then the motion of the aire 171. Poets fictions concerning Winde 172. How God bringeth the Windes out of his treasures 169. The Winde not moved by Angels 170. Why it useth to rain when the winde is down 174. What Winde is upon what causes it dependeth and how it is moved 173. Why we cannot see the matter of Winde 177. How that place is to be understood in the 3 of John concerning the blowing of the Winde 178. Aire moved augments the Winde 174. How the Windes are moved and by what 175. In what place the motion the Winde beginneth 176. Particular windes 177. Why the winde bloweth not alwayes one way ibid. Oppositâ—… ibid. Oblique windes ibid. Whisking windes ibid. The division names and number of the Windes 178. Mariners reckon two and thirtie Windes 179. The nature and qualitie of the Windes 181. The effects of a long-continuing Winde 184. Why the East and North windes bring rain sometimes for a whole day together 183 Windows of heaven opened in the Floud and what they were 69 Winter described 357. A warm Winter hurtfull 161 Witches they sell windes to sea-men 153 Wood-pecker how she useth to unwedge the hole of her nest 258 Wolf and his properties 447 Wolf-bane and the strange properties thereof 251 Wooll rained and how 152 Woman She was made after the image of God as well as the man 500. How she is said to be the glorie of the Man ibid. Why she was made out of a Rib 501. Wherein a womans rule ought to consist 501 502. Childe-bearing women Sage is good for them 247. The smell of Dragon very bad for those who are newly conceived with childe 262. The herb Sow-bread is also very hurtfull and causeth instant abortion ibid. How a doubting woman may know whether she be with childe 263. How a woman burying her husband may save her credit 256 World The World not eternall and must also end 2. The manner how it must end 4. Impostours concerning the end 18 sequent When it was created 28 sequent Why it was not made perfect in an instant 50 51. It decayeth daily 78 79 Worms in the belly with means to cure them 253. 255 Worms rained and how 147 Wren 402 Y YArrow and the properties thereof 267 Yeares The examination of the name length divers beginning and kinde of Yeares 360 361 362 363 Z ZAnchie his opinion of the Iewish tradition which they take from the Rabbin Elias 13. His opinion of certain strange and prodigious rains 154 Zebra a beast of an excellent comelinesse 446 Zibeth or the Sivet-cat 463 FINIS Plato in 〈◊〉 a Lib. 1. de calo cap. 10. 12. â—…b 2. 1 lib 8. I hâ—…s 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 coâ—… b Lib. de mundo c Pareus on Gen. * Inaniasoph smata ad obscurandam veritatem ingeniosâ—… magis quà m solidâ—… excogitata Pareus ibid. Lâ—…ret lib. 6. Gen. 1. 1. Du Bartaâ—… first day The manner of the worlds ending is shewed * 2. Pet. 3. 10. * Rom. 8. 21 22. * Psal. 102. 26. * Hier. on 〈◊〉 1. Cor. 15. 53. Job 19. 26. * Rom. 8. 21. The creatures remaining at the worlds ending See also Dr. Willets Hexap on Rom. chap. 8. quaest 34. a Pot. Mart. â—…oc câ—…m * Zach. 14. 7. b Pet. Mart. â—…x châ—…soss * Esay 60. 19. Revel 21. 23. c Part. in Apoc. cap. 21. Matth. 5. 5. d Dr. Willet Hexap in Rom. * Revel 4. 14. * Gen. 28. 12. * Matt. 17. 3. Of the time when the world endeth * Luke 21. 3â—… 2. Pet. 3. 10. 1. Thess. 5. 2. Revel 16. 15. a De verit Christ. Relig. †It was favoured by Justin Martyr Ireneus Lactantius Hierome c. but disallowed by Ambrose and Augustine See Augustine in exposit Psal. 90. b 〈◊〉 Tom. 7. Praelect de fine seculi c Note that the yeares from the Creation are now many more 2. Pet. 3. 4 * 1. Cor. 15. 12.
†It was but to shew saith S. Augustine contentnendam futuri tempoâ—…is 〈◊〉 vitatem d Marlor in Pet. Hierome on â—…er Zanch. Tom. 7. Praelect ae 〈◊〉 se. uâ—…i The world hath six Ages but not reckoned by thousands of yeareâ—… * 1. Cor. 15. 52. Revel 10. 5 6. Du Bartas in the handy-crafts 1 Adam 2 Noah 3 Abram 4 David 5 Zedech â—…ah or the captivitie 6 Christ. 7 The eternall sabbath e Ger. loc com Tom. 9. pag. 182. Impostours and false Prophets concerning the worlds ending f Ibid. ut antea * Or from the time of Christ born of a Virgin A crotchet to shew that the world must end in the yeare 1657 which is 24 yeares hence 1000 M 5 V  n 500 D 1 I   100 C  o  n  f 50 L  a  g  r  a  t 1 I  o 1657.  Another erotchet whereby the world should end in the yeare 1645 which now 12 is yeares hence The former opinion confuted John 19. 37. Vide Buchol chron anno Dom. 1533. Vide Dieteâ—… post Dom. 2. adven g See Treas of ancient and modern times l. 4. cap. 20. h Napeir on the Revelat. Prop. 14 where he determines the time to be betwixt the yeares 1688 and 1700 naming either the yeare 1697 or 1699. i See Jun. Calâ—… Polan or Dr. Will. Hexap 〈◊〉 Dan. k August Epist. 80 〈◊〉 Hesych Revelat. 10. 6. Plin. lib. 16. cap. 20. A second opinion is that the world began at the Spring A third and best opinion is that the world began in Autumne An answer to their first reason who place the creation in the Spring * Viz. the first day Gen. 8. 4 5. * Gen. 9. 3. * Calvis chrâ—… cap. de temp mundi conditi * Or from the tenth to the second moneth See Gen. chap. 8. An answer to â—â—eir second reason who place the creation in the Spring Gen. 1. 29. and 3. 2. The course of nature was never changed An answer to their third reason who place the creation in the Spring Adam â—…ll soon after his creation * Upon Matth. chap. 27. * Broughtonâ—… Concent Hexap upon Gen. chap. 3. quest 31. An answer to their fourth reason who place the creation in the Spring Object Answ. Object Answ. * 1. Kings â—… 2. a 1. King 6. 38. b 1. King 6. 1 â—…7 The conclusion wherein the former part of the chapter is recapirulated and all explained * Calvis Chr. cap. de temp mund cond Bâ—…oald lib. 1. cap. 7. * FORTIUM à praestantia dignitate dicitur quia non a â—…ni tantum sed etiam Sabbati Iubilaei principium fuit Wolph de Temp. lib. 1. pag. 15. †Levit. 23 39. * 2. Sam. 11. 1. 2. Chron. 36. 10. Ezek. 40. See also Wolph de temp Bux de Synag Iul. Seal de Em. Temp. c. Quest. Answ. a Deus dum coetum 〈◊〉 et fecit aeteâ—…nitatis quandam in numâ—… fluentem imaginem quam noâ—… Tâ—…pus vocaâ—… us Coclen ex Plâ—…t Exoâ—… 3. 14. b c When we behold the admired fabrick of the world c. we can no more ascribe it to chance then a Printers case of letters could by chance fall into the right composition of any such book as he printeth * Psal. 2. 7. John 15. 26. d Du Bart. 1. day of the 1. week * Coloss. 1. 16. e Dr. Willet on Gen. pag. 20. f Gib on Gen. Quest. 1. g Freig Histor. Mosaic pag. 5. h Gib on Gen. Quest. 1. i Etsi ex rihilo nihil sit per mâ—…um seu transmutatioâ—…em id est generatur tamen ex nihilo aliquid sit per simâ—…licem emanationem id est creatur Goâ—…len disp Phys. k Confess lib. 12. cap. 21. l Du Bart first day of the first week m Mr. Purch in his first part lib. 1. cap. 2. n Not the aire or winde they were not yet o Gibbens on Gen. quest 2. annâ—…t d. †Aust. * Ephes. 1. 11. Quest. Answ. * Bish. Hall contemp lib. 1. * Psal. 104. 2. * 2. Cor. 4. 6. a Ex tenebris dicitur eduxiâ—…se luâ—…em non ut ex materia nihil enim tenebrae fu rient nisi negatio lacis sed ut è conâ—…rario termino Pare in Gen. pag. 146. b Which was the locall but not materiall originall of it as saith Pareus ibid. c Aquin. Sum. 1. par Quest. 70. aâ—…tie 1. Of Angels and when theâ—… were created d See Dr. Willet on Gen. chap. 1. Quest. 33. e Aquin. Sum. part 1. quest 70. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 f God made one proper centre for all things of one kinde unto which he reduceâ—… them * 2. Cor. 4. 6 Ephe. 5. 8. g Purcâ—… lib. 1. cap. 2. h 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cap. 4. i inâ—…n â—…n pag. 148. k But otherwise it may be said that the first dayes light was carried to another hemispheare just with the dawning of the second day for as soon as the out spread Firmament was commanded to be the Heavens surely were made and began to move * Esay 60. 19. a Janius Gibbens and others b Meth. Theâ—…l lib. 2. pag. 333. c See Gibbens on Gen. chap. 1. quest 5. d See Lydiats disquisitio Phys. cap. 10. pag. 196. a â—…oclon disput 18. sect 29. b In his second day of the first week * Gen. 1. 7. Psal. 104 3. Psal. 148. 4. c Hyp. Meth. 〈◊〉 liv 2. pag 335. d Ainsworth on Gen. e Lydiat disqui sâ—…tio Phys. cap. 10. * â—…er 10. 13. f 〈◊〉 noâ—… magis 〈◊〉 câ—…lum ipsum quâ—…ant Hyper. Meth. Theâ—…l lib. 2. pag. 335. The contrary and their reasons * Job 26. 8. g In Gen. pag. 70. h Plin. lib. 31. cap. 1. The reader is left unto his free choice The matter in question is cleared by answering the contrary arguments The sunne moon and starres are higher then the clouds and yet they are not said to be above the firmament but in it the fowls also flie in it but not above it * â—…er 10. 13. There was no middle Region untill the third day * Viz. 300 furlongs which make 37 miles and an half †As Atlas Pelion Ossa Caucasus and Tabor which last riseth up 30 furlongs as Iosephuâ—… writeth i Lyd. de orig fontiâ—…ns cap. 10. k Aquin. Sum. pâ—…r 1. Quest 69. Artâ—… Of the windows of heaven opened in the Floud That hills and mountains were not caused by the Floud l Pom. Mela lib. 1. cap. 11. Plin. lib. 5. cap. 13. m Antiq. lib. 1. cap. 3. * Gen. 7. 19 10. n Ains on Gen. * Gen. 8. 2. o Dr. Will. ex Bel. de gra pri hom p Antiq. lib. 1. cap. 4. q Necessario fatendum est si modo â—…ubes sint superiores illâ—… aqâ—…ae duo esse expansa ita duo ut de fabrica illius quod duoâ—…um multo est nobillus nulla siai mentâ—…o Lyd. de Orig. font cap. 10. r Distinguit a word
of the present tense noting the present performance of that which it was made for s As Val. Schindi Fagius upon Gen. chap. 1. out of Aben Ezra a Plin. lib. 2. cap 26. * Psal. 102. 26. b Dove confâ—…t of Atheil chap. 14. c Ideme â—…lin lib. 7. â—…ap 1â—… â—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gell. Nâ—…t Aâ—… l. 13. c. â—… * Psal. 19. 5. d Diâ—… Poâ—… 〈◊〉 2. 〈◊〉 Aâ—…vent Phys. lib. 8. cap. 1. 〈◊〉 f Lib. de 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 g For new starres Tycho affirmeth it lib. de nova â—…iella * Dan. 7. 2 13. †Psalm 8. 9. Gen. 1. 16. 17. * Matth. 22. 30. †2. Cor. 12. 2 a Bish. Halls contemplationâ—… The highest Region The lowest Region * The earth The middle Region a Remotiâ—…â—… 〈◊〉 circulaâ—…i dat quiâ—…tem frigiditatem 〈◊〉 siâ—… pro 〈◊〉 dat mâ—…um caloâ—… levitateâ—… Exhalations are of two kindes The nature of vapours Why vapours are warm The nature of fumes Three sorts of Meteors Two sorts of Fiery Meteors which burn in very deed These sorts are ignita pura These sorts are ignita 〈◊〉 Article 1. Of burning Torches Article 2. Of burning Beams Article 3. Of round burning Pillars Article 4. Of Pyramidall burning Pillars Article 5. Of Flashings Streams or Darts Article 6. Dancing Goats Article 7. Flying Sparks Article 8. of Shooting starres * Antiperistasis is a repulsion on every part whereby either heat or cold is made more strong in it self by restraining the contrary Article 9. Flying Launces Article 10 Of the seeming burning of the heavens a Stow in his Abridg. Ann 1574. Artic. 11. Fire-drakes or flying Dragons b Paracelsus is perswaded that it is a fierie living creature bred in the element of the Fire even as flies in the Aire fish in the Water and worms in the Earth affirming that it is of à short life like the Salamander c. But if this be not ridiculous then nothing is Artic. 12. Foolish Fire Jenny or Will with a wisp b Taken therefore but falsely for the souls of the departed as you may see if you look but a little further * 2. Sam. 12. 13. Job 7. 10. Psal. 103. 15 16. and Psal. 39. 15. * Eccles. 9. 5 6. * Eccles. 9. 10. Hos. 13. 14. John â—…7 24. * Luke â—…6 22. and chap â—…3 43. * 1. John 〈◊〉 9. Of Helena Castor and Pollux Why two lights at once shew fair weather and one light foul weather Artic. 13. Licking Lights Virg. Aeneid lib. 2. prope finem Why some fierie Meteors are lesse pure then others What Comets are * Plinie maketh their shortest time to be seven dayes and their longest 80 dayes lib. 2. cap. 25. but we finde it otherwise And therefore there is a fault 80 being put for 180 which might come to passe by the losse of a C. Three principall colours in a Comet Two chief fashions in a Comet The strange effects of Comets a Carion ex Seneca lib. 2. b Socrat. lib. 4. cap. 22. c Carion lib. 3. d Lib. 3. pag. 294. e Of this Comet you may reade in Carion lib. 5. pag. 854. f Alst. Chron. 〈◊〉 g Goclen Phys. Lanquet Chron. in contin Chron. Euseb. * So also a certain Germane in the continuation of Euseb. Chron. h Buchod in his chron * Idem ibid. h In Lanq. Chron. it is 1400. Vide Ann. Dom. 1531. i 〈◊〉 Bohemicum Germanicum orituâ—… quod hodié que affligit 〈◊〉 nostram Germaniam 〈◊〉 Chron. mirab Dei Fuit etiam antecesâ—… mortis Maâ—…hiae Imperatoris Why warres deaths famines and the like are the effects of Comets Our bodies follow the temper of the aire and our mindes do somewhat sympathize with the bodie †Burton in his Melancholy †Chap. 7. sect 3 parag 2 art 1. How to guesse at the signification of Comets i Origanâ—… de effectibus pag. 526 ex Cardano The severall ends of Comets Politicall Theologicall Naturall k Witnesse the great plague which was in Portugal Ann. Dom. 1531 occasioned by vapours which through a breach of ground in an earthquake issued forth and poisoned the aire Lanq. Chron. l After which were these appearances if not new starres yet most of them supralunary Comets as in the yeare 1577 which Sibylla Babylonica prophecied of as may be seen in Tycho shewing that it should arise about foure yeares after the vanishing of Cassiopea's starre which was true inclusively and in the yeares 1580 1585 1590 1593 and in the yeare 1596 but this was a New starre and in the yeares 1607 and 1618. a Viz. on Bartholomew day Calvis b Viz. on the ninth of November c And therefore he could not then name any one in particular d The King of Sweden born at such time as the starre began its operation The place pointed at by the heavens hath 62 degrees of North latitude l In a speech to his court at Ingolâ—…tadt m Taken out of the relation of his last battel pag. 20. translated out of French into English A memento for after-times * He flourished 135 yeares before Christs birth Helvic Chronol m Lib. 2. n See more in Aquinas summes o Some say the 17 degree Calvis châ—…ei A consideration of this New starres matter Lib. denova â—…ella * Yet the same matter had it been crushed together or as solidly composed as the earth would have been as nothing in respect of the earth * 〈◊〉 de novis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 From the earth to the highest Firmament is nothing but aire p Called Lingua q In 〈◊〉 Lunâ—… generatâ—…r ignie What place the Element of Fire possesseth r Lib. 3. Met. cap. 2. Art 7. What thunder is * Ioâ—…nnes Bodinus putat a geniis aeris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fulmma jaci 〈◊〉 illâ—…m coeli cieri Great cracks Small cracks r Lib. 2. cap. 43. Sometimes 〈◊〉 and â—…o 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lighâ—…ning and nâ—… 〈◊〉 How there may be lightning without thunder The kindes of lightning Why we see the lightning before we heare the thunder The worst â—…inde of lightning The making of the thunder-stone a Or thus Geneâ—… ex exhalationâ—… 〈◊〉 vâ—…scosa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quos 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ceâ—… 〈◊〉 mutatione 〈◊〉 so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sâ—… 〈◊〉 cuâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miâ—… 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. cap. 3. Three kindes of Fulmen The first kinde is drie of qualitie The second kinde is something moist The third kinde is most grosse of the three * Plin. lib. 2. cap. 55. The Poets therefore write that she carries Jupiters armour which is lightning Not wholesome to gaze on the lightning What the Galaxia is Why red clouds are seen onely in the morning and evening * Viz. Parag. 6. Artic. 1. What is signified by many sunnes A rule and in observation concerning strange sights a Fulks Meteors b Stows Abridg. of chron c Stow ibid. d Idem e Fulks Meteors f In the yeare 1619 were 3 also seen at Lovan in the moneth of May
three severall parts The first whereof concerneth the gathering together of the waters in these words And God said Let the waters under heaven be gathered together unto one place The second concerneth the drying of the ground in these words And let the drie-land appeare The third is pertinent to the sprouting and springing of the earth in these words And God said Let the earth bring forth grasse the herb yeelding seed and the fruit-tree yeelding fruit after his kinde c. All which in their orders are severally to be discussed together with such other things as are pertinent to the said division And concerning the two first observe that God bestowes as it were sirnames on them calling the gathering together of the waters Seas and the drie-land he calleth Earth Sect. 2. Of the gathering together of the waters which God called Seas VVAter and earth are the two lowest elements and this was that day which brought them to perfection for untill now they were confused because their matter although not quite void of form received at this time a better form of due distinction and more comely ornament The informitie was expressed before when Moses said that the earth was void and invisible because covered with waters but the formitie is then expected and declared when the waters are gathered and the drie-land made apparent It is a wonder sure to think what a confused tyrannie the waters made by their effusion for they did rather tyrannize then orderly subdue or govern this inferiour mirie masse wherefore it seemed good to the Almightie maker first to divorce one from the other before he gave them leave so to be joyned each to other that both together might make one globie bodie which according to the best approved writers is one and twentie thousand and six hundred miles in compasse But concerning this gathering together of the waters there arise certain questions which may not altogether be forgotten As first it is enquired How the waters were gathered together Secondly How it can be said that they were gathered to one place seeing there be many seas lakes rivers and fountains that are farre asunder Thirdly Whether they be higher then the earth Fourthly Whether there be more water then earth Fifthly Whether the earth be founded upon the waters Sixthly Why the seas be salt and rivers fresh Seventhly and lastly What causeth an ebbing and flowing in the sea rather then in rivers Concerning the first of these questions those who think that there be no Antipodes supposed that the waters did runne together and cover the other part of the earth which is opposite to this where we dwell But the experience of skilfull navigatours and famous travellers yea and reason it self doth crie against it Others imagine that it was some mighty winde which dried them up or that the fervent heat of the sunne effected it But both think amisse because the drie-land saith one appearing all at once was so prepared by a greater power then either of the winde or sunne which could not work it at once nor scarcely in a long continuance of time neither was the sunne made untill the next day after Dixit igitur factum est he spake the word onely and by the power of that word it was done For the efficient cause of the sea was the onely word of God the materiall was the waters the formall was their gathering together and the finall partly was that the drie-land might appeare Ezekiels wheels were one within the compasse of another and so was the earth water and aire before the powerfull word of God commanded this their gathering the earth within the water the water within the aire and the aire within the concave of the Firmament Which if they had all for ever so remained and man made as he is the world had been no house for him to dwell in neither had it been a work so full of never ended admiration as now it is Perhaps the pores and holes of the ground were full before this gathering yet neverthelesse their bodies must be willing to be made the beds for more That they were full it proceedeth from the nature of the water falling downwards and filling them That being full they are yet made capable of more might proceed both from a more close composure of the not hollow parts of the earth and also by making these waters thicker then they were before For whilest the not hollow parts were made more solid the hollow could not choose but be enlarged and whilest the thin and vapourie waters were better thickened and condensed the outface of the ground could not be obscured but shew it self as one released from out a waterie prison Some adde unto this their heaping together in the high and wide seas whereby it cometh to passe that they flow to and fro at flouds and ebbs and do often force out water-springs from out the highest mountains which last whether it be so or no shall be examined afterwards The next question was how it can be said that they were gathered to one place seeing there be many seas lakes rivers and fountains that are farre asunder It was a strange conceit of him who thought that this one place unto which the waters were gathered was separate so from the earth that the waters by themselves should make a globe and have their proper centre for leaving to descend towards the centre of the earth they were gathered to a centre of their own and so the drie-land appeared But this opinion is very false and worthy to be reckoned amongst absurdities for as the Prophet Esay writeth the Lord is said to sit upon the circle of the earth Now experience sheweth that it is not the earth alone but the earth and sea together that make one globe or circle This one place then whither the waters were gathered was not a place separated from the earth being in the aire or elsewhere but was in the very body of the earth it self Neither was it one place strictly taken as it meant one point or angle of the earth or as if there were no Antipodes half the earth under us was to be covered with water But rather it is called one place because in the whole globe of the earth every place is either water or land or if not so because there is but one body of all the waters that are for every part of the water is joyned unto the whole as it were with arms and legs and veins diversly dilated and stretched out So that either under the earth or above the earth all the waters are joyned together which also the wise man witnesseth Eccles. 1. 7. But haply some may think because this gathering together of the waters is called Seas that therefore the one place unto which they were gathered is not to be understood of every collection or gathering of water but onely of the sea Well be it so And if this rather then the
call these times by the names of Spring Summer Autumne and Winter The Spring is a time never unwelcome nor unwished for the weather begins then to appeare like a pitifull and truely kinde-hearted cherisher and Sol ascending disperseth the superfluous humours stirreth up the bloud in our bodies and sap in herbs and trees clothing the earth with sweet new liveries and plants with boughs and beauteous branches nay the harmlesse choristers of the rebounding woods and echoing groves do then begin to tune again their sugred throats and ravish revived mortalls with their melodious aires bidding good morning to the day and morrow to the morn For no sooner can Aurora wake and peep above the purple verges of the Eastern hills but cheerfully they chaunt her out a mirthfull cantilene whilest in the mean time sweet-breathing Zephyrus playes with the wanton tresses of his late dead and decayed but now again revived mistris and in comely hue doth beauteous Flora prank her self cheerfully coming forth to meet her kinde sweet-causing lover The prettie lambes are now at play whilest the watchfull shepherd sits piping on an hill to please that queen of his heart his dearest shepherdesse whom ruthfully he moveth to grant his suit and pitie his complaint Ver praebet flores saith the Poet and from viresco it may well be said to take the name For will you heare The mealie mountains which were late unseen Change now their coats all into lustie green The gardens prank them with their flowrie buds The â—â—â—ds with grasse with leaves the naked woods Sweet Zephyrus begins to busse his Flora Swift-winged fingers to salute Aurora And wanton Cupid through this universe With pleasing wounds each creatures heart ' gins pierce Yea Titans presence doth again revive As well things sensible as vegetive But next after Spring we reckon Summer which may well be called the mother of plentie and daughter of bountie For the earth hath now her lap full of every kinde of grain her belly is bigge and ready to be delivered that she might thereby enrich the weary labourer and feed each hungry soul. Formosa est messibus Aestas saith Ovid Summers beautie consisteth in his fruitfull fields of corn For now he crowns his Ceres With gilded eares as yellow as her hair is Till th'reaper panting both for heat and pain With crooked rasor crops the tufted plain In Latine we call it Aestas which is because this season derives the name ab aestu from the exceeding heat and so also doth the English word Summer expresse it For Summer is a word taken out of the Germane language and in the Germane tongue it is said to be Sunne-mehr that is plus solis or more sunne then at other times And now come to Autumne for Autumne is the next Quarter and this is a season which bringeth that to perfection which the Spring and Summer hath but begun For now the barns are full the presses and fats overflow with an abundance of wine and oyl and men do now eat the late gathered labours of their hands and joy in the surpassing plentie that the earth hath brought them This time is indeed the yeares very barbour or if you will it is like unto a kinde-hearted prodigall who by little and little gives all away so freely that in conclusion there is nothing left him He takes his name therefore from Autumno which signifieth to make ripe for as fast as he can see the fruits ripened or brought to perfection he yeelds them up to others Or else it is Autumne à bonorum anni augmentatione as some suppose Th' earth by degrees her lovely beautie baâ—…es Fills others full with her deare delicates The apron and the osier-basket both Catch dainty fruits to please each daintie tooth Untill at last trees gardens meads and all Are naked stript and robbed quite of all And here in this Quarter was undoubtedly the beginning of the first yeare For that it should be so we have grounds both in reason Scripture and other writings as in the second chapter of this book I have proved at large But leaving Autumne look now at Winter it is a season which can boast of little For it lies entrenched with gloomie mists of night and weeps almost as often as it wants the sunne or findes it hid within the compasse of a close cloud Nay see but with what a palsie pace it cometh He that of late was sweating in the fields casting off his clothes fainting through heat is now glad to call for more and thicker garments and not ashamed by the help of fire to mitigate the freezing cold For Winter is like unto an old man with a gray head and white beard insomuch that when hoarie-headed Hyâ—…ms doth but brush or shake his hairs the trees and herbs as I may so say in stead of leaves are periwigd with snow Or if he doth but let his churlish breath blow out upon us the waters are turned soon into a crystall crust and without wonder men are seen to walk upon it Et celsis dependet stiria tectis yea and the drops hang frozen then at the eaves of houses That therefore of Ovid must needs be true Igne levatur Hyems To which let that Bacchi massicus humor be also added For these two will now do wondrous well according to that of the noble Poet All lusks in sloth and till this quarters end Bacchus and Vulcan both must us befriend This season is called by the Latines Hyems which seemeth to be derived from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to make moist or wet And in Hebrew as some affirm it is called Choreph coming of the root Charaph which signifieth to reproach or disgrace because when winter cometh the earth is as it were disgraced and exposed to reproach in being spoiled of all its pleasant greennesse beauty and splendour And in a word to shut up all thus you may remember these seasons together with their sundry qualities Poma dat Autumnus Formosa est messibus Aestas Ver praebet Flores Igne levatur Hyems Ovid. Autumne gives fruit And corn makes Summer fair Spring shews us gayes Fire helps cold Winters aire Artic. 2. Of Dayes A Day is either artificiall or naturall 1. The artificiall is from sunne-rising to sunne-setting agreeable to the words of our Saviour when he demanded if there were not twelve houres in the day Now this kinde of day is not alwayes equall but varies according to the sunnes unequall time of rising and setting and thereupon the houres likewise are to be reckoned according to the dayes proportionable difference being even as the dayes longer in Summer then in Winter Also for this artificiall day Ioannes de sacro Bosco divides it into foure quarters calling the first rubens the second splendens the third urens and the fourth tepens 2. And as for that which is a day naturall it evermore containeth the just number of 24