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
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
also the creditours of whom I have borrowed such extraordinary summes of money both at Frankford and elsewhere and the dangers which I do daily expose my self unto I call all these to witnesse whether I have left mine own kingdome and the dearest I have in the world to any other end and with other intention but onely to destroy the tyranny of the house of Austria and to obtain a profound and setled peace unto all These words of his shew nothing lesse then that he was extraordinarily set on work to undergo such fortunes as the eyes of all the world have bravely seen him struggle with and God knows who shall end that which his coming into Germanie hath begun It was his own saying that if he himself should not survive so long as to bring to passe so great a work that then in his stead some other might succeed and go on untill a full point and period were put unto the warre For upon the occasion of his deliverance from a cannon shot he utters these words saying that he was not onely mortall but subject also unto the very same accidents that the poorest and meanest souldier is subject unto It is a generall law saith he from which my crown my birth my victories are not able to rescue and exempt me There remaineth nothing else therefore but that I must resigne my self to the providence of the Almighty who if it please him to call me out of this world will neverthelesse not abandon and leave a cause so just as that which I have undertaken but will doubtlesse raise up some other more wise more couragious and valiant then my self who shall put a period to this warre And again it was but three dayes before his death that at Naumbourg he uttered these words Our affairs saith he answer our desires but I doubt God will punish me for the folly of the people who attribute too much unto me and esteem me as it were their God and therefore he will make them shortly know and see I am but a man He be my witnesse it is a thing distastfull unto me And what ever befall me I shall receive it as proceeding from his divine will Onely in this I rest fully satisfied that he will not leave this great enterprise of mine imperfect Great King of Hearts in arms transcending fame Eternall praise shall blazoâ—… forth thy name Soul of thy friends thou wert But terrour scourge of foes Canst thou then die though death Thine eyes in spight may close No no For times unborn shall yet repeat What deeds were done by thee a King so great And this doth â—…lso raise thy just renown That in thy fall thine enemies fell down Thine was that day thy men undaunted fought Untill their foes the field were driven out For as it were from forth their Kings last bloud The palm and bay sprung up and conqu'ring stood Great deeds thou diddest soon hot Mars his sphere In Germanie thee mov'd a double yeare From whence at last above the spheres he caught thee And to a place of peace eternall brought thee Where thou shalt rest how e're the rest proceed With those fierce warres which heav'n hath thus decreed But let me now return again to this New starre and shew you that in the dayes of Hipparchus who lived towards the end of the Grecian Monarchie there appeared one much like it and so Plinie telleth us But since that time we reade of no other untill this in the yeare 1572 excepting that which appeared at our Saviours birth which indeed was no such starre for it had three properties never seen in any else moving first from the North to the South secondly it was seated in the lowest Region of the aire thirdly it was nothing hindred by the light of the sunne c. Yet in later times following the said yeare 1572 some smaller ones have been as in the yeare 1596 this was seated in the Whale And in the yeare 1600 or thereabouts another was seen in the constellation of Cygnus Kepler makes mention of one in the yeare 1602 in the constellation of Pisces soon after which upon the death of Q. Elisabeth and coming in of K. Iames was that great plague at London Some say that Andromeda's girdle and the constellation of Antoninous afforded each of them one in the yeare 1612. But the yeare 1604 must not be forgotten for in the 16 degree and 40 minute of Sagittarius toward the Southwest a remarkable one appeared having 2 degrees and 15 minutes of North latitude and was seated in the constellation of Ophiucus this at the first shined as bright as Venus and in the very next yeare that damnable powder plot of the Papists was discovered But now though these and more were reckoned up yet that in Cassiopea would be the chief the elder brother and captain of them all because both in height bignesse and lustre they were lesse remarkable Tycho upon the sight of this New starre laboureth to prove that the heavens and not the earth afford matter to such as these are thinking that it differeth not from the matter of other starres unlesse in this viz. that it is not exalted to such a perfection and solid composition of the parts as in the first continuing and created starres the main and principall reason being taken from the magnitude of them together with their extraordinary height As for example Tycho affirmeth concerning that New starre in Cassiopea being as it were the elder brother of all the other after it that it was 300 times bigger then the earth Which being so it is with small probabilitie affirmed that it should have matter from that which is so much lesse then it and indeed a thing impossible The heavens are large enough to afford matter although the earth be not and no part of the heaven can be imagined to be more fit for such a purpose then the via lactea or milkie way for that place alwayes shews it self even to the eye so as if there were much indigested matter in it reserved onely to work such wonders Yet neverthelesse I suppose it may be also granted that an earthly Exhalation may have recourse sometimes unto the battlements of heaven and in some sort and in part concurre towards the composition of these New starres as they are called and of such Comets as have been above the Moon What should we think of that last in the yeare 1618 it was as I have already said amongst the wandring starres themselves and yet it was no other then such a starre as we call a Comet or a blazing starre Now then if this had matter from the earth and spent it amongst the Planets rather then below the Moon why might not those which we call New starres obtain the like freedome to have the like matter ascend a little higher What should hinder this conjecture I do not easily see for questionlesse the
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 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
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
them who say that an effect may be called naturall two manner of wayes first in regard of the causes themselves secondly in regard of the direction and application of the causes If we consider the meer secondary and instrumentall causes we may call this effect naturall because it was partly performed by their help and concurrence but if we consider the mutuall application and conjunction of these second causes together with the first cause which extraordinarily set them on work we must needs acknowledge it to be supernaturall Now then although we have built upon reason and so found that before fourtie dayes fully ended the middle Region it self was drowned whereupon it could not rain from thence yet in so doing we do not argue amisse for it is no whit derogating from the power of the Almighty to ascend up higher till we finde the cause of this long rain and also the place from whence it came seeing that when we have so done we shall plainly finde that in regard of the direction and application of the cause it was extraordinarily set on work by a divine dispensation and so the effect was supernaturall I may therefore now proceed and that I may make the matter yet a little plainer concerning these cataracts or windows of heaven and so by consequence of the waters also above the heavens this in the next place may be added namely that Moses setteth down two causes by which there grew so great an augmentation of water as would drown the world the one was the fountain of the great deep the other was the opening of the windows of heaven Now if these windows were the clouds then it seemeth that the waters were increased but by one cause for the clouds in the aire come from the waters in the sea which by descending make no greater augmentation then the decresion was in their ascending And although it may be thought that there are waters enough within the bowels of the earth to overflow the whole earth which is demonstrated by comparing the earths diameter with the height of the highest mountains yet seeing the rain-water is made a companion with the great deep in the augmentation of the drowning waters I see no reason why that should be urged against it especially seeing it is found that the earth emptied not all the water within her bowels but onely some For thus stand the words The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained their store therefore was not spent when they had sufficiently drowned the world but their fury rather was restrained when they had executed Gods purpose by climbing high enough above the hills Cardinall Cajetane was conceited that there was a mount in Paradise which was not overflown and there forsooth he placeth Henoch The like dream also they have amongst them concerning Elias And as their champion and Goliah Bellarmine is perswaded all those mountains onely were overflown where the wicked dwelt Iosephus also reporteth out of Nicholas Damascenus that the hill Baris in Armenia saved many who fled thither for succour But these are dreams and devices which are soon overthrown by Moses in his foresaid evident text where the words are so generall that they include all and every mountain under not onely the Aiery heaven as Cajetane collecteth but under the whole Heaven without exception And now after all what hindereth that there should not be waters above the concave of the Firmament and that the opening of the windows of heaven should not be more then the loosing of the clouds For it is affirmed and not without reason you see that the rain or a great part of it which fell in the universall Floud came from an higher place then the middle Region of the aire and that the upper waters are to be above the Firmament and not the parts of it is an assertion well agreeing to Moses his description of this second dayes work For as hath been shewed concerning the fowls and stars it is true that they are but in the Firmament and not above it neither is there any more Firmament then one seeing Moses mentions not a second The fowls indeed fly above the earth as the text it self speaketh in Gen. 1. 20. but not above the Firmament their course being as Iunius reads the place versus superficiem expansi coeli or ante expansum or coram expanso coeli but never supra expansum And as for the starres the text likewise saith ver 15. Let them be for lights in the out-spread firmament mentioning never more then one and the same Firmament But for the waters it is otherwise The Firmament is appointed to separate them as being between and not above them Esto expansum inter aquas it is learned Iunius his right version of the place ut sit distinguens inter aquas Fecit ergò Deus expansum quod distinguit inter aquas quae sunt sub expanso inter aquas quae sunt supra expansum That is Let there be a firmament between the waters c. Between the waters as having waters above it And how unlike it is that the upper waters should be placed otherwise let the former reasons witnesse For all things considered we need not stand so much upon Pareus his reading Super quasi in expanso and desuper expanso as if they were but above or on high within the concave as are the fowls and starres this I say we need not stand upon seeing Iunius readeth Supra expansum without any such nice salving although he thinketh with Pareus that these upper waters are no higher then the middle Region of the aire And also admit that some derive the word Schamajim or Shamajim which signifieth Heavens from Sham There or in that place and from Majim Waters concluding thereupon that these waters which we now speak of must be There viz. in the heavens and not above them although some I say make this derivation yet others derive the same word otherwise And no few be there who not without reason do suppose that it is no derivative nor compound word at all but rather that the Ismaelitish word Schama which signifieth nothing else but High or Above doth proceed from this word Schamajim which in English we reade Heavens In which regard the Etymologie helpeth nothing to prove the adverse part And yet as I said before let the reader take his choice For perhaps he may now think after all that if there be waters above the starry heaven and that part of those waters descended in the time of the Floud that then the Heavens would have been corrupted and dissolved as some have said the rain falling through them from the convexitie of the out-spread Firmament Sect. 3. An objection answered concerning the nature of the Heavens examining whether they be of a Quint-essence BUt concerning this it may be said that it is not known whether the heavens be of
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
rod spoils the childe Geminianus mentions the like custome of the foolish Ape but he applieth the embleme otherwise directing it as an example to decipher out the follie of a covetous man who bears up and down in the arms of his affection that fondling which he loveth namely the world but leaves and neglects other things wherein his love should shew it self casting them upon his back and as it were behinde him although afterwards it be his hap to suffer for it For when any necessitie shall urge the Ape to runne she casteth down the young one in her arms but the other behinde her sitteth still and hinders her course so that being oppressed she is taken In like manner when he whose onely love and joy was in the world is compelled by death to flie away he letteth go that which was his best beloved and thinking to escape the eager pursuit of his fierce tormentours he is deceived because the neglect of things to be regarded lieth heavie on him and they help now to make him wretched It is better therefore to be poore then wicked for it is not thy povertie but thy sinnes which shut thee ouâ—… from God and fond fooll do not they take pains without gains labour in vain and traffick ill who lose their souls to â—…ll their bagges For as Isaac shewed in blessing him who was to be blest the dew of heaven must go before the fragrant fatnesse of the fertil earth but in him who lost the blessing the earths fatnesse goes before and takes place of the dew of heaven But do you not see the pawing Bear he is a creature well known and such a one as is found in divers places of the world Plinie describeth this beast at large not onely shewing the time and manner of their birth but also of their retreating to their caves long time of fasting and of sleeping there They bring forth young within the space of thirtie dayes after their time of copulation which at the first be shapelesse and void of form without eyes without hair their nails onely appearing and hanging out each whelp being little bigger then a mouse and these by licking are moulded into fashion and day by day brought to perfection This beast can fast many dayes and by sucking his foremost feet asswage or somewhat mitigate his hunger Some say that they can be without meat 40 dayes and then when they come abroad they are filled beyond measure which voracitie and want of moderation they help again by vomiting and are provoked unto it by eating of ants But above all other things they love to feed on hony whereupon they will fearlesly disturb the bees and search into hollow trees for such repast not altogether to fill their bellies but most of all to help a dimnesse in their dull eyes Moscovia hath many such breeding bees and Munster tells a storie how a Bear seeking for hony was the cause of delivering a man out of an hollow tree There was saith he a poore countreyman who used to search the woods and trees for the gain and profit of hony and espying at the length a very great hollow tree he climbed up into the top of it and leaped down into the trunk or bodie sinking and sticking fast in a great heap of hony even to the breast and almost to the throat and having continued two dayes in this sweet prison during which time he fed himself with hony all hope of deliverance was quite gone for it was impossible he should climbe up and get out neither could his voice be heard although he cried with an open mouth especially in such a solitude and vast place of wood and trees so that now being destitute of all help and consolation he began utterly to despair and yet by a marvellous strange and as it were an incredible chance he escaped for it so fell out that he was delivered and drawn forth by the help and benefit of a great Bear which seeking for hony chanced to happen upon this tree the Bear scaleth it and letteth her self down into the hollownesse thereof with her back-parts first in manner and fashion of man when he climbeth Now the man in the tree perceiving this in a great fear and affrightment he claspeth fast about the reins and loins of the Bear who being thereupon terrified as much as the man is forced to climbe up again and violently to quit her self from the tree the man in the mean time using great noises and many outcries and so by this accident a wished but hopeles libertie was procured for the Bear being feared drew up the man and knew not of it And note that in Bears their head is very weak being contrary to the Lion whose head is alwayes strong And therefore when necessitie urgeth that the Bear must needs tumble down from some high rock she tumbleth and rolleth with her head covered between her claws and oftentimes by dusts and knocks in gravel and sand they are almost exanimate and without life Neither is it seldome that their tender heads catch deadly wounds although they cannot quickly feel them by reason of their ardent love to hony For as Olaus Magnus mentioneth in Russia and the neighbour countreys they use to catch Bears with a certain engine like the head of a great nail beset round with sharp iron pegs which they hang upon a bough just before that hole where the Bear fetcheth his hony who coming according to his wonted custome strives to thrust it away with his head but the more he puts it from him the stronger it cometh back upon him howbeit he being greedy of the hony in the tree ceaseth not to push against the engine untill at last his many knocks cause him faintingly to fall So have I seen many perish through their own vain and fond delights for as the sweetnesse of hony causeth the death of the Bear so the delight in sinne causeth the death of the soul. Geminianus applies it thus saying that as the hony-seeking Bear destroyes her self by her own folly in beating back the piercing hammer so man who seeketh after the pleasures and delights of sinne wounds himself by pushing against the pricks for the word of God as a hammer breaking the rocks resisteth both him and his sin which whilest he casteth from him it doth more strongly impinge upon him and will at the last day judge him to perdition The Bugill is of the same kinde with Kine and Oxen and so is that other beast which we call a Byson The Byson is a kinde of wilde Bull never tamed and bred most commonly in the North parts of the world He is also called Taurus Paeonicus The Paeonian Bull of which there be two kindes the greater and the lesse Neither do I think these to be any other then those wilde Bulls of Prussia mentioned by Munster in his book of Cosmography saying There be wilde Bulls
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
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
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-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
QVEMTRANSFIXERVNT which signifie They shall look on him whom they pierced the numerall letters being in either of these so many as will make 1532. Secondly for the yeare 1533 they had this false proof binding still upon numerall letters which they gathered out of these words IESVS NAZARENVS REX IVDAEORVM Iesus of Nazareth king of the Iewes here being so many as will make 1533. Thirdly for the yeare 1578 thus it was viz. they take these words ADVENTVS DOMINI and in them they have 2012 out of which number they subtracted 517 which they gathered from DIES ABBREVIABVNTVR and then the remainder makes 1495 unto which they adde the number of the letters a c n t s in adventus which were not numerall before yet by their naturall position in the alphabet or crosse-row they give 56 then again by the same reason they take 27 out of o and n the non-numerall letters in the word Domini both which numbers being added to 1495 do make 1578. Fourthly for the yeare 1588 the manner of calculating is as before for the yeare 1645 unto which number having raised their summe they subtract a e n t s viz. 56 and so they have 1587 yeares which they reckon compleat and referre their prediction to the beginning of the yeare 1588. Vide Gerardum in locis communibus pag. 185. Tom. 9. Fifthly for the yeare 1623 thus was the fancie IVDICARE VIVOS MORTVOS To judge the quick and the dead Now here as before they were led by numerall letters having so many as would make 1623 in which yeare they dreamed of the worlds ending Now these times we know are past long since but the event you see hath not answered to the prophesie Things therefore of the like nature being yet to come and built upon the same grounds cannot but prove as false But what need many words be spent about the confutation of such idle dreams and foolish fantasies Surely that great and terrible day of the worlds ending is a thing of greater moment then that it should be thus dallied with Let not therefore the quintessence of wit expose us to such impudent folly For although it may somewhat please us in shew yet when the best is made of it that can be it will be proved not onely the doting froth of a wittie brain but also a superstitious and an heathenish vanitie I have seen a world of fancies more upon this subject especially such as may be taken out of Cusa who was made Cardinall under Pius the second But seeing they are as idle as the former and built upon as false grounds I scarce hold them worth the answering Yet having come thus farre let me go a little further because in the next place I hope to meet some wiser men granting as indeed they ought that the precise day and houre of the worlds ending cannot be known yet they would not have any to be so base of judgement as to conclude thereby that an apparent length of this last age may not be found or that seemingly between such and such yeares the judgement day shall not be known to come For is it prophesied and why are prophesies if they either may not or cannot be understood It is recorded in Matth. 24. 15. Let him that readeth understand It is said Dan. 12. 10. None of the wicked shall understand but the wise shall understand And Revelation 1. 3. Blessed is he that readeth and they that heare the words of this prophesie and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand And Dan. 12. 4. it is said that these things towards the end shall be unsealed for many shall runne to and fro and knowledge shall be increased Now here I may answer that although some understand the foresaid texts to have relation to the times towards the worlds ending yet there be no few who contradict it affirming that what they alledge out of Daniel was accomplished about the time of Antiochus and that by running through which some reade running to and fro is meant the diligent perusing of the book namely that though at the first it were not regarded yet many in time to come should give their mindes unto it being as Polanus expoundeth thus to be understood that in the great persecution under Antiochus many shall be found faithfull who shall cleave unto this prophesie And as for the wicked not understanding it we must apply it unto the false brethren which should be in those dayes of persecution and give way unto Antiochus his wicked proceedings labouring to seduce and betray their brethren and they themselves living without any care to observe the accomplishment of this prophesie never comparing the event with the thing prophesied For as was foretold Dan. 11. 34. many shall cleave unto them fainedly c. And for sealing it up unto the end is meant the not making it too common on the sudden because from the time of these visions untill the dayes of Antiochus were about 300 yeares In which regard it is said concerning that other prophesie of the Revelation that it must not be sealed up because the time was at hand Revelat. 22. 10. Yea some part of it was not onely presently to take effect but even then in act chap. 1. verse 19. And as for that in Matthew it hath relation unto the destruction of Jerusalem under Titus and Vespasian Or secondly be it so that I do not altogether condemne this their inquirie because I verily think that a modest and religious search into these mysteries may see very farre yet neverthelesse seeing interpretours of such mysteries are not as yet at one among themselves especially in their Synchronismes and periods of time it cannot be denied but that even in them there is much matter of doubt although they stand upon better grounds then Hesychius did whom S. Austine confuted so that it is hard to say when such a time appeares indeed to be And further were it so that we had perfect Synchronismes of all things prophesied in the Revelation for that prophesie doth most concern the end and knew how to link them together yet if we erred in the true placing of our first link it must needs be that the end of our reckoning either fall short or else overshoot that period which otherwise might point out an apparent time if not directly of the worlds ending yet of such prophesies as shall be fulfilled before it endeth for perhaps that which some take to be the apparent time of the worlds ending may as well be taken for the time wherein other things prophesied shall be accomplished but how long the end shall be after them is unknown We know that the seventh Trumpet shall give an end to all because when that seventh Angel came and stood upon the sea and upon the earth he lift up his hand and voice to heaven swearing solemnely by him who liveth for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
ended and the next began And now if it be further demanded why God commanded the Israelites at their return out of Egypt to alter the beginning of their yeare from Autumne unto the Spring unlesse it had been so of old To that it is answered thus viz. that there are two reasons for it 1. The one is this They coming out of Egypt from the bondage of Pharaoh were to begin their yeare from that time in memorie of their deliverance And therefore it is said in Exod. 12. 42. It is a night to be much observed to the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt this is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel in their generations 2. And not onely so but also at the same time of the yeare as God had determined it there was a better and a greater deliverie to be wrought for mankinde namely such a delivery as should free him from the bondage of Satan by the death of Christ. Now this may be called the Deliverie of deliveries of which that other out of Egypt was but a figure because it was but from a corporall bondage whereas this was from a spirituall And thus came the yeare to be changed which ever before pointed to the time of mans creation but now it is made to point another way namely to the time of mans redemption by which God taught his Church then typically delivered how to expect the acceptable yeare of the Lord and time of mans redemption which was both proclaimed and purchased by that Lambe of God who taketh away the sinnes of the world whose offering upon the crosse was at the same time of the yeare when that Paschal lambe by which he was prefigured was slain which time why it is severed from Autumne hath been shewed Yea thus came the first to be last and the last first thus came Nisan to get the dignitie from the other moneths and to be called the beginning or first monethâ—…in the yeare At which we need not marvell for the time of mans redemption was a more worthy mark from whence to reckon then the time of his creation And thus have I delivered what I finde and verily think to be most probable in this matter Unto which may be added that as the evening was before the morning so was the Autumne before the Spring for the yeare and the day have a kinde of analogie between the one and the other as may be seen in the seventh day compared with the seventh yeare and therefore they do well serve the one to expresse the naturall beginning of the other CHAP. III. Containing a discourse of such things as are pertinent to the first dayes work Sect. 1. Of God the Architect of all and of the first part of the first dayes work TIme by whose revolutions we measure houres dayes weeks moneths and yeares is nothing else but as it were a certain space borrowed or set apart from eternitie which shall at the last return to eternitie again like the rivers which have their first course from the seas and by running on there they arrive and have their last for before Time began there was Eternitie namely GOD which was which is and which shall be for ever without beginning or end and yet the beginning and end of all things Aeternitas enim Dei solummodo naturae substantialiter inest saith one that is Eternitie is substantially onely in the nature of God When Moses therefore would have known Gods name he tells him Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel I AM hath sent me unto you By which name saith Junius he would have himself known according to his eternall essence whereby he is discerned from all other things which are either in heaven on the earth or elsewhere Which in another place is thus illustrated Egosum Primus Ultimus praeter me non est Deus I am the First and the Last and beside me there is no God Esay 44. 6. Or thus Before the day was I am he and there is none that can deliver out of my hand Esay 43. 13. To which that of the Psalmist doth well agree Before the mountains were brought forth or ever the earth and the world were made thou art God from everlasting to everlasting Psal. 90. 2. Thus we see that before ever any thing was God onely was who gave both a beginning and a being unto every thing that is and he in respect of his divine essence is but one Yet so as in that single essence of his there be three divine subsistences or persons all truely subsisting whereof every one is distinct from other and yet each hath the whole Godhead in it self and these are the Father Sonne and holy Ghost 1. John 5. 7. 1. The Father is a person who from all eternitie hath begotten the Sonne 2. The Sonne is a person from all eternitie begotten of the Father 3. The holy Ghost is a person eternally proceeding from the Father and the Sonne as the holy Scriptures witnesse These thus distinct in person not divinitie All three in one make one eternall Trinitie From which eternall and undivided Trinitie the whole world consisting of things visible and invisible took beginning as the originall words Elohim and Bara do well expresse For Elohim being a word plurall doth signifie Dii Gods but being joyned with a word singular namely Bara which is Created they then together shew that there are three persons in the Deitie and that the three persons are but one God who did create Or thus Those two words being the one of the singular the other of the plurall number do note unto us the singularitie of the Godhead and pluralitie of the persons And not onely so but they also shew that the three persons being but one God did all of them create For such is found to be the proprietie of the Hebrew phrase Elohim bara Creavit Dii The Gods created 1. Of the Father it is witnessed that he created as the fountain of goodnesse For saith S. James Every good and perfect gift is from above cometh down from the Father of lights Jam. 1. 17. Of whom and through whom saith S. Paul are all things Rom. 11. 36. 2. Of the Sonne it is witnessed that he created as the wisdome of the Father For when he created the heavens saith Wisdome I was there Prov. 8. 27. And again By him were all things created that are Coloss. 1. 14 15. namely by him who did bear the image of the Father and was the Redeemer of the world 3. And lastly of the holy Ghost it is witnessed that he createth as the power of the Father and the Sonne For by his Spirit he garnished the heavens and by his hand he hath formed the crooked serpent Job 26. 13. and chap. 33. 4. Or as the Psalmist hath it By the word of the Lord were the heavens made
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
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
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
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
may be also thought that both these waters dropping from clouds in the aire and also all other waters under the canopie of Heaven or within the concavitie of this Expansum are but the lower waters and those other which are separated from them must be in an higher place viz. above the firmament and so shall they be divided by the firmament otherwise not To which purpose Du Bartas thus I 'le rather give a thousand times the lie To mine own reason then but once defie The sacred voice of th'everlasting Spirit Which doth so often and so loud averre it That God above the shining firmament I wot not I what kinde of waters pent Or as Hyperius also writeth Assentiemur Mosi ac simpliciter statuemus aquas non tantùm infra firmamentum ubi in portiones quasi regiones certas eae ipsae sunt distributae aliaeque per aërem circumvehuntur aliae terris sunt adglutinatae verùm etiam super illud esse alias undique circumfusas That is Let us assent to Moses and plainly determine that there are not onely waters below the firmament as it were divided into certain portions and regions some of them carried about through the aire some fastened to the earth but also that there are other waters above the firmament spread round about it Which thing is also thus further manifested because those waters that are separated by the firmament are to be at all times separated For God in the creation of this firmament did not onely command that it should separate but also that it should be separating that is Let it continually separate or divide the waters from the waters quasi voluerit nullum esse tempus quo non distinguat as if he would have it that there should be no time wherein it might not distinguish between the one the other Which as it cannot be doâ—…e unlesse there be alwayes waters to be distinguished so neither can it be pertinent to those waters in the clouds because the aire is often cleare and those bottles of rain are not alwayes there And again it is from the vapours drawn from below that clouds and rain come which cannot at all times be but then onely when there is a naturall concourse of causes to effect it And then again when they are there they be soon gone for the rain proceeding from those vapours which we call the clouds stayeth not long in the aire but forthwith falleth down again and so by little and little the vapour consumeth and the cloud is gone How can it therefore be that these should be those supercelestiall waters separated from all other waters by the firmament seeing the firmament is above them and not onely so but also their proper place is here below being but at times drawn from hence and then it is as it were against their wills which makes them therefore hasten hither again with all the speed they can whereas on the contrary the firmament is to be between those waters and not over them separating them not at times but continually Neither may it seem strange how the out-firmament can be able alwayes to uphold them seeing as hath been said it was made strong by stretching out lifting then the waters up with it and therefore well fitted for this office and can no more fall then the heaven it self whose beams or rafters are laid in the waters as the Prophet speaketh Psalme 104. 3. And hereupon it also was that noble Bartas said I see not why mâ—…ns reason should withstand Or not beleeve that He whose powerfull hand Bay'd up the Red sea with a double wall That Israels host might scape Egyptian thrall Could prop as sure so many waves on high Above the Heav'ns starre-spangled canopie This was his opinion concerning the waters separated by the firmament of which opinion are sundry more But on the contrary side are other some who are of another minde affirming that they are meant onely of those waters in the clouds for say they the aire is called the firmament so also is the skie c. And of the clouds it is said in Job that God bindeth up his waters in thick clouds and the cloud is not rent under them So that first as every part of the water is called by the name of water in like manner every part of the firmament is called by the name of the firmament in which regard those waters in the clouds although no higher then the aire may be taken for those waters which the firmament doth separate and secondly that place in Job sheweth no lesse making it appeare how and in what manner the waters are separated by the firmament Furthermore Ex ipsa nubium natura saith Pareus From the very nature of the clouds this appeareth to be so for what other thing are the clouds but waters separated by force of the diurnall heat and by the cold of the aire made thick whereupon as Plinie calleth them they are said to be Aquae in coelo stantes Waters standing in the heavens Also it may be added saith Pareus that Moses makes mention but of two kindes of waters superas inferas the higher and the lower but the clouds are waters as hath been shewed and no low waters therefore they are the upper waters unlesse there be three kindes of waters which is contrary to Moses Besides this saith he is confirmed by the grammaticall construction of the words For Moses saith not that it divided from the waters which were supra Expansum but thus viz. from the waters which were desuper Expanso The sense therefore is not that the waters were carried up above the whole Expansum or Firmament but rather that they were carried upwards so as that with the firmament they were supra and desuper that is above and on high Also the name of heaven confirms no lesse for saith he the Expansum is called according to the Hebrews Schamajim or Shamajim from Sham There and Majim Waters which derivation is common And therefore those upper waters are not quite above the Expansum or the Firmament but are there that is in the Firmament namely in the middle Region of the aire Thus we see the difference concerning these waters And now let the reader choose which opinion likes him best But for mine own part I like this latter worst yet let me not tie another to be of the same minde any further then he pleaseth for it is no matter of faith and therefore we have our free choice according to the best reasons and most forcible demonstrations Wherefore let me proceed a little further that thereby as neare as I can I may set down that which seemeth to me the best meaning and nearest to the truth First then I answer that they do mistake who divide the Expansum into parts as if in so doing they could absolutely cleare the matter in question for it is not a part of
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
heat of the upper Region it is fired and so consumeth by degrees even as by degrees it ascendeth or peepeth into that hot place 2. Trabs ardens a burning Beam is an exhalation hot drie drawn beyond the middle Region of the aire the matter of which exhalation being long not very broad makes it seem like a beam or logge and because it is more grosse and heavie on the under part from the one end unto the other and on the upper part hath much aspiring matter equally dispersed it is transversly carried up and so being fired it lieth at length and standeth not upright 3. Round Pillars are of the same nature unlesse perhaps their light and heavie matter is not so equally or in like order disposed but rather heavier towards the one end then the other which makes it be carried up or presented in perpendicular fashion and also having the hottest and driest and most combustible matter driven to the superficies or out-side of it by reason of a contrary qualitied substance within it which makes it therefore be fired on all sides alike and appeare like a burning Pillar 4. Pyramidall Pillars are nothing differing from the other unlesse that the exhalation have more earthly matter in it below and not so much above for when the lighter and thinner parts are ascended to the top then the grosser heavier and thicker are left in the bottome which makes it therefore of fashion great beneath and small above 5. Burning Streams Spears or Darts is that Meteor which is called Bolis or Iaculum and is an Exhalation hot and drie meanly long whose thick and thinner parts are equally mixt and thereupon being fired in the highest Region it flameth on the thin or subtil part which neverthelesse because the matter is well mixed doth also send fire to the other parts insomuch that it seems to runne like a dart from the one unto the other Or if you will this Meteor or one very like it is thus generated viz. when a great quantitie of hot and drie Exhalations which indeed may fitly be called a drie cloud is set on fire in the midst and because the cloud is not so compact that it should suddenly rend as when thunder is caused the fire breaks out at the edges of it kindling the thin Exhalations which shoot out in great number like to fierie spears or darts the streaming or flashing being so much the whiter by how much the Exhalation is the thinner Such like coruscations as these we use to see many nights in the North and North-east parts of the skie 6. Caprae saltantes or dancing Goats are caused when an Exhalation hot and drie is so compact that on the one side or other it hath some parts which appeare as the appendices of it or joyned to the main Exhalation by an other kinde of Exhalation farre thinner then the main one so that the fire running on the main part and as it were outright by the way it cannot but seem to skip unto those parts on the sides inflaming them also which because it is variously and nimbly performed makes the flame seem to leap or dance just as wanton goats use to do when they are dancing or playing 7. Scintillae volantes or flying Sparks are caused when the matter of the Exhalation is not onely thin but in all parts thin alike but not compacted or knit together and not being closely joyned but interrupted by small spaces those parts which come up first into the highest Region are fired before the other that follow and thereupon they flie abroad like sparks out of a chimney even as when saw-dust or any such like matter is cast into the fire This Meteor by some is called Stipula ardens or Burning stubble 8. Stellae cadentes Shooting or Falling starres are caused when an Exhalation hot and drie is gathered as it were on a round heap but not throughly compacted nor yet so apt to ascend as other Exhalations which makes it therefore be beaten back again when it comes neare the cold confines of the middle Region and so hovering aloft by an Antiperistasis or repulsion by the contrary to it on every part it is set on fire and then sliding away it appeares as if a starre fell down or were thrown to the earth For shooting starres these some do fondly call As if those heavenly lamps from heaven could fall Moreover sometimes it is generated after another manner which is but in respect of the disposing of the matter and then the Exhalation is more long and narrow which being kindled at the one end burneth swiftly to the other even like a piece of waxed thread being lighted in a fire or candle Again some think that this Meteor is not so much set on fire as directly under some starre or other which gives it a shining But how this can be I cannot well perceive seeing it shooteth obliquely as oft as directly downwards 9. Lancea ardens or volans A burning or flying Launce is another fiery Meteor kindled in like sort that the former was and hath this name because the matter of it is so disposed that when it is fired it seems to be like a Launce 10. Illuminations or Fires scattered in the Aire and appearing in the highest part of the lowest Region are caused when very dry and hot Exhalations are drawn up and meeting with cold clouds are sent back again which motions to and fro do set them on fire and then their parts not being thick in equall proportion but as it were unjoyned together do seem as though Fires were scattered in the Aire Thus one way But sometimes the matter of this Exhalation is more nearely conjoyned and then if the Exhalation be large it is as if the whole Aire were on fire as appeared on the 15 day of November in the yeare of our Lord God 1574 in which yeare about the last day of March the strange star in Cassiopea's chair vanished and disappeared 11. Draco volans or a flying Dragon called by some a Fire-drake is a Fierie Exhalation whose matter is thick and as it were hard tempered together or rather not so hard as conglutinously conjoyned which lump ascending to the Region of cold is forcibly beaten down or back again by the force of which motion it is set on fire and not onely fired but also bent and violently made crooked For as hath been said the matter of it hangeth so conglutinously together that the repulse divides it not but by a strange encounter moulds it into such a fashion as seen afarre off looks much like a Dragon This is the opinion of the most But some say that it is done into this fashion between two clouds of differing natures the one hot the other cold and so perhaps it is sometimes made 12. Ignis fatuus or foolish Fire so called not that it hurteth but feareth or scareth fools is a fat and oily
saith he untill some yeares after the apparition so they shall continue for a long time afterward The beginning of the effect or some part of it was to fall out after the third septenarie of yeares from the first appearing of the starre as he also writeth which was afteâ—… one and twentie yeares about which time I plainly finde that the foresaid King was born For the time of his birth falleth into the yeare 1594 which is the very next yeare after the one and twentieth yeare from the starres first rising so that the yeare of his conception falleth into the very one and twentieth yeare it self or if you account inclusively from the yeare of the starres vanishing unto the yeare of the King of Swedens appearing or entrance into the world then not his conception but his birth falleth into the said one and twentieth yeare Which thing is also somewhat agreeable to Tycho his own meaning where he telleth us although he nameth no particular person that those noble Heroes which shall happen to be born at the first rising of this starre are ordained to be the authours and atchievers of such great mutations as should then be when the men ordained for them came to be fit and of ripe age to work them Thus he the difference between us being that he applyeth it to the birth of such eminent men as were to be born when the starre first appeared and I to that time when according to his conjectures the operation of it first began which albeit he casteth it into the yeare 1592 must not be untill the yeare after being the one and twentieth yeare from the starres first rising and the very yeare of the King of Swedens conception For he was born on the last day of November in the yeare 1594 being also as hath been said both terms included the very one and twentieth yeare from the starres first vanishing Neither doth the time of his birth fall out thus fitly but the place likewise which was to be the ominous nest concerning the occasion or bringing forth of one for the authour or beginning of the intended alterations is pointed at by the heavens to be such a place as hath for its latitude about 62 degrees from the Equator northwards for in that parallel the starre moved day by day and was verticall once every day to Norvegia Swedia Finlandia Livonia Moscovia and Tartaria with all such places as lie under the same parallel Now though the starre in his daily motion was in this manner verticall to more places successively then to the King of Swedens dominions yet at the time of the next new Moon which Tycho maketh a rule concerning the place from whence either the occasion or authours of the great changes should proceed it was just over the Meridian of Finland being verticall to that countrey And who but the foresaid GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS King of Sweden hath the countrey of Finland as a part of his dominions For he is not onely King of the Sweds Gothes and Vandals but also great Prince of Finland Tycho I confesse doth not directly name the countrey of Finland but chose rather to expresse the place by callng it Moscovia or Russia bordering upon Finland wherein I finde according to the observations of a learned and great Divine that he was something mistaken For in a book lately set forth and intituled The new starre of the North the said Authour having made some observations from Tycho's writings concerning that starre and applied them unto these times doth manifestly prove that it ought rather to be Finland bordering upon Russia then Russia or Moscovia upon Finland withall amongst other reasons which should make Tycho choose that place rendring this for one that perhaps he was loth to bring the prediction too neare home seeing there often happened divers distastes and quarrels between his Soveraigne the King of Denmark and the neighbouring King of Sweden Which upon this ground may the better be granted viz. because Tycho was once fain to hide his head for denoting in too direct terms a prediction too neare his own home although it afterwards proved true But I referre you to the book and proceed And now we shall see that not onely the time of his birth and place pointed at by the heavens but the chief time also when the starres influence should be most perceived doth point at him For Tycho witnesseth that about the yeare 1632 if not also a few yeares after the chiefest force and influence of this strange starre should shew it self the greatest significations depending upon the Trigonall revolution and transmutation of the Planets which force and influence why he referreth it to those times I leave to the admired perfection of his art wherein he was a kinde of Phenix and scarce hath left his parallel For will you heare King JAMES of blessed memorie and our late learned Soveraigne speak for him his commendations then will surely be no lesse For in certain verses as being able to judge both of him and his treatises he approves his labours and commends his skill as superexcellent The like also he doth in an Epistle which he wrote unto him some of which verses as I finde them englished are to this effect Great Tycho's labours also do fore-show Events which shall befall on earth below And by disasterous or fair Aspects What destinies on kingdomes God directs Now then if the chief effects shall demonstrate themselves about the yeare 1632 questionlesse the King of Sweden must not be baulked in his late proceedings but taken as a prime man upon whom the beams of this New star hath shined for his great famous victories and never enough admired conquests in Germanie that Sedes belli atchieved in so short a time have witnessed as much Nay when I heare himself speak to his souldiers and those citizens where he conquered I am confirmed For speaking to the men of Norimberg thus he saith Truely God hath marvelously preserved you as he hath also pleased to call me to this work For I had rather thought that the last day of judgement should come then that I should come into Norimberg and as you said your selves leave so farre behinde me mine own dominions good subjects and what else there is loving and deare unto me and to bring along with me so many brave worthies to expose their lives as I do mine own for the restitution safetie and preservation of the common Evangelicall cause and liberty of Germanie And again to those of his Court before Ingolstadt amongst other things he addeth this I know saith he that the good successe which it hath pleased God to afford me in my enterprises hath made some to be envious who labour to perswade the simple that I endeavour nothing more then mine own gain and the robbing and spoiling of others But I call to witnesse in this case the Princes who were thus spoiled which I have again established in their own right and estates as
same power remains still in the starres to exhale the matter as well after it comes into the highest Region of the aire as before it came there neither need we then imagine an abatement of their exhaling vertue Object 1. But perhaps it may be thought that the nature of the place above the Moon doth sufficiently denie the ascent of any terrene Exhalation so high there being too great a difference between the one and the other between the matter ascending and the matter of that place whither it ascendeth Answ. To which I may partly answer as before in the 4. Chapter and 3. Section that seeing the out-spread Firmament in the creation was taken from that masse of matter which lay here below and separated from it rather then created of any newer matter that therefore I say there cannot be so great a difference as to bring in such an Antipathie as will not at all suffer any terrene Exhalation to scale those flammantia moenia mundi or battlements of heaven but rather that without reluctancie or any great striving the one may admit of the other and entertain it as a guest neare of kin unto it self or unto the nature of that place where the continuing starres have ever had their residence For if I urge it further it may well be proved even by opticall demonstration that the great vast space from the earth as high as the fixed starres themselves is not of a diverse nature from the Aire for if it were then there would be a multitude of Mediums between the sight and the thing visible but there is no multitude of Mediums For where there is a multitude of Mediums there the beams which come to the sight from the thing visible would beget a multiplicitie of refraction in the said raies or beams but it is manifest that there is onely one refraction found in the beams of the starres and that but onely when they are neare to the edge of the Horizon at which time the ascending vapours are between our sight and them And therefore there is but one kinde of Medium by which the starres offer themselves to our sight And being but one Medium there cannot be such diversitie of natures between the heavens and things compounded of the elements Whereupon it may be concluded that an Exhalation may ascend into the territories of the starry heaven and so by consequent have a mutuall concurrence with such matter as the heavens do naturally afford towards the generating of supralunary Comets or new admired starres Indeed I must confesse that were I of Pythagoras his opinion I then would cry out with Auditus in the Comedie Heark heark list list now c. What are you deaf do you not perceive the wondrous sound and the celestiall musick the heavenly orbs do make with their continuall motion Or I would imagine firm spheres or solid orbs and so set an undoubted stoppage and hinder the passage of any Meteor above the Moon But seeing that tenent is made the fit subject of laughter I therefore passe it over Object 2. But may not the Element of Fire stand in the way and so consume such matter as ascendeth before it come beyond the Moon Answ. To which it is answered that the chiefest cause why men have been perswaded to think that Fire is generated immediately under the spheres and that within the concave of the Moons orb the said Fire as it is there generated hath there its place of residence is for no other reason but because of an imagined attrition of the spheres and orbs Which seeing they are taken away and that all is filled with Aire the Elementarie fire is not hindred from ascending but may have a more loftie station For questionlesse this kinde of fire as it is not visible to the sight so neither may it be thought any other thing then the more subtill light and hot part of the Aire in which regard it must needs be both in and of that part which is nearest to the highest heavens For both the motion of the heavens is there most swift and also there is the greatest neighbourhood to that infinite number of starres fixed in the heavens An earthly Exhalation may therefore climbe above the Moon and yet not runne through a fiery purgatory or be consumed by the way Mr. Lydiat our countreyman his opinion is that if we consider of this Element not as it is absolutely pure then the greatest part of it is in the starres of which see more in the fourth dayes work and some also is under ground as being there a great cause of generating metals occasioning the burning and breaking out of sundry sulfurous hills and the like But of this enough And in the consideration of it I have made way you see for the admittance of terrene Exhalations to joyn their forces towards the effecting of supralunarie Comets or new and strange admired starres This I say I have proved as a thing both possible and not unlike But that they do alwayes therefore thus concurre I am not certain neither will I stand curiously to decide it Let therefore learned Tycho his tenent go for currant concerning Cassiopea's starre that the heavens onely were the materiall parents of it and especially the Galaxia or white milkie way unto the edge of which place whilest it appeared it was situated and continued visible in the same for the space of 19 moneths or thereabouts And thus I conclude adding herewithall concerning other Comets whose station hath been supralunarie and time of continuance any thing long that if in them there could be any right to challenge a portion out of the same storehouse then questionlesse they were tyed to rest beholding both to the heavens and also to the earth for the matter of their composure But for ordinary Comets the case must needs be otherwise seeing their place and small continuing time confirm it These things for mine own part I think more probable then if I should affirm that the Planets afforded certain Exhalations which by force of the Sunne are expired and exhaled from them and being exhaled are made the matter of all kinde of Comets above the Moon yea and New starres also as some affirm consist of no other causes wherein they dissent from Tycho thinking contrary to him that the Galaxia affords no matter toward the composure of these appearances For as Fromondus a late writer affirmeth Simon Marius beheld a New starre in the yeare 1612 in Andromeda's girdle and one Iustus Prygius beheld another in the constellation of Antoninous Kepler in the yeare 1602 saw one in the constellation of Pisces and David Fabricius in the yeare 1596 saw another in the Whale all of them farre enough distant from the Galaxia or milkie way But suppose all this must the continuing starres therefore needs be forced to waste their own bodies and spend themselves in teeming such ample portions of matter as are required for glittering
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
it be grosse the beams piercing it can spread or dilate it but a little way If it be thin they then are able to dilate it further And as for their significations they sometimes signifie rain sometimes winde sometimes fair cleare and calm weather sometimes frost sometimes tempest and sometimes snow 1. Rain if the circle wax altogether thicker and darker 2. Winde when the circle breaketh on the one side The reason whereof is because the circle is broken by the winde which is above and not yet come down to us here below But by this effect above we may gather both that it will come and also from what quarter namely from that quarter where the circle breaketh first 3. But if it vanish away and be dissolved altogether or in all parts alike then it is a token of fair weather 4. Or of frost in winter when it is great about the Moon 5. Of snow when at the same time of the yeare it seemeth to be craggie and rockie 6. Or of tempestuous weather when it looketh ruddie and is grosse and broken in many parts And thus much concerning Circles Artic. 6. Of the Rain-bow THe Rain-bow is to be spoken of next And this is nothing else but the apparition of certain colours in an hollow watery distilling or dropping cloud directly opposite to the Sunne representing in its fashion half a circle Or thus It is a bow of many colours appearing in a dewie dark droppie and hollow cloud by reflection of the Sunne-beams opposite to it For this is certain that lightsome or luminous bodies do cause images colours or appearances upon slender clean and thin objects Now of all bodies the Sunne is most lightsome but the aire and water are clean thin and slender Here then it appeareth that the Efficient cause of the Rain-bow is the light or beams of the Sunne which falling into fit apt or convenient matter opposite to them are refracted and reflected to our sight The Materiall cause is not water in act nor yet thick aire but a dewie vapour which is not continuus sed potiùs corpusculis guttularum discretus not absolutely of one bodie but rather severed into many bodies or little drops The Form of it is to be gathered out of the Figure and Colours And for the Figure we see it is circular But yet it never representeth to us any more then a Semicircle and not alwayes so great an arch The reason of which is because the centre or middle point of the Rain-bow which is diametrally opposite to the centre of the Sunne is alwayes either in the Horizon or under it So that seeing our sight of the heavens is cut off by the earth in such a manner as that we can never see above half of them it must needs be that the appearance of this circle be either more or lesse to us according to the Sunnes great or little distance from the Horizon And as for the colours they are commonly accounted three viz. Ruddie Green and Azure To which some adde a fourth The first is in the thickest and darkest part of the cloud For where a bright shining falleth upon a darkish place there it representeth a ruddie colour being somewhat like a Flame The second is caused by a more weak infâ—…action being in a remoter and more waterie part of the cloud whereupon it looketh greenish The third which is further into the cloud proceeds from the weakest infraction and is therefore of a more dark and obscure colour tending to a blew or an azure hue And sometimes a fourth colour is also perceived being very like a yellow or orenge-tawnie proceeding from a commixture of the red and green according to Aristotles judgement of which the learned may see Iul. Scaliger exerâ—… 80. sect 4. Now these colours in some rain-bows are more vehement or apparent in others more remisse or obscure which is according to the aptnesse of the cloud c. And in rain-bows caused by the moon for sometimes though seldome they have been seen in the night the colours are weaker whiter and lesse conspicuous being in a manner as white as milk which is because the moon having a borrowed light is nothing so strong in the projecting her raies but farre more feeble then the sunne But come to the finall cause and you will finde it twofold partly Naturall partly Supernaturall As it is Naturall we take it either as a signe of rain because it cannot appeare but in a waterie cloud which is so prepared that it is ready to fall in very drops or as a signe of fair weather namely then when the beams of the sunne are strong and the heat of it so great that the moisture of the cloud is dried up and the drops attenuated into thin aire All which may be discerned after this manner viz. when the colours grow either darker and darker or clearer and clearer For if the colours appeare dark thick or obscure by little and little till at the last they bury themselves in a black cloud then rain followeth But if the colours by degrees grow clearer and clearer till at the last they vanish away then we may expect fair and bright weather And this as it is a naturall signe But now as it is Supernaturall and then we behold it as a signe or symbole of Gods mercie towards the world betokening that it shall never be destroyed again through any Deluge or universall Floud For it shall be a signe of the covenant saith God between me and the earth viz. that there shall be no more a Floud of waters to destroy the earth Gen. 9. From both which significations or ends it may well be called Iris for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek is as much as dico in the Latine signifying I say I publish I tell or I declare Iris therefore comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dico First because this bow publisheth or telleth to us the constitution of the aire Secondly because it declareth the covenant of God made with the world after the Floud shewing that his wrath is so farre forth appeased that he will never drown the world again which appeareth even in the order observed in placing the bow for we see it with the bended ends downwards and as one that holdeth a bow in peace insomuch that had it a shaft in it the earth should not be shot neither ought man to fear that the Lord will shoot any more such arrows of displeasure as before Some have thought that there was no rain-bow before the Floud but that it appeared since because God saith When I make the heaven thick with clouds I will put my bow in the clouds Gen. 9. To which it may be answered that God saith not that he will of new create a bow but that he will then put it into the clouds so as it never was before namely to be a signe c. So that although it were
not as a signe of any covenant before the Floud yet without doubt it was as a Meteor then as well as now and therefore was otherwise we might deny both bread and wine and water to be before the institution of the Sacraments for it is the same reason Wherefore as there was water before ever it was used for the water of regeneration in the Sacrament of Baptisme and as there was bread and wine before ever they were used as signes at the holy Communion so also the rain-bow was before ever it had that office to be a signe of Gods covenant between him and mankinde just as at this day it appeareth even to such as are not of the Church very Heathens and Pagans beholding it as well as we Besides there were from the beginning the same causes in nature to produce it for there wanted neither a sunne to draw vapours from waterie places nor yet a convenient place in the aire to thicken them into clouds neither was the sunne destitute of sparkling raies to make reflexion and infraction but as it is caused now so also then and to think otherwise were to think amisse Some again have been perswaded that this bow was before but was not in a cloud before And thus thought certain amongst the Hebrews But this is a reasonlesse assertion and against all Philosophie and not at all approved by Divinitie For how could that appeare in a cleare aire which can have no existence or being but in a dewing or distilling cloud Verily of both absurdities the former was the better namely that it was not at all and yet that also wanted grounds to uphold it as hath been shewed and is yet further manifest For seeing the Lord God in six dayes finished the creation and set the perfect order of all his creatures it followeth that the rain-bow had then his place either in being or in power And thus from two absurdities I bring you to a third For further more it hath been the opinion of some idle doting brains to think that there shall be no rain nor rain-bow 40 yeares before the end or destruction of the world by fire because the very aire say they must be prepared a long time before by a continuall drinesse and each thing made fit for combustion Which surely is a brain-sick fancie For what do they in this but shew their extream follie derogating not onely from reason but also from the power of God For is not God able to destroy the work of his own hands without such a supposed preparation and make the world combustible in an instant if need be Or should there be no rain and consequently no bow because it appeareth in a waterie cloud then how should the fruits of the earth be preserved Great famine and miserie must needs follow in the world if this be true For when the clouds drop no fatnesse then the ground pines away through barrennesse and when the heavens are iron then the earth is brasse whereas it is manifest that at the coming of Christ there shall be pleasant and fruitfull times times full of mirth wherein they shall eat and drink marrie and be given in marriage even as it was in the dayes of Noah Who therefore will think that these men are in their right mindes whilest they affirm that no rain shall fall by the space of 40 yeares before the world endeth The Jews as soon as they behold this bow not daring to gaze upon it do presently go forth and confesse their sinnes acknowledging that they are worthy to be destroyed with a Floud as the old world was and in being spared they celebrate the mercie and â—…lemencie of God for sparing them But saith Pareus although they mingle this religion with much superstition because they dream that the name of Iehovah is as it were engraven on the bow and because they turn their eyes away as from the majestie of God appearing there not daring to look upon it lest as may be said beholding the face of God they die Yet it is meet even for us upon the sight of it to be so farre forth touched with a reverence towards God that we passe not away the symbole of the covenant with a brutish dulnesse lest thereupon we grow unmindefull of Gods severitie and goodnesse There is also another thing observable concerning this bow which I may not forget namely this The mysterie which according to some mens fancies is involved in the colours For in a mysterie they would have it betoken both the baptisme of Christ by water and fire and also the two judgements of the world the one alreadie past the other yet to come that which is past appeareth in the watery colours shewing that the world hath been drowned that which is yet to come appeareth in the fiery colours shewing that the world shall be destroyed by fire or burnt up at the day of judgement But saith one these and the like applications are wittie and prettie rather then wise and pithie I leave them therefore and proceed Artic. 7. Of chaps or gapings in the skie THe Philosophers call this Meteor Chasma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod est hio vel dehisco to gape or open and in Latine it is Hiatus a word of the same signification There are two kindes of these gapings or openings the one wide the other round And although I reckon these amongst such fiery Meteors as are fiery onely in appearance yet it may be that they sometimes burn and sometimes onely seem to burn They seem to burn when the Exhalation by reason oâ—… the want of viscuous matter is not enflamed but enlightened rather on the outward parts having much raritie or thinnesse in them at which time the middle part receiving no light in regard that it is black and thick there appeareth as it were a gulf in the skie The reason whereof is because the black is compassed about with white which white presenting it self sooner to the sight then the black makes the black seem to be farre off and the white neare hand and the black being farre off seems like a gaping deep which as hath been said is sometimes greater sometimes lesse according to the fashion or quantitie of the Exhalation or cloud represented by it And after this manner do cunning painters deceive the eye in shadowing their pictures For when a bright cleare and aiery colour is laid circularly and a thick dark and obscure colour in the middle of it then the appearance is like some gulf hole deep or pit which they fashion diversly according to their skill in fancying the laying of their colours All this is when it burneth not But note that sometimes this Meteor burneth in very deed Which is when the Exhalation hath much viscositie or clammie matter in it the thick and dark not burning but remaining in the middest and the thinner-parts on fire deceiving the sight with a seeming gaping as
this they prove because the blast bloweth not farre but is like the winde that cometh out of a pair of bellows strong neare the coming forth but farre off is not perceived Upon thought of which let it also be known that the blowing of the winde sometimes one way and sometimes another way dependeth upon no other cause then upon the situation of the place from whence the exhalation ariseth and that it is sometimes stirred up one where sometimes another where proceedeth from the operation of the heavens Also know that windes diametrally opposite cannot blow together under one and the same Horizon with a continued blast For if they be of equall strength the one will be as powerfull as the other and so not one give place to either Or if their forces be unequall then the one will overcome the other and so the conquered must upon necessitie give place to the conquerour and rather joyn unwilling forces with him then be against him Yet neverthelesse if they be obliquely contrary they may blow together and by how much they are the more oblique by so much they stirre up the greater strivings and tempestuous blasts But if the exhalation be little tenuous or thin then we have onely a pleasant whisking winde such as may be called aura by which the aire is gently moved Also know that it is as possible to see the winde as the aire their substances being too tenuous to be perceived unlesse in a storm-winde whose matter is an exhalation so thick that it darkens the aire of which more shall be spoken afterwards as also of whiâ—…lwindes and the like Last of all as it is observed and found by experience the generall profit of winde by the unspeakable wisdome of the eternall God is wonderfull great unto his creatures For besides the alteration of the weather and change of seasons from drinesse to rain from rain to drinesse from cold to heat from heat to cold with frost and snow which all are necessary there is yet an universall commoditie that riseth by the onely moving of the aire which were it not continually moved and stirred would soon putrifie and being putrified would be a deadly poison and infection to all that breathe upon the earth Wherefore although we know not the particular place from whence it is raised or where it is laid down as Christ meaneth John the third yet it teacheth the admired providence of the Almightie insomuch that we may worthily crie out with the Psalmist and say Oh Lord how manifold are thy works in wisdome thou hast made them all Artic. 3. Of the division of windes and of their names and number THe Ancients as Plinie witnesseth observed onely foure windes East West North and South but the following ages added eight making the whole number to be twelve Foure whereof were principall and called Cardinall windes because they blew à quatuor mundi cardinibus from the foure quarters of the world The other eight they called Laterall because they were as it were side companions with the former foure The Cardinall were called by these names 1. Solanus Subsolanus or the East winde 2. Notus Auster or the South winde 3. Zephyrus Favonius or the West winde 4. Aquilo Septentrio or the North winde And again the laterall were called by these names that follow and thus placed from the Cardinall As first the East hath on the Southern side Eurus or Vulturnus and on the Northern side Coecias or Hellespontus Secondly the South winde hath on the East side Phoenix or Euronotus and on the West side Lybonotus or Austro-Africus so called because it declineth from the South something towards Africa Thirdly the West hath on the South side Lybs or Africus so called from Lybia and Africa the Regions from whence they proceed and on the North side there is Corus or Caurus called also Iapix and Olympias because it bloweth from the mountain Olympus Fourthly the North hath on the West side Cyrcius called also Thraschias from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 converto because it useth to overturn many things with it The Spaniards call it Gallicus because it is observed to blow from the coasts of new Gallicia a Mexicanian province And 〈◊〉 the East side of the North point there is blustering Boreas which is a bellowing winde blowing with a loud hollow sound and is therefore derived by Aulus Gellius in his Attick nights 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This division Aristotle also assenteth unto making three windes in every quarter as in the second book of his Meteors at the sixth chapter may be seen But the mariners make 20 more besides these insomuch that the whole circumference of the Horizon is divided into two and thirtie equall parts which they call and distinguish by severall names And now observe in this division that there be foure Cardinall windes as before foure middle windes which are just in the middest between each Cardine eight laterall already mentioned and sixteen collaterall making in the whole summe the aforesaid number of two and thirtie Know therefore that the Cardinall and middle windes are properly the principall the other being lesse principall and subordinate divided therefore into laterall and collaterall as hath been mentioned And as for those middle ones they be such as we call South-west South-east North-west and North-east windes Notolybicus is the South-west winde and Notapeliotes the South-east Borrholybicus is the North-west winde and Borrhapeliotes the North-east The rest being sixteen in number and collaterall have their places one between each of the other and so the circumference is divided into 32 parts as before I shewed Now the names of these sixteen are borrowed from those lateralls with whom they have the greatest neighbourhood by adding Meso and Upo to them For Meso comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 medius because it is in the middle between a principall and a laterall winde and Upo comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sub because it is as it were subject to that laterall winde next unto which it is placed and from whence it taketh the name As for example Eurus is a laterall winde a little from the East towards the South and this hath on each side of it one collaterall That which is between Notapeliotes or the South-east winde and it is called Mes'eurus being middle between a principall and a laterall But that which is between the East and it is called Up'eurus as being subject unto Eurus And by observing this order you may give names unto all the rest for Meso and Upo will compound them Yet neverthelesse ordinarily the mariners name them thus As North North and by West North North West North West and by North North West North West and by West West North West West and by North West West and by South West South West South West and by West South West South West and by South South South West South and by West
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
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
Egypt and after him Darius K. of Persia dared not to make a cut out of the Red sea into Nilus for fear of drowning the countrey because they supposed that the sea lay three cubits higher then the land of Egypt yet as some report how truely I cannot tell the Ptolomies kings of Egypt effected the work without any danger of inundation But suppose they had not done it or suppose it were granted that the Red sea were higher then the plains of Egypt yet it followeth not unlesse one swallow can make a summer that the sea in generall is every where higher then the earth As for the height of the Red sea above the land neare adjoyning to it Aristotle seemeth to give a reason perswading himself that there is such a change in the universe as that that which hath been sea is sometimes land and that which hath been land is sometimes sea and so he thinketh of those low grounds neare the Red sea that they have been gained from the sea The like we may also think of many places in the Netherlands and of that small part of sea which is between Dover and Callis as Verstegan proveth in his restitution of decayed antiquities cap. 4. pag. 97. Fifthly suppose that certain springs arise out of the highest mountains must the sea therefore needs be higher then those mountains surely I think not For albeit I be not of Aristotles minde nor of their opinions who do not derive the rivers from the seas nor make subscription unto them who give a sucking and an attractive power to the veins of the earth yet I finde it as a thing possible although that part of the sea which lieth opposite to the head of the fountain or to the place where the water first breaketh out be lower then the ground that the said water may neverthelesse easily ascend and not break forth untill it finde a place convenient Now this ascent is caused by the sea which seeing it is a vast bodie is very ponderous and heavie and cannot be thrust back by the water at the head of the fountain opposite to it but rather it doth potently and strenuously croud on the said water through the hollow ports and passages of the earth untill at the last it springeth forth Were it so indeed that there were an equall weight of both waters I mean of the sea-water driving and of the spring-water arising then the ascent of the one could not be higher then the superficies of the other but seeing the weights are unequall which Cardan did not well consider the stronger and heavier must needs drive on the weaker and lighter causing it sometimes to ascend even above it self Sixthly and lastly that which the Psalmist witnesseth concerning the standing of the waters on an heap I take to be nothing else but the gathering of them to one place so and in such a manner that their coming together may be called Seas and their forsaking the land be called Earth for if one place of Scripture be expounded by another it will appeare to be even so First because it is said Ecclesiastes 1. 7. All the rivers go into the sea but the water hath his naturall course downwards and cannot be forced up but by the heavier weight as hath been shewed Secondly because it is said Psal. 107. 23. They go down to the sea in ships down as to the lower place and not up as to the higher And for that alledged out of Jeremy viz. Fear ye not me c. The Prophet speaks there of no miraculous work against nature but of the ordinary providence of God by naturall means keeping back and bounding the sea as at the 24. verse is manifest For there he gives the like instance of the rain which we know is not wrought by miracle and yet it sheweth the watchfull providence of God preserving the world by the naturall course of the creatures Judge then if they be not mistaken who would have the sea higher then the earth The fourth question is Whether there be more water then earth Now here I am perswaded that the answer may be either double or doubtfull For if we have respect to the known parts of the world then I think there may be more sea then land But if we have respect to all both known and unknown then perhaps there may be as much land as sea For we see that in the maps of the world the Southern parts are not known and therefore they write Terra Australis nondum cognita which whether it be sea or land is uncertain Pareus upon Genesis is perswaded that the land is more then the sea alledging a proof out of Esdras where it is said that when God commanded the waters to be gathered he gathered them into the seventh part of the earth and dried up the six other parts which although it be Apocryphall in respect of the autoritie of the book yet saith he it serves to shew that the waters are not more then the earth The next question is Whether the earth be founded upon the waters The Psalmist seemeth to affirm it Psal. 24. verse 2. For according to the common reading it is He hath founded it upon the seas and prepared it upon the flouds To which it is answered that if the earth as it is be the receptacle for the waters or holdeth the waters in the concavities of it how can it be that the waters are in stead of a foundation Job saith He hangeth the earth upon nothing chap. 26. 7. If upon nothing then not upon the waters for they are something And again even the Psalmist also saith The foundation of the earth cannot be moved Psal. 104. 5. If not moved then not founded upon the waters for they are moveable flitting to and fro sometimes this way sometimes that way and never standing still Wherefore when the Psalmist saith The earth is founded upon the seas he meaneth that it is so placed above them as that it is made fit to be a place for habitation And so Expositours understand the Hebrew word Gnal viz. in such a sense that it doth signifie above and not upon In which sense the waters that it sustaineth do not hold it but are holden by it for they are in it tanquam in utre as in a certain vessel and do alwayes strive to come as neare the centre as is possible For conclusion then of this question thus much must be known namely that when God made the world he made all things in number weight and measure insomuch that the earth although it be hanged upon nothing is so equally poysed on every side that it cannot but be firmly upheld and no more fall then the sun out of the firmament or the starres out of heaven For hath not man sometimes shewed an admired portion of skill in this or that rare work which he hath wrought and effected by nothing else but onely the deep and profound rules of
no such luckie flouds there it is found that these bounteous watrie bodies yeelding vapours do purchase for them such dropping showers of rain that the valleys stand so thick with corn that they laugh and sing and therefore these are great benefits challenging most humble thanks as it is Psal. 107. The third is that they can quell the rage of the hottest element and keep our mansions from cinders or a flamie conversion into ashes The fourth is that they yeeld us an easinesse and speedinesse of conduct and traffick by which each place partaketh of the blessings of every place Yea these and many more are the benefits of water without which the life of man could not be sustained But here I contract my sails and end this question for by coming on the shore I shall the better view that which remaineth concerning this liquid element Wherefore it followeth The next and last question propounded was concerning the fluxion and refluxion of the sea wherein I purpose as neare as I can to shew both why seas have that alternate motion as also why such murmuring brooks and rivers as do not ebbe and flow are destitute of the foresaid courses The motion of the sea is either naturall or violent The first is performeth on its own accord the other it doth not but by some externall force compelling it The first being a naturall motion is such as is in every other water namely that all waters do evermore flow into the lowest place because they have an heavinesse or ponderositie in them And thus the ocean naturally floweth from the North where it is highest unto the South as the lower place for there in regard of the great cold the waters are not onely kept from drying up but also increased whilest much aire is turned into water whereas in the South by reason of great heat they are alwayes sucked up and diminished Now this motion is called a motion of Equation because it is for this end namely that the superficies of the water may be made equall and distant alike on every side from the centre of gravitie The other being that which dependeth upon some externall cause is such as may be distinguished into a threefold motion One is rapt and caused by force of the heavens whereby it floweth from East to West The second is a motion of Libration in which the sea striving to poise it self equally doth as it were wave from one opposite shore to another And note that this is onely in such as are but strait and narrow seas being a kinde of trepidation in them or as I said before a motion of Libration just like a rising and falling of the beam of an equall-poised balance which will not stand still but be continually waving to and fro The third and last is Reciprocatio or Aestus maris called the ebbing and flowing of the sea The cause of which hath added no little trouble nor small perplexitie to the brains of the best and greatest Philosophers Aristotle that master of knowledge helps us little or nothing in this question And yet Plutarch affirmeth that he attributed the cause to the motion of the sunne Others have gathered from him that he seemed to teach it was by certain exhalations which be under the water causing it to be driven to and fro according to contrary bounds and limits But howsoever he taught or whatsoever he thought this we finde that nothing troubled him more For as Coelius Rhodiginus writeth when he had studied long about it and at the last being weary he died through the tediousnesse of such an intricate doubt Some say he drowned himself in Negropont or Euripus because he could finde no reason why it had so various a fluxion and refluxion ebbing and flowing seven times a day at the least adding before that his untimely and disastrous precipitation these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quandoquidem Aristoteles non cepit Euripum Euripus capiat Aristotelem That is Although Aristotle hath not taken Euripus yet Euripus shall take Aristotle meaning that that should end him whose cause could not be comprehended by him But leaving Aristotle we shall finde as little help from his master Plato who as did also the Stoicks attributed the cause to the breath of the world Such also have been the fancies of others among whom Kepler may not be forgotten who in good earnest affirmeth and beleeveth that the earth is a great living creature which with the mightie bellows of her lungs first draweth in the waters into her hollow bowels then by breathing respires them out again A prettie fiction this and well worthy the pen of some fabling poet rather then to be spoken in good sober sadnesse and affirmed as a truth Others would have the cause to be by reason of waters in the holes of the earth forced out by spirits which comes something neare to that before concerning the breath of the world A third sort attribute the cause to the circular motion of the earth affirming that there is a daily motion of the earth round about the heavens which it performeth in 24 houres the heavens in the mean time onely seeming to move and not moving in very deed This opinion came first from the Pythagoreans and is defended by the Copernicanians as an effect of the foresaid motion As for example the earth moving swiftly round the water not able to follow the motion is left behinde and caused to flow to and fro like as in a broad shallow vessel may be seen for put water in such a vessel and let it be swiftly pulled forward and then you shall see that by being left behinde it will beat it self against the one side before the other can at all partake of its company and so it is also in the earth leaving the waters behinde whilest it moveth But if this opinion be true first tell me how it comes to passe that the sea doth not ebbe and flow alwayes at one and the same time but altereth his course and is every day about one houre later then other Secondly shew me why the tides are at one time of the moneth higher then at another Thirdly let me be informed why broad lakes and large rivers do not flow as well as seas Fourthly let me be rightly instructed how it comes to passe that things tend to the earth as their centre if the sunne as Copernicus and his followers imagine be the centre of the world Fifthly shew me why the aire in the middle Region is not rather hot then cold for surely if the earth should move round with a diurnall motion as they maintain then the middle Region must be either farre higher then it is or else the aire would be so heated by going round that the coldnesse in it would be either little or none at all for it is a ruled case that Remotio à motu circulari dat quietem frigiditatem et gravitatem sicut
sometimes constraining it to sink below them In an ebbe he heaves it up and in a floud he lets it sink As improbable also is that of some others who imagine one Angel to be an Angel of the water whose office is as in the pool of Bethesda to move the waters to and fro and for proof of this that place is alledged in the Revelation where when the vials were poured out upon the kingdome of the beast one of the Angels is called an Angel of the waters But know that the same answer made before concerning the moving of the windes will serve to stop this gap Or were it so that we must be tied to a literall sense the compulsion overthrows the assertion because he is called an Angel of the waters not for that he causeth them to ebbe and flow but because it was his office to corrupt them and turn them into bloud More probable was their opinion who attribute the cause to certain subterranean or under-sea fires whose matter is of neare akin to the matter of the Moon and therefore according to her motion they continue their times of burning and burning they make the sea so to boyl as that it is a tide or high-water but going out the sea sinks again But now if this opinion were true then the water in a tide would be thinner through the heat which causeth it to ascend thinner then at other times and so a ship carrying one and the same weight would sink deeper in a floud then in an ebbe which experience shews to be otherwise Yea were it so that there were such supposed fires in the bottome of the sea causing it to swell up like boyled water then it would also follow that the sea-water would be so hot that it might not be touched For if the heat of the supposed fire be sufficient to make it ascend it is sufficient also to make it hot which would appeare lesser in an ebbe then in a floud Wherefore omitting these and the like opinions the most allowable is to attribute this flux and reflux to the effects of the divers appearances of the Moon For we see by experience that according to the courses of the Moon the tides are both ordered and altered By which it is not improbable that the waters are drawn by the power of the Moon following her daily motion even as she is carried with the Primum Mobile Yea were it not so that the sea were hindered by some accident some have supposed that these waters would go round from East to West in 24 houres and so round again even day by day The accident hindering this circular motion is in regard that the West ocean sea is shot in between the firm land of America on the West part and the main land of Africa and Europe on the East part But were it so that there were no such accidentall let in the sea to be hindered by the land it would orderly follow the Moon and go daily round And seeing also it is hindered by such an impediment it is a probable conjecture to think that it cannot but be forced to retire for the firm land beats it back again Thus Mr William Bourn in the 5 book of his treasure for travellers chap. 6. determineth Others there be who attributing the cause to the moon do demonstrate it after another manner namely that through her influence she causeth these alternate motions and this influence of hers worketh according to the quadrate and opposite aspects of her position in the heavens or according to the quadrate and opposite configurations from that place where she was at the beginning For the seas saith a well learned writer begin to flow when the moon by her diurn rapt motion from East to West cometh to the nine a clock point in the morning or is South-east then they will continue flowing untill she come to a quadrate aspect or to 90 degrees which will be about 3 of the clock in the afternoon or be South-west when they cease from flowing and begin to ebbe continuing so untill she come to 180 degrees or the opposite place which will be somewhat after nine of the clock at night being the opposite place to that from which she began her flowing Then again they begin to flow and so continue untill she attain to 270 degrees from her first place which will be after three in the morning And then lastly they begin to ebbe and so continue still untill the moon come to that place where she was at the beginning for there the floud begins again Thus it is ordinarily yet her illumination the sunne and other starres may hasten hinder or something alter the moons influence as we see in spring-tides at the change and full and neap-tides at quarters and half quarters of the moon confessed by those who have been great masters in Astrologie And let this also be known that though the moon have dominion over all moist bodies yet not alike because of other causes concurring as the indisposition or unfitnesse of the subject or for want of matter and the like considerations As for example though it be probable that there be tides in mari Atlantico yet they are not to be perceived by reason of the vast widenesse and profunditie thereof in other places also of the sea are no tides being hindered by the strength of some current which prevaileth and in fresh water there is no tide because of the raritie thinnesse and subtiltie thereof which cannot retain the influence of the moon And note also that in such havens and rivers as ebbe and flow there may be great diversitie which cometh to passe both according to the indraught as also by reason of the crooked and narrow points and turnings of the banks which do let and stay the tide from that which is the common and ordinary course in the main bodie of the sea but afterwards when it is in and hath taken his sway then it cannot so soon reverse back but must continue untill the water behinde it be descended or ebbed into the sea The river Thames may serve as an instance in this for it is not a full sea in all places of it at one instant being three parts of a floud at the lands end before it can be any floud at London But were it so that there were no creeks islands straits turnings or other accidentall hinderances then there should be no difference found in any sea but the whole bodie should be swayed up and down with a constant course whereas since it is otherwise the times for every such place must be once found out that thereby they may be known for ever Wherefore the cavils of some men are nothing worth who by bringing particular and rare perhaps vain examples do think to take away this power from the moon For sith this lunar regiment is pertinent to most seas and that all our ocean doth follow her the exceptions taken
devoted pilgrims count this way For sure the world is but a gaudie ball Whose quilt is vanitie no joy at all Rouze then thy minde witcht mortall from the ground Think of that place where true joyes may be found Choak not thy soul with earth for thou dost winne Nought for thy care but punishment of sinne Rouze then I say thy thoughts think what it is To be partaker of eternall blisse For when the drie-land God did make appeare 'T was not that man should think his heaven's here Sect. 4. Concerning the sprouting springing and fructification of the earth I Am now come to that which I called the third and last part of this dayes work and it is the budding and fructification of the earth For after God had discovered it and made it drie he commands it to bring forth every green thing as grasse herbs trees c. by which he caused it to change a mourning black and sad-russet weed into a green gallant rich enameled robe and ladylike to paint it self in braverie having green grassie locks whose hair doth not more adorn then profit whose rosie cheeks are not more admired then for their vertues wisht whose frank free fragrant fruitfull breasts do so nourish her own children sprung from her never resting wombe that they again adde nourishment to other things both man and beast gaining by her never ending labours For God by saying Let it bring forth did not onely give an abilitie or power of bringing forth but brought that power also into act causing this act to be so begun that it might be continued from thence to the very end of time And to this purpose we see it is that the herb must bring forth seed and the tree bear fruit For God would not that either the herb should be sterill or the tree barren but with their seeds and fruits according to their kindes by which it was and is that their kindes both were and are preserved For first we see the buds spring up these at the first are tender but afterwards growing a little older we call them herbs the herbs being of convenient growth bring forth flowers under the flowers grow and wax ripe the seeds the seeds being ripe and cast into the ground do again bring forth the tender buds and they herbs in their severall kindes and so on as before by which you may see how God hath constituted a never ending course in nature being the same in the trees also as well as in the herbs For their tender branches do not grow to be woodie but by little and little then they aspire to the height and name of trees and being trees they blossome from their blossomes arise fruits and within their fruits be seeds and in those seeds resteth the power of other sprouts or tender shoots Now some would observe from hence that here is mention made of three kinde of plants and fruits that the earth bringeth forth viz. the bud the herb and the tree which by others are distinguished into herbs shrubs and trees But I rather think the bud is to be exempted and not taken as one peculiar thing proper to a kinde of its own For as I have already shewed that which is the bud may be taken either for the tender shoot of any herb or grasse or else for the tender and unwoodie branches of shrubs and trees for that which they be in their sprouting they are not in their perfection neither are they in their perfection what they be in sprouting And is it not an endlesse wonder to see the varietie growth power and vertue of these the earths rich liveries some great some lesse some little some low some large some long some whose vertue excells in this some whose power appeares in that some hot and moist some cold and drie some hot and drie some cold and moist Of all which I purpose to give my reader a taste that thereby he may be driven to admire the rest Herbs hot and moist ANd first of all I begin with Basil in Greek it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Ocimum Basilicum or Râ—…gium This is an herb hot in the second degree and somewhat moist Galen would not that this herb should be taken inwardly because it hath a kinde of superfluous moisture joyned to it but being applied outwardly it is good to digest distribute or concoct We in England seldome or never eat it yet we greatly esteem it because it smelleth sweet and as some think comforteth the brain But know that weak brains are rather hurt then holpen by it for the say our is strong and therefore much smelled unto it proeureth the headaeh and as the authour of the haven of health affirmeth out of Hollerius Basil hath a strong propertie beyond all these For saith he a certain Italian by often smelling to Basil had a scorpion bred in his brain and after vehement and long pain he died thereof Moreover that we shunne the eating of it is also necessary because if it be chewed and laid afterwards into the sunne it engendreth worms Mr Thomas Hill in his art of gardening testifieth that the seeds of Basil put up into the nose procure sneezing and being mixed with shoemakers black do take away warts killing them to the very roots The wilde Mallow is called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying a 〈◊〉 of pain and in Latine it is Malva sylvestris It hath a certain moderate and middle heat in it together with some moisture The leaves stamped with a little hony and one anointed with them shall not be stung by bees wasps or the like Borage is a common herb and yet some account a fourefold difference in it as thus Garden Borage white-flowred Borage never dying Borage so called because fair blew flowers ripe seeds and buds for new flowers may be seen all at once on it and also another kinde of Borage which is little differing from the former excepting that the flowers look fair and red This herb is hot and moist in the first degree Unto this may be joyned Buglosse which according to Dioscorides as Mr. Gerard writeth is the true Borage whereupon saith he many are of an opinion that the one is but a degenerate kinde from the other In the Greek it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in the Latine Lingua bubula Plinie giveth a reason of this name which is because it is like an oxes tongue Moreover he likewise calleth it Euphrosynum from the effect namely because it maketh a man merry and joyfull For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Laetitia and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth some such thing as doth laetitiam adferre or bring mirth which he witnesseth of this herb to be true saying that being put into wine it increaseth the delights of the minde Plin. lib. 25. cap. 8. The like is also said of Borage Ego Borage gaudia
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
which they are cherished into thin aire and so doing nature is kept from perishing before her time Neither let it seem strange although the starres be granted to consist most of a fierie temper that therefore they cannot be cherished by watrie humours for it is certain that fires are endued with sundry qualities or forces according to the divers mixtion of matter or divers disposition of the subject From whence it comes to passe that a bituminous flame is not quenched but nourished in water and the fire of lightning is said to burn the fiercer when we strive to quench it These waters therefore sweating in the likenesse of thin vapours through the utmost extent or roof of the out-spread Firmament which was made strong by stretching out and by which they are upholden do both supplie that decay of aire which otherwise would be and also do so temper and cherish the diuturnitie of the starres that thereby they shall continue untill the end of the world Elementorum transmutationes saith one sunt inaequales ergò proportiones ac majores quidem eorum quae faciliùs transmutentur in alia hoc ex necessitate non dico ad mundi aeternitatem sed diuturnitatem Aqua autem multò magìs mutatur in terram quà m terra in ipsam aër hoc aquae damnum sine maximo sui dispendio resarcire nullo modo potest nisi ab aquis supercoelestibus And perhaps the daily wasting of these waters may be the cause that the world is perceived to have a successive declination and to grow old as doth a garment untill at the last age for want of matter to keep an harmonious transmutation in the conservation of it shall according to the determined purpose of Almighty God suffer it to end as being worn out and little able to continue any longer Which when it shall be or how he intendeth to shorten it rests onely in the secret counsel of the holy Trinitie the divine word neverthelesse testifying that as tokens before it there shall be signes in the sunne and the moon in the heavens and starres For the starres shall fall from heaven and the powers of heaven shall be shaken Cadent de coelo stellae saith one non ratione substantiae sed lucis quia lumen suum retrahent obscurè reddent Which saying agrees directly to my meaning when I speak of the waters wasting For as the elements before from time to time have suffered a transmutation and shall now begin to devoure one another so the starres shall fade and perhaps be weakened in their qualities by having the lesse powerfull elementarie part in them turned by the more powerfull or if not so yet much altered by that sensible decay in the waters above the heavens And thus though I differ from Aristotle and the Peripateticks yet I have not much declined from the paths of other ancient Philosophers or from the steps of Plato in which how farre in my judgement we may follow the Academicall sect the Stoicks and those of Epicurus hath been related Howbeit I leave all free to the more judicious though for mine own part I think thus of the worlds Systema Let therefore those of the adverse part pitch their censure with the more favour and so I proceed to the following articles Artic. 2. Of their order and place in the skie and how it comes to passe that one starre is higher then another HAving already shewed that the whole concave of the heavens is filled with no firmer matter then soft and penetrable aire and that the starres have no solid orbs to uphold and move them it may not unfitly be questioned how they should hang in such a weak yeelding place and yet according to their times keep such severall certain distances one from another as we see they do To which perhaps some would answer that every starre in respect of his either more or lesse fiery qualitie doth either more or lesse ascend from the centre and so according to his gravitie or levitie rest naturally higher or lower as in his proper place the aire having a like power in the upholding of fiery bodies which the water hath in carrying of airie bodies For as a piece of Brasill or Lignum vitae will sink lower into the water then some lighter kinde of wood wherein there is more aire In like manner that starre which hath most of his matter from the more grosse elements takes his place in the lowest room whereas the lighter ones are naturally seated higher And indeed this is an answer which would serve the turn and bear out the matter well enough if there were no starres but those which we call the fixed starres for they are never observed to be higher or lower but alwayes of one and the same distance from the centre But seeing there be Planets likewise whose distances are unconstant and whose places are at some one time farre more absent from the earth then at some other nay Mars is sometimes nearer then the sunne seeing it is so I say their gravitie or levitie cannot absolutely be the cause but rather ought this to be referred to that infused force which his hand first gave them who placed them there For as the Sea being stirred by the moon to a loftie flux and having lifted up his rolling waves above the neighbouring banks would in all probability overflow the earth if the Almightie had not infused it with some occult qualitie saying Hitherto shalt thou come and no further as we reade in Job So likewise the starres would not keep their high and low places at certain infallible times so as they do and be so orderly in their motions as they are were it not from the power first put into them when they were placed in the firmament of which I spake but a little before when I shewed they were no living creatures For conclusion therefore I like well of the former reason if it be referred to the fixed starres but as concerning the Planets we see that it holdeth not in all and every part nor yet is absolutely found sufficient And yet for further satisfaction of the curious let it be supposed that the aire is ever thinnest in that place whereunto the sunne is nearest so that though the Planets naturally have but one place yet accidentally they may be found either higher or lower according to their approaching to or from the place of the sunne like as may be seen in one and the same weight if it be proved how unequally it will sink in divers waters and in waters of a differing thicknesse Of which reade more in Mr Lydiat his Praelectio Astronomica in the fourth and eighth chapters But in the mean time ever after admire the wisdome of thy Maker and praise his holy name For he hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in perpetuall remembrance O never let these works forgotten be Their art is more then humane
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
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
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
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
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
naturall place wherein either of them live or that we consider their resemblance in parts or their manner of motion For first the place of fishes is the water the place of fowls the aire both which are diaphanous cleare moist and easie yeelding elements Secondly that which finnes be to fishes wings and feathers are to birds And thirdly that which swimming is to fishes in the waters flying is to birds in the aire The one moves himself by his sinnes the other by his wings The one cuts and glideth through the liquid aire the other shoots and darteth through the humid water The one makes paths in that subtil concave between heaven and earth the other draws furrows in the ploughed sea and both tracts are indiscernible either place again closing no longer open then their native dwellers flit through their yeelding gates And first of all me thinks I see the loftie Eagle king of birds towring on high in the heaven-aspiring aire And amongst all fowls the Eagle onely can move her self straight upward and downward perpendicularly without any collaterall declining Munster This bird is commended for her faithfulnesse towards other birds in some kinde though sometimes she shew her self cruell They all stand in awe of her and when she hath gotten meat she useth to communicate it unto such fowls as do accompany with her onely this some affirm that when she hath no more to make distribution of then she will attach some of her guests and for lack of food dismember them Her sight is sharp and quick insomuch that being in the highest part of the aire she can easily see what falleth on the land and thereupon the sooner finde her prey It is said that she can gaze upon the sunne and not be blinde and will fight eagerly against the Dragon for the Dragon greedily coveting the Eagles egges causeth many conflicts to be between them The Poets have called her Joves bird and Jupiters armour-bearer because she is never hurt with lightning She is a bird tenderly affected towards her young insomuch that she will endanger her own bodie to secure them bearing her young ones on her back when she perceiveth them to be assaulted with arrows Hares Harts Geese and Cranes are such creatures as this bird useth to prey upon And for her practise in killing the Hart thus it is when she laboureth to drive the Hart headlong to ruine she gathereth saith Munster much dust as she flieth and sitting upon the Harts horns shaketh it into his eyes and with her wings beateth him about the mouth untill at last the poore Hart is glad to fall fainting to the ground The Eagle buildeth her nest in the rocks and high places and the propertie of the young Eagle is when she findeth a dead carcase first of all to pick out the eye And so saith one do all seducing hereticks first put out the right eye of knowledge that thereby they may the better leade along their seduced Proselites And note that although the Eagle be very tender over her young yet when they be able to flie of themselves she casteth them out of her nest because she would have them shift and no longer depend upon their damme Which is a good example saith the same authour for domesticall discipline namely that parents should not bring up their children in idlenesse but even from their youth exercise them in honest labour training them up to some vocation Moreover Aristotle writeth that when the Eagle waxeth old the upper part of her bill so groweth over and increaseth that in the end she dieth of famine But Augustine observeth further that when the Eagle is thus overgrown she beateth her bill upon a rock and so by striking off her cumbersome part she recovereth her strength and eating to which the Psalmist alludeth Psal. 103. 5. Which maketh thee young and lustie as an Eagle The Phenix saith Munster is a noble bird and is but one in the world Cornelius Valerius whom Plinie mentioneth doth witnesse that when Quintus Plautius and Sex Papinius were Consuls one was seen to flie into Egypt And Tacitus also writeth that when Lucius 〈◊〉 and Pâ—…ulus Fabiâ—…s were Consulâ—… another was likewise seen to flie thither and yet not another but the same rather for there was not above two yeares difference in the time of this appearance Vitellius and Fabius being Consuls in the yeare of the citie 786 and Plautius with Papinius in the yeare 788. Dion was perswaded that this bird thus shewing her self did betoken the death of Tiberius but our countreyman Mr Lydiat rather thinketh that it pointed out the time when Christ that true Phenix did both die and rise again and so also thinketh Carion in his chron lib. 3. This bird if we may beleeve what is written is about the bignesse of an Eagle having a glittering brightnesse in the feathers of her neck like unto gold in other parts purple with an azured tail but so as in some places it is of a rose colour her head hath on it a plume or tuft of feathers Some say she liveth five hundred yeares others give her six hundred and sixtie and as Plinie writeth this bird hath her setled habitation in Arabia Felix When she waxeth old she is said to make her a nest of Cassia with branches of the frankincense tree into which she putteth other odours and so dieth upon them and then out of her bones and marrow there springeth first a little worm which afterwards comes to be a young Phenix Howbeit many think that all this is fabulous for besides the differing reports which go of this bird what species or kinde of any creature can be rehearsed whereof there is never but one and whereas the Lord said to all his creatures Increase and multiplie this benediction should take no place in the Phenix which multiplieth not And again seeing all creatures which came into the Ark came by two and two the male and female it must needs follow that the Phenix by this means perished And so saith one As for the Phenix I and not I alone think it a fable because it agreeth neither to reason nor likelihood but plainly disagreeth to the historie of the creation and of Noahs floud in both which God made all male and female and commanded them to increase and multiplie The Griffon is a creature if there be any such for many doubt it which whether I may reckon amongst the birds or beasts I cannot tell Howbeit as I finde him marked by Aelianus he is thus described namely that he is a kinde of beast with foure feet keeping most of all in India being as mightie in strength as a lion he hath wings and crooked talons black on the back and in the forepart purple His wings be somewhat white his bill and mouth like an eagles bill his eyes fierie he is hard to be taken except he be young he maketh his nest in the high mountains
rather then man should finde it they use to hide it in the earth or sand and yet they are deceived for as Plinie writeth it is there soonest of all converted into a stone and not seldome found Which by Geminianus is rightly made an embleme of the envious man who will not onely endeavour to do hurt but be heartily sorie if by chance it be his hap to do any one good The Beaver is a beast of a very hot nature living both in the water and on the land and differeth from an Otter onely in the tail Germanie Spain France Italy and divers other places abound with these beasts His stones are much used in physick the hunters therefore catch him that they may geld him whereupon he is called Castor for it is but a fable to say he biteth out his own stones when they come to take him for indeed they lie too close in his bodie to be pulled out with his teeth These stones and genitalls the Physicians call Castoreum and as for his skinne and hairs their use is also excellent The Otter is something lesse then a Beaver and may well be called A dog of the water and as Mr Topsell thinketh is without all doubt a kinde of Beaver It is a sharp-biting beast never letting his hold go untill he make the bones to crack between his teeth and as for the females they use to give suck to their whelps untill they be almost as big as themselves Olaus Magnus calleth them Lutrae quadrato ore mordaces and telleth us that some great men in Suetia keep tame Otters in their houses which are so tractable that the cook of the kitchin can send them into the fish-ponds to bring him fish for his masters dinner Their skinnes besides other uses if they be worn in caps or stocking-soles are good and wholesome against the palsie megrim and other pains of the head Topsell Sciurus the Squirrell is a quick nimble creature which will skip from tree to tree with great facilitie When she is out of her nest her tail serveth to secure her both from sunne and rain Howbeit it is sometimes a hurt unto her for the hairs of it be so thick that striving to swimme over a river her tail is so laden with water that sinking she drowneth Wherefore nature hath taught her this prettie piece of policie namely to get upon a little piece of wood which swimming wafts her securely over and wanting a sail her bushie tail set up and spread abroad supplies the room of that defect Plinie saith they have great foresight in the change of weather and will therefore stop up the hole of their nest on that side from whence the tempest is like to blow opening a passage in the contrarie place or side opposite to it The like whereunto is affirmed of the Hedge-hog also Their skinnes are exceeding warm and their tails profitable to make brushes their flesh is tender and in a manner comparable to the flesh of Kids or Conies yet not very wholsome except the squirrell were a black one When this beast is hunted she cannot be driven to the ground to creep into hedges unlesse extremitie of faintnesse cause her so to do through an unwilling compulsion for such saith one is the stately minde of this little beast that while her limbes and strength lasteth she tarrieth and saveth her self in the tops of tall trees disdaining to come down for every harm or hurt which she feeleth knowing indeed her greatest danger to rest below among the dogs and busie hunters From whence may be gathered a perfect pattern for us to be secured from all the wiles and hungrie chasings of the treacherous devil namely that we keep above in the loftie palaces of heavenly meditations for there is small securitie in things on earth and greatest ought to be our fear of danger when we leave to look and think of heaven But I come to another beast which in Topsells historie is thus described There is in the New-found World farre into the South a strange and terrible beast which they of the countrey where it liveth call a Su so named because it liveth neare the water and su in their language signifieth water It is a creature of a very deformed shape monstrous presence a great ravener and altogether untameable She hath a mightie great tail which is brushie fierce talons and a cruell look Now when hunters for the desire of her skinne shall set upon her she flieth very swift carrying her young ones upon her back and covereth them with her broad tail And the hunter not daring to encounter with her but by treacherie is forced to this project namely to dig great holes in the ground and cover them over with boughs sticks and earth which he doth so weakly that if the beast chance at any time to come upon it she and her young ones fall down into the pit where they have no way but one they must be taken But this cruell untameable impatient violent ravening and bloudy beast perceiving that her naturall strength cannot deliver her first of all to save her young ones as she supposeth she destroyeth them all with her own teeth so that never any of them could be taken and tamed and then howleth and roareth at the hunters who come about her but now they need not fear her she is secure enough whereupon they use means quickly to dispatch her and by fatall blows to stop her mouth from bawling Then they take off her skinne and leave her carcase in the earth and of what use her skinne is I have not heard The Hedge-hog is a beast well known about the bignesse of a conie but like to a Swine having her body beset with and compassed all over with sharp tâ—…orny hairs or pricking bristles which she setteth up or keepeth down at her pleasure and by these she defendeth her self from those who seek her life which is attributed to her as a kinde of craft and wilinesse Some therefore have likened a deceitfull man unto this beast who turneth and windeth himself for all advantages and is now this then that sometimes neither this nor that Between him and the Serpent there is mortall hatred for it is said that the serpent will seek out the hedge-hogs den and then falleth upon him with purpose to kill him but the Hedge-hog draweth himself up together round like a foot-ball so that nothing appeareth but his thornie pricks where at the Serpent biteth in vain for the more she laboureth to annoy the Hedge-hog the more she is wounded and harmeth her self howbeit the height of her minde and hate of her heart be such that they will not suffer her to let him go till one or both parties be destroyed yea it sometimes so happeneth that the least creature hath the best successe and gets the conquest So have I seen some provoke others to their own
as was once by a preacher at the black funerall of an usurer of whom there is this storie A great rich usurer having purchased a mighty estate was at the last sent for by death to leave the world and lying upon his bed the Doctours and Physicians finding his sicknesse to be mortall give him over Then do his friends about him send for a Divine to come and comfort him who willingly tells him of many comforts for his souls health and amongst other things puts him in minde of this viz. that he had been a great purchaser upon earth but now he must studie for another purchase which was the kingdome of heaven Now the usurer turning upon the other side at the hearing of the word purchase answered I will not give more then according to fifteen yeares for a purchase and so died Afterwards this gentleman preaching at his funerall in the conclusion of his sermon said onely thus Brethren it is now expected that I should speak something concerning our brother here deceased I will end it in few words namely these How he lived you know how he died I know and where his soul now is God Almightie knows The Poul-cat or Fitch in Latine is called Putorius à Putore because of his ill smell for when they are provoked or stirred they stink grievously Their delight is to suck egges kill and eat Hens and Chickens and it is worth observing that their craft in devouring their prey is singular for to the intent that the sillie creatures to be devoured may not betray them to the housekeepers the first part that they lay hold on with their mouthes is the head of the Hen or Chicken by which means they bite off their heads and so keep them from crying The Weasel in Latine is called Mustela from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of snatching up of mice for though an enemie to pullen she devoureth and destroyeth mice and because she hath been often seen to carrie her young ones in her mouth some have thereupon supposed that she conceived by the eare and brought forth by the mouth and for this cause Aristeas mentioned by Gesner and Topsell writeth that the Jews were forbidden to eat them for this their action is an embleme saith he of folly and foolish men which can keep no secrets but utter all that they heare for there be many who when they have heard tales with their eares enlarge them with their tongues and by adding to reports turn mole-hills into mountains sic crescit eundo because as many have itching eares so some have scratching and augmenting tongues desiring to be heard as the reporters of news But the Egyptians turn it into another signe and say that their copulation at the eare and generation at the mouth are emblemes of speech which is first taught to the eare and then uttered by the tongue All which are prettie fancies although they be founded upon a mistaken ground as before I shewed Howbeit this is recorded for a truth that whereas the Basilisk killeth all creatures with her poyson that approach unto her or contend with her the Weasell onely is found to match her witnessed not onely by Plinie but by others also who besides this Weasell know not of any other beast in the world which is able to stand in contention against the Cockatrice But note that Rue is hatefull to a Serpent and good against poyson the Weasel therefore useth to eat of this herb both before and after the battell so well hath nature taught her to finde a preservative against her venimous and hurtfull adversarie and on the contrarie so well is nature pleased that no beast should be without his match In a word seeing the Weasell as I said before will destroy mice as well as hurt pullen it serveth as an embleme to demonstrate that one sometime may make use of an enemie and though every thing be not good for one thing yet it doth not follow that it is therefore good for nothing But I leave the Weasell and come to the Mole The Mole is a creature well known the snout of it is like to the nose of a Shrew-mouse and as for eyes or sight she wanteth either onely the place where the eyes should stand have a little black spot like a millet or poppie seed In Latine she is therefore called Talpa from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blinde And yet saith one by dissection of a Mole great with young it hath been proved that the young ones before birth have eyes but after birth living continually in the dark earth without light these their seeming eyes cease to grow to any perfection And some again have also witnessed that although the Mole be blinde all her life time yet she beginneth to open her eyes in dying which I finde thus applied and it is a prettie embleme This serveth to decipher the state of a worldly man who neither seeth heaven nor thinketh of hell in his life time untill he be dying and then beginning to feel that which before he either not beleeved or not regarded he looketh up and seeth For in morte velit nolit saith Geminianus even against his will he is then compelled to open his eyes and acknowledge his sinnes although before he could not see them It was the case of Dives to live and die in this black mistie blindenesse for he had no grace to look up till he was in torments and then alas it was too late Yet herein was that saying of Gregory plainly verified Oculos quos culpa claudit poena aperit The Martins and Ermins be small beasts as little or lesse then a Squirrell the furre of whose skins is precious and of great esteem worn onely by kings and noble personages although these beasts be not bred in England yet there be plentie of them in many places beyond the seas they are said to have a sweet smell in their dung or excrement like the Musk-cat which proceedeth rather from the nature of the beast then from the meat which she eateth and for an ease to gouty legs it is good to apply these Martins skinnes The Zibeth or Sivet-cat is a beast bigger then any Cat and lesser then a Badger having a sharp face like a Martin a short round blunt eare black without but pale within the eye of a blew skie-colour the foot and leg black and more broad or open then a Cats It hath black claws a black nose and is spotted all over the body but on the nose with certain other marks notably described by Gesner and Topsell in their book of beasts This is a beast given much to cleanlinesse and from this beast proceedeth that precious drug which we call Sivet It is an excrement not growing in the cod or secret part onely but in a peculiar receptacle by it self increasing every day to the weight of
which is good against the stinging of Scorpions and so are love-sick youngsters cured for when nothing will help them they may again be healed by enjoying her who gave the wound The Asp is something like to a land-snake but with a broader back their eyes are red and flaming and out of their foreheads grow two pieces of flesh like an hard skinne and for their poison it is in a manner incurable Plinie writeth that they go alwayes two and two together and if one of them be slain the other will follow eagerly and seek up and down after him that slew his mate but it is the providence of God Almighty to give as many remedies against evil as there be evils in the world For the dulnesse of this serpents sight and slownesse of her pace doth keep her from many mischiefs which otherwise would be done The best way to cure their stings is presently to cut off the member bitten There be they who make three sorts of them that is to say the Terrestriall five handfulls long the Hirundiner coloured like a Swallow and is but a handfull long and last of all the Spitter greater then the other Their biting causeth death within few houres that of the Hirundiner is sudden of the Spitter somewhat slower beginning first with a dimnesse or trouble in the eyes then with a swelling in the face after that it proceedeth to a deafnesse and last of all it bringeth death Caelius Rhodiginus writeth that the Kings of Egypt did wear the pictures of Asps in their crowns whereby they signified the invincible power of principalitie in this creature whose wounds cannot easily be cured making it thereby an embleme of the power and wrath of a King and the priests of Egypt and those of Ethiopia did likewise wear very long caps having towards their top a thing like a navel about which were the forms of winding Asps to signifie to the people that those who resist God and the King shall perish by unresistable violence Topsell The Chameleons are admirable for their aierie subtance and for the changeablenesse of their colours 〈◊〉 if you will for their aierie sustenance although they sometimes hunt and eat flies He is of the form and greatnesse of a Lizzard but hath higher legs his ribs joyn in his bellie as in fishes his muzzle is long and his tail small towards the end and turning inwards his skinne is rough his eyes hollow and his nails crooked and when he moves himself he craâ—…leth slowly like a Tortoise See Plin. in his 8 book chap 33. Hâ—… tongue is almost half a foot long which he can dart â—…rth as swiftly as an arrow shot from a bow it hath a big â—…ot on the tip thereof and is as catching and holding as â—…lue which when he darteth forth he can fasten to the Grasse-hoppers Caterpillers and Flies thereby drawing them down into his throat He changeth into all and every colour excepting white and red whereof there be divers opinions some think that he changeth through fear but this is not like for though fear alter the colour as we when we are afraid wax wan and pale yet it will not change the bodie into every colour others think that by reason of his transparencie he taketh colour from those things which are neare him as the fish called Polypus taketh the similitude of the rocks stones where he lieth to deceive the fish and some again joyn both together for the Chameleon being in fear swelleth by drawing in the aire and then his skin being thereby pent is the smoother and the apter to receive the impression of the colours of things objected agreeing in this to that of Aristotle saying that his colour is changed being puft up with winde But be the cause from whence it will it affordeth a fit embleme or lively representation of flatterers and time-servers who fit themselves for all companies times occasions flattering any one thereby to make fit use of every one The Lizzard is a little creature much like the Eve but without poyson breeding in Italy and in many other countreys the dung of which beast cleareth the sight and taketh away spots in the eye the head thereof being bruised and applied will draw out a thorn or any other thing sticking in the flesh The Salamander is a small venimous beast with â—…ure feet and a short tail it doth somewhat resembâ—… the shape of a Lizzard according to Plinie lib. 10. câ—… 67. And as for his constitution it is so cold that like 〈◊〉 if he do but touch the fire he puts it out They be common in India in the isle of Madagascar as Mr Purchasâ—…lledgeth â—…lledgeth where he treateth of the creatures Plants and fruits of India But stay it is time to stop I know not how to mention every thing and yet there is nothing which is not worthy admiration I made I must confesse as much haste as I could and yet me thinks I see both these and thousands more runne from me flocking all together as if they meant to dance attendance now on Mans creation and not onely shew to him their due obedience and humble welcome into the world his stately palace but also wait to have their names according to their natures For whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was saith Moses the name thereof Let us now then come to him for whose sake all things else were made for God made the world for Man and Man for himself It was therefore a daintie fancie of one who brought in the World speaking to Man after this manner Vide homo dicit Mundus quomodo amavit te qui propter te fecit me Servio tibi quia factus sum propter te ut servias illi qui fecit me te me propter te te propter se. See oh man saith the World how he hath loved thee who made me for thee I serve thee because I am made for thee that thou maist serve him who made both me and thee me for thee and thee for himself This I will therefore adde Herbs cure our flesh for us the windes do blow The earth doth rest heav'n move and fountains flow United waters round the world about Ship us new treasures kingdomes to finde out The lower give us drink the higher meat By dropping on the ground nigh parcht with heat Night curtains draws the starres have us to bed When Phebus sets and day doth hide his head One world is Man another doth attend him He treads on that which oft times doth befriend him Grant therefore Lord that as the world serves me I may a servant to thy greatnesse be 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 THough Mankinde were the last yet not the least God onely spake his powerfull
word and then the other creatures were produced but now he calls a councell and doth consult not out of need but rather to shew the excellencie of his work or indeed to shew himself he speaks not therefore to the Angels but the Trinitie saying Let us make man Wherein the Father as the first in order speaketh to the Sonne and holy Spirit and the Sonne and Spirit speak and decree it with the Father and the Father Sonne and holy Ghost all Three in One and One in Three create a creature to be the other creatures lord He was therefore the last as the end of all the rest the last in execution but first in intention the Map Epitome and Compendium of what was made before him Three worlds there are and Mankinde is the fourth The first is Elementarie the second a Celestiall world the third Angelicall and the fourth is Man the little world In the first is ignis urens a burning fire and this in the heavens is ignis fovens a nourishing and quickning fire but in those creatures above seated in the supercelestiall world it is ignis ardens amor Seraphicus an ardent burning and Seraphicall love and in the fourth are all these found at once For first as mans bodie is compounded of the Elements he hath his share of that warm fire in him The influence of the Planets working on him doth likewise shew the second And for the third their hearts who burn within them do declare it Neither was he made like other creatures with a groveling look or downward countenance but with an erected visage beholding the heavens and with lordly looks well mixt with majestie He hath a bodie whose members are either Principall and Radicall or else Lesse principall and Officiall His heart liver and brain contain the vitall naturall and animall spirits and these are carried by the arteries veins and nerves The arteries carrie the vitall spirits from the heart The veins carrie the naturall spirits from the liver giving nourishment to every part And the nerves carrie the animall spirits from the brain being spirits for sense and motion and therefore called animall spirits howbeit the motive nerves spring from the marrow in the back and the sensitive come from the brain Also know that under every vein is an arterie for wheresoever there goeth a vein to give nutriment there goeth an arterie to bring the spirit of life Neither is it but that the arteries lie deeper in the flesh then the veins because they carrie and keep in them more precious bloud then the veins keep and are therefore not onely further from outward dangers but clothed also in two coats whereas the veins have but one Whereupon it is no hard thing to distinguish between these two vessels of bloud if we can but remember that the arterie is a vessel of bloud spirituall or vitall and the vein a vessel of bloud nutrimentall for as I said before the veins have their beginning from the liver bringing from thence nutritive bloud to nourish every member of the bodie Moreover his heart is the seat of all the passions as in one instance may suffice for being transported with fear we call back the bloud to the heart as to the place where fear prevaileth the bloud going thither as it were to comfort and cherish the heart And whereas it may seem that our anger is seated in the gall love in the liver and melancholie in the splene it is answered that those humours placed in the gall liver and splene are not the seat of the passions and affections but they are the occasion whereby the passions are stirred up as the abundance of bloud in the liver stirreth up the passion of love which neverthelesse is placed and seated in the heart and so of the rest And again seeing the vitall spirits proceed from the heart it cannot be denied but that this member liveth first and dieth last And as the heart was the seat of all the passions so the head is a seat and place for all the senses except the touch for that is not onely in one place but in all and every place being spread quite through the whole bodie or isle of man The eyes are the windows of the bodie and albeit a man have two eyes in his head yet he receiveth but one sight at once because the optick nerves meet both in one The eares be like certain doores with labyrinthicall eâ—…tries and crooked windings and here again although the eares be two yet a man can heare but one sound at once because his acoustick nerves like to the optick nerves meet both in one His tongue discerneth tastes and albeit he have two eyes and as many eares yet his tongue is single and alone A man should therefore heare and see more then he speaketh and when he speaketh not wrong his heart and secret thoughts by uttering words with a double tongue for bilinguis is more then God made him and double tongues shall be rooted out Besides the lungs be the bellows of the voice and are seated close to the heart to teach us that speech ought to be the interpreter of the heart and not that a man may speak one thing and think another The nose serveth not onely as a gutter for the excrements of the brain to flow and passe through but also for a pipe of respiration to give and take our living breath and to conduct the aire and odoriferous smells up to the brain for the conservation and recreation of the animal spirits When the head is in danger the hand casts it self up to save it And in giving hands to man the speciall providence of God is to be marked for he hath made him to take his meat with his hand and hath not left him to gather and take it up with his lips as the beasts do because that would be a means to hinder his speech by thickening his lips as experience teacheth in those who either by nature or by accident have thick swollen lips causing them to speak in the mouth uttering their words very badly and indistinctly Neither could there be so many quick conceits of the minde or curious inventions of sundry artists brought to perfection without such an instrumentall help as the hand The feet be the bases of the bodie carrying man like a lordly creature with his face from earth and eyes to heaven that he might thither strive to come at last where he inhabiteth who gave him these and all his other members else which now I cannot stand to dilate upon at large And when he had them all and was framed out like a curious piece God breathed in his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul he then took his second part when his first was finished neither was that second made till then for in the infusion it was created and in the creation it was infused
this book I have declared Wherefore I will now conclude and concluding say God saw the works which he had made And good he found them all If therefore now they faint or fade 'T is 'cause Man caught a fall For ev'ry creature groneth deep A change they wish to see They travail seek they want and weep Till sonnes of God be free For then they likewise freedome have No longer kept in pain Come therefore quickly Lord we crave Renew this world again And in its kinde it being free 'T will praise thy name as well as we FINIS SOLI DEO GLORIA A Table of the principall and most remarkable matters contained in this book ABraham he had skill in the signes of heaven and taught the same to the Egyptians 347 The second age of the world was from the floud to Abraham 16 Achates the Eagles stone 295 Adam he fell soon after his creation 36 37 Adamant or Diamond the most precious of all stones and how to soften it 292 Adder and his properties 490 Adulterie An embleme against it by an example taken from the Sargon 381. Adulterous men like to the Cuckoe 406 Aeschynomen a strange kinde of herb 273 Affliction opens the eyes of securitie 480. One patient in trouble like to the stone Amiantus 299. False friends flie away in affliction 293. 405. Affliction ought to be taken patiently by an embleme from the Camel 444 Ages of the world 15. There be six ages but not of equall thousands 16 Agnus castus and the properties 274 Aire From the earth to the highest Firmament nothing but aire 116. See more in the word Regions Alabaster 291 Alborach a beast frequent in Turkie on which they fable Mahomet was carried into heaven 457 Alexander deceived by Apes 472 Alpine-mouse and the strange properties of it 468 Alume and the severall kindes thereof 304 Amber 303 304. Amber-greese 368 America A conjecture how America came at the first to be unknown 233 Amethyst a stone of power to resist drunkennesse 294 Amiantus a stone which the fire cannot hurt 299 Amphisbena a serpent with two heads 489 Ampelite a black pitchie earth of the same nature with our coals 301 Amphitane a stone of neare nature to the load-stone 298 Anacrampseros an herb causing love 272. Sowbread is of the same qualitie ibid. Androdamas is a stone stopping anger and furie 299 Angels when they were created 53. How Manna is said to be Angels food 157. The oath of the 7th Angel in the Revelation 27 Angelica and the vertues thereof 261 Anger restrained by the Sardius 295. as also by the Androdamas 299 Antiperistasis what it is 92 Apes and their kindes 471 Arbore de Rais or the tree of roots growing in India and called the Indian fig-tree 280 Arbore triste or the sad tree 281 Arguments to prove that the world began and must also end 2 3 Arions storie how to be credited 379 Aristotle 1. he drowned himself in Euripus 210 Armadill an Indian beast 457 Arsmart or Water-pepper 259 Arsnick rightly described and the kindes thereof 300 Artichoke 264 Asbestos a strange stone which being once fired cannot be quenched 298 Asp 492 Asphaltus or black Bitumen 302 Asterite a stone bearing in it the image of the sunne 294 Astrologers many times too busie 10. bold and wicked 351 352 sequent Atheists kick against the pricks 4 Atlantick island was once and had kings raigning in it but now it is a sea 233 Autumne described 356. The world was made in Autumne 32 41 42 43 c. B BAck Good against strains in the back 268 Badger 482 Balaena a kinde of whale Their love to their young with an instruction from thence 368 Barble a warie fish 383 Barnacles or Geese which grow upon a tree 282 Barrennesse Good against barrennesse 262 Bartas a divine Poet 4. His opinion of the worlds end 9. His description of the worlds ages 17. His opinion of the worlds beginning 4. His opinion of the Chaos 49. His opinion of the waters above the heavens 63 64. His opinion of the Regions 85. His opinion of wheat rained 147. His opinion of strange waters 227. His commendation of the vertues of herbs 267. His opinion opposite to those who make the starres living creatures 322 Basil and the vertues thereof 244 Basilisk or Cockatrice 486 Bat 404 Baum or Balm 245. It is good to close wounds 246. Bees are much delighted with Baum ibid. Beam a burning Meteor 90 Beams or streams seeming to burn 133 Beard Good to make the beard grow 254 Bear 475. A storie of a man saved by a Bear ibid. Bears love hony 476 Beasts Brute beasts not to be renewed in the end of the world 6 Beaver and his properties 452 Beautie The beautie of the heavenly bodies after the world is purged by fire 7 Bees 420. They lose their life with their sting ibid. Difference of bees ibid. Their king and common-weal 421. They never breathe ibid. The female bee supposed to be the drone 422. Their order of going to rest and work ibid. Their physick 423. The manner of their swarming ibid. How to keep them from stinging 244. See more in Thyme and Baum. Good against their stinging 425 Beggars How cunning beggars use to blister their arms and legs 260 Bellie The bellie destroyeth many by an embleme taken from the mouse 467 Bermuda-birds and their properties 418 Betonie and the sundry vertues thereof 266 Birds of Paradise 418 Bitumen and the kindes 302 Black-bird 402 Blasting Dew 158 Bleeding A bleeding herb 272 For bleeding at the nose 255 Bloud Times when it rained bloud together with the cause 149 Bloud-stone or the Haematite 297 Spitting of bloud and how to help it 247. 303 Boas and the properties 488 Bodie Our bodies follow the temper of the aire 104. 341. The parts of the bodie 497 498 499 Boldnesse We must not be too bold in things above our reach 9 Bole-armoniack what it is and what it is good for 300 Bombyx or the Silk-worm 425 Borage 245 Boy A storie of a Boy and a Dolphin 380 Brain Things good for the brain 247. A Scorpion bred in the brain 244. The animall spirits go from the brain 497 Brasse and Copper 288 Bream 388 Breath Good against a stinking breath 250 Brionie and the properties 256 Brown Umber 301 Bruises Good against bruises 269 Bubo or the great Owl 402. He is thought to be an ominous bird 403 Buffe and his properties 478 Bugill and Byson described 477 Buglosse See Borage Bulls and their natures 477 478 Burstnings good against them in children 260. Good against them in old folks 269 Butterwort and the properties thereof 252 C CAjetane confuted together with Bellarmine concerning Noahs Floud 75 Calamarie being a fish called the Sea-clerk 384 Calcedon is a stone which expelleth sadnesse 294 Callicia an herb turning water into ice 272 Camel 443. The Horse the Camel great enemies 444. Stuffes made of Camels hair ibid. The Cameleopard 445 Cantharus
a chaste fish between whom and the Sargon there is great enmitie 381 Cantharides what they are and how they be dangerous 425 Captivitie The fourth Age of the world from David to the captivitie 16 Carbuncle and the properties thereof 294 Carp described and his goodnesse 388 Carret roots and their qualitie together with the parsnep and turnep 263 Castor and Pollux See Helena Cat. Why the male-cat eateth up the young kitlings 464. A storie concerning the danger of cats ib. Cedar Some are perswaded there be cedars yet in mount Lebanon first planted by King Solomon 278 279 Celandine 261 Cerastes a kinde of Serpent 489 Chalk and the nature thereof 301 Chameleon described and why he changeth colour so often 493 Changing of qualities and not consuming of substance at the end of the world 5 Chaos and how we may consider of it 48 49 Chaps or gapings in the skie how they are caused 141 Charadrion a bird that cureth the Iaundise 416 417 Charms unlawfull 166 Chaste Rue makes men chaste and provokes women to lust 248 Chastitie Medicines to procure chastitie 269. 274. 293. Smaradge See more in Cantharus as also 295 Chevin and its vertues 388 Children See Parents Chiliasts expect terrene pleasures in the Resurrection as did also Cerinthus 8 Choler A medicine against it 256 Crystall what it is 296. 162 Christ. The fifth Age of the world from the captivitie to Christ 16. The last Age and times after Christ 17. An embleme of Christs curing us taken from the Charadrion 417 Christians wiser then Philosophers 4 Chrysolite and the vertues of it It is good against Melancholy 294 Cinnamon where and how it groweth 277 Cinoper and Vermilion 300 Cypresse tree 278 Circles about the Sunne Moon and starres Their causes 134. Their derivation ibid. Their significations 135 Clouds 143. Colours in the Clouds 130. 143. Their height 144. Why they hang in the Aire 145. Why red clouds are seen onely in the Morning and Evening 130. Why they be of differing colours 144. What they signifie ibid. Cloves how and where they grow 278 Clyster From whence men first learned to purge by Clyster 399 Coals or black pitchie earth how it is generated 301 302 Cock 410. Cock-fightings 411. The Lion daunted by the Cock ibid. Cocus a very strange tree in India 279 280. Comets what they are 98. Their colours 99. Their fashions ibid. Their strange effects 100. Why Warres Famines Deaths c. be the effects of Comets 103. How to guesse at the signification of Comets 105. Their severall ends 106. They be often above the Moon 80 81. 99. 115 116 Comfrey and the vertues of it 268 Conger and his goodnesse 387 Conie The Conie described 458 Copper 288. Copperas ibid. Corcuta a kinde of Hyaena 446 Corns How to cure them 270. As also how to take away Warts 244 Corrall and the properties thereof 296 297 Costivenesse and how to cure it 269 Covetousnesse and Covetous The covetous like to the Swam-fisk 373. Covetous rich men often slain by their heirs shewed by an embleme from the Torpedo 383. They often destroy one another shewed by an embleme taken from the Kite and Raven 394. They are many times lesse fruitfull in children then the poore 395. The Ferret is an embleme of their weeping and unwillingnesse to depart with their riches 459. A storie of an usurer dying ibid. 460. The folly of a covetous man is shewed by an embleme taken from the Ape 474 Cow Sea-cow and Calf 374 Crane 412. He teacheth Pastours Magistrates and Governours the dutie of their places ibid. Crocodile and his properties 371 Crow See Raven Sea-crow 414 Cuckoe and his qualities 404. Who are like unto the Cuckoe 405 406 Cucuios a creature whose wings shine like fire 419 D DAce or the Dare-fish 388 Daniel was learned in the learning of the Chaldeans 347 Darnell The vertues of red Darnell 264 Dart a kinde of Serpent 489 David The third Age of the World from Abraham to David 16 Day The naturall beginning of the Day from whence 358 359. Divers beginning of Dayes ibid. The kindes of Dayes 358. The intercourse between Day and Night 58 59 Death ought to be cheerfull 413. A sinner hath his eyes opened in Death shewed in an embleme taken from the Mole 462 Deere and their kindes 478 479 Dendritis a stone which being put under a tree keepeth the ax that cutteth it from dulling 298 Derogation No derogation to the perfection of things created although the Starres incline some men to ill 343 Devil He worketh many times in the Aire 153. His knowledge is more excellent then Mans knowledge and why ibid. Dew what it is and why it falleth but in the Morning and Evening 154. No Dew a signe of Rain and why 155. Dew hurteth Sheep ibid. What may hinder Dew from falling 156. Three kindes of Dew Common Sweet and Blasting Dew ibid. In those who are blessed like Iacob the dew of heaven goes before the fatnesse of the earth but in those who are blessed like Esau the earths fatnesse goes before the dew of heaven 475 Digression A digression touching the new-found World 232 233 Dill and the qualities thereof 249. An old custome concerning Dill 250 Diogenes mocketh Croesus amongst the dead 240 Dipsas a serpent so called 489 Dissembling and Dissemblers They be like unto the Crocodile 371. See more in Flattery as also pag. 455 Dittanie and the vertues of it 254 Dogs and their kindes 469. They have sometimes shewed extraordinarie love to their masters 470 471 Dolphin described he is very loving to man 379 Dormouse and the kindes 467 Dove or Pigeon described 408 Dragon The herb Dragon 262. A Meteor of the same name 93. A serpent so called 488. Dragons in Congo 492 Dromedarie what kinde of beast it is 445 Drowsinesse A medicine to cure it 245. 250. 256 Drunkard and Drunkennesse See Gluttonie How to make a Drunkard loath his liquour 404 E EAgle King of birds 390. The Poets feigne that she carrieth Jupiters armour 127. Where she buildeth her nest and how the young Eagles deal with a dead carcase 391. The Eagle is a pattern of domesticall discipline ibid. Seducing Hereticks like to the young Eagle ibid. See more 295 Earth The Earth made solid and conspicuous both at once 227. The Earth the Worlds centre 228. It signifieth a thing troden on ibid. The earth nothing in respect of the heavens 224. The earth hath no circular motion with a confutation of the contrary opinion 211 212. The true Motus terrae is Germinatio terrae 214. How it hath sometimes rained earth 151. Earth of Lemnos what it is 300. As also earth of Samos 301 Earthquakes and their causes 229 230. Signes of Plague Earthquake 185. 234. The kindes of Earthquakes 231. The attendants of Earthquakes or the Antecedentia 234. The effects of Earthquakes or the Consequentia 235 236 East-winde 183. Why it often bloweth up rain for a whole day See North. Ebbes See Sea Eeles how they
Scorpion hath sometimes been bred in the brain 244 Scriech-owl 403 Sea Why seas be salt and rivers fresh 201. Why Springs be fresh 206. Why the Sea ebbeth and floweth 208 209 sequent Why fresh Waters and all Seas do not ebbe 218 Seasons of the yeare 354 Securitie Small securitie on earth by an example from the Squirrell 454 Selenite a stone which follows the course of the Moon 294 295 Sentida an herb of a strange propertie 273 Servius Tullius his head burning as he slept 97 Sethim It was that wood whereof Noah made the Ark 276 Seven a number of rest 21 Shad 388 Shark 378 Sheep and their natures 482. How sheep may catch 〈◊〉 rot 155. 252 Shepherds purse 270 Shooting starres a Meteor 92 Shrew A medicine to be used at the death of a Shrew 263 Shrew-mouse and his properties shewed 467 Sight Sight dulled by Leeks 262. Rue eaten fasting is very good for the sight 248. See Eyes Signes Signes of heaven must not be abused 351 sequent Silver the best mettall next to Gold 288 Sinne. We should weep for sinne by an example taken from the Hart 481. We should not sleep in sinne by an example taken from the Sea-Elephant 371. When the baits of sinne are swallowed they must be vomited up again by an embleme from the Scolopendra 384. The sweetnesse of sinne in the end is bitter by an example from the Beare eating hony 477. Those who are taken away in the very act of sinne what they are like unto 485 Sinner A sinner though blinde in life seeth in death by an example taken from the Mole 462 Sivet-cat or the Zibeth 463 Skirret 264 Sleet and the cause thereof 162 Slow-worm 490 Smaradge Plinie makes many kindes of this stone 293 Snapdragon an herb of a strange propertie 272 Snow 160. The matter of Snow 161. Why Snow is white ibid. Snow in the mountains and rain in the valleys both out of one cloud together with the cause thereof 162 Societie ought to be amongst men by an example taken from the Stork 399 Sole and Whiting 387 Sorrell and the vertues thereof 270 Sorrow An embleme concerning those who sorrow to part with earth for heaven 459. 481 Sothernwood and the qualities thereof 254 Soul The Soul breathed into man infused in the creation and created in the infusion 499. God stampt his image in the Soul ibid. 500. Souls Souls cannot appeare after death 94 95 South-winde 182 Sowbread an herb of a strange propertie 262. 272 Sow-thistle and the vertues thereof 267 Sparrow and his nature 409 Speare-wort the beggars herb 260 Spheres A figure shewing their motion 317 Sphinx and the meaning of Aenigma 472 Splene A medicine for the splene 274 Spring The Spring described 355. The creation was not in the Spring 30. 32 Squirrell described with his properties 453 Starling 402 Starres 311 312 sequent The Starres not to be worshipped 312. Their matter and motion 315 320. They be nourished by the waters above the heavens and how 321 322 323 324. The reason of their differing heights 324 325. Their offices 327. 334. 354. Why they seem to twinkle 332. They work upon this inferiour world 334 sequent New Starres 107. 114 115. 119. The signification of Cassiopea's Starre 108. 114 Steel and what it is 289 Stitch. Good to give ease to one troubled with a stitch in the side 247 Stomack Good to strengthen the Stomack 250. Good to help digestion 396 Stone in the body with â—… medicine for it 387. 254 Stones what they are their kindes c. 290 sequent They live not a vegetative life 291. Common Stones ibid. Precious Stones 292. A Stone which followes the course of the Moon 294. A Stone which will cool seething water 296. A compassionate Stone and the reason thereof ibid. 297. A Stone of power to draw gold 299. The Loadstone 297. The Bloud-stone ibid. Stories A Storie of a Sea-woman 375. A storie of a Boy and a Dolphin 380. A storie of a Sparrow 409. A storie concerning Cock-fighting 411. A storie of a Lion 438. Another of a Lion 440. A storie of a dying Usurer 459. A storie of two much familiaritie amongst Cats 464. A storie of a Bishop eaten up with Mice 466. A storie of a loving Dog 470. Another ibid. Another 471. A storie shewing how Alexander was deceived by Apes 472. A storie of a Man saved from death by a Beare 475 Stork 399. Lessons to be learnt from the stork ibid. Strange A rule to be observed in Strange sights 131 Students Mint good for students 255 Sturgeon 384 Su a strange beast in the new-found world 454 Sulphurwort it is good for young children 260 Summer described 356 Sunne Whether the Sunne be the fountain of light 329. Why the Sunne hath sometimes seemed to dance 333. The appearance of many Sunnes 130. Their cause 131. What they signifie ibid. Swallow 406. What strange things some have written of the swallow 407. It is said that she taught men first to build 408. They cure the blinde eyes of their young ones with an herb viz. Celandine 261 Swam-fisk a fish so called being the most greedy of all fishes 372 373 Swanne The nature and qualities of the Swanne 413 414 Swine eat no Turneps 263 Sword-fish 370 T TAmarisk It is of great vertue for the hardnesse of the splene or milt 274 Tanners An herb for Tanners in the dressing of Leather 257 Tarragon 264 Tarantula and his strange properties 425 Teeth Good against the tooth-ach 261. 267. How to scoure the Teeth and kill the worms in them 251 Temper Waters of a strange temper 220 221 Tench 388 Terebinth or the Turpentine tree 279 Thirst. An herb very good for the thirstie 269 Thrive The thriving of a man that upon occasion is of two trades The embleme is taken from the flying fish 382. Some men thrive in a course which to the vulgar seems contrary by an example taken from the Sturgeon 384 Throat Good for a sore throat 253 Thrush 402 Thunder what it is 122. A difference in Cracks 123. Thunder sometimes without Lightning and so on the contrarie ibid. How this may be 124. The making of the Thunder-stone 125. See more in the word Lightning Thyme and the vertues thereof 259 Time what it is 45. Times when the World should have ended according to some mens foolish fancies 18. 22 23 24 c. Tinne 290 Toad An antipathie between the Toad and Rue 248 Tobacco and the kindes thereof Where it was first found together with the names qualities and vertues thereof 264 265. The Indian women take no Tobacco 266. The time when it came first into England and by whom it was first brought ibid. A precious salve to be made of the green leaves 265. A lesson for quaffers ibid. Tongue 498. The Tongue hath brought many to mischief 413. Fair tongues false hearts 443 Topaz a very strange stone which stancheth bloud 295 296 Tophus 292 Torch a burning Meteor 89 Torpedo a
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.
The Scolopendra * De animal lib. 13. cap. 23. An embleme from this fish of swallowing the baits of sinne The Sturgeon An embleme concerning thriving The Calamarie * Liâ—… 9. cap. 29. The Purple The Polypus 〈◊〉 â—…sons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 Polypus The Pearl-fish The Pearl and the Prawn emblemes of cheating The Gilthead An embleme of friendship The Plaice The Sole Whiting Gurnard Conger Salmon Thornback A medicine against the stone Herring Eeles The Shad. The Gogion or Gudgion Tâ—… 〈◊〉 The Perch and Pike The Trout The Eagle Parents ought not to bring up their children in idlenesse by an example taken from the Eagle The Phenix * Lib. 10. cap. 2. 〈◊〉 lib. 6. * Lib. 58. †Lib. de emend temp alio quoâ—… lib. cap. 22. The Griffon * See also 〈◊〉 Cosmog The Ostrich Job 39. 14 15. The Ostrich like women who will not nurse their children Ibis The Kite Emblemes from the Kite concerning the covetous gripers of this world Envie shadowed forth The Raven An emblem from the Fox and Raven concerning compaâ—…ions in ill c. Good to help digestion Plin. lib. 10. cap. 1â—… Against such aâ—… want naturall affection Aelian de animal lib. 3. cap. 43. Children should not be used too harshly in their minoritie * Prov. 13. 24. and chap. 23. 13. †Lib. 10. cap. 12. The egges of ravens are naught for big beâ—…ed women †Lib. 10. cap. 47. The Pelican * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perforo to beat or pierce Policie is better then strength The Stork Plin. lib. 10. cap. 23. There ought to be societie amongst men From whence men first learned to purge by clyster The Heron The Hawk Olaus Mag. lib. 19. Emblemes from the Ape and Hawk concerning treacherie and ruine to a mans house The Partridge The Phesant * Liâ—… 1â—… cap. 4â—… The Mallard Schol. Salernâ—… translated by Sir John Hir. The Nightingale * Aelian 〈◊〉 hist. lib. 12. Du Bart. The Lark Black-bird Linot Finch Mavis Redbreast Wren Thrush and Starling The Owl Bubo The Night-raven The Scriech-owl Noctua The Howlet To make a drunkard lothe â—…is liquour The Bat. The Cuckoe Lib. 19. False friends Ovid. Epist. Adulterous mâ—…n like the Cuckoe The Swallow * And so much the rather because they are seen in hotter countrâ—… when they be gone from hence neither can any one shew a cause for every thing in Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Turtle Innocencie to be learned from the Dove The Pigeon The Sparrow * 〈◊〉 hinketh so but I suppose that although their time be short yet it may be more then a yeare A storie of a Sparrow The Peacock An example of envie * 〈◊〉 lib 4. cap. 43. The Cock The Cock â—…eth the Lion Cock-fights * Var. hist. lib. 2. A storie concerning Cock-fighting Ibid. Du â—…art The Crane Care ought to be in Pastoâ—…rs Magistrates and Governours taught by an example from the Crane The tongue hath brought many to mischief The Swan A pattern of matrimoniall love Death ought to be cheerfull The Sea-crow A bird called Platea Policie is better then strength The Ray kills the Sea-crows The Plover * See the haven of health pag. 136. The Lapwing * Tereâ—…s â—…ex Thraâ—… Meta. lib. 6. The Osprey The Charadrion An emblemâ—… from the cure done by this bird concerning our cure wrought by Christ. Porphyrio The King-fisher * Lib. 10. cap. 3â—… Ovid. Met. lib. 11. Dâ—… 〈◊〉 * He names onely the â—…icilian sea Bermuda birds Birds of Paradise * Who also writeth that he saw a tree in the East-Indies the leaves of which changed themselves into birds who lived but 8 houres Du Bart. Sum. And of birds in the Moluccos as big as hens with horns in stead of crests They lay their egges in the sâ—…nd and there they be hatched The Cucuios * Like unto which are those birds mentioned by Plinie and Solinus Plin. lib. 10. cap 47. * See Purch and Du Bart. summary pag. 240. Bees * Topsel in his Hist. of Serpents Tops bist Sâ—…rp Wasps * But sometimes in thaâ—…ched houses Hornets A fight between a Sparrow and a Hornet The Badger on enemie to the Hornet A good medicine against stinging Cantharides Pyrausta Tarantula †Like unto which is an herb in Sardinia of which if any â—…at much they perish and die laughing It is like to Balm gentle 〈◊〉 Bombyx The creation of beasts The Elephant a Topsel b Plin. lib. 8. cap. 11 c 〈◊〉 lib. 8. d Topsel * And in Pegu the King hath many it being part of his royall title King of the White Elephants See Mr. Purch in his Pilgr of Asia lib. 5. e Munst. cosmog. The way to catch Elephants * These 〈◊〉 are anoinâ—…ed with a certain oyl which causeth the wilde Elephant to follow them †Some say they are chased in as is also the tame Elephant trained up on purpose for such huntings Purch of Asia lib. 5. The mouse is offensive to the Elephant Munst. An embleme from the Elephant The marriage bed must not be abused f Gemin lib. 5. cap. 60. Tobit 8. 4 7 8. * Ezek. 8. 6. and 22. 10. Levit. 18. 19. g See Mr. Perk. in his Aurea 〈◊〉 h Munst. A pattern for great men Gemin lib. 5. cap. 96. The Rhinoceros l Purch 5 book of Asia k Topsell l Purch ibid. ex 〈◊〉 The Unicorn Deut. 33. 17. Isai. 34. 7. Job 39. 9. Psalm 92. 10. A description of the Unicorns horn How hunters take them The Lion A storie of a Lion Another storie of a Lion * Aeliâ—… 〈◊〉 â—…ist lib. 1 †Munst. He is truely valiant that can overcome himself * Fortiâ—…r est qui se quam qui fortiffuâ—… vincit 〈◊〉 The Tiger * And note thaâ—… his Mustachios are holden for mortall poisen causing men to die mad if they be given in meat Purch m Plin. lib. 8. cap. 18. n Munster Topsell o Topsell The Panther p Plin. lib. 8. cap. 17. How the Leopard is begotten An embleme from the Panther concerning fair tongues and false hearts q Topsell The Camel r Purch s Plin. lib. 8. cap. 18. t Plin. ibid. An embleme from the Camel concerning those who preferre earth before heaven * Matth. 19. 24. The Horse and Camel great enemies Stuffes made of Camels hair A lesson of patience and humilitie taught by the Camel The Dromedarie The Cameleopard u Lib. 8. cap. 30. The Hyaena x Topsell y Idem Pag. 439. The Corcuta The Mantichora a Purch lib. of Africa cap. 1. Zebra Muflo b Munst. Cos. Epit. The Ovassom Virginia Dogs Wolves Foxes c. The Wolf c Geâ—…in lib. 5. 6. 39 d Ibid. * Or elsé come with the green leaves and small boughs of Osrers c. Plin. lib. 8. cap. 22. Ola. Mag. lib. 18. e Tops f Ibid. Romulus Remus not nursed by a Wolf The Fox The subtilties of the Fox How the Fox catcheth fleas d Topsell †Geâ—…in lib.
â—… cap. 39. A cunning trick of a tame Fox An embleme from the Fox and her young concerning false friends e 〈◊〉 The Lynx f Tops ex Belloâ—… g Idem ibid. An embleme of envie h Lib. 37. cap. 3. i Lib. 5. cap. 71. The Beaver The Otter k Lib. 18. A medicine for the megrim and palsie The Squirrell Olaus Mag. ibid. l Plin. lib. 8. cap. 38. m Tops pag. 658. An embleme from the hunted Squirrell concerning the small securitie in things on earth A strange beast called a Su. The Hedge-hog n Tops pag. 279. An embleme from the Serpent and Hedge hog concerning mean estates The Hedge-hog changeth his nest The embleme detecteth Time-servers and unconstant Professours The Porcupine or Mountain Hedge-hog The Armadill The Alborach The Hare o Lib. 8. cap. 55. p North. hist. lib. 1â—… q Willet on Lâ—…vit An embleme from the Hare concerning the wayes to heaven and hell Another r Idem ibid. How to use our hearing and seeing The Conie s Topsell * Markhams Meth. t Haven of health pag. 119. u Mark ibid. The Ferret An embleme from the Ferret concerning covetous rich men A storie of an usurer The Poulcat The Weasel * Lib. 8. cap. 21. An embleme from the Weasel concerning the use of an enemie The Mole †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 11. c. 37. o Topsel p Gemâ—… ex Arist. q Idem lib. 5. c. 29. and Dr. Will. on Levit. cap. 1â—… An embleme from the Mole A sinner though blinde in life sees in death †Ibid. cap. 29. The Ermin †Meaning the Martins The Sivet-cat The Musk-cat The Cat. Why the male Cat eateth his young Wherein Cats be dangerous A storie shewing the danger of making Cats too familiar Lib. 18. â—… The Mouse q Gemin lib. 5. cap. 6. r Var. hist. lib. 1. A storie of a Bishop eaten up with Mice An embleme from the Mouse concerning those who destroy themselves to serve their bellies The Shrew-mouse The Dormouse †Epiphan The Alpine Mouse * Munst. Coâ—…m The Rat. †Topsel Dogs An embleme from Dogs being a caveat against too great haste in any action The Greyhound The Hound The Spaniel The Mâ—…stive a Bark in his Summ. â—…onum A story of a loving Dog Another storie Another storie Apes †Breeding in islands on the further side of Ganges and in the Eastern mountains of India * Aenigma in the Theban language signifieth an inrode or warlike incursion wherefore the people complained in this sort This Greâ—…ian Sphinx robbeth us in setting upon us with an â—…nigma but no man knoweth after what manner she maketh this â—…nigma Tops history of beasts pag. 18. Alexander deceived by Apes How to 〈◊〉 wilde Apes * Plin. lib. â—… cap. 54. An embleme from the Ape and her 〈◊〉 * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib 5 cap. 10. Against the fondnesse of parents The follie of a covetous man In them who are blessed the dew of heaven is before the fatnesse of the earth The Bear †Lib. â—… 〈◊〉 3â—… A â—…orie of a man saved by a Bear * Nâ—…rth 〈◊〉 lib. 1â—… An embleme concerning the end of sins sweetnesse * Gemin lib. 5. c. 35. †Jer. 23. 29. * Psal. 50. 17. †Rom. 2. 16. The Bugill Wilde Bulls 〈◊〉 hurt themselves because they cannot hurt others The Elk. The Buffe * 〈◊〉 Of Deere Gemiâ—… lib. 5 c. 42. * Lib. 8. cap. 32. An embleme from the Hart shewing that children should be taught betimes Another Our eyes are opened in affliction Another embleme concerning those who sorrow to part with earth although they may gain heaven †Gemin lib. 5. Another embleme We should weep for sinne by the example of the Hart. Tragelaphus The Rangifer The Goat The Badger Sheep An embleme from the Lambes concerning those who often perish by following the steps of the greatest multitude The Horse * Pliâ—… lib. â—… cap. 4â—… The marks of a good Horse How to know the age of an Horse The Ierf A fit embleme against gâ—…uttonie and drunkennesse By Sir Richard Bark in his Suâ—… 〈◊〉 Another embleme concerning those who are suddenly taken away in the very act of their sinnes The Gorgon The Basilisk n Tops Hist. of serpents pag. 125 * Idem ibid A note concerning nocuous creatures The Boas The Dragon †Munst. Epit. cos * Munst. The Dipsas Hypnale Prester Haemorrhois The Dart. The Amphisbena * Pâ—…rch An embleme concerning government Cerastes †Pâ—…rch The Viper * Pliâ—… lib. 1â—… cap. 62. †Hist. 〈◊〉 lib. 5. cap. â—…lt The Slow-worm The Adder An Embleme from tâ—…e Adder casting hâ—…s skin concerâ—…ing the 〈◊〉 of abstinence and â—…asting if it be rightly used African Snakes and Adders A great serpent * â—…ib 6 cap. 3. Dragons in Congo * Purch The Scorpion The Asp. Plin. lib. 8. cap. 23. * Topsell †See the authour of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Summarie The Chameleon Why the Chameleon changeth colour An embleme against flattery The Lizzard The Salamander The conclusion of the first Section Gen. 2. 19. * Hug. in didase lib. 1. The spirits heart liver brain arteries veins and nerves The veins and the arteries go together Passions have their seat in the heart The humours stirre up the passions The heart liveth first and dieth last The head The eyes The eares The tongue The lungs The nose The hand The feet The soul. How man was made according to Gods image Woman made according to the image of God as well as man 1. Cor. 11. 7. How woman is the glorie of the man Quarl upon Esther Med. 3. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. 〈◊〉 1. cap. 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ideâ—… ibid. * Gen. 3. â—… * Gen. 1. 31. †See Rom. 8. 19 20 21 22 23.