Pines chiefly and Tarre to the Pine called the Torch-Pine There is a tree in India called the Indian Coquo or Cocus being the most strange and profitable tree in the world of which in the islands of Maldiva they make and furnish whole ships so that save the men themselves saith one there is nothing of the ship or in the ship neither tackling merchandise or ought else but what this tree yeeldeth It groweth high and slender the wood is of a spungie substance easie to be sewed when they make vessels thereof with cords made of Cocus It hath a continuall succession of fruits and is never without some they grow like a kinde of nut which is of a very large size having two sorts of husks as our walnuts the uppermost whereof is hairy like hemp and of this they make cordage and of the next they make drinking-cups When the fruit within these shells is almost ripe it is full of water which as it ripeneth changeth into a white harder substance at the first this liquour is sweet but with the ripening groweth sowre The tree affords a very medicinable juice and if it stand one houre in the sunne it is good vineger but distilled it may be used in stead of wine or Aqua-vitae There be wayes also to make sugar of it and of the meat in the nut dried they make oyl Of the pith or heart of the tree they make paper of the leaves they make coverings for their houses tents mattes and the like Nay their apparell firing and other necessary commodities they gather from this tree Thus some Or according to others it is thus described In the isle of Zebus there is a fruit which they call Cocos formed like a Melon but more long then thick It is inclosed with divers little skinnes so strong and good as those that environ a Date stone The islanders make thread of the skinnes as strong and good as that which is of hemp The fruit hath a rinde like a drie Gourd but farre more hard which being burned and beaten to powder serveth for medicine The inward nut is like unto butter being both as white and as soft and besides that very savoury and cordiall They make use of this fruit also in divers other things For if they would have oyl they turn and tosse it up and down divers times then they let it settle some few dayes at which time the meat will be converted into a liquour like oyl very sweet and wholesome wherewith they oftentimes anoint themselves If they put it into water the kernell is converted into sugar if they leave it in the sunne it is turned into vineger Towards the bottome of the tree they use to make a hole and gather diligently into a great cane the liquour that distilleth which amongst them is of as much esteem as the best wine in these parts for it is a very pleasant and wholesome drink There is also among the Indians a tree called Arbore de rais or the tree of roots called also the Indian fig-tree and by some affirmed with more confidence then reason saith one to be the tree of Adams transgression It groweth out of the ground as other trees and yeeldeth many boughs which yeeld certain threads of the colour of gold which growing downwards to the earth do there take root again making as it were new trees or a wood of trees covering sometimes the best part of a mile There is also another tree which some call the Indian mourner or Arbore triste the sad and sorrowfull tree It hath this propertie that in the day time and at sunne-setting you shall not see a flower on it but within half an houre after it is full of flowers which at the sunne-rising fall off the leaves shutting themselves from the sunnes presence and the tree seeming as if it were dead The Indians have a fable of one Parisatico who had a daughter with whom the sunne was in love but lightly forsaking her he grew amorous of another whereupon this damosel slew her self and of the ashes of her burned carcase came this tree A prettie fiction this Ovid himself hath not a better In the island of Hierro being one of the seven islands of the Canaries is a tree which distilleth water incessantly from the leaves thereof in so great abundance that not onely it sufficeth those of the island for there is no other water in the island but also might furnish the necessary uses of a farre greater number of people This strange tree is alwayes covered with a little mist which vanisheth by degrees according as the sunne sheweth himself When the Spaniards saith my authour took upon them to conquer this isle they found themselves almost discomfited because they saw neither fountains springs nor rivers and enquiring of the islanders where they had their water they answered that they used none but rain-water in the mean time kept their trees covered hoping by this subtiltie to drive the Spaniards out of the isle again But it was not long before one of their women entertained by a Spaniard discovered the tree with the properties of it which he at the first held for a fable untill his own witnesse saw it was true whereupon he was almost ravished with the miracle but the woman was put to death by the islanders for her treacherie In the north parts of Scotland and in the islands adjacent called Orchades are certain trees found whereon there groweth a certain kinde of shell-fish of a white colour but somewhat tending to a ruffet wherein are contained little living creatures For in time of maturitie the shells do open and out of them by little and little grow those living creatures which falling into the water when they drop out of their shells do become fowls such as we call Barnacles or Brant Geese but the other that fall upon the land perish and come to nothing Mr Gerard affirmeth that he hath seen as much in Lancashire in a small island which is called the Pile of Foulders for there be certain boughs of old trees and other such like rubbish cast up by the sea whereon hangeth a certain spume or froth which in time breedeth unto a shell out of which by degrees cometh forth a creature in shape like a bird sending out first a string or lace as it were of silk finely woven and of a whitish colour then follow the legs and afterwards more and more till at the last it hangeth by the bill soon after it cometh to maturitie and falleth into the sea where it gathereth feathers and groweth to a fowl bigger then a mallard and something lesse then a goose being somewhat coloured like to our mag-pies This Mr Gerard testifieth to be true upon his own knowledge as in his Herball is apparant And thus gentle reader I would here end not onely this Chapter and Section but also the first part of my book were it not that I have a
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-drie-land appeare and it was so And God called the drie-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
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
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
South South and by East South South East South East and by South South East South East and by East East South East East and by South East East and by North East North East North East and by East North East North East and by North North North East North and by East And then North again as in the beginning Artic. 4. The nature and qualitie of the windes IT may well appeare by that which already hath been written concerning the generation of windes that every winde in it self or in respect of the matter causing it is of an hot and drie qualitie If therefore blowing from any quarter we finde it other it is by accident and not through any inherent propertie for windes do evermore participate of the nature of that place by which they passe If by snowie mountains then bring they with them the cold of those mountains if by marshes contagion if by woods their blast is broken if by sandie plains they are warm if by moist watry places they are wet And therefore for particular windes the Panormi in Sicil are extream hot for before they pierce thither they scoure through the plains of Sicil and taking heat from the sands they carrie it into the citie The South winde at Genua is cold because it passeth the sea and taketh coldnesse thereof without touching the land before it arive But the North winde which bloweth through France saith one cometh from the sea and taking some measure of heat by the saltnesse thereof and finding no mountains covered with ice or snow in his passage augmenteth his heat by passing over the fields of Normandie Champaigne the isle of France and other provinces even to the hills of Auvergne which being moderately heated by the South winde on the one side and the North winde on the other bringeth forth every where excellent pastures and feedings for cattell and sheep besides divers sorts of medicinable plants and most perfect simples Also in some places it is found that the Eastern winde moisteneth and the Western winde bringeth drought and in other some the Western moisteneth and the other drieth So that it is possible for one and the same winde to have a divers qualitie although not in it self yet by accident as at the first was mentioned Yet neverthelesse generally and in most places the North with his associates is cold and drie the South with his companions is warm and moist and the East with his adherents is farre more drie then the Western and his neare neighbour windes The reasons whereof may be First for the North because it bloweth over many snowie mountains and ariseth from a climate which hath little neighbourhood with the sunne where the vapours be few and the exhalations many that arise out of sundry islands by the way Unto which also adde because the exhalation passeth not farre before it come at us that therefore it seldome bringeth rain for the exhalation hath not time enough to spend the driest portion of it so as the South winde doth who passeth both over more waterie places and also cometh further before we feel it Secondly for the South winde it cometh over the Mediterranean sea out of which the sunne begets abundance of waterie vapours which mix themselves with the windes causing them thereupon to be the blowers in of rain And as for their heat it is because they blow from the Equator where heat is most predominant Also know that a long and gentle South winde may sometimes cause clearenesse and fair weather most commonly in the summer season because it is by nature hot and therefore blowing for a certain space it so warmeth the aire that the vapours which otherwise would produce rain are not suffered to be knit but are attenuated and made so thin that they come to nothing or being any thing they prove onely barren clouds affording little rain Thirdly the East winde is found to be the driest because it cometh over a great continent of land lying towards the East out of which many drie and earthie exhalations are drawn In winter these windes are very cold and freezing but in summer they are pleasantly warm but healthfull and if at any time they blow up rain which is not ordinary they then continue it by the space of a whole day even as the like also sometimes happeneth from the North. The reason of which I take to be because perhaps their lateralls not being absolutely of the same qualitie may arise together with them and so bring rain especially if at the same time there be any other working in nature apt to moisten the skie with vapours For it is affirmed that Eurus on the one side and Coecias on the other side being two laterall windes pertinent to the East do naturally raise clouds and often turn them into rain as do also Upocoecias and Mes'eurus their collateralls And so also Cyrcius may do and Borrholybicus being on the West side of the North if either of them happen to arise and joyn although but weakly with the Northern blast For in their own sole blowings they beget both snow and hail either of which may fall down in drops of rain when the mixture of qualities is found to be divers Fourthly the Western winde is farre more moist then the East because it passeth over the great ocean of the Atlantick sea which must needs cast out many waterie and moist vapours and they cannot but beget rain and showers It is said also to be of a cold temper but surely not of an absolute coldnesse for it is found by experience that a direct Zephyrus or Favonius with their collateralls Mesocorus and Up'africus are warm and pleasant bringing sometimes hot showers sometimes warm and cleare weather And therefore it is determined by certain authours that this winde may blow from a cold place and yet bring heat For although in regard of the place over which it cometh it be cold yet in respect of the time when it usually bloweth it is hot Which Horace also pointed at saying Solvitur acris hyems grat â vice veris Favonî The winter sharp is loosed by the kinde Return of Spring and of the Western winde Or will you heare what others say Lemnius as Origanus relateth affirmeth that this Western winde and his collateralls are of a changing temper For although in the beginning of the Spring they be pleasing and gentle and are found to recreate and cherish all things seeing they are warmed by the moderate heat of the sunne which makes them bring out the beautie of trees and flowers to the view of the world and also causeth the bloud and good humours to appeare which in winter lay hid as if they were not casting away also the clouds of the minde and begetting jocundnesse in the heart yet neverthelesse Autumne ending and the circuit of the yeare enclining to Winter the foresaid windes do blow unkindely striking the sea
other be the meaning of Moses his words it may be answered that although the sea be divers in name yet all seas are so continued together that one sea is perpetually joyned with another and thereupon the name given is not Sea but Seas as in the text is manifest Yea and hereupon it also is that Geographers make these waters come under a fourefold division For they either call this gathered water Oceanus Mare Fretum or Sinus 1. Oceanus the ocean is that generall collection of all waters which environeth the world on every side 2. Mare the sea is a part of the ocean to which we cannot come but through some strait 3. Fretum a strait is a part of the ocean restrained within narrow bounds and opening a way to the sea 4. Sinus a creek or bay is a sea contained within a crooked shore thrusting out as it were two arms to embrace the lovely presence of it Object But perhaps you will say that the Caspian sea is a sea by it self and therefore all seas joyn not the one unto the other Answ. To which it is answered that this sea is either as a lake in respect of the contiguous or joyning seas or else it was no sea in the beginning of the world but began onely at the ceasing of the Floud was caused by the waters coming down from the Caspian hills setling themselves in those declive and bottomie places where the said sea is Plinie and Solinus are perswaded that it joyneth it self unto other seas by running into the Scythian or Northern ocean through some occult passages under ground which is not improbable But howsoever this we are sure of that the river Volga is joyned to it being as another sea and having no lesse then seventie mouthes to emptie it self which river is also joyned to the river Don and that hath great acquaintance with the Euxine sea Besides Volga is not a stranger to other waters which fall either into the Scythian or Baltick ocean insomuch that it may be said this Caspian sea is tied as it were with certain strings to three other seas and so not onely all waters are made one bodie like as before I shewed but if this gathering must needs be referred to the seas even all seas also shake hands and by one means or other mutually embrace one the other A third question is Whether the waters be higher then the earth Concerning which there be authours on both sides some affirming some denying That they be higher then the earth it is thus affirmed First because water is a bodie not so heavie as earth Secondly it is observed by sailers that their ships flie faster to the shore then from it whereof no reason can be given but the height of the water above the land Thirdly to such as stand on the shore the sea seemeth to swell into the form of an hill till it put a bound to their sight Fourthly it is written of Sesostris King of Egypt and after him of Darius King of Persia that they would have cut the earth and joyned Nilus and the Red sea together but finding the Red sea higher then the land of Egypt they gave over their enterprise lest the whole countrey should be drowned Fifthly the arising of springs out of the highest mountains doth declare it because the water cannot be forced higher then the head of the fountain opposite to it As for example Like as we see a spring that riseth in an hill conveyed in lead unto a lower ground will force his waters to ascend unto the height it beareth at the fountain even so the waters which stand above the mountains do force out springs of water by necessary and naturall cause out of the highest mountains Sixthly the Psalmist doth witnesse the same affirming moreover that God Almighty hath made the waters to stand on an heap and hath set them a bound which they shall not passe nor turn again to cover the earth And Jer. 5. 22. Fear ye not me saith the Lord will ye not tremble at my presence which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea by a perpetuall decree that it cannot passe it and though the waves thereof rage yet can they not prevail Thus on the one side But notwithstanding all this methinks the other part yet choose which you will is most probable For first the water indeed is a bodie not so heavie an earth yet heavie enough to descend not being of an aspiring nature but presseth eagerly towards the same centre that a stone or any part of the earth coveteth It cannot therefore possibly be above the earth although not so heavie as earth unlesse there were no hollow places in the ground to receive it But God Almighty in gathering them provided lodgings for them lest they should turn again and cover the earth which also is insinuated by the Hebrew word Kava signifying to congregate or gather together from whence the Latine word Cavus hollow may seem to be derived Besides should it be alledged that the hollow places could not be deep enough to receive them what were this but to curtall the earths Diameter or thicknesse for suppose the waters stood above the hills before they were gathered to one place yet know that even the Semidiameter of the earth is deeper by no few miles then the highest hill Suppose you could imagine an hill to be above a thousand miles high which is impossible yet the earths Semidiameter would be two thousand foure hundred and above 36 miles deeper then that height As for example if the earth be 21600 miles in compasse then the Diameter will be 6872 8 11 miles and if the Diameter be 6872 8 11 miles then the Semidiameter must be half so much viz. 3436 4 11 miles Secondly suppose it be observed by sailers that their ships fly faster to the shore then from it this proveth not the sea higher then the land For know that it is no wonder to see a ship sail more speedily homewards then outwards because when it approacheth to the shore it cometh with a continued motion which makes it the swifter but when it goeth from the shore it doth but begin its motion and is therefore slower then before This if need were might be proved by many plain and familiar examples Thirdly suppose that the sea seemeth to such as stand on the shore to swell higher and higher till it put a bound to the sight this rather proveth the sphericall roundnesse of the earth and sea then any thing else shewing that both together make one globie bodie Which why it is perceived rather in the water then the land this may be a reason namely because the sea being a plain and liquid element and spacious enough doth better shew it then the earth which hindereth our full view by reason of many woods trees and other fixed obstacles which the sight meeteth and encountreth by the way Fourthly although Sesostris K. of
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