declination in the seaventh Now that which these Ancients obserued touching these secret stations and progresses of Nature in the state of mans body and course of his life is still found to be true aswell by the Verdict and judgement of learned men as by the proofe and triall of Experience which could not possiblely bee were there a constant abatement in the length of our whole age by such an vniuersall irreuocable decay of Nature as is pretented for then should men doubtles grow to ripenes and perfection sooner as they are supposed sooner to hasten to death and dissolution which must needes draw on an alteration and confusion in all the noted changes thorow the course of mans life And therefore the holy Scripture assigning the Patriarches a longer life assignes them likewise proportionablely therevnto a longer time before they were ripened for generation as Peter Martyr hath rightly noted It is true and euer was which Galen in his sixth booke of the regiment of health hath observed that these chaunges cannot so be tyed to any such precise number of yeares but that a variation of latitude is to be admitted in them in regard of some particulars some growing to their puberty at fourteen others at fifteen some declining at thirty others at thirty fiue according to their severall constitutions educations diet situation of Clymates and countreyes and the like The Poet professed of himselfe aboue sixteene hundred yeare agoe that his beard began to sprout and paint his cheekes before twenty Quamuis jam juvenile decus mihi pingere malas Caeperit nondum vicesima venerit aetas Though now my beard began my cheekes to grace Nor had I liued yet twice tenne yeares space But as all rules in Science so theses are held sufficiently currant and warrantable if they be found infallible in the greatest part and vniforme where all circumstances concurre in a like degree It is now commonly thought that thirty three or between that and 35 yeares is the flower perfection of mans age it being the mid way to sevēty which both Moses Solon held the Epilogue cōclusiō thereof so as those who run beyōd that are like Racers which run beyōd the goale And this was the age of our blessed Saviour to the perfection whereof the Apostle seems to allude in the 4 to the Ephesians Till we meet together vnto a perfect man and vnto the measure of the age of the fullnes of Christ which passage S. Augustin interpreting is of opiniō that we shall rise againe by reasō of the perfectiō thereof iu ea aetane vsque quā Christū pervenisse cognovimus as men of that age vnto which Christ himselfe the head of the Church arriued I know there want not some as namely Irenaeus others who by occasion of that speech of the Iewes thou art not yet fifty yeare old and hast thou seene Abraham conjecture that he was about that age but whether it were his cares troubles that made him seeme elder then indeéde he was or the Iewes would thereby signifie that though he had beene much elder then he was yet was it not possible for him to haue seene Abrabam in the flesh certaine it is that he came not to fourty some late Divines being of opinion that he reached thirty fiue but the most part as also the most Ancient and most learned that he little exceeded thirty three since then our infancie ends and childhood begins our childhood ends and youth begins our youth ends and manhood begins and lastly our manhood ends our declining estate begins where it did a thousand or two thousād yeare agoe I see no reason but we may safely conclude that at leastwise since that time mankind is nothing decayed in regard of age and the like reason there is in there observing anciently the same Clymactericall yeares and in them the same danger of sicknesse or death that we do as appeares not only in Brodeus his Miscellanea lib. 6. cap. 26. and in a little discourse which M. Wright hath written and annexed to his book of the passions of the mind occasioned as he there professeth by the death of Queene Elizabeth but much more fully in Baptista Codronchus a famous both Philosopher and Phisitian who hath purposely cōposed a large treatise de annis Climactericis in which thus begins his preface to that worke Antiquissimi peritissimi rerum naturalium observatores nec vulgares homines vitae humanae curriculum considerantes septimo quoque anno presertim tertio supra sexagesimum homines plerosque corporis animi affectionibus conflictari in discrimine versari ac saepius interire pluribus observationibus ac periculis cognoverunt The most ancient and skilfull searchers into naturall things and those no meane men taking into consideration the course of mans life by many observations and tryals they found that every seventh yeare and specially in the 63 most men are sorely affected both in body and mind are brought into great danger and many times die outright I will bring onely one instance from Antiquity to shew their agreement as in the other before mentioned so likewise in this point with these latter ages it is borrowed from Gellius in his fifteenth booke and seaventh chapter of his Noctes Atticae where he thus speaks of this matter Observatum in multa hominum memoria expertumque est in senioribus plerisque omnibus sexagesimum tertium vitae annum cum periculo clade aliqua venire aut corporis morbique gravioris aut vitae interitus aut animi aegritudinis It hath been of a long time observed and experienced in almost all old men that the 63 yeare of their life hath proued dangerous and hurtfull vnto them either in regard of some greivous sicknesse of body or death or great greefe of mind going on he alleags to this purpose a part of a letter which Augustus Caesar wrote to Caius his Nephew Aue mi Cai meus ocellus iucundissimus quē semper medius sidius desidero quum à me abes sed precipue diebus talibus qualis est hodiernus oculi mei requirunt meum Caium quem vbicunque hoc die fuisti spero laetum benevolentem celebrasse quartum sexagesimum natalem meum nam vt vides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commnem seniorum omnium tertium sexagesimum annum evasimus I greet the well my Caius mine owne deare heart whom in truth I always find wanting as oft as thou art absent from me but cheifely vppon such days as this is mine eyes long to behold my Caius which wheresoeverthou wert I hope thou hast kept festivall it being my sixty fourth birthday for as thou seest I haue escaped my sixty third being the common climactericall of all old men SECT 2. The second is drawne from the age of Matrimony and Generation which among the Ancients was fully as forward as ours now is if not more
was a great man among the Anakims Besides the word Adam euen in the Vulgar Translation it selfe is not alwayes vnderstood as proper to the first man but common as homo in Latine or man in English And yet to graunt the word in that place to be vnderstood of the first man and that he was there buried well might he be called the Greatest yet notsomuch in regard of any excessiue vastnesse in the dimentions of his bodie as because he was the headspring and fountaine of mankind or in respect of that originall justice with which before his fall hee stood invested There is no necessitie then to beleeue that the first man was the tallest of men nay rather as he came short of many that followed after in age and number of yeares so it may safely be thought that he exceeded them not in stature or dimentions of body there being often found in the Creatures a reciprocall corespondence betwixt their durations and dimentions as among the Graecians the same word signifies both whence some translate it age and some stature So that those Patriarches of the first age who by speciall dispensation liued longest may well be conceiued by vertue of the same dispensation to haue had a stature and length of body in some sort sutable to the lasting and length of their liues SECT 2. What those Gyants were which are mentioned in the 6 of Genesis that succeeding ages till Davids time afforded the like YEt the first mention that holy Scripture makes of Gyants is in the sixth of Genesis not long before the flood but long after the Creation There were Gyants in the earth in those dayes saith the text and also after that when the sonnes of God came in vnto the daughters of men and thy beare children vnto them the same became mighty men which were of old men of renowne The Originall word is Nephelim derived from Naphal which signifies to fall whence Iunius referres their name to their defection apostacie from religion and the worship of the true God Calvin to the falling of others before them by reason of their excessiue pride cruelty and oppression Philo in his booke which he hath purposely composed de Gygantibus to their owne falling from piety and godlines to carnall thoughts and earthly desires From which he fetcheth their name in Greeke S. Cyrill about the beginning of his ninth booke against Iulian discoursing of this very passage of Moses thus comments vpon it Mos est divinae Scripturae Gigantes vocare agrestes feroces robustos Nam de Persis Medis Iudaeam devastaturis dixit Deus per Isayam Gigantes venient vt impleant furorem meum It is the phrase of holy writ to call such Gyants as are in behaviour rough and rude wild and barbarous So speakes God by the Prophet Isayah of the Medes and Persians ordained for the laying wast of Iudea Gyants shall come and execute my fury vpon you So that if we rest in any of these interpretations there is no necessity we should conceiue these Gyants to haue exceeded other men in stature Nay S. Chrysostome seemes to deny it Gygantes à Scriptura dici opinor non invsitatum hominum genus aut insolitaâ—… formam sed Heroas viros fortes hellicosos I thinke they are in Scripture called Gyants not any vncouth kind of men for shape or feature but such as were Heroycall and warlike Which exposition of his hath in trueth some ground in the latter part of the same verse where Moses seemes to vnfold himselfe thus describing those whom immediatly before he had called Gyants the same became mighty men which were of old men of renowne On the other-side Cassianus Ambrose and Theodoret are as express that by Gyants Moses there vnderstood men of an huge and vast proportion of body But for mine owne part I see not but all these interpretations Chrysostomes onely excepted may well enough stand together and be accorded These Gyants being such as the Interlineary Glosse briefely but pithily describes immanes corpore superbos animo viribus praevalidos inconditos moribus Gyants then they were not onely in regard of their pride their tyrannie their incivility and infidelity but like wise and that doubtles most properly in respect of the monstrous enormity of their bodies most of the former being in likelihood occasioned by this latter Now as this is the first place that wee reade of Gyants not long before the flood which should argue they were taller and stronger then any that went before them so it is not the last but in all times wee may trace them thorow the history of succeeding ages From whence Reason collects that euen in regard of these irregular prodigious birthes for ought we finde in Scripture Nature hath suffered no apparent or sensible decay Of this stamp it seemes was Nymrod who hath therefore this Character set vpon him that he was Robustus Venator coram Domino a mighty hunter before the Lord There were some likewise found of this excessiue stature in the time of Abraham of Moses of Iosuah and of David whom wee haue registred vnder the names of Rephaims Zuzims Zanzummins Emims and Anakims Also the Prophet Amos found among the Amorites men of Gyant-like stature whose height he compareth to Cedars and their strength to Oakes Particularly it is noted in the third of Deuteronomy of Ogge King of Basan foure hundred yeares after Abraham that his bedde of yron kept and shewed as a monument in Rabbah was nine cubits long and foure broad And surely if his stature were answerable to the dimensions of his bed hee was one of the greatest Gyants that wee any where reade of not only in sacred but in any warrantable prophane story For whereas nine cubits make vp thirteene foote and an halfe if wee should allow a foote and halfe for the length of his bed-steed at both the ends beyond his body yet there still remaines twelue foote which is double to a iust stature And though I am not ignorant that both the Chaldee Paraphrase and Complutensian Bible following it render it In cubito eiusdem Regis as if the measure were to be taken by the Cubit of King Ogge himselfe yet Arias Montanus and Tremellius following the originall render it in cubito viri or virili and Iunius giues this note vpon it idest iustae communis mensurae qualem mensuram cubitalem quisque Artifex observare solet that is of the iust and common measure such as Artificers vsually obserue in their cubits and such as himselfe in the third of Iosuah translates notam mensuram the ordinary knowne measure And to say truth the measuring of Ogge by his owne cubit had beene both to make his stature altogeter vncertaine and the commensurations of his body most disproportionable there being no man whose body is justly framed who is full foure of his owne cubits in length neither had such a shape
Starres are not Gods as the Gentiles commonly imagined the other that they are governed by God which the Epicurians denyed for the former of those saith he argumentum illud quo colligunt vniversa coelestia Deos esse in contrarium valet Nam si Deos esse idcircò opinantur quia certos rationabiles cursus habent errant Ex hoc enim apparet Deos non esse quod exorbitare illis apraestitutis itineribus non licet caeterùm si Dij essent huc atque illuc passim sine vlla necessitate ferrentur sicut animantes in terra quorum quia liberae sunt voluntates huc atque illuc vagantur vt libet quocunque mens duxerit eo feruntur That argument from whence the Heathen doe collect that the Starres must needes be Gods doth most plainly prooue the contrary For if they take them to be Gods because of the certainty of their courses they be therein much deceiued for this plainely prooveth that indeed they be no Gods because they be not able to depart from their set courses Whereas if they were Gods they would mooue both this way and that way in the Heauens as freely as liuing Creatures doe vpon the earth who because they haue the liberty and freedome of their will they wander vp and downe whither they themselues please And for the latter tanta rerum magnitudo saith hee tanta dispositio tanta in servandis ordinibus temporibusque constantia non potuit aut olim sine provido Artifice oriri aut constare tot seculis sine incola potente aut in perpetuū gubernari sine perito sciente rectore quod ratio ipsa declarat Such a greatnes in their creation such a comelinesse in their order such a constancie in observing both their courses and their seasons could neuer either at first haue beene framed without a cunning hand or so long haue beene preserued without a powerfull inhabitant or so wisely haue beene governed without a skilfull Regent as euen reason it selfe maketh it plaine and evident And Plurarch affirmeth generally of all men that the very first motiue that lead them vnto God was that orderly motion whereby the starres are carried Homines caeperunt Deum agnoscere cùm viderent stellas tantam concinnitatem efficere ac dies noctesque aetate ac hyeme suos servare statos ortus atque obitus Men beganne first to acknowledge a God when they considered the starres to maintaine such a comelinesse and both day and night in summer and winter to obserue their designed risings and settings SECT 4. An objection of Du Moulins touching the motion of the Polar Starre answered ANd thus I hope the Heauens are sufficiently discharged from any imputation of Decay in regard of their motion the constant regularity whereof we finde to haue beene obserued and admired by the most learned of all ages It remaines now that I should proceede to the examination of the other qualities thereof which before I attempt it shall not be amisse to remoue a rub cast in our way by Du Moulin a famous French Divine in his Booke intituled The accomplishment of Divine Prophesies touching the motion of the Polar starre his words are these or to this purpose Astrologie also doth lend vs some light in this matter For in the yeare of the World three thousand six hundred sixty fiue Ptolomaeus Philadelphus raigning in Egypt some foure hundred sixty nine yeares after the building of Rome there lived one Hipparchus a famous Astrologer who reports that in his time the starre commonly called the Polar starre which is in the taile of the lesser Beare was 12 degrees two fifths distant from the Pole of the Aequator This star from age to age hath insensibly still crept neerer to the Pole so that at this present it is not past three degrees distant from the Pole of the Aequator When this star then shall come to touch the Pole there being no farther space left for it to goe forward which may well enough come to passe within fiue or six hundredth yeares it is likely that then there shall be a great change of things and that this time is the period which God hath presixed to Nature A bold coniecture of a man so well versed in holy Scriptures and in other matters so modest as if God had written in the Heavens the period of times or had so written it as any mortall eye could discerne it his beloued Son professing that it is not for vs to know the times and seasons which the Father hath put in his owne power And as the Conjecture is bold so is it built vpon as sandy a foundation which is that the Pole-star shall draw so neere the Pole as to touch it or shall euer be brought to those straits as it shall finde no passage to goe forward whereas it is certaine it shall euer remaine in some certaine distance from the Pole twenty sixe or twenty seuen minutes at the least True indeed it is that about fiue hundred yeares hence if the World last so long it shall then approach the nearest but then shall it with-draw it selfe again by degrees to as remote a distance as it euer was before As it heretofore hath beene the most Southerly star in that Asterisme and is now become the most Northerly so in processe of time it may become the most Southerly againe But from hence to inferre that the Poles of the Aequator are moueable is inconsequent and incompatible with the most receiued and best approued grounds of Astronomy Besides other fixed stars haue their times of accesse and recesse to and frōthe Pole aswell as this so that the motion of this can no more point out the period of Nature then of those All which Du Moulin himselfe either by his owne observation or advertisement from others well perceiuing in a latter Edition of that booke printed at Sedane in the yeare one thousand six hundred thenty one hath well mended the matter by changing some words For insteed of this in the first edition From hence it appeareth that the Poles of the Equatour are moueable in the second he hath thus changed it It being certaine and observed by long experience that the fixed stars moue from the West to the East in a motion paralell to the Eclyptique In his first edition he sayes When this starre shall come to touch the Pole there beeing no further space left for it to goe forward but in his second hee changeth it thus when this starre shall approach the Pole as neere as it can Againe in his first thus which may well come to passe within these fiue or six hundred yeares in his second thus which may well come to passe within siue hundred yeares Lastly in his first thus it seemes that this time is the period which God hath prefixed to Nature in his second thus it seemes that some notable period shall then expire And surely I cannot but as much commend
with Lawes If then a wise choice were made out of the whole bodie of the Lawes of the most vsefull and proper for the present times and they severely executed the rest being repealed and abrogated it would proue both easier for the subject and happier for the weale publique Now for the number of Law-suites it hath alwayes beene observed that in times of peace and plenty as riches increase by manufactures and tillage and trading so doth the number of controversies Our Forefathers for many agés together lived for the most part in Civill Warres and continuall alarmes so as the sword then determined the controversie and not the Law since then the sword hath bin sheathed no marveile that the Law Courts of Iustice haue bin more in request Moreover the fall of the Monasteries and the alienating of their Lands into so many hands hath no doubt bin a great meanes to set Lawyers a worke since that fall more then in former ages And what is it but the setting of men a worke which sets vp a trade and multiplies the professours thereof And as the number of professours multiplie so doe the diversitie of their conceites and inventions many eyes seing more then one can which is the cause that both more flawes are found in Convayances and consequently more clauses and cautions thrust into them for the preventing of the like SECT 2. Another objection answered taken from the Scriptures which in diverse places seeme to say that the last times shall be the worst BUt the great doubt which troubles most men is that the Scriptures seeme in diverse places to say that the last times shall be the worst and to this end are commonly alleadged these passages Because iniquity shall abound the loue of many shall waxe cold When the Sonne of Man commeth shall he finde faith on the earth Now the Spirit speaketh expressely that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devills This know also that in the last dayes perillous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their owne selues covetous boasters and evill men and seducers shall waxe worse and worse deceiving and being deceived There shall come in the last dayes scoffers walking after their owne lusts Beloved remember yee the words which were spoken before of the Apostles of our Lord Iesus Christ how that they told you there should be mockers in the last dayes who should walke after their owne vngodly lusts These are all or at least-wise the principall passages which I haue either found alleaged or can remember to that purpose Whereâ—…to I first reply in generall that put the case they all inferred a decay in matter of Manners toward the end of the world yet doth not that necessarily inforce a perpetuall vniversall declination since the fall of man but men may be as doubtlesse they haue been sometimes better sometimes worse by interchange and at the last worst of all But I would demaund how it can hang together that we should expect the subversion of Antichrist his kingdome the conversion of the whole Nation of the Iewes to the saving knowledge of the truth before the end of the world and yet withall affirme or beleeue that the whole world still hath doth shall to the end thereof grow worse and worse For mine owne part I must professe that I know not how to reconcile so different and contradictorie opinions But for the better clearing and vnderstanding of the passages alleaged it will be needfull to consider in what sense The last dayes in holy Scripture are to be taken Some there are who referre them to the dayes of Antichrist but others vpon better warrant to the dayes of Christ from his first comming in the flesh to his second comming to judgement Thus the Prophet Isayah It shall come to passe in the last dayes that the Mountaine of the Lords house shall be established in the toppe of the mountaines And Micah to the same purpose and so neere in the same words as if he borrowed them from Esay Now the dayes of Christs kingdome are therefore called the last dayes not onely because it set an end to the kingdome of the Iewes but because none other Priest-hood or Sacrifice or Sacraments or Law are to succeede in place thereof As man is a little world so the age of the world like that of man is distributed into diverse stops or periods It hath its infancie child-hood youth perfect estate old age And as in man old age may and sometime doth last as long as all the rest so may it fall out in these times of the kingdome of Christ and yet they be still the last times Thus the time of Iob from his restitution to his death is said to be his last dayes or latter end though it comprehend one hundred and forty yeares which in the life of man is a long space And if by the last dayes we should vnderstand the times neere approaching to the worlds end no small advantage might thereby vnawares be given to the Iewes who would beare vs in hand that the Messias is not yet come because the last times are not yet come Whereas we on the other side say for our selues and truly that the last times are come not therefore because they approach neere to the worlds end but because the Messias is come Vpon which ground the Apostles themselues in imitation belike of the Prophets likewise tearme it the last times In the last times he hath spoken to vs by his Sonne saith S. Paul And S. Iohn Little children it is the last time and as you haue heard that Antichrist shall come euen now are many Antichrists whereby we know that it is the last time Since which time we know sixteene Centenaries of yeares haue passed So as the Apostles could not well tearme their times the last in regard of any neare approach to the worlds end but because they liued vnder the Kingdome of Christ. And if I should thus expound those alleadged passages I should conceiue the interpretatioÌ„ were not vnsound Augustin I am sure in his Epist. to Hesichius allowes it Calvin in divers places beats vpon it Per dies extremos satis tritum est regnum Christi designari and in another place more fully to our present purpose Sub extremis diebus comprehendit vniversum Christianae Ecclesiae statum vnder the tearmes of the last dayes hee comprehends the vniversall estate of the Church of Christ. Herevnto may be added that which some latter learned Diuines touching this point haue obserued that the Hebrew word signifies either extremitie or posterioritie as I may so speake Whence it is somtimes rendred Last and sometimes Latter both in Greeke Latine and other Languages and those two promiscuously taken the one for the other Thus the Apostle in 2 Timothy and the 3. calls that the last times which
particular shall come to passe which they haue likewise foretold though happily we cannot set downe the time or manner of their event And iâ—… asmuch as we who now liue haue seen the accomplishment of many prophesies foretold by the pen-men of holy writ which our forefathers saw not if we stedfastly beleeue not the fulfilling of those which are yet to come in their due time we shall thereby be made the more guilty and the lesse excusable before God Howsoever if we beleeue as we all pretend the Scriptures to be the liuely oracles of God and to haue bin indited by the divine sacred inspiration of the holy Ghost we cannot but withall beleeue that the consuÌ„mation of the world shall most vndoubtedly in due time though to vs most vncertaine be accomplished Now as the cleere light of this truth hath by Gods grace so brightly shined among Christians that except they wilfully shut their eyes against it they cannot but apprehend and imbrace it So did it appeare to the Iewes though not in so conspicuous a manner yea some sparkes of this truth haue beene scattered even among the Gentiles themselues so as it were a shame vnpardonable for vs Christians not to acknowledge it or somuch as once to doubt of it SECT 1. That the world shall haue an end by the testimonie of the Gentiles SEneca disputing this question whether a wise man be so sufficiently content with himselfe as he needs not the helpe of any frâ—…end puts the case Qualis futura est vita sapientis how he would liue being destitute of friends if he were cast into prison or banished into some desart or cast vpon some strange shoare his answere is Qualis est Iovis cum resoluto mundo c. as Iupiter shall liue when the world shall be dissolved contenting himselfe with himselfe And againe more cleerely Quidenim mutationis periculo exceptum non terra non coelum non totus hic rerum omnium contextus quamvis Deo agente ducatur non semper tenebit hunc ordinem sed illumex hoc cursu aliquis dies deijciet certis eunt cuncta temporibus nasci debent crescere extâ—…ngui Quaecunque vides supra nos currere atque haeo quibuâ—… innixi atque impositi sumus velut solidissimis carpentur 〈◊〉 What is there which is prviledged from danger of change not the earth not the heavens no nor this whole frame of Creatures though it be guided by the finger of God it shall not alwaies obserue this order but some one day at last shall turne it out of his course For all things haue a time to be borne to increase and then againe to die be â—…ntinguished All those things which thou seest wheeling over our Heads and even those vpon which we are seated and setled as being most solide shall be surprized and leaue to be And in another place Si potest tibi solatio esse commune fatum nihil constat loco stabili nihil qua sint loto stabit Omnia sternet abducetque secum vetustas supprimet montes maria sorbebit If the common destiny of all things may any whit comfort thee there is nothing setled in a stable course nothing shall alwayes remaine in that state it now stands in time shall carry downe all things with it it shall levell the mountaines and swallow vp the seasâ—… And lastly in his Naturall questions vnus humanum genus condet dies one day shall burie all mankinde Yet it should seeme that withall he held a restoring of all things againe Omne ex integro animal generabitur dabiturque terris homo inscius scelerum melioribus auspicijs natus Sed illis quoque innocentia non durabit nisi dum novi sunt citò nequitia subrepet All Creatures shall be againe restored and mankind shall againe be sent to inhabite the earth but a kind voyd of wickednes and borne to a better fortune yet shall not their innocencie long endure neither but only whiles they are yet fresh and new afterward vngratiousnes will by degrees creepe vpon them Aelian as I haue already touched to another purpose in the eight booke of his Historie telleth vs that not only the mountaine Aetna for thereof might be given some reason because of the daily wasting and consuming of it with fire but Parnassus and Olympus did appeare to be lesse and lesse to such as sayled at sea the height thereof sinking as it seemed and therevpon inferres that men most skilfull in the secrets of nature did affirme that the world it selfe should likewise perish haue an end His premises I haue in another place sufficiently disproved but his conclusion inferred therevpon I cannot but highly approue most willingly accept of as a rich testimony for the confirmation of our Christian doctrine touching the end of the world delivered from the pen of a Gentile nay he positiuely affirmes it to haue beene the opinion of the most skilfull in the secrets of Nature And certaine it is that the greatest part of Philosophers before Aristotle Heraclitus Empedocles Anaxagoras Democritus and others as they held that the world had a beginning in time so did they likewise that in time it should haue an end And since Aristotle the greatest part his followers only excepted haue ever constantly maintained the same in somuch that the very Epicures heerein accord with the Stoickes though in other opinions they differ as fire and water as may appeare in Lucretius by sect an Epicurean and for his wit much esteemed among the Ancients Principio maria ac terris coelumque tuere Horâ—…m naturam triplicem tria corpora Memmi Tres species tam dissimiles tria talia texta Vna dies dabit exitio multosque per annos Sustentata ruet moles machina mundi Behold O Memmi first the earth the sea The heaven their three-fold nature bodies three Three shapes so farre vnlike three peeces wrought And woven so fast one day shall bring to naught And the huge frame engine of this all Vpheld so many yeares at length shall fall And Ovid speaking of Lucretius seemes to haue borrowed from him part of these very words Carmina sublimis tum sunt peritura Lucreti Exitio terras cum dabit vna dies Lucretius loftie rimes so long shall liue Till to this earth one day destruction giue And Lucan as he differs not much from Lucrece in name so doth he fully accord with him in this opinion Sic cum compage soluta Saecula tot mundi suprema coegerit hora. Antiquum repetens iterum Chaos omnia mixtis Sydera Syderibus concurrent ignea pontum Astra petent tellus extendere littora nolet Excutietque fretum fratri contraria Phaebe Ibit obliquum bigas agitare per orbem Indignata diem poscet sibi totaque discors Machina divulsi turbabit foedera mundi So When the last houre shall So many ages end and this disjoynted
a miracle shall they be suspended from a mutuall intercourse of working one vpon another and a production of Meteors mixt bodies And how shall the Earth disvested of the vegetables which apparelled her and appearing with her naked and dustie face be sayd to be more amiable then before Finally if the heavens according to their Essence shall remaine how shall they naturally without a miracle stand still being now naturally inclined to a circular motion Or how without a miracle shall the light be increased and yet the warmth springing from thence be abated nay wholy abolished Or if the warmth shall remaine how can it choose but burne vp those parts of the Earth vpon which it never ceases to dart perpendicular beames Or how can the Sunne stand still and yet inlighten both the Hemespheres or the starres of that Hemesphere which it inlightens at all appeare To these demaunds Pererius makes a short answere and in my judgement a very strange one and vnworthy the penne of so great a Clarke that some of these things God hath already done that we might be induced the more readily to beleeue that they both may and shall be done againe And for instance he alleageth the standing still of the Sunne Moone at the prayer of Iosuah the restrayning of the burning force of the fire in the Babylonian furnace but withall foreseing that those were miracles for satisfaction therevnto he concludes Non agere autem inter se qualitates elementorum nec lu em Syderum calefacere quamvis nunc ingens esset miraculum tunc tamen posita semel mundi renovatione non erunt miracula It were now a great miracle that the qualities of the Elements should not mutually worke each vpon other or that the light of the starres should not produce warmth but then the world being renewed they shall be no miracles Indeed if the world were so to be renewed as the former essence of it were to be destroyed or the former qualities to be entinguished then should I happily allow of his reason as probable passable but now granting that the same Identicall forme and matter shal still continue that the former qualities shall not be abandoned but perfected not altered in kinde but only in degree I cannot see how it should be held tearmed a great miracle heeretofore which shall not be so heereafter And whereas it is said that the bodies of the Saints shall then naturally liue without meate which now without a miracle they cannot doe we must consider that though the substance of their bodies shall remaine yet the qualities of them shall be intirely changed so farre as the Apostle is bold to call it a spirituall bodie And besides we may be bold to challenge a speciall priviledge vnto the bodies of the Saints the temples of the holy Ghost which without speciall warrant cannot be yeelded to any other Corporeall substance And withall we must remember that for the resurrection of the bodie wee haue an Article in our Creede most cleere proofes from Scripture but for the restitution of the Creatures no one such sufficient proofe as the mind of a Christian desirous to be truly informed can rest fully satisfied therein Such as they are I will not conceale them These places then are to that purpose commonly alleaged SECT 6. The arguments commonly alleadged from the Scriptures for the renovation of the world answered WHom the heavens must containe till the times of the Restitution of all things He layed the foundations of the earth that it should not be removed for ever sayth David And Solomon one generation passeth and another commeth but the earth abideth for ever Behold I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into mind To which words of the Prophet S. Iohn seemes to allude And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth passed away and there was no more Sea And for the increase of the light of the Planets and other starres that passage of the same Prophet is vsually alleadged The light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne seaven fold But the pretended proofes most stood vpon are drawne from S. Paules Epistles The fashion of this world passeth away the fashion not the substance And againe The Creature it selfe also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God And lastly heerevnto they adde the words of the Psalmist Thou shalt change them and they shall be changed not abolished but chaunged Which words are againe by the Apostle taken vp and repeated Heb. 1. 12. These are I am sure the strongest if not all the pretented proofes that are commonly drawne from the holy Scripture and pressed for the maintenance of the adverse opinion the strength of which I thinke I shall so put backe as it shall appeare to any indifferent Iudge that it is in truth but forced and wrested The passages I will consider in order as they are alleaged severally examine their validitie to the purpose they are vrged First then whereas wee out of the Greeke reade the Restitution of all things the Syriake Interpreter hath it vsque ad Complementum temporum omnium to the end of all times whereby none other thing can be vnderstood then the finall consummation of the world but to take the words as we finde them The times of restitution are vndoubtedly the same which Saint Peter in the next verse saue one going before had tearmed times of refreshing and by them is meant the actuall fulnesse and perfection of our redemption quoniam restitutio illa adhuc in cursu est adeoque redemptio quando adhuc sub onere servitutis gemimus sayth Calvin because our restitution and consequently our redemption as yet is but imperfect whiles we groane vnder the burden of servitude To the second it may be sayd that in the course of nature the earth should remaine for ever without decay or diminution had not the Creator of it decreed by his almighty power to abolish it But I rather chuse to answere with Iunius who vpon the first place taken out of the Psalme giues this note tantisper dum saeculum duraturum est as long as time shall endure and vpon the second this hominis vani comparatione in comparison of the vanishing estate of man The earth then is sayd to remaine for ever as Circumcision and the Leviticall Law are sayed to be perpetuall not absolutely but comparatiuely Now for the new heavens and the new earth it should seeme by the places alleaged that if it be litterally to be vnderstood of the materiall heavens they shall not be renewed as the common opinion is but new Created creation being a production of some new thing out of nothing So as it shall not be a restitution of the
rejected though commonly received Sect. 1 In Divinitie pag. 1. Sect 2 In Philosophie p. 4. Sect. 3 In Historie Ecclesiasticall p. 5. Sect. 4 In Historie Civill or Nationall p. 7. Sect. 5 In Naturall Historie p. 8. Sect. 6 With an application thereof to the present purpose p. 11. CAP. 2. Of the Reasons inducing the Authour to the writing and publishing of this discourse Sect. 1 Whereof the first is the redeeming of a captivated truth pag. 12. Sect. 2 The second is the vindicating of the Creators honour p. 14. Sect. 3 The third is for that the contrary opinion quailes the hopes and blunts the edge of vertuous endeavours p. 15. Sect. 4 The fourth is for that it makes men more carelesse both in regard of their present fortunes and in providing for posterity p. 19. Sect. 5 The fifth and last is the weake grounds which the contrary opinion is founded vpon as the fictions of Poets the morosity of old men the over-valuing of Antiquity and disesteeming of the present times p. 22. CAP. 3. The Controversie touching the worlds decay stated and the Methode held thorow this ensuing treatise proposed Sect. 1 Touching the pretended decay of the mixt bodies pag. 27. Sect. 2 Of the Elements in regard of their quantity and dimensions p. 28. Sect. 3 In regard of their qualities p. 31. Sect. 4 Of mankind in regard of Manners and the Arts. p. 32. Sect. 5 In regard of the duration of their liues their strength and stature p. 35. Sect. 6. The precedents of the Chapter summarily recollected and the Methode observed in the ensuing Treatise proposed p. 37. CAP. 4. Touching the worlds decay in generall Sect. 1 The first generall Reason that it decayes not is drawne from the power of that Spirit that quickens and supports it the second and third from the consideration of the severall parts whereof it consists pag. 38. Sect. 2 The fourth for that such a decay as is suppposed would in time point out the very date of the worlds expiration and consequently of the second comming of Christ. p. 42. Sect. 3 The fifth for that vpon the supposition of such a decay as is pretended the vigor and strength of the parts thereof must of necessity long since haue bin vtterly exhausted and worne out p. 44. Sect. 4 The sixth argument is drawne from the Authority of Salomon and his reason taken from the Circulation and running about of all things as it were in a ring p. 45. CAP. 5. Generall arguments made for the worlds decay refuted Sect. 1 The first generall objection drawne from reason answered which is that the Creature the neerer it approaches to the first mould the more perfect it is and according to the degrees of its remoueall and distance from thence it incurres the more imperfection and weakenesse p. 47. Sect. 2 The second answered which is that the severall parts of the world decay which should argue a lingering consumption in the whole p. 50 Sect. 3 The third answered which is taken from the authority of Saint Cyprian p. 50. Sec. 4 The same authority of Saint Cyprian farther answered by opposing against it the authority of Arnobius supported with ponderous pressing reasons p. 55. Sec. 5. The fourth answered which is borrowed from the authority of Esdras p. 60. Sec. 6 The rest answered pretended to be taken froÌ„ authority of holy Scriptures p. 62. LIB 2. Of the pretended decay in the Heavens and Elements together with that of the Elementary bodies man only excepted CAP. 1. Touching the pretended decay of the heavenly bodies in regard of their substance Sect. 1 Of their working vpon this inferiour world and the dependance of it vpon them pag. 64. Sec. 2 Their pretended decay in their substance refuted by reason p. 67. Sec. 3 An objection drawne from Iob answered p. 69. Sec. 4 Another taken from Psal. 102. answered p. 71. Sec. 5 A third taken from the apparition of New starres answered p. 74. Sec. 6 The last drawen from the Eclypses of the Sunne and Moone answered p. 75. CAP. 2 Touching the pretended decay of the heavenly bodies in regard of their motions Sec. 1 The first reason drawne from the causes of that Motion p. 78. Sec. 2 The second from the certainety of demonstrations vpon the Celestiall Globe The third from a particular view of the proper motions of the Planets which are observed to be the same at this day as in former ages without any variation The fourth from the infallible and exact prediction of their Oppositions Conjunctions and Eclypses for many ages to come The fifth from the testimony of sundry graue Authors averring the perpetuall constancy immutability of their motions p. 80. Sec. 3 The same truth farther proved from the testimony of Lactantius Plutarch p. 84. Sec. 4 An objection of du Moulins touching the motion of the polar star answered p. 85. CAP. 3. Touching the pretended decay in the light of the heavenly bodies Sect. 1 The first reason taken from the nature of the heavenly light those things wherevnto it is resembled p. 86. Sec. 2 The second for that it haâ—…h nothing contrary vnto it and heere Pareus and Mollerus are censured for holding that the light of heaven 〈◊〉 impaired p. 87. Sec. 3 Herevnto other Reasons are added and the testimony of Eugubinus vouched p. 88. CAP. 4. Touching the pretended decay in the warmth of the heavenlie bodies Sect. 1 That the starres are not of a fierie nature or hot in themselues p. 90. Sec. 2 That the heate they breed springs from their light and consequently their light being not decayed neither is the warmth arising therefroÌ„ p. 91. Sec. 3 Two objections answered the one drawne from the present habitablenes of the torride Zone the other from a supposed approach of the Sun neerer the earth â—…hen in former ages p. 93. Sec. 4 A third objection answered taken from a supposed remoueall of the Sunne more Southerly from vs then in former ages p. 94. CAP. 5. Touching the pretended decay of the heavenly bodies in regard of their influences Sect. 1. Of the first kind of influence from the highest immoueable heaven called by Divines Coelum Empyreum p. 97. Sec. 2 Of th' second kind derived from the Planets and fixed starres p. 98. Sec. 3 That the efficacy of these influences cannot be fully comprehended by vs. p. 99. Sec. 4 That neither of them is decayed in their benigne and favourable effects but that curious inquisition into them is to be forborne p. 100. CAP. 6. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in generall Sect. 1 That the Elements are still in number foure p. 102. Sec. 2 That the Elements still retaine the same properties that anciently they did and by mutuall interchange and compensation the same bounds dimentions p. 106. Sec. 3 An objection drawne from the continuall mixture of the Elements each with other answered p. 109. CAP. 7. Touching the pretended decay of tâ—… Aire in regard of
and deere bought marble p. 365. Sec. 2 Of their excessiue sumptuousnes in their temporary or trāseunt buildings made only for pastime to last but for a short time p. 366. Sect. 3 Of their infinite expence in their permanent Amphitheaters and the appurtenances belonging therevnto namely their Courtaines Arena p. 368. Sect. 4 Of their incredible expence in the hiring and arming dieting of their sword-players in the hunting bringing home feeding keeping of their wilde beasts in other admirable shewes to the astonishment of the beholders in refreshing the Spectatours with pretious pleasant perfumes and the like and lastly in casting their largesse among the people neitheir was this the practise of the Emperours onely but of private men p. 370. Sect. 5 Of their superfluous expence as in the number largenesse so likewise in the beauty and ornament of Bathes which were likewise of little other vse then for pleasure p. 372. Sect. 6 Of the endlesse masses of treasure which they powred out in the erecting and adorning of temples for the worship of those Idolls which they forged to themselues or at leastwise knew well enough were no gods p. 373 Sect. 7 Of their wonderfull vanitie in erecting infinite numbers of statues and those very chargeable and that to themselues p. 376. Sec. 8 Their prodigall sumptuousnes in their private buildings in regard of the largenesse height of their houses as also in regard of their marble pillars walls roofes beames and pauement full of art and cost p. 377. Sect. 9 The profuse expences of Domitian and Nero in their buildings as also of Caligula in his madde workes p. 381. Sec. 10 That the Romans luxurious excesse in their houshold-stuffe and the ornamēts of their houses was sutable to that of their buildings p. 382 CAP. 9. Of the Romans excessiue luxurie in their dressing and apparell Sec. 1 How effeminate they were in regard of their bodies specially about their haire p. 385. Sec. 2 Of the pressing plaiting store die and prize of their garments as also of their rings and jewells of inestimable value p. 386. Sect. 3 The great excesse and immodesty of their women in the same kinde p. 389. Sec. 4 More of the excessiue nicenesse of their women as also of Caligula his monstrous phantasticalnesse in his apparell together with their extreame vanity in the multitude of their servants and slaues wayting on them p. 391. Sec. 5 Of their prodigall or rather prodigious guifts of their Emperours the extreame vnthriftinesse of private men p. 395. CAP. 10. Of the Romanes extreame arrogancie and confidence in admiring and commending themselues together with their grosse and base flattery specially to their Emperours and lastly their impudent nay impious vaine-glory and boasting of their Nation and Cittie Sect. 1 Of their extreame arrogance in admiring and commending and ◅ven deifying themselues pag. 398 Sect. 2 Of their grosse and base flattery specially toward their Emperours both living and dead pag. 400. Sect. 3 Of their impudent nay impious vaine-glory and boasting of their owne Nation and Citty p. 404. CAP. 11. Wherein the objections brought in behalfe of the Romans touching their pretended justice prudence and fortitude are examined and fully answered Sect 1 The first objection touching the pretended justice of the Romans answered out of Lactantius p. 406. Sec. 2 The same answere farther confirmed by the testimony of Saint Augustine p. 410. Sect. 3 Another answere that none can bee truly just which are not truly religious nor any truly religious which professe not the Christian Religion p. 412. Sect. 4 The second objection touching the pretended wisedome of the Romans answered by taking a briefe view of their courses but specially by the testimony of Pliny p. 413. Sec. 5 The third objection touching the pretended fortitude of the Romans answered in as much as their Empire is by their owne writers in great part ascribed to Fortune and by Christians may be referred to Gods speciall providence for the effecting of his owne purposes rather then to any extraordinary worth in them p. 416. Sec. 6 Secondly the Romans having no right or little just to the Nations they subdued we cannot rightly tearme their strength in conquering them fortditue 418. Sec. 7 Thirdly that the Christians in suffering for Religion surpassed the Roman fortitude and equalled it in suffering for their countrey p. 420. Sec. 8 That as the Christians haue surpassed the Romans in the passiue part of fortitude so haue they matched them in the actiue and that the partiall overvaluing of the Roman manhood by their owne Historians is it chiefely which hath made the world to thinke it vnmatchable p. 423. Sect. 9 The English not inferiour to the Roman in valour and magnanimitie by the judgement of Sir Walter Rawleigh p 426. CAP. 12. Wherein the generall objections touching the worlds decay in matter of Manners are answered at large Sect. 1 Two objections drawne from reason and both answered The one that since the first plantation of Christian Religion men haue from time to time degenerated The other that the multitude of Lawes Lawyers Law-suites and the multiplicity of words in writings and convaiances argue the great sickenesse and malice of the present times in regard of the former p. 431. Sect. 2 Another objection answered taken from the Scriptures which in diverse places seem to say that the last times shall be the worst p. 433. Sect. 3 The passages of Scripture alleadged to that purpose particularly and distinctly answered p. 436. Sec. 4 The last doubt touching the cōming of Antichrist answered p 437 Sec. 5 The argument of greatest weight to proue that Antichrist is already come p. 438. CAP. 13. That the world shall haue an end by Fire and by it bee intirely consumed Sec. 1 That the world shall haue an end is a point so cleere in Christian religion that it needeth not to be proved frō the principles thereof neither is he worthy the name of a Christian who makes any doubt of it p. 441. Sect. 2 That the world shall haue an end by the testimony of the Gentiles p. 442. Sect. 3 That the world shall haue an end by fire proved likewise by the testimonie of the Gentiles p. 444. Sect. 4 That the world shall be by fire totally and finally dissolved and annihilated proved by Scripture p. 446. Sect. 5 The same farther proved by reason p. 447. Sect. 6 The arguments commonly alleadged from the Scripture for the Renovation of the world answered p. 450. CAP. 14. Of the vses we are to make of the consummation of the world of the day of judgement Sec. 1 That the day of the worlds end shall likewise be the day of the generall judgement thereof and that then there shall bee such a judgement is proved aswell by reason as the testimony of the Gentiles p. 454. Sect. 2 The consideration of this day may first serue for terrour to the wicked whether they regard the dreadfulnes of
richly conferred whereas I am rather of opinion that as in holy Scripture for the most part he accepted and preferred the younger brother before the elder and as Christ our Sauiour turned the water into wine toward the end of the feast which farre excelled that in the beginning so the gifts and graces of God haue beene more plentifully powred out vpon mankinde in this latter age of the World then euer since the first Creation thereof As was foretold by the Prophet in the old Testament and remembred by the Apostle in the New And it shall come to passe in the last dayes saith God I will powre out of my Spirit vpon all flesh Lastly the reputation of his Power is thereby most of all stained and wounded as if his treasurie could at any time be emptied and drawne dry as if he had but one blessing in store or were forced to say with old Isaak when he had blessed Iacob with corne and wine haue I blessed him what shall I doe now to thee my son No no his arme is not shortned neither is his mighty power any way abated yet they who thus complaine of natures decay what doe they else but implicitly impeach and accuse his Power which in truth is nothing else but Natura Naturans as the Schooles phrase it Actiue Nature and the creature the workmanship therof Natura Naturata Nature Passiue That which the Samaritans ignorantly and blasphemously spake of Symon Magus may properly and truly bee spoken of Nature that it is the Great power of God or the power of the Great God as is divinely observed by the witty Scaliger against Cardan in that exercitation which in its front beares this inscription opposed to Cardanes assertion Non ex fatigatione mundum solutum iri that the world shall not desolue by being tired quasi natura saith hee sit asinus ad molas non autem Dei Opt. Max. potestas quae eodem nutu gubernat infinito quo creavit we may not conceiue that Nature is as an ass wasted and wearied out at the mill but the power of the Mighty God which governes all things with the same infinite coÌ„mand wherewith they were created And with him accords Valesius discoursing of the Worlds end towards the end of his booke de Sacra Philosophia Quae à Deo ipso per se ac sine causa secunda compacta sunt non possunt ab alia causa solui sed solum ab eo ipso à quo sunt coagmentata Those things which are made of God himselfe immediately by himselfe without the concurrence of secoÌ„d causes cannot be vnmade by any inferiour cause but by him alone by whome they were first made And againe Certe ita est virtutem divinam apponi necesse est vt deleatur quod Deus ipse fecit there needes no lesse then a divine power for the abolishing of that which the Diety it selfe hath wrought which he seemes to haue borrowed from Plato in Timoeo where he thus speakes of the world Ita apte cohaeret vt dissolvi nullo modo queat nisi ab eodem à quo est colligatus so proportionably doth each part answer other that it is indissoluble but onely from his hand who first framed it As then Allmighty God created all things of nothing by the power of his word So doth he still vphold them and will till the dissolution of all things in their essenses faculties and operations by the Word of his Power reaching from one end to the other mightily and disposing all things sweetely Indeed with the workes of man it is not so when he hath imployed about them all the cunning and cost and care that may be he can neither preserue them nor himselfe both they and he moulder away and returne to their dust but I know saith the Preacher that whatsoever God doth it shall be for ever nothing can be put to it nor any thing taken from it Add the sonne of Sirach Hee garnished his works for ever and in his hand are the cheife of them vnto all generations they neither labour nor are weary nor cease from their workes none of them hindreth another and they shall never disobey his word SECTIO 3. The third is for that the contrary opinion quailes the hopes and blunts the edge of vertuous endeavours MY third reason for the penning and publishing of this discourse is that the contrary opinion therevnto seemes not a little to rebate and blunt the edge of mens vertuous endeavours For being once throughly perswaded in themselves that by a fatall kind of necessity and course of times they are cast into those straites that notwithstanding all their striuing and industry it is impossible they should rise to the pitch of their noble and renowned predecessours they begin to yeeld to the times and to necessity being re solued that their endeavours are all in vaine and that they striue against the streame nay the Master himselfe of Morallitie the great Patriarch of Philosophers hath told vs that circa impossibilia non est deliberandum it is no point of wisdome for a man to beat his braines and spend his spirits about things meerely impossible to be atchiued and which are altogether out of our reach The way then to excite men to the imitation of the vertue and the exploits of their famous Ancestours is not as I conceiue to beate downe their hopes of parallelling them and so to clip the wings of their aspiring desires but rather to teach them that there wants nothing thervnto but their owne endeavour and that if they fall short the fault is not in the age but in themselues The spies that were sent by Moses to discover the land of Canaan at their returne told the people that the inhabitants the of were much stronger then themselues that they were Gyants the sonnâ—…s of Anak and themselues but as Grashoppers in comparison of them by meanes of which report the harts of the people melted within them and they were vtterly discouraged from marching forward though the discouerers reported withall that the land from whence they came flowed with milke and honey and the pomegrannats the figgs the wonderfull clusters of grapes brought from thence for a tast and evidence of the goodnesse of the soyle pleased them exceeding well Thus when our Ancestors are painted forth as Gyants not onely in stature and strength but in wit and vertue though the acts wee find recorded of them please vs marveilous well yet wee durst not venture or so much as once thinke vpon the matching of them because we are taught and made to beleeue that wee forsooth are but as pigmies and dwarfes in regard of them and that it were as possible to fit a childs shooe to Hercules foote as for vs any way to come neere them or to trace their stepps Possunt quia posse videntur They can because they seeme they can Certainely the force of imaginatioÌ„ is
bouche diuine Qui Causera sa fin Causa son origine Th'immutable diuine decree which shall Cause the Worlds end caus'd his originall Let not then the vaine shadowes of the Worlds fatall decay keepe vse ither from looking backward to the imitation of our noble Predecessors or forward inproviding for posterity but as our predecessors worthily prouided for vs so let our posterity blesse vs in providing for them it being still as vncertaine to vs what generations are yet to ensue as it was to our predecessors in their ages I will shut vp this reason with a witty Epigram made vpon one who in his writings vndertooke to foretell the very yeare of the Worlds consummation Nonaginta duos durabit mundus in annos Mundus ad arbitrium sistat obitque tuum Cur mundi sinem propiorem non facis vt ne Ante obitum mendax arguerere sapis Ninety two yeares the World as yet shall stand If it doe stand or fall at your command But say why plac'd you not the Worlds end nigher Lest ere you died you might be prou'd a lyer SECT 5. The fifth and last reason is the weake grounds which the contrary opinion is founded vpon THE fifth and last reason which moued me to the vndertaking of this Treatise was the weake grounds which the contrary opinion of the Worlds decay is founded vpon I am perswaded that the fictions of Poets was it which first gaue life vnto it Homer hath touched vpon this string with whom Virgill accords and they are both seconded by Iuvenal and Horace But aboue all that pretty invention of the foure Ages of the World compared to foure mettals Gold Siluer Brasse and Iron hath wrought such an impression in mens mindes that it can hardly bee rooted out For ancient Philosophers and Divines I finde not any that are so much as alleadged in defence of it but Pliny and Cyprian to whom some haue added Gellius and Augustine but how truly it shall appeare Godwilling when we come to speake of their testimonies in their proper places And for Scripture proofe it is both very sparing and wrested That which aboue all as I conceaue hath made way for this opinion is the morosity and crooked disposition of old men alwayes complaining of the hardnesse of the present times together with an excessiue admiration of Antiquity which is in a manner naturall and inbred in vs vetera extollimus recentium incuriosi The ancient we extoll beingcarelesse of our owne times For the former of these old men for the most part being much changed from that they were in their youth in complexion and temperature they are fill'd with sad melancholy thoughts which makes them thinke the World is changed whereas in truth the change is in themselues It fares with them in this case as with those whose taste is distempered or are troubled with the Iaundise or whose eyes are bloodshot the one imagining all things bitter or sowre which they taste and the other red or yellow which they see Terraeque Vrbesque recedunt Themselues being launched out into the deepe the trees and houses seeme to goe backward whereas in truth the motion is in themselues the houses and trees still standing where they were Seneca tels vs a pleasant tale of Harpaste his wiues foole who being become suddenly blind shee deemed the roome in which she was to be darke but could by no meanes be perswaded of her owne blindnesse Such for the most part is the case of old men themselues being altered both in disposition of body and condition of minde they make wonderfull narrations of the change of times since they remember which because they cannot bee controlled passe for currant The other pioner as I may so call it which by secret vndermining makes way for this opinion of the Worlds decay is an excessiue admiration of Antiquity together with a base and envious conceit of whatsoeuer the present age affords or possibly can afford in comparison thereof Vetulam praeferunt immortalitati they preferre the wrinkles of Antiquity before the rarest beauty of the present times the common voice euery where is and euer hath beene and will be to the Worlds end Faelix nimium prior aetas Contenta fidelibus arvis Vtinam quoque nostra redirent In mores tempora priscos Thrice happy former ages and blessed With faithfull fields content and pleased Would our times also had the grace Againe old manners to embrace yet if we will speake properly and punctually Antiquity rather consists in the old age then infancie or youth of the World But take it as commonly vnderstood I thinke it will not be denied by any that vnderstand the course of times but that in latter ages many abuses haue beene reformed many Arts perfected many profitable Inventions discouered many noble and notable acts atchieued Multa dies variusque labor mutabilis aevi Rettulit in melius Time and much toile of this vnsteddie World Hath bettered many things As truly Virgil and elegantly Claudian Rerumque remotas Ingeniosa vias paulatim explorat egestas Wittie necessity by degrees traceth out Of things the prints and windings most remote But let vs heare what the wisest man that euer liued of a meere man hath determined in this point Say not thou what is the cause that the former dayes were better then these for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this Vpon which words saith Isidorus Clarius Quia manifestum est habuisse priora tempora sicut haec nostra habent incommoda sua because it is evident that former times had their mischiefes and miseries waiting vpon them as well as ours Yet because for the most part the best of former times is recorded and the worst concealed from vs as the Sieue le ts goe the finest flower but retaines the bran or because wee are generally more sensible of the crosses then the blessings of our owne times or lastly because the sight and presence of things diminisheth that reputation which we conceiued of them Such is the disease and malignity of our nature Vitium malignitatis humanae as Tacitus cals it vt vetera semper in laude praesentia sint in fastidio Et nisi quae terris semota suisque Temporibus defuncta videt fastidit odit Sed redit ad fastos virtutem imputat annis Miraturque nihil nisi quod Libitina sacravit Saue what remoued is by place nor lacks Antiquity to warrant it he lothes and hates Vertue he counts by yeares and Almanacks Wonders at nought but what death consecrates But as the same Poet wittily speakes comparing the Graecians with the Romans the same may wee demaund comparing our selues and â—…atter ages generally with the ancients Quod si tam antiquis novitas invisa fuisset Quam nobis quid nunc esset vetus aut quid haberet Quod legeret tereretque viritim publicus vsus If ancients had envied as much as wee Things that
suffer death When it the forme forsakes as men their breath And though the counters be plac't lower or higher Yet still the totall summe doth stand entire SECT 2. Fourth reason for that such a decay as is supposed would in time point out the very day of the worlds expiration and consequently of the second comming of Christ. ANother speciall reason mouing me to beleeue that the Worlds supposed decay is but imaginary is that it would in time point out the very date of its expiration so that men should be able frō the extremity of the disorder cōfusion into which it would by degrees degenerate by the rule of proportion as it were by the euen decrease of sand or water in an houre-glasse prognosticate the instant beyond which it could no longer subsist whereas before the Vniversall Deluge which swept away euery liuing soule breathing vpon the face of the Earth except Noah his Family and the beasts which lodged with him vnder the roofe of the same Arke wee reade of no such fore-running declination which was the reason that men tooke no notice of it till it over tooke them and as it was then so shall it be at the sudden and vnexpected comming of the second deluge of fire For as in the d◅es which were before the floud they were eating and drinking marrying and giuing in marriage vntill the day that Noah entred into the Arke and knew not vntill the flood came and swept them all away So shall also the comming of the sonne of man bee it shall be like the comming of the theefe in the night when men shall say Peace and safety then sudden distruction shall come vpon them The more I wonder what should make the Authour of the Scholasticall history thus to write Tradunt Sancti quod quadraginta annis ante judicium non videbitur arcus coelestis id quod etiam naturaliter ostendet desiccationem aeris Holy men affirme that forty yeares before the day of ludgment no rainebow shall appeare which shall serue as a naturall signe of the drought in the ayre already begun Those Holy men he names not neither can I so much as conjecture who they should bee since no such opinion nor any mention thereof as I presume is to be found in the writings of any of the Ancient Fathers now extant neither in truth is it any way grounded either vpon Scripture or shew of reason drawne from thence And besides it assumes that as yeelded which is not onely vncertaine but certainely false that the conflagration of the world shall be wrought or at leastwise prepared by second and naturall causes whereas it shall doubtlesse be the supernaturall worke of Gods omnipotencie as was likewise the drowning of it Howbeit Henricus Mecliniensis scholer to Albertus Magnus in his Comentaries vpon the great Conjunctions of Albumazar seemes to referre it to the watery constellations then reigning as some others do the future generall conbustion to the predominance of fiery constellations whereas notwithstanding they ascribe the vniversall declination and dotage of nature to the want of that warmth which former ages enioyed So that according to their groundes following the course of nature the world should rather haue beene burned in Noahs time it being then in the prime and strength of naturall heate and reserved for a floud at the last day it being now accordig to their opinion seazed vpon with cold and waterish humours or at least their feined fiery constellations would better haue suted with those times and the waterish with ours But thus wee see how curiositie intangleth and errour ever crosseth and contradicteth it selfe Haec est mendaciorum natura vt cohaerere non possint sayth Lactantius Such is the property of falsehoods that they can never hang together At nulla est discordia veris Semper que sibi certa cohaerent In true things discord is there none They friendly still agree in one SECT 3. Fifth reason that vpon the supposition of such a decay the vigour of the world must needs long since haue beene exhausted and worne out A fifth reason which makes mee thinke that Nature neither hath nor doth degenerate and pine away in the severall kindes of Creatures in regard of their number dimensions faculties or operations is that in the course of so many ages allready past the vigour and strength of it must needes haue beene vtterly exausted and worne out If in every Centenary of yeares from the Creation or since the floud some small abatement onely should haue beene made which notwithstanding the Patrons of the adverse opinion hold to be greate as will appeare when wee come to the examination of the particulers and if wee should question a man of an hundred yeares of age about this point what a wonderfull change will he tell you of since his remembrance so that if wee should goe backward and proportionablely allow the like change within the like compasse of yeares since the beginning of the world it could not possiblely subsist at this day But put the case as I say that not so greate as is imagined but some small abatement should be made for every Centenary surely evē in that proportion nothing else could now be left vnto vs but the very refuse bran the drosse dregges of nature and as heavy things sinke in rivers but strawes and stickes are carried downe the streame so in this long current of time the kernell and pith of Nature must needes haue beene spent and wasted onely the rinde and shells should haue beene left to vs. The Heavens could not by their warmth and influence haue beene able sufficiently to cherish the earth nor the earth to keepe the plantes from staruing at her breasts nor the plants to nourish the beastes nor could the beastes haue beene serviceable for the vse of man nor man himselfe of abilitie to exercise the right of his dominion over the beastes and other Creatures The Sunne by this time would haue beene no brighter then the Moone or Starrs Cedars would haue beene no taller then shrubs Horses no bigger then Doggs Elephants then Oxen Oxen then Sheepe Eagles then Pigeons Pigeons then Sparrowes and then whole race of mankind must haue become Pigmies and mustered themselues to encounter with Cranes If we should allow but one inch of decrease in the growth of men for euery Centenary lesse cānot well be imagined there would at this present be abated allmost fiue foote in their ordinary stature which notwithstanding was held the competent height of a man aboue sixteene hundred yearers since so still continues so that the ordinary stature of the men of the first age should by this rule haue beene about tenne foote which exceeds that of Goliah by some inches Sir Walter Rauleigh who in sundry places positiuely defendes natures vniversall decay which I must confesse I somewhat marvell at in a man of that peirceing wit and cleare iudgment but that as others
they moue and so I conceiue it to haue beene mâ—…nt by Aristotle but in naturall motions as the moving of a stone downeward and such is rather Naturâ—…s motion in the course of the world the contrary is vndoubtedly truâ—… Cresâ—…â—…undo the farther it moues the more strength it gathers and fortiâ—…ies it selfe in going Besides if the strength of the hand could goe along with the dart or if the bow with the arrow as the hand and power of God leades and preserues Nature in her course keeping â—…t a wâ—…king as the spring doth the wheels in a watch or Clocke thâ—…e is no question but their motions would proue as quicke and forcible in the end as at the beginning and not cease at all before the strength of the hand or bow which carry them forward were removed from them Finally if this axiome were not to be limited it should equally extend to the Angells and the soules of men and the first matter and the heavens as well as to the sublunary mixt bodies but the same power which vpholds and maintaines them in their originall state supports likewise the whole body of this inferiour world together withall the severall speâ—…ies or kindes thereof and did it not so doe all the absurdities already touched as impotency in that spirit which animates the world to support it anâ—…ihilation in the course of Nature defect and swarving in the Creaâ—… without the sin of man foreknowledge of the worlds end the end of it long before this time would infalliblely follow therevpon SECT 2. The second generall obiection answered which is that the seuerall parts of the World decaying it should argue a consumption in the whole ANother argument drawne from reason for the worlds decay is that all the parts of it decay and by degrees grow to dissolution which should likewise argue a wasting and lingring consumption in the whole since there seemes to be the same reason of the whole which is of all the parts where of it consists But the answere hereunto will easily appeare out of that which hath already beene deliuered and by taking a review of the seuerall parts of the Vniversall First then for the heauens vndoubtedly they feele no such decay either in substance quantity motion light warmth or influence as I hope I shall make it manifest in the next Chapter and for the Elements what they loose in regard of their quantity is againe made vp by equivalence or compensation and that in respect of their quality they decay not either by being of lesse efficacie or more malignant dispositions then in former ages remaines to be shewed in their proper place and lastly for the bodies mixed and tempered of the Elements though it be graunted that all individuals or particulars in time decay or perish yet doth it not follow that the same condition should likewise bee annexed to the species or kinde which is still preserued by a new supply and successiue propagation of particulars not alwayes inferiour to their predecessours which this argument presumes but sometimes excelling and commonly equalling them in goodnes as hath alwayes beene touched in part and shall hereafter by Gods helpe bee more fully and distinctly prooued SECTIO 3. The third generall obiection answered taken from the authority of S. Cyprian THe arguments drawne from authority are either humane or divine testimonies Among humane that of S. Cyprian is most famous as wel in regard of his great piety and learning as his approach to the pure and primitiue times of the Church of Christ. This holy Martyr then and venerable Bishop greeuing that the Christian Religion should be charged with these lamentable accidents wherewith the World at that time was pressed and shaken shapes this reply to Demetrianus their accuser Illud primo loco scire debes senuisse iam mundum non illis viribus stare quibus prius steterat nec vigore robore eo praevalere quo antea praevalebat hoc enim nobis tacentibus nulla de Scripturis sanctis praedicationibusque divinis documenta promentibus mundus ipse iam loquitur occasum sui rerum labentium probatione testatur Non hyeme nutriendis seminibus tanta imbrium copia est non frugibus aestate torrendis solis tanta flagrantia est nec sic verna de temperie sua laeta sata sunt nec adeò arbores foetibus autumno foecundae sunt minus de effossis fatigatis montibus eruuntur marmorum crustae minus argenti auri opes suggerunt exhausta iam metalla pauperes venae tenuantur in dies singulos decrescunt deficit in agris agricola in amicitijs concordia in artibus peritia in moribus disciplina Putasne tu posse tantam substantiam rei senescentis existere quantumprius potuit novella adhuc vegeta iuventute pollere Minuatur necesse est quicquid fine iam proximo in occidua extrema divergit sic sol in occasu suo radios minus claro igneo splendore iaculatur sic declinante iam cursu exoletis cornubus Luna tenuatur arbor quae fuerat ante viridis fertilis are scentibus ramis fit postmodum sterili senectute deformis fons qui exundantibus prius venis largiter profluebat vix modico sudore distillat Haec sententia mundo data est haec Dei lex est ut omnia orta occidant aucta senescant infirmentur fortia magna minuantur cùm infirmata diminuta fuerint fiâ—…iantur You ought first to haue knowne this that the World is now waxen old that it hath not those forces which formerly it had neither is endued with that vigour and strength wherewith it formerly was thus much though we held our peace and brought no proofe thereof from holy Scripture and divine Oracles the World it selfe proclaimes and testifies its declination by the experience of all things declining in it Wee haue not now so great store of showres for the nourishing of our seedes in Winter nor in Summer so much warmth of the Sunne for the ripening of our corne In the Spring our fields are not so fresh and pleasant nor in Autumne our trees so loaden with fruites lesse peeces of marble are hewed out of the exhausted and tired mountaines and the emptied Mines yeeld lesse quantity of gold and siluer theit veines daylie diminishing and decreasing The husbandman is defectiue in manuring the Earth concord failes in friendship skill in Arts and discipline in manners Can you imagine that the state of a thing waxing old should be so firme sound as when it flourished in its youth That must needes bee weakened which the finall period of it approaching hastens to the last end so the Sunne when it is setting darts not forth so fiery and cleare beames So the Moon drawing toward the end of her race drawes in her horns and growes lesse and the tree which formerly was greene and fruitfull her boughes withering becomes deformed by barren
old age and the well-spring which formerly flowed abundantly with full streames being dryed vp through age hardly distils a drop of moisture This sentence is passed vpon the World this is the Law which God hath set it that all things that are borne should die all that increase should decrease that strong things should be weakned and great lessened and being thus weakned and lessened they should at last be vtterly dissolued This discourse of Cyprian and the excellent flowres of Rhetorique in it shew him to haue beene both a sweet and powerfull Oratour of a great wit a flowing eloquence but whether in this he shew himselfe so deepe a Philosopher or sound Divine I leaue that to the Reader to judge and referre his judgment to the future examination of the particulars only by the way it shall not be amisse to remember that the Christians of those times happily by reason aswell of the bloody persecutions which pressed them sore as the frequent passages both in the Gospell and Epistles which speake of the second comming of Christ as if it had beene then hard at hand stood in continuall allarums and expectation of the day of Iudgment and the end of the World as evidently appeares by the very words of Cyprian himselfe in this discourse their thoughts still running therevpon all things seemed sutable thereunto and to draw towards that end It cannot be denied but those times wherein Cyprian liued were indeed very bitter and miserable in regard of f◅mine and warre mortality yet about forty yeares after it pleased Almighty God to pacifie those stormes and dispell those cloudes by the conversion of the renowned Constantine to the Christian Religion as it had beene by the breaking forth of the Sun beames so as they who sowed in teares reaped in joy at which time had Cyprian liued no doubt he would haue changed his note his pen would haue as much triumphed in the tranquillity and flourishing estate of the Church vnder that noble Emperour as it deplored the torne state of the World in the time wherein himselfe liued The former famine and warre and mortality being then by Gods gratious blessing happily turned into health and peace and plenty He would then haue told you that whereas before showres of their blood were powred out for Christs sake now it pleased God to open the windowes of Heauen for the moistning and nourishing of their seedes that as Christ the Sonne of Righteousnesse was acknowledged as the Saviour of the World and the shining beames of the Gospell displayed themselues so the Sunne in the firmament had recovered its warmth and strength for the ripening of their corne that as the outward face of the Church was become beautifull and glorious so the very fieldes seemed to smile and to receiue contēt therin by their fresh and pleasant hue that as men brought forth the fruites of Christianity in greater abundance so their trees were more plentifully loaden with fruites that as the rich mines of Gods word were farther searched into so new veines of marble and gold and silver were discovered that Christian religion hauing now gotten the vpper hand had made the Husbandman and Artificer more carefull industrious in their callings had opened the Schooles for Professours in all kind of learning had restored wholsome discipline in manners faithfullnesse in friendship Finally he would haue told you that the world with the Eagle had now cast her worne bill and sick feathers and vpon the entertainement of Christ and his Gospell was growne young againe Which I am the rather induced to beleeue for that Cyprian himselfe in the same discourse against Demetrianus in another place referres the disasters of those times to the obstinacie of the world in not receiuing the truth of Christianity and submitting itselfe to the yoake of Christ Iesus A more likely and certaine cause doubtlesse then that other of the worlds imaginary old age and decay His words are these Indignatur ecce Dominus irascitur quod ad eum non convertamini comminatur tu miraris et quereris in hac obstinatione contemptu vestro si rara desuper pluvia descendat si terra situ pulueris Squalleat si vix jejunas pallidas herbas sterilis gleba producat c. Behold the Lord is angry and threatens because you turne not vnto him and dost thou wonder or complaine if in this your obstinacie contempt the raine seldome fall the earth be deformed with dust the land bring forth hungry starved grasse if the haile falling do spill the vine if the ouerturning whirlewind do marre the Oliue if drought dry vp the springes if pestilent dampes do corrupt the ayre if diseases consume men when all these things come by sinnes provoking God is the more offended since such and so great things do no good at all And the same reason is vpon the like occasiō yeelded by Lactantius Discite igitur si quid vobis reliquae mentis est homines ideo malos iniustos esse quia dij coluntur ideo mala omnia rebus humanis quotidie ingravescere quia Deus mundi hujus effector gubernator der◅lictus est quia susceptae sunt contra quam fas est impiae religiones postremo quia ne vel a pau◅is quidem coli deum sinitis Learne thus much then if you haue any vnderstanding left that men are therefore wicked vnjust because such Gods are worshipped and that such mischeefes dayly befall thē because god the Creator and Governour of the world is forsaken by them because impious religions against all right are entertained of them finally because you will not permit the worship of the true God so much as to a few Heere then was the true cause of their bloudy warres that they shed the innocēt bloud of Christians trāpled vnder foote the pretious bloud of Christ as their warres together with the vnkindly season were the cause of dearth and famine and both famine and warre of pestilence and mortalitie how frequently and fervently doth the Scripture beate vpon this cause God every where promising to reward the obedience of his people with plenty and peace and kindly seasons their rebellion with scarcitie sicknes the sword But that these scourges of the world were at any time caused by or imputed to the old age or decay therof to my remembrance we no where read As then the referring of these plagues with Demetrianus and the Gentiles to the curse of God vpon Christian religion was a blasphemous wrong to Gods truth So with Cyprian to referre them to the old age and naturall decay of the world be it spoken with all due reverence to so great a light in the church of God is in my judgment an aspersion vpon the Power and providence and justice of God And Pammelius in his annotations to excuse Cyprian herein conceiuing beelike that he was not in the right tells vs that
cannot be knowne or vnderstood If therefore they would haue the Almans Persians Scythians subdued because Christians did dwell liue among these Nations Why did they giue the Romans the victory seeing Christians dwelt liued among their Nations also If it were their pleasure that mice locusts should therefore swarme in Asia Syria because in like manner Christians dwelt in those Nations why did they not at the same time swarme in Spaine France seeing innumerable Christians liued in these Provinces also If for this very cause they send drought vpon the corne barrennesse among the Getulians them of Aquitaine why did they the same yeare giue such plentifull harvests to the Moores Numidians the like Religion being setled in these Countries also If in any one Citty they haue caused through the hatred of our name very many to perish with famine why in the same place haue they through the dearenes of all provision made not only those that are not of our body but even true Christians also much more the richer wealthier It behoued therefore that either none should haue had any thing that was comfortable if we be the cause of Euils for we are in all Nations or seeing yee see that things profitable are mingled with those that are incommodious leaue off at length to ascribe that vnto vs which impeacheth your estates since we be no hindrance at all to your wealth and prosperity SECT 5. The fourth objection answered which is borrowed from the authority of Esdras THat which yet farther disables the validity of this testimony of Cyprian is that in the opinion of Sixtus Senensis a learned Writer he borrowed it from the Apocryphall Esdras For Canonicall Scripture he seemes indeed to glance at the name thereof by the way but alleadges none And if Senensis had thought that any booke of the Canon had favoured this opinion of Cyprian hee would neuer haue sent vs to Esdras but since the appeale is made to Esdras to Esdras let vs goe Hee then in his fourth booke and fifth Chapter v. 51 52 53 54 and 55 thus speakes of this matrer He answered me and said aske a woman that beareth children and she shall tell thee say vnto her wherefore are not they whom thou hast now brought forth like those that were before but lesse of stature she shall answer thee They that be borne in the strength of youth be of one fashion and they that be borne in the time of age when the womb faileth are otherwise Consider thou therefore also how that ye are lesse of stature then they that were before you and so are they that come after you lesse then ye as the creatures which now begin to be old and haue passed ouer the strength of youth Now as others depend vpon the authority of Cyprian so Cyprian himselfe depending vpon this of Esdras it will not I hope be thought either vnseasonable or impertinent if we a little examine the weight thereof First then it is certaine that this book is not to be found either in Hebrew or Greeke neither is it by the Tridentine Counsell admitted into the Canon no doubt but vpon very sufficient reason is it excluded both by them and vs in regard of the doctrines which it teacheth manifestly repugnant to the rules of orthodoxe faith as in the fourth and seuenth Chapters it teacheth that the soules of the Saints departed this life are detained as it were imprisoned in certain cels vauts of the Earth vntill the number of the Elect be accomplished and that then they shall receiue their Crowns of glory altogether and not before In the sixt Chapter he tels vs a most ridiculous vnsavory tale of two vaste Creatures made vpon the fifth day of the Creation the one called Enoch or Behemoth and the other Leviathan In the seventh he deriues his pedegree from Aaron by nineteene generations whereas the true Esdras or Esras deriues his but by fifteene And to bring it home somewhat neerer to our purpose In the fourteenth chapter hee shewes himselfe manifestly a false Prophet touching the Consummation of the world which saith hee hath lost his youth and the times begin to wax old for the world is divided into twelue parts and tenne parts of it are gone already and halfe of a tenth part and there remaineth that which is after the halfe of the tenth part So that by his computation diuiding the whole time of the worlds duration into twelue equall portions onely one and a halfe were then remaining which had it beene true the world should haue ended almost fifteene hundred yeares agoe For the time from the worlds Creation to Esdras according to the Scriptures calculation containe about three thousand foure hundred and seventy yeares and this summe of yeares containe ten parts and an halfe of of the twelue alotted for the whole duration of the world whence it consequently followes that the residue of the time from Esdras to the worlds end could not exceede the number of fiue hundred yeares and yet from Esdras to this present yeare of the Lord one thousand six hundred twenty six wee finde there are passed almost two thousand yeares Heerevnto may bee added the sharpe but well deserved Censure of Iunius in his preface to the Apochryphall bookes Nihil habet Esdrae quam falfo emendicatum nomen injuriâ maximâ Authorem enim quem puduit sui operis longè amplius debuerat puduisse cum suis somnijs nomen tanti viri praefigeret impudenter Ecclesiam vellet fallere Hee hath nothing in him worthy of Esdras but only a borrowed name and that most injuriously assumed Hee was ashamed of his owne name but hee should rather haue shamed to prefixe the name of so worthy a man before his dreames and thereby attempt the deceiving of the Church And againe in his annotations on the first chapter of that booke Quis vero huic libro tantam fidem deinceps arroget quae in ipsa fronte naeuos tam immanes in re tam euidenti mendacia tam puerilia ne quid gravius dicam animadvertit Quisquis es qui hunc librum legis sume authoritatem probandi atque judicandi sermones ejus Non enim obstringit fidem tuam illius authoritas si qua est in tam crassis erroribus Who will heereafter giue credit to this booke who obserues in the very forehead of it so notorious blemishes and in a matter so evident not to say worse of it so childish lies Whosoever thou art that readest this booke take to thy selfe authoritie of trying and judging his speeches For his authority cannot binde thy Credence if there be any in such grosse errours It shall not bee amisse then to follow this advise of Iunius and to bring this counterfeite to the touch-stone whereby wee shall easily discerne that both the ground hee assumes is vnsound and his illation from thence deduced inconsequent His ground is that children borne
or begotten in old age are alwayes weaker then those in youth Whereas Isaak borne of Sarah when shee was now so old that shee was thought both by others and her selfe to be past conceiving and begotten of Abraham when his body was now dead was for any thing wee finde to the contrary of as strong healthfull a constitution as Iaacob borne in the strength of Isaack and Rebecca And Ioseph or Benjamin as able men as Reuben though Iaacob in his blessing call him The beginning of his strength and the excellencie of power as being his first begotten Nay often wee see that the youngest borne in age not equalls onely but excells both in wit and spirit and strength and stature the Eldest borne in youth So vnsure and sandie is this ground and for his inference drawne from thence it is no lesse vnwarrantable and insufficient There being in the resemblance betwixt a woman and the world as large a difference as is the dissimilitude betweene the fruite of the one and the generations of the other The one taking her beginning by the course of nature in weakenesse so growing to perfection and ripenesse shee quickely declines and hastens to dissolution Shee must necessarily expect the tearme of certaine yeares before she can conceiue her fruite and then againe at the end of certaine yeares shee leaues to conceiue Whereas the other being created immediatly by a supernaturall power was made in the very first moment that it was fully made in full perfection which except it bee for the sinne of man it never lost nor by any force of subordinate causes possiblely could or can loose The quickening efficacy of that word Crescite multiplicamini though deliuered many thousand yeares since is now as powerfull in beasts in plants in birds in fishes in men as at first it was And thus much this false Prophet seemes himselfe to acknowledge in the chapter following where he thus brings in the Lord speaking vnto him All these things were made by me alone and by none other by mee also they shall be ended and by none other And if they shall be ended immediatly by the hand of the Almighty as immediatly by it they were made then doubtles there is no such naturall decay in them which would at last without the concurrence of any such supernaturall power bring them to a naturall d◅ssolution no more then there was any naturall forerunning preparation to their Creation And thus wee see how this Goliah hath his head stricken off with his owne sword and this lying Prophet condemned out of his owne mouth I haue dwelt the longer vpon this examination because I finde that the testimony drawne from this Counterfeite was it that in appearance misledde Cyprian both their testimonies togeather that which hath yeelded the principall both confidence and countenance to the Adverse part SECT 6. The last obiection answered pretended to bee taken from the authority of holy Scriptures AS the testimony taken frō Esdras wants authority so those which re drawn frō authority of sacred Canonicall Scriptures want right explicatiō applicatiō Whereof the first that I haue met with are those misconstrued words of the Prophet Isaiah The world languisheth and fadeth away or as some other translations reade it The world is feebled decayed Which by Iunius Tremelius are rendred in the future tence Languebit Concidet orbis habitabilis and are vndoubtedly to be referred to the destruction desolation of those Nations against which he had in some chapters precedent denounced the heauy judgements of God As the Moabites Egyptians Tyrians Syrians Assyrians Ethiopians Babylonians and the Isralites themselues Iunius thus rightly summing the chapter Propheta summam contrahit judiciorum quae supra denunciauerat The Prophet recapitulates or drawes into one head or summe the judgements which before hee had denounced at large and in particular which comming from the justice and immediate hand of God for sin vpon a part of the world can in no sort be referred to the ordinary course of Nature in regard of the Vniversall That which carries with it some more colour of Reason is that by St. Paul The Crearure is said to be subiect to vanity to the bondage of corruption to groaning and to travelling in paine All which seeme to imply a decay and declination in it But in the judgement of the soundest Interpreters the Apostle by vanity and bondage of corruption meanes first that impurity infirmity and deformity which the Creature hath contracted by the fall of man Secondly the daily alteration and change nay declination and decay of the Individuals and particulars of every kind vnder heaven Thirdly the designation hasting of the kindes or species themselues to a finall totall dissolution by fire And lastly the abuse of them tending to the dishonour of the Creator or the hurt of his servants or the service of his enimies All these may not improperly be tearmed vanity and a bondage of corruption vnder which the Creature groaneth and travelleth wishing and waiting to be delivered from it But that of S. Peter is it which is most of all stood vpon where he brings in the prophane scoffers at Religion and especially at the article of the worlds Consummation thus questioning the matter where is the promise of his comming For since the fathers fell asleepe all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation But in truth that place if it bee well weighed rather makes against the worlds supposed decay then for it in as much as if the Apostle had known or acknowledged any such decay in it it is to be presumed that being invited and in a manner forced therevnto by so faire and fit an occasion hee would haue pressed it against those scoffers or in some sort haue expressed himselfe therein But since hee onely vrges the Creation of the world and the overwhelming of it with water to proue that the same God who wasthe Authour of both those is as able at his pleasure to vnmake it with fire it should seeme hee had learned no such divinity as the worlds decay or at least-wise had no such assurance of it and warrant for it as to teach it the Church Nay in the 7 verse of the same chapter hee tells vs that the heavens and earth which are now are by the same word by which they were Created kept in store and reserved to fire It was not then their auerring that things continued as they were that made them scoffers but their irreligious inference from thence that the world neither had beginning neither should haue ending but all things should alwaies continue as formerly they alwayes had done And thus much may suffice for the consideration of the worlds decay in Generall it rests now that wee descend to a distinct view of the particulars amongst which the Heavens first present themselues vpon the Theatre as being the most glorious
onely discernable by one sense as colours by seeing and sounds by hearing motion is discernable by both nay and by feeling too which is a third sense really distinguished from them both That there is in the heavenly bodies no motion of Generation or Corruption of augmentation or diminution or of alteration I haue already shewed There are also who by reason of the incredible swiftnes of the first Mouer and some other such reasons dare deny that there is in them any Lation or Locall motion heerein flatly opposing in my judgement both Scripture and Reason Sense But to take it as graunted without any dispute that a Locall motion there is which is the measure of time as time againe is the measure of motion the line of motion and the threed of time beeing both spun out together Some doubt there is touching the moouer of these heavenly bodies what or who it should bee some ascribing it to their matter some to their forme some to their figure and many to the Angells or Intelligences as they call them which they suppose to bee set over them For mine owne part I should thinke that all these and euery of them might not vnjustly challenge a part in that motion The matter as beeing neither light nor heavy the forme aswell agreeing with such a matter the figure as being Sphericall or Circular the Intelligence as an assistant In the matter is a disposition For whereas light bodies naturally moue vpward and heavy downeward that which is neither light nor heavy is rather disposed to a Circular motion which is neither vpward nor downeward In the figure is an inclination to that motion as in a wheele to bee carried round from the forme an inchoation or onsett and lastly from the Intelligence a continuance or perpetuation thereof as a great Divine of our owne both age and Nation hath well expressed it Gods owne aeternity saith hee is the hand which leadeth Angells in the course of their perpetuity their perpetuity the hand that draweth out Celestiall motion that as the Elementary substances are governed by the heavenly so might the heauenly by the Angellicall As the corruptible by the incorruptible so the materiall by the immateriall and all finits by one infinite It is the joynt consent of the Platoniks Peripatetiks and Stoikes and of all the noted sects of Philosophers who acknowledged the Divine Providence with whom agree the greatest part of our most learned Christian Doctors that the Heavens are moued by Angells neither is there in truth any sufficient meanes beside it to discover the beeing of such Creatures by discourse of Reason Which to mee is a strong argument that the Heauens can by no meanes erre or faile in their motions beeing managed by the subordinate ministery of such indefatigable and vnerring guides whose power is euery way proportionable to their knowledge and their constancy to both SECT 2. The Second reason taken from the Certainty of demonstrations vpon the Coelestiall globe The Third from a particular view of the proper motions of the Planets which are observed to bee the same at this day as in former ages without any variation The Fourth from the infallible and exact praediction of their Oppositions Conjunctions and Eclypses for many ages to come The Fifth from the testimony of sundry graue Authours auerring perpetuall Constancy and immutability of their motions THe most signall motions of the heavens beside their retrogradations trepidations librations and I know not what which Astronomers haue devised to reconcile the diversitie of their observations are the diurnall motion of all the fixed starres and Planets and all the Coelestiall spheres from East to West in the compasse of every foure and twenty houres and the proper motion of them all from the West to the East againe These motions whether they performe by themselues without the helpe of orbes as fishes in the water or birds in the aire or fastned to their spheres as a gemme in a ring or a nayle or knot in a Cart-wheele I cannot easily determine howbeit I confesse wee cannot well imagine how one and the same body should bee carried with opposite motions but by the helpe of somewhat in which it is carried As the Marriner may be carried by the motion of his shippe from the East to the West and yet himselfe may walke from the West to the East in the same ship Or a flie may be carried from the North to the South vpon a Cart-wheele and yet may goe from the South to the North vpon the same wheele But howsoever it bee it is evident that their motions are most even and regular without the least jarre or discord variation or vncertainety languishing or defect that may bee Which were it not so there could bee no certaine demonstrations made vpon the Globe or materiall Sphere Which notwithstanding by the testimony of Claudian are most infallible as appeares by those his elegant verses vpon Archymedes admirable invention thereof Iuppiter in parvo cum cerneret aether a vitro Risit ad superos talia dicta dedit Huccine mortalis progressa potentia curae Iam meus infragili luditur orbe labor Iura poli rerumque fidem legesque Deorum Ecce Syracusius transtulit arte senex Inclusus varijs famulatur Spiritus astris Et vivum certis motibus vrget opus Percurrit proprium mentirus signifer annum Et simulata nouo Cynthia mense redit Iamque suum volvens audax industria Mundum Gaudet humana sydera mense regit When Ioue within a little glasse survaid The Heavens hee smil'd and to the Gods thus sayd Can strength of Mortall wit proceed thus farre Loe in a fraile orbe my workes mated are Hither the Syracusians art translates Heavens forme the course of things and humane fates Th' included spirit serving the star-deck signes The liuing worke in constant motions windes Th' adulterate Zodiaque runnes a naturall yeare And Cynthiaes forg'd hornes monthly new light beare Viewing her owne world now bold industry Triumphes and rules with humane power the skye The Gentiles sayth Iulian as S. Cyrill in his third booke against him reports it videntes nihil eorū quae circa Coelū minui vel augeri neque vlla sustinere deordinatam affectionē sed congruam illius motionem ac bene op◅atū ordinem definitas quoque leges Lunae definitos ortus occasus Solis statutis semper temporibus merito Deum Dei solium suspicabantur seeing no part of heaven to deminished or decreased to suffer no irregular affection but the motion thereof to be as duly and orderly performed as could be desired the waxing and waning of the moone the rising and setting of thee sunne to bee setled and constant at fixed and certaine times they deseruedly admired it as God or as the throne of God The order and regularitie of which motions wee shall easily perceiue by taking a particular view of them I will touch only those of the
his modesty in this second change as I found it wanting in his first coniecture and I am of opinion that S. Augustine never purchased more true honour by any booke that ever hee writ then that of his Retractations the shame is not so much to erre as to persevere in it being discouered Specially if it be an errour taken vp entertained by following those whom for their great gifts wee highly esteeme and admire as it seemes Du Moulin tooke his errour at leastwise touching the moueablenes of the Poles of the Equatour from Ioseph Scaliger But the motion of the heavens puts mee in minde of passing from it to the light thereof CAP. 3. Touching the pretended decay in the light of the heavenly bodies SECT 1. The first reason that it decayes not taken from the nature of that light and those things wherevnto it is resembled AS the waters were first spread over the face of the earth so was the light dispersed thorow the firmament and as the waters were gathered into one heape so was the light knit vp and vnited into one body As the gathering of the waters was called the Sea so that of the light was called the Sunne As the rivers come from the sea so is all the light of the starres derived from the Sun And lastly as the Sea is no whit leassened though it furnish the Earth with abundance of fresh rivers So though the Sunne haue since the Creation both furnished garnished the world with light neither is the store of it thereby diminished nor the beauty of it any way stayned What the light is whether a substance or an Accident whether of a Corporall or incorporall nature it is not easy to determine Philosophers dispute it but cannot well resolue it Such is our ignorance that euen that by which wee see all things we cannot discerne what it selfe is But whatsoeuer it bee wee are sure that of all visible Creatures it was the first that was made and comes neerest the nature of a Spirit in as much as it moues in an instant from the East to the West and piercing thorow all transparent bodies still remaines in it selfe vnmixed and vndivided it chaseth away sadde and mellancholy thoughts which the darkenesse both begets and mainetaines it lifts vp our mindes in meditation to him who is the true light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world himselfe dwelling in light vnaccessible and cloathing himselfe with light as with a garment And if wee may behold in any Creature any one sparke of that eternall fire or any farre off dawning of Gods glorious brightnes the same in the beauty motion and vertue of this light may best be discerned Quid pulchrius luce saith Hugo de sancto Victore quae cum in se colorem non habeat omnium tamen rerum colores ipsa quodammodo colorat What is more beautifull then the light which hauing no colour in it selfe yet sets a luster vpon all colours And S. Ambrose vnde vox Dei in Scriptura debuit inch oare nisi à lumine Vnde mundi ornatus nisi à luce exordium sumere frustra enim esset si non â—…ideretur From whence should the voice of God in holy Scripture begin but from the light From whence should the ornament of the world begin but likewise from the same light For in vaine it were were it not seene O Father of the light of wisedome fountaine Out of the bulke of that confused mountaine What should what could issue before the light Without which Beauty were no Beauty hight SECT 2. The second for that it hath nothing contrary vnto it and heere Pareus and Mollerus are censured for holding that the light of heaven is impaired S. Augustine in diverse places of his workes is of opinion that by the first created light were vnderstood the Angells and heerein is hee followed by Beda Eucherius Rupertus diverse others Which opinion of his though it bee questionlesse vnsound in as much as wee are taught that that light sprang out of darkenesse which of the Angells can in no sort bee verified yet it shewes the lightsome nature of Angells so likewise the Angelicall nature of light still flourishing in youth no more subject to decay or old age then the Angells are Since then in the properties thereof it comes so neere the nature of Spirits of Angels of God mee thinkes they who dare accuse the heavens as being guilty of decay and corruption in other respects should yet haue spared the light thereof The more I wonder that men reverenced for their learning reputed lights of the Church should by their writings goe about to quench or blemish this light Videntur haud parum elanguisse minusque nitidi esse quam fuerant initio saith one speaking of the heavenly bodies They seeme to hame suffered not a little defect and to haue lost of that brightnes in which they were at first created And another Non est nunc illa claritas luminis nec sunt illae stellarum vires quae fuerunt There is not now that brightnes of the light nor those vertues of the starres that haue beene Venturous assertions and such I beleeue as would haue pusled the Authours of them to haue made them good specially considering that as there is nothing contrary to the Quintessentiall matter and circular figure of the Heavens So neither is there to the light thereof Fire may bee quenched with water but there is nothing able to quench the light of Heauen saue the power of him that made it Againe fire may bee extinguished by withdrawing or withholding the fewell vpon which it feedes But the light of heaven hauing no matter by which it is nourished there is no feare of the failing thereof thorow any such defect for the matter of the Coelestiall spheres and starres in which it is planted it hath already sufficiently appeared that it neither is nor in the course of Nature can be subject to any impairing alteration And so much Pareus himselfe hath vpon the matter confessed in two severall places in his Commentaries vpon the first of Genesis whereof the first is this speakeing of the firmament and the Epithetes of iron and brasse given it in holy Scriptures and by prophane Authours Haec Epitheta saith hee Metaphoricè notant Coeli firmitatem quia tot millibus annorum immutabili lege circumvoluitur nec tamen atteritur motu aut absumitur quia à Deo sic est firmatum initio These Epithetes metaphorically signifie the firmenes stablenes of heaven because by an vnchangeable law it hath now wheeled about so many thousand yeares and yet is it not wasted or worne by the motion thereof because it is established by God And againe within a while after hee vseth almost the same wordes firmamentum non dicitur de duritie aut soliditate impermeabili sed de firmitate quâ perpetuo motu circumactum coelum non atteritur nec
absumitur sed manet quale à Deo initio fuit firmatum Nay a little before that last passage diuiding the whole firmament or Expansum containing all the Coelestiall Spheres and regions of the aire into two parts The higher saith hee thereby intending the heavenly bodies is purissima incorruptibilis inalterabilis most pure incorruptible and inalterable Now if it should bee demaunded how the Heaveus may bee said to languish and to haue lost of their natiue brightnes and yet still to remaine incorruptible inalterable for mine owne part I must professe I cannot vnderstand it nor know which way to reconcile it A number of the like passages may bee observed in the writings of our latter Diuines but I sparetheir names for the reverence I beare their gifts and places and persons and so proceed SECT 3. Heerevnto some other reasons are added and the testimonie of Eugubinus vouched I Remember Mr. Camden reports that at the demolition of our Monasteries there was found in the supposed monument of Constantius Chlorus father to the Great Constantine a burning Lampe which was thought to haue burnt there euer since his buriall about three hundredth yeares after Christ and withall hee addes out of Lazius that the ancient Romans vsed in that manner to preserue lights in their Sepulchres a long time by the oylelinesse of Gold resolved by Art into a liquid substance Which if it bee so how much more easie is it for the Father of lights to preserue those naturall lights of Heaven which himselfe hath made without any diminution In artificiall lights wee see that if a thousand Candles bee all lighted from one yet the light of the first is not thereby any whit abated and why should wee then conceiue that the Sun by imparting his light so many thousand yeares should loose any part thereof They who mainetaine that the soule of man is derived ex traduce hold withall that the Father in begetting the sonnes soule looses none of his owne it being tanquam lumen de lumine as one light from another nay more then so it is the very resemblance that the Nicene Fathers thought not vnmeete to expresse the vnexpressable generation of the second person in Trinity from the first who is therefore tearmed by the Apostle the brighnes of his glory As then the Father by communicating his substance to his sonne looses none of his owne so the Sunne by communicating his light to the world looses no part nor degree thereof Some things there are of that nature as they may bee both given and kept as knowledge and vertue and happinesse and light which in holy Scripture is figuratiuely taken for them all whether the same individuall light bee still resident in the body of the sunne which was planted in it at the first Creation or whether it continually empty and spend it selfe and so like a riuer bee continually repaired with fresh supplies for mine owne part I cannot certainely affirme though I must confesse I rather incline to the former But this I verily beleeue that as the body of the Sunne is no whit lessened in extention So neither is the light thereof in intention Men being now no more able to fixe their eyes vpon it when it shines forth in its full strength then they were at the first Creation thereof I will conclude this chapter with that of Eugubinus in his tenth booke de Perenni Philosophia Futuri interitus ac senescentiae aliqua jam indicia praecessissent non constaret idem Sol non eadem fulgoris esset plenitudo idem radiorum vigor haec igitur Senectus nusquam est Had there beene in the heavens any such decay or waxing old as is supposed wee should haue seene some fore-running tokens thereof The Sunne would not haue beene like himselfe hee would not haue retained the same fullnesse of brightnes nor the same vigour in his beames This old age then is no where to bee found Where hee takes it as graunted that none would bee so vnreasonable as to affirme that the strength and cleerenes of the light of heaven is any way abated Now what hath beene spoken of the light may no lesse truely bee verified of the warmth and influence thereof which spring therefrom and now succeed in their order to bee examined CAP. 4. Touching the pretended decay in the warmth of the heavenly bodies SECT 1. That the starres are not of a fiery nature or hot in themselues THe light of Heaven whereof wee haue spoken is not more comfortable vsefull then is the warmth therof with a masculine vertue it quickens all kind of seeds it makes them vegetate blossome and fructifie and brings their fruite to perfection for the vse of man beast and the perpetuating of their owne kinds nay it wonderfully refresheth and cheares vp the spirits of men and beasts and birds and creeping things not only impartsthe life of vegetation but of sense motion to many thousand creatures and like a tender parent forsters and cherisheth it being imparted Some there are that liue without the light of heauen searching into and working vpon those bodies which the light cannot pierce but none without the warmth it being in a manner the vniversall instrument of Nature which made the Psalmist say that there is nothing hid from the heate of the sunne Few things are hid from the light but from the heate thereof nothing Our life withthe ligh of heaven would be tedious and vncomfortable but without the warmth impossible Since then such is the continuall and necessary vse of the Coelstiall warmth aswell in regard of the generation as the preseruation of these inferiour bodies accomodating it selfe to their severall tempers and vses in severall manners and degrees it may easily be conceiued to be a matter of marveilous greate importance in deciding the maine question touching Natures decay to inquire thorowly into the state and condition of it vpon which so many and great workes of Nature wholy depend whether it be decayed or no or whether it still abide in the fullnesse of that strength and activitie in which it was created For the better cleering of which doubt it will be very requisite first to inquire into the efficient cause thereof which being once discovered it will soone appeare whether in the course of nature it be capable of any such diminution or no. I am not ignorant that S. Augustine S. Basill S. Ambrose and generally as many Divines as held that there were waters properly so tearmed aboue the starry firmament held with all that the Sunne and Starres caused heate as being of a fiery Nature those waters being set there in their opinion for cooling of that heate which opinion of theirs seemes to be favoured by Syracides in the forty third of Ecclesiasticus where he thus seakes of the Sunne At noone it parcheth the countrey and who can abide the burning heate there of A man blowing a furnace is
water falls the downe By overflowes is chang'd to champaine land Dry ground erewhile now moorish fen doth drowne And fens againe are turn'd to thirsty sand Here fountaines new hath nature opened There shut vp springs which earst did flow amaine By earthquakes rivers oft haue issued Or dryed vp they haue sunke downe againe The Poet there bringes instances in both these And to like purpose is that of Pontanus Sed nec perpetuae sedes sunt fontibus vllae Aeterni aut manant cursus mutantur in aeuum Singula inceptum alternat natura tenorem Quodque dies antiqua tulit post auferet ipsa Fountaines spring not eternally Nor in one place perpetually do tary All things in every age for evermore do vary And nature changeth still the course she once begun And will herselfe vndoe what she of old hath done which though it be true in many yet those great ones as Indus and Ganges and Danubius and the Rhene Nilus are little or nothing varied from the same courses and currents which they held thousands of yeares since as appeares in their descriptions by the ancient Geographers But aboue all meethinkes the constant rising of Nilus continued for so many ages is one of the greatest wonders in the world which is so precise in regard of time that if you take of the earth adjoyning to the river and preserue it carefully that it come neither to be wet nor wasted and weigh it dayly you shall finde it neither more nor lesse heavy till the seventeenth of Iune at which day it begineth to groweth more ponderous and augmenteth with the augmentation of the river whereby they haue an infallible knowledge of the state of the deluge Now for the Medicinall properties of Fountaine or Bathes no man I thinke makes any doubt but that they are both as many and as efficacious as ever some it may be haue lost their vertue and are growne out of vse but others againe haue in stead thereof beene discovered in other places of no lesse vse and vertue as both Baccius Blanchellus in their bookes de Thermis haue observed And for those hot ones at the citty of Bath I make no question but Nechams verses may as justly be verified of their goodnesse at this present as they were fower hundred yeares since about which time he is sayd to haue written them Bathoniae Tharmas vix prefero Virgilianas Confecto prosunt Balnea nostra seni Prosunt attritis collisis invalidisque Et quorum morbis frigida causa subest Our Baines at Bath with Virgills to compare For their effects I dare almost be bold For feeble folke and crazie good they are For brus'd consum'd farre spent and very old For those likewise whose sicknesse comes of cold SECT 2. That the fishes are not decayed in regard of there store dimensions or duration BUt it is sayd that though the waters decay not yet the fish the inhabitants thereof at leastwise in regard of their number are much decayed so as wee may take vp that of the Poet. Omne peractum est Et iam defecit nostrum mare All our Seas at length are spent and faile The Seas being growne fruitlesse and barren as is pretended in regard of former ages that so it appeares vpon record in our Hauen townes But if such a thing be which I can neither affirme nor deny hauing not searched into it my selfe themselues who make the objection shape a sufficient answere therevnto by telling vs that it may so be by an extraordinary judgment of God as he dealt with the Egyptians in the death of our fish for the abuse of our flesh-pots or by the intrusion of the Hollander who carries from our coast such store as we might much better loade our selues with and if we should a little enlarge our view cast our eyes abroad comparing one part of the world with another we shall easily discerne that though our Coast faile in that abundance which formerly it had by ouer-laying it yet others still abound in a most plentifull manner as is by experience found vpon the Coast of Virginia at this present And no doubt but were our Coasts spared for some space of yeares it would againe afford as great plenty as euer Finally if the store of fish should decay by reason of the decay of the world it must of necessity follow that likewise the store of plants of beasts of birds and of men should dayly decay by vertue of the same reason Nay rather since the curse lighting vpon man extended to plants and beasts but not to fishes for any thing I finde expressely registred in holy Scripture As neither did the vniversall Deluge hurt but rather helpe them by which the rest perished There are still no doubt euen at this day as at the first Creation in the Sea to be found As many fishes of so many features That in the waters one may see all Creatures And all that in this All is to be found As if the World within the deepes were drown'd Now as the store of fishes is no way diminished so neither are they decayed either in their greatnes or goodnes I will instance in the whale the King of fishes or as Iob termes him the King ouer the children of pride That which S. Basil in his Hexameron reports namely that the whales are in bignes equall to the greatest mountaines and their backes when they shew aboue water are like vnto Ilands is by a late learned Writer not vndeservedly censured as intollerably hyperbolicall Pliny in the ninth booke and third Chap. of his Naturall history tels vs that in the Indian Seas some haue beene taken vp to the length of foure acres that is nine hundred and sixty feete whereas notwithstanding Arrianus in his discourse de rebus Indicis assures vs that Nearchus measuring one cast vpon that shore found him to be but fifty cubits The same Pliny in the first Chapter of his 32 booke sets downe a relation of King Iubaes out of those bookes which he wrote to C. Caesar son to Augustus the Emperour touching the History of Arabia where he affirmes that in the bay of Arabia Whales haue beene knowne to be 600 foot long and 360 foote thick and yet as it is well known by the soundings of Navigatours that Sea is not by a great deale 360 foot deep But to let goe these fancies and fables and to come to that which is more probable The dimensions of the Whale saith Aelian is fiue times beyond the largest Elephants but for the ordinary saith Rondeletius hee seldome exceedes 36 cubits in length and 8 in heighth Dion a graue Writer reports it as a wonder that in the reigne of Augustus a Whale lept to land out of the German Ocean full 20 foot in bredth and 60 in length This I confesse was much yet to match it with lattet times Gesner in his Epistle to Polidor Virgill avoucheth it as
that some old houses heretofore fairely built be now almost buried vnder ground and their windowes heretofore set at a reasonable height now growen euen with the pauement So some write of the triumphall Arch of Septimius at the foote of the Capitol mountaine in Rome now almost couered with earth in somuch as they are inforced to descend downe into it by as many staires as formerly they were vsed to ascend whereas contrariwise the Romane Capitoll it selfe seated on the mountaine which hanges ouer it as witnesseth George Agricola discouers its foundation plainely aboue ground which without question were at the first laying thereof deepe rooted in the earth whereby it apppeares that what the mountaine looseth the valley gaines and consequently that in the whole globe of the earth nothing is lost but onely remoued from one place to another so that in processe of time the highest mountaines may be humbled into valleyes and againe the lowest valleyes exalted into mountaines If ought to nought did fall All that is felt or seene within this all Still loosing somewhat of it selfe at length Would come to nothing if death's fatall strength Could altogether substances destroy Things then should vanish euen as soone as die In time the mighty mountaines tops be bated But with their fall the neighbour vales are fatted And what when Trent or Avon overflow They reaue one field they on the next bestow And whereas another Poet tels vs that Eluviemons est diductus in aequor The mountaine by washings oft into the sea is brought It is most certaine and by experience found to be true that as the rivers daily carrie much earth with them into the sea so the sea sends backe againe much slime and sand to the earth which in some places and namely in the North part of Deuonshire is found to bee a marveilous great commoditie for the inriching of the soyle Now as the Earth is nothing diminished in regard of the dimensions the measure thereof from the Surface to the Center being the same as it was at the first Creation So neither is the fatnes fruitfulnes thereof at least-wise since the flood or in regard of duration alone any whit impaired though it haue yeelded such store of increase by the space of so many reuolutions of ages yet hee that made it continually reneweth the face thereof as the Psalmist speakes by turning all things which spring from it into it againe Saith one Cuncta suos ortus repetunt matremque requirunt And another E terris orta terra rursus accipit And a third joynes both together Quapropter merito maternum nomen adepta est Cedit enim retro de terra quod fuit ante In terras And altogether they may thus not vnfitly be rendred All things returne to their originall And seeke their mother what from earth doth spring The same againe into the earth doth fall Neither doe they heerein dissent from Syracides with all manner of liuing things hath hee couered the face of the earth and they shall returne into it againe And that doome which passed vpon the first man after the fall is as it were ingraven on the foreheads not onely of his posterity but of all earthly Creatures made for their sakes Dust thou art and vnto dust shalt thou returne As the Ocean is mainetained by the returne of the rivers which are drayned deriued from it So is the earth by the dissolution and reuersion of those bodies which from it receiue their growth and nourishment The grasse to feede the beasts the corne to strengthen and the wine to cheere the heart of man either are or might bee both in regard of the Earth Heauens as good and plentifull as euer That decree of the Almighty is like the Law of the Medes Persians irreuocable They shall bee for signes and for seasons and for dayes and for yeares And againe Heereafter seed time and harvest and cold and heat and summer and winter and day and night shall not cease so long as the Earth remaineth And were there not a certainety in these reuolutions so that In se sua per vestigia voluitur annus The yeare in its owne steps into in selfe returnes It could not well be that the Storke and the Turtle the Crane and the Swallow and other fowles should obserue so precisely as they doe the appointed times of their comming and going And whereas it is commonly thought and beleeued that the times of the yeare are now more vnseasonable then heeretofore and thereby the fruites of the Earth neither so faire nor kindely as they haue beene To the first I answere that the same complaint hath beene euer since Salomons time Hee that observeth the winde shall not sow and he that regardeth the clowdes shall not reape By which it seemes the weather was euen then as vncertaine as now and so was likewise the vncertaine and vnkindely riping of fruites as may appeare by the words following in the same place In the morning sow thy seede and in the euening let not thy hand rest for thou knowest not whether shall prosper this or that or whether both shall bee alike good And if sometimes wee haue vnseasonable yeares by reason of excessiue wet and cold they are againe paid home by immoderate drought and heate if not with vs yet in our neighbour countries and with vs. I thinke no man will bee so vnwise or partiall as to affirme that there is a constant and perpetuall declination but that the vnseasonablenes of some yeares is recompensed by the seasonablenes of others It is true that the erroneous computation of the yeare wee now vse may cause some seeming alteration in the seasons thereof in processe of time must needes cause a greater if it bee not rectified but let that errour be reformed and I am perswaded that communibus annis we shall finde no difference from the seasons of former ages at leastwise in regard of the ordinary course of nature For of Gods extraordinary judgements we now dispute not who sometimes for our sinnes emptieth the botles of heaven incessantly vpon vs and againe at other times makes the heavens as brasse ouer our heads and the earth as yron vnder our feete SECT 2. Another obiectiòn to uching the decay of the fruitfulnes of the holy land fully answered WHen I consider the narrow bounds of the land of Canaan it being by S. Hieromes account who liued long there but 160 miles in length from Dan to Bersheba and in bredth but 40 from Ioppa to Bethleem and withall the multitude incredible were it not recorded in holy Scripture both of men cattell which it fedde there meeting in one battle betweene Iudah Israel twelue hundred thousand chosen men Nay the very sword-men beside the Levites and Benjamites were vpon strict inquirie found to be fifteene hundred and seuentie thousand whereof the youngest was twenty yeares old there being none
timely FOR the better clearing of which poynt it shall not be amisse somewhat farther to insist vpon the age of Generation and Marriage which among the Ancients was both in opinion held and in practise proued to be the same or little different from that which amongst vs is in vse at this day The third councell of Carthage ordained that publicke readers in the Church cum ad annos pubertatis venerint aut cogantur vxores ducere aut continentiam profiteri when they came to yeares of puberty should be forced either to marry or vow chastity and Quintilian of his owne wife professeth that hauing borne him two sonnes she died Nondum expleto aetatis vndevicesimo anno being not yet full one and twenty years of age Mulieres statim ab anno decimo quarto à à viris Dominae vocantur saith Epictetus women no sooner passe foureteene but presently they haue giuen them from men or from their husbands the title of Mistresses The Civill Lawes allowed a woman marriage at twelue so did the. Iewish Talmud and the Canons of the Church Hesiod at fifteene Xenophon and the Comaedian at sixteene anni sedecem fios ipse Aristotle at eighteene Plato at twenty The reason of the difference I take to be this The Lawes would not permit them to marrie sooner Plato held it not fitte they should stay longer And as wee commonly are both ripe for marriage and marrie about the same yeares the Ancients did so men for the most part leaue begetting and women bearing of children about the same time as they did Tiberius made a Law knowne by the name of Lex Papia by which he forbad de such men as were past sixty or women past fiftie to marrie as being insufficient for generation To which Lactantius out of Seneca seemes to allude thus jesting at the Ethnickes touching their great God Iupiter Quare apud Poetas salacissimus Iupiter desijt liberos tollere vtrum sexagenarius factus ei Lex Papia fibulam imposuit How comes it to passe that in your Poets the lecherous Iupiter begets no more children is hee past sixtie restrained by the Papian Law Yet this Law by the Emperour Claudius in part but by Iustinian almost fiue hundred yeares after was fully repealed as insufficient in asmuch as men after that age were and still are found to be sufficient for that act Seldome indeede it is that men beget after seaventy or women beare after fiftie and the same was long since both observed recorded by the principall both Secretarie great Register of Nature in his time adding farther that men commonly left begetting at sixtie fiue women bearing at fortie fiue When Abrahams body was now dead in regard of generation he was short of 100. Indeede Plutarch reports of Cato Maior that hee begat a sonne at eightie Pliny of Masinissa after eightie six but they both report it as a wonder neither want there presidents in this age to parallell either of them I well know that the accusation is common perchaunce in part not vnjust that men now a dayes generally marrie sooner then their Ancestours did which is made to be one of the chiefe causes of our supposed shorter liues but that many of them abstained not so long from marriage as wee now commonly doe it may be euidenced by these following examples drawn from the Oracles of sacred writ There descended from Abraham in the space of foure hundred yeares and little more from Iaacob and his sonnes within 200 or thereabout aboue six hundred thousand men beside children and those who died in the interim and were slaine by the Egyptians which wonderfull multiplication within the compasse of that time should in reason argue that they married timely In the forty sixth of Genesis Moses describing old Iaacobs journey downe into Egypt tells vs that the number of persons springing from his loynes which accompanied him in that journey were sixty six soules and not content with the grosse summe hee specifies the particulars among which the sonnes of Iudah are named to bee Er Onan Shelah and Pharez and Zerah but Er and Onan saith the text died in the land of Canaan and the sonnes of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul so that he begat Pharez vpon Thamar his daughter in law after the death of his eldest sonnes Er and Onan who according to the Law had married her successiuely and Pharez begat Hezron and Hamul and yet at this time was Iudah himselfe but forty foure yeares of age at most as appeares by this that Ioseph was then but thirty nine sixteene he was when he was sold by his brethren twenty three yeares after was his fathers journey into Egypt Now it is evident that Iudah was but foure yeares elder then Ioseph the one being borne in the eleuenth yeare of their Fathers abode in Mesopotamia and the other after the expiration of the fourteenth In the compasse then of forty foure yeares or thereabout had Iudah sonnes which were married namely Er Onan after that himselfe by mistake begets another sonne vpon their wife viz Pharez who had likewise two sonnes at this time when Iaacob went downe into Egypt S. Augustine is I confesse much perplexed in the loosing of this knot and so is Pererius treading in his steps They both flying for the saluing of the Text to an Anticipation in the storie as if some of those who are named by Moses to haue descended with Iaacob into Egypt had beene both begotten borne long after his setling there But this glosse seeming to Pareus somewhat hard as in truth it is he resolues the doubt by making both Iudah Er Onan and Pharez to marrie all of them at the entrance of their fourteenth yeare which in the ordinary course of nature both then was and still is the yeare of pubertie and then thus concludes hee In his omnibus nihil coactum aut contortum nihil quod non consueto naturae ordine fieri potuerit vt nec miracula fingere sit opus nec filios Pharez qui in descensu numerantur in Aegypto demum natos asserere sit necesse In all this there is nothing strained or wrested nothing but may well be done in the ordinary course of nature so as we need not either fly to miracles or affirme that the sonnes of Pharez who are ranked in the number of those who descended with Iaacob were afterward borne in Egypt And with Pareus heerein accords the learned Arnisaeus some small difference betweene them in the calculation of yeares set apart wondering that two such great Clarkes as Augustine Pererius should trouble themselues so much about so slender a difficultie not considering as it seemes the Examples of the like or more timely marriages recorded in holy Scripture Whereof we haue a notable one in the same
that should seeme probable to any man by reason of the countenance of so graue Authours which is no way to be approved and partly that from hence it may appeare how much the Church of Christ from that time to this hath profited in the knowledge of holy Scriptures divine mysteries Nam multa quondam vel doctissimis viris aut obscura dubia aut etiam incognita nunc vel mediocriter eruditis perspicua indubitata exploratèque percepta sunt for many things anciently either obscure or doubtfull or altogether vnknowne to the most learned among them are now become euen to meane Clarkes cleere certaine And with him fully accords Andradius in his defence of the Tridentine Councill God hath revealed many things to vs that they never saw And Dominicus Bannes a famous schoole-man It is not necessary that by how much the more the Church is remote from the Apostles times by somuch there should be the lesse perfect knowledge of the mysteries of faith therein because after the Apostles times there were not the most learned men in the Church which had dexterity in vnderstanding and expounding matters of faith Roffensis likewise our Countrey-man strikes vpon the same string It cannot be vnknowne to any but that many things are more narrowly sifted cleerely vnderstood by the helpes of latter wits aswell in the Gospells as other parts of the Scriptures then formerly they haue beene and lastly to make vp the musicke full Cardinall Caietan beares a part Let no man thinke it strange if sometimes wee bring a new sence of holy writ different from the auncient Doctours but let him diligently examine the Text context and if he find it to agree therewith let him praise God who hath not tyed the exposition of the sacred Scriptures to the sences giuen by the auncient Doctours These testimonies I the rather vouch for that the Authours of them being professed Champions of the Romane Church withall professe themselues to bee the greatest friends to the ancient Fathers SECT 2. Of ensuing ages YEt not to conceale a truth these were lightsome times in regard of those succeeding ages that followed after when Divinity was wouen into distinctions which like Cobwebbs were fine and curious in working but not much vsefull And in the meane time for the most part in the Scriptures and holy Languages there was so great ignorance vt Graecè nosse suspectum fuerit Hebraicè propè Haereticum that as witnesseth Espencaeus himselfe a Doctour of the Sorbon to bee skilled in Greeke was suspitious in the Hebrew almost haereticall which suspition Rhemigius an Interpreter of S. Pauls Epistles surely was not guilty of for commenting vpon these words à vobis diffamatus est sermo hee tells vs that diffamatus was somewhat improperly put for divulgatus S. Paul being not very sollicitous of the propriety of words wherevpon Ludovicus Vives demaunds Quid facias principibus istis Scholarum qui nondum sciunt Paulum non Latinè sed Graecè scripsisse What shall we say to these Masters in Israel who know not that S. Paul wrote not in Latine but in Greeke It appeares by the rescript of Pope Zacharie to Boniface a German Bishop that a Priest in those parts baptized in this forme Baptizo te in nomine Patria Filia Spiritua sancta And by Erasmus that some Divines in his time would take vpon them to prooue that Heretiques were to be put to death because the Apostle saith Haereticum hominem devita which it seemes they vnderstood as if he had said de vita tolle I haue somewhere read that two Fryars disputing whether God made any more worlds then one the one wisely alleadging that passage of the Gospell touching the ten Lepers which were cleansed Annon decem facti sunt mundi as if God had made tenne worlds the other looking into the text replies as wisely with the words immediatly following Sed vbi sunt novem but what is become of the nine so as from thence hee would prooue but one to be left He that is disposed to make himselfe merry in this kinde may finde in Henry Stevens his Apologie of Herodotus a number of like stuffe I will only touch one or two of the choisest Du Prat a Bishop and Chauncellour of France hauing receiued a letter from Henry the eight King of England to Francis the first of France wherein among other things he wrote mitto tibi duodecem Molossos I send you twelue mastife dogs the Chauncellour taking Molossos to signifie Mules made a journey of purpose to the Court to begge them of the King who wondring at such a present to be sent him from England demaunded the sight of the letter and smiling thereat the Chauncellour finding himselfe to be deceiued told him that hee mistooke Molossos for Muletos and so hoping to mend the matter made it worse Another tale he tels of a Parish Priest in Artois who had his Parishioners in sute for not paving the Church and that the charge thereof lay vpon them and not vpon him he would proue out of the 17 of the Prophet Ieremie Paveant illi non paveam ego I remember Arch-Bishop Parker somewhere in his Antiquitates Britannicae makes relation of a French Bishop who being to take his oath to the Archbishop of Canterburie finding the word Metropoliticae therein being not able to pronounce it he passed it ouer with Soit pour dict let it be as spoken when they had most grossely broken Priscians head being taken in the fact their common defence was those words of S. Gregorie non debent verba coelestis Oraculi subesse regulis Donati the wordes of the heavenly Oracles ought not to be subiect to the rules of Donatus But about 200 yeares since together with the Arts the languages likewise began to reuiue in somuch as Hebrew Greeke are now as commō as true Latine then was for the true sence of holy Scripture neuer had the Church more judicious faithfull Interpreters then by the Diuine prouidence it hath injoyed these last 100 yeares besides the Sermons of this latter age specially in this land haue doubtles bin more exquisite effectuall then ordinarily they haue bin in any precedent age insomuch as it is obserued that if there were a choice collection made of the most accurate since the entrance of Queen Elizabeth to these present times leauing out the largenesse of applications therevpon it would proue one of the rarest peeces that hath beene published since the Apostles times Heerevnto might be added for practicall divinitie the decisions of cases of conscience which the Ancients did not handle professedly but onely vpon the Bye and the many singular treatises tending to deuotion which I wish they were aswell practised as they are written And no doubt but the great agitation of controuersies which these latter times haue produced hath not only sharpned the spirits of Diuines but made the
quickening soules It was likewise the opinion of Origen Chrysostome his Master Eusebius Emissenus that the stars were not fixed in the Heauens as nailes in a Cart wheele or knots in a peece of timber but moued in it as fishes in the Sea or birdes in the Aire Nay Philastrius goes so farre as to condemne the opinion of their fixednesse for an heresie Multi scriptores Ecclesiastici coeli rotunditatem non modo negârunt sed etiam sacris literis adversari existimârunt saith Pererius in his second booke and third question vpon Genesis many of the Ecclesiasticall Writers not onely denyed the sphaericall or circular figure of the Heauens but were of opinion that it crossed the holy Scriptures S. Augustine himselfe in diverse places seemes to make a doubt of it but Chrysostome in his Homilies vpon the epistle to the Hebrewes dare challenge any that should defend it herein is hee followed by Theodoret and Theophilact But these fancies are now so generally cryed downe that to reviue them would be counted no lesse then folly and to defend them absurdity In how many things are Aratus Eudoxus corrected by Ptolomy Ptolomy himself by Regiomontanus Alphonsus Purbachius Copernicus they again by Clavius Tycho-Braye Galilaeus Kepler and others It was the errour of Aristotle that via lactea was a meteor not only of Aristotle but almost all before him that there were but eight Celestiall Spheares after this Timocaris about 330 yeares before Christ found out nine but about the yeare of Christ 1250 Alphonsus discovered ten and the receiued opinion now is that there are eleuen the highest of all being held immoveable the seat of Angels blessed spirits And thus we see how Truth is the daughter of Time how one day teacheth another and one night certifieth another which is likewise verified in the admirable invention of composing the Ephemerides vnknowne to Ptolomy the Ancients who for want of the vse of it were forced by Tables to make their supputations in a most toylesome manner who was the first inventor thereof I am not certaine saith Cardan de rerum varietate lib. 11. cap. 59 but Purbachius was the first who seemes to haue brought it to light after whom Regiomontanus inlarged it but Zelandinus and others to haue perfected it ita vt jam nihil desiderari posse videatur nothing seemes to bee wanting to it The like may be said of Geometry I will instance onely in one demonstration which is the Quadrature of a Circle This Aristotle in diverse places calls scibile but not scitum a thing that might be knowne but as then not knowne in asmuch as the meanes of finding it out though much laboured yet was it in his time vnknowne among the Ancients Antiphon Bryse Hippocrates Euclide Archimede Apollonius Porus travelled long earnestly in the discovery hereof but Buteo in a book written of purpose hath accurately discovered their errours herein And Pancirollus in his nova reperta tels vs that annis abhinc plus minus triginta Ars ista fuit inventa quae mirabile quoddam secretum in se continet about thirty yeares since was that Art found out which containes in it wonderfull secrets to shew that it is indeed found out he there makes demonstration of it approoued farther explicated by Salmuth who hath both translated him written learned commentaries vpon him Notwithstanding Ioseph Scaliger in an Epistle of his to the States of the Vnited Provinces challenge this Invention to himselfe Nos tandem in conspectum post tot secula sistimus wee at last after so many ages haue brought it to light exposed it to publique view I will close vp this consideration of the Arts and Sciences with a view of Philosophie which braunches it selfe into the Metaphysickes Physicks Ethickes Politickes the two latter of which I will reserue to the next Booke contenting my self at this time with the 2 former First then for the Metaphysicks that part of it which consists in the knowledge of immateriall substances was vndoubtedly neither so well studied nor vnderstood of the ancient Philosophers as now it is of Christian Divines They knew little what belonged to the attributes of God which of them were communicable to the Creature which incommunicable so as they might truly graue that inscription vpon their Altars Ignoto Deo to the vnknown God Their ignorance was likewise no lesse touching the nature office of Angels the mansion or function of separated soules nay not a few of the most ancient Christian Divines held the Angels corporeal though invisible substances and that the reasonable soule of man was deriued from his Parents whereas the contrary opinions are now commonly held both more divine and more reasonable The Physicks or Naturall Philosophy is it which the ancients specially the Graecians and among them Aristotle hath with singular commendation much inriched yet can it not be denyed but he is by the experience of latter ages found very defectiue in the historicall part thereof And for the speculatiue both himselfe his followers seeme to referre it rather to profession disputation matter of wit and credit then vse practice It is therefore a noble and worthy endeavour of my Lord of S. Albanes so to mixe and temper practice speculation together that they may march hand in hand and mutually embrace and assist each other Speculation by precepts and infallible conclusions preparing a way to Practice and Practice againe perfecting Speculation Now among those practicall or actiue parts of Naturall Philosophie which latter ages haue produced Pancirollus names Alchymie for a chiefe one And it is true that we finde little mention thereof in Antiquity not suspected of forgery But for mine own part I much doubt whether any such experiment be yet really found or no And if it be whether the operation of it be not more dangerous difficult then the effect arising from it is or can be advantagious But of this am I well assured that as he who digged in his Vineyard for gold missed it but by opening the rootes of the Vines thereby found their fruite the next yeare more worth vnto him then gold so whiles men haue laboured by transmutation of mettals from one species to another to make gold they haue fallen vpon the distillations of waters extractions of oyles and such like rare experiments vnknowne to the Ancients which are vndoubtedly more pretious for the vse of man then all the gold of both the Indies SECT 3. Of the Arts of Painting and Architecture revived in this latter age HErevnto may be added the Arts of Horsmanship and Herauldry Agriculture Architecture Painting and Navigation all which haue beene not a little both inlarged and perfected in these latter ages yet with this difference that some of them together with the other Arts decayed and againe revived with greater perfection Others were neuer in their perfection till now I
fructum non alium putabat quam profusionem he thought there was no other end of money and riches but to cast them away Those hee held base fellowes who tooke any account of their expences but gallant and noble spirits if they wasted and lavished it out He in nothing so much commended admired his Vncle Caius as for that in so short a space hee brought going the infinite masses of treasures which Tiberius had hoarded vp Quare nec largiendi nec absumendi modum tenuit so as he neuer ended giuing and wasting Velut exhausta redivivus pullulet arca Nummus As if when nought did in the chest remaine Moneyes would grow there and revive againe When once he had giuen so vnreasonable a summe that his mother Agrippina thought it fit to restraine his boundlesse prodigality she caused the whole summe to be laid before him on a table as hee was to passe by that so the sight of it might worke in him a sense of his folly but he suspecting it belike to be his Mothers device commaunds presently so much more to be added therevnto and withall was heard to say aloud Nesciebam me tam exiguum dedisse I knew not that I gaue so little To Terridates which scarce seemes credible to Suetonius himselfe during his abode in Italy by the space of nine moneths he allowed dayly octingenta nummûm millia eight hundred thousand Sesterces And besides at his parting for a farewell bestowed on him Sestertium millies no lesse then an hundred millions the rest of his prodigall gifts were not disproportionall thereunto so that in the whole bis vicies millies sestertium donationibus Nero effuderat he cast away in prodigall needlesse gifts two and twenty hundred millions of Sesterces Menecrates a fidler and Specillus a fencer triumphalium virorum patrimonijs aedibusque donavit hee rewarded with the patrimonies and houses of Triumphers Nay Luxuriae tam effraenatae fuit saith Orosius so luxuriously wastefull he was beyond all reason and measure vt piscaretur retibus aureis quae purpureis funibus extrâ—…bebantur that he would not fish but with nets of gold drawne with purple coloured coards Neither was his gaming vnanswereable to his giuing Quadringenis in punctum sestertijs aleam lusi he adventured foure hundred Sesterces vpon euery pick of the dice. But yet all this might perchance seeme more tollerable in their Emperours had not their private men according to the proportion of their meanes gone beyond them in these mad monstrous prodigalities Pyramides Regum miramur saith Pliny cùm P. Clodius quem Milo occidit Sestertium centies quadragies octies domo empta habitaverit quod non secus ac regum insaniam miror Doe we wonder at the Pyramides of the Aegyptian Kings since Clodius whom Milo slew dwelt in an house which cost one hundred forty eight hundred thousand Sesterces which truely I as much admire as the madnes of those Kings And going on touches Milo himselfe vpon the same veine Itaque ipsum Milonem sestertium septingenties aeris alieni debuisse inter prodigia animi humani duco And Milo himselfe to haue beene indebted seuen hundred hundred thousand Sesterces I cannot but ranke it among the prodigies of humane wit Curio the son ran in debt as witnesses Valerius Sestertium sex centies sixe hundred hundred thousand Sesterces Decies centena dedisses Huic parco paucis contento quinque diebus Nilerat in loculis Ten hundred thousand were you pleasd to giue Unto the sparing man so well content With litle yet might he but fiue dayes liue In fiue dayes all would be consum'd and spent Sayth Horace of Tigellus And Martial of Cinna Bis quartum decies non toto tabuit anno Diâ—… miâ—…i non hoc est Cinna perire citò An hundred thousand eighteene times Lesse then one yeare did spend Tell me O Cinna is not this To come soone to an end CAP. 10. Of the Romanes extreame arrogancie and confidence in admiring and commending themselues together with their grosse and base flattery specially to their Emperours and lastly their impudent nay impious vain-glory and boasting of their owne Nation and City SECT 1. Of their extreame arrogancy in admiring and commending and euen deifying themselues THus haue we seene the Covetousnes and Cruelty but specially the prodigious Luxury of this Nation so renowned in History for their Vertucs as if they had beene the onely patternes and Masters of morality in part displayed Neither were these three vices the onely ones which they were generally and notoriously subject vnto I might instance in many more but will onely touch by the way their extreame arrogancy and confidence admiring and commending themselues their owne personall abilities their grosse and base flattery to others specially their Emperours both liuing and dead and lastly their impudent nay impious vain-glory and boasting of their owne Nation and City For the first of those so farre they were from humility that their greatest Moralists no not the Stoicks themselues any where in their writings remember it as a vertue it being indeed the proper vertue of Christian Religion Nay so farre they were from ranging it among the Vertues that they held it a Vice Faciunt animos humiles formidine Divûm To feare the gods doth much abase the mind No marueile then that whereas wee finde the pen-men of holy Scripture publishing to the world and registring to posterity their owne infirmities those men on the other side vaunt euery-where of their worth and sufficiency Martial if he haue nothing else to brag of will stand vpon his singular gift in trifling Ille ego sum nulli nugarum laude secundus In praise for toyes I second am to none Ovid thus boldly concludes his Metamorphosis Iamque opus exegi quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas Now haue I finished the worke which nor Ioues ire Nor sword abolish shall nor ravening time nor fire And in another place Mantua Virgilium laudet Verona Catullum Romanae gentis gloria dicar ego Let Mantua Virgill praise Catull Veron But glory of Rome let me be tearm'd alone And Horace is no way behind him Exegi monumentum are perennius Regalique situ Pyramidum altius Quod non imber edax non Aquilo impotens Possit diruere aut innumerabilis Annorum series fuga temporum A monument then brasse more lasting I Then Princely Pyramids in site more high Haue finished which neither fretting showres Nor blustering windes nor flight of yeares and houres Though numberlesse can raze And though it be true that they divined aright yet doubtlesse such arrogant confidence or rather confident arrogancie touching the fruites of their owne braines would better haue sounded out of other mens mouths and more modesty the very grace and crowne of other vertues and gifts haue much better beseemed them What a vaine-glorious vnsavory
also the workes that are therein shall be burnt vp saith S. Peter And I saw a great white throne him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heauen fled away and there was found no place for them saith S. Iohn Now I would demaund whether being no more as Iob perishing as David vanishing away like smoake dissolving rolling together falling downe as a withered leafe or a dry fig from the tree as Esay passing away as our Saviour passing away with a great noise melting with feruent heate burning vp as S. Peter or lastly flying away so as their place be found no more as S. Iohn doe not include an vtter abolition or at leastwise exclude a restitution to a perfecter estate once Beza I am sure is so evidently convinced by the alleadged words of S. Peter that he plainly confesses the dissolution the Apostle there speakes of to be a kinde of annihilation And both Tilenus Meisnerus are confident that those who hold a restitution will neuer be able to reconcile their opinion with the alleadged Scriptures If we looke back to higher times before S. Hierome we shall not easily finde any who maintained it And certaine it is that Clement in his Recognitions or whosoeuer were the Author of that worke brings in S. Peter reasoning with Simon Magus teaching that there were two Heauens the one Superius invisibile aeternum quod Spiritus beati incolunt the highest invisible and eternall which bl◅ssed spirits inhabite the other inferius visibile varijs distinctum syderibus corruptibile in consummatione saeculi dissolvendum prorsus abolendum lower visible distinguished with diverse starres corruptible and at the worlds end to be dissolued and vtterly abolished Now though that worke were not Clements yet was it doubtlesse very ancient being quoted by Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen and remembred by S. Hierome in his Commentaries vpon Esay and is of sufficient authority against those who receiue it for my selfe I stand not vpon his authority but the rock of Scripture and reason drawne from thence and the force of naturall discourse SECT 5. The same farther prooved by reason THE first then and as I conceiue the most weighty argument is taken from the End of the Worlds creation which was partly and chiefely the glory of the Creator and partly the vse of man the Lord Deputy as it were or Viceroy thereof Now for the glory of the Creator it being by the admirable frame of the World manifested vnto man man being remoued out of the world and no Creature being capable of such a manifestation besides him wee cannot imagine to what purpose the frame it selfe should bee left and restored to a more perfect estate The other end being for mans vse either to supply his necessity in matter of diet of Physick of building of apparell or for his instruction direction recreation comfort and delight or lastly that therein as in a looking-glasse he might contemplate the wisdome the power and the goodnesse of God when he shall attaine that blessed estate as he shall haue no farther use of any of these enjoying perfect happinesse and seeing God as he is face to face the second or subordinate end of the Worlds being must needs be likewise frustrate And what other end can bee giuen or conceiued for the remaining or restoring thereof for mine owne part I must professe I cannot conceiue And to affirme that it shal be restored withal to assigne no end wherefore is ridiculous and vnreasonable An house being built for an inhabitant as the World was for man If it bee decreed that it shall no more be inhabited it were but vanity to repaire much more to adorne and beautifie it farther And therefore when mankinde shall bee dislodged and remoue from hence therevpon shall instantly ensue the Consummation or End not the reparation or restitution but the End of the world So the Scriptures call it in plaine tearmes and so I beleeue it And in truth some Divines considering that of necessity some end must bee assigned haue falne vpon ends so absurd and vnwarrantable that the very naming of them were sufficient to make a man beleeue there was no such matter indeed Some then and that of our owne Church and that in published bookes for the clearing of this objection haue fancied to themselues an intercourse of the Saints after the resurrection betwixt heauen and earth and that full Dominion ouer the Creatures which by the fall of Adam was lost Others are of opinion that the Earth after the day of judgement being renewed with fire and more pleasantly apparelled shall be the mansion of such as neither by their merits haue deserued heauen nor hell by their demerits And lastly others that such as haue died in their infancy without circumcision or Baptisme might possesse it Now what meere dreames these are of idle braines if I should but endeavour to demonstrate I feare I should shew my selfe more vaine in vouchsafing them a confutation then they in publishing them to the World And yet they are the best wee see that Learned men by the strength of their wits can finde out My second reason shall be drawne from the nature of the world and the quality of the parts thereof which are supposed shall bee restored to their originall integrity and so in that state euerlastingly remaine I will begin with the vegetables and Creatures endued with sense concerning them would willingly learne whether they shall bee all restored or some onely namely such as shall be found in being at the day of Iudgment if all where shall we finde stowage for them Surely we may in this case properly apply that which the Evangelist in another case vses figuratiuely if they should all be restored euē the world it self could not cōtain the things which should be restored if some only thē would I gladly know why those some should be vouchsafed this great honour not all or how these creatures without a miracle shal be restrained frō propagating multiplying that infinitly their kinds by a perpetuall generatiō Or lastly how the several individuals of these kinds shall cōtrary to their primitiue natures liue dure immortally But to make a good sound answere to these demaunds is a point of that difficulty that the greatest part of Divines rather choose to leaue out the mixt bodies preferre only the heavens the elements to this pretended dignity of restitution though about the number of the Elements to be restored they all agree not But heere againe I would demaund whether the world without the mixt bodies can truly be sayd to be more perfect and beautifull then before whether the inbred and inseparable qualities of the Elements as thickenesse and thinnesse weight lightnesse heate cold moisture drynesse shall remaine if they shall not how shall they remaine Elements if they shall how without
the liberty of the Sons of God as Saint Chrysostome hath expounded it They which maintaine any other future liberty in the Creature by way of restitution or bettering it are bound soundly to answere all the arguments before alleaged and withall to yeeld a sufficient reason why some Creatures are to be restored and not all since the name of Creature is equally attributed to all and not to some only Surely S. Ambrose in his Expositions vpon that place durst goe no farther then we doe habet enim in labore posita Creatura hoc solatium quoniam habebit requiem cum crediderint omnes quos scit Deus credituros the Creature travelling in paine hath this comfort that it shall rest from labour when they shall all beleeue whom God knowes are to beleeue And in truth this is as much as we neede beleeue and as the words being favourablely interpreted doe inforce The last testimony mustered against vs was taken from the Psalmist Thâ—…u shalt change them and they shall be changed But since in the same verse he likewise tels vs They shall perish what change shall we there vnderstand Surely for the same thing to bee sayd to bee chaunged into a better and more perfect estate and yet withall at the same time to perish cannot properly be verified We are to know then that a thing may be chaunged not only by alteration which is a chaunge in the quality but by augmentation or diminution which is a chaunge in the quantity by corruption which is a chaunge in the substance or lastly though in a larger and perchaunce somewhat vnusuall acceptation by annihilation which is a totall abolishing of the substance And this in truth is the greatest chaunge that may be it being ab ente ad non ens simpliciter from a being to a not being wholy And of such a chaunge must the Psalmist of force be vnderstood if we will reconcile him with himselfe and the passages before alleaged or if this satisfie not we may say as some doe that the heavens shall be changed in regard of vs insteed of visible and materiall heavens the vse of which wee now injoy wee shall be translated to an heaven immateriall and invisible the Coelestiall Paradise the heavenly Ierusalem which in holy Scriptures is likewise tearmed a new heaven Notwithstanding all this for the reverence I beare antiquitie I will not be peremptory in the point But truly me thinkes that a few obscure places should rather be expounded by many cleere then the cleere wrested to the obscure CAP. 14. Of the Uses we are to make of the Consummation of the world and of the day of Iudgement SECT 1. That the day of the worlds end shall likewise be the day of the generall iudgement thereof and that then there shall bee such a iudgement is proved aswell by reason as the testimonie of the Gentiles WHatsoever be the manner of the worlds end most certaine it is an end it shall haue and as certaine that then we shall all appeare before the Iudgement seate of Christ that every man may receiue according to that which he hath done in his body whether it be good or evill If we yeeld that there is a God and that this God is Almighty just which of necessity he must be or otherwise he may not be God it cannot be avoyded but that after this life ended he administer justice vnto men by punishing the wicked and rewarding the righteous Since in this world the one commonly liue in ease and prosperity and the other in misery and persecution Shall not then the Iudge of all the world doe right doubtles he shall and will Some therefore he punisheth exemplarily in this world that we might from thence haue a tast or glimce of his present iustice And others he reserveth to the next that from thence we might haue an assurance of a future iudgement which is either particular as we are single persons at the day of the separation of the soule from the body which wee may call the Privy Sessions of the soule or vniversall as we are parcels of mankinde at the last day which we may call the generall Assise both of soule and bodie And that there shall be such a generall judgement beside the particular we haue these reasons to induce vs to beleeue it First that the body of man rising from his sepulchre at that day may be partaker of eternall punishment or glory with the soule even as in this life it was participant of the vertues or vices which the soule did execute as they either sinned together or served God together So is it most fit that they should receiue the sentence of eternall life or death together Yet because the soule both may and often doth either sinne or serue God without the bodie but the body of it selfe can doe neither without the soule therefore is it as requisite that the separated soule should either suffer paine or injoy blisse whiles the body rests in the graue And being revnited and married againe vnto the body should partake more either of blisse or paine then it As this first reason is taken from the Essentiall parts so the second reason that there shall be an vniversall and publique judgement is drawne from the Actions of the persons to be judged their rewards Though it be true then that if men were rewarded in secret both in soule and in in bodie according to their actions the justice of God might by that meanes be preserved yet could it not be sufficiently manifested vnlesse this judgement were acted in the publique view of the whole world Many good men haue heere been openly oppressed and troden vnder foote and on the other side the wicked haue flourished in abundance of outward peace temporall felicity which hath made the best of Gods servants at times to stagger and stand amazed thereat But then shall they and all the world cleerely see and confidâ—…ntly professe to the honour of Divine justice Verily there is a reward for the righteous doubtles there is a God that judgeth the Earth And in regard of this conspicuous manifestation of Gods justice and full accomplishment thereof at the last day not a few of the Greeke Latine Fathers as also the holy Scriptures themselues in sundry places seeme to say the retribution of our workes in the flesh shall be differred till then Now besides this honour which shall accrew to the justice of God both wicked sinners and the blessed Saints of God shall then receiue their rewards and finall paiments openly in the sight and hearing of each other to the end that the griefe and shame of the impious and the triumphant joy of the vertuous and religious might therby be the more increased For what greater heart-breaking and confusion can there bee to the one then to haue all their secret faults layd open and the sentence of Condemnation passed vpon them in the presence of them
Chapter of Benjamin who at the same time is made the father of ten sonnes and yet was he then but twenty three or twenty foure yeares of age being borne in the hundred and sixth yeare of his father which was the yeare before the selling of Ioseph Dina by the testimony of Polyhistor when shee was rauished and sued vnto for marriage by Sichem was but tenne yeares of age and by the computation of Caietan but foureteene of Pererius but fifteene or sixteene at vtmost The blessed Virgine when shee brought forth our Saviour but fifteene Somewhat more euident is that of Iosiah who was but thirty nine yeares old when he died eight he was when he began to reigne and hee reigned thirty one yet was Eliakim his sonne twenty fiue yeares old when he began to reigne being by Pharaoh Neco substituted in the place of his brother Iehoahaz after he had reigned three moneths so that Iosiah by just computation could not well exceede foureteene yeares of age when he was first married But that of Ahaz is yet more remarkeable who liued but thirty six yeares in the whole twenty yeares old was hee when he began to reigne and he reigned sixteene yeares yet was his sonne Hezekiah who immediatly succeeded him twenty fiue yeares old when he began to reigne By which account Ahaz was married and begat Hezekiah at eleuen or before And though Functius in his Chrononologie moued with the strangenes heereof would make Hezekiah the Legall not the naturall sonne of Ahaz by adoption not by generation and Iunius in his annotations referre those wordes twenty yeares old was he when he began to reigne to Iothan the father of Ahaz yet heerein they both stand alone aswell against reason as the ordinary phrase of Scripture and streame of interpreters S. Hierome in his epistle to Vitalis to make it good hath recourse to Gods Omnipotencie Neque enim valet natura saith he contra naturoe Dominum And againe Quòd pro miraculo fit legem Naturae facere non potest That which it pleaseth God to worke supernaturally as a miracle may not be held for the ordinary law of Nature Yet himselfe in the same Epistle alleages the example of Salomon to the same purpose And another more strange then that to the relation whereof he prefixes this solemne preface Audiui Domino teste non mentior I haue heard God knowes I faine it not that a certaine nurse hauing the education of an exposed child committed to her charge who lay with her being now of the age of tenne yeares and prouoked to incontinencie by the nurse overcharged with wine shee was found with child by him I will conclude this reason with the example of Solomon who is commonly thought to come to the Crowne at twelue yeares of age and the Scripture assures vs that he reigned but forty by which account he died at the age of fifty two which is the most receiued opinion aswell of the Iewish Rabbines as the Christian Doctours yet was Rehoboam his sonne and successour forty one yeares old when he began to raigne so that but an eleâ—…en yeares at most are left for Solomon when he begat him Such matches as these in this age I thinke can hardly be matched neither in truth doe I hold it fit they should SECT 3. The third is borrowed from the age which the Ancients assigned for charge and imployment in publique affaires Ecclesiasticall Civill and Military they were therevnto both sooner admitted and therefrom sooner discharged then men now adayes vsually are which should in reason argue that they likewise vsually finished the course of their life sooner ANother reason tending to the same purpose may not vnfitly bee drawne from the age which the Ancients assigned for charge and imployment in publique affaires They were therevnto assoone admitted and sooner discharged then men now adayes vsually are which should in reason argue that they likewise ran their race finished their course sooner in asmuch as quod citius crescit citius finitur that which sooner comes to ripenes and perfection hastens sooner to rottennes dissolution Now publique charges may well be distributed into Ecclesiasticall Civill and Military of the Church of the State and of the warres I will begin with the Ministeriall offices of the Church and therein with the Principall which is that of the Bishop Thomas Becket was chosen Archbishop of Canterbury at the age of forty foure yeares as witnesseth Mathew Parker who succeeded him in that See in his booke of the liues of the Archbishops intituled Antiquitates Britannicae Is qui ad Episcopalem dignitatem promovendus est annos natus esse debet non minus triginta nam ea aetate Dominum baptizatum concionatum fuisse legimus saith Lancelot in his Institutions of the Canon Law He who is to bee advanced to the dignity of a Bishop ought not to be lesse then thirty yeares old inasmuch as we read that our Lord was baptized and preached at that age Whereas now adayes with vs seldome is any preferred to that place till he be past forty or fifty Venerable Bede our famous Countreyman who liued about eight hundred yeares agoe was by hisowne testimony made Deacon at nineteene And Origen by the testimony of Eusebius Catechist in Alexandria at eighteene yeares of age But that which to this point is most memorable in the exercise of sacred functions is that by the commandement of God himselfe the Levites after the age of fifty yeares were exempted from the execution of their office which notwithstanding was nothing so painefull as that of the Ministery of the Gospell if faithfully discharged Where by Levites it may well be that not only those who serued in inferiour offices vnder the Priests but the Priests themselues as being of the tribe of Levi are to be vnderstood to which purpose M. Nettles in his answere to the Iewish part of M. Seldens History of Tithes hath vouched the Rabbines as named Aben Ezra on Leviticus 16. every Priest is a Levite but euery Levite is not a Priest And Ioshuah Ben Levi mentioning that text Numb 18 26. Speake vnto the Levites doth vnder the name of Levites vnderstand also Priests farther adding that in foure and twenty places the Priests are called Levites which being so I see no reason but that from thence we may safely inferre that in likelyhood the same space of yeares was assigned to the Priest aswell for his entrance vpon his office as his discharge from it specially considering that his place was of an higher nature Now for the warres The Gaules put their sonnes in armes and prepared them to warre at foureteene Cneius Pompeius at eighteene yeares of age and Caesar Octavianus at nineteene sustained civill warres The Iewes indeed ordinarily levied their souldiers from twenty yeares vpward as plainly appeares in the first of Numbers and diverse other places But the Romanes from