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
the Lord that I will heare the heavens and they shall heare the earth and the earth shall heare the corne and the wine and the oile and they shall heare Israell From that we may descend to the foure Elements which as a musicall instrument of foure strings is both tuned and touched by the hand of heaven And in the next place those bodies which are mixed and tempered of these Elements offer themselues to our consideration whether they bee without life as stones and mettalls or haue the life of vegetation only as Plants or both of vegetation and sense as beasts and birds and fishes and in the last place man presents himselfe vpon this Theater as being created last though first intended the master of the whole family chiefe Commaunder in this great house nay the master-peece the abridgment the mappe and modell of the Vniuerse And in him wee will examine this pretended decay first in regard of age and length of yeares secondly in regard of strength and stature thirdly in regard of wits and Arts and fourthly and lastly in regard of manners and conditions to which all that is in man is or should bee finally referred as all that is in the world is vnder God finally referred to man And because it is not sufficient to possesse our owne fort without the dismantling and demolishing of our enimies a principall care shall bee had throughout the whole worke to answere if not all at least the principall of those obiections which I haue found to weigh most with the adverse part And in the last place least I should any way bee suspected to shake or vndermine the ground of our Christian religion or to weaken the article of our beliefe touching the consummation of the world by teaching that it decayes not to wipe off that aspertion I will endeavour to prooue the certainety thereof not so much by Scripture which no Christian can be ignorant of as by force of Reason and the testimony of Heathen writers and finally I will conclude with an exhortation grounded therevpon for the stirring of men vp to a preparation of themselues against that day which shall not only end the world but iudge their actions and dispose of the everlasting estate of their persons CAP. 4. Touching the worlds decay in generall SECT 1. The three first generall reasons that it decayes not THe same Almighty hand which created the worlds massie frame and gaue it a being out of nothing doth still support and maintaine it in that being which at first it gaue and should it with draw himselfe but for a moment the whole frame would instantly returne into that nothing which before the Creation it was as Gregorie hath righly observed Deus suo presentiali esse dat omnibus rebus esse ita quod si se rebus subtraheret sicut de nihilo facta sunt omnia sic in nihilum diffluerent vniversa God by his presentiall Essence giues vnto all things an Essence so that if hee should withdraw himselfe from them as out of nothing they were first made so into nothing they would be againe resolved In the preservation then of the Creature wee are not so much to consider the impotencie and weakenesse thereof as the goodnesse wisedome and power of the Creator in whom and by whom and for whom they liue and moue and haue their being The spirit of the Lord filleth the world saith the Authour of the wisedome of Solomon and the secret working of the spirit which thus pierceth through all things hath the Poet excellently exprest Principio caelum ac terr as camposque liquentes Lucentemque globum Lunae Titaniaque astra Spiritus intus alit totamque infusa per artus Mens agitat molem magno se corpore miscet The heauen the earth and all the liquide maine The Moones bright globe and starres Titanian A spirit within maintaines and their whole masse A minde which through each part infus'd doth passe Fashions and workes and wholly doth transpierce All this great Body of the Vniverse This Spirit the Platonists call the Soule of the World by it it is in some sort quickned and formaliz'd as the body of man is by its reasonable Soule There is no question then but this Soule of the World if wee may so speake being in truth none other then the immortall Spirit of the Creator is able to make the body of the World immortall and to preserue it from disolution as he doth the Angels and the spirits of men and were it not that he had determined to dissolue it by the same supernaturall and extraordinary power which at first gaue it existence I see not but by the ordinary concurrence of this spirit it might euerlastingly endure and that consequently to driue it home to our present purpose there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the course of Nature as is imagined and this I take to be the meaning of Philo in that booke which he hath composed De Mundi incorruptibilitate of the Worlds incorruptibility there being some who haue made the World eternall without any beginning or ending as Aristotle and the Peripateticks others giue it a beginning but without ending as Plato and the Academicks whom Philo seemes to follow and lastly others both beginning ending as Christians and other Sects of Philosophers whom Aristotle therefore flouts at saying that he formerly feared his house might fall downe about his eares but that now he had a greater matter to feare which was the dissolution of the world But had this pretended vniversall perpetuall decay of the World beene so apparant as some would make it his flout had easily beene returned vpon himselfe his opinion by dayly sensible experience as easily confuted which wee may well wonder none of those Philosophers who disputed against him if they acknowledged and beleeued the trueth thereof should any where presse in defence of their owne opinions it being indeed the most vnanswerable and binding argument that possibly could be enforced against him were there that evident certaintie in it as is commonly imagined whereas he in the sharpnesse of his wit seeing the weakenesse thereof would not so much as vouchsafe it a serious answere but puts it off with a jeast For mine owne part I constantly beleeue that it had a beginning and shall haue an ending and hold him not worthy the name of a Christian who holds not as much yet so as I beleeue both to bee matter of faith through faith we vnderstand that the Worlds were framed by the word of God and through the same faith we likewise vnderstand that they shall be againe vnframed by the same word Reason may grope at this truth in the darke howbeit it can neuer cleerely apprehend it but inlightned by the beame of faith I deny not but probable though not demonstratiue and convincing arguments may be drawn from discourse of reason to proue either the one or the other
forceably consequently hath a greater power of making men not outwardly formally but really inwardly vertuous And if we should look back into Histories compare time with time we shall easily finde that where this Profession spred it selfe men haue generally beene more accomplished in all kind of morall civill vertues then before it took place It is true indeed that in processe of time thorow the ambition covetousnes luxury idlenesse ignorance of them who should haue bin lights in the Church it too much degenerated from its Originall purity therevpon manners being formed by it were generally tainted this corruption like a leprosie diffusing it selfe from the head into all the body But together with the reviving of the Arts Languages which for sundry ages lay buried in barbarisme the rust of superstition was likewise in many places scowred off from Religion which by degrees had crept vpon it fretted deepe into the face of it and the Arts being thus refined Religion restored to its primitiue brightnes manners were likewise reformed euen among them at least in part in shew who as yet admit not a full reformation in matter of Religion A foule shame then it were for vs who professe a thorow reformation in matter of doctrine to be thought to grow worse in matter of manners GOD forbid it should be so I hope it is not so I am sure it should not be so That grace of God which hath appeared more clearely to vs then to our fore-fathers teaching vs to adorne our profession with a gracious and vertuous conversation to deny vngodlinesse and worldly lusts and to liue soberly and righteously and godly in this present world soberly in regard of our selues righteously in regard of others and godly in regard of religious exercises If then we come short of our Auncestors in knowledge let vs not cast it vpon the deficiencie of our wits in regard of the Worlds decay but vpon our own sloth if we come short of them in vertue let vs not impute it to the declination of the World but to the malice and faintnesse of our owne wills if we feele the scourges of God vpon our Land by mortality famine vnseasonable weather or the like let vs not teach the people that they are occasioned by the Worlds old age and thereby call into question the prouidence or power or wisedome or iustice or goodnes of the Maker thereof but by their and our sins which is doubtles both the truer more profitable doctrine withall more consonant to the Sermons of Christ his Apostles the Prophets of God in like cases And withall let vs freely acknowledge that Almighty God hath bestowed many blessings vpon these latter ages which to the former he denyed as in sending vs vertuous and gracious Princes and by them the maintenance of piety peace plenty the like Lest thorow our ingratitude he vvithdraw them from vs and make vs know their worth by wanting them which by injoying them wee vnderstood not But I will not presume to advise where I should learne only I will vnfainedly wish and heartily pray that at leastwise your practise may still make good mine opinion maintained in this Booke refute the contrary common errour opposed therein that you may still grow in knowledge and grace and that your vertues may alwaies rise increase together with your buildings These latter without the former being but as a body without a soule Yours to doe you service to the vtmost of his poore abilitie G. H. THE PREFACE TRuth it is that this ensuing Treatise was long since in my younger yeares begunne by me for mine owne private exercise and satisfaction but afterward considering not onely the rarity of the subject and variety of the matter but withall that it made for the redeeming of a captivated truth the vindicating of Gods glory the advancement of learning the honour of the Christian reformed Religion by the advise and with the approbation and incouragement of such speciall friends whose piety learning and wisedome I well know and much reverence I resolved permissu superiorum and none otherwise to make it publique for the publique good and the encountring of a publique errour which may in some sort be equalled if not preferred before the quelling of some great monster Neither doe I take it to lye out of my profession the principall marke which I ayme at throughout the whole body of the Discourse being an Apologeticall defence of the power providence of God his wisedome his truth his justice his goodnes mercy and besides a great part of the booke it selfe is spent in pressing Theologicall reasons in clearing doubts arising from thence in producing frequent testimonies from Scriptures Fathers Schoolemen and moderne Divines in proving that Antichrist is already come from the writings of the Romanists themselues in confirming the article of our faith touching the Worlds future and totall consummation by fire and a day of finall judgement from discourse of reason and the writings of the Gentiles and lastly by concluding the whole worke with a pious meditation touching the vses which we may and should make of the consideration thereof seruing for a terrour to some for comfort to others for admonition to all And how other men may stand affected in reading I know not sure I am that in writing it often lifted vp my soule in admiring and praysing the infinite wisedome and bounty of the Crator in maintaining and managing his owne worke in the gouernment and preservation of the Vniverse which in truth is nothing else but as the Schooles speake continuata productio a continuated production often did it call to my mind those holy raptures of the Psalmist O Lord our governour how excellent is thy Name in all the world Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy workes I will reioyce in giuing praise for the operations of thy hands O Lord how glorious are thy workes thy thoughts are very deepe An vnwise man doth not well consider this a foole doth not well vnderstand it And againe The workes of the Lord are great sought out of all them that haue pleasure therein His worke is worthy to be praised had in honour his righteousnes endureth for euer And though whiles I haue laboured to free the world from old age I feele it creeping vpon my selfe yet if it shall so please the same great and gratious Lord I intend by his assistance spating mee life health hereafter to write Another Apologie of his power providence in the government of his Church which perchaunce by some may be thought both more proper for mee and for these times more necessary though he that shall narrowly obserue the prints of the Almighties footsteppes traced throughout this ensuing discourse may not vnjustly from thence collect both comfort and assurance that as the Heauens remaine vnchangeable so doth the Church triumphant
wōderfull either to beget in vs an abilitie for the doing of that which we apprehēd we cā do or a disability for the not doing of that which we cōceiue we cānot do which was the reasō that the Wisards and Oracles of the Gentiles being cōsulted they ever returned either an hopefull answer or an ambiguous such as by a favourable cōstructiō might either include or at leastwise not vtterly exclude hope Agesilaus as I remēber clapping his hāds vpon the Al tar taking it off againe by a cūning divice shewed to his souldiers victory stāped vpon it whereby they were so encouraged and grew so cōfident that beyong all expectation they indeed effected that wherof by this sleight they were formerly assured Prognostications and Prophesies often helpe to further that which they foretell and to make men such as they beare thē in hand they shall be nay by an vnavoydable destinie must bee Francis Marquesse of Saluzze yeeldes vs a memorable example in this kind who being Lieuetenant Generall to Francis the first King of France over all his forces which hee then had beyond the mountaines in Italy a man highly favoured in all the Court and infinitly obliged to the King for his Marquesite which his brother had forfeited suffered himselfe to be so farr afrighted and deluded as it hath since been manifestly proued by Prognostications which then throughout all Europe were giuen out to the advantage of the Emperour Charles the fifth and to the prejudice of the French that hauing no occasiō offered yea his owne affections contradicting the same hee first began in secret to complaine to his private friends of the inevitable miseries which he foresaw prepared by the Fates against the Crowne of France And within a while after this impression still working into him he most vnkindly revolted from his Master and became a turne-coate to the Emperours side to the astonishment of all men his owne greate disgrace ond the no lesse disadvātage to the French enterprize on the other side I doubt not but that the prophesies of Sauanarola as much assisted Charles the eight to the conquest of Naples which he performed so speedily and happily as he seemed rather with chalke to marke out his lodgings then with his sword to winne them To like purpose was that Custome among the Heathen of deriving the pedegree of valiant men from the Gods as Varro the most learned of the Romanes hath well observed Ego huiusmodi à Dis repetitas origines vtiles esse lubens agnosco vt viri fortes etiamsi falsum sit se ex Dis genitos credant vt eo modo animus humanus veluti diuinae stirpis fiduciam gerens res magnas aggrediendas presumat audaciùs agat vehementiù ob haec impleat ipsa securitate foeliciùs I for my part sayth he judge those pedegrees drawne from the Gods not to be vnprofitable that valiant men though in truth it be not so beleeving themselues to be extracted from divine races might vpon the confidence thereof vndertake high attemps the more boldly intend them the more earnestly and accomplish them the more securely and successiuely And of the Druides Caesar hath noted that among other doctrines they taught the soules immortality by propagation because they taught hoc maximè ad virtutem excitari homines metu mortis neglecto that by meanes of this apprehension men were notablely spurred forward and whetted on to the adventuring and enterprising of commendable actions through the contempt of death Which same thing Lucan hath likewise remarked Vobis authoribus vmbrae Non tacitas Erebi sedes ditisque profundi Pallida regna petunt regit idem spiritus artus Orbe alio longae conitis si cognita vitae Mors media est certè populi quos despicit Arctos foelices errore suo quos ille timorum Maximus haud vrget Lethi metus inde ruendi In ferrum mens prona viris animaeque capaces Mortis et ignavum est rediturae parcere vitae Your doctrine is Our ghost's goe not to those pale realmes of Stygian Dis And silent Erebus the selfe same soules doth sway Bodyes else-where and death if certaine trueth you say Is but the mid'st of life Thrice happy in your error Yee Northerne wights whom Death the greatest Prince of terror Nothing affrights Hence are your Martiall hearts inclind To rush on point of sword hence that vndanted mind So capable of Death hence seemes it base and vaine To spare that life which will eft soones returne againe By all which wee see the admirable efficacy of the imagination either for the elevating or depressing of the mind for the making of it more abject and base or more actiue and generous and from thence infer that the doctrine of Natures necessary decay rather tends to make men worse then better rather cowardly then couragious rather to draw them downe to that they must be then to lift them vp to that they should and may bee rather to breed sloath then to quicken industry I will giue one instance for all and that home-bredde the reason why we haue at this day no Vineyards planted nor wine growne in England as heretofore is commonly ascribed to the decay of Nature either in regard of the heavens or Earth or both and men possessed with this opinion sit downe and try not what may be done whereas our great Antiquary imputes it to the Lazines of the Inhabitants rather then to any defect or distemper in the Climat and withall professes that he is no way of the mind of those grudging sloathfull husbandmen whom Columella censures who thinke that the earth is growne weary and barren with the excessiue plenty of former ages I haue somewhere read of a people so brutish and barbarous that they must first be taught and perswaded that they were not beasts but men and capable of reason before any serviceable or profitable vse could be made of them And surely there is no hope that ever wee shall attaine the heigth of the worthy acts and exploits of our Predecessours except first we be resolved that Gods Grace and our own endeavours concurring there is a possibility wee should rise to the same degree of worth Si hanc cogitationem homines habuissent vt nemo se meliorem fore eo qui optimus fuisset arbitraretur ij ipsi qui sunt optimi non fuissent if men had alwayes thus conceaved with themselues that no man could be better then he that then was best those that now are esteemed best had not so beene They be the words of Quintilian and therevpon hee inferres as doth the Apostle 1. Corinth 12. at the last verse Nitamur semper ad optima quod facientes aut evademus in summum aut certe multos infra nos videbimus Let vs covet earnestly the best gifts and propose to our selues the matching at least if not the passing of the most excellent patterns by which meanes we
tempus eam debilitavit Dost not thou see the heavens how faire how spacious they are how bee-spangled with diverse constellations how long now haue they lasted fiue thousand yeares or more are past and yet this long duration of time hath brought no old age vpon them But as a body new and fresh flourisheth in youth So the heavens still retaine their beauty which at first they had neither hath time any thing abated it Some errour or mistake doubtlesse there is in Chrisostomes computation in as much as he lived aboue 1200 yeares since yet tels vs that the world had then lasted aboue 5000 yeares but for the trueth of the matter he is therein seconded by all the schoole divines and among those of the reformed churches none hath written in this point more clearely and fully then Alstedius in his preface to his naturall divinity Tanta est hujus palatij diuturnitas atque firmitas vt ad hodiernum vsque diem supra annos quinquies mille sexcentos ita perstet vt in eo nihil immutatum diminâ—…tum aut vetustate diuturnitate temporis vitiatum conspiciamus Such saith hee and so lasting is the duration and immoveable stability of this palace that being created aboue 5600 yeares agoe yet it so continues to this day that wee can espie nothing in it changed or wasted or disordered by age and tract of time SECT 4. Another obiection taken from Psalme the 102 answered ANother text is commmonly and hotly vrged by the Adverse part to like purpose as the former and is in truth the onely argument of weight drawne from Scripture in this present question touching the heavens decay in regard of their Substance In which consideration wee shall bee inforced to examine it somewhat the more fully Taken it is from the hundred and second Psalme and the wordes of the Prophet are these Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth the heavens are the worke of thine handes They shall perish but thou shalt endure yea all of them shall waxe old as doth a garment as a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall haue no end To which very place vndoubtedly the Apostle alludes in the first to the Hebrewes where he thus renders it Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the workes of thine hands They shall perish but thou remainest and they shall wax old as doth a garment and as a vesture shalt thou fold them vp and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy yeares shall not faile In which passages the words which are most stood vpon and pressed are those of the growing old of the heavens like a garment which by degrees growes bare till it bee torne in peeces and brought to ragges S. Augustine in his Enarration vpon this Psame according to his wont betakes him to an Allegoricall Exposition interpreting the heavens to bee the Saints and their bodies to bee their garments wherewith the soule is cloathed And these garments of theirs saith hee waxe old and perish but shall be changed in the resurrection and made comformable to the glorious body of Iesus Christ. Which exposition of his is pious I confesse but surely not proper since the Prophet speakes of the heavens which had their beginning together with the earth and were both principall peeces in the great worke of the Creation Neither can the regions of the aire be here well vnderstood though in some other places they bee stiled by the name of the heavens since they are subiect to continuall variation and change and our Prophets meaning was as it should seeme to compare the Almighties vnchangeable eternity with that which of all the visible Creatures was most stable and stedfast And besides though the aire bee indeed the worke of Gods hands as are all the other Creatures yet that phrase is in a speciall manner applied to the starry heavens as being indeed the most exquisite and excellent peece of workemanship that ever his hands fram'd It remaines then that by heavens heere wee vnderstand the lights of heaven thought by Philosophers to bee the thicker parts of the spheres together with the spheres themselues in which those lights are fixed and wheeled about For that such spheres and orbes there are I take it as granted neither will I dispute it though I am not ignorant that some latter writers thinke otherwise and those neither few in number nor for their knowledge vnlearned But for the true sense of the place alleadged wee are to know that the word there vsed to wax old both in Hebrew Greeke Latin doth not necessarily imply a decay or impairing in the subject so waxing old but somtimes doth only signifie a farther step accesse to a finall period in regard of duration Wee haue read of some who being well striken in yeares haue renewed their teeth and changed the white colour of their haire and so growne yong againe Of such it might truly be sayd that they grew elder in regard of their neerer approch to the determinate end of their race though they were yonger in regard of their constitution and state of their bodies And thus do I take the Apostle to be vnderstood that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away where hee speakes of the Ceremoniall law which did not grow old by degrees at least before the incarnation of Christ but stood in its full force and vigour vntill it was by him abrogated and disanulled To which purpose Aquinas hath not vnfitly observed vpon the place Quod dicitur vetus significat quod sit prope cessationem the tearming of a thing old implies that it hastens to an end This then as I take it may truly be affirmed of the signification of the word in generall and at large and may justly seeme to haue been the Prophets meaning in as much as he addeth But thou art the same and thine yeares shall haue no end From whence may be collected that as God cannot grow old because his yeares shall haue no end so the heavens because they shall haue an end may be therefore sayd to grow old But whereas it is added not only by the Psalmist but by the Apostle in precise tearmes They shall wax old as doth a garment and againe as a Vesture shalt thou change them the doubt still remaines whether by that addition the sense of the word bee not restrained to a graduall and sensible decay I know it may be sayd that a garment waxing old not only looses his freshnesse but part of his quantitie and weight it is not only soyled but wasted either in lying or wearing so in continuance of time becomes vtterly vnserviceable which no man I think will ascribe to the heavens I meane that their quantity is any way diminished All agree then that the Similitude may be strained too
Paulus was brought forth by the Generall into open audience before the whole host to foretell the Eclipe that should happen the next morrow whereby he delivered the army from all pensiuenesse and feare which might haue troubled them in the time of battaile and within a while after he compiled also a booke thereof Thus far Plyny touching the harmlesse and innocent nature of Eclipses himselfe in the next chapter reducing their certaine revolutions and returnes to the space of two hundred twenty two moneths I will shut vp all with a memorable story to this purpose taken out of Iohn de Royas in his Epistle to Charles the fifth prefixed to his Commentaries vpō the plaine Sphere Colonus the leader of King Ferdinands army at the Iland of Iamaica being in great distresse for want of victuals which he could by no meanes attaine of the Inhabitants by his skill foreseeing an Eclips of the Moone shortly to ensue tooke order that it should be declared to the Governours of the Iland that vnlesse they supplyed him and his with necessaries imminent danger hanged over their heads in witnesse wherof they should shortly see the Moone Eclypsed The Barbarians at first refused his demaunds and contemned his threatning but when at the set time they indeed beheld the Moone by degrees to faile in her light and vnderstood not the cause thereof they first gaue credit to his words and then supply of victuals to his army casting themselues to his feete and craving pardon for their offence Finally to the present objection if any harmefull malignant effect be for the present or afterward produced by the Eclips in those parts where it is seene yet no man I thinke will deny it but to be repairable by by the tract and revolution of time or if irrepairable yet this decay in the Creatures ariseth not from any deficiencie in themselues from any waxing old or removall from their first originals which is the very poynt in question but from an adventitious and externall cause And so I passe from the other Creatures to the Consideration of Man the Commaunder and Compendium of all the rest for whose sake both they were first made and this discourse was first vndertaken LIB III. Of the pretended decay of mankind in regard of age and duration of strength and stature of arts and witts CAP. I. Touching the pretended decay of men in regard of their age and first by way of comparison betweene the ages of the Ancients and those of latter times SECT 1. Of the short life of man in regard of the duration of many other Creatures and that he was Created Mortall but had he not falne should haue beene preserued to immortality SInce vpon exammination wee haue found that there is no such perpetuall and vniversall decay as is pretended in the Hea◅ens in the Earth in the Ayre in the Water the fishes the plants the Beastes the Mineralls I see no reason but that from thence wee might safely and sufficiently conclude that neither is there any such decay in man But because this discourse was principally vndertaken and intended for the sake of mankind I will consider and compare them of former ages with those of latter first in regard of age secondly in regard of Strength and stature thirdly in regard of wits and inventions fourthly and lastly in regard of manners and conditions And if vpon due consideration and comparison it shall appeare that there is no such decay in any of these as is supposed the Question I trust touch-the worlds decay in generall will soone be at at end The ordinary age of man being compared with that of the heavens the stones the mettalls some beasts trees is very short but the longest being cōpared with God and Eternity is but as a span a shadow a dreame of a shadow nay meere nothing which the Romane Oratour hath both truly observed and eligantly expressed Apud Hypanim fluuium qui ab Europae parte in pontum influit Aristoteles ait bestiolas quasdam nasci quae vnum diem viuant ex ijs igitur hora octaua quae mortua est provecta aetate mortua est quae vero occidente sole decrepita eo magis si etiam Solstitiali die Confer nostram longissimam aetatem cum aeternitate in eadem propemodum brevitate qua istae bestiolae reperiemur Aristole writes that by the river Hypanis which on the side of Europe fals into Pontus certaine little animals are bred which liue but a day at most Amongst them then such as dye the eight houre dy old such as dye at sun set dye in their decrepit age specially if it be vpon the day of the Sūmer Solstice Now cōpare our age with eternity and we shall be found in regard of duration almost in the same state of shortnesse that those Creatures are The body of man even before the fall was doubtlesse in it selfe by reaof contrary Elements contrary humours and members of contrary temper whereof it was composed dissoluble and morrall As also by reason of outward accidents the dayly wasting of his natiue heate and the disproportionable supply of his radicall moisture But these defects his Creator supplyed arming him against outward accidents by divine providence the guard of Angels and his owne excellent wisedome against the contrarieties fighting in his body by the harmony of his soule against the wasting of his natiue heat and radicall moysture by that supernaturall vertue efficacy which he gaue to the fruit of the tree of life He was then Naturally Mortall for otherwise even after his fall should he haue continued immortall as the Apostate Angells did but by speciall priviledge and dispensation immortall mortalis erat saith S. Augustine conditione corporis animalis immortalis autem beneficio-conditoris He was mortall in respect of his naturall body but immortall by the favour of his Creator Yet doubtles had he not sinned he had not still liued here vpon earth though in likelihood his age might be extended to some thousands of yeares but should haue beene at length translated from hence to heaven where he could neither haue sinned nor dyed◅ Sic est immortalis conditus Sayth Gregory vt tamen si peccaret mori possit sic mortalis est conditus vt si non peccaret etiam non mori possit atque ex merito liberi arbitrij beatitudinem illius regionis attingeret in qua vel peccare vel mori non possit He was so created immortall that if he sinned he might dye and againe so was he created mortall that he could not dye But by the merit of his freewill should haue beene translated to that place of blisse where he could neither sinne nor dye SECT 2. Of the long liues of the Patriarchs and of the manner of Computing there yeares and that Almighty God drew out the lines of their liues to that length for reasons proper to those first times THough vpon the fall of man the
infirmos praecipitasse senes That yonger men might voices giue alone The elder were downe from the bridges throwne This motion the Barbiccians at seventy in effect put in execution ◅nes septaagesimum annum egressos interficiunt viros mactando mulieres vero stangulando they make away all that are past seaventy sacrificing the men and strangling the women Now then since the age assigned by the Ancients not onely for marriage but likewife for their entrance vpon discharge from publique imployment aswell in the Church and State as in the warres was little or nothing different from that which is both allowed and practised at this day saue that they seemed to haue beene more indulgent and favourable to themselues then now we are what reason haue wee to imagine that the length and duration of time which they vsually liued was different from ours I will close vp this chapter with an observatiō or two taken frō the Municipall lawes of our own Land which account prescription or custome by the practising of a thing time out of minde as they call it and that time they confine to the same number of 60 yeares as formerly they haue done which could not stand with reason or justice were there such a notable and sensible abatement in the age of man as is pretended And againe Our Ancestors for many revolutions of ages in their Leases or other instruments of conveyance commonly valued three liues but at one and twenty yeares in account in Law Whereas now adayes they are valued by the ablest Lawyers at twenty sixe twenty eight yea thirty yeares Whether it were that the warres and pestilentiall diseases then consumed more I cannot determine but me thinkes it should in reason argue thus much that our liues at leastwise are not shortned in regard of theirs which is asmuch as I desire to be graunted and more then is commonly yeelded though as I conceiue vpon no sufficient ground denyed and so I passe from the age of men to the consideration of their strength and stature CAP. 3. Containing a comparison betwixt the Gyants mentioned in Scripture both among themselues and with those of latter ages SECT 1. Of the admirable composition of mans Body and that it can not be sufficiently prooved that Adam as he was the first so he was likewise the tallest of men which in reason sholud be were there in truth any such perpetuall decrease in mans stature as is pretended AS the great power of Almighty God doth shine foorth and shew it selfe in the numberlesse variety of the parts of mans body so doth his wonderfull goodnesse in their excellent vse and his singular wisedome in their orderly disposition sweet harmony and just symmetrie aswell in regard of themselues as in reference each to other but chiefly in the resultance of the beautifull and admirable frame of the whole body The consideration whereof made the Royall Prophet to cry out I will praise thee for I am fearefully and wonderfully made in thy booke were all my members written and curiously wrought marvailous are thy works and that my soule knoweth right well This proportion is in all respects so euen and correspondent that the measures of Temples of dwelling houses of Engins of ships were by Architects taken from thence and those of the Arke it selfe too as it is probably thought For as the Arke was three hundred Cubits in length fifty in bredth and thirty in heigth so the body of man rightly shaped answers therevnto The length from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot and breadth from side to side and thicknes from back to breast carrying the proportion of three hundred and fifty and thirty each to other so that looke what proportion fifty hath to three hundred which is sixe to one the same hath the breadth of mans body to his heigth or length And what proportion thirty hath to three hundred which is ten to one the same hath the thicknes to his length and bredth Nay some haue obserued 300 minuta which I take to be barley cornes the fourth part of an inch or thereabout to make vp the length of a mans body of just stature and consequently fifty in the bredth and thirty the thicknes answereable to the severall numbers of the Cubits in the severall measures of the Arke Now to our present purpose as God and Nature or rather God by Nature his instrument and handmaid hath fashioned the body of Man in those proportions so hath he limited the dimensions thereof as likewise those of all other both vegetable sensitiue and vnsensible Creatures within certaine bounds Quos vltra citraque nequit consistere So that though the dimensions of mens bodies be very different in regard of severall Climats Races yet was there neuer any race of men found to the bignesse of mountaines or whales or the littlenesse of flies or aunts because in that quantity the members cannot vsefully and commodiously either dispose of themselues or exercise those functions to which they were by their maker assigned True indeede it is that both history of former ages and experience of latter times teach vs that a great inequality there is and hath beene but that since the fi◅ ◅reation of man there should be any such perpetuall vniversall an◅ constant decrease and diminution as is pretended that shall I never beleeue For then in reason should the first Man haue beene a Gyant of Gyants the hughest and most monstrous Gyant that euer the world beheld and vpon this ground it seemes though faisely supposed Iohannes Lucidus labours to proue him so indeede from that passage in the fourteenth of Iosua according to the Vulgar Translation Nomen Hebron ante vocabatur Cariah-Arbe Adam maximus ibi inter Enakim situs est which may thus be rendred Adam the greatest of Gyants lies there buried And this fancie of Lucidus is countenanced by that fable of the Iewish Rabbies reported by Moses bar Cephas who supposing Paradise to be di◅oyned from this world by the interposition of the Ocean tell vs that Adam being cast out of it waded thorow the Ocean to come into this by which account his stature should rather be measured by miles then by cubits But as Lucidus by this opinion crosseth the streame of Antiquity S. Ierome only some few others his followers excepted holding that the first Adam was buried not in Hebron but in that place where the second Adam triumphed ouer death so doth he likewise by following the Vulgar Translation corrupt the Hebrew originall which is thus to be rendred Nomen autem Hebronis nomen fuerat Kiriath-arbah is fuerat homo inter Anakeos maximus So that the word Adam or homo is to bee referred not to the first man but to Arbah the first founder as is thought of that Cittie and therevpon our last Translation reades it thus The name of Hebron before was Kiriath-arbah which Arbah
few Before I conclude this discourse touching the comparison of the strength of the Ancients with ours it shall not be amisse to remember a moderne example or two of Parents famously fertile in the linage issued from their bodies such as I doe not remember any where to be parallelled by antiquity In the memory of our Fathers saith Vives in his commentary vpon the eight chapter of the fifteenth booke of the Citty of God there was seene a village in Spaine of about an hundred houses whereof all the inhabitants were issued from one certaine old man who then liued when as that village was so peopled so as the name of propinquity how the youngest of the children should call him could not be giuen Lingua enim nostra supra Abavâ—…m non ascenâ—…t For our language saith hee meaning the Spanish affords not a name aboue the great Grandfathers father Likewise in S. Innocents Church-yard in the citty of Paris is to be seene the Epitaph of Yelland â—…aeily widow to Mr Dennis Capell a Proctour at the Chastellet which doth shew that she had liued eighty foure yeares and might haue seene 288 of her children and childrens children shee dyed the 17 of Aprill 1514. Now imagine saith Pasquier how much she had beene troubled to call them by a proper denomination that were distant from heâ—… the fourth and fifth degree Wherevnto wee may adde that which Theodore Zwinger a Physitian of Basill in the third volume of the Theatre of mans life recites of a noble Lady of the family of the Dalburgs who saw of her race euen to the sixth degree whereof the Germanes haue made this distich 1 Mater 2 ait natae 3 dic natae filia 4 natam 5 Vt moneat natae 6 plangere filiolam That is to say The mother said to her daughter daughter bid thy daughter tell her daughter that her daughters daughter cries The more I wonder at Pliny that he should report it as a wonder worthy the Chronicle that Crispinus Hilarus praelata pompa with open ostentation sacrificed in the Capitoll 74 of his children childrens children attending on him And so I passe from the consideration comparison of the stature strength of mens bodies to that of their mindes consisting in the more noble faculties of the reasonable soule and the beautifull effects thereof CAP. 6. Containing a discourse in generall that there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the powers of the minde or in the Arts Sciences as is pretended SECT 1. The excellencie of the Ancients in the powers of the mind compared with those of the present as also their helpes and hinderances in matter of learning ballanced SInce it is a received conclusion of the choisest both Divines Philosophers that the reasonable soule of man is not conveied vnto him from his Parents but infused immediatly by the hand of the Creator withall that the soules of all men at their first Creation infusion are equall perfect alike endued with the same essence abilities it must needes bee that the inequality disparity of actions which they produce arise from the diverse temper of the matter which they informe and by which as by an instrument they worke Now the matter being tempered by the disposition of the bodies of our parents the influence of the heavens the quality of the elements diet exercise the like it remaines that as there is a variety vicissitude of these in regard of goodnes so is there likewise in the temper of the matter whereof wee consist the actions which by it our soules produce Yea where both the agents the instruments are alike yet by the diversity of education or industry their workes are many times infinitely diversified The principall faculties of the soule are imagination iudgement and memory One of the most famous for memory among the Ancients to my remembrance was Seneca the Father who reports of himselfe that hee could repeate two thousand names or two hundred verses brought to his Master by his Schoole-fellowes backeward or forward But that which Muretus reports of a young man of Corsica a student in the Civill Law whom himselfe saw at Padua farre exceedes it he could saith heâ—… recite thirty six thousand names in the same order as they were deliuered without any stay or staggering as readily as if he had read them out of a booke His conclusion is Huic ego ne ex antiquitate quidam quem opponam habeo nisâ—… forte Cyrum quem Plinius Quintilianus alij Latini Scriptores tradiderunt tenuisse omnium militum nomina I find none among the Ancients whom I may set against him vnlesse Cyrus perchaunce whom Pliniâ—… Quintilian and other Latine writers report to haue remembred the names of all his souldiers which yet Muretus himselfe doubts was mistaken of them Zenophon of whom onely or principally they could learne it affirming onely that hee remembred the names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of his Captaines or cheife commanders And Aeneas Sylvius in his history of the Councill of Basill at which himselfe was present tels vs of one Ludovicus Pontanus of Spoleto a Lawyer likewise by profession who dyed of the Pestilence at that Councill at thirty yeares of age that he could recite not the titles onely but the intire bodies of the Lawes being for vastnes and fastnes of memory nemini Antiquorum inferior as he speakes nothing inferiour to any of the Ancients It is to this purpose very memorable which Famianus Srada in the first booke of his Academicall Pâ—…olusions relates of Francis Suarez who hath sayeth he so strong a memory that he hath S. Augustine the most copious various of the Fathers readie by heart alleadging euery where as occasion presents it selfe fully faithfully his sentences which is very strange his very wordes nay if he be demaunded any thing touching any passage in any of his volumes which of themselues are almost enough to fill a Librarie Statim quo loco quaque pagina disseruerit ea super re expedite docentem ac digito commonstrantem saepe vidimus I my selfe haue often seene him instantly shewing and pointing with his finger to the place page in which he disputed of that matter This is I confesse the testimonie of one Iesuite touching another But of Dr Rainolds it is most certaine that he excelled this way to the astonishment of all that were inwardly acquainted with him not only for S. Augustines workes but almost all Classike Authours so as in this respect it might truely be said of him which hath beene applyed to some others that he was a liuing librarie or third vniuersitie I haue heard it very crediblely reported that vpon occasion of some writings which passed to fro betwixt him Doctour Gentilis then our Professour in the Civill Lawes he publiquely professed that he thought Dr Rainolds had read and did remember more of those Lawes then himselfe though
corrupt glosses and malicious interpretations as the fruite of their doctrine lay hidde vnder the leaues and as the learned in their language well knowe very little vse can be made of their best Commentaries vpon Scripture howbeit they presumed that their chiefes kill lay that way So that wee neede not doubt but the most excellent Diuines haue all beene since the comming of Christ. It is to mee very strange that not onely the Pharisees should be infected with ths opinion of the Pythagoreans touching the dwelling of the same soule in diverse bodies successiuely in diverse ages but that Herod and the whole nation of the Iewes should bee tainted with that grosse errour as appeares in that they held our Saviour to be Iohn the Baptst or Elias or one of the Prophets all which they knew to be dead and some of them long before Their meaning being that the soule of the Baptist or of Elias or of one of the Prophets was by traduction passed into our Saviours bodie as Pythagoras writes of himselfe that he was first Euphorbus and then Callidas then Hermotimus then Pyrrhus and lastly Pythagoras But yet farre more strange it is that the Apostles of our Saviour themselues should be thus misled and yet it should seeme by that their demaund touching him that was borne blinde Master who did sinne this man or his parents that he was borne blind that they were indeede possessed with that opinion for how could they conceiue that he should sinne before he was borne but in some other bodie which his soule actuated before and in truth Saint Cyrill vpon that occasion is induced to thinke that they were swayed with the common errour of that nation and those times and Calvin confidently cries our Prodigij sane instar hoc fuit quod in electo Dei populo in quo coelestis sapientiae per Legem Prophetas lux accensa fuerat tam crasso figmento fuerit datus locus Truely this is a prodigious kind of wonder that among the elect people of God who were inlightned by the heavenly wisedome of the Law and the Prophets way should bee giuen to so palpable a fiction Yet I know not whether their stupiditie were greater in this or in that other demaund of theirs at our Saviours ascension Lord wilt thou at this time restore the kingdome to Israell where Calvin againe stands amazed that they should all with one consent for somuch doth the text imply ioyne together in such a foolish question as hee tearmes it mira profecto illorum fuit ruditas quod tam absolute tantaque cura per triennium edocti non minorem inscitiam produnt quam si nullum vnquam verbum audissent totidem in hac interrogatione sunt errores quot verba wonderfull in truth was their rawnesse rudenesse that hauing beene so exquisitely and diligently taught by three yeares space they notwithstanding bewray asmuch ignorance as if they had neuer heard somuch as one word of instruction as many errours are in their question as words But this likewise of restoring them a temporall kingdome then was and at this day continues to be the common errour of that whole nation neither by any meanes will they be beaten from it That which to mee seemeth more admirable is that S. Peter himselfe euen after the descending of the holy Ghost was ignorant of the calling of the Gentiles of whom together with the Iewes the Catholique Church was to bee made vp whereby it should seeme that then likewise he was ignorant that himselfe was the head of the Catholique Church as by those who hold themselues the only Catholiques hee is now made yet may it not be denyed or somuch as doubted that the holy and blessed Apostles were all indowed with singular gifts and graces aswell for knowledge and wisedome as all kind of morall vertues fitting for so high a calling and that in their writings they were the pen-men of God inspired by the holy Ghost but leauing them let vs descend a little lower in the Church of Christ. As then the three first Centuries are commended for Pietie Deuotion Martyrdome so is the fourth for learned and famous Diuines Habuit haec aetas si quae vnquam alia plurimos praestantes illustres Doctores say the Magdeburgians This age if euer any abounded in excellent and famous Doctours as namely Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius Athanasius Hilarius Victorinus Basilius Nazianzenus Ambrosius Prudentius Epiphanius Theophilus Hieronymus Faustinus Didymus Ephraim Optatus to which number they might well haue added for that hee began to shew his worth in the same Centurie that renowned pillar of trueth hammer of heresies S. Augustine These and the like great Diuines of those ages I much honour eorum nominibus semper assurgo I confesse I reuerence their very names yet most certaine it is they had all their slips and blemishes in matter of doctrine But before this age Tertullian and Origen and Cyprian are specially branded for notorious errours and Vincentius Liâ—…inensis giues this rare commendation of the Fathers assembled in the Councill of Nice that they were tantae eruditionis tantaeque doctrinae of so profound learning and singular knowledge vt propè omnes possent de dogmatibus disputare that almost all of them could reason of matters of faith Yet in those very times was the Church so rent and torne in sunder with Capitall heresies trenching vpon the very vitall parts and fundamentall principles of Christian Religion touching the sacred Trinitie and incarnation of our blessed Saviour vt illis temporibus ingeniosares fuit esse Christianum so as in those times it was a matter of wit to be a Christian Such were the nicities wherein their Teachers differed and such their subtilties they bound their schollers to maintaine But that which to mee seemeth most strange is that so many of them were infected with the errour of the Millenaries that so many specially of the Greeke Fathers held that the Angells were created long before the creation of the visible world that a number both of the Greeke and Latine maintained that the soules of men departed this life goe neither to heaven nor hell till the resurrection of the bodie but remained in certaine hidden receptacles they knew not whree that Antichrist was to come of the tribe of Dan that the sonnes of God who in the sixth of Genesis are said to haue fallen in loue with the daughters of men were the blessed Angells vpon which occasion Pererius a learned Iesuite hath these memorable words Pudet dicere quae de optimis Scriptoribus hoc loco dicturus sum I euen blush to vtter those things which heere I am to speake of most excellent writers they being not only false but absurd and shamefull vnworthy the wit learning of so famous men as also of the puritie and holynesse of the blessed Angells yet truth inforceth me to speake partly least
the body of him that should bee slaine None of the people might crye skrecke make any noice or giue any signe whatsoeuer And heerevnto at Hall in Suevia a place appointed for Campfight was so great regard taken that the Executioner stood beside the Iudges with an axe ready to cut off the right hand and left foot of the party so offending He that being wounded did yeeld himselfe was at the mercy of the other to be killed or let to liue if hee were slaine then was he carried away and honourably buried and hee that slew him reputed more honorable then before But if beeing ouercome he were left aliue then was hee by sentence of the Iudges declared vtterly voide of all honest reputation and neuer to ride on horsbacke nor to carry armes The tryall by red hot iron called Fire-Ordeall was vsed vpon accusations without manifest proofe though not without suspition that the accused might be faulty the party accused and denying the offence was adjudged to take red hot iron to hold it in his bare hand which after many prayers and invocations that the truth might be manifest hee must either adventure to doe or yeeld himselfe guilty and so receiue the punishment that the Law according to the offence committed should award him Some were adjudged to goe blinde-folded with their bare feete ouer certaine plow-shares which were made red hot laid a little distance one from another and if the party in passing thorow them did chaunce not to tread vpon them or treading vpon them receiued no harme then by the Iudge he was declared innocent And this kind of tryall was also practised here in England as was likewise the Camp-fight for a while vpon Emma the mother of K. Edward the Confessour who was accused of dishonesty of her body with Allwin B. of Winchester and being led blind-folded to the place where nine hot Culters were laid went forward with her bare feet and so passed ouer them and being past them all not knowing it good Lord said shee when shall I come to the place of my purgation then hauing her eyes vncovered and seeing her selfe to baue passed them she kneeling down gaue God thankes for manifesting her innocencie in her preservation in memoriall thereof gaue nine Lordships to the Church of Winchester and King Edward her sonne repenting he had so wrongfully brought his Mothers name into question bestowed likewise vpon the same Church the I le of Portland with other revenewes A much like tryall vnto this is recorded of Kunigund wife to the Emperour Henry the second who being falsely accused of adultery to shew her innocency did in a great honourable assembly take seaven glowen irons one after another in her bare hands had thereby no harme The tryall called Hot water Ordeall was in cases of accusation as is afore sayd the party accused being appointed by the Iudge to thrust his armes vp to the elbowes in seething hot water which after sundry prayers and invocations he did and was by the effect that followed judged faulty or faultles Lastly cold water Ordeall was the tryall which was ordinarily vsed for the common sort of people who hauing a cord tied about them vnder their armes were cast into some riuer and if they sunke down to the botttome thereof vntill they were drawne vp which was within a very short limited space then were they held guiltlesse but such as did remaine vpon the water were held culpable being as they sayd of the water rejected cast vp These kindes of impious vniust lawes the Saxons for a while after their Christianity continued but were at last by a decree of Pope Stephen the second vtterly abolished as being a presumptuous tempting of God without any grounded reason or sufficient warrant and an exposing many times of the innocent to manifest hazard CAP. 3. Touching the insufficiencie of the precepts of the Ancient Philosophers for the planting of vertue or the rooting out of vice as also of the common errour touching the golden age SECT 1. Touching the insufficiencie of the precepts of the ancient Philosophers for the planting of vertue and the rooting out of vice as also of the manners of the Ancients observed by Caelius secundus Curio out of Iuvenall and Tacitus TO these lawes of the Graecians and Germans may be added the opinions precepts of the Ancient Philosophers touching vertue and vice finall happinesse and the state of the soule after this life which were as diverse one to another as they were all erronious and opposite to the truth the growth of vertue or suppressing of vice What could possiblely ◅ore hinder the course of vertue then the doctrine of the Epicureans that soueraigne happinesse consisted in pleasure or more strengthen the current of vice then that of the Stoicks that all sins were equall The Epicureans though they graunted a God yet they denyed his prouidence which should serue as a spurre to vertue and a bridle to vice The Stoickes though they graunted a diuine providence yet withall they stiffely maintained such a fatall Necessity not only in the events of humane actions but in the actions themselues as thereby they blunted the edge of all vertuous endeauours and made an excuse for vicious courses Againe the Epicurean gaue too much way to irregular affections and on the other side the Stoicke was too professed an enimy to them though regulated by reason but both of them doubted if not denyed the immortality of the soule whereby they opened a wide gappe to all licentiousnesse not censureable by the lawes of man or which the executioners whereof either thorow ignorance could not or thorow feare or fauour would not take notice of Which hath often made mee wonder that the common-wealth of the Iewes would suffer such a pestilent sect in the bowels of it as the Sadduces who flatly denyed not only the resurrection of the body but the immortality of the soule Since then the Christian religion and that alone teacheth both as fundamentall articles of our beleife and withall a particular providence of God extending to the very thoughts and a particular judgement after this life rewarding every man according to that he hath done in the flesh whether it be good or euill and besides requires a reformation of the heart inward man the fountaine source of all outward actions speeches it is most euident that howsoeuer our liues bee yet our rules tend more to vertue and honesty then did those either of the Gentiles or of the Iewes who although they were not all infected with the foule leprosie of the Sadduces yet it is certaine that these doctrines and rules were not in the law of Moses the Prophets so cleerely deliuered as now they are by Christ his Apostles in the Gospell nay the law it selfe permitted vnto thē such a diuorce though for the hardnes of their hearts as is not now allowed And though the Law allowed not
of Apicius a famous belly-god may suffice to shew who â—…auing spent a million of Sesterces in his Kitchin sent going besides many great gifts of Princes and a mighty revenew of the Capitoll in riotous feasting and banqueting being deepe in debt he began at last though sore against his will to looke into his reckonings take an account of his estate found that all being cast vp he had yet left vnto himselfe cleare one hundred thousand Sesterces and therevpon velut in ultima same victurus veneno vitamfinivit as if hee should hauâ—… beene forced poore man to liue in a hunger-starved fashion he poysoned himselfe Quanta luxuria est cui sestertium centies egestas fuit how great was that Luxurie to which one hundred thousand Sesterces seemed poverty This notable vanity folly of Apicius the Epigrammatist most deservedly scoffes at Dederas Apici bis trecenties ventri Sed adhuc supererat centies tibi laxum Hoc tu gravatus ne famem sitim ferres Summa venenum potione duxisti Nil est Apici tibi gulosius factum Apicius thou didst on thy gut bestow Six hundred thousand yet when this was spent One hundred thousand stil remaind which thou Fearing to suffer thirst and famishment In poyson'd potion drankst Apicius Of all thy facts this was most gluttonous And no marveile Apicius should runne so farre vpon the score and consume such a masse of treasure by this meanes since it was vsuall to lavish out and devoure whole patrimonies at a sitting Vna comedunt patrimonia mensa Quid est coena sumptuosa flagitiosius equestrem censum consumente tricies tamen Sestertio adijciales coenae frugalissimis Viris constiterunt What is more â—…ewde saith Seneca then a sumptuous supper wasting a Knights revenewes yet it stands the most frugall commonly if it be solemne in three hundred thousand Sesterces And he that shall but look into their bils of fare and take a particular view of the number of their Courses at a feast of their dishes at a Course of the prises of their dishes together with their long often sittings will rather wonder that they spent so little then that they brought going so much SECT 3. Of their long and often sitting and vsuall practise of vomiting euen among their women as also of the number of their courses at a sitting together with the rarity and costlinesse of their severall services FOr their long sittings Suetonius reports of Tiberius that he spent a whole night two dayes out-right in nothing else but eating drinking Noctem continuumque biduum epulando potandoque consumpsit And of Nero Epulas è media die ad mediam noctem protrahebat he held out his feasts from noone day till midnight And of Vitellius for often sittings that he feasted vsually three times sometimes foure times a day euery sitting being valued at foure hundred thousand Sesterces facilè omnibus sufficiens vomitandi consuetudine being easily able to goe thorow them all by a continuall custome of vomiting which it seemes was among them a common practise Vomunt vt edant edunt vt vomant epulas quas toto orbe conquirunt nec oncoquere dignantur they vomit that they may eate and eate againe that they may vomit and those delicates which they hunt for thorow the world they vouchsafe not so much as to concoct nay the very women practised it aeque invitis ingesta visceribus per os reddunt vinum omne vomitu remittunt as well as men they eate against their stomaches that which they soon returne by their mouths and all their wine they quickly send backe by vomiting And from hence as I conceiue did they vsually rise from their great feasts so colourlesse and indispos'd Vides vt pallidus omnis Coena desurgat dubia quin corpus onustum Hesternis vitijs animum quoque praegravat vnà Atque affigit humo divinae particulam aurae Seest thou how pale they from their doubtfull supper rise The body furthermore surcharg'd with riotise Of yesterday weighs downe the soule and in the mire Of this base earth doth plunge the sparke of heav'nly fire The number of their Courses at a sitting were vsually seauen and that sometimes when they sate privately Quis fercula septem Secreto coenavit avus Which of our Auncesters vpon Seuen services did sup alone But that monster Heliogabalus had serued in at one feast two and twenty severall courses Exhibuit aliquando tale convivium vt haberet viginti dâ—…o fercula ingentium epularum he once made such a feast that hee had serued in two and twenty Courses all of the choisest fare For their variety of dishes we may partly guesse at them by that adventitious supper as Suetonius calls it which was made Vitellius by his brother in qua duo millia lectissimorum pisâ—…ium septem avium apposita traduntur in which are said to haue beene serued in two thousand of the choisest fish and seuen thousand fowle Now for the delicacie and prices of their dishes it certainely exceeded their variety and number they were farre fetcht and deare bought Quicquid mare aut terra aut etiam coelo gigneretur ad satiandam ingluviem suam natum existimans faucibus ac dentibus suis subdidit saith Macrobius of Anthony he devoured with his chaps and teeth whatsoeuer the Sea or Earth or Aire brought forth as if all had beene borne only to satisfie his luxury And Salust of Metellus Proconsull in Spaine Epulae verò exquisitissimae neque per omnem mudò provinciam sed trans maria ex Mauritania volucrum ferarum incognita antea plura genera His feasts were most exquisite not onely of all the dainties which were to bee had in those parts but many kindes of birdes and beasts before vnknowne in that Countrey were brought from beyond the Seas and out of Mauritania Quis ganeonum aut lâ—…conum possit vel ausit imitari Quis nostrum hodie aves aut feras trans mare coenae causâ conquirit Which of our thriftlesse Belly-gods can or dare imitate him which of vs now a dayes sends for birds or beasts beyond the Seas to make a Supper Yet was this practise among them no rare matter as may appeare by that of Petronius Arbiter Ingeniosa gula est siculo scaurus aequore mersus Ad mensam vivus deducitur inde Lucrinis Eruta littoribus vendunt conchylia coenis Vt renovent per damna famem jam phasidos vnda Orbata est avibus mutoque in littore tantum Solae desertis aspirant frondibus aurae The throat is witty thence the Guilthead that doth cliue Sicilian sea is brought vnto the board aliue Shelfish they sell that in the lake of Lucrin grew To sup on by their losse their hunger to renew The bankes of Phasis now are dumbe the birds are gone And on forsaken boughs now breathes
in one of his Sermons of the last Iudgment brings in this glorious Iudge thus expostulating the matter with these miscreants at that Day O man with mine owne handes did I fashion thee out of the slime of the earth into thy earthly members did I infuse a spirit I vouchsafed to bestow vpon thee mine own Image I placed thee among the delights of Paradise but thou contemning the vitall efficacy of my Commandements choosedst rather to listen to the tempter then thy God And when being expelled out of Paradise by reason of sin thou wert held in the chaines of death I was inclosed in the Virgins wombe I was layde in the cratch I was wrapped in swathing cloathes I endured the scorne of infancy the griefe of manhood that so being like vnto thee I might make thee like vnto my selfe I bore the buffetings spittings of scorners I dranke vineger mixed with gall I was scourged with whippes crowned with thornes nayled to the crosse gored with a speare that thou mightest be freed from death in torments I parted with my life Looke vpon the print of the nayles behold the skarres of my wounds I took vpon me thine infirmities that I might impart vnto thee my glory I vnderwent the death due to thee that thou mightst liue for euer I was buried in a sepulchre that thou mightest raigne in Heauen Why hast thou wilfully lost that which I by my sufferings purchased for thee Why hast thou spurned at the gratious gift of thy Redemption I complaine not of my death only render vnto me that life for which I gaue mine Render me that life which by the wounds of thy sinnes thou dayly killest Why hast thou polluted with more then beastly sensuality that Temple which in thee I consecrated to my selfe Why hast thou stained my body with filthy provocations Why hast thou tormented me with a more grievous crosse of thy sinnes then that vpon which I sometimes hung for the crosse of thy sinnes is more grievous in as much as vnwillingly I hang vpon it then that other which taking pity vpon thee to kill thy death I willingly mounted I being impassible in my selfe vouchsafed to suffer for thee but thou hast despised God in man salvation in mine infirmity pardon from thy Iudge life from my crosse and wholesome medicine from my sufferings Now what flinty or steely heart in the world could choose but resolue it selfe into teares of bloud vpon such an expostulation were it moistned with any drop of grace But heerevnto might be added that thou hast often joyned with his enemies against him turned the deafe eare to the ministery of his Word jested at his threatnings neglected his gratious invitations quenched his holy inspirations abused his Sacraments his patience which being long abused at length is turned into fury This Lambe of God therefore shall then shew himselfe as a Lyon he shall then put on righteousnesse for a brest-plate take true judgment in steed of an helmet then shal he put on the garments of vengeance for cloathing be clad with zeale as with a cloake Then shall hee come in strength as a storme of haile as a whirlewinde breaking and throwing downe whatsoeuer standeth in his way as a rage of many waters that flow and rush together The mountaines shall melt fly away at his presence a burning fire shall run before him and on euery side of him a violent tempest And if Felix himselfe a Iudge trembled to heare Paul who as a prisoner was arraigned before him disputing of this Last Iudgment how shall the guilty prisoners tremble before the face of this Iudge being both the Iudge and the party offended If the Iewes who came to attach him fell backward at the hearing of his voyce in the dayes of his humility how shal the wicked stand amazed confounded at his presence when he comes to judge them in glory Maiesty Surely for them to endure the fiercenes of his angry countenance wil be intollerable and yet to fly from it impossible the more intollerable will it be in regard of the nature and number of their accusers SECT 3. Of the nature and number of their accusers THe Creatures shall accuse them whom they haue abused to vanity to luxury to drunkennesse to gluttony to covetousnesse to ambition to revenge and being then freed from their bondage they shall freely cōplain of this vnjust vsurpation Good men shall accuse them as having bin most disdainfully scorned wronged oppressed and troden vnder-foot by them Their Companions shall accuse them as having beene drawne into sin by their wicked intisements and examples Their Teachers and Gouernours shall accuse them as hauing beene irreverent toward their persons rebellious against their instructions and commaunds Their Children and Servants shall accuse them as hauing beene negligent in their education in vertue and piety The Prophets and Apostles shall accuse them as hauing beene carelesse in the observation of their writings The good Angels shall accuse them whose directions they haue refused to follow The Divels shall accuse them in that they haue betrayed their Lord and Captaine to march vnder their banners Their owne Consciences shall bitterly accuse vpbraid them the body shall accuse the soule as being the principall agent and the soule the body as being a ready instrument The appetite shall accuse reason as being too sensuall indulgent reason the appetite as being irregular inordinate all the faculties of the Soule all the senses members of the body shall accuse each other nay which is worst of all the Iudge himselfe shal be thy accuser representing those transgressions to thy memory laying them close to thy charge which either thou hadst forgotten cast behinde thee or didst perchaunce not know or not acknowledge to be sinnes Sweet IESVS which way will the poore Sinner turne himselfe in the midst of all these accusers accusations To confesse thē then will serue but to increase his shame to deny them but to aggravate his fault consequently his punishment nay deny them hee cannot being convinced by two euidences against which there can bee no exception the booke of the Law the booke of his owne Conscience the one shall shew him what he should haue done the other what hee hath done against the booke of the Law hee shal be able to speake nothing his Conscience telling him that the commaundements of the Lord are pure and righteous altogether and for the booke of Conscience against that he cannot possibly except it being alway in his owne keeping so as it could not be falsified whatsoeuer shall then be found written therein he shal freely acknowledge to haue beene written with his owne hand Silence then shall be his safest plea and astonishment his best Apologie The rather for that all these accusations shal be brought in and layde against him in the presence of the blessed Saints and glorious Angels which shall then
considering that with thee is the well of life in thy presence is the fulnes of joy and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore By parting from thee then wee part from the blisfull vision of the face of God from the fruition of the happy fellowship of the holy Angels and society of Saints and consequently from happinesse it selfe What remaines then but that parting from happinesse wee should indeede become most miserable and accursed Caitifs Depart from me yee Cursed Men sometimes curse where God blesses and blesse where God curses They can only pronounce a man cursed they cannot make him so but heere it is otherwise for with this powerfull and righteous Iudge to pronounce is to make when he cursed the figge tree it instantly withered And as these impenitent Sinners loved cursing so shall it come vnto them and as they loved not blessing so shall it be farre from them As they cloathed themselues with cursing like a rayment so shall it come into their bowels like water and like oyle into their bones it shall be vnto them as a garment to cover them and for a girdle wherewith they shall be alway girded Cursed shall be the day of their conception cursed the day of their birth Cursed they shall be in their soules and cursed in their bodies Cursed in their thoughts and cursed in their desires cursed in their speeches and cursed in their actions Cursed in the haynousnes of their sinne and cursed in the grievousnesse of their punishment cursed in their punishment of losse for their aversion from the Creator Depart from me and cursed in their punishment of sense for their conversion to the Creature Depart from me into everlasting Fire Of all the Creatures appointed by Almighty God to be instruments for the execution of his vengeance water and fire are noted to haue the least mercy And therefore with fire brimstone consumed he the filthy Sodomites a type of this hellish fire as Sodome was of hell it selfe If creating an element heere for our comfort I meane the fire he made the same so insufferable as it is in such sort as a man would not hold his onely hand therein one day to gaine a kingdome what a fire thinke you hath he provided for hell which is not created for comfort but only for torment Our fire hath many differences from that and therefore is truly sayd of the holy Fathers to be but as a painted or fained fire in respect of that For first our fire was made to comfort as I haue sayd and that only to afflict and torment Our fire hath need to be fed continually with wood and fewell or else it goeth out that burneth eternally without feeding and is vnquenchable for that the breath of the Lords owne mouth doth blowe and nourish it Our fire worketh only vpon the body immediatly vpon the soule being a spirit it cannot worke that worketh vpon the soule separated from the bodie as it likewise doth vpon the Apostate Angells and vpon both soule and bodie rejoyned Our fire giveth light which of it selfe is comfortable that admitteth none but is full of dismall darkenesse Our fire may be extinguished or the rage of it abated with water that cannot Ours breedeth weeping that not only weeping but gnashing of teeth the ordinary effect of cold Such a strange and incredible fire it is that it implies contraries and so terrible is this Iudge to his enimies that he hath devised a wonderfull way how to torment them with burning heate and chilling cold both at once Lastly our fire consumeth the food that is cast into it and thereby in short space dispatcheth the paines whereas that afflicteth tormenteth but consumeth not to the end the paines may be Everlasting as is the fire O deadly life O immortall death what shall I tearme thee Life and wherefore then dost thou kill Death and wherefore then dost thou endure There is neither Life nor Death but hath something good in it For in life there is some ease and in death an end but thou hast neither ease nor end What shall I tearme thee even the bitternesse of both For of death thou hast torment without any end and of life the continuance without any ease so long as God shall liue so long shall the damned die and when he shall cease to be happy then shall they also cease to be miserable A starre which is farre greater then the earth appeareth to be a small spot in comparison of the heavens much lesse shall the age of man seeme yea much lesse the age and continuance of the whole world in regard of this perpetuity of paines The least moment of time if it be compared with tenne thousand millions of yeares because both tearmes are finite and the one a part of the other beareth although a very small yet some proportion but this or any other number of yeares in respect of endlesse eternity is nothing lesse then just nothing For all things that are finite may bee compared together but betweene that which is finite and that which is infinite there standeth no comparison O sayth one holy Father in a godly meditation if a sinner damned in hell did know that hee had to suffer those torments no more thousand yeares then there be sands in the sea or grasse leaues on the ground or no more thousand millions of ages then there be Creatures in heaven hell and in earth he would greatly rejoyce for that he would comfort himselfe at the leastwise with this cogitation that once yet the matter would haue an end But now sayth this good man this word never breaketh his heart considering that after an hundred thousand millions of worlds if there might be so many he hath as farre to his journeyes end as hee had the first day of his entrance into those torments And surely if a man that is sharpely pinched with the goute or the stone or but with thetoothach and that they hold him but by fits giving him some respite betweene-whiles notwithstanding doe thinke one night exceeding long although he lie in a soft bed well applied cared for how tedious doe wee thinke eternity will seeme to those that shall be vniuersally in all their parts continually without intermission perpetually without end or hope of end schorched in those hellish flames which besides that they are everlasting haue this likewise added that they are prepared for the Devill and his Angells Prepared by whom surely by the Iudge himselfe who giues the sentence Now if but mortall Iudges should set and search their wits to devise prepare a punishment for some notorious malefactour what grievous tortures doe they often finde out able to make a man tremble at the very mentioning of them what kinde of punishment then shall wee conceiue this to be which this immortall King of Heauen Earth this Iudge both of the quick dead hath prepared Surely his invention this way is as farre beyond the reach
they may apparell their wals and to snatch their meate from their mouthes that they may giue it to their hawkes and dogges For if they shall stand among the goates on the left hand and heare that dolefull sentence Goe y◅ cursed who cloathed not the naked and fed not the hungry tell me what shall become of them who by extortion and oppression by vnconscionable racking of rents and wresting from them excessiue fines make them naked hunger-starved nay grinde the face of the poore and eate their flesh to the bare bones Let the Iudges shew that they beleeue it by forbearing to giue sentence for feare or favour much lesse for gold or gifts as well knowing remembring that themselues must one day giue a strict account to this supreame Iudge from whose sentence lyeth no appeale Let the Lawyer shew that he beleeues it by forbearing to spin out the suites of his Clients to whip him about from Court to Court and to set his tongue to sale for the bolstering out of vnjust causes which his owne Conscience tells him to be such least that cause which here perchance he gained to his Client and got credit by proue there to be his greatest shame and vtter ruine where all his sophistrie subtile quirks will not serue his turne Let the merchant shew that he beleeues it by for bearing lies aswel as oathes by putting his confidence in God not in his wedge of gold and by often calling to minde that whither soever he trauell or what bargaine soeuer he make Hee stands by him as a witnes who shall hereafter be his Iudge And what folly were it for a theefe to steale in the presence of the Iudge before whom he must be arraigned Let the Farmer and Countryman shew that he beleeues it by their just laying out of the Lords portions to his Ministers as knowing that though they haply deceiue his Ministers yet the Lord himself they cannot deceiue that the double damages thē of their bodies souls wil be infinitly more grievous thē their treble damages here Finally let all sorts make it appeare that they indeed doe not professe it only but beleeue it by shewing that reverence respect to the word to the Sacraments to the Ambassadours to the house to the day to the servants to the members of him who then shall be the reiudge that they may with comfort confidence appeare in his presence The least good worke now done for his sake and to his honour shall then steed vs more then the treasure of both the Indies then all the kingdomes of the world the glory of them Then our indignation revenge vpon our selues our compunction and contrition for our sins committed against this Iudge shall refresh vs and cheare vs. For if we would iudge our selues we should not be iudged Then shall our resisting of alluring temptations our patient induring bitter afflictions chastisements our sufferings losses disgraces banishments for the Truths sake serue vnto vs as so many soveraigne and pretious Cordials for when we are iudged we are chastened of the Lord because we should not be condēned with the world Let vs heare the end of all Feare God and keepe his commaundements for this is the whole duty of man For God will bring euery worke vnto iudgment with euery secret thing whether it be good or euill Euen so come Lord Iesus come quickly How long Lord how long holy and true Not vnto vs O Lord not vnto vs but vnto thy name giue the glory BOETHIVS lib. 1 metr 7. Tu quoque si vis Lumine claro cernere verum Tramite recto carpere coelum Gaudia pelle pelle timorem Spemque fugato Nec dolor adsit Nubila mens est Vinctaque frenis Haec vbi regnant If with cleare eye thou wilt see Truth and in the right way tread Ioy and hope chase farre from thee Banish sorrow banish dread Cloudy fettered fast with chaines Is the minde where passion raigne Whatsoeuer I haue written in this or any other booke I humbly submit to the censure of the Church of England FINIS A REVISE WHen my booke was almost past the presse I met with one Iohannes Fredericus L◅nius a Netherlander de extremo dei judicio Indorum vocatione who lib. 2. cap. 19. indevouring to proue the vicinity of the last judgement by the worlds decay makes this a maine argument thereof Constat saith he illos qui supra annos viginti prodierunt in lucem non pauciores habuisse dentes quam 32 cum iam in eis qui infra decennium nati sunt non nisi 20 aut 24 inveniantur A bold assertion of a graue divine that man kind should so speedily decrease as in the compasse of tenne yeares to loose 12 or 8 teeth of 32 and his booke being printed in the yeare 1567 had the like measure of decay gone on in proportion since that time no man long before this day should haue had a tooth left in his head to chew his meate But I wonder he durst so confidently publish that to the world which daily experience and the writings of moderne Anatomists so evidently convince of falshood and in truth I thinke there cannot lightly a better argument be brought for the confirmation of the contrary opinion against himselfe in that point in asmuch as according to Hippocrates longaevi plurimos dentes habent and Aristotle quibus pauciores rariores hi brevioris sunt vitae so that the full number being a signe of longaevity and that of naturall strength if it appeare as vndoubtedly it doth that men now adayes haue ordinarily the same number of teeth as anciently they had then must it consequently follow that likewise ordinarily they are as strong and long-lived as anciently they were yet heerein are we beholding to the same Authour that what he takes from the age and strength of men he addes to their wits Sed quod humanorum corporum decedit conditionibus hoc ingenijs accedit quod de membrorum robore perit hoc accumulatur intellectus acumine sagacitate Pag. 45. is a great mistake about a pound of bloud being printed for almost halfe a pound of bloud notwithstanding which abatement yet is the proportion there mentioned altogether incredible for if Galen vsually drew six pounds of bloud and we vsually stoppe at six ouuces as Sir Walter Rawleigh would haue it and we allow for every pound twelue ounces then in reason should men in Galens time bee ordinarily twelue times as strong and tall as now they are so that if men be now ordinarily fiue foote high they must then haue bin three score and allowing the like proportionable decrease since the Creation in the like distance of time before Galen they must haue beene aboue seaven hundred foote high and if we should thus rise vpward to the Creation it selfe wee must then measure men by miles and not by feet which I wonder the great wit of Sir
but finding the boate charged with Flemings yeelded themselues and the place Lastly for Sea-fight this age vndoubtedly surpasseth the Ancient theirs being but boyes play in comparison of ours What poore things were their Gallies to our ships their pikes and stone-bowes slings to our Canon musket-shot how vntowardly the managing of their vessels in regard of that skill which latter ages haue found out practised And heerein I dare match our owne Nation if perchaunce the Hollander haue not gotten the start of vs with any in the world only it were to be wished that some worthy pen would vndertake the reducing of these kindes of fights into an Art as many haue done the land-seruice by setting downe rules and precepts for it gathered out of obseruation Sir Richard Hawkins hath done somewhat in this kinde but brokenly and glancingly intending chiefely a discourse of his owne voyages Sir Walter Rawleigh tels vs in his history of the world that himselfe had entred vpon such a worke at the commaund of Prince Henry but vpon his death put it by The intendment was noble and the writer doubtles very able so as it were to be wished that those peeces fragments which he left behind him touching that subiect were sought vp brought to light that they might serue if not for sufficient directions in matter of practise yet for patterns delineations to such as would farther advance perfect so worthy a businesse there being no one thing as I conceiue which can be more important for the state or more concerne the safety and wellfare of this Iland CAP. 9. Touching Grammar Rhetorique Logicke the Mathematiques Philosop by Architecture the Arts of Painting and Navigation SEC 1. Touching Grammar Rhetorique and Logicke BVt leauing these considerations to Souldiers let vs returne to our owne Element taking a view of the liberall sciences among which Grammar deseruedly challenges the first ranke as being indeede the key that opens the doore to the rest This latter age hath heerein excelled so farre that all the great learned Schollers who haue of late risen specially if they adhered to the reformed Churches haue beene by the Fryers such like people in a kind of scorne tearmed Grammarians But these Grammarians are they who by the helpe of Phylologie the languages haue discouered so many forgeries supposititious writings now by all acknowledged so to be which before passed as currant aswell in the workes of the Fathers of the Church as prophane Authours These are they who haue presented vs with so many exact Translations out of Greeke Hebrew into Latine and againe out of Latine into other languages And howsoeuer Albericus Gentilis some others haue written in defence of the Latinity of that translation of the Bible which goes vnder the name of the Vulgar yet can it not be denyed but it is justly accused of much incongruity barbarisme which by latter Translations haue beene reformed These are they who haue vindicated infinite Authours from a number of foule corruptions which by tract of time had crept vpon them thorow the ignorance or negligence of Transcribers or Printers or both So that they haue herein in a manner restored the Authours to themselues making them speake in their owne words sence and besides by annotations animadversions commentaries expositions by the search helpe of coynes old Epitaphs inscriptions such like remainders of Antiquity haue further added a marveilous great light vnto them In the next place Rhetorique presents it selfe which in trueth was brought to the height amongst the Graecians Romans specially whiles their states remained popular But in the generall declination decay of Arts which followed after this likewise was well neere extinguished that little life of it which remained being reserued onely in the predicancie of Postillers or the patheticall sermons of Fryers till Sadoletus Bembus Muretus others reuiued reduced it to its auncient lustre Logicke indeed is it wherein we are thought to be most defectiue in regard of former ages and it is true that the Schoole-men had set their stocke the vtmost of their endeavours vpon this part of learning their whole life being in a manner little else but a perpetuall wrangling and altercation that many times rather for victory ostentation of wit then a sober serious search of truth so as their entrance being vaine their end was likewise fruitlesse What huge volumes haue they compiled of the Predicables Predicaments as if in them consisted the very spirit soule of Logicke whereas in truth they are rather an Appendix or preparatiue vnto it then part of it By which meanes they kept men so long in the porch that they entred not into the house till it was more then time to goe out of it Latter ages finding this intollerable inconvenience haue well compacted the body of this Art into a lesser compasse yet so as Aristotles Text is not to be neglected and to this body haue they not improperly added the doctrine of Methods as a necessary limbe thereof whereas we doe not find that anciently it was so held either by the Founders or principall Masters of this science or at leastwise they haue left vs no sufficient Rules and precepts touching this most vsefull part Euen Hooker himselfe though otherwise no friend to Ramystry acknowledgeth that it is of marvellous quicke dispatch shewing them that haue it as much almost in three dayes as if it dwelt three score yeares with them and againe that the mind of man is thereby restrained which through curiositie doth many times with perill wade farther in the search of truth then were convenient And for Raymundus Lullius a man it seemes of a strong braine some great wits are of opinion that by his ars breuis greater matters may in the sciences be more speedily effected then by any helpes of the ancients that went before him SECT 2. Touching Astronomie and Geometrie as also the Physicks and Metaphysicks FOr the Mathematiques Regio-Montanus might in Ramus his iudgement safely enough compare with the best of the Ancients Noriberga tum Regiomontano fruebatur Mathematici inde studij operis gloriam tantam adepta vt Tarentum Archyta Syracusae Archimedi Bizantium Proclo Alexandria Ctesybio non justius quam Noriberga Regio-Montano gloriari possit Then did Norinberg injoy Regio-Montanus and from thence purchased so great honour both of the study practice of the Mathematiques that Tarentum could not more justly glory in Archytas nor Syracuse in Archimedes nor Bizantium in Proclus nor Alexandria in Ctesybius then might Norinberg in Regio-Montanus I will onely touch the two most noble parts thereof Astronomy Geometry It was the opinion of the greatest part of the Ancients not only Grecians Egyptians Arabians Hebrewes but many Doctours of the Christian Church as appeares by Espencaeus in his Treatise de Coelorum animatione that the Heavens or at least the stars were liuing bodies informed with
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