Spirat florifer annus odores Aestas Cererem fervida siccat Remeat pomis gravis autumnus Hyemem defluus irrigat imber Haec temperies alit profert Quicquid vitam spirat in orbe Eadem rapiens condit aufert Obitu meâ—…gens orta supremo The concord tempers equally Contrary Elements That moist things yeeld vnto the dry And heat with cold consents Hence fire to highest place doth flie And Earth doth downward bend And flowrie Spring perpetually Sweet odours forth doth send Hote Summer harvest giues and store Of fruit Autumnus yeelds And showres which down from Heau'n doe powre Each Winter drowne the fields What euer in the world doth breath This temper forth hath brought And nourished the same by death Againe it brings to nought Among the subcoelestiall bodies following Natures methode I will first begin with the consideration of the Elements the most simple and vniversall of them all as being the Ingredients of all mixt bodies either in whole or in part and into which the mixt are finally resolued again are again by turnes remade of them the common matter of them all still abiding the same Heere 's nothing constant nothing still doth stay For birth and death haue still successiue sway Here one thing springs not till another dye Onely the matter liues immortally Th'Almightie's table body of this All Of changefull chances common Arcenall All like it selfe all in it selfe contained Which by times flight hath neither lost nor gained Changelesse in essence changeable in face Much more then Proteus or the subtill race Of roving Polypes who to rob the more Transforme them hourely on the wauing shore Much like the French or like our selues their apes Who with strange habit doe disguise their shapes Who louing novels full of affectation Receiue the manners of each other Nation By consent of Antiquity they are in number foure the Fire the Aire the Water and the Earth Quatuor aeternus genitalia corpora mundus Continet ex illis duo sunt onerosa suoque Pondere in inferius tellus atque vnda feruntur Et totidem gravitate carent nulloque premente Alta petunt aer atque aere purior ignis Quae quamquam spatio distant tamen omnia fiunt Et ipsis in ipsa cadunt Foure bodies primitiue the world still containes Of which two downeward bend the earth and watery plaines As many weight doe want and nothing forcing higher They mount th' aire and purer streames of fire Which though they distant bee yet all things from them take Their birth and into them their last returnes doe make Three of them shew themselues manifestly in mixt the butter beeing the Aieriall part thereof the whey the watery and the cheese the earthly but all foure in the burning of greene wood the flame being fire the smoke the aire the liquor distilling at the ends the water and the ashes the earth Philosophy likewise by reason teaches and proues the same from their motion vpward and downeward from their second qualities of lightnes and heauines and from their first qualities either actiue as heat and cold or passiue as dry and moist For as their motion proceeds from their second qualities so doe their second from the first their first from the heauenly bodies next to which as being the noblest of them all as well in puritie as activity is seated the Element of the fire though many of the Ancients and some latter writers as namely Cardane among the rest seeme to make a doubt of it Ignis ad aethereas volucer se sustulit aur as Summaque complexus stellantis culmina Coeli Flammarum vallo naturae moenia fecit The fire eftsoones vp towards heaven did stie And compassing the starrie world advanced A wall of flames to safeguard nature by Next the fire is seated the aire divided into three regions next the aire the water and next the water the earth Who so sometime hath seene rich Ingots tride When forc't by fire their treasure they devide How faire and softly gold to gold doth passe Silver seekes silver brasse consorts with brasse And the whole lumpe of parts vnequall severs It selfe apart in white red yellow rivers May vnderstand how when the mouth divine Op'ned to each his proper place t'assigne Fire flew to fire water to water slid Aire clung to aire and earth with earth abid The vaile both of the Tabernacle and Temple were made of blew and purple and scarlet or crimson and fine twisted linnen by which foure as Iosephus noteth were represented the foure elements his wordes are these Velum hoc erat Babylonium variegatum ex hyaâ—…intho bysso coccoque purpura mirabiliter elaboratum non indignam contemplatione materiae commistionem habens sed velut omnium imaginem praeferens Cocco enim videbatur ignem imitari bysso terram hyacintho aerem ac mare purpura partim quidem coloribus bysso autem purpura origine bysso quidem quia de terra mare autem purpuram gignit The vaile was Babylonish worke most artificially imbrodered with blue and fine linnen and scarlet and purple hauing in it a mixture of things not vnworthy our consideration but carrying a kinde of resemblance of the Vniversall for by the scarlet seemed the fire to be represented by the linnen the earth by the blew the aire and by the purple the sea partly by reason of the colours of scarlet and blue and partly by reason of the originall of linnen and purple the one comming from the earth the other from the sea And S. Hierome in his epistle to Fabiola hath the very same conceite borrowed as it seemes from Iosephus or from Philo who hath much to like purpose in his third booke of the life of Moses or it may be from that in the eighteenth of the booke of Wisedome In the long robe was the whole world As not only the vulgar lattin and Arias Montanus but out of them and the Greeke originall our last English Translation reades it The fire is dry and hot the aire hot and moist the water moist and cold the earth cold and dry thus are they linked and thus embrace they one another with their symbolizing qualities the earth being linked to the water by coldnes the water to the aire by moistnes the aire to the fire by warmth the fire to the earth by drought which are all the combinations of the qualities that possiblely can bee hot cold as also dry and moist in the highest degrees beeing altogether incompatible in the same subject And though the earth the fire bee most opposite in distance in substance in activity yet they agree in one quality the two middle being therein directly contrary to the two extreames aire to earth and water to fire Water as arm'd with moisture and with cold The cold-dry earth with her one hand doth hold With th' other th' aire The aire as moist and warme Holds fire
ingenia despicio neque enim quasi lassa aut effaeta natura vt nihil jam laudabile pariat I am one of the number of those who admire the ancients yet not as some doe I despise the wits of our times as if Nature were tired and barren and brought forth nothing now that were praise-worthy To which passage of Pliny Viues seemes to allude male de natura censet quicunque vno illam aut altero partu effaetam arbitratur hee that so thinkes or sayes is doubtles injurious and ingratefull both to God and nature And qui non est gratus datis non est dignus dandis hee that doth not acknowledge the peculiar and singular blessings of God bestowed vpon this present age in some things beyond the former is so farre from meriting the increase of more as hee deserues not to enjoy these And commonly it falls out that there the course and descent of the graces of God ceases and the spring is dried vp where there is not a corespondent recourse and tide of our thankfullnes Let then men suspend their rash judgoments nec perseverent suspicere preteritos despicere presentes onely to admire the ancients and despise those of the present times Let them rather imitate Lampridius the Oratour of whom witnesseth the same Sydonius that he read good Authours of all kindes cum reverentia antiquos sine invidia recentes the old with reverence the new without envy I will conclude this point and this chapter with that of Solomon Hee hath made every thing beautifull in his time answereable wherevnto is that of the sonne of Syrach which may well serue as a Commentary vpon those workes of Solomon All the workes of the Lord are good and hee will giue every needfull thing in due season so that a man cannot say this is worse then that therefore prayse ye◅ the Lord with the whole heart and mouth and blesse the name of the Lord. CAP. 3. The Controversy touching the worlds decay stated and the methode held thorow this ensuing Treatise proposed SECT 1. Touching the pretended decay of the mixt bodies LEast I should seeme on the one side to sight with shaddowes and men of straw made by my selfe or on the other to maintaine paradoxes which daily experience refutes it shall not bee amisse in this Chapter to vnbowell the state of the question touching the Worlds decay and therewithall to vnfold and lay open the severall knots and joynts thereof that so it may appeare wherein the adverse party agrees and wherein the poynt controverted consists where they joyne issue and where the difference rests It is then agreed on all hands that all subcoelestiall bodies indiuidualls I meane vnder the circle of the moone are subiect not onely to alteration but to diminution and decay some I confesse last long as the Eagle and Rauen among birds the Elephant and Stagge among beasts the Oake among Vegetables stones and mettalls among those treasures which Nature hath laid vp in the bosome of the earth yet they all haue a time of groweth and increase of ripenesse and perfection and then of declination and decrease which brings them at last to a finall and totall dissolution Beasts are subject to diseases or at least to the spending of those naturall spirits wherewith their life and being as the Lampe with oile is mainetai ned Vegetables to rottennesse stones to mouldering and mettalls to rust and canker though I doubt not but some haue layen in the bowells of the earth vntainted since the worlds Creation and may continue in the same case till the Consummation thereof Which neede not seeme strange since some of the Aegyptian Pyramides stones drawne from their naturall beds and fortresses and exposed to the invasion of the aire and violence of the weather haue stood already well nigh three thousand yeares and might for ought wee know stand yet as long againe And I make no question but glasse and gold and christall and pearle and pretious stones might so be vsed that they should last many thousand yeares if the world should last so long For that which Poets faine of time that it eates out and devoures all things is in truth but a poeticall fiction since time is a branch of Quantity it being the measure of motion and Quantity in it selfe isno way actiue but meerely passiue as being an accident flowing from the matter It is then either some inward conflict or outward assault which is wrought in time that eates them out Time it selfe without these is toothlesse and can neuer doe it Nay euen among Vegetables it is reported by M. Camden that whole trees lying vnder the Earth haue beene and daylie are digged vp in Cheshire Lancheshire Cumberland which are thought to haue layen there since Noahs floud And Verstigan reports the like of finre trees digged vp in the Netherlands which are not knowne to grow any where in that Countrey neither is the soyle apt by nature to produce them they growing in cold hillie places or vpon high mountaines so that it is most likely they might from those places during the deluge by the rage of the waters be driuen thither Yet all these consisting of the Elements as they doe I make no doubt but without any outward violence in the course of nature by the very inward conflict of their principles whereof they are bred would by degrees though perchance for a long time insensibly yet at last feele corruption For a Body so equally tempered or euenly ballanced by the Elements that there should be no praedominancie no struggling or wrastling in it may be imagined but surely I thinke was neuer really subsisting in Nature nor well can be SECT 2. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in regard of their quantity and dimensions I Come then in the next place from the mixt Bodies to the Elements themselues wbereof they are mixed Of these it is certaine that they decay in their parts but so as by a reciprocall compensation they both loose and gaine sometime loosing what they had gotten and then again getting what they had formerly lost Egregia quaedam est in elementis quaternarum virium compensatio aequalibus iustisque regulis ac terminis vices suas dispensantium saith Philo in his book de Mundi incorruptibilitate there is in the Elements a singular retribution of that foure-fold force that is in them dispensing it selfe by euen bounds and just rules The Element of the fire I make no doubt but by condensation it sometimes looses to the aire the aire againe by rarefaction to it Again the aire by condensation looses to the water the water by rarefaction to it The earth by secret conveyances sucks in steales away the waters of the Sea but returns them againe with full mouth And these two incroach likewise make inrodes interchangeably each vpō other The ordinary depth of the sea is cōmonly answerable to the ordinary hight of the
defluat amnis at iste Labitur labetur in omne volubilis aevum The Clowne waites till the foord be slidden all away But still it slides and will for euer and a day SECT 3. Touching the pretended decay of the Elements in regard of their qualities THere is no feare then of the naturall decay of the Elements in regard of their quantity and dimensions all the controversie is in regard of their quality whether the aire and water be so pure and wholsome and the earth so fertile and fruitfull as it was some hundreths or thousands of yeares since Touching the former I thinke I shall make it appeare that the World in former ages hath beene plagued with more droughts excessiue raines windes frosts snowes hailes famines earthquakes pestilences and other contagious diseases then in latter times all which should argue a greater distemper in the Elements and for the fruitfulnesse of the earth I will not compare the present with that before the fall or before the floud I know and beleeue that the one drew on a curse vpon it though some great Divines hold that curse was rather in regard of mans ensuing labour in dressing it then of the Earths ensuing barrennesse and the other by washing away the surface and fatnesse thereof and by incorporating the salt waters into it much abated the natiue and originall fertility thereof and consequently the vigour and vertue of plants as well in regard of nourishment as medicine Upon which occasion it seemes after the Floud man had leaue giuen him to feede vpon the flesh of beasts and fowles and fishes which before the floud was not lawfull Neither can it be denied that Gods extraordinary fauour or curse vpon a land beside the course of Nature makes it either fruitfull or barren A fruitfull land maketh hee barren saith the Psalmist for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein And on the other side he turneth the wildernes into a standing water and dry ground into water springs And for grounds which are continually rent wounded with the plowshare worne and wasted with tillage it is not to be wondered if they answere not the fertility of former ages But for such as haue time and rest giuen to recouer their strength and renew their decayed forces or such as yet retaine their virginity without any force offered vnto them I doubt not but experience and tryall will make it good that they haue lost nothing of their primitiue goodnesse at leastwise since the floud and consequently that there is in the earth it selfe by long-lasting no such perpetuall and vniversall decay in regard of the fruitfullnesse thereof as is commonly imagined And if not in the earth it selfe then surely not in the trees and hearbs and plants and flowers which suck their nourishment from thence as so many infants from their mothers breast Let any one kind of them that ever was in any part of the world since the Creation be named that is vtterly lost no God and Nature haue so well provided against this that one seede sometimes multiplies in one yeare many thousands of the same kind Let it be proued by comparing their present qualities with those which are recorded in ancient writers that in the revolution of so many ages they haue lost any thing of their wonted colour their smell their tast their vertue their proportion their duration And if there be no such decay as is supposed to be found in the severall kindes of vegetables what reason haue wee to beleeue it in beasts specially those that make vegetables their food If Aristotle were now aliue should he need to compose some new treatise De historia Animalium in those things where he wrote vpon certaine groundes and experimentall observations haue the beasts of which he wrote any thing altered their dispositions Are the wild become tame or the strong feeble no certainely It was true in all ages both before and since which the Poet hath Fortes creantur fortibus bonis Est in juvencis est in equis patrum Virtus nec imbellem feroces Progenerant aquilae Columbam From nobles noble spirits proceed Steeres Horses like their Sires do proue The Eagle feirce doth never breed A timerous and fearefull Doue Hath the Lyon forgotten his Majestie or the Elephant his sagacity or the Tyger his fiercenesse or the Stagge his swiftnesse or the Dogge his fidelitie or the Foxe his wilinesse were the Oxen then of the same Countrey stronger for labour the horses better featured or more serviceable then now doubtlesse these lessons as their Mistresse cannot but teach them so these schollers cannot but learne them neither is it in their power to forget them SECT 4. Touching the pretended decay of mankind in regard of manners and the arts WIth man it is otherwise for he hauing a free will at leastwise in morall and naturall actions by reason of that liberty varieth both from his kind and from himselfe more then any other creature besides And hence is it other circumstances concurring that in the same countrey men are sometimes generally addicted to vertue sometimes to vice sometimes to one vice sometimes to another sometimes to civillity sometimes to barbarisme sometimes to studiousnesse learning sometimes to ease and ignorance sometimes they are taller of stature sometimes lower lastly sometimes longer sometimes shorter liued ct this I say ariseth partly from the Libertie of mans will partly from Gods providence ouerruling disposing all things according to the secret counsell of his owne vnsearchable wisdome Signat tempora proprijs Aptans officijs Deus Nec quas ipse coercuit Misceri patitur vices To proper offices God hath each season bounded And will not that the courses He sets them be confounded Haec omnia mutantur saith S. Augustine nec mutatur divinae providentiae ratio qua fit Vt ista mutentur All these things are changed and yet the reason of the Divine Providence by which they are changed changeth not To affirme then that humane affaires remaine allwaies in the same estate continually drawne out as by an even thread without variation is vntrue and on the other side to say that they allwayes degenerate and grow worse and worse is as vnsound For surely had it beene so since the Creation or the fall of man civill society nay the world itself could not haue subsisted but would long since haue beene brought to vtter ruine and desolation Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit vice was at highest and neere its downefall stood And as Bodin hath both rightly observed and learnedly expressed Quod si res humanae in deterius prolaberentur jampridem in extremo vitiorum ac improbitatis gradu constitissemus quo quidem antea peruentum esse opinor Sed cum flagitiosi homines nec vlterius progredi nec eodem loco stare diutius possent sensim regredi necesse habuerunt vel cogente pudore qui hominibus inest à natura
the times are more Civill and men more given to luxury and ease which passe and returne by turnes Succession it selfe effects nothing therein alone in case it did the first man in reason should haue lived longest and the son should still come short of his fathers age so that whereas Moses tells vs that the dayes of mans age in his time were threescore yeares and tenne by this reckoning they might well enough by this time be brought to tenne or twenty or thirty at most It cannot be denied but that in the first ages of the world both before and after the floud men vsually lived longer then wee finde they haue done in latter ages But that I should rather choose to ascribe to some extraordinary priviledge then to the ordinary course of nature The world was then to be replenished with inhabitants which could not so speedily be done but by an extraordinary multiplication of mankinde neither could that be done but by the long liues of men And againe Arts and sciences were then to be planted for the better effecting whereof it was requisite that the same men should haue the experience and observation of many ages For as many Sensations breed an experiment so doe many experiments a Science Per varios vsus artem experimentia fecit Exemplo monstrante viam Through much experience Arts invented were Example shewing way Specially it was requisite men should liue long for the perfecting of Astronomy and the finding out of the severall motions of the heavenly bodies whereof some are so slow that they aske a long time precisely to obserue their periods and reuolutions It was the complaint of Hippocrates Ars longa vita brevis And therefore Almighty God in his wisedome then proportioned mens liues to the length of Arts and as God gaue them this speciall priviledge to liue long so in likelihood hee gaue them withall a temper constitution of body answereable therevnto As also the foode wherewith they were nourished specially before the floud may well bee thought to haue beene more wholesome and nutritiue and the plants more medicinall And happily the influence of the heavens was at that time in that clymate where the Patriarches liued more favourable and gratious Now such a revolution as there is in the manners wits and ages of men the like may well bee presumed in their strength and stature Videtur similis esse ratio in magnitudine corporum siue statura quae nec ipsa per successionem propaginis defluit There seemeth to be the like reason in the groweth bignesse of mens bodies which decreaseth not by succession of ofspring but men are sometimes in the same nation taller sometimes of a shorter stature sometimes stronger and sometimes weaker as the times wherein they liue are more temperate or luxurious more given to labour or exercise or to ease and idlenesse And for those narrations which are made of the Gyantlike statures of men in former ages many of them were doubtles merely poeticall and fabulous I deny not but such men haue beene who for their strength and stature haue beene the miracles of nature the worlds wonders whom God would therefore haue to bee saith S. Austine that hee might shew that as well the bignesse as the beautie of the body are not to be ranged in the number of things good in themselues as being common both to good and badde Yet may wee justly suspect that which Suetonius hath not spared to write that the bones of huge beasts or sea-monsters both haue and still doe passe currant for the bones of Gyants A very notable story to this purpose haue wee recorded by Camerarius who reports that Francis the first king of France who reigned about an hundred yeares since being desirous to know the truth of those things which were commonly spread touching the strength and stature of Rou'land nephew to Charlelamaine caused his sepulchre to be opened wherein his bones and bow were found rotten but his armour sound though couered with rust which the king commaunding to bee scoured off and putting it vpon his owne body found it so fit for him as thereby it appeared that Rouland exceeded him little in bignesse and stature of bodie though himselfe were not excessiue tall or bigge SECT 6. The precedents of this chapt summarily recollected and the methode observed in the ensuing treatise proposed NOw briefely and summarily to recollect and as it were to winde vp into one clue or bottome what hath more largely beene discoursed thorow this chapter I hold first that the heavenly bodies are not at all either in regard of their substance motion light warmth or influence in the course of nature at all impaired or subject to any impairing or decay Secondly that all individuals vnder the Cope of heaven mixed of the elements are subject to a naturall declination and dissolution Thirdly that the quantity of the Elements themselues is subject to impairing in regard of their parts though not of their intire bodies Fourthly that the ayre and earth and water and diverse seasons diversely affected sometime for the better sometime for the worse and that either by some speciall favour or judgement of God or by some cause in nature secret or apparent Fiftly that the severall kindes of beasts of plantes of fishes of birds of stones of mettalls are as many in number as at the Creation every way in Nature as vigorous as at any time since the floud Sixtly and lastly that the manners the wits the health the age the strength and stature of men daily vary but so as by a vicissitude and reuolution they returne againe to their former points from which they declined againe decline and againe returne by alternatiue and interchangeable courses Erit hic rerum in se remeantium orbis quamdiù erit ipse orbis This circle and ring of things returning alwayes to their principles will neuer cease as long as the world lasts Repetunt proprios cuncta recursus Redituque suo singula gaudent Nec manet vlli traditus ordo Nisi quod fini iunxerit ortum Stabilemque sui fecerit orbem To their first spring all things are backeward bound And every thing in its returne delighteth Th' order once setled can in nought be found But what the end vnto the birth vniteth And of its selfe doth make a constant round And consequently there is no such vniversall and perpetuall decay in the frame of the Creatures as is commonly imagined and by some strongly maintained The methode which I propose is first to treate heereof in generall that so a cleerer way and easier passage may be opened to the particulars then of the Heavens as being the highest in situation and the noblest in outward glory and duration as also in their efficacie and vniversality of operation and therefore doth the Prophet rightly place them next God himselfe in the order of Causes it shall come to passe in that day saith
in workes of heate but the sunne burneth the mountaines three tymes more breathing out fiery vapours Neither were there wanting some among the ancient Philosophers who maintained the same opinion as Plato and Plyny and generally the whole sect of Stoicks who held that the Sunne and Starres were fed with watery vapours which they drew vp for their nourishment and that when these vapours should cease and faile the whole world should be in daunger of combustion and many things are alleaged by Balbus in Ciceroes second booke of the nature of the Gods in favour of this opinion of the Stoicks But that the Sunne and Starres are not in truth and in their owne nature fieric and hot appeares by the ground already layd touching the matter of the heavens that it is of a nature incorruptible which cannot bee if it were fiery inasmuch as thereby it should become lyable to alteration and corruption by an opposite and professed enimie Besides all fiery bodies by a naturall inclination mount vpwards so that if the starres were the cause of heat as being hot in themselues it would consequently follow that their circular motion should not bee Naturall but violent Wherevnto I may adde that the noted starres being so many in number namely one thousand twenty and two besides the Planets and in magnitude so greate that every one of those which appeare fixed in the firmament are sayd to bee much bigger then the whole Globe of the water and earth and the Sunne againe so much to exceede both that globe and the biggest of them as it may iustly bee stiled by the sonne of Syrach instrumentum admirabile a wonderfull instrument which being so were they of fyre they would doubtlesse long ere this haue turned the world into ashes there being so infinite a disproportion betweene their flame and the little quantity of matter supposed to bee prepared for their Fewell That therefore they should bee fed with vapours Aristotle deservedly laughs at it as a childish and ridiculous device in as much as the vapours ascend no higher then the middle region of the ayre and from thence distill againe vpon the water and earth from whence they were drawne vp and those vapours being vncertaine the flames likewise feeding vpon them must needes be vncertaine and dayly vary from themselues both in quantity and figure according to the proportion of their fewell SECT 2. That the heate they breed springes from their light and consequently their light being not decayed neither is the warmth arising there from THe absurdity then of this opinion beeing so foule and grosse it remaines that the Sunne and Starres infuse a warmth into these Subcaelestiall bodies not as being hot in themlselues but only as beeing ordeined by God to breed heate in matter capable thereof as they impart life to some creatures and yet themselues remaine voyd of life like the braine which imparts Sense to every member of the body and yet is it selfe vtterly voyd of all Sense But here againe some there are which attribute this effect to the motion others to the light of these glorious bodies And true indeed it is that motion causes heat by the attenuation rarefaction of the ayre But by this reason should the Moone which is neerer the Earth warme more then the Sunne which is many thousand miles farther distant the higher Regions of the Aire should be alway hotter then the lower which notwithstanding if wee compare the second with with the lowest is vndoubtedly false Moreouer the motion of the coelestiall bodies being vniforme so should the heat deriued from them in reason likewise be the motion ceasing the heat should likewise cease yet I shall neuer beleeue that when the Sun stood still at the prayer of Iosua it then ceased to warme these inferiour Bodies And we find by experience that the Sun works more powerfully vpon a body which stands still then when it moues the reason seemes to be the same in the rest or motion of a body warming or warmed that receiueth or imparteth heat The motion being thus excluded from being the cause of this effect the light must of necessitie step in and challenge it to it selfe the light then it is which is vndoubtedly the cause of coelestiall heate in part by a direct beame but more vehemently by a reflexed for which very reason it is that the middle Region of the aire is alwaies colder then the lowest and the lowest hotter in Summer then in Winter and at noone then in the morning and evening the beames being then more perpendicular and consequently in their reflexion more narrowly vnited by which reflexion and vnion they grow sometimes to that fervencie of heate that fire springs out from them as wee see in burning glasses and by this artificiall device it was that Archimedes as Galen reports it in his third booke de Temperamentis set on fire the Enemies Gallyes and Proclus a famous Mathematician practised the like at Constantinople as witnesseth Zonaras in the life of Anastasius the Emperour And very reasonable me thinkes it is that light the most Divine affection of the Coelelestiall Bodies should be the cause of warmth the most noble actiue and excellent quality of the Subcoelestiall These two like Hippocrates twinnes simul oriuntur moriuntur they are borne and dye together they increase and decrease both together the greater the light is the greater the heate and therefore the Sun as much exceedes the other starres in heate as it doth in light To driue the argument home then to our present purpose since the light of the Sun is no way diminished and the heate depends vpon the light the consequence to me seemes marvailous faire and strong which is that neither the heate arising from the light should haue suffered any decay or diminution at all SECT 3. Two obiections answered the one drawne from the present habitablenes of the Torrid Zone the other from a supposed approach of the Sun neerer the earth then in former ages NOtwithstanding the evidence of which trueth some haue not doubted to attribute the present habitablenesse of the Torride Zone to the weaknesse and old age of the Heauens in regard of former ages But they might haue remembred that the Cold Zones should thereby haue become more inhabitable by cold as also that holding as they doe an vniversall decay in all the parts of Nature men according to their opinion decaying in strength as well as the Heauens they should now in reason be as ill able to indure the present heate as the men of former ages were to indure that of the same times wherein they liued the proportion being alike betweene the weaknes as between the strength of the one and the other But this I onely touch in passing hauing a fitter occasion to consider more fully of it hereafter when we come to compare the wits and inventions of the Ancients with those of the present times That which touches
with one water with th' other arme As countrie-maidens in the moneth of May Merrily sporting on a holy-day And lusty dancing of a liuely round About the May-pole by the Bag-pipes sound Hold hand in hand so that the first is fast By meanes of those betweene vnto the last But all the linkes of th' holy chaine which tethers The many members of the world togethers Are such as none but onely hee can breake them Who at the first did of meere nothing make them SECT 2. That the Elements still hold the same proportions each to other and by mutuall exchange the same dimensions in themselues THese foure then as they were from the beginning so still they remaine the radicall and fundamentall principles of all subcoelestiall bodies distinguished by their severall and ancient Situations properties actions and effects and howsoeuer after their old wont they fight and combate together beeing single yet in composition they still accord marueilous well Tu numeris elementa ligas vt frigora flammis Arida conveniant liquidis ne purior ignis Euolet aut mersas deducant pondera terras To numbers thou the elements doest tie That cold with heat may symbolize and drie With moist least purer fire should sore too high And earth through too much weight too low should lie The Creator of them hath bound them as it were to their good behaviour and made them in euery mixt body to stoope and obey one pre-dominant whose sway and conduct they willingly follow The aire being predominant in some as in oyle which alwaies swimmes on the toppe of all other liquors and the earth in others which alwaies gather as neere the Center as possiblely they can And as in these they vary not a jot from their natiue and wonted properties so neither doe they in their other conditions It is still true of them that nec gravitant nec levitant in suis locis there is no sense of their weight or lightnes in their proper places as appeares by this that a man lying in the bottome of the deepest Ocean he feeles no burden from the weight thereof The fire still serues to warme vs as it did the aire to maintaine our breathing the water to clense and refresh vs the earth to feede and support vs and which of them is most necessary for our vse is hard to determine Likewise they still hold the same proportion one toward another as formerly they haue done For howbeit the Peripatetikes pretending heerein the Authority of their Mr Aristotle tell vs that as they rise one aboue another in situation so they exceede one another proportione decupla by a tenne-fold proportion yet is this doubtles a foule errour or at least-wise a grosse mistake whether wee regard their entire bodies or their parts If their entire bodies it is certaine that the earth exceedes both the water and the aire by many degrees The depth of the waters not exceeding two or three miles for the most part not aboue halfe a mile as Marriners finde by their line and plummet whereas the diameter of the earth as Mathematicians demonstrate exceedes seven thousand miles And for the aire taking the height of it from the place of the ordinary Comets it containes by estimation about fiftie two miles as Nonius Vitellio and Allhazen shew by Geometricall proofes Whence it plainly appeares that there cannot be that proportion betwixt the intire Bodies of the Elements which is ptetended nor at any time was since their Creation And for their parts 't is as cleare by experience that out of a few drops of water may be made so much aire as shall exceed them fiuehundred or a thousand times atleast But whatsoeuer their proportion be it is certain that notwithstanding their continuall transmutation or transelementation as I may so call it of one into another yet by a mutuall retribution it still remaines the same that in former ages it hath beene as I haue already shewed more at large in a former Chapter Philo most elegantly expresseth Egregia quidem est in elementis quaternarum virium compensatio aequalibus justisque regulis ac terminis vices suas dispensantium sicut enim anni circulus quaternis vicibus distinguitur alijs partibus post alias succedentibus per ambitus eosdem vsque recurrente tempore pari modo elementa mundi vicissim sibi succedentia mutantur quod diceres incridibile dum mori videntur redduntur immortalia iterum atque iterum metiendo idem stadium sursum atque deorsum per eandem viam cursitando continuè à terra enim acclivis via incipit quae liquescens in aquam mutatur aquaporrò evaperat in aerem aer in ignem extenuatur ac declivis altera deorsum tendit à Capite igne per extinctionem subsidente in aerem aere verò in aquam se densante aquae verò liquore in terram crassescente There is in the Elements a notable compensation of their fourefold qualities dispencing themselues by euen turnes and just measures For as the circle of the yeare is distinguished by foure quarters one succeeding another the time running about by equall distances in like manner the foure Elements of the World by a reciprocall vicissitude succeed one another which a man would thinke incredible while they seeme to dye they become immortall running the same race and incessantly travailing vp and downe by the same path From the Earth the way riseth vpward it dissolving into water the water vapors forth into aire the aire is rarified into fire again they descēd down ward the same way the fire by quēching being turnedinto aire the aire thickned into water the water into earth Hitherto Philo wherein after his vsuall wont he Platonizes the same being in effect to be found in Platoes Timaeus as also in Aristotles booke de Mundo if it be his in Damascene and Gregory Nyssen And most elegantly the wittiest of Poets resolutaque tellus In liquidas rarescit aquas tenuatur in auras Aeraque humor habet dempto quoque pondere rursus In superos aer tenuissimus emicat ignes Inde retrò redeunt idemque retexitur ordo Ignis enim densum spissatus in aera transit Hinc in aquas tellus glomeratâ cogitur vndâ The Earth resolu'd is turned into streames Water to aire the purer aire to flames From thence they back returne the fiery flakes Are turn'd to aire the aire thickned takes The liquid forme of water that earth makes The foure Elements herein resembling an instrument of Musicke with foure strings which may bee tuned diverse wayes and yet the harmony still remaines sweet and so are they compared in the booke of Wisdome The Elements agreed among themselues in this change as when one tune is changed vpon an instrument of Musick and the melody still remaineth Sith then the knot of sacred marriage Which joynes the Elements from age to age Brings forth
the worlds babes sith their enmities With fel divorce kill whatsoeuer dies And sith but changing their degree and place They frame the various formes wherewith the face Of this faire world is so imbellished As six sweet notes curiously varied In skilfull musick make a hundred kindes Of heau'nly sounds that ravish hardest mindes And with division of a choice device The Hearers soules out at their eares entice Or as of twice-twelue letters thus transpos'd This world of words is variously compos'd And of these words in diverse order sowen This sacred volume that you read is growen Who so hath seene how one warme lump of waxe Without increasing or decreasing takes A hundred figures well may judge of all Th' incessant changes of this neather ball Yet thinke not that this changing oft remises Ought into nought it but the forme disguises In hundred fashions and the substances Inly or outly neither win nor leese For all that 's made is made of the first matter Which in th' old nothing made the All-Creator All that dissolues resolues into the same Since first the Lord of nothing made this frame Nought's made of nought and nothing turnes to nothing Things birth or death change but their formall clothing Their formes doe vanish but their bodies bide Now thick now thin now round now short now side Vtque novis facilis signatur Cera figuris Nec manet vt fuerat nec formam servat eandem Sed tamen ipsa eadem est They be the verses of Ovid in the 15 of the Met. but may well be rendred by those of Bartas touching seuerall prints stamped vpon the same lumpe of waxe SECT 3. An objection drawne from the continuall mixture of the Elements each with other answered THus then we see that the Elements are stil the same no way impaired in regard of their portions or proportions neither doe I find any objection against this of any moment or worthy our notice Let vs now examine whether or no they be impaired in their qualities for which I haue often heard it alleadged that their frequent interchange their continuall blending and mixing together now for the space of so many thousand yeares cannot in reason but much haue altered their inbred vigour and originall constitution as Ilanders in them specially their maritine parts are thought by Aristotle cōmonly by experience are found to be most tainted in their manners by reason that lying open to trade they draw on the commerce intercourse of sundry forraine Nations who by long conversation debauch them in regard of their Customes their language their habite naturall disposition But this allegation is in truth a bare and naked supposition For though it bee true that such a continuall traffique and inter-change there is betwixt the Elements yet doth it not therefore follow that their qualities should thereby degenerate or become more impure inasmuch as that impurity which by intercourse they haue contracted by perpetuall agitation they purge out againe and by continuall generation each out of other renew their parts and so by degrees returne to their former estate and purity Againe for the fire if we consider it in it's own spheare though as the rest of the Elements it be indeed subject to a successiue generation corruption in regard of the parts thereof yet is it alwaies most pure which is the reason that it neither can be seene as fiery Meteors are neither can any creature either breed or liue in it And as for the Aire Water and Earth if they were pure it is certaine they could not be so serviceable as they are If the Aire were pure neither men nor birds nor beasts could breath in it as S. Augustin reports of the hill Olympus Perhibetur in Olympi vertice aer esse tam tenuis vt neque sustentare alites possit neque ipsos qui fortè ascenderint homines crassioris aurae spiritu alere sicut in isto aere consueverunt It is said that vpon the top of the hill Olympus the aire is so thin pure that it can neither beare vp the birds that offer to flye in it nor be vsefull for the breathing of men if any come thither being vsed to thicker ayre Neither could any Meteors did it still continue pure be bred in it as raine snow dewes and frosts and the like which notwithstanding are many wayes commodious and profitable for the vse of all liuing creatures so as they could not liue without them And for the water if it were pure it could neither feed the fishes nor beare vp vessels of burden As likewise if the earth were pure it would be altogether Barren and fruitlesse like sand or ashes not able to nourish the plants that hang vpon the breasts of it The Elements then being ordeined for the ornament of the world but cheifely to serue the mixt bodies there is nothing lost but much gained to the whole by the losse of their purity nay the restitution and recovery thereof if so they were created would vndoubtedly proue the vtter vndoing of the whole as the vntainted virginity of either sexe would of the race of mankind yet for farther satisfaction it shall not be amisse to consider these three asunder in reference to the mixt bodies the ayer I meane the water and the earth that so it may appeare whether the ayre be decayed in it's temper the water in it's goodnesse and vertue the earth in it's fatnesse and fruitfullnesse CAP. 7. Touching the pretended decay of the ayre in regard of the temper thereof SECT 1. Of excessiue drought and cold in former ages and that in forraine Countreyes THat the ayre is not distempered more then in former ages will as I conceiue appeare by this that vnseasonable weather for excessiue heate and cold or immoderate drought and raine thunder and lightning frost and snow haile windes yea contagious sicknesses pestilentiall Epidemicall diseases arising from the infection of the ayre by noysome mistes and vapoures to which we may adde earthquakes burning in the bowels of the earth blazing Comets the like were as frequent if not more in former ages then in latter times as will easily appeare to such who please to looke either into the Generall history of the world at large or the severall Cronicles of particular nations Such burning like that of Phaeton such floods like that of Ogyges and Deucalion recorded by Orosius Pliny S. Augustine Varro the world hath not felt or knowne since those times To like purpose I remember Iustus Lypsius a man rather partiall for Antiquity then for the present age hath written an Epistle vpon occasion of a great drought which happened in the yeare one thousand six hundred and one and lasted by the space of aboue foure moneths to which he makes his entrance Non tamen nimis insolens aut nova et si nobis sic visa It is no new or vnusall thing though to vs so it seeme wherevpon he
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
or begotten in old age are alwayes weaker then those in youth Whereas Isaak borne of Sarah when shee was now so old that shee was thought both by others and her selfe to be past conceiving and begotten of Abraham when his body was now dead was for any thing wee finde to the contrary of as strong healthfull a constitution as Iaacob borne in the strength of Isaack and Rebecca And Ioseph or Benjamin as able men as Reuben though Iaacob in his blessing call him The beginning of his strength and the excellencie of power as being his first begotten Nay often wee see that the youngest borne in age not equalls onely but excells both in wit and spirit and strength and stature the Eldest borne in youth So vnsure and sandie is this ground and for his inference drawne from thence it is no lesse vnwarrantable and insufficient There being in the resemblance betwixt a woman and the world as large a difference as is the dissimilitude betweene the fruite of the one and the generations of the other The one taking her beginning by the course of nature in weakenesse so growing to perfection and ripenesse shee quickely declines and hastens to dissolution Shee must necessarily expect the tearme of certaine yeares before she can conceiue her fruite and then againe at the end of certaine yeares shee leaues to conceiue Whereas the other being created immediatly by a supernaturall power was made in the very first moment that it was fully made in full perfection which except it bee for the sinne of man it never lost nor by any force of subordinate causes possiblely could or can loose The quickening efficacy of that word Crescite multiplicamini though deliuered many thousand yeares since is now as powerfull in beasts in plants in birds in fishes in men as at first it was And thus much this false Prophet seemes himselfe to acknowledge in the chapter following where he thus brings in the Lord speaking vnto him All these things were made by me alone and by none other by mee also they shall be ended and by none other And if they shall be ended immediatly by the hand of the Almighty as immediatly by it they were made then doubtles there is no such naturall decay in them which would at last without the concurrence of any such supernaturall power bring them to a naturall d◅ssolution no more then there was any naturall forerunning preparation to their Creation And thus wee see how this Goliah hath his head stricken off with his owne sword and this lying Prophet condemned out of his owne mouth I haue dwelt the longer vpon this examination because I finde that the testimony drawne from this Counterfeite was it that in appearance misledde Cyprian both their testimonies togeather that which hath yeelded the principall both confidence and countenance to the Adverse part SECT 6. The last obiection answered pretended to bee taken from the authority of holy Scriptures AS the testimony taken frō Esdras wants authority so those which re drawn frō authority of sacred Canonicall Scriptures want right explicatiō applicatiō Whereof the first that I haue met with are those misconstrued words of the Prophet Isaiah The world languisheth and fadeth away or as some other translations reade it The world is feebled decayed Which by Iunius Tremelius are rendred in the future tence Languebit Concidet orbis habitabilis and are vndoubtedly to be referred to the destruction desolation of those Nations against which he had in some chapters precedent denounced the heauy judgements of God As the Moabites Egyptians Tyrians Syrians Assyrians Ethiopians Babylonians and the Isralites themselues Iunius thus rightly summing the chapter Propheta summam contrahit judiciorum quae supra denunciauerat The Prophet recapitulates or drawes into one head or summe the judgements which before hee had denounced at large and in particular which comming from the justice and immediate hand of God for sin vpon a part of the world can in no sort be referred to the ordinary course of Nature in regard of the Vniversall That which carries with it some more colour of Reason is that by St. Paul The Crearure is said to be subiect to vanity to the bondage of corruption to groaning and to travelling in paine All which seeme to imply a decay and declination in it But in the judgement of the soundest Interpreters the Apostle by vanity and bondage of corruption meanes first that impurity infirmity and deformity which the Creature hath contracted by the fall of man Secondly the daily alteration and change nay declination and decay of the Individuals and particulars of every kind vnder heaven Thirdly the designation hasting of the kindes or species themselues to a finall totall dissolution by fire And lastly the abuse of them tending to the dishonour of the Creator or the hurt of his servants or the service of his enimies All these may not improperly be tearmed vanity and a bondage of corruption vnder which the Creature groaneth and travelleth wishing and waiting to be delivered from it But that of S. Peter is it which is most of all stood vpon where he brings in the prophane scoffers at Religion and especially at the article of the worlds Consummation thus questioning the matter where is the promise of his comming For since the fathers fell asleepe all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation But in truth that place if it bee well weighed rather makes against the worlds supposed decay then for it in as much as if the Apostle had known or acknowledged any such decay in it it is to be presumed that being invited and in a manner forced therevnto by so faire and fit an occasion hee would haue pressed it against those scoffers or in some sort haue expressed himselfe therein But since hee onely vrges the Creation of the world and the overwhelming of it with water to proue that the same God who wasthe Authour of both those is as able at his pleasure to vnmake it with fire it should seeme hee had learned no such divinity as the worlds decay or at least-wise had no such assurance of it and warrant for it as to teach it the Church Nay in the 7 verse of the same chapter hee tells vs that the heavens and earth which are now are by the same word by which they were Created kept in store and reserved to fire It was not then their auerring that things continued as they were that made them scoffers but their irreligious inference from thence that the world neither had beginning neither should haue ending but all things should alwaies continue as formerly they alwayes had done And thus much may suffice for the consideration of the worlds decay in Generall it rests now that wee descend to a distinct view of the particulars amongst which the Heavens first present themselues vpon the Theatre as being the most glorious
and operatiue bodies and seated in the most eminent roome LIB II. Of the pretended decay of the Heauens and Elements and Elementary Bodies Man onely excepted CAP. 1. Touching the pretended decay of the Heauenly Bodies SECT 1. First of their working vpon this inferiour World SUch and so great is the wisdome the bounty and the power which Almighty God hath expressed in the frame of the Heauens that the Psalmist might justly say The Heauens declare the glory of God the Sun the Moone the Stars serving as so many silver golden Characters embroidered vpon azure for the daylie preaching and publishing thereof to the World And surely if he haue made the floore of this great House of the World so beautifull and garnished it with such wonderfull variety of beasts of trees of hearbes of flowres we neede wonder the lesse at the magnificence of the roofe which is the highest part of the World and the neerest to the Mansion House of Saints and Angels Now as the excellencie of these Bodies appeares in their situation their matter their magnitudes and their Sphericall or Circular figure so specially in their great vse and efficacy not onely that they are for signes and seasons and for dayes yeares but in that by their motion their light their warmth influence they guide and gouerne nay cherish and maintaine nay breed beget these inferiour bodies euen of man himselfe for whose sake the Heauens were made It is truly said by the Prince of Philosophers Sol homo generant hominem the Sunne and man beget man man concurring in the generation of man as an immediate and the Sunne as a remote cause And in another place he doubts not to affirme of this inferiour World in generall Necesse est mundum inferiorem superioribus lationibus continuari ut omnis inde virtus derivetur it is requisite that these inferiour parts of the World should bee conjoyned to the motions of the higher Bodies that so all their vertue and vigour from thence might be derived There is no question but that the Heauens haue a marvailous great stroake vpon the aire the water the earth the plants the mettalls the beasts nay vpon Man himselfe at leastwise in regard of his body and naturall faculties so that if there can be found any decay in the Heauens it will in the course of Nature and discourse of reason consequently follow that there must of necessity ensue a decay in all those which depend vpon the Heauens as likewise on the other side if there be found no decay in the Heauens the presumption will be strong that there is no such decay as is supposed in these Subcaelestiall Bodies because of the great sympathy and correspondence which is knowne to be betweene them by many and notable experiments For to let passe the quailing and withering of all things by the recesse and their reviving and resurrection as it were by the reaccesse of the Sunne I am of opinion that the sap in trees so precisely followes the motion of the Sunne that it neuer rests but is in continuall agitation as the Sun it selfe which no sooner arriues at the Tropick but he instantly returnes and euen at that very instant as I conceiue and I thinke it may be demonstrated by experimentall conclusions the sappe which by degrees descended with the declination of the Sun begins to remount at the approach thereof by the same steps that it descended and as the approach of the Sunne is scarce sensible at his first returne but afterward the day increases more in one weeke then before in two in like manner also fares it with the sap in plants which at first ascends insensibly and slowly but within a while much more swiftly and apparantly It is certaine that the Tulypp Marigold and Sun-flowre open with the rising and shut with the setting of the Sunne So that though the Sunne appeare not a man may more infallibly know when it is high noone by their full spreading then by the Index of a Clock or Watch. The hop in its growing winding it selfe about the pole alwayes followes the course of the Sunne from East to West and can by no meanes bee drawne to the contrary choosing rather to breake then yeeld It is obserued by those that sayle betweene the Tropicks that there is a constant set winde blowing from the East to the West saylers call it the Breeze which rises and falls with the Sunne and is alwayes highest at noone and is commonly so strong partly by its owne blowing and partly by ouer-ruling the Currant that they who saile to Peru cannot well returne home the same way they came forth And generally Marriners obserue that caeter is paribus they sayle with more speed from the East to the West then backe againe from the West to the East in the same compasse of time All which should argue a wheeling about of the aire and waters by the diurnall motion of the Heauens and specially by the motion of the Sunne Whereunto may be added that the high Seasprings of the yeare are alwayes neere about the two Aequinoctials and Solstices and the Cock as a trusty Watchman both at midnight and breake of day giues notice of the Sunnes approach These be the strange and secret effects of the Sunne vpon the inferiour Bodies whence by the Gentiles hee was held the visible God of the World and tearmed the Eye thereof which alone saw all things in the World and by which the World saw all things in it selfe Omma qui videt per quem videt omnia mundus And most notablely is he described by the Psalmist in them hath he set a Tabernacle for the Sun which is as a bridegroome comming out of his chamber rejoyceth as a strong man to run a race His going forth is from the end of the Heauen and his circuite vnto the ends of it and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof Now as the effects of the Sun the head-spring of light and warmth are vpon these inferiour Bodies more actiue so those of the Moone as being Vltima coelo Citima terris neerer the Earth and holding a greater resemblance therewith are no lesse manifest And therefore the husbandman in sowing setting graffing and planting lopping of trees felling of timber and the like vpon good reason obserues the waxing waning of the Moone which the learned Zanchius well allows of commending Hesiod for his rules therein Quod Hesiodus ex Lune decrementis incrementis totius agricolationis signa notet quis improbet who can mislike it that Hesiod sets downe the signes in the whole course of husbandry from the waxing and waning of the Moone The tydes and ebbes of the Sea follow the course of it so exactly as the Sea-man will tell you the age of the Moone onely vpon the sight of the tide as certainly as if he saw it in the water It is the observation of Aristotle
with life doe in that regard come a step neerer to the Deity then the formes of the heavenly bodies which are without life yet if wee regard their purity their beauty their efficacy their indeficiencie in moving their Vniversallity and independencie in working there is no question but the heavens may in that respect bee preferred euen before man himselfe for whose sake they were made Man being indeed immortall in regard of his soule but the heavens in regard of their bodies as being made of an incorruptible stuffe Which cannot well stand with their opinion who held them to bee composed of fire or that the waters which in the first of Genesis are said to bee aboue the firmament and in the hundred fortie eight Psalme aboue the heavens are aboue the heavens wee now treate of for the tempering and qualifying of their heat as did S. Ambrose and S. Augustine and many others venerable for their antiquity learning and piety Touching the former of which opinions wee shall haue fitter oportunity to discusse it at large when we come to treate of the warmth caused by the heavens But touching the second it seemes to haue beene grounded vpon a mistake of the word Firmament which by the Ancients was commonly appropriated to the eight sphere in which are seated the fixed starres whereas the originall Hebrew which properly signifies Extention or Expansion is in the first of Genesis not onely applied to the spheres in which the Sunne and Moone are planted but to the lowest region of the aire in which the birds flie and so doe I with Pareus Pererius take it to bee vnderstood in this controversie This region of the aire being as S. Augustine somewhere speakes Terminus intransgressibilis a firme and immoveable wall of separation betwixt the waters that are bred in the bowels of the earth and those of the Cloudes and for the word heaven which is vsed in the hundred forty and eight Psalme it is likewise applyed to the middle region of the aire by the Prophet Ieremy which may serue for a Glosse vpon that text alleaged out of the Psalme When hee vttereth his voice there is a noise of waters in the heavens and hee causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth Now the Schoolemen finding that the placing of waters aboue the starry heavens was both vnnaturall and vnvsefull and yet being not well acquainted with the propriety of the Hebrew word to salue the matter tell vs of a Christalline or glassie heaven aboue the eight sphere which say they is vndoubtedly the waters aboue the firmament mentioned by Moses which exposition of theirs though it doe not inferre a decay in the heavenly bodies yet doth it crosse the course of Moses his historicall narration his purpose being as it seemes only to write the history of things which were visible and sensible as appeares in part by his omitting the Creation of Angells whereas the Christalline heaven they speake of is not only invisible and insensible but was not at all discouered to be till the dayes of Hipparchus or Ptolomy Since then the heavens in regard of their substance are altogether free for any thing yet appeares from any mixture or tincture of the Elements being made of an incorruptible and inalterable quintessence which neither hath any conflict in it selfe nor with any other thing without it from thence may wee safely collect that it neither is nor can be subiect to any such decay as is imagined SECT 3. An objection drawne from Iob answered HOwbeit the deserved curse of God deprived the earth of her fertility in bringing forth without the sweat of Adam and his ofspring yet I finde not that it stretched to the Starres or that any thing aboue the Moone was altered or changed in respect of Adams fault from their first perfection True indeed it is which Eliphaz teacheth that the heavens Bildad that the starres are not cleane in Gods sight it may bee because of the fall of Angels the inhabitants of heaven whom therefore he charged with folly Which exposition Iunius so farre favours as insteed of Coelum hee puts Coelites into the very body of the text But in my judgement it would better haue sorted with the Margin in as much as by Coelites wee may vnderstand either Saints or Angells both Citizens of heaven either in actuall possession or in certaine hope and expectation in possession as Angels and Saints departed in expectation as the Saints heere in warfaire on the earth And of these doth Gregory in his Moralls on Iob expound the place hoc coelorum nomine repetijt quod Sanctorum prius appellatione signavit saith hee Iob repeates that by the name of heaven which before hee expressed vnder the name of Saints And thus both hee and S. Augustine expound that of the nineteene Psalme The heavens declare the glory of God And with them most of the Ancients that petition of the Lords Prayer Thy will bee done on earth as it is in heaven But what neede wee flie to allegories figuratiue senses when the letter of the text will well enough stand with the analogie of faith the texts of other Scriptures and the rule of sound reason The very materiall heavens then may not vntruly or vnproperly bee said to bee vncleane in Gods sight First Quia habent aliquid potentialitatis admixtum as Lyra speakes they haue some kinde of potentiality I know not how otherwise to render his word mixed with them hee meanes in regard of their motion and the illumination of the moone and starres from the Sunne But chiefely as I take it they are said to be vncleane not considered in themselues but in comparison of the Creator who is Actus purissimus simplicissimus all Act and that most pure not only from staine and pollution but all kinde of impotency imperfection or Composition whatsoever And in this sense the very blessed glorious Angels themselues which are of a substance farre purer then the Sunne it selfe may bee said to be vncleane in his sight in which regard the very Seraphins are said to couer their faces and feete with their winges But to grant that the heavens are become vncleane either by the fall of man or Angells yet doth it not follow as I conceiue that this vncleannes doth daily increase vpon them or which is in trueth the point in controversie that they feele any impairing by reason of this vncleannes it being rather imputatiue as I may earne it then reall and inherent Nonne vides coelum hoc saith Chrysostome vt pulchrum vt ingens vt astrorum choreis varium quantum temporis viguit quinque aut plus annorum millia processerunt haec annorum multitudo ei non adduxit senium Sed vt corpus novum ac vegetum floridae virentisque juventae viget aetate Sic coelum quam habuit à principio pulchritâ—…dinem semper eadem permansit nec quicquam
his modesty in this second change as I found it wanting in his first coniecture and I am of opinion that S. Augustine never purchased more true honour by any booke that ever hee writ then that of his Retractations the shame is not so much to erre as to persevere in it being discouered Specially if it be an errour taken vp entertained by following those whom for their great gifts wee highly esteeme and admire as it seemes Du Moulin tooke his errour at leastwise touching the moueablenes of the Poles of the Equatour from Ioseph Scaliger But the motion of the heavens puts mee in minde of passing from it to the light thereof CAP. 3. Touching the pretended decay in the light of the heavenly bodies SECT 1. The first reason that it decayes not taken from the nature of that light and those things wherevnto it is resembled AS the waters were first spread over the face of the earth so was the light dispersed thorow the firmament and as the waters were gathered into one heape so was the light knit vp and vnited into one body As the gathering of the waters was called the Sea so that of the light was called the Sunne As the rivers come from the sea so is all the light of the starres derived from the Sun And lastly as the Sea is no whit leassened though it furnish the Earth with abundance of fresh rivers So though the Sunne haue since the Creation both furnished garnished the world with light neither is the store of it thereby diminished nor the beauty of it any way stayned What the light is whether a substance or an Accident whether of a Corporall or incorporall nature it is not easy to determine Philosophers dispute it but cannot well resolue it Such is our ignorance that euen that by which wee see all things we cannot discerne what it selfe is But whatsoeuer it bee wee are sure that of all visible Creatures it was the first that was made and comes neerest the nature of a Spirit in as much as it moues in an instant from the East to the West and piercing thorow all transparent bodies still remaines in it selfe vnmixed and vndivided it chaseth away sadde and mellancholy thoughts which the darkenesse both begets and mainetaines it lifts vp our mindes in meditation to him who is the true light that lightneth every man that commeth into the world himselfe dwelling in light vnaccessible and cloathing himselfe with light as with a garment And if wee may behold in any Creature any one sparke of that eternall fire or any farre off dawning of Gods glorious brightnes the same in the beauty motion and vertue of this light may best be discerned Quid pulchrius luce saith Hugo de sancto Victore quae cum in se colorem non habeat omnium tamen rerum colores ipsa quodammodo colorat What is more beautifull then the light which hauing no colour in it selfe yet sets a luster vpon all colours And S. Ambrose vnde vox Dei in Scriptura debuit inch oare nisi à lumine Vnde mundi ornatus nisi à luce exordium sumere frustra enim esset si non â—…ideretur From whence should the voice of God in holy Scripture begin but from the light From whence should the ornament of the world begin but likewise from the same light For in vaine it were were it not seene O Father of the light of wisedome fountaine Out of the bulke of that confused mountaine What should what could issue before the light Without which Beauty were no Beauty hight SECT 2. The second for that it hath nothing contrary vnto it and heere Pareus and Mollerus are censured for holding that the light of heaven is impaired S. Augustine in diverse places of his workes is of opinion that by the first created light were vnderstood the Angells and heerein is hee followed by Beda Eucherius Rupertus diverse others Which opinion of his though it bee questionlesse vnsound in as much as wee are taught that that light sprang out of darkenesse which of the Angells can in no sort bee verified yet it shewes the lightsome nature of Angells so likewise the Angelicall nature of light still flourishing in youth no more subject to decay or old age then the Angells are Since then in the properties thereof it comes so neere the nature of Spirits of Angels of God mee thinkes they who dare accuse the heavens as being guilty of decay and corruption in other respects should yet haue spared the light thereof The more I wonder that men reverenced for their learning reputed lights of the Church should by their writings goe about to quench or blemish this light Videntur haud parum elanguisse minusque nitidi esse quam fuerant initio saith one speaking of the heavenly bodies They seeme to hame suffered not a little defect and to haue lost of that brightnes in which they were at first created And another Non est nunc illa claritas luminis nec sunt illae stellarum vires quae fuerunt There is not now that brightnes of the light nor those vertues of the starres that haue beene Venturous assertions and such I beleeue as would haue pusled the Authours of them to haue made them good specially considering that as there is nothing contrary to the Quintessentiall matter and circular figure of the Heavens So neither is there to the light thereof Fire may bee quenched with water but there is nothing able to quench the light of Heauen saue the power of him that made it Againe fire may bee extinguished by withdrawing or withholding the fewell vpon which it feedes But the light of heaven hauing no matter by which it is nourished there is no feare of the failing thereof thorow any such defect for the matter of the Coelestiall spheres and starres in which it is planted it hath already sufficiently appeared that it neither is nor in the course of Nature can be subject to any impairing alteration And so much Pareus himselfe hath vpon the matter confessed in two severall places in his Commentaries vpon the first of Genesis whereof the first is this speakeing of the firmament and the Epithetes of iron and brasse given it in holy Scriptures and by prophane Authours Haec Epitheta saith hee Metaphoricè notant Coeli firmitatem quia tot millibus annorum immutabili lege circumvoluitur nec tamen atteritur motu aut absumitur quia à Deo sic est firmatum initio These Epithetes metaphorically signifie the firmenes stablenes of heaven because by an vnchangeable law it hath now wheeled about so many thousand yeares and yet is it not wasted or worne by the motion thereof because it is established by God And againe within a while after hee vseth almost the same wordes firmamentum non dicitur de duritie aut soliditate impermeabili sed de firmitate quâ perpetuo motu circumactum coelum non atteritur nec
waues to shoreward roll And againe Omnia ventorum concurrere praelia vidi I saw the windes all combating together Such a winde it seemes was that which smote at once all the foure corners of the house of Iobs eldest sonne Let any who is desirous to inquire into and compare things of this nature but reade what is recorded in the Turkish history of two wonderfull great stormes the one by land in Sultania set downe in the entrance of Solymans life the other at Algiers not farre from the mi'dst of the same life at Charles the 5th his comming thither as also at his parting from thence and I presume hee will admire nothing in this kinde that hath falne out in these latter times Vidi ego saith Bellarmine quòd nisi vidissem non crederem à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem eamque delatam super pagum quendam vt fovea altissima conspiceretur vnde terra eruta fuerat pagus totus coopertus quasi sepultus manserit ad quem terra illa deuenerat I my selfe haue seene which if I had not seene I should not haue beleeued a very great quantity of earth digged out and taken vp by the force of a strong winde and carried vpon a village thereby so that there remained to be seene a great empty hollownes in the place from whence it was lifted and the village vpon which it lighted was in a manner all couered ouer buried in it This example I confessâ—… could not be long since since Bellarmine professes that himselfe saw it Yet it might well be some skores of yeares before our last great windes which notwithstanding by some for want of reading and experience are thought to bee vnmatchable And I know not whether that outragious winde which happened in London in the yeare 1096. during the reigne of William Rufus might not well bee thought to paralell at least this recorded by Bellarmine It bore downe in that City alone six hundred houses blew off the roofe of Bow Church which with the beames were borne into the aire a great heigth six whereof being 27 foote long with their fall were driuen 23 foote deepe into the ground the streetes of the citty lying then vnpaued And in the fourth yeare of the same King so vehement a lightning which as hath beene said is of the same matter with the winde pierced the steeple of the Abbay of Winscomb in Glostershire that it rent the beames of the roofe cast downe the Crucisixe brake off his right legge and withall ouerthrew the image of our Lady standing hard by leauing such a stench in the Church that neither incense holy-water nor the singing of the Monkes could allay it But it is now more then time I should descend a steppe lower from the aire to the water CAP. 8. Touching the pretended decay of the waters and the fish the inhabiters thereof SECT 1. That the sea and riuers and bathes are the same at this present as they were for many ages past or what they loose in one place or time they recouer in another THough the Psalmist tell vs that the Lord hath founded the earth vpon the Seas and established it vpon the flouds because for the more commodious liuing of man and beasts hee hath made a part of it higher then the seas or at least-wise restrained them from incursion vpon it so as now they make but one intire Globe yet because the waters in the first Creation couered the face of the earth I will first begin with them The mother of waters the great deepe hath vndoubtedly lost nothing of her ancient bounds or depth but what is impaired in one place is againe restored to her in another The riuers which the Earth sucked from her by secret veines it renders backe againe with full mouth the vapours which the Sunne drawes vp empty themselues againe into her bosome The purest humour in the Sea the Sun Exhales in th' Aire which there resolu'd anon Returnes to water descends againe By sundry wayes into his mother maine Her motions of ebbing flowing of high springs and dead Neapes are still as certaine constant as the changes of the Moone and course of the Sunne Her natiue saltnes by reason thereof her strength for the better supporting of navigable vessells is still the same And as the Sea the mother of waters so likewise the rivers the daughters thereof â—…ither hold on their wonted courses and currents or what they haue diminished in one age or place they haue againe recompenced and repayed in another as Srâ—…bo hath well expressed it both of the sea and rivers Quoniam omnia moventur transmutantur aliter talia ac tanta administrari non possent existimandum est nec terram ita semper permanere vt semper tanta sit nec quicquam sibi addatur aut adimatur sed nec aquam nec candem sedem semper ab istis obtineri presertim cum transmutatio ejus cognata sit ac naruralis quiniâ—…ò terrae multum in aquam convertitur aquae multum in terram transmutatur Quare minime mirandum est si eas terrae partes quae nunc habitantur olim mare occupabat quae pelagus sunt prius habitabantur Quemadmodum de fontibus alios deficere contingit alios relaxari item flumina lacus Because thnigs moue and are changed without which such and so great matters could not well be disposed we are to thinke that the earth doth not remaine alwayes in the same state without addition or diminution neither yet the water as if they were alwayes bounded within the same lists specially seeing their mutuall chang is naturall kindly but rather that much earth is turned into water coÌ„trarywise no lesse water in to earth it is not theÌ„ to be wondered at if that part of the earth which is now habitable was formerly overflowed with water and that againe which now is sea was sometimes habitable as among fountaines some are dried vp and some spring forth afresh which may also be verified of rivers and lakes wherewith accordes that of the Poet. Vidi ego quod fuerat quondam solidissima tellus Esse fretum vidi factas ex aequore terras Et procul à pelago Chonchae jacuere marinae Et vetus inventa est in montibus anchora summis Quodque fuit campus vallem decursus aquarum Fecit eluvie mons est deductus in aequor Eque paludosa siccis humus aret arenis Quaeque sitim tulerant stagnata paludibus hument Hic fontes natura nouos emisit et illic Clausit antiquis tam multa tremoribus orbis Flumina prosiliunt aut exsiccata residunt What was firme land sometimes that haue I seen Made sea and what was sea made land againe On mountaine tops old anchours found haue been And sea fish shells to lie farre from the maine Plaines turne to vales by
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
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