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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	bread_n	lord_n	wine_n	3,679	5	7.3104	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44019	Tracts of Mr. Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury containing I. Behemoth, the history of the causes of the civil wars of England, from 1640 to 1660, printed from the author's own copy never printed (but with a thousand faults) before, II. An answer to Arch-bishop Bramhall's book called the catching of the Leviathan, never before printed, III. An historical narration of heresie and the punishment thereof, corrected by the true copy, IV. Philosophical problems dedicated to the King in 1662, but never printed before.; Selections. 1682	Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679.	1682 (1682)	Wing H2265; ESTC R19913	258,262	615

the same Authority And this he saith upon this silly ground That nothing is a Command the performance whereof tendeth to our own benefit He might as well deny the Ten Commandments to be Commands because they have an advantagious promise annexed to them Do this and thou shalt live And Cursed is every one that continueth not in all the words of this Law to do them T. H. Of the Sacraments I said no more than that they are Signs or Commemorations He finds fault that I add not Seals Confirmations and that they confer grace First I would have asked him if a Seal be any thing else besides a Sign whereby to remember somewhat as that we have promised accepted acknowledged given undertaken somewhat Are not other Signs though without a Seal of force sufficient to convince me or oblige me A Writing obligatory or Release signed only with a mans name is as Obligatory as a Bond signed and sealed if it be sufficiently proved though peradventure it may require a longer Process to obtain a Sentence but his Lordship I think knew better than I do the force of Bonds and Bills yet I know this that in the Court of Heaven there is no such difference between saying signing and sealing as his Lordship seemeth here to pretend I am Baptized for a Commemoration that I have enrolled my self I take the Sacrament of the Lords Supper to Commemorate that Christ's Body was broken and his Blood shed for my redemption What is there more intimated concerning the nature of these Sacraments either in the Scripture or in the Book of Common-Prayer Have Bread and Wine and Water in their own Nature any other Quality than they had before the Consecration It is true that the Consecration gives these bodies a new Relation as being a giving and dedicating of them to God that is to say a making of them Holy not a changing of their Quality But as some silly young men returning from France affect a broken English to be thought perfect in the French language so his Lordship I think to seem a perfect understander of the unintelligible language of the Schoolmen pretends an ignorance of his Mother Tongue He talks here of Command and Counsel as if he were no English man nor knew any difference between their significations What English man when he commandeth says more than Do this yet he looks to be obeyed if obedience be due unto him But when he says Do this and thou shalt have such or such a Reward he encourages him or advises him or Bargains with him but Commands him not Oh the understanding of a Schoolman J. D. Sometimes he is for holy Orders and giveth to the Pastors of the Church the right of Ordination and Absolution and Infallibility too much for a particular Pastor or the Pastors of one particular Church It is manifest that the consecration of the chiefest Doctors in every Church and imposition of hands doth pertain to the Doctors of the same Church And it cannot be doubted of but the power of binding and loosing was given by Christ to the future Pastors after the same manner as to his present Apostles And our Saviour hath promised this infallibility in those things which are necessary to Salvation to his Apostles until the day of Judgment that is to say to the Apostles and Pastors to be Consecrated by the Apostles successively by the imposition of hands But at other times he casteth all this Meal down with his foot Christian Soveraigns are the supream Pastors and the only persons whom Christians now hear speak from God except such as God speaketh to in these dayes supernaturally What is now become of the promised infallibility And it is from the Civil Soveraign that all other Pastors derive their right of teaching preaching and all other functions pertaining to that Office and they are but his Ministers in the same manner as the Magistrates of Towns or Judges in Courts of Justice and Commanders of Armies What is now become of their Ordination Magistrates Judges and Generals need no precedent qualifications He maketh the Pastoral Authority of Soveraigns to be Jure divino of all other Pastors Jure civili He addeth neither is there any Judge of Heresie among Subjects but their own civil Soveraign Lastly the Church Excommunicateth no man but whom she Excommunicateth by the Authority of the Prince And the effect of Excommunication hath nothing in it neither of dammage in this World nor terror upon an Apostate if the Civil Power did persecute or not assist the Church And in the World to come leaves them in no worse estate than those who never believed The dammage rather redoundeth to the Church Neither is the Excommunication of a Christian Subject that obeyeth the Laws of his own Soveraign of any effect Where is now their power of binding and loosing T. H. Here his Lordship condemneth first my too much kindness to the Pastors of the Church as if I ascribed Infallibility to every particular Minister or at least to the Assembly of the Pastors of a particular Church But he mistakes me I never meant to flatter them so much I say only that the Ceremony of Consecration and Imposition of hands belongs to them and that also no otherwise than as given them by the Laws of the Common-wealth The Bishop Consecrates but the King both makes him Bishop and gives him his Authority The Head of the Church not only gives the power of Consecration Dedication and Benediction but may also exercise the Act himself if he please Solomon did it and the Book of Canons says That the King of England has all the Right that any good King of Israel had It might have added that any other King or soveraign Assembly had in their own Dominions I deny That any Pastor or any Assembly of Pastors in any particular Church or all the Churches on earth though united are Infallible Yet I say the Pastors of a Christian Church assembled are in all such points as are necessary to Salvation But about what points are necessary to Salvation he and I differ For I in the 43d chapter of my Leviathan have proved that this Article Jesus is the Christ is the unum necessarium the only Article necessary to Salvation to which his Lordship hath not offered any Objection And he it seems would have necessary to Salvation every Doctrine he himself thought so Doubtless in this Article Jesus is the Christ every Church is infallible for else it were no Church Then he says I overthrow this again by saying that Christian Soveraigns are the Supream Pastors that is Heads of their own Churches That they have their Authority Jure Divino That all other Pastors have it Jure Civili How came any Bishop to have Authority over me but by Letters Patents from the King I remember a Parliament wherein a Bishop who was both a good Preacher and a good Man was blamed for a Book he had a little before Published in maintenance

speaking the thing understood or named is called Hypostasis in respect of the name so also a Body coloured is the Hypostasis Substance and Subject of the colour and in like manner of all its other Accidents Essence and all other abstract names are words artificial belonging to the Art of Logick and signifies only the manner how we consider the Substance it self And of this I have spoken sufficiently in Pag. 371.372 of my Leviathan Body Lat. Corpus Grae. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is that Substance which hath Magnitude indeterminate and is the same with Corporeal Substance but A Body is that which hath Magnitude determinate and consequently is understood to be totum or integrum aliquid Pure and Simple Body is Body of one and the same kind in every part throughout and if mingled with Body of another kind though the total be compounded or mixt the parts nevertheless retain their simplicity as when water and wine are mixt the parts of both kinds retain their simplicity For water and wine cannot both be in one and the same place at once Matter is the same with Body But never without respect to a Body which is made thereof Form is the aggregate of all Accidents together for which we give the Matter a new name so Albedo whiteness is the Form of Album or white Body So also Humanity is the Essence of man and Deity the Essence of Deus Spirit is Thin Fluid Transparent Invisible Body The word in Latin signifies Breath Aire Wind and the like In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spiro Flo. I have seen and so have many more two waters one of the River the other a Mineral Water so like that no man could discern the one from the other by his sight yet when they have been both put together the whole substance could not by the eye be distinguished from milk Yet we know that the one was not mixt with the other so as every part of the one to be in every part of the other for that is impossible unless two Bodies can be in the the same place How then could the change be made in every part but only by the Activity of the Mineral water changing it every where to the Sense and yet not being every where and in every part of the water If then such gross Bodies have so great Activity what shall we think of Spirits whose kinds be as many as there be kinds of Liquor and Activity greater Can it then be doubted but that God who is an infinitely fine Spirit and withall intelligent can make and change all species and kinds of Body as he pleaseth but I dare not say that this is the way by which God Almighty worketh because it is past my apprehension yet it serves very well to demonstrate that the Omnipotence of God implieth no contradiction and is better than by pretence of magnifying the fineness of the divine Substance to reduce it to a Spright or Phantasm which is Nothing A Person Lat. Persona signifies an intelligent Substance that acteth any thing in his own or anothers Name or by his own or anothers Authority Of this Definition there can be no other proof than from the use of that word in such Latin Authors as were esteem'd the most skilful in their own Language of which number was Cicero But Cicero in an Epistle to Atticus saith thus Vnus sustineo tres Personas Mei Adversarii Judicis That is I that am but one man sustain three Persons mine own Person the Person of my Adversary and the Person of the Judge Cicero was here the Substance intelligent one man and because he pleaded for himself he calls himself his own Person and again because he pleaded for his Adversary he says he sustained the Person of his Adversary and lastly because he himself gave the Sentence he says he sustained the Person of the Judge In the same sence we use the word in English vulgarly calling him that acteth by his own Authority his own Person and him that acteth by the Authority of another the Person of that other And thus we have the exact meaning of the word Person The Greek Tongue cannot render it for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is properly a Face and Metaphorically a Vizard of an Actor upon the Stage How then did the Greek Fathers render the word Person as it is in the blessed Trinity Not well Instead of the word Person they put Hypostasis which signifies Substance from whence it might be inferr'd that the three Persons in the Trinity are three divine Substances that is three Gods The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they could not use because Face and Vizard are neither of them honourable Attributes of God nor explicative of the meaning of the Greek Church Therefore the Latin and consequently the English Church renders Hypostasis every where in Athanasius his Creed by Person But the word Hypostatical Vnion is rightly retained and used by Divines as being the Union of two Hypostases that is of two Substances or Natures in the Person of Christ. But seeing they also hold the Soul of our Saviour to be a Substance which though separated from his Body subsisted nevertheless in it self and consequently before it was separated from his Body upon the Cross was a distinct Nature from his Body how will they avoid this Objection That then Christ had three Natures three Hypostases without granting that his Resurrection was a new vivification and not a return of his Soul out of Heaven into the Grave The contrary is not determined by the Church Thus far in explication of the words that occur in this Controversie Now I return again to his Lordship's Discourse J. D. When they have taken away all incorporeal Spirits what do they leave God himself to be He who is the Fountain of all Being from whom and in whom all Creatures have their Being must needs have a real Being of his own And what real Being can God have among Bodies and Accidents for they have left nothing else in the Universe Then T. H. may move the same Question of God which he did of Devils I would gladly know in what Classis of Entities the Bishop ranketh God Infinite Being and participated Being are not of the same nature Yet to speak according to humane apprehension apprehension and comprehension differ much T. H. confesseth that natural Reason doth dictate to us that God is Infinite yet natural Reason cannot comprehend the Infiniteness of God I place him among incorporeal Substances or Spirits because he hath been pleased to place himself in that rank God is a Spirit Of which place T. H. giveth his opinion that it is unintelligible and all others of the same nature and fall not under humane understanding They who deny all incorporeal Substances can understand nothing by God but either Nature not Naturam naturantem that is a real Author of Nature but Naturam naturatam that is the orderly

that is Gods Vicegerent upon Earth and hath next under God the Authority of governing Christian Men and to observe for a Rule that Doctrine which in the Name of God he hath Commanded to be taught and thereby to examine and try out the truth of those Doctrines which pretended Prophets with miracle or without shall at any time advance c. And if he disavow them then no more to obey their Voice or if he Approve them then to obey them as Men to whom God hath given a part of the Spirit of their Soveraign Upon his Principles the case holdeth as well among Jews and Turks and Heathens as Christians Then he that Teacheth Transubstantiation in France is a true Prophet he that Teacheth it in England a false Prophet He that Blasphemeth Christ in Constantinople a true Prophet he that doth the same in Italy a false Prophet Then Samuel was a false Prophet to Contest with Saul a Soveraign Prophet So was the Man of God who submitted not to the more Divine and Prophetick Spirit of Jeroboam And Elijah for Reproving Ahab Then Michaiah had but his deserts to be clapt up in Prison and fed with Bread of Affliction and Water of Affliction for daring to Contradict God's Vice-gerent upon Earth And Jeremiah was justly thrown into a Dungeon for Prophecying against Zedekiah his Liege Lord. If his Principles were true it were strange indeed that none of all these Princes nor any other that ever was in the World should understand their own Priviledges And yet more strange that God Almighty should take the part of such Rebellious Prophets and justifie their Prophesies by the Event if it were true that none but the Soveraign in a Christian the Reason is the same for Jewish Commonwealth can take notice what is or what is not the Word of God T. H. To remove his Lordships doubt in the first place I confess there was true Prophesie and true Prophets in the Church of God from Abraham down to our Saviour the greatest Prophet of all and the last of the Old Testament and first of the New After our Saviour's time till the Death of St. John the Apostle there were true Prophets in the Church of Christ Prophets to whom God spake Supernaturally and Testified the truth of their Mission by Miracles Of those that in the Scripture are called Prophets without Miracles and for this cause only that they spake in the Name of God to Men and in the name of Men to God there are have been and shall be in the Church Innumerable Such a Prophet was his Lordship and such are all Pastors in the Christian Church But the Question here is of those Prophets that from the Mouth of God foretell things Future or do other Miracle Of this kind I deny there has been any since the Death of St. John the Evangelist If any Man find fault with this he ought to Name some Man or other whom we are bound to acknowledge that they have done a Miracle cast out a Devil or cured any Disease by the sole Invocation of the Divine Majesty We are not bound to trust to the Legend of the Roman Saints nor to the History written by Sulpitius of the Life of St. Martin or to any other Fables of the Roman Clergy nor to such things as were pretended to be done by some Divines here in the time of King James Secondly he says I make little difference between a Prophet and a Mad-man or Demoniack To which I say he accuses me falsly I say only thus much That I see nothing at all in the Scripture that requireth a belief that Demoniacks were any other thing than Madmen And this is also made very probable out of Scripture by a worthy Divine Mr. Meade But concerning Prophets I say only that the Jews both under the Old Testament and under the New took them to be all one with Mad-men and Demoniacks And prove it out of Scripture by many places both of the Old and New Testament Thirdly that the pretence or arrogating to ones self Divine Inspiration is argument enough to shew a Man is Mad is my opinion but his Lordship understands not Inspiration in the same sence that I do He understands it properly of God's breathing into a Man or pouring into him the Divine Substance or Divine Graces and in that sence he that arrogateth Inspiration into himself neither understands what he saith nor makes others to understand him which is properly Madness in some degree But I understand Inspiration in the Scripture Metaphorically for Gods guidance of our minds to Truth and Piety Fourthly whereas he says I make the pretence of Inspiration to be pernicious to Peace I answer that I think his Lordship was of my Opinion for he called those Men which in the late Civil War pretended the Spirit and New Light and to be the only faithful men Phanaticks for he called them in his Book and did call them in his Life time Phanaticks And what is a Phanatick but a Mad-man and what can be more pernicious to Peace than the Revelations that were by these Phanaticks pretended I do not say there were Doctrines of other Men not called Phanaticks as pernicious to Peace as theirs were and in great part a cause of those troubles Fifthly from that I make Prophetical Revelations subject to the examination of the Lawful Soveraign he inferreth that two Prophets prophecying the same thing at the same time in the Dominions of two different Princes the one shall be a true Prophet the other a false This consequence is not good for seeing they teach different Doctrines they cannot both of them confirm their Doctrine with Miracles But this I prove in the page 232 he citeth that whether either of their Doctrines shall be Taught Publickly or not 't is in the power of the Soveraign of the Place only to determine Nay I say now further if a Prophet come to any private Man in the Name of God that Man shall be Judge whether he be a true Prophet or not before he obey him See 1 John 4.1 Sixthly whereas he says that upon my grounds Christ was to be reputed a false Prophet every where because his Doctrine was received no where His Lordship had Read my Book more negligently than was fit for one that would confute it My ground is this that Christ in right of his Father was King of the Jews and consequently Supream Prophet and Judge of all Prophets What other Princes thought of his Prophesies is nothing to the purpose I never said that Princes can make Doctrines or Prophesies true or false but I say every Soveraign Prince has a right to prohibite the publick Teaching of them whether false or true But what an oversight is it in a Divine to say that Christ had the Approbation of no Soveraign Prince when he had the Approbation of God who was King of the Jews and Christ his Vice-Roy and the whole Scripture Written Joh. 20.31 to prove it

empty space in the Vial before it was sucked And then why does not the water rise to fill that when a man sucks the Vial he draws nothing out neither into his Belly nor into his Lungs nor into his Mouth only he sets the Air within the glass into a circular motion giving it at once an endeavour to go forth by the sucking and an endeavour to go back by not receiving it into his mouth And so with a great deal of labour glues his lips to the neck of the Vial. Then taking it off and dipping the neck of the Vial into the water before the circulation cease the Air with the endeavour it hath now gotten pierces the water and goes out And so much Air as goes out so much matter comes up into the room of it CHAP. IIII. Problems of Heat and Light A. WHat is the cause of Heat B. How know you that any thing is Hot but your self A. Because I perceive by sense it Heats me B. It is no good argument The thing Heats me therefore it is Hot. But what alteration do you find in your body at any time by being Hot A. I find my skin more extended in Summer than in Winter and am sometimes fainter and weaker then ordinary as if my Spirits were exhaled and I sweat B. Then that is it you would know the cause of I have told you before that by the motion I suppose both in the Sun and in the Earth the Air is dissipated and consequently that there would be an infinite number of small empty places but that the World being full there comes from the next parts other Air into the spaces they would else make empty When therefore this motion of the Sun is excercised upon the Superficies of the Earth if there do not come out of the Earth it self some corporal substance to supply that tearing of the Air we must return again to the admission of Vacuum If there do then you see how by this motion fluid bodies are made to exhale out of the Earth The like happens to a mans body or hand which when he perceives he says he is Hot. And so of the Earth when it sendeth forth Water and Earth together in Plants we say it does it by Heat from the Sun A. 'T is very probable and no less probable that the same action of the Sun is that which from the Sea and moist places of the Earth but especially from the Sea fetcheth up the water into the Clouds But there be many ways of Heating besides the action of the Sun or of Fire Two pieces of Wood will take Fire if in Torning they be prest together B. Here again you have a manifest laceration of the Air by the reciprocal and contrary motions of the two pieces of wood which necessarily causeth a coming forth of whatsoever is Aereal or fluid within them and the motion pursued a dissipation also of the other more solid parts into Ashes A. How comes it to pass that a man is warmed even to sweating almost with every extraordinary labour of his body B. It is easie to understand how by that labour all that is liquid in his body is tossed up and down and thereby part of it also cast forth A. There be some things that make a man Hot without sweat or other evaporation as Caustiques Nettles and other things B. No doubt But they touch the part they so Heat and cannot work that effect at any distance A. How does Heat cause light and that partially in some bodies more in some less though the Heat be equal B. Heat does not cause Light at all But in many Bodies the same cause that is to say the same motion causeth both together so that they are not to one another as cause and effect but are concomitant Effects sometimes of one and the same motion A. How B. You know the rubbing or heard pressing of the Eye or a stroke upon it makes an apparition of Light without and before it which way soever you look This can proceed from nothing else but from the restitution of the Organ pressed or stricken unto its former ordinary situation of parts Does not the Sun by his thrusting back the Air upon your eyes press them Or does not those bodies whereon the Sun shines though by reflection do the same though not so strongly And do not the Organs of Sight the Eye the Heart and Brains resist that pressure by an endeavour of restitution outwards Why then should there not be without and before the Eye an apparition of Light in this case as well as in the other A. I grant there must But what is that which appears after the pressing of the eye For there is nothing without that was not there before or if there were methinks another should see it better or as well as he or if in the dark methinks it should enlighten the place B. It is a fancy such as is the appearance of your face in a Looking-glass such as is a Dream such as is a Ghost such as is a spot before the Eye that hath stared upon the Son or Fire For all these are of the Regiment of Fancy without any body concealed under them or behind them by which they are produced A. And when you look towards the Sun or Moon why is not that also which appears before your Eyes at that time a fancy B. So it is Though the Sun it self be a real Body yet that bright Circle of about a foot Diameter cannot be the Sun unless there be two Suns a greater and a lesser And because you may see that which you call the Sun both above you in the Skie and before you in the Water and two Suns by distorting your Eye in two places of the Skie one of them must needs be Fancy And if one both All sense is Fancy though the cause be always in a real Body A. I see by this that those things which the Learned call the Accidents of Bodies are indeed nothing else but diversity of Fancy and are inherent in the Sentient and not in the Objects except Motion and Quantity And I perceive by your Doctrine you have been tampering with Leviathan But how comes Wood with a certain degree of Heat to shine and Iron also with a greater degree but no Heat at all to be able to make water shine B. That which shineth hath the same Motion in its parts that I have all this while supposed in the Sun and Earth In which Motion there must needs be a competent degree of swiftness to move the sense that is to make it visible All Bodies that are not fluid will shine with Heat if the Heat be very great Iron will shine and Gold will shine but water will not because the parts are carried away before they attain to that degree of swiftness which is requisite A. There are many fluid Bodies whose parts evaporate and yet they make a flame as Oyl and Wine and other

in pieces A. 'T is like enough to be so And if nature have betrayed her self in any thing I think it is in this and in that other experience of the Cross-bow which strongly and evidently demonstrates the internal reciprocation of the Motion which you suppose to be in the internal parts of every Hard body And I have observed somewhat in Looking-glasses which much confirms that there is some such Motion in the internal parts of Glass as you have supposed for the cause of Hardness For let the Glass be AB and let the Object at C be a Candle and the Eye at D. Now by divers Reflections and Refractions in the two superficies of the Glass if the Lines of Vision be very oblique you shall see many images of the Candle as E F G in such order and position as is here described But if you remove your Eye to C and the Candle to D they will appear in a situation manifestly different from this Which you will yet more plainly perceive if the Looking-Glass be coloured as I have observed in Red and Blew Glasses and could never conceive any probable cause of it till now you tell me of this secret Motion of the parts across the grain of the Glass acquired by cooling it this or that way B. There be very many kinds of Hard bodies Metals Stones and other kinds in the bowels of the Earth that have been there ever sence the beginning of the World and I believe also many different sorts of Juices that may be made Hard But for one general cause of Hardness it can be no other then such an internal Motion of parts as I have already described whatsoever may be the cause of the several concomitant qualities of their Hardness in particular A. We see water Hardened every Frosty day It 's likely therefore you may give a pribable cause of Ice What is the cause of Freezing of the Ocean towards the Poles of the Earth B. You know the Sun being always between the Tropicks and as we have supposed always casting off the Air and the Earth likewise casting it off from it's self there must needs on both sides be a great Stream of Air towards the Poles shaving the superficies of the Earth and Sea in the Northern and Southern Climates This shaving of the Earth and Sea by the Stream of Air must needs contract and make to shrink those little Circles of the internal parts of Earth and Water and consequently Harden them first at the superficies into a thin skin which is the first Ice and afterwards the same Motion continuing and the first Ice co-operating the Ice becomes thicker And this I conceive to be the cause of the Freezing of the Ocean A. If that be the cause I need not ask how a Bottle of water is made to Freeze in warm weather with Snow or Ice mingled with Salt For when the Bottle is in the midst of it the Wind that goeth out both of the Salt and of the Ice as they dissolve must needs shave the superficies of the Bottle and the Bottle work accordingly on the water without it and so give it first a thin skin and at last thicken it into a solid piece of Ice But how comes it to pass that water does not use to Freeze in a deep Pit B. A deep Pit is a very thick Bottle and such as the Air cannot come at but only at the top or where the Earth is very loose and spungy A. Why will not Wine Freeze as well as Water B. So it will when the Frost is great enough But the internal Motion of the parts of Wine and other Heating Liquors is in greater Circles and stronger then the Motion of the parts of water and therefore less easily to be Frozen especally quite through because those parts that have the strongest Motion retire to the center of the Vessel CHAP. VI. Problems of Rain Wind and other WEATHER A. WHat is the original cause of Rain and how is it generated B. The motion of the Air such as I have described to you already tending to the dis-union of the parts of the Air must needs cause a continual endeavour there being no possibility of Vacuum of whatsoever fluid parts there are upon the face of the Earth and Sea to supply the place which would else be empty This makes the water and also very small and loose parts of the Earth and Sea to rise and mingle themselves with the Air and to become mist and Clouds Of which the greatest quantity arise there where there is most water namely from the large parts of the Ocean which are the South Sea the Indian Sea and the Sea that divideth Europe and Africa from America over which the Sun for the greatest part of the year is perpendicular and consequently raiseth a greater quantity of water Which afterwards gathered into Clouds falls down in Rain A. If the Sun can thus draw up the water though but in small drops why can it not as easily hold it up B. It is likely it would also hold them up if they did not grow greater by meeting together nor were carried away by the Air towards the Poles A. What makes them gather together B. It is not improbable that they are carried against Hills and there stopt till more overtake them And when they are carried towards the North or South where the force of the Sun is more oblique and thereby weaker they descend gently by their own weight And because they tend all to the center of the Earth they must needs be united in their way for want of room and so grow bigger And then it Rains A. What is the reason it Rains so seldom but Snows so often upon very high Mountains B. Because perhaps when the water is drawn up higher then the highest Mountains where the course of the Air between the Aequator and the Poles is free from stopping the Stream of the Air Freezeth it into Snow And 't is in those places only where the Hills shelter it from that Stream that it falls in Rain A. Why is there so little Rain in Egypt and yet so much in other parts nearer the Aequinoctial as to make the Nile overflow the Countrey B. The cause of the falling of Rain I told you was the the stopping and consequently the collection of Clouds about great Mountains especially when the Sun is near the Aequinoctial and thereby draws up the water more potently and from greater Seas If you consider therefore that the Mountains in which are the springs of Nile lye near the Aequinoctial and are exceeding great and near the Indian Sea you will not think it strange there should be great store of Snow This as it melts makes the Rain of Nile to rise which in April and May going on toward Egypt arrived there about the time of the Solstice and overflow the Countrey A. Why should not the Nile then overflow that Countrey twice a year For it comes twice