Fire next aboue the Heate to Liuely'hood turnes Fire super-eminent which to reueale No Frailtie can kindleth with Loue and Zeale The antient Cabalists and Rabbins say Who knew the old Law well for those were they Who tooke vpon them to explain't That He Whose high incomprehended Maiestie Is beyond all dimention when he gaue Moses direction In what forme hee 'd haue His Tabernacle fashion'd that the same Was a meere modell of the whole Worlds frame For instance 'T was into three parts diuided So the large Vniuerse Diuinely guided On three parts doth subsist answering to those God in the former Fabricke did dispose Now as that part which is sublunary Being lowest of the three doth alwaies vary As subiect to corruption and mutation By reason of the Elements alteration As seene in Life begun then Death pursuing Th' originall of things and then their ruin And these in a vicissitude Euen so The Arkes first part as suting this below Was without couerings open to the aire And subiect to all weathers foule as faire For in that Court there was no difference had The Iust and Vniust met the Good and Bad Prophane and Holy Creatures of all fashion Were to this place brought in whose Immolation And Sacrifice was then exprest the qualitie Of Life and Death the Type of our Mortalitie Now of the contrary two Regions be Or Temples which comparatiuely we As in the former references call Coelestiall and Super-coelestiall And these are plac'd in eminent degree Beyond the rage of force or iniury Of Alteration or the staine of Sinne Since the proud Lucifer first fell therein And was precipitate thence So that the two Parts of this earthly Tabernacle do Answer the former as alike extended 'Gainst shoures storms haile snow cold heat defended By a faire Roofe so that all sordid base And vncleane things in them can find no place Againe as both are Holy yet the one Is ' boue the other Sacred being the Throne Or place of the blest Angels seated higher In which they in a most harmonious Quire Sing Halleluia's so in this below There be two holy roomes as all men know The first of them we onely Holy call The other Holy Holiest of all Againe as this Terrestriall world doth yeeld As well to Men as brute Beasts of the field Both house and harbor and the next aboue In which the seuen bright errant Planets moue Shines with coelestiall splendor but the third Beyond these two blest Mansions doth afford Vnto the Angels Hierarchy The same Was visible in Moses curious Frame In the first Court thereof were frequent Men And Beasts together in the second then The Candlestickes with seuen Lights did shine cleare But in the third most Holy did appeare The Cherubims with wings far stretcht Againe As Moses so the Scripture tells vs plaine Ten Curtaines to his sacred Machine made So in the three parts of the world are said To be no lesse than ten distinct Degrees And first of the Super-Coelestiall these Th' Angels Arch-Angels and the Principates Thrones Dominations Vertues Potestates The Cherubims and Seraphims Then He Aboue all these the supreme Deity In the Coelestiall ten and thus they run Luna Mercury Venus and the Sun Mars Ioue and Saturne Then the Starry Heauen Crystalline and Empyriall make them euen In this below the Moone where we now liue Are likewise ten Degrees to whom we giue These Characters first the foure Elements Mystae Impressions Herbs Fruits Trees and Plants Beasts Reptile Creatures and the tenth and last Materia prima so their number 's cast Againe as in this Tabernacle were Iust fifty strings or taches which did beare So many Rings by which the Curtaines hung All vniformly and in order strung So this Worlds Fabricke subiect to fraile end Of fifty Rings or â—oinctures doth depend And of these twenty Vniuersall are Twenty and nine be styl'd Particular Generall the last The first twice ten amount Thus in their order and by iust account Vnitie in it selfe Parts with Parts knit Essence with Essence and the next to it Proprietie with Essence Forme not estrang'd From Subiect the Transforming with Transchang'd Art with the subiect Matter dealing sole Parts Separable annexed to the Whole Inseparable parts on th' Whole depending The Cause ioyn'd to th' Effect and that extending To the Intrinsicke then the Inward Cause Ioyn'd to the Effect but subiect to the Lawes Of a Beginning Cause Finall with respect Only vnto the Primarie Effect Then the Cause Finall which doth neuer vary From the Effect which is call'd Secondary The Primarie Effect with the Cause met The Secondary Effect in order set Euen with the Cause Forme likewise that 's ally'd To Forme the Middle with the Extremes comply'd The thing Corruptible on that to wait Which no Corruption can participate c. The rest particular Coniunctions be Still corresponding vnto each degree Of the Worlds triple Regions Ten Terrestriall Coelestiall Ten Supercoelestiall Nine onely That which thirty makes complete As the most Generall titled is the great Coniunction of the world with him that Made it Of the Foundation and the God that Laid it All these particular steps seeming perplext Thus you shall finde amongst themselues connext 'Twixt the first Matter and the Elements there A Chaos is twixt th' Elements appeare And what 's call'd Mixt Impressions Now betweene The stones and Earth a kinde of Chalke is seene 'Twixt Earth and Mettals that which th' Artist calls Margasites with other Mineralls 'Twixt Stones and Plants Male-Pimpernell hath place 'Twixt Plants and Anaimals Zophita's race Participating both being such as haue Both sence and growth and yet are forc't to craue Their nutriment with their encrease and chering From their owne roots but to the stones inhering Creatures that Water and of Earth partake Are Otters Beauers Tortoises who make Vse of two Elements 'Twixt Sea and Aire The Flying Fish that doth to both repaire Betwixt meere Animals and Man is set The Ape the Monkey and the Marmoset Betwixt the Bruits that onely haue quicke sence And those that haue a pure intelligence Man hath his place From the first propagation There is of things a tenfold generation The first composure hath a true descent From the first Matter and from Accident And Cinis call'd The next exsists of three Matter Forme Accident such th' Elements be From two sole Elements the third hath being Vapor and Exhalation one agreeing With Aire and Water th' other doth aspire To take his nature from the Aire and Fire The fourth his essence and existence shrouds Beneath three Elements such be the Clouds The fifth to their Creation haue accited The whole foure to their naturall formes vnited Such Mettalls be and Stones Plants they suruiue By vertue of a Body Vegetatiâ—e The seuenth hath Life and Sence and doth include Beasts of all kinde Irrationall and Rude The eighth Gods Image of far
firmament Hee is called for his loue to Musicke the Musical Signe and is beautified with nine bright stars according to the number of the Muses Andromedae vero radiat quae stella sub ipsa Albo fulget AEquus tres Hormo sed latera AEquus Distingunt spatijs The Horse is called Equus dimidius because his fore-parts are onely seene and the rest concealed Aratus saith that he was made a Star Because that in the top of the Heliconian mountaine striking a rocke with his right hoofe he brought forth water which after grew to a Well dedicated to the Muses and the liquor thereof called Hypocrene But Euripides would confer this honour vpon Menalippe the daughter of Chiron who according to the Centaure her fathers shape was halfe Mare halfe Maid She being stuprated and growing great as ready to be deliuered fled into the Mount Pelion to secure her selfe from the displeasure of her father and being pittied by the gods was lifted vp amongst the Signes bearing an Equinall shape but her hinder parts for modesties sake are altogether obscured and concealed Est etiam propriore deum cognoscere signo Deltoton si quis donum hoc spectabile Nili Divitibus veneratum vndis in sede notarit Aboue the head of the Ram not far from the feet of Andromeda bordereth that Signe which the Greekes for the resemblance that it hath to the letter Delta call Deltoton but the Latines in regard of the propernesse of the forme name it Triangulum a Triangle Some say it is the figure of AEgypt proportioned out in Stars in Trigono or three angles The channell also of Nilus as some say disposeth it selfe after the same forme It was placed where it now shines by Mercury at the command of Iupiter Diverso posita Boreae vicina legenti Auster Pistrix agit Vnder Aries and Pisces and aboue the Floud Padus or Eridanus is Pistrix or the Whale placed in the region of the starry Heauen This is said to be the Sea Monster sent to Cepheus by the enuy of the Nereides because Cassiopeia and Andromeda preferred their owne beauties before theirs who was slaine by Perseus Planxere ignotes Asiae Phaetondides vndis Eridanus medius liquidis interjacet Astris The Floud placed beneath the Whale in the region of the heauen to which the right foot of Orion is extended of Aratus and Pherecides is called Eridanus Padus and therefore there seated because it directeth his channell and course towards the parts Meridionall But Hesiod giueth his reason and saith It was so honoured for Phaeton the sonne of Phoebus and Climene who ascending the Chariot of his father and being lifted so exceeding high from the earth through feare fell from his seat being also strook with a bolt by Iupiter into the floud Padus or Eridanus when by that meanes all things were set on fire and began to burne all the springs and riuers of the earth were let loose to extinguish the same Which made such a deluge that it ouerflowed the whole face of the earth by which means all mankind was said to perish sauing Deucalion and Pyrrha The sisters of Phaeton after extreme weeping and lamenting for their brother were changed into Poplar trees and their teares hardned into Amber They were called Heliades and their names Merope Helie AEgle AEgiale Petre Phoebe Cherie Diosippe Cignus also K. of Liguria a neere kinsman of theirs in his depth of lamentation for Phaeton was metamorphised into a Swan from whom al Swans borrow their sad mournfull notes Some thinke this floud to be Nilus which is also Gyon and therefore stellified because it directeth his course from the Meridian It consisteth of many stars and lieth iust beneath the star called Canopus or Ptolomaea and toucheth some part of the Argoe or Ship It appeareth very low insomuch that it seemeth almost to touch the earth for which cause it is stiled Stella terrestris c. Sic vtrumque oritur sic occidit in freta sidus Tu parvum Leporem perpende sub Orione Lepus the Hare hath place beneath the feet of Orion and his Dog for those that feigned him to be an Huntsman so fashioned it that the Hare lieth beneath his feet Some deny that so great and noble a Hunter as Orion should spend his time in the chase of so fearefull and wretched a beast as the Hare Callimachus in speaking of the praise of Diana accuseth him for taking too much delight in killing Hares Some affirme she was translated into the Heauens by Mercury as Aratus in his Phenom for her extraordinarie velocitie and swiftnesse or else for her fruitfulnesse bringing forth some young and hauing others still immature in her belly for so Aristotle reporteth of her It is said also That in the antient times in the Island called Hiera there were no Hares at all but that a yong man of that City got a yong Liueret from a forreine countrey and brought it vp being a female till it was deliuered of young ones By whose example others making him their president fell into the like care of breeding them who in short time increased into a great multitude but the city being distressed by a narrow streight siege they were inforced to deuoure them all whom before they had so indulgently cherished Yet was the figure of the Hare after placed in the Firmament to put men in minde That no man ought to take too much pleasure in any thing least the losse of it after might breed their greater sorrow Tela caput magnisque humeris sic baltheus ardet Sic vagina ensis pernici sic pede fulget Orion who is also called Incola shineth before the Bull and deriueth his name ab Vrina or the inundation of waters He riseth in the Winter season disturbing both earth and sea with shoures and tempests The Romans call him Iugula because he is armed with a sword and sheweth bright and terrible in the splendor of his stars who if he appeare portendeth faire weather if hee be obscured stormes and tempest Hesiod maketh him the sonne of Neptune and Euriale to whom his father gaue that vertue to walk as stedfastly vpon the sea as the land Who comming to Chios comprest Merope the daughter of Oenopion for which iniurie Oenopion surprised him and put out his eyes banishing him from his confines Hee after comming to Lemnos by Apollo was restored to his sight and returning to Chios to auenge himselfe vpon his enemie the father of Merope who by the people of his Citie was hid in the earth him Orion not finding trauelled ouer into Creet where hunting and making hauocke of the Game was reprehended by Diana To whom he made answer That ere he departed from that Island he would not leaue one beast liuing vpon the mountains For which arrogant language Tellus or the Earth being much displeased sent a Scorpion of an vnmeasurable greatnesse which
concealed from the knowledge of the Ciuill Magistrate A third is The pulchritude order effect propagation conseruation and duration of the things in the world A fourth The distinction of euery Species which we see daily and yearely to propagate and multiply vpon the earth A fifth The Societies Kingdomes and Empires which are not planted and setled rashly or by chaunce confirmed sustained and changed A sixt The great and remarkable punishments of impious and wicked malefactors who though they escape the hand of the temporall Iudge here below yet cannot escape the rod of the Auenger aboue for it is a generall rule obserued as well in Moralitie as Diuinitie That for the most part heinous sinnes haue horrible punishments impending which neuer could be executed if God were not the Executioner of his owne Iustice. The seuenth The blessing and benefits conferred vpon good and godly men nay euen amongst meere Naturalists we see honour and offices bestowed vpon such as are meriting and wel meaning The eighth is The Order of Causes which in the nature of things doth not proceed into Infinites but of necessity they comply and returne to some prime Mouer by which they are gouerned and in which they insist Lastly Prodigies and Signes which forewarne great strange accidents as Eclipses Comets Earthquakes Gapings and openings of the earth in which whole Cities and Islands haue beene swallowed vp in an instant monstrous and prodigious births c. But I now proceed to speake something concerning the Vnitie of the Godhead This is hee of whom Petrarch speaketh in these words Who sees and heares vs before we speake He who said vnto Moses being silent Why do'st thou call vnto me He preuents our words and anticipates our actions Hee who knowes our very thoughts afar off long before they be conceiued He who heares our prayers before they yeeld any sound Hee who spieth our necessities before they appeare vnto our selues He who knows our ends before wee finde our beginnings and though Hee prooues vs to be wretched and vnworthy yet is alwaies ready to shew vs his grace and mercie And this is the sole God of Loue and Vnitieâ— of whom Boethius thus speakes Quod Mundus stabili fide Concordes variat vices Quod pugnantes semina Foedus perpetuum tenent c. That the World with stable Faith Concordant courses varied hath And that the wearing seeds of things From a perpetuall couenant springs Why Phoebus in his golden Throne The Roseat Morne and Day brings on Or Why those Stars that Hesperus Doth vsher forth to shine on vs The Moone takes charge of all the night Or why the Waues that hourely fight And with impetuous clamors rore To menace not inuade the shore For further than it's limited bounds No spot of Earth the Water drownds 'T is Loue that Soueraigne Empire hath Of Heauen Earth Sea that calmes their wrath And in a league of vnitee Bindes all the states of things that be ¶ So the Poet Claudian Nonne vides operum c. See'st not the World in glorious splendor shine Not by Force gouern'd but by Loue Diuine How vncompel'd in a most sweet desire From Age to Age the Elements conspire And how the trauelling Phoebus is content With his mid-road-way through the Firmament To no hand erring How the Sea 's restrain'd As willingly in his owne bounds contein'd And how the Aire wandring throughout the world Is hourely this way tost and that way hurld c. Pythagoras Samius in his Metempsuchosis or transmigration of Bodies as Cicero witnesseth of him was wont to say oftenâ— There is one God and not as many thinke without the administration of the world but Totus in Toto All in All. His Scholer Philolaus affirmed no lesse thus speaking There is one God Prince of the Vniuerse who is euer Singular Immouable and like onely vnto Himselfe Lactantius Diuinar Institut lib. 1. cap. 4. saith That Seneca the Philosopher though in his Writings hee inuocated many gods yet to shew that he beleeued but One you shall reade him thus Do'st thou not vnderstand the Maiestie and Authoritie of thy Iudge the Rector and Gouernor of Heauen and Earth the God of gods of whom all inferiour Deities adored amongst vs haue their dependance Againe in his Exhortations He when he first layd the foundation of this beautifull Machine and began that than which Nature neuer knew a Worke greater or better yet that all things might be gouerned by Captaines and Commanders though his sole Prouidence as He created so still guideth all he begot other gods as his Ministers and Superintendents Damascenus a Greeke Author writeth thus One hath produced all things who is adored in silence and is as the Sun which directly looked vpon is scarce seen the neerer the more obscurely but next it taketh away the very apprehension of the Opticke senses Iamblicus de Secta Pythagorica saith That there is of all things one Cause one God the Lord of all of whom euery good thing ought to be petitioned According to that of Horrace Epistol ad Lollium Sed satis est orare Iovem qui donat anfert Det vitam det opes c. Sufficient'tis if we to Ioue do pray Who life and wealth can giue or take away And Ovid lib. de Art Amand. facilè est omnia posse Deo An easie thing it is to God to do all things He is likewise the aime and end of all Contemplation nor is He any other thing to be contemplated than as an Abstract from a Multitude to an Vnitie This Vnitie therefore is God himselfe Prince of all Truth Felicitie Substance and of all Beginnings To this that of Lucan seemeth to allude si numina nasci Credimus To thinke the gods were borne we should be mad Most certaine 't is they no beginning had Heare what Proclus saith Who is the King The sole God of all things who notwithstanding he is separate from them yet from Himselfe produceth all things and to Himselfe conuerteth all Ends The End of Ends and first Cause of Agitation and Working and Author of all Good If thou dar'st beleeue Plato He is neither to be expressed nor apprehended Therefore this prime Simplicitie is sole King Prince and Ex-superance of all things that haue being He is supereminent ouer all Causes and hath created the substance of the gods so far as there is in them any apparance of Good Porphyrâ—us in his Booke wherein he discribeth the life of his Master Plotinus saith That God in his Vnitie hath generated and produced Many but so that this multitude cannot subsist if this Vnitie doth not still remaine One. And That they neither are of themselues nor haue any power to make others blest and happy Boethius hath these words Sedet Interia Conditor altus rerum regens flectit habenas Rex Dominus Fons Origo c. In th' Interim sits the Builder high And
For diuers Authors are in this agreeing Mans generation hath been multiply'de Aboue all other Animals beside Saith Daniel Thousand thousands Him before Stand and 'bout him ten thousand thousands more Which Thousand he thus duplicates to show Their countlesse number which our dull and slow Nature wants facultie to aphrehend As likewise when he further would extend Their Legions Miriads he to Miriads layes Noting to vs of those that sound his praise The infinite Armies like a Circle round The number ending where it first was found In Iohn 't is read A mighty voice I heard Of many Angels and their Troupes appear'd To be of thousand thousands Iob said well The number of his Souldiers who can tell 'Mongst others one much daring his bold Pen Seem'd to out-strip his Vnderstanding when He would confine each Chorus to containe The meere Chimaera of an idle braine Saying To each belongs in these blest Regions Six thousand six hundred sixty and six Legions Each Legion too doth bee'ng exactly told Six thousand six hundred sixty six Angels hold But of their number let no man discusse Further than sacred Scripture warrants vs. It followes that I next make inquisition Into the Angels motion a Position Needfull to be examin'd Know then He Is not contain'd in place as Brutes and we But Place it selfe he in Himself containes Bee'ng said to be still where his Pow'r remaines And though it passe our weake ingeniositie Yet He is knowne to be of strange velocitie And without passing places can with ease Or go or come at all times when he please From heav'n to earth He can descend and bee Aboue and here in space vnmomentarie Hence thence He vndisturb'd hath passage faire Through both the elements of Fire and Aire Without incumbrance or the least molest And though it sinke not into th' Ethnycks brest Hee 's without circumscription vnconfin'd For if these Spirits Places had assign'd And so from one into another shifted How could they then so suddenly be lifted Into the vpper Heav'ns or thence apply Themselues to th' earth in twinkling of an eye It is agreed vpon the Good and Euill The blessed Angell as the cursed Diuell Haue all those faculties and without aine Or passing intermediat things can gaine To what they purpose in one instant round The spatious world and where they please be found Those that the Mathematicke Art prosesse Tell vs That 'twixt th' eight Heav'n and earth's no lesse Than one hundred and sev'nty millions 100 and three Of spacious miles mete by Geometrie By which account the mighty space extending Is from the watry and tenth Heav'n descending Ten times so much at least for if a stone Should from the starry and eight Heav'n be throwne And ev'ry houre passe without intermission One thousand miles in it's swift expedition In motion still without stay or re-calling It must be sixty fiue yeares in it's falling To amplifie what hath before been said Some Sectifts haue their ignorance betray'd Affirming Angels are not If they were They with the Soule of force must likewise beare Bodies about them too and so to bee Subiect vnto our visibilitie How vaine this is it may be eas'ly ghest When none that hath Philosophy profest But hold That there are Substances Diuine Intelligence call'd which neuer did incline Into commixtion or knowne to require Substance from th' Earth the Water Aire or Fire A second thing th' object That if so great Their number be as that the Aire 's repleat With infinit Armies 't must be needs confest That they should hourely whole Mankinde molest But these consider not He that created All things out of meere Nothing hath instated Them in such order distance and consent One to another's no impediment Neither is any of his great Works found That hath the pow'r to passe beyond his Bound As in the Waters element though far It'exceeds the Earth yet keepes within it's baâ— And though the proud waues with curl'd billowes rore Threatning as if to swallow vp the shore Yet by th' Almighties hand their pow'r is stay'd No Inundation or great Deluge made Vnlesse his Wrath some sudden vengeance brings Opening Heav'ns spouts and letting loose the Springs No maruell then that Spirits be in number So many that the very Aire they comber And they to vs and we to them so odious They neither hurtfull are nor discommodious Their Malice not bee'ng able to withstand Those bounds prefixt by the Almighties hand For so much in Iobs Historie is found When Sathan saith he hath compast the earth round He doth not say In his large progresse hee Hath done to Man least discommoditie Or harme at all not that he wanted Will But in himselfe the Pow'r to hurt or kill Nor durst he touching Ioâ— make inquisition Till he from God himselfe had free permission Who gaue him limit and his fury sâ—aid Vpon his outward Fortunes when he said Lo all he hath now at thy â—â—â—cy stand Onely against his person 〈◊〉 hand Againe when He 〈◊〉 Body to him gaue Captiue his Life he did command him saue Whence we may ground Though this rebellious Prince Great Lucifer with his Adherents since Their Fall retaine th' abilitie and pow'r To measure th' Earth in least part of an houre Yet without leaue they neither dare nor can Vse the least violence on Gods creature Man Next touching the rare knowledge which insists In them by nature Some Theologists Affirme them pregnant in Theologie Philosophie Mathematicks Astrologie In Musicke they are skill'd expert in Physicke In Grammer Logicke and Arithmeticke Nay he that is among them the most low Contemn'd and vile more than weake Man doth know Nor are their reasons vaine for in respect A Spirit is but a meere Intellect Not burden'd with a body of agilitie Nimble and quicke therefore with much facilitie In all materials he acquainted is From the Earths superficies to th' Abisse He knowes such vertues as in Stones abide Gems Minerals creeping Wormes and Beasts for hide From him you nothing can for he doth vant Still in the Marble Porphyre Adamant The Corall Pumice and the Chrysolit The Smarage Topaz and the Margarit The Onyx Carbuncle Gold Siluer Lead Brasse Iron and Sulphur He is likewise read In the proprieties of Creeping things Ants Toads Snakes Serpents all that the earth brings Of all the sev'rall Fishes he hath notion Bred in fresh waters or the briny Ocean Of Beasts the sundry qualities he findes Lions Beares Tygres Camels Horses Hindes The Elephant the Fox Ape Asse Mule Cat Sheepe Wolfe Hare Hedge-hog with each other that The Earth produceth So in Herbs and Trees Plants Leaues Fruits Roots Seeds juices Liquors these No Artist hath like skill in He can tell The sev'rall qualities of Fowles and well Distinguish them as such and such belong To the Earth Aire or Water He is strong In further knowledge of the Elements As in their pow'r their natures and extents
in such great adoration Okumanteia call'd seemes to haue sprung As likewise those by th' antient Magi sung Onichomanteia Libonomantia Capnomantia Piromantia And Thurifumia But I cannot dwell On circumstance their sev'rall Rites to tell Spirits of th' Aire are bold proud and ambitious Envious tow'rd Mankinde Spleenfull and malicious And these by Gods permission not alone Haue the cleare subtill aire to worke vpon By causing thunders and tempestuous showr's With harmefull windes 't is also in their pow'rs T' affright the earth with strange prodigious things And what 's our hurt to them great pleasure brings Of their so rare effects Stories are full Amongst the Attribates it rained wooll In good Saint Ambrose time two armies â—ought In the aires Region and great terror brought Vnto all France Hugh Capet making claime Vnto the Crowne if we may credit Fame And Histories which are not writ in vaine There fell from heav'n great store of Fish and Graine Philostratus in whom was found no flaw Writes Apollonius 'mongst the Brachmans saw Two Tombes which opened windes disturb'd the aire But shut the sky was calme the season faire Eunapius and Suidas both record How Sepater could with one Magicke word Command the Windes and was adiudg'd to dye Because he kept them fast when as supplye Of corne vnto Byzantium should be brought But to spare these had we no further sought Than sacred Historie In Iob we finde How Sathan did stir vp a mighty winde Which where his sonnes and daughters feasting were Did the whole house demolish rend and teare The Finnes and Laplands are acquainted well With such like Sp'rits and Windes to Merchants fell Making their cov'nant When and how they please They may with prosp'rous weather crosse the feas As thus They in an hand-kerchiefe fast ty Three knots vnloose the first and by and by You finde a gentle gale blow from the shore Open the second it encreaseth more Fo fill your sailes When you the third vntye Th' intemperat gusts grow vehement and hye Of Ericus the King of Goths 't is said That as he turn'd his hat the winde he stayd Nor did there euer any neere him know The piercing aire vpon his face to blow It is reported of learn'd Zoroaster Who of art Magicke was the first Art-master That by such Spirits in a stormy day And mighte whirle-winde he was borne away And from this kinde that diuination springs Call'd AEromantia by which thousand things Haue been conjectur'd from the conjur'd Aire When mustring Armies in the clouds repaire Chariots and such to iudge what shall befall From them they Terotoscopeia call A third there is I almost had forgot Ornithomanteia when by Birds they wot Spirits that haue o're Water gouernment Are to Mankinde alike maleuolent They trouble Seas Flouds Riuers Brookes and Wels Meeres Lakes and loue t' enhabit watry Cels Thence noisome and pestiferous vapors raise Besides they Man encounter diuers wayes At wrackes some present are another sort Ready to crampe their joints that swim for sport One kinde of these th' Italians Fatae name Feé the French We Sibils and the same Others White Nymphs and those that haue them seen Night-Ladies some of which Habundia Queene And of this sort are those of which discusse Plutarch and out of him Sabellicus Numa Pompilius who did oft inuite The best of Rome to feast with him by night Neuer made vse of market to afford Rich choice of dainties to his sumptuous bord Each tastefull Delicat that could be thought Without all cat'ring or prouiding ought Did of their owne accord themselues present To giue th' invited ghests their full content To all their admiration Which is said Was onely by the Nymph Egeria's aid With whom he had conuerse and she we finde Of force must be a Spirit of this kinde Scotus Parmensis but few yeares ago As some report his Magicke Art to show Practis'd the like inuited mighty States And feasted them with princely Delicates And yet these seeming viands were of all That tasted them merely phantasticall Though they rose sated yet no sooner thence Departed but they had no feeling sence Of feeding Hunger or of quenching thirst But found themselues more empty than at first And with such banquets as Philostratus Writes was Apollonius Tyanaeus Receiued by the Brachmans With like cheare Petrus Albanus and Pasaetis were Custom'd to feast their Ghests And of this sort Namely White Nymphs Boëthius makes report In his Scotch Historie Two Noblemen Mackbeth and Banco-Stuart passing then Vnto the Pallace where King Duncan lay Riding alone encountred on the way In a darke Groue three Virgins wondrous faire As well in habit as in feature rare The first of them did curtsie low her vaile Vnpinn'd and with obeisance said All haile Mackbeth Thane Glâ—vius The next said All haile Caldarius Thane The third Maid Not the least honor vnto thee I bring Mackbeth all haile that shortly must be King These spake no more When Banco thus reply'de Ill haue ye done faire Ladies to diuide Me from all honors How comes he thus growne In your great grace to promise him a Crowne And I his sole companion as you see Yet you in nothing daigne to guerdon mee To whom the first made answer Yes we bring To thee much happier Fate for though a King Mackbeth shall be yet shall he reigne alone And leaue no issue to succeed his Throne But thou ô Banco though thou dost not sway Thy selfe a Scepter yet thine Issue may And so it shall thine Issue do not feare Shall gouerne Scotland many an happy yeare This spoke all vanisht They at first amas'd At the strange Nouell each on other gas'd Then on they road accounting all meere fictions And they vaine Spectars false in their predictions And sporting by the way one jeasted thus Haile King of Scotland that must gouerne vs. To whom the other Like salutes to thee Who must of many Kings the Grandsire bee Yet thus it happen'd after Duncan slaine By Mackbeth he vsurpt and 'gan to raigne Though the dead King had left two sonnes behinde More seriously then pondring in his minde The former apparition casts about How Banco of the Scotch Peeres the most stout Might be cut off doth solemnely inuite Him and his sonne Fleanchus one sad night Vnto a banquet where the Father dies But shadow'd by the darknesse the Sonne flies Now the small sand of Mackbeths glasse bee'ng run For he was slaine by Malcolme Duncans son In processe the Crowne lineally descended To Banco's Issue and is yet extended In ample genealogie remaining In most renowned CHARLES amongst vs reigning My promis'd brevitie be mine excuse Else many stories I could here produce Of the like nature purport and condition For we may reade Ollarus the Magition Commanded like Familiars who 't is sed With his inchanted
all praise to him is due The sev'rall Classes that are held Amongst the Angels that rebel'd Of Lucifer the principall And his strange figure since his Fall Of such as most in pow'r excell And of their gouernment in hell Their Order Offices and Names With what prioritie each claimes The list of those that fell from blisse The knowledge that in Daemons is And how far stretcht Next of their wrath Tow'rds Mankinde and what bounds it hath Discov'ry of those ginnes and snares They lay t' entrap men vnawares Of Compacts common in all Ages And of the Astrologomages The Argument of the eighth Booke MICHAEL OF Sathans Wiles and Feats prestigious Appearing wondrous and prodigious Confirm'd by histories far sought Of Nouels by bad Daemons wrought And first of such is made expression That still with Mankinde seeke congression To whose fall they themselues apply Call'd Succubae and Incubi To finde those further we desire Of Water Earth the Aire and Fire And what their workings be to know As well aboue as here below How Authors 'mongst themselues agree What Genij and Spectars bee Faunes Sylvans and Alastores Satyrs and others like to these With stories mixt that grace may win From such as are not verst therein The Argument of the ninth Booke GABRIEL OF Spirits call'd Lucifugi From flying light I next apply My neere-tyr'd Pen of which be store In Mines where workmen dig for oare Of Robin Good-fellow and of Fairies With many other strange vagaries Done by Hob-goblins I next write Of a Noone-Diuell and a Buttry-Sp'rite Of graue Philosophers who treat Of the Soules essence and her seat The strange and horrid deaths related Of learn'd Magitions animated By Sathan the knowne Trutht ' abjure And study Arts blacke and impure Of Curious Science last the vanitie Grounded on nothing but incertaintie And that no Knowledge can abide the Test Like that in sacred Scripture is exprest The Seraphim Ex sumptib Tho Mainwaringe Armig THE ARGVMENT OF the first Booke A Ioue Principium the Creator Of all that liue sole Animator Atheisme and Sadducisme disputed Their Tenents argued and refuted A Deitie approv'd by all Gods Creatures in generall Into the world how false gods came And first began t' vsurpe that Name A Quaere made the world throughout To finde this God of whom some doubt 2 Argument The blessed Seraph doth imply The loue we owe to the most High INspire my Purpose fauour mine Intent O thou All-knowing and Omnipotent And giue me leaue that from the first of daies I Dust and Ashes may resound thy praise Able me in thy quarrell to oppose And lend me Armor-proofe t' encounter those Who striue t' eclipse thy glory all they can The Atheist Sadduce and Mahumetan That there 's a God who doubts who dares dispute Be'ng in it selfe a maxime absolute Which fundamentall Truth as it is seen In all things Light or Darke Wither'd or Green In Length Bredth Height Depth what is done or said Or hath existence in this Fabricke made By the word Fiat so amongst the rest In mans owne Conscience it is deep'st exprest Who 's he looks vp and sees a glorious Star Be 't fixt or wandering to appeare from far In bright refulgence can so stupid be Not to acknowledge this great Deity Who shall the Sun 's vnwearied progresse view As at the first creation fresh and new In lustre warmth and power still giuing chere To Plants to Beasts to Mankinde euery where Wh'obserues the Moon a lower course to range Inconstant and yet constant in her Change Ty'd to her monthly vicissitude And doth not thinke she also doth include A soueraigne power Looke downe the earth suruey The Floures Herbs Shrubs and Trees and see how they Yearely product The store of Herds and Flocks Grasing on pastures medowes hills and rocks Some wilde beasts others to mans vse made tame And then consider whence these creatures came Ponder the Wels Ponds Riuers Brooks Fountains The lofty Hils and super eminent Mountains The humble Valley with the spatious Plaine The faire cloath'd Medowes and full fields of graine The Gardens Desarts Forrests Shelues and Sands Fertilitie and Barrennesse of Lands Th' vnbounded Sea and vastitie of Shore All these expresse a Godhead to adore Be not in thy stupiditie deluded Thinke but how all these in one bulke included And rounded in a ball plac'd in the meane Or middle hauing nought whereon to leane So huge and pond'rous and yet with facilitie Remain immov'd in their first knowne stabilitie How can such weight that on no Base doth stand Be sway'd by lesse than an Almighty hand Obserue the Sea when it doth rage and rore As menacing to swallow vp the Shore For all the Ebbs and Tydes and Deeps profound Yet can it not encroch beyond his bound What brain conceiues this but the Power respects Which these things made moues gouerns and directs Do but ô man into thy selfe descend And thine owne building fully apprehend Comprise in one thy Body and thy Mind And thou thy selfe a little World shalt find Thou hast a nimble body to all motion Pliant and apt thou hast at thy deuotion A soule too in the which no motion 's seene But from all eyes hid as behind a skreene Th' effects we may behold from whose command The gestures come yet see we not the hand By which Th' are mov'd nor the chiefe Master He Who is prime Guide in our agilitie Is not so great of these things th'admiration So excellent a Worke of power to fashion Atheists anew and bring them to the way Let 's heare but what their owne Philosophers say One thus affirmes There 's no capacious place In Mans Intelligence able to embrace Th'incomprehensible Godhead and yet trace His steps we may his potencie still seeing In euery thing that hath on earth a being Saith Auicen He reason wants and sence That to a sole God doth not reuerence A third Who so to heav'n directs his eies And but beholds the splendor of the skies Almost incredible and doth not find There must of force be an Intelligent mind To guide and gouerne all things A fourth thus and the most learned of them doth discusse Seeming amongst the Heathen most to know There is a God from whom all good things flow To sing to the great God let 's neuer cease Who gouerns Cities People and gown'd Peace He the dull Earth doth quicken or make tame The Tempests and the windy Seas reclaime He hath the gouernment of States can quell Both gods and men his pow'r is seene in Hell Whose magnitude all visible things display He gouerns them with an impartial sway Where e're thou mov'st where so thou turnst thine eie Ev'n there is God there Ioue thou may'st espie His immense pow'r doth beyond limit run It hath no bound for what he wills is done What so thou seest throughout the world by day
Euen that doth him and only him obey If he please from the dull or fertile Earth Or Floures or Weeds spring Fruitfulnesse or Dearth If he please into Rocks hee 'l water poure Which like the thirsty Earth they shall deuoure Or from the dry stones he can water spout The wildernesse of Seas the world throughout Submits to him At his Imperious will The rough and blustring Winds are calme and still The Flouds obey him Dragons he can slaue And make th' Hyrcanian Tygres cease to raue He is in the most soueraigne place instated He sees and knowes all things he hath created Nor wonder if he know our births and ends Who measures Arctos how far it extends And what the Winters Boreas limits are What to this Deity may we compare Who doth dispose as well the Spade as Crowne Teaching the counsels both of Sword and Gowne For with inuisible Ministers he traces The world and spies therein all hidden places Of Alexander Aristotle thus writes It is not numb'red 'mongst his chiefe delights That he o're many Kings hath domination But That he holds the gods in adoration Who iustly on their proud contemners lower But vnto such as praise them they giue power The Times of old AEneas did admire Because he brought his gods through sword and fire When Troy was sackt and burnt for that one pietie They held him after death worthy a Dietie Pompilius for his reuerence to them done An honor from his people likewise wone He raign'd in peace and as some writers say Had conference with the Nymph Egeria For him who knew the gods how to intreat And truly serue no honor was too great But the gods Hater impious and prophane Mezentius was in battell rudely slaine And Capaneus after that he had Assaulted Thebes wall which the gods forbad Euen in the midst of all his glory fell And by a bolt from Heauen was strooke to Hell The great Epirus Arcades King we find For spoiling Neptunes Temple was strook blind And the Duke Brennus after many an act Of strange remarke as proud Rome hauing sackt And conquering Delphos yet because he dar'd To rob that Church Apollo would haue spar'd The god strooke him with madnesse who straight drew His warlike sword with which himselfe he slew The Temple of Tolossa in their pride Great Scipio's souldiers spoil'd and after dy'de All miserably And Alexander's when They Ceres Church would haue surpriz'd euen then Fell lightning from the skies which soon destroy'd All in that sacrilegious Act imployd Religion from the first of Time hath bin Howeuer blended with idolatrous sin Temples Synagogues Altars and Oblations Lustrations Sacrifices Expiations Howe're their zeale with many errors mixt None but vpon some god his mind hath fixt The Lybians Cretans and Idaeans they Had Ioue in adoration None bare sway Amongst the Argiues in Miceane but she That shares with Ioue imperiall soueraignty Iuno The Thebans honor'd Hercules They of Boetia the three Charites Th' AEgyptians Isis figured like a Cow The Thebans and the Arabes all bow To Bacchus Bimater the god of Wine Iönia Rhodes and Delphos held diuine Apollo solely Cyprus and Paphos boast Their Venus as amongst them honor'd most Th' Athenians and AEtolians celebrate Minerua Vnto Vulcan dedicate The Imbrians and the Lemnians all their vowes Fertile Sicilia no goddesse knowes Saue Proserpine Th' Elaeans Pluto make Their Soueraigne And the Boëtians take The Muses for their Guardiens All that dwell Neere to the Hellespont thinke none t' excell Saue Priapus In Rhodes Saturn hath praise Osyris aboue all th' AEgyptians raise The Latians and the warlike Thraciaus run To Mars his Shrine the Scythians to the Sun All the inhabitants of Delphos Isle Pray That Latona on their coasts will smile 'Mongst the Lacones Neptune sacred is And through all Asia powerfull Nemesis The Attici haue in high estimation Fortune Th' Eleusians haue in adoration Ceres The Phrygians Cybel Cupid Those That dwell at Colchos Th' Arcades haue chose Aristaeus Diana those of Ephesus The Epidaurians AEsculapius c. So many gods and goddesses did comber The Nations of the earth as that their number In iust account if Hesiod speake true Vnto no lesse than thirty thousand grew As touching Auguries and their abuse In the precedent Times in frequent vse To proue that study to be meerly vain Homer hath made great Hector thus complain The winged Birds thou bid'st me to obey But how they take their course or to which way I nor regard nor care whether their flight Be made vpon the left hand or the right Most requisit it is that I be swaide By the great thundring Ioues high will and wade No farther He hath empire ouer all And whom he list supporteth or makes thrall That 's the best Bird to me and flies most true Bids For my Countrey fight my Foes subdue E're further I proceed 't were not amisse If I resolue you what an Idol is And where they had beginning I haue read Of one Syrophanes in AEgypt bred Who as he nobly could himselfe deriue So was he rich and by all means did striue Like an indulgent Father with great care To make his sonne of all his Fortunes heire And when he had accumulated more Than all his Neighbours in his height of store And fulnesse of aboundance as his pride Was to leaue one t' inherit his Son dy'de And with him all his comfort because then He gone he thought himselfe the poor'st of men In this great sorrow which as oft we see Doth seeke for solace from necessitie He caus'd his statue to be carv'd in stone S'exactly made vnto the life that none But would haue took it for the childe agreeing So neere to him it was when he had being But the sad Father thinking to restraine That flux of teares which hourely pour'd amaine Downe his moist cheeks the course he tooke to cease it Presented him fresh matter to increase it Ignorant That to helpe the woe begon There is no cure like to Obliuion So far it was his moist eyes to keepe dry As that of teares it gaue him new supply And this we may from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 borrow The word to vs implying Cause of sorrow Whilest there this new made Image had abode The Seruants made of it their houshold god Some would bring fresh floures and before it strow Others left they in duty might seem slow Crowne it with wreathes and garlands others burne Incense to soothe their Lord who still did mourne And such as had offended him would fly Vnto that place as to a Sanctuary And after pardon seuerall gifts present As if that had been the sole Instrument Of their deliuery By which 't may appeare 'T was not Loues effect but th' effect of Feare To which Petronius seemes t'allude when he Obliquely taxing all Idolatry saith That throughout the
man who will venture to saile into an vnbounded Ocean when he hath gone as far as he can and can finde no end of his journey striueth to returne the same way and to arriue at the same port from whence hee first launched so the antient Philosophers and Orators striuing to find out the Essence and true nature of the great Deitie ouercome in their speech and confounded in their knowledge confessed at the last they could proceed no further in his search because it was incomprehensible and not within the compasse of their mortall capacities Iustine Martyr vseth this comparison As that which is one or the Monady is the beginning of all number yet helpeth nothing to the perfection thereof for if it were not the beginning of number yet notwithstanding it were perfect in it selfe or being made the beginning of number it is neither lessened nor augmented so God before the Creation was perfect in himselfe and after the Creation was not multiplied nor augmented and therefore none of these things whatsoeuer proceeding from the Creation can either encrease or adde vnto God D. Basilius maketh this similitude As there is no man who doth not onely praise but admire the Sunne his greatnesse his pulchritude the simmetry of his raies and splendor of his light notwithstanding if he shall with great diligence and constancie behold it the sharpnes of his sight shall be thereby much debilitated and abated Euen so saith he I finde my selfe much defected and disabled in my knowledge and vnderstanding when I earnestly labour and study to finde out what God is Of whom Thalasius saith Quod lux est videntibus visis c. The same thing the light is to the seer and things seene God is vnto the Intelligents and the Intellects who as he is vnknowne to vs according to his Essence so is he immense according to his Maiestie Iustine Martyr saith As this common Sun diurnally visible vnto all shineth neither more nor lesse vpon one man than another without partialitie or difference communicating his vertue equally vnto all yet such as are of the quickest and sharpest sight receiue more of his splendor than others not that he shines more brightly vpon them than the rest but by reason of their excellent perspicacitie and such as haue weake eyes are not sensible of so much lustre because of their dulnesse so ought wee to thinke of the Sunne of Iustice who is present indifferently to all according to his Essence but we mortall men dull and blinde sighted by reason of the sordid nature of our sinnes being vnfit to entertain the excellencie of his Diuine splendor yet his proper Church by the pure and cleare eye of Faith by the helpe and grace of the Holy-Ghost is much more able to entertain it For as the Sunne shining alike on all is not alike apparant vnto all so the Word according to the Essence thereof being present to all yet is it no where so truely and pathetically receiued and conceiued as in Gods proper Temple I conclude these with Plutarch As to some saith he it is lesse euill or dammage not to see at all than to see vnperfectly As it happened to Hercules who looking vpon his children and taking them for his enemies â—lew them So it is lesse sinne in man to beleeue there be no gods at all than knowing them and beleeuing them either so carelesly to despise them or so maliciously to offend them c. To such as shall dreame of many or more gods than one Saint Augustine giueth this answer Nec ideo Troia perijt quia Minervam perdidit c. Let no man be so vain and idle to imagine that Troy perished and was vtterly destroyed by reason of the stealing thence the statue of the goddesse Minervaâ— but let them first examine what the goddesse lost before they lost her If you say Her Keepers you then say true for her keepers being slain it was no maisterie to take her thence being but an Idoll neither was it the Idoll that kept the men but the men that kept the Idoll Against all reason therefore it was to adore such a statue for a Protectresse and Guardian of the place and people who was neither able to secure her selfe nor safegard those who had the charge of her Temple and person He addeth in another place That the kingdome of the Iewes was founded and established by and in one God alone and not many being protected by him so long as they truly serued him It was Hee who multiplied the people in Egypt whose women in their childe-birth invoked not Lucina neither did their men in passing the Red sea call vpon Neptune they solicited no Nymphs when they dranke water which gushed out of the rock neither did they sacrifice to Mars when they conquered Amalek but they atchieued more glorious victories by the power of their one and onely God than the Romans euer obtained at the hands of their multiplicitie of gods What need saith Lactantius hath the world of many gods vnles they imagin that one of himself is not able to vndergo so great a charge He that is not omnipotent cannot be a God and if he be omnipotent what need hath he of any partner If God in himselfe be omnipotent there can be but one for if the superiour Power be imparted amongst many then no one can be All-sufficient Besides the more they are in number by consquence they must be the weaker in power Concluding thus The diuine power which belongeth vnto God alone cannot be diuided among many for whatsoeuer is capable of diuision muw necessarily be subiect to corruption than which nothing can be more repugnant to the Diuine Nature Concerning which I obserue an excellent Emblem from Iacob Catsius Embl. lib. 3. with which I purpose to conclude this second Tractate The Emblem A Fisherman hauing fastened his boat by a rope vnto a great Rocke seeming to plucke the rocke which is immouable vnto him but draweth both himselfe and his vessel vnto it by the which he reacheth the shore The Motto Quod movet quiescit Concerning which Herman Paeinander vseth these words Omne motum non in moto movetur sed in quiescente id quod movet quiescit To which Buchanan alludeth in his Paraphrase vpon the 103 Psalme in these words Ille flammantis super alta Coeli Culmina Immotum solium locavit Et suo Nutu facilè vniversum Temperat Orbem The Lord hath prepared his Throne in Heauen and his Kingdome ruleth ouer all And Iames 1.17 Euery good giuing and euery perfect gift is from aboue and commeth downe from the Father of Lights with whom is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning The effect of which the Author thus explicates Tu Rupes qui cuncta trahis qui cuncta gubernas Et tamen intereate penes alta quies Nulla subit te cura Pater tamen omnia curas Astra solumque moves nec tibi motus
inest Thou art the Rocke draw'st all things all do'st guide Yet in deepe setled rest do'st still abide Vntoucht with care thou car'st for all that be Mov'st Heauen and Earth yet motion 's not in thee According with this is the saying of Seneca the Philosopher Necessitate non aliud effugium est quam velle quod ipsa cogit i. There is no other auoiding of necessity than to be willing to that which it compells thee to It is Catsius word vpon the foresaid Emblem Ad trahens abstrahor Vpon which I reade him thus Fata reluctantes rapiunt ducuntque sequentes Cedere qui non vult sponte coactus abit Fates the Rebellious force th' Obedient shield Who striue against them are compel'd to yeeld Seneca the Tragicke Poet in Oedip. we reade thus Fatis agimur cedite Fatis Non sollicitae possunt curae Mutare rati foedera Fusi Quicquid patimur mortale genus Quicquid facimus venit ex alto Yeeld to the Fates for they vs leade Not all our cares can change the thread Decreed vpon what euer wee Subiect to fraile mortalitie Suffer or act if rest or moue Euen all of it comes from aboue A Meditation vpon the former Tractate I ' Haue wandred like a Sheepe that 's lost To finde Thee out in euery Coast Without I haue long seeking him Whilest Thou the while abid'st Within Through euery broad Street and streit Lane Of this Worlds City but in vaine I haue enquir'd The reason why I sought thee ill for how could I Finde Thee Abroad when Thou meane space Hadst made Within thy dwelling place I sent my Messengers about To try if they could finde Thee out But all was to no purpose still Because indeed they sought Thee ill For how could they discouer Thee That saw not when thou entredst me Myne Eyes could tell me If He were Not Colour'd sure He came not there If not by Sound my Eares could say He doubtlesse did not passe my way My Nose could nothing of Him tell Because my God he did not Smell None such I Relisht said my Taste And therefore me He neuer past My Feeling told me That none such There entred for he none did Touch. Resolv'd by them how should I be Since none of all these are in Thee In Thee my God Thou hast no Hew That Mans fraile Opticke sence can view No Sound the Eare heares Odour none The Smell attracts all Taste is gone At thy Appearance where doth faile A Body how can Touch preuaile What euen the brute Beasts comprehend To thinke Thee such I should offend Yet when I seeke my God I'enquire For Light than Sunne and Moone much higher More cleare and splendrous ' boue all Light Which th' Eye receiues not 't is so bright I seeke a Voice beyond degree Of all melodious Harmony The Eare conceiues it not A Smell Which doth all other sents excell No Floure so sweet no Myrrh no Nard Or Aloes with it compar'd Of which the Braine not sensible is I seeke a Sweetnesse such a blesse As hath all other Sweets surpast And neuer Pallat yet could Taste I seeke That to containe and hold No Touch can Feele no Embrace Infold So far this Light the Raies extends As that no place◠It comprehends So deepe this Sound that though it speake It cannot by a Sence so weake Be entertain'd A Redolent Grace The Aire blowes not from place to place A pleasant Taste of that delight It doth confound all Appetite A strict Embrace not felt yet leaues That vertue where it takes it cleanes This Light this Sound this Sauouring Grace This Tastefull Sweet this Strict Embrace No Place containes no Eye can see My God Is and there 's none but Hee ¶ Fecisti nos Domine ad Te inquietum igitur est Cor nostrum done◠requiescat in Te. S. Augustine The Throne Ex muner Iokan o◠Math Christmas Artist THE ARGVMENT of the third Tractate OF th' Vniuerse the Regions three And how their part◠disposed be How gouerned and in what order In which no one exceeds his border That Moses Arke in all respects Vpon the Worlds rare Frame reflects Both how and when by Power Diuine The Sunne and Moone began to shine The Day of our blest Sauiours Passion Compar'd with that of the Creation How euery Star shines in his Sphere What place they in the Zodiacke beare And of the twelue Signes a Narration Their Influence Aspect and Station To proue no former Worlds haue bin And This must perish we liue in The vainnesse lastly doth appeare Of Plato's Great and Vertent Yeare ¶ The second Argument ALl Glory to the Holy-One Euen Him that sits vpon the Throne The Thrones WEe from the Workman to the Worke proceed The powerfull Doer to the glorious Deed. This Vniuerse Created first then guided Into three ample Regions is diuided The first is call'd Super-coelestiall The next Coelestiall or Ethereall Both constant in their kindes The third doth vary In which we liue as meerely Elementary The First of Angels is the blessed dwelling The later two many degrees excelling The Next of Starres and Planets keeps the features The Last of Man Beast and all Mortall Creatures The first doth with incredible Lustre shine The second vnto it as lesse Diuine Participating both lest Time should faile Darknesse and Light weighes out in equall Scale The third enioyes both these as who but knowes it But how So as the second doth dispose it The First doth Immortalitie containe A stable worke and euer to remaine There 's in the Second too a stable face But yet Mutation both in worke and place There 's in the Third all Change but no Stabilitie 'Twixt life and death A constant Mutabilitie Like the pure nature of his Diuine minde He made the First Then Bodies in their kinde Void of corruption He the Next created The Third full of all Frailties fabricated Foure Elements He placed in the Lower Foure in the Vpper in the Highest foure Terrestriall these Earth Water Aire and Fire Celestiall and Etheriall that aspire To place more eminent in this order runne Luna Mercury Venus and the Sunne Super-Coelestiall and of highest state The Angell the Arch-Angell Principate And Seraphim the last The Earth commixt Of all things to corruption apt he fixt In the Worlds lowest part but not to moue The selfe same Power ordain'd in Heauen aboue Continuall motion but to such we call Natures which are Super-Coelestiall He gaue Intelligent Force abiding still And not to suffer change So by his Will This our inferior Water is in great Discord with Fire and suffocates his heat Water Coelestiall feeds it without cease To which the supreme Region giues encrease Terrestriall Aire lends Breath Coelestiall Ioy And Solace free from trouble or annoy Super-coelestiall euery Good thing lends So by the Might that through this Worke extends This lower Fire consumes and all things burnes
she will place him 'mongst the Stars The Charioter Boötes who his Car Driues 'bout the Poles in compasse circular About whom Authors are diuided thus Some thinke him Arcas others Icarus The Crowne Septentrionall as most haue said Inamour'd Bacchus fitted first and made For Ariadnes browes being first his Bride And by the god soone after stellifi'de Eugonasin whom Hercules we call And from the Articke Circle seemes to fall Yet stedfast in his course conspicuous in His Club the Hydra and the Lions skin Lyra the Harpe in by-corn'd fashion made Some thinke the selfe same on which Orpheus plaid Who for his Musicks skill was so aduanc't That Beasts and Trees and Stones about him danc't Next him the Swan with wings displaid and spred Stucke full of Stars one fulgent in her head And therefore in th' Heauens thought to be plac't Because Iove Laeda in that shape embrac't Next whom Cepheus hath place King of the blacke And Sun-burnt Moores in whom is now no lacke Of Diuine splendor him the Authors say To be the Father of Andromeda His wife Cassiopeia durst compare With the Nereides therefore in a chaire Sits with her armes fast bound not mouing thence A iust infliction for her proud offence Andromeda the sequent place doth claime Daughter to these to whom we last gaue name Who for her loue to Perseus was so grac't Her 'mongst the Spheres Coelestiall Pallas plac't Perseus shines next who in his right hand beares A crooked Harpee in his left appeares The Gorgons head his burnisht helme of steele And plumes like wings fastned to either heele Auriga mounted in a Chariot bright Else styl'd Heniochus receiues his light In th' aestiue Circle in that station nam'd Because he was the first who Coursers tam'd And in a foure-wheel'd Wagon taught them run To imitate the Chariot of the Sun The Serpentarius Ophincus who Is also call'd the Astrologians show To be a yong man rounded with a Snake Stucke full of starry lights and him they take For AEsculapius who a Dragon slew And was the first who Physicke taught and knew The Arrow plac't in Heauen still to remaine Alcides shot by it the Egle slaine Who then did on Prometheus intrals tyre Because from Iove he stole Coelestiall fire Which being risen you shall finde it fixt Th' AEstiue and AEquinoctiall line betwixt Next shines the Princely Egle who is sed To ' haue snatcht from earth the Trojan Ganimed And beare him vp to Heav'n for Ioves delight Both his Cup-bearer now and Catamite The Dolphine figur'd with his crooked traine Is therefore said his glorious Orbe to gaine Because when good Arion play'd and sung He listned to his voice and Harpe well strung And from the ship whence he was dropt before Swam with him safe to the Tenarian shore The Horse amongst the other Stars inroll'd The Articke Line directly doth behold And is that Pegasus the winged Steed Which Perseus backt when from the Whale hee freed Andromeda he in mount Helicon Strooke with his hoofe cleare water from a stone From him call'd Hippocrene the Muses Well Whence all high Raptures may be said to swell Deltoton we a meere Triangle call 'Twixt th' AEstiue Line and th' AEquinoctiall Like the Greek letter Delta It sends light From foure coruscant Stars and as some write Therein is figur'd the World Tripartite Others because that Delta doth emply Dios the word that God doth signifie It had it's place Next it appeares the Whale By Perseus slaine i' th Circle Hyemal For it 's great strength and bignesse so transpos'd And Pistrix call'd Eridanus inclos'd As in a bed of Stars is seene to shine The face in obiect of th' Antarticke Line Some Writers call 't Oceanus and those Not of meane iudgement others Canopos Of the bright splendor Canopos an Isle Whose bounds are washt still by th' AEgyptian Nile The Hare was said to make Orion sport In hunting and was stellified for 't Plac't in the Winters Circle Next shines He The Sonne of Neptune and Euriale Who in his course was said to be so fleet To run o're Riuers and not drench his feet Or on the land through well-growne Medowes passe Yet with his weight not once to bend the grasse Slaine by an Arrow from Diana sent After translated to the Firmament Arm'd with a Club and Sword in hostile guise And in his Course doth still with Cancer rise The greater Dog by Iupiter was set To watch when he with faire Europa met After bestow'd on Procris and by her On Cephalus her husband Some auer It was Orions Dog who tooke delight In hunting much which Star doth shine so bright It for the flame can scarce be lookt vpon And therefore by the Greeks call'd Syrion The lesse Dog did to Icarus pertaine Who 'cause he mourn'd his Master being slaine And was the cause the Murd'rers were descry'd Thought therefore worthy to be stellifi'de Him in the Milky Circle you may spy Fixt betweene Cancer and the Gemini The Ship call'd Argo for it's speed was such Doth almost the Antarticke Circle touch In this the antient Heroes launcht from Greece To Colchos and brought thence the Golden-Fleece Chiron from Saturne and Philiris bred You may perceiue to lift his star-crown'd head Betwixt th' Antarticke and the Hyemal Lines And for his justice shew'd on earth there shines He AEsculapius and Achilles tought And for his great sinceritie 't was thought The gods would suffer him to liue for euer But by a Shaft drawne from Alcides Quiuer The head thereof in Hydra's bloud being dipt Vpon his foot it through his fingers slipt A small wound it appear'd but searcht and try'd Fester'd Gangren'd and of that hurt he dy'd The Altar to it 's Sphere coelestiall borne With Aries sets riseth with Capricorne On which the gods their Coniuration made When Tytans Issue did the Heav'ns inuade And men since them who great things enterprise Before th' attempt on Altars sacrifice Hydra is figur'd with a Cup and Crow The reasons why would be too long to show This ougly many-headed Monster bred In Laerna was by Hercules strooke dead To take the length of three whole Signes 't is said Cancer the Lion and the Heauenly Maid The Stars of Piscis whom we Notius call Are twelue in number and Meridionall It with a yawning mouth seemes to deuoure Water Aquarius from aboue doth poure Who for a curtesie to Isis done A constant place amongst the Stars hath won Since whose translation to that glorious Seat Of diuers Fish the Syrians will not eat But keepe their shapes and figures cast in gold And these to be their houshold gods they hold The reason why one Circle in the night When all the rest 's blacke doth alone shine bright And therefore Lacteus call'd some hold to be Iuno vn'wares
it's own nature made it selfe passable for his feet The Earth knew him which shooke and trembled at his Passion The Sun knew him who hid his face and withdrew his beames from beholding so execrable an obiect The Stones and Buildings knew him who split and rent themselues asunder The Graue and Hell knew him the one by yeelding vp the Dead the other by witnessing his descension Thus according to my weake Talent Crassa Minerva I haue spoke something generally of those three Religions still continued in the world As for the differences betwixt our Church and the Church of Rome I must needs confesse my weaknesse no way able to reconcile them or determin betwixt them and therefore I leaue that to those of greater knowledge and iudgement But as touching Iudaisme and Mahumetisme I conclude with an Epigram transferred out of the Greeke tongue into the Latine and by me thus paraphrased Pinxisti pulchrae super Phaâ—tonta tabella Altera Deucalion picta tabella tua est c. A Painter on one table figured had Yong Phaetâ—â— as he the guidance had Of the Sunnes Chariot In another stood Dencalion as hauing scap'd the Flood These hauing done he call'd an Artist forth And ask'd him what he thought these two were worth Who after he had both considered well Answer'd What they be worth I cannot tell But if what they be worthy you desire To know th' one Water the other 's worthy Fire The Emblem IT representeth a man amongst rockes and concaue mountains speaking softly vnto himselfe when the Woods and Groues are silent but when he eleuateth his voice into a loud clamor the Echo with a re-doubled sound resulteth vpon him According with that of Saint Bernard Quando fidelis humilis fervens oratio fuerit Coelum hand dubie penetrabit vnde certum est quod vacua redire non potest i. Where thy Prayer is humble faithfull and feruent it doubtlesse pierceth the heauen from whence most certaine it is that it cannot returne empty As also that in the Apostle Saint Iames vers 16. Acknowledge your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed for the prayer of a righteous man availeth much if it be fervent And Luke 11.9 And I say vnto you Aske and it shall be giuen vnto you seeke and ye shall finde knocke and it shall be opened vnto youâ— for euery one that asketh receiueth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened According to the Psalmist Clâ—â—â—verunt Iusti Dominus exandivit eos The Motto to this Emblem is Ora dâ—bitur Vpon which the Composer thus writes Intensis opus est clamoribus vt sonet echo Dum strepâ—â— exigno murmure nympha silet Nympha tacet tacitis sed surgat ad athera clamor Mox responsa tibi vel geminata dabit Vota quid effundis summis innata labellis Ad tepidas Coeli non patet Aula preces Tende lat us clamore Deus responsa remittet Hic pia mens hic vox fervida pondus habent ¶ Thus paraphrased Onely loud clamors make the Echo speake Whisper to her and silence shee 'l not breake Shee 's to the Mute mute let thy voice sound hye And thou shalt heare her doubly make reply Why with close muttering lips then do'st thou pray Thy luke-warme words to heav'n can make no way But stretch thy lungs in clamor and God then Will answer and re-answer thee agen An excellent Morall from the same Emblem may be collected to this purpose Vbi percontator ibi est garrulus Agreeing with that of Seneca Alium silere cum volis prius sile i. When thou desirest that another man should be silent hold thou thy peace And Phocion saith Silence is a gift without perill and a treasure without enemies And Salust Silence is more safe than speech especially when our enemies are our auditors And of women it is said They are much more apt to conceiue children than conceale secrets But of men Archimides saith He beareth his misery best who hideth it most Non vnquam tacuisse nocet nocet esse loquitum i. Of silence it hath neuer repented me but of speech often And Lactantius informeth vs concerning the vertue of silence That as the Viper is torne asunder when shee produceth her yong so secrets proceeding from their mouthes which are not able to conceale them are for the most part the vtter ruin of those which reueale them According to that of the Poet Quaerit aquas in aquis poma fugantia captat Tantalus hoc illi garrula lingua dedit Tantalus his punishment in hell for his too much loquacity was To be thirsty in the midst of water and hungry where there was plenty of Fruits Nature hath afforded vs double eyes and eares to behold all objects and to listen vnto all voices and sounds but to warne vs that we should be sparing in our speech shee hath afforded man but one tongue and that portall'd with lips and percullis'd with teeth neere to which are placed all the fiue Sences to signifie vnto vs That we ought to speake nothing rashly without their connsell and aduice with the helpe of the faculties of the Soule which are Reason and Vnderstanding which haue their residence in the braine Vpon the like occasion you may reade Iacobus Catsius speaking thus Muta sub obscuris habitaret vallibus echo Ni foret alterius garrulitate loquax Illa silet quoties presso silet ore viator Discit à populo praetereunte loqui Ora loquax premeret nisi percontator adesset Hoc duce tentat opus livida lingua suum Probra creat qui multa rogat qui commodat aurem Turpia sinistris furta receptor alit ¶ Thus paraphrased Dumbe would the Echo in darke Vallies lye Did not the prating Traueller passe by Let him be silent and she talke forbeares For nothing she relates but what she heares Did no man aske no answer she would make And neuer spoke to any but that spake Who lists to bad things may be thought a Chiefe For Where is no Receiuer there 's no Theefe A Meditation vpon the former Tractate I. IF I into my Selfe turne not mine Eyes Not possible that I my Selfe should know Or if I looke within Me then I show So foule and monstrous I my Selfe despise II. Because I nothing can praise-worthy finde But rather subiect vnto reprehension There Vice with Vertue are at loud contention And hath the conquest both of Heart and Minde III. The more my Conscience I examine still The more corrupt it to my Sence appeares So stain'd so spotted that not all my Teares Can wash it cleane from the least thought of Ill. IV. From the first houre that I began to sin I haue gon on without the least cessation Neglecting all the meanes of my saluation Nor ending yet where I did first begin V. How horrid my Offenres be I know And how dis-tastefull in
a sufficient answer namely That the Substances of things were created together but not formed and fashioned together in their seuerall distinct kindes They were disgested together by substance of matter but appeared not together in substantiall forme for that was the worke of six dayes Moreouer when Moses in his first Chapter of Genesis saith That things were created in euery one of the six dayes seuerally in the second chapter of the same Booke he speaketh but of one day only by way of Catastrophe or Epilogue All which hee had before distinctly described saying These are the generations of the Heauen and the Earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the Earth and the Heauens Neither is this any contradiction for we must not take the dayes according to the distinction of Times for God had no need of Time as being first made by him but by reason of the works of Perfection which is signified and compleated by the number of Six which is a most perfect number Moreouer as the Psalmist saith A thousand yeares are vnto him but as one day Avenzor the Babylonian saith That he which knoweth to number well knoweth directly all things Neither was it spoken in vaine but to the great praise of Almighty God Omnia in mensura Numero Pondere disposuisti i. Thou hast disposed all things in Number in Measure and in Weight It is moreouer said in Eccles. 1 2. Who can number the sands of the Sea and the drops of the raine and the dayes of the world Who can measure the height of the Heauen the bredth of the Earth and the depth Who can finde the Wisedome of God which hath beene before all things c. It is worthy remarke which one ingeniously obserues Two wayes saith he we come to the apprehension and knowledge of God by his Workes and by his Word by his Works we know that there is a God and by his Word we come to know what that God is his Workes teach vs to spell his Word to reade The first are his backe-parts by which we behold him afarre off the later represent him vnto vs more visibly and as it were face to face For the Word is as a booke consisting of three leaues and euery leafe printed with many letters and euery letter containeth in it selfe a Lecture The Leaues are Heauen the Aire and the Earth with the Water the Letters ingrauen are euery Angell Starre and Planet the Letters in the Aire euery Meteor and Fowle those in the Earth and Waters euery Man Beast Plant Floure Minerall and Fish c. All these set together spell vnto vs That there is a God Moses in the very first verse of Genesis refuteth three Ethnycke opinions first Those that were of opinion the World was from eternitie and should continue for euer in these words when hee saith In the Beginning Secondly he stoppeth the mouth of stupid and prophane Atheists in this phrase Elohim created Thirdly and lastly hee opposeth all Idolaters such as held with many gods for the saith in the conclusion of the same Verse Elohim He created Heauen and Earth vsing the singular number It is the opinion of some antient Diuines That the Creation of the Angels was concealed by Moses lest any man should apprehend like those Heretiques spoken of by Epiphanius that they aided and assisted God in the Creation For if the day of their Creation which as the best approued Theologists confesse was the first day had beene named by Moses wicked and vngodly men might haue taken them to haue been Agents in that great and inscrutable Worke which indeed were no other than Spectators Therefore as God hid and concealed the Body of Moses after his death lest the Israelites so much addicted to Idolatry should adore and worship it so Moses hid and concealed the Creation of the Angels in the beginning lest by them they should be deified and the honour due to the Creator be by that meanes attributed and conferred on the Creature Rabbi Salom affirmeth them to be created the first day and some of our later Diuines the fourth day but their opinions are not held altogether authenticall It is likewise obserued That God in the creation of the world beginneth aboue and worketh downwards For in the first three dayes he layd the foundation of the world and in the other three dayes he furnished and adorned those parts The first day he made all the Heauens the matter of the earth and commeth downe so low as the Light The second day he descendeth lower and maketh the Firmament or Aire The third lowest of all making a distinction betwixt the Earth and Water Thus in three dayes the three parts or body of the World is laid and in three dayes more and in the same order they were furnished For on the fourth day the Heauens which were made the first day were decked and stucke with starres and lights The fift day the Firmament which was made the second day was filled with Birds and Fowles The sixt day the Earth which was before made fit and ready the third day was replenished with Beasts and lastly with Man And thus God Almighty in his great Power and Wisedome accomplished and finished the miraculous worke of the Creation Rabbi Iarchi vpon the second of Genesis obserueth That God made superior things one day and inferiour another His words being to this purpose In the first day God created Heauen aboue and Earth beneath on the second day the Firmament aboue on the third Let the dry land appeare beneath on the fourth Lights aboue and the fift Let the waters bring forth beneath c. On the sixt day he made things both superior and inferior lest there should be confusion without order in his Work Therefore he made Man consisting of both a Soule from aboue and a Body from beneath c. An Allegorie drawne from these is That God hath taught vs by the course he took in the framing and fashioning of the world how we must proceed to become a new Creation or a new Heauen and Earth renewed both in soule and body In the first day he made the Light therefore the first thing of the new man ought to be light of Knowledge for Saint Paul saith He that commeth to God must know that He Is. On the second day he made the Firmament so called because of it's stedfastnesse so the second step in Mans new Creation must be Firmamentum Fidei i. the sure foundation of Faith On the third day the Seas and Trees bearing Fruit so the third step in the New man is That he become Waters of relenting teares and that he bring forth fruit worthy of Repentance On the fourth day God created the Sunne that whereas on the first day there was light without heate now on the fourth day there is Light and Heate ioyned together So the fourth step in the new creation of the New man is That
without feare His study is to compasse and inuade We ought to watch there be no entry made XVII As oft as we resist we do subdue The great Seducer Then the Angels sing And Saints reioyce those that are still in view Of the Creator Heav'ns almighty King That GOD who to this Battell doth persuade vs And looks vpon vs when we enter list Still as he spurres vs on doth likewise aid vs Against that old and crafty Pannurgist Supports the Weake the Willing doth defend And crownes such as continue to the end XVIII O giue me courage then make strong my hand Thou that dost teach my fingers how to fight And lend me pow'r their fury to withstand Who would depriue me of thy glorious Light That I who all my life time haue oppos'd My selfe 〈…〉 my selfe and against Thee May by thy tender mercies he inclos'd And so be 〈◊〉 they shall not ruin mee That 〈…〉 â—is Body is confin'd to Dust My 〈…〉 yet finde place among the Iust. Vt Pila concussus resurgeâ— S. MICHAEL ARCHANGEL Ex Sumptib Harbottel Grimstone Armig Ia droesheâ—t sculpt THE ARGVMENT of the eighth Tractat. OF Sathans Wiles and Feats praestigious Appearing wondrous and prodigious Confirm'd by Histories far sought Of Novels by bad Daemons wrought And first of such is made expression That still with Mankinde seeke congression To whose Fall they themselues apply Call'd Succubae and Incubi To finde those further we desire Of Water Earth the Aire and Fire And what their workings be to know As well aboue as here below How Authors 'mongst themselues agree What Genij and Spectars bee Faunes Syluanes and Alastores Satyres with others like to these With Stories mixt that grace may win From such as are not verst therein The second Argument MIchael whom Sathan durst oppose Can guard vs from inferior Foes The Arch-Angell THose Sp'rits call'd Daemons some haue apprehended Are with mens iniuries oft times offended And when againe they humbly shall submit They are soone pleas'd all quarrels to forget They after Diuine worship are ambitious And when fond Men grow vainly superstitious As thereto by their ignorance accited In their idolatrous Rites th' are much delighted To them belongs the Augurs Diuination And such coniectures as by th' immolation Of Beasts are made whateuer did proceed From Pythia's raptures or hath been agreed To issue from vaine Dreames all Calculation By such like signes came first by th' instigation Of Daemons Homer therefore gaue them stile Of gods nor doubted in the selfe same file To number Iupiter But we whose faith On Gods knowne workes more firme assurance hath By sacred Scriptures title Daemons those Who by him first created dar'd t' oppose His Diuine Will and being ill affected Were for their Pride headlong from heav'n dejected Some in their fall still hanging in the aire And there imprison'd till they make repaire To the last dreadfull doome and such await Mans frailties hourely to insidiate Prone to his hurt with tympanous pride inflam'd Burning with Enuy not to be reclaim'd Deceitfull from bad purpose neuer chang'd Impious and from all justice quite estrang'd And with th' inueterat malice in them bred Inuading Bodies both aliue and dead But whatsoeuer war they shall commence Against vs whether vnder faire pretence Or hostile menace do well and not feare He that the Soule created will appeare In it's defence and if we boldly fight Put their strong forces and themselues to flight Plato acknowledged one God alone The rest whom others in the heav'ns inthrone He Daemons calls and Angels Thermegist Doth likewise on one Deitie insist And him he names Great beyond all extension Ineffable not within comprehension The other Sp'rits lye vnder Statues hid And Images whose worship is forbid And these the breasts of liuing Priests inspire And from the Intrals e're they touch the fire Pronounce strange Omens These the Birds flights guide And mannage such things as by Lots are try'de The doubtfull Oracles they lend a tongue Prounouncing Truths with Lies Lies Truths among Confounding them all things obvolved leaue Deceiv'd themselues they others would deceiue They waking trouble vs molest our sleepe And if vpon our selues no watch we keepe Our bodies enter then distract our braine They crampe ouâ— members make vs to complaine Of sickenesse or disease and in strange fashion They cause vs to exceed in Ioy or Passion And making vs one vniuersall wound Pretend to loose what they before had bound When as the wonder-seeming remedie Is onely their surcease from injurie For all their study practise and delight Is but to moue vs to proue opposite To the Creator as themselues haue bin That guilty of the same rebellious sin By their accitements being made impure We with them might like punishment endure Let 's heare how Apulcius doth define them Saith he these proper adjuncts we assigne them Of a thin Airy body they exist And therefore can shift places as they list Of rational apprehensionâ— passiue minde Eternall and no end can therefore finde Another writes These Spirits are much joy'd At Bloud-shed when man is by man destroy'd At riotous Feasts they 'bout the tables stalke Prouoking to vaine words and obseene talke Persuading Man in his owne strength to trust Deuise Confections that stirre vp to lust And when their pow'r on any Wretch hath seis'd Persuade That with the sin God 's not displeas'd Th' assume the shape of such as are deceast And couet to be counted gods at least Surcharg'd with joy these are not to behold When troubles and afflictions manifold Pursue the Saints of God and his Elect As hauing in themselues a cleare inspect By persecution such and tribulation Are lab'ring in the path to their saluation But when they finde our hearts obdure and hard To Pietie and Goodnesse vnprepar'd Or when they see vs deviat and erre And before Vertue Vanitie preferre Then are they merry they clap hands and shout As hauing then their purpose brought about The Hunter hauing caught vs in the Toile Seiseth his prey and triumphs in the spoile We do not reade That Sathan did once boast When patient Iob had all his substance lost Nor seeing by th' aduantage he had ta'ne His Sonnes and Daughters by a Whirle-winde slaine When hauing lost all he could lose no more And now from head to heele was but one fore Not all this mov'd him Had he made reply To her that bad him to curse God and dye By vtt'ring any syllable prophane Then he and his would haue rejoc'd amaine Nor in Pauls thirst or hunger was he pleas'd Nor when he was by cruell Lictors seis'd And hurry'd to the Gaole there gyv'd and bound Or shipwrackt in great perill to be drown'd The Barke beneath him bee'ng in pieces torne Nor when the bloudy Iewes his death had sworne Scourg'd buffetted and bandied vp and downe They knew this was the way to gaine a Crowne To them 't was rather torment
worse than Hell That in these conflicts he had fought so well Who gladly had exulted in the aire If they could once haue brought him to despaire Some Sophists held Daemon the part to be Of the Soules intellectuall Facultie We reade th' Apostle thus The Wisedome wee Of God speake to you in a Mysterie Ev'n the hid Wisedome which to our saluation He did ordaine before the Worlds creation But to the Princes of this world not showne As left to them meere doubtfull and vnknowne Which had it been reueal'd to them they than Would not haue crucify'd that God and Man The Lord of Glory Some this Text expound Building it seemes on no vncertaine ground That by the Princes of this World he meant The Daemons who of th' Aire haue gouernment Call'd Pow'rs and Potestats It cannot stand With reason That the Iewes without command Or pow'r within themselues so styl'd should be Bee'ng subiects to the Roman Monarchie Neither can properly we make restriction To Pilat who had then the jurisdiction Of Rome in his owne hand because that hee Labor'd in all he could to set him free Said he could finde no fault with him And when At th' instance of those bloudy minded men He spake that Sentence which he would haue stayd He call'd for water and in washing said Vnto all those that then about him stood Lo I am guiltlesse of this iust Mans blood These were the Princes by whose ignorant pride The Lord of Glory was condemn'd and dy'de They knew him to be Man cleane without spot But for the Sonne of God they knew him not Had they but knowne his innocent Bloud was shed To revive those who in their Sinnes lay deadâ— And ransome them from their insidiation As being the sole meanes of our Saluation Sathan then durst not boldly to haue venter'd And into Iudas call'd Iscariot enter'd For he by finding that might eas'ly know 'T would be of his owne Kingdometh ' ouerthrow Let 's heare Prudentius Of the sincere way We may presume God is the Guide and Stay There 's but one path through which whom hee electeth Lest they should wander he himselfe directeth It lies vp a steepe hill that 's hard to clime And the more difficult the more sublime At the first entrance nothing doth appeare But what is intricate horrid austere Sad and still threatning danger when thy feet Hath measur'd it to the end thou then shalt meet With all things sweet and pleasant sights excelling And pretious Riches with aboundance swelling All objects then shall shew both cleare and bright As being luster'd by eternall Light Then nothing shall seeme difficult or hard But of thy labor thou shalt reape reward Yet in thy trauell vp this craggy Hill Thou shalt finde Sathan at thine elbow still Persuading thee a smoother Road to tread To which a thousand paths and by-wayes lead Through which the bearded Sophist he mis-guides The Vsurer there with vnsuspected strides Walks merrily and he whom Honor blindes A pleasant journey to destruction findes Some by the tongues of Birds he doth allure And others by vaine Auguries assure By trusting too much to vaine Prophesies And the mad Sibils trifling Ambages Some he by Magicke spels doth headlong driue Others by Knowledge though demonstratiue But take thou heed of this sweet erring way In which by thousand turnings thou mayst stray Hauing a Guide that teacheth Diuiation And turnes thee from the path of thy saluation Incredible it seemes beleev'd by few And yet by autient Writers held for true That the bad Spirits at their pleasure can Assume the shape of Woman or of Man And with each Sex carnall commixtion vse Fraile Mankinde to dishonor and abuse Those that in masculine shape with women trade Call'd Incubi the other that are said To put on foeminine feature and so lye Prostrat to manâ— are called Succubae Nor do they vse such damned copulation Because in it they take least delectation But rather by such diuellish commission To draw men headlong with them to perdition The substance by the which they generat and How't is transfus'd whoso would vnderstand Let them the bookes of Scotus well peruse It is no subiect for my modest Muse. Yet that such are though I should silent be Heare what Saint Austin saith 'T is told to me By men of worth whose faith I cannot blame And such as were eye-witnesse of the same The Faunes and other Sylvan beasts most rude Gotish in act and by the multitude Call'd Incubi insidiat by the way Women to make of them their lustfull prey All Germany with Witches much annoyd Two graue and learned men before employd In many Causes both of depth and weight Were chosen by Pope Innocent the eight And a large Patent granted therewithall T' extirp the Witches thence in generall These two affirme They oftentimes haue been Where such old Crones and Beldams they haue seen Flat on their backes vsing th' immodest fashion As in the very act of generation Mouing their bodies yet to th' outward eye No Sp'rit perceiv'd of any stander by But the foule act imagin'd to be past A filthy noysome Vapor rose at last In bignesse of a man from her embrace And at the instant vanisht from the place In their large stories it is likewise read Husbands haue tooke these Incubi in bed With their faire wiues their figures by them stretcht Which seeing they haue run and weapons fetcht But th' one soone vanisht from their soft embraces Th' other call'd jealous fooles vnto their faces Not far from Rotemburch this chance befell One of these Sp'rits it seemes new rais'd from Hell Makes himselfe suitor to a Maid yong faire Louely wel featur'd and a Great mans heire He haunts the house makes shew of mighty treasure But more than all to loue her aboue measure Yet that his Liuing lies far off pretends His noble Host inuites him with his friends To diuers feasts and banquets My braue Wooer Before he comes rich Presents sends vnto her To make his way the Seruants he bribes round Bespeakes the rarest musicke can be found The night he reuels and he sports the day And all in hope to beare the Wench away His prodigall expences grow so hye His Host suspects whence he should haue supply Especially his land lying so remote Meane time the Maid from liking growes to doat Thinking to haue her fortunes much encreast And she be made a Princesse at the least But e're the Contract the good man in feare He might be other than he did appeare Inuites one day together with his Ghest A retyr'd man that deuout life profest And was of most religious conuersation He at the table frames a disputation Concerning Sanctity and holy things And still for euery proofe he Scripture brings At which my lusty Louer alters face And saith That a full table is no place For such discourse but sportiue jests are best And pleasant talke to
shooes could water tred And neuer hasard drowning The like fame Another that Othimius had to name Behinde him left Hadingus King of Danes Mounted vpon a good Steed by the raines Th' Inchanter tooke and crosse the main sea brought him Safe whilest in vaine the hot pursuer sought him Oddo the Danish Pyrat by the aid Of the like Sp'rits whole Nauies durst inuade And with his Magicke Charmes could when he please Raise mighty stormes and drowne thâ—m in the seas At length by one of greater practise found Aiming at others Wracke himselfe was drown'd Some Authors vnto this accursed Tribe Of watry Daemons Deluges ascribe And flux of waters Such we reade were knowne Whilest Damasus was Pope when ouerthrowne Were many cities in Sicilia And By Historiographers we vnderstand The like chanc'd in Pope Alexanders dayes In Italy afflicting diuers wayes Both losse of beasts and great depopulation In Charles the fifts time by an Inundation Happend in Holland Zeeland Friseland these Had their maritime shores drown'd by the seas In Poland neere Cracovia chanc'd the same And in one yeare if we may credit Fame In Europ besides Townes and Cities then Perisht aboue fiue hundred thousand men To these belong what we call Hydromantia Gastromantia Lacomantia Pagomantia Touching the Spirits of the Earth there bee Of diuers sorts each knowne in his degree As Genij the Domesticke gods and those They Lares call Spectars Alastores Larvae Noone-Diuels Syluanes Satyrs Fawnes And they frequâ—nt the Forrests Groues and Lawnes Others th' Italians F'oletti call Paredrij there are too yet these not all Now what these Genij are Philostratus Eunapius Athenaeus Maximus With all the other Platonicks profest Them to be Sp'rits of men before deceast Who had they liv'd a good life and vnstain'd By licence of th' Infernall Pow'rs obtain'd In their owne houses to inhabit still And their posteritie to guard from ill Such they call'd Lares But all those that lead Liues wicked and debosht they being dead Wandred about the earth as Ghosts exil'd Doing all mischiefe such they Larvae stil'd And of this kinde that Spirit we may guesse Remembred in the booke of Socrates Who in the shape oâ— Moses did appeare The space togetheâ— of one compleat yeare I' th Isle of Creet persuading with the Iewes There liuing That he such a meanes would vse That if they met at a fixt day with ease He would traject them dry-foot through the seas To which they trusting by appointment meet All who that time were resident in Creet And follow their false Captaine lesse and more Ev'n to the very margent of the shore Then turning tow'rds them in a short oration Bespeakes them thus O you the chosen nation Behold as great a wonder from my hand As your fore-fathers did from Moses Wand Then with his finger points vnto a place 'Twixt them and which a Creeke ran no great space And seeming shallow All of you now fling Your selues saith he and follow me your King Into this sea swim but to yonder strand And you shall then arriue vpon a land From whence I will conduct you ev'ry man Dry-foot into a second Canaan He plungeth first they follow with one minde In hope a second Palestine to finde But hauing past their depths the rough windes blew When this Seducer straight himselfe withdrew Leaues them to ruin most of them bee'ng drown'd Some few by fish-boats sav'd he no wherâ— found With these the Spectars in some points assent Bee'ng tow'rds Mankinde alike maleuolent Whose in-nate malice nothing can asswage Authors of death depopulation strage By Origen they are Alastares nam'd By Zoroaster bloudy and vntam'd Concerning which the learned mens opinion Is That Abaddon hath of them dominion What time Iustinian did the Empire sway Many of these did shew themselues by day To sundry men both of good braine and sence After which follow'd a great Pestilence For to all such those Spectars did appeare It was a certaine signe their death drew neare King Alexander of that name the third That reign'd in Scotland if Boethius word May be beleev'd by match himselfe ally'de With England tooke Ioanna to his Bride Sister to the third Henry She bee'ng dead And issuelesse he after married Marg'ret his daughter Did on her beget Prince Alexander David Margaret These dying in their nonage and she too With sorrow as most thinke the King doth woo Iolanta the faire daughter as some say Vnto the great Earle of Campania Being as 't seemes most ardently inclin'd After his death to leaue some heire behind In the mid Reuels the first ominous night Of their espousals when the roome shone bright With lighted tapers the King and the Queene leading The curious Measures Lords and Ladies treading The selfe same straines the King looks backe by chance And spies a strange intruder fill the dance Namely a meere Anatomy quite bare His naked limbes both without flesh and haire As we decipher Death who stalks about Keeping true measure till the dance was out The King with all the rest afrighted stand The Spectar vanisht and then strict command Was giv'n to breake vp reuels each 'gan feare This Omen and presage disaster neere If any aske What did of this succeed The King soone â—fter falling from his Steed Vnhappily dy'de After whose death ensuing Was to the land sedition wracke and ruin The Syluanes Fawnes and Satyrs are the same The Greekes Paredrij call the Latines name Familiar Spirits who though in outward shew They threat no harme but seeme all good to owe Poore ambusht mankinde though their crafty Mines And snares do not appeare by ev'dent signes Yet with malicious hate they are infected And all their deeds and counsels are directed To make a faire and flatt'ring preparation Vnto the bodies death and soules damnation And of these Spirits as Macrobius saith The mount Pernassus in aboundance hath Neere to mount Hecta And Olaus writes The like appeare most frequently by nights And verbally deliuer kinde commends To men from their deceast and shipwrackt friends Vsing their helpe one Iohn Teutonicus By Acromaticke Magicke sported thus This Iohn was knowne a bastard and yet had Great fame for learning who in Halberstad Had for his worth admittance to a place Where none but the Nobilitie had grace To be in Commons yet it seemes so great Was his repute with them he sate and eat But yet with small content the yong men proud Of their high noble births much disallow'd His company and tooke it in great scorne To sit with one though learn'd yet basely borne And whether they were serv'd with flesh or fish His bastardy was sauce still in his dish But skil'd in hidden Arts I will thought he Some sudden means deuice henceforth to free My selfe from all their scoffes and taunts Hee then Inuites vnto his chamber those yong men Who most seem'd to oppose him feasts
his next expedition gaine an assured and most remarkable victorie Satisfied with this their liberall promise hee tooke his leaue recollected his dispersed Troupes and tooke the field The night before the battell being vigilant to suruey his Enemies Tents and see what watch they kept he espied three Damosels carying vp three dishes of meaâ— into one of the Tents whom following apace for he might easily trace them by their steps in the dew and hauing a Citharon about him on which he played most curiously he receiued meat for his musick and returning the same way he came the next day he gaue them a strong battell in which the enemies were slaine almost to one manâ— Pertinax as Sabellicus witnesseth a little before his death saw one of these Spectars in a fish-poole threatning him with a naked sword Of the like nature was that Bore which Zonarus speaketh of who meeting with Isaaccius Comnenes who was hunting neere vnto Naples and being pursued from a promontorie cast himselfe headlong into the sea leauing the Emperor almost exanimate and without life In Finland which is vnder the dominion of the King of Sweden there is a castle which is called the New Rock moted about with a riuer of an vnsounded depth the water blacke and the fish therein very distastefull to the palat In this are Spectars often seene which fore-shew either the death of the Gouernor or some prime Officer belonging to the place and most commonly it appeareth in the shape of an Harper sweetly singing and dallying and playing vnder the water There is a Lake neere Cracovia in Poland which in the yeare 1378 was much troubled with these Spirits but at length by the prayers of some deuout Priests the place was freed from their impostures The Fishermen casting their nets there drew vp a Fish with a Goats head and hornes and the eyes flaming and sparkling like fire with whose aspect and filthy stench that it brought with it being terrified they fled and the Monster making a fearefull noise like the houling of a wolfe troubling the water vanished Alexander ab Alexandro maketh mention of one Thomas a Monke who in an euening seeking an horse and comming neere vnto the brinke of a Riueâ— he espied a countrey fellow who of his voluntarie free-will offered to traject him ouer on his shoulders The Monke is glad of the motion and mounts vpon his backe but when they were in the midst of the floud Thomas casting his eye downe hee perceiued his legs not to be humane but goatish and his feet clouen Therefore suspecting him to be one of these watry Diuels hee commended himselfe to God in his prayers The Spirit then forsakes him and leaues him well washed in the middle of the Riuer to get vnto the shore with no small difficultie Sabellicus hath left recorded That when Iulius Caesar with his army was to passe the riuer Rubicon to come into Italy and to meet with Pompey one of these Spirits in the shape of a man but greater than ordiâ—arie sate piping vpon the banke of the Riuer Which one of Caesars soldiers seeing snatched away his pipe and broke it when the Spirit presently swimming the Riuer beeing on the other side sounded a shrill and terrible blast from a trumpet which Caesar interpreted to be a good and happy omen of his succeeding victorie Of the Spirits of the earth there are diuers sorts and they haue diuers names as Genij Lares Dij domestici Spectra Alastores Daemonia meridiana as likewise Fauni Sylvani Satyri folletti Fatuelli Paredrij Spiritus Familiares c. Of some of these I haue spoken in the preceding Tractat. Servius Honoratus and Sabinus are of opinion That Man consisteth of three parts but most ignorantly and aduerse to truth of a Soule a Body and a Shadow and at his dissolution the Soule ascends to heanen the Bodie inclines to the earth and the Shadow descends ad Inferos to hell They hold the Shadow is not a true body but a corporeall Species which cannot be touched or taken hold of no more than the winde and that this aswell as the Soule doth oft times appeare vnto men liuing and the soule after it hath left the body is called Genius and the Shadow Larva or the Shadow infernall These Genij are malicious Spirits of the earth who when they most promise health and safety vnto mankinde do then most endeauour their vtter ruine and destruction Constantine the Emperor marching from Antiochia said That he often saw his own Genius and had conference with it and when he at any time saw it pale and troubled which he held to be the preseruer and protectour of health and liuelyhood hee himselfe would much grieue and sorrow By the Spirits called Lares or Houshold gods many men haue been driuen into strange melancholies Amongst others I will cite you one least common A young man had a strong imagination that he was dead and did not onely abstaine from meat and drinke but importuned his parents that he might be caried vnto his graue and buried before his flesh was quite putrified By the counsell of Physitions he was wrapped in a winding sheet laid vpon a Beere and so carried toward the Church vpon mens shoulders But by the way two or three pleasant fellowes suborned to that purpose meeting the Herse demanded aloud of them that followed it Whose body it was there coffined and carried to buriall They said it was such a yong mans and told them his name Surely replied one of them the world is very well rid of him for he was a man of a very bad and vitious life and his friends may reioyce he hath rather ended his dayes thus than at the gallowes Which the yong man hearing and vexed to be so injured rowsed himselfe vp vpon the Beere and told them That they were wicked men to do him that wrong which he had neuer deserued and told them That if hee were aliue as hee was not hee would teach them to speake better of the Dead But they proceeding to depraue him and giue him much more disgraceful and contemptible language he not able to endure it leapt from the Herse and fell about their eares with such rage and fury that hee ceased not buffetting with them till quite wearied and by his violent agitation the humors of his body altered hee awakened as out of a sleepe or trance and being brought home and comforted with wholesome dyet he within few dayes recouered both his pristine health strength and vnderstanding But to returne to our seuerall kindes of Terrestriall Spirits There are those that are called Spectra meridiana or Noon-diuels In the Easterne parts of Russia about haruest time a Spirit was seen to walke at mid-day like a sad mourning Widow and whosoeuer she met if they did not instantly fall on their knees to adore her they could not part from her without a leg or
GOD of Truth At this he stay'd Then all the people cry'd aloud and sayd With publique suffrage Truth is great'st and strongest Which as it was at first shall endure longest This is that Truth in quest of which we trade And which without invoking Diuine aid Is neuer to be found Now lest we erre Concerning Sp'rits 't is fit that we conferre With sacred Story Thus then we may read Where of the fall of Babell 't is decreed Saith Esay Thenceforth Zijm shall lodge there And O him in their desolate roofes appeare The Ostriches their houses shall possesse And Satyrs dance there Ijim shall no lesse Howle in their empty Pallaces and cry And Dragons in their forlorne places fly Againe The Zijm shall with Ijim meet And the wilde Satyr with his parted feet Call to his fellow There shall likewise rest The Scritch-Owle and in safety build her nest The Owle shall lodge there lay and hatch her brood And there the Valtures greedy after food All other desolate places shall forsake And each one there be gath'red to his Make. Some moderne Writers speaking of this Text Because that they would leaue it vnperplext Say That by these strange names be either meant Mis-shapen Fowles or else it hath extent Further to wicked Sp'rits such as we call Hob-goblins Fairies Satyrs and those all Sathan by strange illusions doth employ How Mankinde to insidiate and destroy Of which accursed ranke th' appeare to bee Which succeed next in this our Historie Subterren Spirits they are therefore flyl'd Because that bee'ng th' vpper earth exyl'd Their habitations and aboads they keepe In Con-caues Pits Vaults Dens and Cauernes deepe And these Trithemius doth hold argument To be of all the rest most pestilent And that such Daemons commonly inuade Those chiefely that in Mines and Mettals trade Either by sudden putting out their lamps Or else by raising suffocating damps Whose deadly vapors stifle lab'ring men And such were oft knowne in Trophonius den Likewise in Nicaragua a rich Myne In the West-Indies for which it hath ly'ne Long time forsaken Great Olaus writes The parts Septentrionall are with these Sp'ryts Much haunted where are seen an infinit store About the places where they dig for Oare The Greeks and Germans call them Cobali Others because not full three hand-fulls hye Nick-name them Mountaine-Dwarfes who often stand Officious by the Treasure-deluers hand Seeming most busie infinit paines to take And in the hard rocks deepe incision make To search the mettals veines the ropes to fit Turne round the wheeles and nothing pretermit To helpe their labour vp or downe to winde The full or empty basket when they finde The least Oare scatter'd then they skip and leape To gather't thriftily into one heape Yet of that worke though they haue seeming care They in effect bring all things out of square They breake the ladders and the cords vntwist Stealing the workmens tooles and where they list Hide them with mighty stones the pits mouth stop And as below the earth they vnderprop The Timber to remoue they force and striue With full intent to bury them aliue Raise stinking fogs and with pretence to further The poore mens taske aime at their wracke and murther Or if they faile in that they further aime By crossing them and bringing out of frame Their so much studied labor so extreme Their malice is to cause them to blaspheme Prophane and curse the sequell then insuing The body sav'd to bring the soule to ruin Of these that to mans hurt themselues apply Munsterus writes in his Cosmography Such was the Daemon Annebergius who Twelue lab'ring men at once did ouerthrow In that rich siluer Mine call'd to this day By Wtiters Corona Rosaica The like where choicest mettals they refine Snebergius did in the Georgian Mine These are the cause the earth doth often cleaue And by forc'd crannies and deepe rifts receiue Robustious windes her empty cavernes filling Which being there imprison'd and vnwilling To be so goald struggle and wanting vent Earthquakes thereby are caus'd incontinent Such as remoue huge mountaines from their scite And Turrets Tow'rs and Townes demolish quite In Arragon Alphoâ—sus bearing sway In Brixim Apulia and Campania Happen'd the like So great an earthquake chanc't When Bajazet was to the Throne advanc't In Constantines great City that of men Full thirty thousand in one moment then Perisht th' Imperiall pallace quite destroy'd In the same kinde Dyrrachium was annoy'd Vnder Pope Foelix and great Rome together Three dayes so shooke the people knew not whether The latest day was come Like terror strooke The World when most part of the East was shooke In Hadrians reigne Like terror did encroch Vpon the famous city Antioch When Valentinian and Valens bore Ioint scepter what was neâ—er knowne before Then hapned for by an earths mighty motion The waters were diuided in the Ocean And those concealed channels appear'd bare Which till then neuer saw the Sunne nor Aire Ships riding then in Alexandria's Bay Are tost on tops of houses and there stay With as much swiftnesse bandied from the seas As balls at Tennis playd and with like ease Illyria Pannonia and Dalmatia Morauia Bauaria and Dacia Were with the earths like-horrid feuers shaken And many townes and cities quite forsaken But in Bauaria as my Author sayes One of these Tremors lasted forty dayes When six and twenty tow'rs and castles fell Temples and Pallaces supported well Two great vnited hills parted in twaine And made betweene them a large leuel'd plaine It beasts and men in the mid fields or'ethrew But that which aboue all things seem'd most new Of bodies fifty not inhumated Were to mans sight miraculously translated To statues of white salt Then dwelling neere Of this strange prodegie eye-witnesse were Conrad of Medenberch a Philosopher And the great Austria's Arch-Dukes Chancellor These Spirits likewise haue the pow'r to show Treasures that haue been buried long below By Gods permission all the veins conceald Of gold or siluer are to them reueald Of Vnions Stones and Gems esteemed high These know the place and beds wherein they ly Nay ev'ry casket and rich cabinet Of that vnrifled rocke wherein th' are set But to dispose these some are of opinion It lies not in their absolute dominion For God will not permit it as fore-knowing Such auaritious thoughts in mansheart growing His corrupt nature would to Mammon bow And his Creator leaue he car'd not how Others yeeld other reasons Ev'ry selfe Spirit is so opinion'd of this pelfe I meane those seruants of God Plutus that The least they will not part with no not what They might with ease spare Some thinke they persist To keep 't to the behoofe of Antichrist Inprejudice and dammage of th' Elect. Nay to their owne sonnes whom they most affect Either their bounty is exceeding small Or else the substance meere phantasticall
so sooner done but instantly there appeared to grow out of his forehead an huge paire of Harts hornes of that height and greatnesse that it was not possible to draw his head in againe and thus he kept him for a good space to the peoples great sport and laughter But at length being released and gtowing angry and impatient of such an injurie and as it seemes dealing with a greater and more powerfull Diuel he bethought him of a more deepe and dangerous reuenge He drawes with a cole the picture of a man vpon the wall and commanded the former Magition who had before insulted ouer him to enter and hide himselfe within that Effigies But he seeing before his eyes the terrour of imminent death began to quake and tremble and beseech him on his knees to spare his life But the other inexorable injoyned him to enter there as he had commanded which hee with great vnwillingnesse being inforced to doe the wall was seene to open and giue way to his entrance and shut againe but neuer returned his body backe dead or aliue More gentle and of lesse malice were those Iudifications and deceptions of Zedechias the Iew who liued in the time of Ludovicus Pius He tossed a man into the aire and dismembred him peece-meale limbe from limbe and after gathering them together re-jointed him and made him whole and sound as at the first He seemed also to deuour and eat vp at once a cart full of hay the Carter and horses that drew it with their teeme-traces and all But in the end for poysoning Charles the Bald King of France he was drawne to pieces by foure wilde horses A certaine Lady descended from the Earles of Andegonia a prouince of France from which Family Henry the second King of England deriueth his descent was a great Inchantresse and as Polidorus testifies comming one day into the Church where the holy Sacrament was to be administred the Diuell her master snatched her vp aliue and carried her through a window her body nor any part thereof being euer seene after Iamblicus who had for his Magicke skill great estimation amongst the people at length as Eunapius hath left related despairing by reason of his former wicked courses dranke poison and so died Empedocles of Agrigentum who as Suidas saith for those black Gothicke Arts had great name and fame when as the Etesij or Easterne windes blew vehement and high insomuch that the fruits were in great danger of blasting caused certain Asses to be stript out of their skinnes and with diuers vnknowne charms and murmurations vttered commanded them to cease their tempestuous gusts To which they seemed to obey insomuch that he was called Ventorum Coactor i. The Tamer of the Windes Of himselfe hethus boastingly sung Pharmaca queis pellas morbos tristemque senectam Percipies quae cuncta tibi communico soli Compescesque truces ventorum rite procellas Ex orto insanis c. ¶ Thus Englished Med'cines from me diseases how to cure And make sad Age in strength long to endure Thou shalt receiue with things of higher rate Which solely I 'le to thee communicate The stormy Windes thou shalt command to cease Lest their mad gusts destroy the Earths encrease I 'le teach thee how the riuers to reclaime And force their streams to turne from whence they came Calmes from the midst of tempests thou shalt bring Cause timely showres in Haruest or in Spring And at thy pleasure make the Welkin cleare Or if thou call'st on dead Ghosts they shall heare But what was the end of this great Boaster notwithstanding his practise and proficience his profound learning and iudgement his great respect that he had from the Philosophers of his time and the reuerend opinion conceiued of the multitude yet this great Artist ended his dayes most wrerchedly in the sulphure flames of AEtna In a certaine part of Germany we reade of a Circulator or jugler who amongst many other his illusions standing in the midst of a throng of people he would aduance himselfe into the aire and in his flight a woman hold him fast by the heele and behind her a yong childe hold by one of her heeles and thus they would sport in the aire many houres together But notwithstanding all his agilitie and cunning being brought within the lapse of the Law for certain sorceries and witchcrafts he was burnt at a stake being then forsooke of the Diuell when he had most need of his aid Nicetas reporteth of a Sorcerer called Michael Sidecita This Fellow sporting with others vpon the battlements of the great Imperiall Palace in Constantinople in that part that prospects vpon the water he spied a Lighter or Boat which was laden with pots pipkins portingers dishes and all kinde of earthen vessels some plaine some curiously painted with diuers colours and to shew some sport with those Courtiers that were in his company by whispering some Magicke charme to himselfe hee caused the owner of the boat suddenly to arise from his seat and with his oare neuer cease beating the brittle Vessels vntill hee had almost pownded them to pouder Which done hee was perceiued to recollect himselfe and after to wring his hands and pluck himselfe by the beard and to expresse signes of extraordinarie sorrow And after being demanded What madnesse was in him to make such spoyle of his wares as where before they were all vendible now to make them worth nothing Hee sadly answered That as hee was busie at his oare hee espied an huge ougly Serpent crawling toward him and ready to deuour him who neuer ceased to threaten his life till hee had broken all his merchandise to pieces and then suddenly vanished This the Conjurer did to make his friends sport but he was suddenly after drowned in earnest Gulielmus Nubrigensis writeth of an English Magition called Eumus who was likewise an Heretique and was wont to shew the like prestigious trickes to the people He could so effascinat the eyes of the spectators that he seemed to feast great Princes lords and Barons at his table furnished with store of seruitors and waiters extemporarie dishes with delicates being brought in and all the rarieties that could be imagined with waiting-gentlewomen of extraordinarie beauty and feature attending the Court Cupboords being richly furnished with siluer and guilt plate Hee would likewise shew them pleasant and delightfull gardens decked with all sweet and fragrant floures with greene Orchards planted with trees that bare all manner of ripe fruits euen in the depth of Winter Yet he that could do all these things could nor preserue his owne life for being condemned by the Councell of Rhemes he suffered by fire notwithstanding his many and loud inuocations on the Diuell for helpe to deliuer him from that torture Scafius a notorious Sorcerer in the jurisdiction of Berne would brag in all places where he came That to escape the persecution of his enemies he could at any time