Heresie and Atheism I confidently believe that this admirable order of the World which disperses the confusisions and chaos which by reason of mens ignorance do yet reign will even make the greatest Atheists of this world to confesse That they cannot have their originall but from God alone who is the Soveraign Creator of all things Melancthon saith farther That if there were divers Worlds it would be requisite that Jesus Christ should suffer death several times for to save them all but what do we know whether those Men in the Stars are better then those that are in this world whereof Satan is called the Prince and where he abides for which cause St. John saith in Chap. 12. v. 12. of the Revelations Therefore rejoyce ye Heavens and ye that dwell in them wo to the Inhabitants of the Earth and of the Sea for the Devil is come down unto you And though we should certainly know that those men in the Starres have need of salvation God hath so many means and wayes to us unknown for to save them and to satisfie his Justice that we need not inform our selves about these things but believe them in faith captivating our understandings as an ancient Father of the Church hath well spoken But some may object Who is he that will believe it To whom I shall reply with Plato No wicked man shall ever know it but he onely who shall be found worthy of it Let then those who are unworthy of so high and sublime knowledge withdraw hence their gross spirit cannot apprehend the subtilty of it and as Spiders do turn the best food into venome and poyson they call that which is the true way to the knowledge of God the high-way to Atheism Chap. XXXV Proving the Plurality of Worlds by a Reason drawn from the place of Hell SOme scrupulous persons might say That the Reason of this Chapter seems in something to contradict the doctrine of the Church But I shall answer him That if any one should endeavour to prove that there is no Hell his Opinion should certainly be esteemed erroneous and pernicious but to do nothing but to establish and confirm it as I do in this Chapter and to remark the place where it is being that the Divines cannot certainly point out the place I find nothing in it repugnant to Christianity Now whereas our bodies are to rise from the dead for to be rewarded according to their deserts good or evill and that the damned are in greater number then the saved the place of Hell must needs be very spatious and great to contain them all and solid and firm to uphold them but it cannot be anywhere but in one of the Stars and so consequently the Stars may have Inhabitants in them for it 's said That the Center of the Earth because it is the center of the World and the farthest place from Heaven but that I cannot find it needful to place it in the Center of the World considering that God is equally every where and that men cannot alienate themselves from him and also because it 's very easie to prove the contrary not only in that it could not be sufficient to contain in it self all the damned that have been since the Creation and shall be unto the end nor can be penetrated through by their lumpish bodies and also because the Earth it self at the day of Judgment must be consumed and done away as Esdras saith in 4th Chapter and 42 verse of his second book but also in this that not the earth but the Sun is the Center of the worlds the Sun then by reason of its far distance from the highest Heavens saith Foscarinus is the true place of Hell even as its siery nature required for the internall habitations seems to perswade it but I cannot admit this opinion though that I hold that Hell must be in one of the Stars but to seat it in so beautiful a Star as the Sun is I cannot consent to it seeing that the damned Souls cannot merit so good and advantagious an habitation But on the contrary It may seem more plausible and consonant to truth to seat the Paradise of God in the Sun according to that Text in the Psalms In Sâ—le posuit tabernaculum suum God hath placed his Tabernacle in the Sun But to prove more certainly that Hell is not within the Earth let us but observe that it was created before the Earth seeing that the wicked Angels were banished into it before the Creation of the Earth to which agrees the first Chapter and 14 verse of the Wisdome of Solomon saying The Kingdom of death is not upon the Earth Chap. XXXVI Proving the plurality of Worlds by an Argument drawn from the Seat of Paradise both Celestial and Terrestrial IT may likewise be proved That Paradise is no where else but in the Stars Now it 's most clear and certain that it 's not this Earth but a new Earth wherein is the heavenly Jerusalem which must needs be a solid place as well as our Earth that it may hold us up wherein all joy and happinesse shall be and out of which shall all miseries and torments be banished this place is prepared of old for men and what do we know but that we shall be dispersed into severall Stars doth not our Lord Christ Jesus assure us That in his Fathers house are many Mansions and Esdras in the 4. chap. 7. ver. of his second Book tels us How many Springs are above the Firmament and which are the out-goings of Paradise It may be that after we have inhabited this Earth of misery and sorrow wherein death and infirmity are the wages of our sins we shall be introduced into those high Globes wherein we shall live for ever in fulnesse of happinesse and joy Is it not said in Rev. 2. ver. 28. To him that overcomes will I give the morning Star And Job in the 38. and 7. v. doth see through Faith the Morning Stars singing together and all the Sons of Men shouting for joy This his Vision shall be accomplished when we shall trample upon these moving wonders and if by reason of those glorious objects we may remember the things of this Earth we shall from those vast habitations of glory look with great contempt and disdain upon this lump of Earth so highly esteemed of men and by them divided into so many Regions and Countreys and upon that drop of water by them divided into so many Seas May it not also be that the Earthly Paradise or Garden of Eden out of which Adam was driven was the same place whereunto we shall return he was driven out of it for his sins without which he had not tasted death And now that Jesus Christ by his satisfaction to the Father's Justice hath blotted them out we shall be therein introduced Munster faith that many ancient Philosophers did imagine it scituated in a high place encompassed with fire adjoyning the Circle of the Moon
Earth nor with the Sea and lastly because that our sight holpen by the Prospective-glasses observes in it some Seas and the tops of divers Mountains and such like remarkable things whereof the Maps and figures may be seen in Hevelius Argolius and several others and in our Book de Telescopio These Spots shew that the Moon is partaker of the Elementary and Terrestriall nature and consequently of the rest of the Elements This did move Plato to say That the Stars are composed of fire and earth by reason of their splendour and of their great and lumpish body This plurality of Worlds may again be proved by the variety of the causes that compose it and by the divers combinations that may thence be made which is the argument used by Morodorus in Plutarch in his book of the Philosophers opinion wherein it 's said That where the causes are there the effects ought to be also and the causes of the World being a great many so also ought the Worlds to be many the causes of the world are the four Elements and others that may yet be unknown to us or the infinite number of Democritus Atomes unlesse we had rather say That its God who being infinite so likewise hath created an infinite not onely of Worlds but of all things And indeed as the same Philosopher saith it would be a sad spectacle if there were but an ear of corn in a great field the same would it be of Heaven if it were true that there is no more Earth but one Chap. XXI Wherein is the same proved by certain Reasons drawn from Galileus's Observations and others as of the Stars of Jupiter and of the Spots in the Sun THat great Galileus who seemed onely to be in the World for to resolve the doubts in Astrologie hath discovered with his admirable invention of Prospective-glasses which immortalize his name by the discovery of what is contained in the Stars he is the first who hath directed his Telescopes or Prospective-glasses towards Heaven and by help of them that the milky line were small Stars which by reason of their proximity and great number do confound their light he also hath discovered the Moons superficies not smooth but rugged and full of risings of Hills and hollownesse of Valleys He also hath observed that the Star Venus doth imitate the course of the Moon being now full then half then in the first quarter as a sithe and hath observed the perspicuous change of bignesse in Venus and Mars's diameters things of great concernment and note for the theories of Copernicus and Tycho Brahe He hath ashamed the Sun discovering in him those Spots which for so many Ages he had buried and hid in his bright obscurity and hath discerned that those Spots were not fixed and alwayes lasting as those in the Moon but that they disappear appear again turning round the Sun he hath also discovered four new Planets that had not yet bin observed by some of the ancient Astrologers which he hath called the Planets of Medicis in favour of his Prince these Planets move onely round about Jupiter which hath induced some to believe that Jupiter was another world or another Sun round about which other Planets do run as round about that which in lightens us He hath farther observed that the Planet Saturn hath three bodies having two more at his sides and that the Planet Jupiter is be spotted with girdles or Zones that do girth it the which may plainly and perspicuously be seen by those Telescopes or Prospectives admirably well made by Torricelli the Florentine These are those rare Observations of that illustrious Person who though but little in body yet so great in ingenuity and acuity of spirit that all the World hath suffered by the losse of him He became blind by reason of his too great propensity and labour in these Observations and he who had in these things given light to all this world could not enjoy the light nor his Invention Foscarius adds to all these Observations that Venus hath been seen with three bodies as well as Saturn and that Jupiter hath 4. bodies But Gassendus Fontana Neapolitan hath now the excellentest Telescope in the world with which he hath seen the four Planets which are adjacent to Jupiter as four Moons two about Saturn which make a figure of a pot handle at each side of it In the midst of Mars a little Globe at his brimmes a darkish circle and about Venus two Moons or Stars Chap. XXII Proving the Plurality of Worlds by a Reason taken from the Clouds and the waters above in Heaven WIth the Prospective-glasse we may see some Clouds flying round about the Sun which can arise but from the Moon from other Stars or from the Sun it self because they be beyond the Region of the Meteors Now if the Stars ingender clouds they have water within themselves but if the Element of water is in them the Element of earth and the rest have as great priviledge to be in them as it Now that there is water in them the first Chapter of Genesis proves it clearly when he saith Then God said Let there be a Firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the waters And God made the Firmament and divided the waters which were under the Firmament from the waters which were above the Firmament he called the Firmament Heaven and the waters under the Firmament Seas Esdras in Chap. 6. of his second Book saith the same in these terms Thou madest the spirit of the Firmament and commandedst it to part asunder and to make a division betwixt the waters that the one part might go up and the other remain beneath Where are these waters above I beseech you if they are not in the Stars For it 's a very weak Reason to say That they are in the Clouds because that besides that they could not contain the Seas It s said in the second Chapter of Genesis that God had not caused it to rain upon the Earth but there went up a mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of the Earth and so consequently there was no vapour raised up to form them and what should have raised them seeing there was yet no Sun created to light the World Let us then lift up our eyes to Heaven and as the new Gymnosophists who daily contemplated the Sun let us observe in them those new Worlds wherewith it is wonderfully enriched which are divers and various in bignesse light and other qualities let us not be as poor simple Countrey fellowes who having seen no farther then the corner of their own chimney cannot apprehend that there can be any Town or City bigger then their Village but let us raise our spirits to the contemplation of the remotest and highest things that are thereby ennobling our selves though it be a very high attempt O how happy is that man who when he pleaseth can spiritually loosen his
its motion in 24. houres be alienated from it It 's also objected That the Towers would fall and that the Clouds and Rivers would all follow the course of the Earth But I answer That the Clowds are agitated by the winds and therefore cannot follow the course of the earth and as for the Towers they cannot fall considering that the Earth's motion is not violent and that the Towers by reason of their ponderosity bend still towards the Center of the earth and are not removed from their situation And as touching the Rivers the earth being as a gall-nut a River may run towards the East by the bending of its Seats towards the center of the earth although the Earth tends towards the West which may easily be apprehended if we conceive that a man walking in a Ship directs his steps towards the East whilest that the Ship sayles to the West Many severall other Reasons are objected which are but weak but because there are divers Discourses touching the Earth's motion which resolve them and reconcile the places of the holy Scripture upon this subject matter amongst whom are Foscarinus and Barantzanus I shall desire the curious Readers to read them and shall content my self with what I have said Chap. XIII Proving the Plurality of the Worlds by the variety of all natural things NAture is various in all its operations and God hath put such variety in all his Works that we can find nothing uniform in this world all things in it are various and different and this great diversity causes us the more to admire the Creator of this whole Fabrick If it be so concerning the earth which is near-upon the smallest of all the Globes what will it not be of the heavenly which are incomparably greater For this cause did Campanella say That though God and Nature do nothing in vain yet such a great number of Stars greater then the earth would be in vain if there was not in them divers demonstrations of the Idea's of God It 's then consonant to reason that not only the four Elements be in every one of the Starres but also that Men Bsasts and Plants and all whatsoever is seen amongst us be in them And thus did this famous Person of our time speak Chap. XIV Of the measures and dimensions of the Stars and their distance from the Earth and proportions with it with an argument taken from those distances for to prove the multiplicity of Worlds BUt because we have often mentioned the bignesse of the Stars and how they exceed the Earth in extension and also spoken of their infinite distances It will not be out of purpose and beyond our present Discourse to insert them in this Chapter These distances are somewhat variously given by divers Authors but the difference being but small is not of great concernment to us Charles Rapineus gives these distances in his book called Nucleus Philosophiae The Moon is lesser then the Earth 39 times and according to Cardan thirty nine times and a half Mercury is lesser then the Earth by 1100 times Venus by 37 times The Sun is greater then the Earth by 166 times Mars by 1 time Jupiter by 95 times Saturn by 91 times The fixt Stars are innumerable but those that are observed by the Astrologians are 1022 and are of proportions of bignesse Those of the first magnitude are 15 in number and are bigger then the Earth by 117 times Those of the second magnitude are 45 and are bigger then the Earth by 90 times Those of the third are 208 and are bigger then the earth by 70 times Those of the fourth are 472 and are bigger then the Earth by 54 times Those of the fifth are 17 and are bigger then the Earth by 37 times Those of the sixth are 49 and 5 dark and 9 bright ones and are all bigger then the Earth by 18 times The concavity of the Moon is distant from the Center of the Earth 14291 leagues which are 28541 miles From the Center of the Earth to Venus there is 542749 miles To the Sun 3640000 miles To Mars 3965000 miles To Jupiter 28845000 miles To Saturn 46816250 miles To the Concavity of the Firmament 65357500 miles The thicknesse of the Moons round is of 99504 miles Mercury's round is of 334208 miles That of Venus of 3097251 miles That of the Sun 32500 miles That of Mars 248820000 miles That of Jupiter 17969250 miles That of Saturn 18541250 miles That of the Firmament 55357500 miles The diameter of the Earth is of ten thousand and eight hundred miles But Cardanus saith of 10000 miles It s circumference is of 32400 miles and according to Cardanus of 31000 miles and a half It s semidiameter or half diameter is of 5000 miles These things being thus is it not very like that so huge and vaste bodies so distant one from the other should hide and contain in themselves something as well as the Earth at least those that move and are Planets as It is and that turn round the bright body of the Sun which communicates his light to them all Chap. XV Wherein the plurality of Worlds is proved by a Reason drawn from the colour of the Stars IF we see and punctually discern not onely with Jacob's staffe but also with our own sight without the help of any instrument a great diversity in the Stars in their bignesse colour light and other circumstances Shall we not say That those various colours do testifie their various nature and their bodily mixtures and that they may consequently be bodies as well as the Earth Chap. XVI Proving the same because that there is nothing empty nor vain in nature WE cannot remark any thing empty in the whole Nature this passes for a sure Maxim therefore did Hermes in his Asclepe say That all the parts of the World are very full the whole World is full of Globes or Stars these Stars and especially the Earth which we inhabit is filled with Seas Rivers four-footed Beasts Men Birds Minerals the waters are filled with Fishes these things have yet in themselves and unto their very Center so great a variety that their anatomy drawes us to admiration In a word we may lose our selves in the subdividing of them And why may not the Stars be so too seeing that as it hath already been proved in the foregoing Chapter we may see and observe in them some certain variety especially in the Moon where Mountains and Waters evidently appear and may very well be discerned with a good Prospective glasse with which Instrument is a notable Mountain discerned in Mars Chap. XVII Proving the plurality of Worlds by the plurality of Men and because things above are as things below GReat Mercurius Trismegistus who for his eximious Learning hath obtained the name of Thrice most Great hath left us this notable Aphorism That things below are as things above and vice versa those above as them below the meaning is That this World is an example to
the Earth BEfore I conclude this Discourse I think it yet convenient to answer them who think that they have hit right on the head of the nayl when they say that the Spots in the Moon are nothing else but the figure of the Earth's shadow which communicate themselves in the Moon as in a Looking-glasse but they do not consider that there is no analogy nor resemblance between those Spots and those of our general Mapp nor that in dark nights this figure can be communicated to the Moon or could it be said That those Mountains in the Moon are nothing but some flat and low obscurities But I answer That the shadow of those Mountains appears and turns as the Needle of a Sea-Compasse proportionably as the Sun inlightens them diversly which could not be were they not bodies high elevated for they would be without shadow and Monsieur Gassandus did sometimes say That he had mathematically measured the heighth of some Mountains and valleys in the Moon by means of their shadows and that he had found the heighth of the Mountains in the Moon to be much more remarkable then of those of the Earth Chap. XLVII Containing an Argument drawn from those mountains that are in the Moon WE must observe that the Moon being half full more or lesse out of it are seen many little spots as drops of Water or Orient Pearls very bright Now they are the tops of the Mountains that are lighted by the splendour of the Sun because they ascend as high as that part of the Moon which is inlightned but because the Mountains are broad at the foot and are dark at the bottome those drops appear to be somewhat scattered one from the other and so seem loosed from the Moon though they be not So likewise if one should contemplate from above the Mount Pireneus or the Alps he would only see their top in the form of so many Pearls because the top of them would reverberate the splendour of the Sun and their Snows would encrease the light of it Observe also that Paul in his 1. to the Cor. c. 15. v. 40. asserts that the Glory of the celestial bodies is divers from that of the terrestrial and that there is one glory of the Sun and another glory of the Moon and another glory of the Stars But if they differ in glory they do so by reason of the variety of creatures that are in them in the 47. verse the Apostle seems to indicate that there are heavenly men and also earthly men The Courteous Reader is intreated to consider that this is onely a fragment of the Volume intended by the Authour for to set forth the life and Philosophy of Democritus who asserted this opinion So that I say onely what he himself would have said to confirm his position But if it seems in any particulars to oppose and contradict the Principles of Religion and that my Arguments do not give full satisfaction I shall freely retract and uncloath my self of this opinion if it be any wayes noxious to Religion if it be recited and blamed by ignorant persons who are not able nor sit to answer to the Objections and cannot or will not weigh them by reason I have what I expect But if learned and wise persons can shew me the contrary with sound proofs and strong reasons they shall find me ready to yield up this my opinion to their censures Though above fifty Authors of this same opinion going before me have not yet been contradicted I hope that I give no more occasion of distaste then they FINIS