SECT. 1. That the starres are not of a fiery nature, or hot in themselues.

THe light of Heaven, whereof wee haue spoken, is not more comfor∣table & vsefull, then is the warmth therof; with a masculine vertue it quickens all kind of seeds, it makes them vegetate, & blossome, and fructifie, and brings their fruite to perfection, for the vse of man & beast, and the perpetuating of their owne kinds, nay it wonderfully re∣fresheth and cheares vp, the spirits of men and beasts, and birds, and creeping things, & not only impartsthe life of vegetation, but of sense & motion, to many thousand creatures, and like a tender parent forsters and cherisheth it being imparted. Some there are that liue with∣out the light of heauen, searching into and working vpon, those bodies which the light cannot pierce, but none without the warmth, it being in a manner the vniversall instrument of Nature, which made the Psal∣mist say that there is nothing hid from the heate of the sunne. Few things are * hid from the light, but from the heate thereof nothing. Our life with∣the ligh of heaven would be tedious and vncomfortable: but without the warmth impossible. Since then such is the continuall and necessary vse of the Coelstiall warmth, aswell in regard of the generation, as the preser∣uation of these inferiour bodies, accomodating it selfe to their severall tempers and vses, in severall manners and degrees, it may easily be con∣ceiued to be a matter of marveilous greate importance in deciding the maine question touching Natures decay, to inquire thorowly into the state and condition of it, (vpon which so many and great workes of Nature wholy depend) whether it be decayed or no, or whether it still abide in the fullnesse of that strength and activitie in which it was cre∣ated. For the better cleering of which doubt, it will be very requisite first to inquire into the efficient cause thereof, which being once disco∣vered, it will soone appeare whether in the course of nature it be capable of any such diminution or no.

I am not ignorant that S. Augustine, S. Basill, S. Ambrose, and gene∣rally as many Divines, as held that there were waters, properly so tear∣med, * aboue the starry firmament, held with all that the Sunne and Starres caused heate as being of a fiery Nature, those waters being set there, in their opinion, for cooling of that heate: which opinion of theirs seemes to be favoured by Syracides in the forty third of Ecclesiasticus, where he * thus seakes of the Sunne, At noone it parcheth the countrey, and who can abide the burning heate there of. A man blowing a furnace is in workes of heate: but the sunne burneth the mountaines three tymes more, breathing out fiery va∣pours.Page  91 Neither were there wanting some among the ancient Philoso∣phers who maintained the same opinion, as Plato and Plyny, and general∣ly * the whole sect of Stoicks, who held that the Sunne and Starres were fed with watery vapours, which they drew vp for their nourishment, and that when these vapours should cease and faile the whole world should be in daunger of combustion, and many things are alleaged by Balbus in Ciceroes second booke of the nature of the Gods, in favour of this opi∣nion of the Stoicks. But that the Sunne and Starres are not in truth and in their owne nature fieric and hot, appeares by the ground already layd touching the matter of the heavens, that it is of a nature incorruptible, which cannot bee, if it were fiery, inasmuch as thereby it should become lyable to alteration and corruption by an opposite and professed enimie. Besides all fiery bodies by a naturall inclination mount vpwards, so that if the starres were the cause of heat, as being hot in themselues, it would consequently follow that their circular motion should not bee Naturall but violent. Wherevnto I may adde, that the noted starres being so many in number, namely one thousand twenty and two, be∣sides the Planets, and in magnitude so greate that every one of those, which appeare fixed in the firmament, are sayd to bee much bigger, then * the whole Globe of the water and earth, and the Sunne againe so much to exceede both that globe and the biggest of them, as it may iustly bee stiled by the sonne of Syrach, instrumentum admirabile a wonderfull in∣strument; which being so, were they of fyre, they would doubtlesse long * ere this haue turned the world into ashes, there being so infinite a dis∣proportion betweene their flame and the little quantity of matter suppo∣sed to bee prepared for their Fewell. That therefore they should bee fed with vapours, Aristotle deservedly laughs at it, as a childish and ridi∣culous device, in as much as the vapours ascend no higher then the mid∣dle region of the ayre, and from thence distill againe vpon the water and earth from whence they were drawne vp, and those vapours being vncertaine, the flames likewise feeding vpon them must needes be vncer∣taine, and dayly vary from themselues both in quantity and figure accor∣ding to the proportion of their fewell.

SECT. 2. That the heate they breed springes from their light, and consequently their light being not decayed, nei∣ther is the warmth arising there from.

THe absurdity then of this opinion beeing so foule and grosse, it re∣maines that the Sunne and Starres infuse a warmth into these Sub∣caelestiall bodies, not as being hot in themlselues, but only as beeing ordeined by God to breed heate in matter capable thereof, as they impart life to some creatures and yet themselues remaine voyd of life, like the braine which imparts Sense to every member of the body, and yet is it selfe vtterly voyd of all Sense. But here againe some there are which attribute this effect to the motion, others to the light of these glorious Page  92 bodies: And true indeed it is, that motion causes heat, by the attenuati∣on & rarefaction of the ayre: But by this reason should the Moone which is neerer the Earth, warme more then the Sunne, which is many thousand miles farther distant, & the higher Regions of the Aire should be alway hotter then the lower, which notwithstanding if wee compare the second with with the lowest is vndoubtedly false. Moreouer the moti∣on of the coelestiall bodies being vniforme, so should the heat deriued from them in reason likewise be, & the motion ceasing, the heat should likewise cease, & yet I shall neuer beleeue, that when the Sun stood still at the prayer of Iosua, it then ceased to warme these inferiour Bodies. And we find by experience, that the Sun works more powerfully vpon a body which stands still then when it moues, & the reason seemes to be the same in the rest or motion of a body warming or warmed, that receiueth or imparteth heat.

The motion being thus excluded from being the cause of this effect, the light must of necessitie step in, and challenge it to it selfe; the light then it is, which is vndoubtedly the cause of coelestiall heate in part by a direct beame, but more vehemently by a reflexed: for which very rea∣son it is, that the middle Region of the aire is alwaies colder then the lowest, and the lowest hotter in Summer then in Winter, and at noone then in the morning and evening, the beames being then more perpen∣dicular, and consequently in their reflexion more narrowly vnited, by which reflexion and vnion, they grow sometimes to that fervencie of heate, that fire springs out from them as wee see in burning glasses; and by this artificiall device it was that Archimedes, as Galen reports it, in his third booke de Temperamentis, set on fire the Enemies Gallyes, and *Proclus a famous Mathematician, practised the like at Constantinople, as wit∣nesseth Zonaras in the life of Anastasius the Emperour. And very rea∣sonable me thinkes it is, that light the most Divine affection of the Coele∣lestiall Bodies, should be the cause of warmth, the most noble, actiue, and excellent quality of the Subcoelestiall. These two like Hippocrates twinnes; simul oriuntur & moriuntur, they are borne and dye together, they in∣crease and decrease both together, the greater the light is, the greater the heate; and therefore the Sun as much exceedes the other starres in heate, as it doth in light. To driue the argument home then to our pre∣sent purpose, since the light of the Sun is no way diminished, and the heate depends vpon the light, the consequence to me seemes marvailous faire and strong, which is, that neither the heate arising from the light, should haue suffered any decay or diminution at all.

SECT. 3. Two obiections answered, the one drawne from the present habitablenes of the Torrid Zone, the other from a supposed ap∣proach of the Sun neerer the earth then in former ages.

NOtwithstanding the evidence of which trueth, some haue not doubted to attribute the present habitablenesse of the Torride Zone, to the weaknesse and old age of the Heauens, in regard of former ages. But they might haue remembred that the Cold Zones should thereby haue become more inhabitable by cold, as also that holding as they doe, an vniversall decay in all the parts of Nature, & men according to their opinion, decaying in strength as well as the Heauens, they should now in reason be as ill able to indure the present heate, as the men of former ages were, to indure that of the same times wherein they liued, the proportion being alike betweene the weaknes, as between the strength of the one and the other. But this I onely touch in passing, hauing a fitter occasion to consider more fully of it hereafter, when we come to compare the wits and inventions of the Ancients with those of the present times.

That which touches neerer to the quick, & strikes indeed at the very throat of the cause, is an opinion of very many, and those very learned men, that the Body of the Sunne is drawne nearer the Earth by many de∣grees then it was in former ages, & that it daylie makes descents, & ap∣proaches towards it, which some ascribe to a deficiencie of strength in the Earth, others in the Sun, most in both. Bodin out of Copernicus, Reinol∣dus* & Stadius, great Mathematicians tell vs, that since Ptolomies time, who liued about an hundred & forty yeeres after Christ, the Sunne by cleare demonstrations is found to haue come neerer vs by one hundred & thirty semidiameters of the earth, which make twenty six thousand six hun∣dred and sixty German miles, which are double to the French, as the French are to the Italian and ours. This wonderfull change Philip Melancthon, saith he, ad coelestium, terrestriumque corporum tabescentem naturam referen∣dum putavit, thought fit to impute to the declining estate of the coelestiall & terrestriall Bodies. But if the terrestriall depend vpon the coelestiall, (as hath already beene prooued, & is the common opinion of all, both Divines and Philosophers) then what is wanting in the wonted vigour of the coelestiall, being supplied by the approach thereof, the terrestrial should still without any decay remaine vnimpaired in their condition. The force of which reason serues also strongly against them who maintaine an habitablenesse vnder the Torride Zone, through the weaknesse of the Sun, and yet withall hold a supply of that weakenesse by the neerer ap∣proach thereof.

But consulting in this point with both the learned Professours in the Mathematickes at Oxford, they both jointly agree, that this assertion of Page  94 the Sunnes continuall declination; or neerer approach to the Earth, is ra∣ther an idle dreame, then a sound position, grounded rather vpon the diffe∣rence among Astronomers, arising from the difficulty of their observati∣ons, then vpon any certaine & infallible conclusions. Ptolomy who liued a∣bout the yeare of Christ one hundred & forty, makes the distance of the Sun from the Earth to be one thousand two hundred & ten semidiameters of the Earth. Albategnius about the yeare eighr hundred & eighty makes it one thousand one hundred forty sixe. Copernicus about the yeare one thou∣sand fiue hundred and twenty, makes it one thousand one hundred seventy nine. Tychobrahe about the yeare one thousand six hundred, makes it one thousand one hundred eighty two. Now I would demaund, whether the Sun were more remote in Ptolomies time, & neerer in the time of Albategni∣us, & then againe more remote in the latter ages of Copernicus & Tycho: which if it were so, then one of these two must needs follow, that either their observations were notgrounded vpon so certaine principles as they pretend, or that the declination of the Sunne is vncertaine & variable, not constant & perpetuall, as is pretended. But what would Bodin say if hee liued to heare Lansbergius, Kepler, & other famous Astronomers of the present age, teaching that the Sun is now remote aboue two thousand and eight hundred, nay three thousand semidiameters from the Earth, affirming that Copernicus and Tycho neglected to allow for refractions, which (as the Opticks will demonstrate) doe much alter the case.

I will close vp this point with •…he censure of Scaliger vpon the Pa∣trons of this fancy, Quae vero nonnulli prodere ausi sunt, solis corpus longè*propius nos esse, quàm quantum ab Antiquis scriptum sit, ita vt in ipsa deferen∣tis corpulentia locum mutasse videatur, vel ipsa scripta spongijs, vel ipsi Autho∣res scuticis sunt castigandi. In as much as some haue dared to broach, that the Body of the Sun is nearer the Earth then by the Ancients it was obserued to be, so that it might seeme to haue changed place in the very bulke of the Spheare, either the Authors themselues of this o∣pinion deserue to be chastned with stripes, or surely their writings to be razed with sponges.

SECT. 4. A third objection answered, taken from a supposed removall of the Sun more Southerly from vs then in form•…r ages.

AS some haue inferred a diminution in the Heauenly warmth from a supposed neerer approach of the Sunne to the Earth, so haue others (at leastwise in regard of the Earth) from the remo∣vall thereof more Southerly then in former ages. But crauing in this point likewise the opinion of my worthy friend Master Doctour Bain∣bridge Professour in Astronomie at Oxford, hee returned mee this an∣swere.

From which answere it may (as I conceiue) bee fitly and safely in∣ferred, first that either there is no such remoueall at all of the Sunne, (as is supposed) or if there bee, as wee who are situate more Northern∣ly, feele perchance the effects of the defects of the warmth thereof, in the vnkindly ripening of our fruites and the like, so, likewise by the rule of proportion, must it needs follow, that they who lie in the same distance from the South-Pole, as wee from the North, should enjoy the benefite of the neerer approach thereof; And they who dwell in the hottest Climates interiacent, of the abating of the immoderate fervency of their heate; and consequently, that to the Vniversall, nothing is lost by this exchange: And as in this case it may happily fall out, so vn∣doubtedly doth it in many other: from whence the worlds supposed de∣cay is concluded, Wee vnderstand not, or at least-wise wee consider not, how that which hurts vs helpes another nation, wee complaine (as was before truely observed out of Arnobius) as if the world were made, and the government thereof administred for vs alone; & heere∣by it comes to passe, that as hee who lookes onely vpon some libbat or end of a peece of Arras, conceiues perhaps an hand or head which he sees to bee very vnartificially made, but vnfolding the whole, soone findes, that it carries a due and iust proportion to the body: So, qui ad pauca respicit de facili pronuntiat (saith Aristotle) hee that is so narrow eyed as hee lookes onely to his own person or family, to his owne cor∣poration or nation, will paradventure quickely conceiue, and as soone pronounce, that all things decay and goe backewarde, whereas hee that as a Citizen of the world, and a part of mankinde in generall takes a view of the Vniversall, and compares person with person, familie with familie, nation with nation suspends his judgement, or vpon examina∣tion cleerely findes, that though some members suffer, yet the whole is thereby no way indammaged at any time, and at other times those same members are againe relieued. And from hence my second infe∣rence is, that supposing a mutability in the Sunnes greatest declination; looke what dammage wee suffer by his farther remoueall from vs in Summer, is at least-wise in part recompensed by his neerer approach in Winter, and by his Periodicall Revolutions fully restored. And so I Page  97 passe from the consideration of the warmth, to those hidden and secret qualities of the heavens, which to Astronomers, and Philosophers are knowne by the name of Influences.