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Of the various distractions of Philosophers in their opinions concerning their Gods; and upon how ill grounds they were setled.
IN perusing the Monuments and Wri∣tings of the old Philosophers, as I finde them abstruse and intricate in divers points of their professions; so particularly I remarke their irresolu∣tions, and likewise the differences amongst them∣selves.
Of these speciall heads following,* 1.1 to passe by divers others which I have observed in their Poets; First of the true nature and essence of the Godhead which they worshipped; Next of the dis∣cent of their soules into their bodies, and of the event of these soules when they should leave them: And lastly, of the beginning and ending of this World, of every one of which a little here.
Alwayes in handling these points, and the first principally I exempt Plato and Aristotle, for what their opinion is herein, I have touched in that Title which sheweth, how neere in all these three they jumpe with our Christian Religion, which other∣wise distracted the rest of the Sects.
To be briefe then, à love principium▪ this is admi∣rable, that some Gods they admitted as not per∣fect ones; whence Ovid saith, or at least bringeth in Iupiter to this purpose.* 1.2
Quos quoniam nondum coeli dignamur honore, Quas dedimus certè terras habitare sinamus;as if in any Deity, there should be imperfection; But, why not so to them? seeing Chrysippus admit∣teth some mortall as well as immortall, which at the last conflagration of the world shall all be con∣sumed by fire; so that of their Dii minorum gen∣tium, none shall goe safe, except Iupiter alone.
To passe by, that Srato exempts the Gods from all charge and office, ascribing all things to be done by Nature; presupposing, as many restoratives or∣dained for the upholding of it, as there are destru∣ctives appointed for its undoing.
Was there not Gods appointed by them, as the Patrons to all vices, and authorizers of it? yea they set them at oddes one against the other;
Mulciber in Troiam pro Troia stabat Apollo.
And againe,
Neptunus muros, nagnoque immota tridenti fundamenta quatit, &c.And through all Homer, Minerva aideth Achilles; Iupiter lamed Vulcan; he againe enchained Mars and Venus, and the like fopperies.
Of the severall sorts of Gods amongst the Heathen; that they imagined them to bee authors of evils; that they were but mortall men: And some opini∣ons of Philosophers concerning the nature, beeing, and power of their Gods.
IT was some way dispensable,* 1.3 yet at least (quoad eos) to have fained Gods almost for all naturall productions, as Flora for the flowers of the Gar∣dens, Bacchus for the Wines, Ceres for the Corne, Iuno for Childe-births, and so forth: yea and to have prescribed one for every Craft or Trade; yea and one for the tutelage of every Countrey.
But that they should have imagined their Gods so irreligious, as to have beene fawtors or authors, much lesse actors of evill, I thinke farre beneath the beliefe of any (ex faece) of the lees and dregges of
the people, much more of a wise man and a Philo∣sopher; which moveth mee to thinke, that those were wisest amongst them, who medled least to speake of their Gods, and vexed not themselves with their enquiry; but with Socrates, esteemed the best judgement that they could make of their Gods, to be, to judge nothing at all of them.
The most diligent inquirers in the end discove∣red them to have beene but mortall men, who in their life-time had proved worthy either in Warre or peace & were deified after their death: And ac∣cordingly Augustus Caesar had more Temples and pompous solemnities instituted in his favour, than Iupiter Olimpius almost had.
So that to obscure the basenesse of their Gods, it would seeme, that they were moulded or painted of old with their fist closed upon their mouthes, or at least their fingers, as willing thereby living men, to speake either sparingly of their nature, or no∣thing at all.
Thus Pythius Apollo said well, and before him Timaeus to his Disciple Socrates, speaking of the na∣ture of the Gods;
Vt potero explicabo, non ut certa & fixa sunt quae dixero, sed ut homunciolus probabilia conjectura adumbrans.And in other places,
Sperantium sunt haec non probantium.
But to enter here into the diversity of their opi∣nions concerning the Deity the nature and de∣scent of their Gods I am loath, lest wee should
imagine those Philosophers,* 1.4 in stead of wise men, as they were called, to have beene starke madde: Thales esteeming Gods to bee spirits, which had made all things of water, for he was the first that ••ried in the cabin of their secrets: Anaximenes on the contrary, willeth them to be of the ayre, be∣cause they (as it) should bee in continuall motion: Others of no little note, repute the Sunne and the Moone with the Starres to be Gods.
Labentem coelo qui ducitis annum Liber & alma Ceres vestro si numine, &c.
Some againe made that Law imprinted in our hearts, by which we are inwardly (as it were) dri∣ven to doe good, and to abstaine from evill: Pytha∣goras reputed God to be a certaine Spirit, spread and shed abroad on, or in the nature of all things; so that with him all were full of Gods: Others fi∣nally flatly deny that there was any at all, but that all things had beeing as they are, and should con∣tinue in a perennell motion, vicissitude, and change: But I should weary you if I should but relate every one of their severall opinions.
Pythagoras opinion concerning the transmigration of soules rejected; of the coupling of the soule and body together; with severall opinions of the anci∣ent learned men concerning the substance of the soule.
O What perplexity and doubts were the an∣cient Philosophers plunged in concerning the transmigration of their soules?* 1.5 their renowned Pythagoras avouched that strange opini∣on of Metempsychosis, of the change or transplacing of the soule of a dying man, to, and in the body of a new borne creature, whether beast or rationall body; and then that body dying againe, that selfe same soule to remove and regaine a new habita∣tion, and so to continue from body to body. To which so fond an imagination, I thinke no old wo∣mans fable comparable.
And yet I excuse some way the irresolution of the Philosophers in this point, much more than in the mistaking of their Godhead; because I finde, that besides them, even the best Professors have doubtings in this point; that some of our Christian Fathers have beene touched with an admiration how the soule and body were coupled and yoaked together, whence one of the most famous is brought in, saying that
Modus quo animae adherent corporibus omninò mirus est, nec comprehendi a•• homine potest; as before him Plinius, Omnia abdita & in naturae majestatis gremio reclusa;So that with the Poet, no marvell though they should say likewise,
Ignoratur enim quae sit natura animai Nata est, an contra nascentibus insinuetur. Et simul intereat nobiscum morte perempta An tenebras orci visat, vastasque lacunas, An pecudes alias divinitus insinuet se.
The alterations and disputes concerning the substance of the soule are so many and different as is a wonder; some deny there is any soule in the body,* 1.6 but that our bodies move of themselves, by the instinct and power of nature; Others againe confesse that there is a soule wherewith our bodies are vivified, say, it is a mixt thing composed of wa∣ter and earth; others, of fire and earth: Empedocles wills it to be of and in the blood; thus Eurialus dying, was said to render sanguineam animam, —Sanguineam vomit ille animam: Zeno more judiciously in that kinde, esteemeth it to bee the quintessence of the foure Elements: Hypocrates, a spirit diffused through the whole body and every part thereof, Ita ut sit tota in toto, & tota in quali∣bet parte: It was a generall and received opinion, that in this world there was a generall Soule, Ani∣ma mundi, from which as all particular ones were extracted, so being separated from their bodies, thither they returned againe, according to which
Virgill saith,—Deum namque ire per omnes,
Terrasque tractusque maris, &c.
And againe,
Scilicet hinc reddi deinde ac resoluta referr•• Omnia, nec morti esse locum.—
The former Heathnick opinions confuted by our Chri∣stian Beliefe; that they differed concerning the time of the soules continuance, and place of its abode: how they thought soules after the separation from the body to be rewarded for good or ill, &c.
THe last most plausible opinion, and which hath purchased to it selfe most Patrons, was, that the Father infused it into the Childe by generation; from which opinion few have swar∣ved but Christians, who are taught to beleeve that the soule is given us from above.
The Iewish Church held (as wee) Coelitus de∣missa, and not ex traduce: Thus Salomon, Eccles. 12. ver. 7. The Philosophers generally held the con∣trary: the Poets (whom I account Rythmicall Philosophers, as Philosophers unversified Poets) are copious in this subject.
Fortes creantur fortibus, & bonis, faith the Lyrick, Nec imbelles faerocem.
progenerant aquilam columbae:
And againe another,
Dolus vulpibus, ac fuga cervis A Patribus datur.
Now as they differed in opinion touching the substance and discent of their soules;* 1.7 so no lesse va∣ried they about the time how long, and the place where the soules should continue after the dissolu∣tion of their bodies.
The Stoicks maintained, that the soule shall re∣maine a certaine space after the dissolution from the body, but not ever: Pythagoras and his Sect, of whom a little before, that the soules of the de∣parted did remove from that body to another: of which sort yet some were of opinion, that of these same soules some removed to heaven againe, and within a space thereafter reddescended to the lower parts, which Virgill intimateth when hee saith,
O Pater! Anne aliquas ad caelum hinc ire putan∣dum est Sublimes animas, rursumque ad tarda reverti Corpora est?
And againe,
Lathos culices & longa oblivia potant.
Plato (and that he hath out of Pindarus) esteem∣eth that as a man hath lived well or ill in this world, accordingly his soule shall bee requited hereafter; if well, that then it shall be rejoyned to the Starre to which it was first assigned; if ill, that then it shall be coupled to one of some malignant influence.
Finally, Apuleius Madaurensis in his tractate of the Moone, bringeth in Plutarch, maintaining, that the soules of well doers here during their abode in bodies, to be converted into Demi-gods or Saints: On the contrary, the ill ones, or at the least the worst are turned into Demons: As for the abso∣lute eternity of them, they medled with that opi∣nion rather more Sperantium quàm probantium.
By this preceding discourse, wee may see how farre we are obliged to the infinite mercies of our great God, who as he hath revealed himselfe truly unto us, at whom these ancient wise men but in a glimpse obscurely aymed; so hath hee ridde our mindes of that perplexity, wherein they were wrapt and infolded touching both the discent and event of our Soules.
Philosophicall tenents of plurality of Words confuted; of Gods Creation of male and femall of all living Creatures.
BEcause the discourse of the World, and the Philosophers opinions touching the begin∣ning, continuance, and ending of it, is the Theame which directly here I intend to handle; I haste me to it.
That there were more worlds than one, Demo∣critus,
Epicurus, and others mantained as an un∣doubted verity, whence the Poet,
Terramque & Solem, Lunam, Mare, caetera quae sunt Non esse unica, sed numero magis innumerali.
The reason whereupon they grounded the proba∣bility of their opinion,* 1.8 was this, because that in all the Vniverse there was nothing created alone without a mate or fellow, as in all birds, fishes, beasts; Yea in plants and hearbs, and in man their under Monarch may be seene, but as Aristotle himselfe hath confounded that opinion of his, prior Philosophers concerning their plurality of worlds, so naturall reason may leade us by the hand to its convincing; for, if there was another world, it be∣hoveth to be as this is, spherite and round, because that of all figures the orbicular is as most perfect, so most spacious; then if they were round, howbeit in their sides they might touch and kisse one ano∣ther, yet sure betwixt the superior convexes and lower concaves, there behoved to bee vacuities, which their owne Maximes admit not, for Natura, say they, abhorret à vacuo.
As for that conjugality (if abusively I might say so) of all living Creatures in paires, it was ordai∣ned by the great maker for the propagation and multiplication of their kindes, which otherwise had decayed; for with Apulcias, Cunctatim sumus perpetui, sigillatim mortales.
Severall opinions of severall Phylosophers concerning the Worlds Eternitie; their naturall reasons for ap∣proving of it; and what the Egyptians thought concerning the antiquitie of the World.
THeir other opinion of the Eternitie of the World hath had more Patrons than this,* 1.9 and that so much the rather, because that seeing the Godhead, their supreame Ens was from all Eternitie, that therefore I say, hee could not then even from all beginning (if Eternitie could admit a beginning) be a Creator without a creature, for otherwise he should have nothing to do, as they say.
So that those of this opinion doe not infringe, that of the most famous in all the Greeke schooles, favoring the Eternitie of the World saying, that the World was a god created by a greater One; this World being a body composed of soule and bodie, which Soule had its seate and residence in the Center, from whence it diffused by musicall num∣bers, her force and power to the remotest extremi∣ties of the circumference, having within it, other lesser gods, as the Seas, Aire, Starres, which doe corresponde to other in a mutuall harmonie, in perpetuall agitation and motion. The Earth sen∣ding
up vapors to the Aire, the Aire rayning downe upon the Seas againe, the Seas by secret conduits and channells transmitting them into the earth like veines ramifying themselves and bubbling up in fountaines, rivers, and brookes, &c. The Sunne and starres infusing their force upon all Creatures and vegetables: The Moone hers upon the Sea. Apuleius as in his tractat de Mundo Luna, & Deo; Socrates aimes at this above spoken: So Herodotus when he enquired at the Aethiopian and Aegyptian Gymnosophists what they thought of the Eterni∣tie of the Word, had for answere, That since their first king of whom they shew him the picture ex∣quisitely done, There had runne out a leven thou∣sand and so many hundred yeares, and that by their observations, the Sunne had changed foure times his ordinary course, and the heavens theirs also.
And Diodorus setteth downe that in his dayes the Chaldeans kept Register of foure hundreth thousand yeares since the first beginning, which admit, were but Lunarie (which is problematicke neverthelesse) it is above all measure farre beyond the reckoning of their neighbours the Iewes:* 1.10 To this opinion of the Egyptian and Indian Gymno∣sophists, favouring the Eternitie of the World, may be added the opinion of the Materiarie philoso∣phers, who howbeit they admit the beautie of the World to have come unto it with time, yet they hold confidently that the Chaos and matter it selfe (whence I call them Materiarcy) was coetanean and contemporary from all beginning with the
Maker: Of this opinion was Hesiod in his Theogoma saying,
〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, &c.
Now to speake of the divers opinions of the other old Philosophers who admitted a beginning to this world, and what principalls they supposed for it.
Heraclitus was of opinion that the world was begunne with fire,* 1.11 and that by the fatall order of the Destinies, it should bee destroyed by it againe, and dissolved in flames; yet in such sort, that after some ages thus being purified, it should be renewed againe, which Leo Hebraeus some way admits.
Thales againe would have the beginning of it to have beene of water, having fished that out of Homer as it seemeth and Virgill from him againe:
At nos interram lympham vertaminor omnes.
And we often reade in Homer and Virgil, pater oceanus.
But what more foolish or idle conceit than that of Democritus and Leucippus,* 1.12 who imagined the be∣ginning of the world and of all contained therein to have beene by the casuall encounter of Atoms (which are little infectile bodies (not unlike the Moates which wee see to tumble and rowle about in the Sunne beames, when they pierce any glasse-window or cranice, whose encounter like unto these, say they, doe either perpendiculagor or ob∣liquely, sphericall or angularly, crowde together
this globe, and all the diversities in it, whereof in∣deede I may say with the Satyrists:
Spectatum ad missir sum teneatis amiei?
This is that which Virgil savoreth when he brin∣geth in old Silenus his Canto to this purpose, in these words:
Nemque canebat uti magnum per inane coacta Semina, terrarum{que} anima{que} maris{que} fuissent Et liquidi simulignis ut his exordia primis Omnia —& ipse etiam mundi concreverit orbis.
All which opinions in this may be refuted, that they derogate too much from the power of God,* 1.13 whether they would have had the world eter∣nall, or of any preexisting water, insomuch as they thought not him who is able to draw light out of darkenesse, sufficient to have framed by his very World all this Fabricke of nothing, or yet if this Chaos had beene drowned in oblivion, and sunck in darknesse, not to have raised and reframed a new one, by the same Word and his power.
The most approved opinion of all Philosophers concer∣ning the Worlds beginning and matter: the infall∣ble truth of it; and a checke of Augustines against over curious inquisitors after those and the like mi∣steries.
THe more tolerable opinion was of those who held all things to be composed in time of the foure elements; admitting the Creatures of the Etheriall Region to bee of a like kinde and species with these of the Sublunary, and yet they thought not that any thing of them could be, but by some preëxisting matter.
Whereas we hold sacred anchor of veritie, that the mightie infinite, eternall, and all-powerfull God, created this World of nothing in and with time about five thousand sixe hundereth and odde yeares agoe,* 1.14 and that hee shall destroy it in time knowne onely to himselfe.
And if they aske what God was doing before this short number yeeres; We answere with S. Augustine replying to such curious questioners, that he was framing Hell for them. Seeing then it was created, and with time, it cannot therefore be eter∣nall: (these two being repugnant and incompatible ad idem as we say) which indeed to mortall men in∣lightned
but with nature only, is hard to beleeve: As for Trismegistus in his Poemander, and Plato in his Timeo, what they have spoken more divinely than others herein, no question but they have fished it out of Moyses his Pentateuch, who flourished before them, as Diodorus and Iosephus both witnesse.
How Philosophers differ from Christians in the wayes whereby God is knowne; the Parts whereof the world is composed; the division of the Coelestiall Spheares, wherein severall varieties may be observed.
THere are three wayes of knowing God; first affirmatively by which, whatever good is in man, they with us acknowledged to be in God,* 1.15 in a supereminent manner, and in abstracto (as we say in the schooles) Secondly, by denying what ever evill is in man, can any wayes be in God which is called the way of negation; But in the third way which is called the way of causation, by which we acknowledge God to be the causer of all things on∣ly. There they did mistake in so farre as they im∣puted the cause of many things to a continued seri∣es and a perennall succeeding of one thing to ano∣ther, for although Saint Augustine, Lib. 2. de civitate dei. cap. 17. and 4. holds that nature hath charecterised that much in every one, to know the
finger of God in their Fabricke. For that which to us Christians are as undoubted truths, to them were dubitable grounds, grounded upon their physi∣call maxime. That ex nihilo, nihil fiet.
But leaving these opinions of Philosophers (as almost al Cosmographers do) I divide the world in∣to two parts Caelestiall and Elementary;* 1.16 for the Al∣mighty hath so disposed and linked them together, That the Elementary or lower world cannot sub∣sist without the Celestiall; Her vertue, power, mo∣tion, and influences; for effectuating whereof the heavens are framed like a concaved Globe, or a hollow Bowle, whose center or middle body is this earth, environed about with these heavens, di∣stant equally at all parts from it.
The Celestiall Region, which properly is all the bounds betwixt the Sphere of the Moone, and the highest heavens comprehendeth in it eight Starrie Orbes, of which eight; seaven Plannets have their spheares betwixt the starrie firmament and the ayre: but so set that every ones orbe is lesser than the other, untill they reach the Moones; which is the least, last, and lowest spheare of all.
The eight orbe which is the starrie firmament comprehendeth all the rest of the fixed starres,* 1.17 and under it the planetary spheares before mentioned; But yet so, that it againe is environed by one grea∣ter, more ample and capacious, called the ninth spheare; And this ninth is girt about againe by that most supreme of al, called the tenth or primum mobile, above which againe is the Emperian or
Christaline heaven, which is the domicile and habitation of the blessed Spirits.
The tenth spheare or primum mobile, is that in or∣der, by whose perennall revolution, the starrie fir∣mament and all the rest are rowled and wheeled a∣bout in the space of 24 houres from East to West, upon the two Poles of th world called the South and North, or Polearticke or Antarticke.
Hic vertex nobis semper sublimis at illum Sub pedibus styx atra videt, manesque profundi.
And yet that revolution is not so swift,* 1.18 but that the Plannets have every one their owne course and motions, and that from the West to the East upon other Poles; by the Astronomers called Zodiack Poles: Nor is each Plannets course aalike swift and rapid for the Moones course through the Zodiack is ended in one moneth. The Sunnes in a yeare and so forth of the rest: So that Saturne finished his but in 30 yeares, Iupiter his in 12. And Mars in lesse and fewer, to wit in 2. Venus, and Mercury whose place is next below the Sunne, in the like space with the Sunne; but by reason of their changing by re∣trogradation and progression, they are sometimes before the Sunne in the morning, and sometime be∣hinde at evening, and at othertimes so neere him that they cannot bee seene: finally the Moone as remotest from the first Mover or tenth heaven, is swiftest in her owne peculiar motion through the Zodiack, which shee endeth (as I was saying)
in 27. dayes and some odde houres. Neither thinke It strange although the change fall not untill the 29. and a litle more; the reason being, that during the time of 27. dayes wherein the Moone goeth tho∣rough the Zodiack, the Sunne in the meane time by his peculiar motion hath gone 27 degrees forward in that same Zodiack;* 1.19 which space the Moone must yet measure before shee can be in Conjuncti∣on with the Sunne, which in effect is the change. So they two are to be distinguished, the Periodick motion of the Moone, & her Lunation from change to change.
All these motions of the Starres, our Astrono∣mers have found out by visible demonstrations; as for a peculiar motion allotted to them besides, it is a thing of some further consideration. Aristotle, and the Astronomers of that age doe teach, that the eight Spheare, commonly called the Firma∣ment of fixed starres, is the highest and next to the first movable; yet the later Astronomers obser∣ving in the fixed starres,* 1.20 beside the daily revolution of 24 houres, another motion from West to East, upon the Poles of the Zodiack, in regard one simple body (such as is the Firmament) cannot have but one motion of it selfe, have concluded, that above the Firmament of fixed starres, there behoved to be a ninth heaven: And last of all the later Astro∣nomers (and chiefly the Arabs) observing in the fixed starres a third motion, (called by them Motus trepidationis, or trembling motion) from North to South, and from South to North, upon its owne
Poles in the beginning of Aries and Libra, have hereupon inferred, that there is yet above all these a tenth heaven, which is the first moveable in 24. houres, moving round about from East to West upon the Poles of the World, and in the same space drawing about with it the nine inferiour heavens; and the ninth heaven upon the Poles of the Zo∣diack, making a slower motion to the East, measu∣reth but one degree in one hundreth yeares, and therefore cannot absolve its course before six and thirty thousand yeares; which space is called the great Platonick yeare, because Plato beleeved, that after the end thereof, the heavens should renew all things as they had beene in former times, seeing they returned to their first course;* 1.21 so that then hee should bee teaching those same Schollers in the same Schoole: whereby it seemeth, that this mo∣tion was not unknowne in his time. The slownesse of this motion proceeding from the neerenesse to the first moveable, like as the eight Orbe or Fir∣mament finisheth its trembling motion in 7000. yeares; but of this trembling motion as also of the number, motions, and aspects of the Starres, who lists to reade Ioannes Herpinus his Apologie for Bo∣din against Ferrerius, shall rest marvellously con∣tented.
The order of the Elements, with some observations of the Ayre and Water.
NOw betwixt the Spheare of the Moone and the Earth and Waters, is the Element of Ayre, next after the Element of fire, fil∣ling up all that vast intecstice, divided in three Re∣gions, whose middle Region by Anteperistasis (as we say) of the supreame one ever hot; and the lower ones now hot, now somewhat cold, is ever cold, and so is made the receptacle of all our Me∣teors, Raine, Haile, Snow, and so forth, framed there accordingly as the matter elevated from the earth and waters is either hot, moist, dry, cold, high or low.
Next to the Element of the Ayre, is the Ele∣ment of Water and Earth, which two make but one Globe, whose uppermost superficies is breathed upon with the incumbing and environing Ayre.
These two are the center to the Globe and en∣vironing heavens;* 1.22 the great Ocean (by Homer and Virgil called Pater Oceanus) which compasseth the earth, and windeth about it; as it is father to all other floods, fountaines, brookes, bayes, lakes, which doe divide themselves through the whole body and upon the face of the Earth, like so many
veines shedde abroad and dispersed thorough our humane bodies, whose source and spring is from the Liver; so hath it divers denominations from the Coasts it bedeweth, as Britannick, Atlantick, Aeth••opick, Indick, and so forth.
Now the reason why the Seas which are higher than the Earth,* 1.23 doe not overflow it (seeing it is a matter fluxible of it selfe) cannot bee better given by a Naturalist, (setting aside Gods eternall ordi∣nance) than that the waters having their owne bounds from the bordering circumferences, doe alwayes incline and tend thither.
Praescriptas metuens transcendere metas.
Of the Earth, that it is the lowest of all the Elements; its division, first into three, then into foure parts; and some different opinions concerning them recon∣ciled.
THe Earth is as the heaviest, so the lowest; subsidit tellus though divers admit not the waters to bee higher than the earth; of which opinion Plato seemes to mee to be, placing the spring of Rivers and Fountaines in orco or ca∣vities of the earth.
The former opinion our famous Buchanan ele∣gantly illustrateth, in his first Booke de Sphaera,
Aspice cumpleuis è littore concita velis Puppis eat, sensim se subducente Carina Linteaque & su••mo apparent Carche sia maio Nec minus è naviterram spectantibus unda In medio assurgens, &c.
Which argueth rather the Earth to be round, nor that the Seas or waters are higher than it: so it may be confidently enough said, that the water is above, about, and in the Earth, yea and dispersed thorough it, as the blood is diffused and dispersed thorough the body or man or beast, from its spring the Liver, the Orcum (as we may say) of it.
This Earth alwayes by the Geographers of old was divided into three parts,* 1.24 viz. Europe, Asia, Africk, not knowing any further, but suffereth now a new partition or division; since the dayes of Co∣lumbus, who in the yeare 1492, by an enterprize (to the eternall memory of his name) made disco∣very of America,* 1.25 added by our moderne Mappes as a fourth part, which (according to our late Navi∣gators and discoverers, shall bee found to exceede the other three in extent; from whence the gold and silver commeth hither as Merchant wares, oc∣casioning all the dearth we have now, considering how things were in value the dayes of our Fathers, as Bodin, in his paradoxes against Malestrot, aver∣reth; so that the profuse giving of their gold for our trifies,* 1.26 through the abundance of their inexhaustible gold mynes, maketh now, by the abundance of mo∣ney, which formerly was not; that a thing shall cost ten, yea twenty, which before was had for one or two▪
Mercator, that most expert Cosmographer, ex∣pecteth as yet the fifth part of the Earth, intituling it Terra Australis; the Spaniards in their Cardes, Terra dell fuego, which must be by South, that Sea descried by Magellanes: So that by his supputation the world shall be divided yet in three, making Eu∣rope, Asia, Africk but one, as but one Continent, which in effect it is; America, and this looked for terra Australis, the other two.
Of the different professions of Religion in the severall parts of the world: what Countries and llands are contained within Europe, and what within Asia.
BVt leaving those two last parts (as most re∣mote from our commerce and knowledge) of Europe,* 1.27 Africk, and Asia, thus much I finde in Cosmographers, that scarce the fourth part of these three is Christians, and yet those Christians differing amongst themselves; the Greeke Church differing in five principall points from the Roman; that from the Protestants; and the other amongst themselves.
For not to speake of Europe where Christianisme is gloriously professed, consisting of Spaine, Portu∣gall, France, Italy, Greece, Thracia, Germany, Hun∣gary, Rusland, Poll, Sweden, Denmarke, Gothland, of
the Ilands lying in the Ocean, as Brittaine, Ireland, Island, Greeneland.
In the Mediterr anean, as Cicilie, Rhodes, Malta, Cyprus, Corsica, Sardinia, Candia, Majorica, Minorica, and some few others; if we shall but overlooke the large & plentifull bounds of Asia, illustrious in this, that the History of the Creation and Redemption of the world was especially accomplished in it, with the places wherein were the largest Monar∣chies, (so much blazed in Histories) in all this I say shall be found litle or nothing of Christianisme.
For to divide it in five maine Principalities, or rather Monarchies (whereof now it consisteth) to wit, in that of the great Dutchie of Muscovia or Russia, (a good part whereof is in Europe) in the great Cham of Tartary his Empire,* 1.28 both these two lying or reaching to the North; In the Empire of China, whose Lord by them is called the Sove∣raigne of the Earth, the Sonne of heaven: In the Monarchie of the Sophie of Persia, lying in the bo∣some of that part of the world; and in the Turkish Empire, together with the Indian Monarchie: To omit the Emperour of Germany.
With what Religions and Sects all the Easterne and Northerne Countries are possessed, and in what pla∣ces Christianity is most professed, &c.
WHat in all these (I say) of our Christian Religion but little,* 1.29 and where there is any, it is so mixed with Iudaisme and Pa∣ganisme as is a wonder; for in Iappan, and thorough all the East Indies, howbeit the Iesuites indeede have laboured to draw them to Christianisine, yet their Histories record how and what way they are mixed; And to winde about againe towards Aethi∣opia and Prester Iohn his estate, reputed Soveraigne and Monarch over forty or fifty Kings and Provin∣ces: There are there also some footesteps of our profession, but as else-where, so intoxicated with Iudaisme, that besides divers other points, they are promiscuously circumcised and baptised: Then to passe by Egypt, next neighbour, how it is all ensla∣ved to the Mahumetans, all know: In what better case are the Africans, the Numids, Maures, Bar∣bars; and then in and about the Atlantick coast, these of Fez and Marroco, and so forth. So it hath pleased God the Maker, to chastise the world for the sinnes of men; in which although light hath cleerely shined, yet they have delighted more in darknes than in it.
I will not say but in Musco, Tartary, China, and Persia there be some Christians also; but these are commonly Greekes by profession, and yet so farre rent asunder and eclipsed from the true doctrine ac∣knowledged by S. Paul to the Corinthians, Ephesi∣ans, Philippians, and the rest, as is pittifull: divided amongst themselves in divers Sects, as Nestorians, Iacobites, Georgians, Armenians, Copits, &c. thus dispersed thorough all the Easterne Church; they obtrude unto us of the Westerne too, that we are Schismaticks, and severed amongst our selves like∣wise, as Papists, Anabaptists, Lutherans, Calvi∣nists, &c.
Nether are the Negro Princes of Africk, the Turkes and Mahumetans, and all the other idola∣trous people and Nations of the South, so in ac∣cord amongst themselves, that they are free from division; for Leo After in the third Booke of his Hi∣storie, quoteth particularly their differences and di∣visions; for the Turkes foure great Doctors and Mahomete successors are divided in 72 severall Sects,* 1.30 which are extended and dispersed thorough all the Turkes Dominions, in Europe, Africk, Asia; alwayes the rest of the World, as Terra Australis, and all America, except in such parts where the late Conquests are made by the Spaniards, English; and French are so farre from Christianity, that they dwell all in the profoundest darknes of most grosse Paganisme, serving and adoring the Devill and his excruciating spirits; sacrificing their children, and those of the best sort, either to pacifie their ire, or to conciliate their favour.
America and the New-found-lands briefly descri∣bed; and some opinions about what time of the yeare the world had its beginning.
I Can speake nothing of Terra Australis or In∣cognita; as for America, I finde in the Mappe of the new found world,* 1.31 that although it be al∣most all continent, yet in a manner it is divided in two Ilands, but so that they are made contiguous by nature, by a little Tract of Land or Isthmos, where their principall and Metropolitane Citie standeth, called Mexico; a brave Citie indeede, lying in that Bay.
The Peninsule, or Northerly part of this Ame∣rica containeth in it Hispanianova, the Province of Mexico, Terra florida, Terra nova, Virginia, nova Francia, nova Scotia; further North is not yet dis∣covered: The Southerne Peninsule againe reaching towards Magellane; and that part containeth Peru, Brasil, &c.
This is the whole world as yet knowne, of which Plinius in the second Booke Naturalis Historiae, (which you may be sure was long before the disco∣very of this America) speaketh, when hee raileth a∣gainst the covetousnesse of Princes, who incroa∣ched upon others limits; and mens ambition in
conquering pieces and lumpes of inheritances here and there; not taking heede, that so little a piece of ground must containe the best and worthiest Mo∣narchy in the end.
Which world hath neither beene made over a∣gaine, and recreated as a thing with time worne and growne old, needeth restauration; of which opinion was Philo Hebreus out of Theophrast; neither yet was it from all eternity, which Aristotle in his 3. cap. lib. 1. de caelo giveth way to, saying, that to be created and to be from all beginning, are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, & de numero impossibilium: But, on the contrary, wee have a warrant that it is, and was created, and that consequently it shall have an end, when it shall please the Maker thereof to bring on that period of time; at which, howbeit both Divines and Philo∣sophers have conjectured, yet punctually to say when, the Angels of heaven know it not, much lesse they; uncertaine it is likewise, at what time of the yeare it did begin; although the Rabins, and ma∣ny Christians following them (as Bodin in his Re∣publick, and his Apologetick friend Herpinus) ac∣curately maintain, that it began in September, which September is with them mensis Nisan; and I could be induced to that same beliefe: yet more proba∣bly the Spring of the yeare may be thought to bee the time when the world began,* 1.32 as the day begin∣neth with the morning, and as the sunne riseth upon our Horizon with the day. And howsoever the au∣thority of fabulous Poets should not serve to in∣stance a matter of so high an importance, yet Vir∣gill
his testimony in his fourth Georgicks, is not wholly to be slighted.
Haud alios prima crescentis origine mundi Illuxisse dies, aliumve habuisse tenorem Crediderim: ver illuderat, ver magnus agebat. Orbis & Hybernis parcebant flatibus Euri.
Wherein is to be seene some things concerning the time when it is thought to take an end.
DIvers (you see) have beene the opinions of the Worlds beginning, number, and ending also: some thinking it eternall, others cor∣ruptible, and those also differing among them∣selves.
Cyprian Ludovicus (whom Iohannes Bodin refu∣reth in his cap. of the changes of States) presumeth the yeare when this dissolution shall bee, may be knowne: howsoever wee should hold us to the written word of God, as to a holy Anchor; in which as we learne that it had a beginning, so must we know that it shall have an end; and rather to be preparing for the approach of it, than curiously and superstitiously to be inquiring when that shall be; seeing it hath not pleased God to make it knowne; for where God in the Scripture hath not a tongue to speake, we should have none to en∣quire or aske, or an eare to heare: I will relate the
opinions of some in this point, among which, in my opinion, the Arabs, Moores, and with them the Iewes, as particularly Albumazar a Cabalist, have by all likelihood conjectured best the time of its dissolution, that any before either Chaldean or E∣gyptian have done.
For, within these few hundred yeares they have discovered the Caball and secret of the trembling motion of the eight Orbe, that it doth not accom∣plish its course but in seven thousand yeares; which in Analogy and relation is some way answerable to the seventh yeares rest of the Earth, the seventh dayes rest from labour: So that indeede by Leo Hebreus his opinion,* 1.33 the world should last but 6000 years, & rest the seventh; which opinion is founded upon the c. helck, in the Iewish Sanhedrim; where it is written, 6000 yeares the world shall last, & then it shall decay: which Lactanctius lib. 7. cap. 14. il∣lustrateth, comparing the six thousand yeares to the six dayes of the weekes labour, the seventh to the Saboaths rest: our ancient both Poets and O∣ratours have all given after ages to understand, that they all, I say, almost knew generally that its de∣struction was to come in the appointed time by the Fates. Although as wiser than us their successors did not touch the question, as Plato in his Timeo; Ci∣cero in his Booke de natura Deorum; Macrobius c. 10. de somno Scipionis: and for them all Ovid us lib. 1. Metamorph.
Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tem∣pus,
Quo mare, quo tell us, corruptaque regio coeli Ardeat, & mundi moles operosa laboret.
Copernicus his opinion of the Earths moving, confu∣ted: Archimedes opinion of the world: an Indu∣ction to the following Section.
NExt unto this, I subjoyne the franticke and strange opinion of Copernicus, who taketh on him to demonstrate, speaking of the worlds frame, that the Sunne is immoveable and placed in the Center of the World, and that the Globe of the Earth is moveable,* 1.34 rolling and wheeling about, admitting the change of States to depend upon the Eccentrick of the Earth; so that hee giveth not onely to the said Earth a daily run∣ning about the Sunne in 24 houres, in the space of the day and night, but likewise an annuall revolu∣tion; which opinion how absurd it is, as Nature convinceth it of errour, so authorities of the Lear∣ned shall confound it: for besides that, in Scrip∣ture we have warrant, that the Earth is stablished sure—
—Stat nullo mobilis aevo Terra, super solidae nitens fundaminae molis Pollenti stabilita manu.
Moreover Archimedes the rarest Mathemati∣cian
that erst was or since hath beene, and who caused to be engraven upon his Tombe in Sicilie the Spheare, with this admirable position
—Datun•• pondus movere.
Granted to King Hieron of Siracusa, that there was no weight which he could not move; And that if there were any other earth beside this whereon he might establish his Machin, and Mathematicall Instruments, he durst undertake to move this out of its place, whereon we dwell; By which he would have us know, that the earth budged nor moved not, much lesse in such celeritie to compasse the Sunne, as Copernicke esteemed.
Lastly, I am to evert that ground of some too cu∣rious Astrologers,* 1.35 who upon the change of Tripli∣cities, undertake also to found the change and alte∣ration, which they would prove upon the face of the earth, both in the nature of the ground, and in the qualities of people: But because the Word of Triplicitie is not so usuall as that every one under∣standeth it aright therefore thus much for the intel∣ligiblenesse of it in the following Section.
The division of the starrie firmament, in twelve houres; of the Power and efficacie that is attributed to the Triplicities of them over every Country: and the maintainers of these opinions confuted: the divers dispositions of people of severall nations, how attri∣buted to the naturall disposition of the Planets: An observation of Gods Providence.
THe body of the Starrie firmament which with our eyes we see, by the moderne, at least not very old Arabs, and Moores (who first found out the trembling motion of it, as they hold called by them Motus trepidationis) is divi∣ded in twelve houses, which for more cleerenesse, and intelligiblenesse are more compendiously packt up in foure,* 1.36 every one of the foure answera∣ble to a corner of it; as we see in Scripture the foure Winds mentioned; To every one of which foure againe, there are three houses or Asterismes appropriated.
These houses or starres belonging to them are observed to appertaine to the Region upon which they glanced first: So that what ever nature either the people or ground there at the first influence or aspect of that house had thereupon, by this trem∣bling motion of theirs, the Triplicitie having chan∣ged
about is transported to another Region, which is another thing than the Triplicit••e set downe, or at the least alleadged so by Ptolomie in his booke Quadripartit,* 1.37 whereof Bodin maketh mention in his fourth de Republica: Allotting the Triplicitie of fire to Europe, of Water to Africa; to Asia Sep∣tentrinall and Orientall Ayre, and the Tripli∣citie of earth to Asia meridionall. To say that the fixed starres in these houses of theirs, by the trembling motion of their Orbe; had changed place or seate also, and thereby that they had changed the triplicitie or nature of the regions of the earth either in the qualitie of the ground, or nature of the people, were most absurd, and capa∣ble to subvert all the Maximes of Iudiciary Astro∣logie concerning the Horoscopie of men and Cit∣ties; which hold as true now as they did this day two thousand yeares, as Cardan averreth, who held Ptolomeus his Maximes in that point, which he againe had from the Caldeans and Aegyptians, a∣mongst whom there is not a word of these triplici∣ties.
For to say with Haly Arab, that Ptolomie obscu∣red it amongst his writs, to make it a caball and se∣cret, argueth it selfe of falshood, as being unlike∣ly that he had interred and smothered so rare a se∣cret, or yet made it a caball which otherwayes might have added so much lustre to his workes.
But so it is on the contrary, that notwithstanding all these alleadged changes of triplicities, we see these same proprieties of Coelestiall signes; which
Cardan and Iulius Maternus observed by Caldeans and Aegyptians stand good in such sort,* 1.38 that not one∣ly the Elements and Elementary things, Reptiles, Plants, Animalls, with all living and moving crea∣tures of all species and kindes mineralls, &c. keepe that same frame and figure without, and nature within which they had at first ingraft and ingra∣ven, and primitively characterised in and upon them; But also we see the seasons of the yeare, nights and dayes, Sunne, Moone, and Sarres, to observe their constant and equall course which from all beginning was imposed upon them.
Whereby even now as before, we see the peo∣ple of the North different from these of the South in nature, Stature complexion, colour, disposition, as at more length I have set downe in my Title of the diversitie of mens humors: And that not onely by authoritie of famous writers who have descri∣bed them to bee just so then, as now yet wee see them; But likewise conforme to the positure of the very body of the heavens themselves. So that in a manner the nature and seate of the Plannets ar∣gueth of necessitie the nature of the people to which they shall be found to appertaine.
As Saturne to the Meridionall and Southernely people,* 1.39 a dry and Melancholious Starre: Mars, to the Septentionall, as strong and Iustier Iupiter againe, father of light and life equall to both: Ve∣nus for the Southerne, as more lascivious than the other: The Moone for us in the North againe as
more moyst and unconstant than they, while Mer∣curie shall be equall almost for both: But more en∣clyning to the Southerne, as being better spirits; for from them eloquence, and contemplative Sci∣ences doe flow unto us:* 1.40 As from us to them Miri∣ads of lustie great people, which overranne all their fertill provinces: And if it be objected, how it comes to passe seeing Venus and lasciviousnesse are attributed to them, that they should bee lesse po∣pulous than we; To this I answere, That their wo∣men in numbers farre exceed their men. Thus Po∣lygamie was and is so frequent amongst them, for if according to their wits they were both strong and numerous, the World could not abide them: Thus the Al-seeing God hath disposed things wisely in this world, that the worst and subtilest creatures are fewest in number; as Lyons, Foxes, Wolves, Leopards, whereas the weaker and more Innocu∣ous sort are more frequent, as Sheepe, Beeves, Hart, Hinde, and so forth.
The causes of the Changes of severall things as of men, Countries; plots of ground, &c. and that these pro∣ceede not from triplicities as Astrologers would have it.
NOw if so be that some of the people have changed any whit of their former innated Natures,* 1.41 That must not be imputed so much to the change of Triplicities as to education, and the commerce of other more politicke Nations, which is more frequent than before; formerly it being counted a rare thing for a man to make a voy∣age to Spaine or Portugall, whereas now new found worlds and people of other countenances, are no∣thing so strange and wonderfull unto us.
Finally, that some Countries, or rather Grounds, are become more barren than they were, that men are more weake, and lower of stature than they were; must not bee imputed to their triplicities, but rather it argueth the wrath of God upon the earth for the Sinnes of Mortalls, the inhabitants thereof, and in like manner, the decaying age of the World, as in plentifulnesse,* 1.42 so in vertue: for if the Luxu∣rious plentie of Sicily, Asia the lesser, of Egypt on the other side againe; and Barbarie; if by these tri∣plicities they are changed, I pray you, where is it?
for my owne part wheresoever I have beene, what∣soever I heare or reade, nothing but universall complaints of the Earths waxing worse and worse: I end this with that of Plimus in his Naturall Hi∣story, complaining upon the badnesse of the times in his dayes to that they were before.
Gaudebat terra triumphali aratore & laureato v••mere subigi.
This was when the Emperours themselves tooke pleasure in Agriculture, leaving their Scepters, to betake themselves to the Plough.
How ancient Writers have compared Man and all his parts to the World and all its parts; wherein is re∣counted the different dispositions of men of different Countries; and to what Countries the faculti••s of the soule are attributed.
AS these above-cited Writers and many o∣thers have gone about with most apparent reasons to attribute the temperament of se∣verall Countries, and the severall dispositions and complexions of men in those Countries, to the site and disposition of the Planets that governe over such and such places and men; so they instance ma∣ny inducing examples for the proofe of it.
One of them in comparing the great World to the
little world [Man,* 1.43] willeth us to imagine a Man, walking or laid, according to the naturall motion of the superiour bodies, from East to West; and wee shall evidently perceive, that his right Arme, (wherein his greatest strength and vigour is) and his right Side, (where the Liver and Gall are placed) are towards the North; and the left hand and side (which is called the feminine part) towards the South; whereupon it is inferred, that according to this and the posture of the celestiall Bodies, the place and people of the world, that the right side beholdeth, which are the Northerne (wherein the Easterne are comprehended) are strong and lusty, where the people of the opposite part of the world, are more weake and lash.
The one faire and lovely, the other brownish, swarthy and hard favoured; the one cold and moyst, the other hot and dry; the one given to labour and travell, the other to study and contem∣plation; the one joviall and merry, the other mel∣lancholick and grave;* 1.44 the one simple and no wayes malicious, the other crafty and deceitfull; the one inconstant, the other pertinacious, never swarving from his intended resolutions; the one prodigall, the other parcimonious and sparing; the one af∣fable and facill, the other arrogant and stayed; the one mercifull, the other cruell and revengefull; the one chaste and bashfull, the other venereous and affronted; the one impatient, the other long suffering; the one in Counsell rash and sudden the other more constant & deliberate, with severall o∣ther
the like qualities, wherein the one halfe of the world North and East, doe differ from the other, South and West: All which they doe back with many forcible Reasons, in so farre, that there is not any part in the Microcosme Man, to which they doe not assimilate some part of the great World:* 1.45 yea the three principall faculties of the soule, Ima∣gination, Reason, and Vnderstanding are attributed to three parts of the World.
Imagination, which is proper for meditations of divine and sublime Sciences, which consist not in demonstration and Reason, but on a naked and sim∣ple beliefe, is appropriated to the Meridionales or Southerne people, who of all others are most car∣ried away with superstitions.
The second Reason, to the Mid-people, partici∣pating of both extreames, betwixt the religionary Southerne, and the laborious, industrious, and war∣like Northerne.
The third, which is Vnderstanding, to the Nor∣therne, who have more strong and robustuous bodies, fitter for labour and handy-workes than the other two.
So,* 1.46 (as succinctly as I could) I have given you a relish, what the most learned have both written and thought of the world, and its parts till a fitter time, wherein (God willing) you shall receive a more ample content in this and other things.
Three speci∣all points wherewith the ancient Philosophers was most per∣plexed.
The opinions of the old Philosophers concerning the nature of the Gods.
The philoso∣phers not on∣ly admitted their Gods a•• inventers of good, but fomenters of evill also.
The Philoso∣phicall errour concerning the discent and progenie of their Gods.
The errours touching the descent of their soules.
Divers opini∣ons of the philosophers concerning the substance of their soules.
The diffe∣rent opinion concerning the event of soules after their separa∣tion from their bodies.
Their reasons why there were mo•• worlds than one.
Opinions concerning the Eternitie of the World.
The Gymno∣sophists an∣swere concer∣ning the E∣ternitie.
The Philoso∣phicall diffe∣rences concer∣ning the be∣ginning of the World.
The fond conceites of those who imagined all things to be by the en∣counter of Atoms.
A theological observation upon the pre∣misses.
Our Christi∣an beleefe touching the Worlds be∣ginning and ending.
Three wayes of knowing God.
A briefe de∣scription of the World.
The division of the hea∣vens and Coelestiall Spheares.
The Plannets and their re∣trodations in their proper spheares.
Cause of the Moones change.
Different mo∣tions of the Starres.
What the great Plato∣nick Starre was.
The Waters and Earth make but one Globe.
Why the Seas debarr'd from overflowing the Earth.
Division of the Earth.
Of America.
What maketh all things so deare now.
Of our old known world, the third part is not Chri∣stian, and that as yet different amongst it selfe.
Division of Asia.
The West and East parts.
Turkish pro∣fessors divided amongst themselves.
A litle descrip∣tion of Ame∣rica, and the New-found-lands.
What time of the yeare the world was created.
When pro∣bably it may be thought to take an end.
Copernick his opinion that the Earth did move, reje∣cted.
Why the change of Triplicities cannot be a ground for change of States.
The starrie fir∣mament devi∣ded in so many Asterismes.
Bodin his tri∣plicit••ie is not such.
The changing of triplicities notable to change the nature of things; and Why?
Diversities of peoples na∣tures con∣formeable to the posi∣ture of the heavenly Plannets.
The naturall disposition of the Plannets argueth the Inclination of people over which they are planted.
If people be changed from that which they were wont to be, Why? and How?
If some Coun∣tries be bar∣ren, others plentifull, Why, and How?
Man compa∣red to the World.
Qualities of the Northern and Easterne people.
The three fa∣culties of the Soule.
Conclusion.